The Dallas Cowboys Just Proved They are BETTER Than People Think…

The Dallas Cowboys Just Proved They are BETTER Than People Think…

The Dallas Cowboys fall to 0 and one on the season, dropping their first game of the year to the Philadelphia Eagles 20-24. And I get my score prediction was 26-30. So, it wasn’t too far off. A four-point loss. But you know what? I’m not really mad about this game at all. I know there are no moral victories in the NFL. Every game matters. There’s only 17 of these, but just going into Philadelphia, the former Super Bowl champions on the road, a divisional game, so many questions around the Cowboys with new head coach Brian Shottenheimimer, new OC, new DC, Dak Prescott coming back after missing half of the season last year. I’m just not going to sit around and pout about this game. So, let’s talk about it. [Applause] When I did my preview video, I talked about the run game, what Clayton Adams, what Shottenheimer, what Eberloose were going to cook up to stop a really talented Eagles team. I talked about Dak Prescott having two weapons with CD Lamb and George Pickkins. I talked about the addition of Kenny Clark and Micah Parsons not being here, what the pass rush was going to look like, and I think we got a couple of answers. I know it’s week one, 16 more of these to go, but I think we saw some encouraging things from all of those units. And even in a loss, Dallas had about four or five different opportunities to win this game. Four or five plays go your way. And it seems like a lot, right? Out of the 60 or 65 plays that you run in a game, you were four or five plays off. four or five of those plays were the ball in your guys’ hands, Lamb’s hands, in Sanders, and they just either didn’t catch it or gave it back to the Eagles. So, even though you lost by a touchdown, there were plenty of chances for Dallas to win this game. So, let’s go through some of my major takeaways. And let’s start on the offensive side of the ball. We’re going to talk about the defense quite a bit. My first takeaway, the offense is going to be fine. the players, the coaches, the scheme, all of it. I have full trust now in Brian Shottenheimer and Clayton Adams. The Cowboys ran motion on 42% of their offensive plays last night. Last year, they ranked like 28th, 29th in the league in motion before the snap. Last night, 42% would have ranked fourth in the NFL last year. Shanheimer getting up there and talking about how they’re going to marry the run game with the pass game. They’re going to use motion. They’re going to use different personnel groupings. He wasn’t lying. You know, I’m used to coaches getting up there and and lying like, “Oh, yeah, we want to run the ball or we want to do this and that.” And then it never happens when it gets to game time. I thought Dak was the best player on the field last night. And I’m always super surprised by people’s reactions when Dak comes back from an injury and he didn’t play the previous year and you watch Cooper Rush and the offense wasn’t good and the defense wasn’t good and everybody’s like, “Oh, well, Dallas is going to be awful.” Like I’m just always so surprised because then Dak comes out there and then the talk the next couple of days is oh okay the Cowboys do have a chance. You know Dak looks sharp. Of course he looks sharp. I was expecting that especially when you have Lamb and Pickkins. I thought that Prescott was the best player on the field and three or four more passes go his way and Lamb catches the ball. We’re having a totally different conversation today and we’re talking about how Dak could have an MV MVP type season. As for CD Lamb, I’m not really worried about it long term. Sure, he came up short in this game. He’ll be okay. It stinks that your best player ended up kind of costing you in some really big moments. You just got to live with it. He’s your best receiver. He is what makes your offense go. And we saw last night when he started dropping passes and he wasn’t being the CD Lamb that we expected. The offense kind of started to sputter a little bit. So long-term with Lamb and Dak and Pickins and Ferguson and guys just getting more involved, more comfortable, most of these guys didn’t play in the preseason at all. I think the offense is only going to continue to get better and better, especially with the vision that Shotty and Clayton Adams have. The offensive line wasn’t perfect last night. There were some things to clean up. Tyler Gayton got beat a couple of times. Tyler Booker was late on a stunt or two, but I thought they were moving around the Eagles defensive line. I thought they were pushing guys around. Javvante Williams had that touchdown run and they just parted the sea. I mean, Tyler Smith absolutely moving people. Tyler Gayton moving people. That’s a really good Eagles Dline. Even without Jaylen Carter, they got some players on that line. Offensive line play was good