DALLAS — One of the most controversial decisions from the Dallas Cowboys' 40-34 overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 15 was their decision to pass on third-and-10 with 1:20 to go in regulation.
The Cowboys led 34-31 and forced the Jaguars to burn two of their three second half timeouts. If the Cowboys picked up a first down, they could run out the clock. If the Cowboys simply handed off, they would have forced Jacksonville to use their final timeout, and quarterback Trevor Lawrence would have had to mount a field goal drive with only the sidelines and spiking the ball to stop the clock.
Instead of going with the run, the Cowboys went aggressive as quarterback Dak Prescott sought receiver Noah Brown deep. The pass fell incomplete.
Jacksonville had an extra timeout, which they used to stop the clock and calmly allow their field goal kicker to set up for the game-tying, 48-yard field goal.
In overtime, the Jaguars returned a Prescott pick-six for the win.
Maybe it doesn't happen if Dallas goes with conventional football wisdom and runs the ball on third down.
However, that is one area where Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would not tread in his Tuesday appearance with "Shan & RJ" on 105.3 "The Fan" [KRLD-FM].
"I’m not going to second-guess that call," said Jones in his first media appearance since the loss that sent Dallas to 10-4. "The world knows whether you go with a run the clock approach or you try to get it all right there. I’m not going to second-guess that call because it’s too easy to do the opposite since it didn’t work on your second-guessing."
Jones admitted that he understood both sides of the decision to run or pass on third down.
"I’m not so sure that it’s as simple as run or pass there, which is really where most of the critique comes from, because if you run, you run time off the clock," Jones said. "There’s another part of that equation and it’s the route, what you tried to do when you did decide to pass the ball. And that has to be, and is, certainly critiqued and looked at; in other words, the route and the people you got in the route.
"That’s very critical here if we’re going to decide to throw it rather than run the time off the clock. And that’s the kind of thing that you would be evaluating yesterday and evaluating this week if you run into the same circumstances again.”
Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore told reporters Dec. 19 that the uniqueness of each game and situation dictates the play-call.
"Do we want to run the football and ultimately put ourselves in a position potentially to go win on third down in this situation? Every game is going to be a little bit different," Moore said. "It’s something we do need to find a way to finish games because we had a few opportunities in the four-minute that we haven’t been able to capitalize on.”
Dallas' path towards repeating as NFC East champions for the first time since 1995-96 got much harder following the loss. The Cowboys, who qualified for the postseason with a Seattle loss and Washington loss, will need the Philadelphia Eagles to lose out while Dallas wins out. The first step of that big probability starts Dec. 24 at AT&T Stadium with the Eagles coming to town.
What do you think the Cowboys should have done differently on Sunday? Share your thoughts with Mark on Twitter @therealmarklane.
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