With the $5 meal deal in McDonald's, you pick a Mac Double or a Mac Chicken, then get a small fry, a small drink, and a four-piece Macnuggets. That's a lot of McDonald's for not a lot of money. Price and participation may vary for a limited time only. At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub pulley? Well, if you're installing a new conveyor belt system, dealing with the different components can sound like you're speaking a foreign language. Luckily, you've got a team ready to help. Granger's technical product specialists are fluent in maintenance, repair, and operations. So whenever you want to talk shop, just reach out. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now, you're multitasking, but what if you could also be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers, you saved by switching, saved nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. So, multitask right now. Get your quote now at Progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, national average, 12 months savings of $744 by new customers surveyed, who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. Cowboy Nation, back at it, we're in the dub column. I can't wait to see y'all in Pittsburgh. We need a business. See y'all soon. Big time win, big time game. Earns a knife football man, don't get no better. Great, great. Got us another one, we needed it. So, looking forward to the next one. Let's just make this raw hole way more sweeter. First to be the dub. Let's get it. Next stop. We got the dub. Back to the dollar as we go. Yeah, the ride would have been anything but sweet. That's the thing about the NFL. You're either thrilled or you're absolutely deflated. There's no middle ground. You've lived that. The highs to highs, the lows to lows and no in between. Especially when you're the Cowboys and you're one and two and you desperately need a win to avoid falling to one and three. He's Rodney Harrison. I'm Mike Florio. We got an hour to talk about Cowboys Giants and the rest of week four. Good morning, Rodney. Good morning, Mike. And if you're the Cowboys, you have to be excited. It's a divisional win. It's on the road. It's when they're coming off a terrible performance against the Baltimore Ravens. They have to be thrilled, especially on the offensive side of the ball. They made CD Lamb the focal point of the offense. I thought Dak Prescott, I thought he looked really good. I thought he did a great job of just showing patience, spreading the ball around and just really taking control of the offense. Mike, I thought Dak played well. Yeah, Dak played well and the defense, which gave up 275 rushing yards to the Ravens on Sunday. Thursday night, the rushing net for the Giants was 26. I've had to check that twice. I had to make sure my eyes aren't deceiving me and or otherwise impaired. 26 was the net rushing on 24 carries. That's 1.08 yards per carry. So something happened. Somebody put a foot in someone's butt collectively between Sunday and Thursday night to get that rush defense to step up the way that it did against the Giants. I think overall, you look at the defense side of the ball. I thought Mike Zimmer did a really good job of motivating those guys. You see, Mazzy Smith, who was absolutely embarrassed the first two games of the season. He comes out and he actually plays well. I mean, he makes some plays. And Lindwald Joseph, another veteran big time guy in the middle of that defense. He was getting pushed around, played a lot better last night. But DeMarvion Overshan, this guy was probably the best player on the field. This linebacker, he was all over the place making tackles from sideline to sideline. He contributed on the special teams. I just thought he was phenomenal. And you need guys like that. When you're going in a tough divisional matchup, you need guys outside of the superstars stepping up, making plays. And I thought he was fantastic. Yeah, and the Cowboys needed that total team effort offensively, defensively. And one of the things going into the game, and I think this is a true narrative as it relates to the Cowboys and the stats back it up. If they get up by multiple scores, it all rolls downhill and they get an easy win. If they go down by multiple scores, it all falls apart for them. This was more of a close back and forth. Not that the Giants ever really took the lead. And I'm not sure that they did. If they did, it wasn't for very long. It was just close. It was hard fought. There was small margin for error. The Cowboys had to stay focused the whole game. The Cowboys usual blueprint is get up big and relax or go down big and just flail. This was a full 60 minute focus for the Cowboys to earn this win. There was nothing easy about it. Stayed within the six point spread. They had to sweat out a final drive, although the Giants never really did much with it. I have some thoughts on that. I'll share in a few minutes. But it wasn't easy. And maybe they needed something that wasn't easy. Maybe they need to morph into a team that can win close hard fought games. Well, I think that's a part of why you saw those guys so excited at the end. You know, it's not oh, we beat the Giants. No, we went on the road and beat a team that was a solid team. A team that's in our division on the road, which is very tough to do. And I think if you're the Cowboys, you have to be excited. I thought Mike Zimmer did a good job of having this team prepared and ready to go. It didn't look like they were, you know, and I look at a guy like CD lamb, who I thought really set the tone. I mean, the guy was complaining last week about not getting the ball and he was highly upset. But then he comes back this week. He apologizes and they make him the focal point of the offense. And this guy really gets it going. So I just, I love the maturity of CD lamb. Understanding that he's a leader. Everybody's looking up to him. I love the fact that he wants the ball. You know, it's not like he's, he just signed a contract and he's complacent. Oh, I'm cool. I got my 35 million a year. I'm good. No, this kid wants to win. And any time in the post game when we interviewed this guy, he's the same way. So I have a lot of respect for CD lamb. The fact that he came out, he apologized. He wants to be a better teammate and he got it done yesterday, Mike. Seven catches 98 yards on eight targets and one touchdown for CD lamb. There it is. He caught, if you're listening on Sirius XM85, trust me, he caught the ball and he ran into the end zone for a score. That was his touchdown last night. And you're right. It's a quick turnaround too. And one of the things the Cowboys put out there through their PR staff, it was the first time ever the Cowboys had to go on the road with only three days between games because they always have that Sunday, Thursday turnaround on Thanksgiving at home. Every other team's done it at least six times. They'd never done it before last night. And I felt like they were trying to build in an excuse. It just showed that it was something that required full focus. They had to bust their asses this week to get ready to go do what they did. And it worked. And this is the kind of thing that can propel them. They got two tough games coming up, Rodney. They got to go to Pittsburgh next Sunday night. You'll be there for the Cowboys and the Steelers. One of the great rivalries in football, even though they get together once every four years or they're about and then they have a home game against the Lions and those Lions fans are going to take over AT&T Stadium and then they have their by week. So they needed that one last night and they needed that belief that they can win a close tough game because these next two games, assuming they don't get blown off the field like they did against the Saints and the Ravens, it's going to be a close tough game if they're going to have a chance to win. And that's the thing that makes it so difficult to, you know, to really gauge the Cowboys because at times they look really good. They look like a well-coached team. They're out there doing all the things they're supposed to do, making all the checks, making all the adjustments, just doing things right. And then all of a sudden you get a game like the Ravens last week and he's like, what's going on? And then they come back this week and they, or yesterday and they play a lot better. It's just, you know, you have to bring it every week as a pro. You can't take time off. You can't get comfortable because you're the Dallas Cowboys. Once you win, you have a little bit of success. You got to keep pushing and that comes from the head coach, that comes from leadership within that locker room. That comes from my Zimmer. I mean, for those guys to play on the level that they play on the defensive front line, why can't they bring that every single week? And that's the thing that makes defenses great. That's the thing that makes teams really well when they're able to play a lot more consistent. So for me, a lot of that motivation or lack thereof, it comes from the head coach, it comes from the defensive coordinator. They have to do a better job of getting these guys and making it, making them understand the sense of urgency to win right now and to bring it every week, Mike. You're absolutely right and it's going to be a long hard fight all season long for the Cowboys. It's not going to come easily like it did last year when they were winning every home game. They were rolling over people and hey, maybe that's better when the playoffs roll around if they qualify. Maybe sometimes teams have it too easy in the regular season and then they get hit in the mouth in the post season. They're like, what's this, the taste of my own blood, that hasn't happened and they fall apart. So, but the only problem with that, Mike, is, um, yeah, go ahead. No, I'm sorry. I got this national alert morning. Oh, hopefully it's not incoming missiles. Yeah. Let me know if it is. That's all right. I lost my train of thought. What was your last? That's all right. Rodney's in the hurricane zone. Rodney's dealing with the storms. Although you're somewhat inland, you're still getting some of the weather. Just let me know if the missiles are in the air. I want to assume the position that I learned back in grade school. Sit on the floor, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. Okay. So, so anyway, Dr. Doom makes an appearance on Friday. My point was that the Cowboys, I lost my train of thought as well, the Cowboys might be better served if they get to the playoffs this year if they have to win some of these close hard fought games because I felt like it was too easy for them last year. You get up a couple of scores in your role and then the Packers come to town and they punch you in the mouth and you don't know what to do. So this might be in a weird sort of way, the way to kind of toughen them up and have them ready for the playoffs if they do encounter some adversity because they were behind last night, three nothing. They pulled ahead and they held off the Giants consistently and inevitably, but it wasn't easy. That might be the key for the Cowboys. The message has to come from the coaches and the message has to come from the leadership within that locker room. So if you're telling me that the Cowboys kind of skated along the season last year, didn't have a lot of adversity or a lot of tough challenges, but once they got to the playoffs, then all of a sudden they get this wake up call. But if you're a good team and you have great leadership, you don't even get to that point. You know, you just take care of business, you win one football game, you're excited about it for 12 to 16 hours, and then you put that away and then you go on to the next. And that's what pros do. I mean, especially when you're preparing to win football games and you have a lot of confidence in your team and what you're doing. Teams that are up and down and it just comes from instability at the head coaching spot and the lack of leadership in the locker room. So for me, I just look for the Cowboys whenever you go through games like this, it should build more trust, more camaraderie, more unity within your group. That's what it should do. It shouldn't bring you apart. Great point. And one of the things hopefully it will do for coach Mike McCarthy, take a little of the heat off of him. He's in the final year of his contract, didn't get an extension. He has to earn it. Here he is after last night's 20 to 15 win over the New York Giants talking about the Cowboys second victory of the season. And winning is always a great thing, especially on the road. Row wins are the best division games. You can add another layer to it. So yeah, we feel great about what we accomplished tonight, but I think it's, you know, for the fourth week in a row, we realized that we have a lot of work to do. I mean, that's really the first four quarter game we've played. I mean, we're, you know, it was a complimentary football game. You know, I, you know, I wish we'd have been able to drive the ball more offensively. I, you know, just felt like we left our defense out there a bit much, you know, that long swing right before the half and then, you know, they came right