Cowboys let 14-point lead slip away in loss to Cardinals | Free4All+

On the new Fox 4 Plus. Free for all plus, Mike Ducey with Sam Gannon. We're here weeknights at seven and we get another week started here. Put that down. It's all right. Sorry guys. Got the big old industrial size Tressa Mae going, is it a little unruly today? Yeah, it is. It's just some days you have it, some days you don't and this is one of those days where It's going to be pulled back for. Free for all, yeah. It's just when I try to curl it with a curling iron when it's already curly, it's not happening today. Is this as long as your hair's ever been? Probably so, yeah. You planning cutting it anytime soon, or what's the plan? I might have Veronica, my gal, give it a little trim. Yeah, it looks good. It always looks nice. Here we are, off to a smooth start here for another week of broadcasting here on Free For All Plus. How was your weekend? The weekend was good. I'm trying to think of- Our day's off for Friday, Saturday, but you worked. I did work. Because you worked for Jeff. I did. So I had Wednesday and Thursday off, and those were pretty uneventful days. I'm trying to just kind of kumbaya, namaste on my off days lately here, and you went trick-or-treating. So we've not been in the- These weeks run together. We've not been in the studio together. Since last Tuesday, because you were off Wednesday, Thursday, I was off Friday, Saturday, and you were out at the stadium last night. Isn't that crazy? You know what's so funny? It's like sometimes you think that, man, these weeks really drag. I actually am starting to think the opposite now. Do you find as you get older, the days Go by quicker and quicker because what I'm finding is we have a similar routine. So to me, it's like, man, these days are really moving along. Sam, I'm just grateful that I wake up every morning. You know what I'm saying? I find myself, I don't know how to put this, my memory isn't what it used to be. I just don't remember things as well. And I think part of the Problem I have there is the days do go by so fast because I'm not really, this is getting really heavy here. I'm not staying in the moment. You know what I'm saying? Well, I don't either. I'm always looking ahead to what's next and what do I have to do next and on and on and on and incessant worry. But yeah, to answer your question, the Sometimes the days will drag a little bit, but the weeks seem to go by fast. But you took your grandson trick-or-treating. It was fantastic. We had a great time on Saturday. He was Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars. Oh, he was so cute. And his mom made up his wagon to look like one of the cars. There's cars and... I love how he wears hats. Yeah, he loves hats. And he had a great time. We had a bunch of kids that trick-or-treated in our neighborhood. It was a good time. Was your candy bowls that you guys left out, were they empty? Do kids actually trick-or-treating your neighbor? Because that's what I've been seeing on social media. It's not like how it was when producer Landry and I went trick-or-treating. We used to bring pillowcases. We used to go to the houses that would give us the full-size candy bars. Actually, trick-or-treating was a thing when I was a child as well, believe it or not. It had been invented. Back there in the early 1900s. Kids aren't having as much fun as they used to. Well, in our little corner of the world, they are. Okay, good. I'm glad to hear that. In our little neighborhood, it's quite a thing. And we gave away almost all of our candy, and we had a lot of it. What was the popular? Most popular, would you say? You know, the kids like the gummy bear type things. They do. And I'm not a big fan of those, but the kids love those. And I just sat there and popped peanut M&Ms for about four hours. That's one of my favorites. Yeah, it was a good time, though. So happy Halloween. Hope everybody had a good, safe one. Cowboys, meantime, Sam. You were there to witness a devastating defeat. The Cowboys lose 33 to 30 in overtime to the Cardinals, blowing a 14-point fourth quarter lead. First time they'd ever done that in 204 situations where they'd been up double digits in the fourth quarter at home. It's the first time they lost a game in that type of scenario. It's so crazy. And just to pull back the curtain, if I may, for a second. So The media, we tend to watch the game, we do watch the game in the press box. And we usually try to go down to the bowels of the stadium with about seven minutes to go. So we're all waiting in the tunnel area, watching the screen and- I just chuckle when you say bowels, sorry. Yeah, we're watching it as Arizona is seemingly or expecting to hit the extra point and win this thing and then it doesn't, He doesn't, he misses it and this thing goes into overtime and it's just like, This team just finds every single way to not win football games. