I missed this one

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It’s been overlooked in the slew of criticism the officials have received for other blown calls, but a key penalty that was called on the Lions early in Monday night’s game was later not called on the Packers.

With the Lions leading 13-0 in the second quarter, the Packers faced fourth-and-5 and sent their field goal team on the field. The Lions, however, had 12 players on the field as the Packers lined up, and the officials immediately blew the whistle, giving the Packers five yards and a first down.

That was the right call: Under NFL rules, lining up with more than 11 players in the defensive formation is a penalty. The officials are supposed to shut down the play before the snap, and that’s what they did. It turned out to be incredibly costly for the Lions, as the Packers scored a touchdown two plays later.

But on the very next possession, the Packers committed the exact same penalty. Only it should have been even more obvious to the officials, because the Packers, in their confusion to make a defensive substitution while the Lions were in no-huddle, actually lined up 13 players on defense. Instead of shutting the play down and giving the Lions five yards, the officials allowed the Packers to call timeout to get the right personnel on the field.

That turned out to be incredibly costly for the Lions as well: Matthew Stafford was sacked after the Packers got the right personnel on the field following the timeout, and the Lions had to punt.

The officiating on Monday night was inexcusable, and most of the mistakes went against the Lions. When a lot of officiating mistakes go against you and you lose by one point, it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than that you got robbed.

Rodgers was trying to do this all night, I suppose it’s different when the Lions do it.

I know the game’s over and it’s time to move on. But I need a little while to get over this one, it don’t get easier with experience.

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I only wondered that why did they call it so soon for the Lions, but the Packers had all day before they called a timeout and gave them a break.

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Remember back when Jim Schwartz threw the red challenge flag and got penalized for it? The Packers did the same thing a few weeks later. McCarthy threw the flag, and Jordy Nelson ran over to pick it up and handed it back to the coach. No harm no foul.

Bringing it full circle for the Packers, we have actually gotten penalized for having 12 men on the field when we only had 11 before. It was mind blowing, and the announcers couldn’t find the 12th man. The Packers simply had the refs conditioned that if they say there’s 12 men out there, there’s 12 men out there. Later in the season the refs bought the same BS from the Packers…but this time they were playing the Patriots. Belichick made all of his guys stay on the field, and forced the refs to recount. It was 11 men and they picked the flag up.

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The thing that I do have to mention is that yes the Lions had their share of faults that contributed to this loss. Which is why the myriad of horrid calls bothers me so much.

The officiating took away the Lions ability to work past those mistakes. They were at critical times and stole the opportunity for the Lions to dig in and win or lose on their own.

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Wolf, I don’t believe that. The Lions should not have allowed Rodgers to run for that 1st down. The coverages should have been tighter, or they could’ve brought everybody on a blitz and forced Rodgers to throw it away. I think the Lions were too passive. Easy to say in hindsight of course.

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The last hands to the face ended the game.

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I think you are trying a little too hard to be a stand up guy on this one. Just looking towards the end of the game, the missed PI vs Jones stole a possession away from us. Then the bogus illegal hands to the face stole another one that ended the game.

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My answer to that is that the Lions should not have put themselves in that position in the 1st place. Kerryon just HAS to catch and hold onto that ball, it wasn’t the defender that pulled it out. The Lions could have and should have moved closer and scored again, either a TD or an FG.

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The DPI non call isn’t getting enough attention from the media. That was a killer too. Those three total plays cost us the game in my opinion. We were doing enough to win this game despite our mistakes.

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I totally understand the Lions responsiblity for their own play. The calls by the refs at crucial points in the game IMHO took away the ability of the Lions to overcome those early issues.

Sports is full of mistakes made by players and coaches throughout a game. Most times I can push past poor officiating…however this game was just atrocious.

Regardless of my position I still think we have a good team and it’s up to them to suck it up and push past/grow. Me…I have no impact on the next game, so I can piss and moan away.

Our Lions are now 2-2-1 and need to beat down the Vikings. That’s the only way I know as a fan on how to move forward…probably even more so for those guys in the locker room.

We do play those SOBs again @home week 17. They need a serious ass kicking…I hope it’s for the division and a playoff spot. Loser goes home.

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Agree 100%, except for one thing: the Lions are now 2-2-1 cuz they lost to KC and now GB. The Minny game at home takes on a lot of significance, they need to right the ship and start winning games. Hopefully they get Hand back at least.

We do play those SOBs again @home week 17. They need a serious ass kicking…I hope it’s for the division and a playoff spot. Loser goes home.

^My new goal in life ^

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That’s awesome!

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Don’t forget about the Delay of Game penalty called on the Lions offense in the Redzone too. Later in the game Green Bay was not called for the same thing. Booger commented on that also.

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It was definitely delay of game “by the book.” But I see alot of teams “get away” with a slight delay of game. The explanation they have given is that the guy in charge of the call is looking down at the clock, and he watches it hit complete zero (he doesn’t anticipate zero). Then after seeing zero, he looks up. If the play is starting, there’s not flag. The way the mechanics of the situation work out, as fans we see the clock hit zero but that’s okay so long as its snapped immediately after it hits zero. The play isn’t “dead” right at the split nano second it hits zero like in the NBA and its shot clock.

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No! The Lions would not have lost this game if not for the two facemask calls and the pass Interference the was not called on Green Bay in the 4th quarter. No team plays perfect! The Lions would have won if the refs hadn’t let one of our drives end that by the rules should have been extended, and hadn’t extended two Green Bay drives that SHOULD NOT have been! They shut down a Lions drive in which the we’re moving the ball, and gave Green Bay two scoring drives!
Say we had gotten a field goal. We win by two!
If they hadn’t extended the first Grean drive via bad face mask called we win by 6.
Stop helping the NFL justify this bullshit.
What, do you work for them or something?

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Yep, I see this all the time.

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The problem is that there is no consistency

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Don’t forget about the fumble that wasn’t a fumble. That was a drive-killer. If a Packer had jumped on that, they would have ruled it a fumble, but since it rolled out of bounds, it was incomplete pass.

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They should have a red light and a horn that goes off, so the ref can’t be a Packer fan. Take human error completely out of it.

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Cause and effect at it’s finest.

It’s incomprehensible that Flowers was flagged not once, but twice for the same NON-Penalty. Both at critical junctures…one gave GB more points, the other ended the game.

The league’s apologies mean nothing to me, because the integrity of the game means nothing to them…they’re lack of attention to real change (professional refs) is proof positive. Enough of they’re feeble disingenuous rhetorical blather. It’s time for action and I’m sure the owners will all have to approve…but they need to get moving on it.

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