Are you interested in investing and want to know what might be a good investment in 2019? A free conference in Richmond aims to help you do just that.
Vancouver-based NAI Interactive Ltd will host its Global Chinese Financial Forum (GCFF) Vancouver Investment Outlook Conference 2019 on Jan. 19, 2019 at the Executive Hotel Vancouver Airport.
The forum will bring together investor communities with investment opportunities in emerging sectors, such as mining, oil and gas, cannabis, green tech and green energy, blockchain, AI and IoT, gaming and mobile Apps, biotechnology and VR/AR.
The conference usually kicks off with a keynote on general investment trends, followed by executives from companies in those industries who give lectures about the company and why they can be a good investment option.
The conference will take place in both English and Mandarin. Admission is free, and registration is required on the conference website.
Si hay algo por lo que se caractericen las fiestas navideñas es por los continuos brindis. Las bebidas alcohólicas son por excelencia un complemento importante en cualquier mesa navideña: para el aperitivo, para los primeros y segundos platos, para después del postre…
Pero, cuidado, los excesos nunca fueron buenos. Lo malo es que muchas personas se dan cuenta tarde, al día siguiente, cuando un dolor de cabeza y un estómago revuelto lo recuerdan de forma incesante. Myriam Belmar, médico especializada en endocrinología y nutrición, explica que hay una serie de sencillos consejos que se pueden poner en práctica para aliviar esos molestos efectos de un elevado consumo de alcohol.
Lógicamente, lo primero que aconseja siempre es la moderación, pero cuando se ha pasado el límite recomendable de graduación ingerida explica que lo más importante es empezar con la hidratación del organismo, puesto que el alcohol deshidrata el cuerpo.
Los remedios más saludables son:
—Si uno sale de cena, y ya prevé que se va a consumir un exceso de alcohol, es muy conveniente dejar preparado en casa un zumo de naranja, echarle una cucharadita de miel y dejarlo bien tapado para que no se oxide. «Al tomarlo al llegar a casa tras la cena se consigue por un lado hidratar al organismo y aportar el azúcar que el exceso de alcohol ha disminuido. Además incorpora la vitamina C que ayuda a que el hígado metabolice mejor a ingesta», advierte Myriam Belmar.
—Durante la comida o cena, es muy conveniente beber agua entre copa y copa de vino.
—Al llegar a casa por la noche, y si no se ha preparado el zumo con miel recomendado, se puede optar por beber un vaso de agua y, mientras uno se desviste para acostarse, tomarse otro vaso de una bebida isotónica, «que aporta al cuerpo los iones que se pieden con la deshidratación provocada por el alcohol», explica esta especialista.
—Al día siguiente, es necesario seguir tomando agua al levantarse o, mejor aun, una bebida isotónica.
—Para paliar el dolor de cabeza producido por la deshidratación del organismo, y que dura unas 24 horas, no se aconseja tomar el típico «cafetito a ver si se me pasa» en el desayuno, puesto que irrita aun más el estómago. «Es mucho mejor optar por un té verde, blanco o infusiones de tomillo. Lo mejor —prosigue la doctora Belmar— es el pan tostado o pan o galletas de jengibre que ayudan a asentar el estómago y a eliminar la sensación de náuseas. Además, en vez de paracetamol, que va directo al hígado que ya está bastante castigado, es mucho mejor tomas ibuprofeno, y siempre habiendo comido algo antes».
—A media mañana es muy buena opción tomar un plátano que tiene azúcar y compensa el que se ha perdido por el alcohol, además de potasio. El zumo de manzana es otra muy buena decisión.
—Miryam Belmar asegura que no hay evidencia científica de que las pastillas de vitaminas B1, B6 y B12 eliminen los efectos de una resaca, aunque sí se puede percibir cierta mejoría. «Por ello, antes de comprar pastillas es mejor tomar alimentos que tengan estas vitaminas como la proteína animal, el huevo cocido o el atún al natural que, además, ayudan a limpiar el hígado».
—A la hora de la comida aconseja ingerir arroz o pasta, «que son muy digestivos para reponer sales y vitaminas. Un caldo de verduras también sienta muy bien al estómago», apunta.
—El exceso de alcohol produce, por la bajada de azúcar en el organismo, una gran sensación de hambre, «por lo que hay que tener cuidado con la repentina y acelerada ingesta de grasas, hidratos de carbono… que pueden hacernos malas pasadas si, además, nos preocupa la dieta y el exceso de peso. «No hay que olvidar que un vaso de vino puede tener unas 78 calorías; es decir, que si en una comida se toman cuatro copas se alcanzan las 400 calorías y, si se trata de bebidas del alta graducación, una copa puede llegar a suponer 300 calorías».
—Conviene desterrar el mito de que si se toma una cañita, la resaca es más llevadera. Nada más lejos de la realidad. «Es añadir alcohol al organismo», advierte Belmar.
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Photo: McKenzie Westmore recently hosted the new Face Off spinoff, Game Face. Episode one is titled Sy-BORG Showdown. Photo courtesy of Brandon Hickman/Syfy.
McKenzie Westmore, who is descended from Hollywood makeup royalty, has been a common presence on TV networks for a number of years. From her multi-year hosting job on Syfy’s Face Off to her roles on All My Children and Passions, the projects Westmore has been associated with over the years have given her the chance to show off her acting and entertainment skills.
In 2019, there is no slowing down for the daughter of legendary makeup artist Michael Westmore (Raging Bull, Star Trek, Mask). She has joined the cast of The Bay, the successful soap opera that’s now on Amazon Prime Video, and she is part of the New Year’s Day broadcast of the American Kennel Club National Championship Dog Show presented by Royal Canin.
Westmore, a dog owner and dog lover her entire life, has been tasked with promoting and championing the greyhound breed. Thus, her social media has become flooded with messages for #teamgreyhound, all done in celebration of her dog, Asha, a greyhound.
“Well, it’s a huge opportunity, and I feel so honored to be doing this, so grateful that this came along,” Westmore said in a recent phone interview. “I have an Italian greyhound. … I’ve always been a lover of the breed, so it worked out perfectly. They needed somebody for the hound division, and I’m the hound girl. I’m a full-on hound girl.”
Joining Westmore for this celebrity support are TV host Mario Lopez, singer Brett Young, Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson, Hallmark Channel host Cameron Mathison, actor Kellan Lutz and Pro Football Hall of Famer Marcus Allen.
For Westmore, her duties on #teamgreyhound is the culmination of a life dedicated to dogs.
“When I was little, I remember my mom telling me this story,” she said. “We had this dog, and his name was Max. He was a German shepherd. I’ve always had a very special relationship with dogs. When I was super little, the house was up in levels in the hills of Studio City, and where the play area was there was a big flight of stairs down to where we would park our cars. And Max would actually lay his body across the top of the stairs whenever I was out playing, so that I wouldn’t fall down the stairs. And my mom didn’t realize at first what he was doing until it was happening every single day, and she realized that he was protecting me and making sure that I wouldn’t fall. So I’ve always had a great connection and a great love of dogs, all animals.”
As Westmore grew up and started building her acting career, she would work with local rescue shelters and help out wherever she could. She would often return home from her visit at the shelter with another dog to care for.
“I just kept coming home with dogs,” she said with a laugh. “I was always the bleeding heart. I took the ones that I knew were not going to get adopted, the ones that were injured, the ones that never would find a home ended up in my home, and I remember my family said, ‘You can’t, no more. We have a big yard, but just no more.’ So through the years I’ve always had this love.”
This year’s AKC show will broadcast Tuesday, Jan. 1 at 6 p.m. on Animal Planet. More than $150,000 in prize money will be at stake for the thousands of dogs in the competition. Sportscasters Russ Thaler and Sam Ryan will be in the broadcast booth.
For her contributions, Westmore had full range and freedom to promote greyhounds.
“It was very much the freedom of me speaking about the greyhound and the hound division,” she said. “We all have our own divisions. We’re like the spokesperson for that division, so I really got to sit and talk about my love of greyhounds. I know a lot about them, the history of them, going back to ancient Egypt. They’re one of the oldest breeds of dogs, not the oldest breed of dog. They are the fastest dog in the world. We have an obsession in our home with motorcycles and MotorGP. My husband was a racer. … So we have a collection of motorcycles in our garage, and we always joke that the greyhounds are really the MotorGPs of the dog world. So we’re like, all right, we have some of the fastest bikes in our garage; we need one of the fastest dogs in the world to go with it.”
