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Transcript
I'm bullish on where the Cowboys are.
I think they're the best team in the NFC East.
All right.
Welcome to the Report presented by State Farm for Tuesday, October 6th.
We are now 4 weeks into the NFL season.
That means we are at the quarter pole, and we have a lot to get to and we will do that right here, right now.
And we're gonna start with the Dallas Cowboys' win over the Houston Texans on the road.
And to me, for Brian Schottenheimer, for his program, for those players, this was a character-defining win.
Um, and you have to consider the circumstances to really understand that they were coming back off of the trip to Brazil.
That's a 10.5 hour flight from Rio.
They didn't get the extra days built in the way that teams the last two years had gotten the extra days built in when they were traveling to and from Brazil.
And again, the way that game ended, the way they lost that game, a really tough pill to swallow.
On Wednesday, Brian Schottenheimer addresses his team, falls on the sword.
For the game management at the end of the game, for the offensive play calling at the end of the game, he takes the blame on himself for it, um, and we've seen players come out since and say that they have Schottenheimer's back, um, and then they have to go on the road after all of that and play against a A tough Houston team that is 0-3, that's the proverbial wounded animal with a tough defense, all the rest of it, and they fall behind.
They're down 10 points at the half.
They have 5 possessions in the second half.
And they scored touchdowns on 4 of those possessions, and the last 2 drives that wind up winning the game for them.
Those are long drawn out drives that demand consistency, that demand focus, and the noise and the hysteria of that environment in Houston.
I mean, what a great win for the Dallas Cowboys.
And I think what we saw from Dak Prescott, what we saw from CD Lamb, what we even saw from George Pickens drawing coverage, what we've seen from the Cowboys' offensive line.
That sets the floor for the Cowboys.
What will set the ceiling is how much better the defense can get.
And what we've already seen from the defense is there are flashes where you see there's talent on that side of the ball.
Caleb Downs, very, very encouraging.
We know what Quinnin Williams can do, um, but there are holes, and it's a new scheme, and you have Christian Parker coming in to put in the Vic Fangio scheme as a first-year defensive coordinator.
And I think really.
Like the really encouraging piece of, of the last week is how the Cowboys handled the problem on the fly, and they went in and they fixed it, and they got better over the course of the week, and the offense came back out and performed the way that it did.
The team responded the way that it did after what happened in Brazil, after that long trip back, after, you know, having to go in on a regular week and go back out on the road.
Um, after how Schottenheimer fell on the sword the way that he did on the Wednesday of the week.
So we know the team's got the capacity to improve on the fly, because we already saw it and we've seen it now.
So can you apply that to, to what's happening on the defensive side of the ball?
Again, they add Joey Porter at the end of last week, he winds up.
Um, he winds up playing in the game, um, which, you know, of course, was a, was, was, was big, and that now we see that he's healthy and some of that stuff in Pittsburgh might have been just negotiating tactics.
Um, but there is improvement to chase with the defense.
You have Donovan Azarak who is a second-year player as an edge rusher opposite Rashaw Gary.
You have the young linebacker, DeMarvi and Overshon, who is still working his way back from that injury.
You have Caleb Downs in the secondary.
Again, you're adding Porter, um, to the group.
And so you see some of the veteran guys they already have there, Quinnon Williams, Kenny Clarke, Rashaw Garry.
Um, at the safety spot, Jalen Thompson, Malik Hooker, and then you see the young players being incorporated now, and you see Porter being incorporated now.
And again, based on the microcosm of the last week and how they were able to improve and fix problems over the course of the week, that would tell you that Christian Parker is gonna get there as a defensive coordinator.
Again, I always go back to the example of Mike McDonald in Baltimore, the first couple of weeks didn't look great, but he wound up learning on the fly and getting better at the job.
Christian Parker's been well thought of for a long time, so you have to think that he's gonna get better with the on the job experience that he's going through now, now calling it.
And, you know, you look at, again, some of the players that are chasing ceilings on that, on that, on that defense that, that, that have room for improvement.
I'm bullish on where the Cowboys are.
I think they're the best team in the NFC East.
I think they will win the NFCs and I think they've got a real shot to advance in the playoffs based on what we've seen so far.
Um, and again, the goals that have been set by guys like Schottenheimer and Prescott.
All right.
Our second topic for this week is the Jacksonville Jaguars going in to Cincinnati and beating the Bengals, beating Joe Burrow and the Bengals.
And now, we can kind of look at the totality of what Jacksonville has done.
And you blew out Cleveland.
You blew out New England.
You had the game in Denver in hand, you had a double-digit lead in Denver, and you wind up wearing down as the game goes on.
