Number 70 is halfway across the field while 68 is reporting. 70 never reported. This is 1000% the refs fault. What is Decker supposed to do? Chase down the ref and confirm the head nod that he got after he said “Hey I’m reporting”. Give me a break

Agree with Rex' point, 100%. Refs will make mistakes, that's a given, but the NFL always covers up for them, never holding them accountable.

I don't know if I'm just noticing more, but I feel like this year we are seeing more games determined by blatantly bad calls. As they said, mistakes happen, but some are so egregious looking that it makes you wonder about implications about gambling and corruption.

Hiring Rex Ryan was one of the smartest things ESPN has ever done. He’s a force of nature and I love his honesty

The ref ran away for no reason. Then threw a flag 20 seconds after the score was over. This was by NFL/sports-betting design. Not just for this game but for the playoff seeding.

Rex Ryan is pure gold, his passion and insight is irresistible.

Tedy Bruschi's right, we're going to see exaggerated calls to show eligibility 😂

He needed to do more? He walked right up to the ref and told him straight up. What do you want him to scream it at everybody on the field? " Hey I'm getting this next pass guys "

Missing a pass interference call is one thing, it sucks but it's understandable. The mistake made last night was unforgivable. He should be fired and investigated.

Thank god for Randy and Rex to keep the ref's accountable. Also Rex clarifying Campbell's talk about drawing it up pre-game that the Refs literally knew it was coming.

It's crazy n unfortunate. I'm a Dallas fan but I don't like winning a game because a ref made a big mistake. Detroit is a good team. And if my team doesn't make it to the Superbowl i hope Detroit does.

The fact that the officiating crew got demoted should tell you everything you need to know about this situation.

Way to go Rex. The official absolutely acknowledged Decker reporting.

Rex Ryan is great. So many other TV analysts were eager to deny what was right before our eyes. And I greatly appreciate his anger. Unlike his TV peers, Rex loves the game and doesn't see it as a stepping stone to an entertainment career.

But Brad Allen did see number 68. He's home right in front of him and he said something straight to his face

If they called the tripping call a few plays ago right, we won’t even be having this discussion

That call was disgusting should be fired

Thank you for holding the refs accountable.

Thankk u🔥🔥🔥 love it

Love it when coaches fight for the players.

Alex Smith hit it on the head. The ref got conditioned the whole game to think it was 70, the ONE time they changed it up was on THAT play and instead of being on top of it, the ref autopiloted like he did the whole game and mistook 68 for 70. Dude mind fkd himself and didn’t want to admit it. Shame.

As someone who took officiating in college, coach nailed it! 70 runs past referee; he doesn’t stop. 68 walks up to him.

What nobody is talking about is the fact that the ref told the cowboys that #70 was eligible so they assumed #68 was NOT eligible and that's why he wasn't covered initially. The refs made a bad call for sure, but that catch may or may not have happened had the ref properly told the cowboys that #68 was eligible.

One thing that confuses me is that I was at the Bears Falcons game and every time 75 reported eligible they announced it over the P. A how is it that their coach didn't recognize? There was no announcement of sixty eight being eligible

#68 was the first player in front him, before 70 jogged over to him. So how do you not see a 300lb man in front of you

Mad love and respect for Rex. Considering all of the missed calls from the ref and his crew this season, these negligent acts should be deemed MALPRACTICE in his profession. There's consequences in any other profession for MALPRACTICE.

68 (standing directly in front of Brad Allen): "I'm reporting as eligible." Brad Allen (considering 68 to be invisible and inaudible): "Oh, hi, 70. Are you reporting as eligible." 70: "Uh, not really. Remember, this is a trick play." Brad Allen: "Trick play? Uh, I would know if it was a trick play...if I was at the pre-game meeting."

The NFL really needs to do something about the transparency of when mistakes are made. They're going to happen but the NFL just tries to brush over them after the fact and never addresses them.

I am so sick of officials NOT being held accountable in sports!!! All three of the major leagues fine you if you give ANY criticism of these guys. Meanwhile, they get to make bad calls that cost teams critical positioning in the regular seasons or even worse cost them a trip out of the postseason. THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED!!! Lions WON!

It’s insane that he was literally in front of the official yet he ignored him and looked at 70 who was a distance away.

