There are any numbers of plays that could be pointed to from the Dallas Cowboys‘ Sunday afternoon loss to the Cardinals in Week 8 that could be highlighted as the play that most directly completed the epic collapse, a game that, according to ESPN’s game cast measurement, the Cowboys had a 98.6% chance of winning with time dwindling in the fourth quarter. But the biggest play, the most obvious play, was the one that was the dumbest. That was veteran edge rusher Rashan Gary’s inexplicable shot to the head of quarterback Gardner Minshew, a roughing the passer penalty that was baffling on so many levels: The hit was late, it was to the helmet, it featured Gary launching himself, it was completely by choice and it came on a third-and-10 play with Dallas winning by 10 and 2:23 to play.
All Dallas needed to do was milk the clock. Minshew’s pass had been incomplete, and the Cardinals were probably going to try a field goal on the next play. But Gary’s hit allowed the Cardinals to advance 15 yards and got them out of a fourth-down situation. Minshew threw a touchdown pass on the next play to cut the score from 27-17 to 27-24, and the comeback was on.
Rashan Gary Got a Talking-To
One of the frustrating aspects of the current iteration of the Cowboys has been the lack of accountability on major mistakes. Gary’s play cost the Cowboys the game, and he probably should be benched for it. Instead, when Brian Schottenheimer was asked about it on Monday, he said merely that Gary got a stern talking-to.
As Clarence Hill of DLLS Cowboys noted, “How Did the Cowboys and Brian Schottenheimer hold Rashan Gary accountable following the egregious hit on the quarterback that gave the Cardinals a first down following a third down incompletion?
“’We pulled him out, talked to him about it, addressed it. We addressed it today again in the meeting. RG is aware. It’s a big play in the game, but it’s not the only play in the game that affected the outcome of the game, but he was removed and it was discussed.’”
That’s been a theme of the Schottenheimer tenure with the Cowboys: Lots of “hard conversations” or “long conversations” but not much tangible discipline applied.
Cowboys Not Placing Blame
Indeed, Gary was let off the hook, too by Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones, when he was asked about the costly penalty during an appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Monday.
Said Jones: “When you play this game and you play it as fast as these guys play it, people are going to make mistakes, and some of our great ones have those mistakes. And that’s part of it. He has done some really, really good things for us but as you mentioned we’ve got—he’s not the only one. This is an organizational thing, top to bottom, we’ve all got to own where we are. We all know that we have to be better.”
Cowboys Veteran Gets a Talking-To After ‘Egregious’ Week 8 Penalty