The New York Giants struggled tremendously to slow the Dallas Cowboys down on Sunday night. Six turnovers from Eli Manning and company didn’t help, but there were times when Dallas had the G-Men on their heels even with a banged-up Tony Romo. According to Jerry Jones, it could have been worse if the Giants weren’t faking injuries.
“I thought us experts on football were the only ones who could see that,” Jones said when asked if he thought New York was putting on an act, per The Star-Telegram. “I didn’t know everybody could. It was so obvious it was funny. It wasn’t humorous because we really wanted the advantage and knew we could get it if we could get the ball snapped.”
The question stemmed from Jason Witten’s reaction to Giants defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins dropping to the turf with an injury in the second quarter. Witten had just picked up a first down and was rushing back to the line of scrimmage with the rest of his teammates when Jenkins began shaking his arm and went down. Cameras then captured Witten clearly yelling, “He’s faking!” at an official.
We can expect to see a lot more of this if the 2013 season progresses the way it began this past week. More and more teams are turning to no-huddle offenses in an attempt to tire out opponents and put up points in a hurry. New York did the same thing on Sunday night, and if not for fumbles and interceptions they may have been able to pull out a win with their up-tempo offense.
[Video: Georgia linebacker fakes injury after getting signal from coach]
Last week, Brian Urlacher revealed that the Chicago Bears used to receive a signal from the sidelines when their coaching staff wanted to them fake an injury. It’s by no means a new concept, but it will become a more popular debate topic if fast-paced attacks continue to be the theme.
