The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Cowboys.
This is Mick shot streaming live on Dallascowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys have now Here are Bill Jones, Savannah Humuller, Everson Wolves, and Mickey Spagnola.
And it's a rainy mix shots Monday, but we are dry here in the SWBC podcast studio.
Savannah Humuller here, Everson Walls, and Mickey Spagnola.
Missing.
Why somebody's missing?
Bill is absent today? M I A apparently in Fort Worth.
Perhaps he can't figure out the time?
Am I missing? Idiot? What do we talk about?
You want to say what you said? At least? What was your response?
At least it wasn't the black guy?
And I said, at least it wasn't the old guy.
Right, But to be fair, we knew Savannah would be.
Here, Oh damn right.
But to be fair, the person m I A last week?
Was you right?
That's right? Man? But and not only that, I remember Bill ridiculing me once I came in when there wasn't a chess last year, and he looked at me like, what are you doing here with those smug look on his face. So now you jerk. Now it's on you. Bill. We got you, buddy, We got your back, though, we got your back.
Well, so.
Do we need to uh get your take since we didn't get your take after the game?
Oh?
Man? Yeah last week? I man, it was kind of I wouldn't call it depressing, but it was like again, you know, it's the same kind of feeling to what you can't get any lower, you know. And when I say that, I mean every time it comes to the playoffs, it's the same narrative from the pundits, and unfortunately, every time it comes to playoffs, we as a team, we played down to that narrative and certain things that were
said after the game. I was hoping you guys had some other quotes that maybe I missed because I didn't feel like watching the press conference of just okay. Here it goes to the guys, you know, saying, oh, I should have done better. But Dak said the game was moving too fast for him.
No, he said he was moving too fast.
Ah, he was too fast. Yeah, I'm so glad I heard that wrong because fast.
Yeah, yeah, he said he was playing too fast, like trying to do things gowing.
Too hard, too soon.
Too soon, yes, and not letting things kind of play out.
And you asked for my comments. I have more question, one question, and I don't know if you guys addressed it. I was doing a webinar, so I didn't mean to just blow your guys off like that, and I apologized, But that was I did good work that day. But what the heck was going on between Diggs and Dak? Did you Was it just me or did you we Was there some type of animosity going on? Yes, that's what I'm so sorry. I met C Yeah, yeah, was there? What did you did they talk about that after the game?
Has there been any type of scuttle bug? I guess the old school word about what the heck happened and why they seemed to all of a sudden disconnect And I don't mean just disconnect on the field. They couldn't even they seemed like they didn't even want to talk to get to each other on the sidelines, and it got to be the topic, especially of that first half, like what happened to their connection? Did they address it or have you got Did you guys address it after the show? On the show?
Not really.
You know, I think after the first let me let me let me clarify. After the first I think third down. I think it was the first third down and Dak had him over the middle wide open. He threw it too far, and maybe that's what he means, he was going too fast, because that's clearly an example of that. It seems as if from that moment on they couldn't communicate, and I was wondering if there was some type of
and the Master going on at the time. Case in point, you see Lamar yesterday, he tried to throw the ball to one of his wide receivers, and you know, he's telling him something from Afar, and then he actually runs to them. He doesn't go to the huddle. He comes to his wide receiver and they talk about it right,
and they're on. They never had another miscommunication, and it seemed like they were more mature in how they handled it versus it seemed as if Dak was in CD's ear and CD didn't seem like he was trying to hear it at all. Now that's just what I interpreted from watching it at home. I was just wondering if that was addressed at all in the media.
I thought if there was a disconnect that the packers did a very good job of how they were covering a lot.
Of double a lot of zone. I know, I know.
And and he was off on a couple passes.
You remember the one that CD kind of jumped on the sidelines.
That's when he rolled out and high in his side. But he makes right now. The one I blamed that clearly is it was the slant across the middle right that could have been a really big play.
He blew that one and he misread it.
Yes, uh, yes, and.
Give the safety credit because he came off of you're talking about the savage interception.
I'm talking about it. I know, I'm talking about the first third down that we had and he uh, he threw it too far inside. That would have been a big play, I thought, because everyone else seemed to be separated. I thought he had maneuver building to run down the middle if he catches that, which Dak should have put it in there, and he did not.
He missed it.
And I'm like, you know, uh, And sometimes sometimes I'm not saying all the times, but with what I've seen in playoff games is quarterbacks you sort of need to get them a couple easy throw that.
Was easy, Yeah, because was the other one easy.
They're so hyped up that they're throwing the ball high or there, or they're not thrown accurately.
