Five plays that shaped the Cowboys game against the Houston Texans Talk about heartbreaking. The Cowboys went into Houston with a chance to put themselves in front of Philadelphia in the NFC East. After the Eagles lost to the Vikings earlier in the day Youth Dak Prescott Jersey , Dallas was gifted an opportunity to jump out to the front of the division early on, especially if the Redskins lose to the Saints on Monday Night Football. But Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt stood in their way, and in the end the Cowboys walked away with an overtime loss that dropped them to 2-3, squandering their opportunity. Truth be told, there were probably ten or fifteen plays that shaped this game, but here’s our best attempt at narrowing it down to just five. Dak gets picked off and stirs up the blame gameAfter limiting the Texans to a field goal to make it a 10-6 Houston lead, the Cowboys offense was stringing together a really nice drive. Ezekiel Elliott was gaining momentum and Dak Prescott was making plays with his feet and arm. After a questionable spot, the Cowboys drew up a QB sneak on fourth and one and converted, keeping the drive alive on Houston’s 39-yard line with under two minutes in the first half. On the very next play, Dak took a shotgun snap and had Tavon Austin in lax man coverage. He rightly targeted the speedy receiver and the play very well could have turned into six points. Instead, the pass was high and it ricocheted off Austin’s fingertips and into the defender’s hands. The pick killed all momentum for the Cowboys, who were hoping to at least make it a one-point game, and it also raised the question of who was more responsible for the turnover. Watch it again, and you be the judge: Jaylon Smith stops Deshaun Watson on fourth and goalAfter the interception Dak Prescott Jersey Stitched , Deshaun Watson moved the Texans offense right down the field in a two-minute drill that seemed destined for a touchdown to take a 17-6 halftime lead. After Jeff Heath stopped Deandre Hopkins a yard short of the endzone on third down, Houston decided to go for it instead of taking the field goal. Watson took the shotgun snap and had nowhere to throw to, so he decided to use his legs. That’s when Jaylon Smith decided to prove how great he is: The stop was not only very impressive and a complete and total justification for drafting Smith in the first place, but it kept the Cowboys in the game. Giving up a touchdown would have made it a two score game with the Texans getting the ball in the second half, and doing so after a momentum-killing interception could have killed any chance of a comeback as well. Instead, it was a 10-6 score at half with some positive momentum for Dallas. Dak pulls a Tony Romo and hits Tavon for 44 yardsMuch later, in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Texans had just kicked a field goal to go up 16-13 and the Cowboys were trying to respond. Starting at their own 25-yard line, the Cowboys called a play-action pass for Prescott and when J.J. Watt came with the pressure, Dak did his best to one-up Tony Romo’s iconic spin move. After getting away from the pressure, Dak threw up a prayer to Tavon Austin and hit him for a huge completion: The play unfortunately didn’t serve as a spark for a touchdown, but it did put the Cowboys in position for a game-tying field goal, which they ended up hitting after the rest of the drive fizzled out. And after an otherwise rough outing, Prescott showed that he’s still capable of big plays. Pressure gets to Watson and Xavier Woods picks it off to force OTThe Texans got the ball back with under two minutes in the game and Watson was doing his best to move his offense into field goal range with a tie game. A big 18-yard pass to Keke Coutee to convert on third down set the Texans up on Dallas’ own 49-yard line. On the next play Youth Amari Cooper Jersey , DeMarcus Lawrence and a blitzing Jaylon Smith created pressure that nearly sacked Watson, but he tossed up a ball that overthrew his receiver and fell right into the hands of Xavier Woods. With only ten seconds left after the pick, the Cowboys weren’t really given enough to try and win the game, but Woods’ interception defeated any efforts by Houston to win the game, giving the Cowboys one last shot to win in overtime. Cowboys opt to punt on fourth and one in OTThe Cowboys got the ball first in overtime and started moving the ball and picking up steam. On third and one at Houston’s 42-yard line, Zeke got the handoff and was stuffed for no gain after a blitzing Zach Cunningham came in unblocked. Faced with a fourth and one around midfield in Houston territory, many fans were calling for them to go for it. After all, the Cowboys had done something similar with success in the first half. But instead, Jason Garrett opted to punt it away. Chris Jones pinned the ball at the 10-yard line, but the Texans still drove down the field to kick a game-winning field goal. Naturally, Garrett has since taken a lot of heat for the decision, and even Jerry Jones was critical. Given how well the defense had played thus far, it makes sense to have faith in the defense, but there’s also something to be said for taking risks and trusting the league leading rusher and Great Wall of Dallas. The Dallas Cowboys have one of the hottest names in coaching under their supervision Amari Cooper Jersey Stitched , secondary coach and passing game coordinator Kris Richard.Of course, Richard is more than that for the Cowboys. He’s essentially their defensive coordinator it’s just that Rod Marinelli’s office is the one that reads that in title. Dallas has handled things on that side of the ball a little unconventionally this season and its yielded some pretty impressive results. They’re about to play a playoff game for goodness sake.As a result of the impact he’s produced, Kris Richard is being considered by various NFL teams for their head coaching vacancies. So far we know that the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all have interest. For what it’s worth, the Cowboys play two of those in 2019 if you’re looking ahead.Staying in the moment, full disclosure here, my own personal opinion is that Kris Richard ends up leaving. It’s possible that Dallas offers him the defensive coordinator position in title with a Texas-sized raise to go along with it, but if you have the opportunity to be a head coach you take it. Obviously a lot of things go into that decision like, I don’t know, what Kris Richard wants in life, but speaking from a practical perspective I’d bet my bottom dollar that he’s elsewhere next season.It is definitely possible that Kris Richard stays with the Cowboys in 2019While I disagree, it’s easy to entertain the idea that Richard could choose not to leave the Cowboys because, well Youth Demarcus Lawrence Jersey , anything is possible. Maybe he really likes what he’s got going on, maybe he doesn’t see any of the three teams mentioned as the right fit for him at this current point in time, there are any number of reasons why he could say no. We all know that.The “Jerry will just pay him to stay” argument hasn’t been one that I’ve bought myself but a lot of people have brought it up in these discussions. Yes, it’s true that Jason Garrett himself was a Cowboys coordinator who chose not to take a head coach job that he could have had and stayed in Dallas after getting a raise himself, but a head coaching job outweighs that in my mind. Head coaches aren’t paid poorly either.The Cowboys kept a defensive mind that teams liked before, very recently evenAn interesting perspective on this whole situation was raised by ESPN’s Jenna Laine who covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that are one of the teams interested in Richard. She notes what has been mentioned a lot in that the Cowboys do their best to keep those that they like around.What was particularly interesting was that Laine brought up somebody else that the Buccaneers have recently tried to lure away from the Cowboys, somebody who currently has the title that Kris Richard performs to a degree - Rod Marinelli.It feels like it’s been a while, but the days of Monte Kiffin as the team’s defensive coordinator with Rod Marinelli actually calling the shots weren’t too long ago. When that went down the Cowboys adjusted and managed to keep Marinelli in town, the very same is possible with Richard. The obvious difference in situations is that Marinelli was much older then than Richard is now, Richard is in the prime of his career versus the tail end of it.If the Cowboys are able to hold on to Kris Richard it makes sense that he’ll have received two things: a pay raise and the title of defensive coordinator. It seems extremely unlikely that he wouldn’t leave if offered a head coach position and that didn’t happen, but again anything is possible. The Buccaneers might not be a team that Richard fancies all too much but maybe the Jets or Dolphins are. We simply don’t know the way his mind works other than that it recognized the supreme talent of somebody like Byron Jones.
