Cowboys Fault Refs For Loss; Should They Blame Themselves - And Coach Mike McCarthy?

Special-teams confusion in third quarter cost Cowboys crucial timeout

It didn’t matter that Cowboys were jumping up and down pointing to JerryTron in the AT&T Stadium heavens.

No timeouts, no review.

And no chance to complete a furious comeback. Instead, the Cowboys fell 25-22 to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in a possible playoff preview.

Needing a stop or a turnover, Dallas (11-5) believed it got the latter on the Cardinals’ final drive. But a referee’s whistle and an inability to challenge a possible fumble by Arizona running back Chase Edmonds left the Cowboys fuming.

"Playing against the refs again, like usual,'' said Dallas' Randy Gregory. "It seems like an every-week occurrence. We just have to tune that out and just deal with it.”

The critical play was problematic on several fronts. With 2:51 left, Kyler Murray clearly took the snap after the play clock expired. No flag was thrown and Edmonds ran left before getting hit by DeMarcus Lawrence and Gregory.

Edmonds was rolled up and the ball popped out, with Osa Odighizuwa recovering on the Dallas 28-yard line. Edmonds was ruled down. Replays showed that the ball might have been moving before his knee touched the turf.

This was ruled not a fumble but the Cowboys couldn’t challenge it because they were out of timeouts…Arizona went on to win right after #AZvsDAL https://t.co/DpgI59hd0h

— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) January 3, 2022

Said Lawrence: “It’s a possibility we see both of these teams in the playoffs.”

For the Cowboys fan slow on the uptake: Tank is talking about opposing:

a) The Cardinals, and

b) The officiating crew.

Since the sequence occurred outside the two-minute warning, officials couldn’t initiate a review. Neither could the Cowboys since all three timeouts had already been burned. Two stoppages came on that final drive.

The third might as well have been taken by Kliff Kingsbury. The Cardinals coach coaxed a timeout out of the Cowboys in the third quarter by lining up to go for it in a clear field-goal situation.

Facing a fourth-and-5 at the Dallas 8, the Cowboys’ field goal unit went into panic mode. A timeout followed with 4:04 left in the third.

Arizona, of course, kicked the short field goal to make it 22-7.

Just as big as those three points would be, the wasted timeout would loom just as large. Clock management issues have often been a sore spot during Mike McCarthy's tenure in Dallas.

But the Cowboys seem in no mood to concede that.

“The refs, I feel like, dictated that game,” Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb. “I mean, it’s no secret.”

Said Leighton Vander Esch: "We got to keep battling with everybody, not just the other team. If you catch my drift."

We do, indeed, catch the Cowboys drift: They somehow do not believe the final score should've been 25-22.

Said Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott: “We’ve got to do a better job of trying to keep (the referees) out of it, but … I’ve become accustomed to it. I understand wearing the star and what it means.”

And what it means is … the refs and the league are engaged in an anti-Cowboys conspiracy?

Since the Cowboys took timeouts on the two plays preceding Edmonds’ final run, it stands to reason they would have taken another to challenge the possible turnover.

That couldn’t happen, no matter the pleas and points to the video board by Dallas defenders. So there would be no change of possession and last-ditch drive by the Cowboys to complete the rally.

Vander Esch: “It was totally a fumble, and I just don’t understand how, with the technology we have nowadays, even if we don’t have timeouts or whatever it may be … Certain things are so obvious. …To me, we’re playing more against the refs than other teams.”

Murray easily ran for a first down on the next play, icing the win for the 11-5 Cardinals.

Ironically, maybe the only vocal member of the Dallas defense who "gets it'' is its youngest prominent member. Amid an army of Cowboys blaming the refs, rookie Micah Parsons went another direction.

“I think it’s one of them days,'' the kid said, "when we beat ourselves.''