The Green Bay Packers’ last-second victory over the Dallas Cowboys gave plenty of reason to second-guess every decision made by Jason Garrett in the final minutes of the game, but the Cowboys coach is sticking by his calls.
Jason Garrett isn’t second-guessing decision to spike it in final minute of Cowboys’ loss
The Cowboys preserved a timeout the team ended up not needing.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
In particular, a decision to spike instead of calling a timeout may have been costly for Dallas.
With 1:07 left in the game, Dak Prescott connected with Jason Witten across the middle for an 11-yard gain. The play ended with about 1:00 left and with 49 seconds left in the game, Prescott spiked to stop the clock.
But the Cowboys trailed 31-28 and could’ve used the extra down to try to score a game-winning touchdown. And Dallas had one more timeout that could’ve saved 11 seconds.
“Just felt like that was the right thing to do at the time,” Garrett said. “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 you clock it there so you keep the timeout in your back pocket.
“Obviously in that situation we’re trying to go down 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.”
The next two passes by Prescott didn’t yield a first down and with 40 seconds remaining, Dan Bailey made a 52-yard field goal that tied the game, 31-31. Garrett ended up using his timeout on the final play of the game — icing Mason Crosby and forcing him to kick the 51-yard game-winner twice. But that strategy didn’t pay off for Dallas.
Ultimately though, Garrett’s logic is sound. The Cowboys offense was moving well in the fourth quarter and he had reason to be confident it could find a first down in two plays rather than three. And preserving a timeout to avoid a panicked field goal makes sense.
Hindsight is 20/20, but if the Cowboys had a chance to do the final drive one more time — calling timeout or running a play looks like it would’ve been a better call.
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