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY
It may not be much of a surprise that Westmore has taken to a life in the spotlight. Her family’s history in Hollywood makeup dates back many decades, and she grew up on the sets of Star Trek: The Next Generation and other shows and films.
At first, when trying to decide on a career path, Westmore didn’t know whether she should follow in her parent’s footsteps and become a makeup artist, or whether she should consider becoming an actor. Westmore decided on the latter, but she has never been far from the world of Hollywood makeup: She hosted Face Off, a makeup competition show, for 13 seasons and also has a line of beauty products called Westmore Beauty.
“When I was a teenager, I remember seeing an article on my dad,” she remembered. “They called him the last of the living dinosaurs, basically saying that he was the last one to do it all. Now everything is compartmentalized where you have your designer, you have the person in the lab, you have the person on set. My dad did it all, so when he was doing movies like Raging Bull and Rocky, and then when he transitioned to Star Trek for 18 years, he did everything. He would draw up the aliens. He would be in the lab running the rubber, and then he’d be on set overseeing these makeup artists and even helping with application. So when they called him the last of the living dinosaurs, that broke my heart. I thought I need to do this.”
Westmore started taking makeup classes and even attended school to become a makeup artist. She became immersed in the world of her family’s history, but still …
“I remember going to my dad and saying, ‘Dad, I love our family. I love our history, but this just isn’t where my heart lies,’” she said. “I sing opera. I dance ballet. I act Shakespeare. I really want to be in front of the camera. He said, ‘I don’t know why you’re stressing yourself out. I followed my dream and what I wanted to do. You follow your dream, and your mother and I will support you in anything you want to do.’ And they did. They always supported me in everything that I dreamt of and wanted to be.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The AKC National Championship Dog Show presented by Royal Canin will air Tuesday, Jan. 1 at 6 p.m. on Animal Planet. Audience members can follow McKenzie Westmore’s #teamgreyhound campaign on her social media accounts. Click here for more information.
With 2019 arriving in a couple of days, there’s no better time than now to reinvent yourself. This New Year’s Eve, express your new-year-new-me sentiment through the makeup you wear to your last party of the year. You might be surprised by what you could create by breaking out of your beauty comfort zone.
From ultra-mesmerizing eyeshadows to plush, glossy lips, find the perfect inspo for your NYE fête by checking out these glamorous looks dreamed up by some of our favorite celebrity makeup artists.
TOKYO — Japan’s cosmetics exports are on track to surpass 500 billion yen ($4.53 billion) for the first time in 2018, marking a sixth consecutive record year, thanks to Asian tourists who continue to buy these products after returning home.
Exports in the January-November period grew 44% on the year to 482.8 billion yen, according to a tally of 16 types of cosmetics compiled from trade data by Nikkei. Demand for gifts tends to boost exports in December, and with major cosmetics makers’ plants running at high capacities, the full-year figure is expected to reach around 520 billion yen.
Mainland China was the top buyer from January through November, accounting for 34.9% of exports by value, followed by Hong Kong at 25.9%, South Korea at 10.3%, Taiwan at 7.3% and Singapore at 7.3%. Asia accounted for 90% of the total.
Japan’s cosmetics exports have tripled in the last four years along with a rise in visitors to Japan. Exports exceeded imports for the first time in 2016 as inbound tourism creates new customers for high-quality Japanese goods who continue to buy them online or in stores upon returning home.
Cosmetics exports are likely to keep climbing in 2019. China will implement in January its first e-commerce law, which will require domestic online platforms to register with the government. With the crackdown on illegal marketing, direct exports of Japanese cosmetics are expected to increase as smaller Chinese retailers that sell goods procured directly from shops in Japan decline.
Top cosmetics makers are also actively expanding their sales. Shiseido plans to begin in 2019 officially selling new products in China from its namesake mainstay brand, which launched worldwide this fall. The company will open a facility for collaboration with Alibaba Group in Hangzhou from January and jointly develop products with the Chinese e-commerce empire.
