When will McCarthy start showing he’s an upgrade?
It would be fun to simply dissect the Dak Prescott vs. Baker Mayfield aspect of Sunday’s noon kickoff at AT&T Stadium because both quarterbacks come into the game loaded. I mean it doesn’t get much bigger than Campbell’s Chunky Soup and Sleep Number beds against Progressive insurance and Hulu.
Who ya got?
Actually, it’s a statistical oddity that the two aren’t far apart in passer rating and neither is in the league’s top 12 despite the fact Prescott is far and away No. 1 in passing yards with more than double Mayfield’s output. It’s a pass-happy year and neither of these quarterbacks is filling the end zone the way Seattle’s Russell Wilson, Buffalo’s Josh Allen and others did in September, so we will see what lies ahead.
But the intriguing matchup and the critical one for Cowboys fans is something entirely different: Kevin Stefanski vs. Mike McCarthy. Now who ya got?
The Browns’ Stefanski, the former Minnesota quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, has the only winning record (2-1) among the five new head coaches in the league. The Giants’ beleaguered Joe Judge has the only 0-3 mark while McCarthy, Carolina’s Matt Rhule and Washington’s Ron Rivera are all 1-2. That might sound like McCarthy is off to a so-so start, but it’s worse than that when you consider why these coaches were hired.
Four took jobs on teams with at least back-to-back seasons of losing records. McCarthy inherited a club
that won a playoff game in 2018 and went 8-8 last season despite owning a better point differential than seven of the12 playoff teams. Jason Garrett’s final Dallas team led the league in offense but was sixth in points, suggesting the Cowboys weren’t getting complete bang for their buck. Thus, change was mandated and made.
This was supposed to be a team that hit the ground running, one that added CeeDee Lamb to that league-leading offense. With the addition of the onetime quarterback guru McCarthy, who knew what heights might be scaled? The sky or at least the closed roof on AT&T Stadium was the limit.
What have we seen? Is there anything you have watched on any given Sunday that tells you someone new and better is in charge?
It’s hard to find much given that McCarthy’s first order of business last spring was to keep Kellen Moore in charge of the offense. With
that, Prescott again is throwing the ball all over the field, averaging 396 yards per game. The Cowboys again are No. 1 in total offense. But where they were sixth in scoring last year, they are eighth after three games. So once more the Cowboys are finding ways to pile up yards like nobody’s business, but it isn’t translating to enough points and, save for a watermelon onside kick that rendered Atlanta’s special teams players speechless (and clueless), the Cowboys would be 0-3.
When do we begin to see something that suggests a significant upgrade has been made with this coaching staff? The excuse of the pandemic — the lack of spring practice, summer practice, preseason games — is gone at least for this week. Stefanski was given the same charge with a new team in Cleveland that McCarthy received. In the Browns’ case, the team is committed to the run averaging 170 yards per game on the ground, has won backto-back games and is forging a new identity.
Even with Zeke Elliott in the backfield, the Cowboys aren’t even a top 20 rushing team in a 32-team league. Now that’s largely because of the shutdown in Seattle, so one can expect that to change incrementally as the season goes along. But what about McCarthy’s longtime friend MikeNolan managing the defense now? Are injuries a good enough excuse to explain the Jacksonville Jaguars being the only team allowing a higher passer rating (nine touchdowns, one interception) than the Cowboys’ 114.1?
It feels like we have seen that movie before, too.
Put it this way. McCarthy has been awarded as many game balls for victories (one) as former Baylor coachMattRhule haspicked up in Carolina. The difference is that Rhule inherited an awful team that lost its last eight games in 2019, moved on fromquarterback Cam Newton and, by all rights, should have about the worst defense in the league this season. But the Panthers have given up fewer yards and points than Dallas, so at least Carolina fans can see where their new coach is putting his stamp on his team, even if there’s a long road ahead.
McCarthy is supposed to have the shortest road of all these new coaches. The Joneses aren’t looking for someone to get this team to 9-7. Garrett averaged that for nine years here. Against another coach who suffered the same challenges that the pandemic delivered to all new coaches, McCarthy needs to showCowboys fans Sunday what his experience and wisdom are all about.