Opinion: Dak ad libed that last play and could have run out of bounds

[ChronicCowboy]

It was a called play.

Dak was responsible for sliding with enough time to spike the ball. He ran too far and misjudged the clock.

Relying on perfect execution from the ref to get a play off was stupid. Relying on Dak to think quickly and make split second decision with the game on the line was stupid. The whole thing was stupid. I blame Jerry.

 

[mrmojo]

2 shots in end zone from 40 with umbrella coverage may have been more advantageous.

 

[Creeper]

I am done arguing about the play but some interesting things show up in these photos. First, all the receivers are running short routes. Pollard and Wilson are at the LOS. What would be the point in throwing a pass to either of them at that point? CeeDee isn't exactly going downfield either. Does 10 yards actually buy them anything at this point? Or would throwing it twice to the end zone be a better strategy?

Or, if you are going to take a big risk, how about handing the ball of to Pollard then everyone else form a wedge in the middle of the field and see if Pollard can weave his way around blockers into the end zone. I know, it is a low percentage play, but if also totally unexpected. Remember that play the Chiefs pulled on Dallas when Dallas was expecting a hail Mary. The Chiefs threw it short and the receiver cut through all the Cowboys defenders down by the goals line for a TD.

A hail Mary be definition is a low percentage play and really depends on a lot of luck. So why not try to run it in with your shiftiest fasted guy?

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

Honestly, it's just time to move on to next season.

You kiddin? You are in for a LOOOOOOOOONNNGGGGG off season!

 

[blueblood70]

here is actual play after TO

now to me it looks like everyone thinks this is a pass play, and that dak just decided to run
it wasnt a called play, it may have been an option, but no one knew he was going to run it.

same thing here they are all turned around expecting a pass and it is only explanation for what pollard does.
But him and noah should have ad libbed and blocked those 2 on outside and maybe dak takes it to sideline, otherwise run down field and block someone !
heck who knows, with some blocking by the cowboys who just did nothing, maybe dak goes to endzone.

ok here what is pollard doing?? what is noah doing?? LOL block those 2 guys !!!!!!!!! what is shulzt doing down lower, his day off? lol this is
pitiful. also note that martin is holding on the guy in middle where 3 guys are blocking 1, and he almost gets dak, should have been a holding call there.

here below is where dak had the guy turned, now cut back outside to sideline!
you can see martin holding 91 arm. pollard still in a daze doing nothing, and noah is I dont know wanting to block the guys coming up from
way down field?? how dumb are these guys, and does it look like they practiced this play?

here pollard and noah still doing nothing lol and dak commits to going inside.shultz just watching

All I see here is a lackadaisical effort,by the receivers and pollard, and poor planning and execution of this play. he could have got out of bounds easily, or possibly go all the way.
this umbrella isnt geared to stop a run play with good blocking.

it was a called QB sneak MM said sao.maybe it was a 2 call audible but was a MOORE and MM approved play.not sure the title saying he adlibbed is even remotely correct.

so the other players not making much effort to get into route etc. might be because it was qb run all the way

 

[RonnieT24]

I don’t even think it was dumb. It was risky but I like the idea….but as a coach I don’t know if I call that play knowing how dumb my team likes to play.

No one could have predicted that the refs would screw up the spotting of the ball so poorly. Teams run plays and get up on the ball to spike in less time than 14 seconds all the time. All the ref had to do was NOT run directly into Dak's back and he would have spotted the ball in time. That collision ate the final 2 seconds. Not to say they would have scored and won the game or even would have deserved to win the game if they had.. But they definitely deserved the opportunity.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

No one could have predicted that the refs would screw up the spotting of the ball so poorly. Teams run plays and get up on the ball to spike in less time than 14 seconds all the time. All the ref had to do was NOT run directly into Dak's back and he would have spotted the ball in time. That collision ate the final 2 seconds. Not to say they would have scored and won the game or even would have deserved to win the game if they had.. But they definitely deserved the opportunity.

But as a coach you are suppose to weigh the risks vs rewards...anything can happen in that situation and you had no timeouts....

 

[MyFairLady]

Also if you watch it in real time. The receivers, Noah Brown especially, had no sense of urgency to get back to the line for the next play. I watched this play over and over again and comparing it to the Rams play the Rams hustled down the field and got the play off. After the Dak run our guys just kind of lazily looked around and then got in formation. It was like our receivers thought the game was over IMO. So I feel this adds to your idea that the play was ad libbed. No ok ne seemed to be on the same page. Sad thing is you can say that about the whole game. No one was on the same page and not much intensity. Such a frustrating loss.

