Hour 1: Eagles/Cowboys & Jalen Carter-Dak Prescott Spit-gate Reactions

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1:22Now, on with the show. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studios in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

1:38Today's guests, podcast host and journalist Pablo Torre, pro football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, and your phone calls, latest news, and more. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

1:56Rich Eisen:Well, hey everybody. Welcome to this Friday edition of the Rich Eisen Show from Sao Paulo, Brazil. We are right here inside Arena Corinthians where tonight the Chiefs and the Chargers will have at it. It'll be me and Kurt Warner in this very booth from which I am broadcasting right now on Disney Plus, on the ESPN app everywhere, and on ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. We say hello to everybody out there who's listening to us on satellite radio, since this is, you know, global, international. Sirius XM Channel 80, hello to you. And hello to the guys in the studio, Chris Brockman and also TJ Jefferson and my guy Jay Feli, all in Los Angeles, California, hanging out.

2:43844-204-RICH is the number to dial. How are you guys doing? What's going on, gents? Rich, what up, man? Great to see you, dude. Glad the football's back. And I can report nobody has spit on anyone in here so far. That's good to know. Yeah, good to know. That's good to know. Not us. That's good to know. That's one way, one would say, a way for a season to start you didn't see coming. TJ Jefferson, your Dallas Cowboys acquitted themselves quite well last night. We're going to talk about all of it on this show, not just with you at 844-204-RICH is the number to dial, but also with Dan Orlovsky of ESPN.

3:21He's going to be joining us, I believe, from a car on the Merritt Parkway. That's one way to keep things global. He's going to be in a car on the Merritt Parkway or I-84. I'm sitting here in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a stadium behind me where the Chiefs and the Chargers are going to play tonight on an international global broadcast on YouTube. That's bringing people together. Tom Pelissero, with his flow, is going to be joining us in hour number three to set us up on the rest of week number one. I've got my top five games that I'm looking forward to in week one. It's also our Friday staple, What's More Likely, coming up.

3:55Sneaky good games. Chris Brockman's going to make you hard-earned American dollars by telling you his gambling advice, which means you might have less American dollars by the end of his gambling advice. That's coming up later on this program. All of us hanging out together on this show. And I've got to tell you, it is quite a scene here behind me with this field. It looks beautiful. I know there's a lot of concern about this field. Later on, I'm going down there, being walked through by the National Football League that took care of the sod here way back in the summer. I've got a little bit of a story to tell you about that later on in this three-hour show.

4:31But if you're watching on Disney Plus or the ESPN app everywhere, it looks beautiful behind me. And I know the Chiefs end zone is behind me as opposed to the Chargers one to my left. That was not intentional, just the way that the NBC crew set things up for me and us here. So no complaints back in the studio or wherever you are if there is Chiefs fatigue. And you'll also get a sense of what it's like before a game, because there's going to be sound checks throughout this show. There's going to be different folks out there on the field. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen, but it's the full experience.

5:10I love it. So just giving everyone a heads up on the way the next three hours are going to go. You sound great. We're ready to go. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. All right. I need to sit up straight a little bit more. I'm still a little jet lagged. And I'm going to be in this booth all the way until 1 in the morning local time. So I'm setting up shop here in Arena Corinthians. No, I'm flying home right after the game. Going straight to the airport. Don't ask. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. Okay. Now then, let's break down the Thursday night opener in Philadelphia that we saw on NBC. And I guess it was all about liquid, you know, coming from people's mouths in the sky, you know, in quarter number one and quarter number three.

6:00You know, it started in a way that, I'll say it, I did not expect a rate. and it started with a kickoff and a cart off and then a send off. I've never seen a season start that way. As a matter of fact, I've got a stat about Jalen Carter being sent off the field in a week one game that's coming up when we break down that segment in full. But the reason why I bring this up to start the program, obviously the whole country is talking about what happened with Jalen Carter and Dak Prescott and there's Seinfeld memes everywhere because we didn't find out until the second half that there was a second spitter involved.

6:41But Jalen Carter being sent off for the Philadelphia Eagles right before the first snap of the game 100 % affected the game in so many different ways from the way that the Cowboys were able to move the ball up and down the field, from the way that Javante Williams was being able to run between the tackles, from the way that the Eagles were no doubt reeling from that. Offensively, maybe towards the end of the half when they were unable to keep things maybe going with Jalen Hurts. It just seemed to me that the way this played out, the Eagles were reeling, not just on defense, but just trying to get a sense of normalcy.

