“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
That appeared to be Mike McCarthy’s reaction on the field when he first learned that Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a severe thumb injury late Sunday as Dallas was getting handily beaten by Tampa Bay.
McCarthy entered this season on the hot seat in Dallas after the Cowboys were upset at home in the first round of the playoffs by the 49ers in January.
The expectations for this season were not merely a trip to the postseason — but playoff victories.
The path to that goal becomes that much harder with Prescott reportedly slated to miss six-to-eight weeks. Until then, it will be Cooper Rush at quarterback for the Cowboys.
Mike McCarthy’s seat got hotter with the Dak Prescott injury.Getty ImagesMcCarthy-coached teams have struggled in the past when his star quarterbacks have gone down.
The latest example came in 2020, McCarthy’s first season in Dallas. After Prescott suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the team’s fifth game, the Cowboys went 4-7 in the duration of the season, ultimately finishing the year with a 6-10 record.
In 2017, when McCarthy was coaching the Packers, Green Bay was 4-1 entering an Oct. 15 matchup against the Vikings. Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone, and the Packers lost that game. The Packers did have a glimmer of hope to salvage a postseason berth when Rodgers returned for a Week 15 game against the Panthers, but they lost that one and Rodgers was then shut down for the rest of the year.
Dak Prescott will miss 6-8 weeks after undergoing thumb surgery.Getty ImagesThere was speculation the Cowboys could part with McCarthy after last year’s devastating loss to the Niners, but Jerry Jones opted to bring the head coach back for a third season with the team.
In July, Jones gave McCarthy the dreaded vote of confidence.
“I want to be real clear: He wouldn’t be sitting here today if I didn’t think he was the man to lead this team to a Super Bowl,” the Cowboys owner said. “He would not be. And I have choices (that) were there for my use had I wanted them.”
Jerry Jones might have a decision to make on Mike McCarthy soon.Getty ImagesWith Sean Payton — a Super Bowl-winning coach in New Orleans, and a former Cowboys assistant who has repeatedly been linked speculatively to Jones over the years — sitting out there as a free agent, the pressure is on for McCarthy and the Cowboys to string together some wins without Prescott and remain in plausible playoff contention for his return.
