Cowboys coach’s return from surgery could be key to massive matchup

Mike McCarthy returned to Dallas Cowboys headquarters on Friday with his sense of humor intact.

Yes, while away for two days after having an emergency appendectomy, the Cowboys coach got wind of the memo the NFL sent teams with a stern reminder about sideline conduct after the Philadelphia Eagles’ security chief involved himself in a skirmish with a San Francisco 49ers player last weekend.

“They won’t have to worry about me personally this week for sure,” McCarthy cracked during a media conference call on Friday. “I won’t be misbehaving at all.”

McCarthy was still sore and experiencing an expected level of pain two days after the operation yet planned to work the Sunday night showdown against the Eagles as usual, while roaming the sideline. Given the chaos and collisions that can occur as plays flow to the sideline, it’s fair to wonder how well the big fella can get out of the way. It would have been understandable if McCarthy opted to coach from a booth upstairs.

He has another idea about how to be protected from sideline collisions.

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“I’m definitely aware of that,” he said. “I’ll probably need to get bigger assistants standing next to me than I currently have, but I’ll definitely be in touch with that.”

McCarthy’s health care and surgery provided another storyline for a much-anticipated divisional matchup hardly lacking in angles. The Eagles (10-2) have the NFL’s best record but come off their worst game of the season. The Cowboys (9-3), with McCarthy calling the plays for one of the hottest offenses in the NFL, share the league’s longest winning streak at four games and with a victory can vault them into first place in the NFC East.

Of course, McCarthy was “frustrated” to not only miss two days of practices – Dak Prescott said his coach was “probably pissed” to be absent as preparations ramped up for the big game – but also to command attention because of a personal situation. As was the case during the 2021 season when McCarthy missed a game due to COVID-19, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn ran practice as the fill-in coach.

After his release from the hospital, McCarthy quickly following pandemic-like procedures as he worked from his home office, reviewing film and participating in virtual meetings as the coaching staff tweaked game plan details. He was “ecstatic” to return to practice on Friday and maintained that doctors cleared him to the point that he won’t need any follow-up visits before Sunday night.

His acute appendicitis was discovered early Wednesday. McCarthy said he couldn’t sleep on Monday and Tuesday nights, and initially thought he contracted a stomach virus when he checked in with Cowboys athletic trainer Jim Maurer. Tests at a hospital confirmed his condition and the need for immediate surgery. McCarthy said that according to his surgeon, “I had this a little longer than I thought.”

Coaches often talk of eliminating distractions for their teams that could relate to a variety of situations. It was striking to hear McCarthy speak of his ordeal in a similar vein. It was not surprising, though, that in the macho culture of the NFL that includes coaches who notoriously grind away with long hours, there wasn’t even a hint that McCarthy might miss the game as he recovers.

Distraction? What distraction?

“It’s why clearly I thought it was so important for me to get back in here,” McCarthy said. “Trust me, anybody that knows me or who has ever worked with me, know I’m the last guy who wants to take anything away from the players.

“This is a player’s game…I’ve built my program around that premise. Anything that touches the locker room was important. That’s why it is imperative for me to get back in here and get going and make sure the normalcy is back in place.”

Assuming that he’s on point physically, there’s another reason why McCarthy’s presence will loom large on Sunday night. He took over the play-calling duties this season and lately the Cowboys offense has been on fire. Dallas leads the NFL in averaging 32.5 points per game, as Prescott has emerged as an MVP candidate.

The Eagles defense, meanwhile, has allowed over 400 yards in four of its last five games.

It’s easy to imagine just what form of normalcy it would take for McCarthy to get well soon.

Unfair dissing on Jalen Hurts

As if the hits from opposing defenses aren’t enough, the target practice directed at Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is absurd. And it sank to another level this week when NFL Network analyst David Carr maintained Hurts should be benched in favor of journeyman backup Marcus Mariota.

