Penalties, Bizarre Final Play Call Ends Dallas Cowboys’ Season

The Dallas Cowboys played sloppy, undisciplined football on Sunday, and they’ll be watching the rest of the playoffs from home once again.

With a tortuous 23-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Wild Card Game, the Cowboys have now failed to reach the conference championship game in 11 straight playoff appearances, an NFL record according to ESPN.

The game ended as it should, with Dallas making a bonehead play. 

With 32 seconds left in the game, Dallas was given one last chance to extend their season, taking over at their own 20-yard line down 23-17. The Cowboys were able to march down to the San Francisco 41-yard line with 14 seconds left. With no timeouts left, Dallas offensive coordinator Kellen Moore called a bizarre quarterback draw, instead of taking a shot into the endzone. 

Quarterback Dak Prescott managed to get down to the San Francisco 24-yard line, but with no timeouts, the Dallas offense had to hurry to the line in order to spike the ball. Per NFL rules, a referee must place the ball before it can be snapped. As Dallas lined up to spike the ball in order to stop the clock, umpire Ramon George collided with Prescott as he attempted to spot the football. The clock ran out before Prescott was able to spike the football, ending the Cowboys season in the most fitting of ways. 

Here’s how the #49ers–#Cowboys game ended: Per NFL rules, Dak can’t spot the ball on his own and snap it. Ball must be spotted by the ref. By the time that happened, clock reached triple zeroes. pic.twitter.com/NY9H7IHmsD

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 17, 2022

“We’ve practiced it,” Prescott said. “You hand it to the center. The umpire, all he has to do is usually come in and tap the ball. Don’t necessarily know exactly … why the hit [with the official] happened, I guess. Yeah, I know he’s going to come in and touch the ball. We could say, yeah he needs to be closer to the ball or whatever, but in hindsight it’s just tough. Just tough to accept.”

With no timeouts remaining, the decision to call a designed quarterback run will be questioned in Dallas for years to come. 

Head coach Mike McCarthy called the play the Cowboys’ “best option,” though Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters that his team never should have been in that position to begin with.

“The team should not have been in a position to make that last play be something controversial,” Jones said. “I’m not going to make it bigger than it is.”

Dallas — the most penalized team in the NFL during the regular season — committed 14 penalties on the day, including a defensive holding penalty on San Francisco’s final drive which allowed the 49ers to run more time off of the clock. 

The win by San Francisco was the first road win for the 49ers in the storied history of the Cowboys-49ers rivalry. 

“I’m still trying to figure out where I’m at,” San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game. “It’s pretty emotional out there. Lots of opportunities to win the game. Those guys [Cowboys] just kept fightin’. We made a couple mistakes there at the end. We shouldn’t have let it get there.”

San Francisco will head to Lambeau Field next week to take on Aaron Rodgers and the No. 1 seed Green Bay Packers. 

Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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