After his team was on the wrong end of a bad call on Sunday, Lions coach Jim Caldwell would like to see changes to the NFL’s instant replay rules.
Caldwell says penalties should be reviewable on instant replay, which would allow a coach like him to throw a challenge flag after a bad call like the one that happened Sunday when Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens avoided a penalty when he held and interfered with Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew.
“I do think in this day and age, with modern times where we have technology that can take out the human factor in certain key situations in big games, that we should use that technology to do so,” Caldwell said.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick has proposed allowing coaches to use their two challenges on any two plays they’d like, rather than limiting challenges to certain types of plays, like those involving possession of the ball, the sideline or the goal line. But Belichick’s proposal was voted down by the owners last year.
Perhaps a bad call like the one we saw on Sunday can convince the owners to change their minds. A bad call went against Caldwell’s team on Sunday, and he should have had the opportunity to ask the referee to use replay to get it right.