And that the one that where he rolled out the half roll, that was an easy pass as well. Seems like they were trying to get it going. I thought Seedie could have had it, but you know his playoffs. You gotta make that catch. But also why make it so difficult. He's right there as a quarter I of course you know where I'm headed with this man. I thought our defense was just such a letdown in that game. I don't think they came to play at one moment
during the game. And you talked about having to get your quarterback on track all quarterbacks, not all, but most, you're gonna need give me some time, guys. I hold things off for me till I'm ready. You know you should be ready, but there are times when you're not. Playoffs, I get it a little nervous, don't playing too fast like you said, And all of a sudden, hey, guys, just stop them. I'll be okay. Just stop them, I'll be okay. Just stop them. I'll be okay, And stop
a damn thing. And now the pressure is building and the frustration is building, not just on the defensive side because it can't stop anyone, but offensively hold them off. Guys, we're ready to get some things going. And now our game plan once again, I told you, our defense plays off of our offense, and there are times when your defense has to take the rains, and you know, we're
going back to the same old thing. You can't take the rain, So maybe one if you're giving up gas, you're getting gashed time in and time out, whether it's passing or running. So man, it was ugly. It was just straight up ugly.
The first thing that occurred to me in the Packer forty nine Ers game was Love had more incompletions in the quarter than he had in the entire game against the Cowboys.
So the other thing I was gonna ask you, and.
I didn't mean to interrupt the fact that they played so much zone and they didn't know how to do it. To me, they were trying to cover for Gilmore or not being totally healthy, and said, Okay, we can't get him in man coverage the whole game.
We're going to have to do something different.
And I thought that became a big factor because they didn't play that much zone during the season to me, and they.
Didn't know how to play it. There was more busted coverage.
I'd never seen wide receivers tight end so open in my entire life, and to the point where Musgrave had to stand there still with his back to the end zone to catch the ball. It's crazy that he was so wide open touchdown.
It's crazy. I have never seen a collapse. And you know, there are times when I say most of the time I like the players to have accountability. That's just you know, come on, man. Coaches are one thing, but if you're out there playing, coaches can't come play for you. And I don't know, it just seems like this particular time they were not prepared properly. As much as I love Quinn, that was the worst preparation I've that might have to go back to when I played. It was the worst
preparation I've seen defensively. And it wasn't just that they weren't prepared. This is a team that has talent. This is the defense it has talent. You showed that the way they showed that. You can't have a game plan and expect talented players to pull it out of you. You understand what I'm saying.
We were a top five defense, and.
We did not look like it. I mean wide open. So we didn't stop them on the wide open passes, but they gashed us on the run. So you're playing zone not just for Gilmore, but you're playing zone for the run. I'm assuming you have to play zone for the run. So either you worry about Gilmore, you worry about the run. You can't worry about both. And what we ended up doing was giving up the run over and over again. And once they started running running, of course,
the play action is going to be wide open. He didn't have to study, he didn't have to really concentrate on one pass play. Everyone was wide open almost all the time. His footwork was horrible. Talking about Jordan Love, it was horrible. But he didn't need to be good. He was always just throwing off his back for hey, guys, go get that for me. You know you got time. Don't worry. They're not within ten yards of you. And
that's the way they played. It was like they were they were they were literally playing with their food.
Well, the one thing that we harped on especially trying to stop the run. You're stopping the run with one linebacker.
Yeah, and that's not working.
And it has not worked all year. So why did we not? You know it doesn't. Why are we doing the same thing over again? That's insanity, right, that's insanity, that's what they say. And it was driving me crazy doing watching the game. So I'm trying to figure out where did we go from here? Systematically or systemically whatever the word is, Where did we go from here? We can't go into next year with the same defensive game plan of hey, we don't have any linebackers. I'm looking
at the forty nine ers. I saw three big dudes lined up back there behind those defensive lines.
Pretty obvious.
It was obvious.
So how what where? Come on? Come on, what's our draft guy name? Well, will come on, man, give me some dudes. Well, give me some big dudes.
That's gotta be one thing.
They linebacker in the first round and the second round. Come on, man, I'm just sorry.
And the thing that we hit on the two rushing touchdowns, they gave up one yard and three, well they gave up three. But you're in goal to go situations and you're playing with six technically six defensive backs, and it just didn't work.
Did we expect it to?
Well?
So? And see, this is the thing we knew. We always know we're gonna get gashed, but our offense is gonna save us. Right, Let's not play off football, bro, Let's not play off football. That's not play off football. That's good for the season, but playoff football is different. And how many times have we learned that already, especially the past three years or so, And so it was just kind of frustrating to sit there and watch the tail wagging the dog for us, we seem to let
what everyone says about us. We played down to it. And you know, of course the Washington game meant nothing. But when you come in with the same spirit that you had in Detroit against Detroit, you know, the good games, even you lost to Miami, we fought. You know, we were competent. The best thing about this game. Usually when we lose games like this, we don't even get ten points. We just like we're done. We don't need would discompopulate the entire game. The only thing about this game was
we came back and scored thirty two points. That's the only thing. Somehow some way, somehow, some way, And I think that's because they put in second and third team is maybe.
