Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Crossover Wednesday with Locked On Cowboys - 11/20/19

Episode Date: November 20, 2019

It’s Crossover Wednesday! Join hosts Mike D’Abate of Locked On Patriots and Landon McCool of Locked On Cowboys as the duo preview Sunday’s matchup between the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all you Foxborough faithful and welcome to your Crossover Wednesday episode of Locked On Patriots, your daily home for news, notes, analysis, and the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. Today's episode is brought to you in part by Away. Away creates thoughtful products designed to change how you see the world. For $20 off a suitcase, visit awaytravel.com slash locked on and use promo code locked on during checkout. If you're listening on the go and you can't visit away right now,

you can find this and all other offers from Locked On sponsors at lockedonpodcast.com slash offers. My name is Mike DeBate, and I am your host of Locked On Patriots, which, of course, is a part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC, and be sure to follow Locked On Patriots on Twitter at LO underscore Patriots. Folks, Wednesday is always a big day for all of us across the Locked On Podcast Network, especially for the NFL shows.

The mantra of your team every day is so important to us here at the network because in addition to bringing you the very latest and most up-to-date coverage that you'll find on your favorite NFL team anywhere, it gives you the crossovers. And they provide such valuable insight on that given week's opponent from those that cover the team and know it well. And as the Patriots prepare to host the Dallas Cowboys at 425 p.m. on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, it's my pleasure today to share the stage with Landon McCool of Locked On Cowboys. Landon, along with Marcus Mosher, put on an amazing show, and this is going to be a fun

one. We'll discuss the matchup from a Cowboys perspective and a Patriots perspective, and hopefully we'll give both fan bases something to watch for in this one. And this one is not going to be a friendly Texas barbecue, folks. This is going to be a fight. And if you've ever watched the TV show Dallas way back in the day, and believe it or not, I actually have thanks to reruns, this one could resemble one of those Barnes-Ewing feud fights.

Hard fought and hotly contested. And for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, well, you could Google the words Dallas, Cliff Barnes, and J.R. Ewing, and you'll learn. Trust me, folks. Or you could just take my word for it when I tell you that's my way of saying that this game is going to be a good one. Dallas has a high-powered offense led by quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott,

and a defense that's pretty stout with pass rushers like Robert Quinn, has a high-powered offense led by quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott, and a defense that's pretty stout with pass rushers like Robert Quinn, Demarcus Lawrence, and old friend Michael Bennett. Remember him? Yeah, I thought you would have. He's with the Dallas Cowboys now and playing pretty well. So Landon and I will break down all of the action that you will see on Sunday. However, before I proceed with that, I just wanted to take a minute to address all you guys out there. And ladies, you'll appreciate this too. Now, before I proceed with that, I just wanted to take a minute to address all you guys out there. And ladies, you'll appreciate this too. Now, this is a topic that is often taboo, but always commands your attention, and that is performance in the bedroom. Well, now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence. Listen up, bluechew.com.

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Blue Chew is the better, cheaper, faster choice, and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. And I'm here with Landon McCool of Locked On. Everyone knows here with the Locked On Podcast Network, Wednesday is always a big day for all of us across the network, especially for the NFL shows as the Cowboys and the Patriots get set to do battle at Gillette Stadium Sunday, 425 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. And it's my honor to talk some football today with Landon, talking the matchup from a Cowboys perspective and a Patriots perspective.

And hopefully today we'll give both fan bases something to watch for in this one. Landon, welcome to the show. It's my honor to be here on Locked On Cowboys with you. And welcome to Locked On Patriots in return. Well, thank you so much. I love doing these because it's just an opportunity to kind of get the other side's perspective a little bit better because we're all so myopic on our own teams that sometimes it's hard to see the larger picture. But it's fantastic because our two teams obviously both steeped in a lot of history and yours a lot more recent than ours.

