The Green Bay Packers turned their season around by way of their three-game winning streak entering Week 7. Quarterback Jordan Love looked incredible while the defense played great. Seeing a winning streak come to an end stings. What makes it sting even worse is when the officiating gets way too involved.
The Packers lost 20-17 to the rival Detroit Lions on a walk-off field goal. The referees made their presence felt throughout the game, calling the Packers for eight penalties, resulting in 81 yards. Two of those calls were questionable roughing-the-passer penalties, one of them helping the Lions on their final drive.
There was the third quarter in which edge rusher Brenton Cox was called for roughing the passer when he slipped as he was fighting through a block, making two-handed contact with Lions quarterback Jared Goff.
Luckily for Cox, it didn't result in points, as the Lions turned the ball over on downs. But then there was the final drive of the game, where defensive tackle Karl Brooks let up on his tackle of Goff before hitting the ground. Yet, the referees declared that it was roughing, giving the Lions 15 yards and a first down.
Packers players fed up with the roughing the passer penalties
Packers star pass rusher Micah Parsons isn't afraid to speak his mind when he's taking in football. As he was watching the roughing-the-passer penalties get called in this game in particular, Parsons tagged the NFL and the NFL Officiating X accounts, writing, "let's just go to flag football if everytime a qb gets touched it's roughing the passer!"
That was a general point made by Parsons, noting that this season, it seems that roughing-the-passer penalties are more questionable than ever. There was another player on defense who was, well, a bit more direct.
Safety Xavier McKinney ripped the officiating while speaking with reporters after the game. While saying he is probably going to get fined for his comments, McKinney felt he needed to say something to help out his team. When talking about the roughing-the-passer penalties, McKinney said, "We're not seeing the same calls for our quarterback."
Jordan Love hasn't benefited from a single roughing-the-passer penalty this season
McKinney isn't lying. The Packers haven't had a single roughing-the-passer penalty called in their favor. Seven games into the season. That is pretty absurd.
Sure enough, the only two roughing-the-passer penalties in this game were called in favor of Goff and the Lions. The Packers have now given up eight of them this season.
What doesn't help matters is that when you look at quarterback hits, Love has been hit 30 times, which is tied with Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams for the second-most in the NFL. The most belong to Kirk Cousins entering Week 7, who has 31. Interestingly, Cousins benefited from two roughing-the-passer penalties. Stafford, like Love, didn't get a single one called in his favor.
It's not just Packers fans who are fed up with the roughing-the-passer penalties. Players have seen Love take some big, rough hits in games and not get called for any. All it took was one awfully officiated game for the players to call out the absurdity.
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