Player's Lounge: Week 3 Injuries and Predictions

just roll right into it. You want to start with yesterday's game. What I nowis the Texas will lose by fourteen. They lost by a few team. I figured that's that's pretty pretty spot one, pretty spot on. I think it was twenty twenty four to nine. Uh, game played out. It was actually a little closer than I expected it to be throughout the first half and maybe the third quarter. But they got that score at the end of the game. Uh, yeah,

they won. They won about fifteen, and we knew it was they were they were shorthanded, yeah, they yeah, but they but they fought hard. They fought pretty hard out there. You know. I'd say, I was slightly impressed with Davis Mills, the rookie quarterback out of Houston. They didn't provide much as points, but he was able to throw a touchdown, didn't have any interceptions out there. My boy C Matt got hurt. That's gonna hurt my other fantasy team. But

I was devastating. But the thing that stood out to me the most about that game was that defense for Carolina. Yeah, the boys just real. I know they didn't have Tyrode, now, they didn't have Watson and all that good stuff, but that defense is flying around the ball. You talk about some fast linebackers. Man, she killed I actually killed bear. But um shot Thompson in and up he Cardier whatever his name is. Them boys are rolling out there. We got them coming next week. We got him here coming, Yes,

we doc. That's a big time. Listen. If you drafted first in your league, I'm I'm pretty sure the first person you took was Christian McCaffrey. Sorry for you, but uh, that Dalvid Cook trade is looking real, real good, right, he did well. I speaking of that injury four years ago, Richard Sherman kind of came out and he was talking about after he tore his achilles in a Thursday night

football game. That he was upset that the NFL was, you know, big on player safety, but then having players just get three days in between till the next game. Christian McCaffrey was injured. He pulled his hamstring early in the second quarter. J C. Horne, their rookie, was also injured. He actually reports came out this morning that it could be multiple broken bones in his foot. He will be out probably at least three months. They said there were

a couple other injuries. I think a safety was injury at injured two. What are you? What are your guys thoughts on these Thursday night games? You make a great Yeah, you make a great point right there, because I didn't even realize it. But you know, the NFL always talks about, you know, players safety. We got to keep these guys right and got to make sure our players are protected. But then you go out there, you add an extra game.

So it's now seventeen games. We saw this Thursday thing come around, and forget what time it came around, It was it before we got in the league. Yeah, so we were already playing Thursday just for things giving. But then they made it like a weekly, weekly thing. I want to say, probably at the end of our career. I think it towards the end. And I don't agree with it, man, because it's already hard enough to get your body ready get going for a game a week apart.

I mean, it takes a while to get going, and then the habit come that Thursday. I don't care how much rest the coach throws towards you. You might not being passed the whole week. Maybe he walked through the whole week, but still your body's gonna be hurt. And it doesn't even feel right really until about Friday. So when you had that Thursday game, it's all about just

mustering enough. You know, we're not courage but you know I'm missing out the word right now, But you got to muster enough, whatever it is, Maxie, whatever it may be, to get going on a Thursday. And that's when a lot of these injuries happen. Well, yeah, you know, I told you I was a tour doll guy, right, So I didn't. I didn't start feeling the pain until Wednesday, right, So I'm like, oh wait, but tomorrow we gotta get

back out there again. Um, And usually you do see those type of injuries happens, it happens on Thursday nights. I will say this, I did enjoy playing on Thursday after the game, right because you get that, you know, essentially another bible, right, you get Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You know you might come back in for Monday, then Tuesdays the off day, and then you start back on that on that next next week. So I think it's

a doublehead sword to some extent. But yeah, man, that player safety think is crazy getting getting those guys out there like that, especially if you have the data that shows that these Thursday night games are really causing these type of injuries. And if that, if they if they figure that out, then they have to come up with something. And I don't understand why they don't just start Thursday night games during week six when the first team or like after week week six when the first teams have

their bye weeks. So it's like maybe the guys that have their bye week, they play that first Thursday after the bye week, so you're not having those games so close together. We also found out today that Super Wildcard weekend has added another day there, so there's going to be a Monday night games, So there'll be two games on Saturday, three games on Sunday, and then one game

on Monday. This actually kind of goes into my injury thing too, because now you're going to have one team whoever plays on that Monday game that is either going to have to play on Saturday or Sunday that next weekend. So they're not you know, now they're going into their second week of the playoffs not getting that extra time that everybody else gets. So what are your guys thoughts on that, and what are your thoughts on just that

