Don’t get caught up in the individual circumstances. Just think of it as once a whistle is blown the play is over. If not then you would have people fighting over the ball after every play. In the Steelers game the incomplete pass could not be recovered by Denver because the once it hit the ground the ref blew it dead before the recovery. Thats why refs are taught that if they aren’t sure they should hold their whistle and let things play out so they can sort it out later. That was the mistake made in the Denver game.

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Thank you. I think that is what most of us fans want to hear.

We were the bottom feeders and laughing stock of the NFL for so long and still feel like we don’t get respect. Which, is probably why many of the fans complain about officiating. It just seems like we are on the short end of the stick most games.

Saints are a good team and deserved to win that game. No doubt about it.

watch the highlights.

at 2:48 shows all the saints (and some Lions) clearly standing around because the play was called dead.

at 2:52 when your guy picked up the ball – Robert Meachem (Saints fastest receiver) was only 2 yards from him. He was walking slowly back since the play had been whistled dead. He would have been running and even closer to your guy if there was no whistle. Lions still recover, but no TD.

Same highlight reel:

Go to 5:11 you can see that even after Brees pulled the ball back to his body that it was still forward of the down marker – he was pushed back by the pile.

As for the last 38 seconds…. Don’t know the exact rule. Some say that the play clock stops, but not the game clock since it ended on a run (knee down). Either way, the Saints could have punched in another score easily, but chose not to. The Lions didn’t even line up to hike the ball – the game was over.

The Lions played very well for three quarters in a tough place to play. It might have been a different outcome if the Lions were able to do something with the two recovered fumbles. When the Saints defense made the stops and takeaways, they kept scoring. That’s how you win in the playoffs.

Did you even watch the game? It was not the blowout the score indicates. It was much closer and if you watched the game you would know that.
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I watched the game. If you read the article the saints should have gotten the ball by the letter of the law, and we kneeled down at the goal line when it was 45-28. The game was every bit of a blowout. The lions could not stop the run and could not cover receivers streaking down the field wide open. Get real.

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I wasn’t debating that the Saints shouldn’t have had the ball….My point is that there are people on here that comment that don’t watch games (you know they do). The guy I quoted is implying that Schwartz was blaming the refs — which we both know is not true. He admitted it was bad defense (and so do I). I’m not trying to be a d!ck.

I never once thought we would actually win, but you can’t tell me that going into the fourth quarter you weren’t just a little nervous (just a smidge) that the Lions *might* actually pull off the upset. The middle to end fourth quarter was a blow out. I will give you that. I guess my definition of a blowout is different than yours.

I suggest that you look up the Ed Hochuli Rule which determined that “An inadvertent whistle which occurs during the course of a fumble does not prevent a player from recovering the football in the immediate aftermath of said whistle.”

So no, the Refs made the textbook CORRECT call during the Lions/Saints game and made the absolute INCORRECT call during the Broncos/Steelers game.

Did you even watch the game? It was not the blowout the score indicates. It was much closer and if you watched the game you would know that.
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I watched the game. If you read the article the saints should have gotten the ball by the letter of the law, and we kneeled down at the goal line when it was 45-28. The game was every bit of a blowout. The lions could not stop the run and could not cover receivers streaking down the field wide open. Get real.

Nevermind the fact that Suh also stripped him of the ball and recovered it.

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FORWARD PROGRESS FOR THE LAST TIME. Quit the crying and Suc(suh) didn’t recover. Check the replay. Haters will hate plain and simple.

Did you even watch the game? It was not the blowout the score indicates. It was much closer and if you watched the game you would know that.

But, I for one, say that the Saints would have still won. They came out and imposed their will on the lions in the second half.

Lions had two things going against them: they couldn’t tackle anyone (is this the worst tackling effort anyone has ever seen?) and they could not run the ball themselves. It was like run-n-shoot all over again. Brees basically had his way with them.

Lions better get a running game and a better D.

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Yes the Lions need to get better, they will. The other equally important call was the spot of the ball on a 3rd down play by the saints from their own 10. Meachem made the catch, and was CLEARLY short of the first down by at least 6 inches, the official gave a ridiculous spot giving the the first down by over a foot… If an official can’t be accurate and precise, they shouldn’t be an official. No challenge came from Schwartz, I don’t blame him, the refs changing the spot of the ball after replay is about as rare as hens teeth…
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Are you saying that the lions have never been beneficiaries of bad calls? It goes both ways.

I am not a Saints fan but they kicked the lions tail all over the place in the second half. As bad a the lions played on D and how one dimensional they were they got what was coming.

Stop making excuses.

one or two blatantly bad calls don’t change the game from this kind of blow out. however, there were a half dozen momentum killers called by the refs:

1. killing the play on the brees fumble before allowing the play to end. td? who knows? but at worst, better field position.

2. apply end zone rules to ball spot on fourth down when brees thrust the ball forward beyond the first down marker and then, while still suspended, pulled the ball back into his body, instinctively protecting it. at the end zone, the play ends when the ball breaks the plane. but midfield, the ball is spotted at the point that the ball carrier’s forward progress ends. had brees been tackled with the ball thrust forward, the spot would have been fine. by pulling it back into his body, the forward momentum gets redefined. when the play ended, the ball was short of the first down marker. the ball should have been detroit’s, getting the defense off the field, taking 60 yards off the saints’ total yardage along with seven points.

