Officials are going to want to file this one away under a "whoopsie."
Five seconds into Raiders vs. Seahawks, Derek Carr threw an interception to Quandre Diggs on a pass intended for Davante Adams. Following the pick, officials missed that 12, not 11, Seahawks were on the field for the return, as outside linebacker Darrell Taylor got a bit overzealous from the sidelines after the pick.
They were in Seattle, of course. But the 12th Man is supposed to be a bit less literal.
You can see No. 52 dart onto the screen following the interception.
#Seahawks player Darrell Taylor came off the sidelines during live play and started to block #Raiders players following a turnover. (@Sanjit__T)
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 28, 2022
Never seen something like this in my life.pic.twitter.com/jaTvxVeCkp
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The likely explanation is that Taylor thought Diggs was down on the play and was going to celebrate before realizing he wasn't supposed to be there yet. With the damage already done, he decided to throw some blocks.
While it's a bad mistake from Taylor, it's an egregious one from the officials. Admittedly it's hard to count all of those bodies at game speed. But when a player comes rocketing onto the field from the sidelines, a flag has to come out one way or another.
Diggs getting run out of bounds shortly after the pick also helped to minimize the damage.
The Raiders went on to win a barnburner 40-34, so no harm no foul. But this could have turned out a lot worse for the officials with a different result on that play in particular, especially one so early.
