That’s it for Mike McCarthy? He might be ending up on the chopping block after the Dallas Cowboys missed the opportunity to put some point on the board by the end of the third quarter against the Houston Texans. In another heartbreaking loss (34-10)—that put the team at a dilapidated 3-7 record—bad decisions and questionable tactics stole the show for what was supposed to be the start of a redemption arc.

In the opening drive, the losing team gave away two touchdowns with Texans running back Joe Mixon delivering a 45-yard score. But it’s not just one play. There were other instances of supposedly abhorrent play calling throughout the game. Case in point: Brandon Aubrey had just pulled off a 64-yard field goal, but it was negated by a head-slap penalty by th Houston. So what did McCarthy do? Well…The HC didn’t take the point and go down 20-13, but rather accepted the penalty. The kick would have given Dallas seven points in the third quarter. However, what they got instead was a fresh set of downs.

And then there’s the fake punt that McCarthy called on their first drive where Bryan Anger’s weird pass to Juanyeh Thomas fell five yards short of gaining a first down, as a defender tackled the safety from behind. “They won the chess match there. That was a poor call by us,” the HC later admitted.

This was the second fake punt that hasn’t worked out for the Cowboys in the last three weeks. In the team’s 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, when the Cowboys were four points behind their opponent in the second half, McCarthy’s risky fake punt attempt was sniffed out by the Falcon defense as they expertly tackled the punter. The unsuccessful move gave Atlanta an excellent field position, and they scored a touchdown a few plays later.

Having said that, don’t even start on the play where the Cowboys fumbled the ball twice this time. Texans’ Derek Barnett returned it for a 28-yard touchdown. The Houston Texans literally stopped them on third down and inches just because the Cowboys head coach decided to go for it and not kick the easy field goal. It just looks bad, and the Cowboys look unprepared. What’s more? They are at a 0-5 home start, allowing 37.4 points per game with a -11 turnover margin at home this season. Notably, this is the first time since 1989 that they have lost their first five home games of a season. The seven-game losing streak is also the team’s longest since they lost seven consecutive games in 2015.

The Cowboys fans are fuming right now. They even believe that the team’s head coach is purposefully doing this to get fired. Or as this fan calls it, “Mike McCarthy wants to get fired. The roof caving in is enough.” But it wasn’t an unwarranted comment. The Cowboys had a chance to add three points on the board by the end of the third quarter, but Cooper Rush threw a dud instead.

However, if you ask the HC, it’s not like he doesn’t realize some of his mistakes. His biggest regret? Trey Lance. “The one thing I should’ve did at the end and I didn’t do is put Trey in there. Could’ve gotten him a series. That’s one thing I could second guess myself on.” This comes days after McCarthy and Jerry Jones were presented with a difficult choice between 2024 NFL Draft’s No. 3 overall pick, Lance, and veteran Cooper Rush—after starting QB Dak Prescott’s season ending Week 9 hamstring avulsion—and they chose the latter.

“Cooper has shown that he has the capability to compete and win in games,” Jones had said at the time.

As for their recent blowout loss, horrendous play  calling caused Zack Martin and Tyler Smith to get injured on consecutive plays, as did Jake Ferguson. At this point, it feels like the Texans completely broke the Cowboys and were just toying with them. Of course, the passionate Dallas fans are going insane watching this eyesore performance unfold.

Fans grilling Mike McCarthy

One fan was pretty brutal with his take on Mike McCarthy. He took to X and wrote, “I f–king hate this —— loser named Mike McCarthy.” Another fan expressed how the Dallas Cowboys fans might not let the Dallas head coach leave the building unscathed. He shared, “Mike McCarthy might not make it out the building.”

Not just you, buddy. Even the coach is frustrated. “I think it’s very frustrating. It’s frustrating for everybody. Frustrating for the players, frustrating for the coaches. I know it’s disappointing for the fans,” McCarthy said.

However, there was also a hint of optimism in McCarthy’s voice, as he concluded. “But we just, we have a lot of moving parts going on, and we just have to be cleaner and more detailed in certain spots. We’re not playing well enough, not executing well enough, coaching well enough to overcome some of the mistakes we’re making in critical times of the game.”

Another upset fan called for Mike McCarthy to get fired as they wrote, “Mike McCarthy must go.” The horrendous play calling has the former Super Bowl-winning head coach garnering more hate as one pointed out, “MIKE MCCARTHY YOU F—ING SUCK.” As said before, there’s another narrative going around that McCarthy wants to get fired, or as one fan put it, “Mike McCarthy wants to get fired. The roof caving in is enough.”

But it doesn’t look like the firing is going to come anytime soon. Mike McCarthy is in the final year of his contract (after having signed in 2020), and it’s highly unlikely that Jones will take a drastic step in the final year. Barely two weeks ago, the owner had confidently stated, “Mike is a heck of a coach, a great coach in my mind,” Jones said, per The Athletic. “[He] has and should have the opportunity to do better than we’re playing right now. I haven’t had good experience changing coaches in the middle of the season.”

This was further noted by NFL insider Schultz, who said, “Jerry Jones has only fired a head coach once in-season. One time. It was [Wade Phillips] about decade and a half ago. He always said, ‘I never wanted to do that, I almost regretted it.’ So, to fire Mike McCarthy in season at three and six, I don’t really see that. But I do see a team that even before Dak was lost for the season was completely rudderless.”

Honestly, coaching the Dallas Cowboys seems like a daunting task at this point. Without Dak Prescott, it’s safe to say they are done for the season. But there’s always next season. For now, the Cowboys are in for lengthy board meetings. And a lot of yelling from the flustered billionaire owner because this is the fifth game they’ve lost in a row.