The New York Giants held on to beat the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, 20-19, in large part because Cowboys wide receiver Terrance Williams made a costly error in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.
With just 12 seconds left in the game and the Cowboys on their own 46, rookie quarterback Dak Prescott hit Williams with a 14-yard pass. But with no timeouts left, the Cowboys needed Williams to get out of bounds as quickly as possible in order to stop the clock and set up a potential field goal.
Instead, Williams juked inside and, although he picked up a few more yards, wound up running out the clock. Game over, Giants win.
Here's the play:
Sideline's the other way. Whoops. #NYGvsDALhttps://t.co/fJx8meOSok
- NFL Network (@nflnetwork) September 11, 2016
You could see Dez Bryant signaling to Williams to get out of bounds.
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Prescott, who played quite well in his NFL debut, looked downright mad:
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Had Williams immediately ran out of bounds and stopped the clock, the Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey still would have needed to hit a 63 or 64 yard field goal. Bailey's longest career FG is 56 yards.
Still, the lack of awareness from Williams couldn't have come at a worse time.