Jerry Jones sounds like a man who is ready to punch a hole in the wall.
The Dallas Cowboys owner spoke with reporters after the team’s early playoff exit at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Jones sounded completely dismayed in his remarks.
“Extraordinarily disappointed,” said Jones, according to Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. “Very disappointed. Disappointed for our fans … This is quite a letdown.
“They outplayed us,” Jones added about the 49ers, who won 23-17.
Jones was also asked about Dak Prescott and getting over the hump.
“The hump is advancing in the playoffs,” Jones replied. “There’s been some good quarterbacks that haven’t advanced in the playoffs. I’m just sick we’re one of them. Really sick. I’m surprised and sick.”
The Cowboys went 12-5 this season, and Jones definitely seemed to have Super Bowl aspirations. But instead, the team failed to survive Wild Card Weekend and still has yet to advance past the divisional round since 1995.
There was some talk that Jones could make a major change if the Cowboys fell flat in the playoffs. Now we appear to be staring right at that possibility.
Photo: Sep 19, 2021; Inglewood, California, USA; Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones before the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The Dallas Cowboys suffered a heartbreaking playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, but in many ways they had no one to blame but themselves.
The Cowboys fell just short in a 23-17 loss, but one stat stood out more than the rest. Dallas took an astonishing 14 penalties in the loss, totaling 89 yards. The 14 penalties tied a franchise record for a playoff game.
The flags started early, when defensive lineman Randy Gregory committed a neutral zone infraction on the first play from scrimmage. Several of the penalties essentially stopped Cowboys drives in their track. Perhaps the most damaging of them was a first quarter holding call that wiped out what would have been a 32-yard reception by CeeDee Lamb. Even the penalties that weren’t as harmful were pretty embarrassing, too.
Dallas’ final penalty was also a costly one. Gregory, again, committed a blatant hold with just over a minute and a half left to give the 49ers an automatic first down.
Without the penalty, the Cowboys would have had the chance to get off the field and get the ball back with over a minute left. Dallas still got the stop, but they instead had just 32 seconds to try to drive all the way downfield for a touchdown.
In games like this where the flags pile up, it can sometimes be the result of overzealous refereeing. That wasn’t the case here. The bulk of the calls that went against Dallas were blatant and impossible to ignore. Combine that with some very bizarre decisions, and you have a Cowboys team that mismanaged the game, lacked discipline, and deserved to lose.
Photo: Oct 3, 2021; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy on the field before the game against the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
What in the heck were the Dallas Cowboys thinking? That’s all that can be asked after seeing the way their 23-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers went down on Sunday.
The Cowboys got the ball back with 32 seconds left and needed to go 80 yards to win. They moved the ball quickly with three straight passes, bringing up a 2nd-and-1 at the 49ers 41.
That’s when the Cowboys did something inexplicable.
Despite not having any timeouts left, Dallas called a quarterback draw. Dak Prescott rushed up the middle for a gain of 17 yards. But by the time the official fought through the players to spot the ball for the next play, time had expired, and the game ended.
CBS’ Tony Romo was all over the call. He knew that the official had to spot the ball before the Cowboys could spike. The official took a while getting down to the ball to set it, meaning the time ticked away before Dallas could stop the clock. By the time the ball was spotted, time had expired.
Those were the exact risks with calling such a play, and exactly why you don’t call a run up the middle with no timeouts left. There wasn’t enough time to do that.
Prescott should have got down sooner to save more time. Even if he did, the entire situation was way too risky.
Dallas had time for a few shots down the field. Why not try one more pass play to gain an extra 10 yards and get you closer to the end zone? That choice was inexplicable.
Some San Francisco 49ers players had some fun trolling Cowboys fans late in Sunday’s NFC Wild Card game.
The Niners were leading the Cowboys 23-17 with a minute left and thought they had sealed the game with a first down run.
The successful play led some 49ers players to troll Cowboys fans at AT&T Stadium with waves.
Hear are Texas native Charles Omenihu and his teammate, Dontae Johnson, being petty with waves:
The game wasn’t even over at that point, as the Cowboys got the ball back and made things interesting. Ultimately, Omenihu, Johnson and the 49ers did get the best of Dallas and walked out with a big W.
Tracy Wolfson is a veteran reporter who usually does an excellent job on the sidelines during football games, but she received attention for making a glaring mistake on Sunday.
Wolfson was the sideline reporter for the NFC Wild Card playoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. She reported on the head injury suffered by 49ers star defensive lineman Nick Bosa during the second quarter.
Both when she first reported about the injury, and then when she provided an update on Bosa’s status, Wolfson erroneously called Nick “Joey,” which is the name of Nick’s older brother.
Later in the game, Wolfson provided a report on the numerous injured 49ers players and got Bosa’s name right.
People might understand a 1-time slipup since there are two Bosas who are star defensive linemen. Sometimes here at LBS we will slip up and write “John” Harbaugh when we mean Jim or vice versa. But when she made the mistake a second time in the same game, that’s when people were less forgiving and instead wondering why the issue wasn’t corrected sooner.
The Dallas Cowboys’ performance in Sunday’s NFC Wild Card game was essentially summed up by one sequence in the fourth quarter.
