January 25, 2025 • 34 mins
It’s official, the Dallas Cowboys have named Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer as their 10th head football coach. We have our reaction to the news.
Who is the favorite pick to win the Super Bowl? We give our predictions.
Who is the favorite pick to win the Super Bowl? We give our predictions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another conversation with the chriss. I'm Scott Miller,
as always, joined by Chris Byrum and Chris Shirley. Big
news out of the Star, news that Cowboy fans aren't
exactly excited about. And Chris Shirley, I'm going to start
with you when we're talking about the new head coach
of the Dallas Cowboys. How much on your bingo card
(00:22):
or your betting odds when Mike McCarthy announced that he
was leaving, and we're getting details that it really was
Mike McCarthy that left the Star, not so much Jerry
Jones not wanting him back. Brian Schottenheimer? Was that on
your bingo card? Was that who you were expecting to
be the next head coach?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Excuse me, Scott, who's Brian Schottenheimer? That's where he was
on my bingo card? Like I knew the name, knew
he had something to do with the offense, knew who
his dad was. That's that's all I knew. So no
zero chance he was on by being card whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I take it you're not terribly excited about this, like
most of Cowboy fans and Chris Byram when I looked
at a picture, and I want to say, and I'm
asking Byram this question. When I looked at a picture
just at a quick glance, does he kind of remind
you of Chris Shirley from just a quick glance. I
Chris Shirley's really the next head coach, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
And I think if Shirley were the next head coach
would be about the same.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I would say, would be better.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
A compliment to Shirley. Okay, yeah, I mean because I
think Shirley could do just as a good of job
or better than Schottenheimer. Because I'm looking at I'm looking
at Brian's coaching record. Okay, this is nothing to sit
here and go wow, look at this. Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I mean he he has been all over the place
and it is just there's He's been an offensive coordinator
for Saint Louis and that was in.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Twenty twelve, twenty fourteen, for of all teams, Georgia for
one year, and that was before Kirby Smart showed up.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
He's been the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys, but he
doesn't call plays. So this is a guy who hasn't
even been a real coordinator since twenty seventeen. But Jerry's
excited about him, and I think the reason why Jerry's
excited about him is because he's cheap. You know, Jerry's
(02:43):
had some doozies of quotes this week already. Oh yeah,
So I think I hate to say this. This is
not going to end well to me. This is worse
than the chan Gaily hire. And I'm I'm still I'm
still just wondering, did you just run out of options?
(03:06):
Was there nobody else? The one advantage Schottenheimer has over
everybody else is he fully understands the circus he's about
to get involved in because he's been there for three years.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, well, I want to talk about the circus, but
surely let's just talk about this from an historical standpoint.
Shottenheimer becomes the tenth head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Iron mentioned chan Gaily. Chan Gaily probably had one of
the shortest tenures. He was there ninety eight ninety nine season.
Dave Campbell was also there a couple of years, and
(03:39):
we went through that phase where it's like Barry Switcher
was there for three seasons. Chan Gaily there for a couple,
Dave Campo for a couple, Bill Parcells for three, Wade
Phillips for three, then he had the Jason Coach clap
era for nine seasons and a lot of people and
just to wrap it up, McCarthy was there for four seasons.
(03:59):
But a lot of people think that Schottenheimer is Jason
Garrett two point oh what do you think about that?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I mean, I think this is exactly Jason Garrett two
point zero with with the caveat that Jason Garrett was
even more well known. You mentioned chan Gaily there by
m chan Gaily was even more well known than Brian Schottenheimer.
And so, uh, you know, I think I think what
we what we have here is you know, number one,
(04:27):
you know, the Jones family was not expecting Mike McCarthy
to walk.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I think they were.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
They were expecting him to take the two year deal
that they were willing to offer him, to give him,
you know, one more chance to prove himself that he
can get to the end the Cowboys of the NFC
Championship game. Because that that was supposedly the standard, right
like that was that was the bar that they had set.
(04:54):
We're going to bring him in here and you got
to get us to the NFC Championship game, because that's
how your tenure here is going to be measured and evaluated.
And and he he didn't do that, but evidently they
were willing to give him, you know, a couple more
years maybe to be able to to get there because
of all the injuries that happened, you know, this last
(05:16):
this last season, and you know, McCarthy's like, thanks, but
no thanks, that's not enough, you know of a guarantee
for me, a two year extension, you know whatever. And
so I think they were absolutely left flat footed. You know,
I think you know, any any good owner slash, any
(05:36):
good owner with a good GM and tandem. You know,
I think as you're approaching the end of any coaches contract,
you know, you need you need to have some names,
you know, kind of uh, you know, waiting.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You're wishless, right, yeah, you're.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You're wishless whatever whatever that is. And the Cowboys, the
Jones family didn't didn't have anything that They were completely
caught flat footed when McCarthy walked out the door. And
so rather than putting together a serious candidate search, they
(06:17):
they just you know, called up Dion and had a
phone conversation and you know, made sure that they checked
you checked off the box for the Rooney rule and
bringing a Leslie Frazier and you know, at, okay, there's
a there's a former head coach out of there, Sola,
So okay, well we'll bring him in and interview him
as well. But it was not serious at all, which
(06:39):
I think is what is so infuriating to the Cowboys
fan base right now. You you, you have the controls,
Jerry Jones of the most valuable franchise sports franchise in
the world. We're not just talking about in the NFL
or in the US, but in the world, and you
do not conduct a serious search for your next head coach,
(07:02):
which may very well be your last head coach that
you ever hired, depending on how much longer your sucond
heir right, and and and and they and they bring
in somebody who wasn't on anybody's radar. Nobody, nobody was
talking about Schottenheimer. He wasn't even our offensive coordinator. He
was an assistant to Mike Krthy on the offensive side
(07:24):
of the ball. I mean, that's that's all he was,
you know. And so I think I think that's what
has Cowboys fans just so I rate this morning and
at the same time, just so depressed because it's like, man,
did our ownership, our leadership is so inept and they're
(07:46):
so unserious about winning. All they care about is bringing
somebody in who they can control, who's not gonna rock
the boat. And as you already mentioned, who's cheap, right,
who's cheap? We don't want to he a head coach,
a real head coach, like.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
What he's worth.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
No, we're gonna we want to bring somebody in here
that we can get on the cheap. It's well, man,
it's it's.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Just us and fairness. Byrom to Jerry Jones picking Shottenhammer,
the janitor said, no, I mean that was their first
choice to be the next head coach.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But well, and it sounds like that that the that
the players really had a lot to do with Schottenheim
or being hired as well. And you're gonna be hard
hard pressed to find a player that doesn't like him. Right,
But uh, it's okay, But how did that turn out
for the Raiders This last season? The Raiders players were
(08:44):
all in on Antonio Pierce moving from interim to their
head coach, and they got what they wanted and he
was terrible. So you know, It's like, who's who's really
running the show here? Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, I am in complete agreement with Shirley on this.
