Cowboys Get Butt-Kicked by the Giants, Plus Weird Sports History’s Wildest Week | Just Wondering

The Dallas cowboys opened their season with an embarrassing defeat, but it just wasn't a loss. It was a total butt kicking. We'll sort through this pile of junk with lots of observations. And this week, we see the anniversaries of three of my favorite weird sports stories. 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. Dallas entered training camp with hype and with hope. They had this terrific offense when combined with a much improved defense under new coordinator Christian Parker. And, lord, we might be getting closer to Jerry's glory hole. Well, after the 28 to 20 defeat Sunday night to the Giants, You could just say that the Cowboys tapped the brakes, but probably be better to say slam on the brakes. This just wasn't an eight point defeat. It was how it unfolded. New York, they had four wins last year. Four wins. And they totally control the game. In the Cowboys, they had the ball run right down their throats on defense. And at times, Dallas new defense looked, Lord, I hate to say this, not much different than last year's terrible defense. It was putrid. The defensive backs often looked lost. Assignments blown, missed tackles, a a of continued pressure on the New York quarterback Jackson Dart. And and what would a cowboy game be without a lot of penalties? But for me, the most worrisome aspect of this loss is that Dallas got outcoached badly. John Harbaugh in his first game with the Giants after eighteen very successful years with Baltimore simply outmaneuvered Brian Schottenheimer. He and his staff, Shadi, had no answer for what the Cowboys want or for what the Giants wanted to do. More on that later. Dallas started out with a three plays in out position. They had another three and out just at the end of the half. Realized they only had the ball seven times in the game. So two, three, and outs. Three touchdowns, turnover, a punt. New York never ever went three and out in the game. They simply ran plays and ran more plays and ran more plays, and Dallas couldn't get him off the field, which brings us to Jordan Stout. Do you know who Jordan Stout is? Well, don't don't feel bad if you don't. He's the Giants punter, and you only saw him once Sunday night. Dallas that did force New York offense in the third down 11 times in the game. The Giants faced third down 11 times in the game. Here were the results of those third downs. Third and one converted. Third and three converted. Third and one, Dallas offside, Giants get a first down. Third and nine converted. Third and ten, third and one, third and eight, third and five, third and nine, third and three, all converted. New York converted 10 of eleven first downs, and the only time they didn't convert a first down was on third and one when Dallas stuffed the run. But if you saw the play, the officials badly missed a face mask on Quinn and Williams that would have given given the Giants a first down in Dallas territory. New York again, 10 of 11 on third downs. There were screw ups everywhere. Star wide receiver George Pickens with two and star wide receiver CD Lamb with one combined for three drops, and one of them was an almost certain TD for Pickens that he dropped on the way to the goal line. Dak pretty much dumped short to medium range pass at the entire game. The cowboys did make two passing plates. They gained 17 yards. By the way, the longest gains of this game by the Cowboys. But each of them were short passes that the receiver converted into longer plays with runs after the catch. In fact, Dallas never played made any play longer than 17 yards. No running back had a run longer than eight yards. Dallas' longest run was 10 on scramble by deck. And deck when pressured was very poor, including right at the end of the first half with the score tied seven and seven under pressure and almost inexplicable heave downfield that that had no chance of completion, that that should have been thrown out of bounds, but it it basically wasn't. And it allowed the Giants an interception. And from that critical interception, the Giants drove 55 yards to a go ahead score fourteen seven, and Dallas would never get even in the game again. For the game, Dak had 5.1 yards per passing attempt. I think a good word for that would be woeful. Jack's dart of giants had 7.9 yards per attempt. Dak's quarterback rating, very middling 84.5. Dart, a sparkling one thirty four. For this game, hard to believe, the Giants very much had the better quarterback. But let's get to that coaching mismatch next. What do you want from your favorite restaurant? Fantastic personal service, a cheery, welcoming, spotless atmosphere. And of course, great food. The primest of beef, Wagyu and lamb, incredibly fresh seafood, lobster, salmon, shrimp, hall of fame food from a hall of fame restaurant, two locations of Bob's Steak and Chop House, the original Bob's on Lemon Avenue, and the gorgeous new Bob's at Craig Ranch McKinney. Do you bet on football? I'm Norm Hitschke, and I've been handicapping sports for the last five decades. And what an incredible last two years we've had picking games. For all of our college and pro football selections, plus the NCAA basketball tournament, We've posted a wonderful five twenty seven winners and four thirty four losers. After subtracting the juice, if you're a $200 a game player, that's a tidy profit of right at $10,000. And unlike those big betting services, we don't cost an arm and a leg. $200. That's it. $200 for the entire package of football and basketball picks. Emailed right to you every week. Sign up by clicking on the link below, and let's have another solid profitable year. Dallas cowboy goals this year were in no particular order. And, well, maybe that's not true. Number one to obviously improve a wolf defense. They wanted a big, tough, physical team. They wanted better balance between running the ball in the game and passing the ball in the game. And finally, they wanted cleaner games. They wanted to stop beating themselves with penalty after penalty after penalty. In game one against the Giants, distinct failures in every area. The defense could not, did not stop the Giants from running a ball. This is the number one story of this game, that Giants could run the football. They ran it 37 times for a 165 yards. The Cowboys, 18 Roaches for 69 yards. The Giants, four and a half time four and a half yards every time they ran the football. That's pretty good. The Giants well, the Cowboys, 3.8. That's not very good. The Giants had 11 rushing first downs. Dallas had four. New York ran whenever it wanted to. And given the ability to stop the run or to not stop the run-in Dallas case and the Giants' ability to run it, that meant this had a reflection on the passing game. The New York offensive line was better than the Cowboys defensive line. And when Dallas moved linebackers up in position to shore up the run defense, that opened up the midrange passing routes. And here's where Dallas may have looked the most miserable. In times, and I'm talking three or four times, there was no Dallas defender within five yards of the giant player catching the football. Times Cowboys secondary just to looked totally confused, remind you of last year. Isaiah, like the tight end, Malik Nabors, the wide receiver, Harold Mooney, Malachi Fields, they all seem to have no trouble getting open for dark throws. The Dallas defense, under their new coordinator, often looked uncoordinated. In fact, the defense stunk. And don't be deceived by those two sacks that Dallas got. The NFL, for reasons known only to cauliflower heads, the NFL awards a sack when the quarterback gets flushed out of the pocket, runs, and reaches the line of scrimmage. That's right. He doesn't get tackled behind the line of scrimmage, but they still call it a sack. Dallas, two sacks on the game. You know how much yardage the Giants lost in those two sacks? One yard. On two sacks, they lost one yard. No. We can talk about the rules some other time with lots of other to talk about. The tackling was poor. The zone defense was softer than a chocolate eclair. Dallas, on passing downs, rushed four men. They got pressure on only two of the 20 times. They used a four man rush. They had to rush five or more to get pressure, and that is not ideal for a defense. Oh, and the penalties. Lord, the penalties. In the first half, seven of them for 60 yards. And stupid stuff. Demarion Overshone hits the quarterback dart when he's out of bounds. That becomes a key play, by the way, in a Giants drive. And even more silly and undisciplined, Javonte Williams, on the way to a touchdown, holds the ball out and taunts the Giants' defenders. That leads to a 15 yard penalty. That means kicker Brandon Aubrey's extra point is not from 33 yards, but it's from 48 yards. And the ultra dependable of Brandon Aubrey immediately misses that extra point, and the Cowboys deficit remains eight points. And for the game, Dallas had these penalties. And if you look honestly at the game, they seem to get the better of the officiating from the game. In the end, whenever the off whatever the offensive and defensive game plans were, they failed miserably. New York simply controlled this game. Hard to believe, isn't it? But they controlled this game. Thirty six and a half minutes of time of possession to 23.5. They ran 16 more plays. They gained a 150 more yards. In short, Sunday night, New York that won four games last year, those giants were unmistakably the better team on the field Sunday. That leaves us now with this question. On on next Sunday, at home, can Dallas handle a Washington team that won just five games last year? The odds maker, apparently already noticed something they don't like about Dallas. They made the Cowboys only four and a half point favorites at home against the Commanders. And Dallas fans can't contemplate starting the season o and two. But then Sunday night, those same fans couldn't contemplate being urinated on by the Giants. Dolan Water Media is making a move. After two plus years, it's time to change and keep up with our growth. You can continue to view all eight of our podcasts on our Patreon pages. But now you can get all episodes at www.stolenwatermedia.com. This is a developing story, but you can begin by watching and listening right now at www.stolenwatermedia.com. Continue to find all audio wherever you find your favorite podcasts, and some you may not have heard of, but I think will enjoy. 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. 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It took two years working with a New Jersey lab to refine the all natural ingredients of full moon healing. Gently massage a very small amount into the skin, and within a day, the blotches begin to fade. See now, purpura usually takes weeks to disappear, but this balm cuts the timeline to about a week. And ordering's so easy. Just go to the website, fullmoonhealingco.com. I love old, weird sports notes and stories. In fact, a couple of decades ago, I I wrote a a book about them. Weird sports stories on the day they happened. And there are four of them coming up in this week we're in right now. So let's start 09/15/1940. That's eighty six years ago. The worst NFL game ever. Back then, NFL teams would play games in different cities. It wasn't their home and their home. Sometimes they'd go on the road. And in this one, the Chicago cardinals and the Detroit lions played in beautiful Buffalo. Almost immediately after the kickoff, a torrential, cold rainstorm hit the field. What fans were there? They decided, adios, baby. They were gone. A few minutes into the game, the entire field was a quagmire. Numbers became undistinguishable, and thus the players became unidentifiable. But it gets worse. Groundskeepers had used lime to line the field. And when mixed with the cold water, it formed a caustic fluid, and players on each team suddenly went to the sidelines suffering burns on their skin from that fluid. It was an awful game. The the cardinals and the lions, oh my. Between them, they gained between them. They gained 30 yards of offense. Detroit completed one of six passes and rushed for a minus 10 yards. Chicago, o for two on passes. Detroit mixed in three fumbles since Chicago couldn't take any advantage of any of them. It got so bad that early in the fourth quarter, each of the two teams decided to stop trying to win the game and instead hope the other team would lose the game. And they just started punting the ball back and forth to each other. Eight consecutive plays in the fourth quarter were punks. Never has there been so richly deserved a scoreless tie in the NFL. Next, let's go to 09/16/1920, one hundred six years ago. It's the beginning of the NFL. Meeting in the offices of car dealer Ralph Hayes in Canton, Ohio are owners of 11 pro football teams from four states, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and New York. They've come to start the APFA, American Professional Football League, which would eventually become the NFL. The 11 owners had no such dreams of what we're seeing these days. In fact, some of them just wanted a place to sit down. There weren't enough chairs in Hay's showroom in which he sold Hupmobiles. That's right. Do you know there used to be a Hupmobile? Anyway, the the 11 franchises paid a $100 each to form the American Professional Football Association. Massillon, Ohio paid their $100, never fielded a team. Of the other teams, only one can still trace its roots to the NFL today, and that's the Decatur Staley's who became the Chicago Staley's who became the Chicago bears. Those other franchises who now rest in peace in football history, the Akron pros, the Canton bulldogs, the Cleveland Indians. Why did that city like the name of the Indians so? The Rock Island Independents, the Dayton triangles. I can get worked up cheering for a triangle. The racing cardinals, the Hammond pros, the Muncie Flyers, and my favorite, the Rochester Jeffersons. Let's go to 09/17/1934, ninety two years ago this Wednesday. John Baylor is sitting in a Washington DC waiting room, anxiously anticipating the birth of his child. The delivering nurse comes out and tells him he is now the proud father of a healthy, happy, bouncing baby boy. Wishing to preserve the exact moment in his life that he became a father, John Baylor checks his watch for the correct time. The watch is an Elgin. That's what he names his son. That's how one of the greatest basketball players in history got his name, Elgin Baylor. And finally, 09/23/1946, eighty years ago next week. The quickest knockout in boxing history. Boxer Ralph Walton is standing in his corner adjusting his mouthpiece and listening to last minute instructions from his handlers. As the bell sounds to begin the first round of his fight against Al Couture in Lewiston, Maine, Walton has never noticed that just before the bell was going to sound, Couture had come moving briskly across the ring toward him. The bell rang. Walton turned, and Couture landed a haymaker. Down went Walton like a sack of potatoes. The referee quickly jumps in and begins the count. And then it's over. It's the shortest knockout in the history of boxing. The official time of the bout, eleven seconds. That includes the 10 count while Walton was laying prone on the boxing floor. 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 Hitschkes, 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.