More than 50 cameras blanketed the Superdome on Sunday afternoon, ensuring endless angles and replays of every highlight from the N.F.C. championship game between the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams.

At stake was a trip to next month’s Super Bowl, but when the officials needed a replay most, the N.F.L.’s complicated rules for what is and is not subject to video review prohibited them from watching one, even in the midst of a game that cost tens of millions of dollars to produce and is among the most watched events on television.

So, despite dizzying rules changes and stunning camera angles all aimed at getting the calls right, the decision came down to a simple fact: The most important guy was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time and nobody could do anything about it.

Those rules might change this off-season, though in the past the N.F.L. has shown little appetite for making penalties reviewable because they are considered judgment calls. This means that rulings of fact — such as whether a ball crossed the goal line, or a foot touched the sideline, or whether a pass is complete — are reviewable. Whether a player committed holding or pass interference is not.