DETROIT — Very few people walked out of Ford Field feeling good about Thursday night’s officiating in the Detroit Lions–Dallas Cowboys matchup.

Detroit ultimately earned a crucial victory as it continues to fight for a playoff spot, but the game was filled with contentious moments. Early on, officials appeared to miss several obvious penalties — including a play where Jacob Saylors was driven into the turf after the whistle and what looked like an obvious Dallas offsides that instead resulted in a Detroit punt.

Later, the Cowboys were on the wrong end of a few impactful decisions. Two separate offensive pass interference calls in the second half — one on George Pickens and another on tight end Jake Ferguson — stalled promising Dallas drives. Both penalties occurred on important third downs, and both forced the Cowboys to settle for field goals instead of pushing for touchdowns.

The second OPI flag on Ferguson drew the strongest reaction from quarterback Dak Prescott, who didn’t hide his irritation when speaking after the game.

“Am I going to get fined for this? Because that call was bad. Seriously, it was bad,” Prescott said. “I’ll review the tape, but from what I saw, I don’t understand it. The ref told me he ‘aggressively pulled through,’ but I’ve never seen that called before.”

Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay agreed with Prescott’s confusion, saying on the broadcast that he couldn’t spot the infraction at all and believed Ferguson was simply using a swim move. Before the flag was announced, McAulay even suspected the penalty would be on Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone.

The timing of the call made matters worse for Dallas. Down by 10 with under four minutes left, the Cowboys were deep in Detroit territory and poised to score. Instead of cutting the deficit to one possession and putting pressure on the Lions, they settled for a short field goal. Detroit then responded with a touchdown of its own, sealing the game.

“If we punch it in there, the whole end of the game changes,” Prescott said. “That flag completely shifts the moment. I don’t get it, but it is what it is.”

Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer deflected questions about the officiating afterward.

“I’m not commenting on that,” he said. “That’s not what determined the outcome.”

And in many ways, Dallas had bigger issues. The Cowboys allowed Detroit to average 7.2 yards per snap, gave up huge kickoff returns, and turned the ball over three times — a sharp contrast to the Lions, who had only two giveaways over their previous five games.

Most Dallas players acknowledged that their own errors were the primary culprit.

“I’ve got a ton of respect for Detroit — it’s always a tough matchup,” Prescott said. “But this loss was on us. No disrespect to them, but most of the games we’ve dropped this season have come from our own mistakes. Turnovers, missed opportunities… that’s on us.”