Deuce Vaughn is now in their new set of downs to work with.
Prescott will throw it left side, It's caught by Lamb breaking away.
Waham, good bye touchdown Cowboys. Lamb is exclusive. Deonda Banks catch beet on the play fifty five yards of a catch and run for Lamb.
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we hit all our field goals. Okay, Brandon Aubrey didn't actually do that tonight, but the Cowboys get it done twenty to fifteen.
The Cowboys survived. This was a get it done and survive type a night.
Hopefully my guest today on NFL Daily can do the same.
Danny Heifeitz of The Ringer.
Danny, I'm sorry to have you on after a Giants loss that was a tough one tonight.
I mean, I'm not gonna lie. I feel like football now is officially back because we've had a Thursday night football game where we had a split screenshot of Micaeh Parsons being carted off. Will mylak Neighbors was like carried to the blue medical tent and I was like, yeah, that's how I feel inside the whole time watching this game.
So yeah, it was not a pretty game. A lot of penalties in the first half, come down in the second half. Al Michaels was groaning. It looked like it was all but over. Late in the game, Brandon Aubrey, as I mentioned, lines up for a fifty one yardfield goal, misses. It gives Daniel Jones one chance to go fifty four yards in twenty eight seconds.
They get no yards.
Throwing the ball down the field late was as ugly as it was throwing the ball down the field early.
Otherwise, Daniel Jones played pretty well.
We'll get into all that, but yeah, you kind of led with the big stuff which late in the game.
We'll just mention it right off the top. Monik Late.
Neighbors leaves with a concussion. Micah Parsons was carted off the field it appeared, I believe, with a lower leg injury they're calling it. And DeMarcus Lawrence had left in the third quarter with a foot injury. So all of those injuries loom large, especially considering what a big part of the offense Neighbors was. He hit his head on the ground on what was to me really the end of the game, which was a fourth down play where Daniel Jones left the pocket. I thought a little early
Danny and scrambled it. Actually made a nice throw in the end, got it on Neighbors' hands, and you hate to see the game and that way he tried to make a nice toe tap. It would have been a sensational play, but actually the ball did get to him and he couldn't quite pull it in. You think of the game a couple of weeks ago in Washington, different situation, but Neighbors, who has been their best player by far, unfortunately in that spot, couldn't bring it in.
And yeah, now it sounds like he could miss some time.
It's just an awful ending to a game. But I mean, I look like Neighbors. I could be totally wrong, but it looked like he actually got knocked out cold trying to do the toe tap that he had two feet on the ground at a weird angle, two hands on the ball, and it looked like you just hit his face on the ground. And I don't know if he was knocked out or what, but I mean, it sucks seeing him go out like I mean, Neighbors is the
entire team. I've been trying to figure out when the last time a single NFL offense relied so heavily on a rookie that was not back immediately, like even Odell Beckham for the Giants, I mean Adell barely. I don't think Odell even played the first month of the season, you know what I mean, And like you know, Justin Jefferson didn't do anything til week three. I mean, all
the great seasons you think of. Frankly, I think you might have to go back to like Adrian Peterson for the last time a team entered a season and was like, this kid is our offense because Neighbors it's closer to like my career in like a Madden or NCA the new college football video game, where like you're doing the Creative Player and like every player is for you, Like that's what the Giants offense is. And then when they double Neighbors, it's for Wandell Robinson. It's the entire offense.
It's crazy.
Yeah, So on the night, Neighbors ends up with twelve catches, one hundred and fifteen yards on fifteen targets.
He had a.
Route early in the game that embarrassed Andrew Booth, the Cowboys cornerback, maybe more than any route I've ever seen any wide receiver embarrass a cornerback. At that point, they were like, you are not allowed to cover him with the rest of the game, And he didn't like Trayvon Diggs had to cover him the rest of the game.
It looked like Michael Irvin going to the bucket in the longest yard over Adam Sandler.
Danny, by the way, of course, from the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, does great stuff over at the Ringer.
You should check him out.
He's with Danny Kelly over there, and it has been awesome. And yes is a Giants fan, and I was hoping for a Giants win just for content sake. It would have been exciting to have you on after a win and to see what this Cowboys team would do at one in three.
I will give them credit for doing enough.
I don't feel any differently about the Cowboys after tonight than I did going into the night.
But it was a crucial victory.
And Dak Prescott is still such an advantage, you know, at quarterback, and it's tough to overcome that big of an advantage at quarterback. And what was the stat al said at the end of the game, thirteen straight over the Giants or it's fourteen out of fifteen. For I mean that is that is absolutely outrageous doubt. Dak finishes twenty two to twenty seven, two hundred and twenty one yards, two touchdowns. It was a very twenty twenty four night by Dak where it's just like everything's just out of
his hands so quickly, almost everything's within ten yards. But they moved the ball and they scored enough when they had to. They left the door open a little bit for the Giants at the end. But yeah, you've got to be sick of losing to Dak Prescott.
