Lions led 14-10 over halfway through Q3. Bears driving, Lions make a stop on 3rd and 15 and should have gotten the ball back. Instead the refs throw one of the most comical flags I’ve seen this year; the illegal contact call on Branch (completely away from the ball/play where almost no contact even happened).
Bears continue the drive, get 3 pts. They kickoff, we fumble it right back to them in Lions territory, they score another 7.
Such as life in the NFL, but crazy to think how that entire 10-pt sequence only happened because of a horeshit flag. Without it, we don’t know exactly what would have happened, but we know that the game script takes a completely different trajectory
Don’t forget the interception where their safety popped laporta midroute, ball in the air and no flag at all.
Don’t kill me here, but the contact was incidental which doesn’t warrant a flag. The defender had no idea LaPorta was there.
Does it suck? Yeah, but shit happens
Simple fact is the Lions made the game closer then it had to be. Four turnovers in unacceptable. Without those the Lions probably cover and win without stress. Lions to quit turning the ball over.
A lot of weird shit happened in that game. That bogus call on Branch, Reynolds fumble, Goff tipped balls, LaPorta hit during his route…
I mean the Bears had 4 turnovers, had the ball 40 minutes, and only had 350 yards and 26 points.
If half the weird shit doesn’t happen, we win that game drama free.
Illegal contact isn’t PI, it doesn’t matter if it’s away from the play or if the ball was catchable, it’s a penalty. Ticky tack sure, but the refs didn’t hose us. They were calling those all day and our defense didn’t adjust to it
The point is, there was just about zero contact, period.