Taylor Decker loves Detroit, and Detroit loves him back. The Lions' longest-tenured player found himself in the middle of the NFL's biggest controversy last week when he caught a potential game-winning two-point conversion pass against the Cowboys only for official Brad Allen to wipe it off the board by claiming that Decker never reported as eligible before the play.
Which was wrong, of course.
But the NFL stubbornly stood behind Allen, instead blaming the Lions for confusing Allen by sending three offensive linemen in his direction before the snap. Even though Dan Campbell had walked Allen through the procedure on the field during warmups, Allen lost track of what was happening and the Lions lost the game.
It was familiar territory for the Lions and their fans, who have been frequent victims of officiating gaffes -- including once before in Dallas. Detroit couldn't stand for it again. In the aftermath of the Cowboys' 20-19 win, which wound up costing the Lions the No. 2 seed in the NFC, billboards started popping up on freeways around the city that said "Decker Reported" and listed the Lions' rightful record of 12-4.
It wasn't lost on Decker.
"I saw all the billboards," he said with a smile after the Lions beat the Vikings in Sunday's regular season finale. "I was like, man, Detroit has my back. I was like, I probably shouldn’t post any of these or retweet them or anything, but I saw all of them."
Also thrust into the glare of Allen's mistake was Dan Skipper. Allen said that it was Skipper who reported before the play, even though Skipper never said a word to Allen on the field. The Lions had some fun with it Sunday by sending Skipper to report as eligible several times in their 30-20 win over the Vikings; he even wound up catching a pass for a five-yard gain. The fans at Ford Field roared every time he was announced as eligible.
"It’s nice when you actually report as eligible and you go through as eligible. It’s not so fun when you don’t report and they say that you did," Skipper said with a smile. "No, it was nice to kind of get back on track for us, go out there and have some fun."
Asked about the crowd loving every second of it, Skipper said, "Love this city, all the people in it, and that’s why it was fun."
"Everybody loves Skip, right?" said Dan Campbell. "And look, let me say this, Brad Rogers, head official here, I thought he handled everything really well. That’s not easy to come in after what happened in Dallas and you’re going to be the guy in our game, and he’s a pro. He has been and he was great with communication. But yeah, for the crowd to get up for Skip, that was good.”
So the Lions can officially put the controversy behind them. They got the last laugh Sunday, even taking a playful jab at Allen on social media before the game, and now "we just move on," said Decker. The playoffs start this week, with a potential return to Dallas looming.
"There’s nothing we can do about that situation," Decker said. "We move forward. We still have all of our goal right in front us. They’re attainable, we just have to handle our business. You can’t hang your head on that. In this league, you gotta tun the page to the next game every single week."