The Lions celebrated like they had won the game. They left after a 20-19 loss feeling as if the win was taken from them.
Detroit scored with 23 seconds left to pull within one point, and Lions coach Dan Campbell chose to go for the win. Jared Goff completed the pass to left tackle Taylor Decker, and the Lions went crazy.
Officials, though, threw a flag.
They penalized the Lions for illegal touching, ruling that extra offensive lineman Dan Skipper and not Decker had reported as eligible.
Campbell was visibly angry with referee Brad Allen but stuck to the facts so as to avoid a fine.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Campbell said in a transcript. “I explain everything pregame to a tee, OK? I did that. Seventy reported [according to Allen]. Sixty-eight didn’t [according to Allen]. We threw it to 68. That was the explanation.”
Skipper said he “did not say a word to the ref,” and an overhead shot from ESPN shows Decker going up to Allen before the play presumably to report.
“All I really want to say on it, just so I don’t get myself into trouble, I did exactly what coach told me to do,” Decker said, via video from Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News. “I went to the ref and said, ‘Report.’ It’s my understanding, too, that Dan [Campbell] brings up the possibility of those sorts of plays pregame. I did what I was told to do and did it how we did it in practice all week. That’s all I want to touch on with that.”
The confusion may have been Skipper coming off the sideline, with Decker already in the game. The intent likely was to confuse the Cowboys, but it confused Allen instead.
Allen’s crew is the same one that missed a possible game-deciding pass interference penalty in the Chiefs-Packers game. Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine had a blatant penalty on a long pass from Patrick Mahomes to Marquez Valdes-Scantling that wasn’t called.