Yeah, not until the last maybe the last touchdown.
Okay, okay, okay.
But so our bottom line was from the defense, they came up two players too short, they ran out of linebackers. You needed another linebacker, and well at least one in this game, right, yes, And then you came up a cornerback short because you played Gilmore basically with one arm behind his back, and you didn't want to put Nashwan right out there for the entire game. Who would have been the next corner up to take his place pass?
I'm asking for real, not to Yeah, I'm asking for real. Do we give him a pass because he didn't have the personnel?
I think they tried to fake it, and you can't, can't, can't.
And with this, I mean with Marquis bell into Moone Clark, who granted have done a great job filling some of those roles we had discussed last week that had we maybe looked at the Arizona Cardinals game, or even when we were playing San Francisco or when we lost Leighton vander ash maybe bringing in a few other people aside from I know, we brought in Rashaun Evans, extra.
Defensive line, extra defensive lineman maybe.
But yeah, to fill a couple more gaps where we were missing some serious.
Type of type of guys.
Out there, physical linebacker type of guys.
Yeah, And I think we were just we were just one.
We were just wanted to Well.
That was the That was the game where the Digs injury hurt.
They had covered themselves from a personnel standpoint because they didn't have any other injuries r once they got Jordan Lewis back, they had those three guys for all basically almost every down, unlike what Washington did. Because I was talking to you, I guess you weren't here. I was talking to Nashan Wright when when he had to go in for Gilmore that one play against Washington, and.
We thought they were going to come his way. Yeah, yeah, we talked about that.
Yeah, we did, because he said, well, Miami, did they put Hill over there and threw right at me?
Right?
I said, nothing against you?
He goes no, he goes on, you know, And so I think they were hesitant to put him out there and just start him at the cornerback spot, so that that spot they tried to fake it and it didn't work. Playing zone and the fact that they just ran out of linebackers.
You know, if I was a gambling man, I'd be so upset because I would want to hear from someone in the organization to tell me, hey, dan Quinn's got a problem tomorrow, okay for this game. Dan Quinn's gonna have a problem for this game because he is just sorely overmatched physically, and it just seems as if he was flipping a coin, you know, and whatever defense he was calling, it just didn't matter, you know, whatever it
heads to, it doesn't matter where it lands. We're just rolling dice, you know, trying to figure out what we're gonna run. And that just doesn't seem like a championship team's approach to the playoffs, especially a twelve win team. I'm just extremely surprised that you had to put that kind of game plan out there with that type of personnel. You got to do something different, and you knew, damn well it was I think he knew it wasn't gonna work.
I don't know what that feels like to go into a game as a coach with this person only going we're gonna get gassed. And I know that's what he was thinking. You can only hope that something works out, but he knew he had to know going into that booth up there that this was not gonna work.
Yeah, And there was too many plays where you're playing and God blessed Marquis Bell because I thought he did as well as you could do at his size playing linebackers. But there were too many plays where d'mon Clark is out there and you're trying to stop the run when they go to tight ends with j Ron Curse and Bell playing linebacker spots in safety bodies.
And you can make sense.
So you gotta think, do you finally just put pass back at linebacker?
Now?
They did it a few plays. I thought they should.
It made well, So use your lineman, you know, even if you have to go five d linemen with Parsons in the back back there with DeMont Clark. To me, that would have been better than just rolling the dice with sixty b's. It was just so futile and it made no sense to me. It was extremely frustrating, and you could it just takes the air out of the stadium. And I'm pretty sure offensively all they felt, not just Dak but all they felt offensively. Guys, we gotta score,
We gotta make this play every play. Of course, playoffs is like that all the time. But there was no cushion. The Packers left them no cushion at all to play with. And it was to me it was foreseeable. It was foreseeable as from not just Quinn's point of view, but I know McCarthy knew that as well. And so do you adjust on how you make the play calls on offense? Are you more sturdy or are you going for bigger plays?
It seems like we chose to just take that slow route, that methodical route, and Green Bay wouldn't make wasn't waiting on anything methodical. They weren't waiting on that. They set us up with the run. And the most disappointing part, even more than the run, is wide receivers and tight ends being wide open, you still have to play the defense. And I know that Dan Quinn did not teach him
to play that pass defense the way they did. Guys were wide open because of mental mistakes, that was not because of the system.
And then the worst part, I know, we got to hit a break here. They didn't have one sack, not one sack. Now you could say, okay, they took Parsons out of the game. Well what about everybody else, right, right, right?
Not a sack?
Yeah, and that was Barston's only had fourteen sacks this Year's a lot of other guys out there that had some sacks that didn't get any Yeah. Yeah, and that.
When you watched yesterday.
And we'll get into yesterday next but yeah, you could take us to break all right.
When we come back, we will go over some of our NFL games that were on this weekend. And how about Mike McCarthy being the fifth season for the Cowboys.