That was, you know, obviously a really good win for the Broncos, but you learn from that, and now you go on the road and you're in the same circumstance, and again, this is the same as Dallas, like you're seeing the improvement over the course of time, and this has been a hallmark of what Liam Cohen has been able to accomplish in his short time there.
And you see where they didn't let it happen again, and it could have happened again, and they're able to get that stop right at the sticks on Chase Brown, um, to close that game out, and like now we can kind of look at the big picture of this.
They are now 12 and 2, in regular season games.
This is taking the Buffalo playoff game out of it 12 and 3, if you want to include that, since their week 8 by last year.
They have only had 51 possession games, so that shows their dominance, right?
Only 51 possession games, um, or 51 possession wins in those of those 12 wins.
And then you want to add to that, you want to add to that, the fact that none of those wins came over 2025 playoff teams, but I think we can look at Cincinnati that way.
I think we can say with Cincinnati, Cincinnati is that type of team, and again, it was in their place, and their last one possession went over one of the teams that made the playoffs last year was Kansas City in week 4 of last year.
So you start to put these pieces together.
And you're starting to see a team that's able to win different ways.
And like one of the most encouraging things to me was Trevor Lawrence, 18 to 23, 227, a touchdown, a 122.
3 rating.
They didn't need him to be a superstar.
They just need him to play quarterback, and he was able to do that, and they were able to run the ball, and they were able to close it out on defense.
And you're starting to look at this Jacksonville team, and there just isn't a lot that I wouldn't trust them with at this point.
So, um, you know, Jacksonville is the clear favorite in the AFC South now.
The same way Dallas to me is the clear favorite in the NFC East.
And I think the Jacksonville Jaguars are another team that's a threat to advance in the playoffs and make noise when we get to January , maybe even February.
And finally, our third topic for the week, my personal plan presented by State Farm.
Thank you so much to State Farm for getting involved with us on this.
Uh, is to look at the Falcons' plan and how the Falcons have been able to turn their season around and what we've seen over their last two games and going into Lambeau and dominating the Green Bay Packers.
And now, going into New Orleans on an emotional night for everyone there, the 20th anniversary of the dome coming and physically pushing around a good Saints team.
The same way they physically pushed around a good Packers team.
And Kevin Stefansky mentioned it in the locker room after the game.
I, I think it's, it's, it's 100% valid, uh, and a point well taken that the best way to look at the physicality of a football team is the simplest way to do it, which is to look at the disparity in rushing numbers.
And last night at the Superdome, you had the Atlanta Falcons ripping off 205 yards rushing.
On 35 attempts, 5.9 average, that of course was uh pumped up a little bit by the, the, the, the big 59 yard touchdown that Bjon Robinson had early in the game, that was the first score of the game.
So they rushed for 205, and then they hold the New Orleans Saints who, to be fair, were without Travis Etchin.
To 50 yards on 19 carries.
This mirrors what they were able to do in Green Bay.
And this shows to me this is not just a team with a special talent at running back.
They have that, no question about it.
But this is a team that's winning at the line of scrimmage.
And if you look at the best teams that Kevin Stefansky had in Cleveland, this is how they won.
This is his plan for winning.
And, you know, again, like, of all the superstars, of all the, the, the, the great players that, that, that, that Kevin Stefanski had with the Browns, right?
And those were some pretty solid rosters that he was working with early in his time there, the Miles Garrett, the Denzel Wards, right?
Uh, the centerpiece, the heartbeat of those teams was Nick Chubb.
And when they were at their best, it was Nick Chubb setting the tone, and you're seeing it now with what we've seen the last two weeks with the Atlanta Falcons.
And again, I think when a new coach comes in, you want to look at who he is, and what's his ethos, and what's his DNA as a coach, and how, and where and how does he want to run his team, and who does he want to run his team through.
And with Kevin Stefansky, we've seen his best teams have been running, have been run through that tailback position.
And, you know, I had this conversation with him a couple of weeks ago when Nick Chubb retired.
He told me that Nick Chubb was his favorite player.
Well, maybe Bjon Robinson is starting to creep up there a little bit.
Uh, Bijon's been fantastic the last couple of weeks, but it's not just Bijon.
It's showing that you're winning at the line of scrimmage with that offensive line, it's showing that you're winning at the line of scrimmage on defense.
Um, and I think that puts the Falcons squarely in position to compete for the NFC South title.
They move ahead of the Saints now.
Um, they're even with the Panthers, puts them in position to compete for that division, which, of course, is wide open as it has been the last couple of years.
Appreciate you guys coming out.
As always, you can leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter at Albert R Breer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram, and now at Albert Breer on TikTok.
Appreciate you guys coming out.
We will see you for our mailbag edition of the Breer Report a little later in the week.