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised because recent history will tell you, well, this is what the Cowboys do. But I kind of hate when everyone says that, but that's actually what's happening, and that's what's played out right now for the last two years. Yeah, and we can talk about why this thing went downhill yesterday. I don't know if we want to check out just a little bit of what happened, but again, blowing that 14-point fourth quarter lead yesterday, first time they've blown that type of lead in this situation. As we said, the overtime field goal sends the Cowboys to three and five. Now questions about Schottenheimer's future. He has just 10 wins in 25 games as Cowboys head coach. And here is Schottenheimer today, now that he's had a chance to sleep on it. Well, there's a number of things for all of us to do better. I think I'm going to go back to the word consistency. You know, you can't go into Philadelphia and run the ball for 202 yards and then come out and, you know, rush for 2.2 yards per carry. Thank you, Gary. You know, there's certainly a lot of things that, you know, we as a football team can do better. Didn't think we did a great job tackling. And then there's certainly things that I can do better in all facets. Yeah. You know, number one being find a way to finish the game, you know, and give us a chance. We expect to get the ball back in a four-minute or two-minute drive and put it away, and we didn't do that. You know, we've got good players, and again, we have to play more consistently. That's a word that I believe in, and how do you do that? Well, you've got to, you know, you've got to go back to work. You've got to do the little things right. You've got to focus on the details. But I thought yesterday's game is a great example of, you know, you can play really well for three quarters. But if you don't find a way to put the game away in the fourth quarter, this league will come up and bite you. And you could argue they didn't really play that well in the other three quarters either. We'll talk about Shottie's future, but I wanted to play this sound from Stephen Jones. First of all, he was sounding off today when asked about Schottenheimer and his job security. Stephen, I'm the fan today. I don't think you just say, hey, you fire somebody just to send a message. If it's something that's there that you need to make a change because it'll make us better in the long haul, then you certainly have to take a look at that. But not necessarily, I don't know where Jerry can obviously speak for himself on that, but I'm into making changes when it makes you better. And as Stephen also referenced in another part of that interview, the fact that, yes, they did it with Wade Phillips 16 years ago, mid-season. But they had the heir apparent on the staff already. They knew Jason Garrett eventually was going to be the head coach of the Cowboys, and so he was promoted. And I thought that was interesting that Stephen made that comparison, almost as though to say, look, we don't have anybody else to move into this spot right now from our coaching staff. No one's coming in for relief, in other words. I mean, Mike Patton's been here for like 15 minutes, and he's the only guy who's ever been a head coach in the NFL. We talked about this last night, and Jerry's not He's not going to do anything. This week, obviously, they're going to play at Indianapolis Sunday against a bad Colts team. Dallas favored in that game, by the way, on the road. I think if they get embarrassed there, then I think Jerry may have no choice but to do something. I think just a loss there wouldn't cost Schottenheimer his job. I think this type of loss, maybe, losing this kind of lead or just getting absolutely destroyed by a bad team. Might do it, but Jerry didn't want to do it, and so that means Jerry probably won't do it. Well, and you know this better than anyone, having covered the team for as long as you have, but I think Jerry and Stephen are going to... Stand on this ship until it sinks like the Titanic, because if Brian Schottenheimer- You said ship, right? Ship, yeah, ship. It was their hire, you know what I'm saying? So they're going to ride this thing through and see it through, because it's almost like if they decided to fire him this week, let's say, then they're admitting that they made a mistake. And I don't think Jerry is wanting to do that in the middle of the season. But I would argue that If they were to get embarrassed by the Colts, which I don't see how they could possibly, but again, I didn't think them losing to the Cardinals was going to happen in this way. I think you would do it to send a message to the fan base. Because I think we're at the juncture now, Deuce, where, yes, fans are still showing up for games. But it's going to come a point where I think you're going to lose fans. I do think we're coming up to that point with this football team where People have had enough, they're going to tune out that they're going to be disinterested eventually, especially if this is the product that they keep putting forth on the field. And that's Jerry's biggest nightmare is not being interesting. I mean, he wants to win. He does want to win. But whenever people ask me, do you root for the Cowboys? And I know you're the same way, I don't, I root for them to be interesting. And Jerry, if he can't win, at least wants people talking about him. I mean, that's still, I do the Good Day live shots every Monday morning and I'll watch Mike Greenberg show on ESPN, getting ready for that and that's their top story. This morning, there was a lot of NFL stuff going on on Sunday, but the way the Cowboys figured out a way to lose this game, again, is the top story. And it's because of the brand, right? The brand is carrying them through, that's the only reason. And they're still quote unquote interesting right now because they're so astoundingly bad. And I don't think anyone could have predicted