Saints got hosed!

Worst call in Playoff and maybe NFL history costs New Orleans and Drew Brees a shot at the Super Bowl

All the sports world is aware of the brutal non-call for interference that led to the Rams getting the ball back with enough time to tie and subsequently send the NFC Championship game into OT where the Saints lost 26-23. With the game tied at 20 with 1:58 left in regulation and the Saints with the ball on the Rams 13, Sean Payton and Drew Brees called a pass play on 1st and 10. Incomplete. The Rams, with two time-outs left didn’t have to use one. 2nd and 10- Kamara run, no gain, Rams call their 2nd TO 1:49 to play. 3rd and 10, another pass, this one with the controversial non-call, stopped the clock at 1:41 for a Saints 31 yard FG to go up 23-20. No call in reviewable NFL history has been missed this blatantly.

Besides obvious interference where the defender smashed into the receiver way earlier than the ball arrived, it was a helmet-to-helmet hit against a defenseless receiver. Three fouls not called- simply dumbfounding. Conspiracy theorists note that the side judge who blew the call against Robey-Coleman and three of the nearest officials hail from the Los Angeles area. I don’t buy it. The Rams defender acknowledged being beat on the play and purposely committing the foul. If the penalty was called, with 1st down inside the 5, the Saints could have milked the clock and kicked the game winning FG as time ran out.
Unfortunately and amazingly, the refs simply missed it, no one knows how he/ they could have missed it but they did and the city of New Orleans has to get over it. Yes, the two or three refs nearby should have rushed in to throw the flag and call it if the side judge made an obvious mistake, but they didn’t. Maybe they don’t overrule their own guy, maybe they just froze, after all, they are human.
Saints critics point out why Payton would call two pass plays instead of forcing the Rams to use their TOs. But I suspect coach Payton wanted to score a TD and force Goff and the Rams to also score a TD to tie. The risky N.O. strategy, combined with the negligence of the officiating crew led to the Rams having enough time to get the ball back and tie it up, backfired. In OT, Brees was intercepted as his arm was grabbed, the Rams hit another FG and were on their way to the Super Bowl.

The NFL admitted within minutes of the game ending that the refs had blown the call. No kidding!
Replay the game? I don’t think so.

Go back in time and replay the end from that play is not feasible for obvious reasons.
So just complain about review rules and conspiracies and file lawsuits on behalf of the city and the ticketholders?
None of this is going anywhere right now. Commissioner Goodell’s silence is alarming but it probably stems from the lawsuit. It’ll be addressed after the Super Bowl. Maybe an additional review procedure where non-calls in certain instances can be reviewed. Why not, the game takes forever anyway, several replays, dozens of angles on every play, reviews and challenges, left and right. The fact is that the Saints had a 13-0 lead and allowed themselves to be in a position to lose the NFC title game, either from a turnover or a bad call, and good teams do not let that happen. They had a chance to put the Rams away and did not do it. So, as miserable as this loss was, they should examine their own play calling and general game handling and accept the circumstances and move on. Turn the page.

Technology and how referees call the game is always a work in progress for the reaction-based NFL. Soon, and just before they start playing two-hand touch, we’ll see the 4 hour game officiated by video replay and AI. It’s impossible to take all the subjectivity out of a fast moving football game. Mistakes, even blatant ones like this, will happen.

-HB