Detroit Lions @ Dallas Cowboys 8:15 pm

[BRH]

This is on the officials, but why are three guys going over to the ref so 68 can report?  That seems like it would be a tad confusing.  Maybe they were hoping to confuse the Cowboys… and ended up confusing the refs instead.  
 

And once the announcement was made, even if a coach had heard it the Lions had no timeouts left to correct the error.  Total fustercluck. 

[wjag]

That ending should be renamed the agony and the ecstasy and then the agony and the ecstasy..  What a rollercoaster for two fan bases.   

Edited December 31, 2023 by wjag

[HomeTeam]

Good morning. Really not surprised to be walking up to another game decided by a referee blunder. This one is bordering on blatantly influencing the direction of a game to fit some marketing narrative $$. 

 

All football fans should be outraged at the officiating these last few years. It's the Lions today, and the Bills season tomorrow. I pray that the Bills win the Superbowl this season, so I can rid myself of this burden. That's what watching football these days feels like. 

[4merper4mer]

If we took a poll before the game that the refs would screw over a team at the end of the game, what percentage of people on this board would have guessed it would be the Lions, not the Cowboys?  Has to be 95ish percent.

6 hours ago, julian said:

I have a problem with the ref apparently not hearing Decker right in front of him declaring as eligible, but he does hear #70 declare from much further away as he’s running into the field and who never actually said a word to the ref.

 

 My best guess is the ref was in autopilot, just going through the motions of how the declaration of eligibility normally mechanically plays out and just assumed 70 running towards him was declaring.

 

 This is the best job I can do trying to defend the ref, it was careless and not worthy of continued employment in the NFL. The league needs to send a clear message that this nonchalant approach to officiating won’t be tolerated.

This is likely exactly what happened.

[TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th]

I don't think I've ever seen a team go for it on the 7 when a FG or extra point would have tied it.  I think Dan Campbell wasn't thinking straight after the refs botched the first play. 

[strive_for_five_guy]

5 minutes ago, HomeTeam said:

Good morning. Really not surprised to be walking up to another game decided by a referee blunder. This one is bordering on blatantly influencing the direction of a game to fit some marketing narrative $$. 

 

All football fans should be outraged at the officiating these last few years. It's the Lions today, and the Bills season tomorrow. I pray that the Bills win the Superbowl this season, so I can rid myself of this burden. That's what watching football these days feels like. 

Hopefully the Bills are in the NFL’s script this year.  I don’t understand how the guy can report to the ref, the ref go and report it to the Cowboys, and then a flag gets thrown.  There were enough witnesses on the Lions side to know if the player reported (which he must have given the video).  It would be interesting to know when the ref ran over to the Cowboys side, if anyone heard anything or not.  Of course the Cowboys would prob say they heard nothing, and to not implicate themselves for why the guy got open for the 2 points.  It’d be shocking if a Cowboys player admitted otherwise.

[LarryMadman]

8 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

While the ref definitely made a mistake, I have to blame the lions a bit here. They have 3 o-lineman going to one ref to report one lineman eligible. What could go wrong?
 

How about just have the one eligible lineman report? 

The guy that actually says im eligible is the guy the ref has to report. Doesn't matter if there are 7 guys by the ref the ref doesnt get to pick a guy.

[BearNorth]

That last Detroit drive gave me [not good] flashbacks to several of our games this year.  Was getting to the point - How will we lose this time.

[BRH]

The worst part about all this is Brad Allen doubling down in the postgame pc and saying 70 reported.  You know there has to be audio proving otherwise.  You also know we’ll get to hear it right about the same time we get to see the Spygate tapes.  

[balln]

Doesn’t matter 68 was covered up by a WR. He’s ineligible no matter if he , 70, Campbell , or Dr Seuss reports whatever they want…

[JGMcD2]

2 minutes ago, balln said:

Doesn’t matter 68 was covered up by a WR. He’s ineligible no matter if he , 70, Campbell , or Dr Seuss reports whatever they want…

He wasn’t covered up lol

[HomeTeam]

28 minutes ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

Hopefully the Bills are in the NFL’s script this year.  I don’t understand how the guy can report to the ref, the ref go and report it to the Cowboys, and then a flag gets thrown.  There were enough witnesses on the Lions side to know if the player reported (which he must have given the video).  It would be interesting to know when the ref ran over to the Cowboys side, if anyone heard anything or not.  Of course the Cowboys would prob say they heard nothing, and to not implicate themselves for why the guy got open for the 2 points.  It’d be shocking if a Cowboys player admitted otherwise.

I believe the issue is that they recorded the wrong lineman reporting as eligible, since there were two of them in the area. xD 

[PatsFanNH]

Lions got hosed on that call. That said I am glad they lost moved my Pats to pick #3 again. (Which makes no sense to me how they do the order, shouldnt Washington beating the Pats make the Pats 3?? lol)

[SoCal Deek]

We were at the Bills v Chargers game last Saturday and it literally became comical how many times we heard the referee declare our extra Tackle as eligible play after play after play over the loud speaker system in SoFi. So much so that my group kept repeating it to each other and laughing out loud before every play. Was that not the case in Dallas? Was 68’s name not called? If he wasn’t then the Detroit coaching staff is definitely to blame. They should’ve stopped the play.

[stuvian]

One of the better games of the season. Dan Campbell does not bore viewers. 

[DCOrange]

15 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

We were at the Bills v Chargers game last Saturday and it literally became comical how many times we heard the referee declare our extra Tackle as eligible play after play after play over the loud speaker system in SoFi. So much so that my group kept repeating it to each other and laughing out loud before every play. Was that not the case in Dallas? Was 68’s name not called? If he wasn’t then the Detroit coaching staff is definitely to blame. They should’ve stopped the play.

The stadium announced #70 as eligible. Most likely, nobody on the field heard the announcement because it was very loud and they were all focused on listening to Goff since they were in the huddle at the time. Detroit also had no timeouts to stop the game and having Decker go over and correct the officials would have likely caused a delay of game or completely given the play away to Dallas at that point. The whole point of the play was to get Dallas assuming #70 was the one reporting as eligible just long enough to sneak #68 into the end zone for the play.

[WEATHER DOT COM]

51 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

I don't think I've ever seen a team go for it on the 7 when a FG or extra point would have tied it.  I think Dan Campbell wasn't thinking straight after the refs botched the first play. 

 

Maybe.

 

Everyone knew they were passing, though. If a team has one play, I think the odds of throwing a TD from the 2 are pretty similar to the odds of throwing a TD from the 7. I wasn't that surprised he went for it again. 

Edited December 31, 2023 by WEATHER DOT COM

[jaybee]

50 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

I don't think I've ever seen a team go for it on the 7 when a FG or extra point would have tied it.  I think Dan Campbell wasn't thinking straight after the refs botched the first play. 

My thoughts exactly.  Everyone here blaming the refs but I wasn't on the field and don't know what transpired with eligibility reporting of the lineman.  The coach went with the lower % option and I'd still call it a bad decision even if they'd made it.  I'm glad Dallas won but if I'm a Lions fan right now I'm livid with that decision. 

[TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th]

Just now, WEATHER DOT COM said:

 

Maybe.

 

Everyone knew they were passing, though. If a team has one play, I think the odds of throwing a TD from the 2 are pretty similar to the odds of throwing a TD from the 7th. I wasn't that surprised he went for it again. 

No. Going for it from the 2 yard line vs. The 7 is a massive difference. According to next gen stats it's a difference of over 16% win probability.  Campbell deciding to go for it on the 7 equated to a -13.5% probability of winning. I can't think of any coaching decision that ever resulted in more of a negative swing in winning %.

