The Minnesota Vikings lost to the Indianapolis Colts, 23-20, on a last second Adam Vinatieri field goal, but it was a play almost two quarters earlier that had Vikings defensive end Jared Allen upset.
On the opening the drive of the second half, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck scrambled out of the pocket but ran out of bounds short of the first down marker on a third-and-16. As he went out of bounds, Jared Allen dove at Luck's legs, hit him with his arms and caused Luck to trip and fall into the Colts sideline. The Colts sideline erupted, the referee threw the flag for a personal foul and an Indianapolis drive that should have ended instead resulted in a Colts field goal. As Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com writes, Allen thought it was a "terrible call."
"I saw him, he's running, so I dove while he was still in bounds, and I didn't even hit him with my shoulder pads," Allen said. "I hit him with my arm. This is football, I thought. So, I didn't know we weren't allowed to hit quarterbacks with our arms. He went down or whatever. It wasn't like I carried him out of bounds."
Jared Allen believed that the reaction from the Colts' sideline is what triggered the replacement referee to throw the flag.
"Literally, I hit him and he fell over there and I was over there and their sideline hyped it up. They got the penalty and I still think that was a terrible call."
Vikings teammate Kevin Williams agreed with Allen, saying, "the sideline made the personal foul on Jared..."
This is not Allen's first critique of the NFL's replacement officials. After the Vikings' Week 1 contest with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Allen publicly criticized an questionable penalty that offset a sack.
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