Stats Show Tripping Penalties That Ruined Cowboys' Chances vs Patriots Almost Never Get Called Twice
By Chris Pyo
The Dallas Cowboys dropped a sloppy game to the New England Patriots by a score of 13-9, but it's hard to tell the story of this game without focusing on how the Cowboys were called for tripping penalties twice.
Tripping? The penalty so uncommon that the announcers expected a hold each and every time laundry appeared.
How rare is it to call two tripping penalties against the same team in the same game? It's almost never happened in the NFL within the past 10 years.
Number of times a team has been called twice for tripping in one game in the past 10 years, before today: 2. Per @ESPNStatsInfo
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) November 25, 2019
Both times, the penalty was controversially called, including on a 3rd and 1 play on the Cowboys' final drive, where a successful first down was negated. Instead, the Cowboys faced a 4th and 11 and were unable to convert, costing them a chance to win the game.
This was called “tripping” on the Cowboys on 3rd and 1 with the game on the line #DALvsNE pic.twitter.com/4raz37NtPI
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) November 25, 2019
What exactly constitutes a trip? According to the NFL, it's when a player uses his leg or foot to stop another player's forward motion.
Once again, NFL referees have displayed their utter incompetence in making the correct penalty calls and avoiding controversy. You can bet the league will hear about this from the fans and media for weeks.
Stephen A. Smith's about to have an amazing time discussing this on First Take Monday. If you had to bet on this happening in one stadium across this great nation, wouldn't you have bet on Foxborough?