by Ryan Mercier
Oh, Mike McCarthy. Despite years of success, the current head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is a punching bag for media, fans, and the Almighty Twitter. Things will not be changing any time soon.
Dallas was called for 14 penalties and looked completely unprepared for an NFL playoff game. However, the final snap of the Cowboys’ season was a good play call.
This is not to defend McCarthy for the entire sloppy mess of a game but there was nothing wrong with the final decision. Some say two Hail Marys from the 41-yard line would be a better option. The Hail Mary, while exciting when connected, is in itself named for being incredibly unlikely to succeed.
So, instead, Dak Prescott runs up the middle and takes the 49ers by complete surprise. This should have set up one chance at the end zone from the 24-yard line, a very difficult yet far more reasonable spot to score from.
Of course, the execution of spiking the ball will not go into the Hall of Fame. Same with the referee’s execution of getting in place to spot the ball. There is no circumstance where an official should be bulldozing a player. Dak or a lineman should have known to hand the ball to the ref. It was a disaster with plenty of blame to go around, namely the man in charge as head coach.
The play call, on its own, was a good one.
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