September 23, 2024 • 54 mins
Welcome back to another thrilling episode of The Sports Cave with Biggest Puma, hosted by the ever-passionate Sam Freas, affectionately known as the Biggest Puma. Broadcasting live from the vibrant east side of San Antonio, Sam dives deep into the heart of South Texas sports culture.
In this episode, Sam kicks off with a nostalgic recount of his high school reunion, sharing hilarious and heartfelt moments from Glen Rose, Texas. From the gentrification of his rural hometown to the unexpected run-ins with old classmates, Sam paints a vivid picture of how much has changed over the years.
As the countdown to the Spurs’ opening night hits 31 days, Sam reflects on his journey as a Spurs fan, despite the ribbing from his high school buddies. He passionately defends his allegiance, drawing parallels with the widespread love for the Cowboys among fans who didn’t grow up in the DFW area.
The episode takes a deep dive into the latest Cowboys game, dissecting their disappointing performance and the ongoing issues plaguing the team. Sam doesn’t hold back, calling out Jerry Jones for his management decisions and the team’s lackluster start to the season. With a mix of frustration and hope, he analyzes the Cowboys’ chances and the broader landscape of the NFC.
Sam also touches on the seismic shifts in college football, particularly the rejection of the Pac-12 by four American Athletic Conference schools, including UTSA. He marvels at the current state of college football and what it means for the future of the sport.
Join Sam for an episode packed with insightful analysis, personal anecdotes, and the unfiltered opinions you’ve come to love. Whether you’re a die-hard Cowboys fan, a Spurs enthusiast, or just love a good sports story, this episode of The Sports Cave with Biggest Puma is a must-listen!
In this episode, Sam kicks off with a nostalgic recount of his high school reunion, sharing hilarious and heartfelt moments from Glen Rose, Texas. From the gentrification of his rural hometown to the unexpected run-ins with old classmates, Sam paints a vivid picture of how much has changed over the years.
As the countdown to the Spurs’ opening night hits 31 days, Sam reflects on his journey as a Spurs fan, despite the ribbing from his high school buddies. He passionately defends his allegiance, drawing parallels with the widespread love for the Cowboys among fans who didn’t grow up in the DFW area.
The episode takes a deep dive into the latest Cowboys game, dissecting their disappointing performance and the ongoing issues plaguing the team. Sam doesn’t hold back, calling out Jerry Jones for his management decisions and the team’s lackluster start to the season. With a mix of frustration and hope, he analyzes the Cowboys’ chances and the broader landscape of the NFC.
Sam also touches on the seismic shifts in college football, particularly the rejection of the Pac-12 by four American Athletic Conference schools, including UTSA. He marvels at the current state of college football and what it means for the future of the sport.
Join Sam for an episode packed with insightful analysis, personal anecdotes, and the unfiltered opinions you’ve come to love. Whether you’re a die-hard Cowboys fan, a Spurs enthusiast, or just love a good sports story, this episode of The Sports Cave with Biggest Puma is a must-listen!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Oh like the beam.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are back for another week here on the Sports
Cave with Biggest Puma. I am your host, Sam Freez,
affectionately known as the Biggest Puma, broadcasting live to tape
here on the east side of San Antonio. Another glorious
Monday down here in South Texas, thirty one days till
Spurs Opening Night. And let me.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Tell you, I caught a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Of hell back at the high school reunion this past
weekend from some of my former high school classmates not
too fond of hearing the Spurs Opening night countdown, and
I had to explain to them in very clear and
concise messaging, I've almost spent half my life down here
in San Antonio. Now we're getting close to crossing that
(00:55):
the seesaw of what market I've lived in the longest.
And let's be quite honest, we're gonna talk a lot
of cowboys today. There's a lot of Cowboys fans that
didn't grow up in the DFW TV viewing area that
are watching on an affiliate outside of the DFW market. So,
especially when it comes to pro teams, I understand a
(01:16):
lot of you all are going to disagree with me,
but I think after you spend enough time in a place,
especially when you're extremely passionate about the sport. I mean, hell,
the roommates first basketball, first pro game to ever attend
was a San Antonio Spurs Oklahoma City Thunder game where
she got to see Jeff Green put up career high
(01:36):
numbers at the time. So I understand as my high
school roommate or classmates let me know quite clearly, there's
a little bit of consternation about my decade and a
half Spurs fandom now. But I also explained to them
we everyone hated the Rockets, the Spurs. Everyone was jealous
(01:59):
of the Spur. I mean hell, I watched the MAVs
win their only championship sitting in an apartment building the
first six months I lived in San Antonio, So it
wasn't an instant transition. It's not like I went turncoat
as soon as I got here. It's been It's been
a blending of cultures between my childhood and my better
(02:22):
part of my adulthood here. So again, I know it's
gonna sting them. But thirty one days till Spurs opening night,
we got a lot of cowboys to talk. It's a
not victory Monday, another not victory Monday for your Dallas Cowboys.
But as always, we start with what we watched yesterday,
a lot of football. We're gonna talk Cowboys. That'll be
(02:42):
the whole segment. I want to mention the biggest headline today,
especially here locally, to see the PAC twelve get rejected
by four American Athletic Conference schools. It's just insane to
think of where college football is right now in twenty
twenty four, where Memphis, Tulane, USF, and UTSA all release
(03:06):
a joint statement today on behalf of the American Athletic
or in conjunction with the American Athletic Conference, basically saying
we have more faith in the future of the conference
we're in than the future of the former Conference of
Champions And I again, it's it's like watching a USC Michigan.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Big Ten Conference game.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's extremely uncomfortable and hard to wrap my head around
how we got here. But alas it seems like UTSA
is turning down an offer to join the PAC twelve.
And I think for UTSA, and we'll talk about this
a lot tomorrow, of course Tuesday, as we dive into
college football, but for UTSA.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It had to just come down to being.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Very clear that the belief that the better money, the
greener pastures were not to be had out west with
the PAC twelve. And again I just saying that out loud.
Is it's so hard for me to wrap my head
around thinking back to the in hell, thinking back to
the PAC ten champion playing in the playing the Big
(04:11):
ten champion in the Rose Bowl every year, and now
we're to the point where the PAC twelve can't even
convince UTSA to join. So again, we'll talk a lot
of college football tomorrow, a lot of games from Saturday.
We've got a recap, got a lot of Cowboys talk
coming up, as well as some greater NFL talk in
our full segment today. But I would be remiss if
(04:34):
I didn't start with a little reunion talk from this
past weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
If anybody missed it.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The roommate and I made the trip back up north
to my hometown, the home, the home that Dan Campbell built,
the home that Michael Keighley built. There's a random San
Diego Chargers offensive lineman, former TCU hornfrog shout Out was
my mom's pie student when.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
She was a third grade teacher. Back there.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
But I say all of that because the Glenros of
Dan Campbell and Michael Keithley it's not coming back, buddy,
the glen Rose of my childhood is not coming. My
rural hometown is gentrifying faster than I can even believe.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I can't. I can't think of another word to use.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Besides it's rural gentrification, it's the fact that we held
our reunion Saturday night at a feed mill where my
grandparents bought, you know, salt cakes or not salt cakes,
bought cakes for the cattle, salt blocks for the livestock.
And now I'm sitting in the backyard of that place
(05:41):
drinking double ranch waters with forty or so of my
high school former high school classmates. It's and on top
of that, it's one of three bars in town now,
which is insane again to me, I mean the abundance
of fast food options. There's now a McDonald's next to
(06:01):
us seven to eleven in my hometown. My graduating class
was barely over one hundred students, and your fast food
options at the time where Dairy Queen or the recently
built Burger King. And now to see it, you throw
a rock and hit a fast food restaurant all along
the main stretch of the highway that cuts through my hometown.
(06:24):
It is. I would be lying if I said there
wasn't a part of me that felt pretty nostalgic for
the way my hometown used to be. But then again,
there's a liquor store there now too, so I was
able to get a bottle of tequila and pregame for
the reunion. So, you know, pros and cons, pros and
cons all the way around.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Great weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, as I said, you know, my graduating class
town of less than three thousand people, our graduating class
was barely over one hundred kids, and it seemed like
we were close to half of them showing back up
for the twenty year reunion and a dozen of them
that were too big time to go to the reunion.
(07:07):
I was able to see at different points of the
weekend as well, able to catch them since they weren't
going to show their face at the reunion, even though
they lived two blocks down the street.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Looking at you, Charlie Woods. But it was a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I mean, it's one of those the idea of that
I'm twenty years removed from high school. I try not
to think about it too much, because if I do,
it hits pretty damn hard. I know some of y'all
out there, you know, fifteen twenty years ahead of me,
or thinking, oh, just wait till you get to that
forty year mark.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, I know, I know, it's getting old. Sucks.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I'm not trying to argue that point whatsoever. But to
see everybody, to see a lot of you know, my
classmates that are just so comfortable in who they are
now as a you know, late these adults, and you
got some professional skins on the wall, and you know,
a lot to be proud of when it comes to
(08:06):
their respective careers, careers hilarious enough. You know, people that
I thought I knew pretty well in high school, you
know now flourishing in careers that I never would have
expected them to step into. It's pretty pretty cool to
see the success of your your former friends, your former
(08:26):
you know, in a town that small, you know, half
of my class we started pre k together. And to
see everyone, you know, twenty years removed from high school
just thinking, you know, a town that small, you can't
make enemies because you've only got about one hundred kids,
you know, fIF forty of them, forty five fifty of
(08:48):
them fellow dudes. And you can't make too many enemies. I,
in fact, I saw was able to see a kid
that whip my ass pretty good, and to see that.
I don't think he could do that now, nor would
he try. Oh no, he probably still try, and he
might still be able to do it. I'm speaking big
(09:08):
now that I'm not in front of him. But it,
you know, the flood of the flood of memory is good, bad,
and indifferent that come back at a at a reunion
like that, It you know, it makes you. It's hard
not to stop and be a little nostalgic for childhood.
As much as I try not to live in the
arrested development of high school athletics and accomplishments on the
(09:33):
court as a seventeen year old, every now and then
it's it's okay to travel back in time and relive
some of those absolute, you know, lifelong memories that were
made as a kid, back back in a crazy little
hometown that has a nuclear power plant and dinosaur tracks
(09:54):
in a state park. It's a it's a weird corner
of Texas. It's a it's a weird little slice Texas.
The weekend was great. Now the drive back could have
been a lot better. The roommate and I got the
other side of Hamilton, ended up realizing we had a
nail in the tire, and not just a nail in
(10:15):
the tire. Luckily, when I was able to, you know,
pull over to the side of the road, start changing
this thing. And as I take the tire off, I
can hear the nail, I can hear the air coming out.
