The Dumb Zone FREE - DZ 9-27-24: Cowboys sneak past Giants, Amazon Prime isn't a good broadcast, and a Friday bit

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Hear the full episode by subscribing to the show at Dumbzone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneYou don't apologize for a division win on the road, but you could've at least covered. Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit do not go well together, in fact, not much of that production is great and we have a Friday bit involving on our first times on air. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hello, I'm DFW's own Danny Bayless, letting you know that you are about to hear a free podcast of the Dumb Zone. But, if you'd like to subscribe at dumbzone.com, you will get four shows per week, plus the weekend wrap-up and any bonus epis like our Business Wednesday interviews. Oh, you'll also get our DZTV archives. Again, that's dumbzone.com to subscribe. Now, on to today's program. But this is Tony Gonzalez, which I think is a very confusing stat. You tell me. Explain to me how this makes sense. Maybe I'm just, I just don't know anything. What do you expect from the Cowboys tonight, Tony?

Well, you know, expect them to play really well, obviously. Wait a second, sorry. What do you expect from the Cowboys? Cowboys tonight, Tony. Well, you know, expect them to come out and play really well. Obviously, Wait a second. What are you expecting from the Cowboys? Cowboys tonight, Tony. Well, you know, expecting to come out and play really well. Obviously, the noise that is surrounding this team, it's the most hype social media team in the NFL. Everybody's talking about they have to step up, and I think they will. Because here's the thing.

I'm going to give you guys a stat before I say what I think they are. Since 2020, when Mike McCarthy got here, they are 48 and 70 in games where they are up by 14 points or down by 14 points. What does that tell you? They're a bully. They're a bully. If they get a lead, then they win that game. If they don't, then they fall way behind.

And I think they've got to change that narrative, and that's what they've been talking about. And that's toughness and physicality. That's how they can get back to that normal where they can play offense, defense, and special teams and go out there and be a complete football team. I think they call those front runners, Tony. I think that's what that's called. Hold on. Let me back it up. When Mike McCarthy got here, they are 48-70

in games where they are up by 14 points or down by 14 points. What does that tell you? He misspoke. Yeah, that's 120 games in four years? Yeah, it's 48-7, I think, when they get a lead. Or down by 14 points? So I don't understand how that makes your point.

Let's say it is 48-7. So if you get down by 14 points, how does that prove that I need to be a bull? I'm not really understanding anything he said there. Whether it's a typo or misspeak or whatever. He could have approached it better. Maybe you say

52 out of McCarthy's 90 games in Dallas, there has been a two touchdown spread at some point. You're right. It's clear they won the 48 games. There was a 14-point lead, and they lost the seven that they fell down. That's really weird. So the key is get a 14-point lead?

You know, I'm tired of these coaches that don't want a 14-point lead. I know. So many times throughout the week, they're saying, hold back. Yeah. You don't want to really turn it on. We don't like the 14-point lead. It's a good thing the Giants suck. So speaking of deep analytics, here is Richard Sherman.

Okay. Now, you know how nerds are taking over football? Mm-hmm. All we care about is this stat and that stat. Richard Sherman, same thing. Listen to this. Sherman, for this defense, what does Dallas need to do to get a stop? Because it's been rough the last few weeks for them,

and they dig a massive hole. They got to man up. It's heart and it's effort and it's want to. When it comes to stopping the run, it's just about grown man football. You've got a grown man and you've got to stand up and you've got to bow up and you've got to be the guy and you've got to get a stop. It's funny because I watch Baldinger and Baldinger did a breakdown this morning of the difference in the last couple games and this game. He's like, look, you're filling this gap. You're doing this. See the

difference here. there is an actual and you would think richard sherman being on some of the great defenses of all time uh might kind of add some of that a little x's and o's but no it's it's just want to it's just manning up you weren't a man so against uh new orleans or and uh baltimore not a man not a man kind of uh in between they're not cleveland man man you're a man yes and last night again a man because they ended up giving up what one yard per carry yeah so as far as the running game is concerned um you know what as i say that i don't really have this queued up so this will be a little weird but it was kind of right at the beginning i did listen to the You know what? As I say that, I don't really have this queued up, so this will be a little weird,

