Wild Card liveblog: Lions at Seahawks

23 thoughts on “Wild Card liveblog: Lions at Seahawks”

1. Was there offensive face mask on the TD?

2. Officials messed up the downs after the illegal shift penalty against Seattle was declined by Detroit and let a Seattle offensive receiver pull on a face mask hard of the defender and not not throw a flag. But will throw a flag for blocking in the back on Detroit when they were the punting team Explanation?

3. Why is Walt Anderson following Pete Carroll around?

4. I thought the block in the back by Detroit, even as the punting team, was an obvious and good call. Another missed face mask on a Zach Zenner run, though.

5. Andre Holmes pass from Russell Wilson??? Please fix.

6. Cameron Seattle had an illegal shift penalty declined also. Go back and look and you’ll also see the down was messed up.

7. Ben continues to excuse poor performance with made up conjecture. The ref’s blew the call because they didn’t do their job. Call it out, and move on, don’t make up fictitious excuses. You’re better than that.

8. Ben I understand your prejudice. But that facemask on the touchdown was not nearly as iffy as you portray it I believe if Mr. Blandino called down to the crew and then they told Coach Caldwell they punted the call that that would support my position. Now they miss the Russell Wilson block in the back down field. Tough night for the crew.

9. This crew is awful and embarrassing

10. Not fair Seattle gets 16 players n Detroit only 11. The fix is in.

11. Why is a white hat following pete Carroll around?

12. As NBC confirmed, Detroit is being hamstrung by the ref’s tonight. It’s not why they are losing, but it’s not a level field.

13. Life-long football fan – clean up the game – clean up the ref’s. with existing technology time to do away with some of the ref’s on the field?

14. THE OFFICIATING THIS YEAR WAS THE WORST EVER. 60 YEARS OF WATCHING THE LIONS AND NOW THE BS FROM THE WWF NFL TIME TO FIND ANOTHER FALL HOBBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15. Please. Momentum is real. NFL needs to replace poor refs at half time and minimize the number of people that believe favorite teams advance (PS. The Lion’s are not an NFL favorite as made obvious in many games this season and also tonight). Lion’s fans know there team is not dominant, but it is sad and a bit funny how the league refs have 1-sided glasses against them. Go Black and White! Please tell me who you pick to win the Superbowl so I can make some money too!!)

16. 3 missed calls that need explanation from Bladino: 1) No facemask call on Seahawks 1st TD; no block in the back call on QB
    Russel downfield; No DPI call on “uncatchable” ball that lands 3 yards ahead of a receiver who was held.

17. Don’t forget the 1st illegal block in the back was by the kicking team who just pushed the blocker away and the blocker fell (happens all the time). Also, don’t forget the BS roughing the passer for hitting Russell Wilson on his shoulder pads while he still held the ball. In addition, they didn’t call Seattle for a personal foul after dropping Matthew Stafford flat on his back AFTER THE WHISTLE! Compare that to the legal tackle of Ezekial Elliott before the whistle.

    Now add the OPI against Eric Ebron that cost the game against the Titans, the 67 yd PI that shouldn’t have been called and all the GB OL holds that weren’t called that cost them the game against the Packers, the BS hands to the face against Chicago, the dropped pass for a completion and blow to Stafford’s head that wasn’t called against the Giants, the facemasking that should have been called against Dez Bryant, the OPI in the endzone that wasn’t called and the BS personal foul for tackling Elliott that cost them the game against the Cowboys, and the illegal motion penalty not called against Aaron Rodgers and the numerous GB holds that were not called that cost the game against GB, and you wonder why Detroit Lion fans would think they are being cheated? What the Hell.

    All these obvious and blatant officiating “mistakes” change the momentum and they way the players play the game. It has to affect the way the Detroit Lion players play when they have to make up for all the official’s mistakes.

    I for one am sick and tired of seeing the same crap game after game, season after season, decade after decade. I think the NFL has lost many loyal fans that have now realized that outcomes are scripted and will never come back. I, for one, am running out of “wait till next year”.

