Packers roughing the passer penalties decided another game on Sunday. Green Bay were flagged twice for hits on Jared Goff, and the second, on Karl Brooks with 2:40 left and the score tied, kept alive the drive that ended with Jake Bates' 22-yard field goal as time expired in Detroit's 20-17 win. That makes eight roughing calls against the Packers in seven games, the most in the NFL. More weekend sport: our Barcelona 1-2 Real Madrid match report and Liverpool's 2-0 win over Brighton.
- Fixture
- Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions, NFL Week 7
- Score
- Lions 20–17 Packers
- Venue
- Ford Field, Detroit
- Date
- Sunday 25 October 2026, on FOX
- Referee
- Alex Moore
- Records
- Lions 4-2, Packers 4-3 (last in the NFC North)
Key points
- Green Bay have 8 roughing-the-passer penalties in 7 games; no other team had more than 4 on Monday, per NFLPenalties.com.
- The Packers had 8 penalties for 81 yards in Detroit.
- Penalties gave the Lions 5 first downs, their most in a game since 2020, the Associated Press reported.
- Brooks and Brenton Cox Jr. now have two roughing calls each this season.
How the two roughing calls shaped Lions vs Packers
The first flag came in the third quarter. Detroit led 17-14 and faced third-and-10. Goff's pass fell incomplete, but Moore flagged Cox for roughing after Cox was blocked into the quarterback, according to the Packers' official game report. The flag erased a third-down stop. The Packers still held, forcing a turnover on downs at their own 6.
The second flag mattered more. With the game tied at 17, rookie kicker Trey Smack missed a 35-yard field goal wide right, his second miss after a 26-yarder earlier. Goff then found tight end Sam LaPorta for 18 yards on second-and-8, and Brooks was flagged as he brought Goff down. A neutral zone infraction on Brooks on third-and-5 at the two-minute warning extended the drive again, Jahmyr Gibbs picked up another first down, and Bates won it on the final play. Detroit covered 71 yards in 10 plays.
Green Bay hurt themselves too: Smack became the first kicker since 2019 to miss two field goals from 35 yards or closer in one game, per Sportradar data cited by the AP. But without the Brooks flag, Detroit still needed far more yards to reach range.
What the roughing-the-passer rule says
Roughing the passer is Rule 12, Section 2, Article 11 of the NFL rulebook. The foul costs 15 yards plus an automatic first down. Three parts explain Sunday's arguments.
The one-step limit
After the ball is released, a rusher may make direct contact only up through his first step.. The rule adds that contact by a player "being blocked into the passer" should not be considered significant, which is why the Cox call drew so much criticism.
Body weight and the head
A defender must not land on the quarterback "with all or most of the defender's weight" and should fall to the side. Forcible hits to the head or neck are banned. On the FOX broadcast, rules analyst Dean Blandino said the Brooks hit "wasn't late," that Goff's "head is up," and called it a "teach-tape tackle."
A judgment call
These fouls are called when, "in the game official's judgment," contact is unwarranted. That judgment is exactly what Green Bay dispute.
Packers roughing the passer penalties: eight in seven games
NFLPenalties.com's game log shows how the flags built up:
| Week | Opponent | Calls | Players flagged |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minnesota | 1 | Chris McClellan |
| 2 | N.Y. Jets | 1 | Lukas Van Ness |
| 3 | Atlanta | 1 | Brenton Cox Jr. |
| 6 | Dallas | 3 | Van Ness, Brooks, Evan Williams |
| 7 | Detroit | 2 | Cox, Brooks |
The same tracker counts 49 roughing calls across the league, about 1.5 per team. Carolina, Cleveland and Kansas City are next with four each, so Green Bay have twice as many as anyone else. Five of the eight came in the last two games, including three in a 23-13 home win over Dallas.
Our read: an aggressive rush will draw flags, and players can be coached to roll off the quarterback. But five calls in two weeks, one of them called plainly wrong by the broadcast booth, is not just technique.
Key players and what they said
- Xavier McKinney: the safety was the most outspoken. "I'm not a big fan of the refs right now," he said, adding that he would "rather get fined and try to help my team out."
- Matt LaFleur: "I don't even want to comment on any of the penalties," the coach said, while admitting there "were some tough calls."
- Tom Brady: reacting to the Brooks flag on FOX: "No, my goodness, what is that? There's no way." He also questioned an unnecessary roughness flag on Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes, so he criticised both sides.
- Micah Parsons: still recovering from a torn ACL, he wrote during the game that the league might as well switch to flag football if every touch on a quarterback is roughing.
- Jared Goff: 22 of 32 for 303 yards and two touchdowns; Amon-Ra St. Brown caught 9 passes for 153 yards.
What's next
The Packers host the Carolina Panthers on Thursday 29 October at 7:15 p.m. CDT (8:15 p.m. ET), which is 03:15 AST on Friday in Riyadh, on Prime Video. US clocks fall back on 1 November, shifting later kickoffs for viewers abroad; our daylight saving time guide has the new times.
FAQ
How many roughing the passer penalties do the Packers have?
Eight in seven games, the most in the NFL.
Who was called for roughing the passer against the Lions?
Brenton Cox Jr. in the third quarter and Karl Brooks with 2:40 left, both for hits on Jared Goff.
Who refereed Packers vs Lions?
Alex Moore's crew.
What is the penalty for roughing the passer?
15 yards and an automatic first down.
How we checked this
We checked the score, both calls and the stats against the Packers' game report and the AP, took quotes from ESPN, USA Today and Yahoo Sports, season counts from NFLPenalties.com and the rule text from the NFL rulebook (26 Oct 2026, 15:00 AST).
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