Cowboys’ John Fassel deflects critics for terrible punt block call

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In the end, it cost the Cowboys nothing more than a while. Granted, with a little more time in this situation, maybe Dak Prescott will set up a touchdown to end the half. Maybe the biting back-and-forth at the end and sketchy management of the clock and the 56-yard basket wouldn’t have been necessary; Who can say?

But, man, if that sloppy blocked punt attempt didn’t seem like a bad idea at the time. Even now, days after the game, and despite sneaking out of Los Angeles with a win, the various reactions and explanations for the odd playful appeal don’t suit fans. Or the owner of the team.

Special teams coordinator John Fassel may have been the architect of last season’s famous ‘watermelon’ kick, but puzzles like the abysmal Thanksgiving fake punt and inducing punt block Sunday’s penalty makes many in the Cowboys nation wonder how long the team can survive by letting “Bones” roll recklessly unchecked into the Dallas game plan.

The Chargers arrived at Dallas 36 with three minutes to go before the end of the first half. An offensive restraint call backed them up to 10. Keanu Neal stopped a shooting pass for a one-yard loss. Leighton Vander Esch fired Justin Herbert for seven more yards. It was suddenly 4th and 20th, with the ball a few yards from the midfield strip. Big victory for the defense.

Dallas was poised to reclaim the ball with two minutes left, two timeouts for Prescott and Co. and a golden opportunity to add to a three-point lead before intermission.

When John Fassel decided to bring home.

It was 4th and 20. pic.twitter.com/1A8PEtEZeK

– Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) September 20, 2021

Next, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy looked at the different options for this or any punt game.

“Is it a punt block, is it a punt rush or is it a return?” McCarthy explained after the game. “Sometimes you have calls that combine the two. We had a pickaxe there, and the point was to drive the personal protector into the punter, because of the way they were picking him up.

But it was rookie defensive end Azur Kamara who found himself in the lap of punter Ty Long, shooting a yellow flag. Los Angeles retained possession, got another series of downs and gained 15 yards.

Fortunately, they missed a field goal nine games later. The Cowboys had only three seconds left, just enough for a valiant but failed game of desperation. No harm, no fault.

Except that there had been a mistake. An idiot who kept the game closer than it could have been otherwise, caused by a risk that didn’t need to be taken.

And Fassel’s explanation at a press conference on Monday was downright surreal.

“The thought process was this: I think Cowboys fans are not the type to play it safe. So I was going to give them what they wanted, come after their ass on the punch. So I hope they will be satisfied with it.

It just cannot be what Fassel meant in a literal sense. Obviously, he’s not one to play it safe, but it would be the ultimate negligence for a 47-year-old veteran coordinator to call real games in the middle of an NFL game depending on what ‘he thinks fans might like to see.

Fassel didn’t crack as much as a smile when he said it. It’s quite possible that he believed the fanbase would really come together with his decision to bring a Sherman tank to a spitwad fight.

“I think the only way to block a punt is to rush the punt,” he explained. “There were a few times you roughed them up. “

Fassel has a reputation for being eccentric. Just watch her very detailed talk on vasectomy with the players during Hard Knocks. He runs a Jeopardy team building game! during training camp. He’s got a bit of a goofy way of himself, he likes to tell crazy stories, he likes the guys he likes in his special teams… any given moment.

But even team owner and famous wildcatter Jerry Jones didn’t look like he was on board with that 4th and 20th jailbreak rush when he spoke on air with 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday morning. .

“To be very frank with you, I’m a little more conservative,” Jones said. “I really like choosing my spots to take those kinds of risks. You take a risk every time you try to block a punt.

Fassel at least agreed with this sentiment.

“Every time you rush the punt there’s a risk,” he admitted. “But last week Pittsburgh was up three points in the fourth quarter, and they rushed the punt and blocked it and executed it for a touchdown. The reward is therefore high; the risk is high.

Fassel reiterated to reporters that being aggressive was part of the plan ahead of the contest. Then he argued in almost the same breath that the flag thrown at Kamara should have been picked up.

“We came after him,” Fassel said. “It was a bit of the state of mind that preceded the match: we will come after this football. And of course you can debate anything, but I’m still not sure we really messed around with it.

So AS I SAID… From different angles you can see… Wilson (1) is clean. Bash (93) is clean. Kamara (54) is retained / placed in the punter. pic.twitter.com/G2apga0w4V

– Cowboys Nation (@CowboysNation) September 21, 2021

“I didn’t have a jersey number because it was a train wreck right there at the boulder spot,” Fassel continued. “But what I understood from the movie was that their No.40 hooked Kamara and brought him back into the punter. You could make a big case that he was holding, or that the bettor hits his own blocker. But there were a lot of bodies in that pile. Our goal was to come after him.

Just let me kiss you in the punter… pic.twitter.com/EH1AcsYoq1

– jesus flores (@tvjflo) September 19, 2021

“I think going into the game you have a game plan and you never expect that, ‘Oh, I didn’t want to pull the trigger because I was worried about beating the punter,” continued Fassel. “Every time you rush, you come after the football. I could go see the tape and we could sit and watch it and tell me if it’s tough. I am biased. But I think the TV copy shows a pretty good picture of maybe something else. “

Fassel told media he plans to ask the league to review the appeal.

“Yes, I’ll be interested to see what they say. But like I said, there were a lot of bodies there.

Fassel may be right; the penalty seems highly questionable. What’s wrong, however, is not whether the officials should have canceled the penalty, but whether someone on the Cowboys sideline should have canceled the play call to swarm the punter in the first place. Fassel says the punt rush order was his only decision, and he thinks McCarthy was comfortable with Fassel rolling the dice in this situation.

“That’s a good question. I think I would say yes… with an asterisk,” he replied. “I think he was okay with us by following the game plan and following it. He was probably upset that we brutalized them, or that they called them brutality.

But Fassel makes no apologies for the aggressive play.

“Our goal was to come after that, and you could absolutely guess that, and I agree with that. But part of our game plan was to pursue them with a really aggressive mindset, to give Cowboys fans some of what they were looking for.

If he could have stopped and polled in the moment, what most Cowboys fans would have been looking for in the 4th and 20th was putting the ball back into Prescott’s hands with two minutes left and a pair. of downtime in his pocket.

Fassel’s blind allegiance to trying wacky special teams out of nowhere has become part of his schtick. But McCarthy’s blind allegiance to letting his special teams coordinator go rogue definitely bears on the fans Fassel claims to be trying to please.

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