The longest penalty in 15 seasons should never have been

The NFL has admitted to making the wrong call on Nevin Lawson’s 66-yd pass interference penalty against Corey Davis in Sunday’s game against the Packers. Just add it to the laundry list of calls against the Lions that have garnered apologies from the league offices.

Here’s a crazy idea; let’s stop apologizing and actually fix the problem.

“These refs have to be accountable in some type of way” Lawson said on Thursday after hearing about the apology. “They should definitely have to get some type of consequences for making wrong calls, especially game crucial calls that could decide wins or losses.”

The call placed the ball on the two-yard line for the longest penalty in 15 seasons, and the Packers scored a touchdown. The Lions lost by 7.

It’s unbelievable to me that the NFL has yet to really look into finding solutions for calling petty penalties that completely change the outcomes of games. The spot of the ball foul on pass-interference penalty is also ridiculous. Dean Blandino needs to take a lesson from college football and adopt their policy. In college, pass-interference penalties are spot fouls for under 15 yards, and 15 yard penalties for anything over that.

Even if Davis hadn’t got his legs tangled up with Lawson’s, it was unlikely that he actually would’ve caught the pass.

The officiating woes from week two continued into Green Bay, with a ridiculous exploitation of a dumb rule on a Sam Martin kick-off. The rule is that an out of bounds player on a kick off can touch the ball in bounds, and it’ll be placed at the 40-yard line.

Watch satan himself Dean Blandino exclaim that everyone in game day central was “really excited” when it happened.

Yes, the head of officiating was really excited when a player exploited his dumb rule and punished a kicker for spectacular ball placement.

The NFL’s officiating body never ceases to amaze me, and will always find new ways to let us Lions fans down.