It's pretty common across the NFL landscape for fans to think the officials are biased against their team. Detroit Lions fans might have some validity to that claim, based on the penalty data from the 2024 season.
Using the updated final penalty statistics from NFL Penalties, the Lions were on the wrong end of the whistle quite a bit in 2024. There were several categories across the season where Dan Campbell's Lions had wide discrepancies between penalties that cost them vs. penalties that benefited Detroit.
Take the pass defense as a prime example. Detroit was flagged for defensive pass interference 19 times in 18 games, including the playoffs. Only Washington (22 in 20 games) earned more DPI flags. The Commanders and Jets were the only teams to lose more yards to defensive pass interference flags.
Going a little deeper, the Lions were called for 13 of those DPIs at home. That's the most, as you might suspect. Now flip the script to the Lions offense drawing defensive pass interference...
There was one and only one DPI call all season against teams facing the Lions offense. It came in Week 8 against the Tennessee Titans, when Titans DB Jarvis Brownlee was guilty of pass interference on a 3rd-and-6 play deep inside Tennessee territory on a pass from Jared Goff to Kalif Raymond. That's the list.
To put the cherry on top, on Tennessee's next offensive drive, Lions safety Brian Branch was flagged for pass interference twice.
It wasn't just pass interference. The Lions defense was also flagged for the most holding calls of any team, with 11 in 17 games. They technically had 14 flagged incidents, but the offense declined three of those. On the flip side, no offense saw fewer calls of holding on the defense against them than Detroit. It happened exactly once, in Week 9 against the Packers in Green Bay. The Lions offense did earn two other defensive holding calls, but they were declined.
Some of the massive discrepancy is stylistic. The Lions played a very aggressive, press-man coverage on defense under Aaron Glenn. Meanwhile, the Lions offense under Ben Johnson was very adept at creating space for the receivers, and QB Jared Goff also tends to not put the ball at risk where a defender might be able to make a play. Even accounting for that, it's still an egregious discrepancy.
