Chiefs vs. Cowboys PREVIEW 🍿 Dak Prescott playing BETTER than Patrick Mahomes? 😮‍💨 | Get Up

Chiefs vs. Cowboys PREVIEW 🍿 Dak Prescott playing BETTER than Patrick Mahomes? 😮‍💨 | Get Up

and 12 weeks of the NFL season are now behind us. Let’s do Tuesday takeaways from week 12. Jac, what’s your biggest takeaway? It’s over in Dublin. Matthew Stafford is this year’s MVP. It’s amazing to think me and him were drafted in the same draft class and this old guy is out there just performing 30 touchdowns and two interceptions. Did you watch him the other night, Jeff Saturday? No longer. Why are you looking like that? Unbelievable. Is that a one-yd touchdown right there? How many we have? We We have We have 12 touchdowns that are like four yards in less. How about are we are we is this is like a whole season we’re talking about? Give me Come on, J. We’ll come back to it. Graiano, give me a takeaway. The NFC East race is not over. Oh my gosh. 21 nothing and beat the Eagles to stay alive. It’s it’s it’s a faint pulse, but they have a pulse. And I’m just saying you okay, Jeff? It’s going to be worse, too. This week, the Cowboys opponent is a third place team and the Eagles opponent is a first place team. I’m just saying they play back. He’s involved in voodoo. Jeff, you’re going to like this one even less. Nick, go. The Colts have a quarterback problem. I’m sorry, Jeff. It’s true. Like, we we they had the best offense in the league up until this game. And when they needed this offense to do something, we saw that the Chiefs decided you’re not going to run the ball. And it was nothing they could do. Like they went three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out. One of them should have been an interception except the two DBs or excuse me, the linebacker and the DB were fighting over the pick. Like it it got ugly fast in a a playoff level uh game. We’ll talk more about that one a little bit later. Meanwhile, Jeff, what was your takeaway? I don’t even remember right now. I know what it is. Big leads don’t matter. Obviously, the Colts had what? They have 11-point lead in the fourth quarter with nine minutes left. They lose it. The Eagles had a 21-point lead. They end up losing to the Cowboys and then the Giants. They had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. Here here’s the bottom line. Defense wins championship. And and as as much as we love to talk about offense, when defenses start to lock these teams down, it becomes more difficult. Got a ton of respect for all those teams fighting back. Well, the Cowboys locked down the Eagles on their final eight drives. Philadelphia had five punts, a turnover, and missed a field goal. So, zero points on their final eight drives. And obviously that set up the miracle comeback by the Cowboys. And as Dan says, maybe the division still has some faint question. And certainly the Cowboys are in the mix on the outside of the wild card picture looking in, but still with a chance. And so we sit back now. I feel like we’ve said all along something’s not right with the Eagles. Something’s not right. But the the Trump card is always what if they keep winning. Well, now all of a sudden they didn’t win. So now what do we say about the Eagles offense? We look two years ago they were 10 and one at this point and and it fell completely apart because the offense wasn’t working. It was the same thing. Oh but they’re winning. Oh but you know can they sustain it? So uh right now do you know you know a thing they lead the league in offensively? They have the highest percentage of drives of any team that end in a three and out. That that’s their I mean that’s their league leading stat. Like it’s real. This isn’t a slump. I mean this is a legitimately bad offense right now. I’m going to give you two reasons why. Can we put up B20? It’s not the full screen we had planned, but but let’s go to B20 if we can here, please. May we start with Saquon Barkley because this offense is really almost exactly the same conceptually and structurally, except that Saquon Barkley last year had one of the great seasons of all time. And this year, among 48 qualified running backs, he is 40th in yards per rush. Let me say that again. He’s 40th out of 48 in yards per rush. Jeff Saturday, you are my offensive running game specialist. Yeah. What has happened to the Eagles running game and Saquon Barkley? I think it’s a mixed bag, Greeny. And I’ll say it this way. The offensive line has been banged up, right? Lane Johnson not being there. You know, they average five yards a carry on his side. They average less than three. I mean, it’s just it’s it’s a big difference. Dickerson’s been hurt. Jurgens has been hurt. Guys