Referee already ‘under fire’ for prior blown decisions; he botched a big Lions call against the Cowboys.
There have been some really awful moments in the previous few years for NFL refereeing. Far too many times, it felt like a referee made a very important call incorrectly. One such mistake lost one team a vital victory in the competition for the NFC’s top spot on Saturday night between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys.
Brad Allen, the lead referee in the Lions-Cowboys game, is under immense fire for calling an illegal man downfield during Detroit’s two-point game-winner attempt. The gist of it is that the referee claims that Taylor Decker, Detroit’s starting left tackle, did not declare himself as an eligible receiver. However, Detroit claims that Decker called himself eligible, and the video footage supports that as well.
Unfortunately for the sport, this isn’t the only time Brad Allen has been under fire this season. Remember that Packers-Chiefs game this month that ended with a brutal sequence of botched calls on both sides? Well, Allen and his crew were also the ones surveilling that match. It turns out that the crew were already “under scrutiny” due to the ending of the game, per Adam Schefter. After this Lions-Cowboys game, they’re in even more hot water.
“The officiating crew that did not call a blatant and potentially game-deciding pass interference penalty during Sunday night’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers game missed a similar call one week earlier in Atlanta on a play that harkened back to one of the most controversial non-calls in NFL history.”
You did indeed read that correctly. At least two times this season, Allen made crucial calls that altered the course of the game. It’s anyone’s guess why the NFL permitted Allen to oversee a game as important as the Lions-Cowboys contest. To be honest, this is intolerable for the NFL.
Allen maintains that it was a different Lions lineman that declared to be eligible during the game. However, the video evidence corroborates both Decker, Dan Campbell, and Jared Goff’s claim that it was the former that declared himself as an eligible receiver. Much can be made about Campbell’s ultra-aggressive playcalling costing them the game. However, you can’t deny that the Lions were absolutely robbed of this game.
