Play of the day

 So the Bengals and 49ers are in and the Bills and America's Team are out, and I have to say, good job, Cowboys. You can always be counted on to flame out in the playoffs, and not only did you not disappoint, you brought cheer and gladdened hearts to us all in doing so.

Which is another way of saying "You brought hysterical laughter and “Omigod-what-the-hell-is-THAT?” to us all.

I refer, of course, to Dallas' Hail Mary steal of the dumbest play in NFL history, aka that weird formation the Indianapolis Colts dialed up in yet another loss to the New England Patriots in 2015. Apparently the aim was to confuse, and it did, but only the Colts themselves and everyone looking on. 

The ball, see, was allegedly never supposed to be snapped. But it was, and the play went to pieces like an exploding watch, which will happen when you've got everyone bunched on one side of the field and a non-center (Griff Whalen) snapping the ball to a non-quarterback (Colt Anderson) way the hell over there by themselves.

Well, guess what boys and girls?

The Cowboys lined up in almost the exact same way on the last play of the game last night.

Buncha guys over here. Buncha guys over there. And, right in the middle, all by themselves, running back Ezekiel Elliott snapping the ball to Dak Prescott.

It looked like something you drew up in the dirt playing backyard football with your buddies, with that one kid nobody liked playing alltime center. And the Blob can think of several possible explanations for it:

1. Dallas coach Mike McCarthy finally got tired of owner Jerry Jones constantly yapping "Come on, lemme call a play, lemme call a play!" and let him call a play.

2. They were trying to get Ezekiel Elliott killed, because the formation had him hiking the ball with three 49er pass rushers lined right on top of him. 

3. Chuck Pagano (the overseer of the Colts 2015 play) had been secretly hired as the Cowboys offensive coordinator before the game.

4. Dak said "Let's do something even dumber than last year!" -- a reference to the last play of the Cowboys' loss to the 49ers in 2022, when Dak inexplicably took off on a 24-yard scramble up the middle of the field with no timeouts and the final seconds bleeding away.

In any case, this year's play resulted in a short inconsequential completion, the clock ran out and the Cowboys lost to the 49ers again, 19-12.

Somewhere Tom Landry just threw down his fedora and uttered words no Christian gentleman should ever say.