The NFL has no plan to change its eligibility reporting procedures

With the Eagles losing to the Cardinals on Sunday, Saturday night's result in the Detroit-Dallas game becomes even more important. As is the case with a two-point play that was negated by an illegal touching penalty based on a communication error as to who was eligible and who was not.

In short, the Lions sent offensive lineman Dan Skipper — who is routinely reported as being as competent as a tight end in huge packages — onto the field. Skipper ran toward referee Brad Allen, as if Skipper had been told he was eligible. At the same time, two other offensive linemen (including tackle Taylor Decker) approached Allen from the other direction.

Allen interpreted the exchange as Skipper, not Decker, being informed that she was eligible.

According to a source familiar with the situation, the NFL does not plan to change the procedure for players reporting as eligible. The league views the situation as an attempt by the Lions to engage in deception and skill games that backfired.

Essentially, the Lions wanted the Cowboys to believe Skipper was qualified and Decker was not. Which would have caused the Cowboys to cover Skipper, not Decker, as the play unfolded. The problem is that in trying to confuse the Cowboys, the Lions confuse Allen.

The skipper's running towards Allen was not an accident. Skipper was trying to create the impression that he was competent, as he routinely did. (Last week against the Vikings, for example, Skipper declared himself eligible six different times.)

Part of the problem is that the Lions relied on verbally communicating qualifying/ineligible information to Allen without using the obvious, not-so-obvious non-verbal signal of an eligible player running his hands over the front of his jersey. This appears to have been part of an attempt to confuse the Cowboys. Which in turn confused Allen.

After the match, Lions coach Dan Campbell said: Explaining the play to officials Before the match. The question becomes whether Campbell explained the play itself, or whether Campbell explained his plan to set up the play in an attempt to confuse the Cowboys as to who was eligible and who was not.

According to a source familiar with the situation, Brad Allen was not present for the pregame meeting with Campbell. This is standard procedure. It is not known if Campbell made it clear that a shell game of sorts would be played before the play to confuse the Cowboys. It is difficult to imagine Campbell explaining this.

think about it. Campbell might have said, “Look, we have a game in the game plan tonight that involves throwing a pass interference call. But here's what we're going to do. We're going to make it look like a different person is reporting as eligible than the person who is actually reporting as eligible, because we want to confuse the Cowboys.” About who is eligible and who isn't. So when that happens, get on with it, okay?

It's hard to imagine Campbell being so upfront about the trick the Lions were trying to pull off. Explaining it this way seems a bit far-fetched. Seems a little wrong. It seems like something the team probably shouldn't try to do. Like something that falls on the wrong side of the line of what is fair and what is unfair.

Regardless, the only way the Lions could have properly prepared Allen for that moment was to involve Allen in the ruse. Clearly it wasn't. The Lions ran their offense so well that it befuddled Allen. Frankly, the Lions must find the sweet spot between confusing the opponent and not confusing the officials.

So, no, the NFL is not changing the procedure. It is up to the teams to use them in the right way. If they deliberately confuse the situation as a matter of strategy, they must accept the consequences of confusing potential officials as well.