Whicker: Avoiding officiating debacles shouldn’t be this challenging for the NFL

The Rams stayed at a hotel on Lake Pontchartrain, adjacent to the entrance to a causeway.

On Sunday morning, a flashing sign warned, “High Wind Advisory.”

On Sunday night, the same sign lamented, “We Were Robbed.”

Make no mistake. This was a Category 4 blown call, a full 10 on the Denkinger scale. There’s little question the Rams played better than New Orleans in the NFC Championship Game. But  when side judge Gary Cavaletto kept his handkerchief sheathed at the sight of Nickell Robey-Coleman head-butting Tommylee Lewis prior to the arrival of Drew Brees’ pass, and no other official came to the rescue, there was little questioning the outrage.

Maybe the Saints, given a first down on the Rams’ 7-yard-line, would have run into some difficulty executing three kneel-downs, and maybe Will Lutz would have missed a 28-yard-or-so field goal to win it, with too little time on the clock for recourse. We’ve seen weirder things as playoff games wind down, and so has Malcolm Butler.

But it wasn’t just the human beings in stripes. We have an expensive and time-consuming replay system in the NFL that would be fine if it got things right. Why that is so difficult, and why it’s more important to get some things right than others, is the question.

The coaches, specifically Bill Belichick, who want the privilege of challenging all calls are absolutely right. If it means giving them one more challenge, we can accommodate that. Or the league, with its massive technology and its bottomless vault, can proactively take another look at calls like this, and also the face-mask pull on Jared Goff that was not whistled in the first half.

The command center has the power to spot a tipsy player and order him into the concussion protocol. It should also have the power to let the officials take another crack at how many penalties they could have given Robey-Coleman, who was as incredulous as anyone else when no flag flew.

And it’s not just this call. Last year in the AFC Championship Game, Jacksonville’s Myles Jack stripped New England’s Dion Lewis and extracted the ball. He was not touched by anyone. He rolled over and began sprinting downfield for what would have been a 27-10 lead in the fourth quarter. Instead, he was whistled down, on a play that actually was reviewable, and New England won.

In 1977 Denver played host to Oakland in the AFC Championship. The Broncos led, 7-3, when Rob Lytle fumbled on the Raiders’ one-yard-line and Oakland’s Mike McCoy picked up. The officials said Lytle hadn’t fumbled, even though every look at the play confirmed that he had. Denver went in to lead 14-3 and won 20-17. Out of that play and several others, the review system was born.

If the cameras can ascertain that a punt didn’t touch New England’s Julian Edelman even though it appeared to crawl up his arm like a favorite cat, it can explain penalties like defensive pass interference, which possibly carries the most significant and insurmountable punishment in any sport.

Again, this doesn’t sully what the Rams did. Nor should it discourage the officials from the benign neglect they usually show in the playoffs. The Saints were not penalized at all in the first half.

The Rams are playing with a champion’s assurance. You can understand their belief system now that they’ve won 26 games since Sean McVay was hired two years ago, but they also had it last year, before it was earned.

New England’s probable strategy is for Tom Brady to play pepper with Edelman and then see how the Rams adjust. Given a pocket, Brady can do business against the Rams’ deep defense, and one can expect the Patriots to find running lanes against the Rams, a ploy that Saints’ coach and play-caller Sean Payton barely tried.

Coordinator Wade Phillips has repeatedly said the Rams’ defense is better than its statistics. They have given up 45 points in two playoff games, plus an overtime.

The Saints gained 4.78 yards on first downs Sunday and Brees was 7-for-14. Eleven times, they faced a second-and-10 or worse. They lost eight yards on their last four first-down plays, including Aaron Donald’s tackle of Mark Ingram six yards behind the scrimmage line. On second-and-16, Brees’ arm was impinged by Donte Fowler, and John Johnson II cradled the interception.

The Super Bowl will be graced by the teams with the fewest holes. That is how it should be. The third team on that Atlanta field will have the most to prove.

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