Tavon Austin has been known as a pretty good punt returner during his lengthy NFL career, which made this decision in the final minute of Sunday night’s Cowboys-Vikings game all the more baffling.
The Vikings, who ended up winning the game 28-24, punted the ball away with under 30 seconds remaining. The ball sailed to Austin who called for a fair catch at Dallas’ 46 yard line. If you missed this sequence you’re probably wondering what the big deal was.
Well, just look at how much room he had to run if he decided to return the punt. Because he had all the room in the world:
Austin had all the blocks in front of him to do something special. Instead, the Cowboys took over in their own territory and ended up losing the game four plays later when Dak Prescott threw a pick on fourth-and-1 from Minnesota’s 45 yard line.
Apparently he was told by the Dallas coaches to fair catch it, which is just some incredibly bad coaching, even if the Cowboys didn’t have any time outs left and wanted as much time as they could for their offense to try to get the game-winning score.
NFL fans couldn’t believe it:
