Was this the worst call in NFL history?

[Buc Ball]

1 hour ago, TXsteeler said:

I'm not asking anyone to feel bad about anything. But stop accepting this from the NFL. It could EASILY be fixed, and we should demand it as fans.

If the NFL kicks off the 2019 season without having instituted a change to fix bad ref calls essentially runing the entire competitive nature of the sport I won't be watching and neither should anyone else.

I’d LOVE to hear how it could “easily be fixed”.

[Buc Ball]

10 minutes ago, btfd16 said:

What would you propose as the solution?

All penalties, always reviewable? Dangerous.

One 'penalty challenge' per half?

All penalties reviewable during the last two minutes?

Certain penalties reviewable during the last two minutes?

To be honest I don't know. Not always though that is for sure.

Probably make all penalties challengeable and leave it there.

Pretty difficult to challenge any penalties except a missed facemask or a missed pass interference really. 

[btfd16]

1 minute ago, Buc Ball said:

Probably make all penalties challengeable and leave it there.

Pretty difficult to challenge any penalties except a missed facemask or a missed pass interference really. 

Just afraid it will open pandora's box unless there is a limited amount of challenges (one per half?) or only last two minutes.

[Buc Ball]

1 minute ago, btfd16 said:

Just afraid it will open pandora's box unless there is a limited amount of challenges (one per half?) or only last two minutes.

That’s a fair concern. I’d keep the teams to two challenges as they are now. 

So no additional challenges, but now you can use them to challenge penalties.

[JonStark]

1 minute ago, btfd16 said:

Just afraid it will open pandora's box unless there is a limited amount of challenges (one per half?) or only last two minutes.

If they make anything challengeable and still only give them two for the game, then it's in the coaches hands and not the refs.

The coaches will know going into it that they need indisputable evidence to overturn a call (just like anything else) so will only risk it if they are really confident or it's a huge point in the game. Indisputable evidence may be harder to come by in penalties so I doubt we'd see it a lot, but at least then it's the coaches decision.

[TXsteeler]

1 hour ago, JonStark said:

But it wasn't. 

There was another whole drive where the Saints could have stopped the Rams from getting in FG range. Then they got the ball first in OT. Then they had another chance to stop them. 

I'm not going to sit here and argue that had the call been made, the Rams still had a chance. All of the possible ways to come out of that situation with a win are ridiculously unlikely, but the fact is that one call did not lose them the entire game. You win that argument, congratulations. 

That one call did not win them the entire game, but it stopped the rams from losing it.

[TXsteeler]

32 minutes ago, Buc Ball said:

I’d LOVE to hear how it could “easily be fixed”.

Allow coaches OR the NFL head office to step in and say "Hey you ****ed that one up buddy, change the call".

How daft are you that this was hard for you to think of?

[TXsteeler]

19 minutes ago, JonStark said:

If they make anything challengeable and still only give them two for the game, then it's in the coaches hands and not the refs.

The coaches will know going into it that they need indisputable evidence to overturn a call (just like anything else) so will only risk it if they are really confident or it's a huge point in the game. Indisputable evidence may be harder to come by in penalties so I doubt we'd see it a lot, but at least then it's the coaches decision.

I like this reasoning, and to add to it, I think the NFL head office, or the refs themselves, should be able to review a penalty/non-penalty and make the call to change it.

There's no way that half the ref crew in that game didn't see the play being repeated on the big screens and think "Wow we just ****ed up so bad". They should be able to then throw a flag late, there's no reason we should all be forced to live with their mistake.

[Buc Ball]

1 minute ago, TXsteeler said:

Allow coaches OR the NFL head office to step in and say "Hey you ****ed that one up buddy, change the call".

How daft are you that this was hard for you to think of?

Translation:

”I have no sensible suggestions”.

[JonStark]

5 minutes ago, TXsteeler said:

That one call did not win them the entire game, but it stopped the rams from losing it.

