The Ringer NFL Show - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Cowboys-Eagles With Diante Lee

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

Sheil and The Ringer’s Diante Lee get together to share their instant reaction to the Eagles' win over the Cowboys on opening night of the 2025 NFL season. Sheil’s Big Takeaway Diante’s Big Takeaway Concerns With Eagles Defense The Jalen Carter Spit Sheil ends the pod with this week's picks for the Ringer 107 competition. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Diante LeeProducer: Chris SuttonSocial: Kiera Givens and Brian WatersProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. The 2025 season is underway. Shield Capadia here with my friend Deontay Lee Eagles. Beat the Cowboys 2420. Deonti. I mean, this had a little bit of everything. We had a magic lugee before the game. No, I guess before the first play from scrimmage, we had an ejection.

We had a weather delay. We had offensive fireworks and then offensive that couldn't do anything from an entertainment value I feel like this delivered, right? When you say it had everything, you know how they say like there's everything complimentary and everything derogatory in a lot of ways. Maybe I'm just kind of biased by the second half because we're jumping on right in the wake of the end of this game. But when you say it had everything, the first thing I thought about was that might be a little bit more derogatory than I think complimentary. It might be. Yeah. It didn't end with a bang. They came back from that weather

delay and it was like, wait, what happened to the teams we saw before this thing. We're going to get into all of it. Deonti and I, and then at the end, I'm going to make some picks for the Ringer 107 contest. If you don't know what that is, don't worry, I'll explain at the end. So let's take a quick break. We come back. Let's get into the first game of the 2025 NFL season. This is the Ringer NFL show presented by Fandul, and the NFL is officially backed. So if you're going to be in it, be in it with Fandul. They've got the goods, futures, live betting, SGPs, your way bets, all of it. The app's clean, it's fast,

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Paid endorsement. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. Deonti, I'm starting because I have a takeaway from this game. I want to hear what you think about it. But my big takeaway is I would be furious if I was a Cowboys fan watching this game. Now, you're probably saying, well, you'd be furious because C.D. Lamb had those key drops and it was a winnable game. I'm zooming out. And I don't mean to be a troll or come with a hot take and keep bringing up the same stuff.

But I couldn't help the Ate. You know where I'm going with this. Watching this game thinking the Cowboys probably are a more interesting team than people thought they were going to be. The Cowboys offense looked pretty good. until that weather delay going up and down the field, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, field goal, driving again. I mean, they had some self-inflicted stuff at the end. But this is a team that maybe could make some noise in the NFC if they had one of the best

defensive players in the league. And I'm sorry, Calba. I know you're trying to let it go. But that is where my mind went when I watched this game. I thought, man, if Michael Parsons is chasing down Jalen Hertz on some of these scrambles and pressuring the Eagles on some of those. key third downs. Do you win this football game?

Now, that could go either way. But other, you know, future games this season with Dak Prescott playing like he did tonight, I thought he was awesome, with that offensive line passing its first test with unproven tackles and a rookie at right guard, I thought that was encouraging. And then defensively, you have holes and you don't have that one pass rush or so. I don't know. Am I being a troll with that being the first place my mind goes to with this football game? Not at all.

As a matter of fact, the thing that I was thinking about before we jumped on was a segment that you had at the top of this week, just kind of rehashing the details of the Michael Parsons trade. And you pointed it out. I know several other, like, Cowboys reporters and people who followed the league on a national level pointed it out as well that when he's on the field, over the course of his career, number one defense in the league by a lot of efficiency metrics. You take them off and they're the worst defense in the league by the same metrics. And you just can't help but think as you're watching the first half and seeing Philadelphia just be on schedule the entire way up and down the field. And every time they're in an obvious passing situation, you get Jalen Hurts pat in the ball in the pocket. I hope you guys lose your wrestling integrity because you got a bunch of young guys, speed rushers, guys that can't close, can't finish. He can just get outside the pocket.

