FIRST TAKE - -Purdy is RUNNING AWAY with MVP- - Shannon tells Stephen A.- 49ers are Super Bowl team
FIRST TAKE - -Purdy is RUNNING AWAY with MVP- - Shannon tells Stephen A.- 49ers are Super Bowl team
Transcript
00:00 go route versus off coverage.
00:01 It's a bad football play.
00:02 The first third down of the game,
00:03 they got into trips and ran triple slants.
00:05 Mike McCarthy's been calling that play
00:07 for 15 years in Green Bay.
00:09 So the offense looked slow and timid and tired.
00:14 Defensively, they looked unprepared.
00:16 The first pass of the game, the 49ers motion,
00:19 Brandon Iuk's wide open.
00:20 Like, you were unprepared for the motion.
00:22 So it was a complete outclassing
00:25 when it came to a football team being ready to play,
00:28 a football team being prepared how to handle
00:31 and then attack.
00:32 And then when we talk about the quarterbacks,
00:37 Dak Prescott looked timid.
00:40 Dak Prescott made mistakes that he should not make.
00:44 Dak Prescott threw interceptions
00:45 that he should not attempt.
00:48 And Brock Purdy was by far the better player on the field.
00:52 Both lines of scrimmage, I thought San Francisco were fine.
00:55 They did not dominate the line of scrimmage.
00:57 - Was it more on Dak or on the play calling?
01:00 - I mean, it's always both, Molly, it is.
01:02 It's always both.
01:03 And I know we don't love that answer.
01:04 It's always both.
01:05 The play calling did not help Dak Prescott.
01:08 And Dak Prescott, he made one throw last night,
01:11 the touchdown pass to Turpin.
01:13 Other than that, there wasn't a single throw
01:15 that you sat there and said, man, that's a nice ball.
01:17 Brock Purdy had six of them.
01:18 There's a stretch in the third quarter.
01:20 You guys remember, it was third and three.
01:22 It was an 11 point game.
01:24 He throws a corner route to Debo
01:26 and they get called for a holding.
01:27 It goes from third and three to third and 14.
01:29 He comes right back and throws an unreal in route
01:32 to Debo Samuel for like 40 yards.
01:35 Those two throws were better than all game
01:38 what Dak Prescott showed.
01:40 - Yeah, yeah, but you can't act like the line of scrimmage
01:42 wasn't that bad.
01:43 I mean, San Francisco, it was to me.
01:45 San Francisco was able to run the football.
01:47 The Dallas Cowboys were not.
01:49 The Dallas Cowboys were not able to run the football.
01:51 San Francisco was running the football.
01:52 That's the 170 yards on the ground.
01:55 When you look at it from that perspective,
01:57 I'm looking at them getting in Dak Prescott's face,
02:00 making them uncomfortable.
02:01 I didn't see that happen to Brock Purdy.
02:03 Just like Shannon pointed out, you barely touched him.
02:05 Plus, San Francisco was able to run the football.
02:08 The Dallas Cowboys were not.
02:09 I don't understand how we sit up there
02:11 and we say the line of scrimmage wasn't that big of a factor.
02:14 I think it was.
02:15 - I guarantee you, I don't know until the numbers come out.
02:19 I guarantee you that the pass protection
02:21 was better for Dallas than it was San Francisco.
02:24 And I promise you, Brock Purdy was under pressure, duress,
02:28 rush more than Dak Prescott was.
02:30 Gary, Brock Purdy just made more plays.
02:32 - Dak Prescott was pressured on 37% of his dropbacks.
02:36 And even when he wasn't pressured,
02:38 he was 9 of 17 for 77 yards, no touchdowns,
02:41 and two interceptions.
02:42 Hold on, wait a minute.
02:44 A man lost his job last year because, y'all say,
02:47 the play calling.
02:48 And it wasn't Dak Prescott.
02:49 You remember, Kellen Moore is calling plays for the Chargers
02:53 because Gary Jones blamed that loss in San Francisco
02:56 on his head.
02:57 You've lost Jason Garrett.
02:58 How many coordinators have Dak Prescott had?
03:01 And we swept him under the rug trying
03:03 to prop Dak Prescott up.
03:06 Listen, he's average to slightly above average.
03:09 And an average quarterback can get you to the playoffs
03:12 because their team is really talented.
03:14 But it takes a little more than average
03:16 to go past the divisional round.
03:18 To get you to the NFC, come on, bro.
03:21 Hey, Dio, I like Dak also.
03:24 I'm with you.
