Cliff Notes on Last Night's 2 point play

[MountaineerCowboy]

And props again to @MountaineerCowboy for pointing it out last night. He gets a lot of crap for his Dak threads but sometimes you have to see the forest through the trees. Everyone was so caught up on illegal formation and other nonsense that the simple question wasn’t asked: Hey, if our defense knows that this slow offensive lineman is eligible, don’t you think they would’ve covered his ***?

 

[ActualCowboysFan]

The Lions were also called for an illegal formation.

They had 8 men on the Line of Scrimmage.

Nah. Reynolds LaPorta Goff St. Brown are all off the line

 

[Cowboys22]

My god you people are clueless. Still talking about illegal formation

As I understand it, it was an illegal formation once 70 was announced as eligible because he was covered by the player next to him and thus by rule is ineligible. It would have been legal if 68 was announced as eligible. It all come down to what caused the refs to announce 70 instead of 68. If it was due to the Lions trying to be sneaky and fool everyone, then they got what they deserved.

 

[JBS]

My gosh some are clueless, Detroit tried to fool the refs to confuse Dallas .... IT DID NOT WORK ...

They had 2 more chances and failed on both. A free play with Micah offsides, and goff throws a pick. Then he misses on the next throw.

Nobody is arguing against any of this lol. Not sure what you are going on about. But it’s a waste of time

 

[JBS]

As I understand it, it was an illegal formation once 70 was announced as eligible because he was covered by the player next to him and thus by rule is ineligible. It would have been legal if 68 was announced as eligible. It all come down to what caused the refs to announce 70 instead of 68. If it was due to the Lions trying to be sneaky and fool everyone, then they got what they deserved.

Yes which is why the illegal formation doesn’t matter

 

[Plankton]

As I understand it, it was an illegal formation once 70 was announced as eligible because he was covered by the player next to him and thus by rule is ineligible. It would have been legal if 68 was announced as eligible. It all come down to what caused the refs to announce 70 instead of 68. If it was due to the Lions trying to be sneaky and fool everyone, then they got what they deserved.

That's incorrect. As long as Skipper didn't go out for a pass, the formation was legal.

 

[Roadtrip635]

What is confirmed is that it is a stupid idea to try and keep secret who is eligible for a play when it will just be announced to the entire stadium and to the defensive captain.

 

[jazzcat22]

Nobody is arguing against any of this lol. Not sure what you are going on about. But it’s a waste of time

So that is why there are 15 threads about it?
Anyway, it is time for the Sunday games to start. Hope Philly gets whipped.

 

[ActualCowboysFan]

So that is why there are 15 threads about it?
Anyway, it is time for the Sunday games to start. Hope Philly gets whipped.

JBS doesn’t. He’s still butthurt that Dallas is in the division race when he called it two months ago.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

If anyone in the press room had any common sense (or wasn't scared of Campbell's baritone), they should have simply asked why they ran #68 out on a pass pattern when the officials announced over the PA that #70 had reported as eligible. If the officials didn't get it right, then don't run the play. Audible to something else, take a delay and kick the extra point, or yell to your team that the need to correct the issue with the officials and ask for a play clock reset.

Everyone seemed to be more concerned about where Dan was going to put his well chewed gum during that press conference.

Exactly. Screw up on their part. Getting too cute with a super jumbo formation

 

[Praxit]

My gosh some are clueless, Detroit tried to fool the refs to confuse Dallas .... IT DID NOT WORK ...

They had 2 more chances and failed on both. A free play with Micah offsides, and goff throws a pick. Then he misses on the next throw.

...yep, tried to pull a Billyboy on Dallas. Billyboy is notorious for situations like that.

Get a win, even if you have to cheat.

 

[Cowboys22]

That's incorrect. As long as Skipper didn't go out for a pass, the formation was legal.

I’m not sure that’s correct. I don’t see how you can announce a player as eligible and then align him as to be ineligible by rule. I would have to think that would be an illegal formation. The formation on that play was legal as long as the Lions announced 68 as eligible. They didn’t so they got what they deserved. They were trying some sort of trick play and actually tricked the refs so it’s 100% on them.