but it was kind of right at the beginning. I did listen to the Micah postgame. He spoke for a couple minutes, and it's on. Let's see. He was in the locker room. He seems like he's going to be fine health-wise, which seems really weird because he got carted off the field. But it happened about the second question. So let me see if I can find it where he's actually going to back up

what Richard Sherman said. What was different about the run defense? Okay, here you go. Look how queued up I am, man. What was different about the run defense, he said. What was different about the run defense? Man, the mentality, right? Like I said, there's nothing – you know, the thing about football,

they say it's X and O, but everything's about mentality. Resetting the line of scrimmage, toughness, dominating the man in front of him. You know, that's all football's about. And everyone locked in on that.

You know what I'm saying? I told you we came in Sunday. But I told you, flashing is good. Let's do it consistently. Okay. So he actually then said that, I don't know what I'm talking about.

Don't you feel dumb for criticizing Richard Sherman now? That's right, yeah. And I think Baldinger should as well. Because that's all he had to do is man up and have that mentality. I'm glad we've unlocked the secrets of life. Just man up. Secrets of football. Yep.

For sure. So we did say it felt almost like a no-win situation going into the game just because it's the Giants. You kind of had to blow them out, or else we would continue to have skepticism as we move forward in the season. And I think that's kind of – that's what I feel right now. Like is this team nearly as good as I thought they were going into the season? I would say no.

Don't you feel that with a four-game sample size that the most consistent thing is is that they're not very good? They blow out Cleveland who they're not very good. They blow out Cleveland, who's probably not very good. And, you know, every team can have a game like the Cowboys did, no matter how bad or good they are against Cleveland. But the consistency shows that if after four games they are what they are, they're a little bit better than New York. Feels like if Daniel Jones was a little better,

they would have lost that game. If they played like they did yesterday, you would have pretty much the same result if their opponents were New Orleans and Baltimore, as you had. Maybe a little closer, but that, what is it, 1.1 yards given up? Nobody had ever even heard of that running back.

There's a big difference between... Devin Singletary? I mean, he's not Derrick Henry or Alvin Kamara either, you know? They had a couple of lucky moments too, I thought Dallas did. The face mask call on – it was on Bellinger against Overshawn,

but replay clearly showed. It was the other way around. It was kind of weird. Skinny Brian Dayball wasn't screaming about that to the refs. He is looking good, isn't he? Yeah. I didn't know that. He looked not good in hard knocks.

They said, I think I read something where he did the Ozempic. Oh, he did? Yeah. Okay. Would you do that? Are they paying us? Are you saying he needs to? Yes.

He did. No, he slimmed down. Who, Blake? No, I'm not saying Blake needs to. Well, you just asked him if he would do Ol' Zimpik. He's a little bigger than he used to be, for sure. I would do it for the show. Not for me, though.

Would you do the Rod Stewart thing? For how much? 10,000 subs. No. Come on. We need this. You don't care? 100,000 subs.

Yeah, sure. Line them up. Gay. Yeah. He's so gay. I knew it. I knew he was gay. Nine to your 10.

That play. I'm going last just to top you off. Who was it? Malik Hooker? Malik Hooker who went for the interception, and that could have been a very, very bad play. Better thrown ball. That's a disaster.

And I think on the touchdown run by Rico Dowdle. No, the screen pass. The screen pass. It looked like there was a holding on that play, too. And they said quick replay called it off. Yeah, they threw a flag on it. Yeah. And actually put the flag back in the pocket.

Those are some lucky moments. So that's the pocket. So those are some lucky moments. So, you know, that's the thing. When you play a team that you consider a vastly inferior opponent, but the game goes like that, you're like, oh, my gosh, maybe we're not that much better than even just the Giants. Like I think a little bit of a better team, and they lose that game. They had a lot of penalties, too. I know Al Michaels was pretty fired up about all that.

