The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Cowboys.
This is Mick Shots streaming live on Dallascowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys have now Here are Bill Jones, Savannah Humoller, Everson Walls, and Mickey Spagnola.
All right, here we go three out of four. Ain't bad today? Bill Jones dnps today with an illness. It seems to be going around this building of late. But we are here, Everson Walls, Savannah Humollor and myself Mickey Spagnola here on Mick Shots on a Wednesday. But there's no football players on the football field.
What's going on? Dude?
And practice is supposed to start right now, so I'm guessing they are indoors.
I would assume.
So it's not chill the weather. I don't think it's not bad.
What is it?
Maybe in the forties.
Now, No, No, it's up to it's almost up to the upper fifty fifties. And the wind is warm. The wind is warm. It's not a cold breeze at all.
So you know what's going on? Right?
What's going on?
We got secrets? Does mean that means he doesn't want anybody watching practice that's not supposed to be watching.
Okay, I got you playoff there you go, keep it all locked in rights.
The old school Redskins would come to town and we would go to Washington and we had to buy out the entire side of the holiday. Wait the eight days in it was a days the days in hotel they bought out the entire side.
The second floor because it opened up.
They did this for for what reason?
For Washington Week because they didn't Redskins. Well, it was George Allen's.
Yeah, George Allen's old school coach for the Redskins. After was saying Redskins because that's what they were at the time, and uh.
He was. He was a cheat. Let's just say what it was. He was a cheat.
And when it came to the Cowboys Redskins wife, we I.
Think both of them were cheating. I think we just didn't hear much about it. On the Cowboys.
On the other side, I texted and trust them.
So he brought out the side and then you would have security was walking back and forth on the second floor making sure no one tried to sneak up in video.
Our practices not with any other team just washing.
As if Philly was above boy.
Right, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, So the Cowboys are indoors practicing today. And speaking of practice, Savannah, why don't we give a little Cowboys injury updates.
Let's do it.
We were in the press conference with Mike McCarthy and obviously there's a few people that were in question for this week. Zach Martin, who was out with an illness against the Commanders. He is back in the facility today.
He is feeling better.
He will be participating in practiced today. He's improved. But I guess there are a couple staff members, staff members who Mike quoted they don't count out with illness.
Just keep them away.
Okay, he's deafinitely ill, but yeah he's not playing.
Yeah, Tyler Smith limited and Stefan Gilmour. He will rehab Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the hope is to have him line up on Saturday.
And kind of see what he can do. Get him to the game the best they can. And so with the shoulder injury that he suffered, so he'll continue rehabbing and you just want him to be ready to play in the game. And it's good news on Tyler that he's going to be limited.
So he was.
Somewhat limited last week and didn't play, so we'll see what he's able to do. But you know, the good thing about him being limited and then last week and then Zach on his normal schedule not practicing.
On Zach no, he was ill. Remember, I know he's ill, but I'm still.
Yeah, they haven't I haven't met that come up. And the good thing about that is that TJ. Bass and brock Hoffman were able to practice almost fully last week, so when they had to play in the game, they were prepared, which is normally that doesn't happen, right, those guys get a handful of snaps normally. Uh, you don't know what that's like because you we never got any snaps off in.
Practice, right, didn't. We didn't do that.
So so anyway, I would imagine that if Tyler's limited, then TJ. Bass will get a share of the snaps and Zach will get what he normally gets, but that's not a lot because they don't want to wear him out, So brock Hoffman will get more, and you know, and then Hoffman also, by the way, if if Zach whatever Zach was getting, he would be getting backup snaps at center because he is the backup center. Okay, yeah, he's both Okay, so yeah, So anyway, that's kind of an
injury update. I did notice that if I can find it in all my scribbles here. The Packers have a couple of things going on. They're leading receiver Romeo Dobbs injured his chest in the game this past Sunday. He ended up going to the hospital, but he was released the next day or that night.
So and he's their leading receiver.