Because it was a reminder that Dak Prescott is a very good quarterback when he's healthy and he has like enough help around him. We talked about them all of last year, and it was C.D. Lamb and nothing else. And now George Pickens didn't have a monster game, but he's another option on the field. And I thought they did some good things offensively. I thought he threw the ball really well. And they're 30 games over 500 in the regular season with Dak Prescott. And he's 32 years old. And it's just, I can't get over that by the time you see that second first round pick,

he's going to be 34 years old and might look like you will have wasted, you know, two seasons potentially by the time you're seeing that compensation that you got from Michael Parsons. So again, I promise, I'm not trying to be a troll with this. I'm not trying to harp on the same points over and over again. But that's where my mind went because I really thought it was an encouraging performance from that Cowboys offense. But I look at it and go, even though the defense finished strong and I thought they played hard, I just don't know that that's going to be a unit.

Anyone's going to be able to trust this season. The story of the Eagle season, which is where I want to start to me in 2025 is going to be, can you win in different ways? I think a lot about 2023, which wasn't a contending year for them for reasons that obviously have been rehashed a thousand times over with the offensive line and offensive

construction. But I thought in 2023, the story of that regular season was, oh, this team can go into the fourth quarter pass the ball and be efficient doing it. And you know they still have the run game. I was looking at Philadelphia and I was only impressed in the first half, right? Like there's an art to being unimpressive in the passing game sometimes.

When you look at their EPA per dropback and success rate numbers in the first half. This is actually the, that was actually the best first half that Philadelphia has had in terms of EPA per dropback and success rate since 2022. And any first half of the regular season that they've had, basically since they've been making these Super Bowl runs. And it looked like that to me, even though Devante Smith wasn't touching the ball a bunch, even though A.J. Brown didn't see the ball at all. You saw Jalen Hertz that was able to sit in the pocket, work effectively versus soft zone coverage. They were able to lean on the run game in early downs. And I was like, okay, maybe we're seeing some of the things that Kevin Petulow said he was going to add to the office to help, you know, move this thing along.

And then you come out in the second half and it looked very much like 2024 Philadelphia all over again. Run on first down, run on second down. Third down, Jalen is scrambling around, throwing the ball away instead of putting it in harm's away. And they were able to sit on the lead that way. But it's hard not to think like when you're dealing with a team that's more competitive in the first half defensively or maybe you're behind in the game script, is Jalen Hertz? Is this passing offense going to be able to call upon what we saw in the playoff run in the NFC championship game in the Super Bowl specifically to be able to move the chains and not be so over-reliant on Saquan Berkeley? That felt a little bit more like some of the times last year where we said, how many times do they call a pass play and no one is targeted, whether it's a scramble or a throwaway or a sack? Now, sacks weren't the issue today, but even some of the blitzing that the Cowboys did in the second half where they were very conservative.

in the first half. And then they said, we got to make something happen here. And you saw some of those issues. We saw two years ago for the Eagles when they had no answers against the Blitz. Those were surfacing as well. So it was just a very weird game for them offensively. And I feel like it might be one of those things where we watch them for a month and we're still not sure. And maybe we're talking in December. And it's like, oh, they made these changes after week X and figured some things out. But yeah, I'm with you. It was quite an uneven performance from the Eagles offensively and Jillen Hertz. I want to take a break.

I want to come back. And I do want to talk about the Eagles defense because I think in Philadelphia, there is some panic. I don't know, panic's too strong. If there's some concern about what Eagles fans saw tonight, I think it might even be more on the defensive side of the ball. So let's take a break. We come back.

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Call 1-888-78-9-77777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back on the Ringer NFL show. and this episode of Clutch Place is brought to you by Amazon business. And I want to get to the bigger picture stuff, Deontay, on the defense, but probably the biggest play of the game. Eagles are up 24-20, third quarter. Cowboys are driving. Miles Sanders had the 49-yard run.

Reed Blankenship is called for the penalty in the end zone. And you're thinking, Cowboys are about to take the lead here. Jahad Campbell, the rookie, Byron Young, the backup defensive tackle. They combine for the forced fumble on Miles Sanders. that to me was the biggest play of the game because at that point, the Eagles had not gotten a stop literally. It was touchdown, touchdown, field goal, field goal for the Cowboys. And then you get the fumble with them in the red zone.

