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Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy: Offense 'still in Dak's language' despite play-calling change

Mike McCarthy insists the language will be the same for the Dallas Cowboys offense in 2023.

Dak Prescott notes that though the dialect might match, there's definitely a different sound to it.

Regardless of the phonics of it all, McCarthy believes things are headed in the right direction for the Cowboys and their offense.

"If you look at the history of our offense here, 2020 was really trying to figure out who we wanted to be," McCarthy said Thursday. "I think the evolution from '21 to '22 is really the direction we want to continue to build off of."

Brian Schottenheimer has taken the place of Kellen Moore as Dallas' offensive coordinator, but McCarthy is taking over the play-calling.

Though there are bound to be differences, McCarthy is speaking in a familiar tone.

"We're still in Dak's language," McCarthy said. "We're definitely building off it."

It definitely sounds different coming from the Pittsburgh native, according to his quarterback.

"It's different. You hear that accent a little bit more when he calls these plays," Prescott said, via the team website’s Kyle Youmans. "It's been fun, us being able to just work with him in that light. Every day hands on. It's exciting. It's refreshing. And I know he's enjoying it getting back into football, headfirst into the film, and just what we're doing so it's exciting."

Every season's pivotal in Big D, but the 2023 campaign will definitely shine a brighter light on the McCarthy and Prescott-led offense.

Entering his fourth season with the club, McCarthy is hoping to lead Dallas past the Divisional Round of the playoffs for the first time since the Cowboys' last Super Bowl win in the 1995 season. Along the way, he'll look to remedy an offense that was a top-five scoring unit in each of the last two years, but saw Prescott throw a league- and career-high 15 interceptions in 2022.

At this point in May, McCarthy and Prescott are getting to know each other in a different light, but there's no major overhaul.

"As far as the installation plays come, obviously, there's some adds, some things taken out," Prescott said. "I think you just get an overall feel that maybe the game's going to just be called a little different."

So far, regardless of how it all sounds, the McCarthy-Prescott 2023 version of the Cowboys is off to a solid start.

"It's not like we've thrown away our playbook and tried to start over or anything like that," Prescott said. "We've had some success. So, there is good there."

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