Previewing Week 4 of the NFL Season

Craig and Cameron open the second hour of Friday's show with a look ahead to the NFL slate this weekend.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glad to have you with us as we steam full
speed ahead toward the weekend. Craig Way alongside the producer
Cameron Parker. Hey coming up here in a few minutes.
A little bit later on this hour, we're going to
hear from our man Will Matthews, our long worn sideline
reporter who also has an opportunity to sit down and

(00:20):
visit with long worn football players, and a couple of
those conversations are coming up this hour, so we'll get
to that coming up now. I did mention at the
top of last hour that flying in the face of
Cameron Parker's you know, let's just say aversion to watching

(00:44):
his favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys, flying in the face
of that, the Cowboys still managed to go out and
secure a victory last night on the road in the division.
A divisional road win. It is what it is. It's
a divisional road win. I know, I know what the
Giants are all about. I know what the Cowboys are

(01:05):
all about. And anybody that watched that game last night
could kind of see what some of that was all about.
And we did discuss that last hour. But in the
grand scheme two and two, think about this division can
because I don't you know, I haven't been bowled over,
overwhelmed by anything I've seen in this division so far.
You know, the Eagles have some moments, but they are

(01:28):
offensively challenged at times. Washington, I think it's a little
too early to tell about Jaden Daniels and what he
can do. They did manage to win that one divisional
game over the Giants. You know, I don't two and two.
You're in the thick of the fight right now.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You're exactly right. I mean, looking at this division, it's
up for grabs. The Cowboys, despite everything I have to say,
they're not dead yet, but their schedule these next three
weeks gets a little bit tougher. And that's why you know,
I said last night was a must win for the Cowboys,
because if you lose that game to the Giants, now
you're one to three and you got Pittsburgh next week,

(02:07):
You're home for Detroit, you're at San Francisco, you're at Atlanta,
you're home for Philadelphia, you're home for Houston, and then
you have washed it. I mean, the rest of October
in November is a bloodbath for Dallas. So you have
to take care of those must win games against opponents
you're supposed to win, right and they were supposed to
beat New York last night. They did that. So they're

(02:29):
still in this division. And now what can they do
these next two months? Can they get better with the
run game with their run blocking, can they fix the
offensive line issues? And can their defense play as good
as they did last night? Now it's New York Giants.
They are offensively challenged, they have Daniel Dimes as their quarterback,

(02:50):
but some good signs of life defensively. But I mean,
I think you're right on, Craig. I mean, Philadelphia, despite
their record, easily could be one and two easily if
if this New Orleans Saints decide to guard Dallas Goddter,
which I did not decide.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
The two picked him up for my fantasy team as
result of that.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
This week good addition, and the Commanders, who knows they
are two and one under Dan Quinn. They did look
good against Cincinnati, but Cincinnati also is on and three,
so heart to tell that's just a really bad Bengals
team or what we're going to see maybe two months.
Was a really good Monday Night football win for the Commanders,
But this division's wide open.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Let me turn our attention a little bit here to
the NFL overall, and the early window on Sunday has
some pretty interesting games, and we're roll back and take
a closer to look at him coming up. But Saints
and Falcons, Rams at Bears, Vikings at Packers, as all
kinds of intrigue at lambeau Field, Steelers at Colts, Broncos

(03:54):
at Jets, the Eagles played the Bucks, and again this
is all in the early window. Uh and the Eagles
Bucks maybe perhaps the most impactful. It's doubt it's going
to be the Bengals and Panthers, uh there, or even
the Jaguars at the Texans. Off of that, but the
Texans are looking to bounce back after their loss a

(04:16):
week ago and getting hammered pretty good by the Vikings,
and and they're playing the Jags. So if there's a
team in more disarray than Jacksonville, you know, pointed out
to me because I don't, I don't know that they are.
I mean, the Bengals are wing three, but they've been
a competitive O and three in the uh in those

(04:37):
ball games of Jaguars owen three and looking non competitive
right now, and maybe that's you know, prime picking for
the Texans trying to get well this weekend.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, out of the three oh to three teams, Bengals, Jaguars,
the Tennessee Titans. Titans brand new head coach, a rebuilding year,
probably gonna move on from Will Levis in the next
few weeks. Cincinnati, they're not going to fire their coach.
They not gonna rid of their quarterback. They're set there. Jacksonville,
this was a playoff contender type year. They had the
expectations of contending. They've been in the playoffs before, Doug Peterson,

