Category: Mike McCarthy

Cowboys Wire Pod: It’s time to start putting some respect on Mike McCarthy’s tenure

Atlanta might not have been the toughest opponent, but the team’s response speaks volumes to the coaching staff. How will Chiefs game go? | From @KDDrummondNFL and @RyanO_Leary

In last week’s episode, K.D. Drummond and Ryan O’Leary discussed the abysmal performance of the Dallas Cowboys in their Week 9 loss to the Denver Broncos. Was it a sign of things to come? Had sloppy practice habits crept into an organization full of themselves?

The test was going to be how they responded in the follow up game against Atlanta. That would determine the job that has been done by head coach Mike McCarthy in transforming this club. Well, test passed and with flying colors. The guys discuss the Atlanta game, talk about whether or not to believe in the next opponents’ three-game win streak and what way to go when it comes to betting on the Cowboys-Chiefs in Week 11. Another jam-packed episode is on tap!

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Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy left speechless when NFL legend makes appearance

Native Pittsburgher Mike McCarthy needed a moment after a larger-than-life figure from his youth casually walked past his press conference. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Mike McCarthy has been in the NFL for nearly 30 years, hoisted a Lombardi Trophy, and coached some of the greatest players of this generation.

But even he can still get a little starstruck.

The Cowboys coach was in the middle of his Friday morning press conference when a larger-than-life figure casually strolled past the glass-box media room at the Ford Center, catching McCarthy’s eye.

The 57-year-old coach stopped mid-answer and gave an awkward wave before turning back to the assembled reporters.

“Roger Staubach,” the coach pointed out with a grin.

Despite the current crop of superstars he talks to daily- and forget coming to work at a building where five world championship trophies greet you in the front lobby- it’s not every day that Captain Comeback himself interrupts your train of thought with a personal appearance.

“Man, I’m shook,” McCarthy stumbled as the gallery laughed. “Thinking about the old Super Bowls; Steelers and the Cowboys,” the native Pittsburgher remarked as he tried- unsuccessfully- to get himself back on track.

“What the hell were we talking about?”

Staubach was at the facility in advance of the Salute to Service celebration scheduled to take place during Sunday’s game against the Broncos, team owner Jerry Jones said Friday on Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan.

“It is all leading up to the recognition of the Medal of Honor recipients that will be noted in a big way at the Denver-Cowboy game,” Jones said.

Here’s hoping McCarthy will get the opportunity to be formally introduced to Staubach before kickoff… assuming the coach can find his words by then.

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Flank Anatomy: Cowboys play design to free Schultz a thing of beauty

The Cowboys crafty coordinator Kellen Moore finds another way to drop an explosive play, this time on the Patriots. @DailyGoonerRaf goes through the anatomy of this specific iteration of Flank LT.

It’s rare that an offensive coordinator can shake an opposing defense completely off the TV screen with a play design, but this is an occurrence Cowboys OC Kellen Moore has made commonplace in 2021.

Against the New England Patriots two weekends ago, Moore again spun his play calling magic, using a concept he likely cribbed from his head coach Mike McCarthy. From his favorite formation, flank — a balanced two tight end, two receiver, one running back set — Moore got his Y, Dalton Schultz, completely free into the New England secondary. Here’s look at the genesis of this play and use it for deeper dives this week into the versatility and the potency of a seemingly ordinary set.

Ankle injury ‘not of high concern’ for Trevon Diggs, says Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy

Trevon Diggs will be limited in Thursday’s practice, says HC Mike McCarthy, but the team expects him to be ready to play the Pats on Sunday. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Lost somewhat in the strong second-half team showing of the Cowboys’ 44-20 rout over the Giants on Sunday was the minor scare fans had gotten earlier regarding one of its stars. As the first quarter came to close, cornerback Trevon Diggs- the league leader in interceptions, the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Month for September, and the reigning NFC Defensive Player of the Week at the time- was on the sideline getting his ankle taped.

Diggs returned to the game in short order and even continued his remarkable pick streak for a fifth consecutive game. But the ankle was bothering him enough that he sat out practice on Wednesday, showing up on the day’s practice report with the dreaded “DNP” designation.

It served as a stark reminder of just how day-to-day every player really is all the time, and it prompted reporters to make Diggs’s status the first question in head coach Mike McCarthy’s Thursday press conference as the team prepares for a trip to New England to face the Patriots.

“Trevon will be limited today,” McCarthy told media members at The Star. “We’ll see if we can maybe get him into the individual [portion of practice]. That will be the most he’ll probably do today.”

