Cam Newton says the Cowboys’ defense is ONE PIECE AWAY from becoming great… but WHO? | First Take

Cam Newton says the Cowboys’ defense is ONE PIECE AWAY from becoming great… but WHO? | First Take

Now the Giants have a 19 to nothing lead. We just saved all our good ones for the fourth quarter. Find some momentum and our defense found some stops. Dart throws it and intercepted and Denver has come all the way back. Look at the clock and they scored. I doubt that you’re going to go down there and score. The Giant lead is 3230 with 37 seconds to go and Denver’s going to get a chance to kick a makeable field goal. And the Denver Broncos have beaten the Giants 3332. First Take is presented by Freestyle Libre. Oh, welcome to First Take. We got Damen Woody, Chris Kanye, Amina Smith here with you, Cam Newton out there in Atlanta holding it down. And Chris, you said before the show we weren’t going to get our blood pressure up. No, I’m going to stay cool, calm, and collected on a lie. That’s a lie. It’s a lie. Come on, big fell. It’s a lie. I said I’m going to try. I didn’t say I was going to do it, but I know it’s a lie. You know what? Well, how those games went yesterday, I don’t know if we can control the blood pressure this morning. But let’s get right into it. The Broncos left the New York Giants stunned after scoring 33 fourth quarter points, which were the most in NFL history by any team that was shut out for the first three quarters. The Bo Knicks could not be stopped on their final game-winning field goal drive where the Giants defense failed to get any pressure. Here’s Jackson Dart and Brian Burns on the loss. It just sucks. I mean, it’s um like I said, I hate I hate losing. We have good leaders on the team. Um we have good players. We have to find ways to finish the game. There’s no way to lose that game. I mean, credit to the Broncos for, you know, uh, executing the way they did, but we gave that to them. There was no way they’re supposed to win that game. Including the Broncos win Sunday, teams are now two and 3,677. Yeah, you heard that right. when trailing by 18 or more points at any point in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter since the 1970 merger. This is the second time in franchise history the Broncos won a game after trailing by 19 or more points entering the fourth quarter. There are plenty of things that we can point to in that matchup between the Giants and the Broncos where the Giants lost this game. But Cam, I want to start with you. Who deserves to blame for that Giants collapse? Well, first and foremost, number 99, uh, respectfully, key card revoked. Uh, and Chris Kanty and Damen Woody understands this analogy. I’m handing you over a five gallallon trash bag, and I’m giving you five minutes to to really get all your valuables because that’s inexcusable. That type of play right there gets you on the streets faster than you know what. But at the end of the day, when I’m looking at the Giants really unravel here of late, Brian Dball, uh this is a definite learning uh opportunity for Jackson Dart. There were things and and it’s always said in sports when you you you talk about other sports in regards to shooters or shoot, winners win. Well, in this case for the Giants, losers lose. They found ways to lose this football game with the inability to put this team and the Denver Broncos away. when you have Jackson Dar throw a late game interception when you when you see the very conservative play column by Brian Debball uh these things are alarming but you have to move forward on a positive note what Jackson Dart brings to the New York Giants is an excitement that hasn’t been in New York as far as the Giants uh demographic since Odell Beckham he’s extremely exciting electrifying and and and a must-see TV situation but not these these type of clips that we’re seeing play in front of us right now. Yeah. I I mean, there’s plenty of blame to go around, right? I I mean, you want to blame Jude McAdam, the kicker for the New York Giants. Yeah, he deserves plenty of blame. Also, the general manager, Joe Shane, you’re having this problem year-over-year when it comes to your kicker, right? Think about the Washington Commanders game at the beginning of the 2024 season where you lost a game off of seven field goals. Why? because you didn’t have an adequate enough replacement for Graham Gano. So, losing games the same way year-over-year because of your kicker, problematic. The other issue I have with the New York Giants, it was eerily similar to what we saw at the end of the Dallas Cowboys game. Why are you allowing receivers to run wide open in the middle of the defense, turn around, catch the ball, and set up a game tying or game-winning field goal? It it gets redundant. And as for the New York Giants, they have the third most expensive defense in the National Football League. They gave up 33 points in the fourth quarter. That’s unacceptable. You’re paying all of those pass rushers to be able to close the show. It’s like a good closer in baseball. You’re paying them to shorten the game to shut it down. And when you have a double digit point lead, Brian Burns and Dexter Lawrence and Abdul Carter and Kavon Tibido, those guys got to find a way to get after it. Especially when two of your starters in the back end of your defense and Paul Stbo and Von Holland were banged up. So there’s that. If you want to get to Brian Debo, he deserves some blame, too. He was really conservative with the play calling. Didn’t use Jackson Dart