He's their leading receiver. And then he's got six sixty four no I'm sorry, second leading receiver, fifty nine catches for six hundred and seventy four yards eight touchdowns. So he's kind of the guy they go to. Also, Christian Watson, Bill's guy, has missed the last five games with a hamstring, so his production obviously this year has gone down significantly, but if.
You remember, it's still playing well.
Yeah, and if you remember last year, Watson had a big day against the Cowboys in that thirty one twenty eight overtime victory. And running back AJ Dylan has a These two don't go together, a thumb and stinger, so I guess that's two separate things. He missed the last game and so did Isaiah McDuffie concussion neck, So we'll see how those go when we get an injury report today.
But from a health standpoint, you know, that's not too bad this time of the season when the injuries do pile up after especially after seventeen games and going for eighteen games, So we'll see how this turns out. I also saw another little note. The NFL PA had their players vote for their All Pro team. Very very very interesting. Did you see that? No? I did not, So here's the significant ones for the Cowboys. Obviously, Doron Bland was one of the two starting cornerbacks on their All Pro team.
The one was Patrick Certain Obviously Ceedee Lamb was one of the wide receivers with Tyree Kill. But I thought from a player vote, this one was most interesting. The starting guards Tyler Smith and Zach Martin the awesome The players knew, players knew what Tyler Smith was doing this year. Obviously Brandon Aubrey was the kicker. So that's how the players kind of voted on you know what's happening with this team. So thought we talk a little, you know,
we did it yesterday. I can't remember if it was what you were worried about going into this game, but Mike McCarthy even mentioned it today in his press conference when he was talking about you know, he said, this is what it's all about, stopping the run, and it is every week and if you notice the specific playoff time, right, the Packers have been running the ball pretty well these last three weeks. So that was one of his concerns.
And I don't know it was my concern. I don't know about you guys.
Mine was mine was penalties, that's right now.
That was something that that really got me. We've been doing very well, if I'm not mistaken the last three games, especially this last game. But you know, when you look at the caliber of play of who we're playing against, if you're not pressured that much, then you won't get many penalties.
That's why I liked our.
Position with the Detroit game because we didn't have a lot of penalties in that game. Okay, and they had some, but we didn't have a lot that really hurt us that much. We kind of trended downward in that regard. So you can see it. There's an emphasis emphasis there on not having his made penalties from the Dallas Cowboy.
Side, and you'll be glad to know that we have some numbers to back up your perception.
Okay, So.
In the victory over Philadelphia, for what it's worth, they had seven. Well let's go back one more. Are we talking about the Cowboys penalties? Yeah, they had nine against Seattle, seven against the bottom Philadelphia, and then it went down in the last four games, even though two of them were losses. Five for forty eight in Buffalo, six for thirty eight in Miami, five for thirty four against Detroit, and then this last game only two for twenty yards.
Minimal, very minimal. I like that. Yeah.
So that was one of the things that got mentioned sort of in the walk off, and McCarthy was pretty happy about that.
And you should be, because you're talking about you know, we've got enough issues right now trying to stop the run. I mean, we don't need anything to compound that, right and we haven't compounded on that so far. So that's a good thing. We deal with one problem at a time. Okay, we got the penalties. Now we're trying to work on stopping the run, and we're not having to deal with two problems at once.
Also speaking of the run, he mentioned that he thought Hankins did well in the game, although they regulated as snaps so they didn't want to overdo it.
Between him and Mazie.
I assumed, Yeah, I guess I could have looked that up. As you guys talk amongst yourselves, Well.
Well you're looking up.
I was going to look up how many snaps he had in the game.
Hankins versus Mazzi.
One of the things that I wanted to bring up was Micah Parsons and I believe it's forty eight now, consecutive quarters without a holding call.
That's not good.
People on Twitter, I've been reaching out about it.
I mean, I see text coming in with questions about it, and it's almost like, you know that streaks lasting longer than Brandon Aubrey's.
