Cowboys' Mike McCarthy defends controversial decisions as Dallas' season ends with loss to Giants

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy stood by as Greg Zuerlein nailed the extra point in the third quarter, pulling Dallas within four.

He stood by in the fourth quarter, when Giants kicker Graham Gano lined up to attempt a 50-yard field goal immediately following what was ruled a 10-yard catch by receiver Dante Pettis, though replays shed doubt on the validity of that catch. 

And McCarthy stood by both of his decisions after the Cowboys lost 23-19 to the Giants, the chance for a two-point conversion and the elimination of a field goal equating to the deficit that ended Dallas’ season, while the Giants and Washington’s pursuit of the NFC East title remained alive.

Despite moments in the season when McCarthy made baffling decisions on timeouts, the Cowboys fielded too few or too many players, attempted a fake punt on fourth-and-10 in a key division game and now these two decisions — McCarthy dismissed a postgame question about whether his staff has struggled with game operations.

“No,” he said as his 6-10 debut season in Dallas concluded. “Not at all.”

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Permit him to explain.

The first half of the game was messy for both teams. Neither converted a third-down attempt through the first 24 minutes. But Giants receiver Sterling Shepard scored a 23-yard touchdown on a jet sweep in the first quarter and caught a 10-yard catch-and-run in the second. Daniel Jones and Pettis burned the Cowboys' secondary on a 33-yard dart touchdown up the middle. While the Giants’ three first-half scoring drives featured touchdowns, the Cowboys settled for three field goals.

All of which made Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott’s third-quarter touchdown — Dallas’ only end zone arrival of the day — that much more meaningful.

Quarterback Andy Dalton fired a quick pass to receiver Amari Cooper on the slant, Cooper reaching toward the pylon as he barreled down the right sideline toward the end zone. But he was ruled out of bounds a yard short, the Cowboys facing first and goal with 8:44 to play in the third. Elliott powered through a pile of Giants defenders, his third heave ultimately the force he needed to break free. 

The Cowboys trailed by five. McCarthy opted for an extra point rather than going for a two-point conversion. 

“It was too early in the game to go for two, in my opinion, there,” he said afterward. “There’s other variables. You have numbers obviously going into the game, but how the game’s being played and all those other variables are discussed. So that’s why the decision was made.

“I thought it was a clean decision.”

As the Cowboys’ next few series unfolded, they hoped the decision would be moot.

The Cowboys' defense contained New York, and its offense found a rhythm in what would become a 13-play, 62-yard drive. But an inept red-zone day again doomed the Cowboys, who settled for a field goal. Dallas scored a touchdown on just one of four trips to the red zone with their playoff hopes on the line, completing the season an abysmal 27-of-54 (.500) on red-zone attempts.

That track record intensified skepticism toward McCarthy’s decision not to dip into his three-timeout arsenal to challenge a dubious catch by Pettis with 7:07 to play in the fourth quarter. Cowboys safety Donovan Wilson had just sacked Jones, the Giants facing third-and-16 from the Cowboys’ 42.

Pettis ran a 10-yard curl, pivoting as Jones’ ball spiraled toward him, then drew it toward his chest as he — and it — hit the ground. Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira said on the broadcast there was “no question in my mind” that officials would have reversed the call if McCarthy had challenged.

“He uses the ground to complete the catch,” said Pereira, who previously served as an NFL official and the league’s vice president of officiating. “He does not have complete control before the ball gets to the ground, and then the ball pops.”

McCarthy, on the sideline near the play, said he felt the call was “too close.”

“We felt like it was kind of a bang-bang type situation,” McCarthy said. “The fact of the matter that we were in a tight game and the three timeouts was obviously of high value there. So we just didn’t think there was enough information to overturn it.

“I didn’t feel there was enough information for them to overturn it. We didn’t think it was clear and obvious.”

The Giants extended their lead to four. The Cowboys strung together 17 plays for 62 yards, but a first-down sack on the Giants’ 7-yard line hurt. A subsequent missed catch by receiver CeeDee Lamb added insult to injury. On third-and-goal, Dalton threw an interception that effectively sealed the game. Final sparks of hope were extinguished after Giants running back Wayne Gallman fumbled and then sat on the ball to recover with 58 seconds to play.

“In some ways,” McCarthy said, “this game is a bit of a microcosm of our season.”

The Giants kept their NFC East hopes alive, albeit dependent on a Washington loss Sunday night. The Cowboys snapped their three-game December win streak with McCarthy’s 10th Dallas loss — a low he hit just once in 13 seasons as Green Bay’s head coach. The Cowboys season’s ending resembled its start, when McCarthy eschewed a late chip-shot field goal for a fourth-down conversion that failed in a game the Cowboys lost to the Rams by three. Each contest featured a series of miscues on offense and defense. But neither was immune from overriding questions about coaching decisions.

“It’s been, obviously, a year of a lot of ups and downs, trials and tribulations,” McCarthy said. “It’s disappointing that we didn’t come out of here today with a win. There were some struggles throughout the course of the game, but our guys fought all the way down to the end. I’m disappointed for them.

“I think all of us, to a man, we felt confident coming in here that we’d be able to come out of here today with a victory.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein