Redeem now - The Dallas Cowboys crashed out of the playoffs in hilarious fashion.
- Needing a touchdown on the final play of the game, the Cowboys lined up in a bizarre formation with running back Ezekiel Elliott playing center.
- It did not work.
The Dallas Cowboys saw their season come to a disappointing end on Sunday, as they fell in the playoffs to the San Francisco 49ers for the second-straight season.
Dallas' effort was stifled throughout the game by the stout 49ers defense, but when it was time for the Cowboys to make one final heave in desperation, things got really bad.
The Cowboys got the ball back for their final possession with just 45 seconds left to play, trailing 19-12 and needing to drive 94 yards down the field for a potential game-tying touchdown. They were out of timeouts.
Using 39 of those 45 seconds at their disposal, the Cowboys had managed to move the ball just 18 yards. It was time for their last-gasp effort, and with the end zone still more than 70 yards away, a hail mary heave for the end zone was not an option.
So the Cowboys decided to get weird.
Running back Ezekiel Elliott lined up on the ball as center, ready to snap to Dak Prescott standing in shotgun. Elliott was the only "lineman" down. Lined up wide on either side of Prescott were the rest of the Cowboys, hoping to get down field, block, and cause general chaos in a way that would somehow result in a Dallas touchdown.
Before the snap, you can at least imagine what the Cowboys were trying to accomplish. In a play that is going to be desperate and likely involve multiple laterals, open space is your friend. If there's enough confusion on the defensive side, maybe someone wiggles free unnoticed and scores a miracle. It's happened before.
That, however, did not happen for the Cowboys on Sunday.
Elliott snapped the ball and was immediately pancaked to the ground. Prescott got off a short pass to wide receiver KaVontae Turpin eight yards downfield, but before he could make a move or toss the ball off to a teammate, he was pummeled by 49ers defensive back Jimmie Ward.
Ball game. It was not pretty.
—NFL (@NFL) January 23, 2023The play was especially rough for Elliott.
—AJ Battista (@AJBattistaa) January 23, 2023On Twitter, fans were shocked with the sequence.
—David Malandra Jr (@DaveMReports) January 23, 2023—Tyler Dunne (@TyDunne) January 23, 2023—Benjamin Watson (@BenjaminSWatson) January 23, 2023After the game, head coach Mike McCarthy offered a blunt assessment of his team's final play.
"It didn't get going," McCarthy said.
"I really don't want to get into detail on it, but that obviously wasn't the plan," McCarthy said. "It's obviously a gadget play or whatever to end it. It's the last-play-situation call we practice."
Adding insult to injury is the fact that this is the second-straight year the 49ers have knocked the Cowboys out of the playoffs on an embarrassing final play.
Last January, the Cowboys were also in need of a score in the waning seconds of action against San Francisco. With 14 seconds left on the clock, Prescott took off on a QB run all the way 49ers 25-yard line, potentially setting up one final throw to the end zone. But Dallas never got the chance, as the clock hit zero before Prescott could spike the ball.
—NFL (@NFL) January 17, 2022It's hard to fault a team for trying something different on their final play. Whether you're sacked for a loss or stopped at the one, the result is the same with no time left on the clock.
That said, twice now the Cowboys have attempted to throw a haymaker before the final bell against the 49ers, and twice now they've punched themselves in the face instead.
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