Monday game being added. Well, first I'll say this, we all know why Thursday night games are being employed, all right. That that money, that money, that money is there, right, so they make a lot of money or whatever sponsors or whoever who's buying it, NFL Network, Amazon, whatever, Amazon. So the money is there, and this is a business, so we know we know how that's going. Uh And I didn't even think about that, right, you got you

gotta you gotta play on Monday. And then if the schedule stay is the same, yeah, you play on Monday, and then possible they won't make those guys play on Saturday. But then you have to play again on that Sunday. Uh that that? Yeah, that would be crazy, especially for a playoff team. I wonder if it's like punishment, right if you're like that last because you know they added the team, feel like like that last team, Are you

like automatically playing on Monday Second? I mean it goes by the seeds though, so obviously second is gonna play seventh and stuff like that, so it's still going to go in that tier. So what Yeah, maybe Monday it'll be a worst team versus well, I guess it would be an even team in the middle, and then depending on the seats will depend if you're going to play on Saturday or Sunday. So it's like they don't even know that part of it, which I think is I

don't know. I don't I don't love it, because yes, I get the money aspect of it, and I get fans are gonna love it, but I just think players are gonna hurt. Victor Cruz was talking about it this morning, and he was just saying, like, players don't like Thursday games, and I don't know if they're gonna like this Monday night came. Yeah, if I'm if I'm a player, I hate it. I'm like, man, this is I'm all hate.

I believe this. What are we doing out here? So I'm definitely with y'all on a player aspect, but as a football fan watching it all weekend, then you get that Monday too. I mean it's like, oh, we're in football heaven right here. We get the two games Saturday, two games Sunday, three Sunday and then one on my man, I'm all four, don't want to couch all day, but hold on, hold on church, because I don't want you to listen. Don't put those words in my mouth. Okay,

because I've never been to the playoffs. So if you called me to play on Monday, I'm playing on Monday, all right. On Wednesday, I just want to get to the tournay. Yeah, never made it. Every time I left this place, y'all went to the playoffs. Okay, I left to go to the Bears. Y'all come in there, y'all stop a holding us. Go to the playoffs out there, Jason Garrett, don't call me back. I think he told me call me back. I'm at home and I watched y'all in the playoffs, all right, and turns over here

talking about, Yeah, get any playoffs checks? Come on, bro, come on, come on together, super Monday, call me, baby, call somebody. Somebody getting hurt, y'all need me? Why you watch survival? I'm in shape. Do you think those playoff checks they should go up a little bit? Uh? They ain't giving away no wild can we get the voet John? The players now split a percentage of the TV things with the NFL, Now, isn't that That's a good question in the I thought, so that's a good question. I

gotta true. So I think they are splitting that money the playoff revenue. But the whole season they didn't getting them a playoffs. They ain't getting the playoff money. But see, and that's the crazy. But that's the tricky part about it, right, the players do. Yeah, the ones that's making two three hundred million dollars. It allows those type of guys like Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes to make more money. But the guys who are making minimum, they make it. The

money's not going to them. It helps them, help helps teams be able to allocate more money to the top twenty percent of the roster. Right. So yeah, so people are like, yeah, the players get more money. Yeah, some of them. Actually, a very small chunk of the players are getting a lot more money, right telling us that they game in that top ten and it Church got mad because they didn't want to allocate that money to Hill. Yeah,

so what you here? Yeah, you're right about that overcharging from the Do you guys think this is possibility or possibly because they have been so the NFL has been so unsuccessful with trying to get people to watch the Pro Bowl, Like the Pro Bowl is the most like obviously players like being accepted into the Pro Bowl or Pro Bowl that season or whatever, but nobody watches the Pro Bowl. They tried to have different things where Team Dion team like you know, all these kind of things different,

Cap didn't stop do cool stuff, and nobody watches. Everybody watches NBA all start, but nobody watches the Pro Bowl. Do you think this is like trying to help to get just that extra like, okay, well miss so much money on Pro Bowl. Let's get some money by having a Monday night game. Now, I think I think you know well, and we talked about it a little earlier. Um with the season being extended, now you have a free Monday right, because it used to be that Monday

for wild Card weekend was the National Championship Game. Now we got an extra week, so that won't be played, you know, on that Monday, right, So now you got a Monday where nobody's having anything. Right, Usually that's kind of the dead area. All the TV shows have gone off, gone to winter shows, right, and you're waiting for the spring to start up in the NFL. It's like, hold on, hold on, you said Monday open. Yeah, we all know

the NFL. I mean that's they're a cash cow. They grab, they grab onto and everything that they can listen to. How excited you got what you're telling me on Monday? It's like it's like my reality team is I'm like, oh oh, let me get that, let me get let me get somebody to the NFL that took over. It's so for some people, if Valentie's Day is gone on the thirteenth, right is the thirteenth? Yeah, man, they just

take it everything from everybody. Yeah, that's forgotten, Like no man is going to be thinking about getting his woman flowers there. They're gonna forget and they're not even used to it being that there. Oh, next week will be Valentine's weekend because super bowls this weekend. Like to have it on the same Like, it's just don't NFL. My birthday is February twenty four. Don't you dare ever try to go even later on. Don't be a hard games. Let me tell you something. The men are gonna be bay.

