Let’s start by doing something NFL referee Pete Morelli did not do Sunday in Dallas. Let’s get one thing straight. Actually, let’s get four things straight.

First, Cowboys’ linebacker Anthony Hitchens committed pass interference on a pivotal third-and-1 play in the fourth quarter of Dallas’ 24-20 victory over the Detroit Lions.

Second, he also committed defensive holding.

Third, he also made illegal contact with tight end Brandon Pettigrew with the ball in the air. That’s the trifecta of pass coverage sins, both venial and mortal.

Fourth, that blown call isn’t the reason the Lions lost. The Lions are, but it didn’t help.

“It was DPI (defensive pass interference), and it was defensive pass holding as well,” former officiating chief Mike Pereira tweeted not long after Morelli picked up the flag thrown by back judge Lee Dyer after the head linesman insisted he had a better view and saw “no contact.”

If he saw no contact, he needs Lasik surgery.

Yesterday, present head of officials, Dean Blandino, conceded defensive holding should have been called because Hitchens clearly grabbed Pettigrew’s jersey but Blandino claimed the PI was a “close call that could have gone either way.”

In this day and age?

At a time when it’s illegal to blow a kiss at a receiver, you can pull one’s jersey, put your left arm on his shoulder to push him away from an underthrown pass with the ball still in the air, although you have no idea where because you never, not once, looked back for it and it’s not pass interference? That was pass interference even when Jack Tatum was committing legalized decapitations every Sunday 40 years ago.

Had any of those calls been made, it would have been first-and-10 at the Cowboys 29. That doesn’t guarantee victory because if they kick a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown and all else remains the same they still lose by one, but had Morelli’s crew done its job much of what followed could have been avoided.

First, the Cowardly Lion, head coach Jim Caldwell, would not have made the wrong choice on fourth-and-1 by electing to punt. Second, had Morelli’s crew also flagged Dallas’ Dez Bryant for charging helmetless onto the field to argue with them there would have been an additional 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and the Lions would have been first-and-10 at the Dallas 14.

Blandino said an unsportsmanlike call was not automatic, but conceded he would have supported it had Morelli thrown a flag rather than swallowed one.

Did Morelli’s crew pick up the flag because the game was in Dallas and he was intimidated? Was it because the NFL wants the Cowboys to be relevant? Was it because they blew one call and were so busy trying to sort that out they never got around to Bryant on the field trying to intimidate them?

Or was it because Blandino was last seen in public riding around on the Cowboys’ party bus last August with Stephen Jones, the son of the Cowboys’ owner, on the way to a Hollywood night spot where clothes are not required of all employees?

The latter seems a bit too much Oliver Stone conspiracy theory, but when Morelli tried to explain his decision away, he only made things worse. Asked what he saw, Morelli uttered the fatal phrase: “It’s not my responsibility. I’m a hundred miles away.”

Isn’t it your responsibility as crew chief to get it right? And did you? No you didn’t so I would suggest you and your “all-star” crew remain “a hundred miles away” from next year’s playoffs.

Yesterday, there was much righteous indignation about the injustice of it all, as if the Lions hadn’t elected not to go for it on fourth-and-1 and then shanked a punt only 10 yards, giving Dallas the ball on its 41 to begin the game-winning drive. Or as if they hadn’t allowed Dallas to convert twice on third down and once on fourth down while committing two stupid penalties.

Let’s get some perspective here. While Morelli’s crew blew the call, the Lions blew the game.

Still, it is understandable why Detroit feels aggrieved and fair to argue things might have been different if law-and-order prevailed because if it had, it’s a first down at Dallas’ 29 and possibly at its 14.

“When you’re progressing and you’re going down for a score, that changes the whole rhythm of the game,” Pettigrew said. “That puts them behind, what’s the score, 20-17 at that point? We’re going down. That’s momentum.”

There was much discussion whether this affirmed Bill Belichick’s opinion that all calls should be reviewable. That seems like overkill but what does not is a simple adjustment to the replay rule: if a flag is thrown and then picked up that decision can be challenged. It would be up to the coach, and few would risk losing a timeout to argue every time an official picks up a flag but when the stakes are high and the officials are blind, the beanbag could come out and no one could pick it up until someone double-checked the videotape.

If that happened Sunday, the Lions might not have prevailed but justice would have.