By: Jordan Fiegel
The New Orleans Saints 26-23 loss in overtime to the Los Angeles Rams will forever be remembered for a penalty that was not called. Before discussing that no-call, however, WWL NFL analyst Mike Detillier addressed another area that hurt the Saints, red zone performance.
“I give the Rams a lot of credit early on,” Detillier said. “That game easily could have been out of control. Their red zone, situational defense held the Saints to a couple field goals, because that could easily been a 21-0 lead for the Saints in the first quarter.”
In the first quarter, New Orleans had three straight possessions inside the Rams’ 20 yard line. One drive ended on the 10 yard line. Only once did the Saints score a touchdown. For the game, the Saints scored touchdowns on just 2-5 red zone possessions.
With that said, Detillier turned his attention to the officiating; and he did not mince his words.
“The commissioner of this league [Roger Goodell] is such a spineless guy,” Detillier declared. “He’s in there to make money for the 32 owners. That’s his position in the league. He’s not there to protect the shield, as he claims. If he were to do that, he would have long ago gotten much more technology involved in officiating. He would have long ago settled this.”
Detillier wasn’t done.
“It goes to show you how this multi-billion dollar league, that has grown so big, is still back in the Stone Ages as far as officiating is concerned.”
Detillier blasted the no-call by the officials, and he brought up the human aspect.
“That official? He doesn’t want to make that call,” Detillier said matter-of-factly. “He didn’t want to yesterday, because he knew if he makes that call that changes the outcome of the game. And it really did,” Detillier exclaimed. “You start to see the human part of this.”
