You are correct. This is not Madden.
The quarterback determines the football's path before it leaves his hand. The arrow represents where Dak Prescott was positioned when he released the ball and where he could have aimed the ball. The receiver and defender are irrelevant to your counterpoint since the quarterback is throwing the ball to an endpoint where his receiver will catch it.
If necessary, I can post a still image of where the ball's path before the snap--showing exactly where Pickens and Wiggins are lined up and where they are going. Of course, that should not be necessary because this is not Madden with diagrams of route paths and defender drops.
Edit: more specification (bold).
you make the throw based on what you see in the field and how the play unravels. it also follows what the coach calls for.
the coach called for a throw away. why? that's beyond me.
now, you tend to look at the very last picture in the sequence and come to conclusion what had happened before. there is plenty of images I posted that showed the progression and pickens being covered. you chose to ignore. that is your choice.
with that said, given that during that entire play, the CB was looking back at the QB, saw the path of the ball and peeled off because the ball was not being thrown to the WR, then obviously to an untrained eye like yours, it seems hey, look the WR was open. but you have no idea about how it unfolded and what was all behind the play.
regardless, its one play. the game got tied. 7 seconds and our wonderful coaches screwed it up. you think a good team would be able to keep an offense from scoring with only 7 seconds to go. but not this team.
and I have posted pictures of the snap, dak has he was in throwing motion. dak as he released the ball. and then the final picture with ball 5 feet in the air traveling to the back of the endzone which is all you saw.
no need to post pictures.
you have an agenda to drive. drive it. stick to it. but facts are facts and can't be denied. specially when the coach and players also said that the call was for a throw away.