Cowboys Twitter erupts at McCarthy throwing in towel at end of 1st half

In a tightly contested game, every point counts. That’s exactly what the Dallas Cowboys found themselves in on Monday night. After giving up an opening-drive touchdown to the Chargers, Dallas responded with a score of their own. Things bogged down after that though, and Dallas got the ball back with just over one minute remaining before half.

The club was able to put together a quality string of plays, aided by a boneheaded penalty by Chargers safety Derwin James, to get down to the Chargers’ 17-yard line with 14 seconds left and two timeouts. Most expected the Cowboys to make an effort to score a touchdown, especially with Los Angeles getting the ball to start the third quarter.

But on 1st-and-10, quarterback Dak Prescott settled for a short dump off to Tony Pollard for three yards. Dallas appeared to call a timeout with eight seconds left.

Then, all of a sudden, the field goal unit was on the field and the clock was down to three seconds. Apparently, the Cowboys waited to call the timeout, the dump off was to center the ball and rookie Brandon Aubrey was kicking a 32-yard field goal to give Dallas a 10-7 halftime lead.

The confusion of the viewing audience was matched by announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, as to why the Cowboys were basically giving up at an opportunity to punch it into the end zone. Twitter was unrelenting.

I’m not sure anyone has ever posted this before, but that was some pretty odd clock management by Mike McCarthy at the end of that half.

— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) October 17, 2023

Did Dallas just not take a TO with 8 seconds left to get it down to 3 seconds to kick the FG? What is McCarthy doing???

— Mitchell Schwartz (@MitchSchwartz71) October 17, 2023

Mike McCarthy saw a Dak Prescott end of half INT leading every ESPN show tomorrow flash before his eyes in that moment and bled that extra time right off.

— Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) October 17, 2023

can’t wait to hear if that was an intentional decision by mccarthy to just let them 5 seconds go

— Reginald Adetula 🇳🇬 (@regadetula) October 17, 2023

Awful clock management from McCarthy to end the half, wasting chunk passing 🎯 from Dak Prescott

• Not taking a timeout after Gallup’s reception, allowing 19 seconds to burn unnecessarily

• Letting clock wind from 0:08 to 0:03, not taking an end-zone shot, forced to kick a FG

— Laurie Horesh (@LaurieHoresh) October 17, 2023

Did Mike just say hey if you arent going to throw it in the end zone we should just take the 3 now before you hold the ball for 5 seconds and then throw short? Yes, yes he did. Right? What did I just see?

— Gavin Dawson 🕉 (@gavindawson) October 17, 2023

So I am to understand that that’s the way Mike McCarthy wanted to play it? With 8 seconds, a timeout to spare & a $40M QB?

That’s so, so gross.

— David Helman (@davidhelman_) October 17, 2023

How do you not make sure the timeout comes at :08, to give yourself a shot into the endzone before taking the field goal?

— Mike Leslie (@MikeLeslieWFAA) October 17, 2023

Mike McCarthy saving his third timeout as if it carries into future like salary-cap space. Bizarre clock management to conclude first half. Cowboys lead 10-7 after Brandon Aubrey field goal.

— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) October 17, 2023

So no one’s going to explain what the hell just happened?

Cowboys had a chance to take a shot at the end zone and just settle for 3? Where’d the 5 seconds go?

— David Helman (@davidhelman_) October 17, 2023