The Arizona Cardinals dropped one on Sunday just as it appeared that the Dallas Cowboys would be back to winning ways. The offense and Quarterback Dak Prescott struggled once more, with the offense not finding their groove until too late.
Both in Arizona and Dallas, the referees were a major factor. It seemed like there were flags being thrown at every play for a lot of the game’s duration. Most of these flags were questionable.
Defensive end Demarcus Lawrence commented on the performance of the referee after the game. He subtlety addressed the team that was working Sunday’s game, but he didn’t directly call them out.
Lawrence stated that there is a chance we will see both these teams in the playoffs.
Lawrence wasn’t the only Dallas player to be critical of the performance. Leighton Vander Esch, a linebacker for the Cowboys, spoke out about the play that gave the Cowboys the ball with just two minutes remaining.
Vander Esch stated that it was a complete fumble and that he doesn’t know how to explain it with the technology we have today, even though we don’t have timeouts. “We’re playing more against refs than any other team to my mind.”
You have probably heard it before, but an NFL head coach doesn’t know how to manage the clock properly. On Sunday, Mike McCarthy, Dallas’ head coach, was the latest example.
The Cardinals appeared just before the two minute warning to throw the ball, but officials determined that Chase Edmunds was down.
Mike McCarthy Cowboys coach could have challenged the play but he ran out of timeouts. To challenge a play, you must use at least one timeout according to NFL rules. It was not automatically reviewed because it occurred before the two-minute warning.
That's for sure a Chase Edmunds fumble. Tough one for the Cowboys pic.twitter.com/6wjHZ5zplM
— Roto Street Journal (@RotoStJournal) January 3, 2022
Dallas trailed the entirety of the game, but made a valiant comeback effort late. The Cowboys scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, completing a two-point conversion on the last one to pull within three points.
Dallas could have won if McCarthy hadn’t used all the timeouts. Instead, Arizona’s quarterback Kyler Murray kneeled for three consecutive plays to win the game 25-22.