Cowboys 24, Lions 20
Obviously everyone is talking about the Anthony Hitchens-Brandon Pettigrew play so I will give my two cents.
Midway through the fourth quarter, with Detroit facing a 3rd-and-1 at the Dallas 46, Pettigrew, a tight end for the Lions, ran a route and Hitchens, a Dallas linebacker, was defending him. Stafford threw the ball short and Pettigrew and Hitchens made some contact as the ball arrived.
I have watched the play a number of times and here is my honest assessment.
I try to watch games with objectivity in mind when it comes to the refs. I think people I watch games with will say as much about me. I will say if I think my favorite team is getting hosed and I will say if my favorite team is getting favorable calls. And I will say if I think officiating is equal.
I can totally see why defensive pass interference was not called. But I can also see why Lions' fans are angry.
First, why I mostly agree with the call. A lot happened on that play. Hitchens did grab a hold of Pettigrew's jersey before Matt Stafford threw the ball. And then Pettigrew grabbed Hitchens facemask. From the right angle, you can see Hitchens' head get jerked a little bit and the helmet even shields his eyes. So for people saying that the facemask was not grabbed, I disagree. Those two fouls would have offset each other and 3rd-and-1 would have been replayed. I think you could argue that pass interference could have been called because Hitchens does put his hand on Pettigrew's shoulder, but I don't think the contact was that blatant or rough and I think you could also argue the fact that Pettigrew grabbed Hitchens' facemask restricted Hitchens' vision and he could not even see what was happening. I have seen that kind of contact go unflagged in many football games. So, I agree that there was no pass interference or that you could at least make that judgement. What I think would have been better penalties weren't called -- defensive holding and a facemask on Pettigrew.
The problem to me and I think a lot of other people isn't the fact that pass interference wasn't ultimately called. It's that the mechanics of the play were so sloppy. Normally if a flag is picked up, officials conference before the play and then the announcement is made, with the ref waving the flag above his head and saying, "There is no foul for fill-in-the-blank on the play." In this case, the ref made the call and then a conference was held. He did announce that there was no penalty on the play, but the way the refs went about it was really embarrassing.
The best refs officiate the playoff games. The NFL has "all-star" crews, if you will, that ref the games. Entire crews from the regular season are not used. Certain refs are selected off those crews from the regular season to make up the playoff crews. I think this lack of continuity can be a problem for playoff crews. The refs aren't used to working with each other and there can be communication problems in addition to other issues. I think this method of determining playoff crews is going to get a looked at, especially after a controversial call was made worse by the apparent sloppiness of the officials.
Also, Cowboys wideout Dez Bryant ran on to the field without his helmet on to argue the call before the flag was picked up. People are angry and think unsportsmanlike conduct should have called on him. However, the NFL VP of officiating, Dean Blandino, said Monday that was not a foul in and of itself because the rule saying that players aren't allowed to remove their helmets applies to players on the field. Bryant was on the sideline. Therefore, refs had discretion as whether to flag Bryant based on if he was disruptive enough, I suppose like you would for a technical foul on the coach in basketball game. I have heard some characterizations of Bryant that were unfair -- getting in the face of officials, berating them and so forth. That didn't happen. Bryant ran on to the field but he did not run to an official. You can see in the video that Bryant stopped and is pleading the Cowboys' case and then a ref runs toward him. He did not get in the face of an official. He did not touch an official. He was not gesturing wildly or kicking and screaming like a maniac. With that said, I would not have been mad if, after offsetting defensive holding and facemask penalties, the refs had called a dead ball personal foul on Bryant. I would have been more mad at Bryant after that than the refs.
After all this, though, Dallas still played a great second half and fourth quarter. The penalties were not going the Cowboys' way in the first half for sure, and that did balance out in the second half, but Tony Romo engineered a great winning drive that included a 4th-and-6 hookup with his favorite target, Jason Witten. And finding Terrance Williams in the back of the end zone for the winning TD was clutch. All anyone is talking about today is that call, but Dallas showed a lot of intestinal fortitude in coming back from 14-0 and 20-7 deficits. In the end, Detroit had its chances as well, but it could not stop Dallas on two fourth downs in the game (one of which ended up giving Dallas its second touchdown) and was not able to engineer its own winning drive with plenty of time left against a defense that has been so-so this year but has been getting better. Stafford was sacked three times, twice on the final drive, once by Anthony Spencer and once by rookie DeMarcus Lawrence, who gave the Lions life by picking up a fumble after Spencer's sack then fumbling himself back to the Lions. Somehow, he gathered himself and made the clinching sack of Stafford on fourth down later in the drive. Redemption for the rookie.
