The Chicago Bears were headed to the locker room, and the Detroit Lions waved them back onto the field.
The Lions benefitted from a 10-second clock runoff late in the first half of Sunday’s home opener at Ford Field — eight years after they fell victim to one in the same end zone against the Atlanta Falcons.
Jared Goff threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown with 2 seconds left in the half, after the Lions likely received an extra play thanks to an officiating error.
Goff completed a 29-yard pass to Isaac TeSlaa, who made a leaping one-handed catch down the left sideline with the Lions in their two-minute offense. Field judge Jabir Walker waved for the clock to stop to mark TeSlaa out of bounds with 16 seconds on the clock, but the clock continued to run and Goff hustled the Lions to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball.
Goff took a snap and fired the ball into the turf as the clock hit zero.
As officials convened to talk about the play, the Bears headed to the locker room.
While TeSlaa appeared to land inbounds, referee Land Clark announced the clock would be reset to 16 seconds with a 10-second runoff due to the mistake, giving the Lions one play with 6 seconds on the clock.
In 2017, the Lions lost to the Falcons, 30-26, when Golden Tate had an apparent game-winning touchdown catch overturned on replay after he was deemed just short of the goal line.
The Lions did not have any timeouts left and the 10-second runoff killed the final 8 or 9 seconds off the game clock.
Both of TeSlaa’s NFL catches have been incredible one-handers.
“The key is here is that the officials stopped the clock,” Fox rules expert Mike Pereira said on the TV broadcast. “The catch is made inbounds, the shin was down and the official covering the play stopped the clock. The clock operator didn’t stop it, but actually should have, so they reset it back to 16 to where the official killed the clock and then that creates a 10-second runoff, so then it’s down to 6 seconds. Really there was an error by the covering official that led to this. If it was officiated properly, then (the Lions) probably wouldn’t have gotten the (next) play off.”
TeSlaa scored the Lions’ only touchdown in the final minute in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers with a ridiculous grab while getting his toes in bounds.
TeSlaa grew up in Michigan as a devoted Lions fan. He was picked in the third round in April’s NFL draft out of Arkansas.