It's it's non competitive, frankly, I mean the Giants again, So the Giants. Dak is thirteen straight wins over the Giants. The Giants have not beaten Dak Prescott's is twenty sixteen and time the Giants have beaten thatk. So the Giants. It's not just the Cowboys either, just too. The Giants against the Cowboys and the Eagles since twenty seventeen are four and twenty five, which is a worst winning percentage of the White Sox.
So the Giants are basically the White Sox inside these games, except they're actually worse the White Socks actually are like almost twice as good as as the Giants against the Eagles Dallas. So it's like the extent to which the Giants have been futile, it's hard to even explained.
It's like, oh, they're tired for the worst record over the last seven years. That barely touches it.
Right, because it's not like it's the Bills during the Brady era who have a similar type of record, or the Bears during the Packers Rogers era, like post Cutler has a very similar record. Okay, it's like, we don't have any quarterbacks. We're going against one of the all time great teams. You go to against the Cowboys, which has found a little consistency under Mike McCarthy, but they've been rolling through, you know, Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy.
They haven't been able to string together playoff seasons in a row until the last couple of years.
This is not Aaron Rodgers and Tom.
Brady that you can't get a win against tonight.
I thought it might be your night, but it was not you.
That's the thing. Jason Garrett, Mike McCarthy, these guys that everyone is making fun of of, like Oh, look at these bozos. How are they beating anyone? Meanwhile, the Giants have not beaten this team in seven years, basically the only time it had to be Andy Dalton quarter That's the other thing I did even mentioned this. Of the four and one, there are four wins twenty five losses
against Dallas and Eagles. Two of those four wins were against backup quarterbacks, once against Marcus Mariota for the Eagles, once against Andy Dalton for Dallas. They've beaten Eagles starters at Cowboys starters twice in eight years, so it's worse.
I absolutely love that we got comments in the chat here. Anvil writes high Fitz rest harder against the Giants than Cowboys fans, which is fun. And yeah, someone mentions Waddle's rookie year had a crazy target Charehip fits. I believe it was thirty four catches in the first four weeks for neighbors unless he tacked one on after that, which was second most in NFL history. And he's special and he's gonna make this Giant season worth it no matter what. Let's we'll get to more Giants in a bit, but
I do want to talk Cowboys in this game. They're they're gonna be the more relevant team long term, although I don't know how much is really separating these two teams. The Cowboys decided tonight. I thought it was interesting to basically go with a two man backfield. It was just Rico Daddle and Hunter Lipkey. Hunter Lipke is their third down running back, which is funny. He's their fullback. He's
actually he's kind of sneaky good. But as a Giants fan who saw Ceede Lamb go in for that you know touchdown, Tyler Nuban, your rookie safety, takes a terrible angle on that Deontay Banks, who's like always in position for plays but never makes plays. So I don't think he's a bad cornerback, but he's not. He's not, you know, a standout cornerback yet. And that's okay for a second year cornerback. If you're just like, okay, that guy's a starter, that's not a bad outcome. I don't even think for
like a late first round pick. But he never makes plays. He's always there and he never makes.
Him I'm gonna steal that. He's always the he's standing right there.
Yes, and Nubin is the one that really should take the heat for that play. But Ceedee Lamb came out and this game had a monster first half ends up seven for ninety eight, had a great rushing attempt in the first half, and then they went back to that and it didn't work in the second. But after that and Ferguson's a good tight end after that, it's crazy to me my theory. And I know Cavante Turpin maybe didn't get on the field on offense. He was on the field, but I don't think he got a target.
My assessment of this offense right now is that Hunter Lipke and Cavante Turpin are weapons three and four, which is not what you want. I think Lipkey is actually a pretty funky player. He's pretty fun He's pretty athletic for a fullback. He could do lots of things like he honestly could who knows. I don't want to get over my skis, but he could have a pretty fun career.
But if he and Cavanti Turpin, who's dynamite anytime he gets the ball, but must not know how to run routes or else, like he would be in the lineup more like I don't know, Like he's unreal. Uh, Cook's cook looks cooked to me, Like, I don't know about Brandon Cooks. At this point, he gets four targets, one catch. Jalen Tovers never done anything, and just it's a little thin. Everything's hard for the Cowboys, even against this Giants defense.
Everything is hard for them in terms of moving the ball down the field.
I totally agree. I don't think that this game, if your Cowboys fan, changes anything about how you feel about the team. I still I don't care that they had the Giants only have one yard of carry. I still think Massi Smith has a habit of kind of like making the guys blocking him look like they're shack botting people out of the paint. I don't think, you know, I think when you face it tougher rushing team, like, I don't think those questions are answered. And then I think,
like ceedee, Lamb's incredible. Yeah he sent Tyler Newban into like the astral realm, like Tyler Dubin. Like I just flashed back to when the Giants were like, damn, all the guys we wanted were taken. I guess we'll take Tyler Duban. But yeah, I mean to your point, about Hunter.
