Two roughing the passer flags on Green Bay helped Detroit beat the Packers 20-17 at Ford Field on Sunday. The rulebook explains why both calls stood. Roughing is a judgment foul, and replay can overturn it in only one narrow case that neither play appears to fit.
The calls gave Detroit two first downs, the second on its game-winning drive. They also took Green Bay to eight roughing flags this season, the most in the league. Green Bay’s opponents have not been flagged for it once, according to NFLPenalties.com’s 2026 data.
What happened on the two plays
The first flag came with about four minutes left in the third quarter and Detroit leading 17-14. Jared Goff threw incomplete on third-and-10, which would have meant a punt from the Lions’ 48. Officials flagged Packers linebacker Brenton Cox Jr. instead, Yahoo Sports’ Jason Owens reported. Owens wrote that Cox “barely touched Goff’s torso with two hands.”
Detroit kept the ball for eight more plays but turned it over on downs at the Green Bay 6. That flag produced no points.
The second came with the game tied 17-17 and under three minutes left. Goff hit tight end Sam LaPorta for 18 yards on second-and-8. Defensive tackle Karl Brooks hit Goff as he released the ball. The 15-yard penalty moved the ball from the Detroit 45 to the Green Bay 40, Yahoo reported.
The drive went 71 yards and ended with Jake Bates’ 22-yard field goal at the gun, Packers.com’s Wes Hodkiewicz wrote. The flag was not the only Packers mistake on that drive. After the two-minute warning, Goff’s hard count drew Green Bay offside on third down, The Detroit News reported.
The rule is Article 11, and it starts with judgment
Roughing the passer is Rule 12, Section 2, Article 11 in the 2026 NFL rulebook. Article 9 of the same section covers players in a “defenseless posture.” The roughing rule borrows that idea, so a passer counts as defenseless.
The rule’s core test is subjective. It covers “any physical acts against a player who is in a passing posture (i.e. before, during, or after attempting a pass) which, in the game official’s judgment, are unwarranted by the circumstances of the play.” Those acts “will be called as fouls.”
It then lists principles. Three of them map onto Sunday’s plays.
The one-step limit. After the ball leaves the passer’s hand, a rusher may make direct contact “only up through the rusher’s first step after such release.” After that he must try to avoid contact.
The body-weight clause. A defender must not “unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight.” He should fall to the side or brace himself with his arms.
The blocked-into exception. The rule says “incidental or inadvertent contact by a player who is easing up or being blocked into the passer will not be considered significant.”
The penalty is 15 yards and an automatic first down, with disqualification if the hit is flagrant.
Where each flag sits in that text
The Cox play turns on the last principle. Hodkiewicz wrote that Cox drew the flag “after being blocked into” Goff. Cox said he was trying to pull up but his hands hit Goff’s abdomen, according to Packers.com.
“It’s disappointing that these are veteran guys,” Cox told reporters. He said officials should “know the difference between what’s intentional and what’s not.” If the referee saw it differently, the rule leaves that call to him.
The Brooks play turns on timing and force. On the Fox broadcast, rules analyst Dean Blandino ruled out the obvious triggers.
“It wasn’t late. They might have said head-neck area, but this is not head-neck area. His head is up. That’s teach-tape tackle. That’s not roughing the passer,” he said, as quoted by The Comeback.
Fox analyst Tom Brady agreed. “My goodness, what is that?” he said. “That’s definitely not roughing the passer.”
Blandino ran NFL officiating as a league vice president from 2013 to 2017. His points track two of the rule’s tests, timing and the head-neck area. On the earlier Cox flag he said, per Yahoo: “I don’t like it as roughing.”
Why replay could not fix either call
Coaches cannot challenge a roughing call, and the replay booth cannot simply reverse it. Rule 15, Section 4 says anything not listed as reviewable is not reviewable. Fouls are not on that list.
The one opening is “replay assist” in Rule 15, Section 9. It applies when roughing is called “based only on a hit to the passer’s head or neck area.” League staff can then step in if video shows clearly that the defender never touched that area.
That is the scenario Blandino raised in passing. But nothing in the sources we opened says the crew called either foul for a head or neck hit.
Referee Alex Moore did speak to a pool reporter. As quoted by Packers.com and Packers On SI, he explained a flag on Devonte Wyatt and a grounding call on Jordan Love. Neither report includes an explanation of the two roughing calls.
A 2026 change lets replay add a flag officials missed, but only for ejections or during an officials’ work stoppage, Football Zebras reported. Neither situation applied on Sunday.
Packers safety Xavier McKinney pointed to that gap. Officials are “not even reviewing what you’re calling,” he said, according to Packers.com. “I would rather get fined and try to help my team out,” he added.
Green Bay’s eight flags in seven games
League-wide, officials have called roughing the passer 49 times in 106 games through Sunday, NFLPenalties.com shows. Through Week 7 of 2025, the site counts 46 in 108 games, so the league-wide rate has barely moved.
Green Bay is the outlier. Its eight flags are double the next-highest teams, Carolina, Cleveland and Kansas City, with four each.
Five of the eight came in the past two games. Three were against Dallas in Week 6, one of them on Brooks. Cox was also flagged against Atlanta in Week 3, the site’s penalty log shows.
Packers.com noted that Love “still has yet to draw one.” The Lions, by the same count, have benefited from three roughing calls this season.
Judgment calls draw this kind of fight in every sport. A study of robot umpires in Korean baseball suggested human calls can lean toward star players. The NFL has also issued new officiating guidance after complaints before, as with the Eagles’ tush push.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur kept his answer short. “I don’t even want to comment on any of the penalties,” he said, per Yahoo. Injured pass rusher Micah Parsons posted: “Let’s just go to flag football if everytime a qb gets touched it’s roughing the passer!”
What the league reviews next
The Packers (4-3) sit last in the NFC North, a half-game behind Detroit (4-2), Yahoo reported. The league’s officiating department reviews every play from every game and refers possible violations for fines. Its fine schedule sets a roughing fine at $17,911 for a first offense and $23,882 for a second.
Supervisors grade each official on every play, starting on Monday and Tuesday, NFL Football Operations says. Moore’s crew should have its Week 7 evaluations, including both roughing calls, by Wednesday or Thursday.
.jpg){kind=link}