That happened after we already did our So yeah, Mike back with war in a minute.
I'm Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.
And they snapped the press guy who looks right, it's not there. He escaped slaft. He'll look punks down.
Just like football.
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Demict shuts.
Okay, post Roofing and Waterproofing the official roofer of the Dallas Cowboys.
We are searching for some information here.
Ever, since had just told us that zach Ertz was just signed, and I mentioned the practice squad for the Lions, so we're just confirming I'm just talking Kincaid.
But that was Buffalo, so okay, yeah, okay, okay, okay. Well, well someone must have gotten hurt in the Indian.
Troyid Well practice squad, so maybe they were covering themselves. But yes, as Savannah pointed out when we were in the break, we haven't had a show since they announced that Mike McCarthy would be coming back for his fifth season.
Your thoughts on that.
You know, I understand what Jerry's trying to do. I think he wants to keep some type of continuity because of our regular season. But I still think changes need to be made in certain areas. I had guys and former players were saying, you know, just to make things. I don't know. I thought it was a waste of time, but to try and just light a fire under some of your starters, you know, make things a little bit
more contentious in training camp coming up. You know, no one's got a job type of thing, you know, let them know they got to work for everything. Give Trey Lance a chance to to see what he can do with our offense. But that would be kind of silly to me because you're looking at the guy that just thirty six touchdowns and you're saying, okay, well we need to change, make a change. I just can't see that. You got guy to win twelve games three years in
a row, but then you're gonna fire him. You know, it's just kind of hard to put your finger on that. But just as hard as it is to put your finger on why these elevated stats are so good, but yet we play down to our competition during the playoffs. So I don't like calling for anyone publicly to be fired, but we just got to defensively, We've got to have a different attitude. I'm looking at Lamar Jackson. He's got plenty all the time in the world to make up
his mind. You know, if he messes up on one series, defense is gonna take care of it. We'll be okay. You look at Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. They held on with Josh Allen, you know, doing okay, but they they made Josh Allen play minimum football and gave Patrick Mahomes a chance to win the game. So you could pick any starting team, except for maybe the Detroit game. Any team that won their defense predicated what happens offensively.
They gave their offense a chance to recover, to regroup, to you know, sit back and you know, assess what happened previously. You can't do that when they got when it's twenty take.
Away to pick six, scoring, scoring, you can't do it.
Take away to pick six. You can't do that when it's the scores of continually mounting up against you and now you got to come out of your bag.
So I got a chance to voice my opinion after Mike McCarthy's press conference on Thursday.
You have not had a chance yet, not yet, opinion, So you're up, Okay, got it?
So I had found out obviously the night before the press conference, just in the media Mike McCarthy announced fifth season for the Cowboys. And the next day we go into the press conference room and I say to myself, this is the most packed I've seen it this entire year.
They were expecting something else standing room. No, they knew.
Jerry had released, they had announced it, but it was the most packed I've seen the room, just reporters standing in the back.
Usually there's enough seating for everybody. Just a very packed room.
And primarily the question was have we addressed what had happened against the Packers? And I talked to Mickey after and it almost felt like a lot of what we were talking about in the press conference, specifically coach McCarthy. It was a little bit going in circles and it was really, Hey, we need to go back and re evalue you wait this off season, look back at some of the fundamentals that we have and changes that we.
Need to sounds familiar, exactly, sounds familiar.
Well, so here here's the key thing.
And I'll give Jerry credit for this, because everybody is calling for this and that, right, and while he respects the media, respects the fans, he sat back, took the emotion out of it and said, Okay, what's the prudent thing to do? Am I going to just blow it up and start from scratch after we've won twelve consecutive games.
At eighty plus years old?
Twelve? Yeah, that's one.
That's one factor, right, And so I thought the other reasoning in his mind was if I fire Mike McCarthy, I fired my offensive coordinator and my play calling. So now whoever comes in with this big name, who's.
Going to take that job over?
And and basically put Dak in a situation where he's going to have a third offense or a third play caller.
In three years?
Yes, right now after one of his best seasons.
Yes, yeah, So I.
Think he had he had to factor that in. That was my thought on it. Now, as for the staff, I think there could be a couple of changes.
That's why I was here.
Yeah, what you said, and make sure guys aren't just well, and you got a factor in. Also, they got sixteen unrestricted free agents. So that's a big change right there, because you're not going to resign every one of those guys. And if I remember counting it upright, half of them were starters or are starters.
Of both offense defense, special teams.
Got to bring back the deeps. He's an unrestricted agent, right C J. Goodwin, who you didn't have the entire season, you know, do you want to bring him back as a special team play? So they've got that, They've got some work to do in the offseason, so it won't come back the same.
But I just thought that just shaking it up like that, and assuming a.
