At 7-3 through 10 games, the Cowboys are probably where we expected them to be this season. Aside from a potential tendency to implode, Dallas’s roster was flat-out too talented to envision anything but success near the top of the NFC. This team could bully you in the trenches on both sides of the ball — especially on defense — and such a mix usually makes for a bona fide contender.
Now, as the NFC begins to crystallize in all its top-heavy glory, and as the formerly juggernaut Eagles begin to show they have kryptonite (Cover 2 defensive shells? Oh no!) — if the Cowboys don’t end up making a deep playoff run, at minimum, let’s be frank:
It could be Mike McCarthy’s fault. Full stop.
I know what you’re thinking.
In mid-November, it’s way too early to make any proclamations about the scapegoat for a team’s potential (eventual?) failure. An NFL season is long and drawn out. It can be a roller-coaster of emotions from week to week. Look no further than the Cowboys self-combusting while trying to put the Packers away before humiliating the Vikings so much that CBS actually cut away from its broadcast in the third quarter. Just a week ago, everyone wanted to bury Dallas. Now they look like a titan that wears a blue star on their helmet. After a Thanksgiving date with the Giants on Thursday, we might backtrack again and stomp all over that blue star Terrell Owens style.
It’s just how this silly sport of football works.
Mike McCarthy is 22-9 in his last 31 regular-season games as the #Cowboys head coach.
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) November 21, 2022
But make no mistake. The Cowboys have the tools to play well into January.
This was pro football’s second-best defense by DVOA — led by Defensive Player of the Year candidate Micah Parsons — before Sunday’s shellacking of Minnesota. On offense, Dak Prescott is far from a superstar quarterback. He’ll frustrate you with a throw past the broad side of the barn more often than you’ll think, “Wow, this is the guy who can lift a genuine gem of a title squad.” However, Prescott’s still good enough to be a “point guard” distributor who can facilitate the Dallas attack well to get the ball to CeeDee Lamb, Tony Pollard, and Co. — while occasionally making a needed big-time throw.
Plus, the Cowboys should be able to hang with the Eagles (who they almost beat with Cooper Rush). They should be able to go toe-to-toe with Tom Brady’s Buccaneers (who knocked Prescott out of the first third of the season). They shouldn’t be afraid of Geno Smith’s Seahawks, as wonderful and heartening as that redemptive story is in the Pacific Northwest. There is no one in the NFC they should be afraid of.
They have a path to making this the best season in Dallas in the 21st century only as long as McCarthy stays out of the way. Good luck!
Because I can’t forget how McCarthy — someone who built a decade-plus reputation in Green Bay for riding Aaron Rodgers’ coattails while making inexplicable fourth-quarter decisions seemingly every postseason — showed his fatal flaw against the Packers during Dallas’ implosion.
After the Cowboys blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead to a team on life preservers, McCarthy went for it on fourth down in overtime to try and bury Green Bay for good. They didn’t get it, and you might as well have seen the pending easy Aaron Rodgers’ game-winning field goal drive come from miles away.
Mike McCarthy's return to Lambeau is spoiled in OT, with the Packers coming away with a 31-28 win.
Entering today's game, the Cowboys were 180-0 all-time when leading by 14 points through 3 quarters. Including playoffs, they were 195-0 all-time. pic.twitter.com/i1ly80ALnA
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 14, 2022
I mean, come on. If there’s not a stat that epitomizes McCarthy’s head coaching life better, I don’t know what one is!
If not for that fateful “revenge” game failure, then there was McCarthy consistently not knowing what to do on fourth down during last year’s Wild Card matchup with the 49ers. (Not to mention a called QB draw with 14 seconds and no timeouts on the final play. Huh?)
What about McCarthy’s coaching mismanagement magnum opus when the Packers could’ve upended the Seahawks in the 2015 NFC Championship Game? Alas, McCarthy passed up two early fourth-and-shorts for short field goals — with a 230-pound Eddie Lacy and that season’s MVP Aaron Rodgers in the backfield — against the defending Super Bowl champions. It wasn’t the only reason for a historic collapse, but it sure left an opening for a Seattle squad that wouldn’t go away if you made the mistake of keeping the door open.
And these are the only most egregious examples of a coaching resume built around the NFL’s premier frontrunner head coach failing to get his dynamite teams to the finish line time and again.
The NFL world used to relentlessly clown Andy Reid for his time management in the fourth quarter when he coached with the Eagles and during his early tenure with the Chiefs. But Reid learned from his mistakes, and Kansas City and the best player in the game — Patrick Mahomes — are better for it. Reid evolved — as he had to.
The main (and deserved) late-game coaching pinata nowadays is undoubtedly McCarthy. Because McCarthy hasn’t learned from his mistakes. It doesn’t matter if he had the formerly best player in the sport (Rodgers) or one of the best rosters in the sport now (Dallas): he still can’t get out of his own way. McCarthy has stayed static, and you wonder if he’ll ever progress at this point.
If the Cowboys make it to the meaningful part of January and fall short, we’ll see if it’s because history might repeat itself.