I mean, honestly, if you look back at the two
most successful coaches the Cowboys had, nobody really liked them
while they were coaches. I mean, Jimmy Johnson jelling and
a poor guy who has asthma to go over to
the asthma field. And then you talk to players who
(09:22):
played for Tom Landry, most of them are like, really,
we really didn't even know him until after we stopped playing. Yeah,
nice guys, this is not going to work. And the
other thing is just Shirley's right. It is the most
valuable franchise in the world. Jerry Jones has got more
(09:44):
money than he knows what to do with, and he
and his son are sitting there going now, we don't
sign free agents because they're overpriced and you have to
overpay for them. Well, guess what you sucked because of it.
And the thing that blows my mind about this is,
you know, I don't mean to be more of it,
(10:05):
and I don't wish anything bad on Jerry Jones, but
he doesn't have that much longer left. I mean, he's
in his eighties and if he really wants to win one,
do you think you'd go all out for it. He doesn't.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
He doesn't want to. Well, listen, let's just make that clear.
And there's an article that I shared with you guys earlier.
I want to give credit where credits due. This is
Tyler Dunn. It's an article that was published on Columns
talking about the circus, the circus that is at the start.
And the first time I heard this kind of reference
(10:39):
was actually on the Fox pregame show when they talked
about being there on the sideline when Jimmy Johnson was
being inducted at you know, toward the end of a
couple seasons ago now, but when he was being inducted
into the Ring of Honor, and they said, you know,
it's crazy. It felt more like a circus than players
getting ready for a football. The way you know at
(11:01):
and T Stadium's design, the players have to you know,
go through the club seating and you know, you know,
the club section in order just to get onto the field.
And so this this article talked about that. I said,
the star at Frisco by design is a blinding spectacle.
There's no separation between football and business, so there's no
(11:23):
need to even speculate on whether the Dallas Cowboys are
more concerned about making money than winning championships. You quite
literally see this is the case every day. One former
executive on the football side of the operation laughs at
the suggestion of the debate. When Jerry Jones cut the
ribbon on this team's new ninety one acre, one point
(11:45):
five billion dollar headquarters in twenty sixteen, it was obvious
that the visions of Lombardi trophies were not dancing in
his head. It goes on to say later on the article,
it tells the story about you know, coch McCarthy got
frustrated and basically said, had he known this is what
he was getting into, he would have never taken the job.
(12:08):
And the example given, gentleman, was he had ten minutes
to grab a bite to eat to get back out
there to prepare for the next opponent, and the cafeteria
room is packed, and he's behind twelve different people who
all work on the marketing side, yapping it up in
the lunch line. And that is the environment, that is
(12:29):
the star. It's just this constant chaos where if you
would go to the Philadelphia Eagles, and the football operations
is separate from the marketing operations. You go to the
forty nine ers, you go to Green Bay, name any
franchise that has been winning in the last three decades,
and you'll have a completely different environment than what you
(12:52):
see at the Star. Surely does that sound about right?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
It does. I mean all you have to do is
look on you know, social media this morning and see
all of the pictures of uh, you know, Jerry Jones
wearing a clown outfit, and and you know that this
whole thing is it's a circus, you know. And I'm
not obviously I'm not the first one to use use
(13:18):
that term. We've talked about that here before. Of it
it's it, That's what it is. It's a it's a circus.
And we've we've said this before too. Jerry Jones is
you know, a genius marketer, a genius businessman, and but
yet he's a terrible general manager. And and this whole
(13:38):
the whole thing about the Star and all of the
you know, access to the public, and I mean that
that's it's all marketing, right, It's marketing the brand. And again,
we we've already talked about this number one franchise words
franchise in the world. So he's been successful on that front.
But man, I can imagine that being a player going
(14:01):
into you know, that kind of environment on a daily basis,
you know, I can imagine there's probably some distraction there,
you know, so that probably does not help, you know,
build a you know, a winning culture and helping to
prepare players to be successful on any given week.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I mean, he can't even have he being whoever the
coach is, can't even have Fall Camp without it becoming
you know, this big show. You know, it's like Jerry
Jones's Turnfall Camp into you know, a musty destination. From
an historical standpoint, at some point, Byron, this resting on
(14:42):
your loins of being the Dallas Cowboys in the Star,
It's going to run its course, right generations and generations.
I mean, my kids, y'all's kids have never been alive
when the Cowboys actually were good, which is just crazy
to think about. So the Cowboys have not even made
it to the NFC champion NFC Conference Championship since Barry
(15:05):
Switzer in nineteen ninety five. The Cowboys have come close
a handful of times. With the NFC divisional round losses
in twenty two to the forty nine ers, in twenty
eighteen to the Rams and twenty fourteen to the Packers,
twenty two, thousand and nine to the Vikings, in nineteen
ninety six to the Panthers, but they've never made the
conference championship since nineteen ninety five. Gentlemen, I was a
(15:29):
junior in high school in nineteen ninety five, had actually
a senior because I graduated spring of ninety six. But
this is just crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You know what's worse than that? Scott and I sent
you guys a stat after Washington made the NFC Championship Game.
The Cowboys are now every other team Get this, I mean, like,
this is how bad this is. Every other team in
the NFC has now made a NFC Championship game since
(16:02):
the Cowboys last appeared in the NFC Championship Game. Every
single NFC team has now been there since the last
time we were there. That's that's how bad things are, guys,
Like it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
YEAHCT, your point about things dying out over time is
exactly right. You know, if you go back in the NFL,
the team, the team that everybody loved was was the
Chicago Bears. Are they still famous? Sure? Are they what?
They are? They that? No? Then it switched over to
(16:40):
the New York Giants. Everybody loved the Giants. They seem
to be in every NFL championship game and only won
one of them, but everybody wanted to be in the Giants.
Then came along the Packers. Then the Packers got bad.
But then you had this mistique with the Cowboys. And
(17:00):
the thing was the Cowboys of Landry Shram and Tex Murchison,
everything they did was to get better on the field.
