Jason Garrett’s decision to punt on 4th-and-1 from his own side of the field in overtime against the Houston Texans is ripe to be scrutinized.
Even the Dallas Cowboys’ owner didn’t care for the call.
“We were being outplayed. It’s time for risks at that particular time,” Jerry Jones said after the 19-16 loss in Houston, via the team’s official website.
Instead, the conservative coach decided to boot the ball to the Texans. After Deshaun Watson hooked up with DeAndre Hopkins for a huge gain, Houston escaped with a game-winning field goal, and Garrett is left answering questions about why he didn’t take a calculated risk.
After the loss Garrett called it a “long one (yard)” and defended his decision noting they’d just been stuffed on third down.
On Monday morning, speaking on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, the coach reiterated his faith in the defense to get a stop.
“Well obviously it didn’t work out for us… our defense had made some really good stops,” Garrett said, via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. “The idea was simply to see if we could make another stop, make a first down and kick the game-winner.”
It seems clear that Jones would disagree with that sentiment.
When a team invests as heavily as the Cowboys have in their offensive line, and a top-five draft pick in the league’s leading rusher, Ezekiel Elliott, it’s antithetical to eschew a fourth-and-short in a potential game-winning situation.
Garrett, however, let the previous play’s failure spook him into punting.
“We believe in our guys up front. We believe in our runner,” he said. “Unfortunately on the play before, we actually lost yards on a similar play, so we decided to play the field position.”
