Cowboys legend Michael Irvin calls out team’s stars on FanSided podcast
It may be a whole week later, but the entire NFL world is still talking about the Dallas Cowboys Wild Card loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Analysts and commentators all over the league have been criticizing the team for everything from the penalties to the lack of execution.
Cowboys legends like Troy Aikman have come out to criticize the game plan. Michael Irvin spoke up about his thoughts as well. FanSided’s video host Mark Carman got to chat with the NFL Hall of Famer on the Stacking the Box podcast.
From the jump, the former wide receiver is quick to blame the stars of the team. Irvin says that every other team in Super Wild Card Weekend had their key players make a huge impact in the game. To prove this, he touches on Dak Prescott’s passer rating, Ezekiel Elliott’s total yards, and CeeDee Lamb’s single reception.
“Whenever you have a disorder, it’s going to bring about dysfunction,” said the NFL analyst. In this case, the dysfunction was star players playing like role players and role players – like Dalton Schultz and Cedrick Wilson – having to play like stars.
NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin points out glaring issues from Cowboys loss to the Niners
Another issue that Irvin pointed out was that the Cowboys seemed to look like the game “was overwhelming them” for a majority of the contest. By the time they figured that out, it was too late. Conversely, Irvin felt the Niners showed hunger, desire, and togetherness for the entire matchup.
When asked about his thoughts on keeping or losing head coach Mike McCarthy, the NFL legend said he’s “always looking for better.” I hope Jerry Jones is hearing this. Irvin said he doesn’t think any of the coordinators out there are necessarily “better” than McCarthy. But, if Dallas could get a name like Sean Payton, Bill Belicheck, or Kyle Shanahan, Irvin would absolutely make the change.
The portion that seemed to ring true for most Cowboys fans this year was his feeling that the reason Dallas hasn’t had a dynasty in so long is that they have had “elements” of a championship team, but only certain portions at a time. When the run game was good, the defense was bad. Now, the defense is great and the run game slowed. Irvin said unless the team can get all elements of the team to come together and consistently win football games, they won’t win.
Who to blame for that? Irvin says the GM and head coach.
If you watch the entire interview, you’ll also get a nice lesson about transition lenses (lol) and Irvin’s thoughts on the rest of the playoffs.
