NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - TNF Recap: Bears-Cowboys

Episode Date: December 6, 2019

Dan Hanzus and Gregg Rosenthal recap the Bears big win over the Cowboys in this big Week 14 showdown.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Elliot gets it and the touchdown. Second and goal pass caught. Touchdown, Chicago. Alan Robinson. He keeps again one-on-one. Tackle missed. Touchdown, Trubiskey. What a night for number 10. Mitchell Trebisky, I remember that guy, the Chicago Bears quarterback with the 23-yard touchdown run that essentially iced the game for the Chicago Bears who were alive suddenly in the NFC after a 31 to 24 win over the Cowboys who, you know what? Stank! Here in the throwback podcast garage, contractually obligated to call it that with, for the first time ever,

as he prepares for his first throwback pot ever. Greg Rosenthal, welcome to the garage, buddy. Big times. Big change. Mark's got the long form. I'm stepping in. I'm loving it. I'm wearing like a Bears-ish jacket that we got in London.

And what a night to do it. Mitchell Trebisky. We were all wrong about you, buddy. What a night for Mark to not be on the show also, because for me, that's the big takeaway. And we know how the NFL media sphere works. Again, the biggest story probably will be tomorrow morning, the Cowboys in a free fall. And that is a big story considering all the expectations and where they were back in September. But to me, the big story here is that Mitchell Trubisky with a 23 for 31, 244-yard, three-touchdown performance,

averages eight yards per attempt, running the ball again, runs for 63 yards, including that touchdown that you heard. He might be playing himself back into the future plans of the Bears. I mean, I don't think it's crazy to suggest that that's now in play, which you would have never, ever even considered three weeks ago, unless you still think that's not possible. No, I think it's in play because, you know, he's under contract and what are they going to do? He's going to be part of the mix. Right.

And I think that's a possibility, depending on how the next three weeks go, and they should be open to it. But good for him for playing better. We have talked about it a little bit on the podcast that he has been running a bit more, But this is the game where I think they looked at the matchup and they just thought this Cowboys team struggled with Jeff Driscoll running. They struggled with Josh Allen running. Let's let Mitchell be Mitchell.

That's what he does best. And the Cowboys didn't do anything all night. You could hear Troy Aikman. Oh, Troy's dying. Being frustrated, though, about the Cowboys defense more than anything. Because the Cowboys. And he looks, Troy looks so good, too. With the jacket and the hoodie, that was like the coolest Troy Eggman ever looked.

And then the Cowboys, what do you got in your? notes. I'm just flipping my notes around to Dan just so he can see. The only thing in capital letters, Troy, nice hoodie slash jacket slash sweater combo. Yeah, I'll throw it back to you. I just want to point out that the program starts with the greatest Cowboys quarterback ever, arguably, looking cooler than he ever has. And then Dallas promptly goes on a 17-place, 75-yard touchdown drive that ends with that Zeke touchdown, you heard off the top. It's the longest opening drive in yardage and time of the season, is spanning nine minutes. And everything is going their way, and then everything explodes.

And they get an interception on their first drive on defense. But that was still a bad sign because the bears were moving the ball. And what Troy was frustrated about, I think, was the defense, which is coordinated by Rod Marinelli and Chris Richard. And in their minds, what they would call it, like an execution defense. You know, Richard comes from Seattle where, okay, we're not going to mix it up too much. We're going to bend, but don't break. But what we're going to do is play fast. and we're going to execute, you know,

and we're going to be great at tackling and fundamentals, and we're going to have, you know, the ball in front of us so we can force big plays. And, like, none of that is happening. Like, they're counting on them to fly around and make tackles. And Trubisky had a great night numbers-wise, and he ran the ball well. But he didn't have to make that many tough throws.

