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After falling out of the race to Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night, the 2022 Cowboys quickly found themselves in the running for a much less desired title: the worst trick play ever.
For the past eight years, the 2015 Colts have stood tall as the de facto No. 1 on nearly every list of the worst trick plays of all time. However, after Dallas’s bizarre final play to cap Sunday’s 19–12 divisional loss to the 49ers, former Indianapolis coach Chuck Pagano firmly believes the Cowboys should be in contention for the throne.
Speaking with analyst and former player Charles Davis, Pagano, the Colts’s coach from 2012 to ’17, argued on Monday that the Cowboys’ mishap topped his team’s epic fail late in the third quarter of a Week 6 meeting with the Patriots. And he couldn’t be more thrilled about the idea.
“I was like, ‘Man, this could be the one,’” Pagano told Davis. “This could be the one that replaces our debacle, our attempt at a fake punt, whatever that thing was.”
Pagano, who called the Colts’ play “one of the dumbest things to ever happen” in NFL history, also made sure to jokingly acknowledge Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy for taking the heat off his team.
“I’m still trying to figure where that thing was supposed to go, what the literals [were], how it was supposed to happen, that was wild. Thank you, Mike,” he added.
Was Dallas’ play truly the worst of all-time? To some, the answer is already “yes” given the stakes at the end of Sunday’s playoff game were certainly higher than that infamous mid-October matchup from years ago. However, as is often the case with sports debates, the answer to this one will ultimately always come down to one thing: the viewer. … sorry, Chuck.
