GREEN BAY \u2014 Matt LaFleur may be unwilling to speak ill of the NFL\u2019s officiating crews, but the Green Bay Packers head coach\u2019s over-the-top sarcasm about how much satisfaction he gained from the process of submitting questionable calls to the league office in the wake of last Sunday\u2019s loss to the Detroit Lions sent a very clear message.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, it makes me sleep so much better at night,\u201d LaFleur said Tuesday after a question about how he and his coaches went about inquiring to the league about some of the controversial penalty calls made in Sunday\u2019s 20-17 loss to the Lions.<\/p>\n
From highly questionable roughing-the-passer penalties on edge rusher Brenton Cox and defensive tackle Karl Brooks, to a phantom intentional-grounding flag on quarterback Jordan Love, to an inexplicable unnecessary roughness penalty on defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt on a play where apparently the whistle was never blown, the Packers had plenty to complain about.<\/p>\n
LaFleur said he and the coaches submitted video clips of a number of plays \u2014 he would not say how many \u2014 to the league office, looking for clarity on why the calls were or were not made. He said it\u2019s the team\u2019s responsibility to submit a specific question and attach it to each clip.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we come up with the question, and then you get a response from somebody at the league office in regards to, \u2018Yes, we agree with you,\u2019 or, \u2018No, we don’t.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
LaFleur wouldn\u2019t divulge which plays were submitted, but the aforementioned four were almost certainly among them. He said the team got responses from the league to some of the questions, but not all.<\/p>\n
And if LaFleur wanted to share publicly what the league told him, he\u2019d be subject to punishment from the league. The NFL recently scolded Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay for relaying to reporters that the league had told him a pass interference penalty that went against the Rams in their loss to the Denver Broncos earlier this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard back on some of it, but that [game] feels like a week ago,\u201d LaFleur said, referring to the hyper speed turnaround to get ready for the Panthers. \u201cIt really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. You move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think officiating in this league is very easy. I really don’t. I think things happen quickly, and there’s some bang-bang, split-second decisions you\u2019ve got to make. So I don’t think they have an easy job. But all you want as a coach is consistency across the board. And sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t.\u201d<\/p>\n
While LaFleur bit his tongue in the immediate aftermath of the game, two-time All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney was a vocal critic of the officiating, using a lengthy, expletive-peppered soliloquy to sound off on what he thought was a shoddy showing from referee Alex Moore\u2019s crew.<\/p>\n
Love wasn\u2019t as outspoken on Tuesday as McKinney had been immediately after the game, but he also emphasized the inconsistency as the core issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe officiating \u2026 it is what it is. That’s kind of my mindset on the whole thing. You can’t change calls. There’s going to be calls you agree with. There’s going to be calls you disagree with. So it is what it is,\u201d said Love, who has seen the Packers defense be flagged for eight roughing-the-passer penalties this season without drawing a single one himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hope is that calls are consistent, [that] you’re getting fairness throughout the game. Every game may feel like different crews [call it differently]. You wish there’s always consistency, but every crew calls things differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mindset is always, how can you overcome whatever calls happen? How can we be better as a team, cleaning up some of those areas that we might be getting called on, or consistently are having issues with? So it’s just, how can we be better? And just focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
–30–<\/p>\n
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