I mean, I'm not trying to rain on the parade, but there was a lot of, like, third and fives where he just threw it to a guy that's wide open, and he had clearly defined reads. And it reminded me a little bit of the very... It made a very tough throws. throws in big spots. He had a couple like low percentage, you know, where he, where he snuck it in there. But for the most part, it reminded me of the Bears last year where Matt

and Aggie created a big place for him. I mean, that's nothing wrong with that. I mean, they went up, they dominated. So it's not, I'm not like saying anything about them, but the Cowboys defense has been pretty trashy all year. Yeah. And that's been a huge disappointment because we saw that as a position of strength. I think Layton Van derrash being out with this neck injury plays a role, but it probably shouldn't explain why it's been this bad because they could not get a stop. I mean, even when they got back into the game, I thought, you know, I'll remember the game for Trubisky's great play. But also, just the Cowboys, a team that just, you know, obviously is in such a deep funk that when they finally get back into that game with the second

Zieg touchdown, they go for it on fourth down. And I think it pulled them within, what was it, 10 points? They got it back down to 10 points. Yeah. And then what's Brett Mardu? He kicks, He kicks the damn ball out of bounds, setting up the bears at the 40, and then Trubisky leads him right down for another touchdown. This has been a team-wide collapse for the Dallas Cowboys. And you wonder, again, what happens with Jason Garrett and with Jerry Jones? So the patience obviously has to be either out or running out. And I think Troy Aikman and, you know, we talk about the way he looks and all this stuff.

But he's, nobody's more plugged in than Troy when it comes to Cowboys business. because he's a fan. He loves that team. And he makes the point, as the game is kind of time running out, and this is a quote, who on that staff has earned the right to be the interim coach? I can't think of one guy. And that's going to bat for his boy, Garrett. But also, you know, pointing out that there's really no magic fix, no matter who you brought in.

This team is a team that had so much hope and so much anticipation that this would be a year. And it's going down the drain. Well, it might also just be. paraphrasing something he heard from Stephen Jones. You know what I mean? Because Jerry Jones, you know, there was a report by Adam Schaefter last week, which Adam re-uped tonight, that said, no matter what, the Cowboys are not going to fire Garrett during the season. And maybe that's their reasoning, assuming they stick to that. You know what, I'm not going to, Mara has been a disaster.

It wouldn't have mattered. At no point was this Cowboys defense going to stop it. If you think. Just fitting is all. Yeah, it was 10-7, and that was, Liam, pretty late in the second quarter, and that's when DAC and the fullback, Omaha Wale, were not on the same page on a third down. That should have been a layup, and then Mar misses the kick. And then the Bears go right, go down the field.

And they have a first and 15 at the 24-yard line with 30 seconds left in the half. You do not expect to give up a touchdown in that situation. And so you give up a touchdown. Then you come out of halftime, and the Cowboys give up a seven-and-a-half minutes. touchdown drive where that's the drive I'm thinking of where Trubisky didn't really have to do much in that drive, where he was either running or getting layups on third downs and they're picking on Jalen Smith and he gets a touchdown to Alan Robinson with

Jalen Smith on him. It was a rough night for Jalen Smith and it's just like they knew the matchups. This was a coaching game and I think that's going to be something in Jerry Jones's mind that Nagy kept identifying matchups and the side of the field and the play calling was doing a lot of the work for them. And we talked about it on the Thursday, you know, week 14 preview episode. I was saying that just talking about the Raiders and how they look like they're in the tank, but you never know in the NFL, things have changed so quickly.

And just when you're sure of something, what's the old Roddy Piper line? Just when I had all the answers, they changed up all the questions. Like that's the NFL. And two weeks ago, yeah, he's the best. Two weeks ago, we're reading stories maybe 10 days ago about Matt Nagy's going to give up the play calling. And I think that was obviously a ridiculous notion. But also, Trubisky, to me, confidence is such a big part of this.

And it goes for like anything in life. But you could tell that he was playing without any confidence. And he's already not a gifted player physically, like the best quarterbacks in the league. But you could see the way he's carrying himself on the field. It's with confidence. And that was a takeaway from me. And then back on the cowboy side of it, I just want to, you need a big performance from your big guys in a really important game.