Yes, not cool at all. No, No, that is not cool.
You're talking about the number one pressure defender, a rusher, the number one pressure rusher.
He hadn't gotten any holding.
Calls in forty eight.
Come on, that's just ridiculous.
That makes no sense at all, And no matter how much he fusses, it's almost like they close their ears and eyes to it. Because I saw how many other guys face the other day pleading with him. Hey, the guys are holding me and I don't know what he's said back to him, but it doesn't matter. What the crap if you ain't throwing flags.
Right and we're talking, Yeah, no holding calls.
If you can believe that, that's crazy, man.
Yeah, And it just it just continued. And by the way it was pointed out, I think when someone didn't went on the walk off that the head referee would be Ron Tolbert in this game. So if anybody wants to look up his history.
And I heard that they were, they were. They were flag happy Tolbert's crew.
But see now what happens is it's the all star crews for the playoffs, so they kind of get the best guys to do the other positions. Not totally his crew, yeah, but I think there's a kind of a thinking in the NFL that whoever the the guys that are helping the officials, they follow the lead of the head referee. So probably however he goes through a season, that's probably what will influence his guys. So we'll see if he can see penalties and that history.
Man, we gotta find out that history.
Look at that crew, and yeah, if they called any offensive holding calls right, goodness gracious. Well, you know, when we talked about yesterday the uh, the influence of penalty, especially if they're on your offense. We talked about how in the championship game, the college championship game Washington, it seemed like every time they took two steps forward, they ended up taking three steps back with a penalty.
Well, number one, the pressure was about four or five steps out into his backfield as well. And every time he's throwing it, he never threw it comfortably off his back foot. Every time he's throwing the box, like hey, you know, he's just kind of flipped it out there because someone was either in his face here, he's got to flip it under, they're down here at his feet. He's flipped it over. So now I think they said his uh penix's stock may have dropped during the game.
I thought it pretty much looked it was the same. You could just see that he was under durest the entire time. And I was a bit in pressed on how he was able to get the ball off. Really when it comes down to not only.
That, but he was hurting out there.
You could tell he was in he was in pain, and he was like, I am staying in this game.
I would not have let him finish that game. I would not have let him.
Well, that might say something to who the back was. Plus, you know, Covern quarterbacks are stubborn, right, they don't want to come out well to finish on this this running. The Cowboys have done a pretty good job over this last month. If you look at they held Seattle, which likes to run the ball to seventy two yards rushing, Philadelphia one hundred and six, and that's you know, when you add in what the quarterback is going to do,
that's that's reasonable. The problem down the stretch was Buffalo where they gave up the two sixty six, but they also ran it forty nine times, so but they averaged five point four. They held Miami the ninety one Detroit to one twenty five on thirty one carries, so that's just four yards of carry. And then in this last game, and I'm sure Washington wanted to do it fifty yards rushing and they only ran the ball seventeen times.
Well, now a lot of that was dictated by our offense. Right, because we were pretty much moving the ball, and a lot of times it was in catchup mode by the opposition, so they could have been running the ball a little bit more because the game got a little bit wide open at that time.
Miami's game didn't start off like that. It started off where Miami was in control.
But then once we saw that we had to score and the game became a passing game, everybody abandoned the running game. And now you could say that in a couple of those games to figure out your numbers.
I wanted to look up and I can do it when we come back from the break. But in the regular season game last year against Green Bay, I had this idea, you know, the one they won thirty one twenty eight, that they ran the ball pretty well against the Cowboys. And when we return on mix cheps, shots shots, hopefully I'll be able to find that for you here on Dallas Cowboys dot com.
I'm Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.
And they snapped the press scout, who looks right, it's not there.
He escaped, flapped, He'll run for a punkstown.
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Demit shuts.
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Nicky, did you find what you were looking for?
I did so.
In the Packers thirty one twenty eight overtime victory against the Cowboys last year. During the regular season, the Packers ran the ball thirty nine times for two hundred and seven yards, so I would imagine the Cowboys will be very focused on stopping the run.
