Are the Cowboys a surprisingly likable team? | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the Cowboys overtime win over the Patriots, and how this game showed that Dallas not only features a high-powered offense, but a defense that can make plays. Plus, this is not said very often about the Cowboys, but is this an easy team to root for? Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
FRANK SCHWAB: Dallas, 35. New England, 29. Just a great game, just fun, just back and forth, and, you know, you felt like, oh, my goodness, Trevon Diggs has made the play of his life, and he's going to win defensive player of the year! And then he gives up a 75 yarder. I know he wanted the safety help on that.
But it was just this back and forth. And I don't know what you really take of this, you know, Dallas wise. It's just one of those things of they can win games in every single way. And this was another-- it was a gut-check game for Dak and that offense, and they they put up-- I think it was 550 some yards, the most of any Bill Belichick defense has ever given up, ever.
And this spans decades, going back to when he was--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Is that right, the most ever? I did not know that.
FRANK SCHWAB: The most ever-- most ever against to Bill Belichick defense, so this is just telling me that, hey, this Cowboy's team ain't going away. I mean, even when, you know, they give up that long touchdown, the 75 yarder right after Trevon Diggs' pick six, it was like, OK, let's see what you got, Dallas.
And they just came right back and tied it and won it in overtime on the walk off, just week after week, you just get more and more impressed by this Dallas team.
CHARLES ROBINSON: To me, this struck me as a game that offensively Dallas played well, defensively in spots played well, but I wasn't-- I at no point was like, well, this is a complete Dallas game, which is why it's remarkable that they can go on the road to Gillette, not play perfect football, you know, have certain elements of their game give up yardage or give up a busted play, continue to let the Patriots hang around in it, and then still win this game, and kind of feel like even though it went to overtime that they controlled a lot of this game.
Randy Gregory coming off the edge, just plowing Mac Jones-- I still think that if-- when DeMarcus Lawrence comes back, what they figured out about Micah Parsons-- because I isolated on him a couple of times this game, and, man, they are-- they got their hands full now because they're-- now they know he can do this, they're going to have to figure out, like, we just have to use him on the edge.
Now, like, I don't-- I don't-- I would never shift them in the middle of the defense again. I'd, like-- let's leave them on the edge. Rotate those guys, between he and Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence, and you've got a hell of a trio there.
Diggs, yeah, you know, Diggs, it was a busted play. He got caught on a double move. The safety, you know, blew the over the top help, and it ends up being 75-yard touchdown. I don't care. Like, that kid is-- there is no question now that he has-- his hand-- and I was glad they talked about it in the broadcast, his hand-eye coordination to catch the ricochet kind of all in one motion and just take off, like, I'm gone. Like, he is-- he is special.
And, here, let me ask you this about Dallas. Is this not weirdly a very likeable Dallas team? People love to hate Dallas. No, but let me just put it this way. Like, do-- like, Dak is not the most easily hate-able quarterback. Like, he's one of these guys who's out here talking about mental health. He's talked about, you know, his mother dying, his brother committing suicide, like, all these things that make him very vulnerable and relatable and saying, hey, man, I'm OK showing weakness and talking about it.
I just think, like, as a group, on total, like, they're just not-- there's not a lot of hate-able characters like there usually have been in past Cowboy iterations.
FRANK SCHWAB: I think you're right, actually. I hadn't thought of it that way before you said it, but, yeah, I mean, you know, Dak's the leader of that team, the face of that team, and he's impossible to hate, really. Like, I mean, he's one of these almost a little bit of an underdog story, third round pick and all that, that made good and is on pace to maybe win an MVP.
And what he went through, I mean, on the field, off the field, with the injury, with his family, it's-- I mean, for him to come back off that, how do you not root for that guy, right? And they're just fun to watch. I mean, just as far as-- it's almost like that Duke team. Everybody hates Duke, right, college basketball?
But when Zion was there, they were so much fun to watch. Like, how could you not?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah.
FRANK SCHWAB: How could you not love them? Same for the Cowboys. Like, even if you kind of dislike the Cowboys, you watch them play, and it's like, this is a fun team to watch. Just throw them on TV, and you're going to be entertained. So I'm with you there.
I think that this is, yeah, this is a fun Cowboys team. They're great to watch, great offense. They're going to be in a lot of shootouts. The entertainment value is through the roof, and honestly, the entertainment value, too, is-- part of it is the Mike McCarthy show every week. Like, him screwing--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Dude, what?
FRANK SCHWAB: I mean, I can't even-- when they called that timeout, Charles, with 24 seconds left, like, there's no way that Mike called this timeout. Like, there's no way in heck he called that timeout and actually gave the Patriots--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, Mike with the timeouts-- like, I made the joke on Twitter, like, when they had two timeouts, somebody tell Mike he's got two timeouts. But I assumed, like, he was going to, you know, use them the way that we expect they would be used. And then he calls the timeout, and I'm like-- I was confused because I'm like, wait what the [BLEEP]? Is it third down?
Like, I thought in my mind-- I'm like, did I mess up the downs?
FRANK SCHWAB: Because there was that weird penalty, and we didn't really know what down it was for a second. Even the broadcast was confused. Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: I'm like, is this third down right now? He just called that timeout? And then when I realized it wasn't, I'm like, oh, my God, what did you just do? And it's-- yeah, I hope-- man, I really hope that that does not come back to haunt them at some point because we make jokes about it, but that's now the third time, third time, and we're only in week six here, that we've seen a timeout gaffe where we're like, that could have mattered, I mean, potentially. That could've-- you know, that's not great. It was-- this one was probably the least costly of those three potentially.
FRANK SCHWAB: I mean, Charles, what if-- what if they do go for it at the end, and the Patriots and Mac Jones completes another 75-yard pass?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Then that's on Mike.
FRANK SCHWAB: Then that's all we'd be talking about all week.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yep. Absolutely.
