McCarthy defends his decisions in loss
Mike McCarthy will take lingering questions about game management into the offseason rather than the momentum of a four-game winning streak to finish a difficult first season as coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
McCarthy didn't challenge a catch that set up a 50-yard field goal by New York's Graham Gano when it appeared the ground aided Dante Pettis’ 10-yard grab in the Giants' 23-19 victory Sunday. Dallas (6-10) was eliminated from the playoffs with the loss.
A reversal would have forced New York to punt, and the Cowboys could have gone ahead with a field goal in the final two minutes. Instead, Dallas was down four points when Andy Dalton forced a throw into the end zone on third-and-goal from the 17 after a sack. The Giants (6-10) ran out the clock after Xavier McKinney’s interception.
“We just felt it was too close,” McCarthy said. “We felt it was kind of a bangbang-type situation. We were in a tight game. And the three timeouts was obviously of high value there. We just didn't think it was enough information to overturn it.”
McCarthy, who made some questionable decisions when the Cowboys were in the midst of six losses in seven games after quarterback Dak Prescott’s season-ending ankle injury, chose not to go for a 2-point conversion trailing by five after Ezekiel Elliott’s 1-yard touchdown plunge with 8:39 left in the third quarter.
“It was too early in the game to go for 2 in my opinion there,” said McCarthy, who settled for a 20-16 deficit that was cut to a point early in the fourth quarter on a 36-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein,
who made four to tie the club season record of 34.
Henry tops 2,000 yards: Tennessee's Derrick Henry became the eighth player in NFL history to run for 2,000 yards in a season.
Henry, who entered the game with 1,777 yards rushing, reached the mark on a 6-yard run in the fourth quarter on Sunday against the Houston Texans. He's the first player to do it since Adrian
Peterson had 2,097 in 2012.
He finished with a career-high 250 yards rushing to give him the franchise record for a season with 2,027.
Chris Johnson held the franchise record before Sunday by running for 2,006 yards in 2009, making the Titans the only team to have two players eclipse the 2,000-yard rushing mark.
Henry, the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner, ran for 1,540 yards last season.
Moore to stay with Cowboys: Dallas offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said he is no longer pursuing the Boise State job, and the Cowboys agreed on a multiyear contract extension with their play-caller.
The 32-year-old Moore was a candidate at his alma mater after Bryan Harsin took the Auburn job.
Moore was the winningest quarterback in college football history with a 50-3 record when he left Boise State in 2011.
The Cowboys finished No. 1 in the NFL in total offense in Moore's first year as the play-caller last season and were leading the league again this year when Prescott went down with a season-ending ankle injury in Week 5.
Romo sidelined: Tony Romo was not in the broadcast booth on the final day of the NFL regular season after being sidelined by “COVID-19 protocols,” the network said.
CBS Sports posted the news with a short tweet on its “CBS Sports PR” Twitter feed. No other information was provided.
Romo joins NBC's Al Michaels as a member of a network's top announce crew to be sidelined this season due to COVID-19 protocols. Michaels did not do the Dec. 20 Browns-Giants game and missed last week's Titans-Packers game.
Tying the mark: Miami Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard matched a single-season franchise record with his 10th interception.
Howard picked off Buffalo Bills backup Matt Barkley in the third quarter.
With the interception, Howard matched the record set by Dick Westmoreland in 1967.