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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Eagles vs. Cowboys, Week 14 · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff here. We wanted to let you know
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that we recorded this podcast episode on Tuesday, December fifth, twenty twenty three,
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so by the time you hear this preview podcast, some things may have
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changed here there. Oh, we hope you enjoyed the show. All right,
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everybody, you're listening to Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast
0:43
show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. That's
0:46
right, for ten and a half years strong. We've got the Dallas Cowboys
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coming up, folks. Yes, indeed, the second matchup of this twenty
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twenty three twenty twenty four season, the Eagles facing the Dallas Cowboys down in
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Texas. It is gonna be a very interesting matchup given the fact that this
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Eagles team got completely blown out by the San Francisco forty nine ers. What
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kind of changes and alterations may be made from an offensive skiming standpoint from a
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defensive skiming standpoint, Shaq Leonard, Now on this Eagles team, we're gonna
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be getting into that in just a bit. On this preview show, we
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had a great guest, so let's just get right to it, and it
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is great to have back on the podcast, coming to us from bloggintheboys dot
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com. Yes, I know it's enemy territory. It's opposition territory, folks,
1:33
but we love the guys down there at blogintheboys dot com and the ladies
1:36
as well. We've got Matt Holleran. You can find him on the Twitter
1:40
dot com at hollerin MDH. Matt Man. It's great to see on zoom
1:45
here as we're recording this audio. And been an interesting season. How you
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been, buddy, sure, man, I appreciate you having me back on.
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It's always great to talk some NFC East. Been a great season for
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both of our teams so far. It's gonna get a little better for somebody
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on Sunday. But excited to see how the rest of the season plays out.
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And you know, the rivalries at its best when both the Cowboys and
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Eagles are are good. So it's definitely cooking right now and excited to see
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how things unfold. Absolutely, it's gonna kill me just to pull back the
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curtain a little bit. Gonna kill me that we're leaving for vacation. I'm
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going on a family vacation. We're actually going on a cruise and we're leaving
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on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock. Rough timing, right, it's terrible timing.
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I'm gonna be following everything on my phone with regard to this game.
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So that's just to say, folks, there will not be an Eagles postgame
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podcast show after this Eagles Cowboys matchup. I wanted to throw that out there,
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but again, Matt Man, it's great to great to see you.
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It's great to be able to talk about this particular matchup too, because,
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like you said, like one of these teams, of course, is gonna
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win, one of these teams is gonna lose, and it's going to be
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a momentum shifting type of week for one of these two teams. And these
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two teams is know they love to split these NFC East matchups year after year
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after year. The Cowboys opened up up, they opened up as the favorites
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against the Eagles. Doesn't surprise me at all. How would you describe,
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Matt, the momentum that Dallas has right now at this particular point in time
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as we're heading into Week fourteen. Yeah, well, the Cowboys definitely come
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into this game with as much momentum as they've had since Mike McCarthy took over
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as the head coach in twenty twenty. They've won four straight, six out
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of their last seven. In those games, they've outscored their opponents two fifty
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four to one thirty seven, which is obviously a huge point differential. Now
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there's a caveat there. Only two of the teams they've played, Philadelphia and
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Seattle, were above five hundred, and they did lose to Philadelphia in Philly,
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so they haven't, you know, played great competition. I think that
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definitely has played a factor in how lopsided some of these wins have been.
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But they're definitely playing at a high level that they're playing well on both sides
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of the ball, and I think a big reason for their recent success has
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been the play of Dak Prescott. I think it's pretty, you know,
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inarguable that Dak is playing the best football of his career right now. He's
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thrown twenty one touchdown passes to just two picks in their last seven games.
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That's the best stretch he's ever had by far. If Dak keeps playing the
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way he has, I think the Cowboys can beat anybody in the league.
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The question will be well he and not just he Abile, the team be
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able to keep up this performance against more talented competition. Now, you know,
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they're not going to beat people by forty like they've done to the blow
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five hundred teams, but they have a ton of momentum. This game is
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obviously huge for them, just to show I think that they can beat Philadelphia
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if you if you can't beat him now, I don't know if you'll ever
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really be able to, especially on the road in the playoffs. So they
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have momentum, but you know this will will be I think a peak or
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a valley depending on how Sunday's game plays out. And that's that's one of
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the biggest themes that you you know, kind of alluded to there Matt about
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the Dallas Cowboys in terms of being able to actually get over the hump.
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I mean, this isn't like, you know, me, the Philadelphia Eagles
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fan, you know, saying this, you know, disparaging the Cowboys.
