The Cowboys claimed the Giants faked injuries to slow down Tony Romo and his up-tempo offense last Sunday night. The NFL reviewed the claim and on Tuesday decided “We see no basis at this time for taking action,’’ according to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.
The accusation by the Cowboys, specifically owner Jerry Jones and seconded by Romo, was that the Giants had defensive players fake injuries to better deal with Romo and the Cowboys’ no-huddle, hurry up offense.
Safety Antrel Rolle on Tuesday said the Giants do not teach their players to fake injuries and that the Giant defense was not really bothered by the pace of the Cowboys attack. “Their tempo wasn’t all that bad … we’ve seen worse,’’ Rolle said on his weekly WFAN spot. “We were never off-balance as a defense.’’
Jones, after his Cowboys’ beat the Giants 36-31, accused the Giants of faking injuries to slow down Dallas’ offense, saying, “It was so obvious it was funny.”
Leading 6-3 late in the second quarter, the Cowboys began using a no-huddle offense, but were soon slowed by Giants injuries on back-to-back plays. Linebacker Dan Connor was sidelined with a neck injury and never came back, while defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins came out with an apparent shoulder injury but soon returned.
“I thought us experts on football were the only ones who could see that,” Jones said. “No, it was so obvious it was funny. It wasn’t humorous because we really wanted the advantage, and knew we could get it if we could get the ball snapped.”
During the game, Cowboys tight end Jason Witten emphatically told side judge Ronald Torbert that Jenkins was “faking it,” while Romo saved his sarcasm for after the game.
“I thought we got them moving a lot and got them pretty tired during that stretch,” said Romo. “They obviously had a bunch of injuries in that stretch. Tough break, I know. Seemed to come back pretty good after that, though.”
Tom Coughlin was angered by the accusations.
“It’s absolutely not true,” Coughlin said. “Both of those players were injured. Connor never returned to the game. Cullen was in a position where he needed to regroup. That really wasn’t orchestrated at all.”
The issue of teams “faking injuries” had been addressed last week in a memo the NFL sent to all 32 teams. The league stated a team would be subject to disciplinary action even if no penalties were called in the game.