It looks to me like Hutchinson tried to trip Pollard but missed. Hendershot was guilty of holding though. You cannot grab a guy and turn him like that. But holding is 10 yards which may have changed the way the Cowboys called the next 3 plays. With an extra 5 yards, maybe the Cowboys try to run the ball 3 times and pick up another 5 to 10 yards and then kick the FG. But who knows. The Cowboys throwing the ball 3 times there was just dumb. But clearly McCarthy felt that he needed to get a first down and run the clock out. Not an awful decision unless you throw an incompletion. But to me the problem was not just throwing the ball, it was the choice of plays. Why go deep on 2nd and 14? Why not just throw something underneath, get more yards and closer to the first down, but keep the clock running at all costs?
In the end it turns out McCarthy was right. The Lions got the ball back with time on the clock and easily scored a TD.