Bizarre sequence ends first half of Bills-Seahawks

— -- SEATTLE -- A bizarre sequence at the end of the first half of Monday night's game between the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks led to several minutes of confusion and a missed 54-yard field goal by Bills kicker Dan Carpenter.

Carpenter, initially attempting a 53-yard field goal with three seconds remaining in the half, appeared to be injured when Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman went offside and fell into Carpenter's legs. The play was blown dead because of Sherman's penalty.

Dean Blandino, the NFL's senior vice president of officiating, was quick to tweet his acknowledgement of the officials' mistake:

Bills trainers ran onto the field to tend to Carpenter, who remained on the ground after being hit by Sherman. Because trainers entered the field of play, Carpenter was required to exit the game, leaving the Bills without a kicker for the end-of-half attempt.

During the confusion over the penalty and ruling about Carpenter, players on both benches began to run toward the locker room for halftime. Officials then had to clear the field before the Bills, with rookie running back Jonathan Williams under center, had to spike the ball to stop the clock.

With one second remaining on the clock, the Bills lined up for a 49-yard attempt but were called for delay of game after the play clock expired. On their ensuing 54-yard attempt, Carpenter missed wide right.

Officials were standing over the ball on the second attempt with four seconds remaining on the play clock, which led to the delay of game.

That end-of-half sequence helps illustrate why so many people don't understand NFL rules and don't like them. Referee Walt Anderson couldn't call roughing the kicker on Sherman because he was offside, which rendered the play dead. Anderson did have the option to call an unnecessary roughness penalty on Sherman for hitting Carpenter long after the penalty, but he chose not to. That set into motion the kind of bizarre and disorganized series of events that has come to characterize high-profile NFL games in recent years.

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker was also quick to voice his displeasure for the no-call on roughing the Bills' kicker:

Kevin Seifert and Mike Reiss contributed to this report.