Breaking News: NFL denies Lions’ claim that refs had outside help in controversial penalty vs Chiefs…see more

Lions coach Dan Campbell has maintained that referee Craig Wrolstad got outside assistance from the league office before making the penalty call, a claim that Vincent denies.

“I’m not sure who Coach Campbell was referring to, but we did not assist in that,” he said.

The play looked to give the Lions an initial 6-0 lead over the defending AFC champions, with Goff initially bobbling the 4th-and-goal pass, catching it and then muscling his way into the end zone.

But after a brief delay, the officials called an illegal motion penalty on Goff as he hadn’t stopped for at least a second to set himself before motioning out wide. After the penalty and loss of yardage, the Lions kicked a field goal instead of trying again for the end zone.

Vincent said that the delay from the end of the play to the penalty ruling was a result of the on-field officials communicating with one another, not a phone call with replay officials in Kansas City or at the league office in New York.

“You can hear the officials gathering in this particular case … but we didn’t have to get involved in this particular play,” he said.