When the Dallas Cowboys were thoroughly beaten and humiliated by the Green Bay Packers at home in their Wild Card playoff game, many expected head coach Mike McCarthy to pay the price for having his team play so poorly in such an important game. Former Cowboys superstar Emmitt Smith was among those who thought owner Jerry Jones would dismiss the head coach.

Smith thought that an established head coach like Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos would be a good choice for the Cowboys, as would Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions.

“I mean initially I thought it was going to be Sean Payton, initially I would’ve thought it’d be Sean Payton, but at this point I don’t know. I really don’t know, outside of going to steal Dan Campbell from the Detroit Lions because I think his message is the right message that a lot of people are missing and a lot of kids are missing.”

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The Cowboys won the NFC East title this season with a 12-5 record and the team had been dominant at AT&T Stadium, recording an 8-0 record during the regular season. Six of those wins were by 20 points or more and they were 7-point favorites with nation-wide sports bettors over the the 7th-seeded Packers.

However, Green Bay was surging at the time and Packers quarterback Jordan Love simply took apart the vaunted Dallas defense with his pinpoint passing. The Packers earned a 48-32 victory, and the only reason the Cowboys were within 16 points was due to a late rally.

The Cowboys had expected to at least advance to the NFC Championship Game, so the result was a huge disappointment to former players like Emmitt Smith.