This was so key. We executed so well down the stretch all the way to Beas' screen pass. We're ending games like a well coached team. They took a couple deep shots but we covered well on that drive. Troy kept saying they absolutely need to score before the 2 minute warning.
Troy understands situational football. Trailing 31-19, you are behind by 12 points. You need TWO scores, not just one. And both will have to be TD's; a TD with a 2 pt conversion and a FG will only net you 11.
So with 6:29 to play the Commanders were looking at the need to score twice, both scores having to be TD's.
If they'd run a competent 2 minute drill and scored in 2 minutes or less, they'd have still had 4+ minutes on the game clock with 2 timeouts [assuming they didn't use one] and the 2 minute warning. That would've been plenty of time for a much higher percentage chance of kicking the ball away to the Cowboys and then having the Commanders defense stop them and force a punt.
Instead, Cousins and the offense were forced to bleed so much time off the clock, as Troy noted repeatedly during the broadcast, they needed to hurry up and get this TD before the 2 minute warning at MINIMUM. And they didn't.
They get the TD, but now there's so little time left the only way they can get the ball back with enough time to score that 2nd TD is to try a low percentage onside kick. Something they'd already failed to convert earlier in the game.
This is an example of how even when a team is being 'successful' by driving down the field and scoring points, they are in fact also putting themselves in a much tougher situation by taking too long to do it.
Watching what the Skins did to themselves here should give us a better appreciation of what the Cowboys offense can do when it's forced into a hurry up offense late in a game trailing and needing points. Even in the one game we LOST thus far this season, Dak and this offense had just gotten into position for a game tying FG attempt with 13 second left when TWill had his now infamous brain fart.
Then there was the Steelers game where we lost the lead TWICE in the 2nd half, the second time with only 42 seconds remaining on the clock due to the fake spike/TD pass from Rothlisberger. 75 yards in < 42 seconds? No problem!
Clock management is one of the things that separates great coaches from bad coaches. Gruden should've realized once they got inside the Dallas 30 yard line, they needed to get to start going for the end zone. Instead they had Cousins continue to dink and dunk his way to the Dallas 8, each play costing them over 20 seconds, something that ended up taking another 2 minutes off of the game clock.
