Dan Campbell explains why he didn't try PAT after 2-point penalty: 'Going for the win'

ARLINGTON, Texas — Dan Campbell didn't flinch, and when the Detroit Lions' first 2-point try didn't work — be it because of their own mistakes or a blunder by referee Brad Allen — he wasn't about to change his mind.

Campbell said he told his offense before the start of the Lions' final offensive possession that he planned to go for two once the team scored.

"I told the offense that we were going down, 1:41 left, we were going to go down and score, and then we were going to go for two and finish this game out," Campbell said. "I told them that, and so that’s what we were doing."

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Jared Goff led a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, capped with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown with 23 seconds to play, and the Lions appeared to finish the game out with a 2-point conversion, only to end up losing to the Dallas Cowboys, 20-19, in controversial fashion after that try was nullified by penalty.

Goff completed a pass to left tackle Taylor Decker in the back of the end zone on the Lions' initial 2-point attempt, but Allen flagged Decker for illegal touching after he announced Dan Skipper reported as an eligible lineman.

Decker said he reported as eligible to Allen, and Skipper said he did not talk to Allen when he came on the field.

"You get the touchdown and get the 2-point conversion and, yeah, it sucks," Goff said. "It’s unfortunate, man. I don’t know if I’ve had this feeling before. You feel like you won and you didn’t, and with that being said, though, the next two plays, we had shots at it."

After a 5-yard penalty following Decker's 2-point play, the Lions lined up for a second try from the 7-yard line.

Goff was hit as he threw to Kalif Raymond in the back of the end zone and Markquese Bell intercepted the pass at the goal line, but that try was nullified by a second penalty, offsides on Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons.

The Lions tried a third 2-point play from just outside the 3-yard line, but that play failed when Goff threw incomplete to James Mitchell in the left flat.

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Asked if he considered kicking the game-tying extra point after the first penalty, a 38-yard attempt, Campbell said, "We were going for the win."

While that gamble backfired Saturday, Campbell, one of the most aggressive coaches in the NFL, hit on one of his other rolls of the dice when the Lions converted a fake punt on fourth-and-2 from their own 28-yard line early in the second quarter.

Jalen Reeves-Maybin, the Lions' personal protector on the punt team, completed a 31-yard pass to gunner Khalil Dorsey, and the Lions drove inside the Dallas 5-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.

Lions running back David Montgomery said he appreciates Campbell's guts by going for two late in the game, even though the play didn't work.

"Like I said at the beginning of the year, we got a ballsy coach and I wouldn’t want to have any other coach," Montgomery said. "Dan is the ideal perfect head coach in the NFL. He coaches with passion, he’s not coaching to yell at you. He wants you to learn and be the best version of yourself and however that looks, he does that. But him making that call, it was the right call. Like I said, if we would have did things better on our side of the ball, we wouldn’t even had to have been in them situations where he had to make them calls."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Campbell explains why he didn't try PAT after 2-point penalty