Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and tight end Dalton Schultz. Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy says penalties 'the biggest negative' from preseason opener

By Mike Santa Barbara | Last updated 8/14/22

The Dallas Cowboys were the most penalized team in the NFL last season, flagged a remarkable 153 times.

It's safe to say, heading into the 2022 campaign, that cutting down on penalties would be a focal point for the Cowboys.

However, after Saturday's preseason opener, Dallas still has a lot of work to do. The Cowboys were penalized 17 times during Saturday's 17-7 loss to the Denver Broncos.

"The penalties are clearly way too much," McCarthy told The Athletic's Jon Machota after the game. "We'll look at those and keep going through it as far as combative versus disciplined. That's clearly the biggest negative (from the game)."

An angry Mike McCarthy during the CBS 11 halftime interview. Cowboys had 9 penalties for 65 yards in the first half.

“It’s not good enough football.” pic.twitter.com/g1GmPCkYaX
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) August 14, 2022

While claiming to want to address the issues, McCarthy also downplayed things, saying, "this is preseason," and he doesn't think the problems now are related to last year.

"I don't think this has anything to do with last year," McCarthy said via Rob Phillips of the Cowboys team site. "But I didn't like the number of penalties. I made it clear. I talked about it at halftime and I talked about it briefly in [the locker room]. We'll take a long look at it."

The Cowboys will get another opportunity to curb their penalty habit when they take on the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

More must-reads: