Officiating in the NFL has improved greatly since the league implemented a coach’s challenge years ago and more recently adopted the use of replay assist. However, the referees still get some calls wrong, as was the case in this week’s showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
During the second quarter of Sunday’s game between Dallas and Philadelphia, Cowboys wide receiver Ryan Flournoy hit Eagles punter Braden Mann on his plant leg while attempting to block the punt.
As a result, the Cowboys were hit with a 15-yard penalty for roughing the punter, granting the Eagles an automatic first down. The Eagles went on to score a touchdown on the drive, taking a 14-0 lead.
Unfortunately, however, this was not the correct call, and the league admitted that the Cowboys should not have been flagged for the penalty.
As seen in the replay of the play in question, Flournoy clearly tipped the ball before he hit Mann, which means that he should not have been flagged for roughing the punter. After the game, the league even admitted that this mistake should have been caught.
Roughing the kicker was called on the Cowboys despite replay appearing to show that Dallas got a hand on the ball. pic.twitter.com/zX1rQ8mhbT
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) November 23, 2025
Mark Butterworth, the NFL’s vice president of instant replay, told reporters that replay assist can overturn a roughing the punter call when there’s clear evidence that the ball was touched before contact with the punter. However, Butterworth claims that they didn’t get a clear enough angle to show that the mistake had been made until it was too late.
“We can use replay assist to pick up the flag when we have clear and obvious video evidence that the player that committed the foul touched the ball prior to making contact with the punter,” Butterworth said in a pool report via Awful Announcing.
“TV showed an enhanced shot, which they can do. We don’t have access to that enhanced shot until they show it. By then, it was too late,” he added.
The Cowboys were able to pull off a thrilling come-from-behind victory, so everything ultimately worked out in the end. But this was a pretty clear mistake from the officials that should have been caught.
About Dave Kelsey
Contributing author to The Comeback.