Is that what you call punishment? Cowboys vs. Lions Referee Gets Important Job

Most NFL fans probably didn’t know the name Brad Allen, but they certainly do now after Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions.

After the Lions scored a touchdown to bring the game within a point, coach Dan Campbell chose to be aggressive by going for two and the win. For the attempt, Campbell sent out multiple linemen with only one reporting as eligible to try and confuse the Cowboys.

Unfortunately for them, it also confused Allen and the rest of his officiating crew, so while quarterback Jared Goff found offensive lineman Taylor Decker to seemingly take the lead on the conversion, an illegal touching penalty wiped the play away. Detroit would then fail the attempt that actually counted as Dallas held on for a massive 20-19 win.

That wasn’t the only controversial call Allen’s crew made on Saturday, as they also called a tripping penalty on the Cowboys when it should have been on the Lions.

Even after that debacle, Allen’s crew will call another nationally-televised game in Week 18. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the crew will call the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Baltimore has already clinched the top seed in the AFC, but Pittsburgh needs a win and some help to make the playoffs. For the Steelers especially, not having any more bad calls would be ideal to say the least.

The Cowboys-Lions debacle was the NFL’s breaking point for Allen’s crew, which was also responsible for another controversial ending when the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 3. Earlier in the week, Schefter reported that Allen’s crew had been downgraded and would not call any playoff games.

There’s seemingly a new officiating controversy every week in the NFL, and while Allen will call one more game in the regular season, the fact that the league took any action at all is somewhat surprising.