We can save him the time and the energy and the research: There has not. “I don’t know if there was ever a more obvious pass interference call,” Payton said. The Rams got the ball back with 101 seconds left in the game and needed only 82 of them to drive for the field goal that forced overtime. The Saints kicked the field goal with 1:45 left. The Rams had only one timeout, so the Saints could have taken three knees, run about 82 seconds off the clock and would have kicked the chip-shot go-ahead field goal with about 25 seconds left in the game.Įxcept the most obvious pass-interference call of the year went uncalled.
With the two penalties, the Saints would have been set up first-and-goal inside the 5. But before Lewis could catch the ball, a beaten and desperate Rams cornerback named Nickell Robey-Coleman did the only sensible thing he could do: He ran into Lewis.Ĭontroversial, unreal no-call swings Saints-Rams gameĪs an added bonus, Robey-Coleman also made helmet-to-helmet contact with Lewis. The Saints were driving for a go-ahead score late in regulation, facing third-and-10 from the Rams’ 13 when with 1 minute and 48 seconds left, Brees dropped back and threw toward his wideout, Tommylee Lewis. The call was actually a non-call - and let’s really describe it properly: the most egregious non-call, perhaps, in NFL history. Payton’s expression mirrored that of his team and his fans and his city: Thanks for nothing, league office. “Just got off the phone with the league office,” Payton said. This time, they talked to Sean Payton right after he walked off the field. And in a time when refereeing has never been more in the spotlight and more under the gun, this is one that will be remembered forever.Īnd this time, the league didn’t even have to wait a few days to cop to the officials’ incompetence. It wasn’t an anonymous Week 6 game this time. They stole this one as surely as if they’d walked into a bank like Willie Sutton. The Superdome should have been a deafening madhouse of sound and fury, the 73,028 in the house celebrating a second trip to the Big Game.īecause the refs got in the way. No disrespect to the Rams, who overcame an early 13-0 hole to make a wonderful game of this and who made the key play in overtime when safety John Johnson intercepted a Drew Brees pass on his back - yes, on his back - before kicker Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein boomed a clinching 57-yard field goal that might have been good from 77.īut by the time Zuerlein sent the Rams to Atlanta and Super Bowl LIII with a 26-23 win, he should’ve been back in a quiet visiting locker room comforting his teammates. Your jacked-up stadium turns silent in an instant, but not before the partisans paste the referees with bile, spittle and slander - all of it absolutely well-earned.Īnd make no mistake: The refs stole this NFC Championship from the Saints. Every week of every football season brings an egregious call or three from across the league, the kind for which the NFL must apologize a few days later - as if there’s any consolation in that.īut you get one stolen from you in Week 6, you can come back from that. NEW ORLEANS - It was going to happen just like this eventually. Jacob deGrom's gem bring Mets big hope for stretch run Legendary Vin Scully could have belonged to New York Gerrit Cole's dud only adds to growing angst around Yankees rotation Yankees, Mets fans listening to radio isn't worst-case for streaming service games Handling of Braves about as perfect as it gets for Mets