I agree, I think Olypke actually looks solid, But overall I think Dallas they're almost They remind me of a way of the Jets, where it's like there's like the Cowboys are just four acls from this whole thing collapsing at any point, and so what happens to this team if you know, unfortunately anything with Michael Parsons neces serious injury. Dak looks incredible. I thought, honestly, that scramble he had
to lip key for that third and three thirty four. Yes, it was one of the best throws of the whole game. But overall, I just keep looking at Mike McCarthy with the Nick Sirianni thing. I'm like, what are you doing here? Why is nobody open? Why? Like I don't understand much about this. Dallas has developed talent. I look at Tyler Goutton struggling, and I'm like, you know what, Tyron Smith
didn't have a great necessarily September. Like, you know, I'm not worried about a bunch of stuff for Dallas, but I don't think I looked at this game and think there are anything. There's still the big bad wall for the regular season but I don't know.
Right, and we'll see in the nfcas like I don't.
I think they're a tick lower than they were the last couple of seasons. I'm much more concerned this Mike Zimmer defense, like wasn't getting a lot of pressure on Daniel Jones. I checked out the pressure numbers via Next Gen Stats, and I was surprised to see that Daniel Jones had a pretty good numbers against pressure tonight. It was it ended up six for eleven for sixty nine yards, which is not great. I think that was the last three plays basically, but before that he was like six
for eight. But I barely saw any of those pressures and they weren't touching him like Daniel Jones has. I can't remember a Giants game where Daniel Jones got out as Scott free as this. Maybe the Commander's game, you know too, there was a little bit of that, but like he barely got hit, barely got knocked down. They did a good job against Parsons for the most part.
Andrew Thomas is a stud and when Lawrence goes down, it's just it's just on the even Like, I don't see big time talent and the criticism you're saying about McCarthy in this offense, Like, what does that remind me of? Like the end of days in Packers Land, which is just like they want to play though we have the better players and we're just gonna beat you offense, And it does feel to me, without getting ageists, there's a little bit of like some of this old these old
guard offensive coaches. I don't know, I think getting closer to the end, Doug Peterson and Mike McCarthy ar.
Yeah, it's like the Pete Carroll of offense where you're like, yeah, we're just gonna line up and beat you, and it's like that doesn't work anymore. Like Cody Alexander at match quarters Alway says like static is death, and you know, you know, you look at a bunch of this. I thought the most creative thing they did all night was
put Cede Lamb in the backfield. Both teams did that. Actually, Milick Dabors, one of the drop Beckx Jones had all freaking season, was actually like Milik Dabers basically just ran a dig out of the backfield that was kind of awesome. And then Cee he had the longest run of the night he ran for like, however many yards on that first and twenty. But to your point, I think that the Mike Zimmer defense part. Sorry, I know, I'm going back and forth between offenses.
No, I love it.
But the Cowboys defense, you know, the dan Quinn he has the how do you do my fellow kids, He's got the backwards hat, and like, I don't know scmatically if it's still the best thing, but he resonates with the players and defenses for all the schematics. It's also a lot of effort, and I think dan Quinn was like, hey, you guys can do cool stuff. Michael Parsons one gap, get in the backfield, disrupt, get to the guy Trevon Dicks.
You know what, Just jump routes, get pick sixes. He gets hurt, Oh okay, cool, we're gonna have to run plan jump routes, get pick sixes. Mike Zimmer comes in, scream it at everyone. He's mean, you know what I mean, it's just like no one does anything cool. Everyone's gonna do your your unset really bored like job like hold it, you know what I mean. It's not the jobs aren't it's fun. And so when the defense doesn't have results. I think that over the course of the season, I
think that could wear on people. And I think the pass rushed in there. I'll see if there's one thing they did really well. The tackling by Dallas was phenomenal and they really needed to get better at that. Wanda Robinson five eight, So I don't know how much credit they get. Wandaal Robinson stopped on third down a yard short of the sticks I think five times tonight, So I will give Dallas credit for tackling.
Yeah, and one of them, he kind of it was late in the game. Was that before that they they picked up the fourth down in that in that one but eleven catches for Wandell for seventy one yards. I mean, he is your twelfth round or free agent pickup in fantasy. You play him in your fourth flex spot dream right now, because like he's gonna give you, Like he's not going to have a high ceiling, but he's gonna get you
your thirteen fourteen fantasy points. Man, it's not gonna be pretty, like you might not want to watch it, but he actually usually makes the first guy miss.
I think he's played well.
I think he has a role in an NFL offense as a very useful player. If he's your three slash four, if you happen to have a good tight end, like that's perfect. He's a little overextended right now. Is like that it's neighbors in him and that's it. Slayton, you needs to get Slaton more involved. But I think Wanda is a good player. Actually that's my that's been my takeaway from the end of last season and this season.
