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Add another excruciating, infamous loss to the Detroit Lions‘ ever-growing history of bizarre blunders this century.
The Lions, once again, invented a new way to lose Sunday, Dec. 21, drawing two offensive pass interference calls in the final 25 seconds against the Pittsburgh Steelers, negating touchdowns each time in a 29-24 loss to put the Lions’ playoff hopes on life support. The second OPI call ended the game, despite Jared Goff scoring on a lateral from receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
By rule, an offensive penalty ends the game if there is no time left and, of course, negates the outcome of the play.
With that infuriating ending in mind, it’s time to update our list of gut-wrenching ways the Lions have lost games since 2000.
Here’s a look at the 16 worst and weirdest losses − some call them “Same Old Lions” (SOL) moments − over the past 26 seasons:
Dec. 24, 2000
The Lions’ playoff hopes were on the line. Instead, in typical Lions fashion, they blew it. Rookie kicker Paul Edinger kicked a 54-yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining to give Chicago a 23-20 upset win to eliminate the Lions. This led to the hiring of Matt Millen as general manager, which led to so many other losses.
Nov. 24, 2002
Head coach Marty Mornhinweg took the wind. The Lions and Bears were tied at 17 entering overtime and, after winning the coin toss, Mornhinweg opted to kick with the 17-mph wind at his back. Chicago made him pay by taking its opening drive down the field for the winning field goal.
Dec. 19, 2004
The Lions needed an extra point to tie the Vikings with 8 seconds remaining … until long-snapper Don Muhlbach bounced the snap to holder Nick Harris, who was tackled before he could spot the ball for Jason Hanson. The Lions lost, 28-27, and officially fell out of playoff contention.
Dec. 12, 2005
The Lions were tackling running back Samkon Gado in his end zone with 6:59 left, which would have resulted in a safety and a two-point Lions lead … but Gado threw the ball out of the end zone and the officials ruled it a legal pass and an incompletion, rather than intentional grounding. The Packers won, 16-13.
Oct. 12, 2008
In a season filled with gaffes, one of the worst came in the Lions’ fifth game, when QB Dan Orlovsky, looking to pass, blatantly ran out of the back of his end zone, resulting in a safety that proved crucial in a 12-10 loss. It was one of three losses of fewer than five points for the Lions, who finished 0-16.
Sept. 13, 2010
The original “Calvin Johnson Rule.” In the season opener, Johnson caught what appeared to be the go-ahead TD with seconds remaining against the Bears … except he let go of the ball when he rolled over and officials ruled it an incomplete pass, saying he didn’t “complete the process.” The Lions lost, 19-14.
Nov. 7, 2010
When the Lions lost Jason Hanson to injury against the Jets, they turned to rookie 300-pound defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to kick an extra point. The former soccer player missed, which would prove crucial when the teams were tied at 20 at the end of regulation. The Jets won, 23-20.
Nov. 22, 2012
Texans tailback Justin Forsett ran for an 81-yard touchdown on Thanksgiving … except replays showed his elbow and knee were down near midfield. And despite NFL rules stating all scoring plays go under review, Lions coach Jim Schwartz threw a challenge flag anyway, making the play unreviewable. The Texans won, 34-31, in overtime.
Jan. 4, 2015
The Lions led, 20-17, in the fourth, seeking their first playoff win since 1991. After apparently throwing a flag on what appeared to be a blatant pass interference that would have put the Lions deep in Dallas territory, the refs picked it up, incorrectly ruling there was no penalty. Instead of going for it on fourth-and-1 at the Dallas 46, the Lions’ Sam Martin shanked the punt 10 yards. The defense gave up the go-ahead TD and the Lions lost 24-20. That extended their streak without playoff win since 1991, their lone postseason victory since 1957 – until the 2023 season.
Oct. 5, 2015
Calvin Johnson was inches from scoring the go-ahead touchdown with less than 2 minutes to play at Seattle, until Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor jarred the ball loose. The fumbled ball bounced a few times in the end zone, then Seattle’s K.J. Wright batted it out of the end zone, giving the Seahawks possession to seal a Lions’ 13-10 loss. But Wright’s bat was illegal, a call the officials didn’t make. The Lions should have retained possession — at the 1-yard line. The NFL, once again, admitted the call was wrong.
Dec. 3, 2015
The Lions’ 20-point second-half lead was trimmed to two with a few seconds left. Lions defensive end Devin Taylor was called for a disputed facemask penalty on what would have been the last play of the game. Instead, the Packers were given one final untimed down, and Aaron Rodgers lobbed a 61-yard Hail Mary to the end zone that was caught by Richard Rodgers for an unfathomable 27-23 Lions loss.