enough. I’m really intrigued and excited about what they can do in the future with more reps together, especially on the interior with Booker, BB, and Smith. I think Tyler Gayton is a much better player than we saw last year, at least right now. Terrence Steel had his up and downs, but we’ve kind of gotten used to that, right? The scheme, the motion, the different personnel packages, all of it. I was really impressed. I wanted to throw this play up on the screen as well because I think it kind of encompasses what I’m talking about and why I’m excited. The Cowboys are in a split back set. Dak has Lipkkey on his right. Javvante Williams on his left. Brevin Span Ford is going to come in motion. As he’s in motion, they’re going to snap the ball. Span Ford is going to dig out the defensive line and block. Lipkkey is going to go the other way and dig out the interior. Then Gavvonte Williams is going to carry some tacklers four, five yards down to the one yardd line. That isn’t something that we’ve seen before. That’s exciting. I mean, you have Brevin Span forward doing that. You have Lipkkey in the back field. And then you have Span Ford running routes or Lipkkey running routes. And then Javvante Williams, who I was impressed with last night as well. Like all of that one play when I was watching it, I was like, “Okay, this kind of encompasses my excitement for what they can possibly do.” That’s my offensive takeaway. Let’s go over to the defensive side of the ball. We’re going to stay here for a little bit for the next couple of key takeaways. Number two, the run defense. Much improved compared to last year. not dominant, not the best in the league, but much improved. And I thought coming into the year with the offense that you had that the defense needed to be good enough against the run. The Eagles rushed for 18 yards on 12 carries on runs between the tackles against the Cowboys, averaging 1.5 yards per carry on the night per NFL pro. Dallas was not getting pushed around on the interior. Those defensive tackles with OSA and Clark and Solomon Thomas and even Jaytoia, they’re taking on double teams, clogging up the interior. The linebackers are getting downhill and making plays. The one group that we have been harping on for the past decade played really well last night. Sure, there are some things to clean up here and there. There was a long outside run that Barkley had for 15 to 18 yards. There were some things that Dante Fowler did with over pursuing, overrunning the play or not keeping contain. Herz did some stuff on the ground, but the Cowboys did not get pushed around on the interior of that defensive line. Those inside runs were going nowhere. 1.5 yards per carry on the night. And this would have been a lot more impressive if Herz wouldn’t have done what he did with his legs. And it wasn’t as much read option plays. It was more so not keeping contained while he’s in the pocket, not getting pressure. He’s able to move out. Guys don’t see him slipping out of the pocket. He’s able to get 5, 10 yards and pick up the first down. That hurt you. But as far as Saquon just beating you like we’ve seen in the past or like we’ve seen him do to other teams, that didn’t happen. Number three on the defensive side of the ball, Matt Eberloose, I believe, is going to have to dial up pressure until the edges can settle in. I’m still excited about this edge room even without Parsons. Marshon Nean, Sam Williams, Dante Fowler, got to clean up some stuff in the run game. Donovan Ezraku, like there are guys in that room that I think can be really good players, but until they can get to that point where they can consistently win on the edges and you found the right combination, the right group of guys, I think that Ebloo is going to have to dial up a little bit more pressure and I think we saw that more so in the second half because Herz early on he just had too much time or they were just killing you with the quick game. The corners were playing soft on the outside. Some of the linebackers were kind of drifting in zone coverage, leaving those throwing lanes open. You weren’t able to get pressure. Herz was able to sit back there and either hit those quick game or just wait until a receiver or the tight end found soft spots in zone coverage. You got to kind of manufacture some pressure, not play off zone coverage as much so you’re not getting ded and dunked to death. Herdz wasn’t making any mistakes because you weren’t pressuring him, especially early in the game. You could see it later on when Diggs came on that corner blitz or there were stunts up front and guys were getting pressure on the inside. Just put pressure on him. Make him think. You got to make the quarterback think. They can’t just sit back there and have 3 seconds, 3 and 1/2 seconds to throw the ball. And they know you’re in zone coverage. They’re just waiting for for somebody to drift out of their zone or