Not making excuses for the refs in the Detroit/Dallas game, but every team has stories about getting hosed. For what it's worth, I think all the petty rules and the difficult and uneven enforcement of them is hurting the integrity of the game. The refs had yet another bad moment in yet another game. What else is new? But the Lions had a chance to go for it on 4th down and Caldwell chose not to do so. The refs' performance at that moment is not the only reason that the Lions lost that game. Punting the ball afterwards was an act of submission.
I seem to remember a game in Chicago at the end of last season where a certain QB led his team to victory by converting 4th down three times in one late drive and it culminated in a TD pass that won the game plus the division title. It was also the first game back for that QB after he had missed nearly half the season to a broken clavicle. Stafford could not win the game for the Lions because even his own coach lacked the confidence that he could do it. Otherwise, he would have let him try to win the game. He's no Aaron Rodgers.
This Sunday Dallas gets to face the QB who can and has won that type of game. The aren't facing Matthew Stafford or his wilting head coach. Instead of countering Stafford with a perennial stat hound who has totally come up small under late season pressures of seasons past, they get a guy who's won both League and SB MVPs. He's no Matthew Stafford. Unlike his upcoming opponent, he has proven that he can do it.
If I were a fan of either team I would be playing closer attention to that QB match-up than the possible, nay inevitable, bad calls by the refs. Barring injury to one or both of them, the game may be decided by who wins the QB match-up, not by who conducts a flag-a-thon. Championship history, or lack thereof, may have provided us a preview of that outcome. Some guys are made for the moment and some aren't. Up to this moment we know who's who.
