With playoff hopes dashed, mistake-prone Dallas Cowboys enter offseason of uncertainty
Mike McCarthy’s first season as the Dallas Cowboys head coach ended the way it started.
High hopes then utter disappointment, with both the players and coaching staff having huge roles in their final undoing.
How else do you explain a Cowboys team that entered Sunday’s season finale riding a three-game winning streak and feeling good about doing the improbable of going from a 3-9 start to reaching the playoffs only to suffer a 23-19 setback to a New York Giants team riding a three-game losing streak?
Credit a horrible start to the game that saw them fall behind 20-9 at halftime, some questionable decision making by McCarthy and an awful interception by quarterback Andy Dalton in the end zone to kill their final hopes of a comeback.
With the loss, the Cowboys and Giants finish the season at 6-10 and outside the playoffs because the Washington Football Team (7-9) won the NFC East by defeating a depleted Eagles (4-11-1) squad in Philadelphia, 20-14, Sunday night. The Cowboys, who ended with double-digit losses for the 12th time in franchise history and first time in five years, now find themselves heading toward an offseason of uncertainty.
“It’s been a year of a lot of ups and downs, and trials and tribulations,” McCarthy said. “The game was a microcosm of our season. I felt guys fought to put us in a position to play for a playoff berth. It’s disappointing we didn’t come out of here with a win.”
The ending came when Dalton, who replaced injured quarterback Dak Prescott and rallied the Cowboys to a Week 5 victory against the Giants, couldn’t duplicate a similar comeback and continue the season-ending momentum.
Down 23-19 in the fourth, Dalton — who earlier in the quarter had his non-throwing hand stepped on by a Giants’ near 300-pound lineman at the end of a scramble — valiantly drove the Cowboys to the 7. He converted a fourth down on a designed run and converted three other third downs, including one quarterback run.
But now just seven yards from the end zone with 1:53 left, Dalton missed a blitz pick up and he was sacked. It was the sixth sack of the game by the Giants, but this one was not the fault of the team’s over-matched offensive line.
“The line did the right thing,” Dalton said. “I got to see it. I didn’t see it as quickly as I should have. I can’t take a sack there.”
On 3rd-and-17, under pressure, Dalton hurled a wobbly floater that was intercepted by Xavier McKinney in the end zone. “In hindsight, I wished I wouldn’t have thrown into the end zone,” Dalton said. “I wish I would have thrown it away. It got intercepted. That was the end of it.”
It was not a good ending for Dalton, who has said that he hoped playing as Prescott’s backup in Dallas would propel him into a starters’ role elsewhere in the offseason.
One week after having his best performance of the season, passing for 377 yards and three touchdowns in a 37-17 victory against the Eagles, Dalton was spotty for much of the day against Giants. He completed 29 of 47 passes for 243 passes. He was admittedly off the mark early and nearly threw a couple of interceptions before the final pick.
But at least, Dalton owned his questionable decisions and mistakes.
McCarthy made two in the second half that could have resulted in a different outcome.
When Ezekiel Elliott scored on a 1-yard run in the third quarter to narrow the score to 20-15, the Cowboys coach shunned a possible 2-point conversion and kicked the extra point. “Time was part of the equation,” McCarthy said. “It was too early to go for two. I thought it was a clean decision.”
A two-point conversion would have made it a three-point game, but instead the Cowboys trailed 20-16. They would pull to within a point as a 36-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein made the score 20-19.
Then came the decision that will be talked about a lot in the offseason.
A pass from Giants quarterback Daniel Jones to Dante Pettis on a 3rd-and-16 appeared to hit the ground, though the officials ruled it a catch on the field.
McCarthy didn’t challenge the ruling although game analysts thought it was one that would’ve been overturned if had been reviewed. If overturned, it would have put the Giants out of field-goal range. Instead, the Giants lined up for the attempt, and Graham Gano converted on the 50-yard attempt. With a score of 23-19, the Cowboys were now forced to go for a touchdown rather than a field goal for the win.
After the game, McCarthy stood his ground. He said he didn’t think there was enough information for replay officials to overturn the call.
Bottom line, the Cowboys simply couldn’t overcome the early deficit and themselves.
The Cowboys did get two turnovers earlier in the game, but it simply wasn’t enough. In the first quarter, cornerback Chido Awuzie jumped on running back Wayne Gallman’s fumble at the Giants’ 26. They got to the 16 before settling for a field goal, one of four on the day and part of a season-long trend for a team that ranked 29th in the league in red zone touchdown percentage.
“We had to kick field goals rather than score touchdowns,” said Dalton, who missed out on a $1 million bonus he would earned if he had led the Cowboys to the playoffs. “We had to do better in the red zone and we weren’t.”
Even after the Dalton interception, the Cowboys had another opportunity after Gallman coughed up the ball with 1:09 left after a securing enough yardage that would have iced the game. But Gallman came out of the pile with his own fumble and it was upheld on replay.
The Giants took a knee and ran out the clock from there.
After the game, Elliott, who finished with 42 yards on 14 carries and came up just 21 yards shy of 1,000 rushing yards for the fourth time in his first five seasons, was asked if he thought the game was emblematic of their season. “I think maybe you could say that. It seemed like nothing went our way. We have a great group of men in this locker room. I’m proud of them. We have to learn from this and come back stronger next year.”
Dallas Cowboys 10-loss seasons
For the 12th time in their 61 seasons and the first time in five years, the Cowboys have posted a double-digit losses in a single season.
| Losses | Last | Total |
| 10 | 2020 | five |
| 11 | 2002 | four |
| 12 | 2015 | one |
| 13 | 1988 | one |
| 14 | — | — |
| 15 | 1989 | one |
| 16 | — | — |
This story was originally published January 3, 2021 at 8:19 PM.
