Cowboys denied chance to win when Dez Bryant catch overturned

Football karma is funny stuff.

The Dallas Cowboys were widely viewed as the beneficaries of a favorable call (or two) in their wild-card win over the Detroit Lions last week, as ridiculous chatter of Cowboys favortism ruled the sports water-cooler chatter.

Well, hard to argue that now.

Mr. Fourth Down, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, make a risky call with his team down 26-21 with 4:42 left. He decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Green Bay 32, and it appeared a brilliant risk when Dez Bryant made a circus catch at the 1-yard line, skying over cornerback Sam Shields.

But Packers head coach Mike McCarthy challenged the spot after earlier missing on a challenge, arguing that Julius Peppers tipped a pass on what was called a Packers pass interference call. That one failed. In fact, every challenge this season made by McCarthy has failed — all five of them, including the earlier one.

After review, the referees ruled that Bryant didn't catch the ball. Despite what the world saw as a brilliant football play and the fact that he took three steps after catching it. It was the old, cruel Calvin Johnson Rule, failing to "complete the process" of the catch, being played out in what had been a classic battle of two great teams prior to that.

The ball moved after hitting the ground when Bryant hit the chewed-up Lambeau Field turf, and that was enough for the Mike Perieras and Dean Blandinos of the world to say: no catch. The replay officials agreed.

But that's the problem: Even if this was called correctly, this means the NFL rules are severely flawed.

So much for a great game. It was marred by a technicality.

A score would have resulted in a one-, two- or three-point Cowboys lead and the ball in Rodgers' hands with a chance to win it. Instead, he played a great game of keepaway after the controversial call. A bit anticlimactic, no?

Heck, even the Lions — who were victimized by two calls against them in the Cowboys game — felt bad for the Cowboys on that one, reminiscing on the Johnson would-be game-winning TD that was called back famously years ago against the Chicago Bears.

Bryant was incensed. The Cowboys were stunned. Their defense was unable to stop the Packers thereafter, with Aaron Rodgers making a few clutch throws and his receivers making some great catches, and Green Bay moved onto the NFC title game.

But once more we exit a playoff game with controversy. Our eyes, it seemed, deceived us. What looked like a catch, thanks to the voluminous NFL rulebook, was ruled not so.

Garrett afterward said he disagreed strongly with the call but chose not to blame the loss on that one play.

But brilliance — gutsy, spine-tingling gambling that worked — was denied.

Seems a bit wrong in such a great game.