The Lions' 16-9 loss to the Eagles on Sunday night that dropped Detroit into third place in the NFC North ended in some controversy, enough that the lead official had to answer for it afterward.
It looked like the Lions were going to get the ball back with 1:51 to go and one timeout when Jalen Hurts threw high and wide to A.J. Brown on third down from the Eagles' 37, but corner Rock Ya-Sin was flagged for pass interference on a call that left NBC's Cris Collinsworth saying, "Oh, come on. Come on! That is terrible."
"That is an absolutely terrible call that's going to decide this football game," Collinsworth added. "If anything, it's an offensive push(-off)."
Asked afterward why it was called pass interference, head referee Alex Kemp told a pool reporter, "The official observed the receiver's arm getting grabbed and restricting him from going up to make the catch. So, the ball was in the air, there was a grab at the arm, restricted him and he called defensive pass interference."
Ya-Sin might have been guilty of some slight hand-checking, but as Dan Campbell said afterward, "I thought he played defense (on that play) like he did the whole game, man. I thought he challenged and played it like he did the very first rep that we played man-to-man."
"I wouldn’t tell him to do anything different, man," Campbell went on. "Get up there and challenge, play your style, and that’s it."