sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/cowboys/2011/12/a-transcript-of-jason-garretts-time-out-press-conference-monday.htmlHere is a partial transcript of Jason Garrett’s answers on Monday to questions about the clock management at the end of the game against Arizona. The reporters’ questions are paraphrased.
Reporter: You said yesterday you would evaluate the end of the game. How do you evaluate the frantic final 26 seconds?
Garrett: “I think probably what I said yesterday, you can probably play that situation out one of two ways. You can say, hey, the yard line we feel good about kicking a field goal is the 35-yard line. That’s what we determined before the ball game. We got to the 30. We felt good about giving our kicker a chance to do that right there. You let the time go down to the appropriate time, you call a timeout, or in our case, we clocked it to give ourselves a chance to kick the game-winning field goal from there. The other way you can play it obviously is you take the timeout and you have whatever you have, high teens left in the game, and you run a play, maybe two plays, to get yourself a little bit closer and kick the same kind of a field goal.”
Reporter: So what made you choose the option you chose?
Garrett: “Oh, probably just the confidence level that we have in Dan Bailey. He’s been so good in those situations. He’s made four game-winning kicks for us in similar kind of situations, so the biggest thing that we were trying to do at that point was give him a chance to do that. He’s been so good. We’ve managed those situations in very similar fashion earlier in the year. If you remember in San Francisco, the first Washington game, the second Washington game and also against Miami, we just wanted to make sure he had an opportunity to kick the game winner and we gave him the chance to do that and, unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us.
Reporter: Considering Bailey had missed from 53 and banked one in from 50, why were you still confident in him?
Garrett: “Yeah I think he was 27 for 29. He was an awfully good kicker for us, probably as good a player at his position that we have on our team. We wanted to give him an opportunity to do that again. Unfortunately, it didn't work our for us this time.
Reporter: Are you second-guessing yourself today?
Garrett: “We don’t use the word second guess. We evaluate the situation . Certainly when things don’t work out the way you wanted it to. You say, ‘Could we have done this, could we have done that, should we have done this?’ It is very similar to calling a play. When a play works. It was a good call. It was a good play. When it doesn’t work, a lot of people say that call wasn’t very good. Ultimately, the execution of a play, the kick or the situation – what we try to do as coaches is to put our players in position to do that. He has been so good in those situations before. Why not make sure he had an opportunity to do that?”
Reporter: Do you do it the other way in the future after this experience?
Garrett: I think you evaluate the situation similarly and you try to make your best guess based on all the circumstances involved and you make a decision. Certainly you can play this situation different ways. You could have called timeout and run a couple of plays and probably kick a similar type of field goal. But we chose to do it that one way. It didn’t work out for us this time. Its been fairly successful in the past. We thought it was the right thing to do. It didn’t work. We have to put this one behind us and go forward. We have a great challenge this week against the Giants.”
Reporter: Did the lack of success of the running game play a part in the field goal decision?
Garrett: “One of the things they tried to do with their defensive scheme is they blitz a lot. they blitz a lot in passing situations and they blitz a lot in running situations and we didn’t have a lot of long runs in the game, our longest run was 11 yards and we did have three minus runs and that's what they try and do, they try to disrupt you in the run game. So, I don't know how much that factored into that decision at the time, but I know we did have some minus plays in teh game, we had five sacks, three negative runs, we had a couple pre snap penalties, so you factor all those things into it, hey we're on the 30 yard line, the kicker has been awfully good in the situation before and unfortunately we didn’t get it done, we have to live with that and I have to live with the decisions that I made for our football team and I have to live with what happened as the outcome of the game, but most importantly, we have to put this one to bed and go to the next one. That's our approach. It’s the 24-hour rule. You take it when we win, you take it when we lose. We understand what the challenges coming this week.”
Reporter: Did you want the kick to end the game?
Garrett: “In that situation there, you try not to have to kick off, and the way it worked out with Tony getting to the line of scrimmage and clocking the ball, we typically, we try and call a timeout with four seconds to go. We've done that in previous weeks. You guys have seen that. So that way, the kick is the last play of the game.”
Reporter: Can Tony call a timeout?
Garrett: “He can certainly call a timeout. He’s aware of that.”
Reporter: Did you instruct Romo to clock it?
Garrett: “I don’t have a great answer for you on that.”Reporter: What was Joe DeCamillis trying to tell you on the sideline?
Garrett: “I don’t have a great answer for you on that, but the biggest thing we have to be aware of, and we talk about it all the time, is what yard line is he able to kick a ball that we feel comfortable in kicking. And we do it in both directions. We say, ok, it’s going to be the 35-yard line in this direction, 35-yard line in this direction, what’s the desperation? 38 and 40. So we’re well within 35 that we were comfortable with. We got up to the 30 yard line. We felt like it was a good opportunity for us. It didn’t work out for us. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us this time like it has in previous weeks.”
Reporter: What was the influence of Joe and Chris Boniol on you calling the timeout?
Garrett: “Well, I think we were all watching the same thing. And you know the operation, it got to about eight, seven, six, and he’s still backing up, and they were right there in my hip pocket and they said, hey, bang the time out. But I was seeing exactly what they were seeing. And my experience as a player and coach in this league is, typically when you rush something, the result isn’t very good, whether you’re a quarterback running to the line of scrimmage, trying to get a ball snapped before the 40-second clock goes off or whatever the case is, typically the result’s not as good, you don’t get as good a look at it, your technique probably isn’t right, you feel hurried once the play starts. We just felt like, given the circumstance, the nature of the kick, we wanted to make sure he had a clean opportunity. And if you look at the other kicks that he’s made this year, I think three of the four game-winners, there was at least one time out, sometimes two. So the concern, or the consideration, that we were somehow ‘icing’ our kicker obviously is not really appropriate here.”
Reporter: Can you clarify: Why wouldn’t you have an answer for whether you told Tony to clock it?
Garrett: “Again, we’re just working through that situation to be honest with you. We’re talking timeout. He was getting them to the line of scrimmage and obviously when he got them to the line of scrimmage, the conversation we had going in was to clock the ball. Does that make sense?”
Reporter: So when Dez catches the ball, you don’t know as a coach and quarterback if you’re going to clock the ball or use a timeout?
Garrett: “The biggest thing we were trying to do at that point was recognize where the ball was. He caught the ball on the 30-yard line. We kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, he’s in field-goal range. Boom! What do we got here?’ Tony is getting to the line, which is what he’s taught to do – always be ready to get the team to the line of scrimmage. He realizes that we have a first down in that situation and we look at each other and say, ‘Let’s run it down. He’s in range. Let’s give him a chance to kick the game-winner.’ ”
Reporter: Then why not just call a timeout instead of bothering to clock the ball?
Garrett: “We would have called a timeout from the sidelines at four seconds. But Tony had them at the line of scrimmage and he clocked it before that. I think he ended up clocking it at six or seven.”
Reporter: Why not ‘swing the bat’ in that situation, which is something you always tell your team, and try to get closer?
Garrett: “Oh, I think in general we’re a pretty aggressive team if you look at how we play both offensively and defensively and really how we’ve handled situations in the past. Really what we were trying to do was give our kicker to kick another game-winner. I think he’s kicked four of them this year, so we wanted to make sure he had a pure opportunity at it."[/blockquote]