back here in the first driver in the third quarter. So I thought that was very challenging for our defense and for them to continue to fight. But I think the biggest thing was, you know, we were able to, you know, frankly, I feel like it's the first game I called, you know, for four quarters, but that's the key because it was a close game for four quarters. It wasn't a blowout one way or the other week one blowout that went the Cowboys way week two and three blowout that went at the other teams way, although the Cowboys made a mad scramble at the end to try to make it interesting because the Ravens had a habit of falling apart in the fourth quarter and basically taking their foot off the gas. This was hard fought four quarters, stay focused exactly what they needed. Even if the Giants aren't one of the great teams in the NFL, going on the road, extending their mastery of the Giants, it was 13 straight wins by Dak Prescott over the Giants. And I think it's now 14 out of 15 and I'm correct 14 out of 15 wins by the Cowboys over the Giants. And it was almost like the Cowboys were in a no win situation because they're supposed to win this game. And if they do, we still don't really believe in them. And if they lose, it's a disaster and it would have been a disaster. But I think this is the best outcome. They got the win and maybe it, it toughens them up mentally for what's to come because these next two games, you're going to be two and two and maybe two and four. If you don't go in there and take one of these two games against great opponents like the Steelers and the Lions. Yeah, but if you're the Cowboys, you're not, you don't have, you don't look two weeks ahead. You know, you really just focus on this one game, you won, you go, you watch tape, Friday, Saturday, you study what you've done, what you've done right, what you've done wrong. And then you make the necessary corrections and you move forward. I'm sure the game's not another what, 10 days, they get what, seven, eight, nine, 10 days before they have to play. So, you know, my thing is the run game. I thought Rico Dotto, I thought he didn't have a lot of yards per se, that like 40-some yards. But I thought he ran the ball well. I thought he, he did a pretty good job of, you know, he's not a super big guy. But I thought it was enough just to respect the run. You had to respect the run. My big question is in the passing game with Brandon Cooks. You're the number, you're the number two receiver and you have one catch. The man, first two games, you have two catches. He's not that big of a factor, you know, because when you start playing against really good quality defenses and Shayo, and he did a good job the first couple of weeks, but when you're playing against quality defenses, they're going to take away CD lamb. They're going to double team CD lamb. You're going to need Brandon Cooks. You're going to need Jake Ferguson, who I was excited about them, including the offense and him taking part of the offense because I think he can serve as a big factor. But I'm looking at Brandon Cooks, that number two receiver. And I just know how easy it is to take away a slot guy like CD lamb or if he plays out wide at the wide receiver spot, you double team him, you take him away, and you force the Cowboys to go elsewhere. And you play physical with these guys. You jam them at the line of scrimmage, you make their life miserable. And that's what you're going to have to do if you want to slow these guys down. 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Not nearly the guy he used to be, 19 yards on 5 carries. I just don't think they commit to run because they've committed so much money to the passing game. When you give CD Lamb a market value contract, when you make Dak Prescott the highest paid player in football, you feel compelled to use them and I feel like one of the reasons they get away from the run is because this is what we do, this is where we've allocated our resources, if we don't do it, people are going to say, why did you give all that money to CD Lamb and Dak Prescott? Yeah, and I just wrote down Pat and stats. That's what I wrote down because at the end of the day, you know, why receivers are concerned about their stats, you know, CD Lamb, he's looking at the paper, he's looking how many Jamar Chase has, how many, you know, all these top receivers that have Tyree kill has. At the end of the day, it's about winning football games. And once again, that's the message from the head coach guys, we can't worry about how many numbers, what your numbers are, we have to worry about, you know, winning football games. And I think sometimes, you know, coaches get into this situation where they're trying to appease the star player and really takes their entire offense out of whack. You know, I like what they did last night, they got him, got him some touches early, some quick throws, got him in the backfield, got him going, got him excited about the game and it seemed like everyone, everyone else kind of jumped in and got excited. But CD Lamb is a superstar, no question about it. And like I said, he has to handle himself a lot better, but I'm glad he came back. He apologized and he made it right with his teammates. And that to me, that looked really good. I thought he looked poor, he's, I thought he looked confident and I thought he did a good job of kind of spreading the ball around. This is one of his better games. And you mentioned appeasing the star players, I mean, let's look at it practically Rodney. Dak Prescott's going to be there for years to come, CD Lamb's going to be there for years to come. Mike McCarthy has no guarantee beyond this year. You appease the stars. Maybe they go to bat for you when it's time to, to put in a word to the boss as to whether or not they want to have Mike McCarthy back. So it all works together. If Mike McCarthy's going to secure another contract with the Cowboys, you mentioned Dak, he did have a big game. Let's hear from Dak Prescott, following the victory. As you said, getting CD going, big time playmaker, getting some catches, what in the second drive there led to us touchdown, able to overcome some penalties even on that drive. Get there in the third drive, they leave him one on one, able to attack that. After what loop getting a big fourth down conversion, it was huge, but, but we've got to build off of those drives and continue to go. Didn't finish the way that we wanted to, not to our standard. First in the hands of the defense, which is credit to those guys for finishing, getting it done, not allowing any touchdowns. But we're, we're an