I'm gonna be getting the gifts for Valentine's Day. Oh but back guys will take to the super Bowl. Man that baby, yea, so yes the thing. Time's are changing, all right, Bobby's super Bowl six. I mean I would take that. I would love that. Like the first time I went to a super Bowl was in Atlanta a couple of years ago. I cried my eyes out. I actually was invited by Nike to just do a bunch of stuff during that week. I didn't know I was

actually gonna get to go to the game. The morning of, they're like, oh, we're gonna do this Tellgate thing and they hand me my ticket. I was like, I'm going Granted, worst super Bowl I've ever seen that Rams in Patriots one because only one touchdown was terrible game, but I had a good time. We should have win. Yeah, that's when the Rams beat us right up there, and Kelly,

that game too, good stuff run. Yeah, all right, Well, we have a lot to get into about the Cowboys who will be taking on the Eagles on Monday, and we will do that right after the break. Honey, big news, scary are you? Okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, but the best deals are only for new customers. So to get a new customer deal, I changed my name to Jacket Flash. Okay, but the best smartphone deals at AT

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twenty Bank of America Corporation. Hey Cowboys fans, ready to spice up your next watch party? Bring yokierro guacamole and be the game day hero. The Yoki hero means I want and we know you want. Great fresh tasting, ready to serve guacomole for your home gating and tailgating events. Made with real avocados and the perfect blend of spices. It will be the star of any party. You can find us at your local Albertson's or tom Thumb in

the Delhi section. If you can't find it, talk to your store manager and tell them Yo kierro, Yo Kiero GUACAMOI it's game day. You know what that means. First, kabob prep steak pepper Runyon steak pepper runion. Next, a counterclockwise lamp around the rule. Now the lucky grease stained jersey goes on and laslie the dance, you know the one. This is a game day ritual no matter where you are, whether you're traveling to the game or watching from your

favorite vacation spot. Buka plays to Stay on Hotels dot Com and keep the tradition alive and well Hotels dot Com, proud partner of the Dallas Cowboys, to the Players Loud. Head to AT and T Stadium on Sunday, September twenty six to experience the first rally day of the season, presented by seat Geek. Get ready to cheer on your Das Cowboys with tours of AT and T Stadium, autographs from the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and Dallas Cowboys alumni, ticket giveaways,

games inflatables, and more. Check out the brand new Miller Lighthouse and get excited for kickoff on Monday. Visit att stadium dot com for tickets and more information. Welcome back to the Players Lounge and Brett Johnson here with Barry Church and Danny McCray. We have a big game. We have the Dallas Cowboys on Monday, first home game of the season, home game of the season, and we are taking on our divisional rivals, the Eagles. I know you guys saw a coach with the beat Dallas on his shirt?

A young boy, what are your thoughts about? I missed that? Who ended on the head coach Philly Eagles a little beat Cowboys shirt on with the Cowboys logo on and it was in the Cowboys Gray. Yeah, it seemed like he got it from my right, Jerry, y'all need to find a way. You need to sue him, okay, because you can't be using the marks. You can't use the logo. Don't be using the marks. Bro that's licensed. All right.

It costs a lot of money for the star. All right, call him up, tell him take that off, and Misha, I could do that. Really listen, he shout out to him. You know, you gotta have ultimate confidence telling the shirts he got like his own version of Team Danny Hurts. He's selling them. Oh yeah, by the way, yeah, man, Hey, Danny Craig murch about to be up shameless plug, you know, sameless team Danny Church. But I think who was that coach that just left for Philly. I'm talking about what's

his name? Him and Carson, Carson's boy. Yeah. I think I remember him saying some stuff like that when they were coming to playoffs, that he was going they were going to win again. They were supposed to the floor. Peterson, Peterson, Peterson got himself in trouble doing man, he was there, all right, so he didn't somebody didn't learn from it. Okay, you get you. I'll picking the Cowboys to win. So burn that church, burn that shirt. You messed up, players,

you messed up. We're coming to put them palls on you. Like hey, like my boy Tea still didn't last week. We're putting paus on people. And look, man, I love it because I love all the responses we've been getting from Dallas. They ask Zeke the same thing. Zeke says, Now, we're good. We focus on what we gotta do. Same with McCarthy. Naw, we're good. We focus. So it shows me these guys they're not gonna reach down to that petty level and try to respond. They're just gonna respond

