Packers safety Xavier McKinney unloads on NFL refs and says what Matt LaFleur wouldn’t say out loud
The All-Pro was obviously not happy without how the Packers game against the Lions was officiated.
The Green Bay Packers left Detroit with a 20-17 loss to the Lions, and it’s hard to separate the result of the game from the officiating. Several very questionable calls were made, especially roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness ones. And while head coach Matt LaFleur had a measured approach, safety Xavier McKinney unloaded his feelings in the locker room.
“It’s kinda [expletive] up the games if I’m being honest,” McKinney said. “We’re not seeing the same calls for our quarterback.”
McKinney said he’s willing to pay a fine if that means helping call out what’s happened over the past few weeks.
“They’re going to fine you for anything in this league at this point,” McKinney added. “’d rather get fined trying to help my team because I see what’s going on, and it’s killing us. We all see it, the fans see it, and we’re out there watching these plays wondering why certain calls are being made when they don’t make any sense. Then you’re not even reviewing the calls. You’re just making them, and when you point it out, there’s always an excuse. A lot of things don’t make sense right now. At the end of the day, we still have to find ways to win, but the officiating is making it that much harder.”
Matt LaFleur has a more measured approach
Head coach Matt LaFleur was obviously not pleased with how the officials called the game either. Multiple roughing the passer penalties played a key role in the defeat. So did an unnecessary roughness flag on Devonte Wyatt for a late hit.
LaFleur was not emphatic against the referees during his postgame press conference. He doesn’t believe criticizing the officiating will help the Packers at all. Still, he made his frustration clear, at least between the lines.
“Again, I can say what I really think, but I don’t think it does any good,” the head coach explained. “So it is what it is. You just gotta overcome it.”
LaFleur said he didn’t get many explanations from the officials about the calls throughout the game. The Wyatt play stood out above the rest. The officials flagged Wyatt for unnecessary roughness on Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, and LaFleur described what he saw from the sideline:
“No whistle blown and the guy continued to run and our guy didn’t hear a whistle,” LaFleur said. “He continued to play too and then we get called for a penalty. So I don’t know, they were trying to tell me that the play was obviously dead. I’m like, how do you know if you don’t hear a whistle? So I don’t know if you guys heard a whistle. I did not hear a whistle.”
That was as far as LaFleur was willing to go. He made a point of not commenting on the rest of the penalties.
Mistakes to clean up on a short week
Outside of the officiating, LaFleur was relatively fine with the team’s performance. He pointed to the dropped passes and the field goal struggles from rookie kicker Trey Smack. He also mentioned some defensive penalties, such as offside calls, because pre-snap penalties have become a repeated mistake for this defense.
Even so, LaFleur believes the team still carries some momentum. Green Bay now faces a quick turnaround, hosting the Carolina Panthers on “Thursday Night Football.”
“Obviously very disappointed right now,” LaFleur said. ”I thought our team competed, they battled, but it was just not capitalizing on some premier opportunities right there. Great stuff by our defense to give us the ball in great field position. And we didn’t capitalize on it and miss a field goal. So this is a tough one, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to move on, and we’ve got a tough opponent coming in on Thursday night.”
The loss drops the Packers to 4-3. Despite the winning record, Green Bay sits in last place in the NFC North.
