As Week 18 draws near, talk of the contentious penalty issued on the Detroit Lions that cost them a chance to defeat the Dallas Cowboys is still very much alive.
The question is whether or whether the officials made the right call to negate the two-point conversion, which would have put Detroit ahead 21–20 and probably won. Taylor Decker, an offensive tackle, was ruled an ineligible receiver after he caught a pass in the end zone. This prevented the Lions from scoring two points and gained them five yards back.
Since he had told the officiating crew prior to the game that the Lions would send three linemen to the referee, one of them checking in as an eligible receiver, coach Dan Campbell contended that the penalty should never have been called. Later on, Campbell acknowledged that the strategy was meant to mislead the Cowboys’ defense.
But the officials never ought to have permitted the Lions to pull off a trick like that. Dean Blandino, a Fox rules expert and former NFL vice president of officiating, claims as much.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk questioned Blandino about whether referees would allow a team to blatantly try to trick a defense into thinking a different lineman could be a receiver on a given play.
Blandino informed Florio, “If a coach told officials that, the officials would tell them they couldn’t do it.” “The referee would never allow that to happen and would ensure that the defense was aware of precisely who was reporting.”
Referee Brad Allen was confused by the Lions, as it turned out, and thought reserve guard Dan Skipper was an eligible receiver in Detroit’s offensive formation. Thoughtful in its attempt to trick the Cowboys, the Lions’ actions shouldn’t have been permitted if they had been more transparent about their goals.
