Seattle Seahawks center Justin Britt was in a terrific mood after Thursday night’s 27-24 win over the Green Bay Packers. Nevertheless, he wanted to share some thoughts on what he felt were officiating issues in the game and throughout the season as a whole in the locker room after the game.
The Seahawks were called for four false starts in the first 21 minutes of the game with three of the four false starts coming from the offensive line. They were add a fifth false start penalty in the fourth quarter as well.
After George Fant was called for their fourth false start six minutes into the second quarter, Britt made an immediate beeline toward head referee Tony Corrente to say that the Packers were simulating their offensive line calls along their defensive front.
“I don’t think it’s legal what they were doing, but it’s neither here nor there. We won. They lost,” Britt said before expounding further.
“I’m going to say this, I feel like the NFL and the referees should do a better job when it comes to hands to the face. They put an emphasis on it but they never call it. I think they need to review that and start calling those. I think they need to start calling holding on the teams we’re playing, the offensive line that we’re playing. I feel like we try to be technique-oriented up front and dominate in that way but I feel like other teams you just see them holding all the time. You saw a bunch today. We got a win. We’re going to start a streak, but those are a couple thoughts on my head.”
Added left tackle Duane Brown regarding the false starts: “Their defense was moving around quite a bit and making calls during our cadence and guys just kind of got a little anxious. So we just had to focus, just calm down a little bit and that’s what happened. It was tough at the beginning of the game because it’s tough to ask guys to not do that the way it was happening. It wasn’t as easy as not moving. In the middle of the cadence, guys are barking out calls and guys can’t hear and they think it’s (Russell Wilson). It was tough but we found a way to overcome it.”
The Seahawks had to go to a silent count in their own stadium at times in an effort to counter the call outs from the Packers front and the abnormal strength of the opposing support from away fans on Thursday night.
Britt was again upset about an uncalled hands to the face late in the game by Packers defensive lineman Tyler Lancaster.
“You name a number any week and they probably do it,” Britt said of the hands to the face non-call. “There was quite a few times it happened tonight. I’m not going to complain more than this. I really don’t care but someone has to say it.”
Wilson’s illegal forward pass on an attempted later at the end of the first half was the only penalty Seattle had that wasn’t a false start. They finished with six penalties for 30 yards. The Packers had fewer penalties (five), but they were biggest infractions. A holding that negated a 53-yard kickoff return by Trevor Davis, and 48-yard pass interference call against Raven Greene accounted for most of their 80 penalty yards.