How Mike McCarthy’s Past Mistakes Will Influence His Approach to Sunday’s Game Against the Packers

The history for Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers isn’t dictating his preparations for Sunday’s game.

The Dallas Cowboys will face the Packers in the Wild Card Round with a chance to change the coach’s old narratives.

Mike McCarthy Learning From Mistakes

One of the narratives McCarthy wants to change going into this matchup is the emotional ties with his former team being a driving force in this game.

The last time these two teams met — the 2022 season — it was McCarthy’s first time facing the Packers from the opposite sideline.

The Cowboys fell to the Packers 31-28 in overtime, but it was more heartbreaking because of the emotional ties McCarthy had going into the game.

“I answered your questions honestly in here last year about my experience up there, and it will not help us win, so if it doesn’t have us win a game, I’m not interested, and I apologize,” McCarthy told reporters.

Now, McCarthy is changing course with how he approaches the Packers. He says last year, he shared stories from Green Bay to the Cowboys ahead of the game. This year, he isn’t doing that.

“I regretted it,” said McCarthy. He added, “That doesn’t even need to come into our energy base. So you live and learn.”

He says the regret comes from this being a “player’s game” and always will be. The focus is on winning.

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“To put that on their hearts, and they felt that they needed to speak on my behalf in the locker room. I won’t do that again,” said McCarthy.

The head coach explained that this postseason matchup was about the Cowboys’ commitment. Who they were facing on the other side of the ball never mattered.

McCarthy’s Game Prep for Green Bay

The coach said he didn’t even watch a Packers game during the season until the flight home from Washington, D.C., on Sunday night when he started his game prep.

However, last year’s game wasn’t a wash, as he will use the film from it to help his game plan as much as possible.

McCarthy said that getting the first game out of the way last year helped him personally, and the most significant thing he got out of it was reuniting with people he didn’t get to see at the end of his tenure in Green Bay.

He said he was grateful for that, but the Cowboys are his team now. That’s where his focus is.

“At the end of the day, this is my team. I’m a Dallas Cowboy, and this is our opportunity. I just want to make sure I’m doing my part, and that’s pouring everything into winning this game,” said McCarthy.

With the Packers being the youngest team heading into the postseason, he says he spent Sunday night and Monday morning getting deep into their personnel.

To the coach, age doesn’t matter in this game because they all earned a right to be in the postseason.

According to McCarthy, QB Jordan Love has come up in the film study, has great command of the Packers’ offense, and is playing comfortably.

“It is early. We’re early into the preparation right now, but it’s really just getting in tune with the matchups,” said McCarthy.

The Cowboys will have a typical week of practice with their larger workloads on Wednesday and Thursday, as they prepare for their Wild Card matchup in Dallas on Sunday.

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