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Cowboys must learn to win ugly games — even if that means playing ref ball

Head coach Mike McCarthy is working to understand the ‘herky-jerky’ officiating that Dallas faced on Thanksgiving.

FRISCO — Penalty flags are falling.

The sky is not.

This is the message the Cowboys have adopted coming out of their Thanksgiving Day loss to Las Vegas. A team that lost two games in a span of five days — doubling the number of losses it incurred in the first 73 days of the regular season — defiantly maintains it will soon get back on course.

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Any judgment on that count must be delayed until the Cowboys are well into the December portion of their schedule. There’s a more pressing matter in the immediate aftermath of a 36-33 overtime loss to the Raiders.

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Penalties. Any chance of victory was buried under 14 penalties for a franchise record 166 yards. This continued to dominate the conversation at The Star on Friday and sparked a couple of conversations with league officials.

More on that in a bit.

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In the midst of rehashing what went wrong with reporters, head coach Mike McCarthy dropped what will likely be a recurring theme in the final six weeks of the regular season.

“We need to learn to win those games ugly,” McCarthy said. “Winning ugly is very important, particularly in this part of the season.

“Throughout the league, it’s attrition time. There are changes in lineups each week. This is where you have to do the little things, particularly in the fourth quarter, and in game situations to bring home the victory.”

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The Cowboys won games by 20, 22 and 40 points during their six-game winning streak. They won in New England in dramatic, overtime fashion. They followed that up with a road victory in Minnesota with backup quarterback Cooper Rush.

What they haven’t done is win ugly. Sure, Dallas overcame a flurry of flags in games earlier this season with an explosive offense.

But the offense is more erratic than explosive at the moment. The ground game has stalled. The defense, while ascending, showed in the loss to the Raiders it’s not yet ready to carry this team through a tough stretch.

And that brings us back to what unfolded at AT&T Stadium before and after a Luke Combs halftime performance.

“The reality of it is every game is exclusive to the elements that you encounter throughout the process,” McCarthy said. “Now [Thursday] was extremely frustrating. It was very herky-jerky.

“The officiating was a big part of the game.”

A total of 28 penalties were assessed. Several more were declined.

An aberration? Only one team [Philadelphia] had been hit with 14 penalties in a game in the first 11 weeks of the regular season. You have to go back to Week 8 of the 2016 season to find a game where more penalties were assessed.

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That game was between Tampa Bay and — wait for it — the Raiders.

Every club in the NFL contacts the league office after a game to discuss, complain and seek clarification about certain calls. McCarthy said those conversations often wind up drifting into the philosophy, theory and definition of techniques behind certain penalties.

He needs a more practical application to take out of Thursday’s loss to carry forward.

“We need to make sure the coaching is clear and the communication is clear in the technical part of it,” McCarthy said. “The second thing is the frustration on the sideline. There are some things we need to handle better.

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“The negative energy, it’s good to have a little dose of negativity once in a while to kick things back in order. But it was a very frustrating day throughout. We need to learn from that.

“You cannot ride this roller coaster of emotion in what these officials bring into the game because every crew is different,” McCarthy continued. “They have tendencies. I think that’s part of the frustration because it is week to week.

“I mean you look at our Kansas City game, how that was officiated compared to how [Thursday’s] game was officiated. ... The only thing we can control is our emotion, our energy and our discipline, and that’s what we’ll continue to focus on.”

Dallas had a 7-2 record coming off a 43-3 destruction of Atlanta and was in contention for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. It didn’t take long for the narrative to change when the offense gave the Cowboys no chance to win in their loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, and the defense fell apart five days later.

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“People are jumping off the bandwagon, and we’re OK with it,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “What really matters is the men in that room and our trust and belief in each other of getting the job done.”

McCarthy spoke to the league office Friday morning about the penalties called in the game with Las Vegas. He was scheduled for a second conversation later in the afternoon.

“I mean, make no mistake about it, this game was totally off the trend line as you can see as far as statistics,” McCarthy said. “It’s not as much about clarity. I think it’s more about moving forward and just the understanding.

“I just think the variety or variation of officiating is part of the challenge on game day, and I think these conversations are beneficial for us. I hope it’s beneficial for them because I think at the end of the day we’re all trying to be better.

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“I don’t know how anybody could feel good about how the game went.”

Catch David Moore on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310 and 96.7 FM) with The Musers at 9:35 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, The Hang Zone every Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. and The Hardline every Tuesday and Friday at 4:30 p.m. during the regular season.

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.