As far as sad Lions losses go, coming up short in Sunday’s 30-26 effort against the Falcons arguably deserves a spot in the top five but not the top three. Painful, yes. Soul crushing, nah. It’s only Week 3 and the first loss of the season.
A complete history of the Lions losing because of obscure NFL rules
Illegal bats, stupid catch rules, clock runoffs ... what is it about the Lions and weird-ass NFL rules?
Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images
But I’m not here to rehash the suffering that is being a Lions fan. Y’all put up with enough crap, and I feel for you. I’m here to talk about the rulebook.
What stands out about this loss is that Detroit once again reminded us about another obscure line in the official rulebook. It was one of the rules that pops up once every season or so then disappears just long enough for most of the world to forget it exists. This, as much as the pain and sadness of a last-second heartbreaker, has become a characteristic way for the Lions to lose.
The 10-second runoff
This week, with eight seconds left, it sure looked like Golden Tate had a touchdown, but the replay disagreed. That was on third-and-1, so they had another shot...except they didn’t.
When a play is overturned, officials take 10 seconds off the clock. It’s to prevent teams from taking advantage of the stoppage in time that’s not an official timeout. Here’s a much more thorough explanation of the rule.
The Lions could’ve taken a timeout, except they didn’t have any left. They would have been better off if the play had never been ruled a touchdown in the first place.
The illegal bat
Ahh, I’ll never forget where I was on Monday, Oct. 5, 2015: dozing off as the game between the Lions and Seahawks wound down. And then IT happened.
Calvin Johnson (more on him in a minute) fumbled the ball half a yard away from a potential game-winning touchdown with less than two minutes to play.
At 0-3, Detroit was still looking for its first win and maybe should’ve had it, even with Megatron’s fumble. Why? Because a Seahawks linebacker swatted the ball out of bounds while he was in the end zone with it.
The refs blew the call. Detroit should have gotten the ball back, half the distance to the goal line. Yes, you probably need a thorough refresher on what the hell the illegal bat rule is.
The Lions lost 13-10 and wouldn’t get their first win of the season for another two weeks. They did finish strong with a 7-9 record at least.
There was another illegal bat on Sunday, by the Steelers.
The Calvin Johnson rule
It’s one thing to lose a game because of some weird, obscure rule. But when you actually end up getting that rule named after you, it’s really something special: a piece of history yoked to the team forever.
The Lions should’ve started off the 2010 season with a win over the Bears. Johnson came down with a touchdown pass with 30 seconds left in the game. But no! Little did Johnson or anyone else know that a receiver has to have control of the ball while going to the ground. That was long before we were all confused as hell about what a “football move” was.
Johnson lost the ball when he hit the ground, even though he didn’t. The Lions lost 19-14, and went on to finish 6-10.
It’s been a long complicated history of what exactly determines a catch, and it wouldn’t even be the last time we had to try to think about it during a Lions game.
This list doesn’t include the Lions’ excruciating loss to the Cowboys in the wild card round of the 2015 playoffs. Detroit fans can chalk that one up to plain old bad officiating. But screwing up a pass interference call feels innocuous compared to the dusty corners of the rulebook so many Lions games have forced us to revisit.
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