Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images Jonathan Mingo makes his return to Carolina on Sunday. The good news is that only four games remain on the 2024 NFL regular-season schedule. The bad news is that watching the Dallas Cowboys for the remainder of the year could be anywhere from frustrating to boring. That’s especially true after one of the most exciting and entertaining players, DeMarvion Overshown, sustained a serious season-ending knee injury last week. It’s pretty much been bad all around for the Cowboys all year and Overshown’s season-ending knee injury just made it worse. He was one of the few bright spots for the team this year and with his future now in jeopardy, the dark clouds surrounding the organization has turned into more of a black hole sucking down anything positive. In the hope of trying to avoid slipping into a deep depression in regards to the Cowboys future, we attempt to provide some matchups to keep an eye on in this Week 15 matchup with the Carolina Panthers. These matchups likely won’t sway the game one way or the other, but they are something to at the very least make the game a little more interesting. WR Jonathan Mingo vs. Panthers’ secondary This will be the first time Jonathan Mingo plays his former team after the Cowboys acquired him via trade from the Panthers for a 2025 fourth-round draft pick. Seeing as how he has only been targeted a total of 11 times and has two catches for 10 yards in four games so far with the Cowboys, there will no doubt be plenty of discussion throughout this Week 15 matchup about this trade and what Dallas gave up to acquire him. It’s really going to be interesting to see if No. 81 will be more involved this week against his former teammates. RB Rico Dowdle vs. Panthers’ run defense In back-to-back weeks Rico Dowdle has rushed for over 100 yards – the first two 100-yard rushing games of his career- against both the Giants and Bengals. There’s a very good chance he could make that three weeks in a row against a Panthers run defense that just recently let Saquon Barkley rush for 124 yards on 24 carries and average 6.2 yards per carry. Dowdle’s recent production is currently on par with the best RBs in the league over the past few weeks and there’s every reason to believe that will carry over into a Week 15. Dallas’ secondary vs. Panthers’ WR Adam Thielen This Week 15 matchup with the Panthers will be just the second time all season the Dallas Cowboys secondary will be at full strength. They played admirably last week against the Bengals, but failed to contain WR Ja’Marr Chase, allowing him to catch 14 passes for 177 yards and score two touchdowns. While Adam Thielen isn’t in Chase’s league, he is averaging 100 receiving yards per game the last two weeks. It will be up to Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, and Jourdan Lewis to prevent that from happening for three weeks in a row.

Tim Heitman-Imagn Images The latest news surrounding the Dallas Cowboys. Oruwariye on blocked punt in Cowboys’ loss to Bengals: ‘It was reactionary’ – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com The fans, as well as the player involved, should all start to move on from Monday’s gaffe. Speaking for the first time since the game, Oruwariye explained his thought process, the state of the locker and more, as he and Dallas attempts to turn the page to the Carolina Panthers. What happened during that infamous play? “It was just a normal punt return play and we were vicing up the guy. It was in the moment. I was taking my guy and I heard a thump. I didn’t know what it was — could’ve been a punt, could’ve been a block — all I know is I turned around to react as any athlete would. I saw the ball there and, in a split decision, I made the decision to go try and secure the ball. That’s just part of the game. It’s something that I felt, in that moment, was a reactionary thing to do, and so I’m standing by it.” When did you realize you shouldn’t have touched it? “I’d say after the play. Just seeing everybody’s emotions. I was like, ‘Dang. That was pretty big in the moment. But, like I said, it was reactionary. It was in the moment. The ball got up on my kinda quick. I wish I could’ve secured it. I wish I could’ve just not touched it. Either way, it unfolded how it did and that’s just part of the game. It’s a part of life. You have to take from it and move on.” How have coaches and teammates responded to it this week? “It’s a testimony to the kind of guys we have in this locker room — great guys and great teammates — that wanted to rally around me, console me and support me in the moment like that. It was a very emotional moment. I didn’t want to feel like I was letting anybody down. And they quickly assured me that’s not what I did. It was a good feeling to feel that from my guys.” Time is coming for NFL to decide on flexing Week 16 Cowboys game on Sunday Night Football – RJ Ochoa, BloggingTheBoys.com We’ve reached the point where even America’s Team may be moved out of primetime. The subject of