Detroit coach says he's done talking about controversial play in Seattle; Pete Carroll talks

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Coach Jim Caldwell doesn't want to talk any more about the controversial way his Detroit Lions lost Monday night — and he doesn't want his players talking about it either.


Caldwell says he doesn't want the Lions to be distracted by more discussion of Calvin Johnson's fumble on Detroit's final possession in a loss to Seattle.

The ball was knocked out of the back of the end zone by the Seahawks' K.J. Wright. Rather than flag him for illegally batting the ball, officials ruled the play a touchback.

Seattle ended up winning the game, 13-10. But if a flag had been thrown on Wright, the ball would have been given back to Detroit with a first down about six inches from the Seahawks' end zone.

Caldwell said he spoke with NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino on Tuesday, but the Detroit coach would not go into detail about that conversation.

Meanwhile, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told 710 ESPN Seattle's "Brock and Salk" show on Tuesday morning that it wasn't until he was celebrating in the locker room that he realized his team had gotten away with a penalty.

"I would have done the exact same thing. I would have done the exact same thing," Carroll said of Wright's tap. "I didn't know that rule either. I've never even seen it come up ... I don't know how anybody would have known that one."

According to 710 ESPN Seattle, Carroll said it would have been a "difficult call" for the official to make in real time, without the benefit of a slow-motion replay. Carroll said he believes that one reason that Wright wasn't flagged was because his batting of the ball was subtle.

"It happened so gracefully," Carroll told the station. "He just did just a little tap on the ball and it's over, in the direction it was going; it was going out anyway. So you could see why the guy maybe didn't see the thing."