Rookie cornerback Bryan McCann, in just his second week on the Dallas Cowboys’ active roster, set a franchise record on Sunday when he returned an interception 101 yards for a touchdown. The play saw McCann jump New York Giants’ receiver Hakeem Nicks’ route at the goal line--and, according the McCann, he was able to do this because Nicks tipped his hand.
"As soon as he came off the line he was shaking, shaking, shaking," McCann told Jan Hubbard of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "and I knew immediately he wasn't trying to get the fade, because if he was he would have had to go right off the line. So I just jumped inside and was able to make the play."
Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin has another, albeit similar theory on the play; he suggested after the game that his receiver had quit on his route, allowing the undrafted SMU product to etch his name in the Dallas record books, and turn a Giants’ red zone chance into a 16-3 Cowboys lead in the second quarter of Sunday’s game.
"He stopped to run the slant,'' Coughlin told the Dallas Morning News. "You can't do that. You have to continue to run the route, run through the defenders, do whatever you have to do.
"That's a basic principle. If you've got the slant called, you've got to run the slant.''
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