Video: Looks like 70 did report himself eligible and screwed up

[VaqueroTD]

• Watch video of it. #70 has his hands up and in front of his chest for half his jog to the ref. Why? Because he probably started doing universal signal for eligibility. In most games guys swipe front of their jersey from somewhere and ref nods. Detroit outsmarted itself. #70 had been doing it all game. So Ref is looking for it again, but number 70 is not admitting it because the camera didn’t catch it on the front, but he started doing his same routine and then put his arms down. I didn’t realize this until watching Kurt Warner’s video below about the ref claiming #70 patted his stomach.
• The other critical piece is Aikman’s explanation of guys sometimes trying to be not obvious about it, in this case #68. He says it quietly, doesn’t spend too much time with ref although you can clearly see by his body language he is not sure if the ref picked it up. He looks back at 70, he is looking around, he doesn’t try to clear anything up. So again, the Lions outsmart themselves, it is NOT normal to see ANOTHER guy run out like that, and get the attention from the ref while TRUE guy is reporting.
• Sorry Lions fans, but NFL is spot on ruling it was your fault. You tried to fool everyone and only fooled your way out of the game. You fooled the ref who then fooled the Cowboys who didn’t bother covering #68.
• Video also does a good job showing why so many people thought it was illegal formation. It wasn’t. Just the camera angle you were looking at.

​

 

[Beaker42]

• Watch video of it. #70 has his hands up and in front of his chest for half his jog to the ref. Why? Because he probably started doing universal signal for eligibility. In most games guys swipe front of their jersey from somewhere and ref nods. Detroit outsmarted itself. #70 had been doing it all game. So Ref is looking for it again, but number 70 is not admitting it because the camera didn’t catch it on the front, but he started doing his same routine and then put his arms down. I didn’t realize this until watching Kurt Warner’s video below about the ref claiming #70 patted his stomach.
• The other critical piece is Aikman’s explanation of guys sometimes trying to be not obvious about it, in this case #68. He says it quietly, doesn’t spend too much time with ref although you can clearly see by his body language he is not sure if the ref picked it up. He looks back at 70, he is looking around, he doesn’t try to clear anything up. So again, the Lions outsmart themselves, it is NOT normal to see ANOTHER guy run out like that, and get the attention from the ref while TRUE guy is reporting.
• Sorry Lions fans, but NFL is spot on ruling it was your fault. You tried to fool everyone and only fooled your way out of the game. You fooled the ref who then fooled the Cowboys who didn’t bother covering #68.
• Video also does a good job showing why so many people thought it was illegal formation. It wasn’t. Just the camera angle you were looking at.

​

So the Cowboys were just keying on the official announcing 70 as eligible. They weren’t worried about 68 because even though the formation looked legit, 70 couldn’t have caught the pass because the RT can’t under normal circumstances.

 

[Creeper]

Remember too, that two refs threw flags on the play. One for illegal touching, the other for illegal formation. The second was because the ref thought 70 reported as eligible so he could not be covered by another eligible player. So 2 refs understood that 70 reported.

People blaming the refs have it all wrong. As Dean Blandino, and other ex-officials explained, it is the responsibility of the player to report to the ref. It is not the refs job to seek out the eligible player and confirm his reporting with him.

The good thing about this play it it will stop the ridiculous debate about the Cowboys Lions game from a few years ago when they claim Anthony Hitchens interfered on an incomplete pass.

 

[RonnieT24]

Remember too, that two refs threw flags on the play. One for illegal touching, the other for illegal formation. The second was because the ref thought 70 reported as eligible so he could not be covered by another eligible player. So 2 refs understood that 70 reported.

People blaming the refs have it all wrong. As Dean Blandino, and other ex-officials explained, it is the responsibility of the player to report to the ref. It is not the refs job to seek out the eligible player and confirm his reporting with him.

The good thing about this play it it will stop the ridiculous debate about the Cowboys Lions game from a few years ago when they claim Anthony Hitchens interfered on an incomplete pass.

Well he did because he stuck his face mask out onto Pettigrew's hand and forced Pettigrew to pull his helmet down which caused him to be unable to catch the ball. Classic PI if I ever saw it.

 

[Dutton]

So the Cowboys were just keying on the official announcing 70 as eligible. They weren’t worried about 68 because even though the formation looked legit, 70 couldn’t have caught the pass because the RT can’t under normal circumstances.

 

[rags747]

And if there was No Tripping penalty on Hendershot the Cowboys would have scored or run out the clock! Simple…

 

[CT Dal Fan]

Well he did because he stuck his face mask out onto Pettigrew's hand and forced Pettigrew to pull his helmet down which caused him to be unable to catch the ball. Classic PI if I ever saw it.

If I recall correctly the officials in that game missed some bad calls that went against the Cowboys too. I remember telling myself the Hitchens play evened it out.

 

[loublue22]

People need to stop analyzing the video like the Zapruder film or something, there's no audio so we won't ever know what was said. What we do know is the ref announced #70 as eligible and Detroit lined up and threw it to someone who was not announced.

It's all on Detroit.

 

[DripTooHard]

If I recall correctly the officials in that game missed some bad calls that went against the Cowboys too. I remember telling myself the Hitchens play evened it out.

Dez play the following week was the equalizer.

