The worst wrong call of the Rams 2025 season

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JANUARY 25: Head coach Sean McVay celebrates after a third quarter touchdown from Puka Nacua #12 of the Los Angeles Rams against the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game at Lumen Field on January 25, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) | Getty Images

When the Rams played the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football in Week 16, it wasn't just the biggest game of the entire NFL season up to that point. The contest also ended up having the weirdest two-point conversion, the most insane ending, and having the biggest significance of any regular season game in 2025. Had the Rams won instead of losing 38-37 in overtime, then it could have been Sean McVay's team earning the number one seed, the bye, and hosting the NFC Championship.

Instead, Matthew Stafford and the Rams had to go to Seattle in the NFL Playoffs and the reason could all come down to a wrong call on a play all the way in the first quarter. Based only on one yard.

The Play and the Bad Call

With 1:50 left in the first quarter, the Rams have the ball at the Seahawks 1-yard line and decide to go for it. Stafford drops back and finds tight end Terrance Ferguson for a catch ruled as a touchdown. That would have tied the game at 7-7, except that right guard Justin Dedich was called for an Illegal Man Downfield and the touchdown was waved off. The Rams settle for a field goal and instead the score is 7-3.

That matters in a game that ends up going to overtime.

Rules analyst Terry McAulay comes on after the commercial break and says that Dedich was forced" by a Seahawks defender to go beyond a yard and adds for clarify, This isn't really a foul".

A Rams touchdown was taken off the board due to officials calling a penalty for illegal man downfield on 4th-and-goal at the 1. They had to settle for a field goal.

Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay disagrees with the ruling: "This really isn't a foul." #NFL#TNFpic.twitter.com/gG0Sgr8zlh

- Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 19, 2025

Who knows how much different the game, the season, and the playoffs would be if the Rams weren't penalized on that play.

The Injury to Insult

All the weirder that Dedich had only just come into the game on that play because of on the previous play starter Kevin Dotson was stepped on by a Seahawks defender; Derick Hall was later suspended one game for this.

The play that resulted in the suspension for #Seahawks LB Derick Hall (58), with #Rams C Coleman Shelton immediately shoving Hall after he stepped on Kevin Dotson, who was on crutches and in a boot after the game. pic.twitter.com/zVfGWmUS7G

- Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) December 19, 2025

Football is a game of inches. This time it's a game ... of feet.