Mike McCarthy should choose his words carefully

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy returned from his 10-day COVID-19 hiatus this week. And almost immediately upon returning, he said something that will assuredly become bulletin board material by the Washington Football Team in their upcoming NFC East showdown.

“We’re going to win this game. I’m confident in that,” McCarthy said, via Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News.

Even with added context to that quote, McCarthy doesn’t need to essentially guarantee a Cowboys victory while speaking to the media. The Cowboys aren’t’ good enough to go around guaranteeing victories over anyone. I don’t care what team they’re playing. McCarthy is not Jimmy Johnson and shouldn’t be as willing to put the ’Boys in this type of position leading into a big division game.

Prosperity has not been kind to the Cowboys lately. Whenever this Dallas team is expected to prosper, they do the opposite. If they aren’t on the radar as a contender, that’s when this team shines brightest, it seems over the last 25 years if we’re being honest.

After their six-game winning streak, Dallas played Denver and lost a game they should have won by at least a touchdown. The Cowboys blew out Atlanta the next week, then went to Kansas City and lost to a struggling Chiefs team. They’ll beat most of the bad teams as they should, but average to good and especially great teams are where the Cowboys struggle.

At 6-6, Washington represents one of the average teams Dallas doesn’t always show up with their ‘A’ game for. Two games behind the Cowboys heading into this game and needing a win desperately to keep their hopes alive within the division, this is one of those games I can see the Cowboys fumbling away, folding under pressure.

After winning a Super Bowl 10 years ago, McCarthy hasn’t produced much as a coach in quite a while. Now the Cowboys are having a good season (that’s all I’ll give them right now), and suddenly, he’s empowered enough to go off making bold proclamations and guarantees. McCarthy is just a stop-gap coach anyway. McCarthy is just keeping the seat warm until Jerry and Stephen Jones feel OC Kellen Moore is ready to take over as head coach of America’s team. We saw the same thing with Jason Garrett and Wade Phillips. This situation is no different. I just hope Moore can be more successful than Garrett during his tenure in Dallas.

We’ll see what happens Sunday, but I feel this will blow up in McCarthy’s face as things usually do when the Cowboys are riding high. Of course, he expects his team to win every week. But just because you can say something doesn’t mean you always should say it out loud. And that should be emphasized whenever cameras and hot mics are around to record it.