Giants Stuff...
- Thread starter bbgun
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Good, Williams isn't as good a FB as McGovern.
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Oh my, we need more testing of their secondary players. I bet he's been in close contact with so many players.
So much concern on my part.
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I mean I do worry about another covid outbreak hitting the team. Not for health reasons but because of the NFL's crazy rules that could have us playing with half a team.
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Good luck with that.
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Look at the Redskins...they are fucking blowing up with the Rona cases. Hopefully our guys will be ok.
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I guess it will be a good test if transmission can occur during a game.
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Really?? God damn, man.
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I wonder if it's just soreness since he was limited. Seems like that would be normal coming back from what he did.
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I hope that's all it is.
p1_
DCC 4Life
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I assume theyre talking about the same foot?
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
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It's probably gout from all the pizza hut he was eating.
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
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What about watermelons though?
p1_
DCC 4Life
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in that case, you’re 6-10.
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Sturm: How close is Micah Parsons to Defensive Player of the Year? Cowboys pregame riffing
By Bob Sturm 56m ago
One-hundred fifty days since the Dallas Cowboys training camp held its first full practice in Oxnard, Calif.; 58 days until Super Bowl 56 in Inglewood, Calif.; and just two more days until the noon CT start at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, against the New York Football Giants …
Thanks to COVID-19 and any additional variants that have complicated the football weekend, hopefully you can understand my reluctance to get too carried away about specifics regarding the game. In digging through the Giants news, it seems incredibly difficult to suggest who will be playing and who will not.
We will do our best, but both the texts and visual aids of this Friday tradition, you might see some things that are affected with late-breaking availability news. Please offer us a fair amount of latitude to offer our educated guesses.
In the meantime, allow me a few minutes to riff on a frequently asked question here as we head into Week 15:
Is Micah Parsons really a worthy Defensive Player of the Year winner?
Short answer? I think it is very possible.
Long answer? Settle in.
I have to be honest here. Like almost every NFL market, we tend to get really carried away when one of ours does well. We all claim to be clear thinkers who can evaluate football and its players without a huge bias clouding our vision, but it never works that way.
We all clearly fall down lines of bias. Teams we like, teams we love to hate, and of course, touting those that meet our agendas and shouting down those that don’t. It is just what we do as football fans. As someone who has been covering this team in some capacity since 1998, I always am one to slow my roll on Cowboys getting a proper backing for awards, just because this area wants its guys honored — even if the case is not quite as compelling as someone else in the league. It often turns into twisting reality and facts to fit our guy and to shout down someone else’s.
I write that paragraph to simply point out that I am generally the last to this party. But, once we establish my slow-my-roll mentality, I want to say that there is no denying that Micah Parsons is a candidate to win Defensive Player of the Year. That would make him the second Dallas Cowboy to win that honor (Harvey Martin in 1977) and the second rookie ever — Lawrence Taylor won it in 1981.
Taylor, by the way, would win three of these awards and would be one of only three guys to do that. J.J. Watt and Aaron Donald would be the other two, with Donald a reasonable candidate to win it a fourth time if he finishes strong.
Here is the current field as our friends at BetMGM suggest on their current odds:
Let’s look at the top four candidates who appear to be off by themselves, despite great years from guys like Matthew Judon (+1400) and even Dallas’ Trevon Diggs (+1100). The four significant finalists are the following:
Myles Garrett, 26 – 5th season, Odds +250
The Arlington, Texas, native was the first pick in the 2017 NFL Draft and has 15 sacks this season as well as four other TFLs, three passes defended, and has a touchdown this year on a forced fumble recovery return. In addition to being a force on a regular basis off the edge for the Browns, he plays the run exceptionally well. Interestingly, most of his production this year has been on sacks, so his splash play is rather pedestrian where he ranks 15th in the league with players like Brian Burns, JC Jackson, and Harold Landry. There is certainly nothing wrong with that production as he attracts a ton of attention, but it is certainly surprising to not see him higher overall.
T.J. Watt, 27 – 5th season, Odds +375
The case for Watt is based on his year has been remarkable with 16 sacks, five other TFLs, four passes defended, four forced fumbles, and two recovered. In total, he has 40 splash plays in a remarkable 515 snaps and only 11 games due to a short absence. This equates to a splash play every 12.9 snaps which is the best of anyone in the top 30 for splash plays. He has done this on a team that may not make the playoffs, but anyone watching a single Steelers game can quickly see his value in every situation. He will almost certainly be a First-Team All-Pro for the third consecutive season.
Aaron Donald, 30 – 8th season, Odds +800
It does not seem impossible to suggest that some day this might be renamed the Aaron Donald award as he has won this honor in 2017, 2018, and 2020 and while he might sit on the periphery this year — largely because he is being compared to himself now — his production has been ridiculous. With 10 sacks, five other TFLs, 10 more run stuffs for no gain, two forced fumbles and four passes defended, he is having another absurd season. He is the focal point of every game plan and not only still produces but makes the lives easier of all involved around him. He is in his own league and obviously would be the first four-time winner.
And then …
Micah Parsons, 22 – 1st season, Odds +325
On Oct. 12, the odds for Parsons sat at +20,000 which would have been a very nice payday for anyone who wanted to place an absurd wager. Now, you could argue he is a virtual favorite to become the first rookie in 40 years to win the award. He has 12 sacks, nine other TFLs, five run stuffs, and three forced fumbles. When his season began he was thought of as a part-time LB on his own team and was drafted before he even turned 22. He has been dynamic and the focal point of a Dallas defense where the second-best player in the front seven for most of his year is completely anonymous. He is a moving chess piece and has never been an edge rusher aside from some work in high school, but now seems to be a top player at a number of spots and is used in multiple places in consecutive downs.
Is Parsons a legitimate candidate? Yes.
Is he a given for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year? Yes.
Is he the Cowboys 2021 MVP? Yes.
Now, they ask him to rack it all up again for his first trip to New York City.
Let’s take a look at what that game might look like (as we squint to wonder who is even on the field):
When the Cowboys have the ball
We have talked about this at great length. The Cowboys need to run the ball to make life easier. But, that is difficult right now. So they are grasping at straws to try to fix it and that explains the see-saw affair at left guard with the Connors as most people agree it is back to pending free agent Connor Williams over Connor McGovern which might also be a reunion of the jumbo package with McGovern playing fullback.
Why not? Run it out there and let’s see. But, even then, you are talking about 1-3 runs a game, so I would never sacrifice a 70-snap left guard to get that done. But, McGovern has not given us any proof that he is definably better than Williams, so on we go.
Of course, the way out of this mess will have to be from Dak Prescott and the offense and it will start by building a simple drive or two. The good news is that he has had some very nice days at this stadium. Prescott has played four games in MetLife against the Giants and his first trip in 2016 was very difficult. Since then, he has gutted the Giants pretty well at their place with three big wins and 976 yards with 10 touchdowns and one interception. A passer rating of 119 and 9 yards per attempt all would be about his best numbers anywhere so certain places just fit your eye and he has made that place pretty aesthetically pleasing to his vision.
The numbers are what they are, but as we said on Tuesday, it is all about 9-4 and a chance to get to 10-4 with three games to play. I suspect that Dallas will keep it simple, know that the Giants will probably not get past 20 points if you don’t give them anything for free and play a very low-risk game.
There isn’t too much to say here about the objectives as the Giants secondary is pretty decimated and the Cowboys have their weapons handy. Go to work, be smart about your reads, make the throws and get out of dodge with win No. 10.
MATCHUP TO WATCH: Ty Nsekhe vs. Azeez Ojulari
If there is a group of “others receiving votes” in the defensive rookie of the year category, you have to mention Patrick Surtain, Odafe Oweh, Asante Samuel, Jamin Davis and young Ojulari. The Georgia edge was a second-rounder because of some health concerns, but he might be the best edge rusher they have had since they went to the 3-4 and while he won’t win, he is definitely solid. Meanwhile, Nsekhe was supposed to be the swing tackle before Terence Steele took most of his work. The job falls to Nsekhe we believe to fill in for Tyron Smith and the last thing you want to do is to allow one of the most feeble pass rushes in the NFL to get going on a game you need to get going offensively. Big spot for the big veteran.
Now, let’s switch it.
