DutchBird
Well-Known Member
Yup. A travesty. In a more just land that ref would be hung by his balls today and beat like a pinata.
That phantom hold was singled out by Greg Bedard, as merely one of a whole lot of atrocious calls.
It is silly to ignore the serious impact the officials had on the game. Merrill Reese apparently this morning was still livid. Basically stated that the two early big Riddick runs set the tone (both made possible by blatant holds/tackles by the Lions which were ignored); it was clear from that moment on that the Eagles would be playing the refs and the Lions.
The refs let the Lions play by one standard, and the Eagles by another. And whenever the Lions threatened to collapse they came up with BS calls to derail the Eagles offense (most blatant before the half, the phantom hold, the BS phantom late hit, and ignoring a major facemask/hold by the RT on Detroit's game winning drive on the play before the Tate catch, and a massive hold freeying up Tate (so OPI) on that catch). And that does not even address the most likely wrong call on the Mathews fumble (which should have been ruled OOB).
So yes, the refs played as big a role as Schwartz in the Eagles losing this game.