are moving in out. So, there’s not the same continuity up front that they’ve had. However, Sequin himself isn’t isn’t doing his part either. And I’m not just talking about the turnover, the fumble, right, which which happens from time to time. But like running, putting your foot in the ground and going to get what’s there has not been what Saquon has done. The the stretch play they came out to the left and we showed in that highlight the the ball is getting pushed. He could have put his foot in the ground and go get five or six yards. Instead, he tries to take that thing. He’s always looking for the home run. I think part of the the Eagles problem in the rhythm and to Dan’s point of why you go three and out is because you don’t typically take what the defense is giving you. This was not a Jaylen Herz, AJ Brown, Devonte Smith. This was not that type of issue. It was you don’t do the dirty details right to give to put your offense ahead of the chains. And what that means is second and five and less is a beautiful thing. offensive football when you are third, second and long, third and long, it is I mean it is drudgery because the the defensive linemen pin their ears back, linebackers play over the top, they’re flying to the ball, it makes everything more difficult. They are not doing the dirty right and part of that is on Saquon and I’m just going to put this out there. When Bsby has been in the game and he’s not in very often, he runs behind his pads downhill and they are producing yards that way. That tells me that the style of run is different, right? It is. Yeah. I mean, Tank Bsby. Yeah. You you you put your head You put your head down, you put your foot in the ground, you go get what’s there. It’s not always pretty. It’s not always sexy, but it opens up everything else. Very problem if he doesn’t have any of the booms, which he hasn’t had this year, which we’ve chocked up a lot to the offensive line. And watching this last game is the first time what you saw like, oh, maybe it’s some of Saquon also getting tackled in the open field by Oversh. It’s like the Green Bay game just earlier this year. They won that game in part because they couldn’t bring Saquon down in the in the open field. But in this particular game, we see this situation. When you have a superstar back like this, you want him to get seven, eight, nine yards on a play like that and not be able to be tackled. Yeah. Dearan Overshan making back toback or not back to back, but two really good plays here. This one Saquon sort of slips. Yeah. But one way or another, the Cowboys defense is better than it was, but Saquon Barkley, and I’m not trying to make excuses, but this is the reality of it. Historically, when running backs have these seasons like he had last year where they touch the ball on every play, 400 plus touches, the next year it’s never the same again. And maybe it’s as simple as that. Some of that and I think also in those plays were showing like most of them Saquon Barkley’s getting hit in the back field. And him both said that to me this morning where he has the same amount of negative runs as Ashton Genty. And we talk about the Raiders. We talk about how bad their offensive line is and they just fire Chip Kelly, their offensive coordinator on these runs. Like we’re expecting Saquon Barkley to be super human. Soon as he got the ball, Quinnon Williams had a hand on him. So some of these things are an offensive line issue and Jeff made mention of that as well. So yes, we can look at Saquon Barkley and he’s the exact same he was last year after he carried the ball a thousand times. Probably not. But at the same time, there needs to be more space cuz to your point, Nick, that’s the type of back he is. And can I say this? When teams realize like that your back is going to stutter before he hits the hole, a ton of slants and pen. So teams will either slant to the gap beside them which makes it more difficult like there’s no good there’s not good fits or they try to penetrate the line of scrimmage. If you watch the Cowboys, they were literally tackling the run on the way to Jaylen Herz. When you have those kind of experience, there has to be an answer offensively and and the Eagles have not presented that. There you see 482 touches last year. impressions of an extraordinary Thanksgiving trio of games. Nick, what’s the first thing you’re watching for Packers Lions? Well, if the Lions can do anything with Michael Parsons, I want to see that O line be able to slow him down because he was a menace in the last game. If he didn’t get the sack, he caused the sack. And I think that that trade obviously panned out well for this team. And we’ll see if the Lions