You go to Jimmy Johnson, everything he did was to
get better on the field. Today it is what can
we do to make money? And eventually that cash cow
(17:21):
is going to go away. I mean even the Yankees
in the seventies and eighties were beginning to get to
dire straits until they started really getting good again in
the late seventies. I would argue that the Cowboys are
really no longer the most popular team in the NFL worldwide.
(17:44):
They are because it's such a recognizable brand, but how
much longer is that going to last if they don't
start winning again? And the thing is they're not even
close to what they were. I mean, I go back
to the fact that from sixty seven to eighty three
they played in twelve NFC Championship games. Crazy, that is
(18:06):
unheard of. I mean that is I don't even think
the Patriots got that close. It is. It is nuts
what they did, and it's sad to see what it's becoming.
And it it bothers me to no end because I
(18:26):
just I just look everywhere and it's like, yeah, this
will do. You know, as long as we make money,
we're good. The only way this is gonna stop is
if the fans stop supporting them and Jerry starts looking
around and seeing season a stadium that's not sold out.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I mean, to the end, he needs Jerry Jones needs
at least the Cowboys to be in the conversation in
order to continue to make money. He doesn't need them
to I mean, I'm just being honest here, right. He
doesn't need him to win a Super Bowl. He just
needs what we have seen over the last few years
with the Cowboys are decent. I mean Mike McCarthy. You know,
we've said a lot of things we didn't like about
(19:06):
Mike McCarthy. My apology coach. I'm so sorry. We take
it all back. You know, we're seeing what it's like
with you, the vacuum that with you leaving. But I
mean he had other than you know, injury plug season
this year, but he had the Cowboys in the conversation
going into the playoffs and then of course they would
fizzle out, but that was enough to keep the fan
(19:28):
base engaged. Who knows what's going to happen. The only
thing is, you know, I mean, the last time the
Cowboys had a good run, it started with Washington won
the Super Bowl. The next year, we did not gonna happen.
But hey, let me dream one more thing before we
move on, unless you guys, obviously, I don't want to
cut the conversation off, but I'm I'm curious by him,
(19:50):
and I'm going to ask you on the spot here,
So I apologize I didn't prep you ahead of time,
but I'm just wondering, again, from an historical perspective, has
there ever been a coach an unknown? I'm sure there
has been, right where an NFL team, you know, picked
a relatively unknown coach to come in and coach the team,
(20:10):
and did it work out? Did it not work out?
Can you think of an example, and we can always
you know, revisit this later if you want to do
some research. I'm just kind of curious if there's if
there's been an example where you know, a franchise hired
just a relatively unknown.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, there's been a few, and it's never worked out.
I'm just going to answer the question for you right now.
If And the funny thing is, guys that you would
think had never been heard of had actually been very
heard of within NFL circles. And we're in the band,
Brian Schottenheimer's not in the band. That should tell you
(20:48):
everything that you need to know about this hire right now.
The most famous case of this, by the way, Scott,
and I'll just throw this out was Bill Walsh. When
the forty nine ers hired Bill Walsh. He had had
some experience as the Stanford head coach, but that was it,
and everybody was like, who here was the thing about
Bill Walsh. Everybody wanted to hire him in the late
(21:09):
sixties and early seventies because he was the architect of
Paul Brown's offense with the Cincinnati Bengals. Now you sit
in there going ooh, with the Cincinnati Bengals. They weren't
that good in the late sixties, but their offenses were amazing.
Brown would specifically tell teams when they would call to
ask to talk to Walsh, you don't want to talk
to him. He's really a bad guy. Because Brown did
(21:33):
not want to give him up, and Brown was so respected,
teams would hear that in back off. So no, I
think if you know, if you go hire some unknown,
it's not going to work out for you. And almost
every coach that's had success in the NFL has some
(21:53):
sort of skin on the wall before they get there.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Well, listen, I hope we're all surprised that. Look, there's
been situations in careers, not necessarily that we've seen play
out at this stage where you know, somebody interviews, well,
maybe they're hitting talents. This is the optimistic person in
me that says, maybe, just maybe the problem is I
(22:17):
don't care who the head coach is, rather it's Schottenheimer
or if they hit a home run. I mean, we've
seen the great Bill Parcells come to Valley Ranch back
in those days. Was it able to you know, turn
it into a championship team because of the circus And
so my hopes are not high real quick.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Before we move on, just a couple of things. One
of the things that we seem to be hearing this
morning about why you know Schottenheimer was was hired, it
has to.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Do with culture.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Culture is a word that I think we're hearing a
lot about him. It seems as though when Mike McCarthy
took over the play calling duties a couple of years
ago after Kellen Moore left, I guess there was some
initial friction between McCarthy I think in dak Press Prescott
(23:13):
as well as some other offensive players, and evidently Schottenheimer
was kind of the mediator. Kellen Moore obviously was was
the front runner I think that we've all had on
our bingo card. It seems like that maybe one of
the reasons why you know he was he was not,
in the end, you know, chosen to be the next
head coach of the Dallas Cowboys was because I think
(23:35):
the Joneses were a little bit concerned about his ability
to be able to lead men in the locker room.
It seems like Schottenheimer, at least in the time that
he's been here, has shown maybe more of those qualities
and characteristics than you know, like a Kellen Moore, you know.
So that's just one thing. But a second thing, you know,
(23:58):
we're starting to hear rumors that the defensive coordinator, and
I've seen conflicting reports that this decision has been made
or that it's imminent, is that Matt Eberflus is going
to be named as our defensive coordinator. He's the former
obviously Chicago Bears head coach, but he spent time here
(24:19):
under Rod Marinelli when he was a defensive coordinator here
previously with the Cowboys, And so this is an interesting
stat Maybe this is you know, a little bit of
a silver lining if indeed we hire him as a
defensive coordinator. In his four years is defensive coordinator at
indian At Indieapolis, his units finished top ten and fewest
(24:42):
points allowed three times, top ten in rushing yards allowed
and takeaways all four years. So that I mean, if that,
if that's a higher they make on the defensive end
of the ball, defensive side of the ball, I don't know,
maybe that maybe that's a silver lining. Maybe that's at
a little bit of an occur news to have, you know,
(25:03):
someone like him who has those stats as a defensive
coordinator in the past, you know, coming to coach Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Well, we will find out for sure. Let's keep it
in the NFL, and let's talk about the four teams
that are remaining that are trying to make it to
a game that the Cowboys may never see again, the
Super Bowl. Byron, when you look at the NFC Championship game,
(25:33):
you got the Commanders and the Eagles. And you look
at the AFC Championship game, you got the Bills and
the Chiefs. When you look at those four teams, who
are your odd favorites to make it to the game,
and who do you think has the greatest shot at
winning it all this year?
