With the Eagles losing to the Cardinals on Sunday, the outcome of the Detroit-Dallas game on Saturday night becomes much more important.
As does the two-point play that was canceled by an unlawful touching penalty caused by a misunderstanding over who was and wasn’t reporting as eligible.
In a nutshell, the Lions sent offensive lineman Dan Skipper onto the field, despite the fact that he consistently reports as eligible as the tight end in jumbo sets. Skipper dashed toward referee Brad Allen, as if reporting as eligible. At the same time, two other offensive linemen approached Allen from the opposite way (including tackle Taylor Decker).
Allen saw the interaction as Skipper reporting as eligible rather than Decker.
According to a person familiar with the situation, the NFL has no plans to change the protocol for players reporting as eligible. The league sees the situation as a failed attempt by the Lions to engage in deception and gamesmanship.
The Lions wanted the Cowboys to believe Skipper was reporting as eligible while Decker was not. When the play transpired, the Cowboys would have covered Skipper rather than Decker. The problem is that in their attempt to perplex the Cowboys, the Lions perplexed Allen.
The fact that Skipper was running toward Allen was not an accident. Skipper was attempting to give the idea that he was reporting as eligible, as he does on a regular basis. (For example, Skipper reported as eligible six times last week against the Vikings.)
Part of the difficulty is that the Lions depended on verbal communication to tell Allen of his eligibility status rather than employing the clear, inconspicuous nonverbal indication of the eligible player running his hands across the front of his jersey. It was evidently part of the plan to perplex the Cowboys. This, in turn, perplexed Allen.
Lions coach Dan Campbell revealed after the game that he detailed the play to the officials before the game. The question is whether Campbell detailed the play itself, or if he explained his strategy for setting up the play in order to mislead the Cowboys about who was and wasn’t eligible.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Brad Allen was not there for the pregame meeting with Campbell. That is typical operating procedure. It’s unclear whether Campbell mentioned that a sort of shell game would be played before the play to mislead the Cowboys. It’s difficult to see Campbell saying that.
Consider this. “Look,” Campbell might have added, “we have a play in the game plan tonight that includes a pass to a tackle.” But here’s what we’ll do. We’ll make it appear that a different guy is reporting as eligible than the one who is actually reporting as eligible, in order to confuse the Cowboys about who is and isn’t. So, when that happens, just go with it, OK?”
