FIRST THINGS FIRST | Nick Wright RIPS Dallas Cowboys For FAILING To Be GREAT | NFL

FIRST THINGS FIRST | Nick Wright RIPS Dallas Cowboys For FAILING To Be GREAT | NFL

I said to you the other day, win or lose, get blown out or stomp somebody. Dak always sounds the same. Yeah. Optimistic. He He’s great at the podium. I mean, you know, reporters don’t like it because he doesn’t really say much, but he handles it really well. It’s kind of funny hearing him say, “This is the first time this group has suffered. This group is like with Quinnon with what, four games now?” Like so. Um, but look, I am not going to kill the Cowboys. They were to ask them to beat Philly, Kansas City, and Detroit three straight games is a tall task. And they were in Detroit. So, they’re on the road playing against a team that probably is better. Yes. You know, right. And has been better the last few years. I think that’s certainly and not nothing against Brian Shanheimimer, but better coach, certainly more proven coach and I thought they showed that last night and they were desperate. So, I can’t kill the Cowboys for losing. They did some bad things, don’t get me wrong. I thought the defensive line, which had been so great with Quinnon Williams, wasn’t really a factor. They got run on five yards a carry they allowed with the Lions. Dak, the two interceptions, I mean, you know, deflection, the last one, they’re trying to make something happen. The first one I put zero accountability on the one right after the half. Yeah. I couldn’t I couldn’t kill Dak that last one wasn’t that bad either. No, but I’m saying 0% to me. Like that’s a wellplaced ball, but go ahead. He wasn’t as bad as the final numbers, Mike. So, he threw for a lot of yards, but the passer rating was low. But he wasn’t great. He wasn’t great. And one of the biggest things, of course, everybody’s talking about it, George Pickkins, that was very disappointing. I almost lowered their grade as a team because of Pickkins. He he didn’t seem to be, you know, hustling and running out routes at full speed. Not didn’t seem, he clearly wasn’t. Yeah. I I think some of it, you know, a lot of people are saying he was loafing, which might be the case. I think he also was they took him out of it. I there’s no doubt he was expecting him to go man cuz that’s they played man the whole season but without Terry Arnold and the injuries they smartly made some adjustments and I think that threw him off. Now that’s no excuse but I think that is some of what we were seeing. Either way it is a terrible look for him that maybe we’ll get to a little later could cost him. That’s why he’s not in Pittsburgh I think. Yeah. And so overall though um their season’s over. I mean, Dax’s talking about everybody’s ticked off and um you know, you’re going to see that it’s over. I I it’s over. Barring a full collapse from the Eagles, it’s over. So, I But I was probably kind to him. I was going to say I gave him a C. A C is I gave him a C. Fair. Okay. I thought about a D because of Pickkins. Yeah. But overall, I thought it was a C. But you know what? Last week, I wanted to bring my fellas back. Yeah. They were on a world tour. So we we we don’t just bring anybody up in here to sing. We bring top flight singers. So here we go. [Music] I don’t know that I think Dallas is totally dead. Guys, come back. Um because the supernatural fun what you think is already kicking. I I think it’s pos. So, listen, the math has stayed the same. Dallas needs two more wins than Philly does the remainder of the season. I I went into last night thinking Dallas was going to lose and that for a lot of the reasons Brew is talking about Detroit Dallas had been desperate. Detroit, this was their first true desperate spot. I do think Detroit is the better team. They were at home. all of those reasons, I couldn’t see Dallas clipping Philly, Kansas City, Detroit in a span of what what 11 days. It just didn’t seem realistic to me. But I still feel like that Dallas, given who they have the rest of the way, I give them a legit, not a better than 50%, but a legitimate chance to go 4-0. And I think Philly absolutely could go two and three. So again, they’re in bad shape, but I would not eliminate them entirely. The I would however give someone involved with the Cowboys, and this is going to annoy Wilds, I imagine, but I I apologize. It’s just my opinion, an F. And that person is Jerry Jones. Oh, because this game was lost in September. I wonder if Jared Goff would have looked as comfortable playing against Micah Parsons. Well, a week ago, we saw him play against Micah Parsons. And Micah Parsons on Thanksgiving had more sacks, almost as many tackles for a loss, and more quarterback pressures than the Cowboys team yesterday. And so we people can talk all they want about the bad run defense with Michael Parsons. That’s a bad defense without him, even though they have shown more signs of life post adding Quinnon Williams, who is a really good player. But the bridge between really good sometimes great player and consistent game wrecker is massive. And that’s the bridge between perennial pro bowl occasional allp pro and future first ballot hall of famer which is the type of career Mike is carving out. So that’s why I’d give Jerry one of the reasons I’d give him an F. And the other one is because everyone was so anxious. Every time the last couple months brought up Micah, it was like, “Yeah, but on the flip side, that savvy George Pickins, it did look great.” Of course it did. And and color me just dumbfounded that