Let’s be real. The Detroit Lions got lucky against the Green Bay Packers.
Yes, they played a gritty – and ugly – game on Sunday, Oct. 25. But their 20-17 victoryreally came down to doing just enough to overcome their own mistakes ... while getting help from the referees.
They were lucky to overcome Dan Campbell’s unnecessarily aggressive decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from his own 24 with 4:53 left and the score tied at 17. That call resulted in Jahmyr Gibbs getting stuffed for a 2-yard loss.
Even for “Gamblin’ Dan,” that’s the kind of bet that if your buddy makes at the casino, you give him the 1-800 number for Gamblers Anonymous.
Campbell’s postgame explanation:
“Well, I thought we would get it, No. 1. I really believed we would get that. No. 2, I knew we would get the ball back if it didn't work out.”
What Campbell couldn’t say was this: Were you watching the Packers’ inept offense that went 1-for-4 in the red zone and took just 1:39 off the clock before we got the ball back?
Yes, we were. But that was still a crazy call that should have ended in disaster, because the Lions’ own offense wasn’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard.
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Then again, Campbell might have had reason to believe the refs would bail out his team again the way they did several times during the game.
Earlier, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love was called for intentional grounding because his pass didn’t get to the line of scrimmage. But Lions QB Jared Goff wasn’t called for the same penalty when he threw a ball that was nowhere near a receiver.
The refs’ most egregious call gave the Lions new life on their final touchdown drive midway through the third quarter. They called defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt for unnecessary roughness when he flipped Amon-Ra St. Brown to the ground, WWE-style, after St. Brown got up and tried to get more yards, apparently thinking he hadn’t been ruled down.
Referee Alex Moore’s explanation to a pool reporter afterward: “I can't honestly hear if there was a whistle or not, but the tackler made the tackle, the play was over. Then, there was an additional action, and he basically tackled him again with force after the play was over.”
Tackled him with force. As opposed to tackled him with gentle, caring hands and kind eyes? Look, if a ball-carrier gets up, and if even the ref isn’t sure if he’s heard a whistle, a defender better tackle him, or he might be looking for a new job on Monday.
So instead of third-and-7 at the Green Bay 23, the Lions got a fresh set of downs at the 11, then scored two plays later for a 17-14 lead.
“I don't even want to comment on any of the penalties,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “So, it is what it is. You got to play above it. And I thought there were some tough calls, but it is what it is.”
LaFleur also has himself to blame for the terrible offense called by ... well, himself. The Packers have an elite defense that stopped the Lions’ elite offense, but Green Bay was exposed as a fraud; the Packers' three-game winning streak entering Sunday featured a 4-2 record but no quality wins.
If you want to view this in the most positive light for the Lions, you should give them credit for finding a way to win a second straight game, improve to 4-2 and get a divisional win.
And the defense, which got safety Brian Branch back (on a snap count for now), showed incremental signs of progress, albeit against another bad offense.
But Campbell knows better than to cast a tight win in just a positive light. He knows going 2-for-5 in the red zone and losing two of three fumbles means the game could have easily swung the other way.
“Those are enormous, going in and coming out,” he said of the turnovers. “That's the hardest thing is – we're excited, I'm excited that we won that game, but you can't do that. We were fortunate.”
Fortunate is just another word for lucky.
The Lions don’t need to apologize for winning this kind of game, because, if you’ve been paying attention for the past seven decades or so, they haven't been particularly fortunate or lucky when it counts.
Maybe this game is the wake-up call needed before a pivotal Week 8 showdown at home against the 6-0 Minnesota Vikings, another team with a great defense and bad offense.
Just don’t bet on it. If you do, I have an 1-800 number for you.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Thanks, refs! Lions lucky to survive mistakes and a bad Packers team
