Alan Eck returns to Detroit with a disputed touchdown behind him—and a low-penalty season on the books

Alan Eck’s last Lions game ended with Detroit on the wrong side of a 41–34 loss to the Rams and another argument about where a football became a touchdown.

Eck delivered the announcement that Colby Parkinson’s third-quarter score would stand. The explanation was harder to come by. FOX rules analyst Dean Blandino disputed the result, and the available official record never supplied the possession explanation discussed on the broadcast.

Now Eck is headed to Ford Field. He is assigned to Sunday’s season opener against New Orleans, a September 13 matchup scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern. Assignment report; Lions schedule.

For Detroit, the assignment brings a familiar name and a less familiar statistical picture. Across the 2025 regular season, games led by Eck averaged almost two fewer accepted penalties than the league overall. Offensive and defensive holding were both near the bottom of the referee rankings.

That gives Sunday’s game some useful background. It also leaves plenty that a penalty table cannot answer.

Where Eck ranked last season

Eck worked 16 regular-season games in 2025. Those games produced 175 accepted penalties between the two teams, an average of 10.94 per game. That tied Land Clark for the second-lowest rate among the NFL’s 17 referees. Only Brad Allen, at 10.20, was lower.

The league average was 12.75. Eck’s rate was about 14 percent below it.

Calculated from NFLPenalties referee records, excluding postseason. Totals include both teams; ties use unrounded rates.

The result holds when declined and offsetting penalties are included. Eck’s games contained 28 declined and 11 offsetting foul entries, bringing the total to 214, or 13.38 per game—still the second-lowest rate. Eck’s detailed log.

Anyone checking his public season page will encounter a small wrinkle: it includes a 17th game, the January 11 San Francisco–Philadelphia Wild Card matchup. That game is excluded here. The January 4 Jets–Bills game remains because it belonged to Week 18 of the regular season. Weekly record.

These are crew results grouped under the assigned referee’s name. The other six officials were not necessarily the same from week to week, and Eck did not personally throw every flag counted in his column.

Holding was low. Roughing the passer went the other way.

The holding numbers are the most striking part of Eck’s 2025 comparison.

His games averaged 2.00 accepted offensive holding penalties, compared with 2.47 league-wide. That tied for third-lowest. Defensive holding was lower still relative to the league: seven accepted penalties in 16 games, roughly one-third below average and second-lowest among the referees.

Regular-season calculations from the detailed penalty logs. The accompanying research contains the full comparison across all 17 referees.

Roughing the passer supplies the exception. Eck’s games averaged 0.438 accepted calls, about 29 percent above the league rate and fourth-highest among the 17 referees.

But seven calls can make a percentage look more imposing than the season felt week to week. Minnesota–Chicago, Philadelphia–Tampa Bay and Jacksonville–Las Vegas accounted for six of them, with two apiece. Twelve of Eck’s 16 games had none.

Pass interference was much closer to the middle. Eck’s rate of 0.938 sat just below the median referee rate of 0.941. Illegal contact and unnecessary roughness landed exactly at their respective medians before rounding.

The seven categories account for 111 of his 175 accepted penalties. Together, they describe a season with relatively little holding and a handful of games that drove up the roughing count.

They do not tell us how much holding went uncalled. That would require reviewing the plays, including the ones without flags. Different opponents, blocking situations and passing volumes also affect the totals. A low rate alone cannot establish that Detroit’s offensive line will get more latitude Sunday.

Ten Detroit assignments, three different jobs

Eck joined the NFL as a side judge in 2016, moved to umpire the following season and became a referee in 2023. His Lions history spans all three jobs. NFL hiring announcement; promotion report.

A review of 205 original Detroit gamebooks found eight regular-season appearances and two in the preseason. Detroit went 4–4 in those eight regular-season games, including 2–1 with Eck as referee.

Penalty figures are count–yards from each gamebook’s final team statistics. Dates link to the original documents.

Both preseason appearances came in Pittsburgh: Detroit’s 30–17 win on August 12, 2016, with Eck at side judge, and its 26–20 loss on August 21, 2021, with him at umpire. None of Detroit’s five postseason gamebooks from the 2016–2025 seasons, or its three 2026 preseason books, lists him. 2016 preseason gamebook; 2021 preseason gamebook.

The win-loss record offers chronology more than explanation. The individual games are where the important distinctions emerge.

Thanksgiving, a late flag and a touchdown erased

Eck was the umpire on Tony Corrente’s crew when Detroit hosted Minnesota on Thanksgiving in 2017.

