Back to the infamous Dallas/Detroit no-call: I was initially silent and did not chime in because I was biased in favor of wanting Detroit to lose, and it was a close enough call that I was not completely convinced that my opinion was not tainted by my bias. But having read a breakdown of the play and the applicable rules by Kevin Seifert that confirms what I thought was the correct series of events, even though the specific no-calls were in some respects incorrect, and even though it was clumsily handled, the net result was 100% correct.
The four potential penalties that should have been called:
1. Defensive holding on Hitchens: He grabbed Pettigrew's jersey outside of 5 yards. Should have been called. No flag was thrown. This wasn't even on the radar, so the refs likely didn't see it. But it should have been called if seen.
2. Offensive pass interference/face mask by Pettigrew: Pettigrew clearly grabbed Hitchens' face mask and held on for dear life. I had been wondering why no one mentioned this. It was a clear-cut face mask penalty and should have been called. It could be argued that it is also pass interference that prevented Hitches from playing the ball in the first place. But either way, a face mask penalty would offset the defensive holding that should have been called.
3. Defensive pass interference: A bit subjective, but I don't believe it should have been called. No, Hitchens was NOT playing the ball. But he also did not cause the contact. The contact appeared to be caused by Pettigrew attempting to stop and by Pettigrew grabbing Hitchens' face mask, which partially prevented Hitchens from doing the same. Good no call, but this one is close.
4. Dez Bryant running onto the field to protest the call: Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1(j) prohibits "removal of a helmet by a player in the field of play or the end zone during a celebration or demonstration or during a confrontation with a game official or any other player." His helmet was off already before he entered the field of play. Yeah, it violated the spirit of the rule. But it didn't violate the rule. Good no-call.
So what should have happened, ideally, is offsetting penalties of defensive holding and offensive face mask, and no flag for pass interference or for...whatever the name of the penalty against Bryant would have been--resulting in 4th down. So, yeah, the refs mishandled it. But it was still the correct net result.
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