Macarthur said:

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That tripping play is unbelievable.

The reffing has been bad all year and it was last night, but the Lions still deserve most of blame here. It's clear the ref THINKS 70 is checking in and it was clearly announced to the defense and 90,000 in the stadium, as well as everyone on the radio broadcast. And Dallas has confirmed they acknowledged it on defense and accounted for 70. It's just nonsense to claim that game was robbed from Detroit.

Here’s audio from @DallasCowboys radio broadcast on @1053thefan:
Referee Brad Allen announces to the entire stadium & tells Dallas defense prior to the Lions 2-point try that #70 Dan Skipper reported as eligible, no mention of #68 Taylor Decker. pic.twitter.com/4fodu6puLf

— Bill Jones (@CBS11BillJones) December 31, 2023

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Detroit should have spoken up if they thought the referee announced the wrong number. Simple

Southlake said:

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Worst mistake by a ref since the no PI call against the Saints. Are these refs even accountable?

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Not even in the same realm as the Saints game

But nice try

I can count on 350 hands how many times my teams have lost games due to bad calls. Color me completely unapologetic for something so rare as actually ending up on the unnecessarily benefitting side for once.

AgBQ-00 said:

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As they mentioned on the broadcast last night the formation was all kinds of jacked up. There were about 3 different penalties that occurred

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But they were all based on 68 not being eligible.

AgBQ-00 said:

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Even if he had declared he was covered by the WR. Making him ineligible

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receiver was definitely off the line he was not covered up

AgBQ-00 said:

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Was he? The only images I've seen showed him even with the tackle.

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top of the screen

Neither WR on the line of scrimmage

Bottom one is even with the TE who is off the line

Don't ya need 7 on the LOS- only seeing 6

TXAggie2011 said:

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Macarthur said:

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That tripping play is unbelievable.

The reffing has been bad all year and it was last night, but the Lions still deserve most of blame here. It's clear the ref THINKS 70 is checking in and it was clearly announced to the defense and 90,000 in the stadium, as well as everyone on the radio broadcast. And Dallas has confirmed they acknowledged it on defense and accounted for 70. It's just nonsense to claim that game was robbed from Detroit.

Here’s audio from @DallasCowboys radio broadcast on @1053thefan:
Referee Brad Allen announces to the entire stadium & tells Dallas defense prior to the Lions 2-point try that #70 Dan Skipper reported as eligible, no mention of #68 Taylor Decker. pic.twitter.com/4fodu6puLf

— Bill Jones (@CBS11BillJones) December 31, 2023

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Detroit should have spoken up if they thought the referee announced the wrong number. Simple

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100%. Even if the ref screwed up, Detroit had a chance to correct it.

Detroit had THREE tries to make a two point conversion.

Penalty
Interception
Incomplete pass

tough titties

mAgnoliAg said:

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birdman said:

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mAgnoliAg said:

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AgBQ-00 said:

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As they mentioned on the broadcast last night the formation was all kinds of jacked up. There were about 3 different penalties that occurred

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But they were all based on 68 not being eligible.

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No.

#70 reported as eligible. Then he was covered up by #68. That was one of the penalties.

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70 didn't report and 68 did in reality. Not both of them so if they would've gotten it right 70 was ineligible.

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Except that he didn't... according to the in-stadium audio. It's also been confirmed by Cowboy defenders that 70 was the reported eligible player.

If 68 had reported as eligible the Cowboys would have covered him because they worked on it all week.

mAgnoliAg said:

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birdman said:

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mAgnoliAg said:

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AgBQ-00 said:

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As they mentioned on the broadcast last night the formation was all kinds of jacked up. There were about 3 different penalties that occurred

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But they were all based on 68 not being eligible.

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No.

#70 reported as eligible. Then he was covered up by #68. That was one of the penalties.

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70 didn't report and 68 did in reality. Not both of them so if they would've gotten it right 70 was ineligible.

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The Lions claim 70 didn't report, but 68 did. The refs say 70 did. We can't just assume the Lions are correct and the refs aren't. We don't have that audio. We do have the refs announcing #70 as eligible. It's a he said, she said.

What other purpose was #70 approaching the referee if not to report? Lesson learned the hard way. Only the player that needs to report should approach the referee. Not three!

100%. If 70 isn't reporting, what the F is he doing running toward the ref?

Bottom line, IMO, is Detroit tried to create deception for Dallas and it backfired big time.

Anybody who continues debating the PAT penalty while disregarding the tripping fiasco is guilty of being willfully obtuse and is probably coming from a position of anti Cowboys bias.

The tripping thing wasn't just one of those things that happen. It's not like a missed holding or PI or procedure. It was a ref who saw a penalty happen, threw the flag, and penalized the WRONG team with the most punitive penalty that you can give to an offense. 15 yards! Imagine a running back getting pulled down by the facemask, and being the one who got called for the penalty. That's what this was. The game LITERALLY was over had the ref simply pointed in the right direction on the penalty that he correctly identified. Had the Lions won, the Cowboys grievance would have been 10x more legitimate than whatever grievance the Lions and all Cowboys haters have.

So, yeah, the refs seemingly mishandled the PAT, but even so, you can argue that the Cowboys would have covered 68 had the defense been told that he was eligible, and beyond that, they had time remaining to get into FG range for the best kicker in football. Furthermore, the Lions heard the refs announce 70 as eligible, and had the opportunity to correct it, but failed to do so. The PAT situation did not with 100% certainty take away the W from Detroit. The botched tripping penalty absolutely robbed the Cowboys of a game clinching play and the opportunity to take a knee.

The narrative that the Lions got screwed needs to die.

dixichkn said:

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AustinAg2K said:

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TXAggie2011 said:

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Macarthur said:

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That tripping play is unbelievable.

The reffing has been bad all year and it was last night, but the Lions still deserve most of blame here. It's clear the ref THINKS 70 is checking in and it was clearly announced to the defense and 90,000 in the stadium, as well as everyone on the radio broadcast. And Dallas has confirmed they acknowledged it on defense and accounted for 70. It's just nonsense to claim that game was robbed from Detroit.

Here’s audio from @DallasCowboys radio broadcast on @1053thefan:
Referee Brad Allen announces to the entire stadium & tells Dallas defense prior to the Lions 2-point try that #70 Dan Skipper reported as eligible, no mention of #68 Taylor Decker. pic.twitter.com/4fodu6puLf

— Bill Jones (@CBS11BillJones) December 31, 2023

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Detroit should have spoken up if they thought the referee announced the wrong number. Simple

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100%. Even if the ref screwed up, Detroit had a chance to correct it.

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By calling a timeout that they didn't have?

Whole thing was a messed up deal all the way around. Still trying to figure out why you would supposedly declare 70 eligible, then keep him in to block while letting 68 run a route. Make it make sense.

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it makes plenty of sense. 70 went to the ref as well to confuse Dallas on who to look out for. But he ended up confusing the ref and the ref announced him in error. The end.

The stupid thing is that people think that the Lions would've scored the conversion if #68 was correctly announced as eligible. #68 was only open because the Cowboys thought #70 was eligible and wasn't focused on #68.

Unemployed said:

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The stupid thing is that people think that the Lions would've scored the conversion if #68 was correctly announced as eligible. #68 was only open because the Cowboys thought #70 was eligible and wasn't focused on #68.

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Correct. Detroit does this fairly often and Dallas said they prepared for this during the week so it's nuts that everyone just assumes the same thing happens if the ref announces the 'correct' player is eligible.

As was said above, Detroit tried to get cute and deceive Dallas and it backfired in a huge way.