Jerry Jones again makes interesting Mike McCarthy comments after win

The Dallas Cowboys were officially eliminated from the playoffs before their "Sunday Night Football" game against what was an 8-6 Tampa Bay Buccaneers team looking to remain atop the NFC South standings. Dallas notched an upset 26-24 win over Tampa Bay to improve to 7-8 on the season. 

Following the victory, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones spoke highly of head coach Mike McCarthy amid uncertainty regarding McCarthy's future. 

"Mike McCarthy, he just won’t let them not think they’re playing for the Super Bowl out there. He won’t let them do it," Jones said, as shared by Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. "Proud of that. Proud of the coach." 

McCarthy is in the final year of his contract but has routinely received praise from Jones as the injury-plagued Cowboys fought to remain in the postseason race through the start of Sunday's NFL action. Under McCarthy, the Cowboys made the playoffs each season from 2021-23. However, the club notched only one postseason win over that period. 

Per Michael Dixon of Awful Announcing, NBC's Cris Collinsworth said while calling the "SNF" game between Dallas and Tampa Bay that he was told leading up to the contest that Jones "is a lot more loyal to his people than people outside the organization may think." Collinsworth added that Jones wouldn't want the Cowboys to "just roll over here at the end of the year." 

Dallas certainly hasn't done that since the start of Week 12. 

"Mike’s an outstanding coach," Jones continued. "I’m proud that they got rewarded and the team is playing at that level because he’s got them coached up to play at that level even though you realize that when you’re not in those playoffs, you can’t get to the big one. But he’s got this team [playing hard]. That’s as good of an emotional performance, an effort performance that I’ve seen us have. I don’t know what to compare it to."

It's worth noting that Jones stopped short of making any guarantees about McCarthy's status on Sunday night. While analysts and reporters have repeatedly mentioned that McCarthy can become a free-agent coach after Week 18, the fact that Jones seemingly made no attempt to keep Bill Belichick from accepting the North Carolina Tar Heels job could say plenty about who will lead the Cowboys into the offseason. 

For now, McCarthy will try to focus on getting his club ready to play at the 12-3 Philadelphia Eagles this coming Sunday. As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Cowboys as seven-point underdogs for that matchup.