KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff caught a touchdown to cap a 15-play, nearly 10-minute opening drive in flashy fashion.
David Montgomery hit Goff on the screen, and Amon-Ra St. Brown laid a great block to spring the quarterback into the end zone. For a moment, it seemed like the offense was about to carry the Lions to a big day on Sunday Night Football.
But instead of celebrating another trick-play hit in primetime, not to mention a big moment on fourth down, mass confusion ensued. And that confusion from the Lions carried through to the end of the team’s 30-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I guess we all need to do a little research on what exactly went wrong,” Goff said. “Because my hands were not under center, and I was set to begin the play. And as far as I was concerned, I thought that was the only thing I needed to do. They were saying that -- I’ve never heard this --, ‘because of how close I was to the center that then declares me as a quarterback and then I then can’t go in motion.’
“I was only under the impression that it was my hands under center. So, that’s a new version of that rule that I had never heard of, and I think a lot of our coaches had never heard of. And if that is the rule, then I guess we need to do a little more research on that.”
Adding to the confusion was how long it took for the penalty to come in. The Lions had already celebrated the score, and kicker Jake Bates was lining up for the extra point. Then, the flag was thrown, and it felt like an eternity before the offense was back on the field. Goff went back under center and took a delay of game penalty, with Bates hitting the “consolation prize” short field goal.
It was a disappointing end to a truly dominant drive. The Lions went 70 yards on 15 plays, taking nearly 10 minutes to march down the field.
Adding even more to the confusion was that coach Dan Campbell said the penalty came from the league office in New York. Campbell was told Goff stayed in motion, and “that was that,” adding that the play had no bearing because they lost by 13 points.
But in the pool report with NFL referee Craig Wrolstad, it was stated that the call from the crew on the field, and not from New York, was made.
Goff goes in motion and catches the ball in stride without stopping, and that’s where the problem and lengthy discussions came from.
“There were a lot of moving parts on that play. We had a quarterback go up to the line of scrimmage,” Wrolstad said. “He paused momentarily in the quarterback position, didn’t get under center, but he walked up and stopped like he was the quarterback.
“If the quarterback assumes the quarterback position, and then goes in motion, he has to then stop for a second before they snap the ball. Because he gets out of the view of some of the officials, we had to piece it together as a crew as to whether he stopped initially and then whether he stopped when he went in motion. It was determined after a lengthy discussion that he stopped at the quarterback position and then went in motion.”
Wrolstad said the lengthy delay was due to “confusion” among the officials in Kansas City. He added that not only did the call not come from New York, but that they had no assistance from them.
If Goff had originally lined up in the shotgun and not under center, the official said the ruling on the field would have been different.
The Lions coach said they were trying to get into the end zone when asked if he had any regrets about the trick-play call.
“I guess we can do something else to get to the end zone,” Campbell said. “But, no. I don’t second-guess it.”
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