Arik Armstead on Dak Prescott’s last play: ‘Glad things went our way’

Speaking on The Jim Rome Show, 49ers defensive tackle Arik Armstead was nervous about Dak Prescott’s final play of the Wild Card game but happy with the end result.

By now, every San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys fan, and NFL analyst for that matter, has had time to digest and try to understand quarterback Dak Prescott‘s final play of the Wild Card game between these two teams: a quarterback draw with 14 seconds left in regulation, no timeouts remaining and the Niners clinging to a 23-17 lead.

Prescott and the Cowboys ran out of time, and an official needed to touch and spot the ball before Dallas could clock it with a second remaining, setting up a last-ditch Hail Mary attempt to win the game.

Alas, time ran out. And whether or not fans want to blame the officials, the truth of the matter was it was a shoddy top-to-bottom decision from head coach Mike McCarthy, offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and even Prescott himself.

That’ll be a Cowboys storyline all offseason.

From San Francisco’s perspective, including defensive tackle Arik Armstead who had a sack and three quarterback hits during the game, it was a sigh of relief.

Arik Armstead explains to The Jim Rome Show why he and the 49ers knew the rule about officials needing to touch the ball

Appearing on The Jim Rome Show after the 49ers pulled off the win and advanced to the divisional round of the NFL playoffs, Armstead was asked to describe those final crazy seconds, detailing what specifically happened on the draw play that allowed Prescott to scare Niners fans everywhere:

"I saw [Prescott] take off through the A-gap, and I tried to go chase him, and he got some yards. Then I saw him hurry up and try to get on the ball, and I saw the refs. Then I realized the ref has to touch the ball first and mark the spot.Time ran out, the clock hit zero. I was ecstatic, and I know everyone was super happy.It was a crazy last play, and I’m glad things went our way."

After a frantic last five minutes, the game itself ended in a rather unremarkable fashion, the official literally proclaiming to the crowd and television audience, “that’s the end of the game.”

Dallas fans were dumbfounded, probably a lot of Cowboys players, too.

Yet Armstead and the rest of the Niners had to be relieved.

Arik Armstead happy to see the end of the game go the 49ers way

San Francisco took a commanding 23-7 lead late in the third quarter on a 26-yard rushing touchdown from wide receiver Deebo Samuel. But late in the fourth, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo tossed an ill-advised interception that ultimately led to a subsequent Dallas touchdown, followed by a failed fourth-down conversion attempt where Garoppolo failed to let his offensive line set before a would-be quarterback sneak could have iced the game.

Read More: 49ers’ biggest studs, duds from Wild Card win vs. Cowboys

That led to the Cowboys having a chance, albeit a slim one. Yet with the NFL’s No. 1-ranked scoring offense from the regular season, Dallas coming from behind and pulling off a last-second miracle was surely in play.

Except for the Cowboys’ own mistakes doomed those prospects, much to Armstead’s delight:

"I knew it was going to be close, and it’s hard. I don’t know the analytics on it, but they say it’s tough to do that and get everyone set up. It usually won’t work out that way. It didn’t work out for them, and we were definitely happy about that."

Us, too, Arik. Us, too.