Every time we bring up failures of the Cowboys in postseason, the running game seems to coincide with that. Anytime we give up a lot of yards running, it seems to be our doom and.
Our downfall for the playoffs. So we got to make sure we understand that.
So and Savannah brought this up on Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon that there are two running backs that we probably need to point out. Do you have their season stats there right.
In front of me?
Right now?
I have Aaron Jones, So let me pull his everything from the season. But in his last game against the Bears, he averaged five yards per carry. He had one hundred and eleven rushing yards, twenty two attempts, no rushing touchdowns, and overall this season, let's see six hundred fifty six yards.
Now, he was injured this year, it wasn't. I don't know if he played the entire season.
Let me see what you're doing though with U s bags.
I was getting ready to sneeze and I think I knocked out my headset. But other than that, I.
Don't know about injuries.
It does say that he has played since September tenth, and that was when he was you know, it was like a couple games eighteen yards, thirty five yards, twenty nine, so he may have been.
They used both guys, okay, so Aaron Jones ended up with six hundred and fifty six yards rushing and aj Dillon six hundred and thirteen yards. But I thought what was significant was that in the last three games they've Aaron Jones has run for three hundred and fifty eight yards in the last three games and Dylan one hundred and sixty nine yards in the last three games. So if you add that up, it looks like it's about four hundred and twenty seven yards between the two of them.
So they've run the ball pretty well in the last three games.
So you got to look at the offensive line. Then they must be clicking really well together.
And probably the game that they need is previously. So in the last three games, and it was against Carolina, the team ran for one hundred and sixty two. Against Minnesota won seventy seven, and against the Bears won twenty four.
And during that time, Jordan Love has been playing some of his best.
Footbeah So and he's played better too, and probably coincides with what's been going on out there. So yeah, that's one of the things that Cowboys definitely have to concentrate on because, as we know, the last two times they were eliminated in the playoffs by San Francisco, San Francisco ran for one hundred more than one hundred yards in both of those games. And then if we go back to twenty eighteen when they got beat by the Rams, Yeah, oh wow, I think that was It's like it sticks
in my mind. It was two hundred and seventy Yeah. Bye, we came off the bench, right, came off the couch, not the men the couch, right. So yeah, being able to stop the run is going to be vital, uh in this game, and that normally happens. You know, when you're on the road, you want to be able to run the ball, even though it's in you to take the crowd out of the game, right, Yeah, exactly, And that was another topic that came up today, the home crowd.
I see you guys want to white out? Is that what I heard?
We are white out where white. We're gonna have white towels on all of the.
Seats for everybody. We're bringing the energy, Cowboys fans bring the energy.
That was they brought a lot of energy to last game. That was nice. It was exciting too for that game that was Detroit.
I just hope that green doesn't really show up with all the white because you know, the big cheese pose people move down here.
Oh yeah, they're gonna be here.
They're gonna be They're gonna represent very well and they have a proud tradition in green back.
So let me ask you, does the home crowd do anything for you?
And it does again, it does well.
First of all, it affects the communication by the opponents. It affects communication big time. And it's just human nature. You know, people ask me a question. You've asked me the question about you know, playing away from home versus versus on the road. First of all, you love to kick somebody's ass at their place. That's always a nice little present. But at the same time, when you go there, you better be ready because they are going to bring everything.
First of all, you know, people talking bad about you. You can hear them talking bad about you in the stands. You can hear them when you come out. You can tell that those cheers are not for you. You know, you can try to fool yourself. Yeah, they're cheering for me. No, you can't even fool yourself in that regard. You know whose side the fans are on. And if you're weak enough, they'll get to you. If you're weak enough, they'll get to you as a team. If you're weak enough, then
they will break you down. That's why I always always wanted this team to not be front runners. I want them to be able to go win whatever they need to win. That's the way it was back in the eighties with the Cowboys. That's the way it was in the nineties when I was with the Giants. I know that feeling, and you know when you step into the stadium if it's going to affect you or not. You can tell sometimes when the Cowboys step into a hostile
environment that they are affected by it. You can also tell when the opponents come into at and T Stadium that they are affected by it.
