“COWBOYS ARE NFL’S WORST NIGHTMARE NOW!” – ESPN MAKES BOLD PREDICTIONS FOR MNF! COWBOYS NEWS

“COWBOYS ARE NFL’S WORST NIGHTMARE NOW!” – ESPN MAKES BOLD PREDICTIONS FOR MNF! COWBOYS NEWS

I’m Tommy Tran with you on this Monday. A Monday in which the Patriots and Broncos are 9 and2. We saw the regular season debut for Shador Sanders in Cleveland and Dan Campbell still loves going for it on fourth down. Didn’t work out for the Lions on the road. The champs losing 16-9. Battle of NFC West Powers went the Rams way as they intercepted Sam Darnold four times at Sofi. And the Bills outlasted the Bucks in a high-scoring game that saw nine lead changes. and Josh Allen with six total touchdowns. Just one more game on the week 11 slate. It’s tonight in Sin City. Cowboys and Raiders. Dallas the road favorites as it tries to inch closer back to 500. Time to get ready for that Monday night game with our Monday staples on this midday. Lee Doo and Ran Carthon. Guys, great to be with you once again. So, the Cowboys are coming off a buy. playoff chances are going to be pretty slim. Just from a coming off a buy perspective, Rand, I’m going to give you first word. They lost to the Cardinals in that Monday night affair. Do wins and losses matter in terms of coming back from buys, maybe entering it, but what about exiting it as you get ready for another NFL game? Well, that’s the that’s the beauty of our game is every week you have another opportunity to write your wrong, so to speak. And so, I think coming off a buy, you have a team that’s rested. you have a team that’s chomping at the bit to get another opportunity to go out there and prove that what happened last week, if it was a loss, was a one-off. And so that’s what you’re going to see now uh with this Dallas Cowboys team. I’m pretty sure most of the guys were in Vegas last week anyway. So they’ll be returning uh back to Vegas, but I think you’re going to get a spirited and inspired team, especially coming off of the moves that they made during the bye-week. This is going to be a spirited team that’s ready to get out there and show the world who they are and an emotional team. Uh let’s not forget right before the buy they lost a teammate. So they’re going to want to play in his honor. They want to go out there and put their best foot forward. And before getting into the game, this is a team whose defense has struggled mightily. Right. You talked about the defensive additions adding a guy like Logan Wilson, Quinton Williams. It should provide some juice. And not only that, Tommy, some of their own players are healthy now and they’re going to be getting them back. So they’ll be spirited tonight. So you guys brought up some of the additions that were made at the trade deadline ran. I remember vividly you talking about Jerry Jones just offering that glimmer of hope. But on the field, Ean, I’ll give you first word. What type of version of the defense will we see with these additions tonight? Yeah, the interesting thing is when you get a guy like Quinnon Williams, the defensive line coach, Aaron White Cotton, he’s familiar with him. That’s who he was with with the Jets when he was an allp pro player. So attacking style defense is what they want to do with Matt Eberloose and Aaron White Cotton. And with a guy like Quinnon Williams, he provides that interior pass rush. I’ve talked to multiple quarterbacks, Tommy Durant. The one thing they really hate is that interior pass rush up the middle. They have not been able to provide that. Now with Quinnon Williams, you actually have that. So maybe that will help some of the edge guys now who will get one-on-one opportunities. Logan Wilson has been one of the better coverage linebackers the last couple years. Kind of got phased out in Cincinnati. But you see the numbers right there. They’ve been abysmal this year, giving up 30 points per game. You would hope that that would provide some spark. And then the Marvon overshole. Like I didn’t think this kid would be able to come back. It shows the fortitude and mental capacity he has to fight through adversity and get back. His athleticism will help. His speed will help this Dallas defense as well. Yeah. And you talk about, and we saw it on the graphic, just how poor this defense has been, historically poor this defense has been, but again, when you add a guy like Quinnon Williams to the interior of that defense, and you talked about the quickest way to the quarterback is is up the correct straight up the middle. And he’s going to provide that. And he’s going to be a disruptor. And you know, Le having played both inside and on the edge. When those guys inside are getting that getting that rush and getting that quarterback off the spot is going to push things to those uh edge guys, but then also you also have Kenny Clark next to him. And so it’s only so many hands that you could