on the field. And usually when we got that focused form of Cowboys, it turns out good. It turns out good for us. So I'm loving what I'm seeing out of my Cowboys as they get ready for this Philadelphia Eagles matchup. But it's not gonna be a walk in the park. It's not gonna be a walk in the park because Jalen Hurts I believe can get the most out of that offense and that office can be very productive. But on our side of things our young defense. That

defense is rolling. My boy, Daddy Fronna jump. You're gonna be surprised when you hear my take said, Oh, I want I would hear it. I want to hear. We're gonna wait till we get to predictions, but gonna drop on us. Absolutely. But we gotta make sure young forty two the new forty two Keano nil. We gotta make

sure that man can get in there. So whatever you gotta do, well, mask up, make sure you get whatever you got to do to get these negative test rolling, get them things rolling, because we need him in that spot, especially if you're gonna move Parsons to DN and try to get him some rush on on Jayla Hurst. But overall, I'm feeling good about this Cowboys matchup Cocks. That's okay, bro, We're gonna be all right. He's gonna he's gonna step in.

I'm not saying he's gonna play as good as for it, but it's like, I don't think it's gonna be a huge drop off. I think he's gonna be okay. If he gets a chance to get in the game and shine, I think he's going to play well. He's gonna play like a rookie. But he's gonna play fast. He's gonna go hit something and jay La Hurst in a second year, it's gonna be okay. Ain't the way we're seeing cocks out there. Man, I mean, we got, we got. He ain't. He's just gonna jump over Vander and Ship and Smith.

You know, as much as you know we made he might. He might have the nickel. He might big nickel. Listen, let me tell you something. Them two tight ends, they guy can play ball. If they start working on you, they're gonna have to find a solution. My man, Dave, my man, my man, da queen. He ain't gonna sit there and let them kill us like that, all right, especially if you know you got young talent back there. It's been said that he looked away in training camp,

in practice that wasn't so good. When he got in to play in the game and the lights were on, he was a whole different guy. The lights don't get no brighter than time, Yes, don't get so. I'm just you know, in league, if that's how it is, no disrespect. But out right now, yeah, they weren't really playing all like that anyway. Yeah, we're hoping forty two gonna play,

so hurts right now. I just I just hope Cots don't come in there like the Nucie because we saw what happened when the lights was too bright for the Ducci on there on Monday night. So don't come in there like the Dui. I was right, don't come in there like the Nucie. I don't, don't, don't, don't do no less you talk like that. But I'm just I don't think I don't know you people like like your Kareem Hunt everything. We get to the league, we shine. When you get to the league, we shot. Okay, I'm

not gonna mention JaMarcus Russell. I'm just not. You know, we all we all fall. We all, yeah, we all have one of the biggest bust in NFL. We all have routed for him, sixty rut for him. Yeah, Yeah, that was that was tough to watch. God, we're going to talk about keys to the game, but obviously let's start off with like one that kind of everybody's been

saying all week, and that's about containing Jalen. Jalen is actually only eighty four yards away rush yards away from joining Lamar Jackson as the only quarterback since nineteen fifty to have five hundred rushes in his first seven career games as starting Uh, Is he gonna do it this game? He's already. He has one hundred and forty four so far this season. He leads the team in rushing. How

do we contain Jalen? Well, if we're talking about defensively, I mean we got to have some very discipline defensive ends and as well as just a very discipline game plan going in. You can't have guys playing hero ball out there. And what I mean by that is you can't have goad. You're responsible for the a gap or you're responsible for contain Oh, I see the ball going that way, Let me know, disregard my responsibilities and go try to make every play out there. That's how you

get hurt. That's how guys can sit there and say, okay, let me set him up with a little play actual, let me set him up with a little little read here to make him bite and get rid of his responsibilities, and I'll go ahead and take that edge. That's what we can't have because if we let this guy become what he's comfortable in, and that's the dual threat quarterback. If we let him do that, it's gonna be a long night for the Dallas Cowboys. So we gotta keep

this guy and contained. We gotta be disciplined, and I'm sure d cure or not, I can't believe. I'm sure he'll draw up something to confuse this guy, because that's another aspect of the game. He's still only still young. He's still a second year quarterback, so he hasn't seen all the defenses out there. So I'm sure dan Quinnell hatch up some type of plan to kind of confuse this guy, get him to make decisions before he's ready to, and hopefully we can take the ball away that way.

