It’s easy to blame the officials after a heartbreaking loss, but the Green Bay Packers were right to be frustrated after their last-second loss to the Detroit Lions Football on Thursday evenings.

The referees had a direct influence on the final two plays, both in favor of the Lions. Unfortunately, a similar pattern followed as at the beginning of the competition.

Trailing by three points, Jordan Love threw a touchdown to Josh Jacobs that would have given them a four-point lead. Instead, they called Christian Watson for offensive pass interference after he hit Lions safety Kerby Joseph. It cost the Packers four points as they had to settle for a Brandon McManus field goal to tie the game.

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It was a controversial penalty as Watson’s path was nothing more than a slant. But their lack of consistency cost the Packers even more moments later.

The penalty against Watson changed the game. Instead of a touchdown, Detroit only needed a field goal to win. Then came another bad call. Jared Goff scored from the Packers’ 37-yard line on 2nd-and-17 and threw to Amon-Ra St. Brown for 16 yards. However, he clearly beat Keisean Nixon before taking the lead. It was so obvious that Nixon stopped running to ask the officials for a flag.

Instead of being on 3rd-and-17 and comfortably out of field goal range, the Lions now found themselves at the Packers’ 21-yard line.

“But the Packers get 7 off the board because Watson ran into a DB in his own way,” former Packers quarterback Kurt Benkert wrote on X after the play.

He’s right. The inconsistency of the officials crushed the Packers.

It’s a huge swing when the referees managed a Packers touchdown off the field and Then allowed the Lions to get into field goal range. Brutally. It wasn’t even St. Brown’s worst penalty that went unchallenged. Early in the game, he pushed Packers safety Xavier McKinney in the face, causing his helmet to come off. No flag again.

We should talk about what a great game it was, and it really was. The Packers may not have managed to get the win, but they showed their championship potential throughout the contest. A team had to lose and ultimately it came down to who had the ball last.

The Packers’ hopes of winning the NFC North are up in smoke, but they’re all but guaranteed a playoff spot and they’ve proven they can hang with arguably the best team in the league on the road.

They may meet again in January.

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