Especially I would imagine offensively right with the snap count and trying to make play calls at the line of scrimmage.
It seems to affect everything. It seems to affect the play calls by the referee. It seems like the referees are fairly by home field. They are they're just human. Basketball, football, it doesn't.
Matter, especially basketball, especially right there. Did you notice it when you were playing basketball, the crowd if you were at an away game.
No, no, not basketball. Basketball is a different sport. It's not so physical. Yeah, you know, when you're talking football, you got the crowd. Then you got somebody trying to knock your head off. That's a whole different story. And basketball is basketball. What you're gonna do?
You foul me? Okay I could. My jump is still pretty, my jump is still bothered.
So playing playing junior high basketball. Uh, I think the only time I realized the crowd was there when I was sitting wherever you sit to check into the game and somebody stuck a pin in my shorts from behind.
Stop.
Yes, they would only pick on you because little guy was in there. They figured.
Some accident. Well they knew who to do.
Like there were a lot of brothers in there where we were playing. But that was the one time I said, oh this is serious, right. Uh. When we played adult hockey and we played our charity challenge game, the one game that we played at the AC, I was telling Savannah about it and there was thirteen thousand people there for charity.
Wow, and when you're repressing.
When you're on the ice skating. The only time I could hear the crowd is like anticipating something good.
Was going to happen.
It's about to go in the.
Right hurry up and something. But that was the only time. But yeah, I was just wondering, uh, because I didn't play enough.
But you could tell that it affects the Cowboys. You can tell it effects other teams because we are we we are extremely aggressive at home and we don't show that aggression.
I'm talking defensively on the road, right, We are extremely aggressive at home.
I mean Jordan Lewis making the play he made, Dnathan Wilson playing his butter off at home. Those are the kind of thing we need, that same anticipation, that same positivity, because when you're on the road, you're mentally you're more pessimistic. When you're at home, the optimism just rains from everywhere.
You see what I'm saying.
When you're on the roads, you have to create your optimism. I mean, you have to make a play even when you you know everyone's against you. It takes a tough mentality.
So maybe that's why they played so well. In Washington this past Sunday because it was a.
Home I feel that. Hear it?
Yeah, absolutely so again Lighting and ask you, did you ever play sports that you were in front of a crowd?
Did you play?
I did? I played soccer. Okay, you played soccer. I don't like running now because of it. I won't run.
But and also I did because obviously I'm from San Diego surfing.
Yes, yes, would go out in the.
Morning, so there'd be no crowd, no crowd on the beach really, so it's more of a peaceful type of thing. But soccer soccer, yes, you obviously have have the crowd. But we had a really really great home stadium and our crowd support was next level, just our home team.
But no, wait a minute, you said stadium. This was high school. You had a high.
School like huge, Yeah, pretty big facility out there.
In California, California.
This is a big, big, old.
Public Yeah soccer, No, this is California.
I didn't know anything about soccer till I got to college because Saint Louis was a big soccer hub, and Saint Louis you great soccer teams, right, But the high schools all played soccer and I got to we You know what, I don't think I ever played soccer. I don't even know if we ever had a soccer ball, right, the only soccer we would have done is in the street.
And if I'm not mistaken, Bergner High School was good at soccer back in the seventies and eight right.
So when we were in college, the intermural soccer was a pretty high level because all those kids from Saint Louis knew how to play, right, And then I ended up doing I was officiating inner murals and when we got to soccer, and they knew I didn't know. But it's like you just called the lines on the outside, who got the ball, who gets the ball after it goes out of bounds.
The only soccer I played was my mom was she was at this camp and I guess she was a camp mother or whatever. So she I need a job for the summer. So then they hired me to hang out with the kids, and so soccer was one of our activities so we could waste time. Yeah, you don't have nothing else to do before lunch. I remember beating up on the kids. I don't know what got into me.
I got a little too uh.
I got a little aggressive man getting into the gate kicking me. They staid start kicking the ball. They were kicking me. So yeah, I was not a good camp whatever was a good camp worker.
All right. And you know what, when you listen to mix Shots, you get soccer talk too, by the way, and we'll return with a little bit more on these Green Bay Packers and the Cowboys in the playoffs that they've met this coming time for the ninth time in the playoffs here on mix Shots.
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Very nice, all right, continue on this Green Bay Packer subject. This will be the ninth time the Cowboys have played the Packers in the playoffs. Guess what the overall record is for the two teams.
Tell us four and four.
There you go.
I gather it right, Thank you teacher.
And that started with the Cowboys losing the first two meetings and the NFC title games in nineteen sixty six at the Cotton Bowl and nineteen sixty seven at the Ice Bowl or in Green Bay at lambeau Field the Packers, and then they met four times and consecutively, and the no three times consecutively and the one time when Everson was playing in eighty two right the tournament, so the Cowboys beat him four times in a row, and then the Packers have won the last two meetings for four
and four. But how's this for streaks? Since November fifteenth of two thousand and nine, the Packers have won nine of the last meetings with the Cowboys, and that includes the two playoff games. But prior to that, to show you how unbalanced this whole thing was, Dallas won eleven of thirteen meetings against the Packers from nineteen ninety one through two thousand and eight, and eight straight from ninety
one to ninety six. The Packers got very tired of having to play the Cowboys in the playoffs in the nineties and here, and they played always here. Why we're always gonna play there? And then then they finally that streak of home games against the Packers was broken in nineteen ninety seven when the Cowboys went there and got clobbered. And I believe they were six and five at that point, and they did not win another game, leading to Barry
Switzer getting fired. So the down it was a downhill run there, and they got clobbered in that game at Lambeau and it was so cold. I remember that, not Ice Bowl cold, but so old and old and old enough. Right, So at least though, it's kind of even, and this will be the ninth playoff game against these two teams.
So ever, since yesterday I was telling Mickey one of my very good family friends growing up from Carlsbad, California. He was a wide receiver for the Packers when they won the Super Bowl here with Mike McCarthy in the twenty two or twenty ten eleven season.
His name's Brett Swain. So I texted him yesterday.
I said, can't believe we're playing the pack this weekend in Dallas, And he said, two world class organizations ran by great people.
Cowboys might have this in the bag.
So it's hard for to say that.
It's hard for him to.
Say that with a Super Bowl ring, but you know, it's it's great to see. But I posed this question yesterday to you guys, playoff games. Which playoff games stands out in your mind? Just one that is like that is the one that I always think about when I'm thinking about the playoffs.
Any anyone that was just very the mine is a negative.
Let's start here. How many how many three playoff game? Four playoff games in your career with.
The Cowboys with the Cowboys?
Yeah, three eighty five?
Yes, yes, okay, I wasn't in this game. No, this is just as a fan, Okay. No.
I just remember I thought that this was going to be Romo's year to go to the Super Bowl, that they had everything on lockdown. They had such a good team, good running game and everything. It was when they lost to the New York.
Giants two thousand and seven, season.
Thirteen and three, right, yes, and all I remember in the first.
Round, by by the way, yes, yes.
And it ended up being not the Cowboys year. It ended up being the Giants year, you know, because then they went from Dallas and then they went to beat Green Bay in Green Bay. Brett fav I just remember sitting on the couch and my my best friend was like, Brett fav is gonna throw an interception.
They're gonna lose this game. And sure enough, right after it came up.
His mouth, Brett did with Brett Dues at the end, right, yeah, right at the end, because they were driving, they would driving and he throws out this, He just threw it out there.
But That was so crazy.
