Tag: Rection

‘This ain’t nothing yet’: Cowboys rookie CB promises bumpy ride for opposing QBs after Week 1 lockdown

From @ToddBrock24f7: Caelen Carson didn’t look like a rookie in his first NFL game; Trevon Diggs says the Cowboys D showed just a fraction of its calls Sunday.

No one knew what to expect, really. It was Week 1, playing an unfamiliar opponent, facing a quarterback capable of lighting it up any given week and a talented receiving corps that included a 1,000-yard threat who wanted to show up the team that once shipped him out of town.

It had the potential to be a wild and bumpy ride.

Good thing the Cowboys invested in a Seat Belt this offseason.

In his NFL debut, rookie cornerback Caelen Carson lived up to the nickname given to him at Wake Forest and was instrumental in restraining the Browns’ air attack in the Cowboys’ 33-17 opening day win. The dominant Dallas defense limited Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson to a meager 3.75 yards per attempt and a 51.1 passer rating on the day, looking nothing like a fifth-round DB making his first pro appearance.

“Honestly, I didn’t know how the first game was going to go,” Carson said after the win, “but I knew one thing: I wasn’t going to come in here scared.”

The 22-year-old more than held his own despite being matched up against five-time Pro Bowler Amari Cooper, with Carson holding the former Cowboy to just 16 yards and breaking up as many passes- two- as he let Cooper catch.

And he nearly came away with two interceptions.

“I didn’t capitalize on my opportunities today,” the rookie confessed. “I think I played okay, but I’ve got to capitalize on the opportunities. That’s the biggest thing with a Cowboys defense- turnovers.”

Fellow cornerback Trevon Diggs was quick to point out Carson’s near-misses, interrupting the youngster’s Q&A session with reporters with an announcement of his own:

“He owes, like, 70 push-ups!” Diggs reported with a laugh.

The fifth-year All-Pro had plenty to smile about on Sunday, making his return to the field after an ACL tear suffered in practice last September

“Tears of joy,” Diggs said at his locker. “Just thankful to be back. I’ve been gone for so long… I had a lot of emotions.”

And he made the most of it, nabbing his first pick in 357 days.

It was quite a performance, especially considering that neither of the Cowboys’ starting cornerbacks for the majority of the 2023 season were even on the field. DaRon Bland is out for several more weeks with a foot fracture; Stephon Gilmore was not re-signed by the team.

But Diggs showed no ill effects from his knee injury, and Carson showed no fear as a first-timer, and the result was a near-total lockdown of the Cleveland passing game.

“We pressured the quarterback a lot, so we got him off his game,” said Carson. “And then for the outside pieces- the receivers- the timing was off, everything was off. It helped us a lot. I think the back end played well, too. All phases of the defensed played well.”

But both men vowed that it’s just the beginning.

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“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Carson predicted. “We’ve got a lot of improvement to do, get back in the film room. There’s going to be more to come.”

Diggs confirmed that the Cowboys defense, now under the command of coordinator Mike Zimmer, has plenty more that never even came out of the toolbox on Sunday.

“That was just a little sample,” he explained. “Man, we’ve got, like, 50 calls. We only ran probably three of them.”

Maybe it’s the Cowboys’ opponents who should be buckling up for a bumpy ride.

“I left a lot of plays out there. So, a lot more plays to come,” promised the talented youngster they call Seat Belt.

“A lot more to come. This ain’t nothing yet.”

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Report: Tony Pollard open to discount to stay with Cowboys

From @ToddBrock24f7: The veteran RB is expected to field plenty of offers in free agency but would reportedly take a lesser offer to stay in Dallas.

Tony Pollard will hit the open market when the NFL’s free agency period begins next week. But the running back who has spent five years in Dallas may find himself right back with the Cowboys when it’s all said and done.

And to do so, he may even take less money than a potential suitor would give him.

According to Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, Pollard is open to a return to the Cowboys backfield in 2024, even if he gets a better contract offer from another team in the coming days. That’s from “a person with knowledge of Pollard’s thinking,” per Watkins.

Last season saw Pollard post over 1,000 rushing yards while playing on the franchise tag. He finished 2023 as the league’s 12th-best rusher in terms of yardage, but the former fourth-round draft pick out of Memphis never showed the same electric burst that had marked his earlier years as a change-of-pace back alongside Ezekiel Elliott.

The Cowboys, however, maintained that they were pleased overall with Pollard’s production, especially considering he was coming off a brutal leg injury suffered in January 2023 during the team’s playoff loss to San Francisco.

Still, the front office elected not to use a second franchise tag on him for 2024, a move that will now allow the soon-to-be-27-year-old to test the waters of free agency.

Pollard will almost assuredly get offers, but he may find the market flooded with competing veteran ballcarriers. Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Austin Ekeler, Josh Jacobs, D’Andre Swift, and Alexander Mattison are among the running backs also looking for new teams.

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Watkins explains that the team expects Pollard to field as many offers as possible before talking to the Cowboys about a potential return.

Pollard himself said as recently as Super Bowl Week that he would prefer to remain in Dallas “if I could choose.” And NBC’s Matthew Berry was told at last week’s scouting combine, “Don’t be surprised if they bring Pollard back.”

Now it may come down to the price tag offered by another team and how far off it Pollard is willing to come to keep the star on his helmet.

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Report: Cowboys deny Commanders permission to speak with DB coach Al Harris

From @ToddBrock24f7: Dallas has now blocked requests for Dan Quinn’s new team to interview 2 key assistants. They granted permission to speak to 2 others.

Apparently Lunda Wells wasn’t the only Cowboys coworker Dan Quinn wanted to bring with him to Washington.

One day after it was revealed that the Dallas front office blocked the Commanders’ request to interview their tight ends coach for an opening on Quinn’s new staff in the nation’s capital, ESPN’s Todd Archer reports that the Cowboys’ longtime divisional rivals have had their eye on several other coaching assistants, too.

Per Archer, who cited a source, the Cowboys also denied the Commanders’ request to interview defensive backs coach Al Harris. Harris has been a popular name among some circles within Cowboys Nation to replace Quinn as the defensive coordinator in Dallas.

The 49-year-old hinted just a few weeks ago that he would drop everything to join a Quinn-led coaching staff.

“If Q was to go and get a head coaching job,” Harris said, “honestly, in whatever capacity he wanted me to come, I’m there. I’m there.”

It seems as though he won’t get that chance, at least not this year with Washington. League rules state that assistants must be allowed to interview with new clubs for a promotion to a coordinator role, but employers may block opposing teams from speaking to assistants about lateral moves to another assistant role.

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The Cowboys clearly have plans for Harris, but they did grant permission for the Commanders to speak with assistant defensive line coach Sharrif Floyd and defensive assistant Pete Ohnegian. Both were hired last February for the Cowboys’ 2023 season.

Upon his hiring last week in Washington, Quinn moved quickly to hire away Cowboys defensive passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. and make him the Commanders’ new defensive coordinator.

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Mike McCarthy back home, working remotely to prep Cowboys for massive Eagles rematch

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 60-year-old coach plans to handle all his normal duties this Sunday night after undergoing an emergency appendectomy Wednesday.

Mike McCarthy is back at home after an emergency appendectomy on Wednesday. And while the Cowboys head coach isn’t fully up and around quite yet, just 24 hours after the procedure, he is still planning on manning the sideline Sunday night when his team takes the field against the division-leading Eagles.

“Full steam ahead,” said offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer on Thursday at the pre-practice press conference normally handled by McCarthy. Schottenheimer confirmed that McCarthy has already gotten back to work, doing what he can remotely on refining the Philadelphia game plans that were put in place earlier in the week and with an eye toward resuming normal playcalling duties for the Week 14 clash.

“We don’t anticipate anything different,” Schottenheimer explained. “Again, he’s involved in all the things. We’ll have a long conversation again this afternoon. He’s watching the practices and yeah, full steam ahead.”

McCarthy, 60, wasted no time in reconnecting with his staff after Wednesday’s surgery; Schottenheimer told reporters that he and McCarthy spoke by phone Wednesday night and again multiple times on Thursday, with the coach giving notes on the week’s game prep.

“He’s been very involved. He’s in good spirits,” Schottenheimer said. “It’s always good when he has a lot of suggestions when you talk to him on the phone: ‘Well, what do you think of this?’ That’s when I know he’s feeling good.”

McCarthy was not feeling so good Wednesday morning. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said that he saw McCarthy at the facility early and that his boss “just didn’t look good” while complaining of abdominal pain. After consulting with the team’s medical staff, McCarthy went to a hospital for further evaluation, where a diagnosis of acute appendicitis was given.

The players didn’t even find out what was happening until McCarthy wasn’t at the team’s midweek walkthrough; Quinn and special teams coordinator John Fassel led the day’s practice on next to no notice.

“There wasn’t much warning. It was like, ‘Here you go. You’ve got it.’ [Practice] was already scripted,” Fassel said, per the team website. “We just followed along with the plan that was already in motion, and we’ve got good bodies that can pick it up and keep it going.”

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The Cowboys staff quickly fell back on lessons learned during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, when any player, coach, or staffer was just a nasal swab away from being sent home.

“You always have to have a contingency plan. Mike’s great about that; he does,” Quinn explained. “I think we all learned a lot a few years back in COVID: when a coach is down or a player is down, how does that go? He’s done a fantastic job of mapping- not just him or me or anybody else- who could then in that same spot say, ‘Hey, this is the next step and this is how we go.’ So we’re super organized and ready for that.”

Adjustments were made on the fly, and the business of football has continued in Frisco. The Cowboys don’t seem to have missed a beat in prepping for the biggest game of the year, even without their recuperating head coach. And all indications are they won’t be missing McCarthy, either, when kickoff finally rolls around.

Joked Quinn: “Do you think that tough Irishman is going to miss this game?”

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‘It’s just the swing’: Cowboys’ John Fassel took secret trip to see kicker Brandon Aubrey before signing

From @ToddBrock24f7: John Fassel sneaked onto a USFL sideline this summer to see the soccer star kick footballs. He’s now the NFL leader in several categories.

John Fassel is known as a guy who always has a plan. The Cowboys special teams coordinator has a knack for pulling out a fake punt or sending the house on a field goal attempt or dialing up a gadget return at just the right moment on game day. Off the field, he keeps a mental file full of names: of kickers, of punters, of long snappers, of gunners, of the fast kamikaze types who maybe he saw play once and just might excel on his unit and could be called when there’s a need for their very particular set of skills.

But when it came to getting USFL kicker Brandon Aubrey and making him the Cowboys starter in 2023, it all came together very quickly. And it even involved a secret reconnaissance mission just weeks before training camp.

“I didn’t study him as much in 2022,” Fassel told reporters this week about Aubrey’s first season kicking for the Birmingham Stallions. No surprise there. After all, Aubrey was an ex-college soccer star who had just started booting oblong balls for the first time after an MLS career never panned out.

Besides, Brett Maher had the job on lock in Dallas in 2022, connecting on his field goals at a 90.6% clip and banging 50 of 53 extra points through the uprights… in the regular season.

The postseason, however, became another (infamous) story.

“Then once this spring and the summer was happening,” Fassel continued, “we went and looked at ’22.”

What he saw was that Aubrey led the spring league in both field-goal and PAT percentage and had been named to the All-USFL team in a championship season. And he was leading the league in both categories again with the 2023 season winding down.

At the time, the only kicker the Cowboys had on the roster was Tristan Vizcaino. Outside observers were clamoring for the club to sign a veteran free agent; Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby, and Ryan Succop were all on the open market. Brandon McManus had just been released by Denver and then signed by Jacksonville after the Cowboys didn’t bite. The Jaguars had even tried to send Riley Patterson to Dallas in a trade, to no avail.

The Cowboys, oddly, didn’t seem to have a plan. What Fassel did have, though, was a ticket to watch the Stallions play in the middle of June.

“It was a little bit of a stealth operation that [Cowboys vice president of player personnel] Will McClay and everybody kind of set up,” Fassel confessed. “I got out there in pre-game warm-ups, and I might have snuck down onto the field and just got a closer feel for the sound of it and the look of it. Nobody knew we were coming.”

Fassel liked what he saw enough for the Cowboys to sign Aubrey on July 6, just five days after the Stallions won their second consecutive USFL title.

“The goal for our whole organization was to find, hopefully, a longer-term answer,” Fassel said.

A month and a day later, Vizcaino was released after struggling in camp. By Sept. 7, just days before the season opener, it was clear the Cowboys would roll into the regular season with the 28-year-old rookie. Head coach Mike McCarthy even said that Aubrey reminded him of “a young Mason Crosby.”

All Aubrey has done since then is start his NFL career perfect on his first seven field goal tries, something no Cowboys kicker in history had done before.

“It’s two games,” Fassel warned. “If he was 4-for-7 instead of 7-for-7, I still say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a young kicker that’s got some talent, some ability, and we’ve got to keep tightening some things up.'”

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Aubrey hasn’t been perfect; he missed his first extra point try in Week 1. Badly. And though the moment caused painful flashbacks for Cowboys fans, the special teams guru was quick to put the blame on a timing issue, not kicking mechanics.

Because Fassel loves the way Aubrey strikes the ball. So much so, in fact, that the longtime football coach largely leaves the onetime futbol prodigy alone when it’s time to do his job.

“I think it’s just the swing. Remember when I had [current Jet/former Rams and Cowboys kicker Greg] Zuerlein?” Fassel asked. “Zuerlein was a heck of a high school soccer player, like probably most kickers are. But Brandon’s soccer background is way more significant than anybody I’ve been a part of. [Raiders great Sebastian] Janikowski, I always go back to him; he was a big-time soccer player before he went to college. There’s something about those guys that have powerful soccer legs that can translate to the NFL as long as- and I say this carefully- but as long as you don’t overcoach them. I know my job is to coach them, but I also know my job is not to overcoach them.”

This past week, Aubrey hit all five field goal attempts versus the Jets, including one from 55 yards. That’s among the five longest field goals leaguewide so far this young season. And Aubrey currently leads the NFL in total points scored, field goals made, and touchbacks.

It’s all a very promising sign that Fassel’s latest plan is going to work.

“The more reps he gets at it, I think the better he’s going to get.”

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WWE Raw results 05/29/23: Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler win tag team gold

With the women’s tag team championship vacated, WWE crowned new titleholders on Monday’s episode of Raw.

With the women’s tag team championship vacated, WWE crowned new titleholders on Monday’s episode of Raw.

After Liv Morgan sustained an injury, she and Raquel Rodriguez had to relinquish their tag titles. Rodriguez, however, teamed with Shotzi to compete for the titles against Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green, and Bayley and Iyo Sky.

Countering a move from the top rope, Rousey made Shotzi tap out with an armbar to win her and Baszler the tag titles.

Rousey and Baszler have more than established themselves to take over the tag titles, despite Rodriguez’s unfortunate end to his title run. With their name value and a women’s tag division waiting for recently called-up teams to establish themselves, these two are a good duo to carry the belts for the time being.

Tag titles are new territory for Rousey, who has only held singles championships since joining WWE in 2018: the SmackDown Women’s Championship twice and the Raw Women’s Championship once. Rousey’s last title run wrapped up in December 2022, when she lost the SmackDown title to Charlotte Flair.

Rousey will remain in a high-profile position as long as she holds the tag team titles, since she has been mostly quiet since the start of 2023 without any belt and due to injury. Moreover, with the championship not assigned to either brand, Rousey can appear on Raw or SmackDown as champion.

Baszler previously held the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with Nia Jax, but the second of their two reigns last occurred in the first half of 2021. She also does not have a singles title reign on the main roster, so this marks her third overall win of WWE gold.

Who will Rousey and Baszler face next? The WWE Money in the Bank prelude could establish new contenders to determine who they will face at the show or at another event in the next month.

Click here for full WWE Raw results from Monday night in Albany.