Cowboys’ Tony Pollard: ‘I take blame’ for failed opening drive vs Miami

From @ToddBrock24f7: Pollard admitted if he had put the ball in the end zone on his 1st-quarter run, Hunter Luepke’s game-changing fumble wouldn’t have happened.

Tony Pollard feels like he’s been there before. So after Cowboys rookie fullback Hunter Luepke botched a handoff exchange from Dak Prescott on the doorstep of an opening-drive touchdown in Week 16 versus Miami, the fifth-year back explained that he was able to offer some words of encouragement.

“Just telling him to be positive, don’t let it hang in his head too long, don’t get down on it or anything like that,” Pollard explained to reporters this week at The Star.

The same could be said for the entire Cowboys squad after the last-second loss to the Dolphins, their second defeat in a row and their last chance before the playoffs to silence the skeptics who believe the team is incapable of beating a contender on the road.

Now Dallas is suddenly desperate just to get back in the win column and avoid a three-game skid.

“This is important just to get the momentum going back in the right direction,” according to Pollard, “get on track, and get things going right how we want to go.”

Luepke’s turnover indeed changed the complexion of the game but Pollard knows things could have gone much differently in more ways than one.

“Personally, I didn’t feel like he was to blame at all,” he said. “I feel like I should have gotten in the play before. That situation never would have happened. So I take blame for that.”

Pollard did appear to have an easy two-yard jog to the end zone, but he inexplicably tried to cut inside rather than test Miami safety DeShon Elliott with a race to the pylon. Elliott reached out and grabbed Pollard, tight end Jake Ferguson got in the way, and Dolphins defensive tackle Zach Seiler finished off the tackle, bringing Pollard to the grass.

Pollard’s body from the waist down landed in the end zone, but his upper half- the half holding the ball- never crossed the goal line.

The Cowboys lined up again, Luepke lost the handle, and Miami took over.

“I could have just kept running to the outside,” Pollard reflected. “I was trying to get to the end zone as soon as possible. I didn’t want to waste time stretching it out. Then I ended up bumping into my own guy and got spinned around. You live and you learn.”

That last part is something Pollard himself had to figure out during his own first year as a pro.

“I think it was my rookie year against the Eagles,” he said. “I had a fumble; it was a big-time game for us.”

Dallas also lost that Week 16 game, by a 17-9 score, with Philadelphia preventing the Cowboys from claiming the 2019 NFC East crown that day. The Cowboys would go on to finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs; head coach Jason Garrett would be cleaning out his office within days.

“I was mad, but that comes with it, you know?” Pollard recalled of that costly miscue. “That’s just part of football. You live, you learn, go to the next play.”

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Now, almost four years later to the day, Pollard, Luepke, and the entire Cowboys roster will look to, once again, do just that.

“It’s tough, mentally, to get over, but you just have to do a good job going to the next play and just moving on.”

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