So that was a clutch play. But overall, this certainly was not the Eagles defense that we saw for most of last year. And a lot of the concerns, I think, that people had about them defensively, those were precisely the things that were exposed in this game, Adory Jackson at the second cornerback spot had a very tough time. The pass rush inconsistent there. Obviously not having Jalen Carter for this game after he spits attack, Prescott was a big factor there. But what were kind of your biggest concerns with the Eagles defense?

Or do you say settle down? It's week one. This is maybe what you expected it to look like. I think it's a both-and situation. To me, the hallmark of the Super Bowl run for Philadelphia was that defensively, they were always able to make their opponents play left-handed, right? And a lot of that was taking the run game away from Green Bay, taking the run game away from Los Angeles on early downs,

definitely taking away Jayden Daniels's ability to create with his legs in the NFC championship game and not allowing RPLs from Kansas City. So no matter what it's been that they've had to face off against, they've done an excellent job of being able to take those strengths away and force offenses to play on Philadelphia's defense's terms. That's not what we saw in the first. half and really not what we saw up until that fumble, right? We saw a Dallas offense that was able to move the ball in between the tackles, whether it was under center with the run game,

going shotgun with quick game. They were obviously able to take advantage of mismatches on the perimeter with CD Lamb multiple times and one-on-one coverage against Adori Jackson early in the game. And I think that those things can be addressed, right? But it's very easy, and I think it would be rightful for any fan or observer to say, I think that we just realized where the issues might be for Philadelphia. Not necessarily like this is going to be why they're not contenders, but if you want to point something out and identify, this is going to be something that they're clearly going to have to work through all season long. The fact that they couldn't get the same kind of pass rush before, something that happened throughout the regular season last year, and maybe having Jalen Carter helps you finish some of those sacks that Jordan Davis was missing. but it is something that we're going to be talking about throughout the year. And when you don't have the turnover luck that they had during that playoff run,

during the back half of the regular season in 2024, it's just hard to live this way as a football team, right? This is not a big fan geo issue. It's not a Zach Bond issue. It's not a Cooper DeGine or Coyneux Mitchell issue. And they had their opportunities to get their hands on the ball and drop some picks tonight. But I do think that we have to be frank and forthcoming and honest about the fact that If we're talking about a defense that doesn't want to blitz and doesn't always get home with the four-man rush, the coverage has to be perfect.

And right now, they don't have a perfect back five. This is not Houston we're talking about. You know, this is not Minnesota that's going to throw you a thousand different looks. This is the defense is going to play pretty straightforward. And the whole mentality is our guys on the back end are either better or more connected than your receivers are. And we did not see that tonight. And I think Dallas kind of gave at least a little bit of the handbook of how you can attack this team down the field in the passing game. Yeah, I think the reason it's concerning is because you knew it was an issue.

They let Darius Slay go. And then they're saying Keeley Ringo, young player, we want him to be the guy. It never happens. That was the outcome they wanted. And he just didn't play well enough in the summer for them to get there. So then it's, well, what are we going to do? They trade for Jacori and Bennett from the Raiders. He got in the game a little bit today when Adory Jackson went out.

But Dorie Jackson out there tonight, I mean, you saw it. The Cowboys and, you know, I don't all due respect to Brian Schontenheim, I don't think people would put him in the same league as like the Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Andy. Like, there are other, if he can do that, and I'm the Eagles, like other teams are going to be able to figure out how to attack Adory Jackson. And it even felt like they were trying to give him help at times and putting Quinion Mitchell one-on-one with George Pickens. But Jackson wasn't really using the leverage or there were some mix up there where he was still giving up explosive play. So, yeah, I think that's concerning for the Eagles just because there's not an obvious fix. You know, the pass rush, you can say, all right, Jalen Carter comes back.