George Pickkins did not change who he has always been every step of his football life in 10 weeks in Dallas. Yeah. Well, listen, I agree and disagree for money for many reasons. Um, first off, George Pickkins is definitely the type of player that when things are great, things are great, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, this guy is amazing and everything’s amazing and he’s great. Great teammate, smiles all around.” He is a it is he is a fragile player. He is not resilient one bit. And so, when things are not going his way, it is just it’s a collapse. And I’m telling you right now, that is a brutal player to have on your team. It is an absolute no matter what sport you’re playing, baseball, basketball, football, soccer, it is brutal to have that type of player on on the bench with you on on on the team with you, in the locker room with you. It is brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal. I cannot emphasize that enough. Even though the upside is huge obviously as as we clearly have seen, but it is it is a tough existence. It is and it’s not just like well a diva. It’s more than that. I promise you more than that. And so that is something that the Cowboys you know have to deal with. And you saw the worst part of it there. Um you know can’t be understated about CD Lamb going down. CD Lamb uh is still there. you you probably maybe like your your chances a lot more in that game. Um, you know, I do think the the defense was over inflated in terms of what they were believing and that’s why I went through those those games. I said the you went against the Eagles, you know, surprised Eagles have been inconsistent and the Raiders, the Raiders have been terrible, etc., etc. Uh, and the Cowboys fans didn’t like that. And then you went up against the Lions and they hung 44 on you. You couldn’t stop Gibbs. You couldn’t stop Montgomery. You couldn’t stop Aman Rosane Brown. You couldn’t stop Jameson. Like, you couldn’t stop Goff. Goff was elite in that game. And Goff was pressured. So, there’s kind of some confusion here. It’s not like they couldn’t get pressure on Goff. Goff was just great. Yes, they got a ton of pressure on Dak. 22 to 13, but 13 is around average or so. Again, depends on the game. uh you know 13 14 15 like that’s it’s a healthy amount of pressures uh for the most part he was getting rid of the ball 2.3 seconds. Jared Goff put on a master class on how to get rid of the ball when getting pressure at you and lacking mobility. Dak Prescott who’d been who was seemingly pressured all night held on to the ball for nearly a half a second more. That is not that is no small margin. That’s huge. That is that is a that is a full beat there. So that that is something. And so Dak was holding it onto the ball a little bit. Uh time to throw when you’re a mobile quarterback and Dak is hardly like the mobile quarterback like a Lamar. It does get extended more. This is why someone like a Jared Gob. This is incredibly representative of how fast he was getting rid of the ball because he’s not a mobile quarterback. He’s not buying time extending plays. The Lamar Jacksons, the Jallens, the Mahomes’s, the Josh Allens, their time to throw is always going to be skewed because the way how they’re running around. So sometimes you can see like Josh Allen has a time to throw or Lamar Jackson has time to throw of like three seconds 3.3 seconds and it’s like it’s not like he’s just calling Hike and he has like a full like 3.3 seconds is just to chill there. Like that’s that’s not the case. And that’s why I keep saying we need a better stat than that. But you can this is representative. Jared Goff was getting rid of that ball and it was a thing of beauty. There were times that Dak was holding on to the ball trying to do something and was getting tagged. There were a couple other times when the pressure just got to him and he just got squashed and you’re just like, “Yeah, nothing he can do in that moment.” And like they said, I don’t really blame him for the interceptions. Um, and so they were saying the box score, he actually played better than the box score, but also the box score, he also benefited from some defensive, you know, ine, you know, defensive issues for the Detroit Lions blown coverages and just their their their defenses decimated with injuries and and hardly great as well. Um, and so it in a in a weird enough way, it kind of balanced it out a little bit. But I I do think Dak played good. Like I don’t think he played bad. A lot of people when I made my postgame clip, I saw in the comments they were like, “Oh, you know, Dak’s not good. Dak’s not good.” I don’t watch this game and say Dak was the reason why they lost, right? Like that’s that’s not my takeaway one bit. Um, but um yeah, you know, I mean the the the Lions really controlled this game start to finish. Um, I really liked the Cowboys uh kind of whole two-minute offense, but they did, you know, they started it with like six, seven minutes to go. I thought that was really impressive. Uh, even how they were even able to get to the field get a field goal uh uh near the end of the half, but then they gave up a field goal as well. So, it kind of neutral, you know, it kind of was uh, you know, neutralized there. But, I still think there’s a lot of positive takeaways from this game for the Dallas Cowboys. And if it wasn’t such a crushing loss from just a playoff perspective, I wouldn’t feel too terrible about it, especially if you’re just, oh, C. Lamb’s going to be back, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And like, you know, you you’d feel pretty good about it. But I do I do agree that this game was lost in September or earlier than that. Um, because this is what I kept saying again and again and again. Jerry Jones deserves actually a lot of credit for building pretty great teams over these years. And this is what I always kind of talked about with Cowboys fans. It’s like everyone says like, “Oh, they hate Jerry.” But at the same time, he’s built team. You guys told me how great these teams are, 12 win teams, etc., etc. And it’s just like, well, Jerry Jones is a huge reason why the he built those teams. He built those great defenses, the great O lines, the run game, etc., etc. You know, he drafted Dak, blah blah blah blah blah. CD Lamb, like, so it’s just like, you know, which is it there? But he then also tries to pretend like he’s kind of had this like master plan the whole time when we know he wanted to keep Micah. And then he moves on for Micah and people had this conversation. Was that smart? Was that not? And I’ve, you know, I’ve said that I don’t think it was necessarily the best move, but I understand the move. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. And we kind of kept unpacking that. And I kept saying, you know, put that aside though. The reality is though is that if you actually were organized, if you actually really had a plan, you would have traded Micah before the draft and then you would have been able to use the capital that you got to make immediate impacts either through the draft or other trade, you know, like however the the exact however it exactly unfolded, you would have had a better defense not only right now in this immediate moment in terms of December 4th when you’re playing, but then also earlier in the season. So now you wouldn’t be in this fragile 66 and one situation. There’s a there’s great reason to believe that you could have seven wins or eight wins or whatever, right? You would be in a more competitive spot. Not to mention, even if by by luck you just were still at this spot, the defense still in this immediate moment would still be better. So you now wasted a season effectively. You just you just you just did. And this automatic assumption, I’m talking to someone who’s a big Cowboys fan, Grover. Shout out Grover. He’s like, “Everything’s gonna be fine. Feeling great about next year. We’re gonna be able to hit the ground running, etc., etc., etc.” And it’s just like, you can’t say that. You I mean, we we we you just Dak Prescott and the Cowboys, they’re they’re not Josh, not Lamar Jackson, not Patrick Mors. You can’t just like this has been a great season with with Dak and CD and Pickkins and Shanhammer and like you just can’t automatically assume that this offense how it’s been playing and and the high-poweredness of it is just going to be automatically repeat. You just you just can’t. It’s just it’s too strong of an assumption. Is is Pickkins even going to be there? Can they afford him? Is he going to demand a ton of money? Do the Cowboys want him? Because now there’s the question marks of like this is the problem with George. And then if they keep him, then you still have this kind of up and down nature of him. And so it’s like, okay, so what does that mean? It’s not just, hey, we got two elite receivers, we’re good to go. We got Dak, we got the O line, we got the run game. We just got to improve our defense. And here we are now, baby. Let’s get after it. It’s like, uh, you’re you’re at the rate, you’re at the at the part of Dak’s career where it is. It I mean, we always joke, oh, it’s ESBO, Super Bowl, or bus, but it absolutely is. Dak’s got like two, three years left, man. Dax’s not playing until he’s 45 years old. Enough of the nonsense. Enough of the nonsense. So, it’s it’s you either are building a Super Bowl roster now or not. You are either elite and a great team or not. Yes or no. And you you wasted this season now. Sean ended up being a great hire and and and even getting George Pickkins was still great. It was worth it. You didn’t give up anything. if you had to if if it was if this was a DK Metaf type situation where you brought him in for $150 million and now they’re like, “Wow, that was actually a pretty good deal considering what George Pickkins is doing right now.” Um, but like that’s not the case. So, it was really all, you know, no risk, all reward for the Cowboys with Pickins. It really was. So, like I don’t think we have to now downplay that move just because we’re kind of like, uh, I don’t know what’s the story here with this. You You don’t have to do that. But it does give a big gigantic question mark going into the future. And yet you had the season right now where people were like, man, Dak’s playing at an MVP level, Sean, this offense, etc., etc. And so you, that is an opportunity lost and a season lost for a quarterback that only is going to have so many more seasons left. We can pretend all we want that this guy is just going to be great for the next eight years. You want to live in La La Land, be my guest. But it’s just not it’s just not what’s going to happen. It’s not the reality of the situation. It’s just not. And again, I’m Dak was not the problem in this game. I don’t, like I told you guys, I don’t watch this game and say Dak just wasn’t good enough. If he was better, if you had Patrick Mahomes, you would have won this game. I’m not saying that. Not saying that at all. But it’s just this team did have some juice. um and could have been better if they made better decisions earlier on, but since they’re kind of flying uh by the seat of their the seam of their pants, I don’t even know the expression. Uh by the seam of their pants, uh this is the situation that you find yourself in. Now, I don’t think it’s over either. I I’m not saying that I’m predicting a Philadelphia Eagles collapse or that they could go two and three in their next five games, but it’s on the table. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m not saying it’s over. I’m not saying it’s done. Jaylen Carter is now injured. The Philadelphia Eagles coaching is a mess. So, it’s just like there’s no strong sense that it’s just like, nah, this is 100% over. And I do feel as though that the Cowboys, even if I do think going into this game, their stock was inflated a bit and they were overvalued, doesn’t mean that I don’t think that they can’t beat the teams that they have in front of them for their next four games. So, I think it’s totally possible. I do not think that this season is just automatically lost. There’s still a ton to play for and a ton to fight for, but um at the very least this p this pops a hole in the bubble of this idea of if they just get to the playoffs, they’re the most dangerous team in the NFL. Like that’s what the argument was being made, that this is the most dangerous team in the NFL, that they’re going to be favored to come out the NFC, Dak be MVP, etc., etc., etc. And it’s like, we didn’t see any of that. We did not see MVP Dak. We did not see the most dangerous team in the NFL. We did not see the the top Super Bowl contender. Uh we didn’t see any of that any of that against Detroit. And you and Brew Candy, well, they’re all on the road and they’re this and they’re that. Okay. You’re telling me that Dak Prescott’s the MVP? You’re telling me that Dak Prescott’s an elite top quarterback in the NFL, $60 million man, and you’re telling me that he can’t be great and special on the road? What are you talking about? Like what? Jaylen Herz is like 28 and three on the road. Uh Patrick Mahomes played he was on the road on Thanksgiving short rest against Dallas was elite, you know, was special. Okay, so it’s like you can’t this was a tough game. They played Detroit. They played Kansas City and it’s like or and they played the Eagles. It’s like the Eagles haven’t been good right now. They they’ve been struggling. They lost the Chicago Bears at home. They got blown out by the Giants on the road. Like let’s, you know, let’s be serious here. The Kansas City Chiefs are six and six. They’re currently not in the playoffs right now. It’s like, let’s be serious here. And the Detroit Lions got handedly beaten by the Green Bay Packers, right? So, it’s like when you look at the Pack when you look at the E when you excuse me, when you look at the Cowboys, you’re saying, are you better than these teams or not? Are you on a different level or not? Yes or no? And especially going into this game, you’re saying they’re better than the Detroit Lions. Like, they’re they’re a better team. And now we’re like, well, they lost to the Lions and we do think the Lions are better. And it’s like, okay, but why then? You believe in the coaching more. You believe in the play caller more. You believe in the quarterback more. You believe in the in in the in the receivers more. You believe in the defense more than the Detroit Lions defense certainly. So it’s just like so you can’t just chalk it up to excuses. You can’t just be like well you can’t win that many games in 11 days or something. Like what? How does that make sense? And especially it’s one thing losing. It’s one thing being, you know, beaten pretty convincingly. If it if it wasn’t for your field goal kicker who can kick 80 yard field goals, score would be even less to be serious here. And when you look at what the Lions offense was able to do, you’re like, “Okay, that’s a resilient offense. That’s that is an offense that you should fear having to go up against.” So, I don’t know. I mean, you know, yeah, even even though Micah because he showed the stats about like Micah versus Jared Got Jared Goth played really really well, dare I say great against the Packers. Again, he lost Alman Rosbr. He lost his receiver in that game, which you know, and then there was a couple key drop passes and some bad decision-making by Dan Campbell and they lost the game in Thanksgiving. They didn’t get rolled. They didn’t get they didn’t lose, you know, like this this wasn’t this they were that game was in balance. You didn’t get a sense of like Lions can’t keep up with the Packers right now. Jared Goff is just seeing seeing ghost stars and and and and birds and so, you know, but then in this game with the Cowboys against clearly a not great defense, you were like, uh, they got nine points right now and the Lions, I think at that one point had like 27. you’re like, “Ah, this is not quite the same.” So, but those are just my thoughts. I’d absolutely love to hear yours. What do you guys all think about the Dallas Cowboys, Dak Prescott, Micah, CD Lamb, George Piggins, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I read every single comment. So, whether you agree with me or disagree with me, either way, let’s get in some discussions. Let’s get in some fights, but ultimately, let’s just have some fun. And please do consider subscribing. 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FIRST THINGS FIRST | Nick Wright RIPS Dallas Cowboys For FAILING To Be GREAT | NFL
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