Obviously everyone is talking about the Anthony Hitchens-Brandon Pettigrew play so I will give my two cents.
Midway through the fourth quarter, with Detroit facing a 3rd-and-1 at the Dallas 46, Pettigrew, a tight end for the Lions, ran a route and Hitchens, a Dallas linebacker, was defending him. Stafford threw the ball short and Pettigrew and Hitchens made some contact as the ball arrived.
I have watched the play a number of times and here is my honest assessment.
I try to watch games with objectivity in mind when it comes to the refs. I think people I watch games with will say as much about me. I will say if I think my favorite team is getting hosed and I will say if my favorite team is getting favorable calls. And I will say if I think officiating is equal.
I can totally see why defensive pass interference was not called. But I can also see why Lions' fans are angry.
First, why I mostly agree with the call. A lot happened on that play. Hitchens did grab a hold of Pettigrew's jersey before Matt Stafford threw the ball. And then Pettigrew grabbed Hitchens facemask. From the right angle, you can see Hitchens' head get jerked a little bit and the helmet even shields his eyes. So for people saying that the facemask was not grabbed, I disagree. Those two fouls would have offset each other and 3rd-and-1 would have been replayed. I think you could argue that pass interference could have been called because Hitchens does put his hand on Pettigrew's shoulder, but I don't think the contact was that blatant or rough and I think you could also argue the fact that Pettigrew grabbed Hitchens' facemask restricted Hitchens' vision and he could not even see what was happening. I have seen that kind of contact go unflagged in many football games. So, I agree that there was no pass interference or that you could at least make that judgement. What I think would have been better penalties weren't called -- defensive holding and a facemask on Pettigrew.
The problem to me and I think a lot of other people isn't the fact that pass interference wasn't ultimately called. It's that the mechanics of the play were so sloppy. Normally if a flag is picked up, officials conference before the play and then the announcement is made, with the ref waving the flag above his head and saying, "There is no foul for fill-in-the-blank on the play." In this case, the ref made the call and then a conference was held. He did announce that there was no penalty on the play, but the way the refs went about it was really embarrassing.
The best refs officiate the playoff games. The NFL has "all-star" crews, if you will, that ref the games. Entire crews from the regular season are not used. Certain refs are selected off those crews from the regular season to make up the playoff crews. I think this lack of continuity can be a problem for playoff crews. The refs aren't used to working with each other and there can be communication problems in addition to other issues. I think this method of determining playoff crews is going to get a looked at, especially after a controversial call was made worse by the apparent sloppiness of the officials.
Also, Cowboys wideout Dez Bryant ran on to the field without his helmet on to argue the call before the flag was picked up. People are angry and think unsportsmanlike conduct should have called on him. However, the NFL VP of officiating, Dean Blandino, said Monday that was not a foul in and of itself because the rule saying that players aren't allowed to remove their helmets applies to players on the field. Bryant was on the sideline. Therefore, refs had discretion as whether to flag Bryant based on if he was disruptive enough, I suppose like you would for a technical foul on the coach in basketball game. I have heard some characterizations of Bryant that were unfair -- getting in the face of officials, berating them and so forth. That didn't happen. Bryant ran on to the field but he did not run to an official. You can see in the video that Bryant stopped and is pleading the Cowboys' case and then a ref runs toward him. He did not get in the face of an official. He did not touch an official. He was not gesturing wildly or kicking and screaming like a maniac. With that said, I would not have been mad if, after offsetting defensive holding and facemask penalties, the refs had called a dead ball personal foul on Bryant. I would have been more mad at Bryant after that than the refs.
After all this, though, Dallas still played a great second half and fourth quarter. The penalties were not going the Cowboys' way in the first half for sure, and that did balance out in the second half, but Tony Romo engineered a great winning drive that included a 4th-and-6 hookup with his favorite target, Jason Witten. And finding Terrance Williams in the back of the end zone for the winning TD was clutch. All anyone is talking about today is that call, but Dallas showed a lot of intestinal fortitude in coming back from 14-0 and 20-7 deficits. In the end, Detroit had its chances as well, but it could not stop Dallas on two fourth downs in the game (one of which ended up giving Dallas its second touchdown) and was not able to engineer its own winning drive with plenty of time left against a defense that has been so-so this year but has been getting better. Stafford was sacked three times, twice on the final drive, once by Anthony Spencer and once by rookie DeMarcus Lawrence, who gave the Lions life by picking up a fumble after Spencer's sack then fumbling himself back to the Lions. Somehow, he gathered himself and made the clinching sack of Stafford on fourth down later in the drive. Redemption for the rookie.
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