Dallas Cowboys Identity Crisis: 'Who Do You Want to Be?' Asks Coach Mike McCarthy

Dallas Cowboys Identity Crisis: 'Who Do You Want to Be?' Asks Coach Mike McCarthy

Who are you, Dallas Cowboys? In regard to "identity'' ... Are you flat-track bullies that beat up the weaker teams, or are you ones that cower when faced with a foe who is equal to or better than them, like San Francisco?

Dallas coach Mike McCarthy knows what he wants the answer to be ... and offers a rather enticing quote about the offensive approach for us all to ponder.

“The identity of the offense is you want to have some balance throughout how you play, ball distribution. I think in four out of the five games, we’ve definitely hit the mark,” McCarthy said. 

“I’ve liked a lot of the things we’ve done outside [of 49ers game] offensively because outside of the red zone, we’ve definitely hit the mark. When we started this offensive approach back in April, I think it’s a matter of who do you want to be and who do you think you are.”

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy

Who do you want to be, and who do you think you are? And "Hit the mark''? Hmm. So that leads to the question, "Who exactly are the Cowboys?''

Such was the magnitude of the defeat at the Niners that many are left questioning everything and everyone in the organization going forward.

Changes were made in the offseason to better serve the team as McCarthy took over from Kellen Moore as the offensive play-caller. McCarthy clearly wanted to get better in certain areas of the offense. But under his watchful eye (albeit in only five games as a play-caller), have things gotten better? 

“The time of possession, taking care of the football, those are two things that I thought [had] improvement from past years,” McCarthy said. “Clearly not [vs. 49ers], you give the ball away, you can’t win a game, let's be honest about that. That’s where the game got out of control.”

So, was what Dallas dished up an outlier, or were its true colors shown?

The good thing about the NFL is that we won't have long to find out. ... and the tests are waiting. In the next three weeks, Dallas faces the Chargers before a home clash against a resurgent Los Angeles Rams and then another big test away at Philadelphia.

Dallas then gets a reprieve of sorts as they face the Giants, Panthers, and the Commanders. But then there is a brutal stretch where the Cowboys face the Seahawks, Eagles, Bills, Dolphins, and Lions before heading to Washington to close out the year.

At the time of writing, Dallas' remaining opponents have a combined 31-23 record, which is the ninth toughest by one measure, so there already feels like little margin for error (the Arizona Cardinals loss could prove telling come playoff time).

Who are the 2023 version of the Dallas Cowboys? Five weeks into the season, we still don't really know ... But we're about to find out.