Has Mike McCarthy improved with the Dallas Cowboys?
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy hasn’t been as bad as people might think he would be
Looking at two specific examples from the previous two games and a pair that shows a great dichotomy, you can take a micro and macro perspective on it. Looking specifically from a micro perspective, take a key challenge flag McCarthy threw in Week 14’s win against the Giants.
After Trevon Diggs went up to catch his 10th interception, the officials originally called the ball incomplete when Kenny Golladay tore the ball out of Diggs’ hands. It wouldn’t have been that crazy for a coach not to challenge that. To be fair, you have a much better chance if it’s Diggs making the play because he’s a guy that’s made those plays all year long.
However, it wasn’t a home run by any stretch of the imagination either. Still, McCarthy threw his flag. For a guy that’s thrown the red flag 100 times throughout his coaching career, he’s batting .500. Situations like the one against the Giants, where McCarthy made the right call in a key moment, show improvement.
“Logic” is the operative word there, especially for McCarthy. Looking at a macro situation, let’s take his borderline win guarantee from Week 14.
McCarthy stated that his team would beat Washington ahead of the matchup. Though it wound up being harder than it should have been and a bit more dramatic than most would have it, his team did win.
Some might call it foolish bulletin board material, but some might say he knew how to motivate his team. That’s also further solidified by the fact that through everything they’ve endured this season, from injuries to COVID to turnover, they’ve still managed to get as far as they have.
The Cowboys believe in their coach, and that says something. They’re playing for him.
Again, they haven’t won anything yet, and there’s still quite a bit to go. However, you have to, at least, be satisfied with what you are seeing so far. A huge part of Dallas’ success has been head coaching that has been… not so terrible, at the very least.
And in fact, you might even say that McCarthy has gotten better since coming over to the Cowboys.
