McCarthy: Dallas Cowboys made "right decision" by calling QB draw
Many things went wrong for the Dallas Cowboys in their playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. It started right off the bat as the Cowboys followed a poor opening defensive drive with a quick three-and-out for the offense. And it stayed the same right until the very end of the game with a bizarre […]
Many things went wrong for the Dallas Cowboys in their playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. It started right off the bat as the Cowboys followed a poor opening defensive drive with a quick three-and-out for the offense. And it stayed the same right until the very end of the game with a bizarre sequence of events that included a surprise QB draw play-call.
Down six, the Cowboys had the ball at the 41-yard line with 14 seconds in the clock and no timeouts.
At that spot, with the opposing defense lined up prioritizing the sidelines, you usually get one of two approaches:
- A pass down the middle and hope that you can spike the football in time to get a final shot at the end zone. With 14 seconds left in the clock, a risky approach as the average football play takes about six seconds.
- Two Hail Mary shots hoping one of them connects.
Instead, the Dallas Cowboys called a QB draw. According to Michael Silver, the call was Kellen Moore's while McCarthy approved it. It was an unexpected call, yet one that didn't work.
Prescott took it all the way down to the 24-yard line but with the umpire running from behind and crashing into Tyler Biadasz and Dak Prescott, the clock hit zero before the Cowboys could successfully spike the football.
Ballgame.
"They're protecting the sidelines. So that was the best option," said Mike McCarthy in the Cowboys postgame press conference. "Do you want to be running a Hail Mary play from the 50-yard line? Or do you want to be running five verticals from the 20-yard line?"
"It's the right decision," concluded McCarthy.
Truth be told, although an unpopular approach to such a situation, I don't hate the play-call.
Keep in mind the Cowboys were hoping for a miracle on that final drive. The drive to win the game was the previous one when the team had three timeouts to drive the ball down the field.
This was playing with the house's money.
The idea behind running a QB draw instead of looking for a quick pass is that as Dak Prescott is running downfield, everyone else is aiming to get to their spot and get set instead of running routes that would put them in unfavorable positions to get lined up in time to spike it.
While I have a lot of complaints about play-calling throughout the game, I think execution was the problem on this one. Prescott likely needs to have better awareness and go down before to have more time to spike it.
Also, as Tony Romo indicated in the live TV broadcast, the Dallas Cowboys should've given the ball to the ref. The rules indicate the ref must touch the football before resuming play and the awkward game-ending moment could've been avoided if Dak hands the football to the umpire.
Ultimately, the Dallas Cowboys didn't lose the football game at this moment. They lost it the drive before. And before that, as the team was called for a total 14 penalties. They did, however, waste an "extra life" handed to them by the defense. The play-call itself will get plenty of hate over the next few days, but you can see where it came from.
I don't hate it.
Featured image via Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
