Week 2018: Rams, Saints and Umpires

It’s already a tradition: every year, taking advantage of the quietness of the offseason, we do a special week, remembering an NFL season. For this year, we decided to tell the story of the 2018 season, full of good characters and captivating stories. We saw the emergence of a star, a coach becoming established, the last dance of a famous duo and much more. Come with us on this delicious journey through time!

One moment. A bid. An NFL franchise’s season always hangs in the balance, but perhaps that has never been clearer than on January 20, 2019.

Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints had an epic clash in the NFC final, until a grotesque error of refereeing set the match.

air war

Before the start of the duel, the NFC Final promised to demonstrate the maximum potential of the conference that year. Saints and Rams finished in first and second place in the conference with identical campaigns (13-3), with the tiebreaker being New Orleans’ victory over Los Angeles in the regular season by 45-35.

At that moment, the Rams were living a magical year. Sean McVay asserted himself as a great coach, the stars of the team (Aaron Donald, Jared Goff and Todd Gurley) corresponded and they had gone through the biggest regular season game in history. In the week before the duel against New Orleans, a relatively quiet victory against the Dallas Cowboys excited the fans for the big decision that would come ahead.

The tide was also very favorable in Louisiana. Drew Brees had a great season, being second in the fight for the MVP and the offensive player of the year trophy, being unlucky that a Patrick Mahomes appeared in the league. Michael Thomas was on the rise, Alvin Kamara was flying and the defense was aggressive at every level. In the Conference Semifinals, a difficult game against the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that had been champions the previous year, but which showed a strong team after turning 14-0 and not conceding points after the first quarter.

How to Ruin a Game, Starring: Referees

The game was a real show. Studied and disputed until the end, with attacks and defenses appearing in the most important moments. When the Saints went 13-0 after a good defensive series and a poor start by Goff, McVay packed the house and the lead was reduced to three points at the end of the second quarter.

From then on, the tension would only increase and the score of 20-17 for New Orleans would remain until the final six minutes of the match, when the Saints’ defense stopped Gurley millimeters from the endzone and avoided the turnover, but not the tie.

And all that cool stuff got thrown in the trash.

With two minutes left in the game and in a difficult situation in the middle of the field, Brees throws a beautiful pass to Ted Ginn Jr. and puts his team in the final 15 yards of the field. The ideal for the team at that moment would be to shorten the distance and drain the time from the clock, but they did none of that in the first two descents and find themselves in a difficult situation in the 3&10.

Brees picked up Tommylee Lewis on third down, in great converting condition, when Nickell Robey-Coleman commits one of the worst fouls of league history and arbitration ignores.

Anyone in their right mind would call the pass interference and, with the yardage conceded, New Orleans would be in the mouth of the endzone with Los Angeles having a measly time and only 1:45 left on the clock. Fatally, they would consecrate the victory there. How would it be he was an interference, the arbitration could not initiate a review. Any morale of the game ended there.

Will Lutz would convert the field goal but, with more than enough time on the clock, the Rams would tie the game, sending it into overtime. In it, Brees is intercepted after defensive pressure and another kick would seal the victory for the visitors. At the end of the match, no one commented on the spectacle, but of the tragedy.

the league itself would assume the error later, but it didn’t change anything else. A team lost a great chance to play in the finals due to one of the worst refereeing errors in NFL history. An epic confrontation was spotted and there was talk of nothing else. This move even motivated the test of being able to challenge pass interference fouls; measure that proved to be a failure in practice.

Officiating errors are normal in any sport and will continue to happen – even in the NFL, where it can be revised. What happened that night went beyond. A stain on league history that will forever be remembered.

To know more:
Top-5 TE’s 2023: Kelce follows in the lead, but competition is strong for 2023
ProFootball+ Podcast: The NFL’s Most Underrated Offensive Players
Week 2018: The End of the Rodgers-McCarthy Marriage

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