Failed fake punt attempt gobbles momentum, helps stuff Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving
There are surprise trick plays and then there are plays that can sabotage your season.
The Dallas Cowboys may have pulled off both in a single, head-scratching play early in the fourth quarter Thursday at AT&T Stadium.
The eventual calamity of a play — a fake punt that failed miserably — turned a four-point Cowboys deficit into an 11-point hole a play later and completely spun the moment toward the Washington Football Team, which piled on the rest of the game for a 41-16 win in front of 30,048 in attendance.
With the Cowboys trailing 20-16 and facing a fourth-and-10 from their own 24, coach Mike McCarthy rolled the dice like a gambler with a problem. Dallas faked the punt to safety Darian Thompson, who handed it off to Cedrick Wilson on a reverse. Wilson, however, had to come from the wide receiver position, which seemed to take forever.
Washington’s defense was not fooled in the slightest. Wilson lost a yard on the play, which set Washington up on the Dallas 23.
Antonio Gibson rushed for a 23-yard score on the next play to give Washington a 27-16 lead with 12:07 remaining.
“You won’t get anywhere thinking about the negative all the time. I clearly understood the situation when it was called,” McCarthy said. “Obviously, it was a solid play call. It’s a good play design.”
The turn of events sucked the momentum away from Dallas from the end of the third quarter. Jaylon Smith intercepted an Alex Smith pass and returned it 43 yards to the Washington 4-yard line but the Cowboys had to settle for a field goal to make it 20-16.
The fake punt disaster, however, swung it back to Washington, which capped a 10-play drive with Gibson’s 37-yard scoring run to stretch the lead to 34-16.
Montez Sweat returned an Andy Dalton interception 15 yards to push the lead to 41-16 with 3:31 left in the game.
This story was originally published November 26, 2020 at 7:16 PM.