But if we don't contain him and we don't have him off balance, it could be a long afternoon. We got a special guy, man four three five. Not many people having four three five linebacker on their teams, and I'm talking about my man, Michael Parsons. When when you run an official four three five, if your coach puts you in the right position, when you're playing a spot like that and you're trying to shut somebody down like a Russell Wilson or Lamar Jackson, it's very helpful to

have that type of speed. And I think Michael Parsons is a sea dog, I mean, seaball get ball guy, all right, So they're gonna say, hey man, at some points in the game, you look at that guy that's yours. All right. If he runs this to the left, you go to the level, he go to the bathroom, you go with. And we've seen that if Michael Parsons is keyed in on you, he's gonna make the play. So I got ultimate faith and the fact that if it's Michael Parsons versus Jalen Hurts, that we got to upprehend.

What do you think is the best If we're gonna put Parsons on Hurts, what do you think is the best way to do that? Having them down in a defensive line or having them back in that second level as a linebacker. I think I think you gotta mix it up. I think you have to if you're going to spy him, right, if you're gonna use him as that guy, you can't just have him sitting in one spot so they know exactly what he's one, right, Because all of a sudden, you can run a screen and

get it lining on him. You can figure out a way to get them blocked. I think the best thing you can do is have him on the right, have him on the left, have him lined up over the center like you saw against the Texans. Uh in that in that pre game, you know sense to confuse the coverage and then he dropped back and in any plays it from depth or he can rush the running back and then you know half contained on that side and

Randy gregor real on the opposite side. Dan Quinn is gonna come with great creative ways to make sure that we keep him locked in as much as we can. We're not gonna start from rushing the entire game, but to minimize rush yards is the goal. If obviously most people want Michael Parsons to be, you know, the guy that's the spy on Jalen Hurts. If he is not, who would you say it's second best to be that spy.

If he's you know, being more defensive end kind of guy in the game, it's gonna sound crazy, you know, I don't. Okay, all right, listen, listen, listen. Because because because they have NFL experience, because they have NFL experience, I'm I'm going back and forth between Jalen and Vanderesh. All right, you gotta get them a shot. They're the guys, they're established guys. Giving them a shot to try to get it done. If it doesn't work, I'm not waiting to the second half to put in connect if he

could be that guy quickly. Only in those situations though, right, because you still got to defend more to just that. But if you get into a situation where it's third and eight, right, and this is where this dude that is scrambling right when everything breaks down, that that extra running back is what he becomes because he can get around that edge and get those eight yards. Oh yeah, he's getting spired. And I'm gonna start with those two. See how they do they do well, power to them

they don't. I got my lsu got coming in and see if he can make it happen, because what you know is you're not giving him that much responsibility. What you're saying is that is your guy. When you give a football player the opportunity to pin his ears back and play fast and not have to think, that's when us that's when they usually play play the best, especially a rookie in his first game on the Monday night

against the Eagles, no doubt. So to me, if if I'm Dan Quinn and I'm sitting in, I'm might look, man, we got to figure out a way, somehow, some way to contain this guy. And we're talking just third downs or just passing downs. You know, I might throw in a little dime. I might throw in a little dime or some type of big nickel situation. And I'm bringing in the guy that I believe, you know, needs to get more playing time because he's playing well. And that's

Javon Kurse. I mean, this guy has safety. He's a bigger dude. He's six four, I think he's about two fifteen to twenty. So he can he can, he can do some damage down there in their trenches. He can

play that role down there. And he has more than enough speed, more than enough athletic ability to be that spy down there against hurts and not only spy against hurts, but he can get into coverage as well and being those windows, those those zone windows or those man windows to help deter you know, hurts from throwing the ball that way. So if it's me, I'm going towards a dime. Look, maybe take one of those linebackers out, especially if we

have parsons down to the defensive end. You know, I don't want, you know, Jalen and Lvy having a responsibility of containing hurts because no disrespect. But you know, I'm not sure they can can accomplish that. So I'm taking one of those guys out, have a big nickel, big dime. Put Kurt at that position. Let those guys you know, either rush, either rush on their running back or spikes. I don't want to have them two guys going at it versus miles standers. I don't think they can do

that as well. So who's starting? Who's Who's to start safeties in this in this package? And I thought he was back this week? Who because I'm saying, have you moving first, Curse or not? Cause and Hook I gotta be back? Then got to be back. I thought my man I forgot was still down. He earned some more playing time. Though about Curse earned some playing time at this safety position. I'm sure they're gonna find a way

to get him in. My bias is towards Jabril Cox, and I totally forgot about Curse being able to come down down in spot. So you got me on that one. I would like to see him first second tier and Jalen and Vanderston and your third tier that don't work. We probably just look going into choking up. We can't stop him. They got us. But let's talk about our secondary because there's a guy that might be a secret weapon that I think we're missing out on. Trayvon Diggs.