 

[Creeper]

I disagree that 3 is confirmed. We do not know that the ref was confused. For all we know the Lions were confused and reported to the refs the way the refs explained. We believe the ref may have been confused but there is no confirmation of that. Listening to Decker after the game his explanation was awfully wishy-washy. He was not very convincing to me. He says he told the ref "report" or something like that.

We can only assume the Lions were trying to dupe the Cowboys and they were trying to use the refs as accomplices to their trickery. It didn't work. The refs were not playing their game.

 

[VaqueroTD]

I disagree that 3 is confirmed. We do not know that the ref was confused. For all we know the Lions were confused and reported to the refs the way the refs explained. We believe the ref may have been confused but there is no confirmation of that. Listening to Decker after the game his explanation was awfully wishy-washy. He was not very convincing to me. He says he told the ref "report" or something like that.

We can only assume the Lions were trying to dupe the Cowboys and they were trying to use the refs as accomplices to their trickery. It didn't work. The refs were not playing their game.

It’s confirmed, there is a Twitter that blasts out the #70 eligibility announcement that everyone heard. Everything that I put confirmed has a legit source post somewhere in all these mega reply threads that confirms it. The reason why I can’t confirm anything about the formation legality is because there are many many good sources that say two different things. Just trying to help those who are new to the party and don’t wanna go through 1 million replies, and all the Internet nonsense.

 

[atlantacowboy]

See a lot of new faces and same confusion as last night, if you want to avoid going through 40 pages of replies……

1. Lions designed a sneaky 2 pt play before the game where it looked like #70 was reporting as eligible but in fact #68 was reporting. Confirmed.
2. Dan Campbell told the refs about it before game to avoid confusion. Confirmed.
3. Play went off as planned but in moment, and 3 guys next to him, ref got confused and called out on game speaker that #70 was the eligible. Confirmed.
4. Cowboys didn’t attempt to cover #68 thinking 70 was the guy. Confirmed.
5. Refs called back play and went from 3 to 7 yard line because 68 was ineligible. Confirmed.
6. Campbell went for it again on 7. Cowboys got a TO but Parsons offsides and got it cancelled.
7. Ball back to 3, and Campbell went for it a third time. #11 and #90 good pressure, bad throw from Goff, Cowboys win.

The only thing that cannot be confirmed is if the first attempt was an illegal formation if #68 was correctly labeled as eligible. I am reading all types of stories on this from players to coaches to the fans so I would recommend just waiting until the official NFL explanation unless you feel pretty good about your observation of that. Why does it matter? Because it means even if the refs blew it and gave us a gift, it would have been an illegal formation.

Bottom line though is the Lions tried to be very cute with a sneak play and it bit them in the butt. After weeks of claims, just shows there is no vast conspiracy on refs and they can blow just about anything, including in our favor. And Dan Campbell is getting a lot of credit for being aggressive but in my opinion, it was just stupid and he let his ego and emotions get the best of him. He could have kicked the extra point and brought the game game into overtime. He had three chances.

NFL rules allow more than one player to report as eligible.

 

[32BellyOption]

The Lions were also called for an illegal formation.

They had 8 men on the Line of Scrimmage.

So there was a penalty called on them on the last two point try? I was several Miller Lites and shots deep by games end. Lol!

 

[VaqueroTD]

NFL rules allow more than one player to report as eligible.

There’s a post somewhere around here, I think it was from @Risen Star that confirms what they were trying to do.

 

[VaqueroTD]

So there was a penalty called on them on the last two point try? I was several Miller Lites and shots deep by games end. Lol!

 

[Creeper]

It’s confirmed, there is a Twitter that blasts out the #70 eligibility announcement that everyone heard. Everything that I put confirmed has a legit source post somewhere in all these mega reply threads that confirms it. The reason why I can’t confirm anything about the formation legality is because there are many many good sources that say two different things. Just trying to help those who are new to the party and don’t wanna go through 1 million replies, and all the Internet nonsense.

my point is we do not know that the ref was confused. For all we know #70 did actually report as eligible.

 

[VaqueroTD]

my point is we do not know that the ref was confused. For all we know #70 did actually report as eligible.

See reply above.