Coach Brian Schottenheimer has struggled in situational decision making this season. While the offense was able to put up points on Sunday against the Cardinals, the second year head coach again struggled to make sound decisions in crunch time.
One of the biggest plays of the game occurred on 3rd and 11 with 4:02 left in the 4th quarter. Arizona had just one timeout left. A field goal here puts Dallas up by two scores. The two most important factors at this moment were chewing clock or forcing Arizona to spend
their timeouts and securing the field goal. Going up two scores and leaving Arizona with as little time as possible while forcing them to use their timeouts has to be the mission this late into the game.
With 11 yards to go for a first down, coach Schottenheimer decided it was time to put the ball in the air. The risk was an incompletion, stopping the clock. The payoff, while unlikely given the distance, would be a potential game sealer. The ball was batted down at the line of scrimmage. The clock stopped. Arizona retained their timeout. This would come back to haunt the Cowboys just a short time later.
The drive took a commendable 6:53 off the clock and put Dallas up by two scores with 3:54 left in the game. This should have been the drive that iced it for the Cowboys. But the third-down incompletion helped Arizona retain a timeout, saving 40 seconds on the next Cowboys possession that went for negative three yards and took just 1:02 off the clock.
After getting the ball back with 1:09 left on the clock, Arizona marched down the field on an eight-play, 80-yard drive. With only 10 seconds left in the game, Arizona capped it off with the game tying touchdown, sending the matchup into overtime.
Without their timeout on the previous Cowboys drive, Arizona would have gotten the ball back with around 30 seconds left instead of just over one minute. That’s likely Hail Mary territory, as there simply wouldn’t have been enough time to drive the ball down field.
The decision to throw the ball in a situation where a conversion was unlikely was an unnecessary risk, and one that came back to haunt Dallas. Much to the chagrin of others, I applauded the decision to run the ball on 3rd-and-8 last week with Hunter Luepke inside the 10. Considering the game situation, it made complete sense. Chew clock, secure the two-score lead, and make a backup beat you in the waning moments.
In a similar situation this week, however, the head coach called a head-scratcher that played a key role in the embarrassing loss against the Cardinals. He allowed the opponent to retain a timeout, conserving 40 seconds in a game where the equalizer was scored with just ten seconds left.
Coach Schottenheimer and the offense seem to be in a strange limbo state where it’s unclear to them when to play aggressive and when to be conservative in crucial situations. This was highlighted once again in the worst loss of the Brian Schottenheimer era.
