It's a dark day in Dallas, as the team that went undefeated at home, surged to the two seed, and looked unstoppable in December crashed out of the postseason with a thud Sunday - becoming the first No. 2 seed to lose to a No. 7 and, in the process, casting doubt on the future of their head coach.
“There’s a lot of fan bases that get very upset about guys that are successful and want them to be fired that we will defend and say, ‘look, they've done this and that, and you can't necessarily just kick a guy out because you can't get it done in the postseason,’” Gio said. “But what happened yesterday, and where Jerry Jones is in his life and the way he was talking last night? I know Mike McCarthy has had three really good regular seasons, but they gotta try something different.”
“They've won 36 games with Mike McCarthy, and it reminds me of Matt LaFleur up in Green Bay,” Boomer replied. “They won 36 games with Aaron Rodgers and Matt LaFleur and they kind of couldn't get over the hump.”
The difference there, at least, is Green Bay made it to the NFC Title Game in that span, even if they did lose at home to Tom Brady and Tampa Bay -
“They got at least that far, where the Dallas Cowboys have not been in a championship game since the mid-1990s, so yeah, it’s crazy,” Gio said. “So yeah, Mike McCarthy and this offense, and the way that Dak is playing and being in the MVP conversation for most of this year, I mean, all that is true, but this is as bad of a loss as you could possibly have at home, especially when this team was rolling at home the entire year.”
“They were off a little bit, and you could see it in some throws and in the body language. Dak wasn’t really that sharp and CeeDee Lamb had that look of disgust,” Boomer replied. “The numbers don’t tell the story, because they did fight back late when Matt LaFleur took his foot off the pedal, but those numbers don’t mean anything – in the body of the game, they were getting their asses handed to them. Dak got eviscerated last night, but when you look at what he has done with Mike McCarthy as his offensive coordinator…all that matters is that you have to win, especially at home, when you are heavy favorite and have won 18 in a row."
And while Green Bay figured it out mid-season and appears to have made the right decision going to Jordan Love and moving on from Aaron Rodgers – just like they did when Rodgers replaced Brett Favre – we’re left to wonder what Jerry Jones is thinking as Dallas’ Super Bowl drought approaches three decades and Mike McCarthy enters the final year of his contract.
“Does Bill Belichick want to go to the Cowboys, and could Bill work under the Joneses? Does Pete Carroll go there, or Mike Vrabel, or does he stick with Mike McCarthy?” Gio asked. “It sounded to me like Jerry Jones was ready to do something, because he sounded devastated.”
"Do you remember when I was on The NFL Today and got notice Jerry Jones’ plane was at Teterboro and he was meeting with Bill Parcells?” Boomer asked. “You have to find out if Jerry’s plane is up in New England, because if it is, he’s picking up Belichick! But they're going to have to do something quickly, because it's about the assistant coaches, too."