While a management day for Diggs held him out of team drills Wednesday, the second-year phenom did go through resistance training on his own, and the team expects him to play Sunday in Foxborough.

“Not of high concern,” McCarthy said of the ankle injury.

Based on the way Diggs kept himself loose on the sideline bike during last week’s contest and then returned to make a major impact, it’s safe to assume that he and the team are taking the same sort of approach heading into the last game before the bye.

“No one knows their body the way they do,” McCarthy said on Thursday, speaking of athletes in general.

By all accounts, Diggs taking things easy on Wednesday and Thursday shouldn’t have much bearing on seeing him out there on Sunday, roaming through the secondary and looking to intercept yet another of his former Alabama teammates in New England rookie quarterback Mac Jones.

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Blitz, Blitz, Bait, Pick: Cowboys’ Moore using college tricks while Quinn relies on his kids

While OC Kellen Moore brings collegiate innovation, Dan Quinn’s relying on collegiate-age defenders to execute his commands. A look at how both sides execute, from @DailyGoonerRaf.

When Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys back in 1989, he tried a daring rebuilding plan, trusting the project to an old college teammate, Jimmy Johnson — then the head coach at the University of Miami — college football’s most swashbuckling program.

Jimmy raised eyebrows by bringing most of his college staff to Dallas. He sought out an NFL pedigreed offensive coordinator in David Shula, but his defense was the same one coordinator Dave Wannstedt and secondary coach Dave Campo ran at Miami. It was a light, speedy 4-3 that had two true defensive tackles, converted outside linebackers at ends, linebackers chosen for their size and speed templates and a secondary that could play Campo’s quarters coverage zone.

Maligned as “that college defense” at its inception, the Cowboys proved to be very effective once Johnson drafted the right players to run it. Though light, the front seven matched up perfectly with quick, timing offenses like the West Coast 49ers and Packers. Dallas used numbers, building a fearsome nine-man line rotation that wore down opposing offensive lines, until the salary cap system picked it slowly apart.

Going to the college game put the Cowboys ahead of the NFL curve during the Triplets days. When the team aged, Jerry and son Stephen looked to the coaching trees to revive the franchise. On offense, Jack Reilly was brought in to replace Ernie Zampese, and when Bill Parcells retired, Jerry tapped Jason Garrett, an advocate of the Norv Turner/Zampese system that worked so well in the ’90s.

On defense, the Cowboys showed a willingness to let head coaches like Parcells and Wade Phillips run their respective versions of the 3-4, but reverted to systems close to the Johnson/Wannstedt 4-3 once Phillips was fired in 2010. Most recently, Monte Kiffin and Rod Marinelli ran their updates on their famous Tampa-2 schemes, close cousins to the ’90s Cowboys defense.

Trying to live in the past saw the Cowboys drift. As the Jones sought to regain old glory, the game left them flat footed.  As in the late ’80s, college systems, on offense and on defense, trickled into the pro game. Run-pass option passes became more common. Baltimore went all in on a running quarterback, building an offense for Lamar Jackson nearly identical to the one he ran at Louisville.

On defense, coverages and fronts from defensive minds like Nick Saban and Dave Aranda started to pop up more frequently. The college game is the true laboratory for tactical innovation these days, and NFL franchises that look “down” are suddenly, like Jimmy’s old Cowboys, finding success on Sundays.

It’s been a hard lesson, but in 2021, it appears that the Jones may have found their old mojo, not by again trying to turn back the clock, but instead by going back to school.

Cowboys’ McCarthy defends first-half timeout fiasco: ‘I was comfortable’

Mike McCarthy says it was ‘a decision’ to not try to extend a 20-7 lead at the break; it’s the 2nd week in a row he’s had clock issues. | From @ToddBrock24f7

In the end, it made no difference. The Cowboys’ 41-21 trouncing of division rival Philadelphia put Dallas in sole possession of the NFC East lead, although that only means so much at this point in the season. Any number of things might happen between now and the finish line that could sour the optimism currently flooding Cowboys Nation.

The same could have been said in microcosm of Monday night’s game- in particular, the closing minutes of the first half. Coach Mike McCarthy’s decision to save the team’s two timeouts as the Eagles stalled deep in their own territory, to not give his own potent offense an opportunity to extend their 20-7 lead heading into the intermission, was a baffling one then and remains a baffling one in the morning light, no matter how favorably the game ended.

Yet the Dallas skipper defended his in-game strategy.

“Yeah, it was clearly a decision,” McCarthy told reporters afterward. “It was to take the lead going in to halftime. I was comfortable based on where the ball was at.”

