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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Eagles vs. Cowboys, Week 17 Pregame Preview · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Speaker 1: What's going on, everybody, It's Jeff.
0:02
Speaker 2: I wanted to let you know that we recorded this
0:04
Speaker 2: podcast episode on Tuesday, December twenty fourth, twenty twenty four.
0:08
Speaker 2: By the time you hear this, some things may have
0:10
Speaker 2: changed here or there, but we hope you enjoy the show.
0:28
Speaker 2: Welcome to Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table
0:31
Speaker 2: podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show
0:34
Speaker 2: in the world. That's right over eleven and a half
0:36
Speaker 2: years strong. We got a great Opposition Territory pod coming
0:39
Speaker 2: your ways. We preview the upcoming Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas
0:43
Speaker 2: Cowboys matchup, their second matchup of this twenty twenty four
0:47
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five season. Look, we know the Eagles are
0:50
Speaker 2: heading to the playoffs. The Dallas Cowboys are not. Yes,
0:53
Speaker 2: that makes Philly sports fans very happy. Eagles fans happy
0:57
Speaker 2: that the Cowboys are not. But this is a big
0:59
Speaker 2: game for the Philadelphia Eagles because they are looking to
1:04
Speaker 2: determine where they are going to be destined in terms
1:07
Speaker 2: of their seed within the playoffs. Currently looking like perhaps
1:11
Speaker 2: the number two seed heading into the playoff picture. Can
1:15
Speaker 2: they get the number one seed? Yes, likely, I should
1:18
Speaker 2: say unlikely to happen. But this Dallas Cowboys game, it's
1:22
Speaker 2: going to be an important one for the Philadelphia Eagles,
1:24
Speaker 2: and Dallas Cowboys are certainly going to want to play
1:27
Speaker 2: spoiler to this Eagles team. We've got a great discussion
1:30
Speaker 2: coming your way, a great review, let's get to it.
1:33
Speaker 1: Joining us this.
1:33
Speaker 2: Week for the very first time, coming to us from
1:36
Speaker 2: bloggintheboys dot com. You can also hear his voice over
1:40
Speaker 2: on the Writer's Block Podcast Dallas Cowboys Podcast. I'm not
1:44
Speaker 2: sure how many Philly sports fans are going to be
1:46
Speaker 2: listening to that, but you know you can get a
1:48
Speaker 2: lot of good information over there about the Dallas Cowboys.
1:50
Speaker 2: At the Writer's Block Podcast, we've got the one and
1:52
Speaker 2: only Dave Howman.
1:53
Speaker 1: How you doing, Dave?
1:55
Speaker 3: I'm doing good. How are you? Thanks? Thanks for having
1:57
Speaker 3: me on.
1:57
Speaker 2: You got a bit No, I really appreciate it because
1:59
Speaker 2: when we're according this, it's Christmas Eve, a lot of
2:01
Speaker 2: folks are traveling, a lot of folks are with their families.
2:05
Speaker 1: It's a busy, busy time.
2:06
Speaker 3: Of the year.
2:07
Speaker 1: Ban So I really appreciate you taking the time to
2:09
Speaker 1: come on.
2:09
Speaker 2: But I wanted to really just dive into this upcoming
2:13
Speaker 2: matchup Philadelphia Eagles Dallas Cowboys with you. As I said
2:17
Speaker 2: in the intro, it's like Eagles head into the playoffs,
2:19
Speaker 2: Cowboys not heading to the playoffs at this point. Needless
2:23
Speaker 2: to say, a disappointing season for the Cowboys and their
2:25
Speaker 2: fans as they were officially eliminated from the playoffs just
2:29
Speaker 2: this past week. And of course Dak Prescott getting hurt
2:33
Speaker 2: did not help the season and situation in Dallas. But
2:37
Speaker 2: I'm wondering, Dave, you know where did the Cowboys get
2:40
Speaker 2: it wrong during the off season? Because I've had a
2:43
Speaker 2: couple conversations with our mutual friend R. J Ochoa from
2:47
Speaker 2: blogging the Boys about this in the past and wanted
2:50
Speaker 2: to get your take on this again. Where do the
2:52
Speaker 2: Cowboys get it wrong this past offseason? And do you
2:55
Speaker 2: think they can make significant corrections this coming off season
2:58
Speaker 2: to kind of get back in the contention, kind of
3:01
Speaker 2: write the ship.
3:01
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts?
3:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think for a lot of people, where
3:06
Speaker 3: things went wrong was the moment the off season started. Yeah,
3:09
Speaker 3: Jerry Jones comes out. You know, they had the horrible
3:12
Speaker 3: playoff lost the Packers, and all the fans wanted a
3:16
Speaker 3: pound of flesh somewhere, whether it was Mike McCarthy, whether
3:19
Speaker 3: you know whoever it was, he says I'm bringing back
3:22
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy, but he says I'm not extending his contract.
