Holding on a Field Goal Try

[Carl Childress]

This is my first post on the football side of The Forum.

Sunday, there was a strange (to me) call in the Saints/Falcons game:

With 6 seconds to play, Atlanta tries a field goal to win the game. The kick is wide.

But wait!

There's a penalty for holding. No big deal: Simply decline it and run off the 6 seconds.

But wait!

The official called holding on a defender!

Isn't that pretty strange?

I suppose the argument is that the Saint held a Falcon so he couldn't block a Saint trying to block the field goal.

Or something like that.

Coach of New Orleans said it was a "chickensh!t" call. He said that several times.

Is this truly an unusual call?