flexing is why we are here today as the Cowboys have another game set for primetime coming up and unlike this past week there are no animations made for Bart Simpson that would prohibit the game from being moved. The NFL will have to decide soon on if they are going to flex out of the Cowboys game in Week 16 In case you are unaware, the Cowboys are currently set to host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 16. What is notable about the game, relative to our discussion, is that it is set to occur on Sunday Night Football. Following Week 14 the Cowboys are 5-8 and the Bucs are at least about .500 with a record of 7-6. Odds are not an exact science, but the Cowboys are underdogs in Week 15 against the Carolina Panthers and so are the Buccaneers on the road against the Los Angeles Chargers. If things go chalk then the matchup will be between a 5-9 team and a 7-7 one. I’d imagine that NBC, the home of SNF, would prefer something different, even if the Dallas Cowboys are ratings gold. It is worth noting that NBC took over the SNF package in 2006 and in that time the Cowboys have been flexed out of one of their Sunday night games only once. The game in question was in 2020, another lost year for the Cowboys, where Dallas hosted the San Francisco 49ers. Dallas entered that game 4-9 where San Francisco was 5-8 for context. It sure sounds like Jerry Jones is ready to fire a respected Cowboys coach – Jerry Trotta, The Landry Hat A highly-regarded coordinator may be on his way out in Dallas. With the score tied 20-20, the Cowboys were about to take over inside Bengals territory after Nick Vigil blocked a punt. They were already in Brandon Aubrey’s range. One first down could have iced the game. However, cornerback Amani Oruwariye touched the live ball, fumbled it and the Bengals recovered. It took just three plays for Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase to hook up for the game-winning score. Jerry Jones was understandably frustrated after the loss and he made sure to note the Cowboys’ many special teams gaffes this season to the media. A new report from Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram hints Jones has lost patience with ST coach John “Bones” Fassel. Jerry Jones could fire Cowboys special teams coach John “Bones” Fassel According to Harris, Jones confronted Fassel in the locker room about Oruwariye’s gaffe. Jones asked whether Oruwariye was coached to avoid the live ball and why Dallas tried to block the punt when they were getting the ball back regardless with a chance to win the game. It is worth noting that Jones backtracked on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday. “Frankly, when I really reviewed it after the dust had settled, it was not a bad call and was executed on the front end of the punt block very, very effectively,” Jones said, per Harris. “I had revisited the look on the way the ball hit and it really kind of bounced up in a way that was almost unavoidable. The players are coached up, they talk it up.” NFL insider says Cowboys ‘could lean’ specific direction at head coach if they decide to move on from Mike McCarthy at the end of 2024 season – Mauricio Rodriguez, AtoZSports.com If Dallas does change their head coach, one coach in particular is a possible replacement. Lately, it’s starting to sound like Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images How much stock do you put into the Cowboys offering words of support for Mike McCarthy? It wasn’t too long ago that everyone was certain the Cowboys would be looking for a new head coach after this year. Mike McCarthy’s contract expires once the season ends, and a losing streak that saw Dak Prescott go down for the year only escalated the odds of that happening. Then the Cowboys won two straight, both of them against division foes, and momentum began to shift in the coach’s favor. Prescott made a rare media appearance to vouch for McCarthy and Stephen Jones admitted that the entire team feels the same way. Then, before the Monday night game kicked off against the Bengals, Troy Aikman added to the discourse: Former Cowboys QB Troy Aikman on @1053thefan said he expects Mike McCarthy to be the Cowboys’ head coach next season. “Short of Bill Belichick, I don’t know who you’re going to bring in that has a better resume. … I just feel that for a team that I really do not think is that… — Jon Machota (@jonmachota) December 10, 2024 As if the universe was playing a cosmic practical joke, the Cowboys immediately went on to lose in the most dumbfounding way possible. After the defense sacked Joe Burrow on third and long with two minutes left in the game and the score all tied up, Dallas blocked the punt and then foolishly tried to recover it, giving the ball right back to Cincinnati as a result. The dire mental error in such a crucial moment immediately let the social media hounds loose on McCarthy, with fans calling for him to be fired and expressing regret over the apparent about-face of the internal sentiment on the coach. There’s just one