|Mitch|

You do realize that it's legal as long as the ball isn't in the air? Or if it's behind the line of scrimmage...

Rsanders24

Yes. I know it's legal....but if you watch that play the flag was thrown way after the intial contact and the contact was behind the behind the line of scrimmage. No the ball wasn't in the air when he got tackled....

SloMotion

Well dang! Wish I would have thought to logon and join the party, . Thanks for the sentiments B&G and welcome to the SloMo edition of 'Monday Mawnin' Quarterback' ...


^^THIS!^^ All season they relied on the 4-man rush, not a bad strategy with their personnel. They blitzed more in the first half then they did all season and caught Dallas totally off-guard, who's OC is Scott Linehan, Detroit's OC from last season. His play calling typically wilts under a strong blitz, so why did they ease up as the game went on? IDK, .

First play of the game, Travis Frederick (OC/DAL) put Suh on the ground. At that point, I thought it was gonna' be a long day. I've seen OL handle Suh one-on-one, but never put him on the ground like that. Lions D-Line recovered nicely, Suh did receive an inordinate amount of double-teams (though not every play) and it was probably one of the best battle-of-the-trenches I saw all season long, .

It was an oddly called game, that's for sure, . I saw a lot of 'no-calls' going both ways, missed calls, questionable calls, confusing calls ... whatever. I hate to blame the refs for any win/loss, except those substitute refs from a few seasons back, . At the beginning of the game, I was wondering if the refs were gonna' hand the game to Detroit and if there was something to all the 'ref conspiracy theories'. My opinion changed later in the game when I wondered if they were gonna' hand the game to Dallas, .

Or ... how 'bout an explanation? I thought maybe because Pettigrew (DET) got his hands tangled up a little bit in the defender's facemask, maybe they decided to wave that one off? IDK, it sure looked like DPI to me.

My favorite penalty was on the Dallas punt that went to the Detroit 1/2 yd line and Detroit was assessed a penalty "1/2 the distance to the goal" ... moved the ball back a whole 6", . That had to be a first.



All-in-all, it was a decent game to watch and one the Lions could have, should have, won but lost in typical Lions fashion ... #sigh. I didn't understand why Caldwell didn't go for it on 4th & 1 with a lead (especially the way Joique Bell was pounding the ball, ) when he went for it on 4th & 11 vs GB the week before when they were behind? That led to the crazy 10yd punt and Dallas getting back into the game, IMO ... yep, just Monday Mawnin' Quarterbacking, .

Oh well, always a bridesmaid, never a bride ... feeling like a dog that's been beat too much ... that's how we roll ... ain't like anyone really expected them to do anything more than just make it to the playoffs ... but once ... just once ... for a change ... it'd be nice if they got to be queen of the prom, .