Smart leaders learn from history. As we head into this weekend’s Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers play-off game, I think it will be helpful to learn how the Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott handled a worst-case situation in the 2022 NFL play-offs. The following is an excerpt from my book Mighty: 7 Skills You Need to Move from Pandemic to Progress. Check it out today for only $8.99 on Kindle.
This is the second post on NFL play-off lessons. Make sure you also read Head Coach Andy Reid’s Courageous Play-Off Decision.
Now, onto the leadership lessons we learn from Prescott and the Cowboys on handling worst-case situations!
A Public Collapse
On January 16, 2022, the Dallas Cowboys were on the San Francisco 49ers’ 41-yard line with fourteen seconds left to play and no timeouts remaining. Trailing 23-17, Prescott was driving the team towards a potential winning touchdown and miraculous comeback.
After taking the snap from center, Prescott performed a quarterback draw and began running down the middle of the field, rather than to the sidelines to stop the clock. With only seven seconds remaining, he slid down at the 24-yard line. The clock continued to run as players from both teams frantically lined up for the game’s final play.
Rather than the standard end-of-the-game situation, this turned into a worse case scenario for the Cowboys. The referee began to spot the ball at the line of scrimmage with only two seconds remaining. Before Prescott could take the snap and have an opportunity for a final pass into the end zone, the clock ran out, showing 00:00 time remaining. The referee then announced six words which will live in Cowboys infamy, “That’s the end of the game.”
The 49ers celebrated. The Cowboys were in shock. The fans in attendance were aghast. Twitter exploded, and a media firestorm ensued. The following morning, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky and Rex Ryan discussed the Cowboys’ inefficiencies with great fervor on the network’s Get Up program. Orlovsky’s analysis gave great insight into how to properly handle worse-case scenarios.
What Worse Case Scenarios Reveal
It has often been said that crisis does not create character, it reveals it. Crisis also reveals a person or team’s training, situational awareness, and ability to execute under pressure. Orlovsky said, “This play is about the Cowboys’ lack of awareness and lack of execution.”
Proving his point, the Cowboys showed a lack of understanding of their field position and the time remaining on the clock. Orlovsky noted, “At some point you have to declare yourself down because the extra 2-to-3 yards is not worth it because it’s going to take an extra second-or-two.” Ryan added, “It’s not about getting into a spot to spike the football but to run a play. That certainly wasn’t on the minds of the Dallas Cowboys.”
The #1 Thing Leaders Can Do To Handle Worse Case Scenarios
While worse-case scenarios can reveal a lack of training, awareness, and ability to execute under pressure, they also shine a light on the top thing a leader must do to successfully handle those situations. Orlovsky said, “How many times did they practice it not working ideally? … When your blood pressure is up and it’s the moment, how many times did they prepare for the worse case scenario? That’s what it looked like to me that they didn’t prepare for the worse care scenario.”
I have trained many people. You may have, as well. Most training is for ideal situations. It is to give a person the fundamental skills necessary to carry out a minimum task or assignment under perfect conditions. Most training does not prepare a person for any complexity or worse-case scenarios. This is the question Orlovsky was asking. Did their training prepare the Cowboys and Dak Prescott for this moment? Most observers think not. They look at the team’s play-calling, clock management, substitution patterns, lack of urgency, and Prescott handing the ball to the center rather than the referee at the end of the game as evidence of their concerns.
To alleviate any concerns your organization may have in your leadership during moments of crisis, the number one thing you can do to increase productivity is constantly train and practice worst-case scenarios or high-pressure scenarios.
Create difficult and stressful situations for your team in training. Apply pressure in training situations so they will feel less pressure in real life. Make mistakes in practice, not in the game. Y0u want to put people in actual situations where they can mess up in a safe environment and then learn from the experience. Smart leaders practice crisis situations so often that proper behavior in those instances becomes second nature.
A Sacred Trust
Orlovsky concluded by saying, “I (Cowboys owner Jerry Jones) pay you as a coach to be ready for the moment and I pay you as a quarterback to be elite in the moment and neither of those happened.”