New coach comes in and he's gonna win twelve games, and he's going to win the division title and he's going to win two playoffs, right, that's a leap of faith right there. So to run it back one more time I think was and for his last time because this is last year, fifty year of his contract, and Jerry kind of did it what he wanted to do and didn't let the media or the fans uproar, or at least the ones that get vocal right sway him
into a decision. I thought it was somewhat cheap after the game, and I think it happened with probably multiple TV stations to interview pissed off fans right after the game.
Oh well, that's that's right, right, what are It's very entertaining, I must say, But I know this.
Fan base is upset. They're upset.
They served to me that we had such high expectations going to against Screen Bay, and I think it's still going to take a lot to prove on the football side to get this fan base.
It does behind your back. But ultimately, Jerry, I think he made the right call.
You keep around the coach that you've had twelve and five seasons continuously.
I'm with you on that. When the fans they deserve better. I mean they've been sticking. Come on, this is the number one sports franchise in the world. And it's not just because you know you've got a smart owner. You've got fans that's support. And I mean, I'm a player, but I'm form a player, but I'm also a fan as well. I know both sides of it, and as a fan, yes, I do deserve more as a fan, so I know exactly how they feel. There's a lot
of excuses you can make. I make excuses for this offense and defense as a former player, but then as a fan, I also know. Man, some of that is bs. You know it's I mean, and I mean, just to be honest, you know you've got to you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. As we talked about, so changes, Yes, you're right, they have to be made, and McCarthy is going to have to, I think, and I don't think he likes to run his team this way, but he's going to have to change the
way he runs his team. Regular season, Yes, those are big games. You got big games in regular season, and we've won big games in regular season. Doesn't mean jack when it comes to playoffs, because that's that's a whole the level and we are not reaching that based on his style of coaching at this point. And what I mean is, you know, you gotta cush your defensive coordinator out. Sometimes you gotta cut somebody out. Sometimes you gotta buck up to him with that big stomach you got and
buck up to him. And man, you gotta do better.
Bro.
You know I'm looking bad over here. I'm the head coach.
I'm just saying, man, you know, and you know what, you know what the scary part is, schedule gets tougher, it gets tough. Here's here's my list. So they're gonna they're.
Uh their strength of schedule last year was the seventh worst, right now, their strength of schedule going off the teams they have to play next year. Off the record this year, uh is point it's fifty so point five oh five.
So it's a winning record.
Yes, all right, yes, So here are the games you got to play against teams that had winning records from this past season. Two games against Philly.
You got to play.
Baltimore AFC title game, a competitor. You got to play Tampa Bay nine and eight, Detroit twelve and five, Houston ten and seven, Cincinnati nine and eight, New Orleans nine and eight, Cleveland eleven and six, Pittsburgh ten and seven, and San Francisco again twelve and five.
Good.
So going to be nine good.
Eleven of seventeen games they play will be against teams with winning records from this past season, and nine playoff teams, five division winners.
So how many divisions do we have?
Eight?
And you're one of them. So that's six.
You're only missing two division winners and the two teams that had the best records in their conference.
So let me ask you, so, let me ask you it ain't do you think that we have the right to go into this season the way we did last season? Do you think that?
No?
I mean, come on, you have to change.
You got so much defensively. Defensively, you just can't outscore everyone. You just can't. I love the numbers, it all looks good, and I love the fact that the defense comes and reacts to that. I want my defense to be the catalyst for this team. And you can still offensively have the same plan. You still can't hardly run the damn ball, right, You're still passing the ball very well, So why not add a good defense to that? That predicates what we do play off of what we do.
So, since you mentioned that, my deal from yesterday was the more majority of these teams ran the ball awfully well.
Right now.
I know Baltimore's stats and Buffalo stats get skewed because of the quarterback running for all those yards, But one of the things that occurred to me watching the games yesterday is there was a bunch of running backs who made people miss.
Yeah.
Man, right, that was a sweet one you're talking about. I think it was a buffalo.
Well James Cook cook right, but he.
Shied the man in the hole, took it to the house and you don't see that. That's the McCaffrey run back.
And then Jamier Gibbs amazing and occurred to me that maybe it's not a bad thing draft a running back in the first round.
That's what that's what they was. Gibbs the first rounded. Yeah, yes, he was GiB the first rounded.
And and he made people miss in the hole. And it made me think back to you know, hey, Pollard did the best he could.
With what was available there.
Right, But he's more of a straight line runner than he is elusive. Donnal has a little bit elusiveness, but not like I saw what Gibbs. And I'm thinking, Okay, I'm playing with a fourth round draft choice at running back. Nothing against that because he certainly did the most and a free agent, basically rookie free agent, right, and they're playing with the first round running back. So I don't want to hear this offseason when we get to draft talk, take a running back.
