Dallas Cowboys Coaches Reveal 4 Major Issues to Fix: 'Back to the Drawing Board!'

Coach Mike McCarthy and staff are making a very right move - rare as it might be - in spending the Dallas Cowboys postmortem honestly identifying four key areas of coaching failure. Those four are ...

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff made all the right moves on the way to looking like the best team in the NFL through two weeks. And now that they do not look the part at all after Sunday's 28-16 loss to the Arizona Cardinals?

Mike McCarthy and staff are making a very right move - rare as it might be - in spending the next-week-opening media postmortem identifying three key areas of coaching failure. Those four ...

Cowboys coaches McCarthy and Quinn

1 - Did Dallas call too many running plays on early downs while trying to play catch-up?

"I wish I had been a little more aggressive in the passing game on first and second down,'' conceded McCarthy.

2 - Did Dallas fail to anticipate that a trio of starting O-linemen would miss the game due to injury, forcing some last-minute patchwork-quilt game-day adjustments? 

“We need to be better,'' McCarthy said. "We missed the mark there last week ... We had three guys starting who didn't take a lot of reps last week. You can't operate like that."

3- Is not enough time being spend fixing what ails the red-zone offense? McCarthy stated the obvious on Sunday, taking the blame and noting, “We’re not executing ... the way we’d like to. I’ve got to do a better job. It starts with me.''

And on Monday? He revealed that this week, as 2-1 Dallas preps for a Week 4 visit from New England, there will be special emphasis and more practice time spend on work inside the 20.

There was a lot that went wrong in this game, but those three issues are knotted together. The Cowboys made it to the red zone five times, but only came away with a touchdown once. They settled for field goals twice, turned it over on downs once and most back-breaking of all, threw an interception in the end zone late in the game.

And why? Too many run calls (even as Dallas had 416 total yards and 26 first downs, compared to 380 yards and 17 first downs for Arizona)? An offensive line absent Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Tyler Biadasz that was lucky to even survive this thing? Play-calling and execution failures in close - including four second-half trips inside the Cardinals' 10-yard line that produced a paltry six points and a goofy Dak Prescott interception?

Yes, yes, and yes ... and one more "yes'': It's quite refreshing to hear the head coach not only take the blame, but to also detail the issues while sort of offering solutions.

And then one more, this from defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, but it is not at all about X's and O's ...

4 - Did the Cowboys get too full of themselves, or get distracted by "white noise,'' or feel burdened by the "adversity'' of star players' injuries?

Said Quinn: “I saw a lot (Sunday) that upset me and hurt as well. ... "We just didn't play with that relentless energy that we had gotten grown to know and appreciate about our group.''

We will treat that as a fourth "yes.''

"We've all got to get back to the drawing board,'' said Prescott, and once they do that? McCarthy and Quinn have just announced the four issues to be sketched and studied.