The no call: A deep rewind

The no call, a little more than a year later...

Heston Curry   4/14/20

Back in 2019, at the Marcedes-Benz superdome, we saw one of the worst no calls personally I have ever seen.  A uncalled pass interference call that would have given the Saints the ball at the 5 yard line, a new set of downs and with the Rams only having one timeout left, the Saints would have been able to run out the clock before scoring and leaving the Rams possibly only enough time for maybe a hail mary.  Even to this day I am pretty sure we all wonder to this day, what if the refs did call pass interference?  Well here is a full timeline from the NFC title game to the super bowl based on my opinion and possible prediction starting from that call to how I think it would have affected the super bowl.

We will at first start with the penalty, the Rams are charged with the penalty and the Saints move up 10 yards because of the penalty getting the ball at the 3 yard line with more than a minute to kill, Saints would try and run on first down forcing the Rams to use their first time out with still 1:35 left to go in the game.  On second down the Saints will try and run again and kill more clock and use a timeout when the play clock time runs out.  3rd down, another run, but this time to center the football for the kicker.  Runner will not focus on running to the endzone and instead focus on getting the ball as centered as possible, Sean Peyton will wait till there is 15 seconds left in the game to call a timeout and bring in the field goal unit while the ball is centered at the 3 yard line.  Wil Lutz has never missed a field goal from 29 yards or less based on pro football reference.  Now, I cannot predict moments like this but I am 95% sure Wil Lutz makes this kick, but even though it is almost guarantee he makes it, you need to realize this is the NFL playoffs, anything can happen but my outcome is he makes it and pushes the score to 23-20 with 10 seconds left in the game.  Saints would either do a squib kick or pooch kick to burn clock, after a 19 yard return, there is 6 seconds left in the game, saints play a deep zone defense mostly to prevent a big play.  Jared Goff lets the ball go with 0 seconds on the clock but the ball is batted away and the saints win 23-20 and advance to the super bowl and set up a super bowl battle between the 2 greatest quarterbacks in NFL history Between Drew Brees and Tom Brady.

Now we all know the result of this super bowl was a very anti climatic and boring game.  However, I think this matchup between the Saints and the Patriots would be a once in a lifetime duel between the 2 greatest quarterbacks of all time.  I think It would be a much better game to watch.  In my prediction however, the Patriots win.  And the final score I predict is 27-24 in this specific matchup, with Tom Brady leading a game winning drive in the final 2 minutes and capping it with a touchdown with no time left in the game.

Please note that we really will never know what would of or what should have happened if this penalty was called, because the blind referees couldn't make what should have been the easiest call of their lives.  The game would have probably gotten more viewership and would have been much more entertaining if this singular call was called properly by the NFL referees.  Even to this day as I am sitting in quarantine I still wonder, what if the referees, called the no call.  I guess we will never know...