Robbery in the Big Queasy

For the second time this playoff season we sat horrified watching another great game that was tarred by unbelievable officiating at the dramatic end. Just a couple weeks ago we witnessed the mugging of Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the final play of the game where a personal foul forced a game ending fumble that lifted the Cardinals to an OT victory over the Green Bay Packers.

The incompetent NFL officials, under Pete Morelli were not finished as they threw the Minnesota Vikings under the bus with three incredible calls in the OT period of the NFC Championship game in New Orleans Sunday night.

First of all, the Vikings suffered 5 turnovers during regulation that included 2 by their running back Arian Peterson and 1 by receiver Percy Harvin while quarterback Brett Favre threw 2 interceptions with the second being thrown in Saints' territory with seconds left in regulation costing them a potential game winning FG.
However, these turnovers kept the Saints close and only put the game into overtime. The turnovers themselves did not cost the Vikings the ball game.

The Saints won the OT coin toss and got the ball first. Now, the controversy begins. After moving the ball to mid field the Saints faced a 4th and 1. Knowing they haven't stopped the Vikings offense all game they elected to gamble on 4th down knowing if they failed the potent Vikings offense would have the ball in incredible field position. They elected to chance a running dive. The Saints running back appeared to have launched himself to a queaky close first down. The instant reply closeup showed that he lost control of the ball during his dive hitting the helmet of a Viking defender. While he quickly regained control while he was being pushed back the referees gave him the forward momentum even though he did not control the ball. The ball should have been placed at least a half yard back which meant the Vikings would have the ball first and ten. The next play witnessed by a record crowd in New Orleans and millions of viewers on national television was an overthrown pass to a Saints receiver defended by a Viking. One official signaled incomplete pass while another throws a flag for pass interference. The reply clearly showed no contact on the part of the Viking defender and the ball was clearly overthrown and uncatchable, by NFL rules, makes it an incomplete pass. After a 5 yard running loss by the Saints Reggie Bush the next play was a pass to a falling down Saint receiver. The ball clearly, even on reply, showed the ball was trapped by the receiver against his leg and actually hit the ground. Again, the referees comes to the Saints rescue by calling it complete thus setting up the game winning 40 yard FG.

I have seen games lost by horrible officiating in the past but usually it is just one bad call. In this OT epic Pete Morelli and his crew actually made it look like a conspiracy to send the Saints to the big game and Brett Favre and his Vikings packing.

I believe that NFL officiating crews should be fined and penalized for bad behavior like the players. Perhaps they will call an obvious infraction instead of guessing. In this case it cost a great team a shot at the Super Bowl and taking away a deserved triuph for the winner. While supporters of the Saints will say that 5 turnovers cost the Vikings the game, none of them was in overtime.