7:25They just got a flag raise that they weren't out there for, But they raised the banner, and then the season starts so wildly that the Cowboys were able to take advantage of it. And then the Eagles, as we all know, won this game with A.J. Brown not targeted until the fourth quarter. And they got a game in which Jahan Dotson wound up being their leading receiver. They won this game with Saquon Barkley coming up with just 60 yards rushing. Fewest yards in a rush game since week six of last year. And he had more than 60 rushing yards in all but one game in 2024. Cleveland was the team that held him to that one non-60-yard rush game in 2024.

8:21So Barkley wasn't going off. The defense was missing its top player. Jahan Dotson was their leading receiver. If you had told the Dallas Cowboys before this game that they would be able to affect all that,

8:35Rich Eisen:to, yes, stop the run with Kenny Clark. If you told the Cowboys before the game that they were going to be able to do that, they would have signed for it, and we all would have thought the Philadelphia Eagles were going to lose this home opener and banner-raised night in front of their home fans. And yet, they did not. And they lost Landon Dickerson after the weather delay. An hour-long weather delay that stopped all the scoring and did, for Dickerson, cause his back to tighten up. So they were missing one of their top offensive linemen. Which is why it leads me to say this. The Philadelphia Eagles, going into this season, we're looking about what can stop them.

9:21Rich Eisen:Who can stop them? Is it the Lions? Is it the Packers? Is it going to be any team from the NFC West? Could it be the Buccaneers? It's kind of their kryptonite in a way. Could it be the Commanders? Could it be anybody else that I'm not naming right now in the NFC? And at the end of the day, it very well could be the Philadelphia Eagles stopping them, with Jalen Carter doing something insanely stupid, something that happens on an injury front that they can't obviously control. Is it going to be something completely unforeseen that could stop the Philadelphia Eagles from winning a football game? The negative side, obviously, for the Philadelphia Eagles is that they are the first team that's defending a Super Bowl title to play 10 teams from the previous year's playoff field in the upcoming title defense regular season.

10:13Rich Eisen:And last night was not one of those 10 teams, as we all know. The Dallas Cowboys did not famously make the playoffs last year. So, yes, you could sit here and say they struggled against a team that didn't make the playoffs last year. That could be, wait for it, maybe, improved. But they also had things happen to them that they were also self-inflicted that caused them to maybe lose a game at home. Now, you could sit here and say they were lucky that CeeDee Lamb dropped a couple of balls that he's not going to drop in the future. but that also puts them in the category of last year's Kansas City Chiefs where you're sitting there thinking, well, they're lucky.

10:51Rich Eisen:They got some help from the refs every now and then. Last night, obviously, Philadelphia Eagles fans seeing Jalen Carter sent off before a single snap of football, they would think that maybe the referees weren't their best friend last night. But they didn't play a perfect game, and they went ahead and won anyway. And that is the mark of a champion, but it is also signs of what can stop them this year. And the answer is maybe not another team. Maybe not someone in the AFC that they play. They play the Kansas City Chiefs, the team whose logo is right behind my right shoulder next, in Kansas City, which makes this game pretty darn big for the Chiefs to win tonight here in Brazil.

11:32Rich Eisen:But the Philadelphia Eagles made mistakes last night. Can they clean them up? Yes. But they're also showing what can stand in their way of another championship while showing at the same time that they're equally as resilient to win it all. And I think that's why Jalen Hurts went up and turned a question he was asked about, did the Cowboys do anything to take A.J. Brown away? Again, zero targets for their top wide receiver all the way until the final drive of the game, and he was the one who picked up a massive reception to lead to a third down that Jalen Hurts picked up to essentially put the game on ice last night.

12:14He turned that opportunity into a chance to maybe calm anything

12:23Rich Eisen:that could be happening already after week one in that locker room. I wouldn't say so. I think they were just doing a really good job of matching things in coverage. And, you know, there's some things we've got to be better at. and, you know, great job by him staying patient and, you know, in a big moment, right, making a play. Most important play of the game in my eyes, and then we're able to get ourselves in a position to convert that third down and wind down the clock. So great play by him. Yeah. So it wasn't anything the other team did. They got to clean some things up, and kudos to A.J. Brown for being patient, which is a way of him basically saying, I understand there's some inner excellence Zen that's at play right here with his top wide receiver.

13:12Zero targets in the fourth quarter. If they lost that game, man, would we be talking about that today. If they lost that game, we would be talking about Jalen Carter 100 % costing his team on the night that they were raising the banner rather than just a boneheaded move that could cause him to be suspended further, which would obviously make the Kansas City Chiefs quite happy if they don't have to see Jalen Carter in week two on a Sunday in Arrowhead. But he's basically saying kudos to this guy for remaining calm, and he's being the leader that they need him to be, not just off the field and at the podium.

