Watching football has been a significant part of my life for over a dozen years. Anybody who knows me in the slightest knows I’m a diehard Eagles fanatic. I attend two or three Eagles games every season, from Philly to Charlotte, from D.C. to Dallas. Sunday afternoons at the Moyer residence are for football and nothing else. I haven’t missed an Eagles game in years.
In all my years watching the NFL, I have never seen a more heinous, nauseating call (or nocall) by a referee than in the Rams-Saints matchup on Sunday.
The winner of this game was set to earn a trip to Super Bowl LIII. Saints quarterback Drew Brees was driving New Orleans down the field in the final minutes of the fourth quarter with the game tied at 20.
The Saints faced a 3rd and 10 on LA’s 13 yard line with 1:49 to play. A first down would have all but ended the game. The Rams were down to one timeout, and with a new set of downs for New Orleans, the Rams would have been able to stop the clock only once. This would have enabled Brees to milk the clock as low as possible before giving kicker Will Lutz a chance to win the game.
But then the egregious happened. Saints WR Tommylee Lewis lined up in the backfield for the 3rd down play. He ran a wheel route up the sideline, and within three seconds Brees hit him perfectly in stride. Lewis was extending his arms to make the catch when Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman, sprinting toward the sideline from the center of the field, laid a massive blow to the head of Lewis before the ball arrived.
There was no flag for pass interference or for a hit to the head of a defenseless receiver. Even Robey-Coleman responded to the no-call following the game. “Oh, hell yeah, that was P.I. … I just know I got there before the ball got there, and I whacked his ass.”
The Rams would ultimately go on to tie the game at 23 with a field goal as regular time expired, intercept Brees in overtime and book their ticket to the Super Bowl on Greg Zuerlein’s 57-yard kick through the uprights.
None of that should’ve ever been possible.
I get the counterarguments: controversial calls and no-calls happen. Referees are humans who make mistakes just like the rest of us. While fans get to watch slow motion replays from their living room couches, referees only have two eyes and one chance to get the call right in a blink. Gary Cavaletto, the side-judge largely responsible for the blown call, will likely have nightmares about this night for years.
These perspectives should not be used as rationalization for a bad call, but as a nationwide rallying cry for the NFL to radically reform refereeing.
Every offseason there are league-wide deliberations on rule changes that could improve the game. The NFL needs to use this offseason to address what to do about flagrant missed calls. I don’t have the answer as to what exactly needs to happen, but something has to change. Add a coach’s challenge for penalties like pass interference or roughing the passer. Have a team of experts automatically review all penalties occurring within the final two minutes of each half. Put several more referees on the field. Something. There’s an NFL rulebook explaining every penalty in detail. Find a way to get those rules right on the field.
those rules right on the field. I cannot remember another season that yielded more controversial penalty flags than this year. It is all but fitting that one of the worst no-calls in NFL history essentially robbed the Saints of a spot in the Super Bowl.
The NFL owes its fans an explanation, Gary Cavaletto should be suspended or relieved of his duties, and deliberative debate and action should take place to help restore credibility to the NFL.
Otherwise, I believe the league is in danger of losing more interest than it already has over the past few years.
