Greg Zuerlein’s clutch kick saved the Cowboys

A little over a week ago, Greg Zuerlein won the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys. This is the kind of responsibility elite-level kickers are supposed to shoulder when they miss two relatively achievable field goals and an extra point, mistakes that played a big part in a 31-29 loss to the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay during the televised NFL kickoff. Game.

There is a flip side to the position. Elite level kickers can redeem themselves quickly. And in the process, they can save their head coach from a world of heartache in a time he mismanaged the end of a game.

So went Zuerlein’s Week 2, when he connected on a 56-yard field goal at the end of time, delivering a well-deserved 20-17 road win over the Los Angeles Chargers and erasing some bad clock decisions from coach Mike McCarthy in the dying seconds. All of this leaves Dallas embracing a rambling crossroads after the victory: hoping Zuerlein seized a moment to fall back into a kicking groove; but also fingers crossed that McCarthy’s management was a mistake rather than a trend tracing back to similar clock errors that were running the Green Bay Packers.

This is perhaps the most tangible take-away from Sunday. Dallas had the opportunity to derail but did not, leaving the Cowboys with an impressive road victory in the face of adversity. Not only did Dallas miss its two starting defensive ends – Randy Gregory with COVID-19 and DeMarcus Lawrence with a broken foot – but he lacked starting right tackle La’el Collins due to a suspension, leaving Terence very Decried Steele will face Joey Bosa much of the night.

The result: A pretty elastic defense came together with rookie Micah Parsons playing on the edge and the offensive line played their best game of the season, holding Bosa bagless and winning in key moments.

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All in all, it’s a feel-good moment for a Dallas team that has shown a penchant in recent years to crumble at key moments. And even though it was only Week 2, it was unquestionably important with a tougher-than-expected schedule predicted in the Week 7 bye. Now Dallas have a win over a very good Chargers team who includes a growing young quarterback and a set of top players. A road win to boot, in front of a SoFi Stadium crowd that seemed much of the night like it was a home game for Dallas.

And while it’s still just a win that had to be pulled off by a tough field goal, it shows the Cowboys have the mental courage to bounce back from a Week 1 loss that Dallas arguably missed. Combined with that loss and a wave of injuries, COVID issues and Collins’ suspension, there are past iterations of this team that allegedly fell into a hole against the Chargers, followed by a loss and a inevitable series of questions about McCarthy.

Instead, Dallas finally got off to a quick start, scoring an opening touchdown that ended a remarkable 21-game streak of failure. And while the rest of the game was hardly perfect on offense, it featured a more imposing and creative running game between Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard that was reminiscent of healthy offensive lines that could control tempo and intimidate opponents when needed. It also put Dak Prescott in the position where he didn’t have to play four hero quarterbacks, instead leaving him at the final winning practice, where he took Dallas 49 yards in 11 games.

Given how flawed teams can be in the first quarter of the season, it’s safe to say that Dallas is already learning some important and encouraging lessons on itself. First off, Prescott shows he’s worth the monster contract extension he signed. Zack Martin could also be the NFL’s most important offensive lineman when it comes to opening up a team’s running game. And Parsons, a first-round draft pick, looks like someone who will quickly become a leader on a defense that needs it as much as possible after losing Lawrence for a few months.

Add all that to Elliott who seems capable of big games, the offensive skill positions showing why so many of them were high on them, and cornerback Trevon Diggs seemingly bursting in every game, suddenly there’s a lot to love about Dallas, even in the wake of staff losses. And none of that speaks to Zuerlein, whose return to a big time and consistent kicker would be a highlight for a team that needed it.

Having said that, it should be remembered that Zuerlein made hide a near-collapse late in the game, when the Cowboys had a chance to get into a better field goal range – then inexplicably ran the ball with Pollard with 33 seconds left and a time-out, no ‘not using that time out when Pollard was tackled in the middle of the field with 28 seconds remaining. Had that time-out been used, Dallas could have kept a handful of extra plays that could have cut the critical distance of Zuerlein’s 56-yard attempt. Instead, the offense slowly returned to the line and looked confused, eventually using time out for the kick with four seconds remaining. It was such a painful moment that former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was almost beside himself commenting in color for CBS, wondering aloud what Dallas had in mind in the dying moments.

“They had plenty of time to make several plays and get at least 10 more yards,” Romo said on the show. “But pass the ball [to Pollard], if you did that, you had to call the timeout with 30 seconds left. And that way, you’re still allowed to throw another 10-yard pass, get a first down, and time it.

In many seasons of the Cowboys, including those led by Romo and former head coach Jason Garrett, the timeout error would have been the kind of mistake that would have led to a cascade of criticism. It’s also worth pointing out that even if Zuerlein had missed his basket, this match would have been extended. It was not a guaranteed loss.

That Zuerlein had won out of a bad situation was a momentary sign of something different. For the first time in a long time, the kicker saved the day when the technical staff had almost doomed it to failure. And the kicker who pulled off the feat was the same guy who was pilloried 10 days earlier for costing his first game in Dallas. How it all unfolded will be much less important than the lifting feeling the Cowboys get from being 1-1 and heading into divisional play with their home opener against the Eagles from Philadelphia, rather than the grind of a 0-2 hole that would have put McCarthy under close scrutiny.

Instead of facing that anger, the kicker did his job and changed the narrative when Dallas needed it most. It was a time of promise for the Cowboys that some things could actually change.