The Good: The Cowboys will get Dak, Zack Martin, Tyron Smith and La'el Collins back next year. Diggs looks like he as some football player in him.
The Meh: McGovern looks like he may be a replacement for Connor Williams. The only question is, will the Cowboys give him a chance to win the job - I mean a real chance, not a show competition. Randy Gregory plays hard and he makes plays despite the poor DTs. It worries me that he struggled with Andrew Thomas yesterday, the rookie LT that has been abused by some pretty mediocre DEs this year. It also bothers me that he makes some of the dumbest penalties. The good plays are negated by stupidity which is why he is "Meh", until he cleans that stuff up. While people are arguing that there is not a lot of difference between Dak and Dalton, I would argue there is not a lot of difference between Dalton and Garrett Gilbert. Hence let Dalton go and save cap space for a position of need.
The Bad: Jaylon Smith is not just a bad player, he is delusional as well. He is way too vocal for a guy who makes a living tackling RBs from behind after they gain 6 yards. Jaylon is too slow for the NFL RBs, particularly the guys he will face in the NFC East, Barkley, Gibson, and Sanders. The rest of the defense is not much better. Xavier Woods makes the defense worse. He is a free agent and should be allowed to leave. I have given up on Jourdain Lewis too. He can have a good game, then look absolutely awful. Anthony Brown is signed for another year but he looked absolutely horrible yesterday. The Giants receivers are not exactly Jerry Rice, but Brown made them look like Rice at times. A lot of draft picks are going to have to be used on the secondary.
I have to make a special note about Amari Cooper. The guy has no fight in him. I watched Zeke with a bad leg try to carry 4 guys a couple of yards to secure a 1st down. I watched skinny little CeeDee Lamb flailing like fish on a line trying to wiggle his way to a first down or a couple of extra yards, despite the fact he looks like he is 150 lbs soaking wet. Then I watch Cooper catch a pass a yard short of a 1st down and he goes to the ground with the first guy who hits him, and he is much bigger than CeeDee. This is what I don't like about Cooper. It is why I would not have paid him, and it is why I would trade him to get out of his contract even if I only netted a high 3rd round pick. He beats up on the poor competition and disappears against the tougher secondaries. I want guys who fight for the extra yard and defenders who push RB backwards. Football players!
The Really Bad: The Cowboys 2021 cap situation. They are projected to be about $20 million under the cap for 2021. Franchising Dak will require about $37 million in cap space. There will have to be cuts and restructures. It could get Ugly. Personally, I think they need to trade a few guys with bad contracts if they can, and that includes Zeke. Sorry, but they cannot afford to pay that $90 million contract and Zeke is one guy who seems to have some fight in him.
The Ugly: Connor Williams getting shoved back 8 yards then thrown to the ground like a rag doll. We all know Williams struggles with powerful DTs who come right at him, but that play was just pathetic. I know we are talking about people here but Williams is just not strong enough for LG. And if you noticed, Tomlinson got his hands into Williams' chest and that was the end of Williams. That's a lack of power. 3 years into his career, Williams is not get stronger, or longer arms. He is what we see now. They can do better at LG, a lot better and I don't want to see the PFF grade that claims he was somewhere near the top this week. We saw what we saw. Given the competition at DT in the NFC East, the Cowboys need someone who can stand up to the big strong DTs in the league. I have yet to see McGovern get pushed back like that.
And a word on the non-challenge. I don't think it was as clear cut as some people are making it out to be. The Fox announcers have been wrong before, as they were last week when the Hurts fumble was upheld. The angle from the Giants end Zone showed the receiver had the ball in both hands before it hit the ground. It was not clear from that angle that the ground was involved in the catch. The other angle made it look like it was. I could see that call going either way after looking at the replay. It was called a catch so there had to be clear evidence it was not a catch. I don't think the evidence was clear enough to reverse the call. On the other hand, the right decision was to throw the red flag, even at the cost of a time out. If the Cowboys win the replay, they keep their timeout and force the Giants to punt instead of kick a FG and make it a 4 point lead. Of course if they lose the challenge they lose a time out, but at the point in the game, the TO did not really matter. The Cowboys were going to get the ball back either way and then, as we saw, try to run the clock down while they attempted to score. Of course had they won the challenge all they needed was a FG to win the game.
It was a bad decision by McCarthy but I think he is protecting the guys in the booth who did not give him a clear indication that the play should be challenged.