I can eventually locate, you know, see where the nail is.
And I'm thinking, oh, this isn't bad. You know, it's
in a play, it's not in a bad spot. I'm
(10:36):
gonna have to change the tire. There's no way I'm
going to keep driving on it. But I can get
this patched Monday morning. Won't be any big deal. We'll
get right back on the road. No issues were. I
already knew I was going to be listening to Brad
and Babe on the radio broadcast, which I don't mind.
I mean, I am a I am an old soul.
When it comes to radio, it's you know, listening to
(10:58):
sports on radio. I would still to this day much
prefer listening to a baseball game on the radio than
watching it on TV. I know something Uncle Andy and
I always bonded on in the past, a fellow radio
old timer.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
When it comes to baseball.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Football, I still, would, of course, much rather watch it
on television, although that means here lately you have to
listen to Tom Brady call every Cowboys game, So I
knew I was going to be locked in to the
radio broadcast. I just thought I was going to be
home maybe by halftime or at least third quarter start
(11:37):
of the fourth, to catch the game the rest of
the game on the television. Although honestly, as y'all all
know how it went you watched yesterday Sunday afternoon, it
might have been a better thing that I was stuck
changing a tire in the middle of bf E Central
Texas and didn't have to watch that thing on television, because,
(11:59):
you know, Brad and Babes exasperation through the radio speakers,
I think pretty much perfectly conveyed exactly how that game
was playing out. I didn't need to see it to
understand the frustration of two guys that are you know,
can only be described as bleed blue Homers when it
comes to the Cowboys and their lack of enthusiasm, we'll
(12:21):
call it. They're not necessarily enjoying being there in the
second half of that game, especially after the Ravens score
on that first possession to start the third quarter. We'll
get into all that Cowboys talk. But I end up
getting the flat tire off. No, I'm thinking, all right, nail,
no big deal.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I flip it over.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I noticed there's a giant gash on the inside of
the tire that there's no way we should have ever
kept driving on it. Regardless of the nail. There was
way more damage than I intended so or than I realized.
It's a bit of a blessing and a curse, you know,
curse that we got a flat, blessing that I was
able to get it off and notice the damage was
(13:03):
much worse than I first suspected. So luckily had a
full size spare as you always should, didn't have to
drive on a donut all the way back to San
Antonio because we weren't even an hour into the three
plus hour drive home. So was able to sit there
and Blair the Cowboys game on the radio as I'm
(13:24):
sweating my ass off trying to get us back on
the road, and as I said, it just feels like
the perfect metaphor for what it feels like to be
a Cowboys fan right now, just sitting on the side
of the road in the middle of nowhere, changing a
tire with very little hope that things are going to
get better, very little hope for any improvement. As I'm
(13:49):
throwing a spare on. There's a metaphor for maybe the
team's just full of spares. Ay, ay, okay, need Truman
for that one. Truman loves a good dad joke. We're
gonna get Truman to give his Cowboys thoughts soon, but
we'll jump We'll jump into it here again.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Happy to see.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Everybody, Glad, everybody is doing well from the reunion. Hopefully
made a few new listeners from being back. Even the
ones that are mad at my at my recent late
life Spurs love. We could they could all agree that,
definitely we can. We can coalesce together and all root
(14:32):
against the Rockets and maybe healthily respect what the Spurs
were doing when we were growing up, completely jealous of
them up in the up in North Texas, as the
MAVs were signing Dennis Rodman, only for him to sit
on a free throw line cross leg and get ejected.
(14:52):
It was weird times up there. So again great seeing everybody. Now,
I'm just postponing the inevitable because I really don't want
to talk about the Cowboys, but we've got to talk
about In fact, we're going to start from the post
game and then work our way back through it because again,
(15:13):
as we've been talking about for weeks now, Jerry Jones
will absolutely lie straight to your face. And for decades
that worked for him for decades, that didn't cause any
disruptions from the fan base. For decades, media ran cover
for his lies and didn't call him out in anywhere
(15:36):
close to the way that Mike Greenberg did today.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Why can't you mansion when you live in a different
kind of hash We couldn't afford it.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
We can't make that all fit as simple as that.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And sorry, but with all due respects, serve it is
definitely not as simple as that. Sometimes you can't buy
a mansion because you ran up a lot of credit
card debt or something like that. You made bad financial decisions,
and that's what his team and his leadership have done.
Maybe if you had decided to treat the offseason like
it began sometime before September. First, you would have been
able to make some of these moves. But when you
(16:10):
wait on the CD LAMB deal until you're the last mover.
You ever heard of the term first mover advantage, Well,
they were the last mover when it came to the
great receivers, and so it cost them way more than
an otherwise would have. And they were the last mover.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
They literally signed their quarterback to.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
The biggest contract of all time an hour before the
season began. They had no off season, so they got
worse and more expensive, which is terrible management. So they
could easily have afforded Derek Henry if they had taken
care of their business when they should have, and instead
he ran all over their nonexistent defense yesterday.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
That is the Sunday statement.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, Greenee had me until he drops the generic That
is the Sunday statements. That's the kind of national talking
head generic crap that I hate. But everything's got to
have a title. Everything else he said in that statement
in response to Jerry is absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
If you missed this exchange.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
That was Jerry Jones' postgame when asked by former Randy
Galloway sidekick and now a doomsday podcast host along with
Edward Or Matt Moseley asked him if watching Derreck Henry
made him wish he had signed him, and Jerry's exact
quote was, as you heard part of it in the
clip there, why can't you buy a mansion when you
(17:25):
live in a different type of house. We couldn't afford it.
You can't make that all fit simple as that. Greenberg
nailed it when he said, with all due respect, it's
not as simple as that. Every other team in the
league understands it's not as simple as that. And we're
gonna talk heavily about the specifics of the game itself,
(17:47):
but I had to start here because this is something
we've talked about for weeks now. Jerry Jones conducts business
conducts the off season or lack of business in the
off season, unlike any their team in the league. He
doesn't want the CD or the DAK contract to be
announced until closer to the regular season because he wants
(18:08):
to own the narrative. He wants to have that talking point,
carry the Cowboys talk throughout the offseason, and then carry
the NFL league wide talk when he gets those deals
done right at the beginning of the regular season or
right at the end of training camp in in CD's case.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It's the Cowboy. We talked about this last.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Week when Jerry said, that's a fact we've spent the
most cash of any team this year. It takes less
than a five minute Google search to realize the Cowboys
have spent the thirteenth most cash this seat calendar year
so far, and that's only because of the signing bonuses
(18:52):
that he gave CD and DAK. They are nowhere near
the biggest cash spenders. And right now they as a
team with thirty million dollars in available cap space. Well,
let's do some quick math. Derrick Henry two years, eight
million dollars a year. Stefan Gilmour, who would have looked
pretty damn good when you see Kayln Cason Carson trying
(19:14):
to tackle on the outside and you see Agalore run
down the sideline in the first quarter. Not that Stefan
Gilmour Moore is an amazing tackler, but I think we
would all agree he's better than a fifth round rookie.
Right now, Gilmore signs one year, ten million dollar deal,
Well there's eighteen million dollars. You still would have had
twelve million dollars left to address your defensive tackle position.
(19:38):
All of this is Jerry lying through his teeth, gaslighting
the fan base because he's always been able to do that.
And I know I bag heavily on these you know,
the National talking head shows, the get up skip all
those skips gone now, steven A, what all of these
(19:59):
shows all their doing is poking the buttons to drive ratings.
There's not usually there's not in depth quality sports talk.
It's normally just driven to get a reaction out of
the audience. I thought that clip from Greenberg was perfect
because it's what a lot of Cowboys fans way smarter
(20:19):
than me, way smarter than Greenberg in terms of being
connected to the Cowboys daily.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
It's what they've.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Been saying and trying to tell the fan base for
a couple of years now.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
This is not normal business.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Normal NFL teams don't wait to do contract extensions until
the week of the regular season starting. They do it
before the NFL Draft, or they do it right after
the draft so they have available cap space.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
To use in free agency.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
We've seen that Jerry doesn't want to do that because
that would mean spending more cash on those signing bonuses
early and then turning around and having to spend more
cash on signing bonuses to sign free agents. Jerry, this
is not a football operation. This is a business. They
(21:08):
are the most valuable franchise in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
They don't get to that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
They don't get to that high profit margin for Jerry
and the rest of the Backwoods Jones family. If they're
spending cash every offseason, it's a giant gas lighting ploy
to tell the fan base we're all in, except we're
not going to renegotiate contracts or give out extensions to
open up cap space because we don't want to actually
(21:36):
spend the money on hand, because all we care about
is making more money, not winning football games. And again,
props to Greenberg for calling that out for the absolute
lie that it is. Props to Matt Moseley for asking
the question post game, and hopefully props on the Cowboys
fan base for starting to realize that their owner lies
(21:57):
through their teeth because all he cares about is making money.
And hopefully the eyes are starting to open on the
perpetual gas lighting that's only going to continue to take place.
I feel like gas lighting is like the word of
the year for the last three or four years now
for other reasons, but Jerry perfectly sums it up a
old rich man who's been able to get away with
(22:18):
lying for decades. Hopefully the chickens are coming home to
roost now that requires the fan base to actually give
up on them. Like my grandpa told me this weekend,
he was about a half an inch close to completely
jumping off the bandwagon, and I told him, it's not
a bandwagon.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Bandwagons are fun.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Bandwagons are what independent fans jump on because it looks
really fun to be a fan of whatever bandwagon team
you're jumping onto, whatever team you're getting behind. There's no
cowboys bandwagon. It's only pain and misery. And if you're
jumping on at this point, you're just a glutton for punishment.
If you're staying on at the point, you're just the
(23:01):
glutton for punishment. And hopefully, the only thing that's ever
going to change the way the Joneses do business, whether
it's Jerry Now, Steven Charlotte, Jerry Jones in the future,
the only thing that's going to change the way they
ever do business is if their pocket books, if their
bank accounts start to be affected by their poor mismanagement
(23:23):
of the most valuable sports franchise in the world.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
It's infuriating. I would argue it's more infuriating.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Than the actual product on the field, because the product
on the field isn't that much better, as we all
saw on Sunday afternoon. But obviously the management in the suite,
who's just dismissively shaking his head at the end of
this game after another embarrassing loss at home, a third
straight embarrassing disappointment at home, after a team that was
(23:52):
so good at home all the last season what do
we say, sixteen game regular season home winning streak, Well,
the last three games that have been held in that building.
