September 5, 2025 • 33 mins
Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Nick Shook to recap the Eagles and Cowboys opening the 2025 NFL season on Thursday Night Football. Gregg and Shook react to the play from Dak Prescott and the Cowboys offense (00:30), followed by a deep dive into Jalen Carter's disqualification and 'Spitgate' (06:10), and chats about the Eagles offense (09:00), and Jihaad Campbell (17:18). After the break, some quick news including Amari Cooper retiring (26:00) and Christian McCaffrey's status going into Week 1 (29:50).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The ball up the fully fun Prescott barns the ball
motion to the nurse side.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Bom taking the plicks. No, he's coming back, goes Prescott.
He's going deep down the fourth side of the field,
and it's too complete and tend looked for Lamb, who
dove for the fuck goal.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And he could not hold on.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
How get crushed to the curb techover down.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
A weird highlight for a weird game. Twenty four to twenty.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
The Eagles kick off the season the same way they
ended last season with.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The victory, but man, it looked different. It looked weird.
We had an ejection before a play from scrimmage.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
We had a Dak Prescott touchdown saving tackle. We had
more Jalen Hurt scrambled touchdowns than we had all of
last season. And yes, we had an hour and four
minute lightning delay which turned one the best offensive games
you would ever want to see to a complete offensive
no show. And it ends with a CD Lamb drop
his fourth of the game, and the Eagles escape a
(01:11):
strange opening night that we will not forget. I will
not forget the start of this season because I'm doing
it with Nick Schuck. We're going to be doing it
on all the primetime games all season.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Welcome Nick. What stands out to you out of this game?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It's an often used phrase, Oh, it was a tail
of two halves. Well, it was a tail of two
and a half quarters and then a quarter and a
half sandwiched around an hour long weather delay. Talk about
completely different games. I mean an offensive display from both teams.
Punters got the whole first half off, they come out
of the break and it just dies and it just
(01:48):
becomes not so much a defensive game but just a
battle of attrition that the Eagles ultimately win. And there's
really a lot to unpack from this game. I know
we're going to get into all of it because there
are many les to this game and a great example
of how Week one doesn't tell the story of a
whole season for a team, but it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Can give us some peaks into what it might look like.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So I love that you said it that way because
to me, this was a window into what I think
is going to be a different sort of Eagle season.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And we even talked about it in the preseason.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think if you look at the defensive talent overall,
I think they're going to take a step back, and
they're going to need their offense to make up for it.
And what we didn't expect tonight was that the Cowboys
offense would be totally up for the challenge to go
toe to toe with that Eagles offense. There was zero punts,
as you mentioned, there was zero stops for the first
(02:39):
two quarters and ten minutes, and then the biggest play
of the game ultimately was a fumbles by Miles Sanders
when the Cowboys are in the red zone and that
set up the Dak tackle that saved a touchdown. That
was the very last play before the lightning delay. At
that point, we had had eight straight drive with a score,
(03:01):
then that fumble. Afterwards we had five straight punts and
then the turnover on downs that you heard the CDE
Lamb drop end, and so you know, they were two
completely different games. But I was really struck by how
well Dak Prescott and the Cowboys offense moved the ball
(03:22):
in that first section. And I do think it's okay
for us to divide up the sections a little bit,
and I'll start there. And I noticed by the end
of the game shook like the Eagles kept their defensive
linemen on the field that you just wouldn't expect the
entire game. So it was a Jomo the defensive tackle,
like playing more snaps than he's ever played, Nolan Smith
(03:42):
not leaving the field at all, Jordan Davis who didn't
really have a great night, not leaving the field at all,
Jlyx Hunt, who's going to be a big time player
for this year, like leaving the field occasionally and having
a nice night.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it's these.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Guys being asked to really step up in ways that
they hadn't before. And then the second cornerback spot, which
we talked about all off season, A Dori Jackson just
getting flamed over and over and over. And I know
it sounds like we're starting negative on this Eagles defense,
but as much as I want to, you know, criticize
them for struggling early, they got the stops late with
a little fortune. And I want to give the Cowboys
(04:17):
credit on offense too, that they were making that Eagles
defense look bad.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see I have
this notepad here. One of my first notes is A
Dori Jackson is getting absolutely cooked by the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And it didn't matter who they were targeting.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
I mean early in this game, I was just thinking,
oh God, like may this was kind of a unique
situation because Jalen Carter excuses himself from the game by
spitting it Dak Prescott, you know, before the first play
from scrimmage. But that changes the entire complexity of the
game because then they don't they can't get that interior
pass rush. They have to lean more on the secondary,
(04:51):
and it immediately exposes how the losses that they had
in their secondary could be a weakness for them.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And then it kind of unfolds from there.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Two things I really took away from the first half
where I see the vision with Brian Schottenheimer's offense. This
Cowboys offense is better than I expected it to be.
Even Javonte Williams was better than I expected him to be.
And also this may they may just have to be
this team all year because I'm not sure that this
defense is going to hold up against some of the
better offensive teams. I think it was Dave Hellman from
(05:20):
The Athletic tweeted, they're essentially the Cincinnati Bengals with a
star and their helmet, Like that's what they're gonna be.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's like a good that's a good case scenario for them.
I would feel good about that Cowboys over eight wins
that I went head to head with with Nick Wright.
That was before the Parson's trade, But I'm standing by it,
and I still feel okay, because, yeah, if you have
a quarterback that is as advanced mentally as Dak Prescott,
and he saw a lot of what was coming in
(05:48):
this game and made the right decisions and was not
afraid to make difficult throws. And the Lamb drops really
killed multiple drives. I mean two second half after the
lightning delay, drives basically were ended by dimes by Dak
Prescott that Cede Lamb dropped, and I was really impressed
(06:09):
with him on this night. And you mentioned the Jalen
Carter ejection and I alluded to it right off the
top that that happens before there's a play, and Eagles
fans will, I think, hold on to that for the
next ten days before their Week two game, and they'll
they'll think, Okay, they like, that's the reason everything went haywire,
and it is a big reason. He is the most
(06:30):
important player in this game in this side of the
ball for the Eagles. And so let's start a little
bit with Spitgate. He spits like he spits in Dak
Prescott's face, gets tossed after the kickoff, where unfortunately the
Eagles lose a good special teamer, Ben Van sumerin to
(06:50):
what looked like a serious injury. He's getting carded. The
two sides are kind of joying back and forth at
the time he gets ejected. We did not know that
there was a first spider and that first spidder was
Dak Prescott. Good job by the NBC crew unveiling the
tape after we came back from the lightning delay, Like
it was kind of dramatic and showing that actually, you know,
(07:13):
they were jawing at each other. Jalen Carter was over
the line of scrimmage and was all by himself kind
of near the Cowboys offensive line and Dak, and the
cameras caught Dak just kind of spitting into the ground,
but he did step forward, was kind of looking at
Jalen Carter spitting into the ground. And to be fair,
he's like five feet away from Jalen Carter at this time,
(07:34):
but he spits into the ground. He's talking to Jalen Carter.
We don't know what he's he said at this time,
and he's got a big grit on his face. And
then Carter walks right up to him, gets face to
face and spits on the man, which you just can't do.
You gotta have to have a code. I don't think
the ejection was out of bounds. I think there's an
absolute chance that Jalen Carter gets suspended and that back
(07:55):
and forth, and maybe it was Dak Prescott, you know,
breaking out his inner Chauncey guard Johnson being kind of
a starter there.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, you knows their as it were.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Sorry, Eric, to give you more work to edit on
what's going to be a long night. But he gets
Jalen Carter, their best player out of the game, and
they never really seemed to recover.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Defensively, well, it's like they highlighted immediately on the broadcast.
This changes the Cowboys entire game plan because now they
can attack the middle of the Eagles front and Brian
Schottenheimer called a lot of runs in the A gap.
