OXNARD, Calif. – Dez Bryant needed a month to get over the Catch That Wasn't. He's moved past it.
Don't show him video of it, though.
"I'll see the catch, as I'm coming down," he said. "I never watch the whole play. I turn it off."
Hard to blame him.
The Cowboys' All-Pro receiver is focused on next season, not the infamous incomplete ruling on fourth-and-2 near the goal line in the closing minutes of the team's Divisional Round playoff loss to the Packers.
Had it been called a catch, the Cowboys might have taken the lead for good at Lambeau Field. Instead, officials determined that Bryant didn't make a "football move" in order to maintain possession of the ball – language that was clarified by the NFL Competition Committee in March to state a receiver must "clearly establish himself as a runner."
The play still would've been ruled incomplete based on that criteria.
"You know, I can sit here and talk what I could've done differently a million and one different ways," Bryant said. "I just hate how it went down. But I know it won't ever come down to no situation like that again. It (the ball) will be totally secure."[embeddedad0]
If there's any silver lining for Cowboys fans, the Catch That Wasn't is pure motivation for Bryant moving forward.
"It's out of my system. It just made me want to work harder," he said. "It made me work to not ever even be in that position again."