When the Giants have the ball
The Giants remain a rather offensive disaster. It isn’t that they don’t have individual pieces that have made them better than they were, but it is more that they had so far to come and they still have not found a scheme or even a quarterback who we can safely say is a massive improvement than where they were. We will not litigate how they got here all over again, but let’s just say the commitment to the Daniel Jones future might be an exercise in the sunk-cost fallacy that has cost them a shot at Justin Herbert and Justin Fields and who knows who else moving forward.
Or they can use the capital they received in that Fields trade with Chicago and hope to find a QB in a bad QB draft or I suppose try to dip into the free-agent game and try to convince someone to come take their money and situation. Either way, Jones won’t play on Sunday and very likely will enter 2022 as a still-unproven commodity despite playing three full seasons and having a number of players acquired to make his job easier.
Regardless of what New York has done, the Cowboys have to deal with the Giants and what they currently have. For the third week in a row the Cowboys are on the road against a team with a lousy offense. That is life in the NFC East and some nice breaks this time of year. If Dallas brings its aggressiveness, it should badly rock the world of the feeble Giants offense. I want to offer you a list of concerns to make sure nobody takes this for granted, but in the past month, the Giants have been pretty bad. This team is 4-9 and will be lucky to win six games. Further, they may not want to win six games this year.
The Giants are inefficient in just about every meaningful way. They have fired their offensive coordinator and their top young rookie is unlikely to feature significantly, if at all. I didn’t save a lot of room for a big breakdown of the Giants offense because this is one of those games where it isn’t about them. They have Mike Glennon playing QB and you are playing some great defense with a fully fit group.
Go attack them like in Washington and send a quick message to the league of what you have.
MATCHUP TO WATCH: The Cowboys four-man rush vs. the Giants improved pass protection
We know that this group is hungry. Parsons is chasing history. Randy Gregory is chasing his career high in sacks. DeMarcus Lawrence is chasing his security in 2022. It is remarkable to see them all unleash their fury against Washington and New Orleans. Can they keep it going in a way that becomes a trend? It seems like the Giants are ill-prepared to slow it down. If Dallas makes a habit of providing a blitz-free pass rush, the game will really start to come easy to this group.
THE PICK: Cowboys 31, Giants 17
I don’t believe these two teams are close and Dallas has to still have urgency to chase down the top teams in the NFC. The defense is enjoying its role as carrying the load and the offense is frustrated. If Dallas quickly ends this noon start, we should not be shocked. It is hard to expect the Giants to be terribly inspired as they await a full organizational overhaul yet again.
Let’s see if this team can handle a December win streak.
By Bob Sturm 56m ago
One-hundred fifty days since the Dallas Cowboys training camp held its first full practice in Oxnard, Calif.; 58 days until Super Bowl 56 in Inglewood, Calif.; and just two more days until the noon CT start at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, against the New York Football Giants …
Thanks to COVID-19 and any additional variants that have complicated the football weekend, hopefully you can understand my reluctance to get too carried away about specifics regarding the game. In digging through the Giants news, it seems incredibly difficult to suggest who will be playing and who will not.
We will do our best, but both the texts and visual aids of this Friday tradition, you might see some things that are affected with late-breaking availability news. Please offer us a fair amount of latitude to offer our educated guesses.
In the meantime, allow me a few minutes to riff on a frequently asked question here as we head into Week 15:
Is Micah Parsons really a worthy Defensive Player of the Year winner?
Short answer? I think it is very possible.
Long answer? Settle in.
I have to be honest here. Like almost every NFL market, we tend to get really carried away when one of ours does well. We all claim to be clear thinkers who can evaluate football and its players without a huge bias clouding our vision, but it never works that way.
We all clearly fall down lines of bias. Teams we like, teams we love to hate, and of course, touting those that meet our agendas and shouting down those that don’t. It is just what we do as football fans. As someone who has been covering this team in some capacity since 1998, I always am one to slow my roll on Cowboys getting a proper backing for awards, just because this area wants its guys honored — even if the case is not quite as compelling as someone else in the league. It often turns into twisting reality and facts to fit our guy and to shout down someone else’s.
