Losing games is never fun, but getting blown out adds another level of frustration for McCarthy’s Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys will finish the year with a losing season for just the fourth time in the last 20 years. As fans, we are fortunate it doesn’t happen very often, but it still hurts when it does and the Cowboys will need to figure some things out to ensure these losing seasons remain few and far between.
One thing they’ll need to figure out is what to do about Mike McCarthy. The decision on whether or not to bring him back will be a big discussion for the next week or two. Supporters are quick to point out that he is a Super Bowl-winning coach who has what it takes to win a championship. His three straight 12-win seasons with Dallas had never been accomplished before in franchise history and provided the team repeated shots at a playoff run. That’s something.
Detractors, however, have a different opinion. The McCarthy ride has contained a lot of bumps and bruises along the way and while everything isn’t his fault, he’s had a hand in it. Since he and Brian Schottenheimer have taken over the offensive responsibilities, the Cowboys have started the season completely out of sync in each of the last two years. It takes McCarthy a long time to recognize that things aren’t working.
Some of the things happening on offense are perplexing. The whole running back situation is one of them. Why did it take half a season for him to realize that Rico Dowdle should be the lead running back? Why doesn’t one of the team’s most explosive weapons, KaVontae Turpin, get more touches? And why does his offensive playbook shrivel up when he gets into the red zone? These are problems that never seem to go away. Even last year before the offense started humming, it was really terrible early on, and it feels like it takes him to be slapped upside the head before he realizes things aren’t working. It’s frustrating.
There are other issues as well. The Cowboys still struggle with discipline as they’ve been one of the most penalized teams in the league under McCarthy. After the Cowboys lose, McCarthy appears unfazed and carries a “we’ll get’em next time” attitude. He has a heightened sense of how good they are and rather than correct problems, he behaves as if everything will eventually fall into place.
Clearly, things didn’t work themselves out this season. Most people will blame injuries as the root cause for the Cowboys’ failures, and let’s be real, the injuries have been significant. It’s hard to think any coach could have success with the health problems the Cowboys have endured this year, particularly losing your starting quarterback for a large part of the season.
When you look at the Cowboys’ last 20 seasons, four times they lost their starting quarterback for most of the year. Each time they finished with a losing season. Conversely, when their quarterback was healthy, they never finished with a losing season during that same 20-year span. That’s impressive and speaks to how good the supporting cast has been to keep winning across multiple coaching staffs.
So, having a losing season in a year without Dak Prescott is par for the course for the Cowboys and McCarthy shouldn’t be overcriticized for that. But we shouldn’t stop there. This season has felt extra yucky because the Cowboys aren’t just losing games, they’re getting laughed out of the building. The Cowboys have lost five games this season by at least 20 points. No season in the Jerry Jones era had as many blowout losses as McCarthy’s group has this year. In fact, that’s the same amount of blowouts as all of the ‘90s Cowboys team had combined. That’s crazy.
McCarthy’s blowout losses aren’t limited to one bad season or just when the starting quarterback is unavailable. His teams can show up and produce a stinker anytime. Watching them come out flat, struggle to make adjustments, and become the laughingstock for the week is no fun. And yet this has been a reoccurring theme for McCarthy’s Cowboys this season.
But hey, no quarterback, no chance, right? While losing games is a likely outcome, not all losses are created equally, and it is interesting to look at those seasons where the Cowboys lost their starter and see how the coaching staff handled things.
In 2010, they only had one blowout, and it was memorable. It was enough to get Wade Phillips fired the next day. After Phillips was fired, the team finished the year winning five of their last eight games with Jon Kitna at the helm.
In 2015, they lost 12 games when the backup trio of Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel, and Kellen Moore was awful, but they were in a dogfight most of the time.
In comparison…
- Two losing seasons with Phillips/Garrett (2010 and 2015) = a total of three blowout losses
- Two losing seasons with McCarthy (2020 and 2024) = a total of eight blowout losses
Some may believe a loss is a loss and it doesn’t matter if it’s by one point or 30 points, but there’s a big difference. Staying in the game and having a chance to win matters and far too many times the Cowboys aren’t doing that under McCarthy. In a vacuum, you might not think much of it, but considering the issues we mentioned before (coming out flat, unwillingness to change, not using his weapons correctly, constantly committing penalties), this becomes a lot more concerning. McCarthy’s issues are systemic. They won’t go away with a healthy quarterback. In fact, most of the blowout games the Cowboys have been in over the past two seasons have come with Prescott at quarterback.
When the season ends, McCarthy’s fate will be decided. A lot of people are conflicted about whether he’s the right guy for the job. He’s done some good things and is on a short list of coaches who can effectively work with the Joneses, and that matters, however, when you carefully examine the performance of his guys throughout his time in Dallas, it’s way too inconsistent. The disparity between good football and terrible football is too much and makes one question if he’s really the right guy for the job.
