Mike McCarthy calls out Cowboys for not defending Andy Dalton

The Dallas Cowboys clearly have a lot of issues. According to head coach Mike McCarthy, toughness is definitely one of them. 

Mike McCarthy and his coaching staff constantly preach the importance of playing for one another to the Cowboys roster. The lack of any sort of on-field response to Jon Bostic’s dirty hit on quarterback Andy Dalton clearly does not sit well with the team’s head coach.

McCarthy didn’t blast his team in the aftermath of their listless effort against Washington, but he did subtly chastise them for their failure to stand up for Dalton. He coined the team’s (lack of) response to the hit as not being what he would “expect.”

In fairness to the Cowboys offense, the hit seemed to have a significant impact on everyone who was on the field at the time. Several players from each team seemed to recoil at the site of both the hit itself and Dalton’s immediate collapse at the hands of the Washington linebacker. It’s very likely some members of the Dallas roster were in shock at what they’d witnessed.

It’s still a surprise that no members of the team immediately came to Dalton’s defense. That type of hit typically elicits a tangible reaction from the player’s teammates. Dalton hasn’t been a member of the Cowboys roster for very long, but McCarthy and his staff clearly expected him to get more support from his relatively new teammates.

Perhaps things would have gone down differently if the hit had taken place during a close game. The fact that Dallas faced a large deficit at the time also likely dampened the team’s reaction.

It’s still an issue McCarthy will want to address next week when he meets with his team. The Cowboys’ hopes of making a deep postseason run are almost non-existent after the loss to Washington. That means the coaching staff will soon turn their attention towards establishing the type of culture they want to permeate the locker room for years to come.

McCarthy clearly isn’t satisfied with his team’s willingness to stick up for a teammate who suffers from a dirty hit.

If McCarthy wants to really be heard by his team, he’ll need to achieve some on-field success in the next few weeks. It’s hard to initiate a culture change without establishing credibility via victories on the field. It’s unclear whether or not the Cowboys team is in any mood to listen to their coach’s criticisms after their ugly start to the season. At some point, McCarthy may become surprised at how his team fails to have his back when times get tough.