I can’t believe that I am actually sticking up for Mike, but here we are. Despite leading the Cowboys to back-to-back 12-win seasons and proving most of his doubters (including me) wrong about his ability to coach, there has been an onslaught of media heads demanding Mike McCarthy axed if he loses this weekend.
Is it me or has Mike McCarthy been getting some of the most vicious, disgusting, and undeserved criticisms of any football coach in the media this week?
Now, I’m obviously not the biggest Mike McCarthy fan as he openly and publicly lied about his qualifications to Jerry Jones to get the Cowboys head coaching job in the first place and he nearly derailed his tenure as the HC when he was allowed to pick and choose his own coordinators which resulted in a 6-10 debut season.
Essentially, when you give McCarthy the keys to your house, you shouldn’t be surprised to come home and find it burnt down because he decided to grill using the floorboards of the kitchen.
I mean, when you hire Mike Nolan, a guy who was a horrific head coach of the San Francisco 49ers (Record: 18-37) and hadn’t had a major defensive coordinator job since the 2014 season with the Atlanta Falcons (a season in which they went 6-10), to be the defensive coordinator of a potential Super Bowl contender, you are asking to get fired.
Or, at the very least, having to sit through Jerry Jones pouring a whole bottle of Tabasco sauce in your eye for being incompetent.
Mike Nolan was lucky he got away with only a dab.
However, as Jerry Jones proved with the roster and personnel moves made immediately after that season, if McCarthy is given good coordinators and a stable roster, he can be a very solid head coach. And that is exactly what has happened these last two seasons as he has been able to turn the Cowboys around from a 6-10 team with no hope of making the playoffs to a 12-5 team on the cups of Super Bowl glory.
Yet, all I’ve heard from the usual media suspects this week is that no matter what the score is or how the score came to be, Mike McCarthy should be fired if the Cowboys lose to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Yes, the very same Tom Brady that has won 7 Super Bowls, has 35 career playoff victories (more than the entire Dallas franchise), has almost every single QB passing record, threw for nearly 5,000 yards this year (4,694) despite being 45 years old with the NFL’s worst running attack, and is the consensus G.O.A.T. of the sport.
Is it me, or is that an unrealistic standard to hold McCarthy and this Cowboys roster to?
Yes, I know McCarthy isn’t the best HC in the league and was partial to blame for the Cowboys loss to the 49ers last year in the Wild Card round, but losing to Tom Brady in the playoffs shouldn’t automatically mean that he should lose his job. Even if this is a 45-year-old Tom Brady on an 8-9 Tampa Bay Buccaneers team.
First of all, this Tampa Bay team still has 65% of its 2020 Super Bowl winning roster and Tom Brady under center. Beating them in Tampa Bay in a playoff game will be an extremely difficult task for even the best teams in the NFL, let alone the playoff-success starved Cowboys.
Secondly, who would the Cowboys replace Mike McCarthy with?
OC Kellen Moore? Nope. DC Dan Quinn? Maybe, but I think his best work has been as a defensive coordinator, even though he brought the 2016 Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl. Sean Payton? That’s not a bad shout, but he’s kind of in the same boat as McCarthy when it comes to success: both have only won 1 Super Bowl despite having Top-10 great QBs for the majority of their careers and have underachieved in big moments. John Harbaugh? Again, another good offensive-minded HC that can’t consistently win when it matters.
Plus, no matter who the Cowboys appoint as the next HC if they fire McCarthy, there’s going to inevitably be massive changes to the staff and personnel. And, for a team that has won 24 games in the last two seasons, upheaving change is the last thing it needs. Bringing in a new head coach to give Jerry Jones his coveted 4th Super Bowl is more likely to push him further away from his goal than to bring him to it.
So, even though I’m no McCarthy fan by any means, even I can see that firing him if they lose to the Bucs or even in the Divisional Round would be one of Jerry Jones’ worst mistakes.
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