I'm glad that was a non-call. I'm ok with the determination being made with referee discretion under the current rule. My understanding is that the spirit of the rule is to prevent some type of reverse holy roller type of situation. KJ Wright's bat out wasn't egregious.
BRING ON THE DOWNVOTES!!!!
I disagree, mostly because I think what happened is a very real example of what the rule was trying to prevent. A defender batting the ball out the back of the end zone is a much easier play to make than actually recovering the ball, and has way less downside.
If Wright is actually forced to recover the ball, there's a lot of things that can happen there. We've all seen the ball bounce in weird ways and a player that shouldn't have had a shot at it recover it. Weird things happen when the ball hits the ground, and Wright clearly sought to remove that element from the game to his team's competitive advantage. Throwing the flag wouldn't be bailing the Lions out on a technicality; it would be properly punishing the Seahawks for blatantly breaking the rules. If anything, the Lions lost on a technicality, since they fumbled the ball in what just so happens to be the
only area of the field where fumbling out of bounds is a turnover.
Really inexcusable for that flag not to be thrown, IMO. The ref had a great view of what happened, it was unambiguous, and it's a clear rule that the average
fan should know, let alone official. I think the Seahawks still win anyway even if it's thrown, either by properly recovering the fumble or by making a defensive stand after the flag, but that's not the point.
The point is that the game shouldn't end on the ref deciding not to make a clear, easy, unambiguous call. This isn't holding, where it's a play that's left up to the ref's discretion pretty much by necessity all the time. This penalty is clear and isn't really up to discretion. Wright clearly and unambiguously whacked the ball out of the end zone. It wasn't a discretion call any more than throwing a PI flag when the defender literally tackles the receiver should be. The foul was committed, there's no gray area, it's not a "this could be called on every play" thing, and there's just no credible explanation for failing to throw the flag.