13:50Gents, do you know with his two rushing touchdowns last night, he's now too clear of LaDainian Tomlinson for the most two-plus rushing touchdown games in primetime contests in the history of the National Football League. Do you know who he trails? By one, with eight now. Primetime games. Do you know who he trails in that department? Primetime games. I mean, I'm just going to shoot for the top, and I'm going to say Emmitt or Barry. Yeah, I was going to say one of those two guys, yeah. You are correct. It is Emmitt Smith with nine, and those two rushing touchdowns were the ones that matched Javante Williams' touchdowns with Jalen Carter being out in the first half last night, and then he went 19 of 23 for 152 passing yards, and then he picked up the final first down to put the game on ice.

14:38Gents, that is the way Jalen Hurts follows up his Super Bowl MVP campaign off of a very impressive postseason. That is the way you also put something in the mind's eye of MVP voters in just week number one, where he saved some bacon last night with all of the mistakes that were going on in Philadelphia. And that's my opinion of the Philadelphia side of the story, or the, I should say, Philadelphia story. Now then, TJ or Dallas Cowboys, I got to give it up, man. They were impressive last night. They are much better than I give them credit for. Whatever that Micah Parsons trade might have engendered in that locker room, either Brian Schottenheimer doused that flame if there was one, or maybe Micah's trade was, in fact, something that would be welcomed in a locker room, maybe from a quarterback who played his ass off last night in Dak Prescott.

15:40They didn't seem to miss Micah Parsons one bit. And what did they do? They stopped the run. They did, in fact, stop the run. He gave up 160-some yards rushing, but yes. Dude, dude, they stopped Saquon Barkley, man. They didn't let him go off. And Jalen Hurts went off. I mean, Jalen Hurts got a lot of those yards, obviously. I know, you know, it's tough to say you stopped the run when I did just give you, you know, they gave up 100. The rushing net yards they gave up were 158. Okay? and you take a look at the stats now that I'm actually being called out on it by UTJ. They stopped the run at the middle.

16:23They did a good job plugging up the middle. Hey, I'm looking at it. Jalen Hurts at 60. He was their leading rusher last night, which is, again, another MVP candidate. But a lot of those were scrambles, though, Rich. There wasn't a design run. Exactly. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. And Barkley averaged 3.3 yards a carry. It was Will Shipley who damn near ran for a first time every time he touched it. A.J. Dillon, they rolled him downhill to remind everybody that A.J. Dillon still plays football after last year's disastrous injury-marved season for him. The Cowboys did their job. They did their job last night.

16:59And they did their job last night right before the end of the half. It was a well-executed end-of-the-half setup for Brandon Aubrey. They used their timeouts wisely. They downed the ball and clocked the ball smartly. I mean, exactly. How many times have we seen the Cowboys run a fire drill? Yeah. Over and over and over again that only seem to have gasoline poured on the fire. And then Aubrey bails him out because it's a 65-yarder instead of a far more makeable field goal like he made before the end of the half. Now then, did they make mistakes? Of course they did. You know, of course they did.

17:32I mean, Miles Sanders, he ripped off that big-time run for the Dallas Cowboys. 49-yarder and then a red zone fumble that killed him. I mean, absolutely killed him. If they had turned that into points, then their last drive of the game wouldn't have been for a touchdown. They could have just set up Aubrey for some 70-yarder to maybe win it. Had they scored a touchdown instead of fumbling it in the red zone, that changes the dynamic of that game considerably, especially because as soon as he fumbled it, the lightning came and an hour delay hit. I mean, it was the worst time. I mean, had they called the delay, you know, for the delay after that Cowboys score, everyone would have been sitting in the locker room off of something like that, as opposed to a field flipper, a momentum changer, and the Cowboys, obviously, the CeeDee Lamb drops is a lot of what people are talking about today because had CeeDee made, I'm going to say that last catch that could have happened was a real tough grab.

18:34Yeah. I mean, that was a real tough grab. It was the one over the middle that Dak put it right in his hands. I don't know. He made this motion after he popped up that, I mean, the guys on NBC didn't mention it, but I was sitting in my hotel room here in Brazil, and it looked to me as if he was saying he may have lost it in his eyes, but that is not what he was bringing up after the game. He did a lot of chest tapping on the sideline and gave the my bad press conference soundbite. Man, that's terrible. Honestly, I feel like I can't point no fingers at anybody else. You know what I'm saying? And I take full accountability and everything else that come with it.

19:13Because, I mean, as for me as a player, I pray for moments like that. You know what I'm saying? And the ball to come my way. And obviously for me to not come up with it, it stings a little bit. But I will tell you, if you think I'm not coming back any times harder than this, you got another thing coming.