I write that paragraph to simply point out that I am generally the last to this party. But, once we establish my slow-my-roll mentality, I want to say that there is no denying that Micah Parsons is a candidate to win Defensive Player of the Year. That would make him the second Dallas Cowboy to win that honor (Harvey Martin in 1977) and the second rookie ever — Lawrence Taylor won it in 1981.
Taylor, by the way, would win three of these awards and would be one of only three guys to do that. J.J. Watt and Aaron Donald would be the other two, with Donald a reasonable candidate to win it a fourth time if he finishes strong.
Here is the current field as our friends at BetMGM suggest on their current odds:
Let’s look at the top four candidates who appear to be off by themselves, despite great years from guys like Matthew Judon (+1400) and even Dallas’ Trevon Diggs (+1100). The four significant finalists are the following:
Myles Garrett, 26 – 5th season, Odds +250
The Arlington, Texas, native was the first pick in the 2017 NFL Draft and has 15 sacks this season as well as four other TFLs, three passes defended, and has a touchdown this year on a forced fumble recovery return. In addition to being a force on a regular basis off the edge for the Browns, he plays the run exceptionally well. Interestingly, most of his production this year has been on sacks, so his splash play is rather pedestrian where he ranks 15th in the league with players like Brian Burns, JC Jackson, and Harold Landry. There is certainly nothing wrong with that production as he attracts a ton of attention, but it is certainly surprising to not see him higher overall.
T.J. Watt, 27 – 5th season, Odds +375
The case for Watt is based on his year has been remarkable with 16 sacks, five other TFLs, four passes defended, four forced fumbles, and two recovered. In total, he has 40 splash plays in a remarkable 515 snaps and only 11 games due to a short absence. This equates to a splash play every 12.9 snaps which is the best of anyone in the top 30 for splash plays. He has done this on a team that may not make the playoffs, but anyone watching a single Steelers game can quickly see his value in every situation. He will almost certainly be a First-Team All-Pro for the third consecutive season.
Aaron Donald, 30 – 8th season, Odds +800
It does not seem impossible to suggest that some day this might be renamed the Aaron Donald award as he has won this honor in 2017, 2018, and 2020 and while he might sit on the periphery this year — largely because he is being compared to himself now — his production has been ridiculous. With 10 sacks, five other TFLs, 10 more run stuffs for no gain, two forced fumbles and four passes defended, he is having another absurd season. He is the focal point of every game plan and not only still produces but makes the lives easier of all involved around him. He is in his own league and obviously would be the first four-time winner.
And then …
Micah Parsons, 22 – 1st season, Odds +325
On Oct. 12, the odds for Parsons sat at +20,000 which would have been a very nice payday for anyone who wanted to place an absurd wager. Now, you could argue he is a virtual favorite to become the first rookie in 40 years to win the award. He has 12 sacks, nine other TFLs, five run stuffs, and three forced fumbles. When his season began he was thought of as a part-time LB on his own team and was drafted before he even turned 22. He has been dynamic and the focal point of a Dallas defense where the second-best player in the front seven for most of his year is completely anonymous. He is a moving chess piece and has never been an edge rusher aside from some work in high school, but now seems to be a top player at a number of spots and is used in multiple places in consecutive downs.
Is Parsons a legitimate candidate? Yes.
Is he a given for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year? Yes.
Is he the Cowboys 2021 MVP? Yes.
Now, they ask him to rack it all up again for his first trip to New York City.
Let’s take a look at what that game might look like (as we squint to wonder who is even on the field):
When the Cowboys have the ball
We have talked about this at great length. The Cowboys need to run the ball to make life easier. But, that is difficult right now. So they are grasping at straws to try to fix it and that explains the see-saw affair at left guard with the Connors as most people agree it is back to pending free agent Connor Williams over Connor McGovern which might also be a reunion of the jumbo package with McGovern playing fullback.
Why not? Run it out there and let’s see. But, even then, you are talking about 1-3 runs a game, so I would never sacrifice a 70-snap left guard to get that done. But, McGovern has not given us any proof that he is definably better than Williams, so on we go.
