The Detroit Lions and quarterback Jared Goff dropped their final chance for getting to the postseason on Sunday, December 21, with a loss to Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. The Lions played hard and got close, but at the end, Detroit lost with a 29-24 final score and let the 2025-26 playoffs slip away.
During that game, there was a controversial moment at the end that was simply confusing. As the clock went down to zero, the referees called the game over after an offensive pass interference call, following Amon-Ra St. Brown pushing Jalen Ramsey in his route.
After a review, the officials said the touchdown counted, but it didn’t, and the whole incident was confusing. “I was all kinds of confused on the final play of the Steelers-Lions game,” one Lions viewer said on X.
After the game, Goff talked about the controversial game ending, and that put him in line for a possible NFL punishment. Now, the league has made it’s final decision.
Jared Goff Comments on Detroit Lions Game Ending
Players aren’t supposed to publicly criticize referees after games. That’s in the NFL rulebook. But, player are only human, and following the game, Goff spoke out about how it ended. He called it a “bad call.”
“The one where St. caught it that we thought was a touchdown, in my opinion, that’s a bad call, but those happen,” Goff said. “Listen, man, they’ve got a tough job and they make calls that go our way all the time, but that one in particular he should not hang his head about and I know he’d like to have the in line back again.”
Every week during the season, the NFL hands out punishments to players for actions taken during the previous week’s games. The NFL states on their official website that these actions are “to protect players from unnecessary risk and preserve competitive balance and game integrity.” Before the season begins, the NFL and NFL Players Association agree on the set of game-related rules violations that result in these accountability measures.
On Saturday, December 27, the NFL announced their decision on Goff, and there was no fine and no punishment for the signal-caller. It’s nice to see that the NFL understands these players are human with real emotions, and they can’t help but comment sometimes, especially when everyone is talking about a certain play or call.
Jared Goff Was Confused About the Detroit Lions Penalty
Also after the game, Goff talked about that moment when he knew there was a penalty. But, he wasn’t sure if it was on the Lions or Steelers.
“Yeah, I knew there was a penalty. Was hoping it was defensive and then we either have another play if St. was down,” Goff said. “When I saw he wasn’t down, hoping it’s defensive and we get the touchdown and win the game, but didn’t go that way and we lost.”
Now, the Detroit Lions have some soul-searching and decision-making to do ahead of the 2026-27 season. It’s never too early to start planning for the future, especially for a franchise that was so close to victory just a year ago.
