The Saints fell victim to yet another botched officiating call Monday against the Texans, though this time it wasn't nearly as costly as their last missed call against the Rams in the NFC championship game last season.
This time, officials took away 15 seconds from New Orleans near the end of the first half while the Texans had an 11-point lead. Saints quarterback Drew Brees passed to receiver Michael Thomas for a gain of 17 yards with 48 seconds left, but that was initially called as short of a first down.
Fun fact: Michael Thomas has never dropped anything in his life, not even a call @Cantguardmike pic.twitter.com/KioluBkJZa
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) September 10, 2019
The Saints then hurried to the line of scrimmage to run another play, snapping the ball with 28 seconds on the clock to get the first down. But officials blew a late whistle with 26 seconds remaining and reviewed the play.
After the review, refs ruled that Thomas did, in fact, pick up a first down. Officials gave the Saints the option to take a 10-second runoff or to use their final timeout to stop the clock. New Orleans opted to take the runoff, which ultimately resulted in Wil Lutz missing a 56-yard field goal.
“Listen, that can’t happen,” Brees told reporters (via nola.com). “That’s a game-changer, right? We end up having to kick a 58-yard field goal or whatever it was. … If we have 15 more seconds, are you kidding me? You know, we’re gonna get closer. That’s a game-changer. That can’t happen.”
The Saints still managed to win, 30-28, despite the error. Al Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, admitted the referee crew made a mistake.
“After our administrative duties, we should have reset the clock to 0:41 because that’s when we blew the play dead,” Riveron said. “At that time, we should have gone to Coach (Sean) Payton and asked him if he wanted to take a timeout in lieu of a 10-second runoff. Instead, of setting the clock to 41, we inadvertently set it to 26 and then had a 10-second runoff because he did not want to take a timeout.”
Monday's game was the Saints' first since officials notoriously missed a pass interference call on Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman in the fourth quarter of the NFC championship that cost New Orleans a trip to the Super Bowl.
“It wouldn’t be the first time they messed up a call,” linebacker Demario Davis said Monday. “It’s Week 1 for everybody.”