Report reveals NFL’s stance on controversial Lions penalty.
The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys game officiating crew has come under fire for a late call that affected the game’s outcome, but it appears the NFL has no plans to address the issue.
With 23 seconds remaining, Detroit scored a touchdown to trim the Cowboys’ advantage to 20-19. At first, it appeared as
though Lions head coach Dan Campbell made the right call by going for two points and the victory. After Jared Goff faked a
play, offensive lineman Taylor Decker caught a ball in the end zone.
However, the 2-point conversion was negated after the officiating crew ruled that Decker did not report as eligible.
The Lions tried the 2-point attempt again and failed to convert, which eventually led to them losing 20-19. You can see the sequence here.
Replays showed that Lions offensive tackle Dan Skipper ran toward official Brad Allen prior to the play. Decker and
Penei Sewell also approached Allen at the same time. It seemed like the Lions were intentionally trying to confuse the Cowboys by having multiple linemen run over to the official, that way Dallas might not know which lineman was reporting as eligible.
The result was that Allen thought Skipper reported as eligible and did not realize the Lions wanted to make Decker eligible.
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFL “views the situation as an effort by the Lions to engage in deception and
gamesmanship that backfired.” That is why the league has no intention of changing the procedure for players reporting as eligible.
The fact that the Lions were out of timeouts added even greater risk to their strategy. They were powerless to change the fact
that the incorrect lineman had been ruled eligible, even if they had known that.
Allen went so far as to say that Skipper had reported eligible “a couple of times prior” following the game. All of that was part of
the plan for Detroit, but once more, they were able to throw Allen off-balance when the intention was to confound the Cowboys.
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