The Cowboys beat the Eagles on Sunday, 24-21, but it wasn’t easy. Dallas spotted Philadelphia a 21-0 lead before waking up and scoring 24 unanswered points to earn the win. But the Cowboys’ slow start can be partially attributed to one particularly bad call in the first quarter. A bad enough call that the NFL has decided to place the blame at the feet of an unexpected suspect.
The Eagles scored on their first drive of the game to build a quick 7-0 lead. It wasn’t such easy going on the second drive of the game and Philly was forced to punt from its own 24-yard line. On the ensuing play, Eagles punter Braden Mann got a solid kick off—but a flag was thrown for roughing the kicker on Cowboys special teamer Ryan Flournoy. Flournoy came flying in to try and block the kick but, in real time, appeared to barely miss and upended Mann instead.
However, Flournoy was insistent that he tipped the ball, and replay proved him correct. He did just manage to get a finger on the ball, which should have taken the penalty off the board. Roughing the kicker flags are not supposed to be thrown if the ball is tipped.
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
But the Cowboys didn’t challenge the play and the NFL’s replay center didn’t offer any assistance, which felt odd. The replay center has been used plenty of times this season to overturn obviously incorrect calls. This checked every box for them to step in, but they didn’t.
Why? Apparently, it’s the fault of the Fox broadcast for not flagging the high-quality replay that showed just how obvious it was that Flournoy tipped the ball.
ESPN’s Todd Archer interviewed the NFL’s vice president of instant replay, Mark Butterworth, about the protocols for the replay center getting involved and why this particular play didn’t qualify for replay assistance. Butterworth explained they probably would have intervened if Fox had sent them an “enhanced view” in time, but they didn’t send that view until a few plays later, so Dallas was out of luck.
“When there is a flag thrown for roughing the punter, we clear the play to make sure that the ball wasn’t tipped,” Butterworth told Archer. “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. Also, more importantly, the defense can always challenge that the ball was tipped prior to contact. Now, what happened was, I think a play or two later, 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. If we would have had that shot previously, we would have been able to assist prior to the ball being snapped.”
Butterworth was then asked specifically if the penalty would have been overturned had Fox sent the enhanced replay to the NFL in time.
“Correct,” he said. “Their enhanced shot showed that the ball was tipped prior to contact to the punter by the fouling player.”
It’s a pretty bad miss considering the Eagles could have taken advantage of the new life granted by the penalty to march down the field and add to their lead. A huge swing in momentum as the result of a botched penalty. It’s frustrating for everybody involved to see.
But the NFL has given Cowboys fans a new place to direct their ire. Fox will want to be quicker on the draw next time lest the broadcast crew gets thrown under the bus again by a league official.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Blames Fox for Bad Penalty Call on Cowboys in Win Over Eagles.
