Could middling Cowboys still win the NFC East? | Free4All+

I didn't know what it was. Sundown syndrome, a group of neuropsychiatric symptoms that cause increased confusion, agitation, anxiety, restlessness, and disorientation beginning the late afternoon, evening, or night. Oh, really? Is that self-imposed? So it happens a certain time of the day? Seriously? But is it self-imposed? It's not a standalone disease, but a common behavioral phenomenon most frequently affecting people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. So Landry's worried about me. Okay. You're doing all right. Where were we? What's going on? Hello. Hello, everyone. How are we feeling on this? We did our podcast already today. We recorded that, and that was kind of fun. It was fun. I think we've talked about the podcast, and this feels more like a podcast format, too, but I think with Afterthought, that is the name of our other show. Really, we do three shows, I'd like to say. Let's recount what they are, shall we? Yeah, let's go through. This is Free For All Plus, 7 o'clock, weeknights. and um it's tuesday so are we on tv tonight or we're not on tv soccer's on tv right uh fox local or maybe you're seeing it on some other app on the tiktok or the twitter or something all those fun things tonight and then we do free for all on television on fox 4 at 10 30 man i've had too much sugar today i brought some candy in for the editors what kind just a bunch of different little candy bars like mini candy bars we were at cvs today so i picked up a couple of bags they're in the pumpkin in the editing area but it's just kind of bang it's hitting me right now and then we do the pod called afterthought yeah we're trying to i think keep those a little bit more evergreen and i think this is a perfect evergreen episode because Mike and I talk about our favorite concerts that we've been to also our musical taste which believe it or not it does vary a lot between me and this guy, go figure, my favorite concert I determined was the Rolling Stones at Soldier Field and yours was, it was Bad Bunny, but I have you we've both seen like the heavy hitters of our generation, generations I feel like so I think it's one of the places where I can truly space out and really immerse myself and be in the moment so the pod will be posted when Thursday, Thursday yes wherever you get your podcast called the Afterthought the musical episode this time around um so the Cowboys I guess got back to work sort of today they had an availability in the locker room for media today they must have practiced in some form or fashion had some meetings at the stars they try to bounce back from that dreadful loss at Green Bay Dallas two and four somehow slight favorites as they go to Philadelphia on Monday night you'll be covering that game because the Eagles are two and four we're going to talk about the latest on the Hurts injury and the investigation so-called in a moment but Dallas got to figure something out or they're not going to beat anybody but I'm tempted to pick them right now against the Eagles team that's kind of in disarray too yeah especially when you lose Jalen Hurts I mean that's a difference maker right there but I don't know we've seen this team lose in a variety of ways we've seen them lose games that they shouldn't have lost so far this season so i'm not really too sure who i'm going to pick yet i need a couple more nights to think to think on it and that's a monday night game in philly uh most of the criticism after the green bay game was for the offense and for good reason shut out in the first half really only one touchdown that mattered in the game for dallas uh and an imbalance on offense not running the football enough a few guys did talk in the locker room today as i mentioned including wide receiver Ryan Flanoy and he discussed finding more balance with that offense we got a dominant running back like Tay is a great running back I think we need to feed him more and just um really just you know put the whole offense together I think defense can't stop our receiving core and our running back core we lost and we're seeing everybody else lose um yeah it's just I mean we just everything's in front of us you know everything's in front of us But, you know, we still got to be urgent and, you know, not expect that to happen every week. So, yeah, I mean, we got to get our stuff together, get on a roll. But it all starts, you know, with a division win against the Eagles. This is not the only thing that brings me joy in life. So I know when I get my opportunity to roll again, I'm going to be rolling. uh Demarvian Overshown there who will be back from injury, he says thinks he will be anyway Monday night in Philadelphia, Rashawn Gary uh talked as well, I didn't run that soundbite but you wanted to talk about that, yeah he had this quote about um he believes the defense is headed in the right direction and he said quote, "I'm excited man, can't be angry, this game of football teaches a whole lot of life lessons. Another great thing about this game is you can lose one week and you come out and you come back to the next week and be on top of the world, so just trying to chase that feeling chase consistency once again but no reason to be mad I can understand his viewpoint on that in a lot of respects, I know guys take defeat in different ways, some are more visually upset than others but I think at this point I think you want to hear a little bit more frustration from the guys considering how things have fallen in a way, I mean he's got the right attitude in terms of saying that he believes the defense has done a few good things but I also was talking to you about this in the office and