Matthew Stafford has led more fourth-quarter comebacks than any quarterback in the NFL since he entered the league in 2009, but he was denied another miracle in cruel fashion Sunday.
Minutes after Stafford and the Lions celebrated an apparent game-winning touchdown pass to Golden Tate with eight seconds left, the officials overturned the call on replay to give the Falcons a 30-26 win in Detroit.
!!!!!!!!
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) September 24, 2017
TATE IS MARKED SHORT!
IT'S OVER!!!! https://t.co/EJGPFF8BdE
Wow
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 24, 2017
The Lions appeared to have pulled out Stafford's 27th fourth-quarter comeback win after a penalty-riddled drive that began at their own 11 with 2:23 to play. Detroit faced a first-and-30 at one point after holding and offensive pass interference calls on back-to-back plays, but saw its luck reverse when a Robert Alford interception of Stafford in the end zone was called back due to defensive holding.
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Detroit caught another break when Desmond Trufant interfered with Marvin Jones in the end zone with 19 seconds left to give the Lions first and goal at the 1. After a pair of incompletions, Stafford found Tate on a slant, but the receiver's knee touched down just before he was able to extend the ball over the goal line.
With the Lions out of timeouts and only eight seconds to play, NFL rules mandated a 10-second runoff, ending the game.
