Mike McCarthy regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth.

And he would later try to walk them back.

But in the age of the internet and social media to go along with the platform as being coach of the Dallas Cowboys, there are no take backs or do overs.

His words will live on forever.

So here we are one year later revisiting the scene of the crime, because as we all know, if you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.

And as the Cowboys head into Monday’s wild-card playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the latter simply can’t happen.

It’s still mind-boggling that not only did it happen the first time, but that the Cowboys’ coach admitted it publicly.

In explaining the slow start in last January’s shocking 23-17 home loss to San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card playoffs, McCarthy said the Cowboys were nervous and he sensed it during the pregame prayer.

“I thought we were nervous to start the game. I felt it in the locker room at the team prayer,” McCarthy curiously admitted in the season-ending press conference the following day.

He tried to walk it back as angst.

“Let me take the word ‘nervous’ back,” he qualified. “It was a little angst. I think just like anything, they’re excited, they had a great week. I just think it was the first time we were doing this as a whole.”

Too late.

The damage was already done.

So fast forward a year as the Cowboys prepare to play their first playoff game since then.

The natural question heading into the Tampa Bay game is what has been done to ensure they won’t be nervous this time.

“I think like anything in life, experience is a good thing,” McCarthy said. “We know how to prepare to beat a team. We know how to go on the road and win. So we understand what’s in front of us.

“So I think just like anything, whether we had angst going into our first playoff game last year or not, we have that experience. And I think just like anything, we just got to make sure our information during the course of the week and what we’re pulling in, how we’re applying it, how we’re evaluating it, cleaning it up – because at the end of the day it’s all about giving those players what they need to win the game on Monday night.”

Much of that falls to McCarthy.

It’s his job to get his team ready and prepared so they wont be nervous heading to a game.

And if he senses it, he damn sure can’t let his team walk out of the locker room without addressing it.

The contrast between the Cowboys and 49ers before the game last year was stark.

San Francisco walked on the field with swag, led by a player holding a boom box and the rest of the team bopping their head to the beat.

The sheepish Cowboys walked out on eggshells, at home no less.

It’s little wonder they gave up a touchdown on the opening drive and fell behind 13-0, which proved too much for them to overcome when the clock ran out on their potential comeback.

McCarthy pointed out that one way to give yourself a better chance for playoff success is to repeatedly get there, which allows you to be more comfortable and confident.

The Cowboys followed last season’s 12-5 mark with an identical record in 2022. It’s the first time they have back-to-back 12 win-seasons since 1992-95, when they won three Super Bowl titles in four years, and the first time they have made consecutive trips to playoffs under the same coach with the same schemes and systems on both sides of the ball since 1998-99.

Give McCarthy credit for getting his team back.

This is a different task.

The Cowboys haven’t won a road playoff game since 1992 and they have never beaten Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, who is 7-0 against Dallas, including a 5-0 record in New England and 2-0 the past three seasons in Tampa.

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