Tyler Shough channeled his inner Tom Cruise in the New Orleans Saints win against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. He used his acting ability to sell an unnecessary roughness penalty to push the Saints into field goal range and stop the clock late in the fourth quarter. Shough admitted that he sold it after the game in the press conference.
“I kind of, you know, maybe, sold it a little bit because I knew we didn’t have any timeouts,” Shough said, “I mean it definitely hurt, but I was good”.
With 12 seconds left Kellen Moore drew up a quarterback draw and Shough slid down late, leading to a hit by rookie safety Lathan Ransom which was called. It was a pivotal penalty as it gave the Saints time to clock the ball and an extra 15 yards for Charlie Smyth.
Selling it worked in the moment… but it may backfire on Tyler Shough in the future.
Shough revealing this to the media shows his fun personality and led to an interesting story but may not have been smart to reveal. Refs hearing this could potentially lead to them not calling this penalty in the future as they believe he is acting again.
Quarterbacks will always naturally be protected in the NFL. The NFL has made that a point of emphasis as roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness penalties are getting called more than ever. But an official is far more likely to let it be if he believes the quarterback didn’t get hit hard and just sold the penalty.
In all likelihood, this won’t be a major deal going forward. However, all it takes is one crucial uncalled for this to be a huge mistake. If Shough doesn’t get a similar call in future weeks, look back to this moment as a possible reason.
These types of comments will stick in the back of minds of some officials. Tyler Shough selling the unnecessary roughness penalty late in the Saints win against the Panthers was crucial to their win, but revealing it after the game may have unintended consequences in the future.