It was embarrassment by the Packers in the first round
of the playoffs, it was an embarrassment from the Saints
in the first home game of this season. And despite
(24:13):
what that final score ended yesterday, it was another embarrassment
at home against a team that obviously showed they were
way more desperate and way more up for the moment
than Jerry Jones's team was yesterday. And I know I
swore last week this wouldn't just turn into a Jerry
(24:34):
Jones bitch fest every time they lose, or every time
he said every time he lies to us again and
expects us to believe the crap sandwich that he's serving.
But it's impossible not to just be infuriated when you
are lied to your face and he's lying to our
face as Cowboys fans, when he does that postgame media scrum,
(24:56):
because also he's got to make sure he does his
postgame scrum before you I ever even hear from the
head coach, a head coach that has a hell of
a lot to answer for himself. We got to hear
Jerry Jones lie to us before we hear the head
coach tell us nothing's actually wrong. We're just figuring things out.
We're going to install the real offense in the bye
week like they did last week last year.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So it's it's Cowboys nihilism at this point.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
They could go undefeated in the regular season and I
would feel the same way as I do about them
right now, because the only thing that matters is punching
your ticket into the playoffs and then change my opinion
on this group by postseason success. Right now, they're one
and two. There's a lot of good one in two
teams across the NFL right now, teams that we're going
(25:42):
to look back at the end of the season when
they have ten, eleven, twelve wins, and we're gonna say, man,
you remember when they started one and two. It doesn't
feel the same for the Cowboys, but there is still Again,
as I say, the Cowboys nihilism tells me there's enough
talent in that life locker room despite the poor construction
from upper management. You know, if it wasn't for Will
(26:05):
McLay drafting his ass off and producing more Pro Bowlers
through the draft than any team in the league, think
about where this thing would be. Think about where this
thing would be if Jerry Jones was still trying to
elbow Steven to get to the podium to turn in
the Johnny Manzel pick. Think about where this thing would
be if there actually wasn't someone that understood what a
(26:29):
good football team is constructed from. Imagine if there wasn't
a guy like that who at least had the half
ear of Jerry Jones to prevent him from doing more
stupid stuff. Because we're a heartbeat away from just having
the same replace Jerry when whatever Jones kid wins the lottery,
(26:49):
whether it's Steven or Charlotte. I got my bet on
Charlotte if we're if we're taking picks. But it's infuriating,
it's it's hard not to get hung up on it.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
But it's still the NFL. It's still a silly league.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
It's still only Week three, it's a short week this week.
We're gonna have a lot of Cowboys talk on the
pod this week because they do play Thursday night, first
Division game of the season against the Giants. So try
not to be try not to get too down with
this thing, despite me sitting here yelling about Jerry for
(27:29):
ten minutes to start the Cowboys segment today, Because again,
the NFL is a silly league. The NFC is wide open,
wide ass open. So many the Vikings are undefeated. Do
we feel like the Vikings are the class of the NFC.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
No, it's a silly league.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
They're three and oh Sam Darnold is leading the league
in touchdown passes right now. It's a silly league. Examples A, B,
and C right there. So jump into the game itself,
because there are there are recurring issues that we've talked
about that don't seem to be getting better. It's not
(28:10):
it's not just the personnel. Now we're now starting to
see three weeks of Zimmer's defense and not seeing a
whole lot of adjustment. I jokingly said, you know, McCarthy,
you know installed the real offense last year during the
bye week. Well, maybe Zimmer will install the real defense
during the bye week this week this year because hit
(28:34):
so far yesterday, particularly with Lamar as a more of
a rushing threat versus you know, the way the Saints
carved them in the run game. The Ravens did it
in a different way, but it's a lot of the
same issues. So we'll just jump right from the start
of it. You know something that we've talked heavily about
(28:55):
the defensive failures so far this season, but not enough
focus on the offensive failures. And you know, the way
they won that Week one game, the offense really didn't
have to do anything. Week two, the offense never showed
signs of life the way they did in the fourth
(29:15):
quarter of the game yesterday. But you know, a recurring
talking point throughout Cowboys Land last week was well, we
need the off we need to get off to better starts. Well,
the Cowboys win the toss, the radio call, the radio
broadcast caught up whoever was the captain yesterday saying we
want that f and ball. Well, they got the ball.
(29:39):
Three penalties on that first drive. The drive goes nowhere.
It's a punt.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
In fact, let's just look at their drive chart until
the final three possessions of the game. So again we
want to get off to a fast start. Punt field goal, fumble,
costly fumble from CD inside the ten yard line, punt punt,
phil goal, punt turnover on downs, and then the last
three possessions were all touchdowns to make the game look
(30:06):
way closer than it actually was. It's not just about
the offense not being able to run the ball.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Dak.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
If you only look at the numbers from yesterday, you
would think, well, Dak wasn't the problem. But if you
watch the first half of that game, Dak's throwing into
tight coverage and some of that is on the receivers
not getting open, some of that is on Dak. A
lot of that is on Dak misreading where the ball
should be going, throwing into doubles, throwing into tight spaces,
(30:38):
making you know, a you know, Ferguson had a great
catch on a bad Dak throw on that drive where
CD ends up fumbling it inside the ten. But you
know something that has been an issue the whole time
McCarthy's been here is the penalties.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
And I mentioned it there.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
That first drive of the game, they have three penalties,
go nowhere and immediately punt and they're down seven to nothing. Honestly,
before the offense can even talk about the first drive,
the Ravens go down what was it, five plays, seventy
one yards and score a touchdown immediately. Just no answers
(31:16):
from that point forward, honestly until the fourth quarter, where
it looked like the Ravens let their foot off the
gas and almost had the same thing that happened to
him last week against the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
We almost saw it, and.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
It got to the point where they drew me close
enough back in at the end there where I thought, okay,
well one defense. You know, the defense has gotten back
to back stops, cowboys have scored back to back touchdowns,
if they can just get one more stop, And it
really looked like the Ravens as a collective offense, as
(31:52):
a collective unit, said look, we've let off All we
need is one more first down and said I'm gonna
get it myself and that zone read that ended up
closing things out there at the end, I mean just
torched them all day. It was only appropriate that it
was a Lamar keeper to end up getting on that
first down. And I mentioned, you know, the first three
(32:15):
quarters of that game were exactly the same thing we've
seen in the last three home games, specifically the run defense.
And you know it's not instantly. A lot of the
blame goes to the highest paid players or the most
out in front of the public players, looking specifically at
Michah Parsons.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Micah wasn't the issue yesterday. Micah set the edge just fine.
That was not the issue. You know, what was it?
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Seventeen total mistackles. I mentioned the Kayling Carson mistackle on
the Agalore pass there on that second possession of the
by the Ravens. Maybe it was first possession, and that
my immediate thought. Again, not that Gilmour.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Is a.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Expert all pro tackler at the corner position, but I
would have much rather had him there instead of Kaylen Carson.
But Jerry told us you can't buy a mansion on credit. Well,
you didn't have to have credit. You chose to do that.
That was a choice to start a fifth year or
a fifth round rookie there, and of course all because
of the dron Bland injury. But it still goes back
(33:25):
to that same exact mentality of not addressing the losses,
not addressing the Hankins loss. You didn't want to pay
Hankins three quarters of a million dollar more than he
made last year, so you let him walk to Seattle,
and you've replaced him with guys off the street that
other teams didn't want. Is specifically talking about into your
(33:47):
defensive line. Mazzie looked so slow off the snap, which
you could say that just about any game where he's
been in there for as many snaps as he was yesterday.
He looked completely mismatched for three quarters of that game. Now,
the fourth quarter, there was a lot of really good tape,
but arguably Mazzi's best tape of his career was during
(34:11):
the Ravens drives during that fourth quarter comeback. But I
think you you got to give him credit for what
he did, but I think you also have to understand
the circumstances of the Ravens cruising with a three plus
touchdown lead should have been for possession game if justin
Tucker hadn't missed that field goal to give the Cowboys
(34:32):
a sliver of hope. It's more of the same with
that interior defensive line unit. They are just they absolutely
do not have the personnel to It doesn't matter what
scheme you're running or what rotation of guys you're running
through in that defensive tackle position, the personnel is just
(34:52):
not there. In terms of where the rest of the
NFL potential playoff contenders are, It's it's beyond a weakness
for the Cowboys. I mean, hell, we talk a lot
about the Cowboys offensive run game. I'm not sure which
is worse They're INTI your defensive line group or their
(35:14):
running back room, because the running back room only managed
to get fifty one yards themselves while the defensive line
gives up two hundred and seventy four yards rushing to
the Ravens. I mean, that's a two hundred and twenty
three if I'm doing my math, they're correct, a two
hundred and twenty three yard difference between the two teams
(35:35):
when it comes to rushing yards totals. And that is
an untenable situation if I've ever seen one that is
there is no recipe for winning football games when you're
only rushing for fifty one yards, just like there's no
recipe for winning football games when you're giving up damn
near three hundred rushing yards. It's it's so frustrating that
(35:57):
it's hard to even focus specifically on who bears the
greatest brunt of responsibility for where they find themselves. I
mentioned Dak, I mentioned the run game, I mentioned the
defensive tackle position. The seventeen miss tackles, A lot of
those were from secondary and linebackers. It's it's a blessing
(36:21):
that they have potentially the most weaponized leg in the
league when it comes to Brandon Aubrey out there because,
as Tom Brady called him, the Steph Curry of kickers
because he has unlimited range.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I mean, it's pretty.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Embarrassing when the only bright spot you can find through
three weeks of your NFL season is your kicker might
be the biggest weapon the NFL has ever seen at
that position. I mean, the dude's an absolutely automatic gold
standard so far for his career, still perfect from fifty
plus yards in his career. Two seasons into it, he
(36:58):
had another fill goal of what was a fifty one
yards somewhere right over the fifty yard mark. So if
you want to find any kind of positive, start with
the kicker. How does that make you feel about your
NFL football team of choice? The only positive we can
find is, oh, and maybe the special teams coach is
the best coach on staff. How do those two things
(37:20):
make you feel? We got a hell of a kicker
and iired special teams coach might be the best in
the league. Unfortunate times, no other way to call it,
no other way to point it. It's a bit of
a rudderless operation right now. That doesn't seem like it's
gonna have many answers whether it be is Dalvin Cook
(37:42):
gonna solve the run game? I wouldn't push a whole
lot of chips into the middle on that bet. Are
they going to make a move for any kind of
run interior run stopper of factor before the trade deadline? Well,
why would a team give one of those guys up?