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I hate to say this, I think the team that
has the best shot of winning it all this year
is the Chiefs, simply because of the experience factor. But
the matchup I would love to see is the Bills
versus the Commanders, and that means the two underdogs have
to win. The odds of that happening aren't great, but
(26:12):
we can hope. And you know, but I do think
the favorites are definitely Philadelphia in Buffalo. Even though Jalen
hurts knee is going to be a big deal throughout
all of this and we're going to have to see
how that works out for them tomorrow. But yeah, I
(26:34):
would love to see a Bills commander's matchup. You would
have a rookie quarterback, and rookie quarterbacks tend not to
do well in the Super Bowl, but it would still
be an intriguing matchup to watch. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I would say probably the favorites going into this weekend.
And I've not looked at like the lines or anything
like that, but I mean, I would think that the
chief simply because of their experience in their history, you know,
on the AFC side, and then the Philadelphia Eagles, you know,
on the NFC side. Man, I'm pulling for a you know,
(27:12):
likewise a Bills Commander's super Bowl. So that's who I'm
going to be pulling for this weekend. I think the
you know, the Bills are are really hot, you know
right now. I think they're playing playing really well. I
think they can go into Arrowhead and pull off you know,
(27:33):
the the upset finally, you know, get over the Chiefs
in the playoffs. They've had some pretty amazing battles in
the past and have come up short. So maybe this
is the year they finally, you know, get over that hurdle,
you know, kind of like the Cowboys had the dude
to get to the Super Bowl getting over the forty
(27:55):
nine ers, you know, back in back in the day,
a really long time ago, as we talked about this warning,
you know, and then obviously, man, I can't I can't
root for Philadelphia ever, So yeah, I'll be I'll be
rooting for uh, you know, Jane Daniels and the Commanders
today and and coach backwards backwards hat you too to
(28:19):
pull off, you know, the the upset today. So I
had I have to have two fun facts. One of
them I'm gonna say to the very end, but they
both have to do with this weekend's games. So here here,
here's a here's a fun fact for you, which is
which I find really fascinating about the four teams that
are coming into you know, the championship games this weekend,
(28:42):
are the top four teams in fourth down conversion rate
uh in the NFL this season. That that to me
is amazing shows you how important it is touh. You know,
have have some some good plays when it's when it's
fourth and in short and to convert those plays to
(29:02):
keep drives going. So that's that's a pretty amazing stat
for these teams that are that are left standing right
now to.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
That end, surely, it seems like in the last three
seasons teams have gotten a lot more aggressive on fourth
down than they have been historically, And I buyer might
love that. Maybe for our next podcast you can research that,
like how many teams in the NFL we've seen in
the college ranks, and it's like often what happens in
college in some respects bubbles up to the NFL. But
(29:33):
I'd be kind of curious like percentage wise of teams
going forward and fourth down in today's game in the
last three years versus historically, because it just seems like
they're a lot more aggressive no matter where you are,
you know, on the field. So that's kind of interesting.
To answer your question. The Eagles are favored by six,
which typically betting odds gives you a three point advantage
(29:57):
going in if you're the home team, So that tells
you how tight that game is. Even tighter the Chiefs
right now are only sitting with a one and a
half point advantage, which almost leads you to believe like
maybe the betting odds is kind of leaning toward Buffalo
coming into that game. I think we're at all in agreement.
The Bills versus the Commanders would be a phenomenal matchup.
(30:20):
It'd be so many storylines with that particular matchup because
you think about the coach of the Commanders. Obviously, the
last time he was in the Super Bowl was one
of the historically the greatest meltdowns ever when Tom Brady
came from behind to beat the Atlanta Falcons, and that
game was frustrating as a as a guy who didn't want,
(30:42):
you know, Tom Brady to win another Super Bowl. And
then he had the Bills franchise, who we've talked about
before in this podcast, been four times in a row,
lost all four Super Bowls. Could that get that team's
monkey off their back? You know, if they can finally
win the Super Bowl, of course, the Chiefs make it
big storyline. There will be Could they be the first
(31:04):
team ever in NFL history to win the championship game
three times in a row. We've seen it happen in baseball,
We've seen it happen in basketball. We've not seen it
happen ever in football, So that would be interesting. The Eagles,
you know, they I think going into this season was
a favorite. I think even on this podcast we said
(31:25):
the Eagles were a favorite. I think the big question
mark and Byron you mentioned it was, you know Jalen Hurts,
how banged up is his knee? You know, coming out
of Philadelphia, they're saying he's going to be fine. But
that's what of course you're going to say that. So
it'll be interesting to see what will happen as we
go down the stretch for the super Bowl. But that
(31:46):
NFC Championship game. My little fun fact of that which
everybody knows this it's still fun to me, is it's
really the battle of the former Dallas Cowboy coordinators, right
offensive coordinator versus defense. It's a coordinator and I hope
Jerry Jones this enjoys that. Byram any other final thoughts
(32:06):
before we let surely have his one more thing.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
No, I think it's going to be an interesting weekend.
I'm hoping it's they're good games to get my mind
off of the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Oh, Jerry will find some way to interrupt your Sunday
to get some cowboy news. That's what he likes to do.
All right, surely it's time for your one and By
the way, we were going to talk about the state
of Baylor basketball. We're going to listen that season is
miserably going on. We'll have an opportunity to unpack that
at a later podcast, but surely give me your one
(32:38):
more thing.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
So one more thing. So, no quarterback in the salary
cap era has lost their first Super Bowl and ever
played in another one.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Okay, you're gonna have to say that again so I
can process that.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
All right, No quarterback in the salary cap Era has
lost their first Super Bowl in ever played in another one.