problem: the Cowboys can’t do any better than this. That’s both in the short- and long-term, too. Just about everyone not named Jerry or Stephen agrees that the offseason strategies this year were not put together with winning in 2024 as the foremost priority. It’s not entirely surprising that the team stumbled early on, and it’s even less surprising that they got worse after Prescott went down. Hope of a magical turnaround was extinguished several weeks ago, although the two-game win streak cracked the door open ever so slightly. This loss to the Bengals was a reminder, though, that the Cowboys in this current moment are not equipped to contend for the playoffs. In the long run, though, the Cowboys have an uneasy future too. They have 11 starters with expiring contracts this year, and Micah Parsons will likely want a new contract before his fifth-year option officially kicks in. Following next year, the Cowboys will have contract decisions to make on DaRon Bland, Jake Ferguson, Donovan Wilson, Jalen Tolbert, Brandon Aubrey, and Terence Steele, among others. They’re also already tied to Prescott and CeeDee Lamb for at least the next four years. On some level, that’s a good thing, but Prescott is already the longest-tenured starting quarterback in the league. He’ll already be entering next season coming off his season-ending injury, so adding a total scheme overhaul onto his plate would be unwise. That’s what dumping McCarthy would mean: a new scheme, a new language, and an entirely different set of personnel requirements on offense. While many fans would be elated to ditch the Texas Coast offense after just two years, pulling off a scheme change is easier said than done. Finding the right coach to do it is an entirely different animal. Many fans want Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, but that seems highly unlikely. The other two names most commonly associated with the potential vacancy are Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel. As of the time of publication, Belichick is reportedly on the verge of taking the head coaching job at the University of North Carolina. But we’ll reference him here becasue he was a likely candidate until just recently, and it helps build out the context. Belichick is a defensive mind whose track record on offense has been spotty, at least when he doesn’t have Tom Brady running the show. The same can be said of Vrabel, who went 13-21 after losing offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. In the six years that Vrabel coached the Titans, his offense was 13th in EPA/play and 14th in success rate; in that same span, the Cowboys are fifth and third, respectively. The biggest knock on McCarthy is that he doesn’t win in the postseason. It’s a silly thing to say about a coach who has a Super Bowl ring to his name, but McCarthy is 1-3 in the playoffs in Dallas. Belichick and Vrabel have had their moments in the playoffs, though. Belichick obviously has six rings, while Vrabel’s second year with the Titans saw them reach the conference championship game. Of course, neither coach has done much recently. Following that stellar 2019 year for the Titans, Vrabel went 0-2 in the playoffs and then failed to reach the postseason his next two years. Meanwhile, Belichick has just one playoff appearance since Brady left the Patriots, and he hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2018 season. To put that in perspective, the last playoff win he had came at the end of a Super Bowl run that saw the Patriots beat Philip Rivers’ Chargers, Patrick Mahomes in just his second career playoff game, and a Rams team led by Jared Goff and Todd Gurley. “But they’ve gotten farther in the playoffs than McCarthy has in Dallas,” some say. So did McCarthy when he took this job. McCarthy currently has the third-most wins among active head coaches and he’s tied for 13th most all time. Coincidentally, he’s tied Bill Parcells, another Super Bowl winning head coach who was unable to replicate his success in Dallas. If those two coaches couldn’t get it done under the watchful eye of Jerry Jones, what hope is there that Vrabel can? Therein

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images Our writers provide their opinions on the latest Dallas Cowboys news during our weekly review on the Roundtable. Every week, we gather the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the roundtable. This week we have Brian Martin, Tom Ryle, and RJ Ochoa. With the loss to Cincinnati, does that remove all playoff hopes this season? Some may say that any playoff chance was all but gone many weeks ago, but there was some hope before the agonizing defeat on Monday Night Football to Cincinnati. The best result now for Dallas this season would be 9-8, but that’s assuming the team could defeat Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Washington who are all on winning records. It makes that final error off the blocked punt all the more painful. Tom: Technically, the Cowboys have not been eliminated from the playoffs, but