A sports analyst, and former NFL QB, with his Panthers vs Cowboys take

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Have you done it yet? Plan your trip at DistinctlyFayettevilleNC.com What's less complicated, the tiebreakers in the NFL. Generally, we don't really have to deal with them, and we probably won't have to deal with them in this case this weekend. Babe Loffenberg is part of the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network. He sits next to Brad Sham. Actually, I don't know if you sit next to Brad Sham or if there is a spotter or a stat guy in between you, but I appreciate your time. You are nationally known for your greatness, sir. How you doing? I don't know.

I'm not even locally known for my great. Well, thank you. And it's funny because Brad Sham been doing play about play for cash. Yeah, pretty close to 40 years.

And I'm coming up on 27 or 28. Something like that as the analyst. But I always tell Brad, I heard you talking about the ACC. Excuse me, tiebreakers. Brad will get into. He'll say, Now, if Philadelphia loses to Jacksonville and the Cowboys beat Washington and Carolina, the Cowboys without a better NFC record.

But Philadelphia would have lost one AFC team. I said, Brad, it's week three. I said, Let's wait until week 18. We'll know a lot more.

Yeah, sometimes it gets too complicated. So let's make it simple. We know Dallas. We know Dallas is good.

That is not disputed by anybody. How good are they? Are they in the same class with, we'll just say in the NFC, with Philadelphia, with San Francisco? With, like, those two big dogs in the NFC, or they may be just a notch below.

I think judging from results, which is what we do, right? They're a notch below. But I think they can play with either of those teams. Now, the funny thing is they played a boat. They went to San Francisco or Santa Clara, as it may be, where the 49 is played out, and they just got boat raced. They did not play well. San Francisco played great.

Kyle Shanahan even said after the game, that was the best game we played in a while. They went to Philadelphia two weeks ago. You know, they had the ball sitting at Philly six yard line with the first down and needing a touchdown.

They went backward from there, ended up having to try to throw it in for score on the last play of the game from the 27 yard line. They took two penalties and a sack, but they can play with Philly. They can play with San Francisco.

And I think, I think you got to throw Detroit into that conversation as well. But yeah, they can play with anybody there. I mean, they're a good team.

There's no question. And there's no team without laws. I mean, they threw for 350 yards against Philadelphia in that game. So, but it's all, hey, as you will know, Adam, it all depends on who's playing at the time, you know, and the injuries. So the team you think you're going to play in two weeks may not be that team because they lose people.

Yeah. How different did the Cincinnati Bengals look today with, I don't even know the guy's name, Jake Browning at quarterback, as opposed to Joe burrow at quarterback. Look, I think the Cowboys are, they certainly did play with Philadelphia.

There's no questions. Do you think San Francisco when they're, when they're fully healthy, when Trent Williams is the left tackle and Deebo Samuel is on the field, you think they're better than everybody else in the NFC? You know, I do, um, obviously they beat Philadelphia or excuse me, Philadelphia beat San Francisco last year in the playoffs, but we all know San Francisco literally did not have a quarterback in that game, but, uh, I think San Francisco defense is great. They can certainly run the ball. They hit you with five different guys at the skill positions, including the fullback Kyle Hughes check.

They can, you know, do a little damage when you don't pay attention to him. Um, and got an all pro tied in, as you said, Deebo Samuel, I'm a big believer in Brock Purdy. Yeah. So, I mean, just as we sit here today talking, I would say San Francisco is probably the favorite to win the NFC. Now, the downside is they may have to travel to Philadelphia again because Philadelphia right now, of course only has one law.

San Francisco has three. They Blofenberg is joining us here. Part of the Dallas Cowboys radio network here on the Adam Gold show, and they will be in bank of America stadium in Charlotte to take on the Panthers coming up on Sunday. And Adam, why did you guys go to turf?

Why did you do that? I'm with you. I'm with you. Well, wait a second. Dallas hasn't played on grass since they played. I don't even know before Texas stadium was built. Yeah, the cotton ball, but they're indoors. I know.

That's now, but Hey, everybody goes to church so they can hold other events that we all know that and they make more money. How do you feel about that? And by the way, you know, you were a player too, and maybe it's different for quarterbacks than it than it is for other players, but players talk. Would players legitimately rather play on grass? Oh, absolutely.

Maybe. Hey, if you talk to a tie, we kill who is going to be faster on purpose. Although he's faster. He'd be fast at the beach running in Sandy. He'd be faster than anybody anywhere, but players, I would say 95% would prefer to play on a grass field. It's just easier on the body. And, you know, the falls are pretty hard.

Like you get dropped, thrown into the turf, not that a grass field absorbs all of it, but it's certainly a little more forgiving than a than a turf field. Yeah. There's a, there's no question. And we, we, we see fewer. We don't see zero. We see fewer non-contact injuries on grass than we see on turf. The data says that, but I, we understand you because you pointed it out. It's all about money.

Babe. Lofenberg is joining us. Dak Prescott takes a lot of heat when things don't go well. How has Dak performed? I know there have been some interception problems, but every quarterback's got him.

He doesn't have like a jet. Josh Allen has him. How, how has Dak performed and how is Dallas's offense operating as we get into week 11? Over the last three weeks or since they came out of the bye week, they have been just on fire last week. And you can say, well, the Giants aren't very good, but the Giants were like the third best third down team in the NFL. Good defense. I think the Giants, but I mean, the Cowboys put up 640 yards on them.

