Video: More on Eligible Receivers - Detroit was copying a Belicheat Play Made Illegal

[catiii]

They did catch a break, but the actual break was Campbell being an idiot and coaching a bad game.

Who's "SOFT" defence, which did nothing, was to blame for that Lions TD to begin with? Not to mention gifting them the 45 seconds. Troy had a lot of trouble with both of those coaching decisions. I'm seeing shades of JG. We got very very lucky they messed up their "trick" play or we'd have lost the game.

 

[The Quest for Six]

Again the spirit of this rule is not so the defense is confused who is eligible, its so the defense knows, the fault of the ref not knowing CLEARLY who is reporting is squarley on the Lions for trying to be sneaky...DC said they were trying to not let dallas see who was reporting...its not the officials responsibility to chase down who is reporting and who is not....Im sorry OmerV everything that happened in this sequence seems to stem from the HC designed misdirection....there is no other way to view it.

or the ref got confused who was the eligible because the Lions executed the play they called to perfection.....because it makes no sense 68 runs the pattern and catcheds the pass and 70 stays on the line of scrimmage....clealry 68 was the supposed eligible

 

[Chasing6]

Again the spirit of this rule is not so the defense is confused who is eligible, its so the defense knows, the fault of the ref not knowing CLEARLY who is reporting is squarley on the Lions for trying to be sneaky...DC said they were trying to not let dallas see who was reporting...its not the officials responsibility to chase down who is reporting and who is not....Im sorry OmerV everything that happened in this sequence seems to stem from the HC designed misdirection....there is no other way to view it.

100% correct. Again absolutely no reason to send 3 lineman to the Ref to report 1. By trying to confuse Dallas, they confused the Ref.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

It was never a question the Lions were trying to confuse the Cowboys. I haven't said otherwise. But that alone doesn't mean they cheated. Deception and cheating aren't automatically the same thing..


This is what Decker said ...

"They didn't tell me anything after the play," Decker said. "All I really want to say on it, just so I don't get myself into trouble, is I did exactly what coach told me to do.

"I went to the ref, said, 'Report,' and yeah. I don't know. It was my understanding, too, that (head coach) Dan (Campbell) brings up the possibility of those sorts of plays pregame, so I did what I was told to do, did it how we did it in practice all week, and that's probably all we can touch on with that."


This is what Skipper said ...

A clearly frustrated Skipper declined a formal postgame interview, citing an unwillingness to be fined. He told a handful of reporters near his locker, "I did not say a word to the ref."

if he reported and then 70 reported as he gestured, then its an illegal formation. the referee explicitly and very loudly announced, #70 is eligible. nobody on detroit reacted, including #68.

and they can't just say "report". they have to say it explicitly, that I am reporting as eligible or gesture.
did he say #70 is going to report? then #70 reported in by gesturing to himself. then the ref announced it.

again, even his response is confusing and dancing around answering a question directly.

this was all designed to confuse cowboys and the refs. 70 didn't say a word. but did 68? and then why did 70 gesture to the ref?

sounds all fishy to me. why have three linemen go to the ref? why not just the one reporting himself? if it was 68, then what was the other lineman doing there? why did 70 run to the ref and gesture?

again all of it sounds fishy and not in good spirit of the competition.

and again, Detroit could have reacted to the announcement. NONE of them did. I don't think Skipper declined because he was worried about a fine. he declined because he would have to lie.

 

[CowboyFrog]

or the ref got confused who was the eligible because the Lions executed the play they called to perfection.....because it makes no sense 68 runs the pattern and catcheds the pass and 70 stays on the line of scrimmage....clealry 68 was the supposed eligible

no they didnt because ran perfectly the Ref would've called the correct guy eligible and the defense would've covered him, this is beating a dead horse if you dont want to believe the HC who said they were trying to fool the defense then dont I dont care at this point....the D covered the eligible guy and the Offense threw the ball to an ineligible guy those are facts and we won.....

 

[CowboyFrog]

if he reported and then 70 reported as he gestured, then its an illegal formation. the referee explicitly and very loudly announced, #70 is eligible. nobody on detroit reacted, including #68.

and they can't just say "report". they have to say it explicitly, that I am reporting as eligible or gesture.
did he say #70 is going to report? then #70 reported in by gesturing to himself. then the ref announced it.

again, even his response is confusing and dancing around answering a question directly.

this was all designed to confuse cowboys and the refs. 70 didn't say a word. but did 68? and then why did 70 gesture to the ref?

sounds all fishy to me. why have three linemen go to the ref? why not just the one reporting himself? if it was 68, then what was the other lineman doing there? why did 70 run to the ref and gesture?

again all of it sounds fishy and not in good spirit of the competition.

and again, Detroit could have reacted to the announcement. NONE of them did. I don't think Skipper declined because he was worried about a fine. he declined because he would have to lie.

I find it hard to believe everyone heard the call except the Lions, its not like they were in a diferent stadium.

 

[OmerV]

Again the spirit of this rule is not so the defense is confused who is eligible, its so the defense knows, the fault of the ref not knowing CLEARLY who is reporting is squarley on the Lions for trying to be sneaky...DC said they were trying to not let dallas see who was reporting...its not the officials responsibility to chase down who is reporting and who is not....Im sorry OmerV everything that happened in this sequence seems to stem from the HC designed misdirection....there is no other way to view it.

"Spirit of the Rule" and "Cheating" aren't the same thing. If you say you don't think it's a good look or that the ethics are questionable, I won't argue that.

