The Eagles were close to sealing a win late in the fourth quarter in Detroit yesterday when running back Ryan Matthews fumbled, the Lions recovered, and marched down the field to score the game-winning field goal. But Eagles coach Doug Pederson says the Lions shouldn’t have been awarded the ball.
According to Pederson, in the scramble for the loose ball, Eagles center Jason Kelce touched the ball while he was out of bounds, which should have been ruled as the ball out of bounds and the Eagles retaining possession.
“It’s a dead ball; out of bounds,” Pederson said. “That’s the rule. That was one of the things this morning I wanted to make sure this morning that I was correct and accurate in that ruling.”
NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino, however, said there was no definitive angle to overturn the ruling on the field, which was that the Lions recovered the fumble.
“Not definitive,” Blandino said in a video released by the NFL. “The ruling on the field is that the ball was inbounds and was not touched by a player who was out of bounds.”
That answer won’t satisfy the Eagles, but it’s the answer the NFL is going with: The replay wasn’t enough to overturn the call on the field.