a receiver to find a soft spot in zone coverage. So, be able to dial up a little bit more pressure on the back end of that defense last night. And my fourth takeaway from this game was the cornerbacks. Although Herz wasn’t just under duress the entire night, the quarterbacks were fantastic. AJ Brown had one catch for eight yards and you can thank me for that because I drafted him in fantasy. That’s why that happened. And then Devonte Smith had three catches for 16 yards. Don Bland, Trayvon Diggs, Kier Elum, although he did give up the big play to Jan Dodson. I wasn’t upset at all with how he played. Diggs, I don’t think allowed a single reception last night. Bland was getting downhill, making tackles, being physical. Overall, the back end of that defense, they were really, really solid. Herz was having to throw everything underneath because I think you were so secure on the backside. If you held one of the best wide receiver duos to four catches for 24 yards, that is a win for your quarterback room. Feels great to have Diggs back, Bland, Elum to be playing as well as he is. It was one of the main groups that I was concerned with going into training camp all the way through the preseason and it turned out to be one of your best units last night. So before we get to the fifth and final takeaway, probably the most important for this game and for the future of this season, I want to tell you guys about Sleeper. I won last night with an anytime Saquon touchdown. And of course, we crushed the Dak Prescott over half a passing yard. I played $10 to win 25 just like that. So, a huge shout out to Sleeper for sponsoring the channel. It means a ton to have them on board this football season. If you guys want to go check out Sleeper, you can use code double move and get a 100% deposit match on your first deposit up to $100. They have so many things on there. NFL, MLB, NBA, any sport you can imagine, Sleeper has it. I love their app. You can play fantasy on there. do their picks, all of it, and they’re always running promos. So, go check it out, download it, use code double move at sign up. Supporting them is supporting my channel because they trust me to sponsor sponsor their business. So, thank you guys for going and checking that out. Now, let’s get to the fifth and final takeaway. This team is different. This is not the Mike McCarthy team or the Jason Garrett team. I thought they played disciplined football. They had good and much better decision-making than we’ve seen in the past. Four penalties for 42 yards. But most importantly, they did not lose because they got out coached. You cannot say that Nick Sirriani and the Eagles had a better game plan or just out coach them down the stretch. I don’t think you can say that. Dallas pretty much moved the ball at will on the Eagles. Now, you can’t say that Dallas outplayed them because your best receiver had four big time drops. My Sanders had the fumble, but you did not lose this game because Shotty wasn’t prepared. He didn’t have the team prepared. The offensive scheme sucked. The defense, even with the second second half adjustments by Iblouse, I’m going to count that as a win. You gave up 24 points to the Super Bowl champions, the team that absolutely annihilated the Chiefs last year in the Super Bowl. You gave up 24 points after giving up 21 in the first half. I just I cannot put this on the coaching staff. Coaching has been an issue for this organization ever since Jimmy Johnson left. Now, I’m not saying that Shotty is Jimmy Johnson, but to feel like the team was prepared and that they had a good plan and there were avenues to win throughout this game, you’re really like four CD land drops away from winning in week one on the road division rival, Super Bowl champions. first time head coach, new offensive coordinator, new DC. I was super impressed with them and they give me a lot of hope continuing in this season that they’re going to give you a chance in just about every game and Shotti’s going to have this team prepared. These guys want to play for him. He’s well respected and dude knows football. That’s all I can say. So, you guys let me know what did you think about this game. Were you super upset with the loss? It sucks to be 0 and1. He didn’t get that win. It’s a big time loss in division game on the road. But it would have been nice to steal one right there. But everyone counted Dallas out and I think they proved last night that they’re going to be a much better team than the national media thought. But we kind of knew like they got some talent. It’s just going to be about putting it together and limiting those mistakes. So comment down below how do you feel. Thank you guys for watching. If you enjoyed, please be sure to leave a like and subscribe to the channel. I love you all and I’m going to probably compile some clips. I love you all. Bye.

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