Like every offseason, changes are certain for the Dallas Cowboys. New faces will take place of old ones via free agency and the NFL draft, but this year the biggest change will be who steps in as the new head coach replacing Mike McCarthy.

As of right now there is no clear favorite to become McCarthy’s replacement. But, the one thing we know for sure is whoever takes over as the new HC will try to implement what he deems best for the organization moving forward. Coming off an injury-plagued 7-10 losing season, whoever is in charge has their work cut out for them.

Today, we identify and discuss three of the Cowboys biggest problem areas during McCarthy’s tenure in Dallas that the new head coach needs to fix. If the new HC can fix these problem areas, he may be able to accomplish what McCarthy couldn’t by ending the Cowboys playoff curse in the not-too-distant future.

Cut down the penalties

The Cowboys were the most penalized team in the entire league in 2024. This of course isn’t a new problem for them. In Mike McCarthy’s five season as the HC in Dallas they’ve averaged a league-high 6.8 penalties per game, but where whistled for the eighth fewest penalties per game in the three seasons prior to his arrival. It’s already hard to win games in the NFL, even harder when continuously shooting yourself in the foot.

Penalties of course are going to happen, but it was obvious they happened more often for the Cowboys in McCarthy’s era as HC over the last half decade. Whoever takes over as the new HC in Dallas will have to figure out eliminating the amount of yellow laundry. It is a top priority for the next HC.

Fix red zone woes

It’s no secret the Cowboys struggled mightily this year in the red zone both offensively and defensively. Offensively, they ended up ranked 31st overall in red zone scoring efficiency at 46%. The fact that they also led the league in red zone turnover’s didn’t help either. The lack of innovative, creative play-calling and poor execution often times resulted in a Brandon Aubrey field goal instead of a touchdown.

Defensively they weren’t any better. They finished 32nd in the league in the red zone, allowing an opponents red zone scoring efficiency of 75%. Injuries of course played a big part in all of this, but it’s also been a problem area for them in the past as well. Hopefully whoever takes over for McCarthy finds some way to improve this problem area on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball moving forward.

Cultural change

There’s little to nothing a new HC can do about the chaotic, zoo-like atmosphere Jerry Jones has created for his team, but there is something he can do behind closed doors in the locker room to change the culture for his players. Look no further than what Dan Campbell did to the Detroit Lions when he took over as their HC. He demanded toughness and accountability from his players and it turned them from the laughingstock of the NFL to one of the better teams in just a few years time.

“Toughness” and “accountability” just so happens to be two things this organization seems to have been lacking under both Mike McCarthy’s and Jason Garrett’s tenure as HC. This is a team that has been called “soft” on numerous occasions in the past and hopefully that changes with whoever replaces McCarthy. While personnel changes via free agency and the draft will help, it mostly has to do with an attitude adjustment. After all, “attitude reflects leadership”, at least according to the movie Remember the Titans.

One early morning last week, just before sunrise, I heard a strange sound as if someone was yelling in intervals. At first, I thought it was a cry for help, and then I thought, after all, it wasn’t the sound of a person.

I walked to the dining room window, and then I looked out to the street. Nothing to the right. Nothing straight ahead toward my neighbor’s house, and then I saw a sudden movement to the left beyond some bushes. The wind? A loose piece of rust-colored paper rolling onto the street? It was a fox, a red fox with his famous tail. It looked to its left and right and then, like an athlete, it ran along the road in a sudden dash, past the bushes, past my neighbor’s house, and then it ran past my window. I expected it to stop for a moment and wave hello.

I always feel sorry for foxes. They do eat berries, but they depend mostly on meat: mice, squirrels, birds and worms. It must be easy being a rabbit. It doesn’t have to work hard to find grass or clover, even twigs, bark, flowers and shrubs. But a fox has to hunt and hope there will be a meal just beyond the next rock or next patch of woods.

The quick visit of the fox running in the neighborhood has stayed with me these last few days: the movement of its tail, the way its legs moved in a gallop, the earth color of its fur. We preserve the image of things in our private memoirs, quick moments like the visit from the fox, and we also preserve forever moments: our wedding days, vacations, the memory of our children’s first day of school, the memory of the homes where we grew up.

One of the great things about our culture is that we have established our collective public memories in our museums: works of art, dinosaur skeletons, pottery, Lincoln’s hat, the Wright Brothers’ plane.

The Dallas Museum of Art has a painting by Gustave Courbet, one of the most influential French artists from the 19th century. Courbet led the realism movement, abandoning the romantic painters and their idolized notion of the world. Courbet painted what we see and expected us to come away with our own sense of meaning from the snapshot of reality.

When you visit the Dallas Museum of Art, look for Courbet’s Fox in the Snow. As you look at the painting you might feel the cold air in your imagination. You will get to see the hungry animal devouring a mouse. There is nothing romantic about that image. It is an unsentimental moment of reality, and yet in that reality, there is beauty. There is always hidden beauty in what we see in our ordinary days.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, “the entire red fox population of Central Texas probably descended from 40 foxes released between 1890 and 1895 near Waco.”

It seems as if one is hanging in the museum in Dallas.

In Paris on Dec. 25, 1861, Courbet wrote a Realist Manifesto, and in it, he wrote, “The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it.” And, like Courbet’s fox, it also belongs to our collective encounters thanks to the DMA.

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DALLAS — Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sat out Friday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks due to a sprained right wrist.

Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s scoring leader and an MVP front-runner, was a late addition to the injury report.

The Thunder opted to sit Gilgeous-Alexander after he had an abbreviated warmup routine.

Gilgeous-Alexander wore a wrap on the wrist after Thursday’s home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. He said he felt some pain after falling during his 40-point performance.

“Was fine this morning and then came to the arena and was a little bit sore,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said before Gilgeous-Alexander tested the wrist during his warmup.

Gilgeous-Alexander played in all 40 games during Oklahoma City’s 34-6 start, averaging 31.6 points, 6.0 assists, 5.4 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.1 blocks.