Of course, the way out of this mess will have to be from Dak Prescott and the offense and it will start by building a simple drive or two. The good news is that he has had some very nice days at this stadium. Prescott has played four games in MetLife against the Giants and his first trip in 2016 was very difficult. Since then, he has gutted the Giants pretty well at their place with three big wins and 976 yards with 10 touchdowns and one interception. A passer rating of 119 and 9 yards per attempt all would be about his best numbers anywhere so certain places just fit your eye and he has made that place pretty aesthetically pleasing to his vision.
The numbers are what they are, but as we said on Tuesday, it is all about 9-4 and a chance to get to 10-4 with three games to play. I suspect that Dallas will keep it simple, know that the Giants will probably not get past 20 points if you don’t give them anything for free and play a very low-risk game.
There isn’t too much to say here about the objectives as the Giants secondary is pretty decimated and the Cowboys have their weapons handy. Go to work, be smart about your reads, make the throws and get out of dodge with win No. 10.
MATCHUP TO WATCH: Ty Nsekhe vs. Azeez Ojulari
If there is a group of “others receiving votes” in the defensive rookie of the year category, you have to mention Patrick Surtain, Odafe Oweh, Asante Samuel, Jamin Davis and young Ojulari. The Georgia edge was a second-rounder because of some health concerns, but he might be the best edge rusher they have had since they went to the 3-4 and while he won’t win, he is definitely solid. Meanwhile, Nsekhe was supposed to be the swing tackle before Terence Steele took most of his work. The job falls to Nsekhe we believe to fill in for Tyron Smith and the last thing you want to do is to allow one of the most feeble pass rushes in the NFL to get going on a game you need to get going offensively. Big spot for the big veteran.
Now, let’s switch it.
When the Giants have the ball
The Giants remain a rather offensive disaster. It isn’t that they don’t have individual pieces that have made them better than they were, but it is more that they had so far to come and they still have not found a scheme or even a quarterback who we can safely say is a massive improvement than where they were. We will not litigate how they got here all over again, but let’s just say the commitment to the Daniel Jones future might be an exercise in the sunk-cost fallacy that has cost them a shot at Justin Herbert and Justin Fields and who knows who else moving forward.
Or they can use the capital they received in that Fields trade with Chicago and hope to find a QB in a bad QB draft or I suppose try to dip into the free-agent game and try to convince someone to come take their money and situation. Either way, Jones won’t play on Sunday and very likely will enter 2022 as a still-unproven commodity despite playing three full seasons and having a number of players acquired to make his job easier.
Regardless of what New York has done, the Cowboys have to deal with the Giants and what they currently have. For the third week in a row the Cowboys are on the road against a team with a lousy offense. That is life in the NFC East and some nice breaks this time of year. If Dallas brings its aggressiveness, it should badly rock the world of the feeble Giants offense. I want to offer you a list of concerns to make sure nobody takes this for granted, but in the past month, the Giants have been pretty bad. This team is 4-9 and will be lucky to win six games. Further, they may not want to win six games this year.
The Giants are inefficient in just about every meaningful way. They have fired their offensive coordinator and their top young rookie is unlikely to feature significantly, if at all. I didn’t save a lot of room for a big breakdown of the Giants offense because this is one of those games where it isn’t about them. They have Mike Glennon playing QB and you are playing some great defense with a fully fit group.
Go attack them like in Washington and send a quick message to the league of what you have.
MATCHUP TO WATCH: The Cowboys four-man rush vs. the Giants improved pass protection
We know that this group is hungry. Parsons is chasing history. Randy Gregory is chasing his career high in sacks. DeMarcus Lawrence is chasing his security in 2022. It is remarkable to see them all unleash their fury against Washington and New Orleans. Can they keep it going in a way that becomes a trend? It seems like the Giants are ill-prepared to slow it down. If Dallas makes a habit of providing a blitz-free pass rush, the game will really start to come easy to this group.
THE PICK: Cowboys 31, Giants 17
I don’t believe these two teams are close and Dallas has to still have urgency to chase down the top teams in the NFC. The defense is enjoying its role as carrying the load and the offense is frustrated. If Dallas quickly ends this noon start, we should not be shocked. It is hard to expect the Giants to be terribly inspired as they await a full organizational overhaul yet again.
Let’s see if this team can handle a December win streak.