Timani
Registered User
Maybe Dez should've just gone down. I get the effort, but scoring too early would've put them in bad position as Green Bay was moving the ball on them very quickly. If he just focused on the catch and let Murray run it in a play or two later after burning some clock then no controversial play occurs.
Also, a decent portion of the loss goes on Bailey. If he played like he did for most of the year then they would've only been down by 3 at that point and would've kicked the FG to tie it. Green Bay probably would've gone down to score, but at least they would've had a chance to stop them and force OT.
Dez just going down would have not constituted a "football move", but would have allowed him to just catch it, which to me, seems like the argument for allowing the play as called on the field to stand. By not just catching it, but then rather reaching out for the end zone, should mean he conducted a flipping "football move".
Also, if you go back and look at the play, it appears to me that AFTER coming down with the ball in his hands, Dez gets tripped by Shields causing him to go down. I contend that if Shields had not tripped him, he would have run into the end zone and would not have had to dive. Dez catches his left toe on the turf after his leg gets kicked by Shields' shin making it two separate acts...the catch and two feet down, trip by Shields to cause Dez to go down. There is a good look at that in the link below.
Oh well. Pretty good read from Grantland about it.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/a-guide-to-getting-past-the-dez-bryant-catch/