PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — What a way to start your week if you’re Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.
Not only is his defense allowing the most points in football in the past seven weeks — 243 total, 34.7 per game — but Nolan also went viral for an unfortunate occurrence at his video conference on Monday.
“Whoop, excuse me. I got something in my eye. Just had some Tabasco on my finger and it went in my eye. That wasn’t good,” Nolan said. “Oh, that’s terrible. Jeez. I’m sorry.”
Nolan paused to gather himself and then continued.
“Forgive me, I’m sorry. And I don’t remember the question. (Can) you give it to me again?”
Nolan’s Tabasco mishap gave some a good chuckle on social media. It’s not the only instance of laughter at the 2-5 Cowboys’ expense, following back-to-back losses of more than 20 points each.
But if Monday’s media availabilities are an accurate depiction of what the attitude is like inside the NovaCare Complex, the Eagles are not poking fun at their NFC East rival ahead of a massive game Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field.
Safety Rodney McLeod believes the Eagles can’t become consumed by Dallas’ struggles.
“They’re a talented team and their record does surprise me,” he said. “But I understand who they have over there and what they’re capable of doing.”
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While the Cowboys are missing starting quarterback Dak Prescott because of a devastating ankle injury, they still have running back Zeke Elliott — who’s having a down year but still needs to be taken seriously. They also have wide receivers Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and rookie CeeDee Lamb.
Not to mention, the Eagles were about six minutes away from falling to 1-5-1 instead of going to 2-4-1 after their comeback against the New York Giants last week. They’re taking an almost equally unimpressive record into an NFC East showdown — games that are usually close, tough and competitive.
“In the bigger picture of things, you really can throw the records out of the window because we know they’re gonna bring it,” said defensive tackle Fletcher Cox.
Defensive end Brandon Graham said on his weekly Monday night 94WIP Sportsradio show, “They gonna come to play us because we get everybody’s best, ’cause everybody want a piece of Philly.”
Although the Eagles are the defending NFC East champions — in part, thanks to a 17-9 victory over the Cowboys in December 2019 — McLeod recalled their first matchup of the 2019 season. Just over a year ago, Dallas dominated the Eagles 37-10 in Arlington.
“Quite frankly, they embarrassed us last year at their home,” McLeod said. “So we have a chip on our shoulder.”
McLeod, Graham and Cox are leaders on an Eagles defense that could be facing a third-string rookie quarterback Sunday night: Ben DiNucci, a seventh-round pick out of James Madison University. Dallas’ second-string quarterback, Andy Dalton, is in concussion protocol after a vicious hit by Washington linebacker Jon Bostic over the weekend.
DiNucci has only attempted three passes in his brief NFL playing time, and when he replaced Dalton against Washington, his lack of experience was understandably obvious.
“He has a lot of work to do,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said. “We need to get the operation cleaner.”
McCarthy was asked if he was going to spend extra time with DiNucci this week, if he is in fact going to be the one under center Sunday night.
“I think that would only be natural, but I got a lot of work to do this week, so we’ll see how much time I’m in the quarterback room versus the other focal points,” he responded.
McCarthy’s first season as head coach hasn’t been going well, but owner Jerry Jones made his support for McCarthy clear Tuesday morning on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas.
It’s evident the Cowboys have a lot of frustrations going on right now. The Eagles have an opportunity to make those even greater come late Sunday night.