Jerry Jones has led the Cowboys to ‘the best transformation I’ve EVER SEEN’ – Jeff Saturday | Get Up

Jerry Jones has led the Cowboys to ‘the best transformation I’ve EVER SEEN’ – Jeff Saturday | Get Up

Wednesday crew is here and we begin with midweek madness. We are fired up this morning and we have lots of reasons to be. Borton B, what are you fired up about? Kansas City streak of seven straight trips to the AFC Championship game is going to end. And I cannot believe Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are not going to take advantage of it. They’re not mathematically eliminated or anything like that, but Jackson and the Ravens look off. And I don’t know if Josh Allen has enough help to navigate through the AFC this year. It’s sad. The window finally opened and they weren’t there to capitalize on it. That’s a really good point. We could talk about that more later. Peter, what has you fired up this morning? I know it happened Sunday night in a long Thanksgiving weekend. But can we finally give some love to what might have been the greatest catch we have seen since Odell’s Trayon Burks fifth catch of the season. Just three games with the Commanders has this catch and I don’t think it was shown on any highlights anywhere Monday morning. Trayon Burks, we’re going to give you love today or Wednesday. That is a spectacular catch. Dominique, what has you mad this morning? I mean, our guy Jackson Dart, I know it’s been And we’re looking at this catch one more time. You said we didn’t get enough love. We’ll give it more love. But Jackson Dart is mad. I love how tough. I love how tough you are. But we need you for the long term, man. Like, he’s a promising young quarterback who has other abilities. It’s not as if he’s only a running quarterback. He throws really accurate passes if he can stay upright. So, please protect yourself. You need to hear what Bruce Aren said about this yesterday on McAfee and you will as we continue. Meanwhile, Jeffrey, what has you mad this morning? The Eagles defense. How about Listen, we’re going to have to carry this team in the playoffs. D and we got Carter, you know, we got um Davis, Jordan. None of these guys stepped up. The Bears, y’all had two running backs that averaged six yards a carry. Two. by the way, as they went on to 250 yards rushing. That is an absolute manhandling of a very good defense. The Eagles are not going to go far in the playoffs if their defense doesn’t carry them. That was a poor performance in a standalone game where you got to show up and and the Bears outplayed them tremendously. They’ll have another standalone game on Monday night. And speaking of the Eagles, the Cowboys are gaining on them fast in that NFC East that we know no one ever wins in consecutive years. Here was Jerry Jones yesterday on the Cowboys playoff chances. Our best shot, I think, is to win the division. I really am pleased with how this team has come together over these last two or three weeks. I’m excited about what we’ve done, how we have evolved, and it would be a fairy tale. Not a not total fairy tale, but it would be wonderful to pull this thing out, get in those playoffs, and have this staff make a run at it. We’ve got the personnel that we can compete like that. So, here’s the thing, Jerry. You’re already in the playoffs. The playoffs started for this team weeks ago and this game tomorrow night is absolutely a make or break game. Win and their chances of getting in the playoffs are 36%. Lose and their chances are 8%. This is for all intents and purposes a playoff game for both teams. for the same guy who sat up here that said they had zero zero% and Jerry Jerry actually said something coherent which obviously I was like it’s like a double plus day for Jerry. All the things he did has paid off. I mean this team this defense doesn’t even look like the same team. It it it has been a a transformation like I’ve never seen in the NFL. And their offense was always a playoff if not Super Bowl caliber offense. But their defense that you the the the Quinnon Williams signing, the Wilson, the overshown coming back, the guys on the back end getting healthy, but the style that I flu has has has brought in, they play some five down front, they give you different looks, and they’ve made it very difficult. And by the way, they built beat some very good football teams. And I I I dare to say after I gave them 0%, this is the scariest team in the NFC. offense, defense, they can flat out get after you if you you no one wants to see them in the playoffs if they win win out and get there. As we just showed you, the chances remain such that the Cowboys don’t get in, but if they do get in, they suddenly look like a team that could do some I know we can’t forget everything that happened earlier in the season. It’s going to be in our minds, but in football when we like game plan, it’s normally the last four games. That’s right. If you look at their last three games and coming up on this game, this has been one of the most impressive teams in football. If they finish this win and knock off the Lions, this run would have been put them separates them from anyone else. I don’t know that I can think of a three-game run that any other team has had that’s been more impressive. They have to finish it with this Lions win and then they’ll get the Vik or Yeah, then they get the Vikings, which is another winnable game. And I’m starting to think that they they really might do this. They if they beat the Lions, they have what feel like four winnable games to finish up their season. And Peter, you were making a point that I made a lot on Friday. Here’s the schedule that you see remaining. Now, the Eagles, of course, have some games that you’d figure they should win for sure. The after the Charger game, which is tough even with the injuries that LA has. Raiders feels winnable. Commanders twice feels winnable. Buffalo probably will be playing for their lives that week. So, that’s not as easy a game. You see the schedule side by side. We’ll see. The Cowboys need to make up what amounts to essentially a game and a half. But the the play that I know you want to spotlight was the one that I came in here Friday morning screaming about. It’s real. I I look, this is a a game. game. It’s a one-sore game against the Chiefs. It’s national TV. 50 million people watching and George Pickkins gets the ball and we can roll the play here if we want to show Pickkins the one-score game and he gets stripped and this happens and in nine out of 10 times the Chiefs recover. Look at Cavante Turpin come from the entire other side of the field to be Johnny on the spot and recover. Why