The Saints had their NFL season cut short through Pass Interferences not once, but twice. Here's the history of How their playoff runs met an unfortunate end
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Players who have a rule because of them.
00:02On January 20th, 2019, the Rams and the Saints met in the Superdome for the NFC Championship.
00:07The game was close throughout, and with just under 2 minutes left to play, the Saints and
00:11the Rams were tied at 20 with a chance for the Super Bowl on the line.
00:14On 3rd and 10 at the Rams' 13-yard line, Drew Brees throws the ball on the right sideline
00:18attended for wide receiver Tommy Lee Lewis.
00:21Rams cornerback Nikkel Roby Coleman mistimes the ball and appears to run into Lewis at
00:26full speed before the ball got to him.
00:29Typically, that type of play would result in a pass interference call, however, no flag
00:33was thrown.
00:34And because pass interferences weren't reviewable, the refs couldn't look at the call.
00:38According to ESPN, if the Saints were given that first down, they would have had a 98%
00:43chance of winning the game.
00:44Instead, the Saints would be forced to kick the field goal to go up 3, the Rams would match
00:49that with 15 seconds left, and in overtime, Greg Zerline would hit a 57-yard field goal
00:53to send the Rams to the Super Bowl.
00:55The NOLA no-call would cause a lot of controversy in the ensuing weeks.
00:59Post-game, Roby Coleman admitted that he committed the PI on the play, even saying that it was
01:04a bad no-call.
01:06Two months later, the NFL owners would approve a one-year trial with the expanded replay rules.
01:10For the 2019 season, teams could challenge pass interference calls on both offense and
01:15defense.
01:16Unfortunately for the Saints, the next season would also come down to a pass interference
01:20call, this time in a tied game in overtime against the Vikings in the wild-guard round.
01:25On third and goal on the opening drive of OT, Kirk Cousins would find Kyle Rudolph in the
01:29end zone for a touchdown to win the game.
01:31However, the Saints alleged that Rudolph pushed off Saints quarterback PJ Williams, but no foul
01:37was called.
01:38The Saints would be able to challenge that call on the field, but because it wasn't called,
01:42there wasn't enough evidence to overturn it.
01:45For a second straight year, a no-PI call ended the Saints season.