PHILADELPHIA -- Even with players jumping all around, calling for him to throw the challenge flag, Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett waited.
With the pace at which the Philadelphia Eagles play that can be dangerous, but he was waiting for voices from the coaches’ booth to tell him if it was worth to use a replay challenge after a Brent Celek catch.
“My communication comes from upstairs and what those guys are telling me as quickly as they can tell me,” Garrett said. “I’m going to trust them and rely on them.”
Celek caught a Mark Sanchez pass for 14 yards and a first down. The Eagles were trailing by eight points at the time and had shown the ability to strike quickly against the Dallas defense. But as Celek went to the ground the ball was poked free by safety J.J. Wilcox. Because he was on top of Wilcox he never hit the ground and Kyle Wilber picked up the loose ball.
In the third quarter, a Garrett challenge was negated when the official correctly ruled Jeremy Maclin was down aftef a 72-yard gain. Garrett was not going to be too cautious to let a chance slide by with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.
Before the Eagles could run a play, Garrett threw the red challenge flag. After a few minutes, Terry McCaulay overturned the call and the Cowboys had the ball.
“Wade Wilson did a great job,” Garrett said. “He was adamant about saying, ‘Hey, throw the flag.’ Obviously that was a huge, huge play in the game. It gave us a chance to make it a two-score game late, so I thought that was a huge sequence for us.”
The Cowboys turned the replay challenge into a 49-yard field goal by Dan Bailey with 4:37 to play, upped their lead to 38-27 and changed the tenor of a Philadelphia comeback.