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It really is that that theme of Okay, you know, we've seen really
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good play from this Dallas Cowboys team over several years. I mean, we
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have Dak Prescott has been a very very very good quarterback in this league and
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has shown a lot of leadership, you know, when I can put on
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the objective goggles here, of course, but again, it's getting over the
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hump when they need to get over the hump, haven't necessarily been able to
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do that. And I do wonder as a Cowboys fan, as somebody who
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writes about this team as well, I'm wondering how concerned there is for this
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Philadelphia Eagles team, who is also looking to rebound from a disastrous game against
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the San Francisco forty nine ers, but a team who's also beaten some quality
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opponents this season as well. How does Cowboys Nation kind of like, how's
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everybody feeling about that? Yeah? I think it's a great point, And
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this might not make a ton of sense saying it out loud, but I
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think I'm actually more concerned about the Eagles after what happened to them last week.
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Now, that might not make a ton of sense. Historically, there's
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good teams always seem to bounce back after they get embarrassed. And Philly's obviously
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a good team. They're better than the good team. They're a great team,
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and I think if they would have, you know, lost a close
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one to San Francisco last week you could have said, Okay, well they're
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due to drop one. I think Philly was just due for a stinker.
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They hadn't had one in such a long time. It was bound to happen
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at some point, and they ran into San Francisco, who's obviously a great
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team. But I think the Eagles are still at worst the second best team
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in football. They do so many things well, and they've shown this year
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they can win games in different ways, which that's the sign of a team
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that's capable of winning a championship. Jalen hurts doesn't have to be great for
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them to win. Their defense doesn't have to be great. So I don't
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think the Eagles have put it all together yet and they've only lost, which
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that's a scary thought. If they do put it all together, what's it
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going to look like. I still think Philadelphia is a great team, definitely
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concerned about this matchup. They present some serious matchup problems for Dallas. So
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I think that last week didn't change anything in my opinion. I still think
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Philadelphia is great and that they're going to be a tough, tough matchup for
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Dallas. It is gonna I think it's gonna be a tough matchup. I
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think this is going to end up being a very close game. And I
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think it's interesting as we're moving along with the conversation here, Matt, how
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the Cowboys missed out on Shaq Leonard and as we know, the Eagles just
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signed him to a one year deal. And I thought it was a little
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bit quite frankly, I thought it was a little bizarre for the Cowboys to
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go after linebacker considering they have Bell and they have Clark playing pretty well and
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at a very even more than serviceable level. At least, I think,
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you know, it's not so therefore, shack Leonard not necessarily a dire need
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for the Cowboys when they certainly are going to need to look at contracts,
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look at the few of the team in various ways, you know, within
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the you know, within the coming weeks for sure. So what kind of
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impact do you think Shaq Leonard is going to have in terms of disrupting this
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Cowboys offense that's been pretty prolific over these weeks. Yeah, I think you
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make a great point about Marquis Bell and Dimonte Clark. Both of those guys
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young linebackers have really come on strong since the bye week. Those were two
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guys that Clark was a late round draft pick that had some injury issues and
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Bell was an undrafted free agent. Those were two great pickups by the Cowboys,
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and I think that they have played very well. Like you said,
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if they did get Leonard, which obviously they didn't, now one of those
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guys would have had to come off the field or at least sacrifice some snaps,
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which I don't think would have been the best way to go about things.
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I mean, like you mentioned, Leonard would have been doing another contract,
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you would have been taking a young guy off the field for a veteran.
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Now that's not to say Leonard can't help a team, and I think
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that Philadelphia simply needed him more with their injuries at the linebackers and some of
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the struggles that they've had. I think I think they needed it more than
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Dallas. And you know, let's be realistic. At this point of his
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career, he's not going to be the All Pro that he was from twenty
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eighteen to twenty twenty one. But I think he can help this Eagles defense.
9:13
We saw last week they struggled with tackling against San Francisco. And that's
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the number one thing when you play the Niners. If you don't tackle well
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your you're not going to beat them. Yeah, and you know, guys
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were running running wide open. Debo was running down the field every other play,
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it seemed like. So, I think Shaq will help Philadelphia there.
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And what would worry me, you know, as a Cowboys Cowboys fan the
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Cowboys viewer is he just has had ability to find the football. You know,
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he's caused tons of fumbles in his career. He just is a guy
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that gets to the ball and makes plays. So I think that, you
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know, his his length and just ability to get to the football could cause
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problems for the Cowboys this week. Wouldn't say I'm super upset that they missed
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out on him. I think, like I said, Philly needed him more.
