Getty Jared Goff talks with the referees and Matt Nagy during the Lions-Bears game in 2021.
The Detroit Lions were defeated by the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day 16-14, and the team had plenty of chances to expand their lead and put away their first victory of the year.
In spite of that, the team made sloppy mistakes and that was punctuated by the fact that they had 10 penalties on the day for 67 yards. Many of those calls were holding penalties, and the team wasn’t exactly thrilled with some of those calls that went against them in key moments.
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Speaking to the media after the game, Lions quarterback Jared Goff took aim at the officials for their interpretations of the calls that were made. As he said, he believes the referees were at least partially to blame for how they interpreted things on the field Thursday.
As Brad Galli of WXYZ-TV showed in a clip, Goff was none too pleased with what went down from the officials with regards to holds on the day.
“You can call holding on every single play,” Jared Goff said. He didn’t like how many holding calls the Lions got.
“The frequency of that is not fair.”
“I think that’s part of my job obviously on the field is to make sure guys don’t we say ‘lose their stinger,’ right? They’re getting these holding calls and the false starts are absolutely on us, those can’t happen but you could call holding on every single play,” Goff told the media. “It’s no excuse, we’v done it too much and the false starts are on us. To me, it seemed like it w as a little too often on that call. Now false starts are absolutely on us and putting ourself in those situations is on us regardless. Before even seeing the film, the frequency of that is not fair.”
The Lions were forced into third and long situations multiple times on the day and late in the contest, the team had a drive stunted by multiple holding calls. This is likely the sequence that Goff is referring to.
Lions Were Sloppy During Bears Loss
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons the Lions lost the game was the penalties. Detroit collected 10 penalties for 67 yards on the day. While they weren’t the sloppiest team on Thanksgiving compared to Dallas Cowboys generating 27 penalties. Still, regardless of the legitimacy of the calls, the Lions have to do better to make sure they don’t generate the penalties repeatedly. That sloppiness is a show of poor coaching for the team regardless of if the Lions have a complaint about a series of calls or not.
For the Lions, the sloppiness revolves around more than just penalties. The Lions had busted plays and were inconsistent on offense and defense. As a whole it was a bad show for Detroit and was for more reasons than just the penalties.
Goff Enjoys Resurgent Performance Within Return
It was a good day for Goff throwing the ball coming off injury. The quarterback looked ineffective in Week 10 given an oblique injury he sustained on the field, but in Week 12, it looked much better for the quarterback when he got back out there. Goff struck for 2 touchdowns on the day and managed to throw for 171 yards on the day. The numbers may not have been gaudy, but Goff was able to hit the deep ball a few times, which helped open things up for the Detroit offense. The best throw was probably a perfectly placed toss to T.J. Hockenson.
Turkey Day T.J.!
@TheeHOCK8
#CHIvsDET | 📺 FOX
In the end, the Lions didn’t make the plays needed to win. While Goff knows the Lions were to blame themselves for plenty of things, he isn’t sure the officials made life easy on them in the end.