I want to remember because both games were good. That's how one of them. He's on the sideline and he fakes out of dB. He's on the sideline. I mean, you know that's easy tackle for a defensive back. You clearly use the sideline. He shook a guy down, went around him. It was against the Chiefs. He should it was the it was cooked. He sugar guy number thirty eight. He shook him down, got around him for about three or four more yards and went out of bound. Those
kind of things. Our backs can't do that, and they don't even attempt to do that. And that was that was playoff football by running backs this entire weekend.
Well, even if you look at Aaron Jones and Christian McCaffrey in a Green Bay forty nine ers game.
They both were incredible. They will incredible.
They showed great running back skills.
Yeah, to your point, Mickey, it might not be a bad idea getting a running back in the first round, but you need to have somebody or even bring somebody in in the off season and start evaluating what that position looks like.
With the powerhouse running.
Well, we'll have time to talk about what they need in the draft, what they don't, but they're gonna need some juice, either offensively or defensively to get everybody excited about playing again.
One more before we're going break. I'm wondering if our running back would do better one another year removed from the Achilles injury. Do you think that we talked about I think it was Terrence Steel trying to come back from his injury and that first year being tough, second
year of being better. Do you think that that's what was going on with Pollot coming off that first year is always tougher and maybe he'll be better the following year, because that's certainly with Bold, just the same for a running back as it would for an offensive lineman.
Well, and by the way, he's an unrestricted free agent, so now you're gonna have to decide if you do, and then you're gonna have to judge the market right on what does somebody else think of my two guys compared to what I think of them.
So it's going to be an interesting off season, yeah, for sure.
And I have a full list of off season specific dates that are important, all right to that when we get back with more mcshots in a moment.
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That's what I like.
Shuts.
The ninety ninth annual East West Shrine Bowl will feature one hundred and thirty of the nation's top NFL draft prospects on Thursday, February first, at The Star in Frisco. Tickets as low as twenty dollars are available at Shrine Bowl dot com. Proceeds benefit Shrine Shriner's Children's Very Nice That was one of the dates on my list, February first is the East West Shrine Bowl.
That's a what day of the week is it February first, Thursday, Thursday night, Thursday or Thursday day? I will try and night.
It's a night.
Okay, Well we can go see that and start our scouting.
For the draft, just looking for running backs and linebackers. That's all were we go here for that? All right?
So the Packers check this out.
They ran for one hundred and thirty six yards against the San Francisco defense that we all kind of judged being pretty darn good. Right, The forty nine ers ran for one hundred and eleven yards.
Neither quarterback had a great date.
Now, I know it was raining, right, San Francis needs a roof. Okay, how many times they're going to play these games?
And they too because they only just failed down yesterday. No Packing players are falling down now.
I know. The The Packers game basically came down to that last possession. I think Love started playing too fast by the way that he still had He's had time, right, he didn't have to throw a disposition.
It's like, what are you doing?
But here's where I thought they lost the game. Their first possession, they drove right down the field first and ten at the San Francisco thirteen. They kick a twenty nine yard field goal.
All right.
Second possession, they're up three to nothing. They drive from the eighteen all the way to the FO fourteen yard line. They go for it on fourth down, which I was four, and they get stuffed on fourth and one, and you know what, I still think they should have challenged the call.
That guy made it.
He made it. He made it, he made it.
I don't know why they didn't challenge it.
They looked. That reminded me so much of several of Dak's quarterbacks. Sneaks on the goal line, raise whole bodies laying across the line, and they're like, oh, I think it was back here. So yeah, you know, sometimes I think that's home cooking. I don't know, it just seems like that. It seems like a little home cooking.
And then after.
San Francisco goes down and gets the touchdown pass Uh to Kittle, it was wide open, I remember correctly. Their next possession, they get to first and goal at the nine, and they had to settle for another twenty nine yard field goal, and as you guys know, and I continue to preach, the more field goals you kicked, the closer you are to losing.
You got that. There's only one exception to that that I know of. Yeah, that would be the Giants versus the forty nine ers. Yes, we gig five field.
Goals and we kicked that ass thanks to the defense, right right, that's right, thanks to the defense.
You were inside.
Basically the red zone three times and you got six points. You just can't have that happen because you were dominating the game. San Francisco was in trouble, and you know what, they looked vulnerable they did right there.
You can see that. That's that. You can see that the secondary clearly has issues. At this point, Love was kind of he had some place to where he made them look like the Cowboys secondary.
How do they get guys that wide open?
Well? People falling down? There were some people falling down that for some reason, the safety came up and number eighty Melton, I believe it was going right by it and he fell down. What are you doing? I think he thought he was gonna run a deep end cot of something, which that didn't seem to be the case. Like that could have even been the case at that time.
And once again, by the way, Love did not get sacked once.
I was gonna bring that up because the ability for him to have as much time as he did in the pocket, both in the Cowboys game and against San fran who is one of the best defenses that you'll see in the league. That was actually very impressive to me.
