Commanders
- Commanders DC Joe Whitt is concerned about DT Johnny Newton’s availability for Sunday after suffering an ankle injury. (John Keim)
- Washington OC Kliff Kingsbury on the left guard situation: “Chris [Paul] has played at a high level, that’s the bototm line; it’s not that we’re down on Brandon [Coleman].” (Keim)
Cowboys
Despite ranking second in points per game this year, the Cowboys sit at 3-4-1 coming off a bad loss versus the Broncos. Dallas HC Brian Schottenheimer doesn’t care about the offensive stats and knows they need to be better in all phases of the game.
“None of us have done good enough. Coaches, players, head coach, none of us have done good enough,” Schottenheimer said, via Nick Shook of NFL.com. “That’s real. Our scorecard is what it is. That’s not just defensively, that’s offensively. We’re a football team that’s 3-4-1. You can take the stats on offense and shove ’em up your a– as far as I’m concerned.”
“It is what it is. We want to win. People talk about, hey, MVP and this and that. Dak Prescott doesn’t want to win MVP. He wants to win a Super Bowl. That’s what we want to win. We’re not there yet. We’ve not played that consistently, well enough to certainly be in that discussion, but that doesn’t mean the journey stops. It certainly doesn’t stop. You get more focused, you get more intentional, and we’ve got to do it together.”
Giants
Giants DL Dexter Lawrence responded to former Giants LB Carl Banks‘ comments saying that nobody respects him anymore due to his declining play.
“Those are strong words,” Lawrence said, via ESPN. “That’s how he feels? F— it!”
Giants DL coach Andre Patterson reiterated that Lawrence is still amongst the best interior defenders in the NFL.
“Call our opponents. Call everybody we play and ask them if Dexter Lawrence is still playing like Dexter Lawrence,” Patterson said. “There’s no other D-lineman in this league that gets as many double-teams as he does. Not even close. He gets them on passing downs. The reason that [Burns] is getting the production he’s getting and [Abdul Carter] is getting the production he’s getting is because they’re putting two dudes on Dex. So we got two guys getting one-on-ones because they’re putting two guys on Dex. And so as a football player, and what he does on Sundays, he’s playing like Dex.”
Banks’ comments caught a lot of Giants players off-guard and questioned the avenue of relaying his message.
“I mean, as an in-house guy, maybe it’s like a coded message where he’s trying to light a fire under Dex, you know what I mean?” LB Bobby Okereke said. “But for a guy who works in-house, it doesn’t take much to find a guy and have a conversation with him one-on-one or get his phone number and call him. So I don’t necessarily think there’s any ill intentions with it. Maybe he’s just trying to light a fire or in his own way motivate Dex. But Dex, like I said, is an incredible pro, and if anyone needs to be critical of his play, I think he’d be the first one to step up and do that if it’s necessary. So I think Dex is doing a great job, obviously incredible leader for us, inspires a lot of us and he’s going to keep being him.”
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