offense that can finish better and score more touchdowns than we did tonight. So we've got to look at ourselves in the mirror and go get that done. And Mike, Mike, Mike, and what he's talking about is he's talking about we have to be tougher in the run game. You know, we know that they can pass the ball, but sometimes your passing game will not work. Sometimes you have to totally rely on that run game and they don't have a run game that they can totally depend on. They just don't. And that's why the Dallas Cowboys offensively, you go and see a one week, hotline, everything's working next week, they're going to struggle. And then one week you say, how did this team come in and beat them because they can't run the football? And you think they're going into Pittsburgh next week and they're going to be able to drop back and pass all over the place with TJ Watt, no boys coming. Cameron Hayward in the interior, that defense is not going to happen. You have to be able to run the ball. You have to have some level of balance. And we've seen that Prescott at times be average. It's not like he's always setting a world on fire out there, you know, so I just think that you have to implement that run game, especially when you plan against teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, then you got to deal with the Detroit and their big offensive line and defensive line. It's going to be tough for the Cowboys the next couple of weeks, Mike. It's an excellent point, Rodney. And it's probably one of the reasons why the owner of the team, Jerry Jones, gets a little touchy when he's asked about why they didn't pursue Derek Henry who had a cap number this year of only 5.1 million with the Ravens. The Cowboys could have made that work. They chose not to. They made their assessment that they didn't want Derek Henry. When Jerry Jones says we couldn't afford him, that's a load of crap. They could have. They made the decision not to and figure how much better the Cowboys would be this year if they could rely on Derek Henry in the run game to balance out the past game and to have an answer for those defenses that are able to take away Dak Prescott's ability to get the ball to CD lamb. Yeah, I agree with you 100% Derek Henry for the life of me. I thought the Cowboys for the life of me. I thought this was going to be a deal done. I just felt like it was a perfect situation for Derek Henry to come in there and really give them the toughness. Over the toughness that Isaiah Pacheco gave to Kansas City Chiefs when he first became a starter, just the energy, the excitement, that's what I was looking for when the Dallas Cowboys when I thought they were going to sign Derek Henry, he wasn't asking for a ton of money. He was asking for like $8 million a year or at least they settled for $8 million a year, but to have a guy like him, the intimidation factor and I even look at the Giants. I mean, you look at Saequan Barkley, imagine if Saequan Barkley was in that back field with Daniel Jones playing with the composure that he's playing with. I mean, it's a totally different offense. You can't take an average running back and replace him with Saequan Barkley and think you're going to have these big time numbers. Saequan Barkley is a great player. He's a superstar for a reason, and you can't replace these superstars with these average running backs. And for the life of me, it was a huge mistake not to sign Derek Henry. He gives you that intimidating factor. He gives you just that confidence and you know, on third down and short, fourth down and short, he's going to get you those key yards. You know, I wonder how differently the Cowboys would have viewed Henry. How differently the Giants would have viewed Saequan if they'd known the first four weeks of the season would skew for whatever reason toward the run and having a great running back. What a difference it's making for the Eagles to have Saequan Barkley. I think if the Giants had known he was going to make a beeline right down on 95 to Philadelphia, they wouldn't have let him out the door. But Mike, what difference does it make Mike? What difference does it make whether where he goes? If you want the player, you get the player and that was a terrible fumble. That was a terrible fumble by the Giants. You don't let a guy walk out the door. And now he becomes free and you know that your arts nemesis has an opportunity to grab him, Mike. That's my point. It makes it worse that he went to Philadelphia without him. It's one thing. You don't have to deal with him twice a year. You're not constantly reminded of every big run that he has like the 65 yarder that was the, the game changer on Sunday in New Orleans. And when you look at 1.08 yards per carry without Saequan Barkley, think of what that offense could be. The offensive lines better this year, they have Malik neighbors who is incredibly left the game late with concussion. He posted on social media that he's fine. They'll have to go through all the steps. They have a few extra days before their next game. So who knows? We routinely see guys come back the game after a concussion, but he has been a superstar so far. If you have neighbors in Barkley, yeah, Daniel Jones all of a sudden looks a lot better and he's not worried about his future in New York. That's the place where you want to be the quarterback because you've got those two weapons under contract for multiple years into the future. And that's what I didn't understand about the Giants. I mean, if you're, if you're going out and you're trying to build a team, you're trying to build an offense, how do you build it without Saequan Barkley? I just, I don't understand, you will keep Daniel Jones a guy that you have a ton of question marks about, but Saequan Barkley, you will not sign him to a long term deal. You've got to get to the ball that is dynamic catch out of the backfield. Great locker room guy. What more do you want? You want the guy to play for half the salary or freak? I just don't get it. And that's where the Giants got themselves twisted up. And this is why they shouldn't have done the off season hard knocks show because we all got a glimpse into how they were thinking. They drank the Kool-Aid on this idea that running backs are just interchangeable parts. It's like a wheel on a car. Oh, we got wheels everywhere. We'll take one wheel off. We'll put another wheel on. Well, all wheels are not created equal. Saequan Barkley, and this was one of the arguments it was made when they had these meetings that never should have been broadcast to the world where we see, you know, people in the room saying, are