dedicate to those two guys interior wise. And that’s going to open up for these edge guys to get these one-on-one um these one-on-one matchups on the edge. And so I think this this Dallas defense, as poor as they have been, I think we’re going to, as the season ends, as we get close to the end of the season, we’re going to look at the pre-trade defense and it’ll be the post-trade defense. And I expect this post trade defense to be much better, which would probably be bad news for the Vegas offense, which has had offensive line issues all season long. So, if I’m asking you how Gino Smith and Ashton Genty could potentially exploit this defense, which again to this point has been poor, Gino himself has been poor turning the ball over here. Just give me a recipe from a Vegas perspective. Yeah, to that point I think he’s been top three at the quarterback position and turning the football over. They got to get Ashton Genty going. Yes, he has the touchdowns, but he doesn’t have the yards per rush, right? And you talked about the offensive line. They lose their best offensive lineman and Colton Miller at the left tackle position. They have not been able to move anybody off the line of scrimmage. Now, before the acquisitions that they just had, Tommy, you would say, “Well, this could be a game we get right because this Dallas defense has been poor, but we’ll see what the additions do.” You still got to be able to make them respect the run. Sometimes it’s not all about the yards per carry. It’s the attempts. You have to make them respect it that opens up the play action pass game. And we’ve seen that Brock Bowers added into this offense has provided a real spark. He’s their best offensive weapon. You go back to two weeks ago versus the Jacksonville Jaguars. He had a really good game. Not so much last week. The Denver Broncos defense had a little bit more to do with that than the Raiders offense, but you have to get Brock Bowers and Ashen Genty going. Those are your two best offensive weapons. You see how bad they’ve been on the offensive side. 31st. There’s only 32 teams in the NFL when you talk about points per game. But get Genty going. That takes pressure off Gino. And in the play action, you can get Brock Bowers one-on-one with some linebackers out in space. Yeah, we see it here on the graphic. They’re 31st in the league, averaging 15.4 uh points per game. But in their two prime time games this year, they’re only averaging eight points. Yeah. Per game. They’re and and so they’re 0 and2 in these prime time situations, only averaging 203 yards as a total offense in these prime time situations. But to your point, you got to find a way to get Ashen Genty going. You said it to me, as much as you want to get Ashen Genty going, Brock Bowers is the X factor to this offense and the lift that he gives this team. He has two 100yard receiving games. He had uh what was it? Week nine against Jacksonville. Had three all three of his receiving touchdowns on the season against those guys. And it’s just his versatility. And uh Chip Kelly’s going to have to really get back, use your word again, to the inventiveness of his offense because we thought with a Chip Kelly le offense that we were going to see some stretching of zones. We thought we were going to see some creativity and we haven’t quite seen that. So, they just got to find ways to get their playmakers the ball. To that point, I would like to see them come out in a two tight end set with Michael Mayer. That way, Dallas has to put their linebackers out in space and then attack downfield vertically with Trey Tucker, a guy that seems to be the only receiver that has a report with G Smith. I think that’s how you can open up. You talk about infinitives. We’ve seen the Seattle Seahawks do that multiple times. Come out in bigger personnel groupings and that’s how you stretch teams vertically like because they want to match up to your personnel. Two lineback I mean two tight ends. Oh, you’re going to run the football. No, we’re going to take shots down the field. I think that’s what Chip Kelly needs to do today. And to your point about the uh the usage of the tight ends, we know the weapons that this Rams offense have, but they come out more than others using 13 personnel just using the personnel you have to create the mismatches that you need to get points. So, this is what they’re going to have to dip into the McVey bag and find that for this Chip Kelly. This is what you guys mean. Line up with the Titans, but move them out in space. Make them a receiver. that changes the look even though your base personnel or at least the pre-nap personnel is the same. And then on the other side of it, Tommy, if you want to come out and base against their 12, you can you can detach, you know, uh Brock Bowers. And then if you want to go nickel to try to defend Bowers, now you can turn