I just feel like this generation is a little bit different than maybe some of the guys from the 90s, like the Troys, the Emmetts of the world, just because they're they're set so many of these guys are set for life right, I'm not saying They don't want to win more than anything, but I just think they look at it a little bit differently. Like, yeah, no one wants to lose, but at the end of the day, these guys are multimillionaires. They're also visible on so many different platforms and things like that. But if I'm a coach and Coach Shad, he said this yesterday that he wants to see his guys frustrated. You know, it's funny. It's, it's semantics in a way. I mean, it's, it's word choice. I think there's a fine line between anger and, and panic. yeah and sounding like you're desperate and I think Gary maybe wants to sound like he's measured in the way that he's responding here and he doesn't want to sound like he's worried that this thing has gone off the rails but i think it maybe it goes without saying that these guys are upset when they lose a football game i would hope that a professional feels that way i think they're all going to express themselves in different ways and this this is why i don't blame guys sometimes for getting upset with the way we respond to things to be perfectly honest not saying that you're responding incorrectly in this way but it's almost like man no matter what they say their words are so closely analyzed of course we're going to dissect everything that's what we do you know and and Schottenheimer talked yesterday about how he's he's pissed off and about how behind the scenes he raises his voice to these guys and you know some people think he's not gruff enough in terms of his external appearance well i hear a lot of people saying too you know you can't coach guys in today's world like like the Bill Belichick mentality like that doesn't work anymore apparently why not just just because guys are younger they can't they can't be coachable in that way in some in some ways it's funny i even had this conversation with my dad my dad who i've said this many a time as a Cowboys fan can't stand the Patriots but he did respect Bill Belichick my dad's like the Cowboys need a guy like Bill Belichick they need a guy like him to come in here and streamline everything and reinforce discipline well and i hear people say they need a Parcells type guy you know how many playoff games Parcells won with the Cowboys zero okay and so i i don't discount discipline and but again it's not like Jerry's never tried that i'll tell you who's looking pretty good right now is a guy who wasn't necessarily known as a hard that's Mike McCarthy, that's a guy who's looking pretty good right now and a lot of people are saying we want Mike McCarthy back and he was an old school coach i guess in some ways and that i don't think he was really touchy-feely with his players but i don't think he was a screamer either i could be wrong there but all he did was have three seasons where he won 12 games and that wasn't good enough well and i heard so i saw someone say on social media that you know Mike McCarthy never would have had this team coming out two straight weeks the way they did against Green Bay and then the week before so it's just hard to believe things are as much in disarray as they as they are right now you know you can criticize Schottenheimer for a lot of things but I think most it's hard to quantify some of this stuff in terms of the head coaching skills it's easier to quantify the problems with the offense when you're throwing it 39 times in a 40 play stretch in that last game it's just it's too imbalanced as we've talked about they were seven nine and one last year two and four this year that's eight losses in their last 11 games yet still somehow they're going to be in the race in the NFC East and it's really going to have to go down the toilet for them not to be in at all season just as bad as these other teams are the giants are three two and one dallas and philly two and four washington one four and one after they lost at San Francisco last night i think if i absolutely had to predict sam right now I would say the Cowboys are still going to win the NFC East in part because of the schedule ahead does it look right now like they could lose to any of these teams Eagles Cardinals of course yeah Eagles Cardinals Colts all losing records San Francisco at home but then Tennessee and then Philadelphia they're not beating no but they're going to be favored potentially in five of those those six games and hang around 500 and that's probably good enough to to win this division win the division yes let's say they get into the playoffs but they need to do a 180 in terms of how they're playing because even if they were to get into you would you feel right confident right now if the season ended today and they got in somehow playing the way that they're playing no not right now I think if the offense can find its footing again a little bit then that I'd maybe give them a chance and I think it should be able to that's the thing I mean I heard Marcus Spears say this on one of the shows and I thought it was a good point even with as much talent as they have on offense who other than CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens scare you right now and that's a good point but I would argue this it's like CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens that should be enough yeah right that should be enough now they're not running the ball well at all Javonte Williams is averaging just 3.7 yards through six games that that doesn't scare you at all and they have to i think figure out a way again to get more balanced and run