He was targeting the interior that defensive line on the
ground plenty often in that first drive, and it kept
that offense really balanced and allowed them to move the
football pretty much at will throughout the first half. But
(08:38):
I also wonder if we never hit that weather delay,
would we have ever gotten this footage? Would it be
treated like the Zapruder film? And how does this factor
into how the league, you know, suspends Jalen Carter. Additionally,
I'm curious to see how that unfolds.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's a great point took, because if the flow of
the game, I don't think we get that they had
time to go back and look at it. Even then,
it was after they spent like forty five minutes talking about,
you know, how Michael Jordan's you know, impacted Jalen Hurts's life.
I mean, you know, Chris Collinsworth in Tarrico and the
entire NBC crew was, you know, earning their money, just
(09:14):
spinning their wheels. Meanwhile, I'm over watching a great Naomio
O Soka match. I mean, that's what the real ball
knowers were doing at that point. I mean, at that point,
what's there to do? The football game's not happening. Okay,
we talk about how great the Cowboys offense started, and
I thought it was a bad sign though it shook
that they started the game touchdown, touchdown, field goal and
(09:34):
then another field goal on like a forty five second
end of the half, good drive by Dak Prescott to
get some points before the drop the end of the half.
And yet despite how perfect that half was, it was
a ninety nine percentile success rate half. According to Shil
Capatia over at the Ringer, they were actually trailing at halftime,
so they had more possessions. They had a perfect offensive
(09:54):
half essentially, and they were trailing at half tom and
that felt like a bad sign for the Cowboys defense.
You got to give Hurts and this offense and Saquon
Barkley and even Johan Dotson some credit for how the
Eagles offense answered every score that the Cowboys offense had
in the first half of this game.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, I mean, if you look at I mean, Dotson
had a great catch late in the first half as well.
But I also think that it's going to fuel the narrative.
And I think this narrative would have been even stronger
in the days to come if the second half followed
the course of the first half, which it would have been.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The Cowboys trade.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Away their best defensive player and then they can't stop
a nose bleed against their rivals on the opening kickoff
night and then because of ground to a halt, people
kind of forgot about that. But I think it also
kind of highlighted the difference in these teams, the difference
in how the Cowboys strengths are basically how they have
to move the football, they have to basically aired out
the entire game, and I think it gave Dak Press
(10:50):
got a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Granted it was two different halves.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
You can't blame this one on Dak like he played
a great game, especially in the second half. It's it's
gonna be interesting to see how they're perceived after just
one game.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Okay, I mean perceptions for whatever. I don't care about
the perception that these two teams could not have been
more even to me throughout the entire game. I mean,
did the Eagles won, good job by them the second
that that fumble happened. That was the biggest play of
the game. But when we broke for the lightning delay,
which again went an hour and four minutes, that the
(11:26):
stats were almost entirely even in every respect, yardage, yards
per play, basically everything. And I give the Cowboys credit
actually for staying balanced on offense, even though Dak Prescott
was getting the big plays and even got a big
pass interference to George Pickens that was called on Quinjon Mitchell,
who stayed on Pickens early in the game, eventually went
(11:46):
over to Ceedee Lamb a little bit, but for the
most part it was it was, you know, burnt toast
with the Dorri Jackson going up against CD Lamb. But
the Eagles offense, like I mentioned, they were just methodical
and Hurts was scrambling so much he ends up as
the leading rusher in this game. Shook with sixty two
yards on the ground two touchdowns. He did not have
(12:07):
a scrambled touchdown all of last year. I think you
have to go back to like October of twenty twenty
three to find a scramble touchdown fro him. And so
whenever he couldn't find his first read, he was taking
off with his legs and it was working. And ultimately
I mentioned that ninety nine percentile success rate that the
Cowboys had in terms of comparing it to other NFL
(12:30):
teams and offenses before the lightning.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Delay, the Eagles had that too.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
They would have basically had two of the best games
any offenses have had all of last season. Through that
point in the game, they were essentially pitching a shutout.
And so even though Hurts wasn't getting to the outside,
wasn't getting to aj Brown, who didn't have a target
until late. They can just beat you so many different
types of ways, and ultimately they do deserve a little
bit of credit for scoring all those points and then
(12:56):
finally at the very end of the game getting a
first down that sealed it.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yeah, it's a bad time for me to rank Jalen
Hurts outside of the top ten in the QB Index.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So I know Eagles fans are going to come for you.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Because he carried this offense, especially in the first half.
Every play that they made moving the ball down the field,
whether it was through the air or with his legs,
it was all centered on Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And you're right.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
It's it's a great example of how I don't even
care if you win the Super Bowl, how no two
teams are the same from year to year, because this
was not their identity last year and in fact, in
the fourth quarter, I'm just waiting for Saquon to be
the same closer that he was last year. And he
had some nice plays and everything, but it wasn't him
the third down, fourth down, you got to get a
first down. You're out of touch, push range, you line
(13:37):
up five wide and Jalen Hurst takes off for a
scramble for a first down.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
That was their most successful play was and I know
that that was on the docket.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Yes, And I have to give a lot of credit
to new oc Kevin Patulo because there was a period
in this game where after the delay. I don't know
what happened to Matti Eerflus, if he went in the
locker room and just got really pissed off or something,
but he came out with pure aggression in his play
calling on that first series blitz is on second and
third down, stacks the box with eight on first down,
basically saying you're not finishing us with Saquon, We're not
letting you get out from deep in your own territory.
(14:06):
We are going to fight all the way to the end.
And for a sequence there, Patilla didn't really have an
answer for that blitz, but when it came down to
crunch time, he turned to his best player on offense,
who wears number one, who is the quarterback, and asked
him to go get the win and he did, and
that is a huge feather in the cap of the
Eagles offense as they evolved from year to year, and
it makes them that much more dangerous because we know
(14:26):
how talented they are. They also had to deal with
an injury land in Dickerson by the way, it left
guard Toath comes in to replace him. They largely don't
miss abeat except for when they were dealing with some pressures.
It's an example of resilience with this Eagles team. They've
been there, they've done that. They know how to win
these close games, and they did it tonight.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah, Dickerson's back injury is something to watch. He looked
like he was struggling with it before the lightning break
and then afterwards he was not able to continue. And yeah,
when they came back from the break, they got four
more drives and they went three and out. They had
an eleven play drive where they got three first downs
but all to had to punt, and then they went
three and out again, so they weren't able to close
(15:05):
the game. You're right, it's absolutely different. And I was
about to, you know, send one of those tweets out,
and I'm glad I didn't, thinking like this is zooming
towards you know, worst defensive performance of the Vic Fangio era.