But to see, we rarely get to go against each other i mean it's very it's once every four years i think right and and it's uh so it's always a great great chance to see to interact with your fan base absolutely and you know for all intents and purposes these two fan bases these two nfl franchises tend to be the most polarizing in the league and i don't think i'm exaggerating by saying that you either love the cowboys or you hate that you either love the Cowboys or you hate them. You either love the Patriots or you hate them. And it almost kind of brings these two fan bases together a little bit. You can almost see it this week in some of the interactions that are going on on Twitter and social media. They're kind of looking at each other going, yeah, we feel your pain. We know what you're going through on the other end. There is a lot of

mutual respect between the Patriots and the Cowboys. and I, for one, am really looking forward to this game. It's been one I've been looking forward to for a good amount of time. So, Landon, with your permission, I'm going to pick your brain a little bit on the Dallas Cowboys and give my listeners at Locked On Patriots a little bit of insight on the team that we're going to be seeing here at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on Sunday. That's great. It's going to be an information exchange, because I'm definitely going to want to pick your brain about what what we can do to possibly stop the super bowl champs well i hope i can give you some pearls of wisdom as but they'll definitely

be pearls whether or not there's wisdom behind them is another stretch but you know we'll definitely take it as we can go um landon there's been a lot here in new england of course the last couple of days about the patriots offense and their lack of weapons, their lack of ability to make things happen on the offensive side of the football. It's really completely a flip of the script that we've seen here in Foxborough for a number of years. The offense is so often taken center stage here in New England, and the defense really has been the gem of the Patriots, you know, attack so far. And I'll get into the defense of the Patriots in just a minute. But the Cowboys right now, in terms of pass defense,

their pass defense has actually been pretty effective this season. They haven't had a whole lot of turnovers, but they have, they do rank seventh in the NFL. They're allowing only 216 point yard, nine yards per game through the air, which is impressive. And the Patriots right now have not been able to make things happen through the air. The one thing that Patriots fans seem to be licking their chops on is that Dallas does employ that Tampa 2 defense with Rod Marinelli. And that's a scheme that Tom Brady has been able to find a

good amount of success over throughout his career. If you're the Dallas Cowboys right now, you look at the way this Patriots offense is played. Their offensive skill position weapons have not been as prolific as they have been in the past. They really can't get a whole lot going in the run game. And their offensive line has been banged up and they've been able to give way for Tom Brady to be put under a lot of pressure what's the best way for the Dallas Cowboys defense to come in and attack what the Patriots do offensively I mean I think the best way is the way that they've it's the best way for the Cowboys to win most of their games and it's the way that they've kind of struggled to get going early on and I think it's to have the offense, the Cowboys offense,

make the other team one-dimensional by getting early scores and making them throw the football. I tend to agree that the best situation for the Cowboys would be, at this point, making Brady throw a bunch of passes, though I can't believe I'm actually saying that out loud. I think at this point with the Cowboys, just from a strengths and weaknesses point of view, the Cowboys have really, really struggled to stop the run at this point.

And it's been a couple weeks in a row. It doesn't seem to be getting much better. They are much more comfortable with their allotment of pass rushers and their defensive back depth. They're much more comfortable if you're into more of the what was the evolution of that into the kind of seattle cover one cover three defense and very good point and and i think that that it has still with the the philosophy of uh keeping it all in front of them uh making the offense you you know, dink and dunk down the field, no big plays, and hoping that there is a mistake in there. I think with Brady, when he has coverage, he won't make that mistake.

