Missed Call Dooms Saints, Thrills Rams and Pains New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — The Saints’ locker room at the Superdome was consumed by silence. Players dressed quickly before departing. A mountain of shoulder pads formed at the center of the room, next to a couple of yellow duffel bags labeled “PLAYOFFS.” Defensive tackle David Onyemata pulled on black jeans with designer rips that revealed skinned knees.

When running back Mark Ingram was asked for his reaction to the moment that had freshly defined the N.F.C. championship on Sunday afternoon, he stared at the floor in front of him and shook his head. When he finally spoke, it came out a whisper.

“I can’t say any words,” he said.

The topic of the day, and one that will probably linger like a noxious cloud over football-crazed New Orleans for years, was a noncall that had helped the Los Angeles Rams secure their Super Bowl berth with a 26-23 overtime victory over the Saints. On a cold day outside, the crowd left the building bubbling with rage. Most of the players tried to exercise at least some restraint.

“Nothing you can do about it now,” wide receiver Tommylee Lewis said.

The play in question happened late in the fourth quarter of a tie game. On third-and-10 at the Rams’ 13, Saints quarterback Drew Brees lofted a pass toward Lewis, who had run a wheel route out of the backfield toward the right sideline. But well before the ball arrived, Lewis was clobbered by cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman, who had his back to Brees and to the airborne ball — and later acknowledged that, yes, he had probably committed a pass-interference penalty.

“I just know I got there before the ball got there, and I whacked his ass,” Robey-Coleman said.

The only problem: The official closest to the play did not penalize Robey-Coleman for pass interference. It came as a shock to just about everyone, including Robey-Coleman, who recalled hearing the official yell, “Incomplete!” Per league rules, judgment calls like pass interference are not subject to video review.

“I got up and I looked around, and no laundry,” Robey-Coleman said, referring to the absence of a yellow penalty flag.

Had the official thrown one, the Saints would have been awarded a first down, allowing them to run down the clock before attempting a winning field goal (or even scoring a touchdown). The Rams probably never would have gotten the ball back.

Instead, the Saints had to kick a field goal on fourth down that put them ahead by 23-20 with 1 minute 41 seconds to play in regulation. It turned out to be more than enough time for the Rams to march down the field and make a 48-yard field goal that sent the game to overtime. Los Angeles eventually won the game on a 57-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein.

In his postgame news conference, Saints Coach Sean Payton said he had spoken by phone immediately after the game with Alberto Riveron, the N.F.L.’s senior vice president for officiating, and the league office.

“The first thing Al said when I got on the phone: ‘We messed it up,’” Payton said, adding: “It was simple: They blew the call. It should never have not been a call. They said, ‘Not only was it interference, it was helmet to helmet.’ Two calls.”

It was the second straight season that a Saints playoff run ended in heartbreak. Last season, it was a divisional-round loss to the Minnesota Vikings on a 61-yard touchdown reception as time expired — a fluke play that seemed impossible to replicate in terms of soul-crushing consequences.

But then, there was Sunday afternoon.

“That’s tough to swallow,” Brees said. “I think there were plenty of times throughout the season where there’s calls that go against you, go for you, or they miss, or they didn’t. Obviously, in a situation like that where it seemed like everybody in the world saw it, it’s tough.”

Tough, too, because of the Saints’ realistic Super Bowl aspirations. They finished the regular season tied for the best record in the N.F.C., and the Rams were coming to their building, where the crowd tends to be inhospitable to opponents at best — and downright ruthless at worst. The noise was so bad for the Rams on Sunday that quarterback Jared Goff had to put tape over the ear holes of his helmet so he could hear the audio coming from his coach.

Payton, though, has had a contentious relationship with the league, and an errant call — which the N.F.L. admitted making — in such a crucial moment seems sure to add to an already robust sense of injustice in New Orleans.

Much of that agita stems from the so-called Bountygate scandal, in which the Saints coaching staff was found to have rewarded players who injured opponents. As a part of the fallout, Payton was barred by the league from coaching during the 2012 season, and some of the scars are still evident, all these years later.

On Sunday, defensive end Cameron Jordan suggested that the referees were biased against the Saints.

“We know for a long time that we don’t get calls that way,” Jordan said, adding: “As far as I’ve known, we haven’t had referees that go gung-ho for the Saints. We’ve got to put ourselves in the best position so we’re not able to be touched.

“Will it haunt that ref? Who cares. Will it haunt this team? This will be something that will be another defining moment for us.”

As for Robey-Coleman, the Rams cornerback who made the hit, he appeared to sense his place in football lore almost immediately.

“They’re going to show that forever,” he said, referring to the clip of the play. “They’re going to show that forever. New Orleans is going to hate me.”

He did not sound very sad about it.

Ben Shpigel contributed reporting.

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