Lions facemask penalty on Aaron Rodgers – right or wrong call?

Another dramatic ending to an NFL game has been marred by a controversial call from the officials, and they may have once again gotten it wrong.

Detroit Lions defensive end Devin Taylor was called for a facemask penalty on what would have been the final play of the game against Green Bay. The penalty gave the Packers one last play, and Aaron Rodgers used it to win the game with a Hail Mary touchdown pass to tight end Richard Rodgers (video here). Was it the right call?

You can understand why the official made the call. In real time, it appeared that Taylor grabbed Rodgers’ facemask and spun him around. Only when watching the play in slow motion can you tell that Taylor’s thumb was only on the facemask for a brief second and he actually spun Rodgers around by grabbing his shoulder pad.

Of course, the play was not reviewable. But even if it was, NFL VP of officiating Dean Blandino is not convinced it would have been overturned.

“It’s a close play, but even looking at the replay, the hand is up near the mask, the finger looks like it gets caught in the mask and the head gets turned,” Blandino said after the game. “So I’m not convinced it wasn’t a facemask even looking at the replay, but live at full speed the referee is going to see that hand at the mask and the head turn and he’s going to make that call every time.”

As you might expect, Lions fans disagree. As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes, the way the rule is written makes it fairly clear that the call should not have been made.

“If a player grasps an opponent’s facemask, he must immediately release it,” the rule states. “If he does not immediately release it and controls his opponent, it is a foul.”

It looked like Taylor immediately released the facemask, but the fact that he spun Rodgers around by the shoulder pad made it hard to tell. What Taylor did was nowhere near as blatant as the penalty that helped cost the Ravens a game earlier this season. While I get why the official made the call and don’t blame him for that, you can understand why Lions fans feel cheated.