NFC Notes: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Washington

Cowboys

• Cowboys WR Amari Cooper notes that the team is building a culture within the building that he believes is paramount to Dallas’s success. “We’re building a great culture. I can’t even really explain it, but it feels like something special is going to happen. If I break down whenever I won a championship, whatever sport I was playing, the common theme was depth.” (Michael Gehlken)
• Cowboys DE Randy Gregory is impressed with CB Trevon Diggs‘ playmaking ability. “Diggs is funny because I told him before the game, ‘I need one (interception).’ He said, ‘I’m going to get you two.’ So, he got that first one, and I thought we were good. He did his job. Then he got that second one.” (Gehlken)
• Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy said following the game that Diggs was dealing with some back tightness: “He could have returned in the game if he really needed to. I know it was something. I think he got a cleat on it.” (Jon Machota)
• Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott says the team’s next step is going out and dominating a football game, which he believes will serve as a statement game. “I think our next step as a football team is going out there and choking out [an opponent]. I think last week and this week we had opportunities to end the game early, but we kind of let them hang around.” (Gehlken)
• Gregory said following the game that he hurt his oblique in the team’s win over the Panthers, but that it wasn’t anything serious. “I’m a little bit banged up. That’s expected. Knees felt great. Messed up my oblique a little bit I think toward the end of the game. I’ll be good to go though.” (Bobby Belt)
• Cooper isn’t worried about his hamstring injury: “I think it’s going to be good. I just tweaked it. It’s just part of the game. I’m going to rehab it and get some treatment on it. As long as I can run, I’ll be good.” (Jon Machota)
• Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said LB Keanu Neal and OT Ty Nsekhe are expected back this week. He added DT Carlos Watkins might play this week, while DE Dorance Armstrong is at least a week away. (Machota)

Eagles

Eagles HC Nick Sirianni noted that OT Lane Johnson was inactive due to a personal matter but declined to elaborate on any specifics.

“I found out a couple hours before the game,” Sirianni said, via PFT. “I think [OL coach] Jeff Stoutland and [OC] Shane Steichen did a phenomenal job getting everybody ready to go. Jeff Stoutland, our offensive line coach, he’s got everybody ready to play in all these different scenarios if different scenarios happen. Well, we were posed with one of those scenarios today. I thought the offensive line battled. I thought they played really well. That’s just a tribute to Coach Stout of how good of a football coach he is. He’s gotten the guys better, as a whole, with their fundamentals and he mentally prepares them. Then just a tribute to the guys who stepped in and played. They really played well. I have to watch the tape to tell you exactly how they played, but I thought they battled. They played their tails off. They played hard. They played physical. We have a lot of warriors right there in that group. I thought they did a good job in the circumstances that they were put in.”

• Sirianni was impressed with QB Jalen Hurts, even though the team didn’t play well enough to get the win. “That’s one of the better QB performances I’ve seen. And I’ve been around a lot of good QBs, Philip Rivers and Andrew Luck. …He made good decisions with the football. He got out of trouble when there was trouble. He made good checks. He made good reads.” (Zach Berman)
• Sirianni said the team needs to quit shooting themselves in the foot when asked about what the Eagles need to do in order to turn their season around. “The self-inflicted wounds have to stop. I know I sound the same, but it’s still true. We have to stop the self-inflicted wounds of putting ourselves in holes with penalties.” (Berman)
• Sirianni had nothing to add regarding Johnson on Monday: “No new update on Lane (Johnson). Like I said yesterday, he’s going through a personal matter. And we’re just going to keep it at that for now.” (Berman)

Giants

Giants TE Kyle Rudolph fell on the fumble by Giants RB Saquon Barkley that allowed the team to maintain possession and ultimately push past the Saints in overtime.

“Let’s just say I owe Kyle Rudolph a dinner or something like that,” Barkley said, via the NY Daily News.

Rudolph is a veteran, and knows exactly where to be even if he’s not directly involved in a play.

“First of all, he makes four guys miss like he always does,” Rudolph said. “Having played with unbelievable running backs in the past, you know that first guy’s never gonna tackle him. So you always chase the ball. You always run. You never know what’s gonna happen. Sure enough the ball popped out, I saw him dive for it and it squirts out again, and I’m able to dive on it.”

Rudolph said the team knew coming into the game that it would take a full 60-minutes in order to get the win.

“We knew it was gonna be crazy,” Rudolph said. “Coach Judge talked about it all week: 60 minutes, 60 minutes. It’s so funny, because in the [Vikings] playoff game when we came down here it was the same message: it’s gonna take 60 minutes to win this game. And sure enough it takes 60 minutes — and a drive.”

Washington

• According to NBC’s JP Finlay, Grant Paulsen and Julie Carey, Washington head trainer Ryan Vermillion was placed on administrative leave “due to an ongoing criminal investigation that is unrelated to the team.”
• They add that federal law enforcement raided Washington’s team facility last week. Vermillion joined Washington as a part of HC Ron Rivera‘s staff in 2020. He was with the Panthers for 18 years before that in the same role. 
• Washington CB Torry McTyer (ACL) and LB Jon Bostic (pec) are both probably out for the year. (John Keim)
• Rivera mentioned they will first look to LBs Jamin Davis and Khaleke Hudson to replace Bostic. (Rhiannon Walker)
• Rivera added the team is sticking with K Dustin Hopkins despite the recent struggles in the kicking game. (Keim)