Jerry Jones: It's 'an injustice' to not credit Mike McCarthy for Cowboys' 3-1 start

The Dallas Cowboys have won three consecutive games despite the fact that starting quarterback Dak Prescott has been out after suffering a thumb injury in Week 1. Backup Cooper Rush has performed better than admirably in guiding the Cowboys to a 3-1 overall record, and ESPN stats show that a Dallas defense led by star linebacker Micah Parsons will begin Week 5 allowing the third-fewest points per game in the NFL at 15.5. 

Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones recently singled one man out in particular for his team's successes over the past several weeks: Head coach Mike McCarthy.

"I don’t know how you could say enough about how he’s handled this team initially starting out," Jones said of McCarthy, according to Todd Archer of ESPN. "It’s like [a] picture to me. A boxer, a fighter, walking out and just getting hit with the best shot you absolutely could right on the chin. First step out. How do you get that all back together? Give him his due. He has managed to right the ship, steady it, and then progressively get this team in shape to play without Dak.

"That’s a teamwide thing. I think it would be an injustice not to give him the kind of credit as head coach for getting this thing right and getting it to this point. What’s happened over the last three weeks with the makeup of our team, and I think our personnel and potential with the makeup of this team, these three games got us back in the hunt."

What's interesting about Jones' words is that his Cowboys have routinely been linked with former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton since Payton stepped away from the Saints this past winter. While Payton spent three years working for the Cowboys in the 2000s and has let it be known he wants to eventually coach again, Jones has repeatedly poured cold water over the notion that he already had McCarthy on a figurative hot seat before the start of the ongoing campaign. 

Rush is on track to start for the Cowboys this Sunday at the 2-2 Los Angeles Rams before Dallas plays at the currently-unbeaten Philadelphia Eagles in a "Sunday Night Football" clash on Oct. 16. If the Cowboys are 5-1 after that Eagles matchup, McCarthy will unquestionably be a Coach of the Year candidate who likely will have earned some additional job security.