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But he definitely is worry and an Eagles defense that needs to sure up
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they're tackling, I think he'll definitely help that. Matt, you said the
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Eagles linebacker struggled. That was being very kind, by the way, that
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was being very kind. That was very cute. I enjoyed that. I
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really did. I thought we doled out f's completely on our post game show
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to the lineback yeh f grade, Oh my gosh. Yes, Shack Leonard
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is hopefully going to be that playmaker for the Eagles in the future and for
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the rest of this season. But you know, moving over to the Cowboys
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offense, there's one aspect of the Cowboys offense that I think hasn't been discussed
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too too much this season, Matt, and it's been the reliability of tight
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end Jake Ferguson. I mean, we've seen this season, how you know,
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thus far. He has really good hands, he blocks really well,
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and he's doing about just about everything that this offensive coaching is asking him to
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do. It seems very prevalent, even to at least I would think a
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casual football fan watching these games, Jake fergus is the real deal, and
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he's a very solid football player. I don't necessarily think he's getting his due
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to be honest with you, how much of a key is he becoming for
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this Cowboys offense? And I would assume we're gonna see him in terms of
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targeting linebackers this week certainly. Yeah, I think Ferguson has been huge,
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Like you said, you know, during Dak's time as the Cowboys quarterback.
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He's always sort of had that security blanket tight end. It started with Jason
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Witten, then moved to Dalton Schultz. I think Ferguson has a chance to
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be better than Schultz. Probably not reach Witten's level, but he's been great.
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He's definitely been one of the unsung heroes of this team early on.
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He's shown his potential. He and Dak have a great rapport on the field,
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and he's not just a security blanket. He's a guy that can make
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difficult catches down the field. He showed last Thursday against Seattle he made a
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great catch in the back corner of the end zone. He can move well.
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He actually reminds me a little bit of Dallas Goddard, who obviously is
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an all pro level tight end. They're both big, physical guys who can
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block but can also make some great catches. They can both move with the
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ball in their hands. Yards after the carry. He gets yards. Ferguson
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also getting yards after the carry a lot. Oh yeah, he's leaping over
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guys. He's just he's a great athlete and he's he's been a great pick
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up, So I think he'll be huge for them. Like you said,
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especially this week against some of Phillis linebackers, they'll need him to continue to
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make plays. You know, teams are gonna, especially better teams, they're
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gonna game plan and say, we cannot let Ceedee Lamb beat us, So
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somebody else is going to have to step up and do it. I think
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Ferguson's one of the best bets and he'll definitely be huge for the Cowboys down
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Absolutely. I completely agree with you. That's why I brought him up.
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Wanted to talk to him. I mean, we could talk, you know,
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till the Cows come home about Ceedee Lamb and the type of impact that
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he's been able to have on this offense. You know, Michael Parsons on
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the defensive side of things, but from a defensive standpoint, I want to
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talk about one. Deron Bland. Holy freaking crap, what a year he's
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been having here. And look, I think he still could be the defensive
13:01
player of the year. Even after a rough showing last week against the Seattle
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Seahawks, even though he did have a pick in the second half. You
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know, it's like, Okay, I'm sorry he didn't have the greatest first
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half, but still he was able to bring home a pick in the second
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half. He's got eight interceptions on the season, So I'm wondering, like,
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what do you attribute this monumental success to, given that the cornerback position
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is one of the hardest to play, to play at and adapt to in
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the NFL. What do you think, Matt, Yeah, I think it's
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a great point. Bland has been unbelievable this year. When Trayvon Diggs went
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down with the ACL injury, the Cowboys needed Bland to step up. Now,
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I don't think anyone thought he would step up this much and have eight
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interceptions at this point of the season, but he's been great, and I
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think a lot of that success this just can be attributed to his ability to
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continue to move on to the next play. You know, like he talked
13:56
about, playing cornerback in the NFL is, if not the hardest positions to
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play, especially when you're young. With all the rule changes today. You
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know, garner towards the offense trying to put up more points. It's so
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hard to play cornerback. And I think that Seattle game that you mentioned was
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a perfect example of his ability to not let one or two bad plays or
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even a bad half ruin his game. He had probably his worst half of
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the season in the first half of that game and then came back and made
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that key interception that you mentioned. He also had a crucial pass breakup late
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in the game. It just shows his resilience. You know, he's a
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tough player. He's not gonna let one or two bad plays, you know,
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get him down, and I think that that's really played a big part
14:39
in his ability to have a breakout year. I also think Cowboys secondary coach
14:43
Al Harris deserves a ton of credit. He's a guy that everyone on their
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staff and everyone in the media seems to rave about his ability to just get
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the most out of players. I think he's done wonders for Trayvon Diggs and
14:54
Deron Bland. It wouldn't shock me if he's a guy that gets some consideration
14:58
as a DC elsewhere next year year. But Harris has been been great for
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Blanna. I think they've been a great match and he's gonna get tested these
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next couple of weeks. We'll have to see if he can keep it up.
