I think they got the optimal result. A 20-yard run with Dak where he was untouched. That's as good of a result as could be asked for.

lol FAT MIKE in the postgame presser

he's never leaving the thread title

damn, he didn't actually say that? i got got? sad day...

Dak needed to take a knee at 10 yards, pop back up immediately and run the ball to the ref. Also they probably should have warned the ref ahead of time.

Dak had to throw a hail mary.

Fat Mike crying saying he thought they'd put time back on the clock, Dak happy garbage thrown at refs, and corpse Jones is just, f it, I'm out

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...g-ball-spotted

10 yards isn't enough to justify that play. You need 20+. Their execution of getting the ball to the ref was horrible. That's something smart teams practice. They messed up and the ref didn't do them any favors.

Romo was right that they should have had enough time to spike it.

geez, I turned the game off when I thought Samual got the 1st down for the 49ers. I went back and watched the end and don't think it's as bad as it's being made out. They should have been able to spike it and the easy yardage was there. Most teams often throwing another quick sideline like pass there but what they did was basically the same if not better as long as they get the spike because the sideline pass isn't always completed and sometimes the receiver gets tackled inbounds in which case game over.

Two shots to the endzone might be another possibility. Think there is enough time for that but what Mike did didn't seem that bad to me. Just wasn't executed and refs messed it up a bit.

Dak's post-game comments were terrible. His condoning fans' behavior was made even worse by his statements about that same behavior when he thought it was directed at the Cowboys.

I have been a Dak fan since his college days. No longer.

McCarthy mentioned their analytics team recommended the play. I don't know if that's true but I'd think the probability of scoring a TD from the ~20 is more than 2x likely than two shots from the ~40. 14 seconds is enough time to spike it. I think people are being overly results oriented.

Also, people aren't giving them enough credit the earlier plays in that drive. They started from their own 20 with 32 seconds left and no timeouts. They had some creative playcalling to get to that point.

If I were the Cowboys I'd fire McCarthy and make Kellen Moore the coach. If they did that and replaced Zeke with Pollard they'd be a legit Super Bowl contender.

My WAG is that the Hail Mary probability starts to drop like a rock around the 20 yard line or so (and Dak only made it to the 24). From there you can run actual routes, or at worst quarter the end zone and have each WR only have to outduel 2 DBs for the ball -- beyond that you get situations where either you have multiple defenders camping under the ball, or a safety getting a running start on the ball.

The Pokes truly are remarkable at how well they reflect owner/management.

The miracle is that it took Jerry Jone Rivers seven years to complete the transition. He took over in ‘89.

Dude was in denial about his own role in the fiasco and he's been learning bad habits from a terrible coach.

Analytical nitpicking be damned, if your personnel executing the play call is too stupid to prevent what ended up happening from happening you either didn’t prepare them well enough for it in which case it’s a bad play call or they are too stupid to be trusted to run that razor thin of a margin of error in which case it’s a bad play call

Fat Mike

What was creative about three throws to get to the sidelines against SF's terrible, terrible prevent defense? I mean the lateral to Lamb was nice, but it wasn't exactly genius. The outs to Pollard and Schultz, those were just easy throws, catch and run to the sideline because most of SF's defenders were 20+ yards deep.

As far as the QB sneak, in theory, it's not a bad call. The execution was terrible, which goes back to coaching. Dak should know about where he needs to get down given the time required to set the ball and spike it for one more play. He probably ran roughly 5 yards too far, and even then, had he handed the ball to the ref rather than the center they probably spike it with 1 second to go. Everything about the execution was bad. Especially since they have to do everything they can to avoid a false start or formation penalty which would result in a 10 second run off and end the game anyways.

But yeah, in theory, it doesn't look that bad especially since SF was playing sideline prevent on that play, which I'm sure is another reason why Dallas thought it would work. The middle of the field was wide open.

It was such a Cowboys and Fat Mike ending to watch them run that play and then not be able to spike it in time.

Did MM leave the punt unit out there after the fake punt conversion?

yes.
and then waited too long to sub in the regular offense, causing SF to take their time to sub and causing the delay.
They needed to run a play or sub earlier, once again

FAT MIKE

Literally everything has to go perfect to run a QB draw with 14 seconds left and still spike it in time. If your analytics give that sequence 100% chance of success, you're doing analytics wrong.

That's why a hail mary was the way to go.

Everything didn't have to go perfect but understanding the NFL rules and looking for the ref immediately after you go down rather than your own center would be a step in the right direction. Obviously everything is going to be close and we are looking at under 5 seconds regardless of how well you execute after going down but I think the math adds up as long as you know what to do right after you go down in the play.

I feel like a quick 15-yard slant where the receiver instantly goes to the ground might be quicker, due to the lack of needing to slide. Also if the ball is incomplete it's not the end of the world.

While I don't claim full analytics understanding, I'd be surprised if the correct course of action wasn't two shots at the end zone are better. There's always the chance of pass interference and a shot to go from the 1 afterwards.

As for Dak, giving the fans credit for throwing debris at the referees should be a suspension. Absolutely unacceptable. If he wants to say "they blew it and cost us a chance and should be disciplined", hey I think it's weak and probably wrong but that's his choice. There's no scenario where he should be doing anything but condemning that fan behaviour, and it shouldn't matter if it was against the Cowboys, the Niners, the refs, Goodell, or whoever. It's still just sports and it's people.

That isn't how analytics works. And nobody said it was going to work 100% of the time. It really didn't have to be perfect. He was down with 9 seconds left. It really shouldn't have been difficult. That is plenty of time to spike the ball. It's on Dak and the ref.

I know McCarthy sucks. But it's okay to not put most of the blame on his shoulders for this.

It's the Fat Mike thread. Who else are we supposed to blame? Lol.

But yeah, Dak deserves a lot of blame too.

Can someone get me the cowboys mailing address so I can send Fat Mike his sklansky bucks?