DETROIT – The Detroit Lions appeared to have the game won, settling into their victory formation. The Los Angeles Rams seemed not so happy about that, so on the game’s final possession the Rams defenders went full-speed on Matthew Stafford’s first kneel-down.
Stafford didn’t take too kindly to that, so after the Lions kneeled down on the second play of the final drive during the Lions’ 31-28 win, both teams briefly got into a kerfuffle on the field.
“I mean, I wasn’t real fired up about what happened on the first one,” Stafford said of the kneel-downs. “We took the second knee, I’m sure that didn’t feel any better for them. So I just let them know how I felt about it.”
The on-field antics were broken up quickly and appeared to go mostly without incident. What the Rams were doing is not illegal, and is reminiscent of what the Greg Schiano-era Tampa Bay Buccaneers would do at the end of some close games in order to try to get the ball back. Pro Football Talk explains the incident here.
But it could have been much worse.
“I’m not sure of all the things that went on,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. “But it wasn’t pretty there for a second or two, but I think we got it under control.”
