What Mike McCarthy emphasized in first team meeting with Cowboys post-bye
After a week of rest following the mid-season bye, the entirety of the Dallas Cowboys were back at the Star on Monday to begin the preparation for the final 11 weeks of the season.
While most players were out of the building, head coach Mike McCarthy remained in the facility every day last week to evaluate each of the team’s first six games, how things are structured during the week and how the team can be better following the bye.
There was a stark difference in 2023 from what the Cowboys looked like before the same week seven bye and after. They were 4-2 with a demoralizing loss to San Francisco on the resume. They responded by winning six of their next seven games. They will be looking for similar success this season after starting 3-3.
For McCarthy, that work began with an 11 a.m. team meeting to go through key statistics that have told the story of the team’s first “trimester” as McCarthy has coined it.
“I’ll go over a full state of the union,” McCarthy said in his 9 a.m. Monday media session before the team meeting. . “Weeks 1-6, then lay out the second trimester, the focal points for that, but take it through some really specific statistics. Real statistics, statistics that show the direction and what we need to work on.”
The key statistic that McCarthy has been harping on since the 47-9 demolition at the hands of the Detroit Lions a little over a week ago is the turnover margin. The Cowboys currently sit tied for the third-worst turnover difference (minus six) in the NFL heading into week eight. After finishing in the top-seven of takeaways in each of the last four seasons – including two seasons at No. 1 – the Cowboys have created just five turnovers in six games, a clear discrepancy from the standard created under Mike McCarthy since 2020.
“We’re not winning the turnover ratio,” McCarthy said. “The ball and protection is way off. Minus six is a glaring, glaring statistic. It’s also backed up with video. We have the ball exposed too many times…The good news is that’s what is behind us, and it’s an opportunity to learn and grow and emphasize and do that.”
After the team meeting which emphasized the turnover ratio among many other key statistics from McCarthy, the players resonated with the task put in front of them by their head coach.
“We’re defeating ourselves,” defensive end Micah Parsons said. “We’re not getting enough turnovers, we’re not getting the ball back enough and we’re not capitalizing on the turnovers we do get. I think collectively, all around, we have to do better. He reflected himself on how he has to do better and how the offense has to get going and moving.”
“We just have to be better,” starting running back Rico Dowdle said. “We’ve been at places worse. We just have to make the improvements, make a couple of changes, adding a lot of group things in and working together. We’re just trying to fix the problems.”
In his fifth season as the head coach for the Cowboys, McCarthy continues to emphasize the need for complementary football and its direct contribution to winning games. He brought the team back to the basics of that concept on Monday.
“It’s a day as a coach you love,” he said. “We need to stabilize the way we play. I refer to that as playing more balanced games to the complementary formula, which we haven’t done…But at the end of the day, it’s about how it’s going to be applied. I’ve been here the whole week preparing for this.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2024 at 3:31 PM.