And if they do that, Jerry's going to overpay. He'll
(38:04):
grab the phone from Will mcclay's hand and say, I'm
not letting you.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Off the phone till we make a deal.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
That's how you end up giving up a fourth round
pick for Trey Lance when the Niners literally Jerry told
the Niners I'm not letting you hang up.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
The Niners were thinking to them, so, yeah, why would
we hang up?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
You're the only one offering this kind of value for
our guy. We'll talk about the Niners too, because they're
a one in two team in the NFC right now,
with reports of Brock Purdy getting an MRI later today
to determine his status going forward, and they've got their
own injury issues on the interior defensive line. So again,
(38:39):
it's a lot of negative, and it's deservedly a lot
of negative, but it's also the silliest of all pro leagues.
And nothing through these first three weeks still as bad
as they've been make me say this is a team
that has no chance of making the playoffs, because just
look across it's the rest of their league. They have
(39:02):
every bit of chance to still put together a moderate
close to five hundred run through the rest of the
season and be right there fighting for a wild card spot.
I jokingly you said last week, it's exactly what Jerry
Jones wants in a lot of ways. Again, because he's
(39:22):
not in the business of winning football games. He's in
the business of making sure his team is the most
talked about team in the league week after week.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And what does he.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Love more than anything a final week matchup deciding whether
his team makes the playoffs or not, because he knows
that will only drive eyeballs to the mediocre product that
he's put out there on the field, which just means
more money for him.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I mean, sure, he wants them to make the playoffs
so he can continue to make a little bit of money.
But at the end of the day, it's all about
driving the narrative of keeping the Cowboys at the fore front.
The first thought of every NFL fan when they turn
on a national talking head show in the morning. They're
talking about the Cowboys for better or worse, and right
now it's for a lot worse. It's you can look
(40:12):
at all of the specific stats, you can look at exactly,
drive by drive, how that game played out yesterday. I
don't think there's a whole lot of effort and energy
that needs to be wasted looking at any of that
right now. The clear message is it's not good enough.
(40:33):
The nihilist in me says, I don't know how it
gets better.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Djok of the roommate keeps joking with me.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Her mantra for the Cowboys right now is a note
I put out there two weeks ago of they did
nothing to improve Comma, why would I think they're any
better this year than they were last year? And until
they show me any signs of improvement, I only look
at the way they conduct did business for the last
(41:01):
eight months, and I say, why do I have any
faith that this is going to change? They actively told
me they were all in, while behind the scenes they
were doing absolutely nothing to get better, nothing to match
the public statements of being all in. So it's gonna
(41:21):
be a Cowboys heavy week because we do get to
turn around and watch a Thursday night football game where
if they're ever going to get some of their swagger back,
it's got to be on the road against the Giants.
Because even though the Giants get their first win of
the season last week against the Browns or yesterday against
the Browns, Cowboys are still four and a half point
(41:43):
favorites traveling to New Jersey to take on the Giants. Now,
that was a seven point spread before all the games
started yesterday, before the Cowboys were embarrassed again and before
the Giants got their win, So that line moved two
and a half points based off of yesterday's results and
the way both teams looked. But Cowboys are still four
(42:05):
and a half point favorites on the road, as they
absolutely should be, or again, at least we think they
absolutely should be. I still think there's enough overall talent
at the top end of this roster to carry them
past week division teams like New York and Washington. Now
the Eagles are a different story. Eagles end up handing
(42:28):
the Saints their first loss yesterday, but I think looking
across the rest of the NFC, this is a Cowboys
team that I still fully expect to be fighting for
a wild card spot. It doesn't feel like it's the
beginning of a three straight five and eleven seasons under
Dave Campo. Ironically, Mike Zimmer was that defensive coordinator back then,
(42:50):
when we had the Pickle Juice game and everybody cramping
against the Eagles and the beginning of Campo telling us,
oh no, no, the house is not caving in. There
is no fire behind me. There are there are there
are issues that we will address, but there is there
is still hope to turn this thing around. I don't
(43:11):
feel like it's the beginning of that now. Trust me,
I've been quite wrong before, especially when it comes to
the Cowboys. But this does feel different in terms of
the fan base, you know, being back home in true
you know, Cowboys Country back up in North Texas, and
(43:33):
you know a lot of the bleed blue lifelong defenders
of this franchise. Allah, my uncle, my uncle not as
much of a defender, but my grandpa, you know, seeing
multiple generations of greatness. You know, my uncle reminded me
things were terrible in the eighties when he was a kid,
(43:54):
and then he got the nineties. Well, we've gotten the
last thirty years where it's been nothing but the eighties
basically repeated every single decade. We haven't turned that corner
to get any of the level of success. But then,
of course, you know my grandpa's age, that generation of
Cowboys fans, you know, they of course remember all the
(44:14):
way back to Roger and the greatness that came before
Jimmy and the triplets. So talking to a lot of
them this past weekend, it feels like the level of
apathy has never been higher towards this franchise, and again
it's it's not hard to understand why that's the case.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
It's because of.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Plays like CD fumbling inside the ten yard line when
the team's already down fourteen to three and the Cowboys
are driving to get a touchdown on the board, something
they've struggled with all season, and then him turning around
and not talking to reporters after the game. It's the
lack of accountability from individuals that say we need less
(44:56):
hero ball, like Micah Parson said, or Jordan Lewis direct
calling out teammates Jordan Lewis, who honestly has been probably
the biggest bright spot of the defense so far this year.
And that again, you're talking about your nickel corner being
the biggest bright spot. You probably haven't had that grade
of a start to the year. Or how about your
(45:17):
head coach today telling the media you know what's what's
what needed to be said has been said and we're
moving on real quick. On McCarthy, I did think it
was a bit of an odd choice, you know, again,
driving home, listening to it on the radio, when the
Cowboys scored down twenty two, down twenty eight to six,
they score to cut it to a sixteen point game,
(45:40):
end up going for two right then in my head,
you know you're going to have to score three times regardless,
so to go for two at that point that then
if you don't make it, which they didn't. They Dak
throws a ball to CD who even if he caught it,
he would have been tackled short of even the one
(46:02):
yard line because they don't get the two point conversion there.
They are now mathematically tied into going for two.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
No matter what.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
On the next touchdown, assuming they get it, and it
turned out, Bones Fossil and Brandon Aubrey, the two best
players and coaches on the whole operation, throw another watermelon
kick out there and they're able to recover an on
side kick. Well, if McCarthy had just kicked the field goal,
it would have been a fifteen point game. Then you
(46:35):
get the ball back, you score another touchdown. I then
is the decision of either kicking the field goal or
going for two. Because you've still got eight and a
half minutes left in the game. You know what you're
going to need to tie this thing up or potentially
win it. I would have sided personally on kicking the
(46:56):
extra point. Both of those times because you still know
you're gonna have to get one two point conversion. But
if you score a third touchdown, which they turned out
that they did, then you're going for two. You're still
doing another on side kick, but at that point, if
you had to kick a field goal after that, you're
now kicking for the win instead of kicking for a tie.
(47:17):
Like they ended up putting themselves in position to or
trying to put themselves in position to do. The onside
kick roll is weird too. I don't want to don't
want to sound too old man when it comes to it,
but you know, I Brad on the radio call Brad Sham,
the Great Brad Sham, had a very specific grievance when
(47:41):
it comes to the new onside kick role, and it's
that you have to announce it and you can only
do it in the fourth quarter if you're losing.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
So it removes.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
All of the surprise attack element of a good special
teams a coach. You know, you remember the Saints come
out and kick an onside kick to start the second
half of a Super Bowl. Well you can't do that
anymore because you have to one wait until the fourth
quarter and two announce to the other team that you
(48:10):
plan on doing an on side kick. So it's sure
it's in the name of player safety, and I get
that kind of, but it absolutely removes an element of
surprise of a team that's fighting to get back into
a game. Of course, it didn't matter on the first one,
as the Cowboys were able to recover, but you know
(48:31):
it didn't didn't end up working out in their favor
on the next two attempts. So it's it's a lot
of bad, as I said, but it's also only week three.
It's a short week. The Cowboys go out handle the
Giants on Thursday. We'll talk a lot about that as
we gear up for the game later in the week.
(48:52):
But all of a sudden, if they do that, they're
two and two. The NFC is not looking like a juggernaut,
as it's slowly been trending back to average over the
last few years, especially as we see the forty nine
ers injury issues potentially start to mount. Even though their
slow start, they still on paper look like they were
(49:15):
going to be the team that would probably be left standing.
I'm not exactly sure if you had to ask me
right now, who represents the NFC and the super Bowl.
There's no team that I instantly say I feel they
have a much better chance than anybody else.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
I mean, you want to talk.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
The Bucks were undefeated, they lost to the Broncos yesterday,
given the Broncos their first win. The Rams look like
they might have been trending closer to death than contention,
and they beat the forty nine ers. The Lions are
probably the team is I would probably say the fighting
Dan Campbell's would be my best guess of who represents
(49:58):
the NFC and the Super Bowl. They beat a team
in the Cardinals yesterday that's shown nothing but fight to
start the season. So and we mentioned also within the division,
the Eagles give the Saints their first loss, and the
Vikings are undefeated with Sam Darnold leading the league in
touchdown So the league is there for the taking a
(50:18):
one and two start while staying relatively healthy. Speaking of
Dallas and potentially getting Deron Bland back sooner, maybe than
even initially suspected. He was doing some light work team
workouts or light workouts to the side of team practice
last week. Maybe he can get back a week or
(50:40):
two early. It's not that the Cowboys have done so
much so bad so early that they are out of it.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Far from it.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
It's just the feeling of hope is nowhere near the surface,
and looking at how these first three games have played out,
and I know that doesn't help. When you have me
sitting here telling you there's nothing the coaching staff can
do because the personnel is so bad. I think there's
a lot of truth to that, but I also think, hell,
(51:10):
look at McCarthy's all time record when they flashed it
up there yesterday. Compared to John Harball. Would you have
guessed McCarthy has a better win percentage than John Harball?
Would you have guessed he's only one playoff win separated
from John Harball twelve and ten, McCarthy eleven eleven or
eleven and twelve, something like that. McCarthy's six nineteen win
(51:32):
percentage to harball six thirteen. Both have one Super Bowl win.