And Zeke Elliott, he had that one big run, but he's still finished with just 81 yards. I know they got behind on the score, but he's five straight games under 100 yards rushing. Prescott, I thought, missed throws and never really got into a groove. He had a garbage time touchdown to Amari Cooper. Cooper, he hasn't had a big game in a while.

Michael Gallup's the only guy that really flashed to me on their offense today. Yeah, Dax timing was off. I think Dax had a really good season. I had him in the MVP race, you know, two weeks ago. But Kurt Warner pointed out a couple times when he's taking drops and the timing was just off on third and four. There were some situations where it's like Cooper was singled up on Buster's screen on third down one-on-one and DAC doesn't even look to him.

Dak, to me, has been a very streaky quarterback in his career. And the last three weeks has been a rough streak against good defenses. And that's the thing with where I mentioned, worry about if you're a Bears fan. It's like, yeah, Trubisky's playing better, but you have the Packers next. Maybe not the toughest matchup in the world. I think that that's a winnable game. But then you have the Chiefs, that's a tough one, and you have the Vikings to finish it out.

And even if you won all three of those, that might not be enough. If you're a Bears fan that you're happy, you get to play the two teams in your division that are in front of you. That's actually what you want because that's their only chance that they would have to come. The fact that we've been talking about them as like a playoff team. their playoff contention is ridiculous. They're now at seven and six, four wins in five weeks. They're up to the eighth seed. They get the Rams and the Vikings ahead of them in the wild card.

You know, crazier things have happened. It's still such a brutal schedule like you're saying that. And they lost Roquan Smith today, although the guy who came in for him. The pec injury, too, which you never like to hear. It probably, usually that means you're not coming back, that it's a torn muscle. But you never know. But, yeah, the guy who came in, Kevin Pierre Lewis was awesome tonight. And they've got, they've actually, at the very least, if any talk,

which I didn't believe that Nagy and Ryan Pace, their GM were going to be in trouble, that's out the window. They're going to be fine. Trubisky maybe gets a little longer rope next year. But the crazy thing is the Cowboys are still in first place. I mean, it's like as bad as it was, but I saw some, you know, advanced metric site that was, that said that the Cowboys, you know, playoff odds went from 63 to 57. 17% tonight. So it's like it barely even hurt them. They're sick. They're like they're they have a pretty good chance to host a home game in the playoffs. It's just going to come down to that Eagles game. It's so bad. As you know, I've talked about it for years on the podcast. I love the NFC East. I grew up. Stark times with my grandfather sitting on his brown couch drinking root beer watching the giants and the redskins and all those great rivalries in the 80s. And the the NFC East has never been won with an eight and eight record. And this is a,

from Rich Eisen, actually. For that street to continue, Dallas must finish 3-0 and or Philly, 4-0. They both have won 1 in the last four games. And the Washington Redskins and the Giants are the other two teams in the division. I mean, it's just, it's hard to believe that it's come to this in this division. It's kind of a bummer. Yeah, I mentioned on the preview show, the out-of-division record is potentially going to be the worst in NFL history for the NFC East. And this doesn't help it.

I mean, so many teams have had their best win of the season against the Cowboys. Even my team. Every week. No, the Jets. The Patriots, as a Patriots fan, I kind of felt like that was their best win because at the time, I'm like, well, the Cowboys have a good offense. That's a legitimate team. The Patriots really haven't beaten many legitimate teams. That was Kirk Cousins' big primetime moment.

They get their win against the Vikings. Who am I forgetting here? last week the Cowboys lose that game to the bills on Thanksgiving that's their biggest so it's like every team and this was I know the Bears beat the Vikings

early in the year it's like when Chase Daniel but no this was the Bears best win of the year it's like the Cowboys are the feel good team it's like you play them and you're like hey maybe we're legit we beat the Cowboys or maybe now as a Patriots fan I'm thinking oh gosh maybe it doesn't mean much

I know they're kind of a tough team to figure out and it doesn't make any sense Like the numbers... We keep on putting on Garrett too and I'm sure they could do better with a better head coach, but is there something more to this? Did we overrate the talent on the field?

