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The Morning After Week 17: Unforgettable Night
Cowboys, Lions, and referees put on a night that the NFL will long remember.
BOB STURM
DEC 31, 2023
They say “history gets written by the victors.”
If you win the battle, you get to tell the story from your perspective. Most of the losing army has been lost to history or buried, so their perspective gets largely ignored.
Thankfully, our NFL games aren’t that serious. Nobody is dying from these games (we’d like to keep it that way) and for whatever reason, victors do not often get to tell the story from their perspective.
A good case in point is the “Dez Catch” game. Seldom have you heard the story from the Green Bay Packers perspective. Their perspective was “we thought he caught it, too,” but they were pretty happy with the call and therefore the outcome. They moved on. Meanwhile, in Dallas, the Dez Catch game gets referenced more than just about anything in the last decade that this city has experienced. I have even seen a pickup truck that has been painted to commemorate that moment in Cowboys history.
Fans have long memories, right?
So, it should come as no surprise that the events of Dec. 30, 2023, will not be remembered the same way by the millions who experienced an unforgettable night of football.
There will be the Cowboys perspective, perhaps the biggest lightning rod of a franchise in all of sports. The overwhelming Lions perspective that will be told the loudest, as they appeared to be jobbed the worst and are also a Cinderella story who people love to root for.
And then, perhaps, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I would like to tell you I can offer you the sweet middle truth, but I am both a resident of Dallas since 1998, a media type who has covered the Cowboys since then. I’m also a friend of the Detroit Lions’ head coach since 2003 or so. Where that puts me as I sort through the sordid details is anyone’s guess.
But, here we go.
I don’t think we have ever seen anything quite like Saturday and I do believe this is one of those games that will be brought up as long as football nerds bring up old games.
There are so many ways to digest it and given that I like to keep these Morning After pieces to around 2,000 words (a full 500 more than my old bosses preferred), we better get to it.
Detroit now gives the Dallas defense a chance for a save and they we believed they did deliver when Donovan Wilson picks off a pass that is poorly located on an out by TE Sam Laporta. What a stop for the Cowboys defense and they should be able to move the chains and end the game with 2:05 to go and the Cowboys starting this last drive from the Detroit 29 yard line. The Lions have two timeouts and the two minute warning.
This is the play when all of the Cowboys fandom in unison wanted 89-Peyton Hendershot cut. Tony Pollard has one of his better runs in a night to forget off left tackle for 7-yards. But, a flag calls a “tripping penalty” on Hendershot and walks the Cowboys back 15 yards to the Detroit 44.
Only problem here – and it is a huge one – is there is nothing even close to a tripping penalty committed by Hendershot on his man 97-Hutchinson. It is also worth nothing and I believe the video below will clearly show this, that Hutchinson himself seems to be the one actually throwing his leg in the path of Pollard and committing the penalty. But, ESPN offers no real replay or view of the play itself and we go into the two-minute warning with the officials flagging Dallas for a personal foul on Detroit!
Wait, did they just call a 15-yard penalty on the wrong team? Yes, it appears they did.
Dallas would have a 1st and 25 from the 44-yard line when in reality it should have probably been 1st and 10 for Dallas at the 14-yard line with 2 minutes left and the game completely cooked. Mike McCarthy was irate, but powerless to change anything and you could see him reference the call briefly in postgame before deciding to change his mind.
This, of course, changes the course of events quite a bit. Let’s be honest, Detroit’s massive controversy never occurs if this call isn’t butchered. For another thing, Dallas does not ever throw a deep pass on second down which inexplicably stops the clock for Detroit. It was a moment where Mike McCarthy was widely destroyed by the football world for doing something that silly after a similar poor idea vs Seattle.
In this case, Dak Prescott claimed responsibility, according to our friend David Moore of the Dallas Morning News:
Big mistake, because you let the Lions hold on to another 45 seconds of the game when you settle for a field goal at 1:41 left that gives Dallas a 20-13 lead.
Surely, the defense can handle it from here, right?
Well, they did not imitate Josh Sborz on this occasion at all.
The Lions accept the kickoff and get to work. Detroit finds the defense very soft and inviting as they waltz right down the field with a quick 10 yard to LaPorta and then 25 more right to the Dallas 40 yard-line with 1:03 left. Another 14 yard to Amon-Ra St. Brown and at 0:49 they are all the way to the Dallas 26. Fifteen more yard to LaPorta and they are to the Dallas 11-yard line with 28 seconds left and then the first shot from there is a St. Brown touchdown.
