Two pivotal replays helped the Falcons defeat the Lions 30-24 on Sunday at Ford Field.
On the Falcons’ opening drive of the game and Detroit’s final drive of the game, two calls went the Falcons’ way.
After crisply moving 71 yards on their opening drive, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan tossed a pass to wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, who was hit and driven out of bounds.
Assistant Jerome Henderson was on the headset upstairs and believe that Sanu had crossed the goal line.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn challenged the call on the field and the play was changed to a touchdown.
On the Lions’ final drive, Matthew Stafford connected with wide receiver Golden Tate for an apparent touchdown that would have won the game with eight seconds remaining.
Because it was a scoring play and because it was under two minutes, the play was reviewed. It was deemed that Tate was tackled at the half-yard line by cornerback Brian Poole. There was also a 10-second runoff of the clock, by rule when the team doesn’t have a timeout remaining, and the game was over.
“Great play by Rocky (Robert Alford) and Poole,” wide receiver Julio Jones said. “Keeping us with a blade of grass and keeping them out of the end zone.”
Tate got the ball across the goal line and the fans at Ford Field were celebrating.
“I thought he was down,” Jones said. “That’s what we’ve got the replay official for. The guys in New York did a great job for us.”
Poole sensed that the Lions were going to try to pick him and spring Tate free. But he communicated to Alford to be ready for the pick play.
“It was a play that we were going over this whole week,” Alford said. “We knew that once they had the specific players in position on the field that was coming. It was definitely the pick route that we went over. Me and Poole communicated before the play happened. He just fell off his man and touched Golden even before he got in there.”
The Falcons actually won by the blade of grass that they said their will fight for every play, every game.
“The way that ended,” Alford said. “We’ll take it. It was a weird play, but we’ll take it. We were happy to defend that blade of grass and we came away with a victory.”
Left cornerback Desmond Trufant was almost the goat. He had two penalties to help the Lions move into position to score.
“That’s just the life of the cornerback,” Trufant said. “Sometimes, you get them. Sometimes you don’t. I still made a lot of plays. Didn’t give up nothing deep. I just have to keep pushing. Keep working. Like I said, games like this really make you better. I’m glad we got the win.”
Trufant thought Stafford might come his way on the final play.
“I knew they were probably going to run a pick play to the two-man side and on my side probably throw that fade,” Trufant said. “So, I was waiting for that fade. But they threw it to the other side. Rocky (Robert Alford) and Poole made a great play. So, it’s a game of inches at the end of the day.”
After the Lions closed within four on a Matt Prater 57-yard field goal with 11:53 to play, the defense needed three stops as the offense sputtered in the fourth quarter.
The defense had two three-and-outs and the offense couldn’t run out the clock after getting the ball back with 2:52 to play.
After Jones was stopped a yard short on third-and-12, Bosher came on to punt. The Lions had their third shot at the defense and nearly pulled off the winning score.
“We’re a team and it was a great team win,” Trufant said. “Not perfect. We did a lot of good things. We have to keep working and keep building. We are definitely going to grow from this. So, at the end of the day, I’m happy that we won.”
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