Cowboys successfully rehash final series, get in FG range
Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett doesn’t like to rehash past games, but he does use them as teaching tools. So when the Cowboys got to practice at the Ford Center on Thursday, the scoreboards read 20-19 with 1:05 to go in the fourth quarter.
It was a not so subtle reminder of the situation the Cowboys were in on the final drive of last Sunday’s 20-19 season-opening loss to the New York Giants.
The Cowboys had the ball at their own 20 with no timeouts but failed to get into field-goal range as receiver Terrance Williams failed to get out bounds on the final play.
Garrett replayed the scenario and had the Cowboys go over the drive again in practice Thursday.
“We went back through that phase again, and we executed it,” wide receiver Dez Bryant said. “Even though it’s not in a game, it’s in practice, it’s just a learning tool.”
This time Williams didn’t get a chance to make a decision because the ball didn’t come to him. But the Cowboys did get in position to make a would-be game-winning field goal. Kicker Dan Bailey didn’t attempt the kick because he doesn’t kick on Thursdays. But the message was clear.
“Just work that situation again,” offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. “I’m going to stick up for Terrance. He’s literally thinking how he’s got to get out of bounds. He just got caught. He’s trying to get close enough to get Dan Bailey to a real field goal. He felt like if he ran straight out it’d have been so far. And so he was trying to do the right thing. Trust me. We just kind of talked through that situation again. Guys were tuned in. We worked a nice little drill there. We’re working hard to rectify things that aren’t good enough and move forward.”
Tight end Jason Witten it was a bitter reminder of the defeat, but it was typical of Garrett to make the most of an opportunity to learn.
“It pisses you off having to recap it and think about it but coach Garrett, he does,” Witten said. “We work those situations, two minutes, competitive situations a lot. So to play it back out however you can do it, I thought we do a good job of that, handling the situations and learning from it.
“That’s what we constantly are doing. It’s good to get another work at it, but we’ve been working those situations. I can’t imagine anybody works them harder than we do.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Cowboys successfully rehash final series, get in FG range."