And that's how it was trending for a while. When
the Cowboys were in the red zone, that was about
when I was about to send it, and then it
did flip. But by the numbers, that actually was the
(15:27):
worst half of football defensively that they had, you know,
compared to all of last year under Vic Fangio. And
then you know, they got it together, got more pressure
on Dak Prescott and I'm glad you mentioned the eber
Flues changing his strategy because ultimately, I don't think this
Cowboys defense is talented enough upfront. I you know, I've
been talking about their depth edge. It didn't really show
(15:48):
up tonight. Eziraku was quiet. I thought Marshaw Neilon plays
really hard and made a bunch of plays. Dante Fowler
had like one good pressure but ultimately Sam Williams was
kind all over the place that they're not great overall.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Up front. O'diggy zoo.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
It was okay, but after the break they had not
blitzed at all before it shook, and they blitzed six
times after it, and the pressure rate for both quarterbacks
went from very low before the break to a sky
high afterwards. So it really was two different games. But
maybe it's a lesson for the Cowboys that, look, they're
going to have to scheme up some pressure.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
They're going to have to be creative.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
And there were positives to take from this game, including
that Trevon Diggs played a lot of this game, not
every snap by any means. He was a part time
rotational player, but that was a plus that he got
to get out there and play.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
He was healthy enough to be used on one of
those blitzes in that first series.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
After the delay. I want to keep saying after halftime,
but it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
At the fifth time, it is after the delay though.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I know, it's like it's a very strange game to
talk about and to analyze because it was completely two
different games.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I know Eric, you know, is back there.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
He said he's up watching it, and I feel that
it's like all of America's having a great time, then
this happened, and then the vibes are just weird and off,
and the game is off afterwards.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It just one of those things.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, I want to spotlight a couple of guys because
obviously the news last week with Michael Parsons being traded,
Kenny Clark comes to Dallas in that deal. Had a
couple of moments. What I really noticed after the delay
was the Cowboys started to win up front. Now obviously
not enough to win the game, but they did start
to get a little bit of a surge.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Clark was in on one of those.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
With Nieland for that sack of Jalen Hurts, and I
was like, oh, there is okay there.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
He makes a play there.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And on the other side of the ball or the
other sideline, Jihad Campbell, who is my defensive Rookie of
the Year pick, by the way, great game, flashed, made
key plays, forced a fumble. He forced that Miles Sanders
fumble that turned the game in the more toward the
Eagles favor. Continue to keep an eye on him. He's
going to be a big part of this defense, especially
if they aren't quite as strong upfront as they were
(17:48):
last year, and if they have issues in the secondary,
they're gonna have to lean in those linebackers more.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And he's a really nice compliment to Zach Bond.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I can't believe it took us almost twenty minutes to
get the Jihat Campbell. I mean I got fifteen texts
from our friend Jordan rod Riegabat just kidding.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I mean it was like two.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
But we're excited about Campbell and him running down the
post in the middle of the field in coverage and
he got beat on one of the plays where it
ended up being a penalty, not on him, but that
Dak Prescott was trying to get a touchdown. But he
made an incredible play in coverage on another. And the
thing that really struck me was he didn't leave the field.
(18:24):
Dak Bond played literally every single snap of the game,
but John Campbell played fifty one out of fifty six
snap So that is what every team is looking for,
to have two linebackers that they can actually keep on
the field that can make a difference as pass rushers
in run defense. And they both made plays in coverage tonight,
Like that is some special stuff. And I think we're
(18:46):
going to look back and wonder how did Campbell and
Josh Simmons slipped to thirty one and thirty two, the
two guys the two teams that made the Super Bowl
last year. And I like that Defensive Rookie of the
Year pick by you, I'm gonna hear, and we'll see
about Abdol Carter.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
There'll be other guys.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
But man, what a strong first statement by your boy
to hide Campbell tonight.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Also a peek into the Eagles maybe not being as
deep defensively as they were in previous years because of attrition,
because guys leaving free agency with these rotations are lack
thereof Like a ton of guys played a ton of snaps,
as we've already talked about, and I think I worry
about their depth over the course of a season, like
Sidney Brown gets a little dinged dath to night and
Andrew mccuba has to come in and replace him. I
worry about their depth at the second and third level.
(19:27):
But that's I mean, that's football, and they'll figure out
ways to do it. But it was interesting that they
did not rotate a lot of guys tonight.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
All right, let's take a quick break. We're gonna come back.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
We will wrap up our thoughts on the Cowboys and Eagles,
will have a couple quick, surprising but important items of news,
and then we'll send you on your way. We're here
late at Chris Westling's podcast Dude on NFL Daily Philadelphia
(20:03):
Eagles want to zero on the season. Dangerous, you know
situation for the Cowboys because I think they'll take a
moral victory tonight.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I think their fans are.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Gonna feel better, They're actually gonna get like.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
A lot of pats on the back.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I'm always wary of a moral victory, especially in week one,
like it doesn't really do you that much good. But
we did see some positives and one of those positives
I think you mentioned it earlier, was Brian Schottenheimer's play calling,
and I think the organization in general on offense, they
look cohesive, They looked intelligent, they looked aggressive. One of
(20:37):
my favorite play calls was on a third and short,
Dak Prescott deep to cdee Lamb.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Third down and one to go. Prescott under center, two
tight ends, gets the snap, picks the HANDLEFF fuck's back
seven plus us on long spiral nearside. Caught at the
five down to the Premis sideline is cde Lamb. It's
first in gold Dallas out of buns near the two
of Philadela on a thirty or beautiful strike first and
gold Dallas.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Dak Prescott's PFF grade is going to be so high
in this game, so so many dimes, and he had
so many moments where he just subtly stepped up in
the pocket and that was one of them. He was
just giving me Peyton Manning vibes tonight, just because no
one was more accurate than Peyton Manning. And even if
he didn't have the biggest arm in the world, Deck
has a good arm. But on those deep passes, it's
(21:24):
just like they'd get there in the perfect amount of time.
Sometimes it'd be a little bit of a hospital ball
and you might get a penalty. That happened tonight too,
but he was really reminding me of that. But I
really wanted to point that play out, not only to
get Kevin Harlan in the show. Love that guy so
happy that he's, you know, in my mind, part of
the show for the twenty twenty five season after joining
us in the offseason.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I just like the play call.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That was one of many calls shook tonight where they
had a short yardage situation and they went deep. So
they didn't go too crazy pass heavy, but they used motion,
they had the condensed formations. I thought they attacked the
Eagles in a very intelligent way.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah, A certain level of organization and execution that I
don't think we've seen from the Cowboys in recent years,
even you know, with Mike McCarthy calling plays and everything else.
They just they were very sharp in what they wanted
to execute. I think that starts in the offensive line.
Of course, I'm gonna highlight Tyler Booker. I'm going to
highlight the rest of you was good to have up front.
But he was good in his first game in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
He was good.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
This is a very strong unit across the board, and
so it starts there. You have protection, you're able to
feel as if you can take those risks. I think
on that play specifically, I was like, oh, no, why.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Are you throwing?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Because I'm conditioned to think of the Cowboys in the past,
not of this Brian Schottenheimer Cowboys where they they are
in a motion at tight end and then run like
an inverted split zone and that's going to pick up
yards up the middle. Now, granted, of course Carter wasn't
in the game, so they felt like they could take
advantage of that. But the diversity and the balance of
this offense I think is going to propel this team,
especially if we worry about their defense. Basically, what I'm
(22:52):
saying is the Cowboys are gonna put a lot of
points this year. They're gonna be fun to watch. I
just don't know how many games they're gonna win.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, I think if you're a Cowboys fan and don't
don't think Nick you you know, slipped Bay that inverted
you know, split zone by me without noticing, I'm getting like, oh,
this is some real football talk. Oh yeah, late at night.
It's like one in the morning on the East Coast
where you are. Cowboys fans have to be excited about
the running game in this because there were questions. Jayden Blue,
their rookie, was actually inactive for the game, I think
(23:20):
a healthy scratch, and yet they had a sixty two
percent design run success rate tonight, which is astronomically high.
It's it's incredible, you know, that would be, you know,
be an all time record like that. The Eagles were
at forty six percent, which is which is very good.
But the Cowboys actually ran it on a consistent basis
better than the Eagles tonight. And that was Javonte Williams,
(23:44):
and they weren't big plays. It was Miles Sanders who
did have the one big play, but also the fumble.
He had a forty nine yard run in the fumble,
but they got Cavante Turpin involved. He had four touches
in this game, and so it was kind of moved
the move the chains type of football. And I've been
talking all off season that the offensive line has a
higher ceiling than people think if they come together. It's
(24:06):
a bunch of young players, most of whom were drafted
very early, playing together, and I think they have to
feel good before we move on from this game. Is
there anything on the eagle side that you want to hit?
You know, I do want to give Jordan Mylotta and
Lane Johnson some credit for just like looking for the
two most like the two most dominant guys in this game.
