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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andrew Joseph

NFL fans ripped the refs after awful officiating in Rams-Seahawks ended the Lions’ playoff hopes

The Detroit Lions have been one of the major surprises this NFL season, but in true Lions fashion, their season effectively ended in a game they didn’t even play in.

With the Lions needing a Seahawks loss to the Rams and then a win over the Packers on Sunday Night Football to make the playoffs, Lions fans were forced to put their faith in Baker Mayfield and the struggling Rams to steal a road win in Seattle. And for much of the game, the Rams were doing just enough to get that job done.

Then, the officials seemingly took over the game.

The Seahawks put together a game-tying drive thanks in part to a bad running into the kicker penalty that extended the possession. Then, the Seahawks had an opportunity to win in regulation when Jalen Ramsey was called for unnecessary roughness after hitting Geno Smith near the sidelines despite Smith making no clear effort to go out of bounds.

Though Jason Myers would miss his field goal and send the game into overtime, the officiating continued to benefit the Seahawks here. In overtime, Mayfield underthrew a potential touchdown pass to Van Jefferson, resulting in a Quandre Diggs interception. Diggs, though, should have been called for taunting when he pointed at the Rams sideline.

The Seahawks were then able to get into Myers’ range and win, 19-16, in overtime. NFL fans could not believe the bad luck the Lions had in a game that took place almost 2,000 miles from them.

This was how Twitter reacted

And after all that, the Seahawks’ playoff hopes rely on the Lions beating the Packers. We’ll see how that goes.

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