Jimmy 'Applying Pressure' to Today's Cowboys? Keyshawn's Weird Take

Ring of Honor Entrant Jimmy Johnson 'Applying Pressure' to Today's Dallas Cowboys vs. Detroit Lions at AT&T Stadium? Keyshawn's Weird Take

ARLINGTON - The Dallas Cowboys are perfect at home here at AT&T Stadium and try to close the regular season by staying that way at they host the Detroit Lions on for "Saturday Night Football.'' They will have Super Bowl-winning head coach Jimmy Johnson in the building and at halftime, in the Ring of Honor. 

AT&T Stadium will, most of this day - pending the final score, of course - be all about positive buzz. Is there any possible way to spin it all together to make it a negative?

Enter FSI's Undisputed featuring Keyshawn Johnson opining that Jimmy's presence might actually be a negative for coach Mike McCarthy's 10-5 Cowboys.

As Jimmy himself used to reply when he was befuddled by a dumb question, "Do what now?''

"They’re applying pressure to these young men that we don’t know if they can hold up to,'' Keyshawn said, painting an imaginary picture of - what? - Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons and company somehow being intimidated by their own Cowboys predecessors?! "Looking out there at their gold jackets and their rings … Jimmy Johnson … Can they live up to that?''

Seriously, just when we thought we'd about run out of angles on this game and on this event ... Thank you, Keyshawn, for the psycho-babble. This is a mightily creative one!

Keyshawn, speaking on the set to Dallas legend Michael Irvin, said, “People like you and people like Emmitt (Smith), who are going to be there at halftime'' might, he suggested, simply be too much for today's Cowboys to bear.

The reality of the Cowboys "pressure'' is that they are playing host to the 11-4 Lions, who are under the same sort of "pressure'' in terms of trying to advance in playoff position.

.@keyshawn believes the Cowboys will not live up to the pressure vs. Lions:

"The Lions have something to play for. Dallas needs to show they can stop the run.” pic.twitter.com/nGPIU2GjGC

— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) December 29, 2023

Dallas is 7-0 this season at home and has won 15 straight. Conventionally, that would be seen as "pressure'' on the visiting team.

Keyshawn eventually makes some sense when he talks about Dallas' recent struggles in stopping the run, and it is a fact that Detroit has the third-most rushing yards as a team this season.

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"The Lions have something to play for, chasing that No. 1, No. 2 seed in Detroit, and the Cowboys have something to play for, too,'' said Keyshawn, who played for the Cowboys for a time in his day. "They need to show me and us, and the rest of the world, that they can stop the run.''

We'd suggest that Dallas trying to "show'' Keyshawn what it can do isn't really on the minds of today's players.

Maybe, though, they'll want to "show'' Jimmy what they can do ... meaning his presence could mean "inspiration,'' not "intimidation.''