Nobody in a striped shirt ever makes a tackle or gains a yard, throws a pass or a block, or wins or loses a football game. Usually there are as many bad plays as bad calls in a 60-minute game.
But after the Bears’ 20-13 loss Sunday to the Saints at the Superdome, three calls by the officials were being discussed as fervently in the Bears’ locker room as Deuce McAllister’s 116 rushing yards.
Each call eventually led to Saints points, and in a seven-point game, that made each call critical.
Here’s a closer look.
The call
Pass interference on Bears cornerback Charles Tillman on a deep pass intended for Jerome Pathon on the Saints’ first play of their second series in the first quarter.
The consequence: The call resulted in a 48-yard gain for the Saints to the Bears’ 32. The Saints scored five plays later on a 50-yard field goal by John Carney to take a 3-0 lead.
The critique: Tillman stayed with Pathon step for step, and they interlocked when the Bears rookie looked back for the ball and used his arm to find the receiver. It looked like good coverage, so good that it wasn’t obvious at first whom the call was on, Tillman or Pathon. But obviously the official disagreed.
“There might have been a little bit of contact, but you’ve got to let us play–it’s football,” said Tillman, who didn’t agree with either of his two pass-interference calls. “They were both bogus calls of what I saw of them on the Jumbotron.”
The call
The decision to put one second back on the clock at the end of the first half after New Orleans fullback Terrelle Smith apparently was stopped at the 3-yard line by Bears defenders R.W. McQuarters and Mike Green as time expired.
The consequence: Instead of heading in at halftime carrying momentum and tied, the Bears fell behind 6-3 and lost a little focus bemoaning a call they didn’t understand.
The critique: Afterward, Bears players blistered the officiating, and Brian Urlacher said “it [stunk],” an opinion that will earn the NFL’s highest-paid player a fine from the league. Head official Ed Hochuli explained afterward that it was the proper decision due to a little-known rule that says on a penalty within the final two minutes of the first half, the clock starts on a penalty on the snap of the ball. So, Hochuli said, the officials were merely correcting the scoreboard operator, who hastily allowed the time to run out.
Bears coach Dick Jauron protested the call on the field but had calmed down after the game. “You never want to be critical of the officials,” Jauron said. “They’re going to call their game.”
Asked how the call affected the Bears, Jauron replied: “Not that much. It’s a 6-3 game at halftime and we have 30 minutes left.”
The call
The decision with 13:34 left in the third quarter to wave off a flag for an illegal receiver downfield after Saints tight end Ernie Conwell’s 9-yard TD catch in the third quarter. Bears defensive players already were celebrating a big stop on the sidelines when the officials announced no penalty had occurred. More than a minute passed as the officials consulted with each other to reverse the call.
The consequence: The play came on third-and-7, so the Saints would have been forced to take a field goal instead of a touchdown. A big difference exists between 9-3 and 13-3, and instead getting a momentum boost from holding the Saints to three points after a turnover, the Bears’ defensive players headed to the sidelines shaking their heads.
The critique: Hochuli explained that one of his officials had looked at the wrong yard marker and mistakenly threw the flag. That didn’t do much to appease the Bears. “Ed Hochuli’s crew usually does a good job,” Urlacher said. “He must have had a different crew, because they didn’t do a good job.”
