Just when it looked like the Green Bay Packers had done enough to pull out a win, a bad call by the replacement officials turned a win into a loss.
Replacement officials have been making more than their share of bad calls for the first three weeks of the season, but until last night, they didn’t directly cost a team a game.
The poor calls and no calls were plentiful and the game was becoming unwatchable at times. The final play soon became unbearable for the Packers and their fans.
Russell Wilson’s Hail Mary heave into the left corner of the end zone appeared to have found the arms of Packers safety M.D. Jennings. But wide receiver Golden Tate who had committed one of the most obvious pass interference penalties just a second earlier, reached in and got a hand on the ball. That was enough for official Lance Easley to raise his hands above his head and signal touchdown.
It was a bad call, but the sad thing is instant replay didn’t correct it. Instead of flying home 2-1, the Packers are 1-2, returning to Green Bay to host New Orleans this Sunday at Lambeau Field.
The officials aren’t the only ones to blame. The Packers couldn’t do anything right in the first half. They passed it 27 times and ran it just 3 times. That allowed the Seahawks defense to put pressure on Aaron Rodgers, sacking him eight times in the first half.
Mike McCarthy eventually adjusted and went with a running attack in the second half. The Packers after trailing 7-0 half, scored all 12 of its points in the second half.
The Packers defense did it’s job, but once again, the offense is struggling to get things rolling. It’s not just one thing either.
The Packers will have to quickly turn things around and get ready to host winless New Orleans on Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field.
Trakar Shaitanaku says
The problem in Monday night’s game wasn’t one horrible call at the end of the game, it was 30 bad calls throughout the game costing both teams yards and points, but which were actually lopsided in favor of the Packers until the last 10 seconds of the game. The amazing issue is that I don’t hear Packer fans calling for the negation of virtually every drive they managed to string together Monday night, including all 12 of their points, nor do I hear them wanting to give seattle back the points lost from drives taken from them by horrible calls, the only foot stamping rage I see is over one questionable call at the end of a game. If the game hadn’t been close enough for that call to have made a difference it wouldn’t have made a difference,…and as a Seahawks fan I’ve been on the wrong end of that stick for most of the last 30 years.