On crucial play, Jason Garrett deferred to assistants as Dallas Cowboys’ top receiver sat
Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said it was Kellen Moore’s decision to call a play on 4th and 8 that led to Tavon Austin replacing Amari Cooper.
During his Monday morning radio show on KRLD/105.3 “The Fan” Garrett also said receiver coach Sanjay Lal decides how to rotate the receivers.
“Towards the end of the ball game, we started rotating Tavon Austin into the game,” Garrett said. “The play we had called for the fourth down play was one we use 12 personnel, we wanted Blake [Jarwin] and [Jason] Witten in there together. That’s why Randall Cobb was out in that situation. The matchup we wanted is the one we got. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to convert the play. We had different options. When you get that one on one matchup, we gave [Austin] an opportunity.”
Could he have overruled whether Cooper stayed on the field for the 4th down play? Perhaps use one of three timeouts he had available to give Cooper and Cobb a rest so they could be on the field for the fourth down? Garrett seemed to indicate that Cooper wasn’t playing well.
“We certainly could have done that. Amari got a lot of opportunities throughout the ball game,” he said. “They did a pretty good job on him. We felt good about the guys we had out there and unfortunately were unable to make the play. In terms of the personnel group, that would be Kellen’s decision. That’s a play we like in that situation. We felt like we had good answers to that [defense].”
Garrett seemed to be saying that Moore’s play call, coupled with Lal’s decision to rotate the receivers worked in concert on the 4th and 8 play.
“During those on the ball drives, sometimes those [coaches] work the rotations different ways based on the routes they run and the plays they run,” Garrett said. “We felt good about the play we called for that situation and for the down and distance and where we were on the field. We felt good about it, unfortunately the play didn’t work out.”
Cooper said after the game he was healthy. But Garrett doesn’t sound so sure.
“Everybody is banged up. Everyone is fighting through something. Amari has done a good job fighting through the different things he’s had this year,” he said. “That’s kind of where he is. That’s kind of where everybody is.”
Garrett said Dak Prescott didn’t appear hindered by his throwing shoulder injury but added “we probably weren’t as efficient as we need to be in the passing game.”
“More than anything else, was the execution part of it. They got the ball first, they made some critical third downs on their drive to go down and kick the field goal,” he said. ““We missed our third downs.”