(24:29):
So I don't want to totally look past them. And
if you're an aj Brown fantasy owner, a DeVante Smith
fantasy owner who combined for twenty four yards, I wouldn't panic.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It was a weird game. And I don't think this
is going to continue.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
No, No, I mean week one is we think that
it can you know, give us, like like we said
at the start of the show, a window into how
a team might look, but also It is the perfect
It's the most fertile land for overreaction, Like.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Everybody's gonna come out.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
I'm going to overreact and overreact like crazy, So everybody,
can you know, cooler jets a little bit. The only
things I wanted to note is I do want to know,
you know, in the coming days or hopefully not weeks,
the status of Land and Dickerson because the Eagles, just
like we talked about the Cowboys offensive line being so
important to them, the Eagles offense is predicated on the
performance of their offensive line, as is the case for
(25:16):
most teams, but especially this team and how they like
to run the football with Taekwon Barkley. I mean, you
don't want Jalen Hurt's having to do what he did
tonight every game because eventually teams are gonna game plan
for that.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
You're gonna have to go somewhere else and you're gonna
need time to throw.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
So I am hoping that they get good news on
Dickerson so they can retain the interior three. They're already
playing Tyler Steen as the new starter at right guard
after losing Makai Becker in the offseason, so we're just
I just want to keep an eye on that. But
Eagles fans can feel good about this win tonight. You're
want tozer and that's all you.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Could ask for.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Oh, it's the perfect Eagles result because they're going to complain,
they're going to treat it like a loss, they're going
to freak out, but they actually get the win over
the Cowboys that they get to celebrate. It's absolutely perfect
all around. All right, let's get to just a couple
items that I did want to mention before we start
getting ready for our YouTube live show Friday night. By
(26:05):
the way, everyone checked out Shookie and I out. I
will be back home and we will be on YouTube
live for the Brazil game, Chiefs and Chargers. We'll try
to get going, you know, a few minutes after the
final whistle.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
We will be ready.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
So look for the links in our social Twitter, Blue Sky,
all the places, and yeah, you can set up a
reminder on YouTube for that. I thought this week shook
when I assigned myself Raiders Patriots that I was gonna
watch a little Amari Cooper that is not going to happen.
Amari Cooper has retired from the NFL, which maybe you
(26:47):
know tells me why he.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Was sitting out there as a free agent for so long.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Like I was really, you know, castigating myself for ranking
him way too high on my free agent rankings. And
he probably was a little too high. But maybe the
game just just ain't in him no more. Like he's done.
He came back and it was not for him.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yeah, I mean usually when you retire that's the case.
But look, you're a glass half fool kind of guy.
You're an aspirational thinker, and I was kind of on
board with you, unless you look between the lines. At
his last season, which was the sure handed receiver who
ran very polished routes and was super dependable, started to
kind of fall apart. He started dropping passes in Cleveland.
(27:26):
He goes to Buffley, catches a touchdown pass his first game.
Everybody's cheering, what a great trade for the Bills, and
then he fades into the background. He's only you know,
he has one more touchdown catch in a blowout whin
I believe over the jet late in the season. I
think his only other notable play was tossing it back
to Josh Allen on that crazy play in the snow
for a Josh Allen touchdown. And that kind of suggested
what ultimately was his final result in the NFL, which
(27:48):
is that, yeah, he's done, like he's moving on. The
reporting from our insiders today was that he, you know,
he signed last week and in the ramp up process,
which is a week is incredibly short to get ready
for an NFL game, and if you're staying in shape,
he felt as if he couldn't ramp up quick enough
to play and didn't have it in him anymore.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So respect to you.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
You want to walk away from the game before the
game pushes you out, and he's kind of doing a
little bit of both here. He had a heck of
a career. I mean, I think he had six thousand
yard receiving seasons. He should had more Pro Bowl nods
than he did. One of the more underrated receivers of
his generation and a guy that we're going to look
back on and think quiet about his business, but pretty consistent.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Had a good career.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah, when he was good, he was great.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
He just would pop up for months at a time
and seasons at a time, and then he'd kind of
step back into the background. But yeah, it was of
course Cutty the Great, like one of my favorite characters
from the wire who just had to tell Avon like, the.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Game ain't in me no more, you know none of it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And that was Amari Cooper, and it leaves the Raiders
a little shorthanded. I know they have a lot of
receiving weapons when you include their two tight ends and
Ashton gent and I really liked them, but they signed
him because they wanted some receiver depth. They usually they
literally only have four receivers on their roster right now,
and one of them is the rookie Jack Besh, who
has reportedly struggled in training camp. And I don't think
(29:13):
they were going to give much of a role too,
So they were hoping Cooper would help out on the
outside with Dante Thornton and you'd have Jacoby Myers on
the inside. But that that's not going to happen any longer, Noah,
Maari Cooper. Nick Benito signed a big contract with the Broncos.
I had ranked him as the number one potential unrestricted
free agent for twenty twenty six. Since I wrote that
(29:34):
article six days ago, I think it posted. Three of
the top twelve players have signed contracts, so that you
know that's what happens. Luke Getike Toron Bland and now
the number one player Nick Benito. Are they reading my
free agent list and then saying, hey, we better sign
these guys? Who really knows the news I wanted to
ask you about which to me a little worrisome and
(29:54):
maybe this will turn out dated, But Christian McCaffrey was
added to the injury report as limited with a calf
on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
This came out of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
The thing that I really noticed shook was they did
not make him available for a regularly scheduled media appearance.
And so if someone in your league didn't already rush
to go get Brian Robinson or he wasn't drafted, you
should do that right now.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Actually, in a fantasy draft on Monday, was cooking dinner
and had cued Brian Robinson for a late round pick,
and then forgot that he was at the top of
my queue, and I go auto drafted him way too early.
So it maybe it'll look like a genius, yes, But okay,
when it comes to Christian McCaffrey, I think a guy
who's limited on an injury report wouldn't incite a lot
of panic with most fan bases in most players.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
But the forty nine.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Ers fans had to feel like it's Groundhog Day because
this is essentially exactly what happened last year. We thought
he was going to play Week one, Suddenly he's not
even dressed. It drags out, he finally comes back, he
gets hurt with a different injury, ends the season prematurely.
This is a guy with a documented history of injuries
throughout his career. It's been I mean, for lack of
a better term, I guess.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
His achilles heel throw. His entire career has been this.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
And anytime that a calf issue, which is what sidelined
him early last year, comes back into the picture, you
can't help but worry. And this is a Niners team
that went out and signed Brian Robinson because Kyle Shanahan
just flat out said we needed better depth at running back. Well,
now you really need depth if he can't play, so
you keep your fingers crossed that he's going to be okay.
But we have enough history to know to take this
stuff seriously.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
With Christian McCaffrey, it it just makes you worried of
all players to see that this might turn into a
completely ridiculous conversation. When CMC gets one hundred and sixty
yards this Sunday and looks fine. But I just thought
I would note that another injury news, Christian Kirk was
reported to not be available by.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
ESPN that they expect that he is going to be out.
So I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
You know who the Texans end up using some of
those rookie receivers. Man, fun night, weird night. We got
some answers. Cooper Dezine. He's staying in the slot. He's
staying in the nickel. They're not going to use him
that outside corner to watch a Dori Jackson and Corey
and Bennett, you know, get flamed. Nick sirianis still got
the magic touch. You know, I would have flamed. I
(32:08):
would have roasted him for get you know, getting a
little cautious and punting on fourth down in the fourth quarter.
But he made all the right moves. He actually trusted
his defense and he should. They were playing well at
that point. So you know, it's nice to be an
Eagles fan. And for thirty one teams, including year Browns,
Nick still undefeated on the year. It's only the Cowboys
(32:28):
that I have.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Now, you know, look, we end this show with the
same phrase most of the year, which has been Football
is back tonight. Truly, it is a beautiful, glorious moment
in which we can accurately say football is fully back.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I love that you said that, and I think now
that it's back, like this might be for the last
time until next offseason, if that makes sense, because it's like.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
They did their job. They freaking got kicked out before
the game even.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Started, like there were no punts, the Cowboys were involved,
there was controversy.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
It was an NFL like dream World.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Next in the feed, you got the pic show, and
then we're gonna be back Friday night live on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Football is so back.
