Dallas Cowboys: Mike McCarthy is already on thin ice

The Dallas Cowboys may already be having second thoughts about Mike McCarthy.

In the offseason, the Dallas Cowboys made a surprising move by bringing in the former head coach of the Green Bay Packers, Mike McCarthy, as their new head coach. On paper, bringing in a former Super Bowl champion as your head coach isn’t a bad deal. But when you look at his track record over the last decade, you start to raise your eyebrow.

Remember when the Green Bay Packers terminated McCarthy’s contract midseason in 2018? Everybody questioned who the real problem was, as there was immense speculation that quarterback Aaron Rodgers woefully drove the head coach out of town due to a ridiculous ego and his inability to be coached.

Upon this, the attention was driven away from the lackluster gameplan from McCarthy, even when some of his own players spoke out that the offense was stale, nor was it half as dynamic as the rest of the offenses in the NFL.

There were a plethora of accounts detailing that Rodgers would constantly roll his eyes and ignore the head coach and call his own shots in the huddle. This only attracted more of the focus and blame of the breakup on the former two-time NFL MVP than the coach, thus allowing McCarthy to escape without blame for the situation.

However, when the Packers introduced Matt LaFleur as the new head coach in 2019, they would go on a 13-3 run and make an NFC Championship appearance. In 2020, they’re now 4-1 and despite an anomaly last week against the Buccaneers, Rodgers has never looked more dominant in his NFL career.

Mike McCarthy’s start with the Dallas Cowboys has been a disaster.

Mike McCarthy and the Dallas Cowboys, on the other hand, sit just 2-4 on the year with the worst defense in the league, and if continued, will be the worst in NFL history. It is also noteworthy that the NFC East is by far the worst division the sport has ever seen.

When you struggle to beat a New York Giants team that has a 1-6 record, you know something isn’t right. That’s where the blame on the coaching staff comes in.

The Dallas Cowboys’ defense is an EZ-pass for opponents as it has allowed an NFL-worst 36.3 points per game against heading into Week 7. They concede 236.7 passing yards per game (ranked No. 17) and 173.3 rushing yards per game (No. 31).

Do you know who personally brought in Mike Nolan as the defensive coordinator? Head coach Mike McCarthy. Nolan was last seen as a DC for the 2014 Atlanta Falcons when his defense ranked last in the league in yards allowed and No. 27 in points allowed. There’s a reason he hasn’t been in the NFL since then.

Not only is McCarthy personally accountable for bringing in Nolan as the defensive coordinator but his offensive gameplan is still one-dimensional as the Cowboys attempt 48.3 passes per game (most in the NFL) but average 25.5 rushing attempts/game which ranks No. 23 in the league (per Pro Football Reference).

The lack of a run-game was seen in Green Bay when McCarthy neglected running back Aaron Jones, who is now a certified superstar at the position, and it is now shown in Dallas as Ezekiel Elliott is having the worst year of his career as he averages 16.8 rushing attempts per game for 68.8 yards with five touchdowns and just as many fumbles.

With players and fans calling out the head coach and his staff for being unprepared, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Mike McCarthy without a job once again in the 2021 offseason. Unless the Dallas Cowboys can somehow completely flip the script and start an unreal run in the latter half of the season, they will find themselves even worse off than they were with Jason Garrett as the head coach.

It’s safe to say that McCarthy is under the microscope in Dallas, as the team and its fans will not accept mediocrity.