Referee ruling during Eagles v Commanders leaves NFL stunned

Fans watching the NFL playoffs couldn’t quite believe their ears when a referee threatened one team with a lesser known ruling.

The NFC Championship game in the NFL got silly.

But it revealed a rule most probably weren’t even aware of, the NY Post reports.

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With the Eagles leading 34-23, they had driven all the way down to the Washington Commanders’ 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

Philadelphia tried, and failed, its vaunted tush push on first down, but Jonathan Allen was called for off-side.

The Eagles lined right back up in the formation and tried the tush push again, but were stuffed.

That’s when the Commanders turned the game into a circus.

The Eagles deployed the tush push on multiple occasions.

As the Eagles lined up yet again in the tush-push formation, the Commanders were called for three-straight encroachment penalties — two on Frankie Luvu and one on Allen — while trying to get a jump on the snap.

Eventually, the referees moved the ball about as close to the end zone as possible.

And after the third encroachment penalty, crew chief Shawn Hochuli announced that “Washington has been advised that at some point the referee can award a score if this type of behaviour happens again.”

The ref threatened to award points against the Commanders.

The Commanders heeded the warning and did not commit another encroachment penalty, and Jalen Hurts subsequently scored on a tush push with ease to increase the Eagles’ lead to 41-23 with the extra point.

But the ruling quickly sent social media into a frenzy as fans were left stumped by the previously unknown law.

ESPN’s NFL reporter Jeff Darlington wrote on X: “I’d never heard of a rule that allowed referees to award a team a score as was suggested by the official in the Commanders-Eagles game, but sure enough, here it is. Rule 12, Section 3, Article 4.”

One fan wrote: “WTH? I’ve been watching football my whole life. I’ve never heard that.”

Another added: “Honestly never heard of this before.”

Even the official NFL account tweeted: “Well that’s new.”

The Eagles are into the Super Bowl. Mitchell Leff/Getty Images/AFP

Later in the quarter, Saquon Barkley scored — his third touchdown of the game — to increase the Eagles’ lead to 48-23 before they won, 55-23, to advance to Super Bowl 2025.

They’ll go up against Kansas City in a replay of the 2023 Super Bowl which saw the Chiefs secure the 38-35 victory.

Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs over the Buffalo Bills to advance into the big game and give them a chance to make it three straight Super Bowl wins.

The 2025 NFL Super Bowl will take place on Monday, February 10 at 10:30am (AEST).

This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.