Detroit Lions (Don't) Defeat Chicago Bears, Final Score (not) 21-19

Forgive me for an angry rant. It has just been a bad day.

The happiest I was today was when the Detroit Lions scored with about 90 seconds left in the first half. It definitely looked like Honolulu Blue was going to march into the locker room with a 14-3 lead.

And then the Lions showed up. Not the strong, fumble-forcing, mistake-proof team we had seen for the previous 28:30, but the ones the team is trying not to be associated with.

It took 90 seconds for the Bears to put up 10 points and put Matthew Stafford's arm in a sling for the rest of the game.

And sadly, that wasn't the worst thing that happened today.

No, that would be when the Lions went on to win the game. Because even Bears fans know that what happened at Soldier Field may have been correct, but it wasn't right.

As you likely know, the Detroit Lions did not beat the Chicago Bears this Sunday. After the best half of defensive football I've seen the Lions play in a decade, the Lions finally surrendered a touchdown inside the two-minute warning. The only points scored in the entire half.

A failed two-point conversion meant the Bears led, 19-14.

Shaun Hill capped a fantastic two-minute offense with a beautiful throw to Calvin Johnson, which he caught, and came down with in the end zone. The line judge ruled touchdown, and I probably broke a couple of noise violations.

But wait, there's more.

After a conference on the field, that call was overruled. As Johnson went to the ground, he had the ball palmed in his right hand. Both feet went down, then both knees. His rear end. His left hand. All indisputably in-bounds, in the end zone.

Then Johnson went to get up, using his right hand, or more specifically, the football. He allowed the football to pop out of his hand as he pushed himself up to celebrate.

Apparently, getting up is considered part of the process of falling down. Maybe they should tighten that rule up a little.

Now, before I go any further, let me congratulate the Bears on the victory. This isn't about sour grapes. I hate the Bears, but they did dominate the majority of the game, statistically. It's not like they didn't deserve to win.

This call has nothing to do with their efforts in the contest, and if either team had gotten anything going offensively in the first 28 minutes of the second half, this would have been a non-issue.

But as it turned out, it was a game-determining call, and Lions fans know how they come out on those.

I can't, in good conscience, challenge the ruling, as made, on the field. They way the play looked, the way the rulebook was described, I understand that the referee had to make that call the way it was. It was the correct call.

But it was the wrong call. It was the wrong call, and everybody in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Soldier Field knows it. Including the officials.

Perhaps not the call, though. More likely, we're looking at the correct call made on a rule that needs some fine-tuning.

This call will almost certainly come up in the officials' offseason meeting to discuss rule changes, and it will almost certainly be the catalyst for a rule change. The next time that happens, it needs to be a catch.

And so, as it has been so many times in the past, the Lions fall victim to another road loss, as victims of unfathomably bad circumstances. A microcosm of what it has meant to be a Lions fan.

Injuries to key players, getting destroyed statistically, hopeless situations, none of these have ever stopped the Lions from putting themselves in positions to win football games, and then failing to do so in the most heart-wrenching way possible.

Only this time, it wasn't the Lions' fault. Maybe that helps in the future, but right now, I've got a knot in my stomach, an urge to drink, and a remote-sized hole in my TV.

Better luck next week, Official NFL Rulebook.