It's going to look a lot better. But the secondary and specifically that one spot at second cornerback, that's going to be a concern for them and something to watch week to week. I will say Zach Bonn, you mentioned Zach Bonn, and it jogged my memory. He made two just clutch plays. I mean, chasing down Miles Sanders, Deontay, on that, because that's a 49-yard run that could easily be, a touchdown. If another linebacker was not that fast, can't catch up to him. And then a few plays later, they end up

getting the fumble. I mean, that is a game-changing play. And then he just had a beautiful one just running down the middle of the field. He and Jihad Campbell both had one of those. Yeah, past breakups there. So those were clutch plays also. So when it comes to business, Amazon business is your clutch performer

with fast access to essential supplies and flexible purchasing options. They're there when you need them most so you can tackle unexpected demands and keep your business in the game. Visit business.amazon.com to learn more. All right, I got to ask you this, Deante, because correct me if you were watching the first half with Bops, who's a Cowboys fan? Is that right? That's right. Take me inside the living room or wherever you guys were when the Jalen Carter, Lugie, is unfolding. You being someone who's been around football,

your whole life and coaching high school kids. And here you're watching this grown man, one of the best players in the NFL with the Lugie. And then later in the night, we get this footage with NBC. What are we doing? Where was that footage earlier? There was no, Dak Prescott had the first spit.

Now, whether that was towards Jalen Carter or I need the break. Basically, I need everything you have on the spits from this game. Go ahead. What do you got? So I think Jalen Carter gets ejected. There's obviously a bunch of confusion, right? Like, first of all, I'm sitting here, like, texting other people that either cover Philadelphia or I know they're Eagles fans.

And I'm like, man, all this work that they've done to keep Ben Van Sumer on this roster, moving them around positions-wise, making sure he plays a role on special teams. Like, he's clearly an important player to this organization. And, God, you can't imagine a worse way to have to leave a game, right? And we'll see, obviously, what the injury news is, but the way that he was reacting to what they were doing to test his knee on the field, obviously raises some concerns. So I'm focused on that.

I see a flag. So my thought is like, oh, maybe this is an unsportsman like from something that Dallas did while you're making the special teams to offensive exchange because a guy is downed, right? Maybe somebody says something, you know, whatever little exchange.

And obviously it ended up being a chippy game throughout. And then they show the footage of Jaila Carter spitting on that Crescott's chest. And what the hell just happened in this football game? We're not even 10 seconds in to the game clock running. A guy just got hurt and another guy just got tossed. I don't know what's going on. And my dad just kind of looking like, hey, you know, I guess it's even now.

Our best defender, not here. Your best offender, not here. We can play real football, you know, going on. And I just think that, you know, as a game plays out, you kind of see the many stages of grief, right? When Jalen's running around and it's like, hey, man, number 11 probably gets a sack there. Or at least a QB hit. He doesn't want to hear that. He's been in my ear about how we can't pay $47 million to this edge rusher.

I don't know if he's been reading ESPN's Bill Barnwell talking about cap math and all that. But he's feeling really good about the fact that we're going to spread our money around the cap and we're going to have a competitive team. And then as the game goes on, you see that fade a little bit. And then you get DAC start to heat up in the second half. It's like, yeah, you know, this guy owns Philadelphia. So now he's got a puffing his chest out a little bit. And maybe thankfully to some seedy lamb drops we're able to escape out of there.

And I get to poke my chest out at Bye Bye Nights in. But we kind of ran through the whole gamut there. And I'm looking forward to the next time Dallas Place, Philadelphia, because I'm interested to see how Big Fangio adjusts and whether or not there are adjustments to be made. And if it's just as simple as when we've got 99 or 95 on the field, everything is right. You know, so that's going to be something to look out for in the future. Yeah. It's one of that.

I mean, you know, you look at the like just the drives and you're like, oh, you know, the Cowboys finished fumble, punt, punt, turnover on downs. But I'm with you. I mean, C.D. Lamb, he dropped one on third down, I think. And then that last one, I don't, you know, that was a tough catch. But the one before that on the last possession, I mean, that is a beautiful throw from Dak Prescott stepping up and firing that downfield. And it's maybe a different game. Yeah, you got to make that play if you're going to win some of these games. Now, did Dak, when they, I was fascinated by when they were going back to the DAC original. was he bathing him? What was going on? Because Jalen Carter's walking towards the Cowboys

Huddled. He's having words with Dak Prescott. Dak Prescott's talking back and he's kind of splitting his offensive lineman. And he spits, but not at Jalen Carter, but like in his direction and kind of gave him like a little wink and a look. And then, yeah, I don't know. If that was Dak Prescott's end game, great job by him to get the scariest guy on the other team out of the game. And if there's one guy on Philadelphia's defense that is going to take the bait every single time is going to be Jalen Carter, right? So, you know, I am disappointed to see Carter, you know, especially knowing, I know that he is aware that this entire defense kind of revolves around the impact that he can make on a down-and-down basis. So you would like to see your best and most

important defensive player be mature enough to know, like, hey, man, can we at least get through a half? Can I see what this is a game? Maybe a snap? Maybe, you know, especially when George Pickens is on the other side and he seems to be able to deal with being held and interferes. mirrored with without losing his mind. I can't imagine the degree of difficulty is any more hard for him than it would be for Carter. So, you know, disappointing from that regard. But I do

love the fact that NBC I was almost like litigating this in real time. Like, oh, we've got this whole angle on all these new details that we had never considered when we were talking about this guy potentially getting suspended by the league. So that was a fun little subplot. I think ultimately, though,

nothing comes to this. I think that it was very intentional that they made like, hey, Dax fit first. We don't know what was being said. They got the call from the league. Make sure you show the whole story. Was he trying to diffuse or was he trying to rile Jalen Carter up? And I'm sure we're probably going to hear a lot of spin from both of these franchises going forward

because I'm sure there's nothing Dallas would like more than to add to the reputation that Jalen Carter is, you know, one that is easy to kind of get under the skin of it and make rash decisions. I'm going to have to listen to Brian Curtis on this on the press box. because the way it played out, because I'm watching the game, but also following stuff on social media. And so they had this spit right away. Great job by NBC. Like when it was like the flag, what did he do? Did he spit on him? And then they show you the spit in slow motion 700 times.

And it's like, all right, I don't think anyone, it's like, all right, he spit on him. Yes, he deserves to be kicked out of the game. I don't think anyone's making the argument that he doesn't. But then they were done with it. And then it goes to the weather delay. And I don't know if you saw this, Deontay, but it was actually the Fort Worth Star-Teagram. Their reporter had a report on social media that, like, Dak Prescott spit in the direction of the Eagles defensive huddle,

which sparse Yellen car. And then after that, then NBC showed the footage of Dak Prescott spitting at J.L. Because I don't know if they just didn't see it at first, but you would think you would be looking at, hey, what might have provoked the guy to spit at Dak Prescott? Let's rewind this, you know, 30 seconds. NBC seems a good amount of money on their Sunday night for ball podcast. I know somebody in the truck.

had to spun that back and seen what happened. Yeah. I do like your theory, though, that once the, then the Mike Floreo reports start coming out, that maybe he could be suspended, then maybe someone makes the call that, hey, show what happened, you know, in the beginning so that it's a little more just, not justifiable, the people can say, let's not make it look like we're running an agenda here, or that, you know, Roger is the one that's watching like, oh, I hated this, and we're going to suspend the guy. Again, let's pump the brakes a bit, get all the information.

But definitely a justifiable ejection for Carter. It's not something you can do on the field. No, you can't just spit out of a guy. All right, there you go. We had a lot. The CD Lamb drops, Dak Prescott, great game, Jekyll and Hyde. We didn't even get to you, Duncan on Brian Schottenheimer for not running a play before the two-minute warning. Auto key conversion down in the game.

Something that I know drives you crazy. It does. costing them an additional timeout that they really could have used to get the ball back and maybe get a couple more opportunities. used to go take the lead. It's a long season, Deonte. I think I'm going to have more opportunities. I'll do respect, Brian Schottenheimer. I think he might give you a few more chances to swing the X.