The Cowboys were trailing the San Francisco 49ers 23-7 early in the fourth quarter and faced a 4th and 5 from their own 48-yard line. Dallas sent out its punt team, much to the frustration of the crowd, but it turned out to be a fake. The play succeeded, with punter Bryan Anger finding cornerback C.J. Goodwin for a 16-yard reception and a first down.
Instead of building on that momentum, the Cowboys shot themselves in the foot after the conversion. The special teams unit initially remained on the field on first down in an apparent effort to get the 49ers to burn a timeout. When that didn’t happen, the Cowboys rushed the special teams unit off the field with about 20 seconds left on the play clock. The offense got on the field, but were unable to get set and snap the ball in time, resulting in a delay of game penalty.
Some were quick to blame the officials for the delay of game, as the Cowboys essentially were not allowed to snap the ball. However, the referees were obligated to allow the 49ers to make their own defensive substitutions after the Cowboys made their.
FOX Sports analyst Emmanuel Acho also pointed out that Goodwin actually slowed the Cowboys down by getting off the field late because he was too busy talking trash.
Whatever happened did not go according to plan. Head coach Mike McCarthy’s reaction was priceless.
Blaming the referees becomes much more difficult when the Cowboys wasted half the play clock trying to goad the 49ers into using a timeout. Even if they’d succeeded, the reward wasn’t even that great. The 49ers led by 16 points at the time. Their timeouts simply didn’t matter that much. The extra time the Cowboys burned, plus the five-yard loss on the delay of game penalty that came about as a result, would have been far more valuable. The entire sequence came across as the Cowboys being entirely too cute.
McCarthy’s game management has sometimes been criticized, and there were reports that his job might not be totally safe in the event of an early playoff exit. If there’s any truth to that, this will not have done much to help his case.
The Dallas Cowboys were not looking so hot in their NFC Wild Card playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. The look on the face of one Cowboys fan said it all.
This disappointed Cowboys fan was shown on TV after Dallas fell behind 23-7 and punted the ball away late in the third quarter.
Her reaction completely reflected the feelings of all Cowboys fans at the time.
The fan must have been alerted by some friends that she had been shown on TV.
A few minutes later, CBS showed the same fan, only this time she was looking at her phone and smiled.
She should be proud; she became a meme!
Jerry Jones set out to build one of the most impressive venues in all of sports with AT&T Stadium, but there have been some notable issues. Those were on full display during the Dallas Cowboys’ playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
The quirky design of AT&T Stadium — also known as “Jerry World” — impacted play on at least two occasions. The first may have been costly for Dallas, as wide receiver Cedrick Wilson appeared to lose a ball in the sun on a third down play late in the first half.
Had Wilson been able to make the play, the Cowboys would have had at least a field goal attempt before halftime. They were trailing 16-7 at the time.
Then in the second half, a Dallas punt hit the massive video board that hangs above the field.
The punt wasn’t an issue, as the the down is simply replayed when the ball hits the scoreboard. That didn’t stop people from letting Jones and the Cowboys hear it on social media.
Jones is a smart businessman, so he knows any publicity is good publicity. Still, we highly doubt he wants to be trending on Twitter for the flawed design of his $1.2 billion stadium.
Jalen Hurts was in a walking boot after his Philadelphia Eagles’ season came to an end on Sunday.
Hurts’ Eagles got dominated 31-15 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their NFC Wild Card game. Philly’s points didn’t come until the fourth quarter, after they were already down 31-0.
Hurts went 23/43 for 258 yards, a touchdown pass and two interceptions. He rushed eight times for 39 yards. The second-year quarterback walked into the media room postgame with a boot on his left foot.
Hurts says he has been dealing with the injury since November and that he hopes he won’t need surgery.
If the Eagles indeed are committed to Hurts longterm, they better hope that the young quarterback’s ankle was the reason for his poor play. Otherwise, getting shutout through three quarters and adding in points when the game was out of hand isn’t the kind of playoff showing that inspires confidence. The team does seem to feel good about him though.
Photo: Oct 3, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) runs off the field after loss against the Kansas City Chiefs at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Nickelodeon’s kid-friendly broadcast of the San Francisco-Dallas Wild Card Game on Saturday ended up being not quite so kid-friendly.
The children’s network picked up where they left off last year and aired their second annual NFL playoff broadcast geared specifically towards kids. The Giants-Cowboys game had this year’s honor of being aired on Nickelodeon (in addition to the main broadcast on CBS). Nickelodeon’s broadcast of the game featured fun graphics, bright colors, and special commentators.
Unfortunately, the broadcast went a little bit haywire late in the first half. On a second-down run play for Elijah Mitchell that went nowhere, 49ers teammate George Kittle dropped an F-bomb that was loudly heard on the Nickelodeon broadcast. Take a look at the video, where Kittle, who wears No. 85, was visibly displeased (but obviously beware of the bad language).
The 49ers went into halftime leading the Cowboys 16-7. But Kittle was held without a single catch in the first half and only got one target.
Nickelodeon’s NFL broadcasts are always delightful fever dreams because you never know quite what is going to make it on the air. Sometimes you will get surprise F-bombs like this one from Kittle, and sometimes you will get fans playing a joke on Nickelodeon just like what happened last year.
