A ship in harbor is safe, the old saying goes, but that is not what ships are built for. Well, there’s a new captain manning the helm of the Dallas Cowboys. And he knows exactly what his ship was built for.
After nine-plus seasons of wishing the coaching staff were more aggressive and less predictable in turning-point game situations, Cowboys fans got what they said they wanted Sunday night. On 4th-and-3 from the Los Angeles 11-yard-line in the fourth quarter of a three-point game, Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy kept Greg Zuerlein on the sideline.
Even Al Michaels wondered aloud if Dak Prescott would really take the snap. Surely the play-it-safe option in that situation is the field goal. If trying to lure the defense offsides for the cheap first down doesn’t work, you call the timeout and trot out your kicker, tie things up, and let the final ten minutes decide the game.
“[Offensive coordinator] Kellen [Moore], I thought he made a good call. We just didn’t execute it as good as we could,” McCarthy told reporters via conference call after the Week 1 loss.
“There’s obviously things that go into those types of situations you’re always looking at, particularly coming off a second down, going into a third down. Based on your field position; obviously, we were clearly in field goal range. It was a three-point game. All those things you factor in, The conservative play there is to kick the field goal. But I just felt really good about how we were moving the football. It was a mesh-pattern-type concept with criss-crossers. You’ve got to give them credit- the safety made a hell of a play on the throw-and-catch, and we were short.”
Prescott’s pass to a crossing CeeDee Lamb wasn’t out in front of the rookie wide receiver; the pocket had collapsed- again- around the quarterback, and Prescott was forced to hurry the throw. Lamb made the grab, but was short of the first-down marker when he did. Rams safety Jordan Fuller navigated traffic to reach Lamb and brought him down short of the line to make.
It was a disappointing end to a promising drive that had covered 56 yards in nine plays, the Cowboys’ most productive possession since the first half. And while coming away with no points was deflating, Prescott believes going for it on fourth down was the right decision.
“I love the aggressiveness,” Prescott told the media in postgame remarks. “I think that was a point in the game when, if we get that first down and are able to punch it in the end zone, we’re looking at a whole different ball game. I think it was a momentum chance. I love the play call; we just weren’t able to get it. The guy played over the top; made a good tackle.”
Running back Ezekiel Elliott agreed with the strategy, but knows how costly the failure was.
“Coach has a plan,” Elliott stated, “and it’s our job to go out there and follow it. I think it was a good play call. I think we had a chance of getting a first down, and I think we were rolling on offense. He felt and just wanted to keep us on the field and score a touchdown instead of getting three right there. We ended up coming up short, and that’s just one of those plays of the game where you’ve got to convert. You’ve got to convert on that. That cost us the game.”
It was the rookie Lamb who got his number called in the critical moment, a significant show of trust by the team in the 21-year-old Oklahoma product. Lamb took the loss personally as he recounted how the play unfolded.
“At first, I was at at the sticks,” Lamb explained. “And then I came back for the ball. And then I got tackled, and obviously, I didn’t get the first down and make the conversion. That’s one of the plays that I wish I had back. But now, you live and you learn. Not really ‘a rookie mistake,’ but it’s definitely a mistake from a rookie. I feel like that’s mindful play that I could have expanded on and did a lot better. Going into practice this week and on, you’re definitely going to get a better CeeDee.
“At the end of the day, it’s on me. It’s my responsibility to make that conversion, to make that play. And I didn’t. So that’s not going to sit with me well at all. It’s going to be in my head for a minute. Obviously, that was the differential in the game. We lost 17-20. If we get that first down, who knows what would have happened after that? It’s definitely a tough pill to swallow.”
The loss will also be tough pill for Cowboys fans to swallow. It’s hard to imagine Jason Garrett going for it in that situation, and it’s impossible to imagine him not getting roasted afterward for playing it too safe.
But the USS Conservative no longer docks in Dallas.
A big part of what made McCarthy such an intriguing replacement for Garrett was his reliance on math and data, the hope being that analytics would provide a nudge toward playing for the win instead of playing not to lose.
McCarthy was asked what the numbers say about the decision to go for the first down. He answered with a knowing smirk, well aware the question would be coming.
“I think analytics give you good structure to help evaluate decisions,” the 56-year-old coach explained. “Analytics would tell you to go for it there. But there’s other factors into that. I think some of those are things I’m not particularly going to talk on when you get into decision-making. I mean, you have to look at your variables and you’ve got to trust your players. I think, especially the first time going out into a game, I want our offensive guys to play wide-open. We have that capability. I’ll pull back when I feel like it’s in the best interest of the team. I clearly recognize that it was a three-point game, but we still had a lot of time left. I just felt that would have been a huge momentum play for us at that particular time. They had six big plays in the first half, and we only had one, so that mindset was trying to create some more of those opportunities for our players.”
In McCarthy’s answers, there was a discernible undertone. Something just under the surface and in between the lines.
Sure, he wanted to beat the Rams on Sunday night. He would have preferred to win the season opener, start his Dallas tenure with a victory, get an early leg up on Philadelphia in the division. But one gets the very real sense that McCarthy and Moore’s decision to go for it on that crucial fourth down was about more than Week 1. He’s setting a tone for his players and staff and setting expectations for fans about how this Cowboys team is going to approach every game, all season long. Not all of the punches will land, but they’ll keep getting thrown.
Prescott, for one, loves it.
“I think that’s one of the good things that you can take out of this game: our coach is going to put it our hands,” he told reporters. “He expects us to go make those plays, he trusts us to do that, he’s going to call the game aggressive, and you’ve got to appreciate that. I know I do as a quarterback, and I’m pretty sure the rest of the guys do as an offense. So as I said, it’s up to us to execute better right there and to make sure that play is a first down and we get the momentum going and we try to capitalize and do exactly what Coach had in mind there.”
What McCarthy had in mind is something this Cowboys team can build on, and something Cowboys fans should start getting used to. The fourth-down decision may have felt like a preseason kind of move; McCarthy took a similar sort of longview approach as he put it in perspective.
“I think it’s all part of the growth of an NFL season,” the coach said. “You have to improve throughout the season. Number one, you have to win. We needed to find a way to win that game tonight, and we didn’t get that done. And we’ve got to make sure that we walk away from this opportunity and learn from it and be better for our home opener in seven days. And that’s really the reality for where we are. The only thing that we won’t accomplish this season will be a 16-0 season; that’s the only thing that’s guaranteed. But everything else is in front of us.”
No one expected smooth sailing for the Cowboys’ ship as they pursue a sixth Super Bowl championship. But the California waves proved to be a bit rougher than most anticipated to start the journey. And Mike McCarthy has made it clear: he won’t be keeping his ship docked safely in harbor this season.
[vertical-gallery id=654143]
[vertical-gallery id=653736]
[lawrence-newsletter]