USA TODAY International Edition
Raising red flag on calls by refs
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Fourteen penalties were called at Lambeau Field on Monday evening, which is one under the average that referee Clete Blakeman’s crew calls per game this season.
It certainly wasn’t an excessive amount.
But there’s no question officiating played a huge role in the Packers’ 23- 22 comefrom- behind victory over the Lions.
Specifically, two hands- tothe- face penalties committed by Lions defensive end Trey Flowers against left tackle David Bakhtiari made an enormous difference in the Packers improving to 5- 1 overall and 3- 0 in the NFC North.
Make no mistake, the Packers overcame a nine- point deficit because quarterback Aaron Rodgers hit the equivalent of a hole- in- one with a perfect lob shot into the arms of receiver Allen Lazard for a 35- yard touchdown and kicker Mason Crosby drilled a 23yard field goal with no time left.
But the first would have never happened if Flowers’ 11
yard sack of Rodgers on 3rd- and- 10 at the Detroit 45 wasn’t negated by Flowers’ first hands- to- the- face penalty.
And the second would have occurred with about a minute and a half left – enough time for the Lions to drive for a game- winning field goal – had Flowers’ penalty not negated a Rodgers incompletion on 3rd- and- 4 at the 16.
The Lions ( 2- 2- 1) took the high road on their way back to Detroit, blaming the loss on themselves instead of focusing on whether the two penalties deserved to be called.
But still, the Lions probably never thought two borderline hands- to- theface penalties in which Flowers had his hand more on Bakhtiari’s chest and shoulder pad then he did his face or neck would be called in the midst of a furious fourth quarter in which the two teams were slugging it out.
Even Bakhtiari wasn’t sure if those two penalties were any worse than what Flowers had done to him earlier in the game. He just wasn’t willing to say the Packers were lucky because he just as easily could have been called for holding a play earlier or a play later.
“You’re going to get calls for you, and you’re going to get calls against you,” Bakhtiari said. “Fortunately, those two calls went in our favor, and from my vantage point, I’m just looking up at the sky ( because of Flowers’ hand under his face).
“I mean, it can go both ways. That’s the way I’m going to look at it. That’s what I’m going to say.”
On Tuesday, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent told reporters the second hands- to- the- face penalty should not have been called, adding, “the foul wasn’t there.”
The Packers’ final two drives are a microcosm of what’s happening with officiating around the NFL this season. Good luck finding a game where the officiating doesn’t play a major part in the outcome.
This wasn’t quite the Cowboys- Jets game Sunday in which flags were thrown on six consecutive plays after the 2- minute warning, and it wasn’t one of the numerous games in which pass interference replay has resulted in coaches, players and fans alike blowing a gasket.
This was a game where the players were deciding it with sweat and determination and it ended up coming down to two critical penalties.
The same officials who didn’t call safety Will Redmond for pass interference on a play in which he seemed to grab receiver Marvin Jones’ arms on a deep pass down the sideline, decided that Flowers’ grab of Bakhtiari’s shoulder pads was hands to the face.
“This is a move I’ve been doing,” Flowers said. “A lot of people do it. Grab them right here ( by the collar). ( I’ve) seen a couple times snatch( ing) people right here. That’s a tool.
“If I slipped up right here, then I would say that was a flag. I never slipped. Kept it right here. He saw it as hands to the face. That’s what he called.”
Blakeman, whose umpire Jeff Rice threw both flags on Flowers, said the definition of hands to the face isn’t necessarily having your hands on the face mask. It’s getting your hands in a position where the contact causes the opposing player’s head to be pushed away.
“To be a foul, we basically need some forceful contact that’s prolonged to the head and neck area of the defender,” Blakeman told a pool reporter after the game. “So, in his mind, he had him pinned back. It was prolonged, and that’s what created the foul.”
Ask any offensive lineman and they’ll tell you hands to the face occurs dozens of times during the game. Bakhtiari said he complained to the officials because he was repeatedly “staring at the sky’ while going up against Flowers, one of the NFL’s highest- paid edge rushers.
It’s likely his complaining caused Hill to focus more on Flowers.
“Penalties are penalties,” right tackle Bryan Bulaga said. “Obviously, he called it once earlier, so normally, especially when we get called for holding, we’re normally on notice the rest of the game. They’re looking at us for that specific foul.
“Once you get called for something they continue to watch for that. If we had had held them, they would have called that, too. It’s part of the game. Sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t; today Dave happened to get two of them. Same with us. They could get us for holding and sometimes they don’t.”
The question as to whether officials are taking the game out of the hands of the players will remain as long as there are borderline calls made in clutch situations. Several players acknowledged that it’s a little bit surprising that a bigname player like Flowers would get hit with two penalties during the fourth quarter of a critical NFC North game.
But they mostly said they were just happy it wasn’t them who was called for it.
“It’s one of those calls you go through in football where it could probably be called five to 10 times a game,” guard Billy Turner said. “It just happens to be a chance where certain refs are looking for that, so I think it is a legit penalty. They very much could have been called against one of us during the game.”
The Packers and the Lions will have to wait more than two months for revenge. You would think that if the Packers are riding a wave of good luck, things will even out as the season goes on.
Deep inside they know they were fortunate to leave with their fifth victory, but they were not apologizing.
“Man, I don’t care what’s going on with these ( other) teams, we’re 5- 1,” outside linebacker Preston Smith said. “That’s the penalties they got. We didn’t lose, we’re 5- 1. ... But man, I don’t care about that call. It wasn’t against our team and it helped our team. I’m all for winning. Get the job done.”