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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones refused to second-guess coach Jason Garrett's questionable game management decisions in the final moments of the 19-13 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Garrett is getting criticized nationally for not calling a timeout with 26 seconds left and the ball on the 31-yard-line to try to move for a closer field goal. Jones refused to question that nor Garrettt's decision to call a timeout, essentially icing kicker Dan Bailey, nullifying a made 49-yard field goal to win the game. Of course, Bailey missed the second try.
"That's just second-guessing," Jones said Tuesday. "I'm just not going to do that, because I want Jason to draw on his reservoir and make those kinds of decisions. Upon sleeping on this thing a couple of nights, I am OK with how we're doing there. I understand the process Jason went through. I understand the process we were going through relative to how he was getting his input. That's sound. That's well thought-out. But if you get down to the actual decision to 'yes' or 'no,' we're going to leave that in his hands."
Jones said the Cowboys shouldn't have even been in that position. But they were because of squandered opportunities. The Cowboys scored only 13 points despite having the ball in Cardinals territory eight times in the game.
"I'm not going to second-guess those timeouts at all," Jones said. "We lost that game in my mind because early in the ballgame we didn't take advantage of great field position. When you let them hang around like that, you've got a good chance to basically pay the price. That's what we did late in the ballgame."