I totally agree he's a good player. He's probably a little miscast as the Yeah, if it's not neighbors, it's him, and uh he's so On the Ring of Fantasy Football show, I joked up PPR point perception scoring his participation trophies, and like, Tonight's kind of a good example where I'm like seventy one yards but he gets eleven points for eleven catches, Like, yeah, almost none of which went for first down, so frustrating.
Uh yeah, the first couple of games he was picking up fort souns. But yeah, it's crazy. They showed the third down passing tonight and he had more targets than neighbors and they had all of them. And that's really all they ever did. Zachary Janda says we should end the show with some tennis talk. I mean, don't temp me with a good time here. We got the Tokyo Open, Kaanie Sheikori bringing it back to twenty fourteen, little revenge over Marion Chilich. You know, I'm not going to talk
tennis at all. I will completely bore everyone love Tiafo. We have to have a Tiafa conversation. I would love to it probably should be off off Mike, Michael Parsons. Yeah, there's no update from Mike McCarthy. We're taping this as they're doing the press availability. It is an ankle injury for Micaeh Parsons, so that's worriedsome Lawrence with the foot
is extremely worrisome. The results of those two injuries is going to really shape this Cowboys next month, you know, potentially season, because right now they are at team that isn't good enough at anything to survive losses. Like they're bad enough on defense with those two guys, who are two of their three best players on defense, you know, including Diggs as well. You know at this point with Lawrence probably around the same level. Without them, they're cooked
because yeah, they they went into the week. We got to stop the run. We're sick of everyone saying we can't stop the run. The Giants did not have a run over five yards, but that was the Giants who exactly.
And I mean, look, I feel like the worst defensive lines in the league right now that are making the defenses just dea or like Cincinnati Carolina Arizona. I think if Dallas doesn't have any game where they don't have Michael Parsons or DeMarcus Lawrence, I think Dallas is right there because they already the defensive tackle, the whole spot of the defense is already their biggest issue. They already have Rick Hendricks, who I mean, frankly, this Eric Kendricks
Mike Zimmer thing wasn't working like three years ago. It's kind of incredible it's still happening in twenty twenty four. And then if they I mean, yeah, I frankly, maybe am I being hyperbolic and saying this is like a bottom five defensive line without those two dudes and maybe a bottom five defense.
Yeah, No, that's not hyperbolic.
I mean they through the first three weeks, which is all we can really judge. We're pretty close to a bottom five defense overall, just in terms of the eye test and pretty much the numbers. And this is a night where you know, I just don't think they have the talent on defense, and so you need Dak to
carry you. But like I said, everything is so hard last week, next sense that's had something that was the lowest you know, separation that he's ever seen in a game, and tonight, whether Cowboys fans like it or not, because I know they're not aiming for a first round exit, and this season they're not getting to twelve wins.
It's not gonna happen.
Like I think they're aiming for win the division at ten or eleven wins and hope that's enough. They're not going to be that team this year. The reason you give Dak Prescott all that money is actually games like this. It's because he goes nineteen for twenty two against zone coverage, thirteen for fourteen, when he gets rid of the ball under two and a half seconds for one hundred and forty three yards in two touchdowns. He can say, man,
that's wasn't that exciting, wasn't that boring? But it's like he's moving, he is basically controlling the entire game himself against an inferior team in the division, and that he's like, he's gonna get you those wins almost by himself without a lot of help. He's got ceedee lamb and a little bit of coaching. But I don't know that right now that the talent around him isn't that great. And so that's it's partly why you give him all that
money and the rest of the numbers. You know, they're not doing a lot down the field, but other than CD, who's not you know, that's not what he majors in. I don't know what they're downfield passing is. I mean, if the if the Giants and Cowboys weren't in the same division, I'd say they should they should call the Giants about Darius Slayton.
Darius Slayton could help them. Yeah, I take him.
I would take him over the in Brandon Cooks in the Cooks role any day.
And it's funny because Darius Slayton led the Giants and receiving four years in a row and they try to cut him every one of the four seasons, so that actually would work really well. And then no, I totally agree.
I mean, Dak Prescott used to make annually under seven hundred thousand dollars a year, and now he's making like eight hundred thousand dollars per quarter of every game, and so like you watch a game like tonight and you're like, yeah, you know what, he's playing really well and almost in
a weird way. I don't know if it's stylistically, but he almost reminds me of Matt Stafford in the middle of the twenty tens with the Lions, just because if he was on a different team, I think you'd really quickly be like, oh my god, like he might win the MVP, like like in a weird way they like there's questions about how good he is and what is he accomplished. But then you take Stafford off, you put him on the RAMS, and you're like, oh, they won
the Super Bowl. And I kind of think Dak's actually in that range too, where if you know, if you had been air dropped into Miami in a you know, in a healthier at Miami season, I'm like, I kind of think it would be immediately unbelievable. But you know, Jerry Jones is older than Joe Biden, so this team isn't very good.