19:29Rich Eisen:And as a matter of fact, listen, I know he's going to use this as whatever, you know, fuel for his fire. He's I'm sorry, man, for you, TJ, because this was in the this was in your grasp. It was not to, you know, borrow an poorly used phrase right here. But this he grabs one of those. And this is a different story that we're talking about today. the Cowboys had a massive opportunity. Their run game, we'll see what it looks like next week against the Giants because I'm imagining, you know, Big Dex isn't going to spit on Dak right after the kickoff and that he's going to play all 60 minutes. But other than those drops and the fumble in the red zone, the Cowboys looked really good, man.

20:27Rich Eisen:And you've got to be happy about that. You've got to be happy about it, that you saw signs of life, and that they also seemed to take a cue from Brian Schottenheimer to execute. And the play calling seemed smart. There wasn't a head scratcher that you've seen over the last few years. There's nothing that we're talking about, a hot mess. All we're talking about is it was right there. Dak looked really good. He was aggressive at the end when he needed to be. He made some throws. The run game is there. They stopped the run with Saquon Barkley. And Schottenheimer had this to say after the game about Seedy and the team's chances moving forward.

21:07I still think we can win a Super Bowl. That's the goal, Todd. It's not going to change. I mean, we've got the right type of guys. We've got good players. Again, like I said, you saw what we're capable of in the first half offensively. You saw what we're capable of in the second half defensively. We just got to put the game together in a more complementary fashion because that's what we're capable of. And, you know, we lost a turnover battle. That affects some things, right? We lost 1-0, and, you know, we're all about the ball, and we got to protect it better and got to try to create some takeaways on defense.

21:40I mean, we will see moving forward. They go home, and we all know they've played worse at home than they have on the road. But the fact that they made it this close, maybe, TJ, That's why I did not hear from Carl Anthony Towns at all last night. And there might not be any horn band coming into the studio today yet. Not a single lick. The stage is set up for everything. I know, right?

22:03Rich Eisen:At Chicago, home for Green Bay, at the Jets, at Carolina. You take a look at the way that the Cowboys played last night, and you really have to feel good about their home date against the Giants despite losing this one in Philadelphia, TJ. Yeah, you know, look, I can look at this from the disgruntled fan point of view and be like, you played well, but we lost, which we did. But there are some things that give me hope. Jalen Hurts, I'm not an all-22 guy like you always say. I'm not a tape watcher. I did see massive holes in the middle of our defense where Hurts, like Chris said earlier, he was able to scramble around, score touchdowns, and get loose.

22:45I'm going to imagine that the defensive coordinator, this team, will make those adjustments on defense so that doesn't happen again. And that, Rich, that gives me hope that I think the problems that we had can be fixed. So, yeah, I'm kind of, you know, I was a little down yesterday, like not knowing what to expect, but I do have a little bit more hope today. I mean, I think as well as you played, the one thing that really stood out, you kind of needed a pass rusher last night. and you know that will probably would have helped if you had 11 out there no they they were able to in the second half they were able to get jalen off the spot and you could see you know like iber flus was blitzing digs from the corner spot they were bringing some people and directions that jalen wasn't seeing um it's just i i have a feeling guys we're going to see jalen hurts do this to everybody and it's not just the dallas cowboys yeah but do what you know because He wasn't winning the game with his arm.

23:41Devontae Smith not involved. A.J. Brown absolutely not involved. They had one big play to Jahan Dotson of all people. That is not sustainable. So, you know, I don't know. The Eagles really didn't impress me that much on offense. Hurts is awesome, and I think he's going to be in that MVP conversation. But he really did it with his legs last night. Chris, is that more of a knock on Hurts though? Or maybe looking at maybe this Dallas defense was better than everyone gave them credit. Maybe, or just Philly kind of kept it super vanilla and bland, knowing what they have coming up, tough games, you know, Lions, Chiefs.

24:14Maybe that's an element, too. I don't think they kept anything vanilla. I think Dallas is just better than we think. You just got to tip your cap. And Jalen Hurts, I would disagree. I thought he did win his game with his arm. He didn't make any mistakes, and he won the game with his legs more than his arm. That's for sure. Third career game with two or more rushing touchdowns and a completion percentage of 80 or more, which is the most by a quarterback since 1950. No other quarterback has more than one such game in his career. Maybe we're just seeing the ascension of somebody so special that Michael Jordan's there with him and they're putting his shoes on, Jalen Hurts, and we're beginning to see the ascension of a really insanely talented and special player that I think saved the Eagles night last night when it all started with the unexpected, as I said.

25:03When we come back, we'll talk about the Hawk to a moment of the night with Jalen Carter. Expectorated. We've got to talk about that work. That was all about. Thank you, sir. You can look it up during the break. We'll be back here from San Paolo in a moment. Your phone call is at 844-204-RICH. Number to dial on this Friday.

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