NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore held his arms out with his palms up early in the fourth quarter, then waved one arm toward the officials dismissively.<\/p>\n
A play on which quarterback Tyler Shough\u2019s arm was hit as he tried to throw \u2014 ruled a fumble on the field \u2014 had been upheld on replay review early in the fourth quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders. To the Saints, the play was eerily similar to one against Detroit two weeks ago, when Saints defensive end Chase Young hit the Lions’ Jared Goff, who lost the ball for what was initially ruled a fumble return for a touchdown. After a review, that call was changed to an incomplete pass.<\/p>\n
Similar play. Different calls. Both went against the Saints.<\/p>\n
Shough\u2019s fumble was the first of four turnovers the Raiders forced on the Saints\u2019 final four possessions as they overcame a 27-16 second-half deficit to win 35-27 on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I threw it,\u201d Shough said. \u201cMe, personally, I thought my arm was going forward. I\u2019m not exactly sure on the rule. It doesn\u2019t really matter. I\u2019ve got to get it out sooner regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n
The explanation of the ruling that hurt the Saints in an overtime loss in Detroit was that even though the ball went backward when Young hit Goff, it was not a lateral because Goff\u2019s intent was to throw forward. Shough did not get the same latitude when defensive end Malcolm Koonce forced the ball out and Maxx Crosby recovered at the Raiders 45.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we are looking for is the hand coming forward with control to make it an incomplete pass,\u201d Mark Butterworth, the NFL’s vice president of instant replay, said after the game. \u201cIn the play that happened today, the hand was not coming forward with control of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the review, several Saints players gestured as if they expected the call to be reversed. A chorus of boos accompanied the decision to uphold it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard to get much communication\u201d from the officials, Moore said. \u201cThere\u2019s frustration, obviously. I\u2019ve got to keep my composure.\u201d<\/p>\n
First-year Las Vegas coach Klint Kubiak said he never was worried the call would be overturned. Koonce agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I hit him, I saw the ball come up,\u201d he said. \u201cI just assumed it was a strip-sack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six plays later, Las Vegas took the lead on Kirk Cousins’ touchdown pass to tight end Cody White. Cornerback Hezekiah Masses intercepted Shough on the Saints\u2019 next series, setting up a 4-yard touchdown pass from Cousins to Brock Bowers.<\/p>\n
The Saints final two possessions also ended with lost fumbles.<\/p>\n
Crosby stripped Shough on fourth down from the Raiders 20 and linebacker Nakobe Dean stripped tight end Juwan Johnson on the Saints\u2019 final possession, allowing Cousins to run out the clock.<\/p>\n
The Raiders cited the fourth-quarter takeaways as the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew the defense was going to have to show up the whole second half,\u201d Koonce said. \u201cWe just got a little bit of momentum and started balling.\u201d<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore held his arms out with his palms up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1012651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[797,6870,23067,7,76011,1029,6839,7166,294,8357,6562,132439,6563,477,896,55,2572,2571,6,27878,27876,120436,122515,397,132438,283],"class_list":["post-1012650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-saints","tag-brock-bowers","tag-chase-young","tag-cody-white","tag-football","tag-hezekiah-masses","tag-jared-goff","tag-juwan-johnson","tag-kellen-moore","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-klint-kubiak","tag-malcolm-koonce","tag-mark-butterworth","tag-maxx-crosby","tag-nakobe-dean","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanssaints","tag-nfl","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40789-ap-louisiana-sports-only","tag-product-40798-ap-nevada-sports-only","tag-saints","tag-saints-shough-officials-fumble","tag-tyler-shough"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}