The New Orleans Saints found themselves on the opposite side of a call that probably never should have happened in the first place back in Week 1.
New Orleans Saints fans are no stranger to bad officiating calls, but the inconsistency with rulings being applied this season is a bit mystifying.
In Week 1, the Saints lost to the Detroit Lions in overtime. Should it have even gotten there? It depends on how you feel about a quarterback’s “intent” rather than his actions towards doing something.
That time, they ruled that Lions quarterback Jared Goff did not actually fumble the football when he was sacked by New Orleans’ edge rusher Chase Young because he was intending to throw a pass, as shown by apparently any movement of a quarterback’s hands with the ball in it.
And even if the ball goes backwards, which it did in that game.
Then that totally flipped on its head in the Saints’ 35-27 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3, which keeps the Raiders undefeated while New Orleans fell to a 1-2 start.
This time, Saints quarterback Tyler Shough was not given that same benefit of the doubt. Despite it looking like he was moving his hand to begin throwing the ball – which should fall under the same intentional movement of a hand that starts a pass – the officials ruled that it was a fumble when he was hit and sacked by linebacker Malcolm Koonce.
That’s a bit hard for fans – and the team itself – to reconcile with after that call ultimately was game-deciding back in Week 1.
It was made a bit worse by the fact that the head referee was Bill Vinovich, famously known for missing the penalty in the 2018 NFC Championship.
Now, the Saints didn’t lose on Sunday because of the refs. The Raiders put on a credible performance headlined by veteran pro Kirk Cousins.
They sort of seemed to crumble once adversity hit them, which turned into a spiral that saw them turn the ball over four straight times to end the contest in the fourth, of which Las Vegas took advantage of and scored 19 unanswered points.
They’ll need to perform better in critical moments. But it certainly feels like the rules are not consistently applied when New Orleans is playing, and that can make it really hard to have feel for the game.
With the infusion of sports gambling into the sport and its giant presence, it makes these moments stand out a bit. There never should have been any attempt by an official to apply “intent” to a quarterbacks actions, and that Week 1 debacle has had a trickle-down effect.