But before that, I always remember Patrick crighton the man. I loved Creighton. He was a hell of a player. But when he missed that ball, it was a quick slamt going across the middle, a lot tyreek hill, you know, running too fast for his hands, and it slipped through his hands. That would have been a touchdown, yes, and that would have iced the game. I believe that would have iced the game if he would have scored that.
I really felt bad for Cowboy fans at that time because I wasn't all the ways sold back in after retiring and things of that nature, but my family was and bought.
That hurt everybody in the house.
So I remember that play, and I can't remember if Troy was doing the game or if he had just mentioned this about that play to Creighton. He goes, he catches that ball, He's going to hit his head on the crossbar.
I mean it was. It was wide open. There was no one there. And I don't know if I keep trying to you know, you want to give give a guy some grace, maybe threw it too hard or whatever. Perfect pass and he caught. He was our mister reliable, right, He was our mister reliable on third downs all year long from the slot, and that was his moment.
And the other part of that game, Terrell Owens played with a high ankle sprain and he was not Terryll Owen.
Well, that's why we needed Creighton. That's why we needed him, and we leaned on him more so that game than in.
The Remember they tried to just run, run, run in the first half, and they ran for one hundred yards of the first half, but they only scored fourteen points, right, and they just got away from what they were good at, meaning throwing the football. But then Owens just he was just a shadow of himself in that game.
You have to give the Giants credit. In that game.
They had a very good defense that kind of kept Eli and the Giants in every game. And they were that kind of like what we have now but a little bit better being but don't break. They weren't dominating now, but they made the plays they needed to make at the time.
Then they got a little luck.
The other thing I remember about it was that that second half they decided that Tony Romo could beat them by them by himself, and they decided, Okay, we're gonna put pressure on him. But they did it with their front four, right, they did.
It, and that's why they were good. That front four was good. That was a straight hand, right.
Yeah.
God, they had a couple other really solid players in there that were doing this all year long. So it was a team that was very unique and it was put together very well. And I think they that's the only team that they favor over the nineteen ninety Giants team that I was on that team from from that year. That's one of the favorite Giants organization, favorite teams that the Giants had in the organization.
So I realized when I was thinking about games and I mentioned that they've played the Packers eight times. I saw the first two times on television because at the time I grew up in Chicago, but I was not a Bears fan. I was a Packers fan, right, So I watched those two games intensely, and really the only other games they played in the playoffs against the Packers. I would have missed the eighty two one. I don't know what I was doing, but I didn't watch it
on TV. It wasn't a priority. But everyone after that I've seen, but the first two with the Packers looking like they're getting ready to lose on the last play of each of those games. The Ice Bowl. I can remember sitting there and when bart Starr came out, I am I was watching it. I can tell you exactly where I was sitting, sitting there watching my father. And it's seventeen fourteen and they got the ball on the one yard line, the Packers do, and there's sixteen seconds
left to go. They do not have a time out, and I'm sitting there going, Okay, it's really hard to throw the ball. If they run and don't score, they're gonna lose. You got to kick the field goal, right, I'm telling my dad, you got to kick the field goals. So I was a teenager, early teenage years and I'm sitting there going, oh no, They're gonna snap the ball
and run it. And it was like that. They scored right with I think there was well the play took like two seconds or whatever was left in the game, but it was minus thirteen. That's why they called it the ice Ball, and I was reading up on it, and by time they got to sixteen seconds left and it was inside the one, it was minus eighteen, by the way, and the two previous plays to that. They he didn't get a yard, they didn't move it, uh and uh, and so they score on basically what was
gonna because if they don't score, game's over. Yeah, right, the Cowboys win. And to this day, and I remember one of the last interviews I did with Tech Shram when he was retiring from the Cowboys. We were talking about different things and and I brought up the ice ball and he goes with his real gruff voice that he'd talk with, He goes, Wow, that was like the dumbest call I've ever seen in football.
Going for the touchdown.
You got to kick the ball, get a field goal, going to overtime.
