Mike McCarthy fired odds: Cowboys favored to keep head coach for 2022 season despite home playoff loss

No question that one of the hot topics on sports radio and TV today is the future of Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy after the NFC East champions were beaten 23-17 at home by the San Francisco 49ers in the Wild-Card round on Sunday. How it ended was nothing short of an embarrassment as the Cowboys couldn't get a final play off before the clock ran out. SportsLine offers odds on whether McCarthy will be back next season for owner/GM Jerry Jones.

Jones said this after Sunday's game when asked about McCarthy's standing with the team: "I don't even want to discuss anything like that at this particular time. I'm not going to discuss coaching, or preparation or anything like that. That's not on the table. The game speaks for itself."

Dallas is the only home team to lose thus far on Wild-Card Weekend with Cardinals-Rams tonight.

With 14 seconds left and no timeouts, Dak Prescott ran 17 yards on a quarterback draw, but the ball was not spotted quickly enough for Dallas to spike it before time expired. It wasn't McCarthy who called a draw play for Prescott in the final seconds – that's on offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, although McCarthy OK'd the play-call.

McCarthy said that he was surprised the team was not able to get another play off, adding he expected time to be put back on the clock. He also said the Cowboys practiced that same play, down to the timing, in end-of-game or end-of-half practice situations. The goal was for the offense to have a better shot than a Hail Mary on the last play of the game.

"Do you want to be running a Hail Mary play from the 50-yard line or do you want to run five verticals form the 25-yard line?" McCarthy said. "So, that's the decision, it's the right decision."

The Cowboys played undisciplined football overall. Their 14 penalties Sunday tied the most of any team in an NFL playoff game. Rather strangely, the four other times a team had 14 penalties called on it during a postseason game, it won.

During the regular season, Dallas led the NFL in penalties with 127 and had the second-most penalty yards (1,103 – one yard behind the Raiders). That's on the head coach. Maybe this team was overrated overall considering Dallas was 6-0 vs. the weak NFC East and now 6-6 vs. everyone else.

There has been some chatter that Jones could opt to fire McCarthy and elevate defensive coordinator Dan Quinn or Moore rather than lose one/both to a head coaching job elsewhere, but the likeliest scenario is McCarthy returning on the hottest seat in the NFL next season. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport said he doesn't "sense" that McCarthy will be fired.

Via SportsLine oddsmakers: Will Mike McCarthy be the Cowboys' coach Week 1 of 2022 season?

• Yes -160
• No +120

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