After Jimmy Johnson is honored, McCarthy nearly disgraces the Cowboys

The War Room
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Cowboys safety Donovan Wilson’s interception with 2:05 remaining in the game should have ended the night. The Cowboys led 17-13, and had the ball at the Detroit 29-yard line.

The Lions had two timeouts, and all the Cowboys had to do was drain the clock and settle for a Brandon Aubrey field goal.

That’s when Magic Mike went to work.

On the first play from scrimmage, the Cowboys were penalized 15 yards for tripping, which erased running back Tony Pollard’s 7-yard run. That penalty was a wrench.

On second down, quarterback Dak Prescott threw a deep pass for Brandin Cooks that fell incomplete. The play call, and execution, allowed the Lions to save a timeout the Cowboys had to force them to use.

“We’re trying to put it away. You call plays you feel good about,” McCarthy said after the game. “The penalty on first down, I gotta see it. I’m trying to get into striking distance on third down is all I’m thinking about.”

His kicker can make a kick from 65 yards. The priority is to drain the clock under a minute, and the Lions without a timeout.

The Lions used their last timeout before Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey made a 43-yard field goal to push the Cowboys lead to seven points.

The Cowboys had used 15 seconds after their “game-ending” interception. In this scenario, the Lions should have regained possession with zero timeouts and about one minute remaining.

When the Lions regained possession at their own 25, there was 1:41 remaining. Lions quarterback Jared Goff ended the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown with 23 seconds left.
McCarthy is a good coach and the Cowboys are a good team, but he has a history dating back to his days in Green Bay of questionable/weird decisions that warrant scrutiny, and criticism.

The record says the Cowboys beat a good Lions team at home, and finished the regular season with a perfect record at AT&T Stadium.

The same record won’t show they got away with one on Saturday night because their head coach went for cute rather than the boring route of draining the clock.

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I’m pretty sure the record will say the Lions got jobbed.

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Lions shouldn’t have been in the position to score a winning TD.

McCarthy’s decision to throw the ball almost turned out to be as bad as Jason Garrett’s strategy to have Tony Romo continue to throw the ball when Dallas was up 27-3 in the 3rd quarter in 2011. Romo threw two consecutive pick sixes to help the Lions get back within striking distance.

Might be the last time the Lions won in Dallas.

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Not sure I’d go that far. We got the ball with 1:41 and scored with 23 seconds remaining. It certainly would’ve been harder with 18 seconds less but not impossible. Believe me I was smiling from ear to ear when McCarthy was doing McCarthy things. In fact, my wife is out of town, so we were texting during the game. She thought it was over when we had the turnover. I texted back that we needed to hold them to a field goal and would have about a minute left. So I was thrilled when McCarthy left us one minute and 41 seconds.

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