The ball up the fully fun Prescott barns the ball
motion to the nurse side.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Bom taking the plicks. No, he's coming back, goes Prescott.
He's going deep down the fourth side of the field,
and it's too complete and tend looked for Lamb, who
dove for the fuck goal.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And he could not hold on.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
How get crushed to the curb techover down.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
A weird highlight for a weird game. Twenty four to twenty.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
The Eagles kick off the season the same way they
ended last season with.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The victory, but man, it looked different. It looked weird.
We had an ejection before a play from scrimmage.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
We had a Dak Prescott touchdown saving tackle. We had
more Jalen Hurt scrambled touchdowns than we had all of
last season. And yes, we had an hour and four
minute lightning delay which turned one the best offensive games
you would ever want to see to a complete offensive
no show. And it ends with a CD Lamb drop
his fourth of the game, and the Eagles escape a
(01:11):
strange opening night that we will not forget. I will
not forget the start of this season because I'm doing
it with Nick Schuck. We're going to be doing it
on all the primetime games all season.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Welcome Nick. What stands out to you out of this game?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It's an often used phrase, Oh, it was a tail
of two halves. Well, it was a tail of two
and a half quarters and then a quarter and a
half sandwiched around an hour long weather delay. Talk about
completely different games. I mean an offensive display from both teams.
Punters got the whole first half off, they come out
of the break and it just dies and it just
(01:48):
becomes not so much a defensive game but just a
battle of attrition that the Eagles ultimately win. And there's
really a lot to unpack from this game. I know
we're going to get into all of it because there
are many les to this game and a great example
of how Week one doesn't tell the story of a
whole season for a team, but it.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Can give us some peaks into what it might look like.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So I love that you said it that way because
to me, this was a window into what I think
is going to be a different sort of Eagle season.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And we even talked about it in the preseason.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think if you look at the defensive talent overall,
I think they're going to take a step back, and
they're going to need their offense to make up for it.
And what we didn't expect tonight was that the Cowboys
offense would be totally up for the challenge to go
toe to toe with that Eagles offense. There was zero punts,
as you mentioned, there was zero stops for the first
(02:39):
two quarters and ten minutes, and then the biggest play
of the game ultimately was a fumbles by Miles Sanders
when the Cowboys are in the red zone and that
set up the Dak tackle that saved a touchdown. That
was the very last play before the lightning delay. At
that point, we had had eight straight drive with a score,
(03:01):
then that fumble. Afterwards we had five straight punts and
then the turnover on downs that you heard the CDE
Lamb drop end, and so you know, they were two
completely different games. But I was really struck by how
well Dak Prescott and the Cowboys offense moved the ball
(03:22):
in that first section. And I do think it's okay
for us to divide up the sections a little bit,
and I'll start there. And I noticed by the end
of the game shook like the Eagles kept their defensive
linemen on the field that you just wouldn't expect the
entire game. So it was a Jomo the defensive tackle,
like playing more snaps than he's ever played, Nolan Smith
(03:42):
not leaving the field at all, Jordan Davis who didn't
really have a great night, not leaving the field at all,
Jlyx Hunt, who's going to be a big time player
for this year, like leaving the field occasionally and having
a nice night.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it's these.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Guys being asked to really step up in ways that
they hadn't before. And then the second cornerback spot, which
we talked about all off season, A Dori Jackson just
getting flamed over and over and over. And I know
it sounds like we're starting negative on this Eagles defense,
but as much as I want to, you know, criticize
them for struggling early, they got the stops late with
a little fortune. And I want to give the Cowboys
(04:17):
credit on offense too, that they were making that Eagles
defense look bad.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see I have
this notepad here. One of my first notes is A
Dori Jackson is getting absolutely cooked by the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And it didn't matter who they were targeting.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
I mean early in this game, I was just thinking,
oh God, like may this was kind of a unique
situation because Jalen Carter excuses himself from the game by
spitting it Dak Prescott, you know, before the first play
from scrimmage. But that changes the entire complexity of the
game because then they don't they can't get that interior
pass rush. They have to lean more on the secondary,
(04:51):
and it immediately exposes how the losses that they had
in their secondary could be a weakness for them.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And then it kind of unfolds from there.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Two things I really took away from the first half
where I see the vision with Brian Schottenheimer's offense. This
Cowboys offense is better than I expected it to be.
Even Javonte Williams was better than I expected him to be.
And also this may they may just have to be
this team all year because I'm not sure that this
defense is going to hold up against some of the
better offensive teams. I think it was Dave Hellman from
(05:20):
The Athletic tweeted, they're essentially the Cincinnati Bengals with a
star and their helmet, Like that's what they're gonna be.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's like a good that's a good case scenario for them.
I would feel good about that Cowboys over eight wins
that I went head to head with with Nick Wright.
That was before the Parson's trade, But I'm standing by it,
and I still feel okay, because, yeah, if you have
a quarterback that is as advanced mentally as Dak Prescott,
and he saw a lot of what was coming in
(05:48):
this game and made the right decisions and was not
afraid to make difficult throws. And the Lamb drops really
killed multiple drives. I mean two second half after the
lightning delay, drives basically were ended by dimes by Dak
Prescott that Cede Lamb dropped, and I was really impressed
(06:09):
with him on this night. And you mentioned the Jalen
Carter ejection and I alluded to it right off the
top that that happens before there's a play, and Eagles
fans will, I think, hold on to that for the
next ten days before their Week two game, and they'll
they'll think, Okay, they like, that's the reason everything went haywire,
and it is a big reason. He is the most
(06:30):
important player in this game in this side of the
ball for the Eagles. And so let's start a little
bit with Spitgate. He spits like he spits in Dak
Prescott's face, gets tossed after the kickoff, where unfortunately the
Eagles lose a good special teamer, Ben Van sumerin to
(06:50):
what looked like a serious injury. He's getting carded. The
two sides are kind of joying back and forth at
the time he gets ejected. We did not know that
there was a first spider and that first spidder was
Dak Prescott. Good job by the NBC crew unveiling the
tape after we came back from the lightning delay, Like
it was kind of dramatic and showing that actually, you know,
(07:13):
they were jawing at each other. Jalen Carter was over
the line of scrimmage and was all by himself kind
of near the Cowboys offensive line and Dak, and the
cameras caught Dak just kind of spitting into the ground,
but he did step forward, was kind of looking at
Jalen Carter spitting into the ground. And to be fair,
he's like five feet away from Jalen Carter at this time,
(07:34):
but he spits into the ground. He's talking to Jalen Carter.
We don't know what he's he said at this time,
and he's got a big grit on his face. And
then Carter walks right up to him, gets face to
face and spits on the man, which you just can't do.
You gotta have to have a code. I don't think
the ejection was out of bounds. I think there's an
absolute chance that Jalen Carter gets suspended and that back
(07:55):
and forth, and maybe it was Dak Prescott, you know,
breaking out his inner Chauncey guard Johnson being kind of
a starter there.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, you knows their as it were.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Sorry, Eric, to give you more work to edit on
what's going to be a long night. But he gets
Jalen Carter, their best player out of the game, and
they never really seemed to recover.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Defensively, well, it's like they highlighted immediately on the broadcast.
This changes the Cowboys entire game plan because now they
can attack the middle of the Eagles front and Brian
Schottenheimer called a lot of runs in the A gap.