Harrison call toon, Beck says, this Cowboys defense looking this bad in weeks two through four really shows you how bad the Shaun Watson is. You're telling me Watson was useless against the Steven I have thought about that a little bit, like like all the Watson games and in like the Jaguars game, like everything. When you see those defenses play other teams, you're like, man, you know Watson
is really struggling. All right, we'll take a quick break and we'll be back to talk some giants after this.
It is kind of crazy, though, like the.
Disrespect for your giants, and let's switch over to focusing on the Giants a little more that. You know, you only gave up fifteen points to the Giants and it's considered a terrible performance.
I think Cowboys defense.
I guess the reason for that is there weren't a lot of stops. The Giants moved the ball all day, but it was like long field goal drives. Stand up with three hundred yards and yeah it comes off five field goal drives.
Way, they didn't have a touchdown in this game right in my career.
No, they did not have a touchdown. I mean Dable went for it on every on every fourth down that mattered except the one that actually mattered the most, which was the one like three yards in the goal line, and I'm like, he settled for a field goal. And I'm like, look, the Giants lost. Here's the thing, the Giants gate. You want the big picture, Giants, or you want to.
First one, Well, first I want you to take just put a pin in that for a second and say or I can mention just the situation there at that point, they're down by five.
Is it's either late third or early fourth.
Both defenses are struggling to get stopped, and they choose to kick a field goal on fourth and goal from the three to cut it from five to two, which was patently insane and shocking to me because he's an offensive coach and he had he did go for fourth down in the other key spots in the game, and it was kind of obvious to me. It's like, man, it's gonna be hard for them to get close to the goal line because they're not getting any chunk plays.
And they got it.
And it's like the next time they had fourth and four in midfield, they got it. Like I trust them to get three yards. I don't trust them to get down there.
And it's like Nick sirianni ESK, where it's like you have a chart that you consult, and again, a coach's job is to take the analytics and assess it to real life whether the numbers apply. Having said that, I mean, any of the decisions they had made earlier, if those were goes, Like I don't know why fourth to three wouldn't be a goal. It wouldn't be like a go for it, except the answers they're like, oh, take the points.
Because for all this stuff like fourth downs about analytics, it's also just also about like, yeah, it's like Madden. You're like, I would like this points down, and then you get really close and you're like, oh, we got the field goal. I don't know. I mean even maybe
this is wilder too. But they had a I think it was a fourth and nine, and then the Cowboys went off sides, which was insane on the field goal, and they could have taken the three points off and go off for the fourth and three there, and I thought that was a little concerning, But I don't think
the fourth downs what bothered me the most. Frankly, I thought the Giants game in a nutshell was that the first quarter was that the refs shot the Giants to the foot and you know the face mask on Daniel Bellinger, that he got face masked and flagged for it. So the Giants lost thirty yards the shit out of first intent at the eighteen, and so they had a second and eighteen at the forty eight, and then the next and then the next drive the Cowboys. Objectively one of
the worst calls of the NFL season. I actually am not a get on the refs guy almost ever, just because it seems like an impossible job whenever you see it live there down on the field, and we recognize like that players and coaches screw up a million times every game and there's no acceptance that, like, of course the referees do. But that one, to your point, put them out of like a great touchdown situation to absolutely killing the drive. And it was a mystifying, like reversal call.
You you rarely see a call hurt a team that much. That is inexplicable. So I will give you that as a Giants fan, it just it really is. And I'm actually agreed to I think people are too hard on refs, But like the contrast with the next drive when the Jake Ferguson has clearly holding on a cornerback and he's pulling its pure jersey. I know, holdings every play, but it's like pull jersey. They throw the flag. They picked the flag up, and I'm like, come on, dude, you
started the ground. That give us, you know, to pull the makeup call away, And it wasn't a makeup call. He did it. So then that gives the Rico Dawdle touchdown. So but having said that, I'm not gonna blame the rest for the game because the first quarter was the rest shot the Giants in the foot. The second quarter was the Giants shot the Giants in the foot, because I mean, you know, it's so funny. Daniel Jones finished
this game with twenty nine to forty. It really was like way fewer incompletions until the last drive two hundred and eighty one yards, took no touchdowns at one interception at the end that didn't count. I thought Daniel Jones kind of played in a way terribly in this game, and that actually breaking quarter alone not terribly, but like
he probably left twenty one points on the board. They should have like he he missed a deep touch on a free play, he under threw Darius Slayton for a touchdown by fifteen maybe like twenty yards, considering Darius Slayton was in a full sprint and to slow down. He missed Milik Neighbors in a full sprint on like a
like a like basically like a giant deep cross. He didn't get to see Melik Neighbors down the sideline up pile on another time, he missed Layton short again on the last drive, like every single play that could have broken open the game that Dable I think schemed really well. Daniel Jones was short by an amount that it was more like is he healthy than anything else, Like I was wondering if he actually can physically do it, because every single time he needed to throw ball over forty
yards he could not do it. Period.
