'I Take The Blame!' Tony Pollard Reveals Thoughts on Cowboys Goal-Line Failure
FRISCO - Jerry Jones was talking the other day about how "one play'' can make all the difference in winning and in losing and even in contending for a Super Bowl.
The Dallas Cowboys owner will get no argument from Tony Pollard.
"I take the blame,'' Pollard said this week of a sequence that got Dallas off on the wrong foot in last week's 22-20 loss at Miami.
The Cowboys had opened the game with an impressive momentum-grabbing possession, pushing the length of the field all the way near the goal line on a path of goal-achievement ...
Dak Prescott and many others in the building had talked about "a fast start'' and "starting hot,'' and it was going to happen.
And then ... Prescott and rookie fullback Hunter Luepke combined to botch a handoff exchange. Luepke easily plowed into the end zone - but the ball was on the turf, behind him, waiting for the Dolphins to fall on it.
The young vet Pollard wisely and kindly sought out Luepke, “Just telling him to be positive, don’t let it hang in his head too long, don’t get down on it or anything like that,'' Pollard said of their conversation.
But Tony had to take his own advice as well, because it was his own mistake that set up the ensuing failure.
Pollard, on the previous play, had what appeared to be wide-open spaces to the left for a two-yard sprint to the end zone. But he opted not to use his speed to stay outside, inexplicably trying to cut upfield, with teammate Jake Ferguson ahead of him, ever-so-slightly.
Doing so allowed two Miami defenders to snatch Pollard inches short of the goal line - the bottom half of Pollard's body spun into the end zone but his torso, and the ball, never did.
Give Pollard a do-over and he jets to the pylon. And he scores. Luepke is never called upon. The Cowboys have a 7-0 lead. Fast. Hot. Momentum. All of it.
“I could have just kept running to the outside,” Pollard conceded. “I was trying to get to the end zone as soon as possible. I didn’t want to waste time stretching it out. Then I ended up bumping into my own guy and got spun around.
"You live and you learn.”
That would be the hope for the 10-5 Cowboys, who are heading to the playoffs, as are the 11-4 Lions, coming to town for a Saturday night showdown at AT&T Stadium.
“Personally, I didn’t feel like (Luepke) was to blame at all,” he said. “I feel like I should have gotten in the play before. That situation never would have happened. So I take blame for that. ... It’s tough, mentally, to get over, but you just have to do a good job going to the next play and just move on.''
