FIRST TAKE | Dak Prescott looks like MVP honestly – Stephen A. not surprised if Cowboys beat Jets

FIRST TAKE | Dak Prescott looks like MVP honestly – Stephen A. not surprised if Cowboys beat Jets

The Cowboys head to New York this weekend for a meeting with the Jets. Dak Prescott has been playing on another level, overcoming another defensive performance that was brutal from Dallas in week four to pull off a 4040 tie with the Packers. The Jets, meanwhile, have yet to win a game under new head coach Aaron Glenn as turnovers and penalties continue to haunt this team. RC, the more likely outcome, the Dallas Cowboys in a blowout or the Jets getting win number one in an upset. Well, see, I don’t see a blowout for the Dallas Cowboys. because I don’t believe that this defense plays at a high enough level. Um, so I think it would be an upset for the New York Jets. When you look at that game against the Miami Dolphins, the early drive, the Brilen Allen fumble, the next fumble was on Justin Fields, and then a defense that couldn’t match up man-to-man with the Miami Dolphins. I think that’ll be different this week. Do I expect the Dallas Cowboys to win? Absolutely. But I believe this will be a hard fought a hard fought game because the one way to get right if you’re a struggling offense is to play against the Dallas Cowboys. All right, they head to Metife. They face the Jets. We’ll see if Justin Field night. But do you expect Dak and George Pickkins to dominate in this one? Yeah, I I do. It really feels like Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys are this year’s Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. a defense that’s absolutely atrocious, but a quarterback that’s playing like an MVP and putting up 40 points per game and doing things historically that haven’t been done. And his connection with George Pickkins only seems to be growing by the week. And credit George, he’s playing with good intensity. Let me show this quickly, Shifty, before I get to anything else. The Cowboys, that night, the Sunday night felt like a win to me for them. And for them to get the equivalent of half a point out of it seems like a big win. And if you look at their upcoming schedule, I believe the Cowboys have every chance to play their way back into contention, especially if and when or when they get CD Lamb back, which I’m curious when we should expect that. What are your thoughts, Sheffy? I I see week seven for the Commanders and CD Lamb was already at practice yesterday, spotted around. They didn’t put him on IR. So, that tells you they don’t think it’s going to be four weeks or they want to have him involved in practice. So, he probably he’s going to miss this week. I would imagine he’ll miss next week. week and I would think they’ll have a chance to be back for the Washington game in a couple of weeks. And there’s an offense also, Greeney, they’ve been dominant at home. They don’t, the offense is not as good on the road outside. They need to be better against a Jets team on the road this week. CD Lamb has what it takes. The question is, will he do what it takes? George Pick. George Pick, I’m sorry. George Pickkins has what it takes. The question is, will he do what it takes? We know he has the ability to be a number one and sustain while CD Lamb is out. We’ve seen him pop the way we saw him pop against the Packers. The question is, can he be consistent? That’s what you want out of a number one is that every time you show up on Sunday, you are going to get the same guy. Do not play down to your opponent because as my coach would always say, those guys are on contract, too. Don’t let the Jets fool you into think that this is going to be an easy road and you change your intensity or you change the standard that you set a week ago. Compton, I’m going to flip the question because in the AFC, I said there may be a spot open we didn’t expect. The NFC is a murderer’s row. I mean, it is going to be a there are going to be really good teams that get left out in the NFC playoff picture. Do you think the Cowboys We looked at the schedule a moment ago. Can they play their way into contention? No, I don’t think so. I like you’re you ultimately you have to expect Dak Prescott to play perfect all season long with the They have an opportunity, but the opportunity is is if can they fix at all what’s going on on defense? They’re giving up 33 points a game. They’re giving up 420 yards average on there defensively per game, which is the worst in the NFL. They have more holes in this defense than a screen door and a submarine. They have to start fixing the defense just a little bit because if you’re leaning on Dak Prescott to be perfect all season, it’s there. They won’t be in the playoffs. Yeah. You were saying, Dan, we said he can’t afford a bad game. You said afford Yeah. I don’t think he can afford a bad play. I mean, that this is the worst defense in the NFL. The last time we saw a a playoff football team that had the worst defense in the NFL was 2011. It was the Green Bay Packers. Now they had the best offense in the NFL and Hall of Fame quarterback. I don’t think I think the Cowboys because of the way that Dak is playing in the offense will kind of be in the picture. It’ll just be from the outside in. Every team in the NFC West is better when they’re healthy. Every team in the NFC North is better. So, we’re talking there’s eight right there just because this defense is so poor. And so I think that the the Falcons are a better football team when they can play the way that they’re capable offensively. I think that the Bears obviously are a better football team. So So that would your your your description would put the Cowboys much closer to the bottom than to the playoffs. Yeah. And I would I kind of thought this team even with Micah was like right on the fringe of the playoffs. I think the offense will keep them in their convers. It’s the worst defense in football. Getting