The Thanksgiving Day game between the Vikings and the Lions almost gave us one of the wildest endings in NFL history when Detroit blocked a field goal with just 75 seconds left and returned it 77 yards for what appeared to be the game-tying touchdown. 

Of course, the touchdown didn't actually count because the player who blocked the field goal -- Detroit's Darius Slay -- was ruled offside, which gave the Vikings a first down and allowed them to walk out of Ford Field with a 30-23 win. 

So was the call on the field correct?

Despite several replays that appeared to show Slay jumping early, he insists that the refs got the call wrong. The Lions star even went as far to say that the refs "cheated" him by calling him offside on the play. 

"I wasn't," Slay said of possible being offside, via the Detroit Free Press. "I don't feel like I was. They cheated me."

Slay wasn't the only Lions player who felt that the refs got the call wrong. 

The player who picked up the ball and returned it 77 yards for a touchdown, Nevin Lawson, also felt strongly that Slay made a legal play. When asked if he thought his teammate was offside, Lawson gave a one-word answer. 

"Nope," Lawson said, via ESPN.com. "But it is what it is. I'm a player, they the refs. They made the call."

Lawson, who celebrated his short-lived touchdown by going to his knees, said he wasn't aware that the score was going to be called back until a Vikings player pointed it out to him. 

"When I was walking back and the other tight end on their team [Blake Bell] was like 'You see that yellow flag?' I was like, 'Aww, man,'" Lawson said. 

With at least two players in Detroit feeling adamant that the touchdown should have counted, it's fair to wonder whether or not they have a point: Was Slay actually onside? 

The answer is that he was a lot closer to making a legal play than the live broadcast seemed to suggest. In the screengrab below, the ball has already been snapped -- that's what the red arrow is pointing at -- and Slay has barely moved, suggesting that he might have timed his jump pretty well. This doesn't mean he was onside, it just means that he if he was offside, it was probably by inches, if not centimeters. 

lions-vikings-blocked-fg-arrow-slay.jpg
Darius Slay says he didn't jump offside.  NFL/FOX

Remember, the fact that Slay blew by Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph wouldn't mean that there was a penalty. On many field goals, the offense doesn't move until the ball is snapped, which means a defender could conceivably get a perfect jump if they see the ball snapped first or if they time their jump just as the ball is snapped. 

The best way to tell how close Slay really came to legally blocking the kick would be a TV angle that gives us a view of the line of scrimmage. Unfortunately, that angle didn't air on FOX and may not even exist. 

The one other angle that does exist is the one below. The thing about this angle is that it shows how easily Slay blocked the kick. The reason that's important is that he probably could've waited another split second -- and been onside -- and still made the block. 

That clip is almost hypnotizing to watch trying to figure out how close Slay was to timing the snap up perfectly. Although I do believe Slay was offside, I also understand why he believes he got cheated. It was a bang-bang play and unfortunately for Slay, he left one bang too early.