The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys played a doozy of a defensive battle in Week 17. Befitting a game billed as Monday Night Football being played on a Saturday night, very little went as expected.
The Cowboys held on for a 20-19 win that ended in controversy, as most big games between these two teams often do. For a game where the pre-game point line was 53.5, the defenses outplaying the offenses for both teams was wacky.
Detroit’s defense was very good all night except for two specific plays. The first was a disastrous near-miss by linebacker Derrick Barnes, who had a potential safety on a perfectly called blitz. But Barnes didn’t use his arms to try and tackle and instead, Cowboys QB Dak Prescott bounced off and subsequently torched the single coverage on CeeDee Lamb over the top for a 92-yard TD. A potential 5-0 lead for Detroit turned into a 7-3 deficit in one fateful second.
The other bad play from the defense was Prescott’s second touchdown, a strike to Brandin Cooks on a corner route where the Cowboys nicely isolated safety Ifeatu Melifonwu on the shifty wideout in the end zone. Melifonwu played an overall good game, but that’s not a matchup he’s apt to win.
Aidan Hutchinson was a monster all night. He sacked Prescott three times and had two other tackles in the backfield on run plays. Detroit’s run defense was outstanding once again, save for one weird play where Tony Pollard gained 18 yards after a near-miss tackle by both Melifonwu and LB Alex Anzalone. Lamb was in best mode in his own right for Dallas, racking up 227 yards on 13 catches. He was the Cowboys offense almost exclusively all night.
Normally, a defensive effort like that would be enough for Detroit. Not in Dallas. The Lions offense struggled with a combination of poor guard play, ponderous play-calling choices and two ugly Jared Goff interceptions. But still, the Lions had a chance to win.
Goff and the Lions cruised down the field for a quick touchdown after Dallas horribly mismanaged an offensive drive that left far too much time for Detroit. The Lions went for two after Goff’s touchdown throw to Amon-Ra St. Brown brought the score to 20-19. And then chaos took over…
The first attempt was good, a gadget play with Goff throwing to tackle-eligible Taylor Decker. Except the officiating crew ruled that Decker wasn’t eligible after all even though he clearly appeared to report (yeah, it’s complex). Campbell was hellbent on going for two, however. Micah Parsons was offsides on the next attempt, a play where the Cowboys picked off Goff over the middle. That set up a third try.
The final attempt harkened back to the unsavory play-calling choices. Goff threw behind reserve TE James Mitchell on a quick-out route that was short of the end zone. The ball bounced off Mitchell’s hands, but he was extremely unlikely to get into the end zone even if he caught it.
Back to the play to Decker. Video showed Decker clearly reported to referee Brad Allen, as did Dan Skipper and Penei Sewell. But Allen only announced Skipper as reporting eligible. Even Cowboys legend Troy Aikman, on the ABC call, was confused as to why Allen apparently missed it. So was officiating analyst John Parry, a longtime NFL official.
It’s a game-altering call, one that drops the Lions to 11-5. Dallas improves to 11-5 and can still win the NFC East.
