As the Cowboys emerge from the bye week, there isn’t much news circling around the team. Surely, the primary story is that unbelievably, the Dallas Cowboys are still in the hunt for the NFC East title. As sad as that is laughable, it’s the reality of the situation. The question is, what does a coaching staff do in that situation?
Mike McCarthy is charged with getting his team to play hard every week, regardless of the stakes and the possibility of making a dent in the playoff picture. No one outside the organization believes the Cowboys are capable of making noise even if they somehow won the division, but the coach has to get the best performances out of his players. The result may simply mean more, better information on who is able to help them moving forward, but that’s still important, tangible intelligence that must be gleaned.
The dichotomy of being 2-7 bad and still having a shot came through in McCarthy’s presser on Monday. After a handful of links, we’ll turn our attention to McCarthy’s quotes.