One thing I never like to do is totally blame the officiating after the outcome of a game.
I’m not going to do it here especially when the Lions’ defense Sunday afternoon was the biggest reason as to why they lost their 21st straight game in Green Bay.
But one thing you cannot overlook is how horrible yet again the NFL officiating was in the Detroit/Green Bay matchup.
Now bad officiating hasn’t been a problem for just the Lions, this has been a league wide issue for the past few seasons now. However with the way things have been going, it makes you wonder how much worse the NFL is going to let it get?
In Sunday’s Lions game there were three calls in particular that really stood out among the rest.
The first came when the officials called a fumble on Lions TE Tony Schefler. Head coach Jim Schwartz having really no choice challenged the call where replays clearly showed that Schefler was down and the call was overturned.
Minutes later the referees ruled a fumble on a Stefan Logan kickoff return that was recovered by Green Bay. Again having no choice Jim Schwartz challenged the call on the field. However unlike his last challenge, the cameras couldn’t pick up conclusive evidence to overturn the original call of a fumble recovery by Green Bay.
The bottom line though in both of those plays is Jim Schwartz shouldn’t have even had to throw the challenge flag out. It seemed pretty clear that both Schefler and Logan were both down before the ball came loose something the referees the should have initially caught.
Later in the game a Matthew Stafford touchdown pass to wide receiver Titus Young was wiped out after the refs determined Young didn’t get both feet in bounds. However replays clearly showed Young getting both feet in with an official standing right there observing the play. Out of challenges Jim Schwartz could do nothing but call time out in hopes that the booth would somehow review the play and overturn the call.
Now in all fairness football is a fast game and mistakes will happen. But in this case the blown call on the apparent Titus Young touchdown was strike three. NFL officials get paid a lot money to make the right call, especially in games like this and they failed.
But it’s not just the officials, the rule stating that all touchdown plays are automatically reviewed is an incomplete rule (no pun intended). What I mean by this is the rule should go both ways meaning that any close play in the end zone should be subject to review. And given the 45-41 outcome that wiped out Titus Young touchdown that missed call and lopsided rule could have been a deciding factor.
It’s once again up to the NFL to take a good long look at some of the rules and their officiating crews.
Ref: Detroit News, FOXSports.com, Los Angeles Times (image)