around and hand off the ball. And that’s the creativity that you need to be able to use. So we looked at all of the offensive numbers. None of it’s flattering. You talked about the yards per carry for Ashton Genty. Fewer than four yards per rush in four straight games and seven of nine this season. In terms of just the the team itself, Vegas made some changes by going with Gino Smith, bringing in Pete Carol who’s got the pedigree, the championship. Ray, I’m going to give you first word in terms of what we thought this Vegas team would be and where they are now 10 entering 11 weeks into the season. It’s got to be a disappointment from an organizational perspective. Yeah, for sure. and and but that’s yes I’ll say that it’s disappointing for what we expected but I don’t think we anyone expected them to challenge for challenge for the AFC West or I mean at best case scenario they would be the six or seven seed potentially in the playoffs but if you go back throughout Pete Carol’s history it’s these type of years where he’s he uses this to build the character of the organization to set the foundation as they move forward and I always love to talk about this in his first year in Seattle With John Schneider, they had over 200 transactions and they continuously flipped and churned the bottom of that roster until they got the right complement of guys. Haven’t had quite as many transactions this year, but they’re going to continue to flip the bottom of that roster and the roster as a whole until they get the right set of guys. But I still believe in Pete Carol, his pedigree, and his overall philosophy and team building. Yeah, you have to be disappointed how it’s turned out so far. Going back to what we talked about Brock Bowers, him getting hurt after week one really derailed this offense because people forget one of the two losses the Patriots have against the Vegas Raiders week one. I was like in New England. So it’s just like without Brock Bowers, it kind of deterred how this offense was going to be the identity of this offense. So I thought they would be a team that would fight tooth and to nail. I didn’t think they would challenge for the AFC West. I just thought they’d be maybe a seven and 10 team that people would hate to play down the stretch. And it hasn’t been like that so far. Yeah, we’re seeing it right there in the graphic. Worst start, ninegame stretch to Pete Carol’s career. But to your guys’s point, it’s looking forward. It’s building toward the future, and you got to believe and trust the the process here. Back to tonight, though, we got to look short term here, who wins tonight’s game, Cowboys or Raiders? I’m going with Dallas. I think Dallas just has too many weapons on this offense. We we we didn’t even hit on Javvante Williams and the year he’s having and the year George Pickins is having, he’s leading the team in receiving yards. CD Lamb is back. He’s moving around well. And then the connection that Dak Prescott and Jake Ferguson have. He’s uh Jake Ferguson leads the team in receptions is also tied with the team lead with six touchdowns. But I’m going with them. They have this strong offense and I have high hopes for this post-trade defense. We’ll start calling it that, the post trade defense. And I think we’re going to see a much better team. I think Dallas is the better team tonight. Can you see the graphic right there, man? Oh, it’s five in a row in the right direction. Five in a row. Uh I look at it like this. I I know we’ve been talking about the Dallas defense and all these transactions. I want to look at the Cowboys offense this week cuz what people haven’t been talking about when you look at the starting offense the last two weeks they’ve only been averaging about 17 points per game. You go to that Cardinals game and that isn’t a world beater on defense. The 49ers just put up a 40 burger on them. And then the Broncos obviously that’s a really good defense. The starting offense only scored seven points in the second half versus the Denver Broncos. So I want that offense to get back on track. You talked about getting Javvante Williams going right. This Raiders defense has really struggled this year. Let’s get back in a rhythm early in this game cuz I actually think the way the schedule pans out, the Cowboys could make a run this second half, but it all starts tonight. They have to take care of this game. Give me the three and a half. I think this game won’t even be close. I like the Cowboys to cover those points. Okay. So, you’re not afraid of the hook. Uh I did make two bets for this game. One was Cowboys laying the three. Okay. But I’m adding Cowboys team total 26 and a half. I think they’ll get to 27 points or more tonight. They had those red zone issues against the Cardinals. I think they remedied that tonight. And given everything with Vegas, I don’t know if they keep it close.