METAIRIE, La. -- Sean Payton was upbeat Monday as he dissected many of the encouraging aspects of the New Orleans Saints' performance in their 24-23 loss to the Detroit Lions Sunday. But the coach clearly remained frustrated by some of the officiating calls throughout the game after watching the tape.

Although Payton tried to bite his tongue on several occasions, he couldn’t resist throwing a few jabs at the officiating -- even when he was answering questions on unrelated topics.

“Now obviously, listen, we’re not good enough right now to overcome some of the challenges that took place -- and I referenced the officiating (Sunday), and I’m gonna leave it at that, but that’s not the reason we lost this game yesterday,” Payton said during his opening statement Monday.

Later, Payton added, “There’s some adversity that takes place with road trips. But then that outside adversity you’re not preparing on. Some of these penalties, you’ve gotta overcome 'em.”

Payton only mentioned one specific instance -- when no flag was thrown on a third-down play midway through the fourth quarter after running back Travaris Cadet was "tackled around the head" when he was heading out to catch a screen pass.

When asked if he could identify any of the other specific calls, Payton said, “I don’t even want to start. It’ll cost me money (in a possible league fine).”

But Payton said in general that, “It’s the calls that they saw that nothing really happened, those are the ones that are a lot harder to swallow. The ones that they explain to you on the game field that this is what they saw, and then you watch the tape ... those are more difficult. But that can’t be our crutch, certainly not on a Monday.”

Payton, who was seen on TV giving an earful to referee Terry McAulay as time expired in the game, also acknowledged that the officials “have got a tough job now, make no mistake about it.” And he said, “Listen, they’re not different than me or the players: They have good games and they have bad games. That’s the truth.”

When it was pointed out that he doesn’t usually harp on the officiating like this, Payton said, “I’m not going to.” And when asked if he’s worried about hearing from the league, Payton said, “No, but it’s pretty clear. And that’s why I haven’t gone into detail about anything.”

When asked if he would send a request to the league to review some of the calls, Payton said, “Typically you don’t mess with it. And really it doesn’t matter. You’ve gotta get on to the next game. So it’s important that all of a sudden you don’t spend half your Monday consumed with what wasn’t ... or what was called that later you find out it wasn’t.”

There were at least three other noteworthy judgment calls that could have drawn Payton’s ire.

The costliest was a defensive pass interference penalty against safety Rafael Bush that gave the Lions new life after a fourth-down incompletion with 2:17 remaining. Bush was flagged for making contact with the intended receiver, running back Reggie Bush. The Saints safety clearly did have his arm wrapped around Reggie Bush's arm, though it was unclear how egregious the contact was. Color analyst Ronde Barber (a former longtime defensive back) agreed with the call on the TV broadcast.

In the second quarter, Barber also agreed with a 31-yard pass interference penalty against rookie cornerback Brian Dixon, who initiated some light arm contact with receiver Golden Tate before both players stumbled and fell to the turf.

The most objectionable pass interference call was probably the one against Saints receiver Marques Colston that nullified a big gain to Pierre Thomas on third down in the third quarter. Colston’s contact with linebacker Josh Bynes appeared to be incidental after Bynes stumbled over a teammate.

A 15-yard personal foul penalty against center Tim Lelito for an illegal blindside block on Kenny Stills' end-around early in the fourth quarter was another costly judgment call.

The Saints finished with 12 penalties for 134 yards, while the Lions had nine for 71 yards.