Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was careful when he said he didn’t want to make excuses for the Cowboys’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams that ended their season.
But then, Jones said that much of the Cowboys’ struggles against the Rams could be blamed on the wet turf conditions at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Jones harped on the gloppy field conditions during his assessment of the defeat on the Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday. The Rams gashed the Cowboys for 273 rushing yards — most ever by an opponent in Cowboys’ playoff history and the most in an NFL playoff game in six seasons — in a 30-22 defeat ending the Cowboys’ season a game away from the NFC Championship game.
“I’ve had the benefit of the tape, looking at the tape, the evaluation by both scouts as well as the coaches,” Jones said. “We frankly had never gotten traction. And I mean that literally. That was a slippery field. If I had to do it over again, we would be really scrutinizing our footwear. Our cleats. We had trouble digging in, so to speak.
“Well, you say, ‘That’s an excuse.’ It is not because not only physically but we had trouble digging in with just the effectiveness of our defense. And we did not stop them, and we did not stop the run.”
The Los Angeles area was beset by rain last week, but the stadium’s grounds crew had the turf covered with a massive tarp that kept the field relatively dry.
Tarp 👏 is 👏 off 👏
🔜 #DALvsLA pic.twitter.com/qXqIjqG6QH
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) January 12, 2019
But the rain continued for most of the day of the game.
Um, the rain is back at the LA Coliseum and it is coming down. The field is is covered but Mother Nature is making her presence known @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/Y5naUoLbaS
— Steve Wyche (@wyche89) January 12, 2019
The tarp, however, was the great equalizer.
And didn’t the Rams have to play on the wet slippery turf, too?
