The surest way to lose an NFL game is to keep turning the ball over on offense, something the Dallas Cowboys have avoided doing the last two weeks. That ball security has led to a win and a tie.
It’s also helped that while the offense has kept their hands on the ball, the defense has forced, and recovered, a fumble in each of those two games.
It’s a marked change from the first three weeks when Dallas had four interceptions, three by Dak Prescott and one by Joe Milton, and lost fumbles by Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders.
Prescott recovered his own fumble in the Week 2 win over the Giants in overtime. The Cowboys’ defense had one lone interception in that three-game stretch.
Dallas’ turnaround in turnover ratio is a trend they’ll need to continue for the rest of the season.
They saw firsthand how critical a turnover can be, no matter at what point it occurs.
It’s a lesson that a few other players in the NFL have learned the hard way. Their miscues turned wins into critical losses.
But Why?
In the last two weeks alone, players have managed to drop the football just before breaking the plane of the endzone. Both turned touchdowns into touchbacks.
And both players’ teams ended up losing the game.
Adonai Mitchell was strolling in for the go-ahead touchdown for the Indianapolis Colts two weeks ago when he just turned loose of the football.
The miscue preserved the Rams’ 13-10 lead and Los Angeles went on to win 27-20. Mitchell also had a penalty that wiped away another touchdown for the 4-1 Colts.
He did not have a good day.
Arizona Emari Demercado had an even worse day on Sunday against the Titans.
Demercado was inches away from a 72-yard touchdown run to give the Cardinals a commanding 28-3 with less than 13 minutes to play. He decided to let go of the football early.
Touchback for the Titans, who then scored 19 unanswered points for a 22-21 victory.
It seems to be a trend in recent years for NFL and College football players to immediately shed the football so they can begin their celebration routines.
That me-first attitude has cost a lot of teams victories. Unfortunately, the players keep doing it because they are never held accountable.
See the aftermath of Demercado’s stunt for proof of this.
You Fined The Coach?
Immediately after Demercado’s stunt, Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon ripped into his running back on the sideline. And rightfully so.
Unfortunately, he undid the discipline by apologizing to the team the following day.
The organization then fined Gannon, not Demercado, $100,000 for tearing his player a new one.
Want to bet Demercado does this stunt again? And why not, what lesson was he just taught?
If Jimmy Johnson were still coaching, Demercado probably would have got both of Johnson’s boots in his backside.
And then been cut from the team. Possibly before the game ended on Sunday.
You doubt?
Ask Curvin Richards and see if you still doubt.
In a game against the Bears in 1992, Richards was doing mop-up duty for Emmitt Smith in a blowout win by Dallas. He had two fourth quarter fumbles that did not cost Dallas a win.
He was officially cut the next day.
Legend has it Johnson told one of his assistants, on the sidelines during the game, that Richards was gone right there and then.
That’s the kind of accountability today’s NFL sorely lacks. But it’s a mindset the Cowboys had better embrace the rest of this season.
