Jerry Jones: McCarthy safe regardless of wild-card game's outcome

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said head coach Mike McCarthy's job won't be in jeopardy, no matter the outcome of Monday's wild-card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"No. That's it," Jones said told 105.3 The Fan when asked Tuesday whether a loss to the Bucs could impact McCarthy's status. "I don't need to go into all the pluses or minuses, but I've got a lot more to evaluate Mike McCarthy on than this playoff game."

The Cowboys have seen key starters battling injuries throughout the season, but McCarthy still helped them post a 12-5 record. In doing so, he became the team's first head coach since 1994-95 to post consecutive 12-win campaigns. The 59-year-old, who's 30-20 as Cowboys coach, has two years left on his contract.

"I can't tell you how much confidence I've got in Mike and our coaching staff," Jones said, adding: "They've got every nuance. They understand every frailty that we might have or we might have shown Sunday night (in a 26-6 loss to the Washington Commanders). They've got everything in their grasp and in their understanding, and I have complete confidence in this coaching staff."

Dallas heads into the postseason under a lot of pressure due to its recent playoff history. The Cowboys, who lost at home to the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round last year, haven't advanced past the divisional round since the 1995 season.

Tom Brady has never lost to the Cowboys in seven all-time meetings, but Jones doesn't want to make Monday's matchup only about the legendary quarterback.

"When you really think about it, we're not playing Brady. ... We're playing Tampa Bay, the team," Jones said. "And it's conceivable that we could make Brady not play well and get our tails beat by the rest of the team. And I'm not trying to be cute. ... This Brady thing has got to be sensitive. I know it's there and I respect that - gives us a challenge to do something we haven't done before, and that's beat Tom Brady."

Tampa Bay topped Dallas 19-3 in the season opener in September. The Cowboys finished that game with Cooper Rush at quarterback after Dak Prescott went down with a thumb injury that sidelined him for five weeks.

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