For nearly six years, Dallas fans have turned “Dez Caught it” into a rallying cry and a stubborn point of pride. As the team now heads into the offseason after their 23-19 loss to the New York Giants ended a surreal and disappointing 2020 campaign, Cowboys Nation may have a new mantra. And while “Dante Trapped It” likely won’t inspire any leaguewide rule changes or its own Twitter hashtag, the play and the sideline’s reaction- or lack thereof- will sting for quite some time.
When Giants receiver Dante Pettis hauled in a 10-yard throw from quarterback Daniel Jones with seven minutes to play and New York up by one point, it set up New York’s final field goal. Replays showed that the ball may have hit the turf as Pettis went to the ground, but Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy opted not to challenge the call.
“The catch was obviously down in our area,” McCarthy explained in his postgame press conference, “and when the receiver turned to me, the information we got, we just thought it was too close. We thought it was kind of a bang-bang type situation. The fact of the matter is, we were in a tight game, and the three timeouts was obviously of high value there. We just didn’t think there was enough information to overturn it.”
The broadcast crew thought it was close enough to warrant a review, but the red challenge flag remained securely in McCarthy’s pocket. Graham Gano connected on the ensuing 50-yard kick, and the Giants extended their lead to four points.
The Cowboys put together a 17-play drive on the next possession that got the offense inside the New York red zone. But with the team needing seven points instead of three, quarterback Andy Dalton ended up forcing a blind heave on a desperate third-and-goal scramble. Giants rookie Xavier McKinney’s end zone interception sealed the New York win and ended the Cowboys’ chances at both a Week 17 victory and the unlikeliest playoff berth in franchise history.
A win would not have given Dallas the NFC East crown, as Washington won their night game versus Philadelphia and with it, the division title. Some may therefore call the loss- and the decision not to challenge the Pettis catch- ultimately meaningless, but for a Cowboys squad that had been on a three-game win streak, the season-finale letdown added one last insult to a season riddled with injury and ineptitude.
For Cowboys fans, the hope of a late-game rally being snatched away by the meticulous frame-by-frame review of wide receiver and football meeting the ground in agonizing synchronicity was a familiar gut punch.
“It looked a lot like the one from the playoffs before I got to the Cowboys,” running back Ezekiel Elliott told reporters after the game. “I think it was 2014, maybe. The one that Dez had in Green Bay that they called incomplete. It looked like that one to me, but I think since then, they changed the rule. So I don’t know. I’m not a ref. I don’t get to make those calls.”
Mike McCarthy was on the sideline that day, too. As Packers head coach, he had the benefit of ample replays being shown to the roaring crowd at Lambeau Field. He suggested that the scoreboard operator at MetLife Stadium on Sunday may not have been quite as eager to show Pettis’s play from every conceivable angle following the on-the-field call of a reception.
“We’re trying to get as much information as possible,” McCarthy said of the team’s internal communications in those precious moments. “Obviously, you don’t get a lot of help on the road, particularly if it’s a play that’s something you have higher interest in than your opponent; I think that’s the norm. But yeah, we have coaches in the box that relay the information. Ultimately, I make the decision.”
Back in 2014, though, McCarthy got extra assistance in making the decision. He admitted during last January’s introductory press conference as Cowboys coach that a sideline conversation with Gene Steratore, the head referee that day in Green Bay, prompted him to challenge Bryant’s touchdown grab.
There was no such help for the Cowboys coach on the sideline in New York on Sunday.
When asked if he thought game management had been a recurring issue this season, the first-year Cowboys coach was blunt in his reply.
“No, not at all. Not at all.”
Cowboys coaches did have a few extra seconds in which to debate challenging the catch. Because it was fourth down, the Giants were not able to hurry the next snap, but instead had to send out their field goal unit.
Even if Dallas had challenged the call and gotten the catch ruling overturned, New York still might have attempted the kick, which would have been from 60 yards. Gano had missed just one field goal try all season and is one of the league’s more reliable legs from long distance; he’s 25-of-41 from beyond 50 yards in his 11-year career. He hit three kicks of 50 or longer in Week 5’s Cowboys-Giants tilt and booted one from 63 yards as recently as 2018.
By throwing the red flag in 2014, McCarthy ended the postseason for Dallas, a team favored by many to win the Super Bowl. By not throwing the red flag on Sunday, he merely made it a little more difficult for a 6-9 team to avoid double-digit losses.
It’s not known if referee Brad Allen’s crew would have overturned Pettis’s catch. There’s no guarantee Gano would have missed from 60. There’s no way to be sure that the Cowboys would have capitalized and come away with a win. And in the end, even if all those things had gone Dallas’s way, the Cowboys players would still be cleaning out their lockers and scheduling exit interviews this week. So maybe McCarthy’s decision to not challenge is truly irrelevant.
“As I’ve addressed it,” McCarthy said, “I didn’t feel there was enough information for them to overturn it. We didn’t think it was clear and obvious.”
What’s clear and obvious is that the Cowboys’ season is over. But finishing it with a four-game win streak sure would have been easier to swallow than another offseason of questions about receivers maintaining control, coaches making in-game sideline decisions… and what ultimately might have been.
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