3:25
Speaker 3: He's coaching in the final year of his contract. Yep.
3:27
Speaker 3: The last two times that's happened in the NFL, it
3:30
Speaker 3: was also the Dallas Cowboys twice with Jason Garrett. One
3:33
Speaker 3: of them he ended up going to the playoffs, extends
3:36
Speaker 3: his contract. The other they go eight and eight, missed
3:39
Speaker 3: the playoffs. Let's it expire. That's how Mick McCarthy got
3:41
Speaker 3: to Dallas. So right off the bat, people were like, well,
3:44
Speaker 3: this is not a great way to start the off season.
3:46
Speaker 3: Then Jerry says, we're going to be all in this offseason,
3:49
Speaker 3: and then they really didn't do anything. They let, you know,
3:52
Speaker 3: Dak Prescott's negotiations linger, they let Ceedee Lambs negotiations. I mean,
3:57
Speaker 3: they signed Dak Prescott literally a few hours before that
4:00
Speaker 3: season kicked off. Yes, how long it took. And you know,
4:04
Speaker 3: then the moves that they did make in the off season,
4:06
Speaker 3: it was primarily just bringing back a couple of their
4:09
Speaker 3: guys at cheap deals. You know, they didn't draft a
4:12
Speaker 3: running back in the draft, and then they bring back
4:14
Speaker 3: Ezekiel Elliott after a year in New England, and everything
4:18
Speaker 3: about the moves that they made this offseason really it
4:22
Speaker 3: created this feeling valid or not that Jerry Jones was
4:25
Speaker 3: essentially setting Mike McCarthy up to fail and saying, I'm
4:29
Speaker 3: not going to help you out here. If you end
4:31
Speaker 3: up winning and you have a good year with this roster,
4:34
Speaker 3: then I know you're the guy and will happily extend you.
4:37
Speaker 3: But if you do what I think you're gonna do
4:39
Speaker 3: and you don't succeed, then I have an excuse to
4:42
Speaker 3: wipe my hands of you. And I don't have to
4:43
Speaker 3: pay you any buyout money, and I could go get
4:45
Speaker 3: Bill Belichick.
4:46
Speaker 1: Yeah.
4:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, well now Bill Belichick is in college to the
4:49
Speaker 3: surprise Vor.
4:51
Speaker 1: Yep.
4:51
Speaker 3: Yeah. And now the Cowboys, I mean, like you said,
4:54
Speaker 3: they got eliminated from the playoffs, but they've been better recently.
4:58
Speaker 3: They've kind of found their footing. S Cooper Rush has
5:01
Speaker 3: become the starting quarterback. Defense has been playing better. They've
5:03
Speaker 3: won for their last five.
5:05
Speaker 1: Yeah.
5:05
Speaker 3: If it wasn't for the unfortunate punt block situation against
5:10
Speaker 3: the Bengals, it would be five straight and things would
5:13
Speaker 3: look a lot different. Yeah, so the vibes are feeling
5:16
Speaker 3: really good right now for Mike McCarthy to come back.
5:19
Speaker 3: There's a legitimate argument from Mike Zimmer to come back
5:21
Speaker 3: to the defensive coordinator, and I think if things do
5:25
Speaker 3: go that way, then it's going to be kind of
5:27
Speaker 3: a conversation in the off season of all right, we're
5:29
Speaker 3: bought in on Mike McCarthy. We're already financially tied to
5:33
Speaker 3: Dak Prescott and Cee Lamb. They're about to be financially
5:35
Speaker 3: tied to Micah Parsons. Let's really take this off season
5:39
Speaker 3: more seriously than we did this past offseason. Yeah, but again,
5:42
Speaker 3: it's Jerry Jones. You never know it, Jerry Jones.
5:44
Speaker 1: You never know.
5:44
Speaker 3: You could wake up tomorrow and be like, I really
5:47
Speaker 3: want Mike Rabel's let's go get my gosh.
5:49
Speaker 1: Yes, you know.
5:50
Speaker 2: Well it's a great segue into my next topic that
5:53
Speaker 2: I wanted to dive into, which is Mike McCarthy. I mean,
5:56
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken, he has a record of forty
5:59
Speaker 2: nine and thirty three as the Cowboys head coach. It's
6:02
Speaker 2: a winning record, Dave, But he's one and two in
6:04
Speaker 2: the playoffs, and over all these years, there's still questions
6:09
Speaker 2: about whether or not, you know, he's going to be
6:11
Speaker 2: back season after season.
6:12
Speaker 1: It seems, you know, it's just this.
