Lions got robbed: Who were the NFL refs involved?

Bad plays occur in the NFL all the time – so do bad calls. Unfortunately, a team can’t always do anything about a bad call in a game except live with it, but in last night’s contest between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, it is fair to say the Lions got robbed of the win.

The penalties that never happened

The Lions went out during the offseason to get pass rush help, and they brought in some of the best in the game, including former Patriots star Trey Flowers.

Yesterday, Flowers was beside himself when it was the two penalties called against him that changed the game.

Flowers was called for two different “Illegal hands to the face” penalties late in the game and both occurred on third down.

The first call set up Lazard’s touchdown. The second allowed Green Bay to run the clock down to 2 seconds before Mason Crosby came out to kick a chip-shot game-winning field goal as time expired.

Now, in both calls, video replay clearly showed Trey Flowers’ hands on the shoulder – but never grabbing the face mask of any Packers offensive lineman.

You can see above why Flowers and the Lions feel like they had this game taken away from them.

Former player and current MNF commentator Booger McFarland even comments in the second video that this is the “second bad call against Trey Flowers” and the Lions.

After the game, Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree saying how bad the calls were against Detroit down the stretch.

Twitter reacts to penalties

It didn’t change the results, but after the calls against the Lions in the final period, many players, including former Packers star Clay Matthews came to Detroit’s defense.

Matthews went off about how bad the officials have been all year calling out one of the senior men in charge of officiating Al Riveron.

Former Buccaneer and Colts coach Tony Dungy said it could have been one of the worst officiated games all-time – and every bad call went against Detroit!

“The bogus personal foul and the non-call Pass Interference was six more points. Four wrong calls is hard to imagine,” Tony Dungy wrote.

Four wrong calls is being nice. Looking back, others like Barry Sanders and Desmond Howard counted 6 or 7.

Desmond may be on to something. Some bank accounts might need to be checked.

Who were the refs?

So just who were the guys making all these horrible calls on Monday night? Keep these names in mind Lions fans. This crew will be working on other games as well.

The referee last night was Clete Blakeman. He made a call or two raised eyebrows, however, it was umpire Jeff Rice who made both calls against Trey Flowers for illegal hands to the face.

Source: Read Full Article