Make no mistake, although the annual Dallas playoff exit, which occurs long before the playoffs get too deep, has become commonplace, it’s never mundane. But Sunday’s loss, by a misleading score of 48-32 — late Cowboys scores make it look on paper much closer than it was — was shocking in several ways, beginning with the fact that Green Bay sprinted out to a 27–0 lead in the first half.
Leading up to the game, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was noncommittal when asked whether he was definitely bringing head coach Mike McCarthy back next season, regardless of how the club ended its playoff run. Many in the local media guessed that only an embarrassment against Green Bay would compel Jones to send McCarthy packing. Of course, Sunday delivered such an event.
The Dallas Morning News’ Kevin Sherrington wrote in Monday’s edition that the game was “the most embarrassing playoff exit in the organization’s history.”
For Jones, who has a well-earned reputation for being slow to cut ties with his head coaches even when faced with a lack of on-field success, the perfect storm arrived inside AT&T Stadium on Sunday as winter storm conditions swirled around outside the billion-dollar dome.
Whether it was schadenfreude or just good old-fashioned hometown-brewed catharsis, the reaction both locally and nationally was as colorful as it was heated.
Kyle Brandt of the NFL Network’s Good Morning Football said on Monday’s program “this one hits different.” He also shared that clip on X with a biblically inspired caption: “The Cowboys are a false prophet.”
The Cowboys are a false prophet. pic.twitter.com/n6r6FdOppp
— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) January 15, 2024
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Cowboys beat reporter Clarence Hill Jr. posted a video clip to X featuring avowed Cowboys homer and Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin, a man who knows a thing or two about controversy, saying, “All they asses got to go.”
@michaelirvin88 says everyone on the Cowboys got to go. “All they asses gotta go” pic.twitter.com/cT0n1eb1Qx
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) January 15, 2024
Texas football legend Robert Griffin III, who won a Heisman Trophy for Baylor in 2011 before going on to play in the NFL and become a popular broadcaster in more recent years, is also thinking along the lines of Irvin. On Sunday night he said the Cowboys should sack McCarthy and look to move on from high-dollar QB Dak Prescott. And then? Think about hiring former Cowboy and current University of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders and drafting his son, QB Shedeur Sanders.
The Cowboys need to fire Mike McCarthy and hire Coach Prime. pic.twitter.com/kfllSkIQiI
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) January 15, 2024
There were plenty of people looking to move forward by remembering that less than three months ago, the Texas Rangers won their first World Series. X was packed with video clips of the final out from the triumphant Game 5 that clinched the title for the club after more than 50 years of frustration.
An update for sports fans in the DFW Metroplex: Adrián Beltré has been checked on 156 of 158 revealed Hall of Fame ballots.
— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) January 15, 2024
Noted Baseball Hall of Fame tracker Ryan Thibodaux took to X to let North Texas sports fans know that there was some comfort to be had: Adrian Beltre, the beloved former Rangers third baseman, had received Hall of Fame votes for induction this year from all but a pair of the 158 ballots he was aware of so far.
Here’s another silver lining: Without a Cowboys playoff game to look forward to, fans can at least pay attention to the whole “will he or won’t he” guessing game of what's next for Mike McCarthy. Covers.com has already posted betting favorites for the coach who will succeed McCarthy should he be fired, with legendary skipper Bill Belichick emerging as the frontrunner.