Oh, one of the dumb penalties was that Guyton. Now, Guyton, did he have three holdings yesterday or two at least? At least two. I think it was three. Was he the one that got – yeah. It was – oh, no, it was Cooper Beebe and Tyler Smith had holding on the same play and they ended up giving it to Beebe. That means something at the end of the year for sure where when they're looking at contracts and

are able to say oh he had one hold the whole year but i think guyton is averaging a hold per game at least yeah um but it was on that free play where dallas had a free play uh Dak's going to launch it downfield. And Thibodeau is coming in, so he holds Thibodeau to not sack Dak. Like, he has to kind of know that is a free play there. And that's probably just a rookie mistake. But I suppose that's what you get when you put a rookie in at left tackle. And when analyzing the team and trying to figure out how good they're going to be i think tyler smith being really good last year kind of clouded us on yeah it might take a year or two for these guys to kind of you know learn a little of the tricks and those top top defensive

ends are probably going to get the better of you um a few times, and I thought that happened a lot last night. You know, some were saying maybe they should have re-signed Tyron Smith, at least for a one-year deal, whatever he got from the Jets, and just kept him here to kind of ease your rookie into things, but they did not do so. What else from the game? I thought Overshawn flashed. I thought he

looked really good. I don't know why his snap counts diminished in the last couple games. Yeah, he was really good against Cleveland. Let's see. The running game still has a lot to be desired. Yeah, they just weren't out there a lot, right? Giants had a really big time of possession advantage. If that was a very good game plan,

if that was their game plan, just to try and eat as much cock as they can, kind of like the Cowboys a few years ago, would just try to keep, you know, they had a bad defense, and it was, all right, well, let's just keep the ball as long as we can and not let, you know, not make, you know, not have the ability to just go down real big. The problem with that, and I noticed this early in the game,

is it gives Dallas free reign to make as many defensive substitutions as they want for matchup purposes. I thought at one point, man, if they just go fast here for a couple series, they're probably going to get the lead. Did you notice that? Yeah, that might be why they were able to kind of hold them out of the end zone because they never scored one touchdown, did they?

No, they have five field goals, right? Yeah. Yeah. The Cowboys' offense still looks very pedestrian, and if you look at their two touchdown plays, the one, the screen pass, probably had a hold on it. And then the others, they were saying in the postgame, it was like the only time that they did not double CD.

So kind of a mishap on the defensive side. But boy, through the first four games, the Cowboys offense just looks gross. Yeah, their best running back right now seems to be CD Lamb. Which, why are they doing that? Because they're searching for answers. You just paid this guy $120 million.

Do you want to put him in at running back? Isn't that why, though? Like, we need to even get more out of him. You might want to protect him a little bit. For sure. I mean, it surprised everybody at first, but then later on it didn't.

Aren't you contradicting yourself by saying saying we don't need a running back, we can just sign Zeke, and then you put your second most expensive offensive player back there? Yeah, the guys he's breaking tackles from in the secondary are quite a bit smaller than the dudes he's facing when he's taking the ball out of the backfield. I mean, I guess that's their logic is he's great, you know, yards after the catch, you consider them handing the ball to him a catch.

But like I said, those – a little bit stronger, a little bit bigger that he's having to break through. And, yeah, I think it would elevate the opportunities for him to get injured doing that. But I think maybe once in a game is probably not bad. Apparently, Mozzie played much better, and that's pretty important. It'd be nice to see him become something.

I thought it was, they did it on, I think it was the final drive before Aubrey muffed the last field goal attempt, that they did go to Zeke quite a bit, and he moved the ball downfield and eight o'clock, which I thought was great. That could be, again, you're talking about needing a lead. But he's still pretty good at that, it seemed like.

Fuck, I don't know, what do you think they have new cancer bits guys like the cancer hats is that what that is I think so I think they're they're intercepting cancer no it's catch it's crucial catch it's catching cancer crucial catch you don't want to catch cancer no well okay you want to catch it They're intercepting cancer? No, it's Catch. It's Crucial Catch. It's Catching Cancer. Crucial Catch. You don't want to catch cancer. No. You want to catch it before it gets bad? Is that it?

