control. College needs NCAA officials, not conferences, and the NFL needs to stop blowing calls that impact the outcome of games.

Nothing raises my ire faster than a ref inventing a penalty. If you're not 100% sure it was a penalty, keep it in your pants (the flag, that is).

into the opposing players face?

ARTICLE 7. ILLEGAL USE OF HANDS BY DEFENSE
It is a foul if a defensive player thrusts his hands or arms forward above the frame of an opponent to forcibly contact him on the neck, face, or head.

Note: Contact in close-line play is not a foul, unless it is direct and forcible, or prolonged.

and then the collar grab with the other on the first play. I don't know if that's what they were calling. But after two huge blown calls in the Browns/Seahawks game Sunday, who knows anymore.

on one, game-winning GB drive is shameless. That poor guy.

I didn't think the 1st touchdown by the lions was correct. At least the ref who signaled for a TD is not the ref with a view of the football. The player dove into the pile and turned his body. His body turned away from the ref who signaled TD. The ref on the opposite side who could see where the football was signaled that he was short.

No holding. It’s your job to get loose. No pass interference. It’s the receiver’s job to get free. Maybe unnecessary roughness but, preferably, let the players sort it out. Only one referee and two guys on the chains. Libertarian football.

In baseball, over the fence is out. Ty Cobbs and Pete Roses would be MVPs.

(Oh, and of course, Michigan sucks)

and that was embarrassing.

There were 10 minutes left when the first one was made. The Lions subsequently gave up a TD on the drive from their own 40.

They made 1 first down on the following drive.

Then they gave up a long drive into FG territory before the 2nd call. The 2nd one obviously iced the game, but the Lion's odds with around 50 seconds left and no timeouts weren't that great anyway.

Besides, after the Fail Mary call with Seattle a few years back, I will feel remorse for nothing.

...On a holistic level, one TD instead of a FG would have won the game for the Lions. On a game situation level, the 1st down instead of 4th down on the first hands-to-the-face penalty may not have been utterly decisive, but it was probably pretty much so. Also, the no-call on a very easy-to-call PI that would have significantly increased the Lions' chance of scoring at least 3 more points was quite weighty in the game situation, I believe.

The NFL has shown they are extremely adverse to overturning calls (or non calls) when they have been.

There was a clear PI on Thursday night, it wasn't called initially, it was challenged, and despite crystal clear evidence of PI, wasn't changed.

I think coaches have gotten wise to the fact that unless it's game changing egregious (the Saints game), the replay for PI is a sham.

Not because it likely would have been overturned, but it would have been one more data point in the farce that PI enforcement has become.

I don’t consider that call nearly as egregious as the hands the the face penalties that were pretty clearly phantom fouls.

The Lions could have still held after the penalty or on the Packers’ last drive and won the game, no?

....was most certainly decisive. There is no way the Pack would have won without that gift first down.

I've been a Packer fan for much longer than you and I still know a bullshit call when a see it. When things even out, and they always do, I expect you to howl like a stuck pig over the injustice.

If Detroit only achieved (1) 1st down on the subsequent drive and ate up around 2 minutes like they did, GB would have had the ball back with 7:30 or 8:00 to go needing 2 scores. Not insurmountable.

Honestly, Jvan, why do you consistently decide to make things personal when someone disagrees with you? Sure, you’ve been a fan longer. You’re older than me. Nothing can change that. But having been born and raised within 30 miles of Green Bay, I’ve been a fan literally my entire life.

As to calls evening out, that was kinda the point of my line about the Fail Mary. The Lions aren’t the first team and won’t be the last team to experience a critical bad call. The Packers have been through it themselves. I also didn't say they weren't bullshit calls. They certainly were. But they didn't decide the game themselves, and Packers' fans shouldn't apologize for them.

....makes you so utterly predictable. When there is something controversial to be discussed, your responses are always framed by your rooting bias. You never, ever, post an objective or intelligent analysis. Your responses do not attempt to consider that logic dictates an answer that is contrary to your team's interests. While I'm sure such blind loyalty is appreciated in some circles, it's the main reason why I do not respect you.

I just saw an obvious PI. No call. WTF?

No idea how the network announcers debase themselves and not call this trash out for what it is: horsepuckey

He'll probably be reprimanded for that.

Everyone wins in this case, except the Lions.

ESPN gets a close game that comes down to the wire. Everyone in the world was on the Packers -3.5. Packers win, Lions cover. Vegas wins.

But . . . Game over.

Too much at stake in the NFL for this bullsh!t

TERRIBLE officiating. Detroit got screwed.

Jamaal Williams did make a real smart play going down at the 1 though.

Why GB has had so much success. NFL likes to promote the brand. Rodgers is a big piece of that.

Although he wasn't your MVP tonight. It was the big boy who faked the neck snapping backwards to sell 2 egregious calls.

The league has so much tied up in the smallest media market in professional sports that they’ll dictate which team gets the calls. The calls were really bad tonight, and advantageous for GB, but read what you’re writing. Literally decades of subsidizing the most challenging market in the sport, via officiating. Not back to back hall of fame QBs, or the absence of a meddlesome, Daniel Snyder-type owner. But the league needs a media market of 200k so badly to survive that it will subvert it’s own integrity.

They can't keep up with world class athletes, hence too many bad/non calls.

The hands to the face calls were made by an official that was standing still, eagerly waiting for Bubba's head to snap backwards so he could throw his flag.

Pass interference is difficult to call no matter what age you are.

All the more reason not to watch the joke of the NFL.

And I can’t stand The Lions