Explaining Rule for Steelers vs. Lions Ending After Goff's GW TD Negated by Penalty

The Pittsburgh Steelers left Detroit with a win over the Lions after a chaotic ending.

The Lions trailed by five points in the final minute, but managed to get the ball near the goal line. In the final seconds of the game, Jared Goff connected with Amon-Ra St. Brown, but he was held out of the end zone.

Before going down, he flipped the ball to Goff, who punched it in for what looked like a game-winning touchdown.

The play was ruled a touchdown, but there were also flags for offensive pass interference on St. Brown, which negated the touchdown. The offensive penalty also meant that no time would be added back on the clock, meaning the game was over.

Lions Lose in Chaotic Finish 🤯

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Referee Carl Cheffers told pool reporter Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News that the lengthy discussion was because the play was "pretty complex."

Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers described the ending as "chaos":

Goff broke down what was going through his mind on the final play.

"Was hoping it was defensive [pass interference] and then we'd have another play," he said. "If [St. Brown] was down—when I saw he wasn't down—I was hoping it was defensive, and then we get the touchdown and win the game, but it didn't go that way, and they won."

Goff also didn't necessarily disagree with the call, but he said a pass interference call on Isaac TeSlaa a few plays earlier was "up for interpretation."

"Those guys have a hard job, and I don't want to make an excuse or anything like that," Goff said. "We've been on the right side in a lot of these and we've been on the wrong side in a lot of these. I think two plays prior, the one on TeSlaa was a little bit more, in my head, up for interpretation, but they've gotta make the calls. I promise you if I was sitting on the other side of it right now we'd be saying great job. It does sting for sure and you wish they weren't called."

Rodgers had a much different tone than Goff after the win.

The loss was crushing because of the way it ended, but also because of what it means for the Lions' playoff hopes. Detroit is still in the mix after losing to Pittsburgh, but its path to the playoffs is much more difficult.

At 8-7, the Lions will need to win their final two games against the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears, while also counting on the Green Bay Packers to drop their last two games.