One of the most famous plays in NFL history came when Tony Dorsett went 99 yards for a touchdown against the Vikings in 1982. The Cowboys had only 10 players on the field.
They didn’t get as lucky against the Vikings on Sunday night when they had only 10 players on the field.
Vikings running back Dalvin Cook went 30 yards with a Kirk Cousins pass while the Cowboys were a player short. Worse still, Robert Quinn drew a roughing the passer penalty on Cousins. That got the Vikings to the Dallas 14, and Kyle Rudolph scored his second touchdown six plays later to give Minnesota a 14-0 lead.
“Yeah, didn’t do a good enough job getting our communication right, to have 11 out there,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday. “Obviously, you want to have 11, and we didn’t handle the situation well enough.”
Weakside linebacker Leighton Vander Esch appeared to realize before the snap that the Cowboys are a player short.
“Typically, [a timeout call] comes from the sidelines. In certain situations, players have taken timeouts,” Garrett said. “We just weren’t on top of it fast enough to see that and process the whole thing and get it called.”
Between that and a miscommunnication on Tavon Austin‘s fair catch at the end of the game, Garrett was asked Wednesday if he considers himself a good game manager.
“Again, that’s something we strive, as players and coaches and certainly my role, absolutely you always try to learn from your experiences and do it really at a high level,” Garrett said. “So, have we been perfect every time? No. Are we constantly trying to get better at it? Absolutely.”