Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy came under more fire on Sunday despite his team winning against the Los Angeles Chargers.
McCarthy was criticized for his inept clock management in the dying stages of the game as the Cowboys tried to get into field goal position for their game-winning kick. In the end, the vehement vitriol was moot as Greg 'The Leg' Zuerlein crushed a 56-yard walkoff field goal as time expired.
McCarthy explains what happened with his clock managment
McCarthy littered his time as Green Bay Packers head coach with questionable clock management skills. Onlookers were confused as McCarthy let the clock tick down to zero without hurrying up his offense or using his final timeout. Most people thought this was another moment where McCarthy ruined a game due to his game-management skills.
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McCarthy then explained after the game that one of the clocks inside SoFi Stadium had malfunctioned:
"We were just going to run it down, but the clock I was watching came off the board. Then, the clock [offensive coordinator] Kellen [Moore] had with the camera -- the camera was great from up top, and obviously, you want to call that time off between three and four seconds."
Dallas' head coach didn't use the issue as an excuse. Still, he elaborated that the Cowboys had various other problems that confused the sidelines and the sky booth coaches:
"I've never had a clock go off the board on me like that. In the second down, we're trying to chip away and get a shorter field goal. We were going to attempt a third-down play, kicking on the fourth was the time frame we were in. I think 17 seconds. We were right on the threshold. When you get in these 2-minute [situations], you have thresholds -- one minute, 30 seconds, 17 seconds -- so we were right at the threshold there of our whole operation. We had personnel -- one of our players came off who shouldn't have come off -- and just communication errors."
Ultimately it didn't matter, and Dallas got their win as Zuerlein successfully made the kick. Since his time in Green Bay, questions have always surrounded McCarthy and his time-management skills. In Los Angeles, McCarthy and the Cowboys got away with one, despite the faulty clock that caused the head coach problems in calling the crucial time out.
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