Mike McCarthy reveals what he would have changed in San Francisco loss

The Dallas Cowboys season ended in a rather unusual way, with quarterback Dak Prescott not being able to spike the ball as the clock ticked down to zero against the San Francisco 49ers. It’s another playoff loss that will haunt the franchise and head coach Mike McCarthy for years to come.

McCarthy made an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday, discussing the game. When asked what he would do differently about the final play, McCarthy said it starts by evaluating the play and deciding if it was a win or a loss.

“I always look at the application of the training,” McCarthy said. “I learn this as a play-caller in the early 2000s — I think you have to watch on how you evaluate plays. Every play that you call, you really have to give it two grades. Did it win? Or did it lose? The fact that we didn’t get what we call a church clock… we’re in a two-play, last two-play sequence there. So did the play win or lose? Obviously not getting the ball clocked in time so the play was a loss but you got to take it a step further in your evaluation.”

From there, McCarthy got a bit more technical, talking about how Dallas approached the final seconds from a schematic standpoint. He said although running the ball was the right call from quarterback Dak Prescott, there was still a poor execution from everyone involved and that everything is going to be fixed during the offseason.

“Schematically, based on what we had called against their defense — it was a quick throw that was checked to a draw based on Erik Armstead, the nose. They’re playing to stop the quick throw. I think Dak’s decision was correct but we just got to look at the details of what we’ll do in that particular situation and giving us more time to get the ball spiked and get the clock stopped. We’ll look at the schematic part of it. We’ll definitely tighten up those details but the reality is that we did not execute the play. You have to get that last play off. Obviously, the whole reason of doing that was instead of throwing a hail mary from the 40+, you get it down inside of the 30-yard line because it puts you in another play call which has a higher percentage.”

McCarthy will be facing pressure during the 2022 season. Not only from the relentless Dallas Cowboys fans but also from the team’s owner Jerry Jones. He has been very open about other coaching candidates being an option going forward if expectations cannot be met during this upcoming season. Plays such as the final one against the 49ers cannot happen again if they are to be met.