The Dallas Cowboys have to say goodbye to the fight for the first place in the NFC due to the defeat against the Arizona Cardinals. After the game, the Cowboys stars have problems with the officials.

Munich – This defeat hurts the Dallas Cowboys especially.

The narrow 22:25 loss to the Arizona Cardinals means Dak Prescott and Co. miss the chance to challenge the Green Bay Packers for first place in the NFC. Even though “America’s Teams” did not have a good evening, especially offensively, one scene in particular caused a stir in the final phase.

Cardinals running back Chase Edmonds suffered a fumble with just under three minutes to go, which bounced straight into the arms of Cowboys defender Osa Odighizuwa. Although the slow motion showed that Edmonds’ knee never touched the ground, the referees ruled possession for Arizona.

Chase Edmonds may have fumbled that ball, but because Dallas had no timeouts remaining they had no way of challenging it pic.twitter.com/QmQaQlArLG

– Ben Brown (@BenBrownPL) January 3, 2022

Because the Cowboys no longer possessed any timeouts, a subsequent challenge was also no longer possible. The controversial decision eventually gave the Cardinals the opportunity to salvage the narrow win.

Cowboys pissed: “We’re playing against the referees”

The Cowboys stars were correspondingly angry at the press conference after the game: “Of course it was a fumble. With the technology we have today, how can we not contest that?” linebacker Leighton Vander Esch complained.

“It was so obvious. Some things are so obvious to see, but the referees mess it up. Why don’t they correct it? We’ve played the referees more often than we’ve played other teams, he rumbled on.

Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb also agreed with his teammate: “Every big play of ours was whistled back for some reason. You can’t get into a rhythm like that,” the shooting star explained. “It feels like the referees called the game. It’s not a secret,” Lamb added.

Not first upset of the season

Referees in the NFL have been the subject of much debate, but this season the regularity of at least highly controversial decisions is taking on new proportions if Vander Esch has his way. “If you look around, it wasn’t the first time this season that a team was whistled like that,” he rumbled on.

“I don’t know if it’s incompetence, but it’s not really a big deal to fix the problem,” he continued. “If it’s so obvious, why don’t the referees own up to the mistake and correct it. That’s what sport is all about,” he concluded.

The loss drops the Cowboys to fourth place in the NFC. At least they have that secured as division winners already.