Head coach Mike McCarthy and the Dallas Cowboys were riding high heading into their home opener against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
Dallas went into Cleveland and knocked the socks off the Browns in Week 1. This was looking like a well-oiled machine.
Then, the unfathomable happened. Dallas was torn to shreds by Derek Carr and the Saints, losing in front of its home crowd by the score of 44-19. The team give up 35 points in the first half alone, including a 70-yard and 57-yard touchdown passes.
Owner Jerry Jones was shell-shocked before the teams made their way into the locker room amid boos from fans in Big D.
As noted, those 35 points represent the most Dallas has yielded in any half of football in the history of the organization.
Yes, embarrassing.
For McCarthy, this is the latest example of his failure to get his team ready to play. Primarily, we’ve seen this happen in the playoffs. It’s one of the many reasons he headed into the 2024 NFL season firmly on the hot seat.
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Dallas has not earned a spot in the NFC Championship Game since after the 1995 season. The team has seen its season come to an end in the playoffs against the rival San Francisco 49ers (twice) and Green Bay Packers over the past three years.
Despite, this Jones has stayed loyal to McCarthy. Whether that continues depends heavily on how Dallas rebounds from this disaster next week against the equally disappointing Baltimore Ravens.
But for now, McCarthy is under fire. Check out these reactions to what we saw in Dallas during NFL Week 2 on Sunday.