They will call it a nine-play drive for 75 yards, but don’t get it confused. It was actually a six-play drive with five completions and three spikes to kill the clock. No close calls with sacks and no impressive shutdown from the Cowboys defense. Honestly, just like the way Miami had no resistance at the end of the Christmas Eve affair — very disappointing.
The score sits: Dallas 20, Detroit 19. There was no doubt what Dan Campbell was doing next as he was going for the two to finish the game right there.
What happens next could take an entire column by itself.
As you can see, this is where things get muddy. It appears the Lions have an amazing conversion idea that should have won the game. It included a rehearsed pre-game clinic for the refs, a three-man play where several tackles make verbal contact with the officials, and the hope that this subterfuge can confuse the Cowboys into not covering 68-Taylor Decker who does appear to report as eligible.
Yet, the head referee only reports 70-Dan Skipper to the Cowboys. The issue there, of course, is that Skipper is the one playing tackle, not Decker. Skipper is lined up ineligible and therefore would not report.
The Lions wanted this confusion to work on Dallas, not referee Brad Allen. But, as Bill Jones posted on Twitter, Allen reported the wrong guy as eligible.
Once he tells the Cowboys 70 is eligible, then they don’t have to cover 68. He has an ineligible number and unless they are told they need to worry about him, they rightfully don’t cover him.
Confused? So is America.
Brad Allen screwed this up. Badly. He also screwed up several other games this year and appears to be a referee having a bad stretch.
But, that is not really on Dallas to worry about. Heck, it is on Detroit, but we could easily argue that once this happens, Campbell should kick the extra point from the 7-yard line and let’s settle this in overtime.
But, he keeps going for it and ultimately Jared Goff misses a throw from the 2-yard line and the game ends with Dallas appearing to be a massive benefactor of the football follies.
If Allen gets his job correct, then we assume Dallas covers Decker. It would be incorrect to assume that the Lions still convert that play since everyone else seems to be covered by the defense.
In the end, I guess I shrug and suggest that Peyton Hendershot’s tripping call changed the course of events as much as just about anything in this re-telling, because the game is a few handoffs from ending right there if the game is properly officiated.
But, nobody is talking about that.
Like I said, the conspiracy theories are flying around and the league looks like it is officiated by people that aren’t sure what they are doing. It is a very bad look, for sure.
For Detroit, they can rightfully feel that they did what they should have done to win that game and that includes Campbell’s throwing caution to the wind repeatedly to put Dallas back on their heels and barely survive.
For Dallas, they can tell you about 100 calls they never have been able to get, so when a referee happens to smile in their direction, they won’t apologize nor offer a full replay.
For the league, they can either try to keep fixing the officiating or they can shrug as another 25 to 30 million talk about their product and feed their addiction with more games today. Or both.
It was an amazing night and at 2,500 words, I better forgo my Jimmy Johnson moments of joy, except for this picture that captures things perfectly below.
I don’t think you need me to offer a full transcript, but I would like to at least tell you how it finished (you already know).
He was wrapping it up when he delivered the phrase that pays: “I’ve just got one more thing to say.” The stadium knew what was about to happen and there was zero question that they were begging for it.
He waited and waited and then like a man born for that moment, turned around and gave the capacity crowd what they wanted.
“How ‘bout them Cowboys!”
I do love football and last night was another memorable football experience.
Cowboys, Lions, and referees put on a night that the NFL will long remember.
BOB STURM
DEC 31, 2023
They say “history gets written by the victors.”
If you win the battle, you get to tell the story from your perspective. Most of the losing army has been lost to history or buried, so their perspective gets largely ignored.
Thankfully, our NFL games aren’t that serious. Nobody is dying from these games (we’d like to keep it that way) and for whatever reason, victors do not often get to tell the story from their perspective.
A good case in point is the “Dez Catch” game. Seldom have you heard the story from the Green Bay Packers perspective. Their perspective was “we thought he caught it, too,” but they were pretty happy with the call and therefore the outcome. They moved on. Meanwhile, in Dallas, the Dez Catch game gets referenced more than just about anything in the last decade that this city has experienced. I have even seen a pickup truck that has been painted to commemorate that moment in Cowboys history.
Fans have long memories, right?
So, it should come as no surprise that the events of Dec. 30, 2023, will not be remembered the same way by the millions who experienced an unforgettable night of football.
There will be the Cowboys perspective, perhaps the biggest lightning rod of a franchise in all of sports. The overwhelming Lions perspective that will be told the loudest, as they appeared to be jobbed the worst and are also a Cinderella story who people love to root for.
And then, perhaps, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I would like to tell you I can offer you the sweet middle truth, but I am both a resident of Dallas since 1998, a media type who has covered the Cowboys since then. I’m also a friend of the Detroit Lions’ head coach since 2003 or so. Where that puts me as I sort through the sordid details is anyone’s guess.
