Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was none too pleased following Friday’s preseason loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Reacting to the 19-16 defeat, Dallas’ second in as many weeks, McCarthy chided his players for a “sloppy” performance marred by penalties, injury, and overall lackluster execution.
“This was clearly not as clean as you would like,” he said after the game, via The Athletic. “You would like to take a bigger step there. We have a lot to clean up. A lot of our young guys played a ton of football, so it will be great video to evaluate.”
“This wasn’t our best week leading into this game,” McCarthy added. “We need to come out of this, we just got to rally, get healthy and we need to have a better week of practice going into Houston. It just wasn’t very good this week. The Rams (practice) was a little sloppy and the last two days weren’t very good. I thought some of it carried over into the game (Friday night).”
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Tale of the Tape
It’s a good thing these exhibition contests are just that — exhibition. The Cowboys were outscored, outgained, and outclassed in the desert. They were flagged eight times for 50 yards and converted three red-zone trips into only seven points. The offense averaged a meager 4.5 yards per play while the defense surrendered 168 rushing yards on 10 Cardinals drives. Shades of last season all around.
Adding injury to insult, Dallas lost several players at various points during the tilt: wide receiver Malik Turner (foot), tight end Sean McKeon (high-ankle sprain), offensive tackle Ty Nsekhe (knee), defensive lineman Neville Gallimore (dislocated elbow), and linebacker Anthony Hines (shoulder).
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McCarthy ‘Concerned’ About Williams
Dallas did well to avoid turnovers, committing one fumble and zero interceptions against Arizona. Disaster, however, nearly struck early in the game when Connor Wiliams, getting the start at center, delivered a bad 4th-down snap to quarterback Garrett Gilbert. The ball was recovered but the damage was done.
And these mishandled exchanges continued until Williams was replaced by rookie Matt Farniok, who could soon receive a bump up the depth chart behind starting pivot man Tyler Biadasz.
“Am I concerned about it? Yeah,” McCarthy said, via The Athletic. “I mean, any time the ball is on the ground it’s of concern. That’s the starting point. That’s why you start practice every day with quarterback-center exchange. It can’t happen. There’s no excuse for it. We can talk until we’re blue in the face about it. It has to be corrected.
“But more importantly, it’s important for us to give Connor game-day reps, in particular with the guys he would be in there with, so I was glad we were able to get him in there with the first line.”
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Mike McCarthy Rips Cowboys Players for ‘Sloppy’ Loss to Arizona