Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This is the Player's Level,
Speaker 1: broadcasting live from Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the Star.
Speaker 1: Now your hosts Barry Church, Danny McCray and Knew He Scrugs.
Speaker 1: Here we are a Friday. Everybody, Welcome to the Players Lounge,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Hotels dot Com. I'm knew He Scruggs,
Speaker 1: a longtime Cowboys reporter, joined by Danny McCray, former Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys safety or other running buddy. Barry Church has decided
Speaker 1: that he's gonna take a little getaway vacation. Man. You know,
Speaker 1: Barry just rolling outlet like that. Send us to emails wanting, hey,
Speaker 1: fellas out hey when you when you listen listen when
Speaker 1: when when you get paid? How Jacksonville pay them? You
Speaker 1: could take a vacation anytime you want, first any time exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean he just you know, he rolled around like
Speaker 1: ti telling his wife you can go wherever you lie.
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, yeah, Church and the Church gone. You
Speaker 1: know what he was really doing, He said, he was
Speaker 1: trying to celebrate that one win that he got last night.
Speaker 1: He's he's officially won and oh on this on the
Speaker 1: straight up picks, but he's on one on his cover
Speaker 1: and the spread picks, and he just trying to celebrate
Speaker 1: any win he could get it. And I understand because
Speaker 1: it's been rough for him, all right. So so follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter. I'm at NEWI Scruggs. It's n E
Speaker 1: w Y Scruggs. I tweeted it out yesterday. I'll retweeted again.
Speaker 1: So I make picks every week in the Dallas Warning
Speaker 1: News with several other people, and this week I decided
Speaker 1: that I would have Barry Church do all my pics.
Speaker 1: So we did it on the show. So we can
Speaker 1: go back and check out yesterday's show. So Barry did
Speaker 1: all the picks for me, and or it's Wednesday. I
Speaker 1: did it was Wednesday, and so Barry did all the pics.
Speaker 1: So it's there in the paper. So I retweeted it
Speaker 1: and I had a media remember hit me up and
Speaker 1: D and me says, really, you were going with the cowboys.
Speaker 1: You still believe in the hot boys, and and so
Speaker 1: I sent him the D and back, I said, you
Speaker 1: didn't see my tweet. Barry Church did the picks this week.
Speaker 1: I've already made my pick, I said, and then I
Speaker 1: sent him the link to my TV pick. I said. So,
Speaker 1: so here's where where I went, and just so you
Speaker 1: all know, and let's just get the predictions right out
Speaker 1: of the way. Church went twenty eight seventeen Cowboys to
Speaker 1: beat Washington. The Cowboys are one point favorite. I went
Speaker 1: with Washington to win twenty four twenty three. So that's
Speaker 1: what I did. So so Dmac, let's get it out
Speaker 1: of the way right away. Let'stop wait till the end.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead, get your prediction right here for this
Speaker 1: football game between the one in five Washington football team
Speaker 1: and the two or four Cowboys. Man, you know, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be one of those games here. Then
Speaker 1: we used to have back in the day where it
Speaker 1: was a lot of field goal kicking. So I'm looking
Speaker 1: at low scoring, something around the twenty three to twenty
Speaker 1: range for the Washington Oh sorry, the Washington football team.
Speaker 1: Make sure I get that right, so so we don't
Speaker 1: get in trouble here. So yeah, I'm going on Washington.
Speaker 1: I just don't believe that we'll be able to stop
Speaker 1: the run. Our secondary still having problems. You know. I
Speaker 1: went back and watched something that that last played by
Speaker 1: Kenyan Drake when he ran sixty nine yards, and I
Speaker 1: just could not figure out why they were aligned the
Speaker 1: way that they were aligned. And then Nolan comes out
Speaker 1: and he's still a little frustrated and mad because he
Speaker 1: doesn't understand leither and that is a big issue. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't if he doesn't know what went wrong, that
Speaker 1: is a true serious problem. So I just don't think
Speaker 1: we can get it fixed this week. So you're going
Speaker 1: twenty three twenty Washington. Yeah, okay, So you and I
Speaker 1: are basically right there together in terms of this of
Speaker 1: this win. I got twenty four to twenty three. I've
Speaker 1: got I've got Washington winning on a lake field goal.
Speaker 1: And I'll give the folks who are checking us out here.
Speaker 1: My biggest reason, which is what I said on my
Speaker 1: TV prediction, was the offensive line is a massive concern
Speaker 1: for me. I mean, this is another game in which
Speaker 1: the Cowboys are going to roll out another different set
Speaker 1: of offensive lineman. And look, I'm no professional football player.
