NFC Notes: Sam Howell, Daniel Jones, Leighton Vander Esch, Commanders, Cowboys, Giants

Commanders

Commanders LT Charles Leno spoke about his concerns when it comes to protecting QB Sam Howell. 

“Yeah, I actually am worried, especially late in the game, when the game’s already out of hand,” Leno said, per Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. “I feel like that shouldn’t happen. We should take a different route in that aspect. But that’s what the coaches want, and they want to show fight. We want to show fight and want to put some points on the board and show that we’re not quitting for anybody. But there does need to be a little bit of smarts in that. We need him for the whole season, not just for a game that’s out of hand already, in my opinion.”

Cowboys

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott and HC Mike McCarthy are shocked over their loss to the 49ers on Sunday night.

“Didn’t see it coming,” Prescott said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “Put everything into it and got punched in the mouth. Called it a couple of weeks ago humbling against Arizona, but this may be the most humbling I’ve ever been a part of. Felt good about the preparation and felt good about everything, honestly, coming into this game, matchups, and they beat us in every aspect. I mean, obviously, they’re further ahead than us right now. So we’ve got to close that gap and be ready. To get to where we want to get, we know we’re going to have to go through this team and most likely come back to this place.”

“It’s a punch in the gut, it’s a kick in the ass, whatever phrase you want to put on it,” McCarthy added. “We’ve been knocked down, clearly. They beat us in all three phases. We will clearly acknowledge it. I’ve never been a burn-the-tape guy. I think that is a crock of s—. We’re going to go through it, make sure we’re clear on exactly what the expectations are, and make sure we’re giving the players what they need to be successful. They played extremely well, and we did not. I thought we had taken a step as a team. I didn’t see this coming. I thought the prep was good this week. I thought we had one of our better Fridays and Saturdays of the year. But it’s like we talked about before: Sometimes you have a great week of preparation and it doesn’t go so well. We did not hit the mark at all.”

Both McCarthy and LB Micah Parsons are hoping the team is able to rally from their poor performance.

“I don’t foresee a whole lot of winning grades coming out of this performance,” McCarthy continued. “I think the most important thing for all of us, and I expressed it, is just to be accountable for what you did tonight, how you played. We’ve got to clean our own house up.”

“It’s still early in the season,” Parsons said. “I need to help bring these guys together, and we just need to get better. There’s no such thing as losing. So tonight we just learned a lesson. We were the team at the end of the stick.”

• Per Michael Gehlken, Cowboys LB Leighton Vander Esch underwent x-rays on his neck which were negative, and will undergo an MRI on Monday.

Giants

• Giants QB Daniel Jones said his neck pain is  “similar” to what he had in 2021 and said he will have continued tests on it: “My neck’s sore. Yeah, I mean, it’s tough to say for sure. Certainly dealt with a similar issue. So I’ll meet with the doctors and trainers and go from there. I think they’re all different, so I don’t know exactly what it is yet. So I’ll know more tomorrow.” (Pat Leonard)