He was targeting the interior that defensive line on the
ground plenty often in that first drive, and it kept
that offense really balanced and allowed them to move the
football pretty much at will throughout the first half. But
(08:38):
I also wonder if we never hit that weather delay,
would we have ever gotten this footage? Would it be
treated like the Zapruder film? And how does this factor
into how the league, you know, suspends Jalen Carter. Additionally,
I'm curious to see how that unfolds.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's a great point took, because if the flow of
the game, I don't think we get that they had
time to go back and look at it. Even then,
it was after they spent like forty five minutes talking about,
you know, how Michael Jordan's you know, impacted Jalen Hurts's life.
I mean, you know, Chris Collinsworth in Tarrico and the
entire NBC crew was, you know, earning their money, just
(09:14):
spinning their wheels. Meanwhile, I'm over watching a great Naomio
O Soka match. I mean, that's what the real ball
knowers were doing at that point. I mean, at that point,
what's there to do? The football game's not happening. Okay,
we talk about how great the Cowboys offense started, and
I thought it was a bad sign though it shook
that they started the game touchdown, touchdown, field goal and
(09:34):
then another field goal on like a forty five second
end of the half, good drive by Dak Prescott to
get some points before the drop the end of the half.
And yet despite how perfect that half was, it was
a ninety nine percentile success rate half. According to Shil
Capatia over at the Ringer, they were actually trailing at halftime,
so they had more possessions. They had a perfect offensive
(09:54):
half essentially, and they were trailing at half tom and
that felt like a bad sign for the Cowboys defense.
You got to give Hurts and this offense and Saquon
Barkley and even Johan Dotson some credit for how the
Eagles offense answered every score that the Cowboys offense had
in the first half of this game.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, I mean, if you look at I mean, Dotson
had a great catch late in the first half as well.
But I also think that it's going to fuel the narrative.
And I think this narrative would have been even stronger
in the days to come if the second half followed
the course of the first half, which it would have been.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
The Cowboys trade.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Away their best defensive player and then they can't stop
a nose bleed against their rivals on the opening kickoff
night and then because of ground to a halt, people
kind of forgot about that. But I think it also
kind of highlighted the difference in these teams, the difference
in how the Cowboys strengths are basically how they have
to move the football, they have to basically aired out
the entire game, and I think it gave Dak Press
(10:50):
got a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Granted it was two different halves.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
You can't blame this one on Dak like he played
a great game, especially in the second half. It's it's
gonna be interesting to see how they're perceived after just
one game.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Okay, I mean perceptions for whatever. I don't care about
the perception that these two teams could not have been
more even to me throughout the entire game. I mean,
did the Eagles won, good job by them the second
that that fumble happened. That was the biggest play of
the game. But when we broke for the lightning delay,
which again went an hour and four minutes, that the
(11:26):
stats were almost entirely even in every respect, yardage, yards
per play, basically everything. And I give the Cowboys credit
actually for staying balanced on offense, even though Dak Prescott
was getting the big plays and even got a big
pass interference to George Pickens that was called on Quinjon Mitchell,
who stayed on Pickens early in the game, eventually went
(11:46):
over to Ceedee Lamb a little bit, but for the
most part it was it was, you know, burnt toast
with the Dorri Jackson going up against CD Lamb. But
the Eagles offense, like I mentioned, they were just methodical
and Hurts was scrambling so much he ends up as
the leading rusher in this game. Shook with sixty two
yards on the ground two touchdowns. He did not have
(12:07):
a scrambled touchdown all of last year. I think you
have to go back to like October of twenty twenty
three to find a scramble touchdown fro him. And so
whenever he couldn't find his first read, he was taking
off with his legs and it was working. And ultimately
I mentioned that ninety nine percentile success rate that the
Cowboys had in terms of comparing it to other NFL
(12:30):
teams and offenses before the lightning.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Delay, the Eagles had that too.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
They would have basically had two of the best games
any offenses have had all of last season. Through that
point in the game, they were essentially pitching a shutout.
And so even though Hurts wasn't getting to the outside,
wasn't getting to aj Brown, who didn't have a target
until late. They can just beat you so many different
types of ways, and ultimately they do deserve a little
bit of credit for scoring all those points and then
(12:56):
finally at the very end of the game getting a
first down that sealed it.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yeah, it's a bad time for me to rank Jalen
Hurts outside of the top ten in the QB Index.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So I know Eagles fans are going to come for you.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Because he carried this offense, especially in the first half.
Every play that they made moving the ball down the field,
whether it was through the air or with his legs,
it was all centered on Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And you're right.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
It's it's a great example of how I don't even
care if you win the Super Bowl, how no two
teams are the same from year to year, because this
was not their identity last year and in fact, in
the fourth quarter, I'm just waiting for Saquon to be
the same closer that he was last year. And he
had some nice plays and everything, but it wasn't him
the third down, fourth down, you got to get a
first down. You're out of touch, push range, you line
(13:37):
up five wide and Jalen Hurst takes off for a
scramble for a first down.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
That was their most successful play was and I know
that that was on the docket.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Yes, And I have to give a lot of credit
to new oc Kevin Patulo because there was a period
in this game where after the delay. I don't know
what happened to Matti Eerflus, if he went in the
locker room and just got really pissed off or something,
but he came out with pure aggression in his play
calling on that first series blitz is on second and
third down, stacks the box with eight on first down,
basically saying you're not finishing us with Saquon, We're not
letting you get out from deep in your own territory.
(14:06):
We are going to fight all the way to the end.
And for a sequence there, Patilla didn't really have an
answer for that blitz, but when it came down to
crunch time, he turned to his best player on offense,
who wears number one, who is the quarterback, and asked
him to go get the win and he did, and
that is a huge feather in the cap of the
Eagles offense as they evolved from year to year, and
it makes them that much more dangerous because we know
(14:26):
how talented they are. They also had to deal with
an injury land in Dickerson by the way, it left
guard Toath comes in to replace him. They largely don't
miss abeat except for when they were dealing with some pressures.
It's an example of resilience with this Eagles team. They've
been there, they've done that. They know how to win
these close games, and they did it tonight.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah, Dickerson's back injury is something to watch. He looked
like he was struggling with it before the lightning break
and then afterwards he was not able to continue. And yeah,
when they came back from the break, they got four
more drives and they went three and out. They had
an eleven play drive where they got three first downs
but all to had to punt, and then they went
three and out again, so they weren't able to close
(15:05):
the game. You're right, it's absolutely different. And I was
about to, you know, send one of those tweets out,
and I'm glad I didn't, thinking like this is zooming
towards you know, worst defensive performance of the Vic Fangio era.
