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The Detroit Lions came up just short against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night, suffering a 20-19 loss after failing to convert a two-point conversion three times. However, many folks believe that Brad Allen and the refs made an incorrect call by ruling Taylor Decker as an ineligible receiver on the first attempt, which would have been successful if it weren't for the penalty. After the game, Allen took a second to explain the decision.
Whenever an offensive lineman goes out for a pass as a receiver, they have to report as eligible so that the referees know that they can go out and catch a pass instead of just sitting on the line and blocking. Allen claimed that Decker did not report as eligible, while Dan Skipper did, leading his crew to throw a flag to negate the play.
Pool report: Referee Brad Allen told @calvinwatkins that No. 70 (Dan Skipper) reported and No. 68 (Taylor Decker) did not.
He's sticking by that story.
Here's the full report: https://t.co/7Zjt3gds6y pic.twitter.com/yTlqySlJRP
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 31, 2023
The Lions ended up tricking Brad Allen into penalizing them
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Allen's explanation is somewhat confusing, because Decker said after the game that he reported as eligible, while Skipper said that he didn't. As it turns out, this was a designed bit of trickery from Campbell, who wanted Skipper to fake reporting as eligible to throw off the Cowboys. He outlined this idea to the refs before the game, but they still ended up falling for the trick themselves, and it cost Detroit the game.
Decker reported eligible. Skipper faked reporting eligible. The ref fell for the fake and declared the wrong guy eligible even though he was told pregame about it. Human error occurs and that’s a wild one.
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) December 31, 2023
There have been a lot of wild endings to games throughout the NFL's storied history, but this is among the craziest of the bunch. Certainly that won't provide any solace to the Lions and their fans, especially since Allen is practically admitting he fell for Campbell's trick that was designed to fool the Cowboys. So it's probably safe to say that Allen and his crew won't be getting invited to Detroit anytime soon.
