Los Angeles acquired outside linebacker Dante Fowler at the trading deadline to improve the club at edge rusher.
He got in some pressures on Saints quarterback Drew Brees last week in Louisiana, but didn't get home for a sack.
In Sunday's 36-31 victory over the Seahawks, Fowler did get home for a significant takeaway in the fourth quarter. But it wasn't before a penalty put Los Angeles in an unfavorable spot.
Los Angeles had a 20-14 lead midway through the third quarter, and though quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seattle offense was driving down the field, L.A. got a defensive stop when the signal-caller fired an incomplete pass over the middle on 3rd-and-11 from the L.A. 41. That would have forced Seattle to make a decision: attempt a long field goal, or try to pin Los Angeles inside the five-yard line.
On that play, Fowler appeared to think he was held and began discussing that fact with an official while on his way back to Los Angeles' sideline. But in the process, Fowler drew a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
"I told them that I felt like we were getting held a lot and we weren't getting calls. And I'm a respectful young man, I never called him out — his name or anything," Fowler said. "I told him that it was a terrible call — 'terrible' was the bad word that I got the flag thrown on me for. That's when i just knew I can't do that, I can't put my team in those positions and those predicaments and the thing that I learned today — don't talk to the referees."