we sure about this? Are we? Are we? This is, this guy's different than just whatever running back. Yeah, you could throw a rock and hit a running back, but you can't throw a rock and hit Saequan Barkley and you've given him extra motivation. It makes it even worse. You've given him to your, to your division rival. What a different, you're right. What a different game that would have been last night. If Saequan Barkley is playing for the Giants and or if Derek Henry's playing for the Cowboys. And of course, you have to look at the decision makers. You got to look at the guys in the room that are making these decisions. I mean, if the general manager, what general manager gets rid of Saequan Barkley, a guy that's in his prime, you know, the first few years you kind of learn he goes through his ups and downs with the injuries, but he's always been a good dude to have around in the locker room. And now he's healthy. He's able to play and you, you, you decide not to allow him or not to sign him to a contract, which was absolutely ridiculous. You don't let a guy like Saequan Barkley walk up out of there. And how do you become better because you, you become cheaper? No, you don't become better that the offensive line is better like you talked about. You saw Daniel Jones playing with a lot more confidence and a lot more points in the pocket because he's not scared after a second, he's going to get his head ripped off, you know, and just imagine if Saequan Barkley's behind that offensive line and what it does to Juan Dale Robinson and all these, these young wide receivers, elite neighbors like you talked about, he's fantastic. And I just tell you this, Mike, you watched this kid play. He plays with so much passion. He plays with so much fire. He plays with so much intensity. And I look, and I was a big fan of Marvin Harrison Jr's. But you can't tell me that these two guys passion wise are on the same level. I know Marvin Harrison's a big guy, six, four. He's got phenomenal talent, but this kid is the best wide receiver that's in the draft. I just love everything that he does. He loves football. He's competitive. He's tough. He'll block. He'll go across the middle and he just, he's just a special kid. You don't get many of these kids. He reminds me of Tamar Chase, just his excitement and the things that he can do on a football. I don't know how much of it's the Marvin Harrison Jr. name that made him the presume number one overall pick. One of Chris's criticisms was there wasn't a lot of separation from college level defensive backs at Ohio State. He makes great contested catches. You want a guy who can get wide open. And on that first play last night on the opening drive by the Giants, we showed it earlier. Malik neighbors is wide open like are they not covering him? No. He just put a move. They want to move on the defensive back. The foot defensive back on his rear end. That's the kind of player that Malik neighbors is. He gets open. He gets separation. He makes the catches. He's determined. He's driven. He loves football. The one criticism is maybe he goes a little too all out. Maybe he's going to get himself injured, but that's a good problem to have when you have a guy with that kind of passion who can elevate a team, give them their best receiver since Odell Beckham Jr. maybe even better, maybe even like Odell Beckham without the drama is what the Giants are going to have moving forward with Malik neighbors, Rodney. Yeah. You talk about the excitement that he brings and the impact. You look at Juan Dale Robinson. You look at the impact that he has on him. This is a young guy that really stepped up his game, made some big, made some plays last night and really showed how dynamic of a receiver he is. So, great players have a huge effect on some of those young guys in the locker room. You start to look at just how good Malik neighbors is, man. This kid is special. I mean, you look at just the toughness, the willingness to come across the middle. When he gets up, he's excited about playing football. It's no complaints. It's just a fiery young kid, and I just love to see that. It's pretty cool to see, Mike. You made the point earlier about Brandon Cooks. The compliment to C.D. Lamb having one catch for 16 yards. Juan Dale Robinson had 11 catches last night. Neighbors had 12. Robinson had 11. So, if you're going to blanket neighbors and Robinson's open, we'll throw it to him. And you're right. You don't have to worry about. Now, maybe it'll change and Malik neighbors still got 12 catches, but you can still throw the ball to other guys. You didn't expect it every single play. They've wisely been targeting him at a record level. He's on pace to shatter the single season rookie record for targets. Anquan Baldwin holds it from 2003, I believe, 2003 or 2002. But neighbors is going to blow past that. And that's what the Giants are doing well. We can criticize them for not keeping Saint Juan Barkley, and we should. But they have this special talent, and they're using him. They're doing what they have to do. Brian Dayball is scheming it up to get the ball to him, which is smart, because usually not receiver doesn't get the ball as much as a running back. Let's get this guy the ball as much as we can. Yeah, he's your, I mean, he's your best playmaker. So, I mean, he's a dynamic kid, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Giants start using him more like kind of San Francisco uses Deebo in the backfield and, you know, wide receiver quick screens. Because those guys are thicker guys, they're tough. They love contact. The harder you hit them, the harder they go. The running game we mentioned earlier for the New York Giants, I guess fittingly they finished with 26 yards. That's the number Saint Juan Barkley wears. Here's Daniel Jones and Brian Dayball after last night's loss, talking about the performance of the offense. We don't feel good about losing. We didn't do enough to win, and, you know, we're frustrated. We're not discouraged. I think we're so confident in our team and what we can do. But no, we don't feel good about losing. We kind of controlled the game in the passing game, but we didn't do enough in the running game. You know, in the game credit, you knew they were going to get some of it fixed, but we had to do a better job than that. I just wonder how much they schemed to take advantage of the weaknesses the Cowboys have in the running game. You know, Daniel Jones can run the ball well. We've seen that before. Remember when he tripped over the 20 yard line on the long run to the end zone a few years ago? He's got speed. They