I mean, when he has blocking, he won't make that mistake. I mean, because that's who Tom Brady is. But I tend to agree as from an outsider point of view, looking at the offensive line, I think that there could be hay to be made if the Cowboys are able to get pressure, especially interior pressure on passes where's going to want to get the ball out of his hands early, I assume, and that's going to require the Cowboys defense to rally to the ball and make tackles, which, you know, when you talk about Edelman, we talk about White, we talk about some of these guys with the ball in their hands. They're dangerous, and it's not easy to get them down with the first person. Yeah, very, very good points, and I'm glad that you brought up a couple of those. And just to expound on them a little bit, first of all, James White. James White is

such a catalyst of how this offense is able to operate. He's so good at being able to catch passes out of the backfield and play action. If they open him up, that gives the Patriots a whole other dimension to their offense that otherwise they don't have. The problem with that is the Patriots running game has not been that prolific. Sonny Michel hasn't been the same running back that he was last year in his sophomore season as opposed to last year in his rookie year. It's been a little bit more difficult for him to find some holes. Now that I will get into in a minute because I think that's more due to the offensive line. But when you talk about Brady's skill position players, he was very frustrated after the Philadelphia Eagles win on Sunday and uncharacteristically more frustrated than we've ever seen him after a win before. Brady has been sullen. He's been difficult sometimes after a loss. But after a win, he really, really sounded down. And it was very uncharacteristic and a little bit eyebrow-raising here in New England. There were a couple of reasons for that. One, he was under constant pressure, constant duress during that game,

knocked around a good amount of time, and really did not get the protection from his offensive line that he needed. The second reason is that his skill position players, Julian Edelman, Mohamed Sanu, they were victim to a couple of drops, plays that normally these guys make that they just didn't this time around, And I think frustration crept in. One of those problems may be solved this weekend. Patriots offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn has come off of injured reserve. He's been activated. He will be in the lineup for the Patriots on Sunday.

That gives their offensive line their starting left tackle. The guy that they had envisioned to take over for Trent Brown is now going to be there is he going to magically fix the problems on the bats offensive line probably not it's a situation where he's going to need time to get back in but just his presence being there and adding depth to the o-line is going to give Brady that extra second or two to be able to complete passes that's what makes him most effective when Brady has the protection that he needs he can pick defenses apart and that's what we're hoping for here in New England easier said than done Dallas's defense has been pretty stout and I think that's going to be a great matchup so we'll see what happens but a couple of great points in terms of Dallas's

coverage and how they're going to attack the ball I appreciate that Landon I think that was excellent information transitioning off a little bit and I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you a And how they're going to attack the ball. I appreciate that Landon. I think that was excellent information. Transitioning off a little bit. And I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you a question about this prolific Dallas offense. That really is putting up amazing numbers. They are first in the NFL ranked in overall offense. And Dak Prescott in my opinion is starting to make his case to be mentioned. And I'm not saying that he's a front runner. But starting to be mentioned among those that are getting consideration

for most valuable player. He's playing that well, and he does have a great complementary piece in the running game with Ezekiel Elliott without any question. The Patriots off the defense, though, excuse me, has been putting up historic numbers. And one of their big keys is being able to isolate a quarterback have their running backs run free in that 3-4 scheme and be able to have the quarterback the linebackers rush the quarterback and then have the secondary drop back into coverage and cover uh you know man to

man stefan gilmore jc jackson those are the cornerbacks for the Patriots. They've done an amazing job. If you're the Dallas Cowboys offense and you see how the Patriots defense is stacked up, particularly because Dallas is so great at third down conversions, they really, really have been one of the most efficient teams at converting on third downs. Where do you look at this Dallas Cowboys offense and say they can win the battle here is it attacking them through the running game or is it trying to spread the ball out and really showcase the talent of dak prescott i mean i think it's gonna have to be both i mean the key is the thing that makes dallas's offense so potent is that you can never just completely give up on the run because they will pummel you with the run if given the opportunity. There's a lot of resources that

has to be used to kind of slow down the running game. And it's honestly, as somebody who is facing the Patriots and just has kind of the casual knowledge of the lore of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, I've been trying to view it from your point of view as Bill Belichick likes to take away the best player, the best piece that the offense has and make you work left handed basically and make you kind of work with all your other pieces and whether it's double teaming cooper and then putting uh you know gilmore on gallop it's it's it's it's an interesting kind of chess match to try and and plan out exactly how he plans on on you know eliminating what aspect of the cowboys offense so i think for the Cowboys they really need to see how it gets how

