The Cowboys got screwed by 2 iffy tripping calls against the Patriots

NFL officiating has been a comedy of errors ever since the league made pass interference calls reviewable, putting a microscope on every little play. Holding and pass interference seem to be the most contested plays this year, but, of course, the league always finds new and innovative ways to get things wrong.

So let’s talk about tripping penalties.

The Patriots were facing the Cowboys in a pivotal Week 12 for two playoff hopefuls. The weather was bad, and it was consistently a one-score game throughout. Every play was crucial.

Specifically, this call on Travis Frederick in the fourth quarter when the Cowboys were trying to take the lead. It was a third-and-1 at the two-minute warning with the Patriots up, 13-9, when the refs called tripping on Frederick:

(That’s a retired NFL offensive lineman weighing in, too.)

The penalty made it third-and-11. Dak Prescott threw two incomplete passes and the game was over. If not for the penalty, that play would have been a 3-yard pass from Prescott to Ezekiel Elliott for the first down.

Former NFL referee Mike Pereira wasn’t exactly steadfast in supporting the call on the Fox broadcast, but he did maintain that it was technically tripping.

Wait, what?

Pereira based this opinion on the fact Frederick lifted his leg during the block, which is even more mystifying. I started to write this paragraph with the intention of explaining what Pereira meant by this, but I’m stumped.

If you are confused as well, you’re not alone in this (exhibits A, B, C, D, E, F, and G). To make matters worse, that wasn’t even the first bad tripping penalty called on the Cowboys that game.

There was also one in the first quarter, called on Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith.

At that point, it was a tie game and the Cowboys were starting to move the ball downfield. But a second-and-13 became a second-and-23 after the penalty, and things would get worse when the eventual punt was blocked, giving the Patriots the ball at the Dallas 12-yard line.

In its weekly review of penalties, the NFL came to the conclusion that the tripping penalties should not have been called, and informed the Cowboys as much.

Tripping isn’t a particularly common penalty, and was called just seven times across the NFL prior to it being called on the Cowboys twice on Sunday. That makes three games in the past 10 years in which a team has been called for tripping two or more times.

They seem to have worked out what a catch is, and we aren’t seeing as many phantom helmet-to-helmet hits this year, but it feels like the league is finding new and innovative ways to screw things up.