3 Cowboys to blame for embarrassing loss to lowly Cardinals

Cowboys to blame for Cardinals loss, No. 2: Mike McCarthy

When we talk about the shortcomings of Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy, there are a number of areas that deserve consideration.

For one, the new play-caller for the offense looked like he designed a poor gameplan. Yes, Dak Prescott didn't help matters with the quarterback's individual performance, but it seemed as if the Cowboys had a far too vanilla approach to the offense in this matchup and didn't have anywhere to pivot when they fell behind.

Another reason to point the finger at McCarthy would be the hapless overall effort that the team showed. This didn't look like a team that was fraudulent with their dominance in the first two weeks. Instead, it looked like a team that was not up for a bottom-tier opponent and, as such, appeared unprepared on the field.

Somewhat related to that but also the biggest reason to blame Mike McCarthy for the loss was the penalties. It was sloppy, sloppy football from the Cowboys in every aspect. Whether it was a special teams penalty getting a nice punt return called back, holds negating nice gains, or bad defensive positioning giving up big penalty yardage, Dallas couldn't get out of their own way.

The Cowboys had just 11 total penalties from the first two weeks of the 2023 season. In the Week 3 loss to the Cardinals, they had had 13 penalties for a total of 107 yards. That comes down to discipline and coaching, which is the ball that McCarthy has put in his own court. And on Sunday, he and his ball got run off that court.