to the playoffs with a poor defense is not usually a reliable recipe. They’re going to need to play better defensively somehow some way. And Jerry Jones talked about making a move when he traded away Micah Parsons. Maybe they make some type of move for some type of defense. He said something this week about help being on the way, right? I mean, I don’t know if he was talking about getting Overshon back from injury or do is there a trade they could make? There are various avenues. Overshawn could be back. Maybe they do wind up trading for a defensive player for a team that gets rid of some defensive parts before the trade deadline. But if they’re competitive and they’re winning games, they have the means and the capabilities to go do what they want. They have the schedule to play their way back in. We’ll see if he did a very good job of clearing that up yesterday. You made the point earlier today. That’s not a selfish person talking. He is more a selfless person. He’s he’s ranked 49th in receiving yards, NFL receivers, and he’s a top five receiver in the NFL. He there’s a lot of zen that has to come with that. And also, when do we become the cryptic tweet police? Like, why are we surprised by cryptic tweets? We all do it. Abs, throw mine up there. Of course, we have cryptic kids. You always got to look at the timing as well, right? Here we go. Normalize not worrying about burning bridge and just telling the truth. Of course, that’s directed at somebody. It’s a language we all say. Tweet. Give me one from Will Compton. Now, I had one for everyone. We’re only going to have time for me and Will. This is right after the season. The future has so many names. Uh, for the weak, it’s unattainable. And for the fearful, it’s unknown. For the bold, it’s ideal. Victor Hugo. Like, he’s never read anything from Victor Hugo. He was talking to the commanders. It’s not rocket science. I got one from Dan. We’re not going to tee it up. I got one from Taylor with the eye emoji to the Chiefs. Come on, man. This is Is this new? You know what I’m saying? We live in the world of social media, you know. Come on. Give me something, my boy. There we go. Go. So, I just want to shake hands. It’s been a lot of today from the bus with the boys. I don’t even know what we’re talking about anymore. Uh, is everything right with the Eagles or not? I mean, that’s my question. They’re 4-0. They’ve won 20 of their last 21 games, including the Super Bowl. And we sit here every single morning, and dissect everything they say and everything they do and everything they post. Are they fine? And are we just overreacting to nothing? No, they’re not fine. Winning covers everything in the NFL. And right now, this offense, unless it improves, will get them beat. And I don’t know when, but if it when it matters the most, that’ll obviously be the big issue. Number one, they’re poor at running the football in between the tackles right now. I believe that they miss players like Mai Beckton. And then two, there’s a reality in their pass game and it’s nuanced. Number one, AJ Brown is basically just running in straight lines, okay? Like they just have him run go routes. There’s an occasional hitch or slant. They’re paying like $30 million for a guy that we would call a clear out player almost, you know, just like you just run vertical. Okay? So, there needs to be more nuance to what they ask him to do routewise. There’s a beauty in the simplicity. Two weeks ago against the Rams, they’re down. They run 12 yard crow routes. He catches three of them, they win the game. So like I don’t want to overthink it as well, but they they have to ask him to do more. And then I do think there’s moments where Jaylen, who’s a very riskaverse quarterback, can sit there and go, I’m just going to give my guy a chance cuz I think he’s better than the other guy. Will it happen this weekend against two corners that are as good as their two corners in Philly? Yeah, I think that’s going to be the interesting thing to see. Put the picks up on the screen. We’ve had a lot of Denver’s going to win this game coming and both both the bus and boys think that. The other piece of this that we’ve talked about and this is right up your alley is if you look at the numbers on Saquon Barkley last year the yards before contact it it’s like half of what it was a season ago. Do they have an offensive line problem or their offensive line is still good but they were so ridiculously good before. Is that one of their problems? I don’t think the offensive line is the problem. I think the creativity and the play calling is a problem. We talked about it a couple weeks ago. They’re trying to run between the tackles all the time without a a an established passing game that gets those safeties to back up a little bit. Run some perimeter plays. You saw it when you know there’s a Saquin Barkley was on the Madden cover when they had a per perimeter play. They blocked down. They pulled a tackle and they were able to get out an open space. Those are things that are going to help you get those extra yards per carry and make those numbers look a whole lot better. So, so this I think Taylor’s right. First of all, we didn’t see this last year where guys were coming unblocked behind the line of scrimmage. I mean, we never saw these one-on-one blocks. These were 70 yard touchdowns. Tampa’s a very good defense. This is what I would say about the internal stuff. I have seen their offensive line get beat one-on-one in the run game more this year than I did last year. Do you know what team has given up the most negative runs in the NFL this year? The Eagles. The Eagles. Yeah. 33 negative runs this year. Jeffy, give us a final word. Shocking. They have holes and flaws all across the board and they’ve won 20 of their last 21 games. That’s right. and and and winning say is

FIRST TAKE | Dak Prescott looks like MVP honestly – Stephen A. Smith not surprised if Cowboys beat Jets Sunday