Mike McCarthy calls offensive line a 'focus' after struggles versus Jaguars

The Dallas Cowboys‘ loss versus the Jacksonville Jaguars revealed a possible area of concern for the offense on Saturday – the offensive line. Head coach Mike McCarthy wouldn’t go so far as to call it a concern after the unit gave up four sacks in their first preseason game, but he called it a “focus.”

“It’s a focus,” McCarthy said, via Todd Archer. “Because you always like to get to a point in camp where you have your five guys that try to keep connected and get into a rhythm and so forth. We’re obviously not at that point.

“We have some veterans and we have some moving parts, so on the flip side of that it does create a lot of opportunity for our young players… This is good for us. I think this will pay dividends in the long run. At some point you do want to get into that routine of getting five guys working together.”

Dallas is already lacking a starter for the foreseeable future thanks to right guard Zack Martin and his contract holdout. Meanwhile, there is still an open competition underway to find the starting left guard as well after the departure of Connor McGovern in free agency.

The Cowboys also lost free-agent pickup Chuma Edoga to an undisclosed knee injury during practices in Oxnard last week. The injury, however serious, is unfortunate timing. Edoga is capable of playing tackle and guard for the Cowboys, opening up options for the oft-injured position group.

With Dallas sitting most starters versus the Jaguars, the starting offensive line was: LT Asim Richards, LG Matt Farniok, C Brock Hoffman, RG Josh Ball and RT Matt Waletzko. Richards, a rookie fifth-rounder, played 59 snaps, allowing just two pressures.

McCarthy coughs up to play-calling mistake

The Cowboys’ first preseason game was an opportunity for Dallas to play many of their young, inexperienced players. However, it also served as a warmup for Mike McCarthy. Taking over play-calling duties for the first time since 2018 with the Packers, the Cowboys head coach said it was a lot like riding a bike. The skipper did admit to making one mistake though.

“Personally, I’m glad I have a number of coaches that worked with me before. I had a little call out of my mouth that’s not in the offense, so that was fun. So, we corrected that immediately. ‘Truck right,’ was the old ‘Strong right,’ so ‘Strong right,’ came flying out of there. Actually, it was a big play too. So take that for what it’s worth.”

The Cowboys get back to work in Oxnard this week before facing the Seattle Seahawks on the road on Saturday.