been a longtime defender of McCarthy, because he’s brought a level of stability to Dallas that the organization hadn’t seen in decades. You can scoff at the playoff failures all you want, but 2021-23 was the first time the Cowboys had strung together three consecutive playoff appearances since they were winning championships in the 90s.
With all of that said, I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to defend six weeks into 2024. This team looks mostly abysmal on both sides of the ball, and a lot of that lies at McCarthy’s feet. He certainly deserves some blame for a shaky offensive performance, as he is in his second year as the playcaller. Everything looks hard for that unit. The Cowboys can’t run the ball, their receivers can’t generate separation and they can’t convert in the red zone. There are no “easy” buttons in this offense. Some of that might be on the front office for failing to upgrade the personnel, but a good playcaller can negate some of that. McCarthy has not.
McCarthy might not oversee the Dallas defense on a day-to-day level, but as the head coach, he still bears some responsibility for that side of the ball — which, yikes.
All in all, I’ll give McCarthy credit that the team is 3-3, and the Cowboys have managed to outplay some of the manageable teams on their schedule. That’s not the expectation or the standard in Dallas, though.
