CFZ The mental toll of keeping Mike McCarthy

[75boyz]

Cliff notes version...
"A head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run."

Which was the EXACT JOB he was hired to do.
Period.
#hardstop

 

[noshame]

In my opinion, when Jerry said he was all in, I think he meant he was just going to turn the team over to the next head coach, which will be bill belichick and let bill pick the players he wants .
honestly, I'm fine with the way jerry's running things this season.
Of course, except for one major mistake.

 

[ShiningStar]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

There is no mental toll for this.

McCarthy is doing what JJ wants, no success. Anytime a coach has success, they are out of here. This is the only organization to fire 3 SB winning coaches and PArcells for turning the franchise around.

What is the issue? As long as we are mediocre and relevant, the Jones boys are excited.

 

[KJJ]

Whoever the next head coach is, it won’t be long before fans are calling for their head. It’s just going to be another Jerry Jones yes man. We’ve gone through a number of head coaches the past three decades and we can’t get over the hump with any of them. The Cowboys have only won four playoff games with their last six head coaches and none of them were divisional round games. We’re stuck in the mud with the Joneses.

 

[Tabascocat]

It seems that most are out there just collecting paychecks, players and coaches. I like Mike and I think he would have done a better job(especially the playoffs) if he were allowed to do his own thing. There isn’t a coach out there that will even get to the Super Bowl with the Jones’s meddling and the culture they created.

Keep Mike, fire Mike…..it won’t matter in the long run.

 

[Blackspider214]

It's not that we hate MM or anything like that, I think it's time for a new face, new ideas, new goals, new accountability!! Maybe a younger mind, not a retread or someone that can be easily pushed over. Hopefully we one day find a coach that will stand up to Jerry and tell him to sit down, and to let me run the show!!

Won't ever happen because for that to happen, Jerry would have to allow it and we know he won't. He's hired nothing but yes men since firing Jimmy, except maybe Parcells. But he paired with him to get that new stadium and to resurrect it from the dreads of the early 2000s of 3 straight 5-11 seasons.

We will move on from MM after this season and go after another retread yes man who won't get in the Jones family way of how they run things. That coach will bring in nothing but retread coaches to work under them. And the cycle will continue.

Jerry will never hire a young mind like McVay, LaFleur, Shanahan when they were coming up. Those guys worked because they were allowed to have their own vision and gave their inputs of the players they needed the front office to draft, sign and trade for.

 

[Blast From The Past]

The way they've looked I'm inclined to suspect he wants out of here. They look unprepared and unmotivated. The game plan and play calling that lacks any kind of creativity. It's almost like he's pulling a Jason Garrett level of offensive sabotage.

Mabe MM wants to be terminated from what he knows is a losing last season he will ever coach in the nfl. His barn beckons him back in WI. Who knows why this offense looks so blah. Players could be one, coaching the other.

 

[Blast From The Past]

It seems that most are out there just collecting paychecks, players and coaches. I like Mike and I think he would have done a better job(especially the playoffs) if he were allowed to do his own thing. There isn’t a coach out there that will even get to the Super Bowl with the Jones’s meddling and the culture they created.

Keep Mike, fire Mike…..it won’t matter in the long run.

One common denominator the last 28 years is the Jones. The yearly failures are abysmal.

 

[Parcells4Life]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

Changing coaches every 4 years is the easy route. Bottom line is this team isn’t talented enough this year. And Green Bay exploited the team playing safeties at LB all year.

McCarthy has done a solid job IMO.

 

[OGSixshooter]

The thing is that was all predictable. You can never truly "run it back" ...in the same way no man ever steps into the same river twice. For neither is he "the same" as when he first stepped into it and neither is the river...both have changed. Well, the minute you "run it back" ...you're doing it with DAMAGED GOODS. I used the term "broken" after the GB game...to describe Dak after the pick 6 and the team after the home loss. They didn't beat our weakness...GB went at our strength. "If you want to beat a team, go at their weakness. If you want to break a team, go at their strength." MM, Dak, CeeDee, entire D...all beaten that game and haven't been the same since. Shell-shocked, traumatized, etc...they all apply here. Whatever the vase was before, it will never be put back together again.

 

[Chasing6]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

The Mental toll is GM Jethro. You can change the Head Coach ever year if it makes you feel better.

 

[chasecooley5308]

He'll be gone after this season

 

[Ranching]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

First off, I know that you don't hope you're wrong....if you did you wouldn't allow your disdain for Jerry consume you....Secondly, losing is part of sport, if you really think athletes that bust their butts everyday, especially those that do it for a payday, would allow themselves to be consumed by a loss....you were either never part of a team, in any sport or band or FFA egg and poultry judging etc., or you're disdain for Jerry is really clouding your opinions. I've seen individual, weak players get down on themselves, but never an entire team.

