NEWSLETTER
The Dallas Cowboys’ season ended last night in frustrating fashion, as they attempted to come back against the San Francisco 49ers in their Wild Card round match-up, only to fall about 25 yards short.
Of course, they were 25 yards short because the clock expired as they attempted a final play. A play that came *after* the Cowboys decided to run a quarterback draw with no timeouts and just 14 seconds left on the clock. Since an official has to reset the ball, there was not enough time after Dak Prescott slid down to get the next play off. A lot of hostility was pointed to the referees, but the play call is pretty clearly the whiff here:
What a way to end the game! #SuperWildCard pic.twitter.com/esKKpbkrQn
— NFL (@NFL) January 17, 2022
As the players and coaches and officials exited the field, you could see some trash being thrown out onto the field, which is never a good thing. Prescott was asked about it after the game, and at first he misunderstood and thought the Cowboys fans were trashing their own players.
But then he was corrected, and decided to go another route:
Cowboys QB Dak Prescott: “The fans felt the same way as us. I guess that’s why the refs took off and got out of there so fast. I think everybody is upset with the way this thing played out.” https://t.co/39p4x4itkE pic.twitter.com/bj1nHCuIfu
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) January 17, 2022
.@dak follow up on the plastic bottles being thrown at refs. pic.twitter.com/NXO5Mp2wjA
— Mark Lane (@therealmarklane) January 17, 2022
As you can see in the video, there was at least some joking in Prescott’s praise for the fans. And I do get that he’s deeply frustrated about how his season just ended. It’s gotta be hard to be up there taking questions when you’re seething mad. But, man, you can’t even joke about it being a GOOD thing that fans were throwing stuff at the refs. It’s definitely not a credit to the fans who did that, and even when a follow-up was asked and he had a chance to correct course … he stuck to it. The fans were just as mad as we were, so that’s why they did it. Yikes.
Dak might get a phone call from the league on this one.