Because of the running game there. That was the running game. The running game was working, and the play action was what got him had He had plenty of time because of the play action. And I gotta say, guys, you switching gears. Defensively, the Packers are much better defensive squad than they showed you out throughout the whole season. They stepped it up during the playoffs because they played the
forty nine ers very well. They had brought Purty looking like an average quarterback and it's a guy it's up for a MVP as a quarterback, and now they really made them look pedestrian.
See. I heard somebody talking this morning on the way in that he just had a bad game. Well, there's a reason why he had a miss game, right. They played awfully well and the.
Pressure inside coming from number ninety seven, whoever this guy is in ninety seven or ninety three. He was leaning on the guards and the centers all game long, putting pressure on the quarterback, and he was in Purity's face. Party is just like any other QB. Let's just face the guys. They're all human and when someone is in your face, you can feel it. When someone is breathing down your back, they can feel it, and you throw
too soon or you throw aidly. And that's what I liked about the pressure that they were getting because it caused Party to panic just a little bit, just like you see happens to Dad, just like you see happens to Josh Allen or any quarterback in the league.
And Green Bay's ability to put pressure on Jennings, I Uke Kittle was was very proven because the amount of times George Kittle, but.
He had seven targets only four receptions. He dropped the ball.
Right right there, and I just think that they really got to got to those guys, even Jennings, he had six targets, got the ball five times. I Uke six targets, three receptions, So.
You know, and the other the other thing that should not get overlooked by the way.
Is the Packers drove to the San Francisco twenty three yard line and Carlson, on a forty one yard field goal, went wide left. And I was saying to myself, Oh, that's going to come back.
You know, right he hits that field goal, it's a tie game. They're going into overtime. That's how close they came.
That's how important field goal kickers are.
How about that. That's one thing we can't.
Don't worry about our kickers now we are good.
And and then if we look at the Buffalo games, Oh, my god, wide right again.
Everson knows all about well.
It was so funny because I can't think it was Mark Collins. He that was my cornerback on the right side. He talked about thirty three years ago yesterday we beat San Francisco and they said that was supposed to be one of the greatest teams in history. And we we came in with the five field goals and beat them up. And as we're talking about that, the Buffalo game is on and he went wide right, and boy, the thread just got bigger and bigger. We talked about it all night.
We texted out. Sorry, we texted about it all night. About Buffalo and the history of wide right. So we just came up with a whole new name for him, the Buffalo wide right Bills. And my son said it before they even started getting into the thread. He said, he'll miss it. I said, why you say that? He said, that's what Buffalo kickers do. That was my son's That was my son's call as we're sitting there watching the game.
And sure enough, like, man, that was too easy. I mean, you know, it's going left to right right, the wind was blowing left to right. He didn't account for that at all. It came off the foot straight, straight, and sure enough, the wind did what the wind does.
And he said that after the game too, he said, I knew what the wind does going that direct. Yeah, and I didn't allow he didn't trust it.
He did. I think if you put more more, uh, I don't know how kickers do, but he seemed like he chipped. He chipped it.
It's like he kicked it like it was a forty four yard field, like instead of a fifty four yard.
Thank you, thank you. That's what he didn't drive it. He didn't drive it. He just kind of used a nine iron you as opposed to using the hybrid and in the air softly and the wind took it.
How heartbreaking, And all we talked about.
All we talked about after that was Scott norwould of course, and everyone talked about they were testing about. Oh, I just saw Scott noringwood this past offseason, and you know, I didn't bring it up until I think Steve says he was with him the entire golf round and he was waiting on him to bring it up. Scott was and Dios brought it up on the eighteenth hole.
No way, and you know, and but again, and I was glad. Josh Allen pointed it out. It's like the kid didn't lose the game we did. I mean, they've got first and ten, they're at the twenty seven yard line, and they end up with what three straight incompletions.
It's like, well, when you when you even look at them, they ran for one.
Yard and then had two straight incompletions, where one of them I thought he should have just ran with it the last one and just get me five more yards or six more yards right to shorten the distance of the field goal.
When you look at that game, they were lucky to have a chance to kick that field goal of Hardman of course messes up on them on the goal line when he fumbles the ball. Was his name, was that hard of when he fumbled the.
Ball kN city out at the end zone.
Yeah, I mean they they were gonna lose, you could they were going to That was gonna be like making the two score game if I'm not mistaken, right, they made another mistake where they should have uh done well, done better.
Uh.
San Francisco got away with Jordan Love throwing some crap across the middle. For some reason, he was way behind his tight end and that was a mistake. So you just had you had games where you know, the quarterbacks, you know they they they made some mistakes and and and put themselves out of position. If the Packers complete that pass to the tight end coming across the middle, I think it ended up being inaccepted, the.
One the Savage intercepted.