Kao plans to double the number of stores in China carrying its popular Freeplus skin care brand to more than 2,000 by 2020. It will also cultivate sales for its makeup brand Kate, which launched a Chinese marketing campaign in December. Kose is accelerating the online sales campaign it began in China this autumn for its luxury brand Decorte.
Japanese cosmetics makers are increasing the capacity of domestic plants to meet the surging export demand. Shiseido plans to bring a new domestic factory online in 2019 for the first time in 36 years, in Tochigi Prefecture, to produce more items like skin care products. It will also begin operations at a new facility in Osaka Prefecture in 2020.
Kao will roughly double production for its Freeplus brand from 2017 levels, too, by investing in its main factory in Kanagawa Prefecture. Boosting domestic production is likely to encourage exports further by increasing supplies of “made-in-Japan” cosmetics.
Three Massachusetts combat veterans have won a court challenge against the state government, which denied them their Welcome Home Bonus money after deployments in Afghanistan because they received “other than honorable” discharges from the military.
Lawyers in the case estimate the Suffolk Superior Court judge’s decision could affect about 4,000 veterans in Massachusetts, while two of the plaintiffs said they hope it will also draw more attention to the plight of former service members, including those with post-traumatic stress disorder, who struggle with resuming their lives after returning home.
“When we enlist, we put our lives on the line to protect our country. But when we get out, we’re thrown in the back of the line,” said Washington Santos, an Army veteran in Revere who served in Afghanistan and is one of the plaintiffs in the case. “There isn’t that love or that care for a veteran as there should be.”
The Welcome Home Bonus was created by the state Legislature in 2005 to reward the service of veterans following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Bonuses can be up to $1,000 per enlistment, depending on where they served.
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The plaintiffs in the case — Jeffrey Machado of Exeter, N.H., and Herik Espinosa of Lynn, along with Santos — are Army veterans who served deployments in Afghanistan, completed enlistments with honorable discharges, and re-joined the service. But each plaintiff completed his Army career with an “other than honorable” discharge from his final enlistment.
All three plaintiffs were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder related to their deployments, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has deemed them service-connected disabled veterans, their lawyers said in a statement.
A “bad-paper” discharge can be the result of minor infractions of military law, substance abuse, and other forms of misconduct, according to the statement. More than 135,000 post-9/11 veterans have received such discharges, it said.
In a Dec. 21 decision, Associate Justice Michael Ricciuti called the state government’s interpretation of the bonus law “erroneous as a matter of law, arbitrary and capricious.” The judge ordered the state government to reconsider its decision in light of his ruling.
Dana Montalto, one of the attorneys who represented the veterans, praised the ruling and said she hoped it would draw more attention to the bonus program and the needs of veterans.
“What we see is that far too often, veterans who have served faithfully and meritoriously, who volunteer to deploy to combat, end up . . . ultimately leaving the military with something other than an honorable discharge,” Montalto said. “And these veterans with bad-paper discharges are so often wrongly told their service is worthless and they can’t get any benefits.”
Montalto, a clinical instructor with the Veterans Legal Clinic at Harvard Law School’s Legal Services Center, was part of the team of attorneys that filed the lawsuit in 2016 on behalf of the three plaintiffs.
State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg oversees the bonus program, and her office, along with the state Veterans’ Bonus Appeal Board, denied the plaintiffs’ applications for the bonus money due to their discharge status.
The state treasurer’s office is currently reviewing the decision, said Chandra Allard, an agency spokeswoman.
Goldberg has 60 days to appeal the decision, Montalto said.
Veterans with “bad-paper” discharges are more apt to enter the criminal justice system, battle addiction, face homelessness, and have mental-health issues that go untreated, said Kristofer Goldsmith, assistant director for policy and government affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America.
They also are more likely to commit suicide, said Goldsmith, an Iraq War veteran who received an “other than honorable” discharge from the military.
He said the Massachusetts court ruling follows Connecticut, which last month opened up its state Veterans Affairs resources to those with “other than honorable” discharges, he said.
