Jared Goff and Taylor Decker have a combined 12 years of NFL experience. They've never seen as many flags for offensive holding as they saw Thursday against the Lions in Detroit's 16-14 loss to the Bears.
"We were getting them at a frequency I’ve never been a part of," said Goff.
“I can’t say I’ve been a part of it, but they called them and that’s what matters," said Decker. "They were calling it on both teams, both sides of the ball. It just is what it is. If they interpret it a certain way and they call it, then we held. It is what it is. It killed us."
Of the Lions' season-high 10 penalties, six were for offensive holding, two of which were actually declined by the Bears. They held on passing plays. They held on rushing plays. Every starting O-lineman was guilty except for Jonah Jackson. From Goff's perspective, the flags were excessive.
"You can call holding on every single play," he said. "It’s no excuse. We’ve done it too much. I know those guys are hard on themselves up front, but back there they can throw that flag every play. To me, it seemed like it was a little too often on that call. Now, false starts are absolutely on us and putting ourselves in those situations is on us regardless. But before even seeing the film, the frequency of that I think is not fair.”
Typically, holding is called on passing plays. But half of Detroit's holding penalties Thursday came on rushing plays, each of which went for positive yards. On the other side, the Bears were flagged for offensive holding twice. (Maybe because they didn't hold as much.)
"Listen, (the officials) have a job to do," Goff said. "Holding is a subjective call. We were getting them at a frequency I’ve never been a part of. I could be wrong. I could go look at the film right now and be like, ‘That’s a hold. That’s a hold. That’s a hold.’ I don’t know. For the same guy to call it for both ways, I’ve never been a part of that.”
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Decker said the frequency of the flags was "frustrating." It prevented Detroit's offense from getting into a rhythm.
"You just try and play with good technique and good awareness, and if they call it, they call it. But we’re not going to go out there and play tentatively. I think that would be the wrong way to go about it," he said.
Dan Campbell put the penalties on his players, even Goff. Without looking at the tape, he said he knew the linemen were guilty of "bad body positions" and that Goff was guilty of leaving the pocket when he didn't need to and forcing his linemen to scramble.
"We’re protecting him in here. We’re not protecting you out there. So it’s on everybody," Campbell said. "Everybody’s got a hand in it. But as far as the run game stuff, I already know without looking that it’s going to be sloppy fundamentals. We didn’t step where we should have stepped, you’re a little tired -- so are they -- you lag behind and then you get caught holding.”
Asked if it concerns him that his team set a season high in penalties in the 12th week of the season, Campbell said, "Those things get you beat. It’s something that we certainly have to continue to address because we won’t be able to overcome it if we don’t. I’m not concerned. It certainly aggravates me and frustrates me. But I’m not concerned like, ‘Oh no, what are we doing?’
"We’re coaching them up and we have to get them better. And we will.”