That's true (hence why I still say it was an atrocious call), but it didn't guarantee the Rams still couldn't lose on the ensuing drive or in OT.

[TXsteeler]

2 minutes ago, Buc Ball said:

Translation:

”I have no sensible suggestions”.

How can this response be interpreted as anything but outright trolling?

The play happens, refs screw up, the ENTIRE WORLD watching notices the refs screwed up immediately. The only reason we don't just correct the mistake is because of some dumb rule.

What you are saying is that mistakes cannot be corrected.

Imagine you get your paycheck and it has an extra 0 in the federal witholding for the pay period, costing you several hundred dollars that week. You go to your boss and explain it to them and they say "Yeah you're right, we messed that up, sorry but we can't fix it for you".

[btfd16]

8 minutes ago, TXsteeler said:

I like this reasoning, and to add to it, I think the NFL head office, or the refs themselves, should be able to review a penalty/non-penalty and make the call to change it.

There's no way that half the ref crew in that game didn't see the play being repeated on the big screens and think "Wow we just ****ed up so bad". They should be able to then throw a flag late, there's no reason we should all be forced to live with their mistake.

Yeah I think keeping the same rules and adding penalties is the only way.

This was not a normal play though. This was a blatant and obvious call. 99% of no calls are not like that. They are pretty bang bang and slo mo is almost always not showing the bang bang nature of a play. We are continuously making it more difficult on the defense already. Ramping up reviewable slo mo penalties would continue that.

[TXsteeler]

6 minutes ago, JonStark said:

That's true (hence why I still say it was an atrocious call), but it didn't guarantee the Rams still couldn't lose on the ensuing drive or in OT.

Yeah of course, but that isn't an argument worth responding to if anyone is making it.

It's also not even worth pointing out tbh. The game should have ended two hail marries after the Saints finished draining the clock and kicked the FG, almost certainly after the Rams failed to score.

[TXsteeler]

1 minute ago, btfd16 said:

Yeah I think keeping the same rules and adding penalties is the only way.

This was not a normal play though. This was a blatant and obvious call. 99% of no calls are not like that. They are pretty bang bang and slo mo is almost always not showing the bang bang nature of a play. We are continuously making it more difficult on the defense already. Ramping up reviewable slo mo penalties would continue that.

This is why I think the NFL head office should be responsible for calling in and telling the refs to reverse a call or to throw a flag or to pause the game for a minute while the play is under review, and probably limit the number of times a coach can do it.

The head office can make sure things like this never happen again, and the coaches can get a few of the ones that impact games but wouldn't be considered important by the head office, while also not trying to find holding on every single play.

They would also have to be very clear about what penalty they are arguing occured (or didn't occur but that's obvious), they can't just say "there was holding" they have to say "67 was holding 48 around the 35 yard line".

I think the NFL can certainly find a way to eliminate the season changing bad calls and to reduce the number of game chaning bad calls without making a game take 6 hours for reviews on every other play.

[JonStark]

1 minute ago, TXsteeler said:

Yeah of course, but that isn't an argument worth responding to if anyone is making it.

It's also not even worth pointing out tbh. The game should have ended two hail marries after the Saints finished draining the clock and kicked the FG, almost certainly after the Rams failed to score.

Actually the facemask on Goff should have been called, leaving the Saints down 4 on their last drive changing everything. 

We're starting to go in circles again, so this will be my last post to you. If we want to play the "what should have happened" game, Rams fans can ask for the missed facemask call like Saints fans can ask for the missed DPI call. Both missed calls change the remainder of the game in so many different ways. If the Saints are down 4, the Rams do not call a cover 2 leaving Joyner back there by himself for the big completion to Ginn. If we play that game, we need to start with the missed facemask call as that occurred first. If we're not playing the "what should have happened" game, the fact that the Rams still had plenty of chances to lose that game does need to be brought up, instead of discrediting everything they did to get that win. Either way, that missed DPI was a HORRIBLE missed call, but it wasn't the only thing in a long sequence of events that determined the outcome of an entire game.