Let's not forget that in college he played with Devonte Smiths, so in practice he was saying that he's like I went against him everyday in practice, so I already know what he's like. Uh. Jalen Hurts was there with for a little bit with him too, so he knows some of these guys. He said, he knows Rigor Will really

well as too. So do you think that I mean, I get now you're in the league, there's different schemes, different things going on, But do you think that that is somewhat of could be an advantage for him because he has played against him in practice and you know

as a teammate. Yeah, I think so. I think having a having a beat on the receiver specifically, right, Uh, if you're guarding him, I think being familiar with him and what he likes to do and seeing him in practice of doing all that as an advantage, but I still believe that this is probably the best chance that our our defensive backs have to like beat dominant end game. Uh, Jalen Hurts is not this this this quarterback like Tom

Brady or Justin Herbert. So we have an opportunity get out there and get our hands on some of those balls, make some plays, and and really be dominant in this game. So I think we're plus in almost every matchup. And even with Anthony Brown and us saying that he hasn't been playing as well, I think this is his best opportunity to step up and show that he's he's a serviceable cornerback in the league. Yeah, I'm with you one

hundred percent on that one. I feel like this this secondary can be dominant against these pass catchers for the Philadelphia Eagles, especially Dicks. I mean, look, even if he wasn't with in college, I feel like he got he got the man straight. He can go ahead and push these guys around pretty much all day, and he has the speed to hang with these guys. I mean, I feel like this guy he's starting to take that next

step to becoming a lockdown corner. I mean, we saw the play he made against Keenan Allen, you know, last week on and over, and you know how hard that is. On and over. The best bet you can get is maybe a knockdown pass or or or just a catch tackle right there. But he was able to undercut that and get an interception. And as we've seen throughout this whole year so far, these two games, the guys, he's willing to take the ball away and he's willing to

put his head in there and make tackles. So to me, I think he has the full advantage in this game, and I feel as though he's taking the next step to becoming one of the elite corners International Football League, a shutdown guy. Well, he said that he wants to go up against the number one guy because he is the number one guy. You guys agree better dv on the cornerback on the team. He is playing that way. He finished the season off last year playing that way. He came in the city. I got my hand on

four teen balls that I didn't get interceptions. He came out and he's doing exactly what he's said he was gonna do while he was in training camp. So I got all the faith in him, all the faith and I'm with you too, I got the faith in him, innute. And look it's you can see during the off season when he when he works with his brother Stefan Dad. You can just see how much better he's getting and

it releases everything like knowing the round concepts. I mean, this guy's taken leap after leap after leap, and he's special man. He has the opportunity to be special. All right, Well, we are talking Amari Cooper and what he said about being the number one guy. When we come back. Organic pumpkin smooth These are back at Smoothie King, with at least thirteen grams of protein each and five options to

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the well was COVID Now? I know they used to have some opportunities where you could slap hands with the people as you walk. I remember we used to walking. See all those people come through. I got two former players right here. Get my twenty dollars worth that calls you thirty. All right, all right, guys, we gotta talk Omari Cooper. He actually said he's feeling better every day and he thinks he's ready for Monday night game, which

I'm excited to see. He was actually asked if he would be offended or excited if the Number one corner

decided to follow CD instead. He kind of laughed about it, and he said both honestly, And he kind of went in to talk about the opportunity you get when you don't have the first guy you know on you because then it's like, Okay, now it's my time to go off because they're worried about this guy, and I can go do whatever I want over here, and you know, it's it's a good thing at the end of the day to have so many different weapons, and those are the teams that go on to win and do well.

So what do you guys think about, you know, just even being in that situation yourselves is like when you're playing and you're like, huh, dang, they put this guy against me. I know him better than him. Well, did I tell y'all about who was going to emerge as the Number one I'm just adding no, no, no, and I'm just did I say it not? Because I listen if he gets shadowed, if he doesn't get shadow about the number one guy, the other the other team, they

don't believe he's the number one guy. Usually it is um. So he should be offended to me, right, because you came out and said I think I do think I'm the best guy in the league. I haven't proven it yet, and it's no way for you that doesn't. This is the opposite of proving it, right if you go through a game, right, you go through two games of the season, and then the next defense says, you know what, that ain't the guy. He's the guy, right, So he shouldn't

be offended. And I think if he is going up against the number two guys, this is an opportunity for him to show y'all not gonna make this mistake again. It's a great opportunity for him to to to emerge as one of the number one guys and get that double team back on him. I think that's a great competition within the within the locker room. I think that'd

be great to see. So shout out to him if it happens and if it does, he better show up because if he doesn't, mant two Locke, Now, oh, I'm gonna be I'm first of all, I'm gonna be solt it because it's all my fantasy. So I'm like, man, you can't go off against number two. Now, let me quit disrespecting my boy. But yeah, I would feel a

