Superstar Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce provided some insight on last week’s contentious game-ending penalty in the Lions vs. Cowboys game during an episode of his podcast Wednesday.
Kelce, who claims his Eagles run the exact same play, laid out a potential reason for why the referees deemed Lions tackle Taylor Decker to be ineligible after he caught what would have been the game-winning two-point conversion during Saturday’s Detroit Lions vs. Dallas Cowboys game.
“This play is designed for [Taylor] Decker to go up and declare eligible with the officials,” the Super Bowl-winning player noted. “Skipper, who runs on the field, is told to run at the official and make it look like you’re reporting. That is actually the coaching point that we have had for this exact play. You want the defense to think that the same guy that is reporting has already reported, but he’s supposed to not report.”
Good insight from Eagles center Jason Kelce on the Lions’ 2-point try.
Says the Eagles have a similar play and the coaching point is to run at the official like you’re reporting eligible, but not actually report, to throw off the defense. Also says Detroit’s formation was legal. pic.twitter.com/YfIYD8yoHK
— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) January 5, 2024
The referees ultimately deemed that Lions tackle Dan Skipper was the lineman who reported himself as eligible to catch a pass on the play, NOT Decker, so Decker’s would-be-winning catch was nullified.
“Now, what took place on the field … I’ll admit it’s hard to say. There is a universal symbol for declaring, which is this,” Kelce demonstrated the motion, a two-handed swipe of the upper chest region to signify eligibility. (RELATED: Panthers Owner David Tepper Looks Set To Make Yet Another Braindead Move)
“That is the universal ‘hey, I am reporting as eligible.’ I don’t think I see Skipper do the symbol, and it doesn’t look like he gets close enough to declare eligible. I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t on the field, but what was supposed to happen is Decker was supposed to report, Skipper was supposed to make it look like he reported and then Decker was supposed to catch a two-point conversion pass, which he did,” Kelce explained.
Kelce lamented how the situation played out, saying, “Either way, just a terrible way for this game to end because it was executed to perfection …”
“Perfection!” his brother and podcast co-host Travis Kelce echoed.