03:25 When the rubber needs to meet the road, Dak goes off-roading.
03:30 He's not on the road.
03:31 And we saw it again, and again, and again.
03:33 So how many times does somebody need
03:35 to hit you in your face before you realize they're for real?
03:38 First three seasons, they're fourth collectively,
03:41 offensively, with Kellen Moore as their offensive coordinator.
03:44 Now they're in the middle of the pack at 16.
03:46 You're talking about that.
03:47 And look at this.
03:48 Nine offensive touchdowns and five games
03:51 for the Dallas Cowboys.
03:52 18 teams in the NFL are better than right now.
03:55 Now to me, that's not just about Dak Prescott.
03:57 That's also about Mike McCarthy, which is what I'm saying,
04:00 to address Shannon's point.
04:01 We talk about-- it ain't just about Jerry Jones.
04:04 It was about Mike McCarthy needling Jerry Jones.
04:06 I can do this.
04:07 I can do this.
04:08 I can do this.
04:08 I can call play.
04:09 Let me-- give it to me.
04:11 And remember, he departs from Green Bay.
04:13 Aaron Rodgers basically said we were a bit archaic.
04:16 We were a bit outdated.
04:17 He sat up there, took a year off,
04:19 talked about what he learned, and said, hey,
04:20 I've come back a better man.
04:22 I'm going to modify myself.
04:23 I'm going to adapt.
04:24 I'm going to be better.
04:26 And this was his first chance.
04:27 This has been his first chance to prove it.
04:29 And he has fallen short in comparison to Kellen Moore.
04:33 That cannot be ignored.
04:34 I'm talking Mike McCarthy here.
04:35 Shannon, you know this as well as I do.
04:37 There's two ways to win offensively in the NFL.
04:40 It's either execution or creativity.
04:43 And I think the Cowboys, hopefully for them,
04:46 learned last night.
04:46 They thought they could just line up and out-execute
04:49 the 49ers against their defense.
04:51 That is not going to be the case against good defenses.
04:54 And Mike McCarthy does need to become more creative.
04:57 I thought it was archaic and antiquated.
05:00 It was predictable.
05:01 I was sitting there going, here comes double slants.
05:03 Here comes triple slants.
05:04 If I know that, San Francisco does.
05:06 I think that the two biggest concerns walking away
05:08 if you're Dallas is, one, how much is doubt
05:11 going to play a factor when they play in the big time games now?
05:14 Because the last three times this offense
05:17 has played against San Francisco,
05:18 it's been an absolute embarrassment.
05:21 And the turnovers and the quarterback play
05:23 has not been good.
05:24 If they want to get to where they want to get to,
05:26 they're likely going to have to face this team again.
05:28 How much does doubt play?
05:30 And when we talk about the quarterback and the play
05:32 caller, if we're just having an honest conversation,
05:37 you've got to place them behind San Francisco right now.
05:39 That's why I say, are they--
05:40 and this is where I was wrong.
05:42 Are they legit Super Bowl contenders?
05:44 Like, legit?
05:45 Because after last night, you've got to place them
05:47 behind San Francisco.
05:48 You've got to place them behind Philadelphia.
05:50 You've got to place them behind Detroit.
05:52 You've got to place them behind Seattle.
05:54 And you probably have to place them
05:56 behind the ramps offensively.
05:57 That's what, five or six teams offensively,
06:00 when you talk to the creativity and quarterback play,
06:03 that you have to go-- realistically,
06:05 it's-- off of last night, you can't.
06:08 Yeah, I-- Stephen A, I'm going to let you jump in here,
06:10 Stephen A. But after what we saw last night,
06:12 no person in their right mind, outside
06:15 of those delusional Cowboy fans, can say this
06:17 is a Super Bowl contending team.
06:19 What happened is that you saw the difference in physicality.
06:23 From the start, you saw Greenlaw.
06:25 You saw Fred Warner.
06:27 You saw them punish receivers.
06:30 You saw them punish the running backs.
06:31 Did you see Greenlaw lift Pollard up off his feet
06:35 and slam him to the ground?
06:36 And Pollard turned to the official.
06:38 You're not going to throw a flag?
06:39 I knew right then and there, it was over.
06:42 Because when you start asking a referential,
06:45 because they're getting physical with me,
06:47 are you going to throw a flag?
06:48 That's unnecessary.
06:49 It's over.
06:50 It's over.
06:51 They sent the message.
06:52 I will say this.
06:52 The only problem I have with what Shannon's just said
06:54 is that he said anybody outside of a delusional Cowboy fan.