And that's how it was trending for a while. When
the Cowboys were in the red zone, that was about
when I was about to send it, and then it
did flip. But by the numbers, that actually was the
(15:27):
worst half of football defensively that they had, you know,
compared to all of last year under Vic Fangio. And
then you know, they got it together, got more pressure
on Dak Prescott and I'm glad you mentioned the eber
Flues changing his strategy because ultimately, I don't think this
Cowboys defense is talented enough upfront. I you know, I've
been talking about their depth edge. It didn't really show
(15:48):
up tonight. Eziraku was quiet. I thought Marshaw Neilon plays
really hard and made a bunch of plays. Dante Fowler
had like one good pressure but ultimately Sam Williams was
kind all over the place that they're not great overall.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Up front. O'diggy zoo.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
It was okay, but after the break they had not
blitzed at all before it shook, and they blitzed six
times after it, and the pressure rate for both quarterbacks
went from very low before the break to a sky
high afterwards. So it really was two different games. But
maybe it's a lesson for the Cowboys that, look, they're
going to have to scheme up some pressure.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
They're going to have to be creative.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
And there were positives to take from this game, including
that Trevon Diggs played a lot of this game, not
every snap by any means. He was a part time
rotational player, but that was a plus that he got
to get out there and play.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
He was healthy enough to be used on one of
those blitzes in that first series.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
After the delay. I want to keep saying after halftime,
but it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
At the fifth time, it is after the delay though.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I know, it's like it's a very strange game to
talk about and to analyze because it was completely two
different games.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I know Eric, you know, is back there.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
He said he's up watching it, and I feel that
it's like all of America's having a great time, then
this happened, and then the vibes are just weird and off,
and the game is off afterwards.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It just one of those things.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, I want to spotlight a couple of guys because
obviously the news last week with Michael Parsons being traded,
Kenny Clark comes to Dallas in that deal. Had a
couple of moments. What I really noticed after the delay
was the Cowboys started to win up front. Now obviously
not enough to win the game, but they did start
to get a little bit of a surge.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Clark was in on one of those.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
With Nieland for that sack of Jalen Hurts, and I
was like, oh, there is okay there.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
He makes a play there.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And on the other side of the ball or the
other sideline, Jihad Campbell, who is my defensive Rookie of
the Year pick, by the way, great game, flashed, made
key plays, forced a fumble. He forced that Miles Sanders
fumble that turned the game in the more toward the
Eagles favor. Continue to keep an eye on him. He's
going to be a big part of this defense, especially
if they aren't quite as strong upfront as they were
(17:48):
last year, and if they have issues in the secondary,
they're gonna have to lean in those linebackers more.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And he's a really nice compliment to Zach Bond.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I can't believe it took us almost twenty minutes to
get the Jihat Campbell. I mean I got fifteen texts
from our friend Jordan rod Riegabat just kidding.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I mean it was like two.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
But we're excited about Campbell and him running down the
post in the middle of the field in coverage and
he got beat on one of the plays where it
ended up being a penalty, not on him, but that
Dak Prescott was trying to get a touchdown. But he
made an incredible play in coverage on another. And the
thing that really struck me was he didn't leave the field.
(18:24):
Dak Bond played literally every single snap of the game,
but John Campbell played fifty one out of fifty six
snap So that is what every team is looking for,
to have two linebackers that they can actually keep on
the field that can make a difference as pass rushers
in run defense. And they both made plays in coverage tonight,
Like that is some special stuff. And I think we're
(18:46):
going to look back and wonder how did Campbell and
Josh Simmons slipped to thirty one and thirty two, the
two guys the two teams that made the Super Bowl
last year. And I like that Defensive Rookie of the
Year pick by you, I'm gonna hear, and we'll see
about Abdol Carter.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
There'll be other guys.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
But man, what a strong first statement by your boy
to hide Campbell tonight.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Also a peek into the Eagles maybe not being as
deep defensively as they were in previous years because of attrition,
because guys leaving free agency with these rotations are lack
thereof Like a ton of guys played a ton of snaps,
as we've already talked about, and I think I worry
about their depth over the course of a season, like
Sidney Brown gets a little dinged dath to night and
Andrew mccuba has to come in and replace him. I
worry about their depth at the second and third level.
(19:27):
But that's I mean, that's football, and they'll figure out
ways to do it. But it was interesting that they
did not rotate a lot of guys tonight.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
All right, let's take a quick break. We're gonna come back.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
We will wrap up our thoughts on the Cowboys and Eagles,
will have a couple quick, surprising but important items of news,
and then we'll send you on your way. We're here
late at Chris Westling's podcast Dude on NFL Daily Philadelphia
(20:03):
Eagles want to zero on the season. Dangerous, you know
situation for the Cowboys because I think they'll take a
moral victory tonight.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I think their fans are.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Gonna feel better, They're actually gonna get like.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
A lot of pats on the back.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I'm always wary of a moral victory, especially in week one,
like it doesn't really do you that much good. But
we did see some positives and one of those positives
I think you mentioned it earlier, was Brian Schottenheimer's play calling,
and I think the organization in general on offense, they
look cohesive, They looked intelligent, they looked aggressive. One of
(20:37):
my favorite play calls was on a third and short,
Dak Prescott deep to cdee Lamb.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Third down and one to go. Prescott under center, two
tight ends, gets the snap, picks the HANDLEFF fuck's back
seven plus us on long spiral nearside. Caught at the
five down to the Premis sideline is cde Lamb. It's
first in gold Dallas out of buns near the two
of Philadela on a thirty or beautiful strike first and
gold Dallas.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Dak Prescott's PFF grade is going to be so high
in this game, so so many dimes, and he had
so many moments where he just subtly stepped up in
the pocket and that was one of them. He was
just giving me Peyton Manning vibes tonight, just because no
one was more accurate than Peyton Manning. And even if
he didn't have the biggest arm in the world, Deck
has a good arm. But on those deep passes, it's
(21:24):
just like they'd get there in the perfect amount of time.
Sometimes it'd be a little bit of a hospital ball
and you might get a penalty. That happened tonight too,
but he was really reminding me of that. But I
really wanted to point that play out, not only to
get Kevin Harlan in the show. Love that guy so
happy that he's, you know, in my mind, part of
the show for the twenty twenty five season after joining
us in the offseason.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I just like the play call.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That was one of many calls shook tonight where they
had a short yardage situation and they went deep. So
they didn't go too crazy pass heavy, but they used motion,
they had the condensed formations. I thought they attacked the
Eagles in a very intelligent way.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah, A certain level of organization and execution that I
don't think we've seen from the Cowboys in recent years,
even you know, with Mike McCarthy calling plays and everything else.
They just they were very sharp in what they wanted
to execute. I think that starts in the offensive line.
Of course, I'm gonna highlight Tyler Booker. I'm going to
highlight the rest of you was good to have up front.
But he was good in his first game in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
He was good.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
This is a very strong unit across the board, and
so it starts there. You have protection, you're able to
feel as if you can take those risks. I think
on that play specifically, I was like, oh, no, why.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Are you throwing?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Because I'm conditioned to think of the Cowboys in the past,
not of this Brian Schottenheimer Cowboys where they they are
in a motion at tight end and then run like
an inverted split zone and that's going to pick up
yards up the middle. Now, granted, of course Carter wasn't
in the game, so they felt like they could take
advantage of that. But the diversity and the balance of
this offense I think is going to propel this team,
especially if we worry about their defense. Basically, what I'm
(22:52):
saying is the Cowboys are gonna put a lot of
points this year. They're gonna be fun to watch. I
just don't know how many games they're gonna win.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, I think if you're a Cowboys fan and don't
don't think Nick you you know, slipped Bay that inverted
you know, split zone by me without noticing, I'm getting like, oh,
this is some real football talk. Oh yeah, late at night.
It's like one in the morning on the East Coast
where you are. Cowboys fans have to be excited about
the running game in this because there were questions. Jayden Blue,
their rookie, was actually inactive for the game, I think
(23:20):
a healthy scratch, and yet they had a sixty two
percent design run success rate tonight, which is astronomically high.
It's it's incredible, you know, that would be, you know,
be an all time record like that. The Eagles were
at forty six percent, which is which is very good.
But the Cowboys actually ran it on a consistent basis
better than the Eagles tonight. And that was Javonte Williams,
(23:44):
and they weren't big plays. It was Miles Sanders who
did have the one big play, but also the fumble.
He had a forty nine yard run in the fumble,
but they got Cavante Turpin involved. He had four touches
in this game, and so it was kind of moved
the move the chains type of football. And I've been
talking all off season that the offensive line has a
higher ceiling than people think if they come together. It's
(24:06):
a bunch of young players, most of whom were drafted
very early, playing together, and I think they have to
feel good before we move on from this game. Is
there anything on the eagle side that you want to hit?
You know, I do want to give Jordan Mylotta and
Lane Johnson some credit for just like looking for the
two most like the two most dominant guys in this game.