as a weapon running the football. Designed quarterback runs and the end of the game at the goal line. Why? And for what? So yeah, there are plenty of people plenty of people to blame as to why the New York Giants collapsed. But here’s the thing. I’m glass half full with my Giants today. And you know why? Because a quarterback. Because they got the quarterback. That’s right. And if we’re keeping it a buck, I did not think that they were going to be able to go into Denver against the best defense in the National Football League. A defense that was talking cash money in the week leading up to the game and hang 32 points on those dudes. And it should have been 34 if the kicker would have made two extra points. So, I am more optimistic than I am pessimistic about the New York Giants in the big picture of things. I listen, I feel the same way. You know, me being a outside observer of the Giants and a team that actively roots for the other team in town, the Jets, you’re envious about the way that the Giants sit as far as a quarterback situation. But New York Giants fans don’t want to hear that this morning. Okay. Okay, New York Giants fans want to want like they want they want some explaining to do as to how in the world you had the game under control, locked down for three quarters, and you allow the Denver Broncos who hadn’t done squat offensively and then allowed them to score 33 points. And for me, it’s the defense. Like Shane, you know, uh Shane Bowen, the defensive coordinator for the Giants, listen, there was a there was a play uh in the fourth quarter where Bo Nicks, he, you know, he he was trying to throw what they what they call a dagger route, inbreak out. They only rushed three people. You’re the New York Giants. Your best Listen, the strength of your team is where Chris in your front four. It always has been. It always has been. And you’re going to drop three people. You going to rush three people and drop eight? See, that’s that conservative, that’s that playing safe type nonsense that ends up getting you beat in the National Football League. When you’re when you’re literally playing a team, you’re up by 10. That’s the time to really stuff on teams necks. At that point in time, you unleash those pass rushes because guess what? your defense have been playing to the point where they earned the right to rush after the passer. And so for me, when I look at the the totality of this thing, the defense, the Giants defense really let them down. I can deal with the quarterback. I know the interception kind of turned was a turning point in the game. You’re going to get that with young with a young quarterback, but the way the defense played in the fourth quarter was absolutely inexcusable. Chris, I want to follow up on one thing that you said. You know, I feel like the Giants, they definitely have the pieces. They have the quarterback. You know, they have that front four on that defense. However, do they have the right coach to utilize and put all that talent together? Well, the coach and the quarterback are inextricably linked. Think back to draft day when Joe Shane moved up in the back half of the first round to take Jackson Dart. He said to Brian Dable, “You got your quarterback.” Seemingly drawing a line between him and Brian Dable when it came to what would be the referendum on Jackson Dart. He said that you got your quarterback and Brian Debo said he drafted him because he reminded him of a guy he had success with in New England and Josh Allen and so far it’s worked out right. I understand he’s two and two through the first four starts but there is a different vibe around this team. Everybody is optimistic around it, right? Jackson Dard, Cam Scataboo, Abdul Carter, this rookie class has really helped this organization change their perspective, their mindset, and and I think that the head coach deserves a lot of credit for being able to identify that guy. So, I I I’m not looking at I’m not looking at this as a scenario where Brian Dable is is is still on the hot seat. I think we figured it out. You don’t want to interrupt the progress of the quarterback by changing his head coach and changing his play caller. It happens all the time in the National Football League and it’s not a good thing. Brian Dball has shown that he knows how to use Jackson Dart. Jackson Dart had four total touchdowns yesterday again defense in the NFL. So, I don’t know if I want to go about changing the head coach because ultimately that means change for the young quarterback. Well, listen, at the end of at the we got time to discuss and Brian and Brian Dball has a runway here to to show that he deserves to be the head coach of the New York Football Giants mo moving forward. But I can tell you this, yesterday was a was a terrible loss on on his marker, you know, yesterday and how he was able to manage this game because think about it. You talked about the energy of surrounding the New York Giants, right? Like it’s it’s absolutely clear what Jackson Do and Cam Scatteraboo has done for this organization. If they had imagine what the Giants have been if they won that game yesterday, we’d be having a totally different conversation surrounding the New York Football Giants. It’d be more talk about playoff like is this team a team that could possibly make the playoffs and you drop a critical game when the Washington Commanders lost against the the Dallas Cowboys. And so as much as we are excited about the Giants and the juice that those young those young Bulls are bringing, to