By Joe Schiller
Sunday gave us the NFL's top four teams on Championship weekend and it didn't disappoint.
Two overtime games, two first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks against two of the game's brightest young signal callers, and 120+ minutes of pure excitement.
But come Monday morning, we're talking about one headline that overshadows all of the aforementioned words: One inexplicable call.
On 3rd-and-10 with 1:48 left in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game, referee Bill Vinovich and his staff missed an obvious pass interference call on Nickell Robey-Coleman.
Saints wide receiver Tommylee Lewis had no chance to catch the intended pass from Drew Brees and the blatant no-call was as bad as it sounded.
I mean, how is this not a flag? pic.twitter.com/dHbaQmiulk
— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) January 20, 2019Instead of a 15-yard penalty and a first down that would've allowed the Saints to essentially run out the clock and kick a game-winning field goal, they were forced to attempt a kick with 1:41 left to play.
Will Lutz's 31-yard field goal gave the Saints a 23-20 lead, but we all know what happened next. Greg Zuerlein hit a 48-yard field goal to force overtime and the Rams prevailed minutes later on a 57-yard kick to send them to Super Bowl 53.
Two years in a row, the Saints were left in heartbreak.
Saints head coach Sean Payton told reporters after the game that he spoke to the league office, who admitted to the blown call.
Forget that the NFL's overtime rules are absurd, a missed call of this magnitude has an irreversible effect on the careers of players and coaches.
Even the Rams knew it was a botched call. Running back Todd Gurley posted a photoshopped picture of himself and Vinovich swapping uniforms postgame.
Officials take on the toughest job in sports. Every call and every whistle fall under scrutiny.
In a game where plays happen in a split-second, we shouldn't expect them to make the correct call 100 percent of the time.
They're human, which means mistakes are bound to occur.
So if we're going to account for that error, why not make it easier to correct?
The NFL can provide a simple solution by allowing these types of penalties to be reviewed and overturned if needed. Because on a day where we saw some of the best football in recent memory, it's a shame we have to focus on one bad call.