3. bad spot on the third down catch that was caught a foot shy of the marker.

4. holding call on backus vs zero holding calls on saints.

5. personal foul on wright for allowing his right arm fly up while trying to block the end zone pass and, while struggling to leverage the ball out of the receiver’s possession, using the receiver’s helmet – without intent – to recover balance.

6. pass interference on wright (i think) for the sort of touching that goes on all game long vs no pass interference on a cj pass where the defender was on his back before the ball arriived.

add it all together and the refs made sure the lions defense stayed on the field and extra five or ten minutes. that’s not to say the lions would have won. but the game might well have gone to the last play. and it’s unlikely brees would have recorded record yardage.

no question the saints are a better team with a highly skilled offensive unit that has been together long enough to intuit what everyone’s going to do. the lions need another two years to get there, assuming continuity of play makers and a return of injured running backs.

on defense, they need two more play makers and they need a fair shake from the refs. no t

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I don’t know if there are books in Detroit or not. What part of “bringing the ball back towards your body does not constitute a loss of forward progress” does your mind not comprehend?

I would pay good money to see any of the whiners here ref a single series in the NFL. Do you have any idea how much is going on at once during the live game? Personally, I’ve always been shocked the refs aren’t worse every wkend, but maybe that’s just because I don’t continously complain about things I don’t have any experience with….

But the Bottom Line is that if the players, coaches, owners, etc. aren’t complaining, their “fans” certainly shouldn’t be, and that goes for any sport.

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The coaches, owners and players do not complain about the refs, because they will get fined for publically critizing the officals.

Why does everyone assume it would have been a TD for the Lions? The Saints players didn’t attempt to recover the ball when the whistle blew. If the ref hadn’t blown the whistle, the Saints could have recovered the ball. So all in all, the Lions got lucky.

But this is all spilt milk. Lions are sitting at home. Saints are getting ready for 49ers.

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There was no way the Saints could have recovered the ball. The ball landed at the feet of 6 Lions and there was not a Saints player within 5 yards of the ball.

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Doesn’t mean he would’ve scored. It was definitely not a CB as someone mentioned it was a LB I think durant. He may not have even kept the ball. Think meachem at the redskins in 09

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My response was more to the comment of “If the ref hadn’t blown the whistle, the Saints could have recovered the ball” …. Which there is 0% of that happening. Albiet the Lions might have not scored, but there is no doubt the Lions would have had a lot better field position if the play was allowed to progress without the accidental whisle.

no team is going to win if incompetent officiating prevents the defense from sitting down every so often.

one or two blatantly bad calls don’t change the game from this kind of blow out. however, there were a half dozen momentum killers called by the refs:

1. killing the play on the brees fumble before allowing the play to end. td? who knows? but at worst, better field position.

2. apply end zone rules to ball spot on fourth down when brees thrust the ball forward beyond the first down marker and then, while still suspended, pulled the ball back into his body, instinctively protecting it. at the end zone, the play ends when the ball breaks the plane. but midfield, the ball is spotted at the point that the ball carrier’s forward progress ends. had brees been tackled with the ball thrust forward, the spot would have been fine. by pulling it back into his body, the forward momentum gets redefined. when the play ended, the ball was short of the first down marker. the ball should have been detroit’s, getting the defense off the field, taking 60 yards off the saints’ total yardage along with seven points.

3. bad spot on the third down catch that was caught a foot shy of the marker.

4. holding call on backus vs zero holding calls on saints.

5. personal foul on wright for allowing his right arm fly up while trying to block the end zone pass and, while struggling to leverage the ball out of the receiver’s possession, using the receiver’s helmet – without intent – to recover balance.

6. pass interference on wright (i think) for the sort of touching that goes on all game long vs no pass interference on a cj pass where the defender was on his back before the ball arriived.

add it all together and the refs made sure the lions defense stayed on the field and extra five or ten minutes. that’s not to say the lions would have won. but the game might well have gone to the last play. and it’s unlikely brees would have recorded record yardage.

no question the saints are a better team with a highly skilled offensive unit that has been together long enough to intuit what everyone’s going to do. the lions need another two years to get there, assuming continuity of play makers and a return of injured running backs.

on defense, they need two more play makers and they need a fair shake from the refs. no t

While they are at it, they should let an extra official make the call directly and stop having the on-field official go into the booth. They should both be looking for the same conclusive proof and it still slows the game down too much.

But the Bottom Line is that if the players, coaches, owners, etc. aren’t complaining, their “fans” certainly shouldn’t be, and that goes for any sport.

Obvious to everyone except Cryon fans and conspiracy theorists. Saints kicked their a– up and down the field. Coulda scored 50+ but took their foot off the pedal
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if the Saints get hosed by the refs sometime this postseason and that it costs them the game your tune will change.

1historian says: what part of ’45-28′ don’t you understand?
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Again, wait til it (hopefully) happens to the Saints. P.S.: Here’s to Aldon Smith decapitating Drew Brees.