So who does that effect this weekend?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Jalen Hurts. Yeah, it'd be Hurts, right, yep.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Interesting, So we'll see you.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You dug deep into the stats for that one.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
That's awesome. I just heard that this week, so that
you know, I didn't go digging for it. I just
heard it and wrote it down.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Like somebody dug deep for that one.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, I'm impressed.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's like no team that ever wore the color you know. Yeah,
I love that.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I tell myself I'm a storehouse of worthless knowledge. I
didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Well, now you do. You can store that away. So
all right, well, gentlemen, it'll be interesting to see. One
thing we know for sure, the Dallas Cowboys will not
be playing the championship game this year or perhaps even
in our lifetime. Chris Shirley and Chris Byram. I'm Scott
Miller until next time. So long, everybody,
Welcome to another conversation with the chriss. I'm Scott Miller,
as always, joined by Chris Byrum and Chris Shirley. Big
news out of the Star, news that Cowboy fans aren't
exactly excited about. And Chris Shirley, I'm going to start
with you when we're talking about the new head coach
of the Dallas Cowboys. How much on your bingo card
(00:22):
or your betting odds when Mike McCarthy announced that he
was leaving, and we're getting details that it really was
Mike McCarthy that left the Star, not so much Jerry
Jones not wanting him back. Brian Schottenheimer? Was that on
your bingo card? Was that who you were expecting to
be the next head coach?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Excuse me, Scott, who's Brian Schottenheimer? That's where he was
on my bingo card? Like I knew the name, knew
he had something to do with the offense, knew who
his dad was. That's that's all I knew. So no
zero chance he was on by being card whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I take it you're not terribly excited about this, like
most of Cowboy fans and Chris Byram when I looked
at a picture, and I want to say, and I'm
asking Byram this question. When I looked at a picture
just at a quick glance, does he kind of remind
you of Chris Shirley from just a quick glance. I
Chris Shirley's really the next head coach, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
And I think if Shirley were the next head coach
would be about the same.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I would say, would be better.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
A compliment to Shirley. Okay, yeah, I mean because I
think Shirley could do just as a good of job
or better than Schottenheimer. Because I'm looking at I'm looking
at Brian's coaching record. Okay, this is nothing to sit
here and go wow, look at this. Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I mean he he has been all over the place
and it is just there's He's been an offensive coordinator
for Saint Louis and that was in.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Twenty twelve, twenty fourteen, for of all teams, Georgia for
one year, and that was before Kirby Smart showed up.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
He's been the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys, but he
doesn't call plays. So this is a guy who hasn't
even been a real coordinator since twenty seventeen. But Jerry's
excited about him, and I think the reason why Jerry's
excited about him is because he's cheap. You know, Jerry's
(02:43):
had some doozies of quotes this week already. Oh yeah,
So I think I hate to say this. This is
not going to end well to me. This is worse
than the chan Gaily hire. And I'm I'm still I'm
still just wondering, did you just run out of options?
(03:06):
Was there nobody else? The one advantage Schottenheimer has over
everybody else is he fully understands the circus he's about
to get involved in because he's been there for three years.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, well, I want to talk about the circus, but
surely let's just talk about this from an historical standpoint.
Shottenheimer becomes the tenth head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Iron mentioned chan Gaily. Chan Gaily probably had one of
the shortest tenures. He was there ninety eight ninety nine season.
Dave Campbell was also there a couple of years, and
(03:39):
we went through that phase where it's like Barry Switcher
was there for three seasons. Chan Gaily there for a couple,
Dave Campo for a couple, Bill Parcells for three, Wade
Phillips for three, then he had the Jason Coach clap
era for nine seasons and a lot of people and
just to wrap it up, McCarthy was there for four seasons.
(03:59):
But a lot of people think that Schottenheimer is Jason
Garrett two point oh what do you think about that?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I mean, I think this is exactly Jason Garrett two
point zero with with the caveat that Jason Garrett was
even more well known. You mentioned chan Gaily there by
m chan Gaily was even more well known than Brian Schottenheimer.
And so, uh, you know, I think I think what
we what we have here is you know, number one,
(04:27):
you know, the Jones family was not expecting Mike McCarthy
to walk.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I think they were.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
They were expecting him to take the two year deal
that they were willing to offer him, to give him,
you know, one more chance to prove himself that he
can get to the end the Cowboys of the NFC
Championship game. Because that that was supposedly the standard, right
like that was that was the bar that they had set.
(04:54):
We're going to bring him in here and you got
to get us to the NFC Championship game, because that's
how your tenure here is going to be measured and evaluated.
And and he he didn't do that, but evidently they
were willing to give him, you know, a couple more
years maybe to be able to to get there because
of all the injuries that happened, you know, this last
(05:16):
this last season, and you know, McCarthy's like, thanks, but
no thanks, that's not enough, you know of a guarantee
for me, a two year extension, you know whatever. And
so I think they were absolutely left flat footed. You know,
I think you know, any any good owner slash, any
(05:36):
good owner with a good GM and tandem. You know,
I think as you're approaching the end of any coaches contract,
you know, you need you need to have some names,
you know, kind of uh, you know, waiting.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You're wishless, right, yeah, you're.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You're wishless whatever whatever that is. And the Cowboys, the
Jones family didn't didn't have anything that They were completely
caught flat footed when McCarthy walked out the door. And
so rather than putting together a serious candidate search, they
(06:17):
they just you know, called up Dion and had a
phone conversation and you know, made sure that they checked
you checked off the box for the Rooney rule and
bringing a Leslie Frazier and you know, at, okay, there's
a there's a former head coach out of there, Sola,
So okay, well we'll bring him in and interview him
as well. But it was not serious at all, which
(06:39):
I think is what is so infuriating to the Cowboys
fan base right now. You you, you have the controls,
Jerry Jones of the most valuable franchise sports franchise in
the world. We're not just talking about in the NFL
or in the US, but in the world, and you
do not conduct a serious search for your next head coach,
(07:02):
which may very well be your last head coach that
you ever hired, depending on how much longer your sucond
heir right, and and and and they and they bring
in somebody who wasn't on anybody's radar. Nobody, nobody was
talking about Schottenheimer. He wasn't even our offensive coordinator. He
was an assistant to Mike Krthy on the offensive side
(07:24):
of the ball. I mean, that's that's all he was,
you know. And so I think I think that's what
has Cowboys fans just so I rate this morning and
at the same time, just so depressed because it's like, man,
did our ownership, our leadership is so inept and they're
(07:46):
so unserious about winning. All they care about is bringing
somebody in who they can control, who's not gonna rock
the boat. And as you already mentioned, who's cheap, right,
who's cheap? We don't want to he a head coach,
a real head coach, like.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
What he's worth.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
No, we're gonna we want to bring somebody in here
that we can get on the cheap. It's well, man,
it's it's.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Just us and fairness. Byrom to Jerry Jones picking Shottenhammer,
the janitor said, no, I mean that was their first
choice to be the next head coach.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
But well, and it sounds like that that the that
the players really had a lot to do with Schottenheim
or being hired as well. And you're gonna be hard
hard pressed to find a player that doesn't like him. Right,
But uh, it's okay, But how did that turn out
for the Raiders This last season? The Raiders players were
(08:44):
all in on Antonio Pierce moving from interim to their
head coach, and they got what they wanted and he
was terrible. So you know, It's like, who's who's really
running the show here? Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, I am in complete agreement with Shirley on this.
