The team that EARNED IT ON THE FIELD should win the game, period. The best team has nothing to do with anything. This is like some perverse version of the College FB playoff where Alabama gets voted in even though they lost to an inferior team. Who won in overtime doesn't matter because there never should have been overtime if the game were called correctly. Whenever a team gets completely hosed by the refs, Colin Cowherd, the morons on Around the Horn, and others such as yourself often say, "Well yea, the call was completely incorrect and impacted the game, but they still had another chance to win anyway." or "Sure, they got jobbed, but their running game was terrible; that's really why they lost."

I think this line of thinking comes from poor high school coaches. My coach would always say, "don't complain about the refs, it's your fault for the game being close." Of course that is the right message for 14 year olds, but the logic is poor because it isn't fair to ask your team to be 20 points better than every opponent.

You do realize that a team could do everything perfect in the game, shoot 99% from the field with zero turnovers, and any moron could say, "well sure, but you missed that one shot, so that caused you to lose the game, not the poor officiating."

Yes, of course the Saints had chances to win. Yes, they got the ball in overtime. None of that matters. An incorrect call was made by the officials, (as agreed upon by the NFL). If that call had been made correctly, the Saints would have had a first down and either scored a TD or (according to Peter King/Bill Simmons estimation) left the Rams with no timeouts and approximately 30 seconds left. If the call were made correctly, their chances of winning were 97%.

You can't throw up extra artificial barriers. The team that earns it on the field should win the game.