Unbelievable Sam acting shocked that the lions were trying to confuse the Cowboys by not letting them know who is eligible until the ref says it. That's kinda the game of football. not letting your opponents know your next move. You send 1 guy to report, the defense knows for another 10 seconds or so who is eligible and can adjust and communicate. You send 3 and the defense then has to wait to hear what number from the ref over the speakers and then has less time to adjust. She just sounded so appalled to think that one team might try and trick the other team xD

How did the ref even think it was 70 who declared when 70 barely made it to the huddle and the ref didn't even stand to talk with the linemen and just seemingly passed it off and jogged away like he was ignoring Decker.

As a Cowboys fan, this is right up there with the missed PI calls for the Saints against the Rams and Vikings.

If you look at the call history of this crew even just in this season, i don’t think it’s too far to say that they do not deserve to officiate professional sports in any capacity

Brad Allen has officiated 6 Lions games, they are 0-6 in these games and had 435 penalty yards to opponents 287

First the ref probably screwed up telling the Cowboys it was 70 and not 68. So rather than upset the Cowboys it was too easy to penalize the Lions. He didn't want to admit he was wrong. BS.. are you serious the player has to make it obvious they are going to be an eligible receiver.. Ref should have confirmed with the player as to who is the eligible receiver.. and this is why.. this is absolutely absurd... I would be outraged if I was a Detroit fan If a ref said that this is only a game or so what.. they need to be fired.. absolutely the wrong attitude.

Even when the refs are pre-warned, when they are told ahead of time… they still blow the call! …its friggin 2023! Unbelievable!

Let's look at this realistically... did we really think the NFL would let Dallas lose on Jimmy's night?

Let's also mention the bad call for tripping on Cowboys TE Hendershot when it was actually tripping on Lion's DE Hutchinson. This totally changed the momentum of the game within the 2:00 drill for Cowboy's offense. It went from 2nd and 3 to 1st and 25. If the referee would call the tripping penalty correctly, it would have been Cowboy's 1st and 10 inside the redzone. And no time outs for the Lion's. It's possibly game over at that point. But the Football Gods said otherwise.

Play the audio of him announcing 70, not 68, to the entire stadium...

What made that bad call even more infuriating is how long AFTER the play was completed to throw the flag.

Finally Rex THANK YOU he's the only one with some sense on this situation.

Miscommunication between the Lions and the game officials resulted in the Cowboys not being told prior to the two-point attempt that #68 had reported as an eligible receiver. As a result #68 was left uncovered, which gave the Lions an uncontested toss and catch for two points. What we know: 1. the Cowboys were not informed that #68 was an eligible receiver; 2. either the Lions, the officials, or both were failed to inform the Cowboys that #68 reported as an eligible receiver; and 3. leaving the two points on the board would have unjustly rewarded the Lions and unfairly penalized the Cowboys. Under the circumstances, replaying the down, while imperfect, was the only equitable solution to the controversy. Finally, it's important to recount that after the penalty, the Lions had three opportunities to convert the two-point play. The first was the completion to #68 that was called back for an illegal touch; the second resulted in a Cowboys interception, which was overturned by an off-sides penalty against Micah Parsons; the third and last attempt resulted in an incomplete pass. In the end, the Dallas defense held and the Cowboys won the game by 1 point. I'm certainly not pleased with the the officiating crew, but casting the Lion's as victims and the rightful winners of this game is a gross oversimplification and when viewed in total, it's just wrong.

On the Cowboys prior drive, they called tripping on the wrong guy, “ hutchinson tried to trip TP.” Which would’ve sealed the game there, if he had made that correct call… so all the other stuff is moot.

Literally took points off of the board with a bold face lie. Skipper never said a word to the ref

I'm not a fan of the lions but as a football fan this had me fuming. This play was PERFECTLY designed and drawn up by Dan Campbell, it literally couldn't have possibly been a more perfect trick play. This play was drawn up so perfectly they had #70 go towards the ref so the defense wouldn't know it was 68 reporting not 70 and the ref made an assumtion that very well may end up being the reason the lions get eliminated in the playoffs. Home field advantage is huge come playoffs

That ref needs to be reprimanded.

Wow Randy Moss , of all the guys who always cried like a baby about the refs, now you get up here and tap dance 🕺 The respect I had for you just left the room. Thanks for showing your true self.

Allen will NEVER acknowledge that he made the error. As Adam pointed out, this crew has made numerous erroneous/ suspect calls this season. They should be suspended the last two games this season and the first four games next season

He’s the only person to call it like it is in the media that I’ve seen.

