Aaron Rodgers is calling for referee accountability after the Cowboys-Lions game on Saturday was decided by a controversial call. The New York Jets quarterback complained on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday that the NFL’s officials need more accountability when they make mistakes that cost teams games.
Referee Brad Allen’s confusion over the Lions’ tactics on their final two-point conversion led to an illegal formation penalty that cost Detroit the victory in AT&T Stadium.
“I was part of the Fail Mary when the NFL got too cheap to pay the refs what they’re due and hired a bunch of people who didn’t deserve to be on a high school field, they couldn’t even ref my JC games…,” Rodgers said.
“There’s been a lot of talk about the play, everybody wants a little bit of accountability, for sure. I don’t understand why three guys went to the referee. Sewell went, Decker went and 70 (Skipper) went. I don’t know what Brad (Allen) was thinking here, it seemed like he left before what could be said.”
NFL referee Brad Allen said after the Week 17 victory Saturday that it was Lions offensive tackle Dan Skipper — not Taylor Decker — who reported as eligible on the two-point conversion which would have given Detroit the lead with 23 seconds left in the game. Skipper never needed to declare himself as eligible but the team chose to make that move as a bit of trickeration.
Referees miss tripping call in Cowboys-Lions
Even before the game came down to the Lions’ two-point conversion attempt, Rodgers argued that the referees could have avoided it all. He believes that if they hadn’t messed up a tripping call on Cowboys tight end Peyton Hendershot on the previous drive the game would have ended with the ball in Dallas’ possession.
“First and 10, after the interception, there’s a five or six yard carry by (Tony) Pollard, they called the tripping on Dallas when it was (Aidan) Hutchinson that put his foot out to try to trip the back,” Rodgers said. “First off, it shouldn’t be a trip because he didn’t get him down… That was an attempted trip, but because they threw the flag, it should have been on Hutchinson. That’s half the distance to the goal, first down, 40 more seconds or timeout. The situation wouldn’t have been close if they’d made the correct call.”
The stakes were as high as can be for Dallas with the Cowboys trying to protect a home winning streak and take the NFC East title. With the victory in hand, all the Cowboys need now is a win over the Washington Commanders in D.C. on Sunday to officially secure the second-place spot in the NFC.
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