Josh Alper ,
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One of the errors that contributed to Sunday’s Falcons loss was an intentional grounding penalty in the fourth quarter that came after center Drew Neuzil snapped the ball earlier than quarterback Michael Penix expected on a second down play.
After the game, Penix said Neuzil heard clapping and “thought it was my clap and he snapped the ball.” Penix and head coach Raheem Morris both indicated that the Falcons believed Patriots players were clapping and Morris said they “simulated the snap,” which would be a penalty if observed by officials.
Video of the play did not appear to show anyone near the line of scrimmage doing that and Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said on Monday that he “ certainly didn’t think that was anything that we did.” Morris said at his Monday press conference that he was relaying an explanation from the players and did not intend to accuse the Patriots of doing something over the line.
“This was our players telling us they simulated the snap out there,” Morris said. “They heard something and obviously they did, that’s why he snapped it. This was no intent that they did anything wrong, there was no intent that those guys did anything wrong. We’re just telling you guys what happened. I was asked why the ball was snapped early. It was snapped early for our fault. It’s on us. . . . We can’t snap the ball early no matter what anybody does. It’s gotta be more about us. That was just me being angry yesterday. Someone asked me what happened, I was just being honest with you guys. I don’t want to make it a Snapgate, which I probably already did.”
The early snap and grounding penalty came after Parker Romo missed a game-tying extra point and the Falcons had a chance to get the ball back with a defensive stop after the miscue, so there’s plenty for the team to clean up in the wake of the loss.
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