Michael Irvin has loved the Dallas Cowboys since he was a kid watching football with his father. So even when his team lost Week 1 in a 28-20 beatdown at the hands of the New York Giants, his faith wouldn’t waver. With all the moves the Cowboys made this offseason, that faith has reached such a level that Irvin has now placed one of his most treasured possessions on the line for the Cowboys to win big – his hair.
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“I will put my locks on the line, and I love my locks,” Irvin said on ESPN’s First Take, in conversation with Stephen A. Smith. “Now, I’m still confident because I know what they have on offense.”
When Smith pushed back on the show, asking Irvin to clarify what his “bet on national television” means, Irvin didn’t back down.
“That if we don’t get to a championship game, I will give up my locks,” Irvin said. “NFC Championship game. I will give up my locks.”
Irvin then went on to clarify just how much his “locks” mean to him, and why he wouldn’t back down from his bet.
“Boy, let me tell y’all something,” Irvin said. “This is like my Popeye, my spinach right here. Men my age, when I walk in a room, they can’t grow hair. Stephen, you know they can’t grow hair. So they can’t even grow hair like this. I don’t want to give up my locks. So I’m going to need my guys to show up.
“I’m going to show confidence in this defense that Jerry and Stephen [have] put together. I’m going to show confidence in what Coach Schottenheimer has put together. I’m going to show confidence in that offense because I know they’ll get it going. I’m telling you it’s just a preseason game. You can’t spend the whole offseason not playing in any preseason and then expect to show up in the first game of the season and do something great. And that’s what happens.”
Now, the majority of Dallas starters didn’t play a single preseason game this offseason. Shaking off that rust at MetLife Stadium wouldn’t have been easy. But one just can’t shake off the fact that the Giants, under new head coach John Harbaugh, looked nothing like the team we saw struggle last season.
The Giants protected the ball, ran it, and kept controlling the clock all the way to the 2-minute warning. They even threw the Cowboys’ defense into disarray with their schemes and helped second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart have the best game of his NFL career.
Dart went 23-of-29 for 239 yards and three touchdowns, posting an 81.6 QBR and a 134.2 passer rating. Fellow second-year running back Cam Skattebo showed he didn’t miss a step after his ankle injury last season by barreling through defenders to get 81 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. As for the Cowboys, they looked a bit lost under the lights, with franchise quarterback Dak Prescott going 22-of-34 for 175 yards, two touchdowns, and a pick. New York held the ball for 36:40 minutes, giving Dallas just 23:20 minutes of possession.
The Cowboys’ O-line looked like it was missing something without left guard Tyler Smith. The Giants’ defense kept finding lanes to pressure Prescott, and in return, the Cowboys’ defense couldn’t effectively cover the Giants.
Penalties also stalled momentum on both sides – 10 for the Giants, and 9 for Dallas. Even Brandon Aubrey missed the subsequent 40-yard kick, and the Cowboys never got the ball back for the rest of regulation.
Now, even in the face of this disaster, Michael Irvin still believes the Cowboys may just have had a slow start. After all, this is just Week 1, and this is the same offense (sans Tyler Smith) that ranked second-overall last season. The newly constructed defense, meanwhile, needs a bit more time to get going.
Next Sunday, the Cowboys have another divisional battle coming up against the Washington Commanders, who are coming off a 24-22 loss to Philadelphia themselves. Dak Prescott & Co. will have to prove they can still win games on offense, and defensive coordinator Christian Parker has to prove his unit can make effective stops. If neither of these conditions is met, the Cowboys don’t make the postseason, let alone the NFC Championship game. If nothing is fixed in a hurry, we might just have to get used to a bald Michael Irvin firing off on a team that let him down.