FRISCO, Texas – This made me laugh. Really
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, the day after the Cowboys' rather dramatic, exhilarating, yet unexpected 34-26 victory over the Washington Commanders, and on the road at that, was asked if he feared his players might become overconfident heading into their Thanksgiving Day matchup with the 2-9 Giants – New York a team on a six-game losing streak and losing 14 of its past 15 meetings with Dallas, including the past seven straight – since he had previously said handling success is more difficult than handling adversity.
"Is that part of your message this week?"
Overconfident? Seriously?
You mean the Cowboys, this 4-7 team?
You mean the Cowboys who won a game for the first time since Oct. 6, like 50 days ago, getting full of themselves?
A team playing without their top five paid players, all Pro Bowlers during their careers, and at times in the win over the previously 7-4 Commanders with three backups on the offensive line and a fourth a rookie, walking around strutting their stuff?
Mike was much more diplomatic than me, me probably having said are you S-ing me? Nah, not Mike. He gave maybe one of the best answers the day after a game this season after he refuted with, "Nooo" through a laugh of his own.
"We're still pretty far down in the valley of adversity right now. We've made one step in the right direction, so we've still got a lot of climbing to do. So definitely, it's great to get some, you know, get some wind under our wings and start that.
"But this Thursday game comes on you so fast, it really does. … So that's really where my mind is and my heart is, too, because I do know how important it is for this locker room because we need this game, we recognize that. The urgency is there. But we got a long way to go."
No kidding.
How long a ways do the Cowboys have to go?
Look at it this way. If they should carve up the Giants on Thanksgiving, that would move their record to 5-7. That would move the Cowboys two games behind the Commanders for second place in the NFC East and from the third and final wild-card playoff spot that currently Washington would own, though the two teams still have to play a second time this season.
Problem is, there are four other teams not in first place in their divisions with better records than a potentially 5-7 Cowboys team they would have to leap, too.
A shot? Sure. But a long ways to go, for sure, to ever be full of themselves
- Why Not? Leave it to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to turn into what most probably interpreted as "shock jock" during his radio segment on flagship station 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday morning when asked, "Is it crazy to think that at the end of this season, we could be talking about an extension for Mike McCarthy?" Hey, you asked the question so don't be afraid of this answer: "Well, I don't think that's crazy at all. That's not crazy. And listen, Mike McCarthy's won, an outstanding coach. I was listening to the game (Monday) night, watching it, and [Troy] Aikman was talking about it, and he reiterated that several times publicly, 'This a Super Bowl winning coach,' and Mike McCarthy has been there, done that. He's got great ideas. So bottom line is, no place in my body language or anything else you've seen, indicates about what we're going to be doing, relative to this staff at the end of this year." You go, Jerry.
- A B Cee Dee: Here is another one. On Tuesday it was pointed out to McCarthy that Lamb is averaging nearly three yards a catch less than last year. Like, how come? Well, actually just a tad more than two less, 10.9 to 13.0 last year. But are you surprised that Lamb's 77 catches in 11 games, with some receivers already having played 12, leads the NFL in receptions? You hear that? Leading the NFL at this point with six games to play, just as he led the league last year with a franchise single-season record-setting 135 receptions. Not bad for a team with a 4-7 record and an offense ranked 20th in average yards per game who is now getting ready to play its fourth game without starting quarterback Dak Prescott.
- Rush Hour: Cooper Rush pushed his starting record in the NFL to 6-3, leading the Cowboys to that 34-26 victory over Washington. While Coop threw for a career high 325 yards in his first career start, a 20-16 victory over Minnesota in 2021, his performance on Sunday might have been his all-time best. Starting his third game this season in place of the injured Prescott, Rush completed 75 percent of his passes (24-of-32) for 247 yards, second highest of his career, with two touchdowns, no interceptions and a career-high 117.6 QB rating. And with the Cowboys giving up 26 points, they needed every bit of Coop's production. Everyone remembers Rush leading the Cowboys to a 4-1 record during Dak's absence in 2022, but in all four wins the Cowboys defense gave up just 17 points, 16, 10 and 10. The Cowboys only needed to average just 22.5 points a game in those four wins. This ain't that defense … yet.