I think Ravens fans at zero to two were probably
still more confident in their system and coaching staff than
the Cowboys were sitting there one in one going into
the game yesterday. So I don't think the disappointment of
(51:53):
getting embarrassed again takes away from the fact that this
operation is not dead.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
In the water. Yet we are not Dave Campo is
not the head coach.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
It's still Mike McCarthy, who has some skins and has
shown an ability to get things turned around mid season
multiple times throughout his career. So it's a lot of bad,
but it's not over. And I know that's not very comforting,
but that's what I keep telling myself as I prepare
to watch them potentially break my heart like they do
(52:26):
every week it seems here lately on Thursday Night Football
coming up, I mentioned it we're going to talk a
lot of college football tomorrow because we got to recap
the games from Saturday had some awesome drama the PAC
two after Dark now some awesome drama on your local
CW affiliates late Saturday night early Sunday morning also had
(52:50):
threats of a Taco Bell burrito being inserted into a
dude because of the BYU win. And so we got
a lot of college football to cover tomorrow, and of
course the Monday night football doubleheader tonight will recap on
tomorrow's show as well.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
But ride with me. It's a long season.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
I'll try to keep my Cowboys nihilism to a required minimum.
But when it's bad. It's bad, and yesterday was undoubtedly
more bad than I mean. Yay, we kicked a sixty
five yardfield goal.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
The crowd went wild, except by the third quarter, half
the crowd had filed out, and there was a poor
guy sitting in one of those stupid oversized cowboy hats.
Not a cowboy but an oversized team NFL team hat,
just looking like he was. Someone had shot his dog
in front of him before he left the stadium. So
(53:52):
it's not good energy. But ride with me. We'll ride
this out together. Good, bad or indifferent. Enjoy the football tonight.
We'll be bad to talk about it all again tomorrow
Till then.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
Kids, what do we say about drugs?
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Holy?
Speaker 1 (54:06):
You stay Holy? Yeah,
Oh like the beam.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are back for another week here on the Sports
Cave with Biggest Puma. I am your host, Sam Freez,
affectionately known as the Biggest Puma, broadcasting live to tape
here on the east side of San Antonio. Another glorious
Monday down here in South Texas, thirty one days till
Spurs Opening Night. And let me.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Tell you, I caught a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Of hell back at the high school reunion this past
weekend from some of my former high school classmates not
too fond of hearing the Spurs Opening night countdown, and
I had to explain to them in very clear and
concise messaging, I've almost spent half my life down here
in San Antonio. Now we're getting close to crossing that
(00:55):
the seesaw of what market I've lived in the longest.
And let's be quite honest, we're gonna talk a lot
of cowboys today. There's a lot of Cowboys fans that
didn't grow up in the DFW TV viewing area that
are watching on an affiliate outside of the DFW market. So,
especially when it comes to pro teams, I understand a
(01:16):
lot of you all are going to disagree with me,
but I think after you spend enough time in a place,
especially when you're extremely passionate about the sport. I mean, hell,
the roommates first basketball, first pro game to ever attend
was a San Antonio Spurs Oklahoma City Thunder game where
she got to see Jeff Green put up career high
(01:36):
numbers at the time. So I understand as my high
school roommate or classmates let me know quite clearly, there's
a little bit of consternation about my decade and a
half Spurs fandom now. But I also explained to them
we everyone hated the Rockets, the Spurs. Everyone was jealous
(01:59):
of the Spur. I mean hell, I watched the MAVs
win their only championship sitting in an apartment building the
first six months I lived in San Antonio, So it
wasn't an instant transition. It's not like I went turncoat
as soon as I got here. It's been It's been
a blending of cultures between my childhood and my better
(02:22):
part of my adulthood here. So again, I know it's
gonna sting them. But thirty one days till Spurs opening night,
we got a lot of cowboys to talk. It's a
not victory Monday, another not victory Monday for your Dallas Cowboys.
But as always, we start with what we watched yesterday,
a lot of football. We're gonna talk Cowboys. That'll be
(02:42):
the whole segment. I want to mention the biggest headline today,
especially here locally, to see the PAC twelve get rejected
by four American Athletic Conference schools. It's just insane to
think of where college football is right now in twenty
twenty four, where Memphis, Tulane, USF, and UTSA all release
(03:06):
a joint statement today on behalf of the American Athletic
or in conjunction with the American Athletic Conference, basically saying
we have more faith in the future of the conference
we're in than the future of the former Conference of
Champions And I again, it's it's like watching a USC Michigan.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Big Ten Conference game.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's extremely uncomfortable and hard to wrap my head around
how we got here. But alas it seems like UTSA
is turning down an offer to join the PAC twelve.
And I think for UTSA, and we'll talk about this
a lot tomorrow, of course Tuesday, as we dive into
college football, but for UTSA.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It had to just come down to being.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Very clear that the belief that the better money, the
greener pastures were not to be had out west with
the PAC twelve. And again I just saying that out loud.
Is it's so hard for me to wrap my head
around thinking back to the in hell, thinking back to
the PAC ten champion playing in the playing the Big
(04:11):
ten champion in the Rose Bowl every year, and now
we're to the point where the PAC twelve can't even
convince UTSA to join. So again, we'll talk a lot
of college football tomorrow, a lot of games from Saturday.
We've got a recap, got a lot of Cowboys talk
coming up, as well as some greater NFL talk in
our full segment today. But I would be remiss if
(04:34):
I didn't start with a little reunion talk from this
past weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
If anybody missed it.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The roommate and I made the trip back up north
to my hometown, the home, the home that Dan Campbell built,
the home that Michael Keighley built. There's a random San
Diego Chargers offensive lineman, former TCU hornfrog shout Out was
my mom's pie student when.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
She was a third grade teacher. Back there.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
But I say all of that because the Glenros of
Dan Campbell and Michael Keithley it's not coming back, buddy,
the glen Rose of my childhood is not coming. My
rural hometown is gentrifying faster than I can even believe.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I can't. I can't think of another word to use.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Besides it's rural gentrification, it's the fact that we held
our reunion Saturday night at a feed mill where my
grandparents bought, you know, salt cakes or not salt cakes,
bought cakes for the cattle, salt blocks for the livestock.
And now I'm sitting in the backyard of that place
(05:41):
drinking double ranch waters with forty or so of my
high school former high school classmates. It's and on top
of that, it's one of three bars in town now,
which is insane again to me, I mean the abundance
of fast food options. There's now a McDonald's next to
(06:01):
us seven to eleven in my hometown. My graduating class
was barely over one hundred students, and your fast food
options at the time where Dairy Queen or the recently
built Burger King. And now to see it, you throw
a rock and hit a fast food restaurant all along
the main stretch of the highway that cuts through my hometown.
(06:24):
It is. I would be lying if I said there
wasn't a part of me that felt pretty nostalgic for
the way my hometown used to be. But then again,
there's a liquor store there now too, so I was
able to get a bottle of tequila and pregame for
the reunion. So, you know, pros and cons, pros and
cons all the way around.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Great weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I mean, as I said, you know, my graduating class
town of less than three thousand people, our graduating class
was barely over one hundred kids, and it seemed like
we were close to half of them showing back up
for the twenty year reunion and a dozen of them
that were too big time to go to the reunion.
(07:07):
I was able to see at different points of the
weekend as well, able to catch them since they weren't
going to show their face at the reunion, even though
they lived two blocks down the street.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Looking at you, Charlie Woods. But it was a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I mean, it's one of those the idea of that
I'm twenty years removed from high school. I try not
to think about it too much, because if I do,
it hits pretty damn hard. I know some of y'all
out there, you know, fifteen twenty years ahead of me,
or thinking, oh, just wait till you get to that
forty year mark.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, I know, I know, it's getting old. Sucks.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I'm not trying to argue that point whatsoever. But to
see everybody, to see a lot of you know, my
classmates that are just so comfortable in who they are
now as a you know, late these adults, and you
got some professional skins on the wall, and you know,
a lot to be proud of when it comes to
(08:06):
their respective careers, careers hilarious enough. You know, people that
I thought I knew pretty well in high school, you
know now flourishing in careers that I never would have
expected them to step into. It's pretty pretty cool to
see the success of your your former friends, your former
(08:26):
you know, in a town that small, you know, half
of my class we started pre k together. And to
see everyone, you know, twenty years removed from high school
just thinking, you know, a town that small, you can't
make enemies because you've only got about one hundred kids,
you know, fIF forty of them, forty five fifty of
(08:48):
them fellow dudes. And you can't make too many enemies. I,
in fact, I saw was able to see a kid
that whip my ass pretty good, and to see that.
I don't think he could do that now, nor would
he try. Oh no, he probably still try, and he
might still be able to do it. I'm speaking big
(09:08):
now that I'm not in front of him. But it,
you know, the flood of the flood of memory is good, bad,
and indifferent that come back at a at a reunion
like that, It you know, it makes you. It's hard
not to stop and be a little nostalgic for childhood.
As much as I try not to live in the
arrested development of high school athletics and accomplishments on the
(09:33):
court as a seventeen year old, every now and then
it's it's okay to travel back in time and relive
some of those absolute, you know, lifelong memories that were
made as a kid, back back in a crazy little
hometown that has a nuclear power plant and dinosaur tracks
(09:54):
in a state park. It's a it's a weird corner
of Texas. It's a it's a weird little slice Texas.
The weekend was great. Now the drive back could have
been a lot better. The roommate and I got the
other side of Hamilton, ended up realizing we had a
nail in the tire, and not just a nail in
(10:15):
the tire. Luckily, when I was able to, you know,
pull over to the side of the road, start changing
this thing. And as I take the tire off, I
can hear the nail, I can hear the air coming out.
I can eventually locate, you know, see where the nail is.
And I'm thinking, oh, this isn't bad. You know, it's
in a play, it's not in a bad spot. I'm
(10:36):
gonna have to change the tire. There's no way I'm
going to keep driving on it. But I can get
this patched Monday morning. Won't be any big deal. We'll
get right back on the road. No issues were. I
already knew I was going to be listening to Brad
and Babe on the radio broadcast, which I don't mind.
I mean, I am a I am an old soul.
When it comes to radio, it's you know, listening to
(10:58):
sports on radio. I would still to this day much
prefer listening to a baseball game on the radio than
watching it on TV. I know something Uncle Andy and
I always bonded on in the past, a fellow radio
old timer.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
When it comes to baseball.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Football, I still, would, of course, much rather watch it
on television, although that means here lately you have to
listen to Tom Brady call every Cowboys game, So I
knew I was going to be locked in to the
radio broadcast. I just thought I was going to be
home maybe by halftime or at least third quarter start
(11:37):
of the fourth, to catch the game the rest of
the game on the television. Although honestly, as y'all all
know how it went you watched yesterday Sunday afternoon, it
might have been a better thing that I was stuck
changing a tire in the middle of bf E Central
Texas and didn't have to watch that thing on television, because,
(11:59):
you know, Brad and Babes exasperation through the radio speakers,
I think pretty much perfectly conveyed exactly how that game
was playing out. I didn't need to see it to
understand the frustration of two guys that are you know,
can only be described as bleed blue Homers when it
comes to the Cowboys and their lack of enthusiasm, we'll
(12:21):
call it. They're not necessarily enjoying being there in the
second half of that game, especially after the Ravens score
on that first possession to start the third quarter. We'll
get into all that Cowboys talk. But I end up
getting the flat tire off. No, I'm thinking, all right, nail,
no big deal.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I flip it over.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I noticed there's a giant gash on the inside of
the tire that there's no way we should have ever
kept driving on it. Regardless of the nail. There was
way more damage than I intended so or than I realized.
