ARLINGTON, Tex. - At the 8:18 mark of the fourth quarter of Sunday's NFC Wild Card game and leading 20-17, the Detroit Lions were poised to convert a 3rd-and-1 play and come away with a chance to extend their lead.
And when Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew was the recipient of a pass interference call after being draped over by Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens, it looked like the yardage would be gained the easy way.
That's when it all seemed to go terribly wrong for the Lions, a state of affairs of which they are intimate.
After what in penalty-judgement-time was an eternity, but in real time about ten long seconds, the flag vanished from the turf, never to be seen again.
Nor spoken of.
Despite protests from Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, and anyone else in Detroit blue who happened to be around anybody wearing stripes, the penalty was erased with no explanation.
Dallas would take that opportunity to eventually drive 59 yards, taking their first and final lead on Tony Romo's go-ahead touchdown pass to Terrance Williams.
With the lack of explanation given us, pro football commentators and fans, given by nature to explanations of their own, had many.
One resides in Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, who, before the flag even hit the ground, charged five yards onto the field, despite not actually playing defense and not wearing a helmet, and into the face of the back judge responsible.
For this he was not penalized.
The flag was picked up seconds later and play continued, as Detroit ventured a 4th-and-1 dare to bring the Cowboys offsides that failed, culminating in a delay of game penalty.
A correlation is not a cause, as philosophers are want to say, but the known tendencies towards screaming fits that Bryant is known for just may be enough for any man to cave into.
"The back judge threw his flag for defensive pass interference," referee Pete Morelli told ESPN reporter Todd Archer after the game. "We got other information from another official from a different angle that thought the contact was minimal and didn't warrant pass interference. He thought it was face guarding."
Former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira, who discusses penalty issues for FOX during broadcasts, supported the initial call and opposed the eventual no-call.
"I watch a lot of football, see a lot of plays, to me you can't pick that flag up," Pereira said. "Hitchens was not playing the ball, shoved with his left arm first; Pettigrew came back and tried to get to the ball, couldn't, that's pass interference.
"Actually, it was defensive holding, also," he added, "because Pettigrew got his jersey grabbed and stretched as he tried to get off the line of scrimmage."
As Pereira also mentioned, and as fellow FOX commentator Troy Aikman said before the game, the crew presiding over Sunday's game was not a crew that had been working together over 15 weeks of the football season. They were random officials that had not worked together at any time for any contest.
The no-call will haunt discussion over the remainder of the postseason, at least until the Cowboys face the Green Bay Packers next Sunday at Lambeau Field in a divisional game.
"For everybody in Detroit, I'm baffled with you," FOX television analyst Michael Strahan said afterwards during a postgame telecast.
"They didn't give me a good enough explanation," Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said afterwards of his conversation with the officials.
At least he got one.
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