It would be really easy — and a cop-out — to call Mike McCarthy one of the top coaches in the NFL. He’s got a Super Bowl ring, a stellar regular season record (168-104-2) and 12 playoff appearances. He’s coached for two franchises with epic histories and big expectations, the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys.

And yet … there’s something about this guy. He had Brett Favre at QB for two years and then Aaron Rodgers for 15 — two of the greatest talents ever at the position —and only got to one Super Bowl.

McCarthy has had Jerry Jones’ massive bank account to play with at Dallas for five years and is 1-3 in the playoffs. He has had huge regular season win totals: 15, 13, 12 (four times) and 11 (twice). He’s only missed the playoffs five times in his 18 years as a head coach.

But, for whatever reason, McCarthy’s teams can’t beat the top teams and also implode in the postseason — in a variety of stomach-churning ways. And it’s getting worse. After three straight 12-win regular seasons, the Cowboys have looked terrible:

• A 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the 2024 wild-card round
• A 44-19 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 2 this season
• A 28-25 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3 this season (and it was 28-6 at one point

Last season, the Cowboys were destroyed by the two best teams they played — 42-10 to the 49ers and 31-10 to the Buffalo Bills. That was before their dismantling by Jordan Love and the Packers, who at one point had a 48-16 lead in the playoff game.

The Cowboys are a farce, phonies, frauds. Prescott piles up big stats in the regular season and then plays like a rookie in the playoffs. Star pass rusher Micah Parsons talks really big about how great his team is even though they don’t back it up. Big Boss Jerry loves to hold court with an enraptured media about his thoughts, even though he’s going on three decades without a title.

But let’s get back to McCarthy, whose weaknesses are glaring in the playoffs. Unlike his franchise predecessors from ages ago, Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, McCarthy’s teams always seem woefully ill-prepared in the postseason. They’ve blown leads, committed massive blunders and all too often left their fan bases stunned by early playoff exits.

It’s actually astounding when you look back the sad litany of McCarthy, who coached the Packers from 2006 to 2018 and the Cowboys from 2020 to now:

2024: In the worst playoff loss at home in Cowboys history, Dallas let the Packers take a 26-0 lead in the first half in an eventual 48-32 win (and don’t be fooled by the 16-point margin — at one point it was 48-16). Dan Quinn, the Dallas defensive coordinator, let Love rack up a ridiculous 157 passer rating.

2016: On the first play of overtime in a divisional round game against the Cardinals, the Packers left Larry Fitzgerald uncovered. Fitz took Carson Palmer pass 75 yards. Fitzgerald then scored on the next play on a 5-yard shovel pass.

2015: The Packers led the defending NFL champion Seahawks 16-0 in the first half and 19-7 with less than five minutes left in the game. The Packers then surrendered a Russell Wilson-engineered TD drive, fumbled the ensuing onside kick, then gave up a 24-yard TD run to Marshawn Lynch. A Wilson TD pass in overtime ended it.

2014: Despite having a home field advantage in a wild-card game in one of the coldest games in NFL history, the Packers let 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick run for first downs twice on third downs in the fourth quarter and throw a go-ahead TD pass. The Packers also failed to hold onto what would have been game-saving interceptions late in the game.

2013: Knowing the 49ers had a dual threat in Kaepernick, supposed DC genius Dom Capers still managed to let CK7 bust off TD runs of 56 and 20 yards and run for a QB-record of 181 yards. Green Bay seemed as well-prepared for Kaepernick as a bad high school team.

2012: Green Bay racked up a franchise-record 15 wins en route to gaining the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, then proceeded to give up 37 points to the New York Giants in the divisional round and lose. The Giants’ 37 points were tied for the most they had scored all season.

2010: The Packers gave up 51 points and 531 yards of offense in a 51-45 overtime loss to the Cardinals. It was 10 points more than the Cardinals had scored in a game all season.

There you have it, a collection of failed opportunities by McCarthy and his teams for nearly two decades. For whatever reasons, his teams seem to wilt in the playoffs. They can’t hold leads, make boneheaded plays and often play terrible defense. If it were just a few times, it might be excusable. But poor execution has happened over and over again by McCarthy teams, and he’s 11-11 in the playoffs despite having three of the most prolific QBs in history — Favre, Rodgers, Prescott.

One thing is certain: no matter how badly this season ends for McCarthy, Jones will open up his wallet and give another five years to a guy who hasn’t and won’t deliver that elusive sixth NFL title for Dallas. Jones never seems to know how to cut the cord with guys who don’t get it done (hello, Prescott and Jason Garrett) before too many years go by.