Mike McCarthy's postgame comments from Cowboys loss to Saints completely miss the mark

The Dallas Cowboys lost to the New Orleans Saints in humiliating fashion in Week 2 , falling 44-19 after allowing six consecutive touchdown drives.

Even though many insist on comparing it to last year's "trap game" loss to the Arizona Cardinals early in the season, the truth is the Cowboys' loss to the Saints most resembled January's playoff game to the Green Bay Packers.

That's why I believe head coach Mike McCarthy's postgame comments from Sunday miss the mark when making sense out of what happed on Sunday. Asked how did he explain the underwhelming run defense knowing the last time the Cowboys played at home, the team went through something similar, McCarthy's stance was all about this being a different team to last year's.

"I don't think the last time we played had anything to do with that," McCarthy told reporters . "I understand the convenience of the criticism and obviously I'm on the other side of it. We've had changes on defense, one of the changes we made was to put the emphasis on run defense, it was not evident today. No doubt about it, they got the ball on our perimeter time and time again in the second level."

My question is, how is it not related to what happened in January?

Sure, there are some key personnel changes throughout the starting lineup but defensively, the whole theme about the 2024 Cowboys has been about getting better in stopping the run. Bringing in Mike Zimmer led to expectations that this team could slow down the Shanahan style wide zone offenses, which the Saints are running this year upon hiring OC Klint Kubiak. Even before the game, I wrote about how big of a game it was for Zimmer to prove his defense had answers for this particular problem, which has caused so many woes for the Cowboys in recent memory.

For the Cowboys to show this level of struggle in the one big area they suffered in last year against a quality opponent, it absolutely has everything to do with last year. Specially when we understand the team neglected the need for defensive tackle depth until training camp was underway and that the Cowboys were content allowing two rotational defensive ends hit free agency, as well.

The good news is deep down, McCarthy seems to agree in this despite him shooting down the notion that this season and last season are related in any shape or form. His final comments from his postgame press conference reveal how he really feels.

"You have to recognize it," McCarthy replied when asked about the team's struggles against Shanahan style offenses. "The lead outside zone (runs) were the starting point of it, and we were not very good at all against it today. And it's happened in the past. We're definitely going to spend more time on it."

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