The Cowboys insist they didn’t bench Amari Cooper

Wide receiver Amari Cooper wasn’t on the field for the Cowboys last gasp attempt into the end zone in Philadelphia, but they say it wasn’t because of performance

The Dallas Cowboys hopes of winning the NFC East were pinning on one play Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, a fourth down with just over a minute left. But with their season on the line, their leading receiver was nowhere to be found on the field.

With Amari Cooper watching from the sidelines, quarterback Dak Prescott instead targeted Michael Gallup in the end zone on 4th-and-8 from the Eagles’ 23 and the Cowboys down by eight. The pass was knocked away by cornerback Sidney Jones, allowing the Eagles to run out the clock and earn a 17-9 win that leaves them in control of their playoff destiny heading into the final week of the season.

After the game, the Cowboys were forced to address Cooper’s absence on the biggest play of their season. A source in the Cowboys locker room told NFL Network’s Jane Slater that Cooper wasn’t benched, and was only off the field because the Cowboys couldn’t substitute quickly in a two-minute offense. “Rotation change, not bench,” the source said.

Head coach Jason Garrett echoed that line in his post-game press conference, insisting that Dallas couldn’t get Cooper on the field as they tried to get plays off quickly. “Sometimes in those two-minute situations, you know, they run a lot of plays in a row,” Garrett said. “So the other guys are out.”

Cooper still led the Cowboys with 12 targets in the game but finished with only four catches for 24 yards. He leads the team with 75 catches and 1,097 yards this season. Gallup, meanwhile, had 98 yards against the Eagles, putting him over 1,000 for the first time in his two-year career. Cooper and Gallup are the first pair of Cowboys teammates to reach the 1,000-yard mark in the same season since Dez Bryant and Jason Witten did it in 2012.

But that’s little consolation for a team that is facing another disappointing loss and needing help next week to win the division. The Cowboys need to beat the Redskins at home and hope the Eagles lose against the Giants in Week 17. In that scenario, both teams would finish the season 8-8 but the Cowboys would win the tiebreaker due to a 5-1 record against division opponents.

The Cowboys had plenty of opportunities on Sunday to beat the Eagles, clinch the division, and take Garrett off the hot seat for a little while. Earlier in that final drive, Gallup dropped a long pass from Prescott that would’ve put Dallas inside the red zone with more than three minutes remaining. Prescott then overthrew a wide-open Tavon Austin down the sideline.

Prescott finished the game with 265 yards but was held without a touchdown for the first time since a Week 12 loss to New England.