So the numbers on his deep passing this year are insane. Now he's two for fourteen and throws over twenty yards. And it was something that the Giants beat writers were saying all camp like Dabeles really stress in vertical vertical. They want to go vertical, but it hasn't looked good for Daniel Jones when he goes vertical, and you're right the broadcast, which you know, I have my issues with this this Thursday night broadcast basically Al.
But it's a little bit of Alian, is it?
Because Al basically admits he doesn't want to be there at every quarter of the game.
He's not adding to it. And I get that it's fun when he bangs on the raft. That's probably the best part of Al. Actually, let's take a listen to Al having his version of fun on Thursday night.
A warning, it's not a curve the flag. It's like June fourteenth here anyone was known as flag days, you know.
And he's probably checking his mentions because there was about fifteen different other little one liners and.
Jokes after that. You seem like you want to go after it.
I don't know how far you want to go, I'll say, is Al Michaels? I don't know? I mean, does does he want to be do with this?
I love I love Al Michaels.
The thing that bothers me the most by far is more just updating the audience on really important parts of the situation in the game. So that's your job as a broadcaster. When Neighbors was concussed. They didn't mention it, and then he was, oh, yeah, then Neighbors goes into the blue tent.
He just says Neighbors went into the blue tent, and that was it.
And then at the end he said he had a concussion, didn't say he's really and just barely made a very similar situation with two a couple of weeks ago. And that came like a minute or two after he had already given the Cowboys the win. I'm like, wait, the game is it over? He was talking about what a great ride, It's gonna be back. Okay, I don't need to get into all that, but it bums me out a little bit. This Giants night, I think was probably
most disappointing if you drill down into the defense. Dexter Lawrence, according to Next Gen Stats, was double teamed on twenty of twenty five plays. It's eighty percent. That is the highest rate of double teams in any game for any player since twenty sixteen. Yeah, and it's crazy. You need the other guys to step up more. It's kind of my takeaway from that.
I'm not gonna lie, and I know I'm this is biased fan brain speaking, but I actually think I'm right. I think Dexter Lawrence on a better team would be on like a Hall of Fame track. Like, I think Dexter Lawrence is very clearly like the best player in the on defense. That's not Aaron Donald. If you want to throw Chris Jones out there, because he's done it at the super Bowl level, sure, but Dexter Lawrence is like a special player that is being just a bond
abominably wasted. And it's crazy to say this out loud, but I believe he turns twenty eight this season, and I'm like, all right, well, do the Giants freaking have to trade him just because he's not going to be good enough on the path that the Giants are on. I don't know. It's the only strength of the team is Burns, Brian Burns, Thibodeau, who actually did stuff tonight and then undid it with he got a sack and
then immediately committed a penalty to undo the sack. But then this is the strength of the team, and it's back to old school Giants of like having a great defensive line. The secondary's a mess. I'm kind of like, whatever you can fix that, if the pass rush is good enough. But yeah, I mean, Lawrence is a special player, and yeah, I'm very excited to waste his prime.
Anytime they just put one guy against him, I mean, it's over. It's absolutely over. I'm with you. Hall of Fame trajectory is too far because he had such a late breakout. Really, his his breakout was two years ago, and so this is the third year he's stacking as an elite player. But you're not crazy because he should he got robbed. He should have been an All Pro last year, like first or second team.
He certainly was a bowler, like I think you will be an All Pro this year.
And if you start stacking up a couple of pros in a row like then you start getting into the discussion. So if he keeps stacking these years, he can do it. But you need more out of Brian Burns, who's hasn't been bad this year, but hasn't been special. This game, he was absolutely silent. He was not credited with the pressure. Now Dak gets credit for some of that, certainly, but Kavon had a great night. Like Kavon was beaten get In pretty regularly, and the matchup, I guess for Burns.
Then was Terren Steele, who's been struggling all year quite badly. Really, the whole Cowboys offensive line has been up and down. Zach Martin hasn't really been who Zach Martin wants to be the rookies today, right, Well, yeah he got an eye injury.
That that was.
There was a lot going on in this game in terms of injuries, guys getting in and out. Diggs had a cramp at one point. But yeah, you this defense isn't gonna be special enough. It's tricky. I I I feel for you. I feel for Giants fans. I've come around. I'm finally over it. Well, finally over what happened a decade plus ago.
I understand because it's weird. It's also weird as a Giants fan because two things are true. Giants won two Super Bowls this century, and it's like, how do you complain about that? The flip side is they have they're tied with the Jets for the worst record in the NFL over the last seven years period, They've been the worst, Wow, the worst team in the NFL. And so it's a really weird identity shift to go from like, yeah, we're like the asterisk on the Patriots dominance of this century
and also the worst team at the same time. And also the Giants.
