Packers: Three takeaways from Week 2 tie with Vikings
3. This time, roughing the passer penalty was wrong call
Last week, Clay Matthews‘ roughing the passer penalty almost cost the Packers victory against the Bears. This time, the same penalty by Matthews did cost them the win. But unlike in Week 1, Matthews has every reason to be frustrated.
Matthews’ late hit on Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky was about as easy a call as there can be for an official. But the same wasn’t the case on Kirk Cousins. Matthews was just playing football.
He made a hit just moments after Cousins threw the ball. There’s little more he could have done to avoid making the tackle.
The bad news for the Packers was that Cousins’ throw was intercepted by rookie cornerback Jaire Alexander. With Green Bay up 29-21 with just 1:45 to play in regulation, the game would have been as good as over.
Instead of a game-winning interception, the Vikings moved down the field, and Cousins found Adam Thielen for a spectacular touchdown pass. Stefon Diggs then made the two-point conversion to tie the game.
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It felt like a harsh call at the time. And looking back, it had a direct impact on the result of the game. A potential victory became a tie, and that could be significant in determining who wins the NFC North later in the year.