The Detroit Lions may have been “jobbed” in their wild-card matchup against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night.
It’s not often that a penalty flag is thrown, and then later picked up. Yet that’s exactly what happened.
The Lions had a 20-17 lead midway through the fourth quarter, and were looking to add to it. Stafford threw a pass intended for Brandon Pettigrew, whose arm was clearly held by Anthony Hitchens. It seemed like obvious pass interference, and penalty flag was thrown. The Lions had momentum and seemed poised to score another touchdown on that drive, with the penalty putting them deep into Cowboys’ territory.
But the flag was suddenly picked up by referee Pete Morelli with no explanation, in what looked to be an extremely crooked sequence of events. The Lions were then forced to punt, and the Cowboys scored the go-ahead touchdown on the next drive.
It sure looked like pass interference, didn’t it?
This might be a good time to mention that Dean Blandino, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, was spotted on Jerry Jones’ party bus back in August.