Lions QB Jared Goff on his respect for Baker Mayfield’s journey
Jared Goff compared Baker Mayfield’s journey through the NFL to his own, calling his Monday Night Football opponent a good friend.
Controversy once again struck in a Detroit Lions game.
This time, it went the Lions‘ way.
Early in the fourth quarter of the Lions’ 24-9 victory over Tampa Bay, Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield completed a fourth-and-4 pass to tight end Cade Otton, who reached out towards the line-to-gain at Tampa Bay’s 41 and appeared to fumble the ball forward.
It was initially ruled as a first down, but Lions coach Dan Campbell issued a challenge. On the first replay, the call was upheld, the ref announced, and the Bucs offense came out to continue play. But a few minutes later, the referees announced that upon a second review, Otton did not reach the line-to-gain, turning the ball over the Lions on the Tampa Bay 40-yard line.
So what happened?
Mark Butterworth, the NFL vice president of instant replay, offered an explanation. After Campbell disputed whether Otton reached the line to gain, the officials reviewed the spot.
“We were trying to mirror angles together,” Butterworth said to pool reporter Nolan Bianchi. “Later in the process we received an enhanced view from broadcast that showed that when the knee was down, the ball was short of the line to gain. We were having issues with the referee’s O2O (official-to-official communication system), which is why he was brought back to the monitor. We did not show him anything on the screen at that point; it was simply to communicate to clean up the ruling on the field.”
Following the confusion, the Lions failed to move the ball on the ensuing possession, netting 0 yards on three straight plays. Eventually, kicker Jake Bates hit a 58-yard field goal – thanks to a bounce off the goal posts – to give the Lions a 24-9 lead.
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