At the end of the first half of the Cowboys' 20-17 win over the Chargers on Monday night, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones had the same thought as the rest of us.
The Cowboys' offense was marching down the field in the final minute of the second quarter and had the ball on the Chargers' 17-yard line with 14 seconds remaining. On first down, quarterback Dak Prescott threw a dump ball to running back Tony Pollard for a three-yard gain, taking Dallas to the 14-yard line with 8 seconds on the clock.
Rather than take one of their final two timeouts to take a shot at the end zone before attempting a last-second field goal, coach Mike McCarthy elected to let the clock wind down to 3 seconds before taking a timeout.
Fan hosts, beat writers, national pundits and fans alike immediately went to X, formally Twitter, to put McCarthy's feet to the fire over the decision, and some questioned if the coach trusted Prescott in that situation.
After the game, McCarthy explained the thought process behind his decision to settle for a field goal.
"We just decided to play it safe. ... I just felt the way the game was going — I think we had a holding penalty earlier on the series. I just wanted to make sure we got the points and get out of there," McCarthy said, according to Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News.
Jones didn't speak with the media after the game and was asked for his thoughts on how the end of the half unfolded when he joined Shan, RJ and Bobby Tuesday morning on 105.3 The Fan.
“This is not an impassioned response to your question at all, but I thought we should’ve tried another pass in the end zone and use the clock accordingly.”
And was that decision an indictment of McCarthy's lack of faith in Prescott under those circumstances?
“Not at all. Not at all. No, it doesn’t reach that point with me at all," said Jones.
