Quay Walker’s senseless leaping penalty on a Lions’ FG wiped away the Packers’ comeback chances

There’s just something about Quay Walker whenever he plays against the Detroit Lions in a home night game, it seems. Last year, the linebacker got ejected from a must-win Packers regular-season finale because he shoved a medical trainer. This year, with the Packers chasing the Lions in a (now) fruitless comeback attempt on Thursday Night Football, Walker effectively ended their hopes of a come-from-behind win.

As the Packers started to close the gap after an abysmal first half, Detroit found itself with an opportunity to salt away the win late in the fourth quarter. Except its offense came up short, and had to settle for a field goal.

That is until a late flag from an official brought everyone back when they realized that Walker had leaped over a Lions player to block the kick. In case it isn’t clear — you’re not allowed to do that. The Lions would take a fresh set of downs and use it to score another touchdown and build an insurmountable 34-17 lead.

Quay Walker just got called for a huge penalty during the commercial break and now the Lions have 1st and goal pic.twitter.com/pQmOFPb83w

— alex (@highlightheaven) September 29, 2023

Of course, even if the Lions had only tacked on the field goal, it still would’ve been tough sledding for the Packers to come back from 30-17 in just about half a quarter. That said, you play NFL games until the whistle. You never know what could happen. And Walker effectively gifting Detroit four points might as well have been the final nails in the coffin in this early-season primetime matchup.

This was how Twitter reacted to Walker’s penalty

let’s look at the positives: quay walker didn’t assault a member of the training staff

this is a step in the right direction

— Christian D’Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 29, 2023

Which Quay Walker penalty was worse? Pushing the Lions medical personnel or this jumping one?

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) September 29, 2023

quay walker has moved on from assaulting medical staff to doing other stupid things

— mansur🕊️ (@mansurshaheen) September 29, 2023

On the bright side, Quay Walker has 18 tackles and none of them were against an athletic trainer so that’s progress

— Brooks (@EBrooksUncut) September 29, 2023

Lol Quay Walker probably cost his team a shot at winning the game. A FG and it’s still 2 TD’s to win it.

Now not enough possessions.

— Blake Allen Murphy (@blakemurphy7) September 29, 2023

Quay Walker again. Same guy who pushed the training staff last year and got kicked out. Lol

— Logan Lamorandier (@LLamorandier) September 29, 2023