“For a state to recognize service in this way is incredibly significant,” Goldsmith said of the ruling.
Santos, a 38-year-old Somerville native, served from 2004 to 2012 and rose to the rank of staff sergeant. But his military career ended with an “other than honorable” discharge after he said he violated Army rules to visit his then-fiancee in the Philippines.
That relationship ended and he returned to Massachusetts in 2012, but Santos’s discharge status made it difficult to find work and take care of his two teenage children from a previous relationship, he said.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
“Thousands of veterans out there need help. . . . Thank God I was able to get out of the hole that I was in. [But] what about the ones who can’t?”
He applied for Welcome Home bonuses covering his deployments so he’d have the money to hire an attorney to help upgrade his discharge status to make it easier to find a job, he said.
Santos has since married, and he and his wife are expecting a child.
Machado, 32, a Salem native who served from 2011 to 2014, said his service-related PTSD resulted in a 2014 incident with his then-wife, in which he tried to drive their car off the road in Hawaii. She tried to take control of the car, and Machado grabbed her by the throat, he said.
Charges in that case were dismissed, but the incident led to a no-contact order from the military, which he violated twice. He was ultimately discharged from the Army, he said.
He struggled with homelessness after leaving the military, then returned to his family in Massachusetts before moving to New Hampshire.
He remains proud of his Army service but being refused bonus money was like being told veterans like him had not served with honor, he said.
“At the end of the day, the honor of serving . . . outweighs any benefit, any amount of money, that they have to give to us,” Machado said.
Espinosa declined to comment through Montalto.
In his decision, Ricciuti stated that “the Bonus Law was designed to reward service to the country. The Board’s reading would penalize such service for military members who voluntarily remain in combat, a result at odds with the Legislature’s intent.”
The appeals board had argued that a veteran with an “other than honorable” discharge was ineligible for the bonus, even if that veteran completed prior enlistments honorably, according to Ricciuti.
The board’s decision-making relied on its own reading of a specific final discharge document issued to veterans who leave the service, Ricciuti wrote.
The attorney general’s office, which represented the state in the case, argued that the board’s own interpretation of that document was the “final word” on whether a veteran was honorably discharged, Ricciuti wrote.
The judge said the board’s reading of the law conflicted with the statute, which he said is intended to reward veterans for each enlistment they completed.
He criticized state officials’ handling of the plaintiffs’ bonus applications and wrote that the state acknowledged the board sometimes also used other documentation of a completed enlistment to determine eligibility for the bonus.
“The Board’s concession that other military forms can substitute for the [discharge document] demonstrates that insistence on that form in these cases was arbitrary and capricious,” he wrote.
The court decision is a step in the right direction, but many veterans still struggle, Santos said.
“Thousands of veterans out there need help, and it hurts to see them that way, it really does,” he said. “Thank God I was able to get out of the hole that I was in. [But] what about the ones who can’t, or weren’t as lucky as I was?”
Maurin Pisani picked the last of this year’s jasmine flowers and held it to his nose, breathing in the delicate perfume. Behind him the Maritime Alps, beneath, the hills of Grasse rolling to the sea.
“Their smell changes all the time because they are alive. Sometimes of mango, apricot and banana, sometimes almonds and coconut, and when they start to wilt, the animal odour of indole,” said the 34-year-old.
“You mean cat pee,” responded his partner Anne Caluzio, 32, with a laugh.
Joking apart, the couple are living proof that flower power is finally returning to the French Riviera town famed for its scent.
The pair started planting jasminegrandiflorum – a key ingredient in top French perfumes like J’adore L’Or or Chanel number 5 – in their farm in June. It is back-breaking work as every tiny flower has to be harvested by hand over a three-month period.
But if all goes to plan, within four to five years, they will be the second biggest producers of the prized white flower in France.
Petroleum Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Sunday said that the present government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) would fulfill all the promises made with the masses and would come up to their expectations.
The petroleum minister was talking to a delegation of elected representatives including Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, Chaudhry Javed, Sajid Kausar and Chaudhry Azeem, who called on him in Islamabad.
