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By Jon Machota 1h ago
FRISCO, Texas — It’s difficult to remember a time when Cowboys fans were more angered about the end of a season than this one, and rightfully so. Dallas had its most talented roster of at least the past decade and maybe since the dynasty teams of the 1990s. But it all came to an extremely disappointing ending last Sunday when the Cowboys fell 23-17 to the San Francisco 49ers.
Of the six wild-card games played last weekend, five home teams either led or were tied after the first quarter, five home teams led at halftime, and five home teams won.
The only one not to do any of those things was the Cowboys.
For how unprepared and undisciplined Dallas played in its season-ending loss, a large portion of the blame is on head coach Mike McCarthy. While coaches have been replaced for less, it appears owner and general manager Jerry Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones are committed to giving McCarthy a third season in his current role.
Considering Dallas’ 21 unrestricted free agents and interest from other teams in offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, it’s unlikely that McCarthy is going to have a better team on paper entering next season.
So how does he sell to the Cowboys fans that the team will actually be better on the field?
“We’re going to be better,” he responded Wednesday during an end-of-season news conference. “We’re going to be better just through the process. No. 1, I trust our personnel process. I think we have to give our personnel department (credit) just what we did last year to this year. The change we had on defense from a personnel and coaching staff standpoint, that’s the biggest change that I’ve ever been a part of, both the player and coaching. To pull all that together, there’s a lot of hard work and a lot of credit that goes to a number of people. I have the same confidence that we’ll do that moving forward.
“Now, it’s going to be a challenge. You can’t keep everybody. But that’s the era that we’re in. We’ll go through that and (we are) counting on another excellent draft class to go with the two that we have (had). You’ve got to remember, I coached the youngest team in the league for a number of years, so I have great belief in draft and development. This will probably be hopefully the first year that we can have a normal offseason program. I think with that, the combination of veterans and young players that we have, I think we definitely can take a step forward.”
Here are some other key topics discussed during McCarthy’s 47 minutes with reporters.
Job security. McCarthy said he has had “very positive conversations” with Jerry Jones the last few days. McCarthy has no concerns about his job security.
“I don’t put a lot into it because I know what I personally put into this,” he said. “I understand what goes on here every day. I know how to win. I know how to win in this league. I know how to win playoff games. I know how to win a championship. So, I have great confidence in that. What we’ve built here in two seasons, I feel very good about, and I think with that, you just stay true to that.”
Nerves. McCarthy mentioned noticing them before Sunday’s wild-card game.
“I thought we were nervous to start the game,” he said. “Felt it in the locker room with the team prayer. I thought we fought through that OK.”
When asked a follow-up question on the team being nervous, McCarthy responded: “Let me take the word ‘nervous’ back. It was a little angst.”
“I think just like anything, they’re excited, they had a great week of practice,” he added. “I thought the pregame was good. I just think it was the first time we were doing this as a whole. They were a little cleaner than we were at the beginning of the game. That’s just the facts.”
Back-to-back playoff appearances. It hasn’t happened in Dallas since the 2006 and 2007 seasons. But McCarthy, who went to the playoffs eight consecutive years in Green Bay (2009-2016), said “the second time around is easier.”
“I think clearly the hard lessons that we experienced on Sunday definitely will pay forward, without a doubt in my mind,” McCarthy said. “From my personal experience, the first time we were in the playoffs was in the NFC Championship Game (2007) and we went to overtime. I think we had a new quarterback and took it to the second year and lost another heart-breaker in overtime. And then the following year (2010) we won the Super Bowl. I think guys, particularly coaches on the staff, talk about their experiences, it’s tough to get it done the first time you’re in there as a team.
“We were confident, we were healthy, so there was a lot of feel-good around our football team, no doubt about it. I think that’s important. I’m not second-guessing it, but it’s hard. It’s hard to win a game in the regular season, let alone a playoff game. … We have a tremendous amount to build off of.”
Offensive changes? Regardless if Moore is still the offensive coordinator or not, the plan is to keep the offense as similar as possible because McCarthy wants it to remain built around franchise quarterback Dak Prescott. McCarthy also didn’t seem too interested in the possibility of taking over play calling, which he did in Green Bay.
“Everybody is going to be a little different,” McCarthy said, “but the most important part, and even when speaking with Dak (Wednesday) morning, the most important part is we evolve off of what we did this year. You just can’t line up and run the same plays. We can’t just line up and run the plays in the same situations. You’re always evolving in your offense. That process, if Kellen is here or not, that won’t change. We’re always going to build the offense around the success of the quarterback. That’s the whole philosophy. That’s all intact. We have it built over a two-year period. Dak will always be the focal point. We believe in him and we want to continue to redefine our system of offense. It’s the Dallas Cowboys offense. I hope Dak is running it for a long, long time, because it’s built around making him successful.”
Penalties. McCarthy said their “No. 1 focus going forward is the penalties.” The Cowboys were the NFL’s most penalized team during the regular season, averaging nine per game, according to NFLpenalties.com. Of those 153 flags, 127 stood (19 declined, 7 offsetting). The second-most flagged team was the Los Angeles Chargers at 143. The three least-flagged teams were the Cincinnati Bengals (84), Green Bay Packers (86) and Los Angeles Rams (92). All three are playing this weekend in the divisional round.
The Cowboys committed 14 penalties for 89 yards on Sunday, the most in an NFL playoff game since Dallas’ 14 penalties in their 34-14 wild-card win over the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2009 season.
It became far too common after losses late in the season for Cowboys players to complain about the officiating, some even claiming that Dallas was playing two opponents, the other team and the refs.
“It’s way too many,” McCarthy said. “You look at the pre-snaps. There is no excuse for it. That’s been a focus all year. The thing I struggle with as a head coach doing this for a number of years is I have comparables over a 15-year period. And this team here is clearly one of the better teams I’ve coached as far as their mental preparation and their mental execution. Our weekly grades and even our totals for the season, we break it up into mental errors and missed assignments, our mental grades don’t coincide with the penalties. They usually go together and that’s something that we’ll obviously take a very, very hard look at.”
Still believes it was the right play. The Cowboys’ decision to have Prescott scramble up the middle with only 14 seconds remaining on Sunday has been heavily criticized. But having had a chance to look back on the play that resulted in the Cowboys not having any time left to potentially win the game, McCarthy does not second-guess the call. The only thing he would like to change is that Prescott slides after gaining 10 yards instead of extending like he did for a 17-yard gain. McCarthy also didn’t have an issue with Prescott and center Tyler Biadasz spotting the ball, rather than handing it to the official.
“Our guys are trained to spot the ball exactly how the referee spots the ball,” McCarthy said. “You put the tip on the inside edge of the hash, and obviously the umpire has to come in and all he has to do is touch it. We’re in a three-two-one situation, just snap the ball. Obviously, that didn’t happen right there at that point.
“There’s training that’s gone into that situation. … We had great confidence in that situation because we were just trying to get inside the 30-yard line to change the play call for the final play. So, it’s the right call based on our preparation. We just got to really look at the mechanics and the timing of that, too. But, yeah, it’s a 13-second threshold is the call. So that 14 seconds, in my view, that’s the right call.”
Ezekiel Elliott’s health. The Cowboys’ starting running back revealed Sunday night that he had been playing through a torn PCL in his right knee. McCarthy added on Wednesday that the injury occurred in Week 4 against Carolina. The Cowboys believe Elliott will not need surgery and it will heal completely with rest.