Carr, a former NFL quarterback who bombed after being drafted No. 1 overall in 2002, said he believed that Mariota is a better choice until Hurts gets healthier. Hurts has played through a knee injury that has challenged him for much of the season. On the surface, that wasn’t a terrible take.

Yet Carr made his argument stink with the dog-whistle suggestion that Hurts can’t effectively read NFL defenses – which smacks of the stereotypes that have dogged Black quarterbacks for decades.

While it’s true that Hurts and the Eagles suffered their most embarrassing setback of the season last weekend in getting trounced by the 49ers, Carr ripping on the quarterback’s mental acuity ignores some other truths. Including:

The Eagles (10-2) have the NFL’s best record.Hurts is an MVP candidate, who is 27-3 in 30 starts, dating to last season.Since Week 7, Hurts has a 104.1 passer rating, with a 12-3 TD-to-INT ratio.Until Sunday, Hurts led the Eagles to 14 consecutive victories against teams with winning records.Hurts, a multi-dimensional threat, ranks second in the NFL this season with 31 total TDs.

No, Hurts could not accomplish all of that if he was so deficient assessing the X’s and O’s in real time.

Carr’s comments just added another layer of disrespect that somehow follows Hurts.

A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist wrote before the Eagles-49ers matchup, comparing the quarterbacks, that if San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy played in the City of Brotherly Love, he was be a “god” among Philly fans because he entered the league as such an underdog. The inference was that somehow the fans didn’t relate as much with Hurts, who entered the league in 2021 as a second-round pick.

Given the shots fired in his direction, Hurts sure looks like an “underdog” to me.

Jordan Love on fire

No need for the Green Bay Packers to second-guess anything about the decision to move on from Aaron Rodgers. While the 40-year-old Rodgers rehabs the torn Achilles tendon that ripped apart the Super Bowl aspirations for the New York Jets, his successor is getting better by the week.

Of course, this was the plan when the Packers invested a first-round pick in Jordan Love in 2020 and wisely didn’t rush his transition to the NFL as he sat behind Rodgers for three years. Yet considering the 50-50 track record with young quarterbacks, nothing is a given.

Well, as A-Rod might say it, the Cheese heads – and Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur — can R-E-L-A-X.

Love, 25, heads to the Big Apple for a Monday night clash against the New York Giants as one of the NFL’s hottest quarterbacks. During the three-game winning streak that has catapulted the Packers (6-6) into the NFC’s final playoff slot, Love has fired eight touchdown passes without throwing a pick.

Giants coach Brian Daboll was asked about the opposing quarterback this week. He raved about Love’s footwork, vision and ability to extend plays – elements that for so many years have been part of Rodgers’ package. Daboll also suggested that the time spent behind Rodgers has paid off with Love’s game management.

“You can see he’s in full control of the system with the different signals and the checks that he makes,” Daboll said.

It’s also impressive that two of the victories during the current streak came against the playoff-bound Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs. And Love has ignited the offense without the presence of its most established weapon, multi-tasking running back Aaron Jones, believed to be close to returning from a knee injury.

The Packers thrived for decades with Rodgers preceded by Brett Favre. Now it appears that the franchise’s good fortune at the game’s most important position is poised to continue for another extended run.

Quick slants

Look who’s got the AFC’s longest winning streak? The Indianapolis Colts (7-5), with four consecutive victories as they head into a tilt at Cincinnati on Sunday. It matches the streaks held by the Cowboys and 49ers as longest in the NFL. If that’s not enough of a surprise, consider this: Indianapolis, quarterbacked by fill-in vet Gardner Minshew II, joins the Lions as the only teams in the NFL to score at least 20 points in 11 games this season…The surge by the Los Angeles Rams (6-6) has come with some balance. Sure, Rams coach Sean McVay is a certified whiz when it comes to creating a lethal passing attack. Yet it’s notable that Matthew Stafford hasn’t passed for 300 yards since Week 4. And next is a matchup on Sunday at Baltimore, which fields a defense ranked No. 1 in scoring and No. 2 in yards allowed.