RANDALL’S RANT

Battle of Texas turns into a battle of coaching blunders

It took about 11 hours of football on Sunday before we witnessed the most ridiculous coaching move of the day. We’ve seen Dallas coach Jason Garrett with some headscratchers before but his decision to punt on a fourth-andone from Houston’s 42-yard line with nearly six minutes to play in overtime, on the Cowboys’ first possession of the extra period, ranks among his lamest choices. Granted, Dallas’ inept offence makes watching paint dry seem like a lap dance. However, with a chance to win the game if they can gain one yard, there is no option but to take it. If you don’t make it, your team still has to come up with stops in order to get the ball back. And it’s not like Dallas doesn’t employ one of the top runners in the NFL, running behind the team’s other strength, a behemoth offensive line. Whether the Cowboys would have gained the necessary yard will never be known but with the way Houston had moved the ball all night, despite scoring just 16 points to that point, you simply cannot give them the ball. All Houston would need is a field goal to win the game. The Texans had marched up and down the field all night. They went brain dead at Dallas’ one-yard line a couple of times but the Texans had amassed nearly 500 yards of offence. As expected, the Texans took the ball, advanced up the field and kicked a game-winning field goal. With a push on the pointspread (Houston was giving three points), Dallas bettors had mixed emotions as the Cowboys had no right even being close in this game. But that’s football sometimes and as long as Garrett still carries his 1960’s conservative mentality along the sidelines during this era, you can expect more dated decisions. Houston may have won the game but that doesn’t get Texans’ coach Bill O’Brien off the hook for some of his nitwit choices. O’Brien acts as both head man and offensive coordinator for his club. Twice, the Texans were at Dallas’ one-yard line and all Houston ended up with was one field goal. Most glaring was the end of the first half with the Texans ahead 10-6 and facing a fourthand-half-a-yard for a touchdown. O’Brien elects to go for the touchdown. Fine, we get that. But he has QB Deshaun Watson lineup in a shotgun formation? Does it not make more sense to have one of the most athletic quarterbacks in the league line up under centre? At least make the Cowboys consider a quarterback sneak? What about that Tom Brady play where you just stick the ball over the line? Watson is about 10 times more agile than Brady. Watson took the snap, didn’t throw and was tackled for a two-yard loss. It’s unexplainable. They say that “Everything’s Bigger in the state of Texas.” Apparently, that includes knucklehead decisions.