There are a few things that seem locks to happen in 2024 based on every ounce of logic we possess. Aaron Rodgers will do something stupid again, Oppenheimer will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, we will continue to hurtle towards certain doom — and the Cowboys will move on from Mike McCarthy.
Sunday evening wasn’t a disappointment. It wasn’t a shock. Those terms imply a level of surprise. Dallas entered their game against the Packers as a team who routinely collapses in the playoffs, and proceeded to get their asses kicked from pillar to post by a 9-8 team with a predictable deep-ball offense, an inconsistent running game, and a defense which was decent, but certainly nothing to write home about.
This should have been a game Dallas dominated, but deep down we knew that wouldn’t — because failure has become the Cowboy way.
Mike McCarthy isn’t the architect of this collapse, he’s just its latest caretaker. For three straight years he’s made the Cowboys one of the best regular season teams in the NFL — and for three straight years they’ve lost early in the playoffs. This one is different, this one hits different. In 2021 and 2022 the Cowboys faced the 49ers, a team perennially pegged as a Super Bowl favorite. It was understandable, albeit disappointing to lose to the Niners. The kind of football move that makes you say “I get it,” but collapsing to the Packers is on a whole other level.
The man who preceded him suffered the same fate. Jason Garrett was far less consistent, but he also suffered three early playoff losses before he was shown the door. Twice to the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers, seen as a superior team — and once to the Rams, the upstart Sean McVay team that would go on the compete in the Super Bowl.
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