Speaker 1: I just played a little bit, you know, just played
Speaker 1: the high school thing, and I was a center, and
Speaker 1: I can tell you for sure, when you start having
Speaker 1: different combinations of guys and says this is a high
Speaker 1: school level. You know, there can be some confusion, you know,
Speaker 1: when we weren't going against anybody good like you know,
Speaker 1: Chase Young and Mantest Sweat, like the Cowboys are gonna base.
Speaker 1: So when you roll out these different combinations and there's
Speaker 1: just little things where you know how to tell guys, well,
Speaker 1: how you need some help and what you need to do.
Speaker 1: You know, you may tell a guy, hey man, I
Speaker 1: need you to give me a longer chip here. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's there's these little things within a football game to
Speaker 1: go on. And oh, by the way, you've got a
Speaker 1: different starting offensive line combination and this is Andy Dalton
Speaker 1: second start. There's just a lot of things that you're
Speaker 1: looking at here from a continuity standpoint that hurt the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: and this has been a strong point for the Cowboys
Speaker 1: all game. I bring this up also with the fact
Speaker 1: that Zack Martin is probably not gonna plot. I mean
Speaker 1: that's coming from the head coach Mike McCarthy, also Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones who said it on one to five three the
Speaker 1: FAM he's been in concussion protocol. So their whole telling
Speaker 1: you probably it's pretty much in data. You know, the
Speaker 1: code words. He's not playing. Okay, So you're not going
Speaker 1: to have your all pro guard. You don't have your
Speaker 1: all pro, all decade left tackle, and Tyres Smith, who's
Speaker 1: out for the year. You don't have le College your
Speaker 1: right guard. I mean, this thing is just falling apart.
Speaker 1: You don't even have your former starting center Joe Looney.
Speaker 1: You've got the rookie Tyler Beyond So connormer governor is
Speaker 1: going to step in for Zack Martin against Washington and Danny.
Speaker 1: You take that and look on the other side. What's
Speaker 1: the strength of Washington even though they're wonder five football team,
Speaker 1: what is their strength? It's their d line that five
Speaker 1: first round picks over there. Man, I will, I will,
Speaker 1: I will say this. You know you listen. You know
Speaker 1: our new commendations on the offensive line, and then you
Speaker 1: also have the plugged that in like you said, with
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton, a new signal caller out there making the calls.
Speaker 1: And I can guarantee you one thing. We will get
Speaker 1: blitzed all night. They will test our offensive line, and
Speaker 1: we have not shown that we can pick up those blitzes.
Speaker 1: And we also haven't shown that we're willing to help
Speaker 1: out some of those old lineman with the chips and
Speaker 1: bringing those tight ends in to help out. So all
Speaker 1: that adding up, we're gonna have a long day with
Speaker 1: our offensive line, so that I think that will be
Speaker 1: a serious issue. That's why I think that we need
Speaker 1: to run the ball twenty five thirty times, a lot
Speaker 1: of zeke, a lot of Tony Pallor, a lot of
Speaker 1: jet sweeps with Ceedee Lamb, a lot of jet sweeps
Speaker 1: with the Mark Cooper, some some bubble screens, some things
Speaker 1: to get the ball out quick to help these guys out.
Speaker 1: If we don't do that, then it's a for sure loss.
Speaker 1: And I don't have any faith that we're going to
Speaker 1: do it because we haven't switched up. And we heard
Speaker 1: Killer Moore say last week that he doesn't think he
Speaker 1: need to change anything with Andy Dalton the game versus
Speaker 1: having back in there. So you know that that's why
Speaker 1: I'm leaning towards the decision that I made for Washington
Speaker 1: won in the game twenty three to twenty. I'm still
Speaker 1: on this time of possession kick for the Cowboys, and
Speaker 1: I look at this defense and some of the issues
Speaker 1: they've had, and I go back to what you said
Speaker 1: in terms of trying to establish the run and using
Speaker 1: Ezekiel Elliott, take some time off the clock, help your
Speaker 1: defense out in this football game, and let me keep
Speaker 1: hammering away on this Washington football team. So I went
Speaker 1: and I checked it. Danny Washington Is got sixteen sacks.
Speaker 1: So they got sixteen sacks and that's by nine different players.
Speaker 1: Ryan Kerrigan, who always seems to have some good games
Speaker 1: against the Cowboys, has three sacks this year. Montes Sweat
Speaker 1: has three sacks, and then their first round pick, Chase
Speaker 1: Young from Ohio State has two and a half. And
Speaker 1: when I look down there and I see that they've
Speaker 1: had nine different guys get sacks, that tells me that,
Speaker 1: going back to what you said, Jack del Rio is
Speaker 1: not only going to send the heat, He's got a
Speaker 1: lot of different guys who can get home. What we
Speaker 1: saw in that Atlanta game was really Tat McKinley. Ta
Speaker 1: McKinley was the best pass rusher that they had, and
Speaker 1: once Tat McK only went out, they were okay. And
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett was really that one guy that Cleveland had.
