The Minnesota Vikings silenced the crowd at Ford Field by taking over the Detroit Lions in Week 9. The team tacked up sacks, tackles for loss, shaking quarterback Jared Goff and Detroit’s offense to steal an impressive 27-24 win. But while the Vikings celebrate, cornerback Isaiah Rodgers can’t stop thinking about a late-game moment. 

The player is furious in disbelief about a move by Lions receiver Jameson Williams that he believes the referees completely botched. Post-game, Isaiah shared a clip on his IG story, showing the two tussling for position during the Sunday game. He captioned it, “Can we start giving refs fines too?” followed by “Full extension or nah?” Let’s backtrack a bit to see what exactly went down.  

During the two-minute warning, Williams managed to slip past Rodgers and scored a 37-yard touchdown. The moment brought the Lions back in the game for a moment, and Isaiah lost his cool. He believed it was clearly offensive pass interference since the WR used his arm to push him aside. Unfortunately, the officials didn’t see any problem and allowed the TD to stand. 

Interestingly, the slow-motion replay shared by the 2020 sixth-round pick made actual sense. One can clearly see that Williams did use his arm to break free from Isaiah Rodgers’ coverage before catching the ball. Moreover, this type of contact is a big no-no in the NFL rulebook, but maybe everything happened so quickly that the refs missed out. 

Mind you, this is the second time recently that Isaiah has fallen prey to such a questionable call. During the October 23 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the officials overturned his touchdown that could have been his third of the season.

The missed call didn’t change the game outcome, but it raises a question: Should referees also face consequences for their mistakes? While Isaiah Rodgers couldn’t hold back online, the Lions’ locker room had its own share of frustration.

Like Isaiah Rodgers, Campbell voiced his frustration

Detroit’s head coach, Dan Campbell, didn’t mince words while addressing his squad’s defeat. Coming after a bye week and solid practice sessions, he expected the Lions to dominate their home ground. Only, it didn’t happen. 

“You don’t want any of these to happen. It’s like a slap in the face …Now you’re forced to stand there and stare at it, ‘How are we going to fix this?’” he said. 

The most disappointing part for Dan is that the franchise fell apart in all three phases of the game. “We made every critical error you need to at the right time to lose it,” he said. The Week 9 match saw the team’s offense managing only 65 rushing yards and struggling hard on third downs and red-zone chances.

Meanwhile, the defense had some bright moments, but they gave up some crucial plays. It includes a late third-down conversion that handed the victory to the opponents. As for special teams, the unit underperformed like the other two, getting a field goal blocked. They also allowed a 61-yard kickoff return on Minnesota’s first drive, which led to a touchdown.

According to Campbell, the blame ultimately falls on him for the underperformance of all the groups. Now, his strategy is to clean up the errors before their next game against the Washington Commanders.