Amari Cooper believes he and the Dallas Cowboys' offense could have had one more chance to score a game-winning touchdown to beat the 49ers in Sunday's NFC Wild Card Game if the official had been closer to the end of the final play.
"We were just trying to get some more yards so that we could clock it and take a shot to the end zone," Cooper told reporters after the 23-17 49ers victory from AT&T Stadium. "From what I could see, the ref couldn't really keep up and we couldn't get that last play off."
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott ran a quarterback draw and tried to get up and spike the ball before it hit zero, but he failed to give the ball to the official first and subsequently ran out of time. Prescott admitted after the game that he should have gone down earlier to allow for more time to get the play set.
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SIGN UP HERE “If we’re looking at it now, I could say, yeah, I could’ve went down 5 yards earlier,” Prescott said. “I thought I got us in position and thought I had time left to clock the ball. It’s something that we’ve practiced over and over to get us into a last-play scenario.”
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy believed the officials would review the play after the odd collision between Prescott and the official.
"I've never seen that come down the way it came down as far as the collision between the umpire and the quarterback," McCarthy told reporters after the game. "We were trying to get inside the 30-yard-line to set up the last play. The mechanics were in-tact and I felt from our end of it, the communication I was given on the sideline was that they were reviewing it and they were going to put time back on the clock. The next thing I know they're running off the field."
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Cooper had 64 yards and a touchdown in the losing effort, and the 49ers now will be moving on to face the top-seeded Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in the divisional round.
It was a wild finish at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, but all the blame can't be placed on the officials, despite what Cowboys fans might have believed as they fired debris at the referees coming off the field after the game.