The New Orleans Saints have been here before… The way they looked coming into the season, it felt like the Saints could win a lot of games, including the road season opener at Ford Field. For a moment on Sunday, they certainly looked like it, but the NFL’s replay review failed them once again.

In 2018, the Los Angeles Rams won the NFL Championship Game 26-23 in overtime against the Saints because of the famous “NOLA No-Call.” The defeated team accepted the result, but due to the hoopla the controversy caused, the NFL made non-calls subject to replay review. Fast forward to now, everyone has embraced the concept of a booth umpire. But what unfolded in the NFC matchup left both sides scratching their heads. However, an explanation from Vice President of Replay, Mark Butterworth, should help clear up the confusion.

“If the defender contacts the passer prior to the passer starting his throwing motion, then it can be ruled as a backward pass. Because Goff already started his throwing motion and the defender contacted him, it is therefore a forward pass,” explained Butterworth in his pool report.

“The determining factor is does the passer begin his throwing motion prior to contact from the defender. The throwing motion starts as he begins to bring the ball up as part of his windup and then the defender’s contact made the pass go backwards,” Butterworth added when PFWA Pool Reporter Ben Raven asked about the determining factor.

The Detroit Lions narrowly defeated the New Orleans Saints 31-30 in overtime in their Week 1 matchup of the 2026 season. However, the game wasn’t without a controversial decision.

With 9:34 left in the second quarter, with the Lions leading 0-7 and facing a 2nd & 16, quarterback Jared Goff was about to throw the ball towards his TE Sam LaPorta. But before he could make that pass, Saints DE Chase Young sacked Goff, forcing the ball to pop out of his hands. The ball bounced towards the Saints’ end zone before safety Jonas Sanker recovered the ball and returned it for a New Orleans touchdown. Interestingly, FOX News made a blunder in their broadcast at the time and added six points from that TD to the Lions’ account, bringing the score to 0-16 before correcting it.

On paper, and for at least a minute, it gave the Saints their first (defensive) touchdown of the season to bring the game close with 6-7. The play, however, was sent to replay review before the score could stand.

After a long pause, where Goff was sitting on the sidelines contemplating what the call would be, you could see his eyes beam. The referee had announced it an incomplete pass to push the Lions for a 4th-down, erasing the Saints’ defensive touchdown. The controversial part was how the league classified Jared Goff’s release.

Even though the football traveled backward, replay showed that the quarterback had already started his throwing motion before Young made contact. FOX Sports rules analyst Mike Pereira echoed Butterworth’s comments as he gave his explanation live on the broadcast.

“[Goff] had started his throwing motion,” said Pereira. “Now, throwing motion is [considered] bringing the ball up. Forget about the hand at this point going forward. Throwing motion starts [with his] hand going up. Then he’s hit, ball comes loose. His intent was to throw it forward. Since that motion had already started, that’s going to be an incomplete pass, no matter where it lands.”

While the controversy was wrapped up quickly with these explanations, the confusion didn’t end any time soon for either team.

Jared Goff, the Lions, and the Saints all left confused by the call reversal

After Young sacked him, you could clearly see the disappointment in Goff’s face. He still sat on the bench, looking at the scoreboard showing their lead wiped out in seconds. But once the replay review ended, the cameras turned back to Goff.

What the Lions said of the overturned call

He wasn’t smiling, considering it was still a sack to his name, the QB was certainly relieved.

“I was trying to figure it out on the fly too,” Goff acknowledged after the game, before adding: “That was a great call.”

The ball going backwards after Young’s sack only added to the confusion because if Goff was in a forward motion, the ball should’ve gone that way as well. Even Detroit head coach Dan Campbell was wondering that:

“Look, I’ll take that one. I’ll be the first to say, man, I thought we lost that one,” Campbell said. “But, the arm was going forward. It had a forward motion. That was how they saw it. We got one. We’ll take that.”

The Lions were confused but still happy since that call went their way and ultimately contributed to their close win. But the Saints were irked by the decision.

New Orleans fell for replay review once again and were understandably unhappy

Young, who had catalyzed the entire commotion, said he’d “never seen anything like it.” He wasn’t alone.

“A little bit of a challenging circumstance, but I understand what the rules view it as,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said. “Once the arm is moving, it really doesn’t matter where the ball is going, there’s a protection there, so unfortunate outcome for us.”

“That’s tough when the ball goes backwards. I felt like even if your arms went forward, the ball went backwards it looked like, but I don’t know,” Saints quarterback Tyler Shough said. “I didn’t get to see the replay or anything like that. It’s obviously a huge momentum swing.

“But at the end of the day we don’t do enough on offense to go up there and finish it either. So just control what we can that way and that just kind of shows our defense playing our butts off the whole time.”

“Look, they reviewed it. I’m sure that’s how the rule is in the rulebook and it is what it is. It’s all right. To me, it looked a whole lot like a sack/fumble,” Saints linebacker Kaden Elliss said.

Initially, the call certainly cost the Saints, as the team trailed 21-0 until the final four minutes of the third quarter. However, Tyler Shough completed 35-of-56 passes for a career-high 410 yards, with three touchdowns and two interceptions, to give the team great momentum in the final quarter, overcoming the deficit and eventually tying the game with about one minute remaining. However, the Lions ultimately defeated the Saints 31-30 in overtime to take a 1-0 lead and start their 2026 season on a positive note.