For Dallas Cowboys fans, they should know the outcome now to the end of every season, yet they still believe that eventually, it will likely change. This wasn't the year for change after their throttling lopsided 48-32 NFC Wild Card playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday evening.

Now that it's been almost 24 hours since what Jerry Jones called, “the most painful playoff loss” to the Packers (per NFL on CBS), it's now the moment for reflection. And that might not be great for Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy.

Does Mike McCarthy deserve to be fired from the Cowboys?

McCarthy entered the 2023 season with much to prove, under plenty of scrutiny and rumored to be left on a short leash. Since coming to Dallas in 2020 in relief of Jason Garrett after nine seasons, there has been success for the 17-year head coach — just not Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys' success.

In his four years, the former Packers head coach is 67-42 (.627), with two of those capturing NFC East division titles (2021, 2023). Only one season resulted in a losing one for McCarthy, his first in 2020 when the Cowboys finished 6-10. Every year after has been 12-5. Most teams would relish in such seasons, knowing how difficult it is to accomplish a double-digit win season that resulted in three straight playoff appearances.

The problem is not the regular season for the Cowboys. Sure, they've had their down years like most teams throughout the league. The Cowboys' problem is the one that keeps Jerry Jones up at night, that being their continuous playoff woes, and one where McCarthy is now 1-3.

The Cowboys have years of playoff woes

After almost half a decade of domination in the early to mid-1990s where they won three Super Bowl titles in four years, the Cowboys are 5-13 in their 13 playoff appearances since, per Jeff Kolb of FOX4 in Dallas. Eight of those were one and done, like Sunday's loss to the Packers in the NFC Wild Card where they held the advantage of being at home in AT&T Stadium, a place they hadn't lost in 16 games prior.

Only four times have the Cowboys during this since 1995 advanced past the Wild Card round, but were then quickly upset in the division round, making it 13 straight that they have been kept from making the NFC Championship Game. For Jones, someone who casts a large shadow and demands a winner, he hasn't been as impetuous as his fellow owners across the league. His belief in Garrett lasted far longer than anyone would have expected. In fact, his criticism there was that he waited too long to fire the former coach.

But now Jones is at a crossroads, where, on paper, the players are there, the results are there, although just not the final results. If you're Jones, do you risk firing a proven winning coach like McCarthy and the system in which he's implemented, starting all over with a new coach? Or do you stick it out for at least one more season and hope that whatever curse that has been placed upon your team the last decade-plus has somehow been lifted?

Any other season, and it's likely McCarthy gets one more year to prove himself. However, not every season has Bill Belichick been available.

Is Bill Belichick the answer for Jerry Jones and the Cowboys?

Bill Belichick, Jerry Jones

For the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, the third-ranked winningest coach of all time is a free agent after he and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft mutually agreed to part ways. No doubt that Jones sees Belichick's resume and knows it well and has to be enticing the longtime owner of the storied franchise.

Really, the only question is, does Jones still believe that Belichick, at 71 years old, is still capable of creating anywhere near the amount of success that he had for 24 years in New England and bringing it to Dallas.

At this juncture for Jones and the Cowboys, and firing of McCarthy and replacing him with Belichick is a risk that is worth the hopeful award. Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL, but Belichick is the closest thing to that. Sure, his last few seasons post-Tom Brady were increasingly less desirable by the year, but at least Belichick could walk into a much more sustained, much more talented roster than he had in New England the past couple of seasons.

Dallas is one of the few teams a Belichick hiring just makes sense, if for nothing else just to see what the eventual results would be. The Cowboys are in desperate need to change the narrative. Belichick fits that bill. It would also be another attempt for the veteran head coach to prove himself on a Brady-less team. And if he could bring Dallas a Super Bowl, then he's a made man all over again, equal to Brady once again. Bill Belichick, Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys — that's cinema, right there.