I mean, honestly, if you look back at the two
most successful coaches the Cowboys had, nobody really liked them
while they were coaches. I mean, Jimmy Johnson jelling and
a poor guy who has asthma to go over to
the asthma field. And then you talk to players who
(09:22):
played for Tom Landry, most of them are like, really,
we really didn't even know him until after we stopped playing. Yeah,
nice guys, this is not going to work. And the
other thing is just Shirley's right. It is the most
valuable franchise in the world. Jerry Jones has got more
(09:44):
money than he knows what to do with, and he
and his son are sitting there going now, we don't
sign free agents because they're overpriced and you have to
overpay for them. Well, guess what you sucked because of it.
And the thing that blows my mind about this is,
you know, I don't mean to be more of it,
(10:05):
and I don't wish anything bad on Jerry Jones, but
he doesn't have that much longer left. I mean, he's
in his eighties and if he really wants to win one,
do you think you'd go all out for it. He doesn't.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
He doesn't want to. Well, listen, let's just make that clear.
And there's an article that I shared with you guys earlier.
I want to give credit where credits due. This is
Tyler Dunn. It's an article that was published on Columns
talking about the circus, the circus that is at the start.
And the first time I heard this kind of reference
(10:39):
was actually on the Fox pregame show when they talked
about being there on the sideline when Jimmy Johnson was
being inducted at you know, toward the end of a
couple seasons ago now, but when he was being inducted
into the Ring of Honor, and they said, you know,
it's crazy. It felt more like a circus than players
getting ready for a football. The way you know at
(11:01):
and T Stadium's design, the players have to you know,
go through the club seating and you know, you know,
the club section in order just to get onto the field.
And so this this article talked about that. I said,
the star at Frisco by design is a blinding spectacle.
There's no separation between football and business, so there's no
(11:23):
need to even speculate on whether the Dallas Cowboys are
more concerned about making money than winning championships. You quite
literally see this is the case every day. One former
executive on the football side of the operation laughs at
the suggestion of the debate. When Jerry Jones cut the
ribbon on this team's new ninety one acre, one point
(11:45):
five billion dollar headquarters in twenty sixteen, it was obvious
that the visions of Lombardi trophies were not dancing in
his head. It goes on to say later on the article,
it tells the story about you know, coch McCarthy got
frustrated and basically said, had he known this is what
he was getting into, he would have never taken the job.
(12:08):
And the example given, gentleman, was he had ten minutes
to grab a bite to eat to get back out
there to prepare for the next opponent, and the cafeteria
room is packed, and he's behind twelve different people who
all work on the marketing side, yapping it up in
the lunch line. And that is the environment, that is
(12:29):
the star. It's just this constant chaos where if you
would go to the Philadelphia Eagles, and the football operations
is separate from the marketing operations. You go to the
forty nine ers, you go to Green Bay, name any
franchise that has been winning in the last three decades,
and you'll have a completely different environment than what you
(12:52):
see at the Star. Surely does that sound about right?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
It does. I mean all you have to do is
look on you know, social media this morning and see
all of the pictures of uh, you know, Jerry Jones
wearing a clown outfit, and and you know that this
whole thing is it's a circus, you know. And I'm
not obviously I'm not the first one to use use
(13:18):
that term. We've talked about that here before. Of it
it's it, That's what it is. It's a it's a circus.
And we've we've said this before too. Jerry Jones is
you know, a genius marketer, a genius businessman, and but
yet he's a terrible general manager. And and this whole
(13:38):
the whole thing about the Star and all of the
you know, access to the public, and I mean that
that's it's all marketing, right, It's marketing the brand. And again,
we we've already talked about this number one franchise words
franchise in the world. So he's been successful on that front.
But man, I can imagine that being a player going
(14:01):
into you know, that kind of environment on a daily basis,
you know, I can imagine there's probably some distraction there,
you know, so that probably does not help, you know,
build a you know, a winning culture and helping to
prepare players to be successful on any given week.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I mean, he can't even have he being whoever the
coach is, can't even have Fall Camp without it becoming
you know, this big show. You know, it's like Jerry
Jones's Turnfall Camp into you know, a musty destination. From
an historical standpoint, at some point, Byron, this resting on
(14:42):
your loins of being the Dallas Cowboys in the Star,
It's going to run its course, right generations and generations.
I mean, my kids, y'all's kids have never been alive
when the Cowboys actually were good, which is just crazy
to think about. So the Cowboys have not even made
it to the NFC champion NFC Conference Championship since Barry
(15:05):
Switzer in nineteen ninety five. The Cowboys have come close
a handful of times. With the NFC divisional round losses
in twenty two to the forty nine ers, in twenty
eighteen to the Rams and twenty fourteen to the Packers,
twenty two, thousand and nine to the Vikings, in nineteen
ninety six to the Panthers, but they've never made the
conference championship since nineteen ninety five. Gentlemen, I was a
(15:29):
junior in high school in nineteen ninety five, had actually
a senior because I graduated spring of ninety six. But
this is just crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You know what's worse than that? Scott and I sent
you guys a stat after Washington made the NFC Championship Game.
The Cowboys are now every other team Get this, I mean, like,
this is how bad this is. Every other team in
the NFC has now made a NFC Championship game since
(16:02):
the Cowboys last appeared in the NFC Championship Game. Every
single NFC team has now been there since the last
time we were there. That's that's how bad things are, guys,
Like it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
YEAHCT, your point about things dying out over time is
exactly right. You know, if you go back in the NFL,
the team, the team that everybody loved was was the
Chicago Bears. Are they still famous? Sure? Are they what?
They are? They that? No? Then it switched over to
(16:40):
the New York Giants. Everybody loved the Giants. They seem
to be in every NFL championship game and only won
one of them, but everybody wanted to be in the Giants.
Then came along the Packers. Then the Packers got bad.
But then you had this mistique with the Cowboys. And
(17:00):
the thing was the Cowboys of Landry Shram and Tex Murchison,
everything they did was to get better on the field.
You go to Jimmy Johnson, everything he did was to
get better on the field. Today it is what can
we do to make money? And eventually that cash cow
(17:21):
is going to go away. I mean even the Yankees
in the seventies and eighties were beginning to get to
dire straits until they started really getting good again in
the late seventies. I would argue that the Cowboys are
really no longer the most popular team in the NFL worldwide.
