100%. The defender had every intention on laying that receiver out. His arms were tucked in and he accelerated. It was actually a bonehead play from the defender which turned out to be the match winner. Not even close to a 50/50 call. 100% wrong no call.It's not the Rams fault that the call wasn't made and any team that gets to the AFC/NFC game is a worthy Superbowl contender.
The issue is simply that the call wasn't made regardless of who benefitted or didn't.
It was clear that the officials were letting things slide considering how pedantic they had been throughout the regular season, BUT just because you're told to be lenient doesn't mean you should lose the ability to think for yourself.
There was zero intention to defend the pass, I'm not even convinced he knew the ball was coming. It was flat out search and destroy on that play and it's embarrassing that a supposed competent official could not make that call regardless of directive.
This is the other reason i hate calls like that... it overshadows and distracts people from what actually happened in the game too
The Saints got the ball 4 times in the final qtr and OT. They put up 3 points. They got the ball first in OT, with a chance to overcome the bad call and win anyways, they had their chances, many of them... and threw an INT which ultimately ended the game
The call was ridiculously bad and will be spoken about a lot but this Saints offence choked badly down the stretch. Including on drives with very good field position. And it'll be forgotten and forgiven because of the blow call.
North Qld, seven tackles.I have not seen an NRL side blatantly robbed during a finals game.