There you go. He's going to give me a few more chances. All right. Thank you to Deonté lay fun breaking. I had to get inside the living room. You know, pops the Cowboys fan, Deonté and Eagles fan. What was that like watching this game when a million things were happening? So that was a lot of fun.

We'll have Deontay back on soon. I'm going to take a little break, and then I'm coming back with my Ringer 107 picks for week one. All right, in place of the hurry up on Fridays, we will have the Ringer 107. Today's Ringer 107 is brought to you by Fanduel, and every Friday at the end of the show, I am giving you five picks. This is for a contest that hopefully you've heard about on other pods. We're all competing. Bill Simmons, the Ringer's fantasy guys, the different iterations of the, the Ringer gambling show.

They're in this as well. So we each make five picks a week. We see who ends up with the best record at the end. And if you're wondering how we get to 107, it's a great question. It's unclear to me. I didn't want to be the person to ask. I don't know if anybody knows how we got to 107. So I'm just going to figure it out as we go.

Just follow the rules and make my five picks every week. But if you're listening to this show, I assume you're rooting for the Ringer NFL show. And we're going to crush these guys, starting this. week, let's go beginning to end in first place. Here we go. My five picks for week one. Pick number one, the Cleveland Browns plus five and a half at home against the Cincinnati Bengals. I think this Browns defense has a chance to be pretty good. And while I have a lot of questions about their offense, Cincinnati's defense, can they really stop anybody? I don't think so. So Cleveland can pressure Joe Burrow. I like Kevin Stefansky. The Browns are at home. It's a divisional matchup. It just feels like

it's going to be an ugly game. So I'm going Browns plus five and a half for my first pick. Pick number two, give me the Saints plus six and a half at home against the Cardinals. Now, I understand the Saints are probably going to be terrible, but give me a break. This is a wild number. The Cardinals are four and 13 on the road under Jonathan Gannon. They've won one road game in two years by more than four points. And now they're favored by six and a half points in week one.

When nobody knows anything, I don't like it. Now, maybe the Saints are just bad. Wouldn't shock me. But you know what? The hipster love for the Cardinals has been really annoying me in recent days and recent weeks. So I'm fading them. Give me the points. Might be the only time I take the Saints all season long.

All right. Pick number three, Miami Dolphins plus one and a half at the Indianapolis Colts. Did people forget who Daniel Jones is? He is 3 and 13 as a starter the last two seasons. and now he's favored, I don't understand. So I don't like either of these teams, but the dolphins should at least be able to score and move the football.

I think they win the game outright. Dolphins plus one and a half for my third pick. Fourth pick, Texans plus three at the Rams. If you've listened to this show over the past couple of weeks, you know that I got more and more bullish about this Houston Texans football team. I think they got one of the best defenses in the NFL. I think that C.J. Stroud is going to bounce back this year. and I think they've got a great shot to win this game.

So I don't like going up against Sean McVeigh and the Rams have a pass rush that could get after. CJ Stroud, but I still like the Texans. I think they'll do enough to keep it close. And I like them to win the game. But Texans plus three. And then finally, pick number five, 49ers, minus two and a half at Seattle. I'm bullish on the Niners bouncing back this season. I know Christian McCaffrey has the calf injury.

I still like them because I like the Seahawks. defense, but I have questions about their offense. And if you listen to yesterday's show, Andrew Whitworth made a great point that Robert Sala knows how to stop a Clint Kubiak style of offense, that type of scheme. So I think the 49ers defense is going to be able to do enough as well. So there you go. Browns plus five and a half, saints plus six and a half, dolphins plus one and a half, Texans plus three, and 49ers minus two and a half. Hopefully we get off to a hot start. Today's Ringer 107 was brought to you by Fandul.

Odds subject to change. All right. Thanks to everyone for listening. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Kiera Givens and Brian Waters on social. Additional production supervision by Connor and Arjuna Ramgopal. I will be back in your feed Monday morning. Enjoy week one, everyone. We'll talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show.

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