Cowboys, WHAT HAPPENED?! 😳 Peter Schrager says NOTHING went their way vs. the Lions 👀 | Get Up

Cowboys, WHAT HAPPENED?! 😳 Peter Schrager says NOTHING went their way vs. the Lions 👀 | Get Up

Yeah, the Lions have Dan Campbell and Kelvin Shepard and the Dallas Cowboys don’t. That was the difference in a game that you thought the coaching was a big difference 1,000%. If you look at the defensive plan by Kelvin Shepard, who’s the defensive coordinator, it was very clear, one, I’m not going to expose my defensive backs early on. Two, on third downs, we’re going to make sure that we go double double. So, they take their two linebackers, put them in the double A gaps. They’re just trying to create one-on- ones for the tackles. Now, look at the secondary. Lewis knows this. Like, this is third and 10. All five of these guys are going to be just sitting with zone eyes at 10 yards because they know the pressure will get home. Somebody will get a one-on-one and win. And this allows Analone to play with vision. Ball comes out. If not, it’s going to get tipped. Batted ball away. Then you go in the red zone, which Bart is talking about. Where’s CD Lamb? Where’s George Pickkins? Three defensive linemen, a spy, but it’s really about the coverage. They’re going to double both George Pickkins and CD Lamb with safety help. Somebody else is going to have to beat them down in the red zone. We created the one-on-one with the tackles. Hutch spins inside. Mohamed over the top. This is the the late pass interference. Only George Pickkins on the field. Who’s the only guy that gets double teamed? George Pickkins. Then they allow the rush to get home. They’re going to make somebody other than George beat them. They’re playing man coverage and they’re creates that either pass breakup or offensive pass interference. I thought Kelvin Shepard was very clear. Little one-on- ones early on. They’re not going to give you any one-on- ones on third down. third down. There wasn’t a single one-on-one play that mattered when it comes to coverage versus receivers. And it was going to create the the the tackles for the Cowboys who were the weakness. Get Hutch and Muhammad on them in single pass protection situations and they’ll win. It’s the holiday season. I think we all got a little swept away with this Cowboys miracle story. It seemed to be very festive when hey there’s this great chance that they go and they beat the Eagles and then they go and beat the Chiefs and then they finish the job against the Lions and away we go and we’re on this Cowboys ride. Everything that was working for them the last few weeks didn’t happen. The the officiating didn’t go in their favor. Those fumble recoveries that Turpin was making and that the Elijah Clark on that special teams play, those didn’t happen. And then yesterday, I hate to go to special teams, but I think Tom Kennedy is still returning kicks for the Detroit Lions. Every single time that there was a punt return or a kickoff return, the Lions would take it all the way back. Their average starting position was the 41 yardd line. They needed everything to go their way last night. And the Cowboys, they lose City Lamb. They get a very headscratching offensive pass interference call against them. And special teams wasn’t what it’s been. So all the great things that we were getting excited about, they didn’t go their way. And now they got 8% chance making the playoffs. And the thing we were most excited about or the person we were most excited about during this film was George Pickkins who managed to emerge over the course of the last well really two months as arguably the best receiver in the entire NFL. He was playing that way and then last night the criticism of him right now if you’re waking up this morning and social media and all of that, the criticism of the effort, the criticism of the approach to the game last night. Harry, you’re my receiver. What did you see from Pickkins last night? Yeah, from George Pickkins, it can’t be a a switch that you want to turn off and on when you want to do it. Every single time that you step out on this football field, you have to be do dominant, not just in the pass game, but also in the in the run game. Granny, I know what it looks like to play with a 1A and a 1B. I played with Rody White and I played with Julio Jones. And the reason why those two guys were so damn good for so long is that every single time that they took the football field, it was going to be a blood bath. Whether it was going to one-on-one against a DB, whether they were double covered or blocking in the run game. So for a guy like George Pickkins and I’m watching replays when they show the re I’m saying why is he not running the routes full speed. So for George it it it’s taking accountability and saying that I’m going to be dominant every single time that I’m out there on this football team and I’m not going to pick and choose when I want that to be. Richard Sherman was extremely critical of him after the game last night and as we watch some of the plays here there are there do seem to be several instances where he is far be it for me to say it he’s not running full speed. He doesn’t seem to be running the route with the intensity you normally see. Look at this. This is not full speed. Yeah, Dan. What is that? Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with Detroit sitting there saying, “We’re not going to get up in your face and play one-on-one where we are going to play shell on you.” I agree with you. I just think it’s a little bit of George sitting there. He’s had so much one-on-one coverage over the last five or six weeks. He knew in those one-on-one situations, balls coming my way more often than not. Gets to the Detroit game, corner playing six or seven yards off. I see a safety over there playing over the top. They’re kind of double teaming me with shade. I’m not getting the football. See what what we’re talking about now though. See what we’re talking exactly. What we’re talking about now is football character. That’s what we’re talking about. Okay. What happens when you’re out there on the football field and it doesn’t look like it’s supposed to look to you or rather how you think it’s going to look to you. See, I think one of the things that were miscalculated about this football game is I heard a lot of talk about the fact that Dallas uh Detroit’s propensity to want to play a lot of man-to-man coverage. Do you think Kelvin Shepard doesn’t sit there and self scout himself? You think he’s going to go out there and just go, “Hey, you know what? We’re just going to play across the board one-on-one against George Pickkins, who’s been lightened up everybody all season long. Of course, he’s going to change it up. And George, you’re going to have to adjust. I said, Jameson Williams looks like Jerry Rice out there. The way he ran that that curl route, he looks like he’s flying down the field to run a nine ball and he puts on the brakes like that. He was doing that throughout the entire game, no matter if he was getting the ball or not. That’s the difference. And Dio, I’ll say this for you. You play with a Hall of Fame wide receiver. We just had him on our show Fred and Harry, Calvin Johnson. Did he take plays off? No, but Calvin was always getting double teams. Always. So, he had he knew he knew that it was I’m I’m no matter if it’s one-on-one or twoon-one, ball was coming my way. Now, Calvin’s a Hall of Famer. I don’t disagree with what you guys are saying. This was the conundrum with the Pittsburgh Steelers cuz they knew they had to pay George Pickkins. If they wanted to do it, they had to do it this year. And that was the version that they would sometimes see. And now the Cowboys are placed in that same position. But if not now, then when? If a guy’s up for a big-time contract, this is the biggest game of the year on the biggest stage and that’s what you get, you have to say buy or beware. Good point. Yeah. Listen, I’m not I think it’s I lean more towards crediting Detroit for the plan. Detroit treated George Pickkins and CD Lamb like Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. You know, they said we are not going to let you two beat us. And that was that game plan that Kelvin Shepard did against those two guys. Correct. I got to hold this thought here. Take a short break. We have much more to come on all this because it’s December in Green Bay, so of course it’s going to be cold. What does the game mean? Well, everything. With a win, the Bears would take a commanding lead in the NFC North. They would have a 59% chance to win the division. If Green Bay wins, they would have a 70% chance to win the division. And the Bears chances would fall to just 20%. So, I feel like the whole world is looking at this as a test for the Bears. They keep moving the goalpost, right? Like last Friday was a test for the Bears. Can they go to Philadelphia? They beat Philadelphia. Now the story line is, “Ah, but Philadelphia is terrible.” Now, this is the real test for Chicago. Can they pass it? Absolutely they can. And it’ll start up front. All these games in November and December, every time we come on air at this time of year, we’re talking about the lines of scrimmage. The Chicago Bears have fixed the line of scrimmage. In particular, on offense, they’re averaging just under five yards per carry. And why is that? Look at the right side of this offensive line. Look how they take three guys and put them on the ground. And it starts by knocking Jaylen Carter off the ball. Then it gets into Kobe Dean. Then Reed Blankenship. All these guys are going, “Wait a minute. You’re getting knocked back into me. Whoa, you’re getting knocked back into me.” And here comes DeAndre Swift downhill just ripping you for plus 20, plus 25 yard plays. You can do that against Green Bay. Guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to