Sturm: The Morning After - Surviving A Most Memorable Clash In Oakland

Cotton

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By Bob Sturm , Special contributor Contact Bob Sturmon Twitter:mad:SportsSturm

At the end of most every football game, we have a winning team and a losing team. The winning team feels great joy or relief that they emerged with the only thing that seemed important at the beginning of the proceedings.

The losing team did not accomplish their mission. No matter how close they came and no matter the brief smiles felt along the way, the overwhelming takeaway from the energy investment will be failure and regret.

And, with both teams feeling that their season was hanging by a thread and victory was the only way not to free fall to the end, we saw a magnificent contest on Sunday night in Oakland.

No, it was not aesthetically pleasing to the eye at all points. No, coaching clinics on how football is supposed to be played are not likely to be based on this contest. And, no, it will not rank amongst the most important games on the way to the Super Bowl.

But, for me, that was about as memorable game as you can possibly offer. And, for the Cowboys to survive it - however much lady luck had to intervene - suggests that perhaps the coffin is not completely closed on 2017 afterall.

The Cowboys won in Oakland in a game that had more talking points than most months offer in the NFL. They survived a game that was asking to be won but threatening to be lost for the entire 2nd half. And, quite possibly, the person who was most responsible for winning the game was the man who had the most riding on the outcome; Jason Garrett.

Garrett is finishing his 7th full season as coach of the Dallas Cowboys and his 8th overall. He has built something here in Dallas, but it is difficult to properly know what it actually is. Is it a powerful young team that will be a contender for several years in the NFC or is it an underachieving bunch that will always let you down the moment you begin to build expectations? In other words, is the sum total of the Jason Garrett Cowboys a basic run to 8-8 each season with variations that eventually cancel each-other out back to the center of .500 football?

At 66-52 now, the Cowboys are much better than .500, but also do not quite edge into the top 10 of the league since Garrett's tenure has begun. They have been "good", but probably not quite "very good", while "great" sits several streets down from them. They are in better shape than they were, but you could argue that 3 weeks ago, the Cowboys should have considered going in a different direction if the season did not take an altered path quickly.

To the credit of Jason Garrett's staff, they quickly sorted things after the Thanksgiving debacle and have now run off three consecutive wins against the Redskins, Giants, and Raiders. Perhaps the caliber of the opponents should be taken into consideration, but after not scoring in double-digits the three weeks prior, there should be no real reason to look this gift horse too closely in the mouth.

But, Sunday night, we saw a great example of what you pay a coach to do. A head coach in the NFL has many tasks, but one reason why you would ever consider paying him as much as the Cowboys pay Jason Garrett, is to figure out how to win the game. Garrett seldom seems like the best coach on the field, and frankly, there have been more than a few occasions where you can't believe how badly he was out-coached by the guy across the field.

Not in Oakland. I thought that there were some moments in this game where Garrett knew he had to win this game and decided that fortune would favor the bold. We don't believe in outcome-based analysis when we can handle it and we also don't know how this column might be altered if your fake punt scheme is unsuccessful, but it did work and the Raiders were clearly as stunned as anyone watching this game.

A trick play is only a trick play if it catches the opponent napping, and if Jimmy Johnson would have been the head coach for a fake punt on 4th and 11 from his own 24, the statue would be already standing this morning. Just to be clear, procedurally, this was very likely Chris Jones seeing something that was authorized in meetings and not an actual call from Garrett's head set, but when preparation meets opportunity in the NFL, games are won or lost. And when they are won, we hold the coach up for having his guys ready to win the game. That fake punt was one of many moments where the Cowboys had the opponents caught with their proverbial pants down, and it ended up leading to a massive swing in the game.

In fact, two drives later, with the game tied at 17-17 late in the 4th Quarter, the Cowboys had another opportunity to demonstrate an aversion to risk. Instead, they rolled the bones out there once again and decided to go for it on a 4th down at their own 39-yard line. Dak Prescott burrowed his way to what appeared to be a 1st down, but the guesswork of our officials make that more of a rough estimate than an exact science. So, then to see the referee, Gene Steratore, use a folded index card to determine the measurement - and possibly the entire game - shows that it is in fact a game of centimeters more than inches. Steratore has a way of showing up at crazy games as you may remember him as the head referee in the "Dez Catch" playoff game in 2014 as well as many others.

