BLAZING SADDLE
McCarthy should be on hot seat after Cowboys’ playoff fiasco
Mike McCarthy’s job should be in jeopardy after his Cowboys’ catastrophic upset loss to the 49ers in Arlington, Texas. The Cowboys have one of the league’s most talented rosters, but plenty of NFL sources were unsurprised to see Dallas underachieve with the help of McCarthy’s poor game management and decision-making in a big spot.
Signing off on Dak Prescott’s QB sneak with 14 seconds remaining from the Niners’ 41 yard line, down 23-17 with no timeouts, ran the clock out on Dallas’ chance to win.
One analytically minded coach told the Daily News that even the premise of the QB sneak play call to get closer to the end zone for a better shot to score was off base. He said there isn’t a meaningful difference in a team’s chance to score on one play from the 45-yard line compared to the 25. It only makes a significant difference when an offense reaches the 15 and in. Prescott slid at the Niners’ 24 before the clock ran out.
There also wasn’t enough time to guarantee the Cowboys would get off a second play. It reflected a fundamental lack of understanding of the game. And while offensive coordinator Kellen Moore reportedly called the play, McCarthy signed off.
The umpire’s bump of Prescott definitely cost the Cowboys a second, but they never should have been in that spot to begin with, and Prescott never physically handed the ump the ball.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones told 105.3 The Fan that he expects McCarthy to remain the team’s head coach. “Absolutely. Very confident,” he said.
However, Jerry Jones’ postgame reaction sounded like a foreshadowing of a hard look at McCarthy.
“I think this is the time that when you get this combination of players together, you need to have success,” Jones said. “Because we all know how it goes in the NFL: The whole thing is set out to take away from the best and add to the ones that need improvement. And personnel-wise, I think we have one of the best.”
Jones is right. The Cowboys do have a ton of talent. That’s why he gave a contract extension to de facto GM Will McClay this week before any team could interview and poach him.
McCarthy, 58, has an 18-15-0 record in two seasons. Last year was significantly affected by Prescott’s season-ending injury. But this year, the Cowboys were 6-0 against the NFC East and 6-6 against everyone else.
Dallas was also whistled for 14 penalties, and capped it off with a circus act sequence early in the fourth quarter.
The Cowboys completed a fake punt on fourth down, but then they tried to trick the 49ers defense by leaving the punt team on the field for first down, only to take a delay of game penalty as they ran the offense on last-minute.
Jones’ defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, also is arguably the hottest head coaching candidate on the market right now, and the only way to keep him would be to fire McCarthy and promote him to the big chair. It’s likely Jones will lose at least one of his coordinators to a head coaching hire, and possibly both.
The Cowboys’ owner has a lot to think about and not much time to make up his mind. Clearly, he was stewing coming off the loss. It will be fascinating to see whether he listens to his gut or remains patient with a coach whose process seems fundamentally flawed.
TALE OF TWO TEAMS
Bengals coach Zac Taylor had a 2-14-0 record in 2019, a 4-11-1 record in 2020 with Joe Burrow injured as a rookie, and then took Cincinnati (10-7) to the playoffs with a healthy Burrow in year three. Taylor, 38, and the Bengals just beat the Raiders in the Wild Card round and have a date with the AFC’s top-seeded Titans on deck.
Niners coach Kyle Shanahan put up a 6-10 record in 2017, after being hired as a team with GM John Lynch. They slipped to a 4-12 record in 2018, but then turned it around for a 13-3 record and a Super Bowl berth in year three. The 49ers suffered through a down 6-10 year in 2020, primarily due to injuries. But this year Shanahan got them back into the playoffs at 10-7, upset Dallas on Sunday, and set up a divisional round trip to the top-seeded Packers.
The Giants’ Joe Judge, meanwhile, was 6-10 in year one, an overachievement given the roster he inherited. He was 4-13 in year two after losing his quarterback and a large part of his team due to injuries. And then he was fired after two seasons, having been saddled with inherited GM Dave Gettleman, and never working with a GM who shared his roster-building vision.
That’s a good side-by-side look at why some organizations succeed and why others fail, how winning is a process but the Giants never let the process they promised Judge fully grow.
GIANTS STEP IT UP
Expect the Giants’ hiring process to kick into gear today after Monday’s conclusion of GM interviews with the 49ers’ Ran Carthon and Adam Peters. The Giants are expected to move to a second round of select finalists in person after conducting the first round virtually. The team also may have to start putting in for head coaching interviews alongside their GM search, with eight current head coach openings and competition for the candidates.
THE PAYTON QUESTION
Many league sources have their eyes on New Orleans with curiosity on how Sean Payton is going to proceed. The Saints
are in cap hell, they don’t have a franchise quarterback, and the rebuild is going to be painful. Payton, 58, is under contract, so the only way his situation could change is if he were traded or stepped away voluntarily. There’s always lots of noise this time of year, but Payton (152-89-0 record, one Super Bowl in 15 seasons) is so revered as a head coach and offensive mind, it’s worth listening anytime his name comes up. Payton has not responded to several requests for comment.
STILL HAUNTED
Gettleman’s refusal to entertain a trade back in 2018 — and his decision to draft Saquon Barkley over the likes of Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Quenton Nelson — was an all-time NFL draft blunder that helped kill the Giants tenures of two head coaches: Pat Shurmur and Judge.
Allen just threw for 308 yards and 5 TDs, and ran for 66 more yards, in a 47-17 demolition of the Patriots. The Bills didn’t punt. Now the Giants need a new GM and their first interview was the Bills’ Joe Schoen, who helped draft Allen in 2018.
