What exactly was Tracy Walker supposed to do here?
The Detroit Lions once again ran afoul of a questionable call by the officiating crew that ultimately resulted in points on the board against them. Safety Tracy Walker performed a routine tackle on QB Kirk Cousins that resulted in a roughing the passer penalty.
Take a look for yourself and judge if that call makes any sense.
This was flagged for roughing the passer. Horrendous. pic.twitter.com/c1tA7j89Ao
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) January 3, 2021
It wasn’t long before Minnesota would proceed to extend their lead over Detroit thanks to the call.
Conversely, it wasn’t long before reaction began pouring in on social media from everyone from fans to media members:
@NFL that roughing the passer call on Tracy Walker in the @Lions game was the worst roughing call in the history of the game. Your referees need to get their act together before you start losing more viewers.
— Chris Richardson (@cmfnr6) January 3, 2021
Wait what?
— Tyrell Crosby (@Tyrellcrosby) January 3, 2021
That was an absolutely brutal call on the Lions' Tracy Walker for roughing the passer on his Cousins sack. Just awful. But hey, if the Lions are going to jeopardize their draft position by hanging around, someone has to step in! Ref did the Lions a solid.
— Bob Wojnowski (@bobwojnowski) January 3, 2021
Easily the worst roughing the passer penalty that truly wasn’t just happened in Detroit to erase a turnover on downs for the Lions.
Seek it out. Just dreadful.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) January 3, 2021
Lot of people asking what #Lions’ Tracy Walker should have done to avoid roughing the passer on 4th down. Answer: NOTHING! Was an egregiously wrong call. Period.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) January 3, 2021
That roughing-the-passer call on Lions safety Tracy Walker is so embarrassingly bad I don’t know what to think. Lol. AND replacement-ref guy was two feet from it. I mean, what are we doing here? #Vikings
— Paul Allen (@PAOnTheMic) January 3, 2021
We see examples of why it's so difficult to defend in modern football every week — that roughing the passer flag on Tracy Walker is definitely on the list. No idea what else you're supposed to do on that one. .
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) January 3, 2021
I want the Lions to lose really badly. But to call that roughing the passer on Tracy Walker is so egregious, it could rank in the top 5 worst calls against the lions (not in magnitude or long term impact, but just bad call) of all time.
— Tony Garcia | Detroit Free Press (@RealTonyGarcia) January 3, 2021
I am unsure how that was roughing the passer on Tracy Walker.
— Michael Rothstein (@mikerothstein) January 3, 2021
Even Dean Blandino, whom Lions fans aren’t exactly fond of, couldn’t defend the call on the field.
#MINvsDET | 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/g0zwOt0gOi
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 3, 2021
That ref should be fired because he is garbage and fuck the nfl, Joke man!!!
I have seen the ref’s do this to the lion’s many,many,many times and each time they help the other team. I hope that the NFL ref’s spend their brag money very well because they are being bribed nobody could make a call like that and not know that they were helping the other team. I also vote at that rev should be fired TDog is out!!!
Thanks referees for another call against my team. It would be nice to see the league do something like a fine for such bad calls this happens almost every game to the Lions!!!!!! The players get fined for bad hits time for the referees to get the same treatment.