little I would feel slightly disrespected. If you know Darius Slay for the past couple of years, as he was here in Cowboy, it has been following in the market wherever he went, and then now you're come into the game, you line up, you look at Hell, You're like, oh, where's number two? He's alway over? Are you going to CD? Like, man, I would feel some type of way. I feel slightly

slightly salty about that. But like you said, it's an opportunity for him to go off on a number two, and if he does do that, I'm sure eventually it don't bring Slay back over to try to deal with him. But by that time, he's already heated up, so he's ready to roll. So I'm hoping Slag up to me personally, I'm hoping Slay goes over there and mess with CD or whoever's over there, just so my boy can go

off and fantasy. I need these points. I'm owing to too right now, I'm getting killed, and my boy, please, please, my boy, give me something like that. Fantasy is the only thing that matters. I disconnected. I disconnected from like the actual game. Now fantasy football brings like a different thing. Like now, I'm like more in tune when you usually just watching. I watched the Cowboys. Yeah, don't even pay attention to the rest of the games. Now I have

a reason to go on and watch it. And then it also gives us more to talk about on the show because you're watching players outside of Cowboys. And I'm like, I'm sitting there and I find myself it's third and one, thirty and two, like, get a ball to Coop. Get What do you mean just hand the ball off the seat? No, get a ball to Coop. It's thirty two. I start to tripping. Yeah, I started to trip my team. Listen, yo, if you own my team, y'all could be down by thirty.

I'm ecstatic because I know that now you got to try to pat the garbage point. I don't care about that. I'm coming the game at all. I'm just like, hey man, you got down to the inch yard line, I got the receiver. I'm mad because I know you're gonna run it. Like that's That's the way I'm looking at the game now, which is which is fun, it's exciting. Yeah, Like I say,

it helps us on the show as well. Would you guys say it makes a difference because obviously the Eagles, this is a team we see twice a year, a team like the Chargers you see them once every four years. Do you think that it makes a difference on who you're playing if you're up against the number one guy, because sometimes it could just like we're just trying to figure out this team because we don't play this team ever,

compared to obviously the Eagles. You he's see Slay a couple of times a year, you know what I mean. So that would be a bigger to me. I would feel like that would be a bigger hurt. But coming from a player's perspective, is it a difference if it's a you know, divisional game compared to just a team you see every couple of years. Nah, I think if you're the number one guy, you're the number one guy.

I'm gonna. I'm gonna, I'm gonna list them, yo. DeAndre Hopkins as like these guys, no matter who they playing, what the visit it is, whatever, they are going to see the number one guy because they have to be stopped. The offense used, the passing game usually runs through them, right, And that's why I say for us, it's no slight against the Maori. But the way killing caused the plays we don't have like isso right? Yeah, it's like basketball, right, Lebron James gets in the ISO. That's what it is

in terms of football. When Davante Adams is going up against somebody, you're like, hey man, you gotta one on one, you gotta beat them. For us, killing don't do that. It's we got Tony Polla coming on the sea. We got a problem, you know. So it's different. It's different for us. And now to me, A's why I never understood, you know, as a DC and you going against an elite receiver like you're going against a Randy Moss and Calvin Johnson. Even when we went against Calvin Johnson, why

didn't we just double team this dude? Like, I never understood how if you got the number one thre a bona fide number one threat like the Vonte Adams, and then you got the second dude who's way down here. Why wouldn't you just double Adams, double that guy and make the rest of them beat you. Now, if they go out there and the second guy, third guy go off, so be it. Y'all beat us like that, y'all deserve

to win. But I never understood, like when we went against Calvin Johnson, let's just shade the safety over there. No double that dude like he's a punt. He's on punt. You got a visa, do something because you know he's the only way this offense is gonna be productive. So to me, I never understood that if I was a DC, I'm doubling everybody. I will say this. It didn't work. When we try to ee went for three twenty something. I think they were finally listen, you know, to go

into that. Okay, that was I don't think that was good coaching. Okay. We talked about d Ware going into the Hall of Fame for doing what being a pass rusher. When Calvin Joson went off on us for three hundred. Dware was the curl dropper and covered two and Calvin Jon's repeatedly ran twenty yard digs right behind dware boom, right behind the boom boom. You know he had throw over three hundred yards. I think that was that was

just that was just okay, Well, we got matchups. You know, this is a team that sees each other twice a year where rivals. My favorite matchup that I'm excited to see is going to be Zach Martin and Fletcher Cox because this is a rivalry. This is a back and forth that's been going on. And you know, Cox has a was the other guy's name on the other side that's like young, he's a young new guy, but he's been doing a really good job for the Eagles. Yeah,