that they would in fact be this bad because Because I will still say this. There's too much talent to me, especially offensively. But even defensively, some of the weapons that they have for this team to not be winning more ballgames. Yeah, and... I don't know. I go back and forth. I think it's obvious the defense is terrible, and I don't know exactly why it's terrible. Every one of these defensive coordinators over the last four years, five years can't totally be an idiot, can they? I mean, there's some other common thread where they must not have the players in place to get it done. It can't all be scheme, but let's assume the defense is terrible, and it is. Can you blame the offense for a game like yesterday? Well, on the surface, no, because they scored 30 points, right? But they had so many empty possessions. They got lucky and got it to an overtime where their defense made a stop. And then Dallas couldn't get 20 yards to set up their field goal kicker to win it. And so I think a lot of it's, and I think Jerry was blaming Dak after this game, not in so many words, but I think when Jerry said, A lot of people let Brian down today, and Jerry talked about how they only needed to move the ball a little bit in that overtime to get in position to kick a field goal that with Aubrey, he's been a little shaky at times too, but presumably he could make and win. I think Jerry was disappointed in his $60 million quarterback yesterday as much as he was disappointed in his head coach and his defense, but he just assumes the defense is This is going to be bad, and at times it played well enough. Where you would expect your offense to make up the difference and win a game like that. This is a crazy stat. So when the Cowboys score 33 or fewer points, they are 0 and 5. When they score 34 plus, they're 3 and 0. I don't know how much you read into body language, but to me sitting in that press conference yesterday postgame, it was really the first time that I saw both Dak and Coach Schottenheimer just looked. Absolutely out of answers, just perplexed as to, listen, we don't know why we're not playing that. And that is concerning when you have your quarterback and your head coach saying, yeah, we need to finish games. Okay. Well, how do you do that? And Dak at one point told one of the reporters, listen, if I had the answer, it wouldn't have happened. But why does this stuff keep happening over and over again? And I think you can say that the Cowboys have been outcoached. I do think a lot. But at the same time too, I think you can question now some of the effort that these guys are playing with. And I know leading up to this game, I said, well, I don't think coach Schottenheimer's lost the locker room. Now I'm not too sure because I don't know if you got A glimpse of George Pickens being the first guy to run off the field, something tells me he's not too happy right now. That was the fastest he'd moved all day really. Yeah. No, he's frustrated, he only had two catches. And he had that touchdown that was negated for the penalty. Right, and I don't know about losing Losing the locker room. The words start to ring hollow at this point, and a big part of Schottenheimer's appeal is his ability to inspire guys with his words, right? I mean, there's kind of, and I don't mean this in a mocking or negative way, there's kind of a Ted Lasso vibe around him where he can really fire up the troops with some stuff that may- Sound really corny if you're losing football games and maybe almost frustrating for certain veterans to hear if you're not winning football games. But then on the other hand, I mean, is it Christian Parker's fault that Rashawn Gary can't tackle? I mean, is it his job to teach him how to tackle? You look at some of these runs, the long runs by Algier on Sunday. I mean, there were guys just whiffing, guys that were right there in position to make plays. And the term that Schottenheimer used today, and it's used a lot in football, is pad level. And Arizona's pad level is just better. Well, defensively, the Cowboys just play way too high, way too often, and don't finish plays even when they're in position to finish them. So is some of it scheme? Yeah. I think some of it's just guys who... Well, and the other part of that to me, though, I think it's twofold, too. It's on the players to execute, but I think it's on the whole, whatever approach this coaching staff has had, because Von Miller defended the coaching staff. He's like, there's nothing, we have excellent coaches. It's like, okay, you have great coaching, then what's the issue there? To me, then it can, the only other thing it can be is guys aren't giving it their all, because if they were. I think some of the things you're talking about, the tackling, all those kinds of things, then it's happening. So I would argue then maybe some of the guys have lost belief and they think this season's a wash anyway. And I think what you're trying to say as well is even if guys have. Given up in a certain way, and I'm not saying they necessarily have, then that's on the coaching staff too, because it's the staff's job to make sure that they're tuned in enough with these players to keep them invested and playing hard, go round and round on it. No, it's not. Because of the division, by the way. It is crazy. They're still in second place. They still have one win more than Washington and Philly. And one win less, I believe, than the Giants. Yes. Who have a tie as well. And the Giants were off this weekend. So let's just say Dallas, help me here, Landry, I meant to write it down. Giants are 4-2-1, correct? 