Grant and Danny
The Cowboys Take Down The Giants On TNF
Dude, it does not run us at this before the show started. It does not feel like Friday because you and I had like a delayed start to our week because we were traveling through Tuesday evening. We get back and it's like, okay, now the start of the week is here. No, it's already Friday. We're talking about a football weekend and got underway last night with a pretty gross game. Ultimately, kind of choppy, not a lot of flow, a lot of ref attention, including a couple of botch calls that I thought were just egregious. And again, I was cold. It's in a question. I know it's not the point. But if we have replay and we can't figure out something that's so obvious, why do we have replay? So this is, you know, whatever, who cares. But Daniel Bellinger got called for a face mask when it was his face mask that got grabbed and he never touched anyone's face mask. Anyone's at any point in time 30 yard swing. I don't get that. So what happened? Did the ref tell the umpire pay face mask on the correct defensive player who grabbed his face mask and then the umpire announced it wrong and nobody noticed or did the ref get confused or did he think he saw something and didn't see, like what actually happened on that play? I don't know because what did happen was that on a third down, a giant had his face mask grabbed by a cowboy. They assessed a face mask against the giants to end a drive and cost them points in a game that ultimately was decided by one possession. But I'm wondering the actual, like, where was the flaw in the system? Did they just make a bad call where they thought they saw something they didn't see? I get the sense that the referee that saw the penalty probably said the penalty was on the Cowboys and it got lost somewhere in telephone and nobody really noticed the next thing, you know, they kick a field goal and they're on to the next. Yeah. I mean, you got moments where there was going to be a hold on the Dallas touchdown and the, I think, I think a referee, you know, the New York or whatever office buzzed down and said, Nope, no hold. And they picked the flag up. I don't know if that's exactly how the mechanics went, but that's the most easily correctable thing. And it's like, I don't know what to do. We're just befuddled. It's like when the play clocks at zero for one 1000, almost two 1000, and they snap it and they go, Oh, well, I can't believe it's no well. And with all of the billions and all the attention and all the millimeters upon millimeters that define this game on a weekly basis, how close all of these games are. And we just sort of go, yeah, it's a 30 yard swing. Anyway, next play, like I can't believe it. So to your point, replay assistance is what you're looking for. The replay assistance, which is the somebody buzzing down and telling the refs, they got it wrong thing that should be ubiquitous. We use it sometimes not all the time. How did they not correct the face mask issue? They did correct the hold that wasn't a hold and they picked up the flag. They later in the game, if you remember, there was a throw to Wandell Robinson, where he dropped the pass was kind of on an island all by himself. Looked like he took a couple of steps and then fumbled as it turned out, he didn't actually catch the pass. But when he dropped the ball and fumbled, the Cowboys had a clean recovery and we're going the other way for what would have been a touchdown on a 12 point swing, essentially, with the Giants driving replay assistance buzzed down and said it wasn't a fumble. It was an incomplete pass. And oh, by the way, the Giants had an ineligible man downfield. But why are we using that some of the time and not all the time? There's that's got to be more uniform where a, they've got to do a better job communicating. Is this replay assistance and what did they actually review? Why did they change the call? What did they see? And B, when are they able to use it and when aren't they? And why can't they use it on every play then? Why are they only fixing some of the bad calls and not the others? But inevitably, last night, the Cowboys get a win 20 to 15. They're two and two. The Giants fall to one and three. That Prescott and Dallas offensively could not run the ball. That's not new. That has been a problem all year long, but they did enough. They only needed 20 points. One of those scores came on a 55 yard touchdown catch by CD Lam would seven for 98 in the game. And Prescott was pretty efficient, 220, two scores, no turnovers, five incompletions, but it was kind of a yawn fest. It was a little bit of a boring game. As you said, a lot of penalties and the energy on the Thursday night broadcast is terrible. I'm sorry. It just is. Al Michaels is one of the greatest broadcasters in the history of sports. He's one of the great play-by-play guys that's ever lived. He has zero energy. Kirk Herb Street either matches his energy or also has no energy because he's got 15 jobs and he's busy like petting his dog. I'm not really sure. I love Kirk Herb Street. I do. He is awesome on college football. He is amazing on college game day. He's one of my favorite broadcasters. I'm not really sure what's happening. I have to imagine that he's just kind of meeting Al Michaels where Al Michaels is, but that broadcast is a snooze fest. And then you add the game to it. It was just brutal last night, I thought. At the end of the game, Danny, Al Michaels at one point, he kind of sits out for like several seconds of just watching. There's no real net sound though. So there's nothing really going on noticeable on the field. And then he goes, all right, our post game crew's ready. I mean, that was the sign off. Right. Cause it sounded like someone's talking in his ear telling him, okay, let everyone know the post game show is ready. He's just listening while it's happening. Then he receives word. He goes, all right, post game show. It's like, Oh my God, dude. Oh, it, I know it sounds like we're just, we're overly complaining about it. But man, oh man, it, it's because you already said it. If there's a hall of fame, put on Michaels in right now, let him enjoy that. He was tremendous. Some of the most signature calls in the history of sports, period full stop. The way that it sounds now is Michaels is now a one out of 10 in terms of energy. So can you imagine what it would sound like if Herb Street was like this? What about amazing playing? Okay. Second and four, like the contrast would be terrible. You know, so Herb shoots now just sunk down to that same level. And that was a good play. And you can see what they wanted to do there and try to get them on outside one on one. And all right, let's see second down. You know, it's, it's this, I'm sorry to bother you guys, you know, like we're, we're trying to get into this thing. It just doesn't match it.