Cowboys’ Defense Still Broken, Rangers’ Historic Collapse & NFL’s Double Standard | Just Wondering

Hi, I'm Norm Hitskas and welcome again to Just Wondering. This Sunday's game in Brazil was the best international NFL game ever incredibly exciting. And it was a gut wrenching loss that might have been avoided with better coaching decisions. Then the Rangers season is over. I think it's fine and honest to call it an embarrassing disaster. And finally, the NFL's hypocrisy is fully evident again. And now a word from our title sponsor. Eying retirement? We aim to turn your nest egg into a paycheck with half the amount you've been led to believe. Fluent Financial combines in house portfolio design risk management with income generating investments designed to aid your financial independence. Our goal is to develop an effective portfolio strategy to help you retire sooner and have a better lifestyle. Fluent Financial can also implement a program that allows business owners to install a cash balance plan, which may potentially reduce income tax payments. You've worked hard to become successful. Let us help develop an effective portfolio strategy that works for you. Learn more today about Fluent Financial. Retire sooner, better lifestyle. For more information or to schedule a meeting, visit fluentfinancial.com or call (972) 852-4800. Let's begin our analysis with the offense. They did fail in that late chance in the red zone, and that stands out, but they did score 31 points. And and Dak strong season continues, and they don't turn the ball over once yesterday, And the running game, which had been a problem for the first couple of games of the season, certainly was not Sunday. Javonte Williams was good. He had 98 yards rushing. The Cowboys got 4.9 yards every time they ran the ball and they balance the offense. Lamb and Pickens, the two star wide receivers, each caught seven passes, they gained a 194 yards between them. Oddly though, no touchdowns. And again, 31 points should be enough to win games in the NFL. But just like last year, not with this defense. Matt Eberflus was fired last year with a defense that allowed just over 30 points per game. It was ugly all season long, and honestly, he should have been fired. In the off season, Dallas went about trying to remake that ugly defense. First, they hired 34 year old Christian Parker as their defensive coordinator, one of the bright bright young minds in the NFL, and to help, they use their top three draft picks on defensive players. They they signed free agents, two safeties in Thompson and lock in a cornerback in Durant, and all those are critical players to this defense. They traded for middle linebacker winners and edge rusher, Roshan Gary. They they signed the defensive tackle, Otito Ogbunya, who's, by the way, not a bad player. But the defense, it's it's no better. It's no better. They're allowing over 27 points per game. But if you watched the Washington game, when they missed those wide open wide receivers that would have been touchdowns, They should have scored in the 30s also. The running game of opponents. The first game the Giants ran for a 165. The second game the Commanders ran for a 182. And Sunday in Rio, Baltimore ran for 192. Dallas is allowing 180 rushing yards a game. That is thirty first in the NFL. In total yards, they're thirtieth in the NFL defensively. Their opponents get five yards every time they run the ball. Dallas again on Sunday had no sacks. And in fact, had very, very little pressure on Lamar Jackson. Jackson was hit once in passing attempts. He was hit once not sacked mind you. He was hit once. Dak was hit seven times. And again, no turnovers. For the season through three games, the Cowboys have one turnover they gained. It was good that the Cowboys defense limited Baltimore to three conversions in nine third downs, and no conversions two times they tried it on fourth down. But Baltimore got six and a half yards every time they snap the football. Six and a half yards. Now, the rookie linebacker Jayshawn Barham, and the safety Caleb Downs, they're they're okay. They're okay for kids. In fact, they may be a little better than okay for kids. But the other rookie, first on draft choice, Malachi Lawrence, he played only 17 of the 64 defensive snaps on Sunday. And the veterans, Roshan Gary, Kenny Clark, Quinn and Williams, the coroner Duron Bland, they've simply got to be better. They've got to be better. The defensive end Von Miller, who was signed here to provide pass pressure. He played only 16 of the 64 defensive snaps on Sunday. And last year's returning leading sack band James Houston. He didn't play at all. This is starting to look worryingly like last year, when week in and week out, you hope the Cowboys offense would produce 35 or 40 points in a game to give them a chance to win. Perhaps the tonic arrives this coming Sunday at Houston. Their quarterback CJ Stroud doesn't run. Well, he's run seven times in three games. By the way, he's run pretty well. It's been effective when he's run seven times. So but he's not really a runner, or maybe maybe Stroud gets a look at the damage that Jackson Dart and Jalen Daniels, and and Lamar Jackson did to the Cowboys, and realizes he's got room to run on scrambles. And finally, about Sunday, it's the Cowboys not so special teams. They had a field goal blocked. Brandon Aubrey kicked two kick offs out of bounds, which allows Baltimore to start at their 40 yard line with their possession. And they allow a 24 yard punt return. The Cowboys bring all this baggage back home from Rio, and they must now go right back out on the road to Houston. It'll be an o and three Houston team desperately trying for its first win to get to one and three, And the cowboy team desperately trying to avoid being one and three. Next, an awful Ranger season ends in misery. And a look at that NFL hypocrisy. 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That's it. $200 for the entire package of football and basketball picks. Email right to you every week. Sign up by clicking on the link below, and let's have another solid profitable year. It is official. The American League West this year was the worst division in the history of Major League Baseball, and the Texas Rangers didn't win it. That honor went to Houston. The Astros who did not produce a winning record finishing at eighty one and eighty one. The same Astros who in late May seemed buried. They were twenty and thirty one, 11 games under 500, and injuries had blighted their star players. But they dug themselves out of that enormous hole, rallied, and won the woeful West. Texas actually started the final week of the season last week in control of their own destiny. They were 78, 78, actually in first place in division. All they had to do was beat up on the lowly Mets and the losing Minnesota Twins, and all they did was lose four of six, opening the door for Houston. Texas finished 80 in '82, the third straight year without a winning record since they won the championship four years back. This is the ninth time in the last ten years Texas has not produced a winning record, The one outlier being that championship season. Blame is everywhere. The offense stinks. They were twenty fifth in runs scored, but this is odd. Listen to this. They were fourteenth in home runs in the major leagues, sixteenth in hitting, and nineteenth in getting on base, and yet scored 20 in runs. Why? Because they can get runners on, but they can't get runners in. When it comes to hitting in the clutch, this team sucked. The pitching, well, realize they're pitching in what is probably the best park for a pitcher in the major leagues. And the starters all had ERAs in the fours and fives. Closer Jake Latts was a revelation, but the rest of this cheaply pieced together bullpen disintegrated into shambles the last several weeks of the season. The manager, Skip Schumacher, said he blamed himself. Not so fast, Skip. You can't hit for people like Seager and Langford, Nimmo, and Carter. You don't have any functional speed on this team. The defense, mediocre at best, and you can't pitch for pitchers who produced far less than expected. This core is getting older. Then in the off season, you're gonna encounter some of them with no trade clauses, which will complicate any remake of this team. And then there's always the question of how much money will Ray Davis allow the general manager and the president of the team to spend putting next year's team together. But for certain, 2026 will be remembered as the year the Texas Rangers couldn't even win the worst division in Major League Baseball. Now on to the NFL. After three weeks, there are five teams that are o and three. Who are they? Well, Miami and Tennessee were never expected to be much this season. But the others, the chargers, the buccaneers, and this Sunday's cowboy opponent, the Houston Texans, they were all expected to be serious playoff contenders. Now for these five o and three teams, this sad historical note. Since 1990, 171 NFL teams have started their seasons o and three. Of the 171, only five recovered to make the playoffs. So it's not even October yet, and the fans of these five teams are already thinking, well, we'll wait till next year. Are you just wondering where your next spectacular vacation will be? Relax. Feel the sun on your body. Let your cares melt away at the all inclusive Cerenian Bay Resort in Southern Belize. It's literally built right on the sand. The ocean, your ocean is just a few barefoot steps away. Laid back luxury, terrific food, a swim up bar, a spa, air conditioned gym, unimaginable service, fishing, snorkeling in gorgeous turquoise waters. Do you want relaxation or do you need adventure? You choose at Cerennian Bay. 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And ordering's so easy. Just go to the website, fullmoonhealingco.com. Finally, let's talk about the NFL and their very favorite topic, money. For decades and decades, I can remember well in the sixties and seventies, The NFL was outrageously opposed to gambling. When Jimmy the Greek Schneider came on TV picking games, there were betting lines. Oh my, they didn't want those in the paper. But now the world of sports gambling has exploded, and the sites are everywhere. Massive sites, billion dollar evaluated companies, FanDuel, DraftKings, ESPN Bet. Suddenly, the NFL's not at all opposed to accepting tens of millions of billions of dollars from these sports gambling companies for sponsorship in stadium signage, TV ads. Oh, the NFL still discourages and punishes its players who get caught gambling on games, but they have no problem cashing those huge checks they get from gambling sites. Something that not so long ago, they opposed with outrage. But that takes us now to the beer industry, and hypocrisy there. The NFL gets, as well as I can determine, we're into billions and billions of dollars in various ways from Budweiser, Miller, Modelo, and and other beer brands. I searched the Internet, and there's all sorts of ways to get the money. Sponsorships, in house beer sales, signage, TV ads, partnering with various in various situations. The NFL takes in billions and billions of dollars from the beer industry. Ah, but earlier this season, when three NFL players, including the Cowboys tight end Ferguson, did TV celebrations that appeared to be chugging a beer. The NFL landed on them with both feet, finding those players over 13,000 each. Now, the NFL is still happy to pocket those billions of dollars from beer companies, and it's fine that they can sit up in the suite including the owner's suite, and chug a lug beers during a game. But God help the player who might celebrate scoring a touchdown by mimicking chugging a bud somewhere in an NFL end zone. And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you by Fluent Financial. Retire earlier, live better. And by Bob's Steak and Chophouse on Lemon in Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's, a Dallas tradition for more than thirty years. If you've enjoyed just wondering, please hit follow and a fresh new episode will land in your mailbox early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Should you know a sports fan who might like our work? Please share our contact information with that person. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just Wondering. I'm Norm Hitskas, and know that every day I'll be just wondering about something. And I'm Mary Hitschkes, and I'll just be wondering too. This is a Stolen Water Media production.