Mike McCarthy on fake punts, going for 2, Dak’s day and his first Dallas Cowboys win
Mike McCarthy received the game ball from his players after recording his first-career win as Dallas Cowboys head coach.
It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was about as uneasy of a win a coach could get, but he’ll take it.
The Cowboys rallied from a a 20-point deficit after the first quarter and a 29-10 hole at halftime to score 16 points in the final five minutes to shock the Atlanta Falcons 40-39 Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
McCarthy didn’t do the Cowboys any favors either. He called two fake punt attempts in Dallas territory and the Falcons converted those into six points. Atlanta also scored two touchdowns and a field goal after recovering Dallas fumbles. Can’t blame McCarthy for those. Or, maybe you can.
McCarthy’s opening statement
It was an excellent, big time home win for us — exciting football game. We tried everything and we needed everything to get it done today against Atlanta. Obviously, the start of the game was not what we were looking for. We had the ball on the ground on six of the first fifteen offensive plays. Their field position in the first half was definitely overwhelming and it obviously resulted in the point differential. I’ll just say this — at halftime, we talked about having this opportunity as a new team and we needed this opportunity. I just can’t say enough about the fight of the football team. The defense gave us a stop when we needed it. The special teams had the two big play opportunities with the two fake punts that we didn’t convert. The 4th-and-5, I wish I had that back. It’s too far. But they made the two biggest plays of the game there at the end with the must onside [kick] recovery and the field goal. I’m very, very proud of the way everybody responded. Offensively, we made the clutch drives at the end. The defense came up with some stops. It was an excellent win for us.
On their performance in the fourth quarter
I thought the whole football team, with Dak [Prescott] in the lead there, showed great resiliency. There were a bunch of big time plays. The ability to overcome all the adverse situations and take it all the way down to the wire. It was great clock management by Dak at the end and Greg [Zuerlein] nailed it for the victory. We spent a lot of time on the final segments of the game [in practice] and our guys did a great job of executing it here in the clutch.
Has he ever overcome such a deficit
I had one on the other sideline, but it’s not like this. We dug ourselves such a big hole in the first quarter and I just think the way the guys rallied and just kept going, especially since it’s a young season. We’re early in the process of our football team finding out about each other each and every day. So, it’s a big chunk of confidence that we’ll carry forward. I’m very proud of the team. I’m very proud of everybody. I can’t say enough about the way our players kept playing.
On his halftime message
I just had two messages for them at halftime. I talked about the fundamentals of carrying your work to the game and making some corrections. The second point is really just what I talked about. This is a great opportunity to be in. We need this opportunity to move forward and find out about one another. Let’s see what everybody has here. It’s a new team. It’s a new journey and I tell you what, our players delivered big time.
Can this win be a catalyst going forward
That will definitely be the intention. You look at past experiences and look at any great season, you have big moments that you’re able to build off of. This is a big moment to build off of, but the fact of the matter is that we’re 1-1. We understand that. We want to make sure we establish home field dominance. To come back and get that done today was outstanding. It was a great environment. The fans were a breath of fresh air to be able to be out there and compete in this great environment. It’s something we can point to. We found out a lot about ourselves today. That was really the message at halftime. Once again, I can’t say how proud I am of our players.
On going for two
I think it’s the wrong call to take the extra point. The decision to go for two there is simple mathematics where you’d rather know if it’s a two score game at the earliest time instead of taking it all the way down to the end and playing for two points at the end. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve been involved in about this particular situation. To go for two there is just to make it clear with a little over four minutes left if we were going to be in a one score game or a two-score game was the thinking.
On Dak Prescott’s performance
Huge performance. Obviously, he bounced back after the one play of being out. He’s just so steady. Its tough on a quarterback particularly when you get in a hole like that. But I thought he was strong in the pocket. I thought he was smart with the football. He’s just so composed. I thought he had a very strong performance today.
On the onside kick with under two minutes to play
I’ve seen it in practice. But that’s the first time I’ve seen it in live action. It was a beauty. That’s for sure. We hadn’t tried it live yet, but it was obviously ready to go.
How can the Cowboys get off to a faster start?
Frankly, I might have over-emphasized it too much if that’s the way we’re going to start. That was clearly not the start we were looking for. But I thought our guys had great energy this morning. The pregame was clearly better than last week. I’ll make no excuses here, but we’re still going through some things for the first time on how we want things to look and what the expectations are. I thought our guys had great energy going into the game. Those turnovers, that takes a little air out of the balloon. The most important thing is that we kept battling and we bounced back.
On improving to 5-0 all-time at AT&T Stadium
Let’s keep that going. It’s a great place.
On filling in for the injured left tackle Tyron Smith
We made him inactive today. We’ll know more as the week progresses. But I don’t have an update for you. We knew there was a chance based on the medical information as early as Friday afternoon and the decision was made [Saturday]. I thought Brandon [Knight] did a great job jumping in there. When injuries happen late in the week, the next guy has to jump in there and step up. We were able to get that done. I’m very impressed.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 6:05 AM.
