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Lions safety Miles Killebrew inexplicably wasn’t flagged for ripping Miles Sanders’ helmet off via the Eagles running back’s facemask during Detroit’s matchup against Philadelphia last weekend. Killebrew was not so lucky to escape a fine, however.
#Lions S Miles Killebrew was fined $10,527 for unnecessary roughness on his unflagged exorcism of #Eagles RB Miles Sanders’ helmet last week.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 28, 2019
But forget that. What I’d like to know is if any of the officials from that Week 3 game got fined for missing such a blatantly obvious penalty. Watch the play again with the All-22 view:
Ref at the top left appears to be watching Miles Sanders the entire play. Somehow doesn’t throw a flag for the most obvious facemask penalty ever. #Eagles pic.twitter.com/8worpJtUvl
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) September 25, 2019
Close up angle:
Miles Sanders almost had his head ripped off and there was no flag on the play. What?! pic.twitter.com/hxrevyxeDi
— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) September 22, 2019
Seven days later and I’m still wondering how the heck that goes uncalled.
To be clear, the missed penalty likely didn’t impact the final score in this game. Nelson Agholor fumbled on this drive anyway. The Lions answered with a field goal.
Regardless, the refs shouldn’t be getting such an easy call wrong. Especially for all this supposed emphasis on player safety.
What makes this missed call even more rich is that the back judge on this play was the same official — Todd Prukop — who missed the obvious pass interference penalty on the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game earlier this year. You know, the penalty that led Sean Payton on a dumb crusade to make pass interference reviewable.
It’d be nice if officials could stop missing the easy calls.