Where the ball was at was deep in Eagles territory. The clock drained harmlessly from 1:51 to 00:20. Jalen Hurts was even delaying snaps to let more time tick away when Philadelphia (!!) finally asked for a stoppage.

Traditional and proactive usage of the team’s two remaining timeouts would have given the ball back to the Cowboys in decent field position to either drive for the end zone or attempt a field goal to add to the lead.

McCarthy, though, stood pat.

The Monday Night Football announcers, noted time management veterans Peyton and Eli Manning, and even the referee standing next to McCarthy on the Dallas sideline were all left befuddled.

By the time Philadelphia punted and Dallas took over, it was too late for Dak Prescott to do anything but take a knee.

The decision made no more sense to the Tuesday morning sports shows.

When the Cowboys kicked off to Philadelphia to start the game’s second half, it was still very much a contest. An Eagles touchdown on that opening drive would have brought the visitors to within one score. Dallas, thankfully, continued to pour it on, rendering McCarthy’s move moot.

But it marks the second week in a row that Cowboys fans are talking about their head coach’s egregious lack of basic clock management skills.

Team owner Jerry Jones, though, also brushed off criticism.

“Other teams have issues with clock management. That’s part of the game,” Jones said on Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan. “Let’s cut [McCarthy] some slack. We were critical of [Jason] Garrett when he was here. Don’t you think that goes with the territory? That’s my point. I know firsthand Mike’s capabilities, and I’m not a bit concerned about his ability to manage a tight situation.”

But plenty of others are.

The Eagles could have mounted a comeback on Monday night with one or two well-timed chunk plays. Dallas could have let their foot of the gas or otherwise fallen apart in the second half. Stranger things have happened. And then the weird little what-was-McCarthy-thinking footnote would have suddenly become the biggest story of the night.

And the coach might be a lot less comfortable on the morning after his 19th game on the job.

It has somehow worked out for Dallas two weeks running. At this rate, though, the Cowboys’ abhorrent clock management will- sooner or later- cost them dearly.

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McCarthy: Cooper, Neal could play for Cowboys; Armstong, Watkins, Nsekhe out for MNF

Dorance Armstong, Carlos Watkins, and Ty Nsekhe have been declared out for Monday’s game with Philly. Amari Cooper is limited Thursday. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy delivered updates on several players as the team gets into their prep for the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night. Three line players have already been ruled out of the Week 3 matchup, while the team’s top wide receiver and the linebacker who last week led the team in snaps both have a chance to be ready, with four full days to go before kickoff.

During his pre-practice press conference Thursday, McCarthy revealed that wide receiver Amari Cooper would be limited in the day’s work. Cooper left the field during the offense’s game-winning drive on Sunday. McCarthy classified the injury then as bruised ribs, a re-aggravation of a hit he took in Week 1 versus Tampa.

Defensive end Dorance Armstrong sustained a high ankle sprain in the Week 2 game against the Chargers, and defensive tackle Carlos Watkins suffered a knee injury. Neither will play Monday in the Cowboys’ home opener. McCarthy confirmed.

Of Watkins, McCarthy told reporters that he had just seen the former fourth-round pick in the weight room, and that “he feels good and he’s making progress.”

Armstrong may be out, but McCarthy was not ready to say whether that would mean another week subbing on the edge for rookie linebacker Micah Parsons.

“I’m not going to really get into that,” the coach said. “There’ll be more opportunities playing different combinations. I think, really, the true focus is: this [Eagles] offense is different than the first two teams we played. This offense is about speed and space. Their offensive line is- they just had the one injury last week- but this is the healthiest they’ve been in some time. A big athletic offensive line with five perimeter players that can really, really go. So we’re really focused on speed and space and what we need to do to combat that.”

Randy Gregory has been re-activated from the Reserve/COVID list and is back fully with the team; he is expected to start Monday night at defensive end.

Linebacker Keanu Neal was just placed on the COVID watchlist on Wednesday, but apparently has not tested positive. McCarthy explained, “There’s definitely a chance” he could be cleared to face the Eagles.

Safety Donovan Wilson remains a non-participant in practice as he nurses a groin injury.

And of offensive lineman Ty Nsekhe, who was taken to a Dallas hospital last week with what was termed heat exhaustion, McCarthy says he will not play in Week 3. “It’s an illness,” the coach shared. “There’s a plan to bring him back. Just got to be smart. This is a long year.”