Speaker 1: Washington's able to send several different guys at you, and that,
Speaker 1: to me is something that worries me. So they not
Speaker 1: only need to run the football, but if you decide
Speaker 1: that you do want to pass, you know, if you
Speaker 1: get yourself caught in a third nine or third level
Speaker 1: situation and he don't got to get rid of football
Speaker 1: really quick because these guys are gonna be able to
Speaker 1: get home. So they Kella Moore has got to make
Speaker 1: sure he gained plans for that. You gotta get rid
Speaker 1: of that football quickly when when you're in these third
Speaker 1: long situations. Man, So so listen, and I want to
Speaker 1: clear this up. I want to make sure everybody understands this.
Speaker 1: No matter what we have on offense, no matter who's
Speaker 1: playing quarterback, I still firmly believe in basing your offense
Speaker 1: off running the ball first and then having everything off
Speaker 1: play off that. So no matter no matter how we
Speaker 1: were playing, I will still say that Zeke needed to
Speaker 1: touch the ball twenty five times and then we need
Speaker 1: to do everything based off that. So it's just it's
Speaker 1: just more more to it now, like it has to
Speaker 1: be done because you don't have Dack. You don't have
Speaker 1: the healthy offensive line to hold up and and and
Speaker 1: play a different way if you wanted to. So that's
Speaker 1: this is not just based on what we have now,
Speaker 1: this is what I believe in, you know, from from
Speaker 1: my days of playing and when when Jason Garrett was here,
Speaker 1: when Wade feels here, we ran the ball. We focused
Speaker 1: on that. So that's the way I see it, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately other people don't see it that way. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's why we're sitting here, you know, movie a second
Speaker 1: place in the two and four, because we just can't
Speaker 1: figure out that that is the strength of our team.
Speaker 1: And it's I think it's ironic that we can't see that.
Speaker 1: And we look at the production of Zeke and and
Speaker 1: somebody that we pay ninety million dollars and you don't
Speaker 1: say you don't the light bulb doesn't go off in
Speaker 1: your head lights it and say hey, we need to
Speaker 1: get this guy to Bostimore and get them involved in
Speaker 1: different ways. It's interesting you say that because you and
Speaker 1: I are looked at as these dinosaurs when we say this,
Speaker 1: and the so called analytics guys um that all throw
Speaker 1: the ball. Throw the ball. Okay, Andy Dalton, throw the
Speaker 1: ball was fifty four times night football. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: when you start looking at the Cowboys guys in quarterbacks
Speaker 1: through the games from from Prescott to eight min to Romo.
Speaker 1: When you're throwing at fifty plus times, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what comes along with that. Pretty much every time you
Speaker 1: look at that those games and L and L, you've
Speaker 1: got to figure out how to run the football and
Speaker 1: with this defense to keep them off the field. Man,
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to play complimentary football. You've got
Speaker 1: to call plays that compliment not just your offense but
Speaker 1: your overall football team. And when you don't do that,
Speaker 1: you just want, hey, let's just run plays. Run plays.
Speaker 1: Then I think you find the Cowboys and where they're at.
Speaker 1: You got a lot of big stats, you got a
Speaker 1: lot of garbage time points and garbage time yards. But
Speaker 1: the competitive phase of the football game, you find yourself
Speaker 1: out of it where all of a sudden, if you're
Speaker 1: behind like this and double digit leads, they know what's coming.
Speaker 1: They're not worried about the run. They're just gonna sit
Speaker 1: around here, drop back, and then just say, hey, now
Speaker 1: guys are sitting around here hunting for interceptions. And we've
Speaker 1: seen that happen too. So I'm with you a hundred
Speaker 1: percent about running the ball. But what's crazy is even
Speaker 1: when you're down double digits, depending on what points you
Speaker 1: are in the game, you still don't have to abandon
Speaker 1: the run. We've seen teams come back from down fourteen
Speaker 1: to twenty one points by still sticking with the run
Speaker 1: and then hitting those big players over top because you
Speaker 1: get some of those defensive backs and linebackers to step up,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to defend those those guys. Right, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you this. Defensive backs and some linebackers they do
Speaker 1: not want to necessarily take on blocks and get pounded
Speaker 1: on by guys like Ezekiel Ellett. Derek can read. These
Speaker 1: guys that run hard and punish you at the end
Speaker 1: of runs and always fall forward. They do not want
Speaker 1: to do that the entire game. So the more that
Speaker 1: you can do that, the more that you can get
Speaker 1: in their head and wear them down, the more that
Speaker 1: you open up those deep shots so you don't have
Speaker 1: to abandon the running. You get down fourteen points and
Speaker 1: you're in the first quarter. Yeah, the game is not
Speaker 1: dictating that you do that, and we seem to do
Speaker 1: that often, and that's why you see us with fifty
Speaker 1: four fifty four attempts and sixty attempts and forty five
Speaker 1: attempts because we abandoned it too early. Well, that's been
Speaker 1: a problem under Mike McCarthy. It's also as a problem
Speaker 1: under Jason Garrett, where the offensive coordinators decided that, you know,
Speaker 1: just get away from the run as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: I go back to the Atlanta game, and when the
Speaker 1: Cowboys ended up making that comeback, they ram the football.
