Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
By Ross Jackson
During the fourth quarter of the New Orleans Saints’ victory over the New York Giants, fans across the NFL bore witness to one of the league’s latest officiating blunders.
A weekly occurrence around the league is questionable calls but this one, a first down sack on what was New York’s final drive by Saints defensive end Carl Granderson, is one of the worst examples of roughing the passer seen in today’s game.
NFL refs have a very difficult job. I get it. But calling this roughing the passer in the Giants-Saints game is why football fans are so fed up with the league’s officiating.
Simply pathetic and inexplicable. pic.twitter.com/48aSIPEfQA
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) October 5, 2025
The call was openly criticized by many, including some of the most prominent names in sports media, fans and former players.
Current players and coaches have to be careful when commenting on the league’s officials, as they could end up fined for their comments if found to be disparaging (a red flag if there ever was one). But Saints head coach Kellen Moore had a composed and reasonable response in sharing his disappointment with not just the call, but the lack of clarity around it.
“I saw a sack,” Moore said after the game. “It’s disappointing just because you’re trying to educate your players and when you don’t feel like, as a coach, you have an answer to help educate your players on how to play the game, that’s frustrating.”
On the play, Granderson did not initiate high or low contact, nor did the defensive end land with any of his body weight on Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart. Granderson has 4.5 sacks already on the season, and the sack would have tied his total from 2024 through just the first five games of this year. Instead, the play turned into a 15-yard infraction without any of the hallmarks of a typical roughing the passer penalty.
Because of this, Moore hopes the league will provide some insight as to why the play resulted in a flag so that he and other coaches around the league can make the necessary adjustments. From Moore’s perspective, and seemingly everyone but Sunday’s officiating team, Granderson did everything right.
“It’s a frustrating play when you do so much good,” Moore said. “That’s a frustrating one as a coach. You feel like you’re helpless in that situation.”
As to whether or not the NFL will provide guidance or feedback to follow up the call, the answer is unclear. But what is clear is that Moore and the Saints would like to make any changes necessary to keep that situation from repeating in future games.
“Sometimes you can get an educational point out of it, sometimes you don’t,” said Moore. “We’ll see if our league provides something for really our whole league to figure that out.”
Unfortunately for Moore, while the league often puts the onus on players to maintain the sanctity and quality of their product, they rarely look back at their officials to uphold the same standards.
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