Tony Romo: Jason Garrett called for the sneak, I agreed with him

[Midswat]

Posted by Michael David Smith on January 2, 2012, 10:24 AM EST


Tony Romo’s unsuccessful fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak deep in Giants territory in the fourth quarter on Sunday night was a costly failure in the Cowboys’ season-ending loss, and afterward Romo and Garrett were both asked who deserved the blame.

And Romo and Garrett were united in saying no one deserved any blame, because it was the right call.

“The call comes from the sideline,” Romo told ESPNDallas.com. “I agreed with the call. Obviously we would’ve liked to have gotten it. It’s an easy thing to second guess now.”

Garrett said that with a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter, a field goal wasn’t an option.

“We were down two touchdowns at that time and we’d been moving the ball really well,” Garrett said. “We thought it was a good opportunity to cash in and get a touchdown at that point and make it a one-score game with the time we had left.”

Going for it on fourth down was the right call. But going through with the sneak, even after seeing that the Giants were lined up and ready for it, feels like a poor decision. Romo should have checked out of the play that Garrett called in from the sideline.

 

[Theebs]

have to place blame on witten here.

He catches the ball and goes sideways. Its a bad habit he has started over the past year.

if he just turns and uses his size to go forward its a first down.

if kevin ogletree did that people would have lost there minds yesterday. Hard to get on witten, but the veterans let us down alot yesterday.

terrible play call with a full yard needed...

 

[dbair1967]

terrible play call with a full yard needed...

For starters, I dont know that it was a full yard.

Second, they kind hurried to run the play because as Collinsworth noted, the Giants didnt really have the personnel to defend the play the best. We just didnt get enough push. Alot of teams run that same sort of sneak play with alot of success.

 

[Hoofbite]

have to place blame on witten here.

He catches the ball and goes sideways. Its a bad habit he has started over the past year.

if he just turns and uses his size to go forward its a first down.

if kevin ogletree did that people would have lost there minds yesterday. Hard to get on witten, but the veterans let us down alot yesterday.

terrible play call with a full yard needed...

I gave Witten a pass in the Jets game when he basically let a guy much smaller than him run him out of bounds but this one was just ridiculous. Seriously pissed me off.

 

[Hoofbite]

For starters, I dont know that it was a full yard.

Second, they kind hurried to run the play because as Collinsworth noted, the Giants didnt really have the personnel to defend the play the best. We just didnt get enough push. Alot of teams run that same sort of sneak play with alot of success.

I think that's part of the issue. Dallas doesn't run it. Whether or not other teams do doesn't mean shit if Dallas doesn't run the play at all and then tries to pull it off in a do or die situation like that.

I would have much preferred they just take a second and line up to run something else.

 

[Mr.Po]

A Witten fan but watching Witten try to stop and start or make yards after the catch in the middle of clutter is liking watching an 18 wheeler try to make a U-turn on a one way street.

 

[Midswat]

I didn't like the decision, and I didn't like the play called.

Running a smaller QB behind a poor LT, a new guard, and a terrible center was a terrible decision.

Yeah, Garrett, we were moving the ball well... in a conventional offense. We weren't QB sneaking it down the field.

There was plenty of time left to get the 3 points and play strong defense. Protect yourself should the Giants score again (which they did).

 

[Bob Sacamano]

A Witten fan but watching Witten try to stop and start or make yards after the catch in the middle of clutter is liking watching an 18 wheeler try to make a U-turn on a one way street.

It's funny because once in awhile, it does work.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

I didn't like the decision, and I didn't like the play called.

Running a smaller QB behind a poor LT, a new guard, and a terrible center was a terrible decision.

Yeah, Garrett, we were moving the ball well... in a conventional offense. We weren't QB sneaking it down the field.

There was plenty of time left to get the 3 points and play strong defense. Protect yourself should the Giants score again (which they did).

Garrett always forgets that part.

 

[Maveric]

I have very little problem with the sneak. Might not have been the best play but we could have called worse.

My problem was with the hurry up. This offensive line is just not that good in a hurry up situation like that; all it did was significantly decrease our chances of getting good blocks.