He went over the play before the game with the refs so they knew to expect it. It’s 100% on the ref that announced the wrong player.
Wrong…
After the game, Lions coach Dan Campbell said that he explained the play to the officials before the game. The question becomes whether Campbell explained the play itself, or whether Campbell explained his plan to set the play up with an effort to confuse the Cowboys as to who was, and wasn’t, eligible.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Brad Allen was not present for the pregame meeting with Campbell. That’s standard procedure. It’s not known whether Campbell explained that a shell game of sorts would be played before the play to confuse the Cowboys. It’s hard to imagine Campbell articulating that.
Think about it. “Look,” Campbell might have said, “we’ve got a play in the game plan tonight that includes throwing a pass to a tackle. But here’s what we’re gonna do. We’ll be making it look like a different guy is reporting as eligible than the one who is really reporting as eligible, because we want to confuse the Cowboys about who is and isn’t eligible. So when that happens, go along with it, OK?”
It’s hard to imagine Campbell being so candid about the trick that the Lions were trying to pull. Articulating it that way sounds a little off. It sounds a little wrong. It sounds a little like something a team probably shouldn’t be trying to do. Like something that is on the wrong side of the line of what is and isn’t fair.
Regardless, the only way the Lions could have properly prepared Allen for that moment would have been to get Allen in on the ruse. He clearly wasn’t. The Lions ran their plan so well that it confused Allen. And, frankly, it’s on the Lions to find the sweet spot between confusing the opponent and not confusing the officials.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profo...ange-procedure-for-reporting-as-eligible