NFL instant replay official addresses Tyler Shough fumble ruling - Saints Wire

It wouldn't be a New Orleans Saints game day without some criticism of the officials. This week, head referee Adrian Hill's crew missed several flagrant calls on the Las Vegas Raiders while penalizing the Saints defense to the tune of four free first down conversions (New Orleans received a single one themselves after having five in the first two weeks). But their most egregious decision came when quarterback Tyler Shough was struck as he wound up to throw a forward pass, resulting in a fumble recovered by the Raiders defense. It was a frustrating echo of something the Saints experienced just two weeks ago.

"With the ruling on the field of a fumble recovered by the defense, that is an automatic booth review which any automatic booth review is either confirmed with New York to confirm the ruling on the field, or we stop the game if we need to. On that play, we were able to confirm that the defenders' right hand hit the ball and the hand. The quarterback clearly lost control of the ball before his hand was coming forward. We were able to confirm the ruling on the field."

"All we are looking for is the hand coming forward with control to make it an incomplete pass. In the play that happened today, the hand was not coming forward with control of the ball."

That isn't a satisfactory explanation. Before, in Detroit, the line was that Goff intended to throw a forward pass even though he had been spun around with the ball flung far behind him -- taking points off the board for New Orleans. Now, the Saints have been burned by a different ruling in the same situation, helping result in a loss. You never want to be in a position where one bad call by the rules officials loses you the game. But it's still frustrating to see other teams benefit in different ways from the same scenario, with the Saints under fire both times.