The Detroit Lions were done no favors by the referees this past week, and many folks are still bitter about that. Matthew Stafford is not one of those people.
This week, in the aftermath of the Lions getting harmed by multiple poor calls in their loss to the Green Bay Packers, folks have lined up to share their frustration with the league and their officials. The Lions, however, are ignoring that to a man.
According to Stafford, he has no idea why the Lions seem to be the target of the officials and all their mistakes, and he doesn’t really care or think about it in the end or focus on the mishaps. He also isn’t sure the Lions have been singled out to be targeted through the years.
“I don’t know if it’s that. I’m not really worried about it to be honest with you. There’s nothing you can do about it now, you just keep moving on. Minnesota coming in here, they got my full focus. Didn’t think about that for long at all,” he told the media.
Through the years, the Lions have seen their fair share of tough calls play out, and Monday against the Packers was just another example of that. Stafford, though, is looking directly ahead just like his head coach and just like the rest of his team.
Moving on the Only Option
So what happens on the field when the calls play out in real time? For Stafford, there’s only way to process things, and it’s to move on and continue on even in spite of the frustration that these things keep playing out in real time.
“You got to move on. You just got to move on on the next play,” Stafford said honestly when pressed on if he thinks the team is being targeted.
Would things improve if Stafford lost his mind on the field or put up a bigger stink about some of these blown calls?
“I don’t think so,” he said succinctly.
Even though many folks are blaming him, it’s nice to see Stafford stand up to the frustration.
Trey Flowers Agrees
Even though Flowers was the one most wronged by the referees in the end, he still didn’t harbor any ill will toward the referees, or did he think anything about the plays and calls which helped cost the Lions the game in the end on Monday night. Instead, Flowers wants the team’s only focus to be forward.
“It is what it is. When that clock hits zero, it’s nothing you can do about it. So you got to put your energy toward something that is sustainable,” Flowers told the media. “That’s the hard work we put into this week, and next week and the week after that. It’s early in the season, we got a long season. We put our energy towards the things we can control, we’ll be right where we want to be at the end of the year.”
Technique was a big topic of Flowers’ initial gripe, and while he didn’t have much to say about David Bakhtiari’s contention he was looking at the sky most of the night and reports that the lineman tipped off the officials before the calls, Flowers admitted he thinks he was doing the right thing on the field, even though the referees called things their way.
“I know I was using the right technique, but it is what it is. Like I said, they saw it their way, they called it their way, and it is what it is,” he said.
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Lions’ Matthew Stafford Comments on Officiating Mistakes