It's a bit of a blessing and a curse, you know,
curse that we got a flat, blessing that I was
able to get it off and notice the damage was
(13:03):
much worse than I first suspected. So luckily had a
full size spare as you always should, didn't have to
drive on a donut all the way back to San
Antonio because we weren't even an hour into the three
plus hour drive home. So was able to sit there
and Blair the Cowboys game on the radio as I'm
(13:24):
sweating my ass off trying to get us back on
the road, and as I said, it just feels like
the perfect metaphor for what it feels like to be
a Cowboys fan right now, just sitting on the side
of the road in the middle of nowhere, changing a
tire with very little hope that things are going to
get better, very little hope for any improvement. As I'm
(13:49):
throwing a spare on. There's a metaphor for maybe the
team's just full of spares. Ay, ay, okay, need Truman
for that one. Truman loves a good dad joke. We're
gonna get Truman to give his Cowboys thoughts soon, but
we'll jump We'll jump into it here again.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Happy to see.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Everybody, Glad, everybody is doing well from the reunion. Hopefully
made a few new listeners from being back. Even the
ones that are mad at my at my recent late
life Spurs love. We could they could all agree that,
definitely we can. We can coalesce together and all root
(14:32):
against the Rockets and maybe healthily respect what the Spurs
were doing when we were growing up, completely jealous of
them up in the up in North Texas, as the
MAVs were signing Dennis Rodman, only for him to sit
on a free throw line cross leg and get ejected.
(14:52):
It was weird times up there. So again great seeing everybody. Now,
I'm just postponing the inevitable because I really don't want
to talk about the Cowboys, but we've got to talk
about In fact, we're going to start from the post
game and then work our way back through it because again,
(15:13):
as we've been talking about for weeks now, Jerry Jones
will absolutely lie straight to your face. And for decades
that worked for him for decades, that didn't cause any
disruptions from the fan base. For decades, media ran cover
for his lies and didn't call him out in anywhere
(15:36):
close to the way that Mike Greenberg did today.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Why can't you mansion when you live in a different
kind of hash We couldn't afford it.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
We can't make that all fit as simple as that.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And sorry, but with all due respects, serve it is
definitely not as simple as that. Sometimes you can't buy
a mansion because you ran up a lot of credit
card debt or something like that. You made bad financial decisions,
and that's what his team and his leadership have done.
Maybe if you had decided to treat the offseason like
it began sometime before September. First, you would have been
able to make some of these moves. But when you
(16:10):
wait on the CD LAMB deal until you're the last mover.
You ever heard of the term first mover advantage, Well,
they were the last mover when it came to the
great receivers, and so it cost them way more than
an otherwise would have. And they were the last mover.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
They literally signed their quarterback to.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
The biggest contract of all time an hour before the
season began. They had no off season, so they got
worse and more expensive, which is terrible management. So they
could easily have afforded Derek Henry if they had taken
care of their business when they should have, and instead
he ran all over their nonexistent defense yesterday.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
That is the Sunday statement.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, Greenee had me until he drops the generic That
is the Sunday statements. That's the kind of national talking
head generic crap that I hate. But everything's got to
have a title. Everything else he said in that statement
in response to Jerry is absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
If you missed this exchange.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
That was Jerry Jones' postgame when asked by former Randy
Galloway sidekick and now a doomsday podcast host along with
Edward Or Matt Moseley asked him if watching Derreck Henry
made him wish he had signed him, and Jerry's exact
quote was, as you heard part of it in the
clip there, why can't you buy a mansion when you
(17:25):
live in a different type of house. We couldn't afford it.
You can't make that all fit simple as that. Greenberg
nailed it when he said, with all due respect, it's
not as simple as that. Every other team in the
league understands it's not as simple as that. And we're
gonna talk heavily about the specifics of the game itself,
(17:47):
but I had to start here because this is something
we've talked about for weeks now. Jerry Jones conducts business
conducts the off season or lack of business in the
off season, unlike any their team in the league. He
doesn't want the CD or the DAK contract to be
announced until closer to the regular season because he wants
(18:08):
to own the narrative. He wants to have that talking point,
carry the Cowboys talk throughout the offseason, and then carry
the NFL league wide talk when he gets those deals
done right at the beginning of the regular season or
right at the end of training camp in in CD's case.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It's the Cowboy. We talked about this last.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Week when Jerry said, that's a fact we've spent the
most cash of any team this year. It takes less
than a five minute Google search to realize the Cowboys
have spent the thirteenth most cash this seat calendar year
so far, and that's only because of the signing bonuses
(18:52):
that he gave CD and DAK. They are nowhere near
the biggest cash spenders. And right now they as a
team with thirty million dollars in available cap space. Well,
let's do some quick math. Derrick Henry two years, eight
million dollars a year. Stefan Gilmour, who would have looked
pretty damn good when you see Kayln Cason Carson trying
(19:14):
to tackle on the outside and you see Agalore run
down the sideline in the first quarter. Not that Stefan
Gilmour Moore is an amazing tackler, but I think we
would all agree he's better than a fifth round rookie.
Right now, Gilmore signs one year, ten million dollar deal,
Well there's eighteen million dollars. You still would have had
twelve million dollars left to address your defensive tackle position.
(19:38):
All of this is Jerry lying through his teeth, gaslighting
the fan base because he's always been able to do that.
And I know I bag heavily on these you know,
the National talking head shows, the get up skip all
those skips gone now, steven A, what all of these
(19:59):
shows all their doing is poking the buttons to drive ratings.
There's not usually there's not in depth quality sports talk.
It's normally just driven to get a reaction out of
the audience. I thought that clip from Greenberg was perfect
because it's what a lot of Cowboys fans way smarter
(20:19):
than me, way smarter than Greenberg in terms of being
connected to the Cowboys daily.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
It's what they've.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Been saying and trying to tell the fan base for
a couple of years now.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
This is not normal business.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Normal NFL teams don't wait to do contract extensions until
the week of the regular season starting. They do it
before the NFL Draft, or they do it right after
the draft so they have available cap space.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
To use in free agency.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
We've seen that Jerry doesn't want to do that because
that would mean spending more cash on those signing bonuses
early and then turning around and having to spend more
cash on signing bonuses to sign free agents. Jerry, this
is not a football operation. This is a business. They
(21:08):
are the most valuable franchise in the entire world.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
They don't get to that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
They don't get to that high profit margin for Jerry
and the rest of the Backwoods Jones family. If they're
spending cash every offseason, it's a giant gas lighting ploy
to tell the fan base we're all in, except we're
not going to renegotiate contracts or give out extensions to
open up cap space because we don't want to actually
(21:36):
spend the money on hand, because all we care about
is making more money, not winning football games. And again,
props to Greenberg for calling that out for the absolute
lie that it is. Props to Matt Moseley for asking
the question post game, and hopefully props on the Cowboys
fan base for starting to realize that their owner lies
(21:57):
through their teeth because all he cares about is making money.
And hopefully the eyes are starting to open on the
perpetual gas lighting that's only going to continue to take place.
I feel like gas lighting is like the word of
the year for the last three or four years now
for other reasons, but Jerry perfectly sums it up a
old rich man who's been able to get away with
(22:18):
lying for decades. Hopefully the chickens are coming home to
roost now that requires the fan base to actually give
up on them. Like my grandpa told me this weekend,
he was about a half an inch close to completely
jumping off the bandwagon, and I told him, it's not
a bandwagon.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Bandwagons are fun.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Bandwagons are what independent fans jump on because it looks
really fun to be a fan of whatever bandwagon team
you're jumping onto, whatever team you're getting behind. There's no
cowboys bandwagon. It's only pain and misery. And if you're
jumping on at this point, you're just a glutton for punishment.
If you're staying on at the point, you're just the
(23:01):
glutton for punishment. And hopefully, the only thing that's ever
going to change the way the Joneses do business, whether
it's Jerry Now, Steven Charlotte, Jerry Jones in the future,
the only thing that's going to change the way they
ever do business is if their pocket books, if their
bank accounts start to be affected by their poor mismanagement
(23:23):
of the most valuable sports franchise in the world.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
It's infuriating. I would argue it's more infuriating.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Than the actual product on the field, because the product
on the field isn't that much better, as we all
saw on Sunday afternoon. But obviously the management in the suite,
who's just dismissively shaking his head at the end of
this game after another embarrassing loss at home, a third
straight embarrassing disappointment at home, after a team that was
(23:52):
so good at home all the last season what do
we say, sixteen game regular season home winning streak, Well,
the last three games that have been held in that building.
It was embarrassment by the Packers in the first round
of the playoffs, it was an embarrassment from the Saints
in the first home game of this season. And despite
(24:13):
what that final score ended yesterday, it was another embarrassment
at home against a team that obviously showed they were
way more desperate and way more up for the moment
than Jerry Jones's team was yesterday. And I know I
swore last week this wouldn't just turn into a Jerry
(24:34):
Jones bitch fest every time they lose, or every time
he said every time he lies to us again and
expects us to believe the crap sandwich that he's serving.
But it's impossible not to just be infuriated when you
are lied to your face and he's lying to our
face as Cowboys fans, when he does that postgame media scrum,
(24:56):
because also he's got to make sure he does his
postgame scrum before you I ever even hear from the
head coach, a head coach that has a hell of
a lot to answer for himself. We got to hear
Jerry Jones lie to us before we hear the head
coach tell us nothing's actually wrong. We're just figuring things out.
