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

[RonnieT24]

They fell for it hook, line and sinker.

Yes they failed to cover an ineligible receiver. Imagine that..

 

[Kevinicus]

They would have been allowed one if they pointed out that they official had made an error. Officials stop the game to correct stuff all the time like when they fail to reset the play clock among other things.

Well, they'd have to hope the officials would stop the game. They definitely should have said something, but they couldn't call for a TO to do so. That would be a penalty.

 

[Hagman]

Just a week or so ago I was kind of rooting for the Lions, thinking that if Dallas couldn’t win it all, I’d like to see the Lions do it because they hadn’t done it in so long and they had such long suffering fans. Now all I can think of is to hell with them for the cheap stunt they pulled and for crying like gangsters who had been caught trying to rob a bank. I hope they win squat for another 29 years.

 

[bsheeern]

Yes they failed to cover an ineligible receiver. Imagine that..

I’m guessing he’s being sarcastic… for his sake, I’m hoping….

 

[America's Cowboy]

• 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.

​

That receiver lined up just outside and to the left of #68 Left Tackle Decker was not off line. He actually looks to be lined up on line......which would have made Decker an ineligible player.

 

[MonsterD]

• Watch video of it. #70 has his hands up and in front of his chest for half his jog to the ref.

​

Yup I was commenting on YT video yesterday as someone was fighting about how it was only the refs fault. The one guy saying it was saying that Skipper said he never told verbally the ref that he was eligible and that is true-verbally. I retorted, watch the video close Skipper is making the gesture on his jersey that he is eligible.

So to sum up the best as to what I have learned and researched. Sewell,Decker and later Skipper are around the ref. Sewell does nothing, according to Decker he says "report" as Skipper closes in on them while gesturing the eligible motion. The ref sees Skipper doing the motion, hears "report" and then he jogs away from them.

So many people who are incensed with ref hatred and conspiracy rot brain were like "Look at the video clearly the ref screwed up".

 

[Adreme]

Call it a ref screw up or not, from the looks of the ref, he was clearly focused on #70 running out on the field and seems like he was reporting and totally ignoring #68. Which could mean that he didn't hear #68 report or that #68 failed to clearly report that he was eligible. People and the media are blaming the ref. But communications is a two way street. Number #68 said he reported but judging from the ref, it was clearly not heard.

So I'm arguing that the Lions trying to confuse the Cowboys, completely confused the refs instead. Causing this debacle to happen.

If the ref got confused by a substitution and thought a guy jogging onto the field and is at best 30 yards away when this is happening is the guy who is the focus and is declaring himself eligible by jogging like a normal human, as opposed to the guy right next to him actively declaring himself eligible, then you are saying he is too dumb to be a ref and should be fired for gross incompetence and maybe work fast food or something simpler for him.

If you wanted to argue that it was the one next to 68 that would at least be believable but the problem is he already started off with the painfully obvious lie that somehow 70 was the one declaring himself eligible which makes no sense. This means he is doubling down on the stupid and expecting there to be people dumb enough to believe that its the Lions fault that the ref failed at something that D3 college refs can do 100% of the time without fail. This was on the ref and it was only on the ref.

Had 68 done what is normal in that situation and motion to the ref from a distance you could argue it is a case of the Lions trying to be too cute but when you beyond what is standard and walk all the way up to the ref to make absolutely sure and he still screws it up, that is gross incompetence and the NFL is hoping there are people dumb enough to believe it was not.

 

[Cowboys22]

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.

So you admit it’s all on Detroit and their obvious attempt to skirt the rules. They even threw it to a player who was not announced as eligible even though they had plenty of time to correct it. Their whole plan was to deceive everyone and cause confusion banking that the refs would not call a penalty. The ref had none of it and announced the player he felt had reported. The only mistake made on the play was Detroits foolish attempt to cheat. Glad you see it that way.

 

[Risen Star]

So you admit it’s all on Detroit and their obvious attempt to skirt the rules. They even threw it to a player who was not announced as eligible even though they had plenty of time to correct it. Their whole plan was to deceive everyone and cause confusion banking that the refs would not call a penalty. The ref had none of it and announced the player he felt had reported. The only mistake made on the play was Detroits foolish attempt to cheat. Glad you see it that way.

