What Lions’ Taylor Decker Said About Costly Penalty Vs. Cowboys

Taylor Decker wasn’t sure what he did wrong in the final moments of Saturday night’s Lions-Cowboys game.

Decker, now in his seventh season with Detroit, had a career moment taken away from him at AT&T Stadium. The offensive tackle caught a pass in the end zone on a two-point conversion attempt with 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but the Lions weren’t awarded a lead due to an illegal touching penalty on Decker. Officials claimed the 2016 first-round pick didn’t report as eligible before the play, even though Decker appeared to say something to head referee Brad Allen before Detroit huddled up.

Unlike Lions head coach Dan Campbell, Decker kept his composure when he talked about the controversial sequence after the visitors’ 20-19 loss.

“All I really want to say on it — just so I don’t get myself into trouble — I did exactly what coach told me to do,” Decker told reporters, per a video shared by The Detroit News’ Nolan Bianchi. “Went to the ref, said ‘report’ and yeah, I don’t know. It was my understanding, too, that Dan (Campbell) brings up the possibility of those sorts of plays pregame. I did what I was told to do, did how we did it in practice all week and that’s all I’m going to touch on with that.”

Decker can take solace in the fact that he soon will embark on his first trip to the NFL playoffs. However, Saturday night’s loss to Dak Prescott and company left the Lions with virtually no chance of earning one of the NFC’s top two seeds.