do we bring up this play? because they had the Elijah Green play, Elijah Clark play last week on the punt return where he’s making the play, going, hustling, finding it. Everyone is on the same page and I texted a Cowboys source after the game on Thursday and my text was this. It was like Dak and CD, it was great to see them back together. Says, “Don’t worry about any of that. Make sure on ESPN you guys highlight the Turpin fumble recovery.” That’s what we’re about this season. That’s what we’re about right now. This is a completely different team than the one that I saw in a Monday night football game lose to Jacobe Brassette and Amari Marcado and Bam Knight and the Arizona Cardinals at home. It’s been only a month, but it is a completely different squad. The question is, is it too late to get into the playoffs? That’s right. So, there’s that side of it. And then Kimberly, I’ll take everyone inside our meeting this morning. We had all of these conversations and then Kmart jumps in as a voice of the table for the Cowboys. And then here I come. We’re ignoring the other side of this game, which is just as important. The Detroit Lions. We’re acting like the the Cowboys are the only team that have something to play for. I’ve covered the lines in the playoffs the last couple years, them losing to San Francisco last year, that game against the Commanders, and you’re watching a team that seemed right at the doorstep of this team is loaded. They’re clearly going to get to the Super Bowl. And now you look at this team again, offensive line, whether it be injuries, whether it be just they’re just not playing well. You’ve got secondary injuries and then Amar St. Brown did not practice yesterday and now his status for the game is still uncertain. But this is a Lions team where Dan Campbell is trying to tell them this is the moment we have to dig deep. Their whole the big word they use grit in the this is the time for the grit because they year after year they’ve dealt with injuries but they they’re playing at home guys. They’re playing at home and they still have Jir Gibbs and David Montgomery who are two stars. I love that point because I I think we make such a big deal of their injuries and and you forget, right? Like the 49ers have had they they have a litany of injuries and they still went like we’re going to have injuries in the NFL and it’s unfortunate and it’s difficult and it’s all those things but your other players have to play well and to your point their offensive line last year was dominant. They didn’t play good against the Packers again. Two time twice in a year you’re playing an indivision opponent. you know what they do and they got wore out again at some point. What what is your identity? I think I feel like for me that’s the hardest part of of of what I see with the Lions is they want to be a physical team. They want to be a run team. They want to be these kind of things but they haven’t been. Golf is a very stationary quarterback and without St. Brown, they’re a different team. Kimberly mentions that San Francisco game. It’s less than two years ago. You’re sitting there thinking you had the shot to go to the Super Bowl. You missed. But look at the future. A bunch of young guys, cost effective, the sky’s the limit. Less than two years later, you’re currently favored to miss the playoffs. They’re not a favorite to get in, they’re a favor to miss. And if things go south Thursday night, they got the Rams on the road on deck. It’s only going to get worse. You project to next year, bottom 10 currently in salary cap space, only 39 guys under contract. Did they miss the window becomes the question, but that’s sitting in that press conference room when Dan Campbell walks in after that San Francisco 49ers loss, and he says, you know, that window, this might have been our shot. We’re all looking around like this team is so good. Why? They were up by double digits. Their window is still open. And he’s speaking to the reality of if if you don’t punch it in, you may never get that shot again. This team does show grit though. Like I think this another opportunity for him. They’ve shown it time and time again. And the injury point that you made about the 49ers. You can make that same point about the Lions last year and so far this season that defense has stood up despite injuries to the secondary. But the problem I think right now is it feels like this organization is heading in a different direction. like their fourth down luck hasn’t been nearly as good as it’s been historically. They’re changing offensive coordinators. Dan Campbell, who hadn’t called plays before, now feels like he calls plays. This team feels more desperate than it ever has. And not desperate in a good way. Kind of desperate in a reaching clawing for something that they can hold on to. It’s not a great matchup for them this weekend. Pickkins and Ferguson and Lamb, it doesn’t match up with that banged up defensive backfield. It’s just what it is. So, a team that will throw the ball all over the yard indoors and have a field day. That’s not a great matchup for Detroit’s way that they’re built personnel wise. They they play they play 60% man coverage. George Pickkins lives in man coverage. Like almost 700 yards on just like if you’re going to think of let’s change something up, we better figure something out for Lamb and Pickins. We want to do we want to do man. H maybe it’s not the best game for them. Maybe maybe we do a little something different. And I feel like Aman Ross St. Brown has sort of been their heartbeat. Like there’s so many great players on that team. Williams hits home runs and Gibbs hits home runs and all that, but Ahmad Ross St. Brown feels like the heartbeat of that team. That feels like the one bridge too far. If they if they’ve really lost him, I feel like that and they’re at home. I think that’s that’s that’ll help the the Lions a great deal being at home and the motivation they get from that. And the Cowboys haven’t been as good on the road as they’ve been at home. What’s the number in this game? Three open five and a half and it was Cowboy money early and often. All right. [Music]

Kimberley A. Martin, Peter Schrager, Domonique Foxworth and Jeff Saturday join Mike Greenberg on Get Up to discuss all the biggest storylines after Week 13 in the NFL season, diving into all the buzz around the Dallas Cowboys.

0:00 Midweek Madness
2:17 Jerry Jones on the Cowboys’ playoff chances
3:14 Cowboys vs. Detroit Lions
4:18 “One of the most impressive teams in football”
6:43 Lions’ perspective
8:03 Jared Goff without Amon-Ra St. Brown

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