'It's A Gap!' Inside Coach Mike McCarthy's Message About No. 1 Weakness
If the Dallas Cowboys land in the NFC Wild Card this postseason, Sunday's 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills may indicate that trouble lies ahead.
The Cowboys are dominant within the friendly confines of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, holding a 15-game winning streak at home that stretches back to last season.
Away from home, however, Dallas is oftentimes a completely different team, including in Week 15's loss. The Cowboys are guaranteed to be in the playoffs when the regular season comes to a close, but all four of their losses have come on the road this season, and a wild card berth guarantees a multitude of road games in the postseason.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
USA Today
It may not matter for some matchups (if Dallas draws a scuffling team from the NFC South, for example), but even then, it's obvious that this team has demons to exorcise outside of Texas, and head coach Mike McCarthy admitted as much after Sunday's loss.
"It's a gap, and that's part of my message (to the team)," McCarthy said. "We play so well at home. There's just too big of a gap on our road games. We're conscious of it, and we've got a long flight home to think about it, and to talk about it.
"We've got to move on to Miami in the morning, and get this one corrected but, yes, we've gotta be better."
Falling to the Bills did damage to Dallas' hopes of "back-dooring" its way into an NFC East title and earning at least one home playoff game. The Philadelphia Eagles have yet to officially claim that honor, but the odds are ever in their favor.
There's also the fact that there are some difficult games ahead for Dallas, two of which come away from home. The Cowboys will travel to face the fast-firing Miami Dolphins next week before playing host to the Detroit Lions (far from a "gimme" game at home). They will then close out the regular season with a divisional road game against the Washington Commanders.
So, that's two road games (seemingly always difficult for this team) and a home game against an NFC playoff contender. That's a tough stretch.
It's highly unlikely that the Cowboys will be able to secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason, so if they want to reach their Super Bowl aspirations, they will have to remedy these road struggles and do so in a hurry. Otherwise, Sunday's loss indicates that this is setting up to be another disappointing offseason inside The Star.
And Cowboys Nation hopes these players heed that "message.''
