ARLINGTON (105.3 The Fan) - As each player came to the podium after the Cowboys' 25-22 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday at AT&T Stadium, one critique from the game kept coming up over and over again.
The officiating.
Let's be honest, the officiating didn't prevent Greg Zuerlein from making a 43-yard field goal, nor did it prevent Dak Prescott from getting his passes tipped at the line of scrimmage, nor was it the reason Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott dropped passes, and on, and on.
But, despite the Cowboys poor play, the officials didn't do them any favors, either. The Cowboys were penalized 10 times for a total of 88 yards, while the Cardinals were called for seven infractions for a total of 45 yards.
The most egregious errors, however, came on two non-calls at the end of the game. With 2:51 left in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals had the ball 1st and 10 on the Dallas' 36-yard line. Officials could have called a delay of game on the Cardinals, but the play was allowed to continue. Arizona running back Chase Edmonds would go on to run for a gain of six yards, but replays appeared to show that Cowboys' defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence knocked the ball out of Edmonds' hands before he was down by contact. The problem? Dallas had just used its final timeout on the previous play and wasn't able to challenge the call.
"It was totally a fumble, and I just don't understand how, with the technology we have nowadays, even if we don’t have timeouts or whatever it may be," linebacker Leighton Vander Esch said after the game. "To me, we’re playing more against the refs than other teams.
"We got to keep battling with everybody, not just the other team, if you catch my drift," Vander Esche continued.
As for Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb, his displeasure with the officiating had more to do with the drive-killing holding penalties that were called on Dallas, as opposed to the fumble.
"The refs, I feel like, dictated the game. It’s no secret," Lamb said.
All three of the holding calls on the Cowboys' offensive line tonight came on third down, and the offense would go on to punt after each one.
Defensive end Demarcus Lawrence even joked about the possibility of seeing "both teams in the playoffs," an allusion that the Cowboys were up against both the Cardinals and the officials on Sunday.
The Cowboys can feel wronged all they want, but at the end of the day, there's no going back. Now, they must look towards the future and prepare for a Week 18 date with the Eagles, and a possible rematch in two weeks against these same Cardinals.
"We had a few mental errors. Playing against the refs again, like usual. It seems like an every-week occurrence. We just have to tune that out and deal with it. Other than that, I felt like we out-physicaled them," defensive end Randy Gregory said. "Hopefully we see them in the playoffs."
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