the ball even in some uncomfortable uh situations and they need to figure out how to handle the blitz better too yep Dak's reputation was as a guy who just scorched teams that blitzed him and made them really pay he hasn't been able to do that in back-to-back games Vic Fangio the defensive coordinator for the Eagles is not known as a guy who blitzes a lot but you can bet he's going to now based on what he's seen on tape the last two weeks right so the Cowboys again have to figure out a way to make them play uh pay screen passes just just some way to to counter that um and then that's Schottenheimer's challenge one of many right now and people have been talking a lot about the fact that pre-snap no motion they've gotten away from that compared to a year ago too so i think all of it matters the creativity the play calling all of these things and they do have another big opportunity here so we'll see how it all comes together come Monday night again the Eagles are without Hurts most likely for the rest of the year and they will not be disciplined for how they handled the blood clots according to a person with knowledge of that situation insane that comes down from the league we haven't heard the last of this though in terms of how it was handled or mishandled NBA season underway the Mavs open tomorrow night in Houston, and Mavs broadcaster Brian Damaris is with us next. Well, look at who we have here. That time of year. It is, and look who's here. So, the last few times that Brian Damaris, Mavs broadcaster extraordinaire, has come in here, Mike has conveniently been off. I was trying to take it personally, but then I thought about it, and I was like, it was really nice with you and me. We were talking soccer. We kind of had our own little thing going. Yeah, I was doing the whole show. It was like, I had my nice tan, I was off, and now it's basketball season again. Between our shows and Noviello's show, you're in the building more than we are. Yeah, I know. And trust me, look what they've done to the place. We spare no expense, clearly. All right, Brian, so this Mavs squad, new season about to begin Wednesday night in Houston. This was a team that didn't have Kyrie a season ago because he was rehabbing from that ACL tear. 26 win season bands back together a lot of new faces not a lot of new changes new GM new team president new head coach what do you think of the direction of this franchise right now it seems like a whole new slate yeah it's the start of something I think really special and and it's you're right it's a whole new front office a whole new coaching staff uh 10 new seven new players out of your 15 regular rotation players 10 if you include two ways out of your 18 total players so uh the makeup of those players is different they're a lot younger than they were i think i i pulled this up i had to have to write this down because i don't even uh have this memorized yet uh they have 12 players under the age of 25 years old wow only two players are 28 years and older Caleb Martin and Kyrie Irving wow um they have 10 players they were six seven or taller so a lot more length a lot more athleticism, a lot younger. They want to play faster. They want to shoot more threes. Defensive-minded. Defensive-minded to get easy buckets in transition. So they're a versatile team. They can play small. They can play big. But the two biggest things really are, as you mentioned, the return of Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg in his second year and kind of the next step he can take there. And Kyrie's impact is just so big because he can put the ball in his hands. You know, this team really lacked a lot of playmaking and ball handling last year, and they're putting Cooper up front and trying to make something happen. So the spacing will be better because you'll have a defender attached to him, and you have to keep track of where he is. And he can handle the ball. He can just run the offense better. And, you know, the synchronicity between him and Cooper will unlock more of what Flagg can do. It's interesting. Sam and I joke about Kyrie in the office because I think he's kind of the basketball Matthew McConaughey, sort of a... philosopher, you know, fancies himself as such. But he takes that aspect of his leadership seriously, I think, and his ability to help mold some of the younger players. How valuable can he be in that regard? Yeah, I think we talk about a young team, and this, you know, if you look at Oklahoma City, you look at San Antonio, the young teams are the ones that are kind of the avant-garde thing. But if you looked at what happened in the finals, you still need veterans and key veterans. And veterans doesn't mean having played a long time. It means having one of these things in your hand, right? And so you could say, well, we need to get young, and I just mentioned all the young players and all that, but you need somebody like Kyrie Irving who can be a leader, who can guide these young players in how you prepare for a game, what it's like to go on a long road trip, how you get your body right, all of those little things, these key moments in games. This team was terrible in the clutch last year. He can help change that, not only with how he plays, but how he can lead the team on the court. So I think it's absolutely huge. So, Brian, you mentioned all the new faces. How do you think the assimilation with Kyrie Irving and Dusty May will be? You know, we heard from the Mavs media days there seems to be a mutual respect between those two. But this is Dusty May's first go coaching in the NBA. Yeah, and I think that he's taking the right approach, and it's a relational approach. He was in the gym all during the offseason when these guys were working out, and they had their mini camp in California all through the training camp period. And when you look at Dusty, a lot has been made of, well, college coaches haven't really worked out in the NBA. But the college game is different now. The college game is essentially a professional game with salary caps and NIL money and everything that has to go into it and all the media responsibilities of being the guy, especially the guy at a major program that won the national title. If you weren't going to do that route, then you were going to get an assistant who's going to be a first-timer getting into that chair. Well, that's a big risk, too. who knows if that person who's never had everything else that goes with being a head coach put on his plate didn't just get thrust into that so I think it's a lot different a guy like Dusty it's a young team that he can be relatable to and I think that his relationship with Kyrie has already kind of been one of mutual respect what kind of leap can Cooper Flagg make from year one to year two I think it can be pretty darn good I don't want to put too much on him for a guy like that but i mean can he go from obviously the best rookie in the league to one of the best players in the league that's the question is he one of the top 12 players in the west i think he kind of is and and you know he was 21 and what eight and seven last year something like that 21 seven and six uh he you know is it crazy for him to get 25 points a game the scoring load is not as much but again because there's better players around him better spacing he's got a year of seasoning he's gotten a little bigger so so when he's going to the hole he can instead of just having absorbed contact can can initiate contact and not get off his spot uh what we saw for him in march after remember he came off to injury he was you know i was in here with you guys say he should be the rookie of the year this was when he was down 80 20 right yeah in the in the odds and and then he goes off and gets 96 points in a weekend and breaks all these kinds of teenage records all these kinds of rookie records and you just saw the game slow down for him at that point and so I think that that you know we saw with his 17 point second quarter in his very first game in China he kind of picking up right where he left off and I think that you know that is another aspect of this where if he's really kind of dialed in and take this to even another level where he can be that that helps this thing a lot who's a name on this roster that you think fans need to know more about or that could possibly be an x factor for this team in terms of a new face um i mean i i would think Reese is kind of the most intriguing name i mean this guy was a first round overall pick first overall pick two years ago um and you know look does he have to play to that paper no but he's in a different situation where he can just you know find his role find where he fits in in the rotation what the right player combinations are around him can he take over at certain points in games be a connector run the floor long-range switchable defender uh you know if he can give you 16 to 18 points and a handful of rebounds and assists i'm perfectly fine with that what qualifies as a successful season for this team realistically i think it's competitive uh i think it's it's being in every game i think it's winning a fair share i think it's being in the playing conversation you look at the west Oklahoma City and San Antonio stand apart then you got LA Minnesota Denver uh and Houston that's probably your top six that's probably those guaranteed slots right so if you're in that conversation for playing and you're playing meaningful basketball in the spring uh i think that's that's a success you excited for the season to start i am i'm ready it's uh i i think Cooper Flagg and you've seen big articles in ESPN in The Ringer about him like what you know the second year in this leap fans get behind this guy this is the guy you can cheer for when he's if he takes that development, I think he will. It's going to be pretty darn exciting around here. All right, as we wrap up, remind us what your broadcast responsibilities will be. You'll be all over the place. All over the place. Our new home, 105.3, the fan for the radio call, continuing on Mavs TV for pre- and post-game, doing a few more of those this year than I did last year. The Take Two with you podcast dropped today. Every week from now on, our summer sojourn, we've only got one more month or so is off. And then D Magazine, as always, there's a new article up right now, a season preview all right mr basketball brian damaris have fun see you again soon thanks for coming in all right we always appreciate brian's time that's for sure hey here's the poll question sam would you like to take over can you see it from where you're sitting continue reading and i'll chime in when what in fact would be a successful season for the mavs finish in the top six as an outright playoff team be a play-in team one of the next four in the conference or win 10 games more than last year when they won 36. They won 26 games last season. That's why 36 this year would be 10 games more. Helping out the folks that might not be good at math. Fox4News.com slash free for all or scan that QR code. We'll come back and wrap this puppy up in a moment. All right, we're back at 1030, and you'll see some of the stuff you just saw, but you'll also see the Stars against Boston and some of the NBA opening day action. Yeah, and Mavs tomorrow night. That's going to be fun. That's right. We'll hear from Kyrie tonight coming up on Free For All at 1030. See you then.