that can best be described as that, a technicality. With the Eagles and Commanders as their last two opponents, it is hard to imagine the many, many things happening that have to fall just right to get them into the postseason. Now they have lost yet another star performer, DeMarvion Overshown (who’s injury could be more than just season-ending, sadly), and Cooper Beebe became the latest offensive lineman to have to leave the field. It’s really just the inevitable outcome of a season that was set up to fail almost from the first day of the offseason in February. Jess: Let’s not kid ourselves; they were gone before Monday night. The idea that Dallas was going to catch up to the Commanders was one thing, but also leapfrogging the Bucs, Cardinals, 49ers, and Rams to get into the last wild card spot just wasn’t realistic. It made for fun discussion and appeased the “never say die” portion of Cowboys Nation, but must of us knew that Week 18 is going to be the merciful end of this season. Brian: The simple answer is yes. It would’ve taken a miracle for the Cowboys to make the playoffs after their early-season blunders. And even though they weren’t mathematically removed from making the playoffs, they pretty much would’ve had to win out the rest of the season as well as get some help from other teams to have a chance of making the postseason. I think we can safely say now they have just four more games to play this year and that’s it. RJ: Mathematically speaking obviously the Cowboys have some semblance of a chance, but I do have to say that Monday night felt like a point of no return in terms of energy. This season has been lost from just about the moment it set out to sea and the two wins in a row helped distract us from that. They may find a way to make it mildly interesting again, but this thing is toast. Does Rico Dowdle’s recent form remove the need to draft a running back early in the draft? The last four weeks has seen Rico Dowdle steadily increase in rush yards per game and now he has consecutive career games topped off with a performance against Cincinnati that saw him go for 131 rush yards and average an insane 7.3 yards per carry. The entire season has seen Dallas struggle in the run game, but the coaches have finally seen the light and have given Dowdle the nod to go out there and be all he can be. In the last two weeks, Dowdle has averaged 121 rush yards per game, the most in the NFL in that timeframe, more than Saquon Barkley. Tom: At first, it could appear that way, but the pendulum is making another swing in the NFL and the running back position is starting to regain some of the value it has lost as the passing game ascended. It still does not seem like a good idea to draft a back in the first couple of rounds, but if there was a superstar back sitting on the board and they took him, I would not rend my clothing and heap ashes on my head the way I once would have. Dowdle certainly takes the pressure off, though. They have plenty of other concerns they need to address first. Jess: Dowdle’s a free agent so we can’t count on his return, but it does show that a productive RB can be found in a variety of ways. Many were clamoring for Dallas to use an early pick on Jonathan Brooks last year, but imagine if we just had a fourth-round guy like Chuba Hubbard? He’s the NFL’s sixth-leading rusher right now despite playing for one of the league’s worst passing teams. Just find a guy who fits your system and good things will happen. Brian: Considering Rico Dowdle is a pending free agent after the completion of the 2024 season, the Cowboys draft needs for the running back position don’t change. What Dowdle has done is make a case for himself to be a top priority re-signing for them in the offseason. He’s shown he can be a capable starter and shouldn’t cost too much to bring back. Even if they do that though, RB will still be a “need” at some point in the 2025 NFL Draft. RJ: Let me say that Rico Dowdle has been amazing here as of late, but if we are going to fall in love with something and forego a need then we are committing the same crimes over and over and over again. The primary lesson learned from the front office has to be that there is never enough that you can have. In that spirit, they better draft a running back. Hopefully not one too soon, though. This week the Cowboys take on the Carolina Panthers. What will the final score be and give one hot take for the game? The Dallas Cowboys take on the Carolina Panthers this

