Dallas Cowboys: Breaking down what must get fixed during Week 7 bye

After six weeks of football, the Dallas Cowboys are 5-1. Things are looking great and in Week 7, they get a much-needed bye week. In the grand scheme of things, bye weeks are the perfect time to heal up, go over the next slate of football games, and well, fix issues surrounding your team.

So far this season, the Cowboys have been playing some fun, exciting, and thrilling football to the point where people are starting to consider them legit contenders. Not just in the NFC but across the league thanks to being absolutely stacked with talent all across the roster.

Besides their known playmakers, leaders, and top performers we’ve seen, there is, however, one area that must absolutely get fixed during the Week 7 bye. It’s an area that might not have reared its ugly head yet but could very well down the future and actually cost the Cowboys some games as it comes down to a very basic fundamental of coaching. Time management.

The Dallas Cowboys need to help Mike McCarthy with time management

Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, basic time management is an area that for whatever reason, head coach Mike McCarthy can’t seem to get a grasp on and execute correctly. It’s crazy to think that even football fans that know the bare basics of this sport know when to correctly call timeouts, go for it on 4th down or not when it can win a football game, and just understand all the little things about proper situational awareness throughout the course of a game.

It’s an area of opportunity for the Cowboys and perhaps upper management can get with McCarthy this week and put him on a special crash course to just go over these little things. Sure, he’s going to continue making mistakes around calling timeouts properly or knowing when to go for it or punt the football on offense, but it’s better it happens now rather than later during what should be an eventual playoff berth for the Cowboys.

Of course, McCarthy actually has it easier than many other head coaches across the league in that he has excellent coordinators under him that make those key decisions on their aspects of the team. While McCarthy allows them to do their job, he still has the final say and should have the final say to make these key decisions that will make all the difference in winning or losing.

Clock management is so important in the NFL these days as the football world has seen all season long that a lot of these games we’re watching are all determined by these critical time management moments and decisions. We’ve seen a lot of overtime games, gutsy decisions made by head coaches that worked due to truly understanding the reasoning behind them, and little things like calling timeouts precisely to put your team in a position to win because well, it’s common sense.

Hopefully, this is something the Cowboys put McCarthy on to work towards improving this area during the bye week because this could easily be a recurring issue if it’s not nipped in the bud now. The Cowboys are building up to having a special season, one that we might never forget if everything falls into place. For now, that could all be a pipe dream if McCarthy doesn’t get these basics of coaching down pat.