The minister said that the gas crisis including the issue of low gas pressure would be resolved soon as steps are being taken to mitigate the suffering of the consumers.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan assured that negligence would not be tolerated at any cost adding that strict action would be taken against those found guilty in performing their duties.
“Everybody contributed,” Chattanooga head coach Katie Burrows said. “She got in foul trouble late, but Eboni [Williams]. That kid can motor. When she starts to figure out her body even a little better, she will be more effective because I will be able to leave her out there a little bit longer. To not even play half the game and get a double-double is impressive.”
Cowboys tight end Blake Jarwin (89) makes a catch in front of Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins (20) during the fourth quarter of a game at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018, in East Rutherford, N.J. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)
While the game didn’t matter in terms of playoff seeding, the Dallas Cowboys’ (10-6) 36-35 victory over the New York Giants (5-11) was one of the more exciting wins of the season.
While the Cowboys made some key substitutions throughout the game, they did not play scared, as they did their best — within reason — to bring home the victory. Key contributors such as Byron Jones, Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper played most of the game.
While it could have come back to bite Dallas if any of those key contributors got injured, the decision to go for the win could end up working out for the best. Prescott’s game-winning drive and the defense’s ability to close out the game will boost the team’s confidence entering the playoffs.
With that being said, let’s take a look at a few things gleaned from the Cowboys’ thrilling victory:
Jarwin, Schultz developing into impressive TE duo
After a slow start to the season, Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz have developed into quite the tight end duo for the Cowboys. With Geoff Swaim on injured reserve and out since mid-November, Dallas needed the two tight ends to kick their development into overdrive, which is exactly what’s happened.
Their development was on full display against New York, as each thrived in their individual roles on Sunday.
Blake Jarwin is Dallas’ stretch tight end who is moved all over the formation and makes his biggest impact as a receiver. Schultz, on the other hand, is more of the classic in-line tight end who does a lot of his best work in the run game — though he is an important check down option for Prescott at times.
On Sunday, Jarwin went “Super Saiyan” against the Giants defense, finishing with seven catches for 119 yards and three touchdowns. Previously with zero touchdowns in his NFL career, Jarwin took full advantage of New York’s suspect defense in between the numbers.
On his first touchdown, Jarwin, who is lined up on the far hash mark, did an excellent job of bending his seam route to the near-side hash against New York’s Tampa 2 coverage, allowing him to find the open space necessary for Prescott to find him in the end zone.
This showed fantastic awareness and mental processing ability from the second-year tight end. Against a defense with split-safeties when running a seam route, Jarwin would typically split the hash with his seam route in an attempt to run into the hole in the zones between the split safeties.
However, New York is running Tampa 2 coverage from a split safety alignment, where the “Mike” linebacker drops to the deep middle, making it essentially a three-deep coverage. If Jarwin runs his route in between the hashes, Giants linebacker Nathan Stupar (No. 57) would be in perfect position to eliminate the throwing window.
Yet, pay attention to Jarwin’s eyes as he streaks downfield — he identifies the linebacker dropping into the deep middle, which informs his decision to bend his route past the near hash, allowing him to sit down in between the linebacker and safety for the touchdown.
On his second touchdown, Jarwin was able to once again beat New York’s Tampa 2 defense, though this one was more by play design. Here, the Cowboys have 0-2 personnel (zero running backs, two tight ends, three wide receivers) on the field and align in an empty formation with Schultz in the slot and Jarwin in a reduced split toward the bottom of the screen.
Schultz is running a curl route in an effort to hold the attention of the deep middle defender so that Jarwin can get open behind him for the touchdown, which is exactly what happens. From there, Jarwin does his best Jimmy Graham impression, as he makes the leaping touchdown grab.
Jarwin’s last touchdown was a result of impressive improvisational skills, great ball skills and abysmal tackling from the New York secondary (looking at you Curtis Riley — No. 35). Still, it was nice to see Jarwin show off his yards-after-catch ability, as he possesses the requisite athleticism to thrive in that area.
While Jarwin will get most of the attention (and rightfully so), Schultz also showed off the skills that make him valuable to the Dallas offense.
His stat line is easy to overlook, as Schultz finished with just one catch for 17 yards — but he made numerous contributions in areas that don’t show up in the box score. For example, Schultz’s curl route was the reason Jarwin was able to get open for his second touchdown.