pile up first downs. You’re going to eat up the clock. You’re going to keep the offense off the field. And Micah Parson’s going to be sitting there going, “They ain’t paying me to sit here and stop the run.” They always say the running game travels. I mean, does this thing as legit as it looked last Friday? No, absolutely. The double teams in their run game are fantastic. I say they create advantages schematically and then they move you off the ball. Bren Ben Johnson with the motions, the way they use the tight ends to gain numbers advantage. Discipline with the eyes of Green Bay is number one. I’d say this, the name for me that Green Bay’s got to play great is number 33, Eric Williams. He’s often times the backside safety. for us offensive people who are like these zone schemes that Lewis just pointed out. The goal is to get everybody flying on the defense one way and then you create a cut for the back on the backside. It’s not just the front side of the defense that’s got to be great. The back side of the defense has got to be outstanding. Williams is often that guy that’s just fitting into that backside hole. He’s going to have to have another huge game. What’s the story here? The story to me is that everyone looks at this Bears team as this like surprise. We woke up this morning and all of a sudden the Bears are in first place. But they don’t view themselves that way. In fact, they built this team this season with a lot of veterans who have been there and done that. So Joe Tuni being traded for is not just a a random. No, that’s a guy who won Super Bowls with the Patriots and the Chiefs. Grady Jarrett had many years in Atlanta playing in big playoff games for Dan Quinn. That’s why they brought him in. And Case Keenum is there in the quarterback’s room with Caleb Williams. You go to Ben Johnson, he’s had a lot of success at Lambo. He’s three and0 as a coordinator for the Detroit Lions in that stadium. In fact, when they were playing for nothing was the offensive coordinator when they knocked the Packers out of the playoffs in the week 18 game. Aaron Rogers’s last game ever in Lambeau Field. So, they don’t look at themselves as this dream Cinderella story. They look at themselves as, oh, we’re going to go smack the Packers in the face this weekend. How about the other side? When last scene, Jordan Love was throwing four touchdowns against Detroit. Yeah, I love everything about Jordan Love. Uh Dio, you agree with me on this? Jordan Love has not been the problem in my opinion this season for the Green Bay Packers. You just need those wide receivers to go out there and catch the football. And you know what can play a factor in this matchup is it’s going to be cold. It’s going to be about 20 degrees. I think with the wind chill it might be feel like one. Yeah. So that may play a factor. But I the last person that I’m worried about is Jordan Love versus a defense that is not good in my opinion and the Chicago Bears. Jordan Love should have a field day. That’s why I believe it’s important for Ben Johnson in that run game to own the time of possession and keep the ball away from Jordan Love. Mhm. Dak Prescott played himself out of the MVP last night. I think Jordan Love has the opportunity to very much so start to play himself into it. I think that there’s a couple guys ahead of it. The difference in Jordan Love recently is he’s putting the ball wherever he wants in coverage. And if he continues to do that against Chicago, I don’t think this game’s close. Yeah. You just have to keep an eye on one guy in particular. Keep your eye on Kevin Bernard now. This guy has been robbing people all season long. He is very opportunistic and smart. He’s going to play games with you just like you try to play games with him. If Jordan is great with his decision-making and his field vision, I think they win the game as you see we have our picks up there on the screen. But Kevin, but look, this team is feasted. I mean, they are they are absolutely lapping the league as far as turnover differential right now. And there’s a reason and a lot of it has to do with the ball hawking nature of their second. A huge part of this game is can Green Bay make Chicago one-dimensional? If they can and they say we want Caleb Williams on the road to beat us, Green Bay’s in advantage. It is the oldest rivalry in the NFL. They’ve played some really meaningful games. This one feels like the next edition. [Music]

Dan Orlovsky, Peter Schrager, Louis Riddick, Harry Douglas and Bart Scott join Mike Greenberg on Get Up to react to the Detroit Lions’ Thursday Night Football win over the Dallas Cowboys, then they look ahead to more in Week 14.

0:00 Dan O’s film breakdown
1:55 What didn’t work for the Cowboys
2:40 George Pickens not putting in the effort?
6:22 Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers
9:14 Jordan Love vs. Caleb Williams

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