The Detroit Lions' fistful of fourth-down failures may have doomed them to a crucial loss at Philadelphia, but it was field judge Lo Van Pham's dubious pass interference call in the waning minutes that sealed the Eagles' triumph and jumbled the NFC playoff picture.
What appeared like a textbook stop on third down by the Lions to force a punt instead turned into a new set of downs for the Eagles and sparked online and on-air backlash.
Referee Alex Kemp
explained to a pool reporter after the Eagles' 16-9 win that Pham saw Lions cornerback Rock Ya-Sin grab Eagles receiver A.J. Brown by the arm, preventing him from going up to make the catch on a high pass from Jalen Hurts on third-and-8 from the Philadelphia 37 with just under 2 minutes remaining.
Pham might be the only one who saw it that way.
The Lions thought they'd gotten the stop, forcing a punt with 1:47 remaining to give Jared Goff a chance to drive the Lions to the tying touchdown.
Instead, the Eagles had the first down at their 45-yard line with a new set of downs and the Lions never got the ball again.
With the loss, the Lions fell to 6-4 and into third place in the NFC North behind Chicago and Green Bay — and, more importantly, they tumbled completely out of the NFC playoff picture, falling five spots into eighth place with seven weeks remaining.
At 8-2, the Eagles soared to the top of the NFC playoff race, fueled by a stingy defense time and again makes up for a sputtering offense (just like the Denver Broncos, who sit atop the AFC playoff race at 9-2 ).
NBC color commentator Cris Collinsworth was dumbfounded by the defensive pass interference call, labeling the penalty “absolutely terrible” on the game's “Sunday Night Football” broadcast.
“Oh, come on! Come on!” a perplexed Collinsworth hollered as the replay was shown. “That is terrible. That is an absolutely terrible call that's gonna decide this football game.”
As the play was shown yet again, Collinsworth added, “If anything, it's an offensive push.”
Ya-Sin looked as shocked as Collinsworth that the foul was called on him and not on Brown for pushing off.
“That's an offensive foul,” Collinsworth said. “If you want to call a foul, it's an offensive foul. Wow.”
Play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico chimed in, saying there was “certainly hand-fighting, but not even at the level we've seen” all night.
It certainly didn't seem like the routine hand-fighting that happens on just about every pass play rose to the level of defensive pass interference.
That game-deciding flag put an emphatic exclamation point on Week 11 that featured five last-second field goals that decided games — a sixth one missed at the gun — and several other questionable calls, just none as significant as the one against the Lions.
The Lions have already lost twice as many games as they did last year when they went 15-2 and earned the franchise's first-ever No. 1 playoff seed.
“I really feel like we have not played our best ball yet, collectively, all three units,” coach Dan Campbell said as he looked ahead to Detroit’s Week 12 matchup with the New York Giants. “Once we get there, I believe there will be no looking back.”
Certainly not at the DPI in Philadelphia they pray proves irrelevant when it's all said and done.
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Behind the Call analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL during the season.
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