It’s already been an epic adventure for the Cowboys, with players moving to and from the Reserve/COVID list and the La’el Collins suspension adding to the complications of regular football injuries. It’s made for a delicate dance with the club’s practice squad players to keep them ready for action.

“That’s the beauty of this new roster setup,” McCarthy explained. “It gives you the ability to move guys up; you have potentially a COVID exempt also. So all those things factor into it. You have a projected 48 [players] each week, but you never just work 48 players.”

McCarthy went on to say that the whole goal is to not let various injuries paint the coaching staff into a corner when it comes to assigning positions for gameday.

“I think it’s clearly why you play chess the whole week,” he concluded. “You play the different combinations. You want to have foresight on what move you want to make next, because, really, when you get into the game, you want to be playing checkers.”

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McCarthy: Stadium clock snafu caused last-minute confusion in Cowboys win

The Cowboys coach says the clock he was watching “went off the board,” resulting in 24 wasted seconds and leaving a long field goal try. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has been roaming NFL sidelines for the better part of three decades, but there’s still a first time for everything. And the novel situation that presented itself at the end of Sunday’s Week 2 game in Los Angeles nearly cost Dallas their chance at a walk-off field goal win.

In the midst of what looked like a baffling bit of poor clock management, the Cowboys let 24 seconds tick off the clock without running a play. A timeout was finally called with just a few ticks left, the coaches seemingly content to let kicker Greg Zuerlein take a shot from 56 yards after going just 3-of-5 last week and taking the blame for the team’s season-opening loss.

Zuerlein’s kick won the game, but McCarthy revealed afterward that an issue with SoFi Stadium’s scoreboards led to the last-minute confusion. According to coach, as the offense scrambled to put the right personnel on the field for a third-down play call, the clock he was watching literally vanished from the video screens.

“One of our players came off who shouldn’t have come off, just communication there. Then we were just going to run it down, but the clock I was watching went off the board,” McCarthy explained in his postgame press conference. “And the clock Kellen had, he said he got blocked by a camera guy. So the communication was great from up top; obviously, you want to call that timeout between three and four seconds.”

“I’ve never had a clock go off the board on me like that,” McCarthy said. “The second down, we were trying to chip away and just get a shorter field goal. We were going to attempt a third-down play and then kick it on on fourth; [that] was the timeframe we were in. Seventeen seconds, I think, so we were right on the threshold. You get into these two-minute drills, you have thresholds: one-minute, thirty seconds, 17 seconds.  We were right at the threshold there of our operation.

“Once you get below 17 seconds, that’s a threshold. Just let it run down and take the kick there. But the initial plan at the 30-second mark was to run a third-down play.”

The snafu came as Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was commandeering the offense on a brilliant final drive, taking them 49 yards on ten plays and draining 3:50 off the clock before the final stoppage. Prescott went 5-for-5 on the series.

“You see the best of Dak Prescott in those situations,” McCarthy told reporters. “We put a lot of time into it. I just really love his demeanor, his poise in the two-minute drills.”

Turns out Prescott’s poise in the final seconds came because he thought everything was going according to the coaching staff’s plan. He had no idea there was ever any confusion about how much time was left.

“I’m looking at the end zone clock, so I saw the time,” Prescott said in his postgame remarks. “I just thought that we’re comfortable and we’re getting into field-goal range and that’s what they wanted to do… In a situation like that, you trust the [special] teams and Greg Zuerlein to put it through.”

Zuerlein did connect on the game-winning kick, so the SoFi Stadium clock issue is one that McCarthy and the Cowboys faithful can, thankfully, shake their heads about with a chuckle now.

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McCarthy eager to ‘be more genuine’ leading up to Cowboys’ opener with ‘Hard Knocks’ crew gone

The Dallas head coach joked about the HBO cameras being absent on Friday, wanting to protect the team’s ‘competitive advantage.’ | From @ToddBrock24f7

Mike McCarthy stepped to the lectern for his Friday press conference, and took a quick, slightly puzzled glance around the room of reporters.

“Is somebody missing here?” the Cowboys head coach asked.

“No Hard Knocks,” someone pointed out helpfully.

McCarthy flashed a knowing grin and gave a double-finger point.

Bingo. Cue the laughter.

The coach had gotten them. Hook, line, and sinker.

The Cowboys skipper was clearly happy to have the ship back under his sole command, without the distraction of a camera crew and live microphones underfoot. The teams from HBO and NFL Films have pulled out of The Star in Frisco, having collected all the footage necessary to put together the season finale, which will air Tuesday night.

