Knowing the current players and coaches would likely take the high road, Barry Sanders stood up for the Lions after they were victims of some "terrible" officiating in a heartbreaking loss to the Packers Monday night.
Sanders, who serves as an ambassador for the team, took to Twitter to condemn a "sickening" performance by the refs. He was particularly upset with two "phantom hands to the face calls" on Trey Flowers, who said afterward
neither penalty was warranted.
I know that no one on the @lions can say it, so I will... that is a terrible missed call, on hands to the face and bad break for our D that is playing so hard. #replayhelpneeded
— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders)
October 15, 2019 That is sickening... the @NFL needs to look at a way to prevent that from happening. Two phantom hands to the face calls really hurts us tonight. Yes, we could have scored TDs, but @Lions played too well to have the game end this way. #DETvsGB @espn
— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders)
October 15, 2019 Both calls on Flowers, who had never been flagged for hands to the face during his four years with the Patriots, kept the Packers offense on the field in the fourth quarter and helped them turn a 22-13 deficit into a 23-22 win. The Lions deserve some blame themselves, as Sanders acknowledged, but the refs added to the difficulty of an already-tall challenge.
In the end, it was too much for the Lions to overcome.
Not saying that we would not have been able to overcome those calls if we had converted TDs in the red zone, but man they hurt
— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders)
October 15, 2019 Sanders wasn't the only former Lion to come to the team's defense. The likes of Stephen Tulloch, TJ Lang, Tahir Whitehead and Nevin Lawson also weighed in on Twitter, with Tulloch questioning the NFL's transparency.
Wooooowwww @Lions got robbed tonight. The NFL officiating has to be better wow. The officials got ------
— Stephen Tulloch (@stephentulloch)
October 15, 2019 Games like this make you not even want to watch the NFL. Everyone’s hand is in the pot----. Year in and year out this happens to the Lions... Such CRAP @NFL
— Stephen Tulloch (@stephentulloch)
October 15, 2019 Illegal hands to the shoulder?????
— TJ Lang (@TJLang70)
October 15, 2019 On top of the two questionable calls against Flowers, safety Tracy Walker was flagged for unnecessary roughness when he made incidental helmet-to-helmet contact with receiver Geronimo Alison on the opening drive of the third quarter. Walker was clearly going for the ball, but the refs said that didn't matter.
It left Whitehead and Lawson, a teammate of Walker's last year, floored.
That is a bang bang play! Cut that S**t and let us play football!
— Nevin Lawson (@nevin_lawson)
October 15, 2019 He went for the f**kin ball how do you call that?----♂️ This is gettin out of hand.
— Tahir Whitehead (@Big_Tah47)
October 15, 2019 Ultimately, Whitehead may have said it best:
What are these ------ looking at?----♂️
— Tahir Whitehead (@Big_Tah47)
October 15, 2019 Or maybe Lang:
In my 11 years involved with the NFL, I’ve never seen worse officiating than this year and it’s not even close.
— TJ Lang (@TJLang70)
October 15, 2019
