He's obviously wrong on the lack of intent.
Beyond that, I don't know if he meant to say that the rule is one that's always violated and only intermittently penalized, or if he's saying that just like a holding call doesn't excuse the other 10 defenders from making a play, the penalty here doesn't excuse Detroit from screwing up. The former obviously isn't the case here, but the latter rings true. It's bad that a missed call affected the outcome of a game, but I don't feel the outrage -- Detroit fumbled away the game, then didn't get a bailout call that they technically should have gotten.
In terms of making sure something like this doesn't happen again, the rules should allow the replay official to ask the referee to convene a conference on the field, even on a play that's not reviewable. I'm sure at least one official on the field last night saw the play correctly, but didn't want to overrule a colleague who in theory should have had a better view.