Believe it or not, the NFL still plans to play Week 4 despite the tidal wave of outrage that came crashing down after Monday's controversial Packers-Seahawks finish. So apparently that means the Vikings will still travel to Detroit for Sunday's showdown with the Lions. But wait, there's more. Here's a trio of other things you should know.1 The Packers weren't the only NFC North team to get hosed by the replacement refs in Week 3.
In a wild game in Tennessee, Detroit's 44-41 overtime loss included several officiating snafus. The most notable came on the Titans' overtime field-goal drive when an unnecessary roughness penalty against Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch was marked off 27 yards. Seriously.
Tennessee quarterback Jake Locker originally completed a 24-yard pass to tight end Craig Stevens. At the play's end, Tulloch delivered an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit, drawing a personal foul. Stevens' catch was then reviewed and questionably overturned as incomplete.
Yet instead of marching off Tulloch's 15-yard penalty from the original line of scrimmage at the Tennessee 44-yard line, the refs marched it off from the Detroit 44. That meant 12 free yards for the Titans on a drive that ended with Rob Bironas' 26-yard go-ahead field goal.
It also meant a migraine headache for Lions coach Jim Schwartz.
"We knew at the time that it was being administered wrong," he said. "But we really have no recourse there. There are officials, there are observers, there are people that relay information. The thing that is most disappointing is that was a play that was reviewed. It wasn't like it was a heat-of-the-moment mistake."
2 The Vikings won't dare try to handle Lions star Calvin Johnson with single coverage.
To date, no one has. Opposing defenses have spent much of the first three weeks against Detroit with two deep safeties, rolling coverage Johnson's way at every opportunity. That's what Megatron gets for vowing to have a 2,000-yard season.