(17:44):
They are because it's such a recognizable brand, but how
much longer is that going to last if they don't
start winning again? And the thing is they're not even
close to what they were. I mean, I go back
to the fact that from sixty seven to eighty three
they played in twelve NFC Championship games. Crazy, that is
(18:06):
unheard of. I mean that is I don't even think
the Patriots got that close. It is. It is nuts
what they did, and it's sad to see what it's becoming.
And it it bothers me to no end because I
(18:26):
just I just look everywhere and it's like, yeah, this
will do. You know, as long as we make money,
we're good. The only way this is gonna stop is
if the fans stop supporting them and Jerry starts looking
around and seeing season a stadium that's not sold out.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I mean, to the end, he needs Jerry Jones needs
at least the Cowboys to be in the conversation in
order to continue to make money. He doesn't need them
to I mean, I'm just being honest here, right. He
doesn't need him to win a Super Bowl. He just
needs what we have seen over the last few years
with the Cowboys are decent. I mean Mike McCarthy. You know,
we've said a lot of things we didn't like about
(19:06):
Mike McCarthy. My apology coach. I'm so sorry. We take
it all back. You know, we're seeing what it's like
with you, the vacuum that with you leaving. But I
mean he had other than you know, injury plug season
this year, but he had the Cowboys in the conversation
going into the playoffs and then of course they would
fizzle out, but that was enough to keep the fan
(19:28):
base engaged. Who knows what's going to happen. The only
thing is, you know, I mean, the last time the
Cowboys had a good run, it started with Washington won
the Super Bowl. The next year, we did not gonna happen.
But hey, let me dream one more thing before we
move on, unless you guys, obviously, I don't want to
cut the conversation off, but I'm I'm curious by him,
(19:50):
and I'm going to ask you on the spot here,
So I apologize I didn't prep you ahead of time,
but I'm just wondering, again, from an historical perspective, has
there ever been a coach an unknown? I'm sure there
has been, right where an NFL team, you know, picked
a relatively unknown coach to come in and coach the team,
(20:10):
and did it work out? Did it not work out?
Can you think of an example, and we can always
you know, revisit this later if you want to do
some research. I'm just kind of curious if there's if
there's been an example where you know, a franchise hired
just a relatively unknown.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, there's been a few, and it's never worked out.
I'm just going to answer the question for you right now.
If And the funny thing is, guys that you would
think had never been heard of had actually been very
heard of within NFL circles. And we're in the band,
Brian Schottenheimer's not in the band. That should tell you
(20:48):
everything that you need to know about this hire right now.
The most famous case of this, by the way, Scott,
and I'll just throw this out was Bill Walsh. When
the forty nine ers hired Bill Walsh. He had had
some experience as the Stanford head coach, but that was it,
and everybody was like, who here was the thing about
Bill Walsh. Everybody wanted to hire him in the late
(21:09):
sixties and early seventies because he was the architect of
Paul Brown's offense with the Cincinnati Bengals. Now you sit
in there going ooh, with the Cincinnati Bengals. They weren't
that good in the late sixties, but their offenses were amazing.
Brown would specifically tell teams when they would call to
ask to talk to Walsh, you don't want to talk
to him. He's really a bad guy. Because Brown did
(21:33):
not want to give him up, and Brown was so respected,
teams would hear that in back off. So no, I
think if you know, if you go hire some unknown,
it's not going to work out for you. And almost
every coach that's had success in the NFL has some
(21:53):
sort of skin on the wall before they get there.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Well, listen, I hope we're all surprised that. Look, there's
been situations in careers, not necessarily that we've seen play
out at this stage where you know, somebody interviews, well,
maybe they're hitting talents. This is the optimistic person in
me that says, maybe, just maybe the problem is I
(22:17):
don't care who the head coach is, rather it's Schottenheimer
or if they hit a home run. I mean, we've
seen the great Bill Parcells come to Valley Ranch back
in those days. Was it able to you know, turn
it into a championship team because of the circus And
so my hopes are not high real quick.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Before we move on, just a couple of things. One
of the things that we seem to be hearing this
morning about why you know Schottenheimer was was hired, it
has to.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Do with culture.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Culture is a word that I think we're hearing a
lot about him. It seems as though when Mike McCarthy
took over the play calling duties a couple of years
ago after Kellen Moore left, I guess there was some
initial friction between McCarthy I think in dak Press Prescott
(23:13):
as well as some other offensive players, and evidently Schottenheimer
was kind of the mediator. Kellen Moore obviously was was
the front runner I think that we've all had on
our bingo card. It seems like that maybe one of
the reasons why you know he was he was not,
in the end, you know, chosen to be the next
head coach of the Dallas Cowboys was because I think
(23:35):
the Joneses were a little bit concerned about his ability
to be able to lead men in the locker room.
It seems like Schottenheimer, at least in the time that
he's been here, has shown maybe more of those qualities
and characteristics than you know, like a Kellen Moore, you know.
So that's just one thing. But a second thing, you know,
(23:58):
we're starting to hear rumors that the defensive coordinator, and
I've seen conflicting reports that this decision has been made
or that it's imminent, is that Matt Eberflus is going
to be named as our defensive coordinator. He's the former
obviously Chicago Bears head coach, but he spent time here
(24:19):
under Rod Marinelli when he was a defensive coordinator here
previously with the Cowboys, And so this is an interesting
stat Maybe this is you know, a little bit of
a silver lining if indeed we hire him as a
defensive coordinator. In his four years is defensive coordinator at
indian At Indieapolis, his units finished top ten and fewest
(24:42):
points allowed three times, top ten in rushing yards allowed
and takeaways all four years. So that I mean, if that,
if that's a higher they make on the defensive end
of the ball, defensive side of the ball, I don't know,
maybe that maybe that's a silver lining. Maybe that's at
a little bit of an occur news to have, you know,
(25:03):
someone like him who has those stats as a defensive
coordinator in the past, you know, coming to coach Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Well, we will find out for sure. Let's keep it
in the NFL, and let's talk about the four teams
that are remaining that are trying to make it to
a game that the Cowboys may never see again, the
Super Bowl. Byron, when you look at the NFC Championship game,
(25:33):
you got the Commanders and the Eagles. And you look
at the AFC Championship game, you got the Bills and
the Chiefs. When you look at those four teams, who
are your odd favorites to make it to the game,
and who do you think has the greatest shot at
winning it all this year?