 

[rambo2]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

Are you ok? I hope that you are. This Pittsburgh game is a big game. They really need that 3rd win.

 

[Roadtrip635]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

It still falls on Jerry, ultimately this is a business and Jerry made a business decision to keep MM. Jerry set the team up to fail on the field, Jerry set up MM to fail by failing to adequately address the team's obvious shortcomings. By now, we know what MM is, but then Jerry is demanding he do more with less. The true mental toll on this team is Jerry and how he manages this team and if this team "quits" it's not on this staff it's on Jerry.

 

[OGSixshooter]

McCarthy did his best with what he was handed.

You can see what he tried to do last year, it just didn't work.

He finally got rid of Moore and could run the offense himself, although he had to get to year 4 of his deal before finally getting rid of Jerry's mandated OC from the previous regime. The result was the leagues best offense.

You can't discipline anybody in Dallas, everyone knows where the power lies with the franchise and unfortunately the head coach is way way down the list when it comes to authority, so McCarthy went the only way he could which was the try to build a family relationship group dynamic.

We read all year how the locker room was tight, and everyone was supportive of one another etc.. which was great when things are going well. However that type of self-governance in football seldom works. The playoffs came and the next thing we hear is post victory parties had already been planned and we had star players sitting on the bench pouting after the the first couple of series. We saw the result.

McCarthy on a one year deal was never going to work, he knows it and the players know it. On a team that already has a huge authority disconnect, an entire staff on one year deals is a joke.

He is a bad coach no, is their better maybe, perhaps probably, but the way this team is structured by the Jones family places such a burden on any coach that it makes it almost impossible to get things done in a professional NFL manner.

But we already know that. Next coach up i guess.

I agree of much what you write...and it can make a person go in circles. The only way off the carousel is to say - from MM's perspective - if you KNEW all of this before you took the job, why did you take it?

It reminds of me of guys who ignore timeless wisdom: "Stay out the streets" or "Choose the woman/women that choose you" or "Don't get high on your own supply" (LOL). They ignore it because they think "It won't happen to me" or "I can fix it" or "I'm different". Maybe...but most likely not.

I think MM wanted to prove it was him and not Rodgers...especially after Rodgers won back-to-back MVPs and Packers had back-to-back 13-3 seasons AFTER they fired the guy who was getting massages during walk-throughs.

 

[OGSixshooter]

Cliff notes version...
"A head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run."

Which was the EXACT JOB he was hired to do.
Period.
#hardstop

If anyone closely examined his playoff career at GB, it was more of the same.

 

[heir]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

The decision to keep MM is not the major problem. The decision to keep MM with a roster that is worse than last year is the issue. The front office did nothing to improve the roster, blamed the salary cap, and now will try to blame it on MM. For the record, I am not even a big MM fan but the blame is always being shifted from where it should be laid and that is directly at the feet of Jerry Jones!

 

[MikeT22]

I could see this coming since January. Jerry and Stephen just dont care.

 

[JW82]

That loss to Green Bay last January was not just a first round playoff loss, it was the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Cowboys 64 year history. When an NFL team loses a playoff game in an upset at home in crushing fashion, it leaves mental baggage for the players, and especially for the head coach who is now 1-3 in the playoffs and in the final year of his five year contract.

IMO the decision by Jerry Jones to keep Mike McCarthy after that terrible playoff loss last January was not only cheap (he didn’t want to have to pay off Big Mac’s last year), it also set up this year‘s team with the unnecessary mental baggage of a head coach who has already shown he is incapable of getting this team on a deep playoff run.

Coupled with the questionable decision to keep Big Mac, the FO made it worse by deciding they would do nothing this off-season to make this roster better than the teams of the last three seasons that could not get past the divisional round.

Look, I hope I’m wrong…I really do. But watching this team through four games, they not only look under-manned in several key positions, they look mentally tired. The evidence is already there that this team could be on the verge of quitting on this staff, which is already hanging over a cliff with the expiring contracts.

Here are the red flags that this team is suffering some mental malaise after last year’s playoff loss:

• Haven't won a home game since last December, 2023 when we beat the lions 20-19.
• In the team‘s last 3 home games, it averages giving up 40 points a game, and have looked unprepared at the start of each of those games.
• The players probably feel frustrated at the lack of action by this FO in the off-season but can’t take it out on them.
• With the defense losing its two best players for a stretch, it creates more strain on the mental toughness of this team. Can they overcome that?
• If we lose at Pittsburgh, at 2-3 we would face a tough lions team at home again with the mental baggage of the last 3 home stinkers.
• If we go to the bye week 2-4 with the tough schedule ahead, the “quit alert” bells will be ringing.

The other side of this coin of course is “winning cures everything”. If the team can start winning and show it’s capable of “doing hard things”, it can change this course.

But if I take off the fan glasses and just try to be objective, this does not look like a team that believes in itself nor its head coach.

Spot on.