can slow down because their O line hasn’t been as dominant as they were in previous seasons. It’s a game the Lions really need to win. If you look at the NFC playoff picture, Jeff, the Night Cap will be Bengals Ravens. What are you looking for in that game? Oh, make it go Joe. He’s back, baby. They got to win the rest of them to go to playoffs. He’s back. They got to be fired up. Jamar Chase back in action. This is all about Joe Burrow been, you know, be disingenuous to say guys come back without rust. I’m excited to see how quickly he can adapt, what he can do with this offense cuz look, they’re going to have to score points with their defense. Can he do this? Can he get this team rolling? uh as quickly as as as week one. They’re playing the team they need to catch. So gives them some chance. And then J-Mack, obviously sandwiched in between those two, we get Chiefs and Cowboys. What’s your first impression? We talk about Patrick Mahomes as possibly becoming the GOAT at the quarterback position. Dak Prescott go out there on Thursday and be the best quarterback on the field. You and Shotimer put an offensive performance together that leaves everybody convinced that the Cowboys are still alive and they have a shot at the playoffs. But let me show you exactly what is at stake for the Dallas Cowboys in this game. If the Cowboys lose to Kansas City the day after tomorrow, they will have, according to our analytics, just a 4% chance of making the playoffs. So, there’s this way of looking at it. That comeback win against the Eagles was thrilling. It was an unforgettable game, but it will really have meant nothing if they don’t win the game against Kansas City on Thursday. No, no, no, no. Don’t say it. Yeah. It does not mean nothing. like like they beat they they put two really good weeks. You’re seeing the the building the foundation of this Cowboys team post Micah Parsons. So irrespective of what happened, don’t miss don’t miss the mark. This team has put something on film that they can build on with with the addition of Kenny Clark and now Quinnon Williams and Logan Wilson and you see Dak George Pickkins who’s probably the best receiver besides JSN in our league right now. Like I make fun of Jerry all the time, but he’s put this foundation of the Cowboys. So whatever happens, they have they have a lot to look forward to in the future. It’s hilarious cuz Jeff sounds a lot like what me and GR sounded like last week. He was like, “It’s just the Raiders. You guys get to be a week. It took me a week. I’m a little patient working to it. We saw it against the Eagles and now you are on board with all these new additions.” But yeah, this defense looks good. They beat my squad, man. I will say I look at the Cowboys and whether they make the playoffs or not, I think by the end of the season, they’re going to be a top seven team in the NFC. Now, they may just fall short and the fact that they dug themselves in too big of a hole, but I think by the end of the season, we’re going to look at them and say they’re one of the better teams in our league. I I’ll buy I’ll buy all of this. So, so let’s let’s deal this season. I’m fascinated by what you said, Jac. Um Patrick Mahomes is one of the greatest and maybe on his way to being the greatest quarterback of all time. Full stop. That said, right now Dak is playing better, right? Is that a reasonable thing to say? Absolutely. Dak is having a better year than Mahomes. He is, especially when they’re at home. Dallas is a juggernaut offense. The Chiefs, the Chiefs offense has been good, right? They gain a lot of yards, but they haven’t had those explosives and they haven’t been able to to score at the level that Dallas, especially Dallas averages 33 a game at home. Insane. Like that’s I mean, yeah. So, and they know I mean they know the Thanksgiving turnaround, all that stuff. Let’s go ahead and get to what we want to really talk about, George Pickkins. Okay. The way that he is played right now, it is not crazy to say that he is playing as well as any receiver in football, not named JSN. Everything that he does seems perfect. The way he catches, he tracks the ball downfield. The way he attacks, there’s nothing that he can’t do. You can throw him a screen and he’ll and he’ll turn it into a touchdown. You throw it up and he’ll go up and moss people, take it off people’s back. It’s the way that he’s impacted his offense. Because there there’s thing about playing quarterback is for Dak at least they’re going to be some really tough throws and he’s made them. But you know it’s really nice sometimes to not have to think about it and throw it at three and trust that good things are probably going to happen. And