Defending Barry Switzer: The Eagles Fourth Down Call

[Flamma]

(10236) Dumb Decisions: The WORST Six Seconds Ever - YouTube

This is easily one of the top 3 dumbest decisions in the game. Well, maybe top ten because some may be similar. But it's hard to beat. The entire scenario is explained in the first 3 to 3 and a half minutes. I remember watching this game.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

With the best OL and RB , he made a good call. You can’t blame s coach for the player’s failures.

yes you can. in fact more often than not. if that's the case, then garrett was the best coach ever and the players failed...

when the coach makes the wrong play call. it was obviously the wrong call when it got stopped. then the same play ran again which is dumb, and got stopped again.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

It was a bad situation no matter what. But I can easily see the logic in going for it. The alternative was to have the punter, standing on his own 14 yard line punting into the wind with 2 minutes left in the game. Is it better to lose that way? I think either way the chances of losing is similar. A little more so with a punt. But yeah, running the exact same play was the biggest blunder.

its putting the onus on the other team to score and win....the game was 17-17, which means the defense was playing well. you force the other team to make a play as opposed to hand it to them.....

 

[rynochop]

I didn't have a problem with the call, great oline an all time great rb. I don't know if john madden had some problem with Switzer but I thought he made way to big a deal out of that.

It they converted I can just hear him saying 'that's what you do with that oline and Emmitt Smith'

 

[basel90]

Barry Switzer's public persona never evoked "humbleness". He was the anthesis of the stolid, suit & tie wearing coaches that were the staple of college football from its start until the mid-seventies - the ones that perfected coachspeak and other mannerisms in that profession. He broke the mold - being bold and brash, taking on the NCAA while in charge of the Sooner Football domain. That carried over after his hiatus when he took the Cowboys HC duties.

Yes at collage with Oklahoma he was more brash at times but never overly arrogant despite the huge success he had . But with the cowboys in the nfl I fealt he was much more toned down .

 

[Flamma]

its putting the onus on the other team to score and win....the game was 17-17, which means the defense was playing well. you force the other team to make a play as opposed to hand it to them.....

I agree. But how many times have we seen a team lose in just that situation? Wouldn't you love that situation? Getting the ball back with 2 minutes left somewhere around your 40, All you need is FG range? Here's what it comes down to. The chances the Eagles get into FG range VS the Cowboys chances of getting 4th and less than a yard. I'm not saying it was a great decision. But I can see the mindset behind it. There have been way worse play calls throughout the NFL than that one.

 

[RonnieT24]

I think the fact that it was really only about 4th and a foot I'd have a hard time knocking the call. Except.. after the clock snafu and having a timeout to talk things over with the guys somebody should have said "I can't get the reach block coach." The first time they ran the play, load left, the backside got there so fast the play had no chance. I believe the playside backer also shot the gap and met Emmitt in the backfield. Load left was a slow developing play so it was imperative that the backside guys seal so that the front side blocking could work. The other problem with the scenario was the turf and the weather. The vet was the worst astroturf in history and it was cold and slick which meant your linemen and perhaps more importantly your running back were not going to be able to get up a head of steam to fire into the defense and punch it over for a yard. All those factors taken into account punting probably would have been the better play. Unless the guys upfront insisted they could get er done during the timeout .. If Nate, Tooey, Larry and co all to a man said they could get it blocked then I would have believed them...

 

[JayFord]

i remember that game very well, they actually cut my game off and showed this clip like 7 times....it hurt to watch it but you just gotta give the Eagles props

I wouldve called the same play as well or flipped it but it would be Emmitt toting the rock

The Cowboys line and Emmitt with Johnston was money on short yardage ....and if I could go back and call it on 5th down i would have

 

[eromeopolk]

It seems like all Youtube does is get me riled about things that happened 30 years ago. I was watching a video declaring Barry Switzer's fourth down call against the Eagles in 1995 the worst fourth down call of all time.

I don't only think that's wrong. I think Barry made the right call, given the totality of the circumstances. And I always have, from the moment it happened to now.

For those too young to remember, the Cowboys were playing the Philadelphia Eagles in Veterans Stadium pretty late in the season in 1995. It was Barry's second year as head coach after the whirlwind dismissal of JImmy Johnson. Barry started behind the eight ball, had failed to make the Super Bowl in his first year, and Cowboys fans and Dallas media had big questions about whether he had what it takes.

With about 2 minutes left, the score was tied at 17, and the Cowboys had a 4th and 2 (or long 1) at their own 28 or 29. Switzer decided to go for it. The play got stuffed. There was a clock mixup and they got a do-over. The Cowboys did it a second time. The play got stuffed again. The Eagles took over on downs, kicked a field goal, and eventually won the game.

Switzer got trashed for the decision - the infamous Bozo The Coach headline comes to mind. It's obvious that you punt the ball in that situation, right? In most circumstances, yes. But in that particular game, not so much. I think the decision to go for it was more than defensible. I think it was the right call.

You would have to watch the fourth quarter of that game to understand why. The Cowboys defense had gotten steamrolled on the last couple of Eagles possessions. They were exhausted. The Eagles had a strong wind at their backs.

If the Cowboys had punted, I'm convinced this would have happened: The punt into the wind would have gone about 25 yards (at best), the Eagles would have taken over near midfield and proceeded to run it down the throat of the defense. They would have run the clock to near zero, burned all of the Cowboys time outs, and scored a field goal, from about the same distance, to win the game. That was by far the most likely scenario if the Cowboys had punted.

The other option was to hand the ball to your Hall of Fame running back, get the first down, give your defense another set of downs to rest, maybe even run out the clock and try to get a change of direction on the coin flip for overtime. And even if it failed, you would probably get the ball back with a chance to come back (which is what happened: The Cowboys ended the game inside Eagles' territory).

I totally agree with Barry's choice on this play. The defense was spent. The offense is where you had your money players. Taking the risk to control the ball in that specific situation was the right decision. This is always held up as exhibit A of Barry Switzer's incompetence. And I've always thought that he got a raw deal with regard to this call. It didn't work, but it was the right decision.

Fourth and a "Ding a Ling"...