Ball don’t lie: Home cooking bails out Lions, screws Vikings on horrible grounding no-call

The NFL saved the best for last with the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions battling for the No. 1 seed in the NFC on Sunday Night Football. They forgot to bring their best refs for the occasion.

The officials screwed the Vikings out of a safety after Jared Goff grounded the ball in the endzone. They ruled there was an eligible receiver in the vicinity.

One look at the replay could tell any reasonable person it was indeed grounding, even without NBC rules expert Terry McAulay explaining the missed call.

The Vikings should have gotten two points and the ball. Instead, they had to settle with a "Ball don't lie" moment as Ivan Pace Jr. snagged an interception not long after. If not for that interception, the no-call could have been even more egregious.

Two points could easily decide the No. 1 seed between the Vikings and Lions

Despite running seven plays with goal to go in the span of a few minutes, Minnesota struggled to find the endzone. They were stopped on fourth down on the drive before the safety-that-wasn't and they settled for the field goal on the drive that followed.

We obviously can't draw a straight line between the safety and the field goal, but there's a world where the Vikings closed the gap to 7-5 if the refs had gotten the call right.

In a game for the No. 1 seed, every inch could drastically change the playoff picture. A call like intentional grounding in the end zone for a safety is much more consequential than an inch.

Realistically, calls ultimately even out across a season. Every team gets their turn getting screwed. We all just want to see the game called fairly, especially with so much at stake. This was an obvious case of home cooking. It would be a shame if it was the deciding factor in the game.