could have done some things to take advantage of whatever they saw. And again, maybe the Cowboys just fixed it, but bottom line, they need a running game. The Cowboys need more of a running game. The Giants need any running game at this point to compliment what they're doing in the passing game. At the time when the NFL is skewed toward a lot of running, the two teams we saw last night desperately need to address that area of their offenses, Rodney, but it has to be a commitment to running a football. We can't just try to run a ball 10 or 11 times and then say, you know what, we're not having success. We're going to go away from it. We're going to let Daniel Jones be the savior of our team. You have to be able to commit to running a football, especially when you look at the Cowboys and the way they got pushed around by the Ravens last week, you know, you talk about their offensive line and they're getting pushed around, they're getting bullied. And for the life of me, I don't understand why the Giants won't just come out. And Brian Dave ball is a good offensive coordinator. I mean, you look at the job that he did with Josh Allen when he was out in Buffalo. I mean, I think this guy, he knows his stuff. He was with me in the Patriots for some years. So I know he knows what he's doing, but I do believe that, you know, just committing to running a football and saying, okay, we're paying Daniel Jones $45, $50 million, we're just going to let him swing it around. Yeah, he's gotten better. He's shown a level of patience, but he's still not that guy. He needs a run game to help supplement him. He was a receivers coach in New England, right? Yes, I could just imagine, and I have heard nothing to support this. I can imagine number 37 out in the middle of a field, yacking at the receivers coach saying, is this all you can put out here on the field? Is this all you got? These guys are horrible. Yeah, that happened more than once, trust me, we got into it. All right. Let's go ahead. Dave, all's a good dude though. I'm sorry Mike. Dave, all's a good man. He's a good man. Let's hear from Dave all on the performance of his quarterback who has been much criticized and his performance has kind of improved. What did he think of what he saw from Jones last night? Here he is. Yeah, I know three games in a row. I'm proud of the young man. He's made good decisions. He's thrown the ball where he needs to throw the ball. I mean, they last played to Hyatt that's a, you know, keep it down there and see if we can get a DPI or we can go up and try to make a player. But he's, I thought, you know, for three games he's been locked in. He's played well. He's seen the field. He's delivered the ball where he needs to. You know, again, we had some opportunities to continue drives today as well. So I'm, I'm proud of how he's performed, how he's prepared. He's done a nice job for us. They got overwhelmed week one by the Vikings defense led by Brian Flores and there's just a chance that that's the best defense they're going to see all year. He's gotten better since then. They should have beaten the commanders. He played better in that game if they had a kicker on the act of roster that day. They probably would have won that game. And they win in Cleveland with a couple of touchdowns passed in the league neighbor. So Jones has gotten better. They didn't score a touchdown last night, but you know, it's hard to win football games when you're relying upon field goal, field goal, field goal, but I've seen some improvement. I know Giants fans are still very skeptical, but it's moving in the right direction where it goes from here. They're one in three where it goes from here. They got to win football games or it's going to be a done deal when the season ends. They can get out of the contract after this year and they will. Well, I think this year so far, I think it is heading in the right direction, but there's a lot of pressure on Daniel Jones. I don't see Daniel Jones as being that guy that can take them far in the playoffs. I just don't. He's a good kid. He works hard when he's tries to do the right thing. He's a good athlete. I mean, he's a solid athletic guy, but I just don't see that. I don't see that. I just don't see enough in Daniel Jones, why I believe that he's going to take them to the NFC playoffs and take them and be able to go on a road and win a wildcard game or anything like that. I just don't see it. I like the kid. I think he works extremely hard, but I just don't think they have enough around him. They need, they have to have a running game and you go from Saquon Barkley to this kid and it's a massive drop off and defensively speaking, Mike, you're not intimidated when you go up against the Giants because you know, single tears are solid back, but he's, he's nothing really special. You're not losing any sleep. You're not specially game planet for this young man. You know, you're, you're going into the game and saying, Hey, I have to be able to stop CD lamb. And that's just what it is. And again, back to hard knocks. We learned from that that they blew it with Saquon Barkley and we also learned they really don't want Daniel Jones. So he's going to have to do a lot to earn another year in New York. All right. We've earned another segment. We're going to take a break. When we return injury, concern for the Cowboys, a significant one. And I do have one big criticism of Mike McCarthy's performance last night. I'll tell you what it is next here on PFT law. Drafting sports book is the number one place to bet touchdowns. The new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly download the app and use promo code PFT live when you sign up draft King Sportsbook. The crown is yours. And please as always bet responsibly one of the things that could drive a person to bet responsibly or not at all the moment at the end of the game last night. If you had the Cowboys given six Brandon Aubrey, if he makes that 51 yard field goal and he had never missed a 50 plus yard field goal, the Cowboys go over the number. He missed it. Rodney, here's my criticism. The clock was running. The Cowboys had three timeouts. They put the field goal unit out on the field. They didn't call a timeout. They just kind of rushed the whole thing and it wasn't really rushed. It was just like they didn't even consider, hey, let's run it all the way down to one second. I mean, I've got two criticisms. They snapped the ball with two seconds left. You never know what that one second is going to do. The final drive of the game. And they, they would have had a more relaxed snap spot, kick, hold, whatever. If