The Detroit Lions needed a win on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. On two separate occasions in the final minute, they thought they were going to get it, including on a potential miracle play as time expired. In both instances, they had it ripped away in the most gut-wrenching ways possible.
In the end, their 29-24 loss sends them to the brink of elimination in the NFC playoff picture.
Lions have two potential game-winning touchdowns taken away by penalties
After trailing by as many as 12 points with five minutes to play, the Lions kept getting new life and putting themselves in a position to pull off an improbable comeback. On two separate occasions, they appeared to score go-ahead — and potentially game-winning — touchdown in the final minute of the fourth quarter.
The first was called back on an offensive pass interference penalty that took an Amon-Ra St. Brown touchdown off the board. Following a false-start penalty after that, the Lions were pushed back to the 16-yard line.
They eventually worked themselves back into 4th-and-goal from the nine-yard line. That is when the madness kicked in.
Jared Goff completed a pass to St. Brown that resulted in him getting hit just short of the goal line. As he was being wrestled to the ground, he lateraled the ball back to Goff, who dove into the end zone as time expired.
The problem for the Lions: St. Brown was called for offensive pass interference, negating what would have been a touchdown and ending the game because time had expired.
Here is a look at the entire sequence, including a stressful two-minute discussion where the referees tried to figure out what the call on the field would end up being. A touchdown? A lateral? Offensive pass interference? Something else? In the end, it turned out to be this: