Mike McCarthy Blows It
Two weeks ago I watched what should go down as one of the great bad calls in NFL history. It isn’t as bad as the Swinging Gate play, or worse, the Colts Fake Punt, but it should be in the top ten, at least for what I remember. The Giants, losing 3-0 to Washington in the 2nd quarter, call a QB sneak on 3rd and nine from their own 4-yard line. To “give some more space for the punter”. It may not be the worst call in NFL history, but it might be the most cowardly. Running a QB sneak to set up your own punter with an extra yard of space. It speaks a lot to the problems Joe Judge had as a head coach and without a doubt contributed to the cacophony of criticism that had recently built up and likely got him fired. Your team is an absolute pile of shit, barely losing with lots of time left in the game, and you go for this? Why are you not out there trying to win, going all out, instead of calling the most give-up play possibly ever called?
I did not expect to see a play one week later that genuinely challenged the QB sneak for stupidity, and in some ways probably surpasses it. It wasn’t cowardly like the QB sneak was, but it also featured significantly higher stakes and was situationally possibly even dumber. The QB sneak, for as cowardly as it was…actually accomplished its goal? It gave the punter a bit more room without having to fear the rush as much from the endzone. In its own twisted, cowardly logic, the Sneak worked. The QB Draw performed by Dallas in the remaining 14 seconds of the wildcard matchup with the 49ers ended their entire season and sent Texans home in tears.
Dallas was going to win that game. I could feel it in my bones. The 49ers could not put them away and Dallas, after playing like dipshits for 3 quarters, finally found something and started coming back. The Refs gave them several extra seconds for that final drive after how they adjusted the clock when the 49ers didn’t convert that 3rd down and had to punt. They moved the ball 40 yards in three plays and took almost no time off the clock. The chances the Cowboys could pull off the win wasn’t high, but it was there, and you could feel it. The 49ers were stumbling so hard. For all the mistakes, penalties, and game mismanagement, Dallas had 14 seconds to try and make none of it matter. 14 seconds is roughly 3 quick plays, 2 slightly longer plays. They had enough chance to chuck a quick out route and then go for 2 endzone bombs. The worst thing that could happen at this moment, for the Cowboys, was being tackled in-bounds. I heard Tony Romo say it on the broadcast. I said it to my friend that I was watching the game with. If they get tackled in bounds, they might run out of time.
AND THEY CALLED A QB DRAW UP THE MIDDLE OH MY GOD
With the playoffs and a 12-5 season, the best in recent memory, on the line, they call a play that guarantees a tackle in bounds. Dak didn’t even run for the sideline, which might have worked. He ran 17 yards on a play where he should have given himself up as soon as seemed reasonable to preserve the clock. Then, instead of handing the ball to the official like you are supposed to do, they tried to set the ball themselves and accidentally boxed out the umpire who was running as fast as he could to set it. The play itself took 7 seconds off the clock and the ensuing nonsense trying to get set up cost the remaining 7. Complete buffoonery. All of this so they would have a slightly easier attempt at the endzone. When the ref came out shortly after the spike and simply said “The Game Is Over” I practically burst my spleen laughing so hard.
Dallas gave us true chaos that afternoon. NFCE Clownball at its finest. Dallas enters the offseason as absolute clowns instead of being hailed as any sort of good team. They were one! You don’t win 12 games as a bad team. Even fraud teams have to be kinda good to trick people. They played sloppy, undisciplined football all game and ended with a team record 14 penalties. Bad playcalling and poor play from the offense killed them even more. Hell, even Jerry’s own hubris caused the Cowboys to suffer when one of the players was blinded by the sunrays coming in from the giant windows. Windows that have curtains on them! They could have prevented that! It wasn’t even the only time during the game Jerry’s Football Palace fucked up the experience, as the Cowboys punter smacked the low-hanging jumbotron and forced a new kick.