Schultz’s best work came as a blocker. Rod Smith’s fourth-quarter touchdown run was a great example:
Here, Schultz (No. 86) is lined up as an in-line tight end sandwiched between Cam Fleming (No. 75) and Rico Gathers (No. 80). Once the ball is snapped, Schultz fires out with the proper pad level and footwork, which put him in position to latch and drive Giants safety Michael Thomas inside.
This opens up a gaping hole for Rod Smith, who is able to follow Jamize Olawale into the hole Schultz created for the touchdown.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention to the rookie tight end in recent weeks, as Schultz has been, by far, Dallas’ best blocking tight end in the last month.
Jarwin and Schultz’s recent development bodes well for the Cowboys offense in the playoffs. If Jarwin can prove to be a consistent and reliable threat up the seam while Schultz continues to be a high-level blocker, the Cowboys offense has the potential to be more dangerous in the playoffs than it was in the regular season.
Jones showing some kinks in his armor
Don’t get it twisted, Byron Jones is still a fantastic cornerback who is playing at a high level. However, he has shown some slight regression in recent weeks.
In his previous six games, Jones has been called for four penalties. In the 10 games before that, Jones had just two penalties. On top of that, Jones allowed over 100 yards receiving for the first time all season against Tampa Bay.
And against New York on Sunday, Jones gave up his first deep touchdown (his second touchdown allowed all season) to Giants receiver Cody Latimer.
Jones actually does a good job in coverage, as he did a good job staying glued to Latimer’s hip while squeezing the Giants receiver to the boundary.
Nonetheless, Jones ruins his tight coverage with questionable technique at the catch point. Instead of leaning inside and playing through the catch, Jones leans toward the sideline in an effort to reach with his right hand.
However, because Jones leans outside, he loses his sight line to the catch point, leaving him unable to adjust to the ball as it drops in Latimer’s left hand for the touchdown.
Throughout the season, Jones’ biggest (and at most times, only) weakness is his ball skills (zero interceptions) and ability to defend the catch points, which makes sense given that most of Jones’ time in the NFL has been spent at safety.
This is why after largely not looking his way most of the season, quarterbacks are starting to target Jones even when he’s in tight coverage, as they trust their wide receivers to get the better of Jones at the catch point.
It’s going to be interesting to monitor in the playoffs, especially as Chidobe Awuzie continues to show improvement in coverage.
Again, Jones is still an excellent cornerback who deserves All-Pro consideration this season, but he has shown some kinks in his armor as of late.
‘Late-Game Dak’ is a real thing, will be a valuable weapon in playoffs
Dak Prescott may not be an elite quarterback and may have some maddening inconsistencies in his game, but still, there are not many quarterbacks who are better during late-game drives than Dallas’ third-year quarterback.
Coming into the game, Prescott was tied for third in the NFL with four game-winning drives this season — behind just Drew Brees (seven) and Deshaun Watson (five).
During a time when many were wondering why he was still on the field, Prescott was able to lead the offense to its fifth game-winning drive of the season, as Dallas went 75 yards on nine plays to secure the touchdown before converting on the two-point conversion to take the lead.
Prescott tends to play his best when the pressure is at a fever pitch, which was demonstrated on fourth-and-15 with just 1:19 left in the game with the Cowboys down seven:
Dak Prescott in the Cowboys’ last 2 games against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium: 47 of 74 passing, 719 yards, 7 TDs, 0 INTs, 127.0 passer rating (video: @NFL) pic.twitter.com/V6E4bJ3OAP
Here, Prescott does his best Tony Romo impersonation as he’s able to spin away from Olivier Vernon, who beat Cam Fleming bad. After breaking the pocket, Prescott does well to keep his eyes downfield, which allows him to locate Cole Beasley getting open in the back of the end zone.
From there, Prescott uncorks a beautiful throw on the run, putting the ball in an area where only Cole Beasley can bring down the catch.
In the playoffs, Prescott’s late-game heroics will be incredibly valuable to the Cowboys. If they are able to keep it close, the Cowboys have to feel good about their chances to come away with the victory.