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I hate to say this, I think the team that
has the best shot of winning it all this year
is the Chiefs, simply because of the experience factor. But
the matchup I would love to see is the Bills
versus the Commanders, and that means the two underdogs have
to win. The odds of that happening aren't great, but
(26:12):
we can hope. And you know, but I do think
the favorites are definitely Philadelphia in Buffalo. Even though Jalen
hurts knee is going to be a big deal throughout
all of this and we're going to have to see
how that works out for them tomorrow. But yeah, I
(26:34):
would love to see a Bills commander's matchup. You would
have a rookie quarterback, and rookie quarterbacks tend not to
do well in the Super Bowl, but it would still
be an intriguing matchup to watch. You know.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I would say probably the favorites going into this weekend.
And I've not looked at like the lines or anything
like that, but I mean, I would think that the
chief simply because of their experience in their history, you know,
on the AFC side, and then the Philadelphia Eagles, you know,
on the NFC side. Man, I'm pulling for a you know,
(27:12):
likewise a Bills Commander's super Bowl. So that's who I'm
going to be pulling for this weekend. I think the
you know, the Bills are are really hot, you know
right now. I think they're playing playing really well. I
think they can go into Arrowhead and pull off you know,
(27:33):
the the upset finally, you know, get over the Chiefs
in the playoffs. They've had some pretty amazing battles in
the past and have come up short. So maybe this
is the year they finally, you know, get over that hurdle,
you know, kind of like the Cowboys had the dude
to get to the Super Bowl getting over the forty
(27:55):
nine ers, you know, back in back in the day,
a really long time ago, as we talked about this warning,
you know, and then obviously, man, I can't I can't
root for Philadelphia ever, So yeah, I'll be I'll be
rooting for uh, you know, Jane Daniels and the Commanders
today and and coach backwards backwards hat you too to
(28:19):
pull off, you know, the the upset today. So I
had I have to have two fun facts. One of
them I'm gonna say to the very end, but they
both have to do with this weekend's games. So here here,
here's a here's a fun fact for you, which is
which I find really fascinating about the four teams that
are coming into you know, the championship games this weekend,
(28:42):
are the top four teams in fourth down conversion rate
uh in the NFL this season. That that to me
is amazing shows you how important it is touh. You know,
have have some some good plays when it's when it's
fourth and in short and to convert those plays to
(29:02):
keep drives going. So that's that's a pretty amazing stat
for these teams that are that are left standing right
now to.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
That end, surely, it seems like in the last three
seasons teams have gotten a lot more aggressive on fourth
down than they have been historically, And I buyer might
love that. Maybe for our next podcast you can research that,
like how many teams in the NFL we've seen in
the college ranks, and it's like often what happens in
college in some respects bubbles up to the NFL. But
(29:33):
I'd be kind of curious like percentage wise of teams
going forward and fourth down in today's game in the
last three years versus historically, because it just seems like
they're a lot more aggressive no matter where you are,
you know, on the field. So that's kind of interesting.
To answer your question. The Eagles are favored by six,
which typically betting odds gives you a three point advantage
(29:57):
going in if you're the home team, So that tells
you how tight that game is. Even tighter the Chiefs
right now are only sitting with a one and a
half point advantage, which almost leads you to believe like
maybe the betting odds is kind of leaning toward Buffalo
coming into that game. I think we're at all in agreement.
The Bills versus the Commanders would be a phenomenal matchup.
(30:20):
It'd be so many storylines with that particular matchup because
you think about the coach of the Commanders. Obviously, the
last time he was in the Super Bowl was one
of the historically the greatest meltdowns ever when Tom Brady
came from behind to beat the Atlanta Falcons, and that
game was frustrating as a as a guy who didn't want,
(30:42):
you know, Tom Brady to win another Super Bowl. And
then he had the Bills franchise, who we've talked about
before in this podcast, been four times in a row,
lost all four Super Bowls. Could that get that team's
monkey off their back? You know, if they can finally
win the Super Bowl, of course, the Chiefs make it
big storyline. There will be Could they be the first
(31:04):
team ever in NFL history to win the championship game
three times in a row. We've seen it happen in baseball,
We've seen it happen in basketball. We've not seen it
happen ever in football, So that would be interesting. The Eagles,
you know, they I think going into this season was
a favorite. I think even on this podcast we said
(31:25):
the Eagles were a favorite. I think the big question
mark and Byron you mentioned it was, you know Jalen Hurts,
how banged up is his knee? You know, coming out
of Philadelphia, they're saying he's going to be fine. But
that's what of course you're going to say that. So
it'll be interesting to see what will happen as we
go down the stretch for the super Bowl. But that
(31:46):
NFC Championship game. My little fun fact of that which
everybody knows this it's still fun to me, is it's
really the battle of the former Dallas Cowboy coordinators, right
offensive coordinator versus defense. It's a coordinator and I hope
Jerry Jones this enjoys that. Byram any other final thoughts
(32:06):
before we let surely have his one more thing.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
No, I think it's going to be an interesting weekend.
I'm hoping it's they're good games to get my mind
off of the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Oh, Jerry will find some way to interrupt your Sunday
to get some cowboy news. That's what he likes to do.
All right, surely it's time for your one and By
the way, we were going to talk about the state
of Baylor basketball. We're going to listen that season is
miserably going on. We'll have an opportunity to unpack that
at a later podcast, but surely give me your one
(32:38):
more thing.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
So one more thing. So, no quarterback in the salary
cap era has lost their first Super Bowl and ever
played in another one.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Okay, you're gonna have to say that again so I
can process that.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
All right, No quarterback in the salary cap Era has
lost their first Super Bowl in ever played in another one.
So who does that effect this weekend?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Jalen Hurts. Yeah, it'd be Hurts, right, yep.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Interesting, So we'll see you.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You dug deep into the stats for that one.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
That's awesome. I just heard that this week, so that
you know, I didn't go digging for it. I just
heard it and wrote it down.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Like somebody dug deep for that one.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, I'm impressed.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's like no team that ever wore the color you know. Yeah,
I love that.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I tell myself I'm a storehouse of worthless knowledge. I
didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Well, now you do. You can store that away. So
all right, well, gentlemen, it'll be interesting to see. One
thing we know for sure, the Dallas Cowboys will not
be playing the championship game this year or perhaps even
in our lifetime. Chris Shirley and Chris Byram. I'm Scott
Miller until next time. So long, everybody,
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