DALLAS COWBOYS FANS LOSE WILD CARD WITH EXTRA HUSTLE

I’ve been a Dallas Cowboys fan since I first heard of the NFL.

My Granddad in Dallas used to send University of Texas Football magazines as Christmas presents in the Sixties. He mixed in a few odd Cowboys programs to complete the gift.

I saw the roster change from Eddie LeBaron to Don Meredith in his early dandy days.

My brothers and I were fans of Granddad’s Cowboys. It lasted through the 70’s and beyond.

Besides, my Dad was a Packers’ fan.

The 1966 NFL championship before the first Super Bowl should have been warning enough to change. The 1967 NFL championship game should have iced the deal.

But, no, not when you’re 12 and 13 years old. One team only.

In 1966 the Dallas Cowboys were the flashy new team riding high after their first winning season with a Texan quarterback in Don Meredith, and a Texan coach in Tom Landry.

The Cowboys hired him away from his Defensive Coordinator job with the New York Giants. The Packers hired the Offensive Coordinator from the same coaching staff that same year.

After Coach Landry’s twenty-nine years coaching the Cowboys ended with Jimmy Johnson taking over it’s gone downhill ever since.

Mike McCarthy is but another ‘semi-celebrity’ hire in line with Barry Switzer and Bill Parcells, and a bunch of guys rotating in and out every five years until Jason Garrett’s ten year run.

Coach McCarthy won a Super Bowl with the Packers; he’s been to the mountaintop. Twice.

The Cowboys hired him away from independent study.

After his Packer days ended he studied film and worked on learning the modern game analytics that spit out the most effective play to call for a given down and distance instead of ol’ Brett slinging one for the win.

During his introductory press conference to announce his hiring, McCarthy said: “I need to confess: I told Jerry I watched every play of the 2019 season. I wanted the job. You do what you gotta do, right?”

Telling Time Still Counts, Right?

Try to watch the last play of the 2022 NFL Wild Card Weekend game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers like it’s the season’s worth of plays Mike didn’t watch.

There’s the down and distance; there’s the clock.

What do a year’s worth of independent study for game-time analytics say to do?

Does it say ‘quarterback draw’ with fourteen seconds left? Does it say quarterback draw, slide, reset, spike the ball, then sling it in there, Dak?

Review the video a few more times and let it sink in.

Does it look like Dallas Cowboys coaches are signaling and flailing to let the ref set the ball?

Every coach from youth football up memorize the football rule book so they won’t be the reason a team suffers a penalty. Especially a dumb penalty.

And that was a penalty that ended an NFL Wild Card Playoff game. Not a sad ending to a hard-fought defeat. Not the sort of game ending call and non-calls that killed the Saints fans Super Bowl dreams.

A local high school football team reached the playoffs one year, then forfeited the entire season, the penalty for not following the rules. Don’t do that.

The ref setting the ball before the center snaps it is a normal part of the game. In a contest that comes down to inches, it’s an important part.

Dallas Cowboys Play The Money Game

The Cowboys are a big fish in the big ocean of the NFL. That makes it even sadder when they lose like a semi-pro team of weekend college players who miss the aches and pain of the game.

More than a win, they want a new bruise to show off, a new football bruise.

It’s even sadder when a celebrated offensive line’s biggest block comes against the ref trying to squeeze past them and set the ball.

There were no dramatic game changing gut-wrenching moments like ‘The Catch’ during the Danny White-era Cowboys.

It wasn’t a dropped ball in a Super Bowl end zone like Jackie Smith in the Roger Staubach-era.

Those things you can chalk up to ‘That’s football.’

But the 2022 version of Cowboys vs 49ers didn’t end with ‘That’s football.’

No Aikman concussions, no Romo punctured lung, because that’s football, too.

Instead we end up with the franchise quarterback doing a franchise f#ck-up.

We get to watch players with decades of game experience from backyard two-hand touch, to grade school flag, to high school and college.

College players like Dak who control the tempo and time of the game on the field should know the ref needs to set the ball.

Spotters above the field should be warning about letting the ref set the ball with constant reminders.

But, no.

The ref sets the ball just in time for the last second to click off, not before Dak spikes it and takes another snap with that last second still on the clock, and wins the game to move forward like a juggernaut on a rampage.

But, no.

Instead, the franchise quarterback and his outstanding offensive line play a little defense on the ref and it reminds fans of how missing the smallest details can ruin things.

The smallest details like letting the ref just touch the ball feels like a punch in the face for Dallas Cowboys fans.