There’s
been all sorts of sound and fury . . . pretty much signifying nothing . . .
over the New Orleans Saints’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams last Sunday. “We wuz
robbed!” scream the Saints fans. “How could those blind sunzabitches miss that call?”
“Me and a bunch of my buddies are gonna sue the shit outta the NFL!” The call?
Or should I call it the “no-call?”
Late
in the game, in a 20-20 tie with less than two minutes left, the Saints were at
the Rams 13-yard line, third down and about five to go. Drew Brees threw a pass
to the right sideline that, if complete, would have given them a first down.
But the play happened WHAM BAM like lightning. That’s how fast it looked in
real time. The defender knocked the receiver out of bounds just as the pass arrived.
Incomplete pass, no interference call, no helmet to helmet call, either of
which could have been called and maybe both of which should have been called,
especially if you were one of the 79,000 Saints fans in attendance who saw the
replay in slow motion on the big screen. But it was only obvious when it was
viewed in extreme slow motion, not, apparently, to the nearby officials. So the
Saints kicked a field goal to go ahead 23-20 with about a hundred seconds left.
All they had to do was hold the Rams out of field goal range and they’d win.
But they didn’t. Goff looked and acted like a winner by taking them near enough
for a game-tying field goal as regulation time ran out. Overtime.
Saints
win the toss and take it to mid-field where Brees throws an interception
because of rush pressure. Rams take it back to the Saints’ 40, but with fourth
down they elect to try a 57-yard field goal for the win. The kick splits the
uprights and was so far over the cross bar that it would have been good from
67. Game over. Rams win. Saints lose.
And
Saints players and Saints fans weep and wail about how the game got stolen by
that no-call in regulation, saying that with a fresh set of downs, Brees would have
either taken it in for a touchdown or they would have kicked a field goal to win
it, Brees having been able to milk the clock down to nearly nothing left for
the Rams to use. Lots of speculation there.
“If
wishes were horses” and all that stuff. Now everyone thinks that all plays that
could be interference should be reviewed. Or maybe just those in the final two
minutes of each half. Or maybe just when a coach throws out a special interference
challenge flag anytime during the game. The result could be much longer games
or much more confusion. I’ve always said that every football game—high school,
college, or NFL—could be determined by the officials, either deliberately or
non-deliberately. I’d hate to think any official would deliberately try to
throw a game one way or the other. But it becomes more and more obvious that
offensive holding and defensive interference on pass plays could be called on
every single play. How can the poor officials figure out which to call and
which to ignore? The game is played at
such high velocity anymore that it would take Superman to sort it all out
correctly each and every time.
Let’s
take this idea of reviewing plays to an extreme and say that all plays should
be reviewed. Every one of the nearly one hundred plays the two teams would
have. Let a play be run, then stop the action while the officials huddle around
a tv to see what really happened. Did they get the ball spotted correctly? Was
that really a reception or was it a drop? Where was the ball when the runner’s
knee touched the ground? Did the ball break the plane of the end zone or didn’t
it? Was that flutter pass really a pass or was it a fumble? All kinds of
questions could be resolved. It would take forever to play a game, though.
Maybe games could be split into four pieces: the first quarter on Thursday,
second on Friday, third on Saturday, and fourth and any overtimes on Sunday.
Now, wouldn’t that be exciting?
I
think one solution might be to allow offensive linemen to hold or even tackle
defensive rushers and let the rushers do whatever they can to get to the
quarterback; another, to let receivers and defensive backs duke it out with
hand checks and shoves and knockdowns. Make no
calls except for those moves that might cause injuries. Let’s take it back to mano a mano and see who wins.
And
let Drew Brees and all the Saints fans grind their teeth over the unfairness of
it all.
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