For two weeks heading into their Week 14 matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals, the Dallas Cowboys managed to stop the bleeding. They picked up back-to-back wins over NFC East foes in the Washington Commanders and New York Giants while moving from 3-7 to 5-7 with five games remaining.
The Cowboys’ playoff hopes entering the Monday Night Football matchup with the Bengals were bleak. But after a 27-20 loss in a game where Dallas blocked a punt late in the deadlock against Cincinnati and should have been in a position to pull out a victory, those playoff hopes are all but dashed.
With the Cowboys now more likely to begin preparing for the offseason than the postseason, it’d be fair to assume that Monday night wasn’t the best time to talk to owner Jerry Jones about the hot-button decision that looms.
But almost like clockwork, it was time for the next round of comments from Jones about the future of head coach Mike McCarthy.
Only this time, after the loss that likely sealed the Cowboys’ postseason fate, Jones had a different tune. While he’s offered optimism about McCarthy’s future in Dallas before, he chose to sing his praises this time.
But as longtime Cowboys reporter Clarence Hill Jr. revealed, in a response to the topic of McCarthy coming back to Dallas, Jones was almost overly chipper when discussing the current coach.
“Well, let me just say this quickly, and Mike is an outstanding coach. He has an outstanding record. He’s got great experience,” Jones said of McCarthy. “A lot of what he’s about, some of the benefits that we’re having out there, we’re gaining from the type coach that he is.”
“And so there’s an old adage, when you start thinking about any coaches, you better give it a good look, because he’s one of the most outstanding. So again, I’ve spoken to that about any consideration I’m having, but this was a hard one for him tonight. I’m sure.”
To be clear, while McCarthy has put together a strong three-year stretch during his tenure with the Cowboys, it’s unlikely that many people would have bet on Jones calling him “one of the most outstanding” coaches after this loss.
But Jones is correct that McCarthy deserves credit for keeping the Cowboys above water and snapping the five-game losing skid that included Dak Prescott’s season-ending injury. Unfortunately, the end of that stretch came a bit too late, and the loss on Monday to the Bengals, likely sealing the team’s fate for this season, adds even more intrigue to Jones’s impending decision.
Jones won’t (and shouldn’t) decide on McCarthy now — there would be no point in doing so. However, his plan for when the season ends will remain a key storyline, especially after Dak Prescott and many other players threw their support behind McCarthy.
Maybe Jones’s newfound overly optimistic outlook stems from the player’s push for McCarthy to remain the head coach. Or, maybe Jones simply saw the writing on the wall for this season and is ready to move forward with whatever his plan is for 2025 and beyond.