Certainly not the skill players on offense. We know how good their big Holy Trinity is. But maybe on the defensive side of the ball or the offensive line, like what is it that's not working? Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick, one of which is maybe go to the Hall of Fame in Smith or has a chance. And Frederick, who's been an all pro,

they're not as good as they used to be. So the line isn't as good, but it's still quite good. I think it's more of a culture thing. Wes and I fought about this in the off season. It's one of my tropes I keep going to because it always hits. The Cowboys always blow it the year after their good year. The year that they're expected to be good and they're feeling themselves. There's such big stars there, you know, Jane Slate, they got Jane Slater shows.

They got it all. It's like, they're gods. And they, I don't know. There's something about them that they, uh, They read their own press clippings or something. Let me just throw out a couple more stats that jumped out to me. When they had that interception of Tribisky, which was a beautiful, the rare toe-drag swag by a cornerback.

Right. Excellent. That was their first takeaway in 263 snaps spanning five games. So there's a problem as well. Your defense has to make plays and make games that set up your offense. It all ties together. And then the other big stats. So they went four for four on third down on that 17 play.

initial drive. They went over their next 10. The offense just went in the tank. In the tank, as Mitch Trubisky went up and down the field in a game the Cowboys needed. What else needs to be said? Right. Like there was a key third down conversion by the Bears when Michael Bennett had his 7,000 like encroachment penalty of his career. I love watching Michael Bennett fail. There was a lot of, I mean, now that he's an ex-patriot, I don't mind it. Like there was a lot of Michael Bennett getting up off the ground after a big cowboys. And looking dumbfounded in this game. I've got something for you, though, that I thought maybe you were going to. Other big time rowdy, rowdy, rowdy, piper quotes. You don't throw rocks at a man with a machine gun. I don't remember

that. Well, you don't. I'm so quick I can spit in the wind duck and let it hit the old lady behind me. Poor lady. See, aren't you happy you got my Wi-Fi password now? I'm the reason Hulk Hogan lost his hair. Ooh, that's good. I can't really deliver it. it the same way. No, but Roddy was, he was a guy. All right. Anything else growing? No.

I feel all good for, you know, we know a lot of Bears fans. Sometimes in a totally miserable season, if they just give you at least a couple little moments, at least, at least. This is what you want. At least it didn't go to 5 and 11 total misery. They gave you a little something. That's what I was saying with the Jets, so I really was hoping they would beat the Bengals last week.

You know, relevant December football. You don't even have to get to the playoffs. Just give me something where they're not playing out the string. The Bears are not playing. out the string. Did we watch a playoff team tonight? No, not with their schedule. Oh, I see what you're doing here. No, I've been keeping the

Eagles off of the chopping block, and so I'm sticking with that. That I kept thinking the Eagles will somehow figure it out, and the Cowboys keep allowing them time to do it. Well, we forked the Eagles and the Bears. Wait, we didn't fork the Eagles.

I kept them clean. That was the thing. We did fork the Bears, though. Yeah, I kept fighting to keep them alive, because I I still thought maybe they get in. All right, there we go. Greg, you're now going to stay in the garage. That's the big news tonight. Yeah, my buddy, Bob.

Arcade Fire. Yep, throwback pod. We're going to tape Funeral, the debut album from Arcade Fire. That's one of the bands that, in the Venn diagram, both of us love a little AF. One of the defining albums of the aught has to be. Bob, I mean, the door's squeaky. We're trying to do an NFL pocket. People actually listen to the show, Bob.

Cowboys suck. Well, he's not wrong. All right. Next time you hear from us, we'll be with the whole gang on Sunday night, wrapping up the rest of the week 14 action. But until then, this is Dan Hansa, signing off for The Old Boss.

Until Sunday night. Hey, Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast.