The Dallas Cowboys sit at 3-3 ahead of a tough trip to Levi's Stadium to face the San Francisco 49ers, but Mike McCarthy doesn't think the outcome, either way, will define the season.
The Dallas Cowboys season already feels like it is hanging by a thread ahead of a crucial matchup against the San Francisco 49ers.
While that might seem odd, Dallas' 3-3 record feels a little misleading, given how poorly the team has played overall, but you are what your record says you are.
With a host of injuries and poor play on both sides of the ball, the 49ers' clash in Week 8 could go either way for the Cowboys.
Win, and the season is alive again. But lose, and in brutal fashion, and the year could feel nearly over.
But head coach Mike McCarthy doesn't think the 49ers clash will define his team's season one way or another.
“I don't agree with the thought process, this is an opportunity to get to four wins,” McCarthy said. “That's really where we're at, I think it's too early to even think like that. I think that's really the beauty of the National Football League, the intensity of the week to week in the pendulum that swings so hard one way or the other.
"We can't operate like that, I don't operate like that. We are about self-improvement, we understand who we playing, where we're playing, that is secondary to what we're about."
The 49ers have had Dallas' number over the years, and Levi's Stadium was the setting for last year's 42-10 beatdown that was the catalyst for change during the bye week.
Now, with the Cowboys having a chance to rectify things before the 49ers game, and things need to be different on both sides of the ball after what we've seen from the first six weeks.
But the shadow of San Francisco looms large, yet McCarthy - who is on his lame-duck contract, which puts him in the hot seat at least as it regards his 2025 future - insists his team focus on what they can control instead of what they can't.
"We need to do things that we can control first because none of these other things are going to help us win. If anything it's going to take energy away from what we should be focused on,'' he said.
Given what is at stake in this lame-duck season, the Cowboys must show something positive and get this troubled train back on the tracks.
McCarthy might not think it's a season-defining game, but it certainly feels like one.