lose that game yesterday was inexcusable. And Cam, I want to give you the final word here. Yeah, but I think the thing that’s most dev uh devastating, you know, for me from the offensive side and coach Brian Dball, and he’s obviously showed that he’s capable of of doing more with less, so to speak, but that’s not the situation right here. Uh there’s times in the football game where there’s it’s time to win quote unquote. These are got to have it situations. Fourminute offense at its finest. And the greatest asset to any type of offense is having a quarterback that can run, especially in the late game. Why? Now from going from 10 to 11, now you’re really playing 11 on 11. Jackson Dart provides that type of threat for any defenses to fear. And with the with the alignment with Cam Scataboo, those guys right there is when you look back at these games and you start to saying like, man, they missed opportunities to really put the game away when the game needed to be put away in the quote unquote got to have a situation or time to win situation. Yeah. The Giants first loss after leading by 19 or more points in the fourth quarter since 2010. You ain’t got to bring that up. I’m just saying I just wanted to just We ain’t got to bring that up. We We not want to We gota bring that up. You want to take his blood pressure now? We did not need to bring We did not need to bring up the shot. I did not need to hear that at this point. The Cowboys, they needed a dominant win and they went out and got one against the Commanders on Sunday. 44 to22. CD Lamb returned for the boys with five receptions for 110 yards and a touchdown. One of those receptions a 74 yard catch to the end zone. CD, where does this Cowboys offense stack up though for you? This one the best one I’ve been on and I’ve been on some great ones. It’s just the way that we can move around these pieces and um the players and everybody know everywhere to go with the lineup faster than any it’s tough. Who knows what we can accomplish? Like the sky is the limit. We’re just going to stay focused each and every day at getting better. Um growing our connection. I guess that’s just the next step, right? is just continuing to to communicate to one another and um yeah, just keep growing. All right, so the vibes are high. The Cowboys have the league’s most efficient offense this season, and that offense delivered again on Sunday, recording its third 40point game in seven games. Something Dallas hasn’t done since 1973. Woody, I’m going to turn to you. We’ve talked about this Cowboys defense and how poorest it has been. However, how far can this Dallas offense take them? They have a championship offense. Make no mistake about that. Dak Prescott, there’s not he’s playing better than any time that he’s played in in his in his career, including a couple years ago when he was a runner up for the MVP. Like right now, Dak Prescott’s QBR is higher than Lamar Jackson when he was a unanimous MVP back in 2019. That’s how well Dak Prescott is playing. And what you’re seeing right now, think about this. Think about what Dak Prescott’s been dealing with this this season. He’s dealt with multiple starting offensive linemen out. He’s dealt with CD Lamb being out, you know, all those all those variables around him changing up and all he’s done is go out there and put up the best numbers of his career. Now, I think that when we talk about the Dallas Cowboys, it’s not about the offense. They got a championship offense. Can this defense, okay, can this defense going go from being absolutely horrendous to just poor? Like, think about the bar that I’m setting with the Dallas Cowboys defense. I’m not saying that they need to be good. I’m not necessarily saying they need to be average. Can you at least come from the basement and be poor? Because with this Dallas Cowboys defense, and also I would say this, when you have an offense playing the way that Dak Prescott and company are playing right now, they need to take more chances defensively. Forget all this zone and and all this playing not to lose and we’re going to keep the ball in front of us. No. Go be aggressive because guess what? If we can get a turnover or two in a game, if we can make a couple plays on the defensive side, that’s only gonna strengthen what we got on the offensive side. So, listen, Dak Prescott is playing like that guy. They just need the defense just get out of the out of the the dweller. Yeah. Out of the basement and they have a chance. And we saw that with the pick six though. Don Bland took it back to the crib. So, that’s good for that Dallas defense. But what say you, Chris? Yeah. I mean, if you squint, I mean, if you really, you can see, is it a mirage? You can It could be, but if you really squint, you can see a pathway to the Dallas Cowboys getting to the playoffs. And the thing that we have to start with is the quarterback, right? Yeah. When Dak Prescott plays in all the games, they’ve never had a losing record. Quite literally, never had a losing record. And more often than not, they’re going to be in the postseason. So, as long as this offensive line plays the way they did yesterday, only allow one sack on them, the quarterback can stay clean, can stay upright, CD Lamb and George picking stay on the field, the Dallas Cowboys are going to have something to say about who wins that division and who punches their ticket to the tournament out of the NFC. Now, to the defense, this defense has to get better. I’m not sure they can only rely on the guys