But despite all of that, the Cowboys had a chance to win, and they called a play practically designed to run the clock in a situation where every single second was precious. Don’t listen to any of these clowns like McCarthy and Dak trying to blame the refs for this. 14 penalties are not 14 bad calls. Your own stupidity caused you to run out of time, that umpire hustled his ass off to reach you and you dumbasses blocked him from reaching the ball, and you forced him to fix the spot. This is on you. Enjoy the offseason, fuckos. Hope Dak can’t get any sleep on his fancy sleep number bed.
The fact that the Cowboys season ended due to a Draw Play is now my favorite fact of the year and I will take full credit despite deserving none of it.
This website’s name will always come into mind when thinking about that last play.
Given time, this clusterbeep could consume Judge’s weaksauce back-to-back QB sneaks, to the point where they’re mostly forgotten. It was a low-stakes Loser Bowl, it did literally accomplish what he was attempting to do. He had a total moron at QB, so the distrust was justified, and the Cowboys just took the situational buffoonery of it and cranked it to 11.
After Steve Jones commented on bringing McCarthy back, it seems that I’m happier with the state of the Giants than my brother-in-law is of the Cowboys (I told my sister not to marry him, and she ignored me).
Say what you will, the Giants stopped hammering nails into their own foot with this seemingly competent GM pool. That MIGHT lead to a good coach hire, which might lead to a competent person assessing Jones, Barkley, & co., not some nerd-hating juice-squeezer. Since we’re not financially hitched to those key positions, we can upgrade once we jettison some dead weight.
But the Cowboys? That $75m Can’t-Beat-a-Playoff-Team-&-Take-No-Accountability QB ain’t going anywhere. Elliott is toast. And since Jerrehhhh loves snogging Mike McCarthy, he’s not going anywhere, either. Which means the Cowboys probably ain’t going anywhere but down for awhile. And, to quote the Joker… that always brings a smiiiile to my face!
Ten years on and Browns fans still talk about Pat Shurmur being afraid of his own shadow. We actually cheered for Mike Pettine, because while he was clearly in over his head the entire time, he at least had the balls to try to win winnable games.
Judge’s decision may not be as bad as McCarthy’s, but trust me, you will remember the cowardice long after Mike McCarthy does some other dumb thing to overshadow that endgame sequence.
I agree, Judge didn’t have a long tenure and his meltdown press conference and QB sneak call are likely what is going to stand out to us in our memories of him by the end, kind of like how McAdoo’s slicked haircut and Eli mistake define him, both weren’t there his first year
I’ll agree that Giants fandom in general will never forget this. And while I fully agree the sneaks deserve ridicule, there’s at least a form of logic behind it. If the D held stout and it became a battle of field position, it could almost be excused. Almost. In 6 games, Glennon/Fromm combined for 5 TDs / 13 INTS. Again, I’m not saying I have 0 issues with the playcall, but given what Judge had for personnel (thanks, Davey G!), I don’t personally view it as the organizational embarrassment in the same way that the “Clown Show” rant was. It was a guy trying to be extra-conservative in a situation where he would have looked better going balls-to-the-wall. But there’s a logic to it, twisted though it is, and I personally don’t think I’ll jump to that memory when I see Judge’s name in 5 years. But that’s just me. I don’t equate it to Pete Carroll throwing near the goal line for the Super Bowl win when you have Beast Mode right there, or McCarthy running with :14 left and his team being too incompetent to get the ball set for one more play.
I’ve already forgotten most of the stupid things McAdoo did on the field, and I know he did some pretty sketchy stuff that 2nd year. I remember the oversized suit, dipping his head in canola oil, and doing Eli dirty.
I think it honestly is less about the sneak and more about what that sneak says about the team. Judge was right in that getting more room for the punt was probably important, and that the sneak gave them the best shot. But what does it say about the team and about his coaching that their best option was a QB sneak, that not even an RB dive or a short pass was better? That’s the real issue here.
I agree with you, and I don’t fault anyone who considers the Joe Judge Double Sneak one of the worst drives in NYG history. But I can almost see his thinking. His 2 awful qbs threw a pick 6 in a prior game, he was given some level of support from ownership. His goal was probably to avoid anything stupid enough to get himself fired.
