Lions are latest victims of flag thrown in error
Another frustrating weekend of flag-filled football culminated with the Packers’ 23-22 last-second win over the Lions on Monday night thanks to two hands-to-the-face calls on Detroit DE Trey Flowers.
The first one came with about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter and Detroit ahead 22-13. The flag negated a sack of Aaron Rodgers that might have sealed Green Bay’s fifth straight loss to the Lions and instead led to Allen Lazard’s 35-yard TD catch that made it 22-20.
The second flag came on a third-down incompletion by Rodgers that would have prompted the Packers to kick a field goal with about 90 seconds left, plenty of time for Detroit to respond with its own field-goal drive. Instead, the Packers ran the clock down to 2 seconds before Mason Crosby kicked the game-winning 23-yarder as time expired.
NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent said the first call was correct, but the second call was not.
“There was one that was clear that we support, and there was another that when you look at and review the play, it’s not something you want to see called,” Vincent said Tuesday at the owners’ meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “The foul wasn’t there.”
Flowers, who had never been whistled for hands-to-the-face fouls in his five-year NFL career, said he was using the same move all game, putting his hands on left tackle David Bakhtiari’s chest, not his neck or face.
“I didn’t think hands to the chest was a penalty,” Flowers said.
Referee Clete Blakeman said each of the calls was made by umpire Jeff Rice.
“Basically, it’s for illegal use of the hands, hands-to-the-face foul,” Blakeman told a pool reporter. “To be a foul, we basically need some forceful contact that’s prolonged to the head and neck area of the defender.
“So, in his mind he had pinned him back, it was prolonged, and that’s what created the foul.”
“Monday Night Football” analyst Booger McFarland complained about the first call on Flowers and was even more critical of the second one, saying, “you basically end the game on what I call a bogus hands-to-the-face.”
Social media was abuzz over the frivolous flags.
“The referees are destroying the NFL game by game,” tweeted ex-NFL star Matt Forte. “It’s a shame because of how much work is put in and to have games literally won or loss by bad calls in crucial situations.”
BAILEY’S BULLHORN: Champ Bailey was honored at halftime in Denver for his Hall of Fame induction last summer and his induction into the Broncos’ Ring of Fame. After a ceremony Friday night in which his 8-foot bronze pillar was unveiled, Bailey spoke about the positive feedback he’s gotten for bringing up race relations in his Hall of Fame speech in Canton, Ohio.
“It feels good because any time you have a platform like that you want to use it the right way,” Bailey said. RAMSEY TO RAMS: The Los Angeles Rams acquired star cornerback Jalen Ramsey from the Jacksonville Jaguars on Tuesday night in exchange for two first-round picks and a fourth-rounder.
Jacksonville gets first-round picks from the Rams in 2020 and 2021, and a fourth-round pick in 2021.
Ramsey is one of the NFL’s elite defensive backs, earning two Pro Bowl selections in three seasons with Jaguars. The fifth overall pick in the 2016 draft has nine career interceptions, but his tumultuous tenure is Jacksonville is over one month after he requested a trade.
The Rams had a busy Tuesday. They also acquired offensive lineman Austin Corbett from Cleveland for a fifth-round 2021 draft pick and dealt cornerback Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens for linebacker Kenny Young and an undisclosed pick in the 2020 draft.
SAINTS: New Orleans defensive back P.J. Williams has been suspended two games for a violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
The league said in a statement Tuesday that Williams is suspended immediately and will be available to return to the Saints after the club’s Week 8 game against Arizona.