We're catching, not intercepting anymore. I think they're marketing to my wife. She loved those hats. Okay. Not bad. I mean, I got the sweatshirt. The old Cancer sweatshirt. I don't know if they market it that way, but they could,

and I'd still buy it because it's a cool sweatshirt. I'm not against that hat. I think it was receiving a little bit of hate online, but I'm going to pro-hat that one. No, I mean, you don't feel great. You don't feel great, and I think you especially don't feel great heading into Pittsburgh where that was a game before the season

where you might have said, okay, of course they'll win going to Pittsburgh. Right now, does anybody think that's going to be an easy win? If, indeed, you even think it's a win. I still don't buy Justin Fields. I mean, he can run, which will provide a challenge. So, yeah, it'll be pulling teeth, unfortunately. I don't think I can ever pick the Cowboys to win a game against the spread this year.

That's right. That's right. They didn't get the spread. He failed us. He's your friend, Dan. Brandon Aubrey? Yeah. He did fail us on that one.

I did think that was the funniest part of the broadcast. What's that? Just, we know Al Michaels is a gambler. We know Kirk Herbstreit is not. And just, him, I don't know. This used to not be a thing, right? You would not talk about the spread. Well, but Al Michaels would always do the kind of coy thing.

Okay, well, this is not coy. So as it looks right now, I think a lot of people are very happy that there will be a field goal attempt right here, and others not so happy. And you do know what I mean. Nothing from Herbie. So this will be a 51-yard attempt. And so the spread was the Cowboys minus six.

That kick would have put the spread on the Cowboys' side. And it did not. So the Giants covered. And as we stand now, it launched Saroy into first place. All right. Because Chappie had the Cowboys. Ah, okay. Yeah, nothing from Herbie is a really good theme for the whole game, I think.

You mentioned earlier that Amazon must have a lot of money. I guess they saved it by not printing off team rosters for Herbie. Yeah, that's something I was paying attention to for sure. Because he will look at players and have to identify them by their number, which brought me back to my early days in the radio game. Blake, you must be familiar with this. The whole idea of when you have a game and you can't prepare. Whatever.

The opposing team. You try to know your team for sure, but the opposing team, it's tough to know that whole roster inside and out, and so you just identify guys by number. Here's neighbors. He's going to occupy a couple defenders. Diggs, Devin, also 13. Try to create some space to see if Robinson can make somebody miss,

but once again, 13 all over this field. I think he's doing that on purpose. He is. That is an old school, high school, college football coach's way of kind of depersonifying your kids. Yeah, I think he's trying to play to coaches. Yeah. This play will be the 12th of the drive.

His high's right there on 11. Good job of reading that. Then he picks up the block from the rookie, Theo Johnson. Now that one I believe because everybody knows Mike Parsons. Yeah, I've just been around enough coaches' shows to know, hey, what do you think about Malik Nabors on the other side? They're like, yeah, number three, whatever. He does great because all they do is watch film.

I think they game plan around a number. Herbie is just trying to make you think he's cool. He's bringing coach speak into the booth. A bit of a storyline here in the second half with 27 who's on the practice Scott Oruwariye from Penn State. That one he didn't know who he was. Because he had a lot of room to go

around that corner, but he just didn't secure it. The man downfield right here, 72. He's way downfield before that ball is out. Did not take that third step, as the saying goes. Okay, I kept that because that's not a saying. No one says, like, maybe it's the rule, as the rule is, but Al said that a few times.

I don't know, guys. I don't know if it's all him just trying to be coach and cool. Face mask on 82 blue. He never touches his face mask. Instead, 13, white does grab the face mask. That's him being cool. Maybe. Don't you think?

He gets physical with him, and not that it matters because they'll take the catch, but a good job moving him away from seven. Get him over here. There's 27. Gives him a little chuck there. That's where the flag came in. But still able to get the ball to neighbors who start to come alive a little bit more.

See, now he knows Malik neighbors because he saw him play a lot last year. At LSU. But these other guys, I just don't think. He's a college football announcer. He does one pro game a week, and he doesn't prep for it. That's what I think. He also has difficulty with some of their,

the pronunciation of some of their names. I think there's a couple more clips in there, Dan, that illustrate that. But he had trouble with Overshown. There was one of the Giants players, one of those wacky names that he struggled with and kept deferring to his game number. But I think he's mostly doing a bit, but it's also a little bit of a crutch where, who's this guy?

