Mike McCarthy isn’t buying the current narrative around the Cowboys offense.
After Dallas was stymied by the San Francisco 49ers last week, a common criticism has been that the offense is stale. Routes are predictable, and the system the Cowboys are running is antiquated.
Coming off a 42-10 loss in which Dak Prescott had three interceptions and threw for just 154 yards, such criticism is probably warranted to a degree. But asked to respond to the concept in his weekly appearance on Shan & RJ, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy emphatically disagreed.
“Well, clearly from the offensive perspective of scheme, the way we break it down is there are families,” McCarthy explained. “We have families in the passing game, and routes that obviously coincide with those families. From that, you have variations, on top of it you have different motions that can accommodate pass game families.
“I think it’s just like anything. When you don't have production, everything is evaluated with some negativity. When you do have production, I think it sometimes gets more credit than it really deserves. But I’m very, very confident in the full menu of our pass game families, the route running principals, the discipline.
“If anything, we’ve taken a big step in how we’ve moved this pass game forward. Now, that’s me saying it based off of what we’ve done in the classroom and on the practice field, and clearly in tune with the results that we've had. So I 100 percent disagree with that analysis.”
The Cowboys are eighth in the league in points per game, but that number is inflated by the Cowboys defense putting up a league-leading three touchdowns this season. In terms of passing yards and touchdowns, the offense in the middle of the pack.
The Chargers defense can be friendly to passing games though, so Monday might offer an opportunity to get things right.