they get played and then respond accordingly and be ready to go to Cobb and be ready to go to Gallup and I think that's the thing to me that has been the difference between Cooper Prescott this year and and other years is yes you've got Cooper out there he's been amazing he's he's played like a top five wide receiver since he showed up at at the cowboys but what that really has done is allowed all the other pieces that are on the team to kind of fall into proper place gallop has become a very high-end wide receiver too cobb has been up and down at times but has been explosive with his with the ball in his hands the cowboys have a couple other pieces they can use to attack what is the best defense in the NFL, without a doubt,

and maybe one of the best defenses we've seen in the last four or five, maybe even ten years. I think that the other thing that, you know, just looking at the way what the Patriots want to do and what the Cowboys can do, I would hope that we see a lot of Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott in the backfield this week. Because I do think that one thing that the Patriots may struggle with is trying to keep coverage up with the two running backs

coming out of the backfield at the same time. I just think that eventually they're going to have to put a linebacker on one of these guys uh and i just think that that could potentially be a mismatch that they may exploit uh randomly here and there for for big for big yards that's such a good point landon and i'm so glad that you made that because the one area of defense that the patriots have struggled in we saw them against the baltimores, and we've seen some running backs come in and be able to run for big yardage against this team, is in the run game. Let's take a look at what the Patriots were able to do or not do, I should say, against the Baltimore Ravens.

A very mobile quarterback in Lamar Jackson and also a very adept running back in Mark Ingram were able to gash them for big yardage. Frank Gore was able to run on them for a number of yards in the Buffalo Bills game. When they played the Cleveland Browns, Nick Chubb was able to run for sufficient yards against this team. It's been one of the areas that they've struggled in. The other area that they've struggled in is covering tight ends. And I know as prolific as he's been in the past, he's having a resurgent year as Jason Witten making a comeback. Wouldn't surprise me to see him get some targets.

Zach Ertz was able to receive for nearly, or if not over, 100 yards against the New England Patriots. Guaranteed, the Patriots were able to shut him down when they needed to, thanks to shutdown play by Stephon Gilmore, who I think you hit the nail on the head. He'll definitely draw Amari Cooper. And I think that's going to, I don't want to say neutralize Cooper because he's so prolific. I don't think you're going to be able to hold him or shut him off. But it will limit the amount of times that Dak Prescott may choose to go to him simply

because Gilmore's playing at another level this year. So wouldn't shock me to see them utilize the running game. I like what you said about Pollard and Elliott getting them involved. But also, I think if I'm a Dallas fan, you might want to look to Jason Witten getting some catches, especially on third down when they need yardage. He might be a guy to go to because the Patriots have struggled a little bit with covering tight ends, especially if Patrick Chung is not in the lineup. We don't know if he'll be activated yet. He missed last week's game against Philadelphia with both heel and chest injuries. So something to watch for there. And I think those are great points. So

we look forward to seeing what's going to happen between a great defense for the Patriots, a great offense for the Dallas Cowboys, and some interesting things on the flip side of the ball. Well, Landon, you've done a great job in the hot seat right now, and I do appreciate you giving our listeners at Locked On Patriots a little pearl of wisdom when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys. And in just a moment, folks, we're going to flip the script. I'm going to be on the hot seat, and Landon's going to grill me for some New England information, and I look forward to that. And once again, I am Mike DeBate of Locked On Patriots talking with Landon McCool of the Locked On Cowboys. And before we get into that, though, we just have a message for everyone

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You play, you win, you get paid. Okay, Mike, let's talk about some Patriots and see if we can possibly like get some pearls of wisdom this uh out of you not not just you know the regular pearls that are being distributed um i i think you know it's one of the interesting things just again from an outside viewer that that i've noticed about brady and the patriots and not that brady is anywhere near retiring because I mean god he's a cyborg apparently um is that you know the kind of symmetry in that you know he started his career as a quarterback who was kind of buoying a an elite level defense that was kind of carrying them to a Super Bowl victory uh in his first year and then from there he became he was like not a bus driver.

