There were many odd moments in the Packers’ loss to the Lions. One of them happened late in the first half. The Lions were set to kick a field goal as time ran out. Suddenly, Rasul Douglas steps in the middle of the two lines and grabs the ball. After a lot of commotion, Douglas was flagged for a 15-yard penalty. It made the field goal much more makeable and cut the Packers’ lead to just three at halftime. After the game, Rasul Douglas explained the weird interaction.
Rasul Douglas: "I smacked the ball out of the snapper’s hand and he just pushed me, so I turned around and pushed him back and they called a flag on me. I’m not doing no free kicks … I feel like that was a good thing for me to do, but the result at the end is a bad thing."
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) January 9, 2023
Rasul Douglas Explains Interaction
It was hard to understand while in the moment. Essentially, Matt LaFleur had called timeout and the ref was coming in to stop the play. Douglas did not want the Lions to get a practice kick and made sure to stop the play. This caused a little scuffle to break out and Douglas got caught. Here is the full quote from Douglas.
“I smacked the ball out of the snapper’s hand and he just pushed me, so I turned around and pushed him back and they called a flag on me. I’m not doing no free kicks … I feel like that was a good thing for me to do, but the result at the end is a bad thing.”
As often happens in these situations, it is the person that retaliates that gets caught. Douglas tried to enter into some gamesmanship and it hurt the team.
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Poor Discipline All-Around
Last night, the Packers’ lack of discipline was on full display. I get what Rasul Douglas was trying to do but it put him in a compromising position. In a game like that, you never want to put yourself in situations where the referee is going to have to make a judgment call on who is to blame for the scuffle. It was one of many odd plays that the Packers’ defense made last night. Quay Walker was kicked out for pushing a member of the Lions’ medical staff. Overall, the team needs to be smarter in huge situations.
Rasul Douglas and the rest of the Packers will have an entire offseason to think about their actions. It will be interesting to see what Matt LaFleur does this offseason to try and fix some of the mental errors that the Packers made this season.
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