To my knowledge what Detroit was trying to do is not against the rules.

I have no problem with them looking for any advantage they can get. Just because they made my team look foolish I can't hate them for it.

 

[loublue22]

I'm pretty every team could make the other "look foolish" for sending ineligible guys out in patterns for wide open catches.

 

[Silverz1972]

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.

70 was legal because he reported but 58 covered him after shifting before the snap making him ineligible. 33 on the cowboys pointed it out so technical the cowboys didn’t have to worry about any of the lineman.

 

[Plankton]

No one is mentioning the fact that the ref has to verbally announce who is eligible. If he said 70 instead of 68, why didn’t the Lions say “wait a minute” and call a timeout?

They were out of timeouts.

 

[Silverz1972]

They were out of timeouts.

This was done while the clock was stopped. The clock was not ticking.

 

[VaqueroTD]

"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.

As @loublue22 put it, you start to turn it into a Zapruder film trying to analyze it but it's very clear that he is doing something different with his arms when he first starts trotting to the official, and at that time, official waves off 68 and partner. We'll never know though because of the angle, but Kurt Warner states in that first post video I made that #70 WAS accused of patting his chest to signal he was eligible. This whole time I just thought it was confusion from 3 guys in his face, but that is deliberate cheating. It's the same thing as Turpin signaling fair catch, ST thinking he won't run, and then he takes off for his return.

 

[VaqueroTD]

No one is mentioning the fact that the ref has to verbally announce who is eligible. If he said 70 instead of 68, why didn’t the Lions say “wait a minute” and call a timeout?

Yes, I tried to keep first post short & sweet, but yes, I would put that in a quick bulletin point aimed at Dan Campbell not being a good Coach.

• Going over play with official beforehand is standard practice.
• He should have been ready to follow-up knowing it could very well confuse people. Especialy now that we see them accused of #70 signaling he was eligible. He should have been listening for the announcement that came out (which Twitter proves it did) and stopped the play right there.
• Not only did he not stop the play, he freaking went for it three times! LOL

 

[visionary]

"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.

Answer my simple question: lets agree with you that the ref was confused but when the ref announced that 70 is eligible, why didnt the lions players or coaches stop and correct the official? That announcement was a clear indication the play would not work.

They ran it anyway thinking the ref would give them the points at the expense if the Cowboys who had clearly been told that 70 was eligible (therefore 68 was not)

Bottom line the Lions messed up and lost out

 

[charron]

You have 2 guys in the refs face and #70 5 yards away. With everything going on the lions didn't make it clear 70 was eligible. The refs still have to announce who is eligible and only announced 68 because 70 didn't make anything clear. The lions got cute and shot themselves. But they still had a chance helped by a Parsons penalty. They can blame the refs but really it is their own fault.

 

[Adreme]

As @loublue22 put it, you start to turn it into a Zapruder film trying to analyze it but it's very clear that he is doing something different with his arms when he first starts trotting to the official, and at that time, official waves off 68 and partner. We'll never know though because of the angle, but Kurt Warner states in that first post video I made that #70 WAS accused of patting his chest to signal he was eligible. This whole time I just thought it was confusion from 3 guys in his face, but that is deliberate cheating. It's the same thing as Turpin signaling fair catch, ST thinking he won't run, and then he takes off for his return.

There is nothing confusing about it. There is a reason even D3 college refs can manage this. There is a reason refs can manage this without actually needing you to come up to them. This allegation here is that maybe 70s arms were 5 degrees too close to him while jogging from 30 yards away and that act somehow made the ref get confused and make him unable hear or see the guy 2 feet away from him saying that he is declaring.

