Icing the kicker.

A time-honored tradition that involves calling a timeout before an
opposing kicker attempts a big field goal. You know, an opportunity to
let the kicker think about the enormity of what he’s about to attempt,
and inevitably botch it.

That tradition does not include climbing in the head of your own kicker
when a game is on the line. But that’s exactly what Dallas head coach
Jason Garrett did on Sunday just before his kicker, Dan Bailey, was in his
approach to kick a potential game-winning 49-yard field goal.

The timeout was called and granted, but happened so late that Bailey
actually followed through with the kick, which sailed through the
uprights.

After the timeout, Bailey tried again and missed short, which sent the
game to overtime. Dallas wouldn’t have possession of the ball again.
Kevin Kolb hit LaRod Stephens-Howling on a 52-yard scoring pass on
the first possession of overtime to give the Cardinals a 19-13 victory.

Garrett was slammed on Twitter immediately following the decision to
call the timeout and was grilled about it by the media after the game.

“We felt like the play clock was running down,” Garrett explained. “We
just wanted to make sure he had a real clean opportunity at it. We were
at about six [seconds] and we were still getting settled in, so we banged
the timeout just to get an opportunity to snap well and get the kick as
clean as possible.”

Oops.

Bailey had already seen his string of 26 consecutive made field goals
snapped when he missed a 53-yarder wide left on the Cowboys’ second
possession of the game. He took the blame for the loss.

“I understand why things happened the way they did. The clock was
running down. It is something we practice in practice quite a bit. Kind
of a hurry field goal, if you will. But ultimately that’s up to them and it’s
my job to go out there and make the kick no matter what happens. And
I didn’t do that, so I’ll take responsibility.”

Opposing head coach Ken Whisenhunt certainly appreciate the
maneuver.

“I was glad they iced the kicker there at the end so I didn’t have to do it,”
the Arizona boss said during his postgame press conference.

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