Right.
He was still but hurt by that play, right it was.
And they're still they're still trying to take credit for who made the block. You tell me, since you're the fan, who made the block? Was it Kramer or it was another who's the other guy it was?
I thought it was I mean ken Bowman was the center. I thought he made one of the key blocks and there, but Kramer got the credit or he took the credit.
Yeah, he took the credit.
To opening the whole field was a quarterback snack by Bart Starr.
Theyre going to their graves with this. Yeah, I made the I played the block. No, I made the block.
I'm gonna look up the highlight and I'll guarantee you No one expected bart Star to run with the ball, but they couldn't get any footing because it was frozen. The field was frozen, so it was easier for the quarterback just to lunge forward after he got the snap. Uh. The other game would have been the nineteen ninety four season NFC title game at San Francisco. The Cowboys got beat thirty eight twenty eight, another rainy, misty, soggy field.
And what impressed me the most, so they're two time Super Bowl champs right ninety two, ninety three, ninety four, San Francisco at home field advantage and Cowboys finished twelve and four. They finished thirteen and three, and the first basically three times the Cowboys had the ball, Troy Aikman on the third play of the game gets intercepted return for a touchdown. On the next possession, on the third play of the possession, Michael Irvin catches a pass, he
gets hit, they fumble. San Francisco recovers it and scores a touchdown, and then on the ensuing kickoff, Kevin Williams returns it like twenty two yards, fumbles and sets up their third touchdown.
Do you think that haunts them today? Yeah, with like keep them up a nightsto.
Six minutes gone in the game. It's twenty one to nothing already, right, and they fought back, fought back, got it to thirty eight twenty eight, and they're driving inside. They're about the forty three yard line. They're driving inside San Francisco territory and Troy was a honey of a pass to Michael Irvin. Dion comes over the top and chops Michael's hand, arms out no interference call. It's gonna be a catch, and he's gonna be inside the five
yard lane. And I guarantee you had they scored that touchdown and got it to within three, they stopped San Francisco on the next possession, and they couldn't deal with the Cowboys offense in that game.
That is the only time I have ever seen Dion Sanders look beaten, right, the only time I've ever seen him look beaten in his career. And that's when you knew that Michael Irvin was a Savage because he wore him out the entire game because as they're coming back, Mike's he's the target. Oh yeah, he's a target every time. It's like CD and they've had Dion on him the entire game.
The second half because what they did the first half, what they did was they thought they can single Elvin Harper would with Dion take him out of the game and double Michael and it wasn't working. Yeah, so they said, okay, d On, you've got to cover Michael and that wasn't working. Akerman ended up throwing for three hundred and eighty yards, Steve Young one hundred and fifty five, right, I mean, all statistics were in the cowboys favor, but after the loot,
getting behind twenty one nothing. I remember going down to the field. There was like a couple of minutes to go. The Cowboys were out of timeouts. They were beaten. Emmett I think was out of the game. He had a hamstring. Larry Allen couldn't go. They had to put a backup in for him. It was like, you know, Washington crossing the Delaware, you know. But they were still to the last second throwing the ball, trying to catch up when they were ten points down, right, And I thought it
was the most valiant thing I'd ever seen. And it taught me a lesson about the heart of a champion because they weren't going to give in. To this day, Troy did a recent interview I was reading. They quoted him. He says, he said, it's the game I'm most proud of because they didn't quit.
Wow.
Yeah, And just sitting in the end zone, I remember getting chills watching this. My god, this thing's over with, but it's muddy. Everybody's beat up and they're still trying when all was lost. So that one will always stick in my mind.
Uh, losses can be redeeming, right yeah.
Uh? And and so then every turn the next year and spank that booty and won the Super Bowl. So beat the Packers that year, by the way, in the NFC title game. Maybe we should leave on that, no good question bringing that up? Yeah, absolutely for Savannah Everson, Mickey Spagnole here, And that was mix shots here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com.
Go Cowboys.
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