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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Christian D'Andrea

The Lions’ Twitter account clandestinely called out a terrible blown call against Detroit

Lions Detroit (Organization) LA (Organization) Dan Campbell Taylor Decker Brad Galli NFL Rams

Sometimes, fanbases can delude themselves into thinking officiating crews have a vendetta against them. Some 50/50 calls go against them. One or two questionable flags might derail a drive.

Most of the time, this is a coping form of homerism. For the Detroit Lions, however, it might actually be true.

The officials’ unofficial vendetta against the NFC North champions continued Sunday night in a Wild Card matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. Facing fourth-and-five at the Rams’ 41-yard line, quarterback Jared Goff took his spot under center. He reeled off a hard count as his offensive line remained statue still. And then LA linebacker Ernest Jones IV jumped into the neutral zone for what should have been a five-yard encroachment penalty and a free first down.

It was not. The officiating crew ruled it a false start on Taylor Decker, sending Detroit backward and necessitating a punt. It drew a chorus of chants from the Ford Field crowd, many of which we cannot print here.

The Lions’ Twitter team knew this was complete and utter [expletive] against them in a game that promised to be a shootout. That crew also knew it couldn’t purposefully criticize a bad call or tweet out a “refs you suck” chant on its own.

So instead, that crew put out a minute-plus long video of a punt… and the play that led up to it.

Beautiful. A post that combines the simplicity of “I can’t say that or I’ll get fined” with “y’all saw this nonsense, right?” Needless to say, Detroit’s social squad wasn’t the only one to take issue with the terrible call.

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