The Dallas Cowboys spent much of Thursday night trying to claw their way back into the game, and for a brief stretch it looked as if they might manage it.
They finally picked up a spark, only to watch it evaporate on a single flag. Jake Ferguson‘s offensive pass interference call arrived at a moment when Dallas had the Lions on their heels, and Dak Prescott didn’t hesitate to say how jarring the ruling felt.
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“Do I get fined for talking about this?… I’m sorry, that was bad. I got to look at the film, maybe I can see it from their vantage point. I know I talked to the ref after, he said [Ferguson] aggressively pulled through. I’ve never seen a call like that,” Prescott said, still processing the decision after the game.
Dallas had trailed 10-6 but had just hit CeeDee Lamb for a sizeable gain, something they had struggled to produce all night.
On the next play, Prescott dumped the ball to Ferguson while under pressure. Officials ruled the pass went backward behind the line of scrimmage, turning the play into a 16-yard loss. It was the kind of moment that stalls a rally before it even forms.
There was another call that stuck with Prescott too, one that arrived earlier and derailed a third quarter drive. The offensive pass interference on George Pickens, which erased what had looked like a promising sequence, frustrated him every bit as much.
“It was bad… I’ve never seen a call like that,” he said again, repeating the same disbelief.
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Late in the matchup, with the Cowboys trailing by 11, Prescott found Ryan Flournoy for a 23-yard completion down to the Detroit 12.
It was the kind of play that shifts the feel of a game. Instead, the officials ruled Pickens had set an illegal pick, hit him with offensive pass interference, and shoved Dallas backward by 33 yards. Any momentum they had briefly found was gone.
Prescott didn’t bother hiding his irritation. And with the NFL handing out fines freely this season, the total across the league has already topped $5.7 million, his comments may draw a response.
Players who question officiating publicly often find a reminder arriving later in the week, sometimes with an invoice attached.
