The Detroit Lions came up with a huge goal line stand in a tight game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, but it was wiped away by a highly questionable roughing the passer call.
The Lions stopped the Vikings four straight times from the 1-yard line, the fourth of which was a huge sack by cornerback Tracy Walker. Walker came through the line of scrimmage untouched to sack Cousins for a huge loss, but he was called for roughing the passer. The official ruled that he landed on Cousins with his body weight.
Here’s a video of the play:
This is just a horrendous roughing the passer call, it's a tackle and a sack pic.twitter.com/FG1tnlR5aj
— Vikings Blogger (@firstandskol) January 3, 2021
The Vikings were awarded an automatic first down, and Cousins scored on a QB sneak two plays later to give them a 37-29 lead.
We understand the body weight rule, which was implemented to protect quarterbacks from defenders landing on them with all their body weight and driving them into the turf. It did not look like that happened in this instance. Walker came in full-speed and appeared to avoid stuffing Cousins by rolling off his back.
That was just about as bad as a similar penalty we saw against Kentavius Street earlier this year when he sacked Drew Brees. You can watch that play here and compare.
