Houston Texans receiver Will Fuller seemingly caught a 5-yard touchdown pass in the left back corner of the end zone to pull the Texans’ within two Sunday during the club’s 31-23 loss to the Minnesota Vikings Sunday at NRG Stadium.
However, after further review, when referee Brad Rogers went under the hood and talked with New York in the league’s replay command center with NFL vice president of officiating Al Riveron, the play was overturned and ruled incomplete. Because it was fourth-and-goal, the result was turnover on downs and game over as Houston had no timeouts remaining with 1:12 to play.
Riveron provided an explanation to the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain in a pool report after the game.
“The ruling on the field was that of a touchdown,” Riveron said. “When we looked at it, the receiver is going to the ground. And if he is ruled as going to the ground, he must maintain control of the football after hitting the ground. And what he does is, the minute the football touches the ground, he loses control of the football. He does not maintain control. Therefore, we overturned it to an incomplete pass.”
The acrobatic catch from Fuller was impressive enough, but it didn’t count to give the Texans a shot to tie the game with a two-pointer. The Texans fell to 0-4 on the year as the Vikings moved to 1-3.