Yeah no, this was the Packers. The Jordan Love missed this coming to call he missed it. Yeah, yeah, but that was another Packer play. The same guy that returned for the touchdown against the Cowboys. He's got another one.
He misses it. Give me a break. I'm like, and my son, and I was like, okay, we kept comparing everything to Dallas, gave everythings, but.
That was it.
That was it.
That was a touchdown.
That was a touchdown just like I was right.
So yeah, that was that was Yeah.
So predictions going into next Sunday, do.
That very good.
I don't think she wanted to bring up our predictions in the last Cowboys game.
I think that we are clicks to pick.
We may need to just let's just scrap that the last last game.
Yeah, all right, Chiefs Ravens Sunday, three o'clock Eastern time, big game.
I've always said that I wouldn't be placed Jack with any other quarterback but Mahomes. I've always said that, and because he's just he's just got it.
He's amazing.
He's amazing.
If you look at his wide receiver core and he made it work, you.
Can look at any any way you want to look at it. I don't care with tyber Hill or not. Patrick Mahomes was always that guy. And you know, he's the only one I know that can do miracles. At this point. Having said that, I don't think he's going to do it against Buffalo, against Baltimore. I think Baltimore is going to win the game. That defense makes Lamar look so good and comfortable. I know he never feels stressed.
He can go over there and talk about something with his offense while his defense is out there busting people up. That's a great luxury to have, and I think they're going to do that same thing in this game. So I'm looking at Baltimore to win.
I think the Ravens, especially with Lamar, look like a more composed team. I think the Chiefs tend to scramble a little bit, and as you said, Mahomes has pulled off some of those miracles, but I think this scrambling and the ability to just not have control so much is going to cost them in the end. I think the Ravens are more composed and have a better team with Lamar as their quarterback.
All right, So just to make sure we.
All don't do the same thing, put me down for Kansas City a win on the road again, Okay. And what they're going to have to figure out is basically they cannot allow what was it, They cannot allow Lamar Jackson to rush for one hundred yards and that means not he only had nine runs for one hundred yards.
That's like two rushing touchdowns right right, Yeah, and.
You knew what was going to happen, did didn't you know? He was going to run the ball. So he averaged nine point one a carry. Put me down for Kansas City.
Okay, interesting, Hey.
By the way, there was another moment in that game. Twenty seven could have scooped and scored on the fumble against Buffalo. They fumbled the ball, Buffalo fumbled. Buffalo fumbled the ball. Number twenty seven had a chance to scoop and score and Buffalo got the ball.
Oh when the guy on the ground reached out and pulled it back.
Yes, So yeah, that that game that wasn't nearly as close right as that field missfield goal might make it seem so changed out? Yeah you should, all right, lions for that's a tough one. That's a tough one. Dan Campbell coming in strong, coming in like that big Texas man, chest stuck out.
Did you hear what he had to say at halftime at the interview. Now, they were like, what are you going to do? What do you gotta do? He goes, what do we gotta do? We got to play football?
He goes, We're we're in we're in the divisional, we're playing to go to the conference championship. Let's go out and have some fun. Because they were trying to say, well,
what did you know everything that went wrong? And he's going, no, he goes, you know, we're in this, let's go and I love it was great what I'm talking about, And it sounded like and it sounded like so they were up seventeen thirteen at halftime, right, and it sounded like what he was doing in the interview was what he told the team.
Right.
It wasn't this, well, we just got to make a play here or play there, you know, and.
We're in the No, it's like he basically told the reporter exactly what he told his team.
That doesn't predicate how a team plays, but damn it sure does sound good. The other thing, you know what I'm saying, Sometimes you you know, being a brash and you know it. You know, if it works with your team. It doesn't always work with everyone, with every team, but Dan Campbell you believe it. You believe it's going to work just because that's his that's his moo.
All right, So who are you going with.
Detroit? Okay, I'm going with Detroit. Okay, that's a tough one because the twenty nine is all tough.
You know what, I'm gonna go with the Upset also, And you know what the problem is is I tend to pick who I probably am pulling for.
Well, nothing wrong with that, especially when you have two closely matched teams, Right, you might as well go with what you like if it's either I'm going.
With the Lions as well, guys three for three.
I think Bill would too.
Bill's now just gonna have to be honest. This is what I would have done. Right, Let's see if he if he happened to be listening.
Yeah, well if we did. If he did, we begin plenty of texts. I don't get any I don't have any texts.
Well, he'll have to let us know his thoughts.
We'll have to put him. Yeah, he's got to be honest, right.
Right, because next Monday, we're gonna know who's going to the super.
Bowl, that's right.
So well, we'll have an extra week there because there's a week in between, so we'll know who's going. Then we can make our picks exactly in a week later.
Perfect, All right.
That'll do it. We'll see we will next week.
Yeah, at eleven o'clock, eleven o'clock.
Eleven Bill Go Cowboys.
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