This doesn't happen in an NFL game. So that tells you a little bit about how good they were last week. But yeah, the only thing, the running game hasn't got going, but in the passing game, Dak has played great. Brandon cooks last week, one for 178 yards. So they got him involved CD lamb set an NFL record last week by 10 catches for 150 yards and three consecutive games, which by the way, I was shocked that Jerry rice had never done that. Even Cooper cup two years ago had 1900 yards receiving and 145 catches. So I thought, well, he must've done it in that season.

And I looked back and he had not done it, but a CD lamb spent on fire. Yeah. The offense has been really, really good since they came out of the buy three weeks ago. Trayvon digs is spending a lot of time tweeting about his brother in Buffalo, but I, since he went out with injury, how has Dallas's defense been impacted?

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Find Zicam in your local cold and flu aisle. Well, it's funny because Daron Bland, who has taken over for Trayvon once Trayvon got hurt. He's been fantastic at corner. And here's a guy he was a fifth round shot pick last year, played at Sacramento State, and then was a grad transfer and played his final year at Fresno State something in the fifth round again, and he has more interceptions over the last two years than any player in the NFL.

Great ball skills, got to pick last week against the Giants. Great kid, but I don't want to say they haven't missed a beat, but they kind of haven't missed a beat. He was playing in the slot, a nickel, when Trayvon was healthy.

Now they've kicked him out. Jordan Lewis is their nickelback, who's a veteran player, and he was coming off an injury. But when kind of almost like when Trayvon got hurt, Jordan Lewis was coming back from his injury that he suffered last year, and he's been in the slot. He's been very good, too. So they really haven't lost a lot.

And you would think losing a player like Trayvon Digged could have set you back. But they haven't missed a beat in that secondary. Babe Lofenberg is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show here in the Carolinas, and the team is based in Charlotte. We're in Raleigh, but we know that Frank Reich is coming under some heat here. He gave the play calling duties to the offensive coordinator Thomas Brown coming out of the bye week three weeks ago. They won their first game against the Texans, lost the next two, and now Reich is taking them back.

They're not dramatically worse offensively now than they were in the first six weeks. So if something is up here, my guess is that Reich feels like he's coaching for his job. What kind of heat is there heat on Mike McCarthy in Dallas?

Well, it's funny. Mike McCarthy has gone 12 and five right in the last two seasons or six and three. We're talking about right. But the standard is different in Dallas, right?

To an extent. I think a lot of people live in the past with the Cowboys and the sense that Super Bowl is the expectation. They have won a Super Bowl in 27 years. They haven't been to a Super Bowl in 27 years.

They haven't been to an NFC championship game in 27 years. So the notion that the expectation is there, there's a hope. And I think it's a team capable of getting there this year.

I really do. But I don't know that that's a realistic expectation when you haven't done it for 27 years. I think there's an expectation in Kansas City. No question, right? Right. And when Brady was in New England, the expectation was, yeah, they're going to go to the Super Bowl.

It's just a question of whether they win it or not. Here's the other thing about this about Frank Reich. It's the first year you've got a rookie quarterback. I understand what CJ Stroud is doing, but history tells you if you're playing a rookie quarterback, you're going to struggle.

I was here. I was a teammate of Troy Aikman's his rookie year in Dallas. Troy Aikman went 0 and 11. We didn't win a game with him at quarterback.

Right. And he turned out pretty good. So I think we just expect a lot from these young guys real fast. And hey, I don't know if Bryce Young will ever get there, but he's played eight NFL games and you're going to struggle. And they have struggled. Yeah, you're going to struggle when the personnel around you isn't very good and the personnel.

Absolutely. And that's where Troy was. We weren't a real good team around him. As a matter of fact, Adam, the one really good player we had that year in 1989 when Troy was a rookie and he went 0 and 11 was Herschel Walker. And we traded Herschel Walker like five games into the season. It's the greatest trade in NFL history, maybe. Oh, but at the time you're playing, you're trying to win.

Yeah. You're sitting there going, wait a minute, we have one good player and we just traded him. Obviously it worked out in the long run for the team, but for our team that year in 1989, we're like, well, you got to be kidding me. Jimmy Johnson was a, was like a visionary cheat code with the way he saw the game going to speed and all of that. And turning all those draft picks into really good players was the key to everything that happened in Dallas.

Babe Lofenberg part of the Dallas Cowboys radio network. I appreciate your time now. I love the conversation. Hopefully we can do it again when we meet in the playoffs.

Yes. Well, at some point, you know, Hey, Cowboys will be back in Carolina next year. Let's do it.

They do. They've got the NFC South next year. All right. So we'll be in Carolina. Let me just say quickly too. I really Bryce young to me could not have a better situation in terms of coaching with Frank Reich and Josh McCowen as his quarterback coach.

I know that results haven't been great. And again, he's a rookie, not a lot of help around him, but I would hate to see based on this year thing. Okay. Yeah. Let's move on from Frank Reich because you know, the price young is going to be well coached with those two guys in the room.

Yeah. Jim Caldwell as well. Look, unfortunately, David Tepper is a modern owner and understand. And he is. He is incredibly impatient. That has been his history even in the four years, five years that he has owned the team.

So that's what everybody is dealing with here. I am giving Jerry Jones credit. Jerry has been very patient with head coaches.

He was with Jason Garrett and he certainly feels it appears he's going to be that way with Mike McCarthy. But I appreciate it. I appreciate your time and look forward to the next time. Appreciate it, babe. Say say goodbye to Victoria for me. See, this is my babe. Lofenberg is a star. That's fantastic. All right, man. I'll talk to you soon. Dave Lofenberg here on the Adam Goldshaw. By law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply for details.