Everything Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said after dismal loss to New Orleans

Everything Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said to the media after losing 44-19 to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Quotes courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys media staff.

On the difference between how they played in the opener versus today

“Going back to my comments during the week, I felt like we were playing a playoff caliber team. I think you look at the preparation coming into it, look at their games last year, which obviously you do in week two, and they played well last week. I’m disappointed, very disappointed in the way we played, you know, from the top down, you know, starting with myself. The finish, as far as the different battles as you go through the game. You know, the run game battle, you know, we didn’t win that on either side. You know, obviously the turnover battle, they won that. I thought they did a better job finishing plays and they hit their big plays, I think we were minus three at halftime, I don’t know what it ended up. We needed to keep pace. You know, complimentary football, defense was struggling, obviously, you know, throughout the first three quarters. We need to score touchdowns in the red zone. And you know, we had some execution challenges that, you know, they were better than we were. If we could have kept pace with them, and, you know, kept that to a one score, possible two score game, and you come down a stretch and you’re competing to win. So, you need adversity, games like this. You definitely don’t want to ever perform like this. They played well, give them credit. But yeah, I think, like all of us, we’re disappointed with our performance today. But you know the true reality is, we’ll take the film tomorrow, that’ll tell the complete story. There’s no burn the tape outset here, that’s not the way I’ve ever operated. We will take a hard, hard look at it, because we all need to learn from it. You know, we got a new defensive staff, and this is the first time, we were on cloud nine last week, and now we got punched. It’ll be no different offensively, we did not handle the adversity part of it. To keep pace with the way the game was going. More importantly our young players, they need to learn from this experience. So, that’s where we are. We’re 1-1.”

On if this game has any callbacks to the playoff game against Green Bay from last season

“I don’t think the last time we played here has anything to do with it. I understand the convenience of the criticism, and obviously I’m on the other side of it. We’ve had changes on defense. You know, some of the changes we’ve made, was to put the emphasis on the run defense. It was not evident today. I mean, no doubt about it, they got the ball on our perimeter, you know, time and time again, in the second level. Once again, it’s saying we need to play much better. I need to coach better, and you never want to play that way, especially at home.”

On him not appearing shocked by this and if he was concerned going into this matchup against the Saints or if the rest of the team took them seriously enough

“I don’t know you know, shocked? You compete in the NFL. We’ve been very good at home. The numbers speak for themselves. You don’t ever want to lose a game, let alone lose like that. But it can happen to anybody in this league. Frankly, you rather it happen early. So, yeah, I’m just honest. When you guys asked me what I think of the other team, maybe I should just bullshit you like most other people do, just throw candy out there. But I thought they were a good team coming in here, and I thought they played well. If you watch the last eight games of their season, and the way they played last week. I mean, this was a challenge. We got to worry about ourselves, and we can’t worry about what other people think or say or what comes out of this. We need to stay true to the football part of it, stay present and work on it. We got a lot of work to do. I stood here seven days ago, and talked about all the work, all the work that we needed to do when we won by three scores. This is part of this September football challenge, and in seven days we got another playoff team coming in here. So we’ll take the time tomorrow to learn from it, and we’ll get ready for Baltimore.”

On New Orleans scoring touchdowns on their first six possessions

“It’s happened. It’s happened before. I don’t think anybody punted until the fourth quarter. We just didn’t score touchdowns.”

On them doing something you didn’t plan for....

Well, I just think, I mean the commonality you know, just the way we were stressed... I think us starting, you know, with us on offense, we went to more of a sub package game. So, when you do that, it’s a little more stress on your edges. Once again, going through the specifics of the video will give you a clearer picture of that. I think their offense versus our defense, you know, the shifts and motions in the run game, particularly the edge stuff; the ball on the perimeter time and time again. So obviously, we didn’t have a good answer for that moving forward. Because it’s just like anything in this league, when you put it on tape, you’re going to see it again and again. So, we put a lot on tape today.

What did you learn about your team today?

What did I learn about them? I think it’s just this kind of tells you where you are. We’ve played two games, and you know, the consistency of winning in week one and building off that did not occur today. So, we took a step backwards. So, we’ve got to get back to work.

On where do you think you guys are?

I didn’t think we were so good last week. I think we played really well on defense, for three-four quarters, and you know, I thought we played well on offense for the first half. So, we got up on them. You flip this as a different game, different challenge; we knew they were going to commit to the run and they did and they had success doing it and we really didn’t make the quarterback play, we didn’t get him off the spot very often. He was able to stay in a positive stick, sticks situation, so that’s the way you want to play. Offensively, I think we were fourteen, thirteen; we had double digit play drives over and over again, we didn’t put the ball in the endzone. We’ve got to put the ball in the endzone especially for what was going on the other side of the ball. Special teams really didn’t factor much today. So, we’ve got to score touchdowns and we’ve got to do a better job stopping them.

When the game kind of started slipping away from you on one side, like they did defensively today, how does that impact the other side of the ball? As far as when you see it in the way do you see, is it common for a team to kind of start with more mistakes?

We went to a two-minute operation there at the end of the third, fourth quarter. So, I thought Dak did a good job being patient, taking the check downs and that’s what you have to do. Donovan gets the big stop there, with the turnover and, we didn’t capitalize on it. So, that’s when I thought the game kind of swung, and that was our chance to swing it back and try to get it to a two score game.

On getting Deuce Vaughn and KaVontae Turpin involved

“There was some run-pass options there. So, you know, I think it’s just more how the ball was distributed. We’re trying to make sure all those guys are involved. You have a gameplan, you have personnel groups and matchups you like to attack. It’s a long year too, we try to play these guys and be as versatile as possible. You know, we got the quarterback that can handle it and manage it. So that’s really what that’s all about.”

On the lack of big plays by the Dallas offense

“Look at the depth of their safety, you know, it’s different than last week. That was one of the things disappointing from last week was the opportunity for potential big plays. But you know they’re going to be deeper in the deepest in match unit. So sometimes you got to be a little more patient, which we’ve shown we’ve been able to do, but yeah, when you get down in there you got, you got to hit your shots.”

On any injury updates

“No, I’m sorry I didn’t stop there.”

On the commonality of New Orleans’ offensive system being what Green Bay and San Francisco run on offense that have given the Dallas defense issues causes any concern

“Well, I mean, you have to recognize it. The elite outside zone is a starting point of it. And we were not very good at all against it today, so and, and it’s happened in the past. So, I mean, yeah, we’re definitely going to spend more time on it. That’s all we know how to do. And it was part of, some of the changes that we made to the run defense, and it didn’t”