(05:10):
remember they had that. They blew that huge loss to
the huge lead in the playoffs two years ago. But
they came in with a lot of expectations and so
far zero and three have fell flap Trevor Lawrence does
not look good. They have I believe, the worst point
differential in the National Football League. Actually, sorry, second worst.
They're at forty five points, Carolina at forty six. The

(05:34):
only other team I would have said in that argument
is maybe Carolina. But yeah, last wayea, Andy Dalton looked
an above average a lot better than what Bryce Shung
has looked like. So maybe things are a little better
than Carolina remains to be seen. They did beat the Raiders,
but just an awful year for Jacksonville. Talk about must
win games. If they lose to Houston this week at Houston,

(05:55):
which you know they're not favored to win, we could
be looking at Doug Peterson first coach fired, because I
think with Mike McCarthy's win last night, he bought himself
at least a week and a half worth time.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well and again I'm gonna I'm gonna go down this road.
We had this conversation about Mike McCarthy the other day
when we were discussing whether McCarthy could be an in
season coaching casualty, and at the time you asked me
if Jerry Jones had ever fired a coach of mid season,

(06:27):
and I said, I don't think, so, I don't think
And then somebody pointed out Astutelee on our text line
that that indeed did happen when Wade Phillips was codd
in twenty ten when they started one in seven I
believe it was, and they elevated Jason Garrett at that
point and they finished five and three I think it was,

(06:47):
and finished six and ten for the year, and then
of course Garrett was there for the next whatever nine years,
so it felt like ninety But yeah, sou but that
was also you know, there was a lot of inertia there.
This team is two and two right now and they're
in the thick of things, I think in the NFC East,

(07:10):
even though they weren't that impressive last night, as I mentioned,
we know that, but it's still say what you will.
It's a divisional road win also, and this is something
else I think. I remember you telling me last year,
and you're the only person who has ever told me
this from the Cowboys perspective, not an opponent's perspective. From

(07:32):
the Cowboys perspective, the one rival you wanted to beat
most was the Giants. That's what you told me. I
had scores of people in recent years always say the Eagles.
Prior to that, for US Ogs, like I said, it
was always Washington because that rivalry actually went back to
the mid to late sixties, and it really spiked up
in the seventies when George Allen was the head coach

(07:54):
at Washington, and it continued through the eighties when Washington
had really good team teams, and then it started to
die off in the nineties. And it's just been kind
of dormant. Who knows if it'll spike back up again.
But the Cowboys have the Giants number. What is that?

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Thirteen out of fourteen? Now thirteen out of fourteen? I
think thirteen straight if I remember correctly. And John Mischoweda
from the Athletic had a really good stat in his
piece this morning from last night. With the win over
New York last night, Prescott became the fourth quarterback in
NFL history to register thirteen consecutive wins against an opponent.

(08:32):
He joined Bob Greasy when he won seventeen straight against
the Bills from sixty eight to seventy nine, Steve Young
when he won thirteen straight against your.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't have to remind me.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
And then Tom Brady thirteen straight against the Buffalo Bill.
So it's nice to see the Dallas Cowboys still own
New York Giants. They are the little brother the Dak
Prescott and you know it goes back to go up
as a Cowboys fan. Yeah, the Giants had Tony Romo
and the Cowboys number. I mean the first ever game

(09:06):
at eighteen to T Stadium that Thursday night was Eli
Manning just prancing all over the field against the Cowboys,
and you'll hear Eli Manning talk about it. He took
those games very personal, and I think Cowboys fans did
it well. So to be able to see this change
in history has been nice. But Giants only scored seventeen
points against Dallas in those two games last year. They
scored fifteen last night, so a little bit closer than

(09:28):
I think. Cowboys fans wanted a lot of field goals
in that game from both sides. But really fun stat
to see the Dak Prescott still owns. I think about
now what forty percent of the Giants franchise after that win.
It just keeps going up and up after each victory.
Thirteen straight.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Baby, I'll always remember Eli that little loft pass when
they went on, and they went on and won the
Super Bowl that year when they probably should have lost
to the Cowboys and not even gotten there anyway. All right,
we'll talk more NFL coming out, but up next. Conversations
with Longhorns is a good way to describe it. Will Matthews,
our sideline reporter for Longhorn Football broadcast, sits down with

(10:08):
different Longhorns each week, and we'll here a couple of
those conversations coming up as we continue on a Friday
here on sports Radio AM thirteen, under the Zone, and
the iHeartRadio app.