 

 

 

 

[SoCal Deek]

16 minutes ago, DCOrange said:

The stadium announced #70 as eligible. Most likely, nobody on the field heard the announcement because it was very loud and they were all focused on listening to Goff since they were in the huddle at the time. Detroit also had no timeouts to stop the game and having Decker go over and correct the officials would have likely caused a delay of game or completely given the play away to Dallas at that point. The whole point of the play was to get Dallas assuming #70 was the one reporting as eligible just long enough to sneak #68 into the end zone for the play.

Clearly. Thats why we were laughing at SoFi. The announcement was so loud you could’ve heard it outside the stadium. Still, an indication that Detroit got a bit too tricky even for their own good, and it backfired. Once the mess was made, you kick the extra point and head to overtime. 

[bobobonators]

15 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

No. Going for it from the 2 yard line vs. The 7 is a massive difference. According to next gen stats it's a difference of over 16% win probability.  Campbell deciding to go for it on the 7 equated to a -13.5% probability of winning. I can't think of any coaching decision that ever resulted in more of a negative swing in winning %.

 

 

 

 

we don’t need nextgen stats to tell us that going for it from the 7yd line was the wrong choice 

[Shaw66]

I'm late to this party, but it seemed to me that Detroit had two and maybe three guys who needed to report.  68 and someone else talked to the ref, and then he turned to notify the Cowboys.  70 got there late and looked like he was trying to get the ref's attention over the shoulder of one of his teammates.  The ref kept walking away, so I don't think the ref ever got the message from 70.  

 

As others have noted, the ref should have done better.  He should have seen 70 was coming over to him.   Still, it's the player's responsibility to report, and the player should have seen that the ref wasn't getting the message.   It's the same as Toney lining up offside.  It's the player's responsibility, not the ref's.   

 

It was a great play, but the players have to be trained to do everything to make it work, including report.   

[Bookie Man]

reset sign back to 0 days without refs screwing up a game 

[DCOrange]

6 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I'm late to this party, but it seemed to me that Detroit had two and maybe three guys who needed to report.  68 and someone else talked to the ref, and then he turned to notify the Cowboys.  70 got there late and looked like he was trying to get the ref's attention over the shoulder of one of his teammates.  The ref kept walking away, so I don't think the ref ever got the message from 70.  

 

As others have noted, the ref should have done better.  He should have seen 70 was coming over to him.   Still, it's the player's responsibility to report, and the player should have seen that the ref wasn't getting the message.   It's the same as Toney lining up offside.  It's the player's responsibility, not the ref's.   

 

It was a great play, but the players have to be trained to do everything to make it work, including report.   

#70 is the only one that the ref reported as eligible and he's also the only one that didn't have a chance to talk to the ref in order to report lol

[SoCal Deek]

Aren’t the linemen supposed to do a wiping motion across their chest when they report? Or am I thinking of something else? 

[Another Fan]

1 hour ago, HomeTeam said:

Good morning. Really not surprised to be walking up to another game decided by a referee blunder. This one is bordering on blatantly influencing the direction of a game to fit some marketing narrative $$. 

 

All football fans should be outraged at the officiating these last few years. It's the Lions today, and the Bills season tomorrow. I pray that the Bills win the Superbowl this season, so I can rid myself of this burden. That's what watching football these days feels like. 

It's like I say, I feel the final irony of being a Bills fan is one day they will win the Super Bowl and I won't really find it all that fulfilling for the way the league is trending.  

[TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th]

37 minutes ago, bobobonators said:

we don’t need nextgen stats to tell us that going for it from the 7yd line was the wrong choice 

Umm apparently we do because the person I was quoting said there isn't much difference between going for it from the 7 or 2.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

3 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

Umm apparently we do because the person I was quoting said there isn't much difference between going for it from the 7 or 2.