He went straight into being kind of the mighty engine that was pulling this whole thing by himself. And it felt like for years and years, no matter who they put into that offense to work with them, he made it work at such a high level that you guys were obviously contenders for you know for basically a decade um what and now it feels like because of some luck and bad luck and because of injury and that sort of thing you know what what the promise of the tom brady josh gordon uh and

ab offense uh you know has unfortunately kind of fallen to the wayside. And now you've mentioned it, the, uh, the, the Patriots offense has been a little bit, uh, suspect, especially just in comparison to how elite their defense has been. What do you attribute that most to? I, I obviously I knew how I was playing left tackle as opposed to Isaiah Wynn is obviously a downgrade. And I know you guys must have been excited to see that he got reactivated. But what do you attribute the struggles to mostly with the Patriots offense? And it seems like specifically in the red zone, there's been problems with the offense.

What do you think is the main cause of that? And are they going to, you know, is Tom Brady's famously angry nature going to solve that this week and just pummel the Cowboys? Well, you know, normally I would probably say, you know, scorched earth and, you know, may God have mercy on whoever the opponent is going to be. Because Brady tends to be a pretty, you know, nasty guy when he's angry on opposing teams. But I don't think this Dallas Cowboys team is a team that he is going to be able to feast on know nasty guy when he's angry on opposing teams but i don't think this dallas cowboys team is a team that he is going to be able to feast on they're too good uh and that's not a knock to tom that's not to say that he can't dial it up i just think that the dallas cowboys as

an opponent are going to prove too much of a threat on both sides of the ball for this one to be a real lopsider either way that being said to answer your question landon i think that a lot of what has gone on with the offense this year has been twofold one has been a neutralization of the running game and i mentioned this a little bit earlier in our segment where sony michelle has not simply been able to get the yardage that he needs to he's not getting that same burst that he did in his rookie season as a sophomore right now it's kind of difficult for him to find the lanes to find holes and he's getting maybe one or two yards of rush whereas last year he would burst for five six yards at a time and it would allow them to pick up first downs a little

bit quicker uh that's been a little bit on sony because he's not running into coverage as much as he needs to the other part of that has been the offensive line simply because the patriots are dealing with a new center david andrews is out for the year on injured reserve ted caris has come in played admirably but he's not david andrews andrews is a team captain and a pro bowler you need to be able to get that type of production and the patriots just haven't had it uh the left side of their offensive line has been a much maligned unit here in New England. Joe Tooney at the guard position has been very good. He consistently provides great coverage, but on the left side in terms of the tackle position, Isaiah Wynn's absence has been a big,

big part of this team not being able to find a rhythm. He comes back this week. Marshall Newhouse has been playing out of position. He's been the quote unquote, and I even hate to use this term, but he's been the quote unquote whipping boy in a lot of ways when it comes to what has happened in New England this season. He got beat very badly a couple of times in the game against the Eagles. And it was just, it was really, really tough to watch at times. And Brady found himself under constant pressure and a lot of duress. So with Wynn coming back, it helps in a lot of ways. It helps the Patriots to be able to maybe find some more running yards.

