The 2020 season hasn’t gone the way Head Coach Mike McCarthy would have hoped through the first nine games. The Dallas Cowboys are 2-7 and are currently on a four-game losing streak, sitting in last place in the NFC East.
McCarthy made an appearance on Shan and RJ on 105.3 The Fan early Friday morning. After having time to evaluate the state of the team during its bye week, McCarthy was asked by host Shan Shariff about what he thought about his performance so far in the first nine games.
“That’s a great question. I think like anything, with a head coach, as far as I’ve always done it, you look at the record and why it’s that way,” McCarthy said. “I’ve been in positions where I’ve been 7-2 and haven’t been very happy with where it’s going. You have to develop a filter that takes the emotion out of it, and just be honest with yourself. You got to have people around you that are seeing it the way you see it. You don’t want a bunch of ‘yes men,’ but you’re trying to build a direction in the way you’re doing things. The coaching operation clearly is not where I want it to be. So we’ll just say that my evaluation is that I have a lot of work left to do.”
The Cowboys have improved over the last few weeks defensively but still rank 23rd in yards, 31st in rushing yards, and 32nd in points allowed per game. The Cowboys were averaging 488 yards and 32.6 points per game with a healthy Dak Prescott. After his season-ending ankle injury, the offense is averaging just 279 yards and 10.3 points per game.
America’s Team hits the road this Sunday to face the Minnesota Vikings who have won three consecutive games after a 1-5 start. The biggest challenge for McCarthy will getting his defense to contain Dalvin Cook who has 465 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns during the Viking’s current winning streak.
As mentioned earlier, the Cowboys are in last place in their division. Fortunately, they’re only one game back in the win column with seven games left to play. McCarthy still has time to turn the season around and even win a division title in his first year in Dallas. However, if that is to become a reality, McCarthy must find a way to get both sides of the ball to perform well simultaneously which the Cowboys have struggled to do all season.
