Pressure shifts to Mike McCarthy with Kellen Moore's dismissal - The Dallas Morning News

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The annual rearrangement of Titanic deck chairs at The Star took down Kellen Moore on Sunday, the biggest name to be tossed into the drink so far (although offensive line coach Joe Philbin was once Miami’s head coach). It will be months before we learn what, if anything, the shuffling of name cards at coaches’ meetings means for Dak Prescott and the 2023 Cowboys.

At least the hiring of Mike McCarthy three years ago now makes a little more sense. McCarthy, who called the offensive plays for most of his years in Green Bay that included one Super Bowl and four NFC Championship Game appearances, will finally call plays in Dallas. It didn’t make a ton of sense when he backed off play-calling at his initial Cowboys press conference, given the statements he had made in Green Bay about never again wanting to relinquish that authority.

Related:Mike McCarthy to call plays as Cowboys part ways with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore

In four years as Dallas’ offensive coordinator, Moore’s teams averaged seventh in total points scored. They were No. 1 in both points and total offense in 2021, which tells you how quickly offensive coordinators fall out of favor in this league. For now, he is the fall guy for two postseason losses to San Francisco because it is written somewhere in the How to Be a Fan guidebook that the initial target for all failures is the offensive play-caller.

Those folks are much easier to cast aside than quarterbacks, head coaches or, especially, general managers with positions guaranteed for life.

Moore has been castigated by any number of TV-radio-podcast “experts,” often former NFL players and quarterbacks, for an offense that does not play to its strengths and does things such as having receivers running man-to-man routes against zone defenses. And, of course, he will be remembered here less for those No. 1 rankings or 50-point outbursts than for that final play call in Santa Clara where the Cowboys’ attempt to trick the 49ers gained 5 yards and got Ezekiel Elliott run over after snapping the football.

As Fox analyst and former Super Bowl fullback Daryl Johnston said, on a recent radio show, “That last play …what is that? What are we doing? We’re gonna go full gimmick? The Stanford band is not there to help you out.’’

Regardless of that criticism, it’s reasonable to say that Dak Prescott needs a new voice in his head. Moore was unable to help eliminate or even reduce an interception problem that began to plague Prescott some time ago and reached its culmination this season when he tied for the lead league with 15 interceptions even while missing five games with an injury. So many of those picks came on similar-looking inside routes that there was something too simplistic in Dallas’ execution or Prescott has become too easy for defenses to read.

Either way, you knew change was coming and it wouldn’t be on the defensive side. The Cowboys caught a break when coordinator Dan Quinn pulled out of the head coaching derbies he had entered to stay the course. Quinn believes a Super Bowl can be won in Dallas. Now it’s up to McCarthy and a new-direction offense to keep Quinn from looking foolish for thinking such things.

Twitter: @TimCowlishaw

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