- Against All Odds: Now, no one within The Star walls has given up on this season, this past victory caffeinating hope in the locker room. In fact, veteran cornerback Jourdan Lewis was talking about "running the table," meaning winning the rest of the games. Seriously, he was challenged by reporters, responding with, "That's the plan. I'm a football player," meaning only positive thoughts. How about a little history lesson. Last year, Green Bay, after a 1-3 start, is sitting there at 6-8, on a two-game losing streak with three games to go. They go on a three-game winning streak to finish 9-8, grab the final wild-card spot and, well, don't need to tell you the rest of that story. Also, the Rams began last season 3-6, then winning seven of their last eight games to finish 10-7 and earn a wild-card playoff spot. And if remembering the 2022 season, Jacksonville starts off 3-7 and won the AFC South with a 9-8 record. Oh, and let's not forget Detroit that year, starting off the season 1-6, but finishing 9-8, losing the tiebreaker to Seattle for the final wild-card. Wonder what the analytics odds thought about those beans.
- Backup To Old Days: Don't think the Cowboys' victory over a Washington team on Sunday playing with a backup quarterback was some sort of rare occurrence. Let me take you back to some of them old days. Back in 1974, on Thanksgiving by the way, the then Redskins knocked Cowboys starting quarterback Roger Staubach out of the game in the third quarter with a concussion while leading at the time, 16-3. In comes unknown raw rookie backup Clint Longley for his first NFL snaps. Longley led the Cowboys to two second-half touchdowns but was trailing 23-17 with 1:45 left to play. He winds up hitting Drew Pearson for a game-winning 50-yard touchdown pass. In 1989, the Cowboys' first pick in the NFL Draft, Aikman, was out with a broken finger. Dallas was 0-8 heading into the Washington game at RFK Stadium with fellow rookie backup Steve Walsh at quarterback. All the Cowboys did was beat Washington and QB Doug Williams 13-3 for the Cowboys' only victory of the 1-15 season. And then two years later, with the Cowboys 6-5 heading into RFK Stadium to meet the undefeated Redskins, Aikman suffers a sprained knee early in the third quarter and in comes backup Steve Beuerlein on this Nov. 24th, 33 years to the day backup Rush leads the Cowboys to that victory this past Sunday with Beuerlein actually at the game, the color analyst for the Compass radio broadcast. Beuerlein ends up throwing the winning touchdown pass to Michael Irvin in the fourth quarter for a 24-21 victory, sending the Cowboys on their way to a five-game winning streak with Beuerlein at quarterback to finish 11-5 and earn a wild-card playoff berth. Hey Washington, fear the Cowboys' backup QB.
- Feasting On Sides: This will be only the third time the Cowboys have faced the long-time NFC-East-rival Giants on Thanksgiving, having won the previous two matchups … KaVontae Turpin became the first player with a kickoff and punt return touchdown in the same NFL season since 2019 …Veteran Cowboys middle linebacker Eric Kendricks' 12 tackles against Washington gives him 100 for the season, his ninth consecutive year with 100-plus tackles, the second-longest active streak in the NFL behind only the Commanders' Bobby Wagner with 12 … One more CeeDee, his 77 receptions mean he and Jarvis Landry are the only two players in NFL history with at least 70 receptions in each of their first five seasons.
Sorry for the buffet-line worth of Shots this Thanksgiving Week, but need this final word dessert from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who just relishes these Thanksgiving Day games. Since 1997, the Cowboys have celebrated The Salvation Army's annual holiday Red Kettle Campaign Kickoff with a grand Super Bowl-like halftime show, and this Thursday's event will feature country superstar Lainey Wilson performing.
"I tell you, we not only have this huge game coming up," Jones began Tuesday on his radio flagship station 105.3 The Fan segment, "but the game itself is only one of the highlights of everything. When we go before as many as 70 or 80 million people at times over the last, I think it's almost 30 years that we've been doing this with The Salvation Army, they know that when we make that presentation out there with that Red Kettle, we are a part of 4½ million volunteers in this country. The Salvation Army gives us credit for incrementally raising over $3 billion since 1997 because of the visibility of that game. And so we served 166 million meals, The Salvation Army did, and those dollars in that Red Kettle are the reason that they can financially support that.
"So this is a big day. Lainey Wilson's out there with our big halftime entertainment. She is absolutely one of the most talented people I've ever been around, and we're sure excited about that. I want to get that said because sometimes we get to talking about other things, and I miss probably as important a thing as the Cowboys have ever done."
Next important thing for Thursday, in lieu of those Red Kettles in the far corners of the end zones? Dunk a few touchdowns in those babies, too.