they currently have on the field now in order to do that. Now, let’s keep in mind, DeMarian Overshon, they’re their standout from last year. He got hurt late in the season. He’s in his window to return to practice. They’re expecting him back sometime in November. The Dallas Cowboys have two games before the trade deadline on the road against Denver, at home against Arizona. As long as the Cowboys don’t disqualify themselves before November, then Jerry Jones would absolutely be justified in adding to this roster, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, because you got a quarterback that is playing at an MVP level and an offense that can take you on a deep playoff run. So, to answer the question, yeah, I think that can get this team to the postseason. And I do think the Dallas Cowboys are capable of winning postseason games because when they roll their helmets out there, they going to score 30 points. It’s just a matter of the defense being able to have steady improvement. Cam, what type of Dallas team are we looking at right now? Man, these are certain times, especially being on first take, that sometimes I be thinking like Stephen A really be having like a a a a whispering moment to sports because out of all the days that he would miss, he going to miss today. Speak on it. I said to myself, I was like, “Hold on, Stephen Ain’t going to be on the show today. He must know something.” And dog on show, he knew something because I was going to be on them like dog on flies on you know what. But needless to say, I would say this. When you look at yesterday’s game, out of all the games that I’ve ever seen Dallas play in the last two years, Dallas Cowboys, that was your most complete win as a team, playoffs included. Why? Because now when you have a very explosive offense that is capable of producing the excitement and the points that CD Lamb, that George Pickkins, that Dquavius Prescott can can guard you. Now it’s it it now comes down to the defense being able to say, “Okay, it’s our turn to make plays. We know what we have in our kicker. We just got to cross the star in the middle of the field and he’s well and capable of making a field goal.” Now, this is the thing as we have a full slate of football players on this panel outside of Miss Amina. And no disrespect to you, but if I say this slang or if I say this uh this this specific saying, offense wins games, defense wins. You know what amazing thing is? We’re seeing that go from good to great right in front of our eyes. I think they need to tap that market before November 4th uh uh hit the trade deadline because they’re one piece away on defense that can really skyrocket the Dallas Cowboys. And yes, Stephen, hey, that’s something that you just don’t want to see, brother. Unfortunately, you talking about the piece that they dealt away. That’s the piece that they You know what? No, no, no, no. The piece that they dealt away. But listen, go ahead, Cam. But listen, the two things two things can be true because Michael Parsons is in a situations and he’s being what we know him to be in a in a disruptor and a game changer, but the Dallas Cowboys are also sitting in a great situation where you have to say, man, what will Jerry or Jerry and Co do to to really garner the uh the attention that we all know that they have to get somebody in there on the defensive side of the ball that you don’t necessarily going to have to wait till the draft to get him. That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. The I’m interested. Are they one piece away on that defense? And was that piece Michael Parson? Because it’s going to continue to come up. If that defense doesn’t perform, everybody’s going to look back to Micah Parsons being traded to the Packers and saying, “hm, maybe they did need him on that defense.” I I don’t think they’re one piece away. Um I I think when you look at the totality of the NFC right now, there’s a lot of teams out there. We’re talking about the Rams. we’re talking about like like you could look at this the the NFC West, the Rams, the Seahawks, uh you Philadelphia, you know, we gonna see what Philadelphia is going to do. Like there are teams right now that I feel like are more complete than the Dallas Cowboy because the Dallas Cowboys defensively are very, very deficient, very deficient. And that’s fair, but when it comes to dominant units, offense, defense, special teams, when it comes to dominant units, the Dallas Cowboys clearly have one of the most dominant units in the conference, right? They have an identity that can win today. So, it’s a matter of the defense being able to complement what the offense does. Can they grow into that? Add a piece, get a piece back in De Marvon oversh all of a sudden, you’re you’ve got some pieces for Matt Evil’s defensive coordinator to work with. Yeah, there’s some holes to plug on that uh that Dallas team specifically on the defense. All right. [Music]

On First Take, Damien Woody, Chris Canty and Cam Newton join to discuss the latest storylines in the NFL, including the Denver Broncos coming back to beat the New York Giants in the last quarter of their matchup and the Dallas Cowboys defeating the Washington Commanders.

0:00 Giants vs. Broncos
2:00 Giants collapse against Broncos
6:30 Who deserves blame for Giants loss?
12:30 Cowboys vs. Commanders
13:08 How far can Dak take the Cowboys?
14:18 Cowboys’ defense
16:51 What type of Cowboys team is this?
18:00 Cam Newton weighs in

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