Getty Jason Garrett, Kellen Moore
Jason Garrett, being the former quarterback that he is, passed the buck to his fresh-faced subordinate. Garrett, being the head coach that he is, declined to accept responsibility for the Dallas Cowboys‘ heartbreaking defeat to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night.
The team’s penultimate drive in which Dallas snatched defeat from the jaws of victory? Blame Kellen Moore.
“Kellen’s calling the game,” Garrett said about his offensive coordinator on Monday, via The Athletic. “In that situation, it’s 2nd and 2. He felt like he had a good opportunity against a favorable box to run the ball in those situations. On each of those plays we had options beyond just the run.”
Ignore the fact that Garrett has the authority to overrule Moore’s play-calls. Ignore the fact that Garrett, who’s ridden the hottest of seats this year, unabashedly put the 31-year-old in the firing line.
It’s impossible to ignore the Cowboys’ rushing attack going MIA against the Vikings, who held Ezekiel Elliott to 47 yards on 20 carries. He had next to no running room the entire evening, Dallas’ offensive line continually blown off the ball.
Yet, despite Elliott’s ineffectiveness and quarterback Dak Prescott’s overwhelming success, Moore (and Moore alone, purportedly) forced the Cowboys’ offense into a phone booth, swapping what had worked for what hadn’t — the definition of insanity.
Second-and-2 from Minnesota’s 11-yard line. One minute and 33 seconds left. Down four. The rest of the series: Two stuffed Elliott runs, then a pass to Elliott — Elliott, and not, say, star wide receiver Amari Cooper, who tallied a game-high 147 yards on 11 receptions, one of which went for a gorgeous 25-yard, toe-tapping, end zone-scraping touchdown.
The sequence of events defies logic. It’s unexplainable and inexplicable to take the ball away from Prescott, who threw for nearly 400 yards and three TDs. It’s unjustifiable, really.
But for someone with self-proclaimed clean hands, free of blood from the pivotal NFC loss, Garrett went out of his way to rationalize the irrational.
“You want to attack [in] different ways. It’s important for us to try to continue to run the ball,” he told reporters after the game, per NFL.com. “In normal circumstances, you’d think if we give it to Zeke a couple of times second inside of two yards, we’re going to make that. We’re going to make that first down. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen in this game. We got to that fourth down situation and we couldn’t convert.”
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Dak Strongly Refuses to Question Play-Calling
Prescott, speaking in his post-game press conference, was given multiple chances to criticize his coaches for their highly questionable play selection in the Cowboys’ first game since their bye week. The franchise signal-caller declined. Again and again. Prescott fell on the sword rather than used it to attack Garrett and Moore.
He was peeved after the loss, which dropped Dallas to 5-4, but his rage was directed at those critiquing Elliott, the play-calling, the coaching … anything. He spun the now-newsworthy doomed fourth-quarter drive as an attempt at strategy, smearing fire-red lipstick on the proverbial pig.
“You’ve got to go back and look at the situation, right?” Prescott said, via NFL.com. “You don’t want to leave too much time on the clock for them. I’m not going to question the play-calling. There were opportunities. We’ve just got to do better and execute those plays, simple as that. Every guy in that locker room would say that.”
Jerry Jones Gives Ominous Quote on ‘Disappointing’ Loss
In the throes of the Cowboys‘ excruciating defeat to the Vikings, owner Jerry Jones saw what the thousands who packed the house he built and millions watching around the world witnessed.
The coaching staff deviated completely from the magical Prescott-Cooper duo to put the ball in the hands of a non-factor in Elliott. You can question why, theories that extend to Jerry personally ordering Zeke (Who?) be fed. But the result remains the same.
“It’s disappointing. Disappointing. We’ll have to pay for this one. Hopefully it won’t be terminal,” Jones said after the game, per The Athletic.
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Follow Zack Kelberman on Twitter: @KelbermanNFL