6:14
Speaker 2: Thing that's lingering out there all the time. Is Mike
6:16
Speaker 2: McCarthy going to be back as the Dallas Cowboys head coach?
6:19
Speaker 2: How do you view Mike McCarthy at this point in
6:23
Speaker 2: his tenure as the Cowboys head coach? I know they've
6:25
Speaker 2: won four out of the last five games, not necessarily
6:29
Speaker 2: right here in our contemporary history, but from an overall standpoint,
6:34
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy and his tenure, and do you think he
6:36
Speaker 2: will be back next season?
6:39
Speaker 3: I think at this point, I think he's going to
6:41
Speaker 3: be back. Yeaf, he asked me. Before they won these
6:44
Speaker 3: last four games, I felt like, there's no way he's
6:46
Speaker 3: coming back, right, because it just it looked like it
6:49
Speaker 3: was going that way. Right.
6:50
Speaker 2: But I mean, like, having a record of like forty
6:53
Speaker 2: four and thirty three, it's not the worst record by
6:55
Speaker 2: a head coach in terms of their tenure in the world.
6:57
Speaker 1: It's not.
6:58
Speaker 3: There's a lot of teams out there that would sign
6:59
Speaker 3: up up for that.
7:00
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Like if you look.
7:03
Speaker 3: In Jacksonville, right now, and they're like, you tell me
7:05
Speaker 3: I get three straight twelve win seasons. Yes, I'll take that.
7:08
Speaker 3: I don't care. If it's Urban Meyer giving me those
7:10
Speaker 3: twelve win seasons, I'll take it. But the Cowboys are
7:14
Speaker 3: the Cowboys, and they have even though they haven't been
7:17
Speaker 3: to the conference championship game since nineteen ninety six, they
7:20
Speaker 3: still have this standard of we have to win the
7:22
Speaker 3: Super Bowl, we have to be in the Super Bowl,
7:24
Speaker 3: we need to be in the conference championship game. So
7:27
Speaker 3: that contributes to the discontent with Mike McCarthy. The thing
7:31
Speaker 3: that always strikes me is like we've seen him in
7:34
Speaker 3: Green Bay, which is a significantly more functional franchise, and
7:39
Speaker 3: we saw what he did in Green Bay. He won
7:41
Speaker 3: a lot, he went to multiple conference championship games, he
7:43
Speaker 3: won a Super Bowl, and Aaron Rodgers wasn't able to
7:46
Speaker 3: win a Super Bowl after he left. Matt Lafloury is
7:49
Speaker 3: a really great coach, but he wasn't able. It's not
7:51
Speaker 3: like all the people who said Mike McCarthy was holding
7:54
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers back didn't really bear out to be true.
7:57
Speaker 3: So like, suddenly, I know they went to three straight
7:59
Speaker 3: conference champion games, but they lost all three. It's not
8:03
Speaker 3: like suddenly they were just this. You know, they turned
8:06
Speaker 3: into the Kansas City Chiefs, and so we've seen what
8:09
Speaker 3: he can do in a more traditional setup, and then
8:14
Speaker 3: he comes to Dallas, a team that hasn't had a
8:16
Speaker 3: lot of playoff success before him, and then they continue
8:20
Speaker 3: to not have such playoff success. So I'm very much
8:23
Speaker 3: on the boat of I don't think this is a
8:25
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy thing. I think this is a Dallas Cowboys thing.
8:28
Speaker 3: And in that case, I feel like Mike McCarthy has
8:31
Speaker 3: a working relationship with the Joneses. He already has experience
8:34
Speaker 3: in trying to be successful in this setup. And I
8:38
Speaker 3: mean he's he's he is a good coach, Like he
8:41
Speaker 3: knows how to win games. He's been able to drag
8:43
Speaker 3: this team to four wins in five games. Yeah one
8:47
Speaker 3: of them, right, you know, just a few hours after
8:49
Speaker 3: you get eliminated from the playoffs and you come out
8:51
Speaker 3: with your hair on fire against the Buccaneers team that
8:53
Speaker 3: it won four straight exactly, so he has the buy
8:58
Speaker 3: in from the players. I think he should be back.
9:01
Speaker 3: I think that's the right move. And essentially I always
9:03
Speaker 3: bring up the Buffalo Bills too. You know, every year
9:06
Speaker 3: it feels like for the Bills like this is it's
9:08
Speaker 3: Super Bowl or bus like it's got to be the
9:10
Speaker 3: year yep. And then every year they run into a
9:12
Speaker 3: guy named Patrick Mahomes and you know you're not gonna
9:16
Speaker 3: beat that, right, And for the Cowboys it's the Kyle
9:19
Speaker 3: Shanahan forty nine ers. Obviously, the Packers beat him this
9:22
Speaker 3: past year, but you know, two straight years they got
9:24
Speaker 3: bounced by the forty nine ers, and then you know
9:28
Speaker 3: it's like the forty nine ers at the Eagles go
9:30
Speaker 3: to the Super Bowl from the NFC. Right now, it's
9:32
Speaker 3: one of those three teams absolutely not gonna be the
9:34
Speaker 3: forty nine ers this year.
