League sources say they believe the lions were being deceptive trying to hide their eligible report.
âAllen interpreted the exchange as Skipper, not Decker, reporting as eligible.â
This sentence is doing a lot of work with no explanation. Seems to just be avoiding the question of who said they were eligible - if it was Decker, then the ref screwed up. Running toward the ref and saying nothing, doesnât make you eligible. If the ref was unsure, he should have confirmed, but instead seems he just assumed it would be Skipper and went with that.
edit: Looks like he clearly announced on PA that it was Skipper who was eligible. In that case, perhaps rules should require Lions to correct him.
https://twitter.com/CBS11BillJones/status/1741346888383918227
And the problem with conspicuously making a point of correcting them is that it makes it more obvious that heâs gonna run a route and they donât just have extra OL in for a run. Might have been a better option just to change the play at that point (not sure if they had something they could audible to at the line, I know they had no TOs left).
Does correcting them make it obvious? For formation purposes I assume theyâd want to get the number right, so I donât see why the defense should be more suspicious than normal circumstances where linemen report eligible. I assume most linemen eligible plays are still runs.
Nothing for nothing, but the premise of the play (to try to trick the defense by obfuscating the substitution/reporting process) is enough to make me not care that the scheme was foiled.
They announce eligible receivers wearing ineligible numbers (i.e. fat guys) over the PA in order to make it clear to the defense. Audio shows that the guy that caught the pass was not announced, so the Lionâs clever ploy to subvert game mechanics failed. Seems fine.
Right - anytime you have a 6th lineman one has to be eligible. Thatâs got to be super common on run plays from the goal line.
Although, maybe the hope was that the cowboys couldnât really hear the PA, and would have prepped for plays with Skipper as eligible and thus assumed that was the case here.
Lions say that by the time they realized they announced the run number over the PA it was too late. No timeouts left.
Bottom line, clearly 68 reported. Allen completely fucked up. Wonât or isnât allowed to admit. Given his history of being in some prior screw ups, Iâm going with Allen being a tool.
Video is pretty clear. Trying a little subterfuge is part of the play design. Allen screwing it up when previously informed is a joke. As is him hurrying away from the Lions players. They were coming out of a timeout at that point.
Trying to blame the Lions is just victim shaming. They didnât report 70 and then perfectly execute to 68 on the left in a formation that 70 was covered on the right side of the line.
Worst part about this is the Lions now are like 80% to play the Rams in the first round and that means we will have to listen to a week of âStafford coming home to play his former teamâ narratives. Blech.
Hoping they will make it the Monday night game. Going to Toronto for the weekend and not sure how much game watching Iâll do. Sunday night is the nightmare. Have tickets to Wings at Leafs.
*had
It took me way longer to process Aasshole than it should have.
It worked well so you know he was directing it at Rodgers and not the guy whose tweet he was quoting.
Yeah, it was a nice touch.
eli5 me aashole?
A-aron Rodgers is an a-asshole.
Well, I feel better now.