Sam Darnold Couldn’t Believe Refs Missed an Obvious Face Mask on Game-Ending Safety

The Los Angeles Chargers' 30–20 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday Night Football ended in the most hilarious way possible—as long as you're not a Vikings fan.

The Vikings trailed by eight with less than two minutes to go when they forced a punt and took over at their own 5-yard line. After an unsuccessful play on first down, Sam Darnold dropped back into the end zone on second-and-10.

As Darnold looked for a receiver, Rams linebacker Byron Young broke through the line and took the Vikings quarterback down with one hand. He was able to do this by grabbing Darnold by the face mask. Somehow, none of the officials working the game saw Darnold's helmet twist around to the side of his head.

Been a bad week for Minnesota and referees, Darnold gets sacked for a safety and the referee misses the obvious facemask pic.twitter.com/Vq4Q1scO81

The face mask was so obvious that Young didn't even bother celebrating. As he ran away he put his hands on his own helmet because he couldn't believe he had just committed a 15-yard penalty that would give the Vikings better field position and a fresh set of downs.

Yo he literally grabbed his own helmet bc he was frustrated with himself 😭 pic.twitter.com/dKvPBGD9Vq

But no flags flew as Darnold, coach Kevin O'Connell and even Al Michaels asked, "what the hell?"

A game-sealing safety on what should've been a facemask call against the Rams."They cannot review that. But he definitely got the facemask (of Sam Darnold). " - Kirk Herbstreit "Viking fans are going 'What the hell?!'" - Al Michaels #NFL #TNF 🏈🦓🎙️ pic.twitter.com/DbfLrhtXHr

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Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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