(24:29):
So I don't want to totally look past them. And
if you're an aj Brown fantasy owner, a DeVante Smith
fantasy owner who combined for twenty four yards, I wouldn't panic.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It was a weird game. And I don't think this
is going to continue.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
No, No, I mean week one is we think that
it can you know, give us, like like we said
at the start of the show, a window into how
a team might look, but also It is the perfect
It's the most fertile land for overreaction, Like.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Everybody's gonna come out.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
I'm going to overreact and overreact like crazy, So everybody,
can you know, cooler jets a little bit. The only
things I wanted to note is I do want to know,
you know, in the coming days or hopefully not weeks,
the status of Land and Dickerson because the Eagles, just
like we talked about the Cowboys offensive line being so
important to them, the Eagles offense is predicated on the
performance of their offensive line, as is the case for
(25:16):
most teams, but especially this team and how they like
to run the football with Taekwon Barkley. I mean, you
don't want Jalen Hurt's having to do what he did
tonight every game because eventually teams are gonna game plan
for that.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
You're gonna have to go somewhere else and you're gonna
need time to throw.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
So I am hoping that they get good news on
Dickerson so they can retain the interior three. They're already
playing Tyler Steen as the new starter at right guard
after losing Makai Becker in the offseason, so we're just
I just want to keep an eye on that. But
Eagles fans can feel good about this win tonight. You're
want tozer and that's all you.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Could ask for.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Oh, it's the perfect Eagles result because they're going to complain,
they're going to treat it like a loss, they're going
to freak out, but they actually get the win over
the Cowboys that they get to celebrate. It's absolutely perfect
all around. All right, let's get to just a couple
items that I did want to mention before we start
getting ready for our YouTube live show Friday night. By
(26:05):
the way, everyone checked out Shookie and I out. I
will be back home and we will be on YouTube
live for the Brazil game, Chiefs and Chargers. We'll try
to get going, you know, a few minutes after the
final whistle.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
We will be ready.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
So look for the links in our social Twitter, Blue Sky,
all the places, and yeah, you can set up a
reminder on YouTube for that. I thought this week shook
when I assigned myself Raiders Patriots that I was gonna
watch a little Amari Cooper that is not going to happen.
Amari Cooper has retired from the NFL, which maybe you
(26:47):
know tells me why he.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Was sitting out there as a free agent for so long.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Like I was really, you know, castigating myself for ranking
him way too high on my free agent rankings. And
he probably was a little too high. But maybe the
game just just ain't in him no more. Like he's done.
He came back and it was not for him.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yeah, I mean usually when you retire that's the case.
But look, you're a glass half fool kind of guy.
You're an aspirational thinker, and I was kind of on
board with you, unless you look between the lines. At
his last season, which was the sure handed receiver who
ran very polished routes and was super dependable, started to
kind of fall apart. He started dropping passes in Cleveland.
(27:26):
He goes to Buffley, catches a touchdown pass his first game.
Everybody's cheering, what a great trade for the Bills, and
then he fades into the background. He's only you know,
he has one more touchdown catch in a blowout whin
I believe over the jet late in the season. I
think his only other notable play was tossing it back
to Josh Allen on that crazy play in the snow
for a Josh Allen touchdown. And that kind of suggested
what ultimately was his final result in the NFL, which
(27:48):
is that, yeah, he's done, like he's moving on. The
reporting from our insiders today was that he, you know,
he signed last week and in the ramp up process,
which is a week is incredibly short to get ready
for an NFL game, and if you're staying in shape,
he felt as if he couldn't ramp up quick enough
to play and didn't have it in him anymore.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So respect to you.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
You want to walk away from the game before the
game pushes you out, and he's kind of doing a
little bit of both here. He had a heck of
a career. I mean, I think he had six thousand
yard receiving seasons. He should had more Pro Bowl nods
than he did. One of the more underrated receivers of
his generation and a guy that we're going to look
back on and think quiet about his business, but pretty consistent.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Had a good career.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah, when he was good, he was great.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
He just would pop up for months at a time
and seasons at a time, and then he'd kind of
step back into the background. But yeah, it was of
course Cutty the Great, like one of my favorite characters
from the wire who just had to tell Avon like, the.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Game ain't in me no more, you know none of it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And that was Amari Cooper, and it leaves the Raiders
a little shorthanded. I know they have a lot of
receiving weapons when you include their two tight ends and
Ashton gent and I really liked them, but they signed
him because they wanted some receiver depth. They usually they
literally only have four receivers on their roster right now,
and one of them is the rookie Jack Besh, who
has reportedly struggled in training camp. And I don't think
(29:13):
they were going to give much of a role too,
So they were hoping Cooper would help out on the
outside with Dante Thornton and you'd have Jacoby Myers on
the inside. But that that's not going to happen any longer, Noah,
Maari Cooper. Nick Benito signed a big contract with the Broncos.
I had ranked him as the number one potential unrestricted
free agent for twenty twenty six. Since I wrote that
(29:34):
article six days ago, I think it posted. Three of
the top twelve players have signed contracts, so that you
know that's what happens. Luke Getike Toron Bland and now
the number one player Nick Benito. Are they reading my
free agent list and then saying, hey, we better sign
these guys? Who really knows the news I wanted to
ask you about which to me a little worrisome and
(29:54):
maybe this will turn out dated, But Christian McCaffrey was
added to the injury report as limited with a calf
on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
This came out of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
The thing that I really noticed shook was they did
not make him available for a regularly scheduled media appearance.
And so if someone in your league didn't already rush
to go get Brian Robinson or he wasn't drafted, you
should do that right now.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Actually, in a fantasy draft on Monday, was cooking dinner
and had cued Brian Robinson for a late round pick,
and then forgot that he was at the top of
my queue, and I go auto drafted him way too early.
So it maybe it'll look like a genius, yes, But okay,
when it comes to Christian McCaffrey, I think a guy
who's limited on an injury report wouldn't incite a lot
of panic with most fan bases in most players.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
But the forty nine.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Ers fans had to feel like it's Groundhog Day because
this is essentially exactly what happened last year. We thought
he was going to play Week one, Suddenly he's not
even dressed. It drags out, he finally comes back, he
gets hurt with a different injury, ends the season prematurely.
This is a guy with a documented history of injuries
throughout his career. It's been I mean, for lack of
a better term, I guess.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
His achilles heel throw. His entire career has been this.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
And anytime that a calf issue, which is what sidelined
him early last year, comes back into the picture, you
can't help but worry. And this is a Niners team
that went out and signed Brian Robinson because Kyle Shanahan
just flat out said we needed better depth at running back. Well,
now you really need depth if he can't play, so
you keep your fingers crossed that he's going to be okay.
But we have enough history to know to take this
stuff seriously.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
With Christian McCaffrey, it it just makes you worried of
all players to see that this might turn into a
completely ridiculous conversation. When CMC gets one hundred and sixty
yards this Sunday and looks fine. But I just thought
I would note that another injury news, Christian Kirk was
reported to not be available by.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
ESPN that they expect that he is going to be out.
So I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
You know who the Texans end up using some of
those rookie receivers. Man, fun night, weird night. We got
some answers. Cooper Dezine. He's staying in the slot. He's
staying in the nickel. They're not going to use him
that outside corner to watch a Dori Jackson and Corey
and Bennett, you know, get flamed. Nick sirianis still got
the magic touch. You know, I would have flamed. I
(32:08):
would have roasted him for get you know, getting a
little cautious and punting on fourth down in the fourth quarter.
But he made all the right moves. He actually trusted
his defense and he should. They were playing well at
that point. So you know, it's nice to be an
Eagles fan. And for thirty one teams, including year Browns,
Nick still undefeated on the year. It's only the Cowboys
(32:28):
that I have.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Now, you know, look, we end this show with the
same phrase most of the year, which has been Football
is back tonight. Truly, it is a beautiful, glorious moment
in which we can accurately say football is fully back.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I love that you said that, and I think now
that it's back, like this might be for the last
time until next offseason, if that makes sense, because it's like.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
They did their job. They freaking got kicked out before
the game even.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Started, like there were no punts, the Cowboys were involved,
there was controversy.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
It was an NFL like dream World.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Next in the feed, you got the pic show, and
then we're gonna be back Friday night live on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Football is so back.
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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