Eagles hosed by multiple referee mistakes in loss to Cowboys; NFL needs more centralized replay

The Eagles-Cowboys game from Week 14 is going to have some pretty big ramifications across the league in terms of the playoff picture. The Cowboys have essentially clinched the NFC East at this point thanks to their 29-23 overtime win and they're basically checkmating anyone who criticized the Amari Cooper trade into apologizing. 

Also needing to apologize: the referees from that game. Clete Blakeman's crew made some pretty questionable decisions that impacted the game and might have cost the Eagles a loss. The bigger-picture result of that loss is the Eagles are 6-7, done in the division and potentially done in the wild-card hunt as well. 

Between the myriad mistakes made in Philly-Dallas and the controversial field-goal block in Vikings-Seahawks that shifted that game, it's not unreasonable to ask when the NFL plans to incorporate a more aggressive style of centralized replay. 

(Stream Eagles-Rams and all of Sunday's games on fuboTV, try it for free, and stream the CBS games on CBS All Access.)  

Things got started early in Sunday's NFC East matchup -- the Cowboys fumbled the opening kickoff on a play where it appeared the Eagles recovered the ball. However, the play was whistled dead, the ball was ruled not to have been fumbled and Doug Pederson was forced to challenge the play. He did just that and on replay, it became very clear the Eagles would have recovered the ball. 

Upon review, however, the Cowboys retained possession. 

"It looks like only the Eagles are around the football," Joe Buck noted. 

"There's not a [Cowboys] player within the vicinity of the ball," Troy Aikman added.

"One if you actually see Philadelphia with the ball," Mike Pereira said when he was asked about the situation. "And the other is if all the other guys in the pile are on the same team."

Worth noting: you "must control the ball" as Pereira pointed out during the replay. Pereira added that he felt Clete Blakeman's crew did the right thing by not overturning the call.

Blakeman defended the decision after the game as well. Part of the problem here is the play was initially not ruled a fumble. The refs blew the play dead, which makes it infinitely more difficult to have the call go their way, because it's not about who is in possession of the ball but rather who might be in possession of the ball. 

One of the most frustrating things about officiating is the utter lack of consistency. Sometimes NFL refs will let a play run out to try and make sure they don't blow a whistle too soon and box in their potential decision-making. Other times they'll come quick with a whistle, as they did in this case, and it essentially rules out their ability to properly give the ball to the team who recovered it. Not blowing the whistle on what should have been an obvious fumble would have resulted in a fumble and Eagles ball. 

Later in the game, a pair of penalties happened on back-to-back plays and both were highly questionable. One of them altered the game completely, as rookie tight end Dallas Goedert was flagged for offensive pass interference that negated a 75-yard touchdown. 

Watching it live, it felt absurd he was flagged. Watching it on replay, it's just preposterous that Goedert was flagged for this.

Aikman, Buck and Pereira all agreed. 

"I don't think it is. Even though there's movement by the defense ... he's breaking back inside," Pereira explained. "There's a collision [inside] five yards. I just don't think that's one that should have been called." 

At the time, the Cowboys were leading this game 23-16 with 2:21 remaining. Goedert's touchdown would have tied the game. Pretty huge deal, even if Philadelphia marched down the field and scored anyway. 

The refs had another bad moment on the very next play as well, whistling Randy Gregory for roughing the passer when he went low to tackle Carson Wentz.

I mean, come on. What is Gregory supposed to do there? I get that it's illegal to go low on a quarterback, but Gregory didn't strike Wentz with any force at all. He wrapped up an opposing quarterback and brought him to the ground. It's exactly what you want players doing and he was penalized for it. That's a terrible precedent. 

There were several more calls in this game that fall under the realm of "questionable," as chronicled by Jimmy Kempski of Philly Voice right here.

But the bottom line is this: the NFL is allowing referees, in a time when there is far too much replay and technology available to be simplistic with adjudication of rules and penalties, to impact the outcome of games in a way they don't need to. Bring on more centralized replay. Give us the heavy hand of the masked man in New York. It's better than consistently wondering exactly what kind of outcome we'll get based on the apparent randomness and complete inconsistency of the flags refs seem to be throwing.