With the Vikings leading 30–23 and 1:15 remaining, Darius Slay blocked Kai Forbath’s 25-yard field-goal attempt. Nevin Lawson recovered and ran 77 yards to the end zone. Had it counted, Detroit would have been an extra point from a tie.

Slay’s defensive-offside penalty erased the return. Minnesota received a first down at the Detroit 3 and ended the game with two kneeldowns.

The gamebook identifies Eck’s position but does not identify who threw the flag. Attaching the play to his Detroit history is justified. Calling it his decision is not. Gamebook, PDF pages 1 and 16.

Two very different moments at Lambeau

Detroit’s 34–20 win at Green Bay in September 2023 included a clock dispute and a consequential penalty that helped the Lions.

The gamebook lists Jordan Love’s 44-yard completion to Jayden Reed at one second remaining in the third quarter. The play took Green Bay to the Detroit 9 with the Lions ahead 27–11. Gamebook, PDF page 13.

The dispute concerned game-clock expiration. NFL spokesman Michael Signora cited observation delay and nonreviewability; analyst Terry McAulay disagreed. Contemporary report.

The NFL added explicit review of game-clock expiration before a snap for 2024. That option was not available during the Lions’ visit the previous September. 2024 rule changes, Rule 15-3-9.

Later that night, with Detroit’s lead down to 27–17, Riley Patterson made a 30-yard field goal. Quay Walker’s leaping foul wiped out the kick and gave the Lions a first down at the Green Bay 6.

Four David Montgomery runs later, Detroit had a touchdown. The extra point made it 34–17.

The Packers reported that officials determined Walker had taken a running start; Walker accepted responsibility. The foul fell under the season’s restriction on running forward and leaping across the line to block a kick. It was a significant ruling in Detroit’s favor, although the sources do not identify the flagging official. Gamebook, PDF page 15; Packers’ account; 2023 rule, printed page 62.

The two Parkinson plays in Los Angeles

Last December’s Rams game supplied two separate frustrations involving Parkinson, the spot of the ball and replay.

The first came in the opening quarter. A Parkinson reception ultimately was recorded at the Detroit 4. Campbell challenged the spot, Detroit was charged a timeout, and the ball was corrected during the stoppage.

Contemporary reporting attributed the correction to replay assistance. The gamebook confirms the final spot and timeout but does not identify who ordered the adjustment. Gamebook, PDF page 9; contemporary account.

The distinction was whether the correction changed the first-down ruling. Under that season’s line-to-gain challenge provision, merely moving the ball within the new series did not make the challenge successful. Replay assistance provided another way to fix the spot. Detroit got the yardage correction and still lost the timeout. 2025 Rule 15-3-7 and Rule 15-9.

The touchdown came in the third quarter, with Detroit leading 24–20. Matthew Stafford’s 26-yard pass to Parkinson was ruled a score. The gamebook records a review of whether the runner broke the plane and says the ruling stood. Gamebook, PDF page 13.

Blandino discussed a possible explanation involving Parkinson losing control and establishing possession in the end zone, while strongly disagreeing with that reasoning. Football Zebras also examined possession and the standard for overturning the call. Neither analysis supplies a recovered league-issued explanation for what replay actually decided. FOX coverage; Football Zebras analysis.

Eck made the announcement. The 2025 replay rules placed reviews with the league’s senior officiating authority or designee, consulting with the replay official and referee. The microphone alone does not tell us who reached the decisive conclusion. 2025 Rule 15, printed page 60.

What to watch Sunday

Holding is the clearest statistical thread to follow when Detroit and New Orleans take the field. Eck’s 2025 games had relatively few accepted calls on both sides of the ball. Roughing the passer deserves a more cautious reading: three games supplied most of his season total.

Neither pattern guarantees how the opener will be called. The numbers offer a starting point for watching the game, with the teams and situations still to come.

Detroit’s last meeting with Eck illustrates that distinction particularly well. The Lions and Rams combined for only six accepted penalties. The afternoon still produced a disputed touchdown and a corrected spot that cost Detroit a timeout.

A game can have very few flags and leave plenty to argue about.

Research checked September 9, 2026. The personnel review covers 165 regular-season, five postseason and 35 preseason gamebooks; it establishes listed assignments, not undocumented substitutions. NFLPenalties uses nflfastR upstream data for 2020–2025 and has no separate picked-up/nullified field. Historical rules were checked in season-specific NFL-indexed text; unavailable original rulebook PDF downloads remain documented in the evidence package.