🏈 There's A New Cowboys Coach In Town

The Dallas Cowboys have moved on from Jason Garrett and hired former Packers coach Mike McCarthy. Will he turn their fortunes around? [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: The Cowboys have apparently found their man ... a look back at Rousey vs. Holm ... and Kevin Love’s beautiful dog falls asleep in a very inconvenient way. Forget about Jerry Jones having made the safe choice in tagging Mike McCarthy as his next head coach. Safe choice? There’s no such thing when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys. It is little wonder Jones took longer than some would have liked in offloading Jason Garrett and then plumping for McCarthy, a former Super Bowl winner coming off a year out of the game. When the Cowboys are involved, no matter what other machinations rumble through the National Football League over the coming months, this is the decision that will be scrutinized more than any other. FOX’s Jay Glazer [broke the news Monday morning]( his “scoopage alert” adding a cheery new phrase to sports journalism’s lexicon and simultaneously kickstarting a flurry of discussion on Jones’ pick. Yet whatever was being said elsewhere, [Glazer told Colin Cowherd]( on The Herd, Jones was certain he had found the guy to finally fulfill the undoubted potential on the Cowboys’ roster. [STORY IMAGE 1] “They wanted NFL head coaching experience,” Glazer said. “They didn’t want someone with college experience. The more they did research on Mike McCarthy, the more they started to fall in love with the grunt that is Mike McCarthy. He is a football guy. “There is such a difference between him and Jason Garrett. Garrett is a Princeton guy. McCarthy is just a Pittsburgh guy. The way he went in there and explained how he would run their team ... the interview went so well they kept him there into a second day.” Dallas is coming off a frustrating 8-8 season that saw the team miss the playoffs despite having headed into the campaign as a presumed Super Bowl contender — and despite the weak competition in the NFC East. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper are a powerful triple threat on offense, but the team simply couldn’t get it done, week after week, as Jones’ ire grew. After a solid start, 3-0 turned into 3-3. Then 6-4 turned into 7-8, by which time the injury-riddled yet feisty Philadelphia Eagles had taken control of the division and would go on to clinch a playoff spot. That reality essentially sealed Garrett’s fate. Can McCarthy be the man to spark a turnaround? The biggest plus on McCarthy’s resume is the most obvious. Nine years ago, he won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers ... at AT&T Stadium, no less. That’s right: he had the finest moment of his professional life in the house that Jerry built. [STORY IMAGE 2] Yet that fact is also McCarthy’s biggest potential knock. Despite his tenure in Wisconsin coinciding squarely with the Aaron Rodgers era, the head coach had nearly a decade to get his team back to the promised land and was unable to do so. McCarthy came close, taking the Packers to the playoffs in eight straight years. It took an onside kick recovered by the Seattle Seahawks to tip them out of the biggest game in 2014-15 and there were four overtime losses in his trips to the postseason. There was also a highly-publicized difference of opinion with Rodgers that first rumbled and then festered, despite both men keeping their issues essentially private. Missing the playoffs two years in a row ultimately doomed McCarthy in Green Bay, yet his reputation remained strong enough to push him to the top of the Cowboys’ thoughts. Inevitably, however, not everyone who bleeds for Dallas will be on board with the selection, with some wishing for a riskier choice. “I just don’t love it,” [FS1’s Skip Bayless said]( on Undisputed. “I just can’t get excited about Mike McCarthy. I’m not saying it’s bad, because it’s not bad. Is he a dynamic leader? No. Is he a charismatic figure? Will he start a fire in my locker room? He is not that guy. What’s going on here? Jerry thinks they’re right on the verge of winning, so no Urban Meyer, no Lincoln Riley.” It looked for a while like either Meyer, the college football coaching legend, or Riley, the much touted offensive wizard currently in charge at Oklahoma, could be Jones’ new pick — and just the ninth coach in Cowboys history. [STORY IMAGE 3] However, after a long and drawn out farewell to Garrett, he decided that going outside of the league was too great a risk for a job that is a beast all its own. Garrett held the position for nine years and at times looked likely to break through, especially during 2014’s 12-4 season that ended against the Packers in the playoffs amid the furor of the infamous Dez Bryant catch/non-catch. Mixed in, though, were simply too many disappointing seasons. McCarthy will inherit a roster capable of better than what it managed this year, but he will have to dispel some notions before success beckons. “McCarthy was viewed as a successful coach to be sure, but not one to push the envelope or to bring imagination to his game plans,” Tim Cowlishaw wrote in The Dallas Morning News. “If you want to say he was Jason Garrett with a better quarterback, be my guest.” However, appearances can be deceiving. Yes, Garrett was the Ivy Leaguer, but he never spoke particularly highly of the trend skewing heavily towards teams that invest in analytics. McCarthy might be old school, but during his year out of the sport invested thousands of hours into creating his own analytics department to fill what some saw as a gap in his coaching arsenal. Jones is done with doing things on feel. He wants some level of certainty. During discussions, he undoubtedly found McCarthy’s data-driven approach reassuring. Now, of course, because this is the Cowboys, guarantees do not exist. No job in football has a higher upside, or comes with as much pressure. After a troubled and tormented season, Jones was faced with a mighty decision, and the owner could surely use a W right now. Whether he got one or not, only time will tell. [STORY IMAGE 4] Here’s what others have said ... Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated: “Ultimately Garrett’s legacy will be one of how Jerry Jones’s great coaching experiment came up short — the owner let the then-backup quarterback into coaching meetings in the late 1990s to prepare him for his next career, hired him as offensive coordinator in 2007 before making him the interim head coach in ’10 and full-time in ’11. More than anything, the next head coach needs to make this team better aligned and more resilient—things that really weren’t issues for Dallas until 2019. The Cowboys didn’t win a single game in which they trailed at the half, and they lacked identity on both sides of the ball. That cost Dallas in the win column, and ultimately Garrett his job.” Jared Dubin, CBS Sports: “The Packers were often among the better two-minute offenses in the NFL during McCarthy's tenure, but much of that was due to Rodgers' brilliance. The coach was criticized fairly often for his clock management (another thing he has in common with Garrett) and timeout usage, both of which are things that should be fairly easy to fix. If he can't, that's a concern.” Todd Archer, ESPN: “‘Dak-friendly,’ has been a term used around the Cowboys the past few years. It's hard to see how this union with McCarthy won't be a 'Dak-friendly,' situation. Prescott played out his rookie contract, but he will not hit the open market. He is, however, looking at a huge raise, either with the franchise tag, which could run anywhere from $27 million to $33 million in 2020, or a multi-year deal that could guarantee him more than $100 million. Would McCarthy simply throw out all of the good things the Cowboys have done with Prescott for the sake of running his own system? You would have to think that was a huge part of the interview process.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm was one of the most shocking finishes in MMA history. SB Nation has [put together a video placing the stunning upset into historical context](. - Zack Kram at The Ringer evaluates [which NBA stars have been the most and least consistent this season](. - Jerry Brewer at The Washington Post explains why, even if Tom Brady and Drew Brees keep playing, [they no longer rule the NFL](. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( If this were just a photo of Kevin Love’s extremely adorable and very good dog sleeping on Kevin Love’s face, it would be spectacular. But the fact that it’s a video really hammers home just how sacked out that little guy is. Kudos to Kevin for not disturbing the little doggo’s important nap. Dogs need their rest, people! [VIEWER'S GUIDE] WWE Backstage (FS1, 11 p.m. ET) On this week’s episode of Backstage, the Miz joins the panel to discuss whether he’s joining back up with the recently-returned John Morrison. New York Knicks at Los Angeles Lakers (NBA TV, 10:30 p.m. ET) The Lakers have won five in a row and hold the second-best record in the NBA, at 29-7. LeBron and company will be looking to drop a big number on the woeful Knicks, who are coming off back-to-back losses. Leicester City vs. Aston Villa (ESPN+, Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET) The other half of the Carabao Cup semifinals will hold its first leg on Wednesday. The winner after both legs will move on to the finals to face the winner of the Manchester United vs. Manchester City series. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns all to win: +333 Here’s a lovely little parlay for you all on a Tuesday evening of NBA action. The Pistons are visiting the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Raptors are hosting the Portland Trail Blazers and the Suns are at home against the Sacramento Kings. All three of the teams in the parlay have better records than their opponent, but in the case of the Suns and Kings, it’s a technicality. (The Suns are at 14-22 and the Kings are 14-23.) Phoenix and Sacramento is expected to be the true battle here and let’s be honest: it’ll be nice to have a reason to turn Suns vs. Kings into a nail-biter. [WHAT THEY SAID] “The time when there is no one there to feel sorry for you or to cheer for you is when a player is made.” — Tim Duncan [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download the FOX Sports app for live scores and streaming [App Store]( [Google Play]( Available on: [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] Forwarded this message? [Sign up](. Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2020 FOX Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. 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