I’m one that believes the league is not on the level, but in this case I don’t think it was a scripted no call.
Here’s the conclusion I’ve come to:
I do think that that late in the game the crew was be more frugal with the flag as to not have the game decided by them. That hesitancy to throw a flag started a an unfortunate chain of events. The side judge should have thrown the flag immediately but hesitated, and Sean Payton comes flying up the sidelines. Another ref runs toward the side judge and Payton signaling Payton to stop. The side judge thinks the more senior ref is motioning for him not to pull the flag as he started to. The senior ref continues to try and corral Payton and the flag never gets thrown. By that time the crew was pot-committed to the ineptitude of Boeing the call.
I’m not excusing the clowns, as there should have been several flags raining down on such blatant infractions (pass interference and unnecessary roughness). But in an effort to be too cautious, a perfect storm of suck ensued. And of course, no method to correct such a blatant screw up after the fact.