I I want to give Shottenheimer a ton of credit in this as well man like there was no panic like and typically you see the Cowboys panic when they go down but they didn’t get out of their offense. He was still feeding Williams. He was still balancing the ball. I know CD didn’t have a great game. He had some drops, but he got he got plenty of opportunities. So did George Pickkins, Ferguson. Like they they did an a fantastic job of not letting the moment overtake them. I had a ton of respect for the way they played and literally their defense from two minutes into the second quarter. The Eagles don’t score again. Now they’ve got they got some freak fumble, right? And and and a missed field goal, but every that team as a whole, Shotimer has done a really good job of this these guys buying in to hey, keep fighting, keep battling. We’re going to win this thing in the end. And you gota you got to point out that he has helped manage them through an extremely difficult time losing their teammate Aran Neand obviously you can see the inspiration that that has provided. They got the flag there, but but you talk about like a coaching I mean the leaders of the team have to be able to shepherd you through a time like that and they seem to have come out of it, you know, in a in a decent place emotionally. And I love that point of bringing them all together, all the different personalities, as you mentioned, a guy like George Pickkins who gets traded from Pittsburgh and there’s all type of issues and people saying he gets to Dallas and he’s been unbelievable. And I think that goes back to the original point of the Dak Prescott of it all. We talk about some great receivers in our league and a lot of them are made up off of really good quarterbacks. For George Pickkins this year, we’re talking about him as being one of the best wide receivers in the league because he has a quarterback that’s playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the league. That allows you to unlock so much more within your offense. So, a ton of credit goes to Dak for his performance, but also his leadership. There’s two wide receivers out there that you’re trying to feed and keep both of them happy. Picking a huge game. CD Lamb a not a not a good game at all. You do not envy them. You do not envy them. Oh my word. You do not envy that them quarterbacks like I I know they get paid a lot. Hey, they earn it in that locker room sometimes. You got two dogs on the outside and then your center wants to run the dag on ball. Absolutely. Let’s go run that thing. But they and but they do and they get you to run the ball also with Javvante Williams. They just have a really good offense. They they have I mean look maybe we say this is Dak playing better than Mahomes. Yes. If Mahomes had Pickkins and Lamb, then it might be a little different conversation. Now, is this a must-win for the Chiefs? Let’s have that conversation. If they lose the day after tomorrow, their chances of making the playoffs fall below 46%. You might think that even sounds high. Our analytics still love the Chiefs. And the reality is there are going to be teams that get it’s going to be harder to get into the NFC playoffs than it is to get into the AFC playoffs have a chance. I know they lose the tiebreakers to the Jaguars and the Bills. Um, so they they would find themselves in a tough spot. But Jeff, when I asked you about why are you shaking your head like that? He said not the pressure. He’s still upset. Oh, the Colts. We’re going to let you vent about the Colts a little bit later. But it does kind of come from what we just saw the Chiefs do to the Colts. Yeah. Because when I asked you, how did the Chiefs beat the Cowboys? You went right to the defense. Defense wins championships. And they Hey, listen. They locked my boys up. You think they gave up 10 first downs, y’all, in a game against arguably the best offense or what we talked about as the best offense in the NFL for a number of weeks. And they put the clamps on these dudes and Spags had a listen, he brought it out of his bag. They had they had run stunts. They were bringing blitzes off. They made sure Jonathan Taylor was not going to be the hero. They forced Daniel Jones to try to beat him. He didn’t make enough plays. They didn’t make enough plays on the outside. But give when we when we boil it down and you start looking at teams who could why they get a 46% chance cuz that defense will keep you in a lot of games. And offensively, by the way, they ran they freaking toted it. Hunt freaking toted it and made play like like they got back into it. So listening to all that, they must have won by 20, right? Like they must have like rested