Two days after the Lions had a touchdown on a trick play called back in their loss to the Chiegs after a lengthy review by the refs, it was still such a sore subject for Dan Campbell that he didn't want to talk about it. He did, though, just a bit.
In the past, Campbell has sought clearance from the officials during warmups on specific trick plays that his offense might run in the game, as he did two years ago in Dallas before the controversy around the overturned two-point conversion pass to Taylor Decker in the Lions' loss to the Cowboys. In that case, Campbell was told that the procedure and the play that the Lions had planned was legal, only for the officials to interpret it differently in the game.
On their first drive of the game against the Chiefs, the Lions had a touchdown pass from David Montgomery to Jared Goff wiped out by a penalty on Goff for illegal motion, even though Goff lined up exactly as the Lions practiced the play and never put his hands under center, which would have established him as the quarterback.
After huddling up, the officials ruled that because Goff approached the center and never came to a stop after going in motion, he failed to disengage from the quarterback position and establish himself as a receiver. The flag came out just as both teams were lining up for the extra point, well more than a minute after the touchdown.
Campbell -- and Goff -- said after the game that the refs reviewed the play as a group after getting word from the NFL's officiating arm in New York, which would have violated league protocol as the call on the field wasn't subject to replay review. In a pool report, referee Craig Wrolstad denied that any replay assistant from either New York or Kansas City was involved in making the call.
When Campbell was asked Tuesday if he ever received direction from the officials prior to the game on the play in question, he said, "I don’t even want to talk about it. I don’t, and I’m sorry. It’s a real sore spot."
"I told the team, man, I take full responsibility for that," Campbell said. "I do. Players did exactly what we told them to do, Goff did exactly what we told him to do, David did, and I will take that. You have to make it very clear on where you are, and I did not do that. And I told them I take responsibility for that."
The flag was the first of four on the Lions in their 30-17 loss, while the Chiefs didn't have a single penalty accepted against them. Asked Tuesday if he had any thoughts on the penalty discrepancy in his team's defeat at Arrowhead, Campbell again took the high road and said, "I don't. I don't."