'TV is King!' Coach Mike McCarthy's 'Grumpy' Cowboys Schedule Prep for 49ers

“I think it’s going to serve us well,'' Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy says, chuckling about the tight playoff schedule. "We’ll have less sleep, and we’ll be grumpy.”

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys are hoping to earn the crown that comes with being Super Bowl champions.

But after Monday night's playoff pummeling of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they are aware that along the way another master must be served.

“TV,'' Dallas coach Mike McCarthy said with a grin, "is king.''

How so? Because of the scheduling quirk that placed Dallas' game at Tampa on the East Coast on a Monday ... sending the Cowboys to a Sunday game on the West Coast against the San Francisco 49ers ... meaning a short week for McCarthy's bunch to prepare.

"America's Team'' gets to reap the benefits of its high profile, but that also means the league and the TV networks want Dallas on in prime time. Thus the Monday night game, a new wrinkle added to the postseason last year.

It so happens that the Cowboys play on national TV so often that they feel used to it. And McCarthy is working to turn it all into a positive.

“I think it’s going to serve us well,'' he said, chuckling. "We’ll have less sleep, and we’ll be grumpy.”

Critics of the schedule, by the way, seem to forget that by playing on Monday, Dallas was afforded extra time to get ready for the Bucs, as noted by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

It's not unfair'' at all,'' Jones said. "That’s what we were dealt. We got to play in front of the nation. We got an extra day to get ready ... Good thing. The result, we’ll go play on a short week. We’ve done that Thanksgiving Day, played short weeks. . . . I don’t see that being a disadvantage.”

The Cowboys are 3-point underdogs as they get to work here inside The Star on how to repeat Monday's performance in which the defense shut down Brady and QB Dak Prescott was in brilliant "god mode,'' with 305 yards and four touchdowns (plus a rushing TD) with zero interceptions while completing 25 of his 33 throws.

How to do that is the concern. The time in which to do it?

"It’s not a concern,'' McCarthy said. "We’ve got plenty of time to get ready. We’re not stressed about it at all.”

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