The Los Angeles Rams’ push for the NFC West title took a sour turn Thursday night against the Seattle Seahawks. Not one, but two controversial officiating decisions ended up playing a huge role in the visiting team’s fate at Lumen Field.
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Early in the first quarter, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford connected with tight end Terrance Ferguson for a fourth-and-goal touchdown from the one-yard line. However, the score was wiped out by a five-yard penalty on guard Justin Dedich, who was flagged for being downfield on the play. That forced Los Angeles to settle for a field goal instead.
The call naturally became a flashpoint. And Amazon Prime rules analyst Terry McAulay said it was not “really a foul,” noting Dedich was actively blocking a defensive lineman and was driven into the end zone after contact. In McAulay’s view, the defender’s push was what caused Dedich to end up downfield. And that was not the end of L.A.’s frustration throughout the night.
In the fourth quarter, Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold attempted a bubble screen that was initially ruled incomplete after the ball first hit a L.A. defender, and subsequently the ground. Following a replay review, however, officials overturned the call and ruled it a backward pass.
Running back Zach Charbonnet had scooped the ball up in the end zone, which awarded Seattle two points and tied the game at 30-30. The Seahawks eventually won in overtime by one point, 38-37. Unsurprisingly, backlash poured in online, and even Rams head coach Sean McVay appeared visibly frustrated after the game.
Even Matthew Stafford’s wife, Kelly, joined the postgame discourse after noticing something she found odd while reviewing the game.
On Instagram, Kelly shared a brief footage of Cooper Kupp’s incredible sideline catch in OT, then urged everyone to take a look at the referees’ reactions to the catch. “Never seen refs get this excited about a catch? [thinking emoji] Now the blown dead two-point conversion and illegal man downfield makes sense. Should we be looking into this? Can I get these refs names?” Kelly penned.
She also wrote, “Ya, I’m petty” in the following post.
#KellyStafford callw out the refs after Rams' TNF loss pic.twitter.com/8OLkvLA6cl
— ParziTalksNFL (@nfl_parzi) December 20, 2025
Kelly wasn’t the only one calling out the refs after Thursday’s game. Even Puka Nacua joined in.
“Can you say I was wrong. Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol.” the wide receiver wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
And what about Sean McVay? “I’ve never seen anything or never been a part of anything like that,” the Rams head man said of the two-point ruling.
“And I’ve grown up around this game. I’m not making excuses. We don’t do that. I don’t believe in that. It doesn’t move us forward, but we do want clarity and an understanding of the things that we can do to minimize that when we rejected the two-point conversion,” McVay clarified.
The NFC West now belongs to the 12-3 Seahawks, but with two games left in the season, the 11-4 Rams could still clinch the division. Surely, not every game will be this controversial.
