THE ROMO DERBY
Late spike costs Dallas in loss to Rodgers’ Pack
There are several teams, including the Jets, that could use Tony Romo next season
Football coaches are smart people who sometimes do dumb things. And with 49 seconds left in Sunday’s divisional playoff game, Jason Garrett’s football team did a dumb thing. And it cost them. The Cowboys trailed by three but were driving inside of the last minute of the contest when Dak Prescott hit Jason Witten for an 11-yard gain and a first down at the Packers’ 40-yard line. At that point, Dallas ran to the line and could have either run a hurryup play or called their final timeout. Instead, they spiked the ball, which did more harm than good.
It’s true, Dallas was fighting the clock, but there was enough time that it easily could have used all four downs — especially with a timeout in their back pocket. The down was more valuable than the extra six-to-10 seconds or so they saved with a spike.
Teams make this mistake with the spike relatively frequently, though it often goes unnoticed because a first down can negate the error. In this case though, that didn’t happen. Sure, the Cowboys were able to score a long field goal, but there was no guarantee that would be good. The goal at that point should have been to score a touchdown or, at the very least, get to a safer field goal distance.
An extra play could have accomplished any of the three or a combination of the following things: 1. A first down that kept the drive alive. 2. A yard or two to shorten field goal distance.
3. Kept the clock moving.
While Dallas shouldn’t have been overly concerned with the fact that there was time left when it had the ball, it was a minor factor considering Green Bay had all of its timeouts left. Aaron Rodgers, at least, thought it was important. His reaction after Dan Bailey hit a game-tying 52yard field goal with 35 seconds left? “A little too much time on the clock,” Rodgers said.
Though the broadcast didn’t show it, presumably the choice to spike the ball was Garrett’s. And just as disconcerting as that in-game mistake was that, apparently, he was still in denial that it was a problem later.
“We just felt that was the right thing to do at that time,” Garrett said, via NFL. com. “Keeping the timeout to be able to kick a field goal is really important if you can do it. So in those situations when you make a first down, we believe clock it there so you keep the timeout in your back pocket. Obviously, in that situation we’re trying to go down there and score a touchdown, so you want to keep as much time on the clock as you can. If the clock is going and you need a timeout to get yourself in field goal range, you have that one still available to you.” Even if Garrett was truly adamant about keeping a timeout for before a potential field goal, that’s no reason to trade a down for a few seconds. They should have just run a play.
But hey, at least he got to save the timeout to try to ice Mason Crosby at the end of the game. That was definitely worth it.