Facts like these are why it’s cringeworthy that the Giants organization so publicly fired its head coach out the front door while letting the GM slip out the back with propaganda that this was some sort of voluntary retirement . . . . The Bears are interviewing former Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie, 58, for their vacancy, which reminds me how ridiculous it is that I haven’t heard former Giants GM Jerry Reese come across anyone’s call list. Reese, 58, won two Super Bowls and is a respected evaluator, professional and man. He interviewed with the Jaguars a year ago and deserves a look . . . . Former Giants defensive coordinator James Bettcher was part of the 49ers coaching staff that held the Cowboys to 17 points. Bettcher is a senior defensive assistant/run game specialist. It’s amazing what coaches can accomplish with good players . ...
Jason Pierre-Paul was traded by Gettleman with a fourthround pick in 2018 for a Bucs third and fourth. Gettleman drafted DL B.J. Hill and QB Kyle Lauletta. JPP won a second career Super Bowl last year and is a leader on a Bucs team trying to repeat. Lauletta was a wash, and Hill didn’t produce before his trade to Cincinnati this fall. … I fully expect the Eagles, who hold three first-round picks in April’s draft, to pursue a big-time quarterback via trade this offseason. Owner Jeffrey Lurie has good offensive and defensive lines, but Jalen Hurts can’t take that team where it needs to go in this window.
Bench coach was the last major hole remaining on the Mets’ coaching staff, and now it looks like they’ve got someone to fill it.
The team is expected to hire Glenn Sherlock — who was a former minor league catcher and Mets’ coach under Terry Collins and Mickey Callaway — to be Buck Showalter’s top confidant in the dugout. Sherlock was also a coach in the Yankees’ and Diamondbacks’ organizations while Showalter was managing there.
The Mets are still expected to hire an assistant hitting coach and assistant pitching coach before the season begins. But with Sherlock expected to be in the fold, joining newcomer Showalter, the incumbent pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and likely Joey Cora, Wayne Kirby, Eric Chavez each of the traditional coaching roles have now been filled.
Before landing on Sherlock, the Mets tried to interview Giants’ pitching coach Andrew Bailey and the Padres’ quality control man Ryan Flaherty for the bench coach job, but those clubs blocked anything from happening. Jeff Pickler, the Reds’ planning and outfield coach, reportedly withdrew his name from consideration after drawing interest as well.
Like Cora, Kirby and Chavez, Sherlock has decades of experience in professional baseball. Very few people can say the sport has taken them further, at least geographically, than the 61-yearold Sherlock can.
MINOR LEAGUES
A graduate of St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Mass., Sherlock went on to play baseball at Division II Rollins College. Like many Division II players, he was ticketed for the late rounds of the MLB Draft. The Astros eventually used a 21st-round pick on him in 1983. An unremarkable career on Houston’s farm (Sherlock never advanced past Double-A in four years) led to a change of scenery.
The Yankees gave Sherlock a chance after he fizzled out with the Astros. From 1987-1989, Sherlock played in 49 games in the Yankees’ system and finally got a taste of Triple-A. His playing
career never advanced beyond that point, though, and he hung up in his spikes after the ‘89 season. Playing for seven years across four different levels of the minor league circuit, the left-handed hitter slashed .250/.299/.315 and clocked seven home runs in 297 career games.
Luckily, the Yankees had a job in mind for him after it was clear that he was done contributing between the lines. At just 29 years old, he began managing the Gulf Coast Yankees in rookie ball. This gave him a front row seat for the first step in one of the game’s most legendary careers. The first bunch Sherlock managed in 1990 had a skinny reliever out of Panama who gave up just 17 hits in 52 innings while striking out 58. At the end of the season that kid, Mariano Rivera, had a 0.17 ERA. Thirty-two years later, we know him as the greatest relief pitcher to ever pick up a ball.
Sherlock got his first taste of full-season ball (the Gulf Coast Yankees only played 62 games) in 1991. Leading the High-A squad in Fort Lauderdale, Sherlock didn’t have any future Hall of Famers, and the end result was his first and only losing season as a minor league manager. He’d return to the Gulf Coast to skipper the 1993 rookies, but at the conclusion of that season, he had a peculiar opportunity to keep managing into the winter.
Plenty of people who have jobs in the major leagues now were part of an obscure team with a silly name at one point. Within the sprawling landscape of American minor-league baseball, there’s the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Montgomery Biscuits and Amarillo Sod Poodles, just to name a few. In the winter of 1993, though, Sherlock packed everything up and went to manage the Canberra Bushrangers in the now-defunct Australian Baseball League.
That experiment would only last one year before the Yankees offered him a stateside job as a catching instructor. This allowed Sherlock to work closely with Showalter, leading to the working relationship that is still paying dividends today.
MAJOR LEAGUES
The Diamondbacks chose
Showalter to be their inaugural manager in 1998, and Sherlock went with him to become one of the franchise’s original coaches. Even long after Showalter was fired, Sherlock stuck around. He got a World Series ring as the bullpen coach in 2001 and stayed with the Diamondbacks until 2016, working as an assistant under six different managers and two who were hired in an interim capacity. As a Diamondback, Sherlock spent 14 years as the bullpen coach, three as bench coach and two more as a base coach.
His time in the desert came to an end when the Mets offered him Tim Teufel’s old job as third base coach in November 2016. Three seasons in the coaching boxes — he shifted over to first base coach for 2019 — ended without a playoff trip for Sherlock and the Mets. A brief detour to Pittsburgh interrupted Sherlock’s time in Flushing. He spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons in a run prevention and game planning role with the Pirates before being lured back in by Showalter and Steve Cohen.
Sherlock’s background as a catcher helped alter the career trajectory of at least one player in a tangible way. Ex-Pirate backstop Jacob Stallings, who won a Gold Glove award in 2021, credits Sherlock with helping him become an elite defensive presence. The two will have plenty of chances to catch up, as Stallings was traded to the Mets division rival in Miami back in November.