It’s hard to fault the refs for this one. But they got a roughing-the-kicker call wrong in Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. And it led to Jalen Hurts scoring a touchdown to give the Eagles a two-touchdown lead, though they ended up losing 24-21.

The play in question took place with 4:45 remaining in the first quarter. The Cowboys stopped the Eagles on third down to force a punt on fourth-and-10. But Dallas’ Ryan Flournoy fell into punter Braden Mann as he attempted to block the kick, drawing a 15-yard roughing-the-kicker penalty.

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Instead of giving the ball back to the Cowboys, the Eagles retained possession with first-and-10 at their own 39-yard line. Ten plays later, Hurts gained seven yards on a designed run into the end zone to extend Philadelphia’s lead to 14-0.

But after slow-motion parsing, the Eagles should not have retained the ball, and Hurts should never have scored that touchdown.

Flournoy tipped the kick

It turns out that Flournoy touched the ball on his block attempt. Just barely.

Here’s a look at the play from behind the line of scrimmage that shows Flournoy falling into Mann’s plant leg while his kicking leg was still extended.

It looked to the naked eye like a textbook roughing-the-kicker call.

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But a second look from above revealed more. The angle below shows that Flournoy barely tipped the ball. Even in slow motion, it’s impossible to see if the trajectory of the ball changed.

But Flournoy’s fingers clearly moved because of contact with the ball. And it’s difficult to dispute that he got his hand on it.

Flournoy didn’t block the kick by any practical definition. And he still barreled into Mann’s plant leg. But by the letter of the proverbial law, roughing the kicker should have been called. Had officials seen Flournoy touching the ball, they would have negated a roughing-the-kicker call. But they, understandably, did not.

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Should replay assist have been used?

Flournoy in all likelihood was the only person in the building to recognize in real time that he tipped the ball. Officials theoretically could have used replay assist to review and overturn the call on the field. Roughing the kicker penalties are eligible this season for replay-assist review. And that’s the biggest gripe that Cowboys fans can have with officials in this instance.

Even then, replay assist is initiated when “clear and obvious video evidence is quickly available to assist the on-field officials on objective rulings,” per the NFL rulebook. Flournoy’s protest of the call was the only thing in real time to indicate that he touched the ball.

Should that have been enough to trigger replay assist? Flournoy and the Cowboys certainly think so. But it wasn’t until several plays later that the Fox broadcast surfaced the slow-motion replay of Flournoy’s fingers moving.

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Officials: Cowboys challenge might have worked

NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth told pool reporter Todd Archer after the game that officials would have overturned the call if they had access to the Fox video in time for an assisted replay review.

“We don’t have access to that enhanced shot until they show it,” Butterworth said. “By then, it was too late. If we would have had that shot previously, we would have been able to assist prior to the ball being snapped.”

Butterworth also clarified that the Cowboys had the option to challenge. And if they would have, it might have surfaced the enhanced video in time to overturn the call.

“The defense, the Dallas Cowboys, could have challenged it at any point, and we would have stopped to look at it, Butterworth continued. “And by stopping to look at it, we probably would have gotten an enhanced shot from broadcast that would show that the ball was indeed tipped.”

In the end, it added up to a fortunate break for the Eagles that led to a touchdown. Ultimately, it didn’t cost the Cowboys as they rallied from a 21-0 deficit for the win.