Lions utilized too much confusion on 2-point conversion and it backfired

Did Taylor Decker or Dan Skipper report to the officials prior to the Detroit Lions’ controversial 2-point conversion attempt in their 20-19 Week 17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on Saturday night in Arlington, Texas? That is a big question many people are asking.

But while most people are blaming the officials for the mistake, we should definitely be blaming the Lions too. Why? Their trick play was too deceiving, and that’s their fault.

A video from ESPN showed two things happening before the play. Skipper, who is the extra lineman, runs onto the field and runs toward official Brad Allen. At the same time, Decker and Penei Sewell also approach Allen.

It’s not 100 percent clearly exactly who Allen was looking at, but he appeared to be focused on Skipper and pointed at Skipper, despite Decker approaching to report as eligible.

so who didn’t report then? pic.twitter.com/5U1sB2kLXk

— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) December 31, 2023

Allen may have thought Skipper was running at him to report as eligible and then just went to tell the Cowboys that No. 70 was eligible, even if Skipper never said a word.

The Lions’ mistake is that they sent three offensive linemen toward Allen — with the obvious intent to deceive Dallas’ defense. The problem is they confused the official, who reported the “wrong” player eligible.

In my opinion, this was an execution error by Detroit. If they didn’t want to confuse the official, they should have told Skipper to run straight to the huddle rather than run toward the official. They should have made it clear to the official who was reporting as eligible. They failed to do so, which is part of their responsibility.

And once they were called for the penalty and all the confusion ensued, they probably should have just taken the extra point too rather than keep going for it.