Couple more Lions notes & the Tigs make a quiet move

The pass interference no-call has drawn a TON of attention, so I'd like to clear that mess up for everybody. First, it was definitely holding by Hitchens prior to the pass. Second, it was definitely pass interference. You can argue the effects of Pettigrew's hand on Hitchens' facemask (if anything was negligible contact, THAT was), but Hitchens ultimately interferred with Pettigrew's path to the ball AND it couldn't be argued that Hitchens was playing the ball, so it's pass interference.

Mike Pereira explained at the time why it was PI, and then expounded upon that & officiating in general on Colin Cowherd's radio show. I tend to agree with Pereira when he makes a judgement on a given call, and I think he does a great job of understanding the rules. I'm biased and think it was PI, most (but not all!) Cowboys fans are biased & think it wasn't. It's affirming to hear a guy who knows the rules better than anyone agree with me. The Lions got hosed (again, I thought the holding call on Levy was a bad call that cost Detroit more than the un-called PI was).

That said, the officials didn't beat the Lions. The Lions beat themselves mentally, players & coaches both. The Lions could've gone for it on 4th & 1 (averaging 5.9 yards per play). They had plenty of time (2:32 and all 3 timeouts) to score a go-ahead TD after Dallas went up by 4. Here's the play-calling on that final drive, per Gregg Easterbrook:

Falling behind 24-20, the Lions got the ball back on their 23 with two minutes remaining, holding two timeouts. Here's what happened: short pass, short pass, deep incompletion, short pass, short incompletion, short pass, short pass, fumble and Dallas sends in the victory formation. Seventy-seven yards were needed and every call save one was a short pass -- that's the "safe" thing! Ye gods.

In a totally unrelated note, Caldwell is happy with Lombardi's performance as OC and isn't expected to fire him. Look, I'm all for giving Lombardi room to grow, and certainly you can make a case that the first year of any new offense is going to be rough, but come on. I can see this scheme working, but the playcalling has been up and down. Giving Lombardi SOME credit, there were a couple of really nice plays the Lions ran in the 1st half, but when the game tightened up the playcalling was UNINSPIRED to say the least.

Speaking of uninspired, how about those rookies? The 2014 Lions draft has had pretty poor early returns. The best production they've had out of the draft has been from 3rd round C/G Travis Swanson, who stepped in capably for Larry Warford when he was injured and Dom Raiola when he was suspended. #10 overall pick Eric Ebron barely moved the needle in his 1st year, and under-performed virtually everyone drafted behind him in round 1 (most notably Odell Beckham Jr, who was taken 2 picks  after Ebron, finished with about 1,000 more yards receiving, and had the catch of the century). The 2nd round pick, Kyle Van Noy, was viewed as a good pick at the time but contributed virtually nothing all year (the few times I noticed him on the field were in the context of "who is that bum?"). 3rd round pick was Swanson, who looks ok. The rest of the draft was basically a wash.

Would a better draft have gotten the Lions past Dallas? If they had taken either OB Jr or Darqueze Dennard like most fans wanted, it certainly would have helped. The Lions' 2014 class has time to make up for a lackluster rookie season, but early returns are not good.

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The Tigers picked up Tom Gorzelanny. This is a quite, underrated move, but it makes them a LOT better. Check his 3-yr splits. He's solid against lefties, and he can spot start. This is the type of move I was hoping Dombrowski would make to solidify the 'pen.