Jerry Jones should fire Mike McCarthy after Cowboys’ flop as Bill Belichick speculation grows

In what world is an NFL head coach’s job in jeopardy after leading his team to 12 wins and playoff berths in three consecutive seasons? In Jerry’s world. This is the precarious perch on which Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy sits uncomfortably after Sunday’s stunning 48 32 wild card playoff loss to the Packers at AT&T Stadium.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is 81 years old and he wants results now. Postseason results. His team last advanced to an NFC championship game in the 1995 season when they would go on to win the Super Bowl. Since then, the Cowboys’ playoff results have been awful — 5 13 and seven times one and done.

So, following Sunday’s shocking end to Dallas’ 16 game home winning streak, the speculation about McCarthy’s job status will intensify. As the seventh seeded Packers were boat racing the No. 2 seeded Cowboys from the outset , there were jokes on social media circulating that pondered whether Jones might hire Bill Belichick at halftime.

After the Packers took a 20 0 lead in the second quarter and the Fox cameras showed Jones turning his back to the field, social media jokesters were wondering if he was asking someone if they had Belichick’s telephone number. And that was before Packers safety Darnell Savage made it 27 0 with a 64 yard pick six.

This loss and the way it unfolded, with McCarthy so terribly outcoached by Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur, was so overwhelming that it’s thrown gallons of gasoline on the flames surrounding McCarthy. At the very least, it ramps up the intensity to the speculation about Jones reaching out to Belichick, who presumably has his pick of the litter of every team with a coaching vacancy — and one that isn’t yet vacant but has a very impatient and impetuous owner.

I went into this game thinking it would be unfair and an overreaction if Jones were to fire McCarthy should Dallas lose. His body of work has been too good, a coach who’s won 36 games in the past three years while in the past seven years the Giants have won 37 games and the Jets 36. But, after the way this thing played out, my mind was changed by halftime.

I don’t think Jones or Dallas fans can stomach any more of this postseason failure and a change must be made. McCarthy remaining in Dallas after this would be an unhealthy situation. Make no mistake: This loss by the Cowboys, who entered the game as a touchdown favorite against a Green Bay team that’s the youngest (by average age) to make the playoffs since 1974, was cataclysmic.

The Cowboys entered the game with every one of their starters having playoff experience. Yet, it hardly looked that way. “We were real loose,” first year Packers starter Jordan Love said afterward. “We came in here with the mindset that we’re going to dominate. Lot of people counted us out and we didn’t care about that.

We knew we had an opportunity in front of us.” The Cowboys looked ill prepared, out of sync and uptight. They were outplayed and outcoached, right from the moment LaFleur went against the conventional coaching strategy and went on offense after winning the coin toss so the seventh seeded Packers could punch the Cowboys in the mouth.

Which they did, scoring on the opening possession after a 12 play, 7:52 drive with the first of three rushing touchdowns for running back Aaron Jones. Sign up for Starting Lineup for the biggest stories. Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

Thanks for signing up Never miss a story. The Packers had the better quarterback with Love carving up the Dallas defense as if he was Aaron Rodgers in his prime. Love completed 16 of 21 for 272 yards with three TDs and no turnovers. He’s now thrown 21 TD passes with just one interception in Green Bay’s last nine games, during which they’re 7 2.

Aaron who? Maybe Pat McAfee replaces Rodgers with Love on his show next season. Meanwhile, Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, now 2 5 in the playoffs in his career, was dreadful until garbage time, throwing two interceptions in the first half and finishing 41 of 50 for 403 yards with three touchdowns and the two picks.

Prescott is now 1 5 with 10 interceptions in five career games against the Packers, who’ve defeated Dallas in 10 of the teams’ last 11 meetings. Defensively, Dallas had no answers for Jones, a Texas native who rushed for 118 yards and those three TDs (giving him nine in four career games against the Cowboys).

The Cowboys, too, forgot to cover Packers second year receiver Romeo Doubs, who torched them with six receptions for 151 yards and a touchdown. The product Dallas put on the field Sunday was embarrassing and unacceptable in a game the Cowboys absolutely, positively had to win. So, the pressing question is: How unacceptable will Jones deemed this loss? And: Will it push him to make a call to Belichick or someone else to replace McCarthy? In the immediate aftermath of the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day rout of Washington, an ebullient Jones stood before reporters and proclaimed: “This team is certainly capable of winning this whole thing.” That tells you all you need to know about what his expectations were for this team.

And it leaves us all — most notably McCarthy — wondering what’s comes next in Jerry’s world..