Mike Greenberg: 'If Mike McCarthy did this, we might have had him arrested'

ESPN’s Mike Greenberg is probably glad Mike McCarthy didn’t make a decision Dan Campbell did in the NFC Championship Game Sunday. 

Greenberg railed Campbell for his choice to run the football on third-and-goal during Detroit’s final possession of the game against the San Francisco 49ers. The Lions would score a touchdown on fourth down to cut it to 34-31, but by then it was too late.

Greenberg said forget the fourth down calls, but the decision to run on third down and burn a timeout would’ve sent McCarthy to the moon, had he done it, or something like that.

“The decision to run the ball on third down with 1:05 left is inexcusable,” Greenberg said on Get Up. “Literally excusable, if Mike McCarthy did this, we might have had him arrested. Forget about fired, we would have literally sent the police to the stadium to arrest him. This is coaching malpractice. It’s as bad a decision as you can make in a football game … The most valuable thing you have when you’re down two possessions is three timeouts. Once you call one of them, you might as well have none of them left.”

The Lions led 24-7 at one point before allowing the 49ers to score 27 unanswered points and eventually win the game. McCarthy and the Cowboys blowing that type of lead? Oh boy.

Luckily, the criticism stopped after Dallas lost to Green Bay in the Wild Card round.

Campbell is known for his aggressive coaching style, which ended up being his Achilles heel in the NFC title game. But after the loss, Campbell revealed that he had no regrets about his fourth-down decision-making in Sunday’s game.

“I just felt really good about us converting and getting our momentum and not letting them play long ball,” Campbell said. “They were bleeding the clock out, that’s what they do, and I wanted to get the upper hand back.

“And it’s easy hindsight and I get that, but I don’t regret those decisions and that’s hard. It’s hard because we didn’t come through. It wasn’t able to work out. But I don’t, and I understand the scrutiny I’ll get. That’s part of the gig, man.”

Part of the gig is situational awareness as well. With three timeouts and likely the knowledge they’ll go for it on fourth down, the decision to run it on third down is certainly baffling to fans. McCarthy probably knows about that criticism.

Detroit was forced to go for an onsides kick with just two timeouts. They could not get the ball back with little time left on the clock.

In the world of sports talk and hot takes, particularly from a show like Get Up hosted by Greenberg, it might be a stretch of the imagination to say McCarthy would’ve gotten more flak for that type of decision.

Why? Just because he coaches the Dallas Cowboys. That’s the fine line, it seems, when it comes to the headlines from sports media talking heads.