Coplin never met, like they never made the playoffs with the I like, other than when they won.
The Super Bowl. I mean they did once or twice, but it was like barely.
The Giants are an anomaly that happened twice. Like the Giants big picture are just this, like Buster Douglas never fought Tyson again the US. They'd never like beat US's and the Soviet Union again. Like the Giants are in the conversation for the biggest upsets ever, but then they won the rematch. But like it was, everything else is a fluke. But it's weird because they're celebrating quote they're
quote celebrating the one hundred season. The Giants are on a quivocally in the worst seven year stretch of the entire history of the franchise. Like it's not even close. And so with that, I ask you, in your unbiased opinion, they got to move on from Jones, right, because I think he played well tonight, Because I look at this game as a very well seemed game by Dable that Jones frankly ruined by not hitting the three things that should have been touchdowns.
I think you're probably closer to the truth than just saying he played well. I think you've just the bar Is Solow for Jones coming into the year because of the couple last games that we saw in play last year, and then the preseason what you heard, and then the Week one was such an abomination that the last three weeks in a league where so many quarterbacks are looking just absolutely terrible, Daniel Jones is just like, he hasn't
killed you the last few weeks. He's completing a high percentage of passes like tonight, Yeah, on over two and a half second throws. And this all got worse at the end, but at one point he was kind of dealing. He's sixteen for twenty five for two hundred and four yards. Yeah, I mean the one play down the field is when Neighbors, you know, shakes his cornerback to be like twenty years open. But yeah, of course they have to move on from
Daniel Jones like this after this season. I think he's played well enough that there's no need to go to Drew Locke now he's playing. My thing with Daniel Jones was always if you protect him, he could be replacement level, which which is to say he's not a franchise quarterback. He's not above the Dalton scale as a franchise quarterback. But he's not like a catastrophe. He's just like he's a bridge quarterback that you should have never given the contract that you gave to him.
It was obviously when it happened.
In dating terms, he's a nice guy, yeah, nice, And he does seem like a nice guy. Yeah, he's a nice guy. It's fine.
Having you on tonight.
I was thinking about it. It could possibly be my subconscience as revenge.
You just wanted to just.
Like, oh seven, yeah, just you know, just teach you a lesson in professionalism, you know, coming off after a tough loss. My first Super Bowl that I covered, which was an absolute thrill, was for nbcsports dot Com in the seven season, oh eight. It was you know, the eighteen and one game Giants Patriots, and yeah, I had to do some digital hits that probably sixteen people watched
after the game. But you know, we we we we had a microphone and there was cameras there, and I thought, like we I think we did like five reasons why the Giants won or something. I was like, I was, like, I nailed it, like totally unbiased professional.
It was awesome. I watched it the next day and it looked like my parents had like just fallen like deeply ill, and like I was just like totally ashen and sad, and I totally had faked myself out into thinking that I like wasn't disappointed when I was when I was very disappointed.
It's funny because while you were doing that hit, that was the best moment of my entire life. Literally they were handing you the date.
I actually had a fun It was a really fun night and a fun experience, and that like the adrenaline of the whole thing didn't really hit me until going to a bar afterwards and starting to see the highlights on on the TV and then realizing like, oh, yeah, that's real.
That happened.
And I actually, you had no idea in the stadium that the helmet catch was the helmet catch. Yeah, And like I was immediately filing and going on the field, so he wasn't even on. You know, it's like it's two thousand and eight, you're not on today. I had no idea what that the helmet catch was was the helmet.
Catch Samuel drop was like, actually the I mean I saw Randy Moss, my favorite player, score a game winning touchdown in what would have been the best drive of Tom Brady's career.
If Manning didn't ruin it like that. People kind of forget that drive.
That oh he had Stephen Corey Webster, Yes, and then Jay Alford came home and just you know, like can it on that third down? But yeah, I thought I remember every single play of that game.
But it's fine, Anvil says Daniel Jones is tearing the Hifitz family apart. I love that there's a lot of hy Fitz fans who came in tonight and GEO Central ass is Washington the second best team in the NFC East.
That's a fun question.
I think they have a chance because I think they're obviously either the best offense or the second best offense, and that'll take you far. They probably have the worst defense in the entire league. But if they could be a top five offense with a bottom five defense and go eight to nine or nine and eight with that in a bad division, that could be better than the Cowboys. I'm pretty down on the Cowboys right now. It's one reason why I thought the Giants would cover this game.
I guess they did with that Aubrey miss at the end. It depends where you when in the week you got your number. I thought the Giants would cover and maybe win this game. And because I just don't have much faith in this Cowboys, so I will say they're about tied with the Cowboys if I had to power rank.
