The Saints were upset that they had a fumble recovery taken off the board in their Week 1 loss to the Lions and they weren’t any happier about the application of the rules in the fourth quarter of Week 3.
Quarterback Tyler Shough fumbled when he got hit by Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce while trying to deliver a pass and Maxx Crosby recovered the ball. In Week 1, officials overturned Lions quarterback Jared Goff’s fumble because they ruled Goff had started his throwing motion prior to being hit by Saints defensive end Chase Young and that made it a forward pass even though the ball went backward.
Shough’s fumble did not get overturned via the same rule. After Sunday’s game, Shough said he believed that it should have been.
“I thought I threw it. Me, personally, I thought my arm was going forward,” Shough said at his press conference. “I’m not exactly sure on the rule. It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ve got to get it out sooner regardless.”
NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth told pool reporter Luke Johnson of the New Orleans Times-Picayune why the ruling was different this time.
“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.”
The Saints disagreed with that interpretation, which gave them plenty to lament after the game. The Raiders turned the fumble into a go-ahead touchdown that helped them go from being down 11 points to winning the game 35-27.