Greg Olsen joins in on new Cowboys playoff tradition, plus FOX’s missed opportunity
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Ah, the new Cowboys’ playoff tradition: How is the lead broadcast analyst going to mock the messed-up ending of another playoff loss?
A year ago, it was Tony Romo calling Dak Prescott’s game-ending scramble a “ridiculous ending,” to the Cowboys loss. On Sunday, FOX’s lead analyst Greg Olsen had plenty to say about the Cowboys late-game clock management in the 19-12 loss.
When the Cowboys were slow in getting their punt team on the field ahead of the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, which was going to allow San Francisco to use minimal plays before the two-minute warning, Olsen was immediately on them. The idea, Olsen explained, was for the Cowboys to force San Francisco to run more plays and Dallas use its timeouts before the two-minute warning. This would have, in theory, allowed the Cowboys to get the ball back with more time remaining.
“They are wasting a lot of time,” Olsen said as the play was unfolding. “They needed to run the punt team out there. They needed to get San Francisco to run the maximum number of plays and use timeouts on the plus side of the minute warning. Just not good clock management.”
When the Cowboys got the ball back inside of a minute, Olsen, a pretty good tight end in his own right, was also quick to note a pair of mistakes by tight end Dalton Schultz. First, he stepped backwards after being hit and then out of bounds, which forced the clock to wind and then he acted “nonchalantly” on what was ultimately ruled an incompletion. Olsen noted that Schultz didn’t seem to get his second foot down in bounds. Of course, that’s exactly what officials ruled on review, leaving the Cowboys to do whatever it was they did on the last play of the game.
Olsen’s sharp late-game criticism, however, wasn’t solely reserved for the Cowboys. He also pretty bluntly questioned Elijah Mitchell’s decision-making when he did not stay in bounds after getting what should have been a game-ending first down for San Francisco. Alas, all it did was prolong misery for Cowboys fans a few more moments.
Olsen also offered some short salient analysis in the open to the broadcast. Of Dak Prescott he said: “This has the feel of a legacy game for Dak Prescott.”
With Troy Aikman moving to Monday Night Football on ESPN, Olsen was promoted into the top analyst role at FOX for the season. He’s provided straight-forward, detailed analysis. And, if Tom Brady retires, he might just end up getting demoted for it. Brady, whenever he does hang it up, is going immediately into the lead seat for FOX.
Nothing to say: FOX’s postgame show was brief, because, of course, it had to get to the series premiere of “Accused.”
It meant the roundtable spent all their time on the 49ers and next week’s NFC Championship Game.
And the 49ers winning should be the lead story.
But doing so left some TV gold laying on the floor. The Cowboys extending their NFC Championship drought – and the way it ended again – should have been easy pickings for the Jimmy Johnson, Terry Bradshaw and company. About the only thing involving the Cowboys that got mentioned before tossing to Erin Andrews for a mostly-silly exchange with George Kittle and Brock Purdy was Johnson mentioning that the game had been a great matchup of two defenses.
Like nobody even asked Sean Payton if Jerry Jones had called yet.
Kicking it: There was plenty of talk before the game about the Cowboys’ kicking drama with Jimmy Johnson being pretty blunt on FOX’s pregame show that he would have brought in another kicker to replace struggling Brett Maher. Of course, Jimmy actually made a move like that when he was coaching the Cowboys, though it wasn’t during the playoffs.
And things only ramped up when Maher had his first-half extra point attempt blocked.
Greg Olsen noted that, yes, the kick was blocked, but said it was low and was looking like it was going to be headed left.
“It would have missed by 10 feet,” Olsen said. “Dallas has a problem. There’s no way around it.”
Maher then made a pair of field goals in his only other kicks.
Getting political: Media coverage in this space isn’t just limited to the broadcast. We also monitor the social media channels. And breaking news from Twitter: apparently, Texas Republicans and Democrats found common ground Sunday. To kick the kicker when he’s down.
Shorty after Maher’s extra-point attempt was blocked, Gov. Greg Abbott, who has used a wheelchair since a tree fell on him in 1984, took to his personal account to say: “I swear, I can kick as good as the Dallas Cowboys kicker.”
Not to be outdone, Dallas mayor Eric Johnson tweeted nine times during the game, including this after the missed PAT: “Attention @dallascowboys: This is your MAYOR speaking. NO MORE KICKING.”
We tried mentioning that the Cowboys actually play in Arlington, but, hey, he was on a roll.
He did give Maher an “Attaboy” tweet after his first field goal.
How did it age: In the FOX pre-game show, four of the six selectors took the 49ers: Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan, Rob Gronkowski and Sean Payton. Strahan nailed the final line, picking San Francisco by seven.
At least in picking Dallas, Jimmy Johnson got to give another “How ‘bout them Cowboys!” in his prediction.
Johnson was more accurate when discussing his key to the game: The Cowboys offensive line. He spoke of concerns about the injury-riddled line that had rookie Tyler Smith facing off against San Francisco’s Nick Bosa. Smith had a pair of early-game penalties.
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