With less than a week to go before the season opener against the defending champs, McCarthy said that the crew’s absence allows show business to finally take a backseat to the business of football around the facility.

“I would say it gives you a chance to be more genuine,” he told the media members assembled. “I think a lot of things we do in life, especially in professional sports and specific to the Dallas Cowboys, it’s about time and place. There are things you’re able to do and say in particular spaces that are important to the individuals in that space. And you clearly wouldn’t say it, probably, exactly how you would or maybe behave exactly how you would or respond exactly how you would. And I think it’s human nature if there’s 15 cameras in the room. I think we all understand that.”

McCarthy didn’t always seem comfortable in his scenes on-camera. He joked, for instance, about his address to the team- and more specifically, his abbreviated dance moves- in the most recent episode.

Now without the all-seeing cameras, McCarthy kidded that he’ll be able to, in his words, “Just bring it.”

A record third starring appearance on the HBO series brought a good deal of exposure to the Cowboys, something that seems hardly necessary for the league’s most valuable- and most visible- franchise. But team owner Jerry Jones never met a public relations opportunity he didn’t fully embrace.

But McCarthy was well aware that having the inner workings of his team meetings, coaches’ conversations, and practice sessions broadcast to a primetime audience certainly had the potential to chip away at any competitive advantage the Cowboys might have coming into a season that has very high expectations.

This is, after all, the coach who had the numbers removed from his players’ jerseys before last year’s intrasquad scrimmage when he learned it would be broadcast live. And even then, no wide shots showing actual plays or formations were allowed to be shown.

Letting a camera crew embed with the team for the entirety of training camp couldn’t have been McCarthy’s idea of a good time. But the coach tried to put a bow on the ordeal Friday.

“I think the Hard Knocks experience was a good one. I thought they were very professional. I think we worked very well together. But it’s different having that in your space. And I just don’t think you get the maximum results out of a group dynamic activity and beliefs and conversations and interactions with that type of environment. As a coach, you’re always protective of your environment because of what you’re trying to develop.”

And now the environment around the Cowboys becomes maybe just a little less circus-like as McCarthy and his players try to develop a winning game plan for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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McCarthy on Cowboys’ preseason schedule: ‘Frankly, it’s a pain’

Prepping for Saturday’s game, the Dallas coach is looking forward to a normal football schedule; it won’t come until well into October. | From @ToddBrock24f7

So far this preseason, the Cowboys have lined up for a game on a Thursday night and a Friday night. They’ll play their next on Saturday night. After that, a Sunday afternoon contest before their regular season opener… on another Thursday.

Professional football is a world of routine. And coach Mike McCarthy would like for that routine to begin.

“Frankly, it’s a pain in the [expletive],” he laughed to reporters at the team complex on Friday. “You know, I never complain about more work, but it’s just a lot of shifting gears. I think we all would like to get into some form of regularity, kind of an in-season schedule. We were trying to get that done this week. I’ve never had four eight-day weeks in a row, or at least three.”

At a point in camp when the coaching staff is trying to evaluate players, manage injuries, meet cut deadlines, play host to a reality-television camera crew, and still run meaningful practices, settling into any sort of workflow or rhythm is next to impossible.

The preseason games matter, at least to the guys fighting for a spot on the final roster. But McCarthy would love to be spending more time game-planning for their Week 1 opponent, the defending Super Bowl champs.

“You always would like to look ahead a little bit, start preparing for your opener in that last week,” the coach said. “That’s something we’ve done. We’ve got the new bye week before the first game. It’s different for us, playing a Thursday game. It’s just new. No excuse, but a lot of up and down. But it’s also, frankly, getting us ready because that’s the way our schedule is, too. Our regular season schedule is a little bit up and down with the travel. We won’t really get into a seven-[day] swing here for a number of weeks.”

McCarthy is right; not even making it to the regular season will put the Cowboys on a regular schedule. They’ll kick off the 2021 slate three days before the rest of the league in Florida, hit the opposite coast of the country ten days later for a Week 2 meeting in Los Angeles, and then get a long week to prep before hosting the Eagles… on a Monday night. All before the calendar even turns to October.

The first Sunday-to-Sunday stretch of normalcy for America’s Team? Not until Weeks 4 and 5.

“I guess it’s great preparation for us,” McCarthy finally admitted of the preseason’s roller-coaster scheduling. “I should be thankful.”

Football players and coaches may be creatures of habit, but the world outside the Cowboys’ bubble will be knee-deep into pumpkin spice and haunted hayrides before they can establish a true weekly routine.

Hopefully, they will have learned to thrive on the chaos by then.

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