The Rams tied the game and won in overtime. Wil Lutz gave the Saints a 23-20 lead with a field goal, but the Rams would have been forced to spend their last time out had New Orleans been awarded a first down, making a game-tying drive substantially more difficult. You could have had a foul either way,” either pass interference or illegal contact. They’re close to bang-bang, but that’s way early enough – even high contact on the receiver. Pereira said he agreed with Aikman, then added, “I know it’s easy in slow-motion. The Washington Post reported Monday that the NFL is considering adding pass-interference calls subject to replay review. No penalty was called on a pass that was ruled incomplete, and coaches are not allowed to challenge a judgment call, nor can they be reviewed by a replay official. Pereira was on referee-analysis duty for Fox on Sunday. “That should have been a penalty!” analyst Troy Aikman hollered on Fox. It was clearly a defensive pass-interference penalty that would have resulted in a first down with less than two minutes left that could have essentially led to a victory for New Orleans. What was not noted was that Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis was barreled into by Nickell Robey-Coleman of the Rams as Lewis turned to make the catch. The most consequential play in Sunday’s NFC Championship game, won by the Rams, is memorialized in the game book simply like this: 3-10-LA 13 (1:49) (Shotgun) D.Brees pass incomplete short right to T.Lewis. According to the NFL, replay reversals dropped to 172 in the 2018 regular season from 196 in the 2017 regular season, with challenges falling to 349 from 429 in that span, suggesting that coaches might have more confidence that the officials are making the right tough calls.īut coaches – like Saints coach Sean Payton, to use a recent example – still think officials miss tough judgment calls. The calls on only six other plays in 10 games have been reversed by the replay official. Coaches have challenged 10 calls in 10 playoff games this year, and six calls have been upheld after video review. The rules analyst’s job is to explain succinctly why the refs made the call they did, sometimes softly suggesting that the refs messed up.įor the heightened scrutiny they are under, the refs do a pretty good job. Pereira even has a helper in Dean Blandino, another former official. The referee in that game was none other than Steratore.Įach of the three networks that carries NFL games now has a rules analyst. Pereira’s first tough call involved a game in which he said on the air that an apparent last-minute touchdown catch by Detroit’s Calvin Johnson would be overturned by replay officials, which it was. After all that, it was New England’s ball.īecause instant replay, reintroduced in 1999, had become such a vital part of officiating a game – a football field covers 57,600 square feet, and seven officials can’t be expected to cover every inch – Fox hired a former official, Mike Pereira, as the first NFL rules analyst in 2010. Blakeman finally announced that the ball had not touched Edelman. So something must be clear and obvious” to overturn the call. “The ruling on the field is that he did touch it. “Most definitely, Jim, the point is well-taken,” Steratore said, sounding like he was on a witness stand. Summoning Gene Steratore, the former NFL official who is in his first season as CBS’s NFL rules analyst, the play-by-play man Jim Nantz said, “There’s got to be enough visual evidence to overturn it!”
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