December 3, 2015: After the Lions’ Devin Taylor was called for a questionable facemask penalty with 0:00 on the clock, Aaron Rodgers completes a 61-yard Hail Mary to Richard Rodgers to win the game for Green Bay 27-23.
pic.twitter.com/ij8G0ckjPo
— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) December 4, 2025Sept. 24, 2017
The Lions lost a heartbreaker to the Falcons, 30-26, when officials overturned a touchdown catch by Golden Tate with 8 seconds to play, ruling his knee was down short of the goal line while a Falcons defender touched him. By rule, 10 seconds were run off the clock, ending the game in shocking fashion. The Lions would have been 3-0 with the win.
“Why are you in such a bad mood?”
*me thinking about Golden Tate’s game winner getting called back vs. the Atlanta Falcons in 2017*
THE MOST BRAIN DEAD RULE IN NFL HISTORY 😤 #OnePride pic.twitter.com/SzzakzepfP
— Lukas Klotz 🤝 (@1ukasklotz) April 5, 2025Oct. 14, 2019
On Monday Night Football, the Lions were on the wrong side of multiple controversial calls and non-calls in the second half, which contributed to them giving away a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter in a 23-22 loss to the Packers. None were bigger than the two hands-to-the-face infractions on Trey Flowers. The Lions would have been in first place in the NFC North with a win, but instead fell to last place at 2-2-1. The NFL later admitted one call was a mistake.
Jan. 3, 2021
Lions safety Tracy Walker sacked Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins for a fourth-down stop at the goal line with the Lions down 31-29 early in the fourth quarter. But Walker was called for roughing the passer – “one of the worst calls I’ve seen while watching football, at any level, over my lifetime,” Free Press columnist Carlos Monarrez wrote at the time. The Vikings got a fresh set of downs and came away with six points for a 37-29 edge with 10:32 left in an eventual 37-35 win. The referee postgame said Walker used his full body weight as he landed on Cousins, which, by rule, is a foul. “That’s the category this play fell into,” offending referee Adrian Hill said. This defeat ended the Lions’ dismal 2020 season and the Matthew Stafford era in Detroit.
Dec. 30, 2023
“If the Lions never had to play another game at AT&T Stadium it would be too soon,” the Free Press wrote in its book on the Lions’ remarkable 2023 season.
On this play, quarterback Jared Goff rallied the Lions to a touchdown with 23 seconds to play, only to have the go-ahead 2-point conversion nullified by an illegal touching penalty on left tackle Taylor Decker. The Lions failed on two more 2-point attempts, including an interception that was nullified by an offsides penalty on Dallas, and the Cowboys recovered the ensuing onside kick for a controversial 20-19 victory.
Decker said afterward he went to referee Brad Allen and declared himself eligible, and video of the moments before the play show Decker and right tackle Penei Sewell approaching Allen behind the line of scrimmage as swing tackle Dan Skipper ran on the field as an extra offensive lineman, which he had done several times during the game.
Allen announced Skipper was eligible before the play, and he reiterated that account in a pool interview after the game. Lions coach Dan Campbell was beyond incensed after the penalty.
Skipper, whose hands were up by his chest as he ran on the field − linemen typically rubbed the numbers on their jersey with both hands to indicate they were an eligible receiver − said he did not report as eligible.
“I didn’t say anything, let’s move along,” he said in a terse postgame interview. “I did not say a word to the official.”
The NFL sent a teaching video and memo to teams intimating Skipper was in the wrong because of a hand gesture he made while jogging onto the field. Skipper, though, said he was simply signaling a change in personnel.
Dec. 21, 2025
The Lions, a touchdown favorite over Pittsburgh, had two go-ahead touchdowns wiped away by offensive pass interference calls in the game’s final minute, erasing what could have been winning touchdowns due to controversial penalties in a 29-24 loss to the Steelers in Week 16 at Ford Field to drop to 8-7. The latest gut-wrenching defeat diminished the Lions’ playoff hopes to an estimated 6% with two games remaining. A win and those odds would have jumped to around 40%.
With the Lions facing first-and-goal from the 1-yard line down by five points with 25 seconds left, rookie receiver Isacc TeSlaa was flagged for pass interference on a designed pick-play for running into Steelers safety Kyle Dugger, though TeSlaa also appeared to get a small shove from Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr.
“The reporting official on that play told me that the offending player [TeSlaa] picked one of the defenders, creating an opportunity for the offensive player [St. Brown] to make the catch,” referee Carl Cheffers said in a pool report after the game.
A few plays later on fourth down from the 9-yard line with 8 seconds left, St. Brown pushed off against Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey, caught the pass at the 1-yard line and was pushed back. As he fell to the ground, he lateraled the ball to Goff, who ran and leapt into the end zone as several Steelers defenders had stopped, thinking the play was over.
After a roughly 2-minute discussion on the field, Cheffers, in his 26th year in the NFL, announced the outcome: “The ruling on the field is a touchdown, however,” he began, drawing an intense roar from fans at Ford Field, “pass interference, number 14, on the offense. By rule, that penalty is not enforced and there is no replay, the game is over. There is no touchdown. OPI on number 14 negates the penalty, there is no replay, the game is over.”
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