I honestly believe anyone who believes the NFL here, after already being shown to be liars on their first excuse, should probably be barred from financial autonomy because they are going to get conned at some point because we are seeing that they are gullible enough to believe the most obvious lie being told. In an attempt to cover up gross incompetence they could not even tell a good lie which seems rather fitting. The fact that they tried to sell people that it was not the guy 2 feet away from the ref actively declaring himself eligible but the 70 who is 20-25 yards away checking into the game and not near the ref at the time is an awful attempt at a lie. You could have at least said it was the guy next to him but I suspect the NFL was worried about any audio picking up that lie. The only thing more concerning to me that they tried such an awful lie is that there are seemingly people who are believing it and trying to sell it for them. The NFLs excuse is insulting and there is a reason every single coach and player who has commented on this is trashing the NFL for it.

The true kicker though is this ref crew is known to be incompetent. For those who do not remember they are the crew from Packers vs Chiefs who on the final drive in the span of 5 plays called a 15 yard penalty against the Packers for hitting Mahomes out of bounds when he was still in bounds, then stopped the clock when the receiver was going backwards (it should have kept winding which would have changed the drive a lot), then did not call a very blatant PI and all of that on the last drive of the game. So in the span 5 plays they made 3 game altering mistakes and now I am supposed to believe that the Lions, who took it a step beyond when it comes to reporting as eligible by actually going up to the ref and they even informed the ref of the play before the game so that he would not mess it up, are responsible for the mistake and not the ref whose crew has a history this season of critical mistakes in big moments. Occam's Razor strikes true here.

 

[pentatwirl]

Answer my simple question: lets agree with you that the ref was confused but when the ref announced that 70 is eligible, why didnt the lions players or coaches stop and correct the official? That announcement was a clear indication the play would not work.

They ran it anyway thinking the ref would give them the points at the expense if the Cowboys who had clearly been told that 70 was eligible (therefore 68 was not)

Bottom line the Lions messed up and lost out

They should have objected like this before the snap instead of after the flag, since #70 clearly did not want to be announced eligible.

 

[VaqueroTD]

There is nothing confusing about it. There is a reason even D3 college refs can manage this. There is a reason refs can manage this without actually needing you to come up to them. This allegation here is that maybe 70s arms were 5 degrees too close to him while jogging from 30 yards away and that act somehow made the ref get confused and make him unable hear or see the guy 2 feet away from him saying that he is declaring.

I honestly believe anyone who believes the NFL here, after already being shown to be liars on their first excuse, should probably be barred from financial autonomy because they are going to get conned at some point because we are seeing that they are gullible enough to believe the most obvious lie being told. In an attempt to cover up gross incompetence they could not even tell a good lie which seems rather fitting. The fact that they tried to sell people that it was not the guy 2 feet away from the ref actively declaring himself eligible but the 70 who is 20-25 yards away checking into the game and not near the ref at the time is an awful attempt at a lie. You could have at least said it was the guy next to him but I suspect the NFL was worried about any audio picking up that lie. The only thing more concerning to me that they tried such an awful lie is that there are seemingly people who are believing it and trying to sell it for them. The NFLs excuse is insulting and there is a reason every single coach and player who has commented on this is trashing the NFL for it.

The true kicker though is this ref crew is known to be incompetent. For those who do not remember they are the crew from Packers vs Chiefs who on the final drive in the span of 5 plays called a 15 yard penalty against the Packers for hitting Mahomes out of bounds when he was still in bounds, then stopped the clock when the receiver was going backwards (it should have kept winding which would have changed the drive a lot), then did not call a very blatant PI and all of that on the last drive of the game. So in the span 5 plays they made 3 game altering mistakes and now I am supposed to believe that the Lions, who took it a step beyond when it comes to reporting as eligible by actually going up to the ref and they even informed the ref of the play before the game so that he would not mess it up, are responsible for the mistake and not the ref whose crew has a history this season of critical mistakes in big moments. Occam's Razor strikes true here.

We're just going to disagree then. Kurt Warner reported it and I trust that man enormously. And I can personally see something at the start that is not normal "jog motion" as you put it. The Lions are not talking much about the details because they didn't want to get in trouble. Signaling you are eligible is not a sneak play, that's cheating. As someone here brilliantly labeled it, Campbell tried to pull a Belichick. But don't worry, if your heart is set on Detroit, odds are we're both matching up in the same stadium in second round. Detroit can prove they should have won.