ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Bruce Arians saw Seattle linebacker K.J. Wright bat the football out of the end zone during Monday Night Football against the Detroit Lions and immediately he knew that play was illegal.
He wasn’t totally sure of the rule, but he knew it was not allowed, and if it happened to him, he’d still be livid.
“I’d still be in the hospital, high blood pressure,” Arians said on a conference call with Detroit reporters Wednesday. “Every week now we have a call in a game that is determining outcomes of games. We had an obvious fumble that was blown dead on forward progress after the initial hit [last Sunday]. We would have had the ball on the 5-yard line going in last week.
“Every game seems to be another critical call that’s non-reviewable.”
Arians said he supported Bill Belichick’s proposal last season that would have allowed all plays to be reviewed, but that proposal was voted down.
He also said he would support full-time officials in the league instead of the current situation, where officials are essentially part-time employees.
“Totally,” Arians said. “You’ve got guys that are basically part-time making all the judgments on the outcomes of the games.”
In trying to teach his players about these rules and situations, he has his personal assistant go through every game played in the league hunting out these types of plays so he can use them as teachable moments.
This play, where Lions receiver Calvin Johnson fumbled on the 1-yard line after Seattle safety Kam Chancellor knocked the ball loose. With the ball bouncing in the end zone, Wright knocked it out of bounds. After conferring, officials called it a Seahawks touchback with under two minutes left in Seattle’s 13-10 win over Detroit on Monday night.
NFL officiating czar Dean Blandino then said the Lions should have maintained possession because intentionally batting a ball out of bounds is against the rules.
So Wright’s batted ball will be on that list.
“You really teach them by other guys’ mistakes. We have a coach that goes through the entire league, games, looking for crazy things like that,” Arians said. “Things that happen in a two-minute situation or any kind of situational football that we can instruct our football team from and that’s obviously one we’ll show our team.”