Detroit Lions suffer yet another (illegal) slap to the face
The Detroit Lions weren’t perfect at Lambeau on Monday Night. Even so, if not for multiple imperfect calls from the officials, they would have won anyway.
Just in case you needed conclusive video evidence that there’s no shred of justice in the universe. Just in case T.J. Hockenson dropping that easy touchdown pass to go up 17-0 hadn’t hurled you into the black pit of negative expectations already. Just in case the optimism of the first month of the season had convinced you otherwise, make no mistake: the Detroit Lions‘ curse is alive and well.
In general, I hate it when people blame the refs for one of their team’s disappointing losses. It’s whiny, weak, disempowering, unfixable, and usually an incorrect statement to begin with. With that said, what other conclusion is one supposed to make after witnessing whatever the heck that was on Monday Night Football?
Lions fans, local media, national media, even Packers fans, it seems everyone is in agreement that the refs won (syn. stole, gifted) Monday Night Football for the Packers. The players can’t tell it like it is without getting fined, but I can (at least, I think I can; we’ll see). The officiating crew had the performance equivalent of Mason Crosby at Ford Field last year, missing on four pretty easy ones, missing on another difficult one, and absolutely altering the end result of the game.
They say the crowd at Lambeau Field is like adding a 12th man. The Lions tried to add a 12th man to block a field goal attempt in the first half, instead handing Green Bay a touchdown from the resulting penalty. That was the right call, the Lions put eleven back on the field for the rest of the way, and in the second half, the refs’ performance essentially became a 13th man for the Packers.
By the final two seconds (the Packers never had the lead for the first 59 minutes 58 seconds), the Pack lined up for a kick that not even Mason Crosby could conceivably miss. No matter how many players the Lions put out there to try and block it, it wouldn’t have mattered. The officiating decisions of the second half made it clear that there was no way the Packers could lose.
Everyone seems to be in agreement about this. The league office will likely issue a statement sometime in the next day or so that acknowledges they got it wrong. Being in agreement and reading insincere issued statements aren’t going to add any tallies to the win column though.