ARLINGTON, Texas — You’re mad about your Detroit Lions. Angry. Apoplectic, even. You’re frothy, outraged and gutted.

Some of you may even be convinced the NFL nudged Dallas over the finish line for conspiratorial reasons, and it’s not hard to understand the thinking after what happened at AT&T Stadium in 2014 during the playoffs, when officials picked up a flag after calling pass interference, one of several events that cost the Lions a potential postseason victory.

But if the league is in cahoots with the Cowboys, it's doing a poor job of getting them over; they haven’t won a Super Bowl in decades and are just 4-9 in the postseason this century.

So, while the conspiratorial anger may feel good in the moment — and help diffuse and redirect the disappointment — it’s best to acknowledge the officials in Saturday's game between the Lions and Cowboys made an unintentional mistake, that Brad Allen either misheard or just plain didn’t hear Taylor Decker when he walked over to declare himself eligible for the impending 2-point try after the Lions scored a touchdown with 23 seconds left, pulling Detroit to within a point.

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If Allen had gotten it right — if he hadn’t mixed up Decker and Dan Skipper, if he had remembered that Dan Campbell explained the play, before the game even started, that he might use a scheme where Decker would be eligible to touch the ball and send a pass to him on a 2-point try — then the Lions get those two points and, most likely, win.

Or perhaps if the Cowboys knew for sure Decker was the eligible lineman — the refs announced it was Skipper —they might have defended him differently. Maybe he's not wide open in the end zone. Maybe he doesn’t make the catch.

Or maybe on the previous series, when Dallas had the ball and was trying to run out the clock, officials shouldn't have missed a tripping call on Aidan Hutchinson. Instead, the flag went against Cowboys tight end Peyton Hendershot, nixing a 7-yard gain by Tony Pollard and moving the Cowboys out of field goal range. If that happens, maybe the Cowboys aren't as aggressive trying to get back into range, opting for runs instead of passes and eating more clock.

Maybe if Hutchinson is called for tripping, then the Lions don’t even get the ball back with enough time to reach the end zone at all.

Video of that prior officiating mistake made the rounds on a painful Sunday, after the latest controversial Lions’ loss in Dallas, no doubt advanced, at least partially, by Dallas partisans, or even the NFL. How’s that for conspiratorial?

Of course, the problem with equating the missed trip with the missed eligibility reporting is that one play took the winning points off the board while another took 7 yards and a little clock. The Lions actually scored points. The Cowboys just gained yards.

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Those 7 yards didn’t seal the Lions' fate. Besides, if we’re going to play that game, then let’s go back to the missed holding call when Dak Prescott escaped pressure in the end zone — with an assist from Derrick Barnes — and found CeeDee Lamb for a 92-yard touchdown.

Lions linebacker Jack Campbell was clearly held on the play. If it had been called properly, the Cowboys don’t score there. Perhaps they still do on that drive, but we’ll never know. Just as we’ll never know if the tripping call would’ve propelled the Cowboys to victory.

The "what if?" game can be played seemingly eternally. Tripping and holding and pass interference, penalties that get called or don’t get called are a matter of judgement. Officials miss them. Players live with that.

But this?

Mistaking the player who reported eligible?

It’s a matter of incompetence, not judgment. It’s a matter of not hearing, of not being in tune with the rules during a stoppage in play. It’s mistaking one lineman for another at the most critical of times, and then giving the defense the wrong information.

This is what stings. It stings more because of what was at stake. Not just the loss of a potential No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs, but the Lions' chance to make a statement — to other teams, yes, but also to themselves.

They are still new to this national spotlight. They are learning how to win, how to compete against the league's best under immense pressure.

That the Lions brought it down to a single play, ref or no ref, Saturday at AT&T Stadium should shift the perception of what’s possible for them in the playoffs. They went blow for blow with the best home team in the NFL. The Cowboys were averaging 40 points at home. They scored 20 vs. the Lions' defense. Likewise, the Lions moved almost 90 yards in less than 90 seconds, with no timeouts, to give themselves a chance to win.

It’s easy to forget this at the moment. The blown call overshadows everything else. But the Lions showed they can play with just about anyone.

Now, the San Francisco 49ers, on their turf, with a Super Bowl berth on the line? That'll take another level. But the Lions' performance against Dallas proves they are good enough to get to the Bay Area in January.

As linebacker Alex Anzalone said: “There's a lot to build off of and stuff to get excited about. ... We're growing, we’re growing as a group.”

Yeah, he admitted, it felt like a win was taken from them.

“To a certain extent, I’d say.”

They all felt that Saturday night, and no doubt still feel it as you read this. And yet they promised short memories, swore they’d flush the pain and remember how they competed, how they kept coming, how they harassed Dak Prescott and slowed Micah Parsons — eventually — and how they responded when they had the chance to win the game.

And that they gave themselves a chance to have the chance to win the game. Dan Campbell wasn’t in the mood to talk about such efforts, or the resilience of his team. He was reeling from the officials’ mistake.

But when he settles into the film and gets a little distance, he’ll be reminded of what he saw, of what you saw — that they can still get better, that more reinforcements are coming (especially on defense), that the defense played its best game of the season, that Jameson Williams is turning into a bona fide threat, that Jared Goff can shake off an interception and lead a game-winning drive, and, most of all, that although this team is still building, it gets closer by the week.

So many players took the high road. They spoke about the plays they left on the field, about their own mistakes, about their struggles in the first half up front on offense. They didn’t want to get fined, obviously.

They also know the truth: There is more out there for them. Possibly a lot more. And that if they are good enough to win a playoff game on the road — and Saturday night sure felt like a playoff game — then they are Super Bowl contenders.

Not favorites. Not a lock.

But contenders, a team with a chance. It’s in them. And they know it.

“My mentality is: ‘Screw it,’” said Hutchinson, who sacked Prescott three times and was a general menace all night. “I’d rather beat them in the playoffs anyway.”

If they keep playing like they did Saturday night, they may well get that chance. The officials can’t take that away.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions stung by call, but they still have more in front of them