Let’s get one thing straight up front: The Green Bay Packers did not lose to the Detroit Lions solely because of the officiating on Sunday afternoon at Ford Field in Detroit. 

The Packers certainly had plenty to blame themselves for after their 20-17 loss, from rookie kicker Trey Smack missing 26- and 35-yard field-goal attempts, to running back Josh Jacobs dropping a potential go-ahead touchdown pass, to scoring just one touchdown in four trips into the red zone.

But the work of referee Alex Moore and his crew certainly factored into the defeat, too — whether Packers head coach Matt LaFleur wanted to say so or not.

“I don’t even want to comment on any of the penalties. I just … it is what it is. You’ve got to play above it,” LaFleur said. “I thought there were some tough calls, but it is what it is.”

Later, LaFleur added, “Sure, I can say what I really think, but I don’t think it does any good. So it is what it is. You’ve just got to overcome it.”

His players took a decidedly different approach — especially two-time All-Pro safety and defensive co-captain Xavier McKinney.

“I don’t know how the NFL’s going to treat it, but I’m not a big fan of the refs right now. I don’t think it’s great officiating, if I’m being completely honest,” McKinney told a gaggle of reporters inside the visitors’ locker room afterward.

“I think it’s [expletive] a lot of the times. There are drives where they make calls that don’t even make any sense. … It’s just [expletive] that’s going on, [expletive] calls, and I can’t really tell you because sometimes we’re not seeing the same calls for our quarterback, we’re not seeing the same calls for our offensive guys.

“I just don’t really understand. It really don’t matter if it’s home or away, it’s kind of been consistent throughout the year. Obviously, it’s not to make it as an excuse, but it’s got to go both ways, man. That’s all I’ll say.”

Asked if he was concerned about drawing a fine from the league for his comments, McKinney replied, “I don’t really care. It is what it is. They’re going to fine you for anything at this point in this league, so I would rather get fined and try to help my team out because I see what’s going on — and it’s killing us.

“Everyone sees what’s going on. The fans see what’s going on. We see what’s going on when we’re out there. I’m looking at the plays and I’m like, ‘Hold up, why are they calling this? It don’t even make any sense.’ … It’s a lot of [expletive] that doesn’t make sense right now. But at the end of the day, we’ve still got to find way to go there and win these games. But it’s making it a little bit harder when the officiating is that way, if I’m being honest.”

Four calls stood out in particular.

The Packers were flagged for a pair of roughing-the-passer calls, one when edge rusher Brenton Cox fell headlong into Lions quarterback Jared Goff at the end of one play and another when defensive tackle Karl Brooks took Goff down as he released the ball with what appeared to be a legal hit. Those two roughing-the-passer penalties gave the Packers eight such calls in seven games, while their opponents haven’t been flagged for it even once against Jordan Love.

Love was also flagged for an intentional-grounding penalty on an incomplete pass on the first play of the fourth quarter on a throw where he was outside the tackle box and throwing toward tight end Tucker Kraft but the ball didn’t get back to the line of scrimmage. The normally unemotional Love reacted in frustration.

“[Moore] said that the ball was short of the line of scrimmage,” Love said. “I thought we had a receiver right there in the area. It is what it is.”

The most egregious call that went against the Packers came midway through the third quarter with the Packers leading, 14-10. On second-and-11 from the Packers’ 27-yard line, Goff hit Amon-Ra St. Brown for a 4-yard gain.

But instead of a third-and-7 at Green Bay’s 23, Wyatt was flagged for a personal foul for tackling St. Brown as he got up and appeared to try to keep running, believing he’d landed on linebacker Isaiah McDuffie and not actually touched the ground.

When Wyatt grabbed St. Brown and suplexed him, St. Brown inadvertently kicked umpire Terry Killens in the midsection, and Killens threw his flag into the air while flat on his back on the ground.

Afterward, McKinney, Wyatt and LaFleur all said they never heard a whistle blow, and Moore admitted it was possible that the play never was blown dead.

“We ruled that the play was over,” Moore told a pool reporter. “I can’t honestly hear if there was a whistle or not, but the tackler (McDuffie) made the tackle, the play was over. Then, there was an additional action, and he basically tackled him again with force after the play was over.”

Asked for his perspective on the play, LaFleur replied, “There was no whistle blown and the guy (St. Brown) continued to run and our guy (Wyatt) didn’t hear a whistle, he continued to play too, and then we get called for a penalty.

“They were trying to tell me the play was obviously dead. I’m like, ‘How do you know if you don’t hear a whistle?’ I don’t know if you guys heard a whistle, [but] I did not hear a whistle.”

Two plays later, Goff threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jameson Williams for a 17-14 lead.

“I didn’t hear no whistle at all. If you asked me right now, I’d do the same thing 100 times over,” Wyatt said. “The refs, they’ve got to figure out what they need to do because I definitely did my job.

“What if he would’ve gotten up and ran for a touchdown? Then everybody would be looking at D-Wy like, ‘You let him go’. I feel like I did the right thing. Flag or not, I feel like I did the right thing.”

Added McKinney: “The runner was still running and we didn’t hear a whistle. We tried to get him down and then their player hit the ref and he falls, he gets mad on the ground, and he just throws the flag. He doesn’t even know who hit him.”

What hit the Packers (4-3) was reality. They have a quick turnaround with a Thursday night matchup with the Carolina Panthers in four days, and even with the suspect officiating, they squandered a chance to extend their winning streak to four. Meanwhile the Lions (4-2), who were coming off their bye week, won back-to-back games for the first time this year.

“It’s very frustrating. Very frustrating,” said running back Josh Jacobs, who had 91 total yards from scrimmage, including a 25-yard touchdown catch, in his season debut after spending the first six weeks of the seasons on the NFL commissioner’s exempt list. “Like I told the guys, we’ve just got to look ourselves in the mirror and hold each other accountable.

“We’ve got a special group of guys. I try to tell them, ‘Don’t let this moment pass.’ We’ve got a lot of guys in this building that can play ball at a high level. You don’t ever want to waste opportunities.”

Added Love, who finished the day having completed 27 of 45 passes for 274 yards with two touchdowns, one interception and one sack for a passer rating of 83.0: “To score 17 points in a game we should have scored a lot more, is disappointing, so definitely the red zone area is something we’ve got to clean up. On special teams, we’ve got to be able to finish those kicks, but we left a lot of points out there.”

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