their guys in the fourth quarter. No, they barely won the game. Like there’s something about this Chiefs team that just they end up in these tight games and where historically they would do something at the end to win that game, which they did Sunday, that’s the first time this year we’ve seen it. So it it’s been weird. What are they going to take away from Dallas? You said they take away Jonathan Taylor from the Colt. That’s an easy decision. I’m I’m circling Pickkins. I’m circling Pickkins. I’m going to make Lamb. I’m going to make Lamb. And as crazy as that sounds, sounds crazy. I’m making Lamb. Lamb is going to be the I’m going to let him. And let’s see what happens. the the player that we are going to take the attention away from is the Cowboys 88. Like how insane a way to approach that game is that like it’s I do think that one thing that Jeff mentioned about the Chiefs though is important is that as much as we like to do and Jeff’s going to love this analytics and we like to think about um pass game design and formations and motions. When it comes down to it, if you can run the ball and play good defense, physicality, as much as we want to talk about all this other stuff in football, we haven’t quite figured out how to measure this statistically, so some people don’t appreciate it. Bust somebody in their mouth, you’re going to win a lot of games. So, let me try and summarize the conversation we’ve had. One, the the uh Chiefs are going to try and take away George Pickkins. So, if you’re making fantasy decisions or whatever, instead of turkey on this Thanksgiving, we’re having lamb. And then second that one up. Wow. He was thinking about that the whole time. Really was pretty ciruitous. Ciruous. They don’t put you in these hall of fames for nothing. Anyway, then the slight flex. More important. More important. Y’all don’t got home. More importantly, um, if if Patrick Mahomes is going to beat the Cowboys, this is the question I have. We said after the Raider game, the Cowboys defense, oh, throw that out. It’s just the Raiders. Now they just stopped the Eagles when the game mattered. They held them down to nothing. Is this a harder test for the Cowboys defense? Is Kansas City’s offense a tougher test than the Eagles offense? I believe so. And I think it’s because the guy that’s under center, Patrick Mahomes, even in that game where we talk about how well they ran the ball with Kareem Hunt on those last drives. It’s Patrick Mahomes extending the play and doing something special to help propel them to win the game. And I think that’s the difference. That’s why when we look at these analytics and we see that the Chiefs will have a 46% chance to still make the playoffs with a loss is because of 15, he finds a way late in the game for the majority of his career. This is the first time this season. Does that continue to happen? At some point on Thursday, the Dallas defense is going to be on the field. It’s going to be the fourth quarter. It’s going to be your chance to get off the field and make a play. Whether they do that or they don’t to me is going to decide this game. I’ll put something else on that that before we even get to the quarterbacks. It’s a much more difficult test because they do different things. Yes. Like that’s the thing. And I know that we spent a lot of times talking about the Eagles offense and how like elementary it is or rudimentary depending on who you talk to that offense is, but I think the reason why the Chiefs are tougher is they’ve added the running attack. Yes. In this last week and they also like they’ll attack you in different ways. They have different ways to attack zone, different ways to attack man, different weapons. They have adjustments in their routes that are not even in the game plan. That ain’t what you get with the Eagles. are you good enough to stop this really great player? It’s going to be interesting to see if the Cowboys decide they’re going to they’re going to crowd the line of scrimmage and stop Hunt and make the ball go over the top because if if I’m scripting it, that’s what I would do. I I I would I would try to limit that and make Momes, as crazy as it sounds, make them beat me down the field.

Dan Graziano, Jason McCourty, Domonique Foxworth and Jeff Saturday join Mike Greenberg on Get Up to discuss the biggets storylines from Week 12.

0:00 Tuesday Takeaways
2:38 Philadelphia Eagles’ offense too elementary?
6:50 Is Saquon Barkley regressing?
7:40 First Impressions for Thanksgiving
9:36 Kansas City Chiefs vs. Dallas Cowboys
11:08 Dak Prescott vs. Patrick Mahomes
14:38 Why is KC still favored?
17:50 Cowboys defense

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