Mike McCarthy tells Jerry Jones to say it to his face after ‘bad plays’ critique

It seems Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has had enough of team owner Jerry Jones' shenanigans. Wednesday he fired back at his boss who went on talk radio Tuesday to disparage his play calling abilities.

"We're designing bad plays, or we're designing bad concepts," Jones told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. "The facts are that there's some of that, but there's also some execution [issues]. There's some of the talent. I like our talent, I really do like our talent. I like our young talent, but young talent has a few more mistakes associated with it than if you're dealing with a veteran player.

McCarthy seemingly took that critique personally and responded to reporters on Wednesday (h/t CBS Sports)

"I talk to Jerry all the time. We have time to go through self scout, so I didn't see the comments specifically. I don't think we have bad concepts and bad plays. I'll go back and check," he said.

Is Dallas' offense really that bad or is Jerry being Jerry?

The Cowboys offense has basically done a complete reversal of where they were last season. In 2023, they averaged 29.9 points per game (first in the league) but this year they average just 21.0 (20th in the league).

In 2023, they averaged 371.6 yards per game (fifth in the league) but this year they average 336.5 yards per game (12th in the league).

So, Jones sort of has a point but he didn't have to throw his coach under the bus like that publicly. Leave that for pundits like former quarterback Troy Aikman, who drew McCarthy's ire earlier in the week when he called Dallas' route running "terrible" and the Cowboys head coach said his comments didn't "carry any weight."

To his credit, McCarthy is holding his own against his detractors but there's only so much of that he can do before things become full on combative in Big D and at the end of the day, Jones has all the power to decide who's right.