I’m not saying there are a LOT of reasons to defend it, but there is a logic if you dig for it. And, for me, the truly horrific plays that live in infamy are overwhelmingly indefensible.
Was it humiliating? Yes. Did it completely fly in the face of his “We’re gonna fight to the last bell and punch you in the mouth!” tough guy nonsense? Absolutely. Did it make us the laughing stock above and beyond how people were already laughing at us? I’m not sure. It was ridiculed, absolutely, but I got way more flak from my crew over the Clown Show comments. And I’m indifferent about how it fits into the bigger narrative of our year. It was a lost season, the last game, we had literally nothing to play for. It caused me no pain to watch. I was just like… “Ok, here is the cherry for the sundae.” It won’t eat at me like the 2002 playoff game against the 9ers, where we were up 38-14 and then lost 39-38 on a botched field goal and penalty to end the game.
I just don’t think I’m going to remember it because I don’t have much of a reaction to it now. We were terrible all year. Everything was terrible. It’s just a “Yay, one more bad play on the pile.” kinda thing to me. What McCarthy’s “game management” means to the Cowboys is just… it rips the their fans hearts out. It’s one of several giant ditches they fell into over the course of the year. That makes it memorable. It makes it hurt. JudgeSneaks didn’t make me hurt, it made my eyes roll into the back of my skull.
As a GB fan, it gives me infinite enjoyment getting to see the Cowboys and their fans experiencing firsthand Mike McCarthy’s time management ineptitude.
I almost forgot about Shia until I started hearing “JUST DO IT!” in my head. This was my favorite of them. Mad props to him for recording these on a greenscreen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAVLOHbqWd4&ab_channel=AutomaticTriple
To be fair, they probably wouldn’t have won anyway. They had a chance with 2:30 left to play, to score a touchdown and take the lead, but they cowboyed the drive away. Even if they did take 2 shots, making either were incredibly low.
However it was inexcusable to call a draw play with 14 seconds remaining. Mike Mccarthy should be fired for how he did during the wild card.
Fun fact of the day, Tom Brady is older than the remaining playoff NFC coaches
‘cept his own.
shia le bump
Lol.
“With the playoffs and a 12-4 season…” It’s going to take a while for a lot of us; they were 12-5.
This 17th game business is worse than the first days of the new year
Lifelong Dallas fan. I legitimately had no idea this happened. I turned it off when I thought the 49ers converted that 3rd down and were going to run out the clock. Nobody on sports radio here is talking about this. Wild.
Also, they weren’t a bad team this year but most fans were uneasy about this team. Especially the offense. They had a couple of games where they blew bad teams out but the offense was pretty mediocre the second half of the season. I’m not a huge fan of McCarthy but we could do worse. I’m mostly just excited that we’re bringing back Will McClay (the real GM).
Moral of the story: As long as refereeing stays as it is, don’t turn anything off until they start interviewing the quarterbacks.
I don’t have any skin in any of these games so I’m not going to get infuriated by a blown call, but I’d sure like to have a playoff weekend where we don’t talk about the refereeing at all. At this rate I figure they’ll find a way to screw up the Pro Bowl.
It was a pretty boring WC round save for the Raiders Bungles game, and even then you knew those two weren’t making it past the 2nd round. I really doubt the Cowboys were going to comeback and win, so any play they ran and botched shouldn’t be seen under this kind of microscope.
Ok I got a Joe Judge-esque rant coming… but it’s NOT a clown show rant! Readers have called me and told me they have given up on the OTHER GUYS’ rants, but not mine. They read hard for me!
Anyway, first I gotta say– Dave, like most of the internet dunking on Judge, you’re still somehow UNDERSELLING how cowardly and horrible that QB sneak drive was. You didn’t even mention that we called one on SECOND DOWN TOO!!!
And then lined up in ‘victory’ formation for the 3rd down one because we needed some more blocking to properly execute our 1 yard run.
