The Dallas Cowboys concluded their fourth season under head coach Mike McCarthy on Sunday afternoon and did so in particularly disappointing fashion. At game’s end the scoreboard read 48-32, but anybody who watched knows that it was never really even that close. Dallas was manhandled by a young and green Green Bay Packers unit. They had home field advantage, recent playoff experience, a head coach who had won a Super Bowl before and at the end of it all looked like the team with players in their first and second seasons.
While the actual players should be (and are being) held responsible for the most recent Cowboys collapse, when something of this magnitude happens all fingers tend to point in one direction – head coach.
Mike McCarthy’s job status is at the center of all current Dallas Cowboys dysfunction
It is not just that the Cowboys lost. That happens. Sure, Dallas became the first team to ever lose to a #7 seed in the playoffs (this was the third year where it was even possible). But again, this is the NFL and losing happens.
But this was never even close. It was 27-0 well before halftime and while the Cowboys kind of made it respectable the truth is they were outclassed in every single facet of the game.
When a loss of that proportion happens, you have to have conversations and even more so when you had all sorts of things going in your favor. Consider that Dallas was as healthy as could be entering the postseason and had players like Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb operating at as high of a level as we have ever seen from either of them. None of it mattered. The team as a whole no-showed and failed.
So again this brings us back to coaching and how you have to talk about it after a meltdown like this which is why Mike McCarthy is the name at the center of it all. Early on Monday morning, Ian Rapoport discussed McCarthy’s job status and floated out Bill Belichick’s name (which anybody who watches football is doing) while mentioning that there could be “significant, significant” changes coming as soon as Monday.
“I think it’s fair to say the Cowboys have a significant, significant decision coming over the next several hours… day… maybe day and a half… something like that. Just to make sure they know which direction the organization is going. Certainly moving on from Mike McCarthy is a consideration. My understanding is for the Dallas Cowboys, I’m not saying it’s definite, but it is a consideration. When you have head coaches out there and many other teams, seven to be exact, who are going through their head coaching search… if you are going to make a decision it behooves you to do it sooner rather than later. And the fact that Bill Belichick is still out there, the greatest coach of all time, I know he has a close relationship with the Joneses… certainly something that would have to be added to the equation.”
Rapoport is correct in noting that if you want to make a move that (in the words of Jeff Probst right before reading the votes at Tribal Council) now would be the time to do so. At present time there are seven open head coaching spots (the New England Patriots have already filled theirs) which means seven other spots where your number one candidate could be had if you do not act quickly.
While Belichick is the greatest coach of all time, and someone that merits absolute consideration, there are also other candidates who should be discussed. Jim Harbaugh appears to want to return to the NFL and Mike Vrabel is available. Ben Johnson continues to amaze with the Detroit Lions. Time will be of the essence.
We ran a poll here at BTB immediately following the game and you will be shocked to learn that just about everybody wants Mike McCarthy fired, but does the Jones family?
Time will tell.