We're going to install the real offense in the bye
week like they did last week last year.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So it's it's Cowboys nihilism at this point.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
They could go undefeated in the regular season and I
would feel the same way as I do about them
right now, because the only thing that matters is punching
your ticket into the playoffs and then change my opinion
on this group by postseason success. Right now, they're one
and two. There's a lot of good one in two
teams across the NFL right now, teams that we're going
(25:42):
to look back at the end of the season when
they have ten, eleven, twelve wins, and we're gonna say, man,
you remember when they started one and two. It doesn't
feel the same for the Cowboys, but there is still Again,
as I say, the Cowboys nihilism tells me there's enough
talent in that life locker room despite the poor construction
from upper management. You know, if it wasn't for Will
(26:05):
McLay drafting his ass off and producing more Pro Bowlers
through the draft than any team in the league, think
about where this thing would be. Think about where this
thing would be if Jerry Jones was still trying to
elbow Steven to get to the podium to turn in
the Johnny Manzel pick. Think about where this thing would
be if there actually wasn't someone that understood what a
(26:29):
good football team is constructed from. Imagine if there wasn't
a guy like that who at least had the half
ear of Jerry Jones to prevent him from doing more
stupid stuff. Because we're a heartbeat away from just having
the same replace Jerry when whatever Jones kid wins the lottery,
(26:49):
whether it's Steven or Charlotte. I got my bet on
Charlotte if we're if we're taking picks. But it's infuriating,
it's it's hard not to get hung up on it.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
But it's still the NFL. It's still a silly league.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
It's still only Week three, it's a short week this week.
We're gonna have a lot of Cowboys talk on the
pod this week because they do play Thursday night, first
Division game of the season against the Giants. So try
not to be try not to get too down with
this thing, despite me sitting here yelling about Jerry for
(27:29):
ten minutes to start the Cowboys segment today, Because again,
the NFL is a silly league. The NFC is wide open,
wide ass open. So many the Vikings are undefeated. Do
we feel like the Vikings are the class of the NFC.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
No, it's a silly league.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
They're three and oh Sam Darnold is leading the league
in touchdown passes right now. It's a silly league. Examples A, B,
and C right there. So jump into the game itself,
because there are there are recurring issues that we've talked
about that don't seem to be getting better. It's not
(28:10):
it's not just the personnel. Now we're now starting to
see three weeks of Zimmer's defense and not seeing a
whole lot of adjustment. I jokingly said, you know, McCarthy,
you know installed the real offense last year during the
bye week. Well, maybe Zimmer will install the real defense
during the bye week this week this year because hit
(28:34):
so far yesterday, particularly with Lamar as a more of
a rushing threat versus you know, the way the Saints
carved them in the run game. The Ravens did it
in a different way, but it's a lot of the
same issues. So we'll just jump right from the start
of it. You know something that we've talked heavily about
(28:55):
the defensive failures so far this season, but not enough
focus on the offensive failures. And you know, the way
they won that Week one game, the offense really didn't
have to do anything. Week two, the offense never showed
signs of life the way they did in the fourth
(29:15):
quarter of the game yesterday. But you know, a recurring
talking point throughout Cowboys Land last week was well, we
need the off we need to get off to better starts. Well,
the Cowboys win the toss, the radio call, the radio
broadcast caught up whoever was the captain yesterday saying we
want that f and ball. Well, they got the ball.
(29:39):
Three penalties on that first drive. The drive goes nowhere.
It's a punt.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
In fact, let's just look at their drive chart until
the final three possessions of the game. So again we
want to get off to a fast start. Punt field goal, fumble,
costly fumble from CD inside the ten yard line, punt punt,
phil goal, punt turnover on downs, and then the last
three possessions were all touchdowns to make the game look
(30:06):
way closer than it actually was. It's not just about
the offense not being able to run the ball.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Dak.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
If you only look at the numbers from yesterday, you
would think, well, Dak wasn't the problem. But if you
watch the first half of that game, Dak's throwing into
tight coverage and some of that is on the receivers
not getting open, some of that is on Dak. A
lot of that is on Dak misreading where the ball
should be going, throwing into doubles, throwing into tight spaces,
(30:38):
making you know, a you know, Ferguson had a great
catch on a bad Dak throw on that drive where
CD ends up fumbling it inside the ten. But you
know something that has been an issue the whole time
McCarthy's been here is the penalties.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
And I mentioned it there.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
That first drive of the game, they have three penalties,
go nowhere and immediately punt and they're down seven to nothing. Honestly,
before the offense can even talk about the first drive,
the Ravens go down what was it, five plays, seventy
one yards and score a touchdown immediately. Just no answers
(31:16):
from that point forward, honestly until the fourth quarter, where
it looked like the Ravens let their foot off the
gas and almost had the same thing that happened to
him last week against the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
We almost saw it, and.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
It got to the point where they drew me close
enough back in at the end there where I thought, okay,
well one defense. You know, the defense has gotten back
to back stops, cowboys have scored back to back touchdowns,
if they can just get one more stop, And it
really looked like the Ravens as a collective offense, as
(31:52):
a collective unit, said look, we've let off All we
need is one more first down and said I'm gonna
get it myself and that zone read that ended up
closing things out there at the end, I mean just
torched them all day. It was only appropriate that it
was a Lamar keeper to end up getting on that
first down. And I mentioned, you know, the first three
(32:15):
quarters of that game were exactly the same thing we've
seen in the last three home games, specifically the run defense.
And you know it's not instantly. A lot of the
blame goes to the highest paid players or the most
out in front of the public players, looking specifically at
Michah Parsons.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Micah wasn't the issue yesterday. Micah set the edge just fine.
That was not the issue. You know, what was it?
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Seventeen total mistackles. I mentioned the Kayling Carson mistackle on
the Agalore pass there on that second possession of the
by the Ravens. Maybe it was first possession, and that
my immediate thought. Again, not that Gilmour.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Is a.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Expert all pro tackler at the corner position, but I
would have much rather had him there instead of Kaylen Carson.
But Jerry told us you can't buy a mansion on credit. Well,
you didn't have to have credit. You chose to do that.
That was a choice to start a fifth year or
a fifth round rookie there, and of course all because
of the dron Bland injury. But it still goes back
(33:25):
to that same exact mentality of not addressing the losses,
not addressing the Hankins loss. You didn't want to pay
Hankins three quarters of a million dollar more than he
made last year, so you let him walk to Seattle,
and you've replaced him with guys off the street that
other teams didn't want. Is specifically talking about into your
(33:47):
defensive line. Mazzie looked so slow off the snap, which
you could say that just about any game where he's
been in there for as many snaps as he was yesterday.
He looked completely mismatched for three quarters of that game. Now,
the fourth quarter, there was a lot of really good tape,
but arguably Mazzi's best tape of his career was during
(34:11):
the Ravens drives during that fourth quarter comeback. But I
think you you got to give him credit for what
he did, but I think you also have to understand
the circumstances of the Ravens cruising with a three plus
touchdown lead should have been for possession game if justin
Tucker hadn't missed that field goal to give the Cowboys
(34:32):
a sliver of hope. It's more of the same with
that interior defensive line unit. They are just they absolutely
do not have the personnel to It doesn't matter what
scheme you're running or what rotation of guys you're running
through in that defensive tackle position, the personnel is just
(34:52):
not there. In terms of where the rest of the
NFL potential playoff contenders are, It's it's beyond a weakness
for the Cowboys. I mean, hell, we talk a lot
about the Cowboys offensive run game. I'm not sure which
is worse They're INTI your defensive line group or their
(35:14):
running back room, because the running back room only managed
to get fifty one yards themselves while the defensive line
gives up two hundred and seventy four yards rushing to
the Ravens. I mean, that's a two hundred and twenty
three if I'm doing my math, they're correct, a two
hundred and twenty three yard difference between the two teams
(35:35):
when it comes to rushing yards totals. And that is
an untenable situation if I've ever seen one that is
there is no recipe for winning football games when you're
only rushing for fifty one yards, just like there's no
recipe for winning football games when you're giving up damn
near three hundred rushing yards. It's it's so frustrating that
(35:57):
it's hard to even focus specifically on who bears the
greatest brunt of responsibility for where they find themselves. I
mentioned Dak, I mentioned the run game, I mentioned the
defensive tackle position. The seventeen miss tackles, A lot of
those were from secondary and linebackers. It's it's a blessing
(36:21):
that they have potentially the most weaponized leg in the
league when it comes to Brandon Aubrey out there because,
as Tom Brady called him, the Steph Curry of kickers
because he has unlimited range.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I mean, it's pretty.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Embarrassing when the only bright spot you can find through
three weeks of your NFL season is your kicker might
be the biggest weapon the NFL has ever seen at
that position. I mean, the dude's an absolutely automatic gold
standard so far for his career, still perfect from fifty
plus yards in his career. Two seasons into it, he
(36:58):
had another fill goal of what was a fifty one
yards somewhere right over the fifty yard mark. So if
you want to find any kind of positive, start with
the kicker. How does that make you feel about your
NFL football team of choice? The only positive we can
find is, oh, and maybe the special teams coach is
the best coach on staff. How do those two things
(37:20):
make you feel? We got a hell of a kicker
and iired special teams coach might be the best in
the league. Unfortunate times, no other way to call it,
no other way to point it. It's a bit of
a rudderless operation right now. That doesn't seem like it's
gonna have many answers whether it be is Dalvin Cook
(37:42):
gonna solve the run game? I wouldn't push a whole
lot of chips into the middle on that bet. Are
they going to make a move for any kind of
run interior run stopper of factor before the trade deadline? Well,
why would a team give one of those guys up?
And if they do that, Jerry's going to overpay. He'll
(38:04):
grab the phone from Will mcclay's hand and say, I'm
not letting you.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Off the phone till we make a deal.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
That's how you end up giving up a fourth round
pick for Trey Lance when the Niners literally Jerry told
the Niners I'm not letting you hang up.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
The Niners were thinking to them, so, yeah, why would
we hang up?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
You're the only one offering this kind of value for
our guy. We'll talk about the Niners too, because they're
a one in two team in the NFC right now,
with reports of Brock Purdy getting an MRI later today
to determine his status going forward, and they've got their
own injury issues on the interior defensive line. So again,
(38:39):
it's a lot of negative, and it's deservedly a lot
of negative, but it's also the silliest of all pro leagues.
And nothing through these first three weeks still as bad
as they've been make me say this is a team
that has no chance of making the playoffs, because just
look across it's the rest of their league. They have
(39:02):
every bit of chance to still put together a moderate
close to five hundred run through the rest of the
season and be right there fighting for a wild card spot.
I jokingly you said last week, it's exactly what Jerry
Jones wants in a lot of ways. Again, because he's
(39:22):
not in the business of winning football games. He's in
the business of making sure his team is the most
talked about team in the league week after week.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And what does he.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Love more than anything a final week matchup deciding whether
his team makes the playoffs or not, because he knows
that will only drive eyeballs to the mediocre product that
he's put out there on the field, which just means
more money for him.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I mean, sure, he wants them to make the playoffs
so he can continue to make a little bit of money.
But at the end of the day, it's all about
driving the narrative of keeping the Cowboys at the fore front.