And I am so, SO glad that it went viral and essentially got Judge fired, and really fit the “clown show” definition oh so perfectly.
BUT!!
But.
After this last week of football, I think we have to admit that Joe made the RIGHT call.
(I mean, maybe not for the spirit of a team. It must be impossible to get your players to ever buy in ever again after something so pathetic that it has never before been seen in the NFL)
But I bet all weekend Judge was watching these games and going “SEE! I was right!”
CASE STUDY 1: Raiders v Bengals
The Raiders had a near identical situation to the Giants. Both faced 2nd down inside their own 5, and then got a false start to back them up (barely), but leaving them with a 2nd and long.
Giants’ choice: to run two QB sneaks, embarrass a historic franchise, and successfully punt it.
Raiders’ choice: try to get the first down. But they got pushed backwards on 2nd and 3rd, coming within ONE INCH of Carr getting sacked in the end zone. They did manage to avoid the safety, AND successfully punt the ball away…. but hey, the Raiders are a playoff team with NFL players on their offensive line…. not like the Giants and their high school band “AT and the Wet Noodles”. I gotta imagine that if they had the Giants oline, the Raiders are instead down 2 points and setting up a free kick.
CASE STUDY 2: Cardinals v Rams
Cardinals started their own drive inside the 10, got pushed backwards. Tried to pass their way out of it, and Kyler got rushed and threw a horrible Pick-6.
And again, we’re looking here at a much better team than the Giants. If they had our Oline, and From/Glennon at QB, I bet that play would’ve been a Pick-12. Somehow.
CASE STUDY 3: Giants v Bears
Lest we forget…. just 7 days prior to the QB sneak blunder, there was another plucky horrible team known as the Giants, with a plucky horrible coach known as Joe Judge. This Giants team had just received the ball inside their own 10. But they were gonna fight! Even though the season was lost, and their players were horrible, THEY COULD TRY TO WIN!
Well, they tried to get a first down, and instead got pushed straight backwards until they gave up a safety. It was terrible.
A lot of people seem to forget about that!
So when Judge was dealt the same hand a week later against the hated Eagles, you KNOW the only thing in his mind was “We cannot be the first NFL team to give up a safety in back-to-back games”
And you know what? By god, he wasn’t!
So after watching much better teams barely avoid the safety in nearly identical situations, I have to commend Joe Judge on saving our team from historic, record-breaking embarrassment….. with some quick thinking and instead just some only-temporary embarassment. 20-30 years tops.
“There’s nowhere in the record book for exceptional cowardice, suckers!”
– Joe Judge, probably
Oh and I forgot to say– this comic is amazing. That last panel had me laughing out loud. What a perfect expression on his face
What gets me is how mccarthy defended it by saying they always practice that every week. As if practicing a terrible playcall for a terrible situation somehow makes the playcall not terrible. That just makes it worse!
I’m going to say it: this was dumber than Swinging Gate, by virtue of the stakes being much higher. Chuck Pagano tried to be cute and outsmart Billy B. McCarthy got them an early playoff exit.
Are you confusing the Swinging Gate for the fake punt? Those are two different plays. The Swinging gate was the TEAM doing the weird fake field goal on the Giants on MNF right before half, the Colts fake punt is the one you describe
I think both are worse calls than this play was, a fair amount of the issue with the Dallas sneak was how badly the team executed it
Seeing Dallas players and fans bemoan the refs for “costing” them the game somehow made them more insufferable than they already were. It’s sad because I like Dak as player and a person but hearing make light of fans throwing trash at the refs is just ugh. You gotta be above that crap man.
Yeah, blaming the refs for their own stupid call and poor execution of it was really telling
The refs were bad all year this season, deserve so much blame, but not for this part at all. That was all Dallas
As a lifelong Packers fan I laughed my ass off when it was someone else’s turn to suffer a backbreaking Brett Favre playoff interception.
It’s no different with Mike McCarthy galaxy-braining his way out of the wild card round.