And maybe at this point, Sonny Michel finds that hole and is able to get that burst. Maybe it gives Tom Brady an extra second or two to be able to complete passes down the field. So that way he's not completely under duress and making throws under pressure. That is what Isaiah Wynn brings to this team. When it comes to the skilled positions, I think that's where the Patriots have maybe gone through so much upheaval that it's been difficult for even a guy like Tom Brady to keep up. And at 42 years of age, it's not as easy as it was three or four years ago. Even though he's still looking in very good shape,

he's still pleading passes crisply. I always scoff at the talking heads and the pundits that love to say he looks old. He's throwing ducks out there. He's got a noodle for an arm. That's not the case. Anybody that follows this team knows that Brady's mechanics have not suffered. It's been the supporting cast around him really that I think has been difficult. And a lot of the bumps and bruises that he's feeling

now, he's probably feeling a little bit more than he has in years past. So that's where the time comes up with it. But his mechanics really haven't slowed in this game. Again, if the Patriots are going to be successful, I think they need to attack that Dallas secondary I think that's the only way that they'll be able to do it Dallas has a very good front seven they can get you know guys uh you know and they can put pressure on on Tom and that's going to be a big key because that's what happens with the Patriots when Tom is pressured it gets very very difficult for him to be able to play his game. And I think in a lot of ways, that's something that he's going to have to be very, very mindful of. So in terms of Brady, yeah, I think that there's been a lot of upheaval. But the return of Isaiah Wynn is a big part of that.

And he's going to need to have a little bit better connection with guys like Mohamed Sanu, Jacoby Myers, and hopefully Philip Dorsett if he's able to go this week. He's been out with a head injury, so we'll see what happens this week and if he's able to answer the call. Real quick before we move on to the defensive side and some questions there, what's the status of Nikhil Harry? Is he going to potentially play this week, or what's his deal? He played against Philadelphia.

He had three catches for 18 yards so not very prolific but nikhil harry is someone that i look for in situational uh you know packages he's not going to be a guy that brady's going to rely on very heavily early on one he's a rookie you don't want to set him up for a situation that where he's going to be able to um have a spotlight on him and fail and that's certainly something that they don't want to do on the flip side of that harry is a guy that is really i think going to be used in similar packages that we've seen rob gronkowski used in in the past and before any of your listeners or my listeners hang me an effigy for that that's not what i'm saying he's not going to be rob gronkowski what he's going to do is he's going to give you that big body receiver that's going

to be able to go up, make a contested catch, maybe even make an athletic contested catch at times. That's the strength of Nikhil Harry. It's going to be interesting to see if the Patriots put him in that position. He's still a rookie, and I don't know if there's a lot that we can expect from him in terms of having prolific numbers, but he definitely is going to be someone that you can look for in a third down situation maybe even in the slot because i think that's where his strength is going to be for at least the remainder of the season but he will be a target and i look for him to be targeted in this game okay let's let's flip it over to the other side which is i mean absolutely terrifying we faced a lot of different units so far this

season on a lot of different teams i don't know that i've faced a more kind of menacing unit than this uh new england patriots defense um what do you think has been you know i look patriots have always had good defense i mean obviously bill belichick is maybe the greatest defensive mind in football history, outside of being the greatest football mind in history. What do you think is the difference this season versus the last years that's really taken this defense to the next level? Is it just that the secondary is playing at such a crazy elite level, or is there more to it than that that people on the outside aren't seeing on a regular basis?

Well, the secondary has been the strength of this defense. There's no question about it. It begins and ends with Stephon Gilmore. J.C. Jackson's played well. You want to give a lot of credit to the safety position as well. Devin McCourty has had a tremendous year. He's one of the defensive team captains. He controls a lot of what goes on in that secondary, and he's been great in terms of

directing traffic. Pat Chung has had some injury concerns, but he's been very solid as well. But the one thing that's changed this year as opposed to last year with the Patriots defense has really been, I think, the athleticism and the field savvy of the linebackers and a strengthening of the defensive front three. At the nose tackle position primarily, Danny Shelton is giving them so much more than they ever could have expected with this team. And a guy that we haven't mentioned yet, conspicuous by his absence and really a big part of what this game is going to be, is Michael Bennett. Don't forget, he was a part of this Patriots defense this year, was brought in really to fill that Trey Flowers defensive end role that was vacated when Flowers

went as a free agent to the Detroit Lions. He was traded away. Well, there's a reason for that. And he was traded away because of the fact that the Patriots moved from a 4-3 front to a 3-4 front. And as that happens, you lessen the impact of the defensive ends on that side and all of a sudden the linebackers become your pass rushers and you can take two linebackers have them run free they can get after the passer and then you can even drop a linebacker back into coverage and we've seen that with the patriots we've seen guys like kyle van noi and guys like dante hightower get into the backfield and pressure the quarterback. That allows someone like Jamie Collins, their linebacker, who's in his second tour of duty here in New England, to fall back and maybe even drop back into coverage.

