Ex-Patriot Calls For Mike McCarthy’s Job After Cowboys’ Playoff Exit

Damien Woody believes it’s time for the Cowboys to find a new head coach.

Dallas’ 2021 season ended in disappointment Sunday when America’s Team fell to San Francisco at AT&T Stadium. The Cowboys were setting themselves to attempt a game-winning touchdown pass in 49ers territory, but poor late-game management doomed Dak Prescott and Co.

Trailing the Niners by six points with 13 seconds left in the game and no timeouts, Dallas elected to run a quarterback draw that moved the home team to San Francisco’s 24-yard line. The play took too much time off the clock and didn’t give the referee an opportunity to reset the football before the final tick.

Shortly after the Cowboys’ season-ending loss, Woody tweeted his belief that Mike McCarthy should lose his job. The NFL offensive lineman-turned-analyst eventually posted a video message explaining his take.

“Terrible ending,” Woody said. “You gotta understand situational football in that particular situation. Fourteen seconds left in the game — that’s not enough time for you to run a play and spike the football. Everyone knows that. It takes 16 seconds minimum for you to run a play and spike the ball. That’s a colossal blunder by Mike McCarthy, Dak, everybody. We’ve seen this too many times from Mike McCarthy, whether it’s just bad clock management, bad situational football. We saw the 14 penalties. Mike McCarthy needs to be fired.”

All of the attention for this game understandably will be placed on the final play, but Dallas was fortunate to be in that position in the first place. The Cowboys took forever to wake up and largely played undisciplined from wire to wire. Both of those issues fall on the shoulders of the head coach.

Jerry Jones wasn’t interested in speaking about McCarthy’s future after Sunday’s game. But considering how the last two seasons went in Dallas, coupled with McCarthy’s track record, the Cowboys should at least consider a coaching change.