What is the rule from start to finish? Can a player that is already playing now become a eligible tackle. Or just the player coming onto the field.?.

I love the way Rex Ryan is telling it like he sees it!!!!!!!

Rex is spot on. Everyone is dancing around the issue and not calling out Brad Allen. Dude screwed up. He needs to own it.

Why is nobody talking about the bad tripping call against Dallas when clearly it was the Lions players trying to trip up Pollard.

The lions are lovable because of Dan Campbell. The NFL needs more officials because they can’t all together collectively remember all of the schemes that these teams are telling them about before the game. This is an ongoing problem and with the way the league has developed With the rules and so forth, it’s just a necessary thing they need to do.

Finally a sports media personality being honest and not scared of the nfl. Love you Rex!!!!

“Why wouldn’t just one go up to the official?” She has to be asking that for the audience. Cause that’s the stupidest question. They’re not trying to telegraph who’s about to get the ball to the defense… smh

I'm sure this has been mentioned but I haven't seen it... What happened to "All scoring plays are reviewed."?

How about THIS as a solution?: Forget all that "having to report" crap, and make eligibility depend on the formation. Then it's up to both teams, offense and defense, to know who can catch a pass. This to me is another case of NFL rules being more complicated than they need to be.

Thank you! I’m so tired of these couch officials/players/coaches trying to argue with people who actually played/coached in the game. The refs fucked up. It’s just that simple

This is why I'm starting to fall out of love with NFL football.

Yea...I kept saying during the game. "kick the extra point and trust your defense"...it almost seemed like fate was pushing them toward that and they said, "no, we're good"

If they call that tripping call we don't even talk about this 😂

What a great time in football history that almost the entire NFL fanbase is rooting for the Lions and Browns to win and 2 written off QB's to succeed. This year's script has been great so far!

Rex's is the best take I've heard yet on this. The first one that has really explained this from a coach's perspective, and showed the anger so many of us feel (Lions fan or not). Brad Allen's crew is the Angel Hernandez of NFL referee crews

No one knows, what 68 said, but, you can see 70 reports by using his hand signals while he walking toward the ref, and you can see that the ref is acknowledging 70 reports, the ref is announcing 70 as eligible on the PA while walking toward the Cowboys defense.

Rex Ryan. I miss having a coach with this much passion.

I’m so confused. #68 is literally right in the ref’s face, telling him he’s going to be eligible but the ref is focused on #70, who’s like 6 yards away?

I’m not a huge lions fan, but this happens to them all the time. Mistakes in officiating never goes the lions way. This happens so often, starting to question if they are intentional.

Officials need to start holding up a finger for number of reports

Rex Allen blow this one. A side video shows Allen signaling that he is declaring eligible. It is done by raising the left arm and tapping your chest. Decker never does this. Decker may have said but that's not how it is done. If you have ever been on the field during a play like this, you can barely hear over the crowd noise. That's why they signal. It is the Lions job to make sure the ref gets it done correctly.

As a lions fan, it hurts so bad but we’re so used to getting screwed I’m numb to it . Great thing this wasn’t for us to get into the playoffs! I’m just happy the rest of the nfl fanbases are on our side

That's crazy. I didn't know that both teams are supposed to draw out the trick plays for the refs before the game even starts. That makes the blown call even worse because the head ref knows that 68 is supposed to be the designated receiver on that trick play. The fact that he doubled down on his own blown call is asinine.

Dallas pretty much has "Gus the kicking Mule", but Rex needs to hold his horses. A: Dallas had TWO timeouts left. NOT one. B: The Lions, on their drive for their last TD ran two plays. Play 1: 10 yard pass (to Lions 35 yard line) Took 8 seconds. Play 2: 25 yard pass (to Dallas 40 yard line) Took 5 seconds. So the two plays took a total of 13 seconds. There were 23 seconds for Dallas to get into field goal range. 23 seconds minus 13 seconds is 10 seconds. So if Dallas did the EXACT same thing as the Lions, they would have been in field goal range. It would have been approximately a 57 to 58 yard field goal. Well within the range of Brandon Aubrey, Dallas version of "Gus the kicking Mule". And there would have been 10 seconds on the clock to maybe run one more play to get closer. So it's well within reason to think Brandon Aubrey could have made a walk off field goal.

He was focused on #70, who was 10 yards away even though he looked, pointed, and shook his head yes at #68. Complete incompetence or rigged or both.