the clock isn't moving, you're trying to get it off before the play clock expires in a 51 yard, it becomes a 56 yard. I just don't understand that. I've always seen the coach just wait, take it down to one second, call the timeout, send out the field goal unit. There was no reason to send out the field goal unit with the running clock and worry about all that. Take it down to one second, give them minimal time on the back end, give your kicker the best chance to make the field goal because they opened the door. Who knows what would have happened if the Giants, you know, if they'd made the field goal and the Giants still would have had to go all the way down the field, score a touchdown two point conversion of force over time. But if the Giants had won that game on the last drive, McCarthy, I don't know, maybe they wouldn't let him on the plane afterward because that field goal should have been made. They should have called that timeout to enhance the chance of making it. Well, the kid hadn't missed, right? So the kid was basically automatic. So they had so much confidence. I'm almost to the point of arrogance that every time this kid lines up to kick a 50 or 60 yarder. That's what it was. That's what it was arrogance that drove that. They figured he's just going to make the thing. We don't need to do this because I'm like, you might, I'm like you, Mike, I want to take a call a timeout, field goal unit, take your time, go out there, I want my place holder to get set up the right way. It's no need to rush. I mean, just use one of those timeouts because it's not like you're burning those timeouts and you're wasting it. You're actually burning it so you can score and put more points on the board. So I'm totally in agreement with you in that situation, definitely. And just, it's just basic clock management. You don't have to time it with the snap and the play clock. You can stand there and look at the play clock and you're next to the official. How many times do we see that? The coach is right there and they're seeing it ticked down. He gets down to one and right before it goes to zero, you call the timeout. That's one of the things. That's one of the, it drives people crazy because anyone that plays mad and knows how to manage a clock. And when you see a coach that makes a basic mistake like that and leaves a second or two when it was completely unnecessarily of a second or two, it's, it's the kind of thing that gets guys fired because it turns a win into a loss. All right. Something that could turn some future Cowboys wins into losses would be an injury that keeps Michael Parsons from playing. He left the game late with an ankle injury. X-rays were negative, but as we know with ankle injuries, the X-ray is just part of the picture. What matters is the MRI. What matters is the potential ligament damage. So now the Cowboys and Parsons are going to have to sweat out whether or not, you know, high ankle sprain or whatever it is that might cause him to miss some time. And obviously one of the best defensive players in football Rodney, without him, that's a very different team. It is and really I criticized him this week because I went back and, you know, you go back and you watch some of that Baltimore Ravens state and we talk about their inability to stop the run. And he's one of the biggest props because the guy just doesn't play physical. I mean, he has great explosion, great speed and when he turns it on, he is far to deal with. But what teams are doing is they're just allowing him to come, they're just leaving them and not even blocking them. They're leaving them unblocked. So he looks confused. Do I get the quarterback? Do I go for the running back when that guard is pulling around and some of those are in place. He's not blowing it up. He's slipping those blocks. He's going around. He has to bring more of a physical element to his game and, you know, you start watching him. It's not like he's going full out on every single play and the Cowboys have been relatively healthy. They're superstars. Haven't been hurt or out on the last couple of years, but yeah, this is a significant injury because this is the guy on third down and gets after the quarterback and this is the guy that creates one-on-one opportunities for everyone else because he's constantly getting double team. And I was a firm believer throughout the entire off season that Michael Parsons should have never shown up for training camp, should have never set foot on the field for three million dollars in 2024, which is what he's due to make. He should have held out and I think there's a subtle genius in what the Cowboys did. I've criticized the Cowboys for dragging their feet with CD Lam, for dragging their feet with Dak Prescott. They did Lam's new deal a week or so before week one. They did Dax literally the morning of the opening game, but if they'd done those deals back in February, it would have been far more likely Michael Parsons would have been knocking on somebody's door saying, I want mine. He's accepted and he shouldn't have. He's accepted that he's got to wait a year. Here's the problem. There's only anything about this ankle injury, we don't know how serious it's going to be, and hopefully it's not. Hopefully he's back next week for his own good, for the sake of the Cowboys, for the sake of the sport, you want your great players on the field. But he's carrying the injury risk because he didn't get his contract now. Yeah, he'll get a better contract later. Chances are he'll still get paid. But what happens is it's not the career ending injury you got to worry about. It's the career changing injury. It's the injury that never goes away. You've got an ankle that's never 100%. And all of a sudden you're not the guy you used to be and you're not going to get 35, 36, 37 million a year. That's the concern now for Michael Parsons and that's why he should have said, I will not play for $3 million this year. I've earned my second contract and I want it. Yeah, for the life of me, he's one of the top five defensive players in all the football. You don't walk on that football field, make it 3 million bucks. You just don't. But Mike, I was thinking too, with the money they're paying CD lamb, the money they're paying Dak Prescott, I mean, can a Dallas Cowboys really afford to make him the highest paid defensive player of all time? And when next year comes around, he's going to probably ask for 37, 38, maybe 39 million dollars a year. And if I'm the general manager, I'm kind of looking at that like, I don't know if I'm really open to pen a guy that much. I might