I was thinking the same thing when I watched it. I was losing my mind that they did not seem ready to line up after Dak slid. There was confusion with some of them for sure. And why would Noah Brown even be on the field. Total clown show.

 

[BigD_95]

here is actual play after TO

now to me it looks like everyone thinks this is a pass play, and that dak just decided to run
it wasnt a called play, it may have been an option, but no one knew he was going to run it.

same thing here they are all turned around expecting a pass and it is only explanation for what pollard does.
But him and noah should have ad libbed and blocked those 2 on outside and maybe dak takes it to sideline, otherwise run down field and block someone !
heck who knows, with some blocking by the cowboys who just did nothing, maybe dak goes to endzone.

ok here what is pollard doing?? what is noah doing?? LOL block those 2 guys !!!!!!!!! what is shulzt doing down lower, his day off? lol this is
pitiful. also note that martin is holding on the guy in middle where 3 guys are blocking 1, and he almost gets dak, should have been a holding call there.

here below is where dak had the guy turned, now cut back outside to sideline!
you can see martin holding 91 arm. pollard still in a daze doing nothing, and noah is I dont know wanting to block the guys coming up from
way down field?? how dumb are these guys, and does it look like they practiced this play?

here pollard and noah still doing nothing lol and dak commits to going inside.shultz just watching

All I see here is a lackadaisical effort,by the receivers and pollard, and poor planning and execution of this play. he could have got out of bounds easily, or possibly go all the way.
this umbrella isnt geared to stop a run play with good blocking.

not sure why you keep calling out shultz ? He was obviously supposed to run that rout and then Dak is running the ball on the other side of the field. Not sure what you want him to do. He isnt an idiot like Dak and probably knows Dak has to slide so they have enough time to spike it. The last thing he needs to do is engage in a block that will do nothing but get a penalty or prevent him from lining up in time

 

[Section446]

No one could have predicted that the refs would screw up the spotting of the ball so poorly. Teams run plays and get up on the ball to spike in less time than 14 seconds all the time. All the ref had to do was NOT run directly into Dak's back and he would have spotted the ball in time. That collision ate the final 2 seconds. Not to say they would have scored and won the game or even would have deserved to win the game if they had.. But they definitely deserved the opportunity.

They don't "deserve" ****, Dak waited until the game was 3/4ths over to get his **** together. Quit with the victim mentality, the Cowboys cost themselves the game and the 49ers tried over and over to give to them.

 

[charron]

Because there is no fear that Dak could run it in from this far out. What made more sense was Dak throwing to the sideline for an intermediate gain that is why they locked it down. I believe it was Dak who said this is how they practiced it.

 

[Cowboys_22]

With 14 seconds left and the ball at the 49ers 40 yard line, that was enough time to attempt 2 Hail Mary's. That would have been the smarter thing to do: gives you 2 shots to come down with a game-winning TD pass in the endzone.

Bro, scoring a TD would have been called back because someone on the sideline was in motion .

It was one of them days.

 

[Haimerej]

Actually it’s not a bad play if you know to look or run to referee with the ball so they can spot it. There was about 8 seconds that were wasted as not one single Cowboy looked for an official.

And even if we had spiked the ball in time the odds of converting a TD from 25 yards is very low.

To me the game or last real chance was lost when we couldn’t make a stop on 49ers last drive with over 7 minutes left. All that was left was a desperate last gasp.

So first and 10 at the 46 with all 3 timeouts and 2:29 on the clock wasn't a, "real chance"?

 

[OmerV]

here is actual play after TO

now to me it looks like everyone thinks this is a pass play, and that dak just decided to run
it wasnt a called play, it may have been an option, but no one knew he was going to run it.

same thing here they are all turned around expecting a pass and it is only explanation for what pollard does.
But him and noah should have ad libbed and blocked those 2 on outside and maybe dak takes it to sideline, otherwise run down field and block someone !
heck who knows, with some blocking by the cowboys who just did nothing, maybe dak goes to endzone.

ok here what is pollard doing?? what is noah doing?? LOL block those 2 guys !!!!!!!!! what is shulzt doing down lower, his day off? lol this is
pitiful. also note that martin is holding on the guy in middle where 3 guys are blocking 1, and he almost gets dak, should have been a holding call there.

here below is where dak had the guy turned, now cut back outside to sideline!
you can see martin holding 91 arm. pollard still in a daze doing nothing, and noah is I dont know wanting to block the guys coming up from
way down field?? how dumb are these guys, and does it look like they practiced this play?

here pollard and noah still doing nothing lol and dak commits to going inside.shultz just watching

All I see here is a lackadaisical effort,by the receivers and pollard, and poor planning and execution of this play. he could have got out of bounds easily, or possibly go all the way.
this umbrella isnt geared to stop a run play with good blocking.

