Cowboys owner Jerry Jones thanks Dak Prescott after win over the LA Chargers
prescott" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys won against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday afternoon. Late in the game with scores poised at 17-17, head coach Mike McCarthy baffled everyone with his clock management.
At that point, the Cowboys had the ball for roughly four minutes, and the team was on an 11-play, 49-yard drive. That was when running back Tony Pollard ran for three yards on a second-and-6 on the Chargers 41-yard line. Pollard finished the day with 109 yards on 13 carries. The Chargers tackled Pollard with 30 seconds left on the clock.
Mike McCarthy shocks everyone
The Cowboys needed a field goal to win and avoid overtime. The Dallas team has Dak Prescott and one of the best receiving corps in the NFL. With 30 seconds left, everyone imagined McCarthy would run one more play to gain some more yards and then call the final timeout.
Kicker zuerlein" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">Greg Zuerlein missed three kicks in Week 1, and he is 37-66 on kicking attempts over 50 yards. Any yard would have helped him, and Prescott and company would have easily gained 10, maybe 15 yards, in a quick play. However, the timeout never came.
Dak Prescott saves the day
McCarthy did not call the final timeout. And the clock went on. In a post-game interview, HC Mike McCarthy blamed a clock malfunction when asked about the clock management situation.
"The clock situation was just different. I've never had a clock go off the board on me like that. In the second down, we're trying to chip away and get a shorter field goal. We were going to attempt a third-down play. Kicking on the fourth was the time frame we were in. Kickingnk 17 seconds. We were right on the threshold."
"When you get in these 2-minute situations, you have thresholds, one minute, 30 seconds, 17 seconds, so we were right at the threshold of our whole operation. We had personnel, one of our players came off who shouldn't have come off, and just communication errors."
"We were just going to run it down, but the clock I was watching came off the board. Then, the clock Kellen had with the camera, the camera was great from up top, and obviously, you want to call that time off between three and four seconds."
With four seconds left, Prescott took the issue into his own hands and called the Cowboys' final timeout, giving Zuerlein the chance to win the game on a 56-yards field goal attempt. The kicker did his job, and the Cowboys left SoFi Stadium with a 20-17 W. Thanks to Prescott's quick thinking.
Jerry Jones on @1053thefan was a little surprised the Cowboys didn’t run another play in the final 30 seconds before kicking the field goal. He had no issue w/ Mike McCarthy’s explanation, especially because they won. “Thank God our quarterback saw it and got the timeout called.”
What Jerry Jones thinks
The owner, CEO, and GM Jerry Jones, like every fan, is very thankful for Prescott's decision to call the timeout. However, unlike other fans, Jones is not publicly blaming McCarthy for the chaotic and almost tragic end to the game.
Jerry Jones on @1053thefan was a little surprised the Cowboys didn’t run another play in the final 30 seconds before kicking the field goal. He had no issue w/ Mike McCarthy’s explanation, especially because they won. “Thank God our quarterback saw it and got the timeout called.”
Also Read: What is Jerry Jones’ Net Worth?