The Detroit Lions suffered a disappointing 30-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 6 but more disappointing was a brawl at the end of the game sparked by Detroit safety Brian Branch.
Branch became the center of controversy after he struck Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster with an open hand in the game’s final seconds, marring what was a physical game between two of the top teams in the NFL.
But while the incident appeared to come down to Branch’s decision not to shake Patrick Mahomes’s hand, Branch revealed that it was more than that. Branch believed the officials missed a call with just over three minutes left in the game where he got blocked in the back.
The play may have represented the final straw on a night where the referees seemingly swallowed their whistles in favor of the Chiefs and gave Branch a good reason to let his temper boil over late in Sunday’s game.
“I’m tired of people doing stuff in between the play and refs don’t catch it,” Branch said via Nolan Bianchi of The Detroit News. “They be trying to bully me out there and I don’t – I never should have did it.”
Brian Branch May Have Snapped Over Questionable Officiating in Lions Loss to Chiefs
Sunday’s game was a relatively clean one for both sides as the officials only called four total penalties. The only problem was all four penalties went against the Lions with two having a major impact on the final result.
The first call went against the Lions on their opening drive as they decided to go for it on a 4th-and-goal from the Kansas City 1-yard line. Jared Goff lined up under center and motioned out to wide receiver before catching a screen from David Montgomery and plowing into the endzone behind Jameson Williams to seemingly give the Lions an early 6-0 lead. But the play was called for illegal formation and the Lions were forced to settle for a 28-yard field goal by Jake Bates.
The next big penalty came on a 2nd-and-7 early in the fourth quarter when Aidan Hutchinson was called for roughing the passer. Instead of facing a 3rd-and-long, the Chiefs’ offense got rolling, moving into Detroit territory and capping off the drive with a three-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to put Kansas City up 27-17 with 9:30 remaining in the game.
While those two plays were key in the outcome, so were some of the plays that weren’t called including Mahomes seemingly taunting Branch after a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. The missed calls presumably took a toll on Branch and while video of the play he was referring to was found by Jimmy Liao of Lions Wire, Lions head coach Dan Campbell didn’t use it as a valid excuse after the game.
“I love Brian Branch but what he did is inexcusable and it’s not going to be accepted here,” Campbell said via Woodward Sports. “It’s not what we do. It’s not what we’re about. I apologized to [Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid] and the Chiefs and [Smith-Schuster], that’s not OK. That’s not what we do here and it’s not going to be OK and he knows it. Our team knows it. And so that’s not what we do.”
The Lions now may lose Branch for their next game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the safety has been fined 13 times since entering the league in 2023. And it’s unlikely that Campbell will come out and blame the refs for several missed plays that contributed to the Lions loss.
In the end, it turns out to be an unfortunate incident and one that Branch will have to try to learn from in the future.