The Dallas Cowboys have opted to bring back Mike McCarthy for another season as head coach, and the reaction has been pretty much what you would expect.
The Cowboys are being absolutely shredded for their decision.
Dallas owner Jerry Jones said in a statement that he still believes in McCarthy moving forward.
“I believe this team is very close and capable of achieving our ultimate goals and the best step forward for us will be with Mike McCarthy as our head coach,” Jones said.
But here is the thing: firing coaches at the end of a season really isn’t Jones modus operandi, so we should not be all that surprised that McCarthy has kept his job.
As RJ Ochoa of Blogging The Boys points out, Jones has not done such a thing in over two decades.
“There is great benefit to continuing the team’s progress under Mike’s leadership as our head coach,” continued Jones in the statement. “Specifically, there are many layers of success that have occurred this season as a result of Mike’s approach to leading the team, both with individual players and with our team collectively. Mike has the highest regular season winning percentage of any head coach in Cowboys history and we will dedicate ourselves, in partnership with him, to translating that into reaching our post season goals. Certainly, Mike’s career has demonstrated postseason success at a high level, and we have great confidence that can continue.”
Dallas has recorded three straight 12-win campaigns under McCarthy, going 43-28 under McCarthy overall (including playoffs).
While that is an impressive feat, it’s the Cowboys’ lack of playoff success that has the vast majority of people thinking the team should go in another direction.
Dallas was just hammered by the Green Bay Packers by a score of 48-32 in the Wild Card Round. It lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild Card Round last winter, and two years ago, the 49ers bounced the McCarthy and Co. from the Divisional Round.
The Cowboys have not made it to the NFC Championship Game since the 1995-96 campaign, which also happens to be the last time they won a Super Bowl.
So, to be fair to McCarthy, it’s not just him. There have been a long line of Dallas coaches who have not experienced any real postseason success over the better part of the last 30 years.
Still, the fact that Mike McCarthy has been retained after the debacle against the Cowboys is definitely interesting, to say the least.
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