I'm neither a Lions nor a Cowboys fan, but it's disappointing when a referee botches a call that causes the winning team to lose, not to mention a game with huge playoff implications. Very disappointing!! NFL DO BETTER!

This proves what I been thinking and saying about these refs all season. Every game I watched has had horrible calls and it's ashame because it's ruining the game as we know it.

Rex been waiting for this moment his whole life since being a coach

STOP CRYING REX YOU ARE A GROWN MAN!!!!! THE CONTROVERSIAL 2 POINT PLAY SHOULD NOT HAPPEN BECAUSE HENDERSHOT WAS CALLED FOR TRIPPING AND NOT AIDAN HUTCHINSON!!!!!! PLEASE BRING THAT UP ON YOUR SHOW DCAL!!!!!!

This was the craziest call by a ref I ever seen , he took their W , it kind of exposes football for what it is which is not a game for the fans anymore

Brad Allen has messed up two other times in crucial moments. 0:43 He's looking right at Taylor Decker #68 but what do you think they talked about? The New Year? Screw the refs and Goodell should absolutely give this win to the Lions for this clear rigging

How come no one is asking why the Lions had to depend on 1 play instead of taking care of business and getting a lead before the very end of the game.

It should have been corrected from NY immediately

Rex Ryan's disappointment actually just made me shed a few tears...glad he spoke passionately about this....HOFer

Brad Allen is quickly becoming the Angel Hernandez of the NFL.

“Boy, that sounds like fortune-cookie wisdom to me, Billy”.

What’s great is that this particular nfl referee team will not officiate any playoff games

The ref literally had to look around 68 to even see 70

This is either gross incompetence or obscene corruption. This ref needs to be fired and the league needs to award the game to the Lions.

I blame announcers and TV directors for not showing and telling us whats been happening all these years, I never knew the ref goes before EVERY play and yells at the defense! I never see it on camera!

Its amazing how this call overshadows the tripping call when Dallas woulda never let Detroit get the ball back anyways. Really amazing honestly.

#70 did not get close enough to the ref to speak to him, in the video the ref jogs away before Skip got to him. Decker is standing right in front of him. And now the coach is saying he told the refs before the game that if they run this play, #68 would be the one reporting.

It’s mafia-like that the NFL doesn’t allow announcers, players or coaches to point out officiating problems

Finally someone bashing the NFL. Thanks Rex. Those officials should be fined and suspended

A scene from the movie, NFL House. Goodell: "Campbell, you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fucked up. You trusted us! Hey, make the best of it!"

That was the biggest BS call, even Skip agreed that the call wasn’t right & when he agrees against his cowboys you know it ain’t right

The ref should never ref again. May have cost the lions the 1 seed.

Here is what you SHOULD be considering: Campbell says he explained the play to the refs (I'm hearing just one of them) in their locker room before the game. A verbal description of something so complicated that none of the ex-NFL commentators/analysts could agree on what had happened. Did Campbell diagram the play for his players? DId they run through it many, many times so that everyone would know exactly how the choreography worked? Yep. Did he diagram it for the refs. Nope. So it was so convoluted that his own players couldn't be expected to get it without a diagram and multiple walk throughs, but a ref is supposed to get it perfectly from a quick description in the locker room before the game? Campbell's purpose was to fool the defense, so they wouldn't know who was eligible. He tried to defeat the rule, and the purpose of the rule. And part of the master plan was to play fast and loose with alignments on the line of scrimmage, so it isn't really clear who is up on the line and who is back. (Did the Lions actually have 7 men on the line of scrimmage? I don't think so.) One last thing - Campbell admits that more than one person reported. According to him, both Decker and Sewell. So he had Sewell reporting as ineligible, knowing that he would be lining up in an ineligible slot. I'm not even sure if that's legal, and can't find anyone who does know for sure. Skipper runs in and it sure looks like he reports (I guess that was the idea?) But you can see the ref go directly over to tell the defense that he is eligible. So at the very best, his Campbell's gadget managed to fool the refs too. What you do konw is that if the Cowboys knew that slow, fat Decker was supposed to be eligible, he wouldn't have wide open like that. So Campbell went looking for a way to defeat the rule, and he got bit by it.

COOK Rex. COOK. Most honest and empassioned reaction to a game I’ve seen all year 👏

I reviewed the broadcast live and never heard the ref announce anyone as an eligible receiver. I assume that's in the video sent to teams?