Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Al Riveron was left to clean up another officiating snafu at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome Monday night. This time, at least, it didn’t cost the Saints a game – or a trip to the Super Bowl.

Drew Brees was furious. Sean Payton was rather calm. And Cam Jordan waxed philosophical, after the officials in Monday night’s 30-28 Saints victory over the Texans saw yet another half end with fans, media members and Saints coaches and players confused about what appeared, at least on the surface, to be a fairly simple call to make when broken down.

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After the Houston extended its lead to 14-3 with just under two minutes left before halftime, New Orleans found themselves facing 3rd-and-17 from their own 30-yard-line with 48 seconds to go, trying to muster some amount of offensive momentum after two early stalled red zone drives. Brees found Thomas fending off Bradley Roby on the sideline right around the first-down marker and fired a dart into his mitts, before Thomas fell toward the sideline and stretched the ball toward the marker, giving the officials their first in a series of decisions to make.

Initially, the refs decided he was inches short, sending Brees storming to the line with one timeout left and close to 30 seconds to go to attempt a quarterback sneak. But the refs whistled him off to look at the spot 15 seconds after the play was ruled dead.

“But it shouldn’t have been a booth review. It was pretty obvious he made the yards to gain,” said Saints head coach Sean Payton. “We would always move the chains in the past.”

Once the refs emerged from the hood, things got much – much – more complicated. Officials deemed Thomas had cleared the first-down marker, but because play was stopped with the clock rolling, head referee John Hussey ruled the Saints must either forfeit their final timeout, or surrender 10 seconds off the clock – from the current 0:26 mark, rather than at 0:41 when the play was complete.

That’s where Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, comes in once again.

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Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

I was watching the game together with my brother-in-law and we were livid. I probably woke the neighbours up cursing and yelling!

Like Brees said, that can't happen, its a game changer.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

lets get'em back in court

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

You'd think after the "Non Call" the NFL would be on top of officiating yet it did and will continue to happen. Admitting you made an error does nothing. It's the NFL version of "I didn't know it was loaded"

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

I think the ref was loaded...

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Luckily we are able to win the game, however the NFL cannot continue with this. There is no way you can mess up the clock before halftime and cost our team a legit field goal opportunity & you can't call that bogus "roughing" in that spot. It's just a bad, bad look.

I agree with coach, it's a game changer that can't happen.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

What's the point of having replay if the people reviewing the replay are incompetent? There needs to be more accountability.

It's really sad.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

I missed the exact time thing as well. Was so livid about the 10 second run off. I REALLY dislike the rule on how the clock isn't stopped if a player is going backwards out of bounds or is deemed to be stopped in the field of play. If a player is able to get out of bounds on his feet, the clock should stop.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

I told my wife at the time that they were making s*** up as they went because they were lost.
It is reflective of our society.
See a problem?
Create a rule to eliminate the problem, regardless of effectiveness.
The problem comes when there are so many rules that no one really knows what is going on and how to proceed.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

League officials should be full time employees.
Mandate their participation in post-game interviews and press confrences.
The NFL has the loot to make this happen.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Or at the very least take a test to show that they know at least 50% of the rules. Multiple choice will do.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

With billions of dollars in revenue you would think that the NFL could afford to hire referees full time with training year round.....on how to screw the Saints. :wink:

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

TBH, if this had happened in the playoffs it may have pissed me off more than the pass interference. The game was stopped, they could have figured this **** out. They just went and reviewed the call, and they couldn't get the ****ing time right? That's unacceptable.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Plus it’s elementary. Not a judgement call but just plain out lack of knowledge of the rules. You would think clock management would be the last thing they would get wrong. Straight up incompetence. My wife called it as soon as it happened. She is like a savant when it comes to clock management though. I lucked out marrying a girl that understands the game like she does.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

So other than the chaos and mess at the end of the half that cost us 3 points:
was the running/roughing the kicker a legit call or BS? Based on the situation, it looked pretty soft.
should Hopkins have been ejected? I know that if it had happened to him, the defender would have been tossed

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Not enough accountability. These blunders cannot continue.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Well I get that there are missed calls and calls sometimes can go either way. Its part of the game... However, in the last 2 minutes of the half if the booth doesn't step in and review the call or look at it and chime in then WTF do we have instant replay for...

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Yes. There is no excuse for this not happening.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

I'm more on the Cameron Jordan side of it. Yes, the clock was totally botched at the end of the half. But who knows how that shakes out with a little more time? An interception or a sack could have taken us out of FG range too. Bottom line, we needed to play better and not dig a 14-3 hole and play better D to put ourselves in a situation where we don't need to rely on high-risk high-pressure last-second drives.

I'm also unclear if they had called running into the kicker instead or roughing what it would have mattered. Fairbairn still would have gotten to re-kick either way, wouldn't he? It was definitely running into the kicker by my estimation, our rookie tripped him after the kick.

Myself I don't feel the lingering zebra-striped boogeyman at all. We just need to get in better rhythm, Lutz saved the day and there is still 15 games left.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Funny you say. I'm a lone wolf here, being probably the only person in the world who does not want Replay. And I know I'm wrong, basically, for whatever reasons.

This is my thing about Replay. It gives the officials a second opportunity to blow calls. How many times do they get the REPLAY wrong?

It does exactly what it was not intended to do: It CREATES calls. I'll forgo mention of the infamous Dez Bryant call vs. the Pack, since we hate the Cowboys. Lets go instead the Homer route, and recall the first year of replay. 1988, I think. Eric Martin has just caught a TD from Bobby vs. the Giants in a critical playoff run game. Officials stopped, ran the play in micro-motion, and decided that an amoeba had space between Eric's fingers, and called an obvious TD back. I saw this coming, and I've hated replay ever since. We might have taken the division from SF, with a win in that one.

It destroys the rhythm of the game, to me, at some points making it unwatchable. It makes the game more a litigation, than a field battle. I dont want to cheer the Call. I want to cheer the Play. And I think it creates a litigious mindset--- where everyone wants a do-over. Play the damn game. I've even seen instances, where I am sure we would have scored 7, instead of settling for less, because in the disruption of replay, we fell out of offensive rhythm, or we gave the defense a breather, when we were rolling.

Again, I know this is an unpopular opinion but I think we can all agree Football would be better, if we didnt notice the officiating.

Line up for the Next Play, and lets Go.

Re: Saints react to NFL admitting botched call vs. Texans: 'That's a game-changer. That can't happen.'
 

Fair point. But we live in a litigious society. The horse has already left the barn with replay. Other sports get it right. Why can't the NFL?