The first thought of every NFL fan when they turn
on a national talking head show in the morning. They're
talking about the Cowboys for better or worse, and right
now it's for a lot worse. It's you can look
(40:12):
at all of the specific stats, you can look at exactly,
drive by drive, how that game played out yesterday. I
don't think there's a whole lot of effort and energy
that needs to be wasted looking at any of that
right now. The clear message is it's not good enough.
(40:33):
The nihilist in me says, I don't know how it
gets better.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Djok of the roommate keeps joking with me.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Her mantra for the Cowboys right now is a note
I put out there two weeks ago of they did
nothing to improve Comma, why would I think they're any
better this year than they were last year? And until
they show me any signs of improvement, I only look
at the way they conduct did business for the last
(41:01):
eight months, and I say, why do I have any
faith that this is going to change? They actively told
me they were all in, while behind the scenes they
were doing absolutely nothing to get better, nothing to match
the public statements of being all in. So it's gonna
(41:21):
be a Cowboys heavy week because we do get to
turn around and watch a Thursday night football game where
if they're ever going to get some of their swagger back,
it's got to be on the road against the Giants.
Because even though the Giants get their first win of
the season last week against the Browns or yesterday against
the Browns, Cowboys are still four and a half point
(41:43):
favorites traveling to New Jersey to take on the Giants. Now,
that was a seven point spread before all the games
started yesterday, before the Cowboys were embarrassed again and before
the Giants got their win, So that line moved two
and a half points based off of yesterday's results and
the way both teams looked. But Cowboys are still four
(42:05):
and a half point favorites on the road, as they
absolutely should be, or again, at least we think they
absolutely should be. I still think there's enough overall talent
at the top end of this roster to carry them
past week division teams like New York and Washington. Now
the Eagles are a different story. Eagles end up handing
(42:28):
the Saints their first loss yesterday, but I think looking
across the rest of the NFC, this is a Cowboys
team that I still fully expect to be fighting for
a wild card spot. It doesn't feel like it's the
beginning of a three straight five and eleven seasons under
Dave Campo. Ironically, Mike Zimmer was that defensive coordinator back then,
(42:50):
when we had the Pickle Juice game and everybody cramping
against the Eagles and the beginning of Campo telling us,
oh no, no, the house is not caving in. There
is no fire behind me. There are there are there
are issues that we will address, but there is there
is still hope to turn this thing around. I don't
(43:11):
feel like it's the beginning of that now. Trust me,
I've been quite wrong before, especially when it comes to
the Cowboys. But this does feel different in terms of
the fan base, you know, being back home in true
you know, Cowboys Country back up in North Texas, and
(43:33):
you know a lot of the bleed blue lifelong defenders
of this franchise. Allah, my uncle, my uncle not as
much of a defender, but my grandpa, you know, seeing
multiple generations of greatness. You know, my uncle reminded me
things were terrible in the eighties when he was a kid,
(43:54):
and then he got the nineties. Well, we've gotten the
last thirty years where it's been nothing but the eighties
basically repeated every single decade. We haven't turned that corner
to get any of the level of success. But then,
of course, you know my grandpa's age, that generation of
Cowboys fans, you know, they of course remember all the
(44:14):
way back to Roger and the greatness that came before
Jimmy and the triplets. So talking to a lot of
them this past weekend, it feels like the level of
apathy has never been higher towards this franchise, and again
it's it's not hard to understand why that's the case.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
It's because of.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Plays like CD fumbling inside the ten yard line when
the team's already down fourteen to three and the Cowboys
are driving to get a touchdown on the board, something
they've struggled with all season, and then him turning around
and not talking to reporters after the game. It's the
lack of accountability from individuals that say we need less
(44:56):
hero ball, like Micah Parson said, or Jordan Lewis direct
calling out teammates Jordan Lewis, who honestly has been probably
the biggest bright spot of the defense so far this year.
And that again, you're talking about your nickel corner being
the biggest bright spot. You probably haven't had that grade
of a start to the year. Or how about your
(45:17):
head coach today telling the media you know what's what's
what needed to be said has been said and we're
moving on real quick. On McCarthy, I did think it
was a bit of an odd choice, you know, again,
driving home, listening to it on the radio, when the
Cowboys scored down twenty two, down twenty eight to six,
they score to cut it to a sixteen point game,
(45:40):
end up going for two right then in my head,
you know you're going to have to score three times regardless,
so to go for two at that point that then
if you don't make it, which they didn't. They Dak
throws a ball to CD who even if he caught it,
he would have been tackled short of even the one
(46:02):
yard line because they don't get the two point conversion there.
They are now mathematically tied into going for two.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
No matter what.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
On the next touchdown, assuming they get it, and it
turned out, Bones Fossil and Brandon Aubrey, the two best
players and coaches on the whole operation, throw another watermelon
kick out there and they're able to recover an on
side kick. Well, if McCarthy had just kicked the field goal,
it would have been a fifteen point game. Then you
(46:35):
get the ball back, you score another touchdown. I then
is the decision of either kicking the field goal or
going for two. Because you've still got eight and a
half minutes left in the game. You know what you're
going to need to tie this thing up or potentially
win it. I would have sided personally on kicking the
(46:56):
extra point. Both of those times because you still know
you're gonna have to get one two point conversion. But
if you score a third touchdown, which they turned out
that they did, then you're going for two. You're still
doing another on side kick, but at that point, if
you had to kick a field goal after that, you're
now kicking for the win instead of kicking for a tie.
(47:17):
Like they ended up putting themselves in position to or
trying to put themselves in position to do. The onside
kick roll is weird too. I don't want to don't
want to sound too old man when it comes to it,
but you know, I Brad on the radio call Brad Sham,
the Great Brad Sham, had a very specific grievance when
(47:41):
it comes to the new onside kick role, and it's
that you have to announce it and you can only
do it in the fourth quarter if you're losing.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
So it removes.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
All of the surprise attack element of a good special
teams a coach. You know, you remember the Saints come
out and kick an onside kick to start the second
half of a Super Bowl. Well you can't do that
anymore because you have to one wait until the fourth
quarter and two announce to the other team that you
(48:10):
plan on doing an on side kick. So it's sure
it's in the name of player safety, and I get
that kind of, but it absolutely removes an element of
surprise of a team that's fighting to get back into
a game. Of course, it didn't matter on the first one,
as the Cowboys were able to recover, but you know
(48:31):
it didn't didn't end up working out in their favor
on the next two attempts. So it's it's a lot
of bad, as I said, but it's also only week three.
It's a short week. The Cowboys go out handle the
Giants on Thursday. We'll talk a lot about that as
we gear up for the game later in the week.
(48:52):
But all of a sudden, if they do that, they're
two and two. The NFC is not looking like a juggernaut,
as it's slowly been trending back to average over the
last few years, especially as we see the forty nine
ers injury issues potentially start to mount. Even though their
slow start, they still on paper look like they were
(49:15):
going to be the team that would probably be left standing.
I'm not exactly sure if you had to ask me
right now, who represents the NFC and the super Bowl.
There's no team that I instantly say I feel they
have a much better chance than anybody else.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
I mean, you want to talk.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
The Bucks were undefeated, they lost to the Broncos yesterday,
given the Broncos their first win. The Rams look like
they might have been trending closer to death than contention,
and they beat the forty nine ers. The Lions are
probably the team is I would probably say the fighting
Dan Campbell's would be my best guess of who represents
(49:58):
the NFC and the Super Bowl. They beat a team
in the Cardinals yesterday that's shown nothing but fight to
start the season. So and we mentioned also within the division,
the Eagles give the Saints their first loss, and the
Vikings are undefeated with Sam Darnold leading the league in
touchdown So the league is there for the taking a
(50:18):
one and two start while staying relatively healthy. Speaking of
Dallas and potentially getting Deron Bland back sooner, maybe than
even initially suspected. He was doing some light work team
workouts or light workouts to the side of team practice
last week. Maybe he can get back a week or
(50:40):
two early. It's not that the Cowboys have done so
much so bad so early that they are out of it.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Far from it.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
It's just the feeling of hope is nowhere near the surface,
and looking at how these first three games have played out,
and I know that doesn't help. When you have me
sitting here telling you there's nothing the coaching staff can
do because the personnel is so bad. I think there's
a lot of truth to that, but I also think, hell,
(51:10):
look at McCarthy's all time record when they flashed it
up there yesterday. Compared to John Harball. Would you have
guessed McCarthy has a better win percentage than John Harball?
Would you have guessed he's only one playoff win separated
from John Harball twelve and ten, McCarthy eleven eleven or
eleven and twelve, something like that. McCarthy's six nineteen win
(51:32):
percentage to harball six thirteen. Both have one Super Bowl win.
I think Ravens fans at zero to two were probably
still more confident in their system and coaching staff than
the Cowboys were sitting there one in one going into
the game yesterday. So I don't think the disappointment of
(51:53):
getting embarrassed again takes away from the fact that this
operation is not dead.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
In the water. Yet we are not Dave Campo is
not the head coach.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
It's still Mike McCarthy, who has some skins and has
shown an ability to get things turned around mid season
multiple times throughout his career. So it's a lot of bad,
but it's not over. And I know that's not very comforting,
but that's what I keep telling myself as I prepare
to watch them potentially break my heart like they do
(52:26):
every week it seems here lately on Thursday Night Football
coming up, I mentioned it we're going to talk a
lot of college football tomorrow because we got to recap
the games from Saturday had some awesome drama the PAC
two after Dark now some awesome drama on your local
CW affiliates late Saturday night early Sunday morning also had
(52:50):
threats of a Taco Bell burrito being inserted into a
dude because of the BYU win. And so we got
a lot of college football to cover tomorrow, and of
course the Monday night football doubleheader tonight will recap on
tomorrow's show as well.
Speaker 1 (53:10):
But ride with me. It's a long season.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
I'll try to keep my Cowboys nihilism to a required minimum.
But when it's bad. It's bad, and yesterday was undoubtedly
more bad than I mean. Yay, we kicked a sixty
five yardfield goal.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
The crowd went wild, except by the third quarter, half
the crowd had filed out, and there was a poor
guy sitting in one of those stupid oversized cowboy hats.
Not a cowboy but an oversized team NFL team hat,
just looking like he was. Someone had shot his dog
in front of him before he left the stadium. So
(53:52):
it's not good energy. But ride with me. We'll ride
this out together. Good, bad or indifferent. Enjoy the football tonight.
We'll be bad to talk about it all again tomorrow
Till then.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
Kids, what do we say about drugs?
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Holy?
Speaker 1 (54:06):
You stay Holy? Yeah,
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