Week 17’s matchup between the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys was not a fundamentally sound football game. But it was a great football game.
The showdown between two teams jockeying for playoff position featured the best and worst of each side. The Cowboys displayed the fearsome pass rush and downfield passing game that makes them a contender. They also showed off head coach Mike McCarthy’s abject lack of clock management skills and this team’s ability to run screaming from golden opportuntity.
The Lions, on the other hand, leaned into head coach Dan Campbell’s aggressiveness with aplomb, alternatively thriving and running face first into an open flame. Amazingly, all these traits were on display in the final three minutes of a game that saw the Cowboys fail to ice the game late, the Lions rally for what appeared to be a game-winning touchdown and, finally, enough evidence to ensure no one trusts either side once the postseason rolls around.
Let’s break down the stupidity that ruled crunch time and made this game glorious and frustrating and glorious again.
1
Jared Goff stares down danger, throws a potential game-sealing interception
Goff fell into a pattern against the continuous pressure created by the Cowboys’ pass rush. The veteran quarterback didn’t scramble or buy time. Instead, his time to throw dropped to 2.6 seconds per dropback, leading to a litany of short throws. 26 of his 34 attempts came hit targets fewer than nine yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
This led to predictability. And with 2:05 remaining in the fourth quarter of a 17-13 game, Dallas safety Donovan Wilson turned that pattern into production.
.@donlwilson6 INT in the CLUTCH! ✖️
📺: ABC/ESPN & NFL+ pic.twitter.com/KWo8Oxo0Y1
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) December 31, 2023
Goff didn’t step up in the pocket or look downfield. He whipped the ball to a short out route under pressure, failing to realize Wilson was right there, waiting to pounce. This left the Cowboys one first down from effectively icing this game.
Except…
2
Mike McCarthy, gifted a fresh set of possessions with 2:05 to play and an opponent with two timeouts, throws the ball repeatedly
McCarthy’s biggest drawback as an NFL head coach has been his abject inability to understand how to manage a game clock. Sometimes he fails to give his offense enough time to operate in a comeback effort. On Saturday, he created the space for Detroit to turn a 3.8 percent win probability into a potential game-changing drive.
McCarthy had the ball with 2:05 remaining in the game, already firmly in field goal position. He threw the ball on first down which, given the fact the two-minute warning loomed, is totally fine. The clock was about to stop anyway.
But tight end Peyton Hendershot got called for tripping, costing Dallas 15 yards and moving the team to the brink of field goal range. That’s a problem, but not a fatal one — in fact, it gave the Cowboys a chance to burn even more clock without a first down.
Three runs from the Detroit 44 yard line would likely put Brandon Aubrey, perfect on field goals this season, to kick a 50-something yard field goal. But McCarthy threw a high percentage pass on first-and-25 to move the ball to the 33.
Perfect. Time for two runs that would exhaust the last of the Lions’ timeouts and set Aubrey up for something like a 45-yard kick with a little over minute to play.
That is not what Mike McCarthy did. He dialed up a second-and-14 pass play Dak Prescott was forced to ditch out of bounds. And while a third-and-14 pass was complete to keep the clock running, it wasn’t enough to generate a fresh set of downs.
Aubrey’s 43-yard field goal was good, but Detroit got the ball back with 1:41 to play, zero timeouts and the ball at its own 25-yard line in a 20-13 game — 40 more seconds than it could have had. The Lions promptly drove the length of the field in nine plays.
Amon-Ra St. Brown’s touchdown came with 23 seconds left on the clock — seconds that wouldn’t have been there had McCarthy just ran the damn ball after Wilson’s interception.
Fight to the finish #DETvsDAL |📺 ABC/ESPN pic.twitter.com/FW5Nau86aw
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 31, 2023
3
Taylor Decker may or may not have checked in as eligible for what should have been a game-winning big man two-point conversion
OK. Phew. This one is a lot to unpack. Let’s start with what we know. This play, gorgeous in its design, should have given the Lions a 21-20 lead with 23 seconds to play.
TAYLOR DECKER WITH THE BIG MAN TWO POINT CONVERSION!!!!!!!! BUT IT DOESN’T COUNT NOOOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/bSa4Fh1XB0
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) December 31, 2023
Except the play didn’t count, because offensive lineman Taylor Decker didn’t report as eligible before the play. That’s a five-yard penalty for illegal touching and a replay of the try.
Except, well, maybe Decker *did* check in after all.
so who didn’t report then? pic.twitter.com/5U1sB2kLXk
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) December 31, 2023
Yeah, it’s a lot to sort out. Someone screwed up, and at best it looks like a miscommunication between player and official. Decker, in his postgame interview, refused to throw anyone under the bus for fear of a hefty fine from the league offices, but maintained he’d done “what [he] was supposed to do.”
#Lions Taylor Decker: “I did what I was told to do.” pic.twitter.com/nAniCMAZIh
— Nolan Bianchi (@nolanbianchi) December 31, 2023
4
Dan Campbell decides to go for two from the Cowboys' seven-yard line anyway, Micah Parsons makes his life easier
Decker’s penalty set the ball up at the Cowboys’ seven-yard line for any ensuing two-point conversion. The odds of converting fourth-and-seven at any time are roughly 40 percent — and those odds only get worse in the compressed space of the end zone. Feels like the right time to kick the extra point and press your luck in overtime right?
Not for Dan Campbell, no.
Pressure up the middle forced Goff to float another short pass, and he was picked off once more. Only, whoops, Micah Parsons — who’d been a menace with two quarterback hits and two tackles for loss all evening — jumped offside to not only negate the play but give the Lions one more shot at the two-point conversion, this time from the 3.5-yard line.
Lions second times a charm!! Offsides Parsons unbelievable pic.twitter.com/m9HbjmviuX
— Alex Monaco (@Alex__Monaco) December 31, 2023
5
Jared Goff, who has vacillated between inspiring and putrid most of the night (leaning largely toward the latter), completely biffs his game-winning throw
The Lions gave it a third try to win the game in the waning seconds of regulation. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson called up an angle play that probably would have worked. But we’ll never know, because Goff threw so wide of his intended target the play never had a chance.
COWBOYS HOLD ON IN THE FINAL SECONDS 😱 pic.twitter.com/WcNfTHw4w1
— ESPN (@espn) December 31, 2023
One failed onside kick later, the Cowboys improved their home record to 8-0 and both teams proved we’d be foolish to trust them in the playoffs.