9:35
Speaker 1: But ye're a.
9:38
Speaker 3: Buzz saw right So, but I think this is I mean,
9:41
Speaker 3: ultimately it's about shots on goal. You gotta get to
9:44
Speaker 3: the playoffs first and foremost. Mike McCarthy does that better
9:48
Speaker 3: than any coach for the Cowboys have had since Jimmy
9:51
Speaker 3: Johnson and Barry Switzer.
9:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true, It absolutely is true.
9:54
Speaker 2: It's gonna be interesting to see what happens with Mike
9:57
Speaker 2: McCarthy during this offseason. But Dave, I really we wanted
10:00
Speaker 2: to get into what we're seeing now from this Cowboys team.
10:04
Speaker 2: Again you mentioned for at last five games they have
10:08
Speaker 2: come away with w's. I mean this past week against
10:11
Speaker 2: the Buccaneers, Cowboys offense was clicking. Cooper Rush overall is
10:15
Speaker 2: playing well, Ceedee Lamb was catching almost everything as way
10:18
Speaker 2: the first half, in fact, as the first player in
10:20
Speaker 2: Cowboys history to go over one hundred yards receiving in
10:22
Speaker 2: the first half in two consecutive games.
10:26
Speaker 1: So, as we're.
10:26
Speaker 2: Looking into what the Cowboys are doing right now, looking
10:29
Speaker 2: to play spoiler against this Philadelphia Eagles team coming up,
10:32
Speaker 2: what do you see this offense playing for at this
10:35
Speaker 2: point this season? As some are saying, you know, we
10:38
Speaker 2: want to be a better draft pick, you know, we
10:41
Speaker 2: want to get rid of McCarthy. From what you were
10:43
Speaker 2: basically saying, what, what are your thoughts on how this
10:45
Speaker 2: offense has been performing given what certain expectations are for
10:50
Speaker 2: what fans want of this team.
10:52
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts here?
10:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think after this Buccaneers game, you know,
10:57
Speaker 3: so many different players offense and defense came out and
11:01
Speaker 3: they all had different ways of saying it, but essentially
11:03
Speaker 3: what it boiled down to here was like we're doing
11:05
Speaker 3: this for the love of the game, right, This is
11:07
Speaker 3: you know, and that's the reality. You know, anytime you
11:10
Speaker 3: hear like teams tanking and stuff like, like, the players
11:13
Speaker 3: don't quit. Definitely, there are some players out there who
11:16
Speaker 3: have quit in the past. But I mean, by and large,
11:19
Speaker 3: I mean these are guys in the case of your
11:21
Speaker 3: Cooper Rush, Rico Daubdle, both of these guys don't have
11:23
Speaker 3: a contract beyond this year. You know, they got to
11:27
Speaker 3: play for something. They don't know if it's going to
11:29
Speaker 3: be in Dallas, they don't know if it'll be somewhere else.
11:31
Speaker 3: They have a reason to keep playing like and then
11:33
Speaker 3: there's other guys who have performance based incentives, like you
11:37
Speaker 3: got to hit those those numbers. Rico dowdell is, I
11:40
Speaker 3: don't know exactly where he's at now, but he's close
11:42
Speaker 3: to getting a thousand yards rushing, which would be phenomenal
11:45
Speaker 3: for him considering where this offense was two months ago.
11:50
Speaker 3: And also just like the pride of knowing, hey, we
11:53
Speaker 3: didn't start this season the way that we wanted to
11:55
Speaker 3: the way that we should have, but we feel this
11:58
Speaker 3: confidence now. And also so now you've got two games left,
12:02
Speaker 3: and like you said, you can only play spoiler, but
12:04
Speaker 3: it's both against division rivals. You can spoil the Eagles,
12:07
Speaker 3: you can spoil the Commanders like there's there's I think
12:10
Speaker 3: that's That's another thing that I think is kind of
12:13
Speaker 3: an endorsement for Mike McCarthy is that this team is
12:15
Speaker 3: playing with a chip on their shoulder, which you had
12:18
Speaker 3: to go back a long time to really get a
12:20
Speaker 3: sense of anytime the Cowboys played with a chip on
12:22
Speaker 3: their shoulder, because usually they're the big favorite. Yeah, now
12:24
Speaker 3: we've had, you know, four or four or five games
12:27
Speaker 3: in a row where they've been the underdog and that
12:30
Speaker 3: doesn't normally happen in Dallas, and and they're playing now
12:34
Speaker 3: like we're the underdog. We got the chip on our shoulder.
12:37
Speaker 3: We got to go ruin somebody's.
12:38
Speaker 2: Day, absolutely, and I think Ceedee Lamb could potentially do
12:41
Speaker 2: that with this Philadelphia Eagles team, quite frankly, given how
12:46
Speaker 2: banged up the Eagles are in different areas of the team.
12:49
Speaker 2: But I wanted to move to the Cowboys defense here, Dave.
12:53
Speaker 2: I mean they were also clicking this past week against
12:55
Speaker 2: the Buccaneers. Baker Mayfield, I mean he was fleeing the
12:57
Speaker 2: pocket throw out the game and tons of pressure on him.
13:01
Speaker 2: In fact, four different Cowboys recorded a sack in that game.
13:05
Speaker 2: As of us recording this here on Christmas Eve, we
13:08
Speaker 2: still don't know if Jalen Hurts is going to be
13:10
Speaker 2: playing this coming week as he is going through concussion protocol.
13:14
Speaker 2: It isn't unheard of for quarterbacks to clear the concussion
13:16
Speaker 2: protocol in a week in the NFL these days. But
13:19
Speaker 2: I'm wondering, how does this Cowboys defense potentially prepare for
13:24
Speaker 2: two quarterbacks this week? As Kenny Pickett may potentially be
13:27
Speaker 2: the starter, Hurts could also be the starter. What are
13:30
Speaker 2: your thoughts here?
13:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think kind of ironically, I'm not sure that
13:36
Speaker 3: it changes Mike zimmers approach all that much, Okay, which
13:39
Speaker 3: is weird to say, because I don't think you'll find
13:41
Speaker 3: a single person on this planet that says Jalen Hurts
13:44
Speaker 3: is a play similarly to Kennie Pickett right right, Not
13:47
Speaker 3: exactly the same play style, but so much of Mike
13:50
Speaker 3: Zimmer's defense is based around these simulated pressures where, especially
13:55
Speaker 3: on third down, he wants to get you into third
13:57
Speaker 3: and long and then he's gonna mug those linebackers in
14:00
Speaker 3: the gap. He's gonna walk seven eight guys up on
14:02
Speaker 3: the line of scrimmage, and he's really only going to
14:04
Speaker 3: rush four. Occasionally he'll rush five, but you're not going
14:08
Speaker 3: to know who which one it is. And I think
14:10
Speaker 3: when you look at like typically when Jalen Hurts has
14:13
Speaker 3: been at his worst, and I'll go on record like
14:17
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a Cowboys guy, but I do have
14:18
Speaker 3: a high opinion of Jalen Hurts. This is not just
14:20
Speaker 3: me bashing him, but what he's generally been at his
14:23
Speaker 3: worst is when you're able to speed up his process
14:26
Speaker 3: where he doesn't have a quick you know, out route
14:30
Speaker 3: long like if if he dumps it off quickly, you're
14:33
Speaker 3: short of the sticks. And so having that kind of
14:38
Speaker 3: system where hey, you don't know which guys come in.
14:41
Speaker 3: And a lot of times these Zimmer schemes are schemed
14:43
Speaker 3: up so that if you have the slide protection go
14:45
Speaker 3: to one side. Now the defense adjusts and they come
14:48
Speaker 3: from the other side like, no matter what you do,
14:49
Speaker 3: you're wrong and you're getting a free rusher. And I
14:53
Speaker 3: think that that probably obviously Jalen Hurts with his legs,
14:57
Speaker 3: he can he can make some magic happen, and he
14:59
Speaker 3: can run and innovade, and there's really not much you
15:01
Speaker 3: can do from there aside from just the good fundamentals
15:04
Speaker 3: of keeping contained on him. And that's what makes Jalen
15:07
Speaker 3: hurt so special as a quarterback is it's hard to
15:09
Speaker 3: contain him. But if it ends up being Kenny Pickett, though,
15:14
Speaker 3: you're you're still doing the same thing of tricking him.
15:16
Speaker 3: You just you might have a slightly easier time of
15:19
Speaker 3: tricking him. But yes, I from how you defend the quarterback,
15:23
Speaker 3: I think Zimmer's approach is going to be pretty similar.
15:25
Speaker 3: It's just if it's Kenny Pickett, you don't have to
15:27
Speaker 3: worry so much about the legs and if he'll beat
15:30
Speaker 3: you with his legs, although he's not exactly a statue
15:33
Speaker 3: in the pocket, so you do have to, you know,
15:35
Speaker 3: plan for that a little bit.
15:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do think if Jalen Hurts does come to play,
15:40
Speaker 2: it's gonna be We're gonna see a lot of the
15:42
Speaker 2: same good type of things that have with the Eagles
15:45
Speaker 2: offense that we have for I should say, had for
15:48
Speaker 2: about ten weeks straight.
15:50
Speaker 1: Kenny Pickett.
15:50
Speaker 2: Boy, that's another that's another story there in terms of
15:52
Speaker 2: how the Eagles offense is runned and again, folks, we're
15:56
Speaker 2: talking to Dave Howman from Bloggintheboys dot com and Writers
16:00
Speaker 2: Block podcast. You can follow him on the Twitter slash
16:03
Speaker 2: x at underscore d forty four Underscore. He's a great,
16:07
Speaker 2: great follow and let's get us some matchups here. I'd
16:10
Speaker 2: love to talk matchups here in our opposition Territory podcasts
16:13
Speaker 2: every week and specifically talking about the biggest concerns for
16:17
Speaker 2: the Cowboys, both on the offensive and defensive sides of
16:20
Speaker 2: the ball. So let's start with Cowboys offensive matchups first.
16:25
Speaker 2: What's your biggest concern Dave heading into this matchup with
16:29
Speaker 2: regard to the Cowboys offensive matchups against this Eagles defense.
16:33
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts here?
16:35
Speaker 3: I think a lot of it starts with Cooper rush,
16:37
Speaker 3: which which seems like low hanging fruit, but reality is,
16:41
Speaker 3: before this Buccaneers game, they had three straight games where
16:44
Speaker 3: Rico Dawdle had over one hundred rushing yards. They really
16:47
Speaker 3: hammered down on the running game. But also part of
16:50
Speaker 3: it was they were facing defenses that weren't all that
16:53
Speaker 3: good against the run. Yeah, well, against Tampa, you've got
16:56
Speaker 3: you know, huge Vita Vea right up in the middle.
16:58
Speaker 3: You're not going to run on them, and we saw
17:01
Speaker 3: Doubtell average one point eight yards of carry, but they
17:04
Speaker 3: also didn't really run that much. They came out in
17:07
Speaker 3: on that first drive in Cooper Rush I think had
17:09
Speaker 3: six passes on nine plays in the drive, but it
17:13
Speaker 3: was all like quick hitters. It was all designed to
17:16
Speaker 3: get the ball out of his hands real quickly so
17:17
Speaker 3: that that pass rush can't tee off on you. And
17:20
Speaker 3: I imagine they'll take a similar approach against the Eagles
17:22
Speaker 3: because they also have a pretty big defensive line and
17:26
Speaker 3: they've been pretty stout throughout that whole defensive line. And
17:29
Speaker 3: I don't think this is a game where you just
17:31
Speaker 3: go back and say, all right, we can ride Rico again.
17:34
Speaker 3: But at the same time, you're facing Vic Fangio, who's
17:37
Speaker 3: a little bit different from a from a coverage scheme
17:40
Speaker 3: standpoint for than Todd Bowles. Todd Bowles likes to have
17:42
Speaker 3: the middle of the field to close. He uses a
17:44
Speaker 3: lot of Cover one, lot of Cover three. You can create,
17:48
Speaker 3: you can scheme up these beaters for cover one, cover three.
17:51
Speaker 3: It's a little bit harder against Vic Fangio. And there's
17:53
Speaker 3: there's been a bit of a quiet rivalry between Mike
17:58
Speaker 3: McCarthy and Vic Fangio going over the last few years,
18:00
Speaker 3: dating back to Fanjia's time in Denver. That that's probably
18:04
Speaker 3: the thing that has me most excited for this game,
18:06
Speaker 3: just seeing those two matchup again. But I mean, Vic
18:11
Speaker 3: Fangio has been an enduring defensive coach for so long,
18:14
Speaker 3: and partially because he'll take away those underneath things, but
18:18
Speaker 3: he also takes away the big shots. So Ceedee Lamb
18:21
Speaker 3: has had some of his worst games against a Vic
18:22
Speaker 3: Fangio defense. And I don't think that it's as simple
18:26
Speaker 3: as just saying, Okay, Cooper Rush, get the ball out quickly.
18:28
Speaker 3: We'll hit Jake Ferguson underneath. You know, we'll get some
18:31
Speaker 3: bubble screens to Cavante Turpin. Yeah, because Vic Fangio finds
18:35
Speaker 3: ways to take that away. Yep. And I think you're
18:39
Speaker 3: gonna need Cooper Rush to play just how he did
18:42
Speaker 3: against the Buccaneers, which was darn near perfect, in order
18:45
Speaker 3: to have a chance against this defense. And you'll need
18:48
Speaker 3: Ceedee Lamb to do what he's done the last few weeks,
18:51
Speaker 3: which is just go supernova.
18:52
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely well.
18:54
Speaker 2: On the flip side of the coin, I'm wondering, what's
18:55
Speaker 2: your biggest concern with any of the Cowboys defensive matchups
19:00
Speaker 2: against the Eagles offense. Again, not knowing at this point
19:03
Speaker 2: in time whether or not Jalen Hurts is going to
19:05
Speaker 2: be under center or whether it will be Kenny Pickett.
19:08
Speaker 2: What is the biggest current concern for you with regard
19:10
Speaker 2: to the Cowboys defensive matchups against his Eagles offense.
19:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think whether it's Jalen Hurts, whether it's Kenny Pickett.
19:17
Speaker 3: The number one concern is Saquon Barklay. I mean, he's
19:20
Speaker 3: having a heck of a year in general, and I
19:25
Speaker 3: know John Mara is not sleeping at all right now.
19:28
Speaker 2: It's the great It's the greatest gif ever. It's the
19:31
Speaker 2: greatest one when he says he's not going to be
19:33
Speaker 2: able to sleep well at night if Saquon goes to Philadelphia.
19:37
Speaker 3: It's it.
19:38
Speaker 2: I could watch it for for days, for weeks on
19:40
Speaker 2: a loop. I really could.
19:43
Speaker 3: But I mean, the Cowboys defense, the run game has
19:47
Speaker 3: always been their bugaboo this year, like they've been hearable
19:50
Speaker 3: against the run, and even I mean since Week ten
19:53
Speaker 3: that's really when their defense has kind of turned it
19:55
Speaker 3: on that and not coincidentally, that's when Michael Parsons came
19:59
Speaker 3: back from his injury. You know, hey, one of the
20:01
Speaker 3: best pass rushers in the entire NFL makes easier for
20:04
Speaker 3: your defense, But he's not really as good as Micah
20:08
Speaker 3: Parsons is. He hasn't really done much for the run
20:10
Speaker 3: defense Since week ten. I think they're they're ninth in
20:14
Speaker 3: defensive EPA per play, which just measures like overall defensive efficiency,
20:20
Speaker 3: which they were I think like twenty six or twenty
20:23
Speaker 3: seven from weeks one through nine. In run defense, though
20:27
Speaker 3: they're thirtieth. They went up from thirty two to thirtieth, So.
20:31
Speaker 2: All right, getting better has gotten better. You can't fall
20:34
Speaker 2: out of a basement window, right.
20:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's gotten better, but it's not you know,
20:40
Speaker 3: nobody's sitting there saying like, oh, yeah, we can stop
20:42
Speaker 3: Saquon bar play, right, So I think the number one
20:46
Speaker 3: question is how are they going to stop Saquon. I
20:49
Speaker 3: think it's if it's Kenny Pickett back there, that probably
20:52
Speaker 3: makes it a bit easier because you don't have to
20:54
Speaker 3: be as worried about both the past but also the
20:57
Speaker 3: run option being tagged onto that. But either way, I mean,
21:02
Speaker 3: is gonna make your life miserable. When he's hurdling people backwards,
21:06
Speaker 3: Like there's how do you stop that? I don't know,
21:09
Speaker 3: And it doesn't seem like anybody else in the NFL's
21:11
Speaker 3: figured it out this year.
21:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see that matchup for sure.
21:14
Speaker 2: And Uh, before I let you go your day, we'd
21:17
Speaker 2: like to talk about sneaky players for US Eagles fans
21:20
Speaker 2: to look out for with regard to opposing teams. So,
21:24
Speaker 2: who is your sneaky player for us to look out
21:26
Speaker 2: for on the Cowboys offense this coming week? Who's that
21:29
Speaker 2: guy for you?
21:31
Speaker 3: I think sneaky player for them? This this will be like, uh,
21:35
Speaker 3: this will be a deep cut okay, their full back
21:38
Speaker 3: Hunter Lipkey ooh, And they've had they've had moments in
21:41
Speaker 3: the past where they've they've featured him, and they really
21:45
Speaker 3: have a lot of belief in him. He's kind of
21:48
Speaker 3: a versatile player. He's he's lined up at running back
21:50
Speaker 3: on passing downs. He's he's lined up at tight end
21:52
Speaker 3: at times. I remember last year against Miami, the last
21:57
Speaker 3: time that Mike McCarthy faced Vic Fangio on the opening drive.
22:00
Speaker 3: I think Lipkey had like had three carries, had like
22:05
Speaker 3: two catches he ended up fumbling at the goal line
22:09
Speaker 3: for what would have been a touchdown and they like
22:10
Speaker 3: didn't touch. He didn't touch the ball again the rest
22:12
Speaker 3: of the game, But I think there was definitely something
22:15
Speaker 3: he saw in that matchup of Hunter Lipkey being able
22:17
Speaker 3: to do something against his Vic Fangio defense. And I'm
22:20
Speaker 3: curious to see if he goes back to him because
22:22
Speaker 3: he really hasn't utilized him as much this season throughout
22:25
Speaker 3: the year. Part of that has been the changes in offense.
22:28
Speaker 3: Part of it's also been Rico Doubtle emerging. But I
22:31
Speaker 3: think if there's something that Migan McCarthy's got, like in
22:33
Speaker 3: his back pocket, saving it for the next time he
22:35
Speaker 3: sees Vic Fangio, Yeah, he's gonna be Hunter Lipkey and
22:38
Speaker 3: he's gonna throw some things at him and try to
22:40
Speaker 3: get him the ball because he's a I mean, he's
22:42
Speaker 3: your fullback, so you don't want to use him a ton,
22:45
Speaker 3: but when he does get the ball, he can make
22:47
Speaker 3: some things happen.
22:47
Speaker 2: That's definitely a deep cut, Dave. That was a deep cut,
22:50
Speaker 2: my friend. It really was. Well flip side of the coin.
22:53
Speaker 2: Who's your sneaky player for us to look out for
22:56
Speaker 2: on the Cowboys defense. Who's that going to be this week?
22:59
Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be their safety, Donovan Wilson. And
23:03
Speaker 3: Donovan Wilson is I think probably feared by most receivers
23:08
Speaker 3: these days because he lays the lumber and he is
23:10
Speaker 3: a big hitter, and he does not care if he
23:12
Speaker 3: gets a penalty, which sometimes hurts the Cowboys. But when
23:17
Speaker 3: Mike Zimmer was first hired, I thought he was probably
23:22
Speaker 3: one of the gonna be one of the most beneficial
23:24
Speaker 3: players from it, because he's a guy who excels when
23:26
Speaker 3: he's moving forward in space. Early on, I don't think
23:29
Speaker 3: that Mike Zimmer quite knew exactly what to do with him.
23:32
Speaker 3: He had him in coverage a lot that's not really
23:34
Speaker 3: his a game. Over these last few weeks, when the
23:37
Speaker 3: defense is picked up, he's sending him on blitzes, He's
23:39
Speaker 3: lining him up deep and then having him like scream
23:42
Speaker 3: down into the box to take on guys on those
23:44
Speaker 3: underneath shots. He's really really figured out where to best
23:49
Speaker 3: utilize Donovan Wilson. I think against a run heavy team
23:52
Speaker 3: where you're gonna want to show some of those looks,
23:54
Speaker 3: get them into, you know, running the ball, and then
23:56
Speaker 3: have Donovan Wilson come flying down with a full head
23:59
Speaker 3: of steam. I'm not saying that that's the secret sauce
24:03
Speaker 3: of stopping Saquon Barkley, but of all the things that
24:05
Speaker 3: they have, all the different counterpoints they have to throw
24:08
Speaker 3: at it, that might be the best option. So I
24:12
Speaker 3: think you could see a lot of that. He used
24:13
Speaker 3: Donovan Wilson on several blitzes this past week to get
24:16
Speaker 3: to Baker Mayfield and flush him out of the pocket.
24:18
Speaker 3: I think we'll continue to see some more creative use
24:20
Speaker 3: of Donovan Wilson in this game.
24:22
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, I think when it was all
24:24
Speaker 2: said and done, I haven't seen the numbers, but I
24:26
Speaker 2: think that the Eagles were blitzed this past week like
24:30
Speaker 2: ninety five percent of the time.
24:31
Speaker 1: It was amazing.
24:32
Speaker 2: It was amazing, but it was great talking with you, Dave.
24:36
Speaker 2: And again, folks, Dave Halman here from Blogintheboys dot com
24:41
Speaker 2: and the Writer's Block podcast. Check out everything that he
24:44
Speaker 2: and his co hosts and his colleagues over Blogingtheboys dot
24:48
Speaker 2: Com are doing. Dave, Buddy, it was great talking to
24:51
Speaker 2: you that for the first time. I would absolutely love
24:53
Speaker 2: it if you would come on the show again. I'd
24:55
Speaker 2: love to have you back on Down the Road Talk Cowboys,
24:57
Speaker 2: Talk NFL.
24:58
Speaker 1: Come back and join us, my friend.
25:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for having me. I'll happily come back,
25:04
Speaker 3: especially if the Cowboys find a way to win this one.
25:07
Speaker 2: That's going to do it for us here on Opposition
25:10
Speaker 2: Territory this week. Please share our podcast with your friends
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25:16
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25:24
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25:40
Speaker 1: Take care, We'll catch you next Tid