Trey Lance’s pockets are oddly specifically lighter after garbage-time Cowboys debut

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance did not have the debut he probably wanted in Week 10 during the team's 34-6 loss to Philadelphia.

The third-stringer came in to relieve Cooper Rush, who started in place of the injured Dak Prescott, and logged just 21 yards on four completions, adding an interception in garbage time.

But nearly a week later, the league added insult to injury by fining Lance $22,511 for a helmet-to-helmet hit the 24-year old made on Philadelphia's Reed Blankenship on the sideline after the safety recovered a fumble early in the fourth quarter. Lance was not penalized for the hit during the game.

Pro Football Talk's Josh Alper was first to report the fine handed down by the league on Lance.

Trey Lance is latest example of NFL increasingly fining players for non-flagged plays

Lance isn't the first to be punished by the league for plays that initially went down in the books as legal. According to an analysis done by Warren Sharp, through Week 6 the NFL has fined 164 players for nearly $2 million over rule violations not called in-game.

105 of those instances were for unnecessary roughness, over $1.25 million of the total fines.

It's specifically been an area of contention for the newly-banned "hip-drop tackles" which have rarely been called as penalties in games but have been fined after the fact over a dozen times this season.

The league is also releasing the news of the fines at odd times, seemingly suppressing any potential backlash from coverage.

Lance's fine may be forgettable in the grand scheme of the season but it's an indication of a further problem with the inconsistency in league officiating. Having so many penalties adjudicated post-game, especially with such arbitrary fine amounts, probably isn't the most constructive way to legislate undesirable conduct out of the game.