NFL Referee Brad Allen had already been at the center of more controversy this season than any other NFL referee.
His most egregious call was the illegal touch pass called on the Detroit Lions with 27 seconds left in Saturday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys.
The two-point conversion that wasn’t likely came about because Allen and his crew got the offensive tackle reporting eligible wrong between Taylor Decker and Dan Skipper.
Lions players and coaches were pissed but Cowboys defense has made it clear that if they were told that Decker was eligible, they would’ve defended the play differently.
“Cowboys CB Jourdan Lewis confirmed that the defense was accounting for Dan Skipper (70) on the two-point play. He said they had worked all week on players reporting eligible/ineligible,” Nick Harris tweeted.
“If Taylor Decker (68) had been reported, they would have accounted for him.”
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As an offensive lineman, you have to report as eligible to the referee in order to catch a pass on any given play. The referees claimed that Decker didn’t report and gave the Lions a five-yard penalty, negating the play.
The Lions have sympathizers but they also have people blasting them for trying to be too cute by tricking the Cowboys and tricking the refs instead.
The Lions have already clinched the NFC North, so that guarantees they will host at least one home playoff game in 2023.
They have also clinched a top-three seed in the conference, as they are guaranteed to finish with a better overall record than the winner of the NFC South.
The loss to the Cowboys means they do not have a chance at that number one seed.
