The Detroit Lions executed a fantastic trick play almost perfectly to score an apparent touchdown on the opening drive of Sunday night’s matchup with the Chiefs in Kansas City. Almost perfectly.
The touchdown pass from running back David Montgomery to quarterback Jared Goff on 4th-and-goal was initially ruled a successful score, but an officiating powwow determined that Goff committed an illegal shift penalty.
It’s an obscure foul, one that required referee Craig Wrolstad’s crew to come to a conclusion that no one expected, including Goff. After the game, Wrolstad explained the penalty.
“There were a lot of moving parts on that play,” Wrolstad said via a pool reporter. “We had a quarterback go up to the line of scrimmage. He paused momentarily in the quarterback position, didn’t get under center, but he walked up and stopped like he was the quarterback. Then, he went in motion, and they threw the ball to him for a touchdown. If the quarterback assumes the quarterback position and then goes in motion, he has to then stop for a second before they snap the ball. Because he gets out of the view of some of the officials, we had to piece it together as a crew as to whether he stopped initially and then whether he stopped when he went in motion. It was determined after a lengthy discussion that he stopped at the quarterback position and then went in motion. But when he does that, he has to stop when he goes in motion.”
In his postgame chat with reporters, Goff was befuddled by the ruling.
“I’ve never heard this: because of how close I was to the center, that declares I’m the quarterback,” Goff bemused. “I was only under the impression that it was my hands under center. So that’s a new version of that rule that I had never heard of, and I think a lot of our coaches had never heard of. Yeah, if that is the rule, then I guess we need to do a little bit more research on that.”
It’s a technicality that tripped up the Lions here. Had Goff been in the shotgun, it would not have been a foul. As Wrolstad explained,
“Yes. If he doesn’t assume a t-quarterback position, then he would not have had to stop. He would have had to stop originally in the shotgun formation for a second. Everybody would have had to be set for a second. But then if he goes in motion, he would not have to stop. This only applies to a quarterback who has assumed a position as a t-quarterback.”
For clarity, a “t-quarterback” is a standard QB under center formation.
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Jared Goff, Lions got caught on technicality in trick play penalty
