Many Cowboys fans heard more from referee Shawn Hochuli on Thanksgiving Day than some of the relatives sitting around their own holiday dinner tables. Hochuli’s officiating crew called an absurd 28 penalties during the Cowboys’ matchup with the Raiders on Thursday, the most in any game in franchise history.
And while the flags were split down the middle- 14 for each team- the calls definitely hurt the Cowboys worse, their 166 penalty yards also representing a new club record.
After the 36-33 overtime loss, there were few in the Cowboys locker room who didn’t express an opinion on how the game was officiated.
“Twenty-eight penalties: I really don’t know what the hell you want me to say,” head coach Mike McCarthy reflected after the game.
“It’s obvious,” quarterback Dak Prescott said of the flags. “They definitely affected the game.”
“That is tough, especially in our home stadium,” wide receiver Michael Gallup commented. “I mean, we’re playing two teams. We’re playing the refs and the other team. We’ve just got to get better at that.”
“It was crazy,” said safety Jayron Kearse. “But we can only control what we can control. We just go out there and play football. If they decide to throw a flag, they throw a flag.”
Officials decided to throw a lot of flags, and many were tossed at the feet of Cowboys defensive backs. Cornerback Anthony Brown alone was penalized four times- all on third down plays- for a total of 91 yards, including a controversial call in overtime.
Brown had been flagged three times prior to that play and realized that Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr was specifically targeting him.
“By that time, I wasn’t even trying to put my hands on the guy,” Brown told reporters. “I guess it was an underthrown ball. You know, receivers are taught to jump back into the DB. I really don’t know; he grabbed the back of my helmet. I had my hands up. I’ve just got to turn my head, I guess, and just try to get my head around as quick as possible.”
While Brown didn’t turn his head, he also didn’t initiate contact with receiver Zay Jones. The Raiders’ ploy worked; the defensive pass interference call on Brown put Las Vegas in prime field position for their game-winning field goal.
“Maybe I should throw more, honestly, down the field with the way this game was called,” Prescott suggested in his postgame remarks. “That’s a sense of reflection, and maybe we’ll learn from that, and see: if another game happens this way, maybe that’s what I’ll do.”
Team owner Jerry Jones was clearly bothered by the tactic when he spoke to the media shortly after the game went final.
Hochuli’s crew has thrown the fourth-most penalty flags of any crew this season, as per veteran Cowboys reporter Rick Gosselin. McCarthy and the Cowboys knew going in that the game would be called “tight,” in modern parlance.
“The numbers are absurd, [we] definitely understand that,” the coach said of the numerous penalties called. “But just like everything in this game, there’s trends and patterns, and we anticipated this game being officiated this way. But in the same breath, it’s the line that you have straddle. I don’t want our guys slowing down and playing slower. We’ve tried that already, and that didn’t help us- overcoaching the penalties a few weeks back. We’re going to get up on the balls of our feet and keep fighting.”
That was a message the players took away, despite some also feeling like the officials took the game away from them. And for all the talk about “adjusting” to the officiating style, most Cowboys pledged to maintain their style of play, no matter who is wearing the stripes.
“Football’s an aggressive game. You’re going to attack the ball, and you’re going to play through the ball, and you’re going to play defender,” said rookie linebacker Micah Parsons. “When are you going to let us truly play? I come out here because I love the game and I love to play… You don’t play the game soft, and you can’t play the game conservative. You’ve got to be aggressive, you’ve got to be dominant. I don’t want those guys to change their play style at all.”
“Personally, I don’t feel like that’s an adjustment that can be made. You know, we play fast. We play physical. We’re just playing football,” Kearse told the media. “We’re just going to continue to keep playing. I don’t know if it’s an adjustment that can be made as far as when it comes down to that aspect of the game.”
“It’s frustrating,” Brown agreed. “But at the same time, we’ve got to deal with it. We’ve got to try to fight through it. The other team is dealing with it, too. They’re getting calls, too.”
“We have to fight through whatever comes our way. That’s just what it is,” cornerback Jourdan Lewis said. “We’ve just got to fight, which we did. I give credit to all of those guys, especially AB. He fought through it, through a lot of adversity. He’s having a great year. That’s my brother right there, and he fought through it all.”
But it was more than just that one flag in overtime, and it was more than just Brown. The Cowboys were frustrated across the board by the preponderance of penalty flags all afternoon and on both sides of the ball.
Tight end Dalton Schultz: “Obviously, they were calling a lot today.”
Guard Zack Martin: “If they’re calling a tight game, we’ve got to do a better job of keeping our hands inside.”
Wide receiver Cedrick Wilson: “If it’s taken out of your hands, you can’t really do much about it.”
Running back Ezekiel Elliott: “We’ve got to be more disciplined. We’ve got to realize how they’re calling games this year.”
Prescott: “Feel like we’re targeted a little bit, but in the same instance, we’ve got to be better on our end to try to keep [the penalties] out of the game.”
Ultimately, the frustrations of the Cowboys players and the vast majority of their fans was summed up best by Parsons, who drew a costly (and questionable) roughing the passer flag as Carr scrambled on an important play late in the game.
“We’re playing football, at the end of the day,” Parsons lamented. “When you’re playing football, the quarterback’s going to get hit. You come outside the pocket, you’re bound to get hit. I think we should be playing football, not tag.”
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