14 white. Marquise Bell. Nice job. Exactly. Inactive. Let's see. Exactly. Inactive. Let's see. Oh, I also wanted to point out the between-quarter interview is certainly a waste of time.

Let's listen to the on-field reporter with Day Bowl. This is after the first quarter. Yeah. Brian, Dak has come out hot. What is the biggest challenge he presents to your defense? Yeah, we've got to do a good job of maintaining our leverage and coverage discipline. Competitive first quarter.

Look to get something here going into the second quarter. Okay. That's nothing. It's generic. This next question, it's funny because he smiles as she asks the question. I know you're just in your second drive, but where can you have success attacking Dallas' defense? Okay, so what's he going to do now?

Tell you where he thinks the weakness is on Dallas' defense right here on TV? Well, where we're going to attack them now is that we see that, yes, their backup cornerback, he's out as well. So we're going to go. Does he think that the Cowboys defensive coordinator is watching this interview and is just taking notes? Who cares? So you think he should have just given the exact?

No, but just say, like, hey, they've had a hard time stopping the run. Then, you know, might try to attack them on the ground. Yeah, but just say, like, hey, they've had a hard time stopping the run. You know, might try to attack him on the ground. Yeah, it's early. It's early in the game. So, we're doing a good job. Set ourselves back on a penalty here. Got to do a good job on the second 15.

That's better than what he said. Even if you don't mean it, you can answer the question. What are you hiding? This potent offense and all these tips and tricks. You have Daniel Jones. We know what you're going to do. It's really annoying to me when these coaches play this stupid game at the media. Like, I can't tell you my secrets.

When everyone knows what you're trying to do. And you're about to get fired. Why don't you be a little nicer? Dude, he is about to get fired. And so is Joe Shane up there in the press box, or in the booth, whatever, the suites. And it, okay, one more thing. I think it used to be a big deal when people didn't have film,

and when you had to meet at a Whataburger halfway to exchange one game. But now everybody, including all these damn experts on their couch, have footage of every single play you've ever run. Teams know what you're doing. You're not hiding anything. Rant over.

Alright. Let's see what else other audio do we have. I marked a few Al Michaels things. So I'll play those for you right now. This is Al Michaels., so I'll play those for you right now. This is Al Michaels, 80 years old.

80 or 79? I can't recall. He's pretty old. He announced games that Tom Landry was coaching. And he does a Chris Berman old guy bit. Arm reach kick. Yep. Does guy bit. Aubrey's kick. Yep. Does it again.

From downtown Jersey City. Bangs it through. He likes to mention local towns. And then they've got Brandon Aubrey as their field goal kicker. Get it to your own 45. You got a shot. His range is like Paramus or Secaucus. Herbie not really with a – what was that? Herbie had never heard of Paramus, New Jersey.

I think he said Paramus to another – Secaucus. I've heard of Secaucus. That's what it is. Paramus to Secaucus? I've heard of Secaucus. That's what it is. Paramus to Secaucus. But he kind of slurred it. I had to listen to that like five times to figure out what he was talking about.

And then I heard Paramus and I remembered, oh yeah, that's a city in New Jersey. And then they do try to do some joking and somewhat supporting each other just to show that they're really good friends. You're on in five. You got a little. This is the end of a Buffalo Wing commercial.

With Richard Sherman? Yep. We always thought Sherman was the beluga caviar guy. Oh, yeah. He'll run the gamut. Second and 18. Man, I want to like Herbie. Why?

Because he's just iconic with college football. And I've seen him forever. Like, he's better on college football games. Yeah. Because he watches those games and he knows who the players are. Even in the booth when he's next to whoever, Nessler or whoever, he's never stuck out to me like this. So put the time back on the clock so the two-minute warning has not occurred.

We've got another flag. It's like June 14th here. Otherwise, no one's flag days, you know. What a dork Play Martin I think Norm's above that joke Otherwise known as Flag Day As you know

Nothing Herbie Play Martin That's the common thread They have zero chemistry None That's the common thread That was the Herbie layout Could you have told me

When Flag Day was? No I could have told you what month it's in.