“I’m excited that we’re getting the game in, we’re getting a primetime game in, and it’s going to be a different date than normal, but I’m anxious to see how that works for that time of week.”
Those were the words of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Friday morning, speaking with 105.3 The Fan about the team’s upcoming appearance on a rare edition of Tuesday Night Football against the visiting Baltimore Ravens.
But as any football fan who’s been paying the slightest bit of attention can attest, four days out is way too early to count on much of anything… and the health of the Ravens’ players is the biggest X-factor in the league these days.
Baltimore played Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon- a game that had originally been scheduled for six days earlier- with a whopping 17 of their players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, including the league’s reigning MVP, quarterback Lamar Jackson.
“Knock on wood, we’re in good shape relative to the COVID,” Jones said of the Cowboys’ own state of readiness. “Where we are as we speak this morning, we’re in great shape. We all know that the Ravens have been having to make a lot of adjustments; they did play the other day. I don’t have notation here of anything that is, let’s say, accelerated regarding them, but I don’t know about their detail.”
If the Ravens themselves even know who they’ll have available to put on the field at AT&T Stadium, they’re not letting on.
According to Jonas Shaffer of the Baltimore Sun:
“Among those also sidelined are running backs Mark Ingram II and J.K. Dobbins, fullback Patrick Ricard, and outside linebacker Pernell McPhee. Tight end Mark Andrews, wide receiver Willie Snead IV, and outside linebacker Matthew Judon all reportedly tested positive over the weekend, which means they’ll likely miss Tuesday’s game.”
Shaffer adds: “Guard Bradley Bozeman said after Wednesday’s loss, the Ravens’ third straight, that ‘a lot of guys had some symptoms.’ But he said he didn’t think anyone was ‘super sick or anything like that.'”
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh reiterated this week that all of the affected players are at the mercy of their COVID test results.
“They all have their different days when they’re possibly allowed to come back, but those are medical decisions, in the end, not coaching decisions,” Harbaugh said Thursday. “So when the doctors clear them to practice, that’s when we’ll have them.”
As for Jackson, who reportedly tested positive on Thanksgiving Day, his status for Tuesday’s contest- 12 days after the fact- remains a mystery. When asked about his starting quarterback and leading rusher specifically, Harbaugh was curt.
“I think I already answered that.”
The Cowboys are moving forward with their game prep under the assumption that Jackson will be ready to roll. So said Dallas coach Mike McCarthy in his Friday press conference.
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy planning for a restocked Ravens roster. "I think we have to clearly prepare as if Lamar (Jackson) is going to play. Obviously, he's a dynamic player."
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) December 4, 2020
Rescheduled games on odd days and at weird times. Stadiums with no fans. Players and coaches wearing surgical masks on the sidelines. Heck, the Broncos had to play an entire game with no quarterbacks at all.
So gearing up for a Tuesday night game that may or may not happen against a quarterback who may or may not play is just par for the course in 2020. But Jones says that this kind of uncertainty is, strangely, exactly what the sport is all about.
“We have an oblong football; it’s not round. You can’t really manage a lot which way the ball is going to go when it hits the ground. So you’ve got to be ready for it to go either way. Football is rarely canceled because of the elements. Football is rarely canceled because of injury. Football is a game of attrition, it’s a game of being played under unique conditions, and it’s a game of adjusting. It always has been.”
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