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But he's been a revelation and exactly what they needed once STIGs went down.
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Yeah, it's as an Eagles fan, I say to myself, my
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goodness, look at the depth there. Holy crap. So that's what I
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end up saying again, folks talking to Matt hollarand from blogginthboys dot com.
15:24
Follow him on Twitter at Holler in m d H. I don't know if
15:28
you call it twitter. I don't know if you call it X. I'm
15:30
still calling it twitter. I'm refusing to call it X at this point,
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even though I probably should. I like to hear that. I like to
15:37
hear that. All right, let's get into some matchups here. Okay,
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As we do on our Opposition Territory pot every week, we'd like to talk
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about potential matchups from an offensive and defensive standpoint in terms of vulnerabilities you know
15:50
that we are likely going to see. We've certainly talked about the Eagles vulnerabilities
15:54
from a linebacker perspective, even the secondary. Eagles had such a tough time
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against Zebo Samuel against Brandon Aiyuk this past week. We've seen this secondary and
16:03
we've talked on our postgame shows about that duo of James Bradberry and Darius Slay
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not looking like one of the top cornerback duos in this league too too much
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anymore so. But in terms of the Cowboys here, and you know,
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just looking at this matchup here, where do you think the Cowboys are most
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vulnerable from an offensive side of things here? Yeah, I think it's pretty
16:27
simple. For the Cowboys offense, it's their offensive line being able to hold
16:32
up against this Egles defensive front. The Cowboys offensive line has I think been
16:37
masked by Dak Prescott's play in the past couple of weeks. They haven't been
16:41
bad. In their first game against Philly, the O line held up pretty
16:45
well until the final drive when Philadelphia's defensive line just took over the game.
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I think that that's going to be the matchup to watch again. Now last
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week against Seattle, they weren't very good. It's tough to tell if that
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was the physical toll of they played three games in twelve days. That's tough,
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especially for linemen. But the Eagles defensive line is so talented that,
17:07
to me is the thing that I'm most worried about and where the Cowboys are
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most vulnerable. Terrence Steele is the guy that the Eagles are going to target
17:15
all game long. I'm sure they're going to match up guys to go against
17:18
him. He struggled in the first matchup. If you're not able to block
17:21
Philadelphia's front, they can make things a nightmare for you. They can take
17:25
the ball away. So that's where it starts for Dallas, and I think
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that's where the most They're the most vulnerable on offense in this matchup. Yeah,
17:30
definitely look to see some stunts coming towards Steele's direction, for sure.
17:34
He definitely struggles every now and again in that regard. And on the flip
17:41
side of the ball, where do you think the Cowboys Matt are most vulnerable
17:45
from the defensive side of things, because it's like, look, one of
17:47
the most stout defenses in the league. Is there a vulnerability there that you
17:52
are a little concerned about. Yeah, I think on the defensive side of
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the ball. It may seem like a bit of an odd answer, but
17:59
I'm going to say the secondary and specifically under Dan Quinn. You know,
18:03
Dallas's defense has struggled against teams that have two or more quality receivers like the
18:08
Eagles do. They seem to do pretty well against teams that have one guy
18:14
like you know, the Commanders are a good example. They have a star
18:15
in Terry McLaurin. They don't really have that two a guy, right.
18:19
The Eagles clearly have it, and I think that, you know, is
18:23
where their most vulnerable. In the first matchup, Dallas held AJ Brown to
18:27
sixty six yards, which against AJ Brown that's a win all day. But
18:32
they allowed Devonte Smith to make the big game changing catch down the sideline,
18:36
the TV reception that gave Philadelphia the lead for good and they never gave it
18:40
back. DeVante Smith always seems to cause problems against the Cowboys, and I
18:44
think it's because they struggle against teams that have two quality receivers. I think
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they'll devote most of their resources like they did last time. The two teams
18:53
played to at least somewhat slowing down AJ Brown because if you don't do that,
18:57
you don't have a chance against Philly. But I'm not super confident that
19:02
they'll be able to slow both he and Smith down on a consistent basis.
19:07
So I think that that would be my opinion where they're the most votable.
