First and foremost, it should be noted that it is nearly impossible to win a game in the National Football League after allowing more than 40 points. The Denver Broncos somehow pulled it off on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. If Dallas fans want to blame anyone for the loss, they should probably blame their defense. If not, Tony Romo and head coach Jason Garrett have emerged as quality scapegoats.
Romo is too easy. After throwing for 506 yards and five touchdowns, he went classic Romo and threw an interception with just over two minutes remaining. The turnover gave the Broncos the ball in field goal range and positioned them perfectly for the win. That’s when Garrett made a questionable coaching decision.
With roughly 1:45 remaining in the game, Denver faced a 3rd-and-1 from the 2-yard line. Rather than allowing Denver to score and giving his offense a chance to tie the game with about 1:30 left and no timeouts remaining, Garrett had his defense try to stuff the Broncos on third down. Knowshon Moreno did the best thing he could have done at the time, picking up exactly one yard and giving Denver a first down without scoring. Peyton Manning was then able to take a knee and run the clock all the way down for the Broncos to kick a game-winning field goal as time expired.
On one hand, you can understand why Garrett went for the stop. The Cowboys had one timeout left at the time. Had Dallas stopped Moreno, it would have been 4th-and-1 and they could have used the timeout and forced Denver to settle for a field goal. That would have given the ball back to the Cowboys with plenty of time to get into field goal range for the tie.
The other side of the argument is that you play the odds in that situation. The chances of stopping Denver’s offense from picking up one yard were slim. Had he let Moreno walk into the end zone, Garrett would have given his team a chance. By going for the stop and failing, the game essentially game to an end.
As they say, hindsight is 20-20.
