NFL Admits That Referees Blew ANOTHER Significant Call Against Saints

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

In the Saints first game (that counts) since the infamous NFC Championship "No Call," the referees dropped the ball that cost New Orleans 15 seconds of game clock at the end of the first half against the Texans.

At the first half of the Monday Night showdown against Houston, it felt like déjà vu in the dome. After Drew hit Michael Thomas on 3rd and 17 he was (seemingly) tackled short of the first down. The Saints rushed down the field and managed to snap the ball with 28 seconds left and picked up the first down with a QB sneak—but the referees blew the play dead.

The officials wanted to review Thomas' catch and after a very long review, the refs determined that Thomas got the first down. In this situation, the Saints would be given the option to run off 10 seconds from the game clock or use a timeout to stop the clock from the moment Thomas hit the ground.

Instead, officials went with the clock position of 26 seconds remaining instead of the 42 seconds where it should have been. Fans were "not thrilled."

Basically, what this means is the Saints lost 15 seconds of clock time at a point where literally every second mattered. How much does 15 seconds matter you ask? The Saints ended up going on to miss a 56-yard field goal before halftime. Drew noted the significance of the miscall in his post-game presser.

Listen, that can't happen. That's a game-changer. We ended up having to kick a 58-yard field goal, or whatever it was. If we would have had 15 more seconds? Are you kidding me? We would've gotten closer.

You can look at it a few ways:

Imagine the Saints got Lutz closer for the field goal attempt? Imagine if they were able to score a touchdown. What if Lutz wasn't able to nail the game-winner at the end? Hindsight being 20/20, the Saints were able to escape with a thrilling win, but the truth is these officials have to understand that every second matters when it comes to getting it right.

I do think any misstep by officials in a Saints game (especially in the Dome) will be magnified to the umpteenth degree, but to think that in the FIRST game after the worst call in sports history the Saints got screwed by the officials again?

The NFL has come out to admit their error in the game last night via their official Twitter account

Let's hope they are on their game moving forward. In the meantime, relive the excitement here.