Jerry Jones should fire Mike McCarthy after Cowboys’ flop as Bill Belichick speculation grows
In what world is an NFL head coachs job in jeopardy after leading his team to 12 wins and playoff berths in three consecutive seasons?
In Jerrys world.
This is the precarious perch on which Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy sits uncomfortably after Sundays stunning 48-32 wild-card playoff loss to the Packers at AT&T Stadium.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is 81 years old and he wants results now.
Postseason results.
His team last advanced to an NFC championship game in the 1995 season when they would go on to win the Super Bowl. Since then, the Cowboys playoff results have been awful 5-13 and seven times one-and-done.
So, following Sundays shocking end to Dallas 16-game home winning streak, the speculation about McCarthys job status will intensify. As the seventh-seeded Packers were boat-racing the No. 2 seeded Cowboys from the outset, there were jokes on social media circulating that pondered whether Jones might hire Bill Belichick at halftime.
This loss and the way it unfolded, with McCarthy so terribly outcoached by Green Bays Matt LaFleur, was so overwhelming that its thrown gallons of gasoline on the flames surrounding McCarthy. At the very least, it ramps up the speculation about Jones reaching out to Belichick.
5Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys had a 16-game home winning streak that ended with their playoff loss Saturday. Getty Images
5Jerry Jones has a Mike McCarthy decision to make after another early postseason exit. Getty ImagesI went into this game thinking it would be unfair and an overreaction if Jones were to fire McCarthy should Dallas lose. His body of work has been too good, a coach whos won 36 games in the past three years while in the past seven years the Giants have won 37 games and the Jets 36.
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Jerry Jones floored by ‘painful’ Cowboys playoff loss, hasn’t thought about Mike McCarthy’s future
But, after the way this thing played out, my mind was changed by halftime. I dont think Jones or Dallas fans can stomach any more of this postseason failure and a change must be made. McCarthy remaining in Dallas after this would be an unhealthy situation.
The loss makes the Cowboys the only team in NFL history to win 12 games in three consecutive seasons and fail to make it to the conference championship in any of them.
Jones, speaking to reporters after the game, said this was the most painful loss hes endured as the teams owner, calling it beyond my comprehension. He, too, added that he hasnt thought one second about McCarthys future.
I havent thought past the outcome of this game, McCarthy said when asked about his coachs future.
Make no mistake: This loss by the Cowboys, who entered the game as a touchdown favorite against a Green Bay team thats the youngest (by average age) to make the playoffs since 1974, was cataclysmic.
The Cowboys entered the game with every one of their starters having playoff experience. Yet, it hardly looked that way.
We were real loose, Packers quarterback Jordan Love said afterward. We came in here with the mindset that were going to dominate.
The Cowboys looked ill-prepared, out of sync and uptight. They were outplayed and outcoached, right from the moment LaFleur went against the conventional coaching strategy and went on offense after winning the coin toss so the seventh-seeded Packers could punch the Cowboys in the mouth. And they did, scoring on the opening possession with the first of three rushing touchdowns for running back Aaron Jones.
5Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys offense looked out of sync against the Packers. Getty ImagesThe Packers had the better quarterback with Love carving up the Dallas defense as if he were Aaron Rodgers in his prime. Love completed 16 of 21 for 272 yards with three touchdowns and no turnovers. Hes now thrown 21 touchdown passes with just one interception in Green Bays last nine games, during which theyre 7-2.
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Meanwhile, Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, now 2-5 in the playoffs in his career, was dreadful until garbage time, throwing two interceptions, one of which was a pick-six, in the first half and finishing 41 of 50 for 403 yards with three touchdowns and the two picks.
I sucked, said Prescott, whos now 1-5 with 10 interceptions in six career games against the Packers.
He was hardly the only one.
Defensively, Dallas had no answers for Jones, a Texas native who rushed for 118 yards and those three TDs (giving him nine in four career games against the Cowboys). The Cowboys, too, forgot to cover Packers second-year receiver Romeo Doubs, who torched them with six receptions for 151 yards and a TD.
The product Dallas put on the field Sunday was embarrassing and unacceptable in a game the Cowboys absolutely, positively had to win.
So, the pressing question is this: How unacceptable will Jones deem this loss?
And: Will it push him to make a call to Belichick or someone else (Jim Harbaugh?) to replace McCarthy?
5Mike McCarthy and Packers head coach Matt LaFleur shake hands after their wild-card playoff game. Getty Images
5Speculation about Bill Belichick becoming the Cowboys’ next coach took off on social media during the team’s playoff loss. REUTERSIn the immediate aftermath of the Cowboys Thanksgiving Day rout of Washington, an ebullient Jones stood before reporters and proclaimed: This team is certainly capable of winning this whole thing.
That tells you all you need to know about what his expectations were for this team. And it leaves us all most notably McCarthy wondering whats comes next in Jerrys world.
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