Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Cowboys displeased with officiating in loss to Cardinals

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated Jan 3, 2022 11:56 AM ET

Correct us if you've heard this before: The Dallas Cowboys were unhappy with officiating in one of their losses.

Dallas was called for 10 penalties in Sunday's 25-22 loss to the Arizona Cardinals — a game that knocked the team down to the fourth seed with one week left in the regular season. After the game, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb pointed to the officiating crew for "dictating the game" and keeping the Cowboys from getting into a rhythm.

Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb after 25-22 loss to Cardinals: “The refs, I feel like, dictated the game. It’s no secret.” pic.twitter.com/JRzZxEvA5C
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) January 3, 2022

Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch agreed.

"There's other games around the league that have been dictated by, I don't know if it's incompetence or what it is, but it don't make sense to me," he said, via ESPN. "I feel like it's not hard to fix that, especially if it's so blatant on the field and it's so obvious, why someone up top is not radioing down and be like, hey, get this right. That's not hard. That's just the ethics of the game — getting it right. Like hey, you made a mistake here. Fix it. Here's the right call."

It isn't completely hard to see why the Cowboys were frustrated given there were four calls against them on Sunday that negated first down opportunities and gave momentum back to Arizona.

This isn't the first time the team blamed its penalty woes on the officiating crew either. Owner and GM Jerry Jones was particularly vocal after the team racked up 14 penalties in a 36-33 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Thanksgiving. After the loss to Arizona, he had some similar criticism to make.

"This group calls a lot of ticky-tack," Jones said of Scott Novak's officiating crew. "They call a lot of penalties, and that was going to be a concern for us today."

The Cowboys finish the regular season facing the Eagles in Philadelphia.

More must-reads: