Grant and Danny
NFC East Showdown On TNF TONIGHT!
Let's turn the page. The NFL gets going tonight, week four, and it's the NFC East taking center stage in prime time. Again, on Thursday night football with the Cowboys and the Giants, this game feels like a got to have it game for Dallas. The Cowboys came into the year, expected to win the division. It was going to be them or Philly, the two teams at the top of the east. They are one and two. They have now lost back to back games. They got embarrassed by the saints. And even though they lost close to Baltimore with the comeback, they actually weren't really that close in that game for the majority of the day. Anyway, they played pretty much three bad quarters. So Danny, now you're looking at the Giants this weekend. If you can't beat the Giants tonight on Thursday night football, they've got the Steelers, lions, 49ers, Falcons coming up, all teams better than New York. All teams probably as good as at least one or both of the teams they've lost to. This thing could go really badly for them really fast after paying CD, lamb, paying deck. They already came into the season, placing their head coach Mike McCarthy on the hot seat. They lose tonight. The hourglass begins on McCarthy. Yeah, they're in dire straits. Now, I could also see them ripping off a win tonight and then, you know, getting mildly hot to, you know, do what they've done last couple of seasons and get the double digit wins. The, what's happened though with this franchise is they've gotten, they haven't gotten better, right? They've kind of had to stand pat because of these massive contracts they've had to hand out and then there's up, you know, maybe one or two more coming. So they, they've gotten sort of worse around the edges. And that's really starting to show up here as they've, you know, gotten off to this really, really sluggish start. They're not bad yet, but they're also not that good. Maybe as other teams are kind of getting better and there's some attrition and some of the guys they're counting on are a little bit older, a little bit more chipped away, a little bit more injured, a little bit less explosive. And here they are, as you said, on the road on Thursday night football, where weird stuff happens. I mean, it's a short week and it's a divisional game where the Giants haven't looked as terrible as I thought they would. This might be a slug fest. And you know, you're getting one the following week from Pittsburgh. They are in a tough spot right here. If they end up one, three headed to Pittsburgh, can you imagine the chaos? I mean, look, obviously they should win. They're five and a half point favorites. But when teams are favored by more than five and a half points against the spread this year, they're not two and 14. I mean, against the spread that is. But the season's been utterly unpredictable as my point, like the underdogs have hung teams like the Giants and matchups like this have performed really, really well either straight up, see Washington against Cincinnati, or just keeping the game really close. In fact, the biggest statistical underdog in the NFL has won in all three weeks. Week one, New England over Cincinnati. Week two would happen and then week three with the commanders over the Bengals. So something to think about going into Thursday night football. I just think the Giants have actually looked better than the Cowboys for two straight weeks now. Doesn't necessarily have to mean a whole lot, but in week two and the Giants lost to Washington, basically because they didn't have a place kicker, the Cowboys were busy just getting their chest kicked in. And the Browns hosting the Giants this past weekend when New York won 21 to 15 made that game closer late than it looked like it was going to be early on, but they didn't really have answers for Malik neighbors who's been unbelievable. That might be what I'm most happy about tonight is to get to see Malik neighbors for four quarters in prime time without multitasking with 10 or 12 other games. Do you realize he's leading the NFL in targets as a rookie? Yeah, there's nothing else on that offense. It's worth the damn. So they're poor speed them. Yeah, the other part of it. He's good. He's damn good. He's got 37 targets. He is chewing up 48% of their receiving yards individually as one guy. Almost half of their passing yards have been to Malik neighbors who's on pace for, I think I looked this up yesterday. So it's not exact, but it's something like this. Over 130 catches and over 1500 yards. We saw Daniel's put on a show when he got his chance the other night. This is the other rookie who looks like a potential rookie of the year so far in the NFL. He gets his opportunity with the country watching this evening. Yeah. I mean, he's almost averaging eight catches per game. You do some quick math on that. And you know, he's, as you said, over 130 catches and just outstanding numbers. He's terrific. So that's the challenge for the, for an opposing defense is basically he's lining up everywhere. Whatever we do, we have to worry about him. You don't have to worry about Wanda Robinson or Darius Slaton or Tyrone Tracy or Daniel Bellinger or anybody else on that roster because it ain't good. Now, single territory's fine. The running game and they've actually been better there than I thought they'd be. Nothing dynamic or remarkable. That's not going to stop tonight because the Cowboys are the worst run stopping team in the NFL right now. Yeah. But to me, run game stopped themselves, right? You could see these dominant run games. Look at these run totals that Green Bay ran for a million nerds and scored 16 points a couple of weeks ago. Those, those drives will end up stopping themselves, whether it's a procedure penalty, whether it's holding something, you know, a stuff run, somebody makes a play. To me, it's about can you slow down? Can you stop? Can you neutralize to some degree like neighbors? You do you in the football game? I think if you're Dallas. Other side of the ball, biggest storyline is trying to get CD lamb going for the Cowboys and then that defense. Mike Zimmer in week one was lauded for the plan he put together against the Browns, but we've figured out subsequently that the Browns are just not that good. And in the two game since against the Saints and the Ravens, the Cowboys have gotten embarrassed defensively over a two week span. They've been arguably the worst defense in the league right there with Washington. And now we just had a guest on yesterday breaking down the Cowboys when we blitz the East. The storyline is maybe Mike Zimmer's had the game passed him by. So it's a big night for him as well. I mean, you've got to find a plan to slow down the Giants. It shouldn't be that hard. It's as you said, one receiver in neighbors and it's Daniel Jones at quarterback and they're going to hand the ball off to Singletary. A bunch was normally between 16 and 20 carries. They could also use a fast start talking about Dallas, by the way, like it feels like they've sleep walked through a couple of these games New Orleans. They never got back into it. Baltimore that a furious rally late in the game. But if they play with a lead, I'd like to see what it looks like.