Oct 16, 2026 · 44 min
Dallas tests whether accountability can repair its defense
Hour 2: Will the Cowboys players-only meeting have a positive impact on their game Sunday?
The episode weighs whether a players-only meeting can change Dallas’s effort and execution before a consequential matchup with Green Bay.
- 1Dallas’s defensive crisis centers on poor pass defense and a lack of takeaways, not merely broad concerns about effort.
- 2Paul Finebaum frames Alabama–Tennessee and Texas–Florida as major tests with playoff consequences and uneven recent form.
- 3The panel debates whether expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams would broaden access or dilute standards.
Don't miss
The sharpest exchange tests whether Dallas’s players-only meeting can address specific defensive failures rather than serve as a symbolic gesture.
The brief
Denver’s overtime win over Seattle exposed Sam Darnold’s costly interceptions and an offense adjusting to the loss of play-caller Clint Kubiak.
Dallas’s players-only meeting becomes the central question: can accountability change a struggling defense whose problems include poor pass coverage and too few takeaways?
Paul Finebaum joins the college football preview, assessing Notre Dame–Miami, Alabama–Tennessee, and Texas–Florida as games carrying playoff pressure.
The panel debates a reported 24-team College Football Playoff, balancing broader access and home revenue against diluted standards and weak schedules.
The episode closes with a debate over Caleb Williams’s injury privacy, an upset prediction involving Buffalo and Las Vegas, and comic sports and television banter.
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