Kellen Moore’s Stock as an HC Candidate Shouldn’t Change After This Weekend
Josh Frey
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Super Wild Card weekend was anything but super, but we got to see multiple Vikings head coaching candidates take the field over the last few days. Some of them performed well under the bright lights, but for others, well, the lights seemed to reveal something ugly. One such coach was Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore. I understand that a lot of people woke up on Monday in a cold sweat thinking about the possibility of Moore being their head coach in 2022; Vikings fans seemingly are included in that group. That said, this game shouldn’t be the deciding factor in whether or not Moore deserves the Vikings gig.
First of all, if we took just one game from a coordinator and made that the criteria for whether or not they should get a promotion, there would be no promotions. Then, you take into account that we’re really talking about one single play in the context of this game, and it really gets ridiculous. That play is of course the Dak Prescott “QB sneak” at the end of regulation.
I’ll be the first to say, this was an absolutely ridiculous play call in that situation. That said, it’s even more ridiculous that it almost worked.
If you jump back to the beginning of this drive, the very first play was an example. It was a slant route across the field, something that is an absolute no-no with 30 seconds left and no timeouts. With three 49ers in the area, Ced Wilson caught the pass and continued running across the field. He lateraled the CeeDee Lamb, who easily got out of bounds despite the red jerseys in his area.
Then, the following two snaps were also chunk plays that San Fran seemed more than willing to give up, and they were forced to call a timeout because Dallas suddenly had them on the ropes. The Niners were playing like this game was well out of reach rather than one that was separated by six points, and it almost bit them in the ass.
With such a lackadaisical, confused defense on the other side, why not try something crazy? With 14 seconds left, it’s not even like the clock should have been a massive issue if it was executed correctly. That’s the problem though, it wasn’t executed. First off, Dak spent too much time on his feet. This was a play where the intent was clear; Dallas wanted to get 8-10 yards closer to have a better chance at a shot into the end zone. Dak should have made a beeline into a slide, but instead he got greedy and ran 17 yards before finally sliding with about 8 seconds left.
Still, there should have been enough time to clock the ball, but the combination of this game relying on a ref’s 40-yard dash time and Dallas again getting greedy and trying to spot the ball nearly two yards ahead of where Dak slid removed any chance of another play. Dak snapped the ball with one second on the clock and time expired as he spiked the ball into the turf. Again, a ridiculous play call, but one that if properly executed, could have led to a much different result.
To conclude this little rant, I’ll say that Kellen Moore would not be my first or even second choice for Vikings head coach. That said, I don’t think this game should move him further up or down the list from where anyone had him before. At the end of the day, Moore has been the playcaller for an effective Dallas Cowboys offense this entire season. Right now, he’s being held back by the fact that Mike McCarthy is his boss.