Matthew Stafford knew exactly what he was doing when he dumped the ball at Puka Nacua’s feet during a controversial play in the second quarter of Monday night’s game. Though it was originally ruled a fumble and returned for a touchdown by the Vikings, officials overturned it and called it an incomplete pass after reviewing the video.
Had it stood as a fumble, the Vikings would’ve tied the game at 10 and taken back all the momentum that the Rams had built after grabbing a 10-0 lead on their first two drives. Fortunately, it was just an incompletion to set up second-and-10, taking points off the board.
Stafford explained what happened on the play after the game, saying he was trying to throw it to Nacua’s feet, knowing it wouldn’t be intentional grounding. He would’ve been angry if it stood as a fumble because he did exactly what he was trying to do by throwing it forward while in the grasp of the defender.
“I knew (Nacua) was there,” Stafford said. “Obviously, that was the protection. I think we went back and looked, and I couldn’t really tell, but it looked like him and (Alaric Jackson) might have hit, and kind of shortened the edge over there. (Jonathan Greenard) did a nice job of getting there pretty quickly. (Cooper Kupp) was open, which sucked. We would have had a nice play. I felt (Greenard) on my back, I knew (Nacua) was right there. I could see his cleats looking down, and just dumped it at his cleats. I was gonna be hurt in a bad way if they tried to say that wasn’t a shovel pass. I mean, that’s exactly what I was trying to do, and trying to plead my case. I’m glad that they looked at it and understood that’s what I was doing.”
This was ruled an incomplete pass as Matthew Stafford flicked the ball forward toward Puka Nacua.#MINvsLAR | ABC, ESPN, ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/ekLrgDMlPr
— ESPN (@espn) January 14, 2025
The Rams didn’t make anything out of that drive after the incompletion, but the fact that it wasn’t ruled a fumble may have changed the entire course of the game. After maintaining their 10-3 lead, the Rams went on to score 17 unanswered points to go up 27-3 midway through the third quarter and never looked back.
It was a risky decision by Stafford, but being the experienced quarterback that he is, it was all intentional – just not intentional grounding.
