Mike McCarthy won’t back down from his defense of the play that sealed Dallas’ exit over the weekend.
The Cowboys’ head coach gave his season-ending news conference Wednesday and was adamant about calling that fateful quarterback draft at the end of Dallas’ loss to San Francisco in the wild-card round. .
The Dallas head coach explained that the final play that was executed was a “13-second threshold,” meaning the play had a maximum of 13 seconds in place to be effective. There were 14 seconds left on the game clock at that point, meaning the play was within the realm of successful execution, at least according to the head coach.
MORE: Dak Prescott apologizes for comments made to officials
McCarthy indicated that he would have made a change in the play:
“The part that we have to talk about as a coaching staff, and we had a chance to talk to Dak about it, talking to Dak and officiating last night, is the mechanics. Our mechanics match the (officials’) mechanics. I’m not going to get into your mechanics.
“As far as the tie-breaking play, the execution, the only thing we talked about, Dak and I, was putting a yardage limit. Bringing it down to 10 yards. That’s probably going to be the change, the adjustment that we make.”
McCarthy also explained that he believes the center can place the ball on the play, while also saying that all the referee needs to do is touch the ball at a minimum, if the point is appropriate.
The referee’s touch would indicate an OK point, therefore the referee still needs to touch the ball before the start of the rally. To avoid the situation (as Dallas didn’t, and analyst Tony Romo was crying out for), the player hands the ball to an umpire for placement before the play begins.
MORE: Four McCarthy decisions that doomed the Cowboys
In defense of the Cowboys, former NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino explained that the umpire, who was a little late to the play, could have done a better job following the play, and less time would have been wasted on the play. place.
Mike Pereira, current Fox rules analyst and also a former NFL vice president of officiating, says the mechanics of the referees could have been handled a little better.
The NFL rule book states that an official must touch a soiled ball before the start of the play (Rule 3, Section 2, Article 2):
A dead ball is ready for play while the 40-second play clock is running when an official places the ball where it will next be put into play, or when the official signals the 25-second play clock. to start.
The talk may be to no avail, though: Game records indicate Prescott got the final kickoff and the spike ended the game, not the expiration of time in the fourth quarter, meaning the Cowboys had their last play and they chose to waste it at the beak instead of throwing it into the field.
McCarthy says he hasn’t seen the game “in detail” yet, but has made an exception for the final play, which is highly controversial.
Don’t lose sleep, cowboy fans.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.