4-2-1. Cowboys are 3-4, 3-5 now, sorry. So the Giants have played. One fewer game. So, you know, it's conceivable Dallas could have as many wins as the Giants by the end of next weekend. If they go to Indy and win, and I don't know who New York plays, but if they lose. But even if they were to take this division, how confident are you that they could actually win a game in the playoffs at this point? Because my confidence level is very low. And mine is too. But I think it's just the... It's just where they are and where we are, if you will, as a league right now, that that's just the way it is. And some years, some divisions are really weak. I covered a Cowboys team a million years ago that went to the playoffs, an Aikman team under Chan Gailey that went 8-8. Went to the playoffs, got beat, Gailey got fired. He went to the playoffs, he coached two years here and lost in the first round in both years and that wasn't good enough. So how times have changed. Mike McCarthy's looking better all the time, by the way, isn't he? You're hearing more and more of that from this fan base. And then I think back to, they had three straight 12 winning seasons. I remember saying, well, that's not good enough because they're not getting it done in the playoffs. They can't even... Think about getting 12, that's not happening this year, so it's just, it just makes you realize how difficult it is to win football games in the NFL. Yeah, we've mentioned McCarthy, Mike Tomlin sounded off on the Cowboys, probably have to save that for 10.30, hell, Andrew, we'll have that tonight on Free For All at 10.30, Tomlin's comments and our reaction to that, and would a Tomlin-type help if Jerry could bring him in? We're back with Jeff in just a moment as you sound off on Cowboys Unfiltered, which loss was the worst one this season? Not surprisingly, a little recency bias there. All of you going with the loss on Sunday, go to fox4news.com slash free for all, scan the code. Jeff's with us with a little preview of Cowboys Unfiltered next. Well, we're back. And Sam, how do you think the callers felt after the loss to the Cardinals yesterday? I'm sure there were some word choices that have probably been bleeped out on Jeff's show. But yeah, I think that's when this show thrives is when they're losing and when they lose badly. That show is Cowboys Unfiltered. It's coming up next at 7.30. And here's a preview with Jeff Cole. It's another thing to be in the shoes of this man who gets our last word for you this week, who not only had to endure what happened against Arizona, drive home from watching it with family and try to put words to it for his son. Take a listen. You know, I'm driving home with my son. He just watched the Cowboys game at his grandparent's house, I was trying to find the words to explain how does it feel to watch a pro team give up? Those guys put their hearts on the line. I'm not going to take anything away from them. They're professional millionaires. They play ball. . I just don't have the ******* words right now. I'm so sorry. I'm 40 years old. I've seen three Super Bowls. I was very young, but I've seen them and I remember them very vividly. And to think, 30 years later, I would have to sit and endure, such blood pressure raising. It's, it's, it's... It's sad to watch. We see the moves that are being made, great, but we are so timid and soft as an organization. And I only say we because I'm a fan. I know I'm not a part of the organization per se. But we're so far removed from greatness, and that's the way it's been for years. On the outside looking in, it just looks like, oh, well, next week. Let's get on a fancy plane and we're the Dallas Cowboys, blue and white, with a star on our helmet. Everybody's going to buy our merch and produce nothing, not even an NFC championship appearance in 30 years. This week, the Cowboys will get back on the fancy plane, and they will go up to Indianapolis, and he's spot on. The spectacle is undefeated. The following is undefeated. We had almost 200 calls come in after this loss this week in less than 24 hours. And as we have after every single loss pretty much, some of you saying, I'm done. I'm no longer a Cowboys fan. But we know for the vast majority, that's just not the case. Jeff, with more of your calls tonight at 7.30, Again, not surprising that the frustrating losses bring folks out of the woodwork. Yeah, it was funny. My brother was even telling me my dad was watching the game afterwards, and he started doing construction side projects. So my brother knew that he wasn't in the best mood. Gonna find something. Yeah. We'll wrap it up here in a minute. All right, free-for-all coming up on Fox 4 at 10.30. We'll have those Tomlin comments and talk about that a little bit, plus the Mavs off to kind of a surprisingly good start. I'm into it. Guys, get on board with the Mavs. No Kyrie Irving today. He's not hurt or anything. It's just load management. The dude is coming off an ACL tear. And shout out to Veronica. I know you're watching. No chopping. We're just trimming. What about for Mike? What should Mike do with his? Can you do anything with this? Can you make it fuller? I think Mike can go a little bit darker. I think you want to. Look at that, we're out of time. See you at 10.30.