06:59 The problem with that is that delusional Cowboy fans
07:02 are like cockroaches.
07:03 They're everywhere.
07:04 And that was all--
07:05 They're everywhere.
07:06 You understand?
07:07 And so the problem with that is that, you know,
07:10 there's too many of them.
07:11 Right.
07:12 There's too many of them.
07:13 They're just not in Dallas, Stephen A.
07:15 They're just not in Dallas.
07:16 Or they ain't in Dallas today.
07:18 Nah.
07:18 So none of you think they're still Super Bowl contenders?
07:21 No.
07:21 I can't legitimately say.
07:23 And that's what I missed on them,
07:24 playing against bad competition, seeing how poorly
07:27 the Giants are.
07:28 I can't.
07:29 I can't.
07:30 So who is-- so who are the contenders then in the NFC?
07:33 Easily.
07:34 San Francisco and--
07:35 You just watched them, Molly.
07:37 Did you not watch--
07:38 Obviously San Francisco, but who else?
07:39 San Francisco--
07:39 What about the Eagles?
07:40 Have you not watched the Eagles?
07:41 Yes, yeah.
07:42 Have you watched Detroit?
07:44 Detroit's there.
07:45 I don't know if Detroit's in that class,
07:49 but they are in that--
07:51 I'm not giving Detroit--
07:53 Shannon, I'm not giving Detroit that.
07:54 I'm saying it's slim.
07:55 I'm not giving Detroit that yet because they're young.
07:58 I know the talent is there, but they're young.
08:00 OK?
08:01 They haven't been there is what I'm trying to say.
08:02 That's totally fair.
08:03 I'm going to say San Francisco and Philadelphia
08:06 and the styles there.
08:07 I tell you this much, though.
08:08 Detroit could be Dallas.
08:10 Yeah, they're in front of Dallas.
08:12 Yeah, I agree.
08:13 I think the thing that Detroit has going for them
08:15 is their offensive--
08:16 Aidan Hutchinson, I think, has got
08:17 defensive player of the year ability,
08:19 so that allows them to be in that--
08:21 they're not in that conversation up top, no.
08:23 Let me ask you this.
08:24 When you get beat down like this, Shannon,
08:27 do you feel like they can bounce back psychologically?
08:31 Like this will kind of garner the troops,
08:33 and we can see an even better Cowboys team moving forward,
08:36 or is the party over?
08:37 You know, Molly, the thing that I've been very fortunate
08:40 that when we were winning, we were very
08:42 realistic in where we were.
08:43 We were not there thumping our chest
08:45 saying we got a historically great offense,
08:46 or we got a historically great this.
08:48 Even when the Ravens in 2000-- let's take it to the Ravens.
08:51 They did not talk about how historically great they were,
08:54 because they were in it.
08:56 Now, after the season, when you average give up
08:58 10 points a game, you hold teams that play 16 games,
09:01 you give up 165 total points, you
09:04 give up 190 points over the entire season,
09:08 including the playoffs.
09:09 Then people start saying, that was a historic defense.
09:12 But when you're in your mind and you're trumpeting,
09:15 oh, we're great, we're great, and somebody
09:17 come put their foots in you like they did last night,
09:20 yeah, it's a gut check.
09:22 It makes you reassess.
09:24 Are we really that good, or we just been talking?
09:27 Let me tell you why the Dallas Cowboys cannot bounce back
09:31 from this.
09:33 They don't believe in their quarterback.
09:35 That's my--
09:36 That's the doubt thing I kind of said before, right?
09:38 But do they believe in their coach
09:39 also to piggyback on that?
09:41 If you don't believe in your quarterback,
09:44 chances are you're not going to believe
09:46 in a coach who's supposed to be an offensive miner,
09:49 he's your offensive play coach.
09:50 If it's a coach that--
09:51 he's a former defensive coordinator.
09:53 You got a defense like the Baltimore Ravens
09:54 had when Shannon was there, stuff like that,
09:56 it's a different animal.
09:57 Yeah.
09:58 But when you're reliant on your offense to do something--
10:01 remember, the Dallas Cowboys, their bravado,
10:04 it's totally about their defense.
10:06 Those players believe in themselves defensively.
10:08 Yeah.
10:08 Michael Parsons is talking post-game yesterday.
10:10 And he's talking about we're not that far off.
10:12 What he's saying is, look, y'all, don't get it twisted.
10:15 It was a bad day today.
10:16 But the defense will rise again.
10:18 The problem is they got question marks about their--