Lions coach Jim Schwartz acknowledges that facemasking should have been called on the Lions when Vikings quarterback Joe Webb fumbled on the game’s final play on Sunday. Schwartz just doesn’t think it’s fair to single out that one missed call in a game that had missed calls both ways.
“Yeah, we grabbed the facemask, but there are probably about three or four other plays in that game where guys got a facemask or guys got a hold,” Schwartz said, via MLive.com.
Of course, there are missed calls against both teams in every game. But a missed call on a blatant facemask on the last play of the game, when the result of the game might have been different if the call had been made, is bigger than most missed calls.
The penalties Schwartz named that the officials failed to call against the Vikings were a horse-collar tackle on Lions return man Stefan Logan and two different plays where the Vikings picked up first downs and should have been called for holding. But he said he’s not complaining about those.
“Every single play in the NFL, there’s something the officials are going to miss - get right, get wrong,” Schwartz said. “It’s one of the reasons I don’t stand up here and talk about officiating. I generally just say, ‘It’s their job to officiate; it’s our job to play,’ because we know it’s a fast game; it’s a very difficult game to officiate.”