The Lions’ season ended Sunday evening after a heartbreaking 24-20 loss at the hands of the Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card game from Jerry’s World in Arlington, Texas. The defeat extended the Lions’ losing streak in the NFL postseason as well as add to the team’s futility of having one playoff win during the past 57 years.
Today’s contest however will be talked about because of one single play the changed the entire dynamic of the game from there on out.
Late in the fourth quarter, Matthew Stafford tried to connect with Brandon Pettigrew on third down before Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens was called for interference on the play. Initially the interference call on Hitchens looked like an easy flag considering Hitchens made no effort to turn his head to make a play on the ball while also making contact with Pettigrew.
But the Lions’ relief of a new set of downs was quickly replaced with rage and confusion because in a weird decision that will fuel the fire for NFL conspiracy theorist the refs picked up the flag and reversed the call stating Hitchens made a clean play. After that the Lions tried to draw the Cowboys offsides on a fourth and one to no avail before Sam Martin shanked a punt setting up Tony Romo to connect with Terrance Williams with 2:32 remaining to give Dallas a 24-20 lead which they wouldn’t relinquish.
We also must not forget Dez Bryant failing to get flagged for coming onto the field without his helmet to bitch.
Aside from THAT though former NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira weighed in during the FOX broadcast saying he thought it was wrong for the crew to pick up the flag and that it was indeed pass interference.
There’s a couple of other issues though to keep in mind with this game other than the horrible call in the fourth quarter that helped change the dynamic of the game from there on out.
- I’m not one to side with conspiracy theorist in sports (although this picked up flag makes it a little more difficult) the Cowboys did have slightly more penalty yardage than the Lions (46-44).
- Detroit failing to score a touchdown after the first quarter while once again having to rely on field goals to put points on the board.
- Squandering a 14-0 lead.
- After the picked up flag, Caldwell NOT going for it on 4th and 1.
- Finally, after the picked up flag Sam Martin shanking that punt.
Either way the picked up flag is an action by the refs we’ll be talking about for a long time.