I sweat anyway anyway hard. It can be like a one on one situation here with them, just because Cox doesn't have to do anything else and he's still killing it. People always try to These guys are getting older now looks like same as two three years ago. So I have this as my top matchup. What do you guys have? What should we be watching? And key matchups for this week? My key matchup. If I'm joking, I'm saying Tony Paula versus Kelly. If I'm being serious though, it's literally whoever

eleven is lined up on. I want to see. If he's lined up on offensive tackle, that's that's the matchup that I'm looking at, right. How does he win that matchup? How does it help us defensively against Jalen Hurts. If he's lined up at linebacker, then it's him against Jalen Hurts. I'm interested to see how that shakes out. This is a four three guy able to stop a running quarterback because in the league, you're gonna see these guys, right,

do we have an answer for mobile quarterbacks? So I'm looking at eleven and wherever he's ad on the field, I'm looking at the matchup that he that he has. All Right, for me, I'm gonna do kind of a two on two scenario here. I'm gonna do Jalen Hurts, Miles Sanders versus whoever they chot out there at linebacker. I wish it was Parsons, but we all know. If it's vander esh and Smith, all right, I'll take that

as well. But I want to do that matchup right there, because last year and throughout a lot of the times last year we got exposed from running backs coming out of the backfield, getting yards after the catch, third and fives, getting all that good stuff. So I want to see if those two are the linebackers. If Smith and lv are the linebackers, how have they grown Are they able to go out there and get coverage in because last week they actually played pretty well. They played pretty well

last week. I think Smith led the team and tackles out there. Vanderess was all over the field, had to masak as well. So if they've grown to the point where we can handle these running backs out of the backfield, we can do all that stuff, then you got then you're in an advantage because you can put parsons while d while d laws are, you can put parsons at

that defensive end. If these two guys have grown into the linebackers that they weren't were, so to me, I'm interested to see that matchup and how that boils down. I still think the Cowboys have the advantage, though. Well let's get into who's going to win this game, because this is a big one and we actually have kind of you know, issues in here sometimes because we're very competitive and you know, we break it down to the little little little things, the little things because you guys

kind of tied. I still think I'm in the running. One last week, one last week, and I'm trying. I'm trying to come back. I'm trying to come back. So what is the spread this week? That I don't know? But I don't know either. Really, I didn't do my job. I'm sorry. Now I let you down, New I let you down. So um we for thank you, see thank you, see me the great back game. Appreciate you. All right? So spread is for oh, you gotta go first, and I'm going so you can't you get I'm very for Piggy. Okay,

but I have the Cowboys winning by seven. Okay, I'm picking the same thing that I did last night, not four but fourteen fourteen. I think absolutely we come out and I think we play one of our best games as a team. I think special teams plays well, offense plays well, and I think that we come out and we show tomorrow that the Eagles are gonna have trouble when they see us the next time. All Right, We're gonna come out on defense and we're gonna let them

know we're ready to see Jakeman Hurts plus fourteen Dallas Cowboys. Oh, that's a tough one to me. I think it's gonna be a lot closer than that. I still have the Cowboys winning. I saw the Cowboys winning. I say they win by three points. I say it's gonna be like a twenty to seventeen type of type of ball game, because look, it's a division game, and we all know when division opponents, it's always closer, even if that team

is owing whatever and this team is undefeated. When you got a division opponent like that, you know each other like the back of your hands. So it's always gonna be a competitive battle out there. I say the Cowboys win by three, closer to what most people think. I don't think they get a takeaway, and I think that's what makes it close, because I don't think they get a takeaway. Philly does good. I'm still think I'm sorry

thirty one seventeen. Sorry, thirty one seventeen, thirty one seventeen, that's my plus fourteen, but thirty So you don't you don't think or you think that the Eagles are not going to cover the spread. Okay, now I got the Cowboys by three. Okay, the spreads befour right spreads four. Yeah, it's Cowboys by three, twenty to seventeen, right here, firm. I think CB one more time. I think we're picked to win by four Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, Philly cover cover. But we still win yep, but we'll still

win seventeen. And then once we win by fourteen, then I actually win win, and then y'all, y'all win, y'all win. All right, Well that is the shew for today. We will not have a show on Monday Day because there is a game on Monday, and maybe we'll be tailgating by that. Now I'll be working Barry, we'll be working Danny will be tailgating. Maybe the game the middle of the middle. I saw it last time I was in the stadium. Zoe mccraehouse Again, thanks for tuning to the

Players Lounge. Everybody, have a great weekend. We'll see you guys on Monday or Tuesday. Go Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.