A disaster within Dallas could force Mike McCarthy to step down. Will the Cowboys next hire Bill Belichick?
They’re used to being hurt and let down in Dallas. It’s like the Super Bowl used to be for them every winter. As much as they want to believe it, they know that the Cowboys will always pull the red carpet out from under them.
This one felt different, though. It was worse this time. It’s possible that this was the Cowboys’ best chance to get to the Super Bowl in almost 30 years. It’s not likely that Jerry Jones is going to allow this go with no making someone pay.
After the Cowboys’ 48–32 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the first round of wild-card playoffs on Sunday, all eyes and ears will be focused on the team’s 81-year-old owner to the coming days.
He told his boss, Mike McCarthy, that the team he had given him was “certainly capable of winning every single thing.”
They had been suited up for two possible playoff games at home, in a field in which they had won 16 straight games. This made him very happy.
Jones said right after the game was over, “This seems like the worst (playoff loss) because we all had such high hopes.”
“And we had high hopes over this team and believed we were on the right track.” I have no idea what this means.
Everyone else was too. At halftime, the second-seeded Cowboys were down 27–7, 41–16, and 48–16 with six minutes left. It was hard to understand why Dallas tried to make up points against the Packers’ second team.
When Cowboys fans left in the second half, AT&T Stadium sounded like Lambeau Field South because they were that bad. Jones said, “I didn’t think one second” concerning McCarthy’s situation or what he might do next after the game.
The Cowboys coach also deserves all the bad things that will happen because of this. From the beginning, it looked like his team wasn’t ready for anything the Packers hurled at them.
His offense, which was his baby because he called the plays, was especially bad. From the initial drive on, they looked like they were out of touch, even though they were in a stadium in which they usually won games 37-16.
After all this time, why even consider poring over the horrible details? Just copy and paste every Cowboys season-ending column from the last 20 years. The contest was over before it even began.
Green Bay won the coin toss, took the ball, and scored seven points down the field. After a few punts, the Packers escaped with an interception by Jaire Alexander. They scored again just three plays later, and that was the start of the rout.
Dak Prescott played exactly like the Dak we know from the playoffs. After being almost unbeatable for two months, he and CeeDee Lamb never agreed on anything.
All game, Prescott threw incomplete passes, got out of rhythm, and pushed things, including a pick-six that tied it 27-0 in Dallas driving before the half.
“Dallas driving” represents the best thing that can be said about the Rams’ first half. Perhaps their best play in the second half was when the Packers missed an extra point.
At the end of the half, Dallas received a free score because the Cowboys were called for an illegal hit. With that, the lead was cut to 27–7. Dallas would get the ball to start the second half and have a chance to cut a lead to 13.
With a slow, methodical, 12-play, 60-yard, establish-the-run drive that stopped in the red zone, Mike McCarthy kicked a field goal to make the score three points less.
After five plays, the Packers quickly scored again, making the score 34–10. The Cowboys never really sped up to get into a flow. The final score was Green Bay by a billion to Dallas by an insignificant amount.
All night, Green Bay’s zone confused Prescott, and the Cowboys were never truly used to it. Lamb never got going after the last two-thirds of the season, when he played comparable to the Offensive Player of the Year.