The Detroit Lions essentially put the final nail in their coffin of playoff hopes this afternoon, dropping a 35-27 decision to the Dallas Cowboys at Ford Field.
But one moment during the game that had fans and media scratching their heads was the decision to attempt a 2-point conversion following a Marvin Jones Jr. 25-yard touchdown with 5:49 to play, cutting the Dallas lead to what turned out to be the final score.
Quarterback Jeff Driskel’s pass to J.D. McKissic fell incomplete; it’s as close as the Lions would get, and an audible groan was heard from the Ford Field stands.
Afterwards, head coach Matt Patricia explained the reasoning behind the failed attempt.
“Really what you want to do is you want to take a shot at two two-point plays … Hopefully, you get the first,” he said. “If you don’t, you can go to your second two-point (conversion) play at the end, and then obviously, go for the tie at that point. But it’s really kind of something you start thinking about well in advance from that and kind of just how it all works out. Two-point thing though is as soon as you commit to it though, you have to stay with it from that standpoint.“
Patricia went on to describe momentum swings and what a potential successful 2-point conversion would have done:
“It’s one of those things where you try to judge momentum swing through the fourth quarter and figure out what’s going in which direction, and certainly, at that point, if we were able to score those touchdowns and be in those positions then the offense probably would have swung things in their favor. At that point, probably would have felt pretty good about the two-point (conversation) at the end of the game.”