Ken Dorsey? 🤔

*
😁

[SoCal Deek]

25 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

It's like I say, I feel the final irony of being a Bills fan is one day they will win the Super Bowl and I won't really find it all that fulfilling for the way the league is trending.  

I’m willing to find out. 😁

[Orlando Tim]

12 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

Umm apparently we do because the person I was quoting said there isn't much difference between going for it from the 7 or 2.

How much next gen stats calculate in terrible officials? 😁

[Doc]

1 hour ago, PatsFanNH said:

Lions got hosed on that call. That said I am glad they lost moved my Pats to pick #3 again. (Which makes no sense to me how they do the order, shouldnt Washington beating the Pats make the Pats 3?? lol)

 

If the Cheaters and Commanders finish with the same record and SoS, the Commanders would pick before based on HTH.

 

15 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

Umm apparently we do because the person I was quoting said there isn't much difference between going for it from the 7 or 2.

 

You quoted NGS which said that going for it from the 7 or 3 were suboptimal decisions. 

[TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th]

3 minutes ago, Orlando Tim said:

How much next gen stats calculate in terrible officials? 😁

I was thinking about this too. Maybe Campbell's decision to go for it on the 7 was influenced by the fact that he wanted to end it right there and then because he thought he'd not only be up against the cowboys in overtime but the refs too 

2 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

If the Cheaters and Commanders finish with the same record and SoS, the Commanders would pick before based on HTH.

 

 

You quoted NGS which said that going for it from the 7 or 3 were suboptimal decisions. 

WRONG. I  quoted weather dot com who said throwing from the 2 vs. 7 doesn't make a difference. 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

1 hour ago, LarryMadman said:

The guy that actually says im eligible is the guy the ref has to report. Doesn't matter if there are 7 guys by the ref the ref doesnt get to pick a guy.

I know the rule. The ref was likely confused on which guy said he was eligible. This is avoided if only one lineman goes to the ref and not three. 

[Doc]

5 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

WRONG. I  quoted weather dot com who said throwing from the 2 vs. 7 doesn't make a difference. 

 

My bad.  Misread it.

[BuffaloBillyG]

4 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

I know the rule. The ref was likely confused on which guy said he was eligible. This is avoided if only one lineman goes to the ref and not three. 

To further the issue, no matter how many people go up to the ref to say they are eligible, it's likely not going to be that confusing to the defense as the Ref has to announce to the defense what number declared before the play. Just seems like an unnecessary way to overthink things.

[Gunsgoodtime]

I have 0 faith the Bills can win the Superbowl due to games like this.  All refs should be fired and hire full time refs.  It's a joke that this isn't the case anyways.  It's got so bad though, I'm not sure the NFL isn't  behind it.  It's like the refs already know who to penalize to change the outcome of games

[LeGOATski]

6 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

I think Campbell was so heated from the penalty he wasn't thinking straight.  That's all I got.

Why is this such a mystery for some people? The Lions have already clinched their division. They were never going to waste time with OT.

[PatsFanNH]

15 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

If the Cheaters and Commanders finish with the same record and SoS, the Commanders would pick before based on HTH.

 

 

You quoted NGS which said that going for it from the 7 or 3 were suboptimal decisions. 

Thanks Doc! But that’s confusing to me. Shouldn’t they pick after NE since they won the game. But mind you I’m just going cheer for my team the last 2 weeks and worry about the draft after that. 😝 

[LabattBlue]

I am in the minority, but I still say the Lions should have kicked the XP and decide the game in OT.  Instead, the Lions tried to “trick” the Cowboys and instead “confused” the officials.  Let’s see how ballsy Campbell is come playoff time.  Lose a game like this come playoff time, and I guarantee the fanbase will not be forgiving. 

[PatsFanNH]

4 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

Why is this such a mystery for some people? The Lions have already clinched their division. They were never going to waste time with OT.

A win locked the. In at 3 and if the 49ers lose again and they win out they get a bye week. They wanted the win and Campbell took a gamble.