18. I think the real confusion regarding the personal fouls and unsportsmanlike fouls is that nobody can tell the difference. When a player tries to start a fight with someone on the sideline who’s not even in the game, why isn’t it a personal foul? If the player did that to an official, would that be tolerated in the same manner? The personal foul decisions are so arbitrary, no one can make heads and tails of them. And the NFL tries so hard to avoid ejecting players, the product, at times, can be as out of control and ridiculous as World Wrestling Entertainment. I agree that certain penalties should not fall under the disqualification rule: some unnecessary roughness calls are just guys playing hard and making a physical mistake. Excessive celebrations are harmless. But I disagree with the NFL that it’s okay to try to fight someone after a play is over, and I think it makes a mockery of the game.

19. “Russel downfield; No DPI call on “uncatchable” ball that lands 3 yards ahead of a receiver who was held.” – Definitely a bad call. It would have been a great catch, but when the defense doesn’t even give the receiver a chance to make a great catch, it’s DPI.

20. This year shows how easy it is for a ref to throw a game. Not by the calls they do make but by the ones they don’t make. And there is no recourse for an un-American call.

21. No matter what team – I hate it when refs determine the game. They showed either total incompetency in which case they should be fired OR that Paul Allen can move money around where nobody can see it into the hands of Roger Goodell and the refs. It has to be one of the two things

22. I’m a Lions fan and think they got hosed on a couple of missed calls, but it’s clear to me the outcome of this game was NOT determined by the officials.

    The Lions aren’t in the same league as the Seahawks (“….yet,” he says hopefully…)., and the refs didn’t give up huge runs or drop passes.

    That doesn’t excuse the mistakes, but it’s not fair to say that the refs determined the outcome. Fortunately for Brad Allen & Co. the final score wasn’t 27-26…that could have led to interesting questions.

23. If the NFL wants to understand why television ratings for games was down 8% this year look no further than the first four playoff games. You might expect one game to be lousy, maybe even two, but all four? And how is it possible to predict a game that should be as close as the Seattle vs Detroit match up should have been? Before the game started my football watching and wagering friends were saying that there was no way the NFL would let Seattle lose to Detroit, and they were right. Their reasoning? Seattle was the last west coast team still in the playoffs and for TV ratings they would ensure Seattle moved on to the next round. And besides, the NFL officials have a long history of shafting the Lions in the playoffs. Obviously the football wagering public was in on this “fix” as the line kept moving up and up until at game time the Lions were getting 9 points. Are the Seahawks 9 points better than the Lions? I’ve watched a lot of games involving the Lions and the Seahawks this year and I just can’t see the Lions being 9 point dogs to the Seahawks. Their records were very close, both teams are average to OK by NFL standards (which is now good enough to make the playoffs), but not at the same level of the Patriots or the Cowboys. Neither team had any major injuries except Staffords finger which he has been playing through. Yet the odds makers were right – Seattle easily covered the 9 points. Thanks in no small measure to the officials clearly favoring the Seahawks. Still, as poorly as Detroit played, one has to wonder, if the game was played on a true “level playing field”, would the Lions have been more competitive and the score much closer? It’s a fair question – Does the officiating make the Lions worse (and the Seahawks better)? It’s also a question that has to be asked in far too many NFL games (especially playoff games), year after year. And it is a question that should not have to be asked at all. The officiating should not play a role, or at least not a major role, in the outcome of an NFL game. Yet year after year, game after game, the officiating does impact the outcome. And the NFL does nothing to change this reality. One then has to ask the question – “why doesn’t the NFL do something to improve the officiating”? And the answer to that question has to be either 1. – they can’t, 2. – they don’t think they have a problem (the NFL lives in its own corporate bubble), 3. – they don’t want to fix it (they don’t care so long as the $$$ keeps rolling in and people keep watching), or 4. – it (the poor officiating) is purposeful.

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