Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins got a second chance to win the game on Thursday night after Giants defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence jumped offside on a 48-yard field goal attempt that went wide right. Should Hopkins have gotten that chance?
Although Lawrence clearly went before everyone else on the New York defensive line, one of the camera angles shown by Fox suggests that Lawrence’s sin was being too perfect with his timing. He seems to move as the ball moves. But because he moved before everyone else moved, he drew the attention of the officials, who dropped the flag.
It’s not all that rare. An edge rusher who gets too perfect of a jump gets flagged because it looked like he was offside, even if closer inspection shows that the ball was moving at the same time the defender entered the neutral zone.
We’re trying to get a sideline view of the play, and we’re otherwise trying to get further insight on why Lawrence was flagged. It could be that Lawrence’s jump was so perfect that it was too perfect.