I mean Bill Barnwell, who I believe is watching the stream right now, picked Washington as a potential surprise team that could make the playoffs. I think they totally could. I think Cliff Kingsbury is like somewhat consistently just his offenses have stailed as the season's wane, and so I think that I'm a little hesitant to kind of assume that the incredible Jane Daniel start will go. I actually think there are a few reasons that it might not
happen this year. But until I see it, I'm a little hesitant to be like, yeah, this stuff, Cliff Kingsbury's doing great week three is going to continue to week thirteen. Whereas Dak I think is just you know, been there, done that. But yeah, I mean again, I'm not trying to sell like some salty giants Finn either. I just again, it's Dak. They couldn't do it when DAK was making seven hundred k a year and now Dak's making eight
hundred k a quarter. And Mike and Parsons and CD used to make two three percent of the Dallas cap and now they're about to be like twenty two to twenty four percent. And I just overall again the lack of depth on this Cowboys team. It's like people get hurt, you know, but there's no next. Like they've developed some people, but again, and the Dallas the next I mean the next games, the Dallas plays. I mean not to beat up on the Cowboys right now, but.
No, let's look ahead a little bit.
Heelers, Lions, forty nine Ers, Falcons, Eagles, Texans. That's what the Cowboys have coming up.
And their bye is in there. And it's funny because I listened to a lot of team podcasts. I've started doing that lately just to get get the vibe. And I listened to Love of the Star podcast and the Cowboys and a lot of and like I listened to a forty nine Ers podcast and a lot of them are like, man, if we lose this week, if you look at the schedule, they might we might not win
again until the bye week. And I'm like, wow, Cowboys reporters are saying this, like we could be one in five and then McCarthy would be in trouble at the bye week, and I'm like, wow, that's dark. I wouldn't go that far, Like you're you're probably gonna be able to beat some of these good teams. But this win was absolutely crucial with the injuries now to think about. And yet that the Giants head to Seattle next week,
I believe, and that's brutal. That's a tough spot for That's a real litmus test for Daniel Jones, who hasn't had the toughest you know run that I mean, he's survived against the Browns defense, That's what I mean.
Like, you played the Browns defense and you survived.
Those two defenses though are the past, like Jim Schwartz is the last one of the last guys doing static defense with any success, and then Mike Zimmer is the past, and like Mike McDonald is the bleeding edge of the future. And I think Daniel Jones is going to do very poorly.
It's I mean, it's going to be his last season with the Giants. I think how the rest of the season goes will decide if it's if it's stable in Joe Shane's last season with the Giant, this will not be your last time on NFL.
Next year we'll do this again when Bill Belichick is coaching the Giants and Deon Sanders is coaching the Cowboys.
That would be awesome. We don't need to wait till next year.
It's in the title Danny NFL Daily, So I want to have you back again.
You're almost too good at this.
I'm having major camera problems before we take to delay us like five minutes. I set up this beautiful new camera that uh it's it's just amazing, but it didn't didn't get a rolling tonight, and I'm I'm frazzling. You're just You're just cool as a cucumber with your Alec Baldwin hair back there, and I appreciate you. Everyone should check out Danny the Ringer Fantasy Football show.
You're writing, what else? What else can we plug? Danny?
Yeah? Just I mean the Ringer dot Com great website, Yeah, the Ringer Fantasy Football Show do with Danny Kelly, Craig Whorlbeck and yeah, it's it's it's a great fantasy football show because we're kind of dumb and we're but we're right sometimes, but we have a very fun time. So yeah, we actually give good advice. We were the only show I think that didn't have Christian McCaffrey as the number one guy. But also we argued today about for like five ten minutes about whether Jupiter is made of like
gas or solid. So yeah, we're a different show. So check it out. Thank you for having me, because this is this show. This show is incredible and you're doing an amazing job.
I appreciate that. And that is a very smart take on McCaffrey. I would like to think that back, you know, if I put myself in the shoes when it was back in the fantasy minds, you know, working hard, I don't think I would have had McCaffrey first. Just all I needed was like, I'm not taking anyone with a soft tissue.
Injury before the season period.
It's like if I like, I'm not saying not take them, but I'm not taking first overall, and I'm probably not taking him above his average apposition. If you just did that as a fantasy football owner, you're probably gonna like win way more than you lose. Oh, a guy that's had like injury issues before, and you know there's I don't even want to get into, you know, his history and stuff, and now he's going to Germany. I would like to think I would have had the same opinion.
I told my son not to take him, so that, well, there you go.
That's all that matters. They gave the only advice that really mattered, So there you go.
He did not listen, but he didn't get the first overall pick, so he didn't wind up with him.
Thank you, Danny high Fitz. Again.
Yeah, check out the fantasy show, The Ringer Fantasy Football Show.
I will be back on Friday.
We do our little mini pick show with some picks against the spread with Cynthia Friedland and so yeah, the Giants are one and three. That's that's when you know for sure that football is back.
See you next time.
M