I was watching the end of the Monday Night Football game. Actually, it was Tuesday morning, here in Abu Dhabi, which is 11 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time.

I saw the final play, the controversial touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Golden Tate … which won the game for Seattle, 14-12.

And I was witness to The End of the World As We Know It hyperventilating that erupted after the final play, much of it seemingly aided and abetted by ESPN’s instantly judgmental and critical coverage.

Let’s keep a few things in mind.

Officials, umpires, refs have been blowing plays forever. And nearly all of those horrible calls were made by “real” officials.

Entire web pages, like this one and this one, are devoted to horrific calls made by sports arbiters. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Was the Seattle touchdown call a bad one? After seeing the replay, oh, 158 times, I would have to say yes. Yes, it was.

But let’s consider mitigating factors.

In real time, it was an extremely difficult call to make. Six guys jostling in the end zone, lots of bumping and pushing, and the Green Bay defender M.D. Jennings seems to come over the top of Golden Tate and, perhaps, is the first to touch the ball, followed very closely by Tate.

The players rotate away from the sideline, making it difficult to see what is going on, but a reasonable person could decide that it was a “simultaneous”, which goes to the offense.

Only after studying 100 replays do we see that 1) Jennings seemed to have both hands on the ball all the way to the ground and 2) Tate’s right arm appeared to come off the ball soon after he touched it.

In real time, though, the replacements refs were in a dilemma: Somebody needed to make a call. The official physically closest to the play made no signal, and the official coming off the sideline seemed to look at him, and we wait a beat, and he makes a call. Touchdown.

Stuff happens. Would the regular referees have gotten it right? Maybe. Maybe not.

In The National, we ran a long and fairly hysterical commentary by Jim Litke of AP, and I felt obliged to point out that officials have been screwing up at big moments since we began playing games with officials.

The one legitimate complaint about NFL replacement refs was this: They were having trouble controlling the game. Cheap shots, late hits were sneaking in there, and teams were bickering with each other, and pushing and woofing. That was up over last year. Absolutely.

But the replacements need more time to match the volume of mistakes made by the “professionals.”

Still, I want the regulars to come back, mostly because I am sick of hearing about the replacements. It is a lame topic, overblown and overheated.

If and when the regular refs come back, look for a honeymoon that lasts until the first controversial play. About 15 minutes of game time that is.

All officials, no matter how good, make mistakes. We will see that in the NFL sometime soon.