2025 Season | Week 1 | Gameday Chatter Thread | Cowboys @ Eagles | 9/4/2025

Texas Ace

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I would have made his ass walk home. He got ran down by a LB and the fumble. Fuck him.
You know what the worst part is?

That long run is enough to warrant him more playing time with the somebody or somebodies who actually wanted to keep him.

He did not look good at all last night and Blue should be activated in his place starting next week, but I'm pretty confident that he'll be the #2 guy next week as well.
 

Cowboysrock55

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That position is so undervalued right now it's ridiculous, because so many guys can be competent. But a top of the league RB is worth his weight in gold.
I agree with you that RB is being undervalued in the NFL. You don't even have to try that hard to get a really good one. But you have to at least try. I'm hopeful on Blue and Mafah in the future. And I was pleased with the way Jevonte played last night. But ultimately RB is stupid cheap and easy to draft. And we sort of still shoot for bottom of the barrel with day three picks and bottom of the barrel free agent signings.

The Eagles are also good about moving on at RB when the time comes. They didn't hold onto Sanders to see the shell of a player he is today. But that's Dallas for you, hold on to a guy too long and spend no resources to replace him once he does.
 

Cowboysrock55

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You know what the worst part is?

That long run is enough to warrant him more playing time with the somebody or somebodies who actually wanted to keep him.

He did not look good at all last night and Blue should be activated in his place starting next week, but I'm pretty confident that he'll be the #2 guy next week as well.
It's funny how a play that he basically had to do nothing except let his blockers maul everyone is the play that will somehow keep him in position to keep his job. I hope I'm wrong but it just feels like last season at RB where we will cling to Sanders in that #2 role for way too long. And we will absolutely regret it at the end of the year.
 

Chocolate Lab

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You know what the worst part is?

That long run is enough to warrant him more playing time with the somebody or somebodies who actually wanted to keep him.
Freaking Bobby Belt is actually defending Sanders. Said Blue would never have gotten through that crease in the first place.

What a moron. How does he know that? But you can bet he's hearing that from some Sanders sponsor on the team.
 

Simpleton

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What was the issue with Blue?

Still somewhat banged up or was he just a straight inactive because...reasons.

I get the argument that you probably trust Sanders to keep the offense operating with his pass protection and such if Williams gets hurt, so that's why you take Sanders to the game if you're only taking 2, but ultimately you're just going to have to carry 3 RB's to the game instead of 2.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Freaking Bobby Belt is actually defending Sanders. Said Blue would never have gotten through that crease in the first place.

What a moron. How does he know that? But you can bet he's hearing that from some Sanders sponsor on the team.
I mean the only way Blue doesn't take that to the house is if he outruns the blockers. Which is possible, it was a play where it took the blockers a second to really open that thing up. But you'll never know if you don't play the guy.
 

Smitty

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Freaking Bobby Belt is actually defending Sanders. Said Blue would never have gotten through that crease in the first place.

What a moron. How does he know that? But you can bet he's hearing that from some Sanders sponsor on the team.
Perhaps I'd be willing to trade a 59 yard run for the ensuing fumble.
 

boozeman

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It's funny how a play that he basically had to do nothing except let his blockers maul everyone is the play that will somehow keep him in position to keep his job. I hope I'm wrong but it just feels like last season at RB where we will cling to Sanders in that #2 role for way too long. And we will absolutely regret it at the end of the year.
It is a long football season. But it should not be something we cling to as an ideology when the guy flat out cannot fucking play anymore and he fumbled.
 

Cowboysrock55

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What was the issue with Blue?

Still somewhat banged up or was he just a straight inactive because...reasons.

I get the argument that you probably trust Sanders to keep the offense operating with his pass protection and such if Williams gets hurt, so that's why you take Sanders to the game if you're only taking 2, but ultimately you're just going to have to carry 3 RB's to the game instead of 2.
My guess is they view Luepke as a quisi RB. So they probably only want to bring two RBs plus Hunter to the game. But if that's the case make Blue the #2. Hunter and Jevonte are great at pass pro. Blue gives you something different. Sanders doesn't give you anything different other than less running ability.
 

Simpleton

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My guess is they view Luepke as a quisi RB. So they probably only want to bring two RBs plus Hunter to the game. But if that's the case make Blue the #2. Hunter and Jevonte are great at pass pro. Blue gives you something different. Sanders doesn't give you anything different other than less running ability.
Yea, no excuse for not seeing what Blue has at this point.

Sanders looked terrible before the big run, then got caught from behind by a 235-240 lb. LB on the big run, then looked like shit on the next carry or two, then fumbled and never touched the ball again.

Put him out to pasture, sign him to the PS if you want for insurance, but please do not play him as your backup again.
 

Cowboysrock55

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It is a long football season. But it should not be something we cling to as an ideology when the guy flat out cannot fucking play anymore and he fumbled.
I'm hoping we don't cling to it. The NFL has this thing where coaches want to give the vets their chance before the young guys. It's a trust thing, it's a reward for hard work thing or whatever. But it's going to cost you football games. It may have cost us one last night. I almost feel the same way about Damone Clark playing so much last night. It was like, you've been here this long, you've worked your ass off and even though Loofa is better than you, we will give you a chance.
 

Simpleton

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That's the play that I mentioned that showed me exactly what I was hoping to see out of Ezeiruaku.

He's probably nickel/dime-only for most of his rookie year, but that's all I needed to see to confirm what I was expecting out of college. He's going to be an easy 8-10 sack guy by year 2/3, and combined with Kneeland I feel really solid about where our DE group is at.
 

Cowboysrock55

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with Kneeland I feel really solid about where our DE group is at.
Kneeland looks so much like Demarcus Lawrence at times it's scary. Just the way he plays the run is almost identical. Hopefully he can get to the level of pass rusher Lawrence was in his prime. But ultimately if he can stay healthy I think he is going to have a really good, rock solid career here. Honestly, I saw really promising stuff out of basically everyone on the D-line. I thought Fowler started the game like shit, but he got there eventually too.
 

Simpleton

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Kneeland looks so much like Demarcus Lawrence at times it's scary. Just the way he plays the run is almost identical. Hopefully he can get to the level of pass rusher Lawrence was in his prime. But ultimately if he can stay healthy I think he is going to have a really good, rock solid career here. Honestly, I saw really promising stuff out of basically everyone on the D-line. I thought Fowler started the game like shit, but he got there eventually too.
Lawrence was the guy many compared Kneeland to when we took him, I feel like Dorance Armstrong is his worst case scenario.

But based on what I saw last night he's going to be much closer to Lawrence, he looked like an absolute stud, which isn't surprising considering some thought he could've snuck into the late 1st last year.
 

Tony D

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Did we have any injuries last night? I don't remember seeing any. That's rare for us.

And the limited penalties were nice. There were a couple times where Williams was chasing down Hurts and he threw it away and the camera followed the ball and I was just looking for that flag for the late hit by Sam.
 

Cowboysrock55

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There were bad holds by the Eagles that went totally uncalled. But they weren't really calling any holds on us either. I'll be real honest, our guys may have been doing some of that shit and the refs just decided they weren't going to call it either way. I'm not really sure because I wasn't watching our guys for holds really at all. What was there a total of one call against Tyler Smith?
 

Simpleton

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The run defense was kind of unbelievable last night, if they can keep it up throughout the year I think our defense might actually be better than it was from 2021-23 when the lights are brightest.

Will they dominate the same way like those defenses did against the Giants or whoever?

Probably not because the pass rush won't be as explosive, but I think they could easily be better against the better offenses.
 
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