Time for Mike McCarthy to Embrace Dak Prescott, Cowboys’ Real Identity

Good NFL coaches adapt to their available talent. Failing coaches try to force a certain style of play because they previously experienced success with a specific approach.

The Dallas Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy is a Super Bowl-winning head coach. He’s also a born-again play-caller for a squad that’s struggled to even reach similar success to last year’s offense, which resulted in the dismissal of its offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore.

Monday’s 20-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium provided a glimmer of what the Cowboys should be under McCarthy’s current direction. It starts with letting quarterback Dak Prescott be a distributor.

Instead, McCarthy had other plans dating back to this spring. He wasn’t secretive about what he felt needed to change, hence his rationale behind taking the offensive reins.

“We killed our defense,” McCarthy told reporters in March. “We didn’t have enough pass rush. And then we got into the playoffs, and we got into a shootout, and we got our ass kicked. …So my point is, I’ve been there, and he’s wired a little bit that way. I’ve been where Kellen’s been. Kellen wants to light the scoreboard up, but I want him to run the damn ball so I can rest my defense.”

Just because a head coach wants something, he can’t will it into existence. He must understand and find the best way to maximize the talent available to him.

Throughout Monday’s contest, commentators Joe Buck and Troy Aikman continued to belabor the point about McCarthy continually stressing the importance of the ground game throughout this week’s leadup.

Running back Tony Pollard averaged 2.0 yards per carry against the Chargers.

These Cowboys don’t have Emmitt Smith being led by the Great Wall of Dallas. They don’t have an Ezekiel Elliott in his prime. The sooner McCarthy comes to that realization, the better.

This Dallas team has two extremely talented wide receivers and franchise quarterback who can make plays. Prescott connected on all 11 pass attempts when he targeted CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks. On the season, the Cowboys quarterback has an 81 completion percentage when targeting Lamb, which is the league’s second-best connection, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

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The duo finished with 153 receiving yards and a score.

The performances came after all parties were heavily criticized based on the previous week’s outcome. During a 42-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Prescott threw three interceptions and Lamb managed only 49 receiving yards.

Former 49ers safety and current NBC Bay Area analyst Donte Whitner stated, “Dak Prescott sucks, period. … The 49ers defense made him look like a tier-four quarterback.”

Former All-Pro cornerback and current ESPN talking head Richard Sherman didn’t like what he saw of Lamb, either.

“If you think he’s a bonafide, lining up out there at one, then yeah, that’s overrated,” Sherman said during a debate on Undisputed.

A bad loss in today’s social media-driven world is like blood in Meg-infested waters. But the Cowboys don’t need to be Jason Statham to ride the wave and come out victorious. They simply need to know who they are. And they’re a team that can win at a relatively high level by riding Prescott’s arm, taking advantage of the talent they have at the skill positions, building early leads, letting a talented defensive front pin its ears back and allowing an opportunistic secondary to make plays.

Setbacks happen. The Cowboys already experienced one of the season’s more head-scratching losses at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals. Obviously, the Niners manhandled them.

“It starts with myself—being accountable for what you put out there, what you did,” Prescott said after the Week 5 loss. “From that it’s about understanding that’s not who we are and then moving on and knowing what we’ve got ahead of us: one play at a time, one game at a time.”

The quarterback is exactly right on every point he mentioned. Everything does start with him. The Cowboys need to understand who they are. And it is one game at a time.

Despite those bad losses, Dallas is currently 4-2 within striking distance of the NFC East-leading Philadelphia Eagles.

Prescott’s comments are a double-edge sword, though.

“People are going to be critical of him regardless,” Lamb said of his quarterback.

He took the blame for the team’s poor play. Whereas the Cowboys should see his accountability as a positive to rely on him more instead of Prescott talking about how this team had a plan in spring they’re still trying to execute. In reality, they should be trying to execute what they do best, which isn’t acting like a run-first offense. Finally, a peek ahead shows a favorable schedule with only one opponent that current sports a winning record, which will be a litmus test because it’s the Eagles.

The irony of the situation is that McCarthy almost understands exactly what he needs to do. He so much as spelled it out earlier this week, without coming to the same conclusion.

“We want to score as many points as everybody,” the coach said. “[Not] playing not to lose. Let’s not mix the message here. We play to our defense. That’s the strength of our team in doing that time of possession, taking care of the football, those are two things [I’ve seen] improvement from past years [in] the first month.”

His train of thought suddenly derailed the second he said the strength of his team is built upon time of possession. Yes, the Cowboys want to score as many points and, yes, they should play to their defense. Those two things can form a competitive brand of complementary football.

Think back to the Indianapolis Colts of the 2000s. They were built to establish early leads. Once that occurred, Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis could cut loose as pass-rushers and made life absolutely miserable on opposing quarterbacks.

The Cowboys are built in a similar fashion, but their primary names are Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence. Furthermore, Dallas also features quality depth with Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler Jr. and Sam Williams working off the edge, as well as Osa Odighizuwa collapsing the interior.

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Parsons generated seven pressures against Justin Herbert and secured a critical sack during the Chargers’ final offensive possession. The hybrid defender is on par with the likes of Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt and the Bosa brothers when it comes to wrecking games.

As a unit, the Cowboys hit Herbert eight different times and the pressure clearly affected the fourth-year quarterback.

The formula for the Cowboys to win, challenge for the NFC East and make a postseason push is simple. The most important person leading the team simply needs to abandon his archaic mindset and accept what the Cowboys actually are.

Brent Sobleski covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @brentsobleski.