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images If you were still on the fence about whether or not the Cowboys should bring Mike McCarthy back, Monday night should have made it clear. Given how the Dallas Cowboys lost their most recent game against the Bengals, it may seem unfair to blame head coach Mike McCarthy. But while it’s easy to point at a specific moment in the contest, and one player’s very personal blunder, which cost Dallas victory, the Cowboys could have been ahead if McCarthy hadn’t made his own big mistake. Facts are facts; if CB Amani Oruwariye had secured that blocked punt or just not even touched it, Dallas would have been in a strong position to win. The ball likely gets downed somewhere between the Bengals’ 45 and the 50, meaning the Cowboys were already close, if not in, kicker Brandon Aubrey’s range. With the way Rico Dowdle was running, it’s more than reasonable that they would’ve picked up yards, maybe even a first down, to wind the clock down and walk off with the victory. But should the game have even been tied at that point? Let’s talk about the night that Dowdle was having. It was his best yet as a pro; 131 rushing yards on just 18 carries, plus one 10-yard catch. Averaging 8.4 yards per touch, Dowdle was the best thing Dallas had going offensively. Cooper Rush was struggling, and had it not been for CeeDee Lamb’s great individual effort on a 43-yard catch it would’ve been a very poor night for QB2. Naturally then, McCarthy went away from him in the crucial final drives. After Cincy made it 20-20 on a field goal, Dowdle did get the first carry and was stopped for a one-yard loss. But instead of giving him another shot, McCarthy leaned on Rush for two straight incompletions that led to a punt. The next time Dallas got the ball, Dowdle took the first carry for 14 yards. He didn’t get another one as Rush threw three more blanks and the Cowboys had to punt again. The Bengals’ next drive led to the special teams disaster. McCarthy’s personality as a coach is well known. He’s a West Coast guy who’s never made the run game a feature of his offense. That made sense when his quarterbacks were Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, and even at times when Dak Prescott is humming, but it looks pretty stupid when you’ve got Cooper Rush overthrowing open guys and not even seeing others. It’s even dumber when you consider the opponent. Keeping the Bengals’ offense off the field was crucial to success and Dowdle was providing a great way to do it. While the couple of carries they gave Ezekiel Elliott was ineffective, why weren’t Hunter Luepke or Deuce Vaughn worked into the mix? If Dowdle couldn’t take a heavier workload, there were other ways to run the offense that would’ve exploited Cincinnati’s clear weakness. But that’s where McCarthy has so consistently failed in Dallas, especially in these two years as the play-caller. He runs a stubborn scheme, both in its archaic design and predictable in-game decisions. Even with his starting QB out and the run game dominating, he can’t help himself. McCarthy is going to live or die his way, either because he’s too proud to adapt or lacks the talent and creativity to do so. Whatever the reason, it’s more evidence of why the Cowboys have to move on from McCarthy this offseason. Sure, he deserves credit for the way the players have kept fighting in a realistically lost season. But you can’t let that distract you from the fact that he’s one of the culprits. A better coach doesn’t lose this last game. So while some players certainly deserve blame for Dallas’ fall on Monday night, don’t let Mike McCarthy off the hook. Bad moments and even off nights happen for players, but McCarthy’s poor judgment has been on display for far longer and more consistently. Even if the front office has a brilliant offseason, trusting McCarthy to take that talent somewhere special is no longer reasonable.

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images The Cowboys have a lot of important decisions to make in the next month. The Dallas Cowboys came so close to making things kind of interesting over the last month of the NFL season. They still would have been longshots to make the playoffs, but securing that win over the Cincinnati Bengals would have kept the dream alive. A 6-7 record would have them still present on the in the hunt graphics we see each week this time of year referencing the playoffs. Now, we slog through a month of games with no real meaning except for 2025 NFL Draft positioning. If the Cowboys lose, we win, or something like that. Anyway, peeking ahead to the offseason, the Cowboys have a decision to make on coach Mike McCarthy. We know he’s on an expiring contract so that Jerry Jones only has to do nothing and the problem of McCarthy’s employment in Dallas is solved. But recently, Jerry and Stephen Jones, Dak Prescott, Micah Parsons and others have made comments that reference McCarthy returning in 2025 under a new contract. Of course, this may all represent typical speech with a season still going on, players and owners may not want to diss the coach with games still on the schedule. There is the counter-theory that the way McCarthy has kept the team fighting might have swayed some opinions to give him another opportunity. So what say you BTB? Should Mike McCarthy be given another chance? Vote on the two questions in our survey then hit the comments with your thoughts. Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Dallas Cowboys fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys. Please take our survey