FOX NFL rules analyst and former NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino offered his take on the controversial penalty call late in the Detroit Lions-Dallas Cowboys game on Saturday evening.

The Lions were trailing by a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, until Jared Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown for six with 23 seconds left. Rather than go for the tie, the Lions attempted to win the game with a two-point conversion.

Goff completed a pass to offensive tackle Taylor Decker, but the latter was flagged for illegal touching. According to the refs, Decker failed to report in as eligible, stating that only No. 70 (Dan Skipper) did so:

Despite the five-yard penalty, Dan Campbell wanted Detroit to go for two again. A Micah Parsons offside penalty gave the Lions one more chance following an incomplete pass, but Goff couldn’t connect with James Mitchell on the final play. The Cowboys went on to win 20-19.

Speaking on “The Dan Patrick Show”, Blandino explained why he thinks why Brad Allen’s officiating crew were at fault over the controversy:

“The Lions did not do anything wrong…I have no doubt in my mind that 68 (Decker), said that he was reporting to the referee. You can’t run that play without 68…
I think he (head referee Brad Allen) went too fast. I think there’s some accountability on the officials’ side as well…He sees 70 coming in, he assumes it’s 70 and goes too fast. I don’t think the Lions did anything wrong by rule. I just think the environment created a situation where, quite frankly, Brad Allen assumed something that wasn’t true.”

Patrick asked Blandino why the officials couldn’t correct it. Blandino believes Allen and his crew didn’t think they did anything wrong in penalizing the Lions, again noting that they just moved too quickly.

The loss dropped the Lions to 11-5 and hurt their chances of potentially winning the conference’s top seed. Detroit will either finish as the No. 2 or No. 3 seed.

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