If you tuned into the Eagles and watched them shoot themselves in the foot as much as they could on Monday Night Football, you are probably aware that the referees did not help the matter.
On the Commanders second drive of the second half, the referees called an unnecessary roughness penalty on Chauncey Gardner-Johnson for hitting a player (Curtis Samuel) who lowered his own head and was still in bounds. This is a call supposed to be in the name of “player safety” even though there was not safety issues present.
Not even 10 plays later, the same referees watched Dallas Goedert get his head ripped around 180 degrees by a Washington player grabbing his facemask. The facemask resulted in a 320lb John Ridgeway being able to throw his bodyweight full speed into a defenseless target with their next twisted backward. To these same referees, this was a clean play and not deserving of a similar player safety flag.
While the result of the play being a turnover and three points gifted to the Commanders was already awful, the league will now need to deal with the fact that the star tight end who was the victim of this illegal play will also miss extended time as a result of the uncalled penalty.
The injury is reportedly to his shoulder. Goedert did return to the offense on the next drive, which is some positive news, even if he will now miss more time.
While no decision has been made, it would seem likely that the Eagles will have to place Dallas Goedert on injured reserve where he will miss at least four weeks, though that decision has yet to be officially made. All due to a pair of dirty hits on the same play that the referees just watched happen.
The referees reviewed the play so that they could re-watch just how incompetent they were and verify that, yes he is being tackled by his facemask and still touched down Ridgeway on the “fumble recovery”.
To make matters even worse, Washington Commanders quarterback Taylor Heineke received an unnecessary roughness call for flopping after being tapped when he took a random knee. With the referees knowing what they already did to this game with those same calls, throwing another “player safety” flag on that flop is nothing short of a fire-able offense.
As for Goedert, his position as the top tight end will likely be taken over by Jack Stoll who typically serves as a blocking tight end, but has shown solid hands.
Grant Calcaterra, a rarely used 2022 draft pick, is the only other tight end on the 53-man roster. The Birds do have Tyree Jackson on PUP and could activate him (a move they’d have to make sooner than later) and Noah Togiai remains on the practice squad.
The Eagles do have an open roster spot due to the team placing Avonte Maddox, Goedert’s former roommate, on injured reserve Monday afternoon, so they could choose to activate someone like Jackson and keep Goedert off of IR if they think he may only miss two or three weeks.