Evidently, the paper was wide enough to assure Steratore that the ball had made the 40, and the Cowboys drive would survive long enough for Dak Prescott to his a big throw to Dez Bryant down the sideline on a 2nd and 8 call to put the Cowboys down to the 5-yard line. The Cowboys were unable to punch the ball in from the 5 with 3 straight gives to Alfred Morris - Rod Smith is my short yardage back in situations like that, but the staff must disagree - and the Cowboys had to settle for a field goal from short range and then believe that their defense could get a stop to win 20-17. Not getting a touchdown from that close range seemed to be asking for a painful ending to the last-gasp effort to keep their season alive.

The defense then came about as close as they possibly could to succumbing to the Raiders in that final 98 seconds. First, Anthony Brown dropped yet another interception in a spot where that would have absolutely declared the game over. He is an interesting young player with some positive attributes, but he has consistently left you wanting when the ball hits him in the chest late in games. They did force Oakland into a 4th and 10 from their own 30 yard-line, but Michael Crabtree - no stranger to last moment performances in his long career - was able to coax Jourdan Lewis into a 55-yard pass interference penalty (the single-longest penalty call in the NFL this entire season!) and move the Raiders right down into the red zone with plenty of time to punch it in, but at worst, to force overtime.

On 2nd and 3 from the 8-yard line, Jeff Heath gets in front of a pass in the end zone to Crabtree with :39 left. This puts Oakland in a spot where they need a fresh set of downs more than they need to worry about the Touchdown. There is still all sorts of time and Oakland has no worries if they can move the chains one more time.

Which makes the final outcome all the more confusing. Derek Carr, the Raiders $125 million QB, has the game at his finger-tips once he breaks contain to his right and slips away from Demarcus Lawrence's grasp. He was on the run and easily achieved the 1st down and also easily could have merely stepped out at the 3 or maybe even the 2-yard line. Instead, as Jeff Heath is trying to close him down, he decides to reach for the pylon in desperation. But, why? There is no reason to be desperate with over :30 to play, a timeout, a 1st down, and the sideline right there. Why did Derek Carr go all-in for no real reason?

A momentary lapse of reason, we must surmise. Carr reached out for the pylon and the ball left his grasp. When it did, it went forward and out of the end zone. Touchback was the easy call and the game ended in the most unlikely of ways.

If you are the Raiders this morning, you are wondering if your QB just made one of the dumbest decisions in the history of your franchise's QB decisions. That was not the type of thing that makes you happy you made him one of the richest players in the league. There was no reason for him to risk the game on one moment when he had plenty of moments in reserve.

But, he did. And, for that, the Cowboys season lives.

That, and the fact that Cole Beasley saved a pick-6 by touching the chin strap of Sean Smith. And the width of an index card. And the fake punt run of Chris Jones.

The Cowboys won the game on Sunday night despite yet another 0/0 game. These are becoming way too common down the stretch for the defense as a 0/0 means the defense had 0 sacks and 0 takeaways. There had only been one such game in the last 5 years before this past 30 days. Since then, the Cowboys have done it three times now (Eagles, Chargers, Raiders) and would have done it a 4th time last week at Giants Stadium if not for a few garbage time picks in the last 4 minutes. That is a very disconcerting reality about this defense.

However, they got the win. We don't totally know how they got the win, but they did.

It was part play-making, part coaching, and part pure solid football luck. When Gene Steratore gives you the call, you take it and don't look back.

I was asked where the Cowboys go from here. Well, I assume they go to the front door to let Ezekiel Elliott back in the facility and get ready for their final 2 games. Anything can happen down the stretch and the Cowboys still need some help.

But, after winning that ridiculous game last night, we wonder if things are starting to align for them at just the right moment.
 

UncleMilti

This seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Barely any pressure on Carr all night, and several dumb penalties. Garrett finally grew a set of balls, going for it at his own 39 on 4th down, yet almost lost the game by NOT going for it on 4th down from the 6” line.
Carr just happened to be a bigger retard than Garrett on Sunday night.
Once again this D is not good enough to create turnovers (or at least catch freebie INTs) nor is it getting to the passer when it absolutely has to.
 
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