That's been the Patriots' strength of their defense. So because Shelton up front as a nose tackle, Lawrence Guy and Adam Butler, the two guards on each side, have been very, very good with him. Excuse me, tackles. They've been very good with those two. And then all of a sudden you have the linebacking crew who's been great. Oh, and Roberts has stepped up big time and helped become a prolific run stuffer. They've just been able to push most of the right buttons on defense.

And in all of the games that they've played, save for the game against the Baltimore Ravens, this defense has come up with huge stops and huge turnovers when they needed them. And that's meant all the difference to the Patriots being 9-1 right now. Man, when the Patriots got Jamie Collins back, I knew that was just going to be bad news for everybody. But yeah, that's pretty clearly what exactly ended up happening. Last thing before we go, real quick. If you had to give a prediction, I think at this point,

Patriots have won 20 straight at home, if I'm not mistaken. I don't have any delusions that the Cowboys, they're almost a touchdown dogs at this point for the first time in a long time. If the Cowboys win this game, what happened? If the Cowboys win this game, it's because they essentially got into the Patriots' defense's head and they were able to score points. And if there's an offense in the league that can do that to the New England Patriots defense's head and they were able to score points. And if there's an offense in the league that can do that to the New England Patriots defense, that's not employing

a quarterback like Lamar Jackson and those RPOs that gave them so much difficulty two weeks ago. It's the Dallas Cowboys. They can do it. Dak Prescott has the weapons. He has the running game and he also has the quarterback savvy to be able to do that. So if the Dallas Cowboys win this game, it's because the Patriots defense yielded points and the Dallas offense was able to score, you know, their points and they were able to get points on the board. Also, what it means is that they were able to neutralize Tom Brady and that the offensive woes that the Patriots have had were only exploited by a Dallas defense that is going to be hungry to get after him.

There's no question about it. I mentioned Michael Bennett early. You know he's going to want to have his name lit up on the scoreboard a couple of times with maybe some sacks and maybe some pressures of Tom Brady. They do have a great amount of pass rushers that can disrupt things for the New England Patriots. Robert Quinn, Demarcus Lawrence, these guys can get after the quarterback. So that to me will be the two keys for the Dallas Cowboys coming away with a win. They'll have to score points and figure out a way to do it on this Patriots defense, but they'll also have to control and neutralize Tom Brady.

They do those two things. It's an upset. It's definitely definitely possible even here in Gillette Mike thank you so much for everything it's it's been an honor uh and good luck to you on Wednesday I hope at least no injuries happen to either side and you know may the best team win absolutely it's well said Landon it's been my honor and pleasure as well I definitely appreciate uh coming on and talking football with you like I said there may not be a lot on either side that wants to admit it, but there is a healthy respect for both teams and both organizations for the success that they've had and also the scrutiny that they have to go through on a weekly and daily basis, especially during NFL season. We feel your pain. You feel ours. It's been a great time

talking football with you and enjoy the game on Sunday. I hope it's a good one. And I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed another Crossover Wednesday episode here on Locked on Patriots. I will be back tomorrow as I continue to break down the Patriots matchup on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. As always, please be sure to join me each and every day on the Locked on Patriots podcast and subscribe and download via your preferred podcast provider. For Landon McCool of Locked On Cowboys, I'm Mike DeBate of Locked On Patriots.

Thank you so much for listening. Have a great day, everybody.