Referee Land Clark shouldn’t have let Nick Sirianni play games with penalty decision

In the second half of Sunday night’s game against the Rams, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni played a separate game with his decision on whether to accept or decline a penalty. And referee Land Clark let him.

The Rams, operating from the Philly 14, faced third and three with 2:26 left in the third quarter. A pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford to receiver Puka Nacua was incomplete. The Rams also were called for holding.

Initially, Sirianni declined it. When he saw that the Rams would be going for it on fourth and three and not kicking a field goal, Sirianni changed his mind and accepted it. Clark allowed it.

On third and 13, the Eagles sacked Stafford for a five-yard loss. And then the Rams missed the field goal.

On Thursday night, something similar happened. Coach Mike Tomlin went back and forth on whether to accept or decline the illegal touching foul that was called on third and two from the Pittsburgh 25. Tomlin, however, wasn’t trying to play games.

“I thought it was a grounding initially,” Tomlin said after the game. “I couldn’t hear the officials. I thought it was a grounding. When I realized that it wasn’t ruled a grounding, I got information from them and made the call that we wanted to make. The distance was more important to us. If it wasn’t grounding, we weren’t moving them five yards back. They were potentially kicking into the wind, so we wanted to stop them and make the field goal a longer one.”

Sirianni, in contrast, changed his mind after seeing what the Rams were planning to do, if the penalty had been declined. While there’s nothing wrong with Sirianni taking advantage of the situation, Clark shouldn’t have let him.

On Friday, in connection with Tomlin changing his mind, we asked the league whether there’s a standard deadline for making a decision on whether to take or to decline a penalty. Said the league, “The officials do allow the coach to change his mind in terms of whether to accept or decline a penalty within a reasonable period of time, all at the judgement of the referee.”

It’s not reasonable to let the coach see what the other team will do if the penalty is accepted or declined before making a final decision. The fact that it’s not a common part of overall coaching strategy during a game shows that it shouldn’t happen. That it doesn’t happen. The coach of the team who has the ability to choose whether to accept or to decline a penalty has to make the decision blind, without declining and then realizing the offense is staying off the field and shouting, “Psych!”

Again, Sirianni did nothing wrong. Clark did. And hopefully all referees will be told to not let a coach change his mind once the other coach has declared the plan for proceeding based on whether the penalty was accepted or declined.