Mike McCarthy caps off 2020 season with one more head-scratching decision as Cowboys fail in New York

Just a reminder that this all started last summer in an empty stadium in Los Angeles with the Cowboys skipping a short game-tying field goal to go for it on fourth-and-three. They gained two yards on a pass to CeeDee Lamb, and after the 20-17 defeat, new Coach Mike McCarthy said that analytics “tells you to go for it there, go for the first.”

At the time, we called it “not outrageously bad, just curious.”

In a similarly unfilled stadium but in the winter chill of New Jersey, McCarthy’s men came up short once more Sunday afternoon. A 23-19 loss to the Giants spelled the end at 6-10 and provided just another day of head-scratching for Dallas fans.

There was nothing outrageously bad about the Cowboys’ decision to kick an extra point in the third quarter rather than try to cut the Giants’ deficit to three. In hindsight, that point would have been crucial, but teams don’t always play the scoreboard in the third quarter. McCarthy said there were lots of variables in play.

I don’t think there’s any enormous risk at being five points behind instead of four against the Giants, but let’s stick that one into our overly large “curious” folder.

In the fourth quarter, it was the Cowboys head coach’s decision not to challenge a third-down catch by Giants receiver Dante Pettis that allowed New York to extend its lead from 20-19 to 23-19. Replays were not totally conclusive, but I’d say 90% of fans or NFL officials looking at them would say Pettis did not catch the ball. In fact, Fox analyst Mike Pereira, the former referee, said “no question it would be reversed.”

McCarthy said after the game it was too close to challenge. “We felt it was a bang-bang type of situation. The three timeouts were obviously of a high value there,’’ he said.

I tried to give him another run at that answer, given that it meant the Cowboys needed a touchdown to win on their final drive and not just a field goal.

“As I’ve addressed it, I didn’t think there was enough information,” he said. “We didn’t think it was clear and obvious.”

McCarthy made it sound more like a jury trial than a football decision. If the pass is ruled incomplete, the ball goes back to the Dallas 42 and the Giants punt to Dallas with a one-point lead. Instead, Graham Gano’s 50-yard kick forced Andy Dalton to be firing erratically into the end zone on what became the Cowboys’ final possession of the season.

Asked if he thinks the club had a game management problem this year, McCarthy said, “No. Not at all.’’

It’s the curse of the 2020 season that we aren’t able to pose that exact question (and many others) to Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones, who must be privately appalled at decisions made or not made by his first-year head coach.

In between the LA gamble and the mess in the Meadowlands, there were, of course, many other strange moments led by the fourth-and-10 fake punt deep in Dallas territory against Washington. If you remember that game as a blowout (which it became), the Cowboys trailed by four when McCarthy let John Fassel fail with a punt fake for the third time of the season.

None of this is meant to ignore the fact that Jourdan Lewis and Randy Gregory took stupid penalties Sunday, that Dalton’s final interception was an unnecessary gamble on third down or that Jaylon Smith may have set a club record for celebrations while his defense was setting a club record for points allowed (473).

Get past the valid injury excuse for the offense in 2020, and there are still all sorts of players that accounted for a 10-loss season.

But we all remain baffled as to what McCarthy did or said that night at the Jones house to make him such a “clear and obvious” choice to replace Jason Garrett. We know it’s not his play-calling because Jones had to reach into his pockets to pay Kellen Moore to stay and continue down that path.

So it would seem that a veteran head coach should supply game management decisions — clock awareness, down and distance, use of timeouts, the right or absolutely wrong time to try fake punts — that allow a team to compete. McCarthy does the opposite and on a rather consistent basis.

McCarthy at least seems to have a grasp of how things work around here, though, because when he was asked about defensive coordinator Mike Nolan’s future, he said, “All those things — myself included — those evaluations will start next week.”

Don’t expect the Jones Boys to do anything too dramatic on that front after just one year. But the real question for Cowboys fans is, when McCarthy says, “I like the look of our guys, I think we’re all excited for the next opportunity,” does anyone say the same about this head coach?

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