Cowboys must fire Mike Nolan after missing playoffs in 2020

With the loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys have officially been eliminated from playoff contention and Mike Nolan has to go. 

In what’s been a 2020 season to forget, the Dallas Cowboys saw their campaign officially come to a close with a rough 23-19 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday. While the team had Super Bowl hopes entering the year, they won’t even be in the playoffs.

It goes without saying, but Mike McCarthy’s first campaign running America’s Team couldn’t have gone much worse. While he deserves plenty of blame, Cowboys fans surely are furious with how the defense performed from start to finish in ’20.

That blame falls on defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, who failed to make adjustments week in and week out. With rumors of his job security floating around for weeks, it’s time to end the speculation and make things official: the Cowboys must fire Nolan immediately.

Mike McCarthy’s first order of business should be to fire defensive coordinator Mike Nolan

Sunday’s loss to the Giants was yet another example of just how bad the Dallas defense has been this season under Nolan’s direction. In the first half alone, New York scored 20 points on the Cowboys, with Daniel Jones looking incredible in the process.

You know a team’s defense is horrendous when Jones looks like an MVP candidate. Jones started the game completing 10-of-15 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Come on, seriously? Only the Cowboys would allow that to happen. No, only Nolan would let Jones play that well.

Dallas’ season was turned upside down the last time they faced New York, as Prescott suffered his fractured ankle. The offense was then handed to Andy Dalton, and while the ‘Red Rocket’ played well at times, there was a major drop off in production.

To make matters worse, Ezekiel Elliott battled a calf injury and didn’t play like a $90 million man in 2020. This only added pressure on the defense to step up and make plays to help the team out, but Nolan’s group couldn’t get that done.

Jerry Jones will always want his team to fight for division crowns and go on a deep postseason run. That won’t be the case this year. Someone’s got to pay for Dallas’ terrible 2020, with Nolan being a no-brainer decision to let go.