But, here we go.
I don’t think we have ever seen anything quite like Saturday and I do believe this is one of those games that will be brought up as long as football nerds bring up old games.
There are so many ways to digest it and given that I like to keep these Morning After pieces to around 2,000 words (a full 500 more than my old bosses preferred), we better get to it.
- The Cowboys had to get this game and in the end, it truly doesn’t matter how they got it and how many style points they were rewarded. They had to grind one out against a team that was just as good, just as stubborn, and just as capable of being a team that can push anyone. The defense had to step up and make plays to get this secured. The QB had to find moments where there was no other solution other than for him to make a huge throw that was on target. And the ability to blow out a lesser side would be irrelevant here in this one, because no lesser side was present. They would have to win the “playoff way” which is to slug it out over three hours with another deserving playoff team and make one more play at the end to win game. They barely did, but they did.
- The Lions are so impressive and a team that has flown under the radar because they are still, in fact, the Detroit Lions. Sometimes you can get lost in the shuffle of six decades of incompetence, so forgive us, Michigan, if we have been slow to acknowledge the growth of a sleeping giant. They are the rare NFL flagship franchise that has no significant historical relevance other than a few special players that rolled through. And nothing that made us think they were an outfit that should be respected and feared.
I realize I am biased, but I think what Dan Campbell has done – right down to the nerve of going for it on fourth down all the time, calling fake punts that seem insane, and even trying 2-point conversions from the 7-yard line while trailing by just one point (WHO DOES THIS????) – will make his organization believe that it doesn’t much matter what everyone thinks of Lions history.
Campbell has them believing that they are the best team in the NFL and they thought that in Week 1 when they went into Arrowhead and took out the Super Bowl Champions and he sure as heck had his guys thinking they were the team to beat last night. For a first-time coach to have completely changed the narrative about Detroit football and to have built a roster of tough, scrappy, and quality players since 2021 when he was laughed at after his opening speech, is something my guy should be amazingly proud of. They are not to be underestimated by anyone in this league and they are building something very nice up there. - The NFL has an officiating problem and any subscriber of #SturmStack knows I often try to steer extremely clear of this because I find it a fool’s errand of the highest order. We could definitely make it the focus of each and every game and how our team never actually lost because they were always cheated.
I feel like social media has that covered and it is utter madness to navigate. It slowly makes people think leagues are fixed and there is a huge conspiracy to keep their team down (every team in every sport). I believe in my heart of hearts, that referees are trying to do a good job but it is mostly impossible and I also believe we have been watching sports our entire lives and each year (in every different sport) someone will say that “this league has the worst officials and it has never been worse than this.”
Yet, the funny thing is that they have been saying it for different sports and different seasons since the dawn of ball and like the price of gas or milk, it just scratches our human desire to complain about things out of our control and reconcile why our team doesn’t have enough trophies.
BUT, this game was definitely decided by some level of officiating incompetence and I would like to try to get it in this newsletter’s historical record as best as I can in our remaining time this morning.
Detroit now gives the Dallas defense a chance for a save and they we believed they did deliver when Donovan Wilson picks off a pass that is poorly located on an out by TE Sam Laporta. What a stop for the Cowboys defense and they should be able to move the chains and end the game with 2:05 to go and the Cowboys starting this last drive from the Detroit 29 yard line. The Lions have two timeouts and the two minute warning.
This is the play when all of the Cowboys fandom in unison wanted 89-Peyton Hendershot cut. Tony Pollard has one of his better runs in a night to forget off left tackle for 7-yards. But, a flag calls a “tripping penalty” on Hendershot and walks the Cowboys back 15 yards to the Detroit 44.
Only problem here – and it is a huge one – is there is nothing even close to a tripping penalty committed by Hendershot on his man 97-Hutchinson. It is also worth nothing and I believe the video below will clearly show this, that Hutchinson himself seems to be the one actually throwing his leg in the path of Pollard and committing the penalty. But, ESPN offers no real replay or view of the play itself and we go into the two-minute warning with the officials flagging Dallas for a personal foul on Detroit!
Wait, did they just call a 15-yard penalty on the wrong team? Yes, it appears they did.
Dallas would have a 1st and 25 from the 44-yard line when in reality it should have probably been 1st and 10 for Dallas at the 14-yard line with 2 minutes left and the game completely cooked. Mike McCarthy was irate, but powerless to change anything and you could see him reference the call briefly in postgame before deciding to change his mind.