 

[OmerV]

if he reported and then 70 reported as he gestured, then its an illegal formation. the referee explicitly and very loudly announced, #70 is eligible. nobody on detroit reacted, including #68.

and they can't just say "report". they have to say it explicitly, that I am reporting as eligible or gesture.
did he say #70 is going to report? then #70 reported in by gesturing to himself. then the ref announced it.

again, even his response is confusing and dancing around answering a question directly.

this was all designed to confuse cowboys and the refs. 70 didn't say a word. but did 68? and then why did 70 gesture to the ref?

sounds all fishy to me. why have three linemen go to the ref? why not just the one reporting himself? if it was 68, then what was the other lineman doing there? why did 70 run to the ref and gesture?

again all of it sounds fishy and not in good spirit of the competition.

and again, Detroit could have reacted to the announcement. NONE of them did. I don't think Skipper declined because he was worried about a fine. he declined because he would have to lie.

If ...

I would be surprised if both reported, or if they did that it was intentional. They say they didn't. Obviously they could be lying, but I just can't get to the point of believing the Lions would intentionally wreck their own play. It just doesn't make sense to believe the Lions would think a ref wouldn't notice 68 doesn't look like 70.

I don't know if they can just say "report" or not. I doubt there is a rule that sets out the exact words that have to be used. I would think an O-lineman walking directly face to face with a ref saying "report" would do the trick.

I do understand what you're saying about the vague way he discusses it, but players are coached to be careful about what they say and how they say it, and they know there are consequences if they aren't careful. Even coaches dance around questions about calls they disagree with.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I find it hard to believe everyone heard the call except the Lions, its not like they were in a diferent stadium.

exactly my point.

 

[OmerV]

I find it hard to believe everyone heard the call except the Lions, its not like they were in a diferent stadium.

Everyone heard the call ... sitting at their computer after the fact and with no other distractions.

 

[The Quest for Six]

no they didnt because ran perfectly the Ref would've called the correct guy eligible and the defense would've covered him, this is beating a dead horse if you dont want to believe the HC who said they were trying to fool the defense then dont I dont care at this point....the D covered the eligible guy and the Offense threw the ball to an ineligible guy those are facts and we won.....

So refs don't ever make mistakes, like the Hendershot tripping penalty??? Come on, common sense and video and what the players stated clearly indicates the ref called the wrong number...

 

[ActualCowboysFan]

Which break did the Cowboys catch? They had to stop the same play two more times, one of which was a free play.

On a free drive! What the heck is the point of sky judge if not to overturn that tripping call in a standalone, one score game with 2 minutes left? Obvious wrong call I could see from my seat in the stands live and no one would have batted an eye if that two point was let go. The standard ain’t the standard.

 

[Bagman]

Some of y'all are working overtime, trying to convince yourselves that the Cowboys didn't catch a break.

I guess when you're invested in anti-Cowboys conspiracies, any call that goes the Cowboys way has to be justified.

It's comical. We caught a break. It's not hard to see it for what it was, unless you're invested elsewhere.

Lay off the crack pipe Jake. If Dallas was alerted to #68 being eligible, you DON'T think he would have been covered ? Keep trying to convince YOURSELF that Detroit was robbed. Hope it helps you sleep better

 

[BHendri5]

Some of y'all are working overtime, trying to convince yourselves that the Cowboys didn't catch a break.

I guess when you're invested in anti-Cowboys conspiracies, any call that goes the Cowboys way has to be justified.

It's comical. We caught a break. It's not hard to see it for what it was, unless you're invested elsewhere.

True, we did catch a break!, normally the refs wouldn't have called that and we would have had to try to get into field goal range with 2 timeouts and 23 seconds, due to the tripping call that was not on our player. No one is working overtime, everyone that's Cowboys fans that are still talking about it, basically explaining to everyone else that wants to say we caught a break or that the refs were for us, those people are just pointing out how that the play was illegal and a penalty anyway you cut it

 

[DogFace]

Bother Jake, just a question about this.

If it's true that the referee conveyed the wrong number to our defense how does disinformation to our defense constitute a break?

The supposition should be that we would have put a defender on 68 instead of 70 and the throw may never have happened.

to me, it seems that BOTH teams were done a disservice. Let me know if this logic doesn't ring true because perhaps I'm missing something on this.

I'm not dug in on an opinion if there's more light to be shed

I think you’re the 35th person to point it out to him(possibly a record) He’s not taking calls on this one. His narrative is that the refs are very good and questioning them constitutes Cowboys crying.

He really wanted a break to go the Cowboys way to fit his narrative.

 

[DogFace]

What normally would’ve happened would be that the refs and the NFL said that they were sorry that they forgot to tell us he was an eligible receiver and better luck next time.

Jimmy is in The Ring now so maybe all is right with the football gods.

 

[DuncanIso]

Some of y'all are working overtime, trying to convince yourselves that the Cowboys didn't catch a break.

I guess when you're invested in anti-Cowboys conspiracies, any call that goes the Cowboys way has to be justified.

It's comical. We caught a break. It's not hard to see it for what it was, unless you're invested elsewhere.

Truth.

The Refs gave us that game.

Everyone saw it.

Take it and run.

 

[DuncanIso]

The referees announced that 70 was eligible and the Cowboys guarded 70. When 68 caught the ball, Detroit got flagged. If anything, the refs actually doing something correctly that benefits the Cowboys being a surprise and "a break" for the Cowboys sure sounds like you think that the refs are normally biased against Dallas.

I dont think 70 even ran a route.

Come on man.

Everyone saw what happened.

I roll with Dallas, but we got a gift.

 

[JW82]

Rewatched the end of the game. You can even see Sam Williams saying he wasn't eligible after the play. McCarthy said multiple guys on the side line were yelling the same thing after the play. Thank goodness Dallas didn't get screwed.

 

[buybuydandavis]

A new twist on the story. There is historical precedent.

Here's another one from NFL higher ups.