allow him to walk, I possibly trade him, maybe a blockbuster trade. But there's, it's hard for me to say that I'm going to pay Michael Parsons 35 to 40 million dollars a year when I pay my quarterback 60 and I'm paying my other wide receiver, superstar wide receiver. And how are you going to continue to build on that defense and those other parts? If you pay one guy, that type of money, the cap keeps going up and they do very well with drafting and developing and those young, young players are so cheap relative to the veterans. You can find a way to work it out. But one of the big benefits Rodney, because they didn't have to pay him this year, think of all the money, think of the cap space that wouldn't have been spread over multiple years now. They're able to get one and that's what teams want to try to do with first round picks when you have that 50 or option. You want to delay the second contract until after the fourth year, the Vikings pulled it off with Justin Jefferson, the Bengals have pulled it off with your March chase even though it looked like it wasn't going to happen and the Cowboys have pulled it off with Michael Parsons and you got to be ready to take a stand. Remember when Kyle Murray took a stand a couple of years ago, I'm not playing for four million dollars fourth year of my contract and it forced the Cardinals to pay him. That's what Parsons should have done because he plays a position where injuries are far more likely where you stand a much greater risk Rodney of that next play being the last play where you're going to be one of the best defensive players in the NFL. And it doesn't mean career ends. It just means you've been diminished by that injury that happened that you didn't have the financial protection from the team against. Yeah, I still don't think it's a guarantee that they sign a long term. I know he's a big name and he puts names, he puts fans in the seat. I just, I don't know, Mike, I mean, you're paying that press got a ton of money. He's paying CD lamb, a ton of money, paying these guys at the top and then you look at Michael Parsons, you say, okay, I can get this superstar one guy or I can go out and I can get a bunch of really good players that's going to help build, continue to build our offense line, continue to build our defensive line, continue to get some young linebackers up in here and create depth in our secondary. So for me, as much as, you know, everybody ran to raves about Michael Parsons and he's a really good player. I'm kind of hesitant if I'm going to pay him $35, $40 million a year, make him the highest paid defensive player all time. I hope you're right, Rodney, because that's the kind of thing that creates intrigue, creates drama and gets people to come to PFT, which means more money for me, baby. Let's take a break. Show me something draft for week four when PFT live returns right after this. A lot of Panthers leaning in to the end adult experience in quarterback, including the hair, the glorious red hair, they've got the filter and of course, the filter ends up being applied. And we knew, we knew this was coming. There it is. It's an improvement for me. I may have to try, I may have to try some of that red hair dye, they have different kinds of red hair dye, apparently I may have to try some red hair dye. All right. Let's get to the Sunday night game. You will be in Baltimore. The bills and the Ravens, the bills right now look like the best team in football. The Ravens got their wake up call. They got their win, although they sputtered and they tried to blow it. I suggested this week, maybe the Ravens should ask for all games to be reduced to 45 minutes so they can't choke in the fourth quarter. This is a huge, huge game because the Ravens are one and two, even though they got that win, they were owing to, they need this one and the bills are flying high Rodney. What's the big thing you're looking for on Sunday night? Well, the biggest thing that stands out to me is just Josh Allen and really his attitude. I mean, you know, people thought he was taking a shot at Stefan Diggs. I didn't think that. I just think that he's basically saying, look, last year was last year. We know we basically had a superstar wide receiver now. It's kind of, you know, we have a bunch of good young players and I think he's excited about the opportunity to continue to build and work with these young guys. I think you see a guy that's truly become the leader of that team and a guy that's really holding himself and others accountable. So I love his attitude. I think there's a sense of urgency. I think they look around and they realize, hey, we got a really good team here. Let's focus on what we have to do and take care of business on the field. I think Sean McDermott has been fantastic with his preparation, his transition from all those defensive players that they lost. Coach Dungy spent some time with this yesterday and, you know, he made a great point about that Ravens runoff fence, 275 yards on Sunday in Dallas. Can the bills slow that down because the Ravens can literally slow the game down, keep Josh Allen on the sidelines, make him a little frustrated, a little more urgent when he does get a chance to get on the field. Those young receivers, the bright lights of Sunday night football, there's no overlapping doubleheader. It's just you. That's it. And everyone's watching on Sunday night football. And maybe if you reduce the opportunities Josh Allen has, you coax him into making some mistakes for those young receivers and maybe not making a big catch in a big spot. Yeah. And I'm also looking at defense according to Zach or he has to do a, you know, and he's a new defense coordinator. So he's learning and trying to figure out his team on the goal, but they have to do a great job of keeping Josh under control because you know how he is. He gets around. He slings the ball everywhere. But Mike, I would say this. Thank you. I was up at 445 just like you for seven o'clock show. It's been fantastic. Thanks for having me. Well, I appreciate you coming back. You know, I always wonder when we have these rotating guest hosts who come back once a week, I always wonder, are they going to show up next week? Have they reached their limit of me? So far you haven't, but next week's a new week. We'll find out if Rodney returns next Friday. Everybody have a great day. We'll see you on Monday morning for PFT live with the $5 meal deal at McDonald's. You pick a McDouble or a McChicken, then get a small fry, a small drink, and a four piece McNuggets. That's a lot of McDonald's for not a lot of money. [BLANK_AUDIO]