This, of course, changes the course of events quite a bit. Let’s be honest, Detroit’s massive controversy never occurs if this call isn’t butchered. For another thing, Dallas does not ever throw a deep pass on second down which inexplicably stops the clock for Detroit. It was a moment where Mike McCarthy was widely destroyed by the football world for doing something that silly after a similar poor idea vs Seattle.
In this case, Dak Prescott claimed responsibility, according to our friend David Moore of the Dallas Morning News:
The other option – surely the one McCarthy wanted taken and Dak bypassed – is a wide open Jake Ferguson in the flat that keeps the clock moving, but Prescott suffered from a rush of blood to his head and wanted a kill shot. Not a great decision, but the coach does what coaches should do and accepts the barbecue to deflect his QB from the onslaught.
Big mistake, because you let the Lions hold on to another 45 seconds of the game when you settle for a field goal at 1:41 left that gives Dallas a 20-13 lead.
Surely, the defense can handle it from here, right?
Well, they did not imitate Josh Sborz on this occasion at all.
The Lions accept the kickoff and get to work. Detroit finds the defense very soft and inviting as they waltz right down the field with a quick 10 yard to LaPorta and then 25 more right to the Dallas 40 yard-line with 1:03 left. Another 14 yard to Amon-Ra St. Brown and at 0:49 they are all the way to the Dallas 26. Fifteen more yard to LaPorta and they are to the Dallas 11-yard line with 28 seconds left and then the first shot from there is a St. Brown touchdown.
They will call it a nine-play drive for 75 yards, but don’t get it confused. It was actually a six-play drive with five completions and three spikes to kill the clock. No close calls with sacks and no impressive shutdown from the Cowboys defense. Honestly, just like the way Miami had no resistance at the end of the Christmas Eve affair — very disappointing.
The score sits: Dallas 20, Detroit 19. There was no doubt what Dan Campbell was doing next as he was going for the two to finish the game right there.
What happens next could take an entire column by itself.
As you can see, this is where things get muddy. It appears the Lions have an amazing conversion idea that should have won the game. It included a rehearsed pre-game clinic for the refs, a three-man play where several tackles make verbal contact with the officials, and the hope that this subterfuge can confuse the Cowboys into not covering 68-Taylor Decker who does appear to report as eligible.
Yet, the head referee only reports 70-Dan Skipper to the Cowboys. The issue there, of course, is that Skipper is the one playing tackle, not Decker. Skipper is lined up ineligible and therefore would not report.
The Lions wanted this confusion to work on Dallas, not referee Brad Allen. But, as Bill Jones posted on Twitter, Allen reported the wrong guy as eligible.
Once he tells the Cowboys 70 is eligible, then they don’t have to cover 68. He has an ineligible number and unless they are told they need to worry about him, they rightfully don’t cover him.
Confused? So is America.
Brad Allen screwed this up. Badly. He also screwed up several other games this year and appears to be a referee having a bad stretch.
But, that is not really on Dallas to worry about. Heck, it is on Detroit, but we could easily argue that once this happens, Campbell should kick the extra point from the 7-yard line and let’s settle this in overtime.
But, he keeps going for it and ultimately Jared Goff misses a throw from the 2-yard line and the game ends with Dallas appearing to be a massive benefactor of the football follies.
If Allen gets his job correct, then we assume Dallas covers Decker. It would be incorrect to assume that the Lions still convert that play since everyone else seems to be covered by the defense.
In the end, I guess I shrug and suggest that Peyton Hendershot’s tripping call changed the course of events as much as just about anything in this re-telling, because the game is a few handoffs from ending right there if the game is properly officiated.
But, nobody is talking about that.
Like I said, the conspiracy theories are flying around and the league looks like it is officiated by people that aren’t sure what they are doing. It is a very bad look, for sure.
For Detroit, they can rightfully feel that they did what they should have done to win that game and that includes Campbell’s throwing caution to the wind repeatedly to put Dallas back on their heels and barely survive.
For Dallas, they can tell you about 100 calls they never have been able to get, so when a referee happens to smile in their direction, they won’t apologize nor offer a full replay.
For the league, they can either try to keep fixing the officiating or they can shrug as another 25 to 30 million talk about their product and feed their addiction with more games today. Or both.
It was an amazing night and at 2,500 words, I better forgo my Jimmy Johnson moments of joy, except for this picture that captures things perfectly below.
I don’t think you need me to offer a full transcript, but I would like to at least tell you how it finished (you already know).
He was wrapping it up when he delivered the phrase that pays: “I’ve just got one more thing to say.” The stadium knew what was about to happen and there was zero question that they were begging for it.
He waited and waited and then like a man born for that moment, turned around and gave the capacity crowd what they wanted.
“How ‘bout them Cowboys!”
I do love football and last night was another memorable football experience.
