NFL: Dallas Cowboys are the world’s most valuable team. So why are they so bad at winning?
SCRAMBLING: Cowboys QB Dak Prescott on the ill-judged game-ending run against the San Francisco 49ers in Arlington, Texas.
THE thing about completing a successful Hail Mary pass is that it involves throwing an actual Hail Mary.
Down six points with 14 seconds left on the clock in his team’s wildcard playoff against the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott took the ball and ran instead of heaving it into the endzone. It was a disastrous decision that ensured the once-mighty Cowboys suffered yet another early postseason exit.
The already infamous final play started on the San Francisco 41-yard line. On 2nd and 1, Prescott rushed for 17 yards before he was taken down by the San Francisco 49ers’ defence. In theory, the QB had just enough time to spike the ball and then attempt a game-winning touchdown on fourth down. Instead, after getting up, Prescott collided with the umpire as the official attempted to place the ball down, a crucial error that allowed the clock to run down. The 49ers held on for a 23-17 victory.
“That was the best option … It’s the right decision,” Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy said after the game, regarding the final play of the game (offensive coordinator Kellen Moore called Prescott’s run play with McCarthy giving it the OK). McCarthy post-game analysis will be disputed by many, particularly Cowboys fans.
It was a fitting end to a game in which the Cowboys were dinged for a whopping 14 penalties. In a game they eventually lost by six points, the Cowboys’ playoff death was primarily due to a series of self-inflicted wounds – some would say hiring a coach as unimpressive as McCarthy in the first place was the first one – with Prescott’s inexplicable run merely the last of them.
The most painful thing about that Cowboys’ loss is that they had a chance to win the game after at one point trailing the Niners 23-7. Once upon a time, back when the Cowboys were firmly America’s Team and synonymous with football, they would have pulled it off. This is a franchise that has made it to the Super Bowl eight times, tied for the second-most out of all NFL franchises. Between 1992 and 1995, they won three championships and established themselves as the team of the decade. They were more than dominant, they were inevitable.
That changed. The Cowboys haven’t won a title since the 1995 season. In their last 11 playoff appearances, they have failed to even make the Conference championship game, the longest such drought since the AFC and NFC were established in 1970. With Sunday’s loss, they have now gone out in their first game of the postseason seven times in those 11 opportunities.
There is, however, one place where the Cowboys still reign supreme. At $5.7bn, the Cowboys are ranked by Forbes as the most valuable sports franchise in the world. That’s not bad for a team that Jerry Jones purchased for $150m back in 1989. That puts them above storied teams like the New York Yankees, Real Madrid, Manchester United and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Of course, there’s a major difference between those teams and the Cowboys: the others have won titles this century. The Cowboys, in contrast, keep taking in money without producing any tangible results.
Actually, scratch that, maybe in a very real way, they still are America’s Team.
Josh Allen looked unstoppable for much of Saturday’s victory over the Patriots. Allen rushed for 66 yards, went 21-for-25 passing and threw for 308 yards, plus five touchdowns, in a “stop, stop, they’re already dead” offensive performance, almost single-handedly ensuring that the New England Patriots will retool their defence in the offseason. Allen, who was thrillingly uneven during his first few seasons in the league, now looks more and more like one of the game’s premier quarterbacks and someone that none of the remaining playoff teams will be eager to face.
Joe Burrow’s second touchdown throw of the Cincinnati Bengals’ 26-19 win over the Las Vegas Raiders was impressive. But it probably should not have counted. Before Tyler Boyd made the catch, an official accidentally blew the whistle, which caused several Raiders defenders to assume that the play had been called dead. Whether Boyd would have made the catch anyway is debatable, but the NFL rules indicate that the play should not have stood.
JOE BURR-WOW. #RuleTheJungle#SuperWildCard @JoeyB
— NFL (@NFL) January 15, 2022
📺: #LVvsCIN on NBC
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On Sunday, word came out that head referee Jerome Boger’s officiating crew is not expected to return this postseason. That would be the best for everybody involved.
Rob Gronkowski’s touchdown reception on Sunday was the 107th of his career. Of those 107 touchdowns, 105 of them were thrown by the same person: Tom Brady.
2-for-47. On Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles were held scoreless in the first half of a playoff game for just the second time in 47 chances. The Buccaneers eventually defeated the Eagles 31-15.
“I’d say that would be accurate” – New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick after he was asked if he plans to return next season after his team’s humiliating 47-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
That quote is notable because Belichick, who turns 70 in a few months, has previously dismissed the idea of coaching into his eighth decade.
Has something changed? Well, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Tom Brady. The quarterback left the Patriots for the Buccaneers in 2020 and duly won a Super Bowl in his first season in Tampa, while New England missed the playoffs. One of the longest ongoing arguments in US sports – up there with LeBron v Jordan in longevity/annoyingness – has been whether Belichick or Brady was more responsible for the Patriots dynasty … and the immediate returns were a solid mark in Brady’s favour. Belichick would never admit it publicly, but you have to believe he’s desperate to win at least one ring as head coach without Brady’s help.
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