No, this wasn't an ad lib. It was a designed run, and the idea wasn't for him to keep going and try to score a TD, and that's why they weren't blocking for that. They were just trying to move the ball closer to get a better throw into the end zone. They didn't need the receivers blocking too far downfield because they needed to be close when Dak went down so they could line up quickly and spike the ball. The problem was that Dak ran too far and took up too much time. He should have stopped 5-6 yards shorter to allow more time to spike the ball.

 

[heir]

ok the title is 2 things, but there is more that I want to put out there will post some pics.
The thing is I was watching that last play and I noticed that the other players, seemed to think it was a pass
play.
if they knew dak was going to run shouldnt they be blocking down field ??
To me it is like dak saw it open up and just took off.

Now running it is actually a good idea, BUT ONLY IF YOU DO IT RIGHT!

SF is in that umbrella coverage which is great to run on. but you have to have wr and in this case pollard
go block the 2 first guys on the left side or top on tv screen.
SF had 3 guys, but one was back to goal line.
So dallas only had to block those 2 guys on the left and dak could have ran 15 yards, and gone out of bounds
with 7-8 seconds left, which would have given two more shots, and no need to spike the ball.

if your going to run there it has to be out of bounds, so you can stop the clock with plenty of time left.

Now dak, when he passed the los, he started back inside, and the 1st def turned his hips,to go inside.
at that point dak could have cut back to sideline and got out of bounds.
There would be the one other db who maybe could bring him down, but since dak is bigger, I think he could have run thru him enough to get out.

And if it was planned properly, with pollard and noah blocking those two guys, dak could get out of bounds
easily after 10-15 yd run.

After that SF might not use the umbrella again and if they do run it again lol but out of bounds with blocking.
now some pics.
1. this shows the umbrella coverage and it is the top 2 that needed to be blocked.
only 3 DL dak will run thru top 2. this is actually before a timeout was called by SF.
But they line up the same after TO
noah and pollard will be wide at top.
And I have to say I dont get anything pollard does on this play, which isnt much lol.

Can't believe we are still making threads on this.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

Can't believe we are still making threads on this.

Thank you for participating!

 

[shabazz]

I don’t even think it was dumb. It was risky but I like the idea….but as a coach I don’t know if I call that play knowing how dumb my team likes to play.

……hilarious that we can’t see the ref in any of the pics….he’s really on top of things

Dak had no chance of getting to the sidelines AND getting enough yards. If the play worked the media would be calling the play genius because it did surprise the hell out of the defense.

 

[shabazz]

I think Romo called it right in real-time -- Dak needed to hand the ball to the ref instead of trying to snap it. The ref had to bump Dak and the OL out of the way and place the ball -- that took 2 seconds.

…..if the ref wasn’t 15 yards behind the offensive line and the play, he wouldn’t be caught on camera climbing on Daks back to get to where he should have already been…..yes we sucked but yes the ref blew his assignment as well

 

[RonnieT24]

…..if the ref wasn’t 15 yards behind the offensive line and the play, he wouldn’t be caught on camera climbing on Daks back to get to where he should have already been…..yes we sucked but yes the ref blew his assignment as well

Yeah I'm not understanding why people have such a hard time admitting that both things are true.. Yes the Cowboys played like crap AND the refs screwed them. There is no guarantee that even if the ref spotted the ball with a couple seconds left that the Cowboys would have finished the job.. But that's not the point.. There was nothing wrong with what THEY did in that situation.. The problem was the ref there. If people want to talk about other missed opportunities in the game fine.. I'm here for it. But let's not act like the refs didn't blow chunks most of that game.. From allowing Trent Williams to wiggle his foot over and over to standing over the ball until there was 1 second left on the play clock then calling delay of game.. Hell the delay was because of THEM not the Cowboys.. they should have penalized themselves.. But I digress.

 

[Diehardblues]

So first and 10 at the 46 with all 3 timeouts and 2:29 on the clock wasn't a, "real chance"?

I don’t recall that .