19:10
All right, very good, And another two part question for you here is
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we close things out and we ask this of all of our opposition territory guests
19:18
every week. What's one thing the Cowboys are going to need to hit on
19:22
for a win this week? In your opinion, Matt, Yeah, I
19:26
think it's pretty simple. If they're going to win this week, they got
19:29
a pressure Jalen Hurts, and it's got to be consistent pressure. It's got
19:33
to be almost almost every single play. I think it's pretty clear just from
19:37
watching Philly the past couple of weeks. I don't think Jalen Hurts is at
19:40
one hundred percent. He might not even be close to one hundred percent.
19:42
Yeah, he's been taking a beating over the past couple of weeks. But
19:47
even if he's not fully healthy, like we saw on the second half in
19:49
Buffalo, if you don't get pressure, he's going to sit back and pick
19:53
you apart. He's impressed me so much as just a pure passer, and
19:57
if you let him sit back there all day, he's going to tear you
20:00
to pieces. So I think they got to generate some pass rush wins,
20:03
especially from the interior. You got to pressure him up the middle. If
20:07
you pressure him from the sides, he can get out and run even if
20:10
he's not one hundred percent. So I think they got to get consistent pressure
20:12
on Hurts, force him into some quick decisions, and you know, get
20:17
some negative plays. If you can keep Philadelphia out of second and short,
20:21
third and short, basically keep him out of running the tush push play because
20:25
it's going to be a guaranteed first down. Yeah, if you can get
20:26
some sacks, get him to you know, a first or second and twenty
20:30
a third and thirteen something like that, that's going to be so huge.
20:33
So I think if they're able to pressure Hurts, they'll have a chance.
20:37
If they're not, I think he's going to pick them apart, all right,
20:41
and Tyan to close us out here. In terms of the Philadelphia Eagles,
20:47
what's the one thing they are going to need to hit on for a
20:49
win this week down in Dallas against the Cowboys. If you think for the
20:55
Eagles that it's their defense needs to take the football away. If you look
20:57
back in their last twenty five games when the defense is recorded the takeaway,
21:00
they're twenty two to three, including being eight to no this year. If
21:04
their defense is able to take the football away from Dallas's offense, I don't
21:10
think the Cowboys have much of a shot to beat them. They're just too
21:12
good to beat if you make mistakes. I think Dallas's offense will need to
21:18
play a near perfect game to beat this Philadelphia defense. So if they're able
21:22
to get takeaways which will create short fields for their offense, their offense is
21:26
too good to give up those opportunities. So I think if the Eagles defense
21:32
is able to even record one takeaway, that's a big one that gets them
21:34
a short field. I think that's the thing that they need to hit on.
21:38
And if they win the turnover battle, unfortunately for US Cowboys fans,
21:42
I think the Eagles will walk away victorious. Well, it's going to be
21:45
interesting for sure. Again, folks, Matt hollerand from Bloggintheboys dot Com at
21:51
hollerin MDH on Twitter, Buddy, it was great talking to you. Always
21:55
enjoy our conversations. Come back join us. I would love to have you
21:59
on the show again for sure. Jeff, thank you for having me on.
22:02
I appreciate it. Matt is always making excellent and topical points when it
22:06
comes to Eagles Dallas matchups. We've had him on of course in the past,
22:11
and I'm worried. Folks. If you're an Eagles fan, you know
22:15
you listen to what Matt is talking about, and you just know and understand
22:18
where the momentum is right now within the NFC East. I'm worried. I'm
22:22
worried specifically about the fact that this Eagles team only recorded two sacks last week,
22:29
only able to get to brock Purty twice. In fact, the quarterback
22:32
hits were three three quarterback hits. And look the Cowboys offensive line here,
22:37
there's some weakness there that we talked about with Matt, but you know,
22:41
they're a stout front and we need to just see more pressure. Dak needs
22:45
to get pressured in this game in order for those turnovers to potentially happen,
22:51
which is what Matt talked about right toward the end of our conversation. So
22:55
gonna be interesting. It's gonna be really tough for the Eagles to win this
22:56
game, quite frankly, folks. So again again, I am going to
23:00
be on vacation starting this Sunday, and therefore when I'm on vacation, this
23:06
podcast usually stops. So we are going to have some content uploaded next week.
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We are going to have a podcast that will be put out and scheduled
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within the feed that we hope you enjoy So that being said, no Eagles
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podcast, this Eagles postgame show this coming week. We likely will not have
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an opposition Territory show next week. In fact, I know we're not going
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to no Table talk show as well, but we're gonna have a really good
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interview show for you that is going to be scheduled next week. So anyway,
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folks, very much appreciate your sport out there Philadelphia sports table dot com.
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That's where you can get all of our podcasts. If something happens to
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your feed out there. You can also find me on threads at mister Jeff
23:49
Warren. I'd love for you to follow me if you're on threads. Take
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care, everybody, We'll catch you next time.