 

[loublue22]

If I recall correctly the officials in that game missed some bad calls that went against the Cowboys too. I remember telling myself the Hitchens play evened it out.

during the broadcast they only showed the reverse angle one time that clearly showed Pettigrew reached out and grabbed our guy's facemask well before the Dallas defender made any contact, it was the correct call to pick up the flag

 

[RonnieT24]

If I recall correctly the officials in that game missed some bad calls that went against the Cowboys too. I remember telling myself the Hitchens play evened it out.

Go back and watch Reggie Bush's TD run earlier in the game. If you look closely you will see a Lions tight end almost ripping one of the Cowboys DB's shoulder pads off to create the running lane to the end zone. Weird how I have never seen that mentioned by anybody when talking about that game. It's almost like the only missed calls that matter are the ones the screw the Cowboys.

 

[Risen Star]

Skipper's job was to make the Cowboys think he was reporting while in actuality it was Decker behind him that was reporting. The Cowboys bought it. The problem is so did the officials.

It's not any more complicated than that.

 

[Dutton]

All this attention going to this 2 pt conversion I just don’t get it. Magic Mike should have thrown a challenge flag Lamb never had control of the ball.

 

[CT Dal Fan]

during the broadcast they only showed the reverse angle one time that clearly showed Pettigrew reached out and grabbed our guy's facemask well before the Dallas defender made any contact, it was the correct call to pick up the flag

Exactly. And if they were going to call anything there should have been offsetting penalties. Facemask on Pettigrew, PI on Hitchens, replay the down.

 

[CT Dal Fan]

All this attention going to this 2 pt conversion I just don’t get it. Magic Mike should have thrown a challenge flag Lamb never had control of the ball.

Actually I think Lamb did have control. It looks like he was going to try and reach the ball over the pylon and he ended up dropping it when he was being tackled.

 

[RonnieT24]

Go back and watch Reggie Bush's TD run earlier in the game. If you look closely you will see a Lions tight end almost ripping one of the Cowboys DB's shoulder pads off to create the running lane to the end zone. Weird how I have never seen that mentioned by anybody when talking about that game. It's almost like the only missed calls that matter are the ones the screw the Cowboys.

Here's the play I was referring to. Bush doesn't get to the end zone if not for this hold. Maybe they score anyway but I'd like to have seen them do from 10 yards further back.

 

[CowboyStar88]

Well he did because he stuck his face mask out onto Pettigrew's hand and forced Pettigrew to pull his helmet down which caused him to be unable to catch the ball. Classic PI if I ever saw it.

Ronnie is on it today. Lol

 

[Risen Star]

Exactly.

 

[Adreme]

• Watch video of it. #70 has his hands up and in front of his chest for half his jog to the ref. Why? Because he probably started doing universal signal for eligibility. In most games guys swipe front of their jersey from somewhere and ref nods. Detroit outsmarted itself. #70 had been doing it all game. So Ref is looking for it again, but number 70 is not admitting it because the camera didn’t catch it on the front, but he started doing his same routine and then put his arms down. I didn’t realize this until watching Kurt Warner’s video below about the ref claiming #70 patted his stomach.
• The other critical piece is Aikman’s explanation of guys sometimes trying to be not obvious about it, in this case #68. He says it quietly, doesn’t spend too much time with ref although you can clearly see by his body language he is not sure if the ref picked it up. He looks back at 70, he is looking around, he doesn’t try to clear anything up. So again, the Lions outsmart themselves, it is NOT normal to see ANOTHER guy run out like that, and get the attention from the ref while TRUE guy is reporting.
• Sorry Lions fans, but NFL is spot on ruling it was your fault. You tried to fool everyone and only fooled your way out of the game. You fooled the ref who then fooled the Cowboys who didn’t bother covering #68.
• Video also does a good job showing why so many people thought it was illegal formation. It wasn’t. Just the camera angle you were looking at.

​

"hands up and in front of his chest" is one of the silliest takes on this I have seen. What he is doing while running is called jogging form. People do not jog with their hands to their side. With your description one must walk and not jog onto the football field because otherwise they are reporting as eligible.

Lets be very clear about that video. When 68 goes to report as eligible 70 is running onto the field. He is not even past the huddle when 68 is reporting. The ref saw 68 actively going up to the ref to report (a step beyond what you normally need to do as you can normally make eye contact with the ref and make the motion and he will nod but he was being extra cautious) and then instead of having the guy directly in front of him as the one reporting, he is having hte one jogging onto the field as the one reporting despite him clearly making no verbal effort to do so and the only hand motion is him jogging like a normal human.

This was a ref screwup not a Lions screwup. I do not know why there are so many on here who want to argue a common sense reality. This is like arguing the rain isnt so bad during a hurricane or, to bring it back to football, when we can clearly see both knees down before a fumble and someone goes "well clearly its out". It is obvious to everyone what happened. The NFL is looking like idiots trying to argue against what every single person saw. The NFL screwed up and there is nothing else to say. The fact that they are too afraid to own up to it is its own story and why this story will not die.

 

[Staubacher]

Skipper's job was to make the Cowboys think he was reporting while in actuality it was Decker behind him that was reporting. The Cowboys bought it. The problem is so did the officials.

It's not any more complicated than that.

Those type of shenanigans shouldn't even be allowed to begin with. There should only be one player allowed to approach to ref and that's the one who was asking to be declared eligible. The defense is huddling up and getting in position they can't be expected to watch every offensive lineman interaction with the ref and try to read their lips. That's why it is simply up to the ref announcing it and the defense picking up on that.