Speaker 1: Zeke had ten carries in the second half. Okay, ten
Speaker 1: and that may not seem big to you, but he
Speaker 1: had over twenty in the football game. But they did
Speaker 1: not abandon the run, and they did exactly what you did,
Speaker 1: what you're talking about day. They were able to kind
Speaker 1: of get themselves back in the football game and eventually
Speaker 1: win it. But they haven't done that since he's not
Speaker 1: getting those carries. Now, go back to the last game
Speaker 1: against Arizona. You're not getting carries because you're putt the
Speaker 1: ball on the ground, and so, yeah, they've lost their
Speaker 1: faith in him. But at this point in the season,
Speaker 1: no matter how frustrated anybody may be with Ezekiel Elliott,
Speaker 1: he's the best of what you got left. You're going
Speaker 1: to have to figure this out. And when it comes
Speaker 1: to ball security, let me read you what Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: had to say today. He said, if anything, we've probably
Speaker 1: leaning towards over coaching in that area of ball security.
Speaker 1: Something I'm conscious of the question is the answer says,
Speaker 1: you gotta make sure you stay on top of it.
Speaker 1: So this is and I'll give I'll give Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: this one thing. You go back to his record in
Speaker 1: Green Bay. They were good when it came to turn
Speaker 1: over margin and right down the Cowboys the worst in
Speaker 1: the league at fifty minus fifteen. Listen, and then and
Speaker 1: this whole thing with Zeke and the fumbling and all that.
Speaker 1: I do not understand how people could all of a
Speaker 1: sudden lose faith. And we can talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: putting Tony policy and all this stuff. Listen, the guy fumbles.
Speaker 1: He's going through a rough patch. But if you put
Speaker 1: together his body of work and and and you see
Speaker 1: what he's done previously, and this is all it takes
Speaker 1: for you to give up hope on Zeke, then you
Speaker 1: haven't really digested what he's been able to do as
Speaker 1: a running back for us. They didn't pay him ninety
Speaker 1: million dollars for him to fumble, you know, five or
Speaker 1: six times, and didn't give up on him. The guy
Speaker 1: is still an elite running back. If you watch the
Speaker 1: way that Tennessee plays, no matter what the score of
Speaker 1: the game is, they believe that Derek Henry can always
Speaker 1: break the long run. Zeke is still that guy. He
Speaker 1: can still get you a seventy eighty yard run or
Speaker 1: forty yard run and get you down on the other
Speaker 1: teams side of the field quickly. So it's not like
Speaker 1: he's not able to still do that. Yeah, he fumbled,
Speaker 1: he can get over that and he can still be
Speaker 1: the same guy. This does not take away from what
Speaker 1: Zeke is, the type of player that he is. He
Speaker 1: can still get this stuff done, and I think we
Speaker 1: still need to lean on him no matter what he's
Speaker 1: done in a previous few games. He can still carry
Speaker 1: this team and we've seen him do it before. I
Speaker 1: go back to what Mike McCarthy took the football job,
Speaker 1: and I was there at the Presscomberence. So at the time,
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy thought, you know, he'd have Travis Frederick, he
Speaker 1: doesn't Travis retired. Thought he'd have Lell Collins. He hasn't
Speaker 1: hadn't played all year long. So if there's your your
Speaker 1: center gone, your right tackle gone, thought he'd have Tyr Smith.
Speaker 1: He's out for the season now, so your left tackle's gone.
Speaker 1: Thought he'd have Zack Martin this week. Your right guard
Speaker 1: is gone. Thought he'd have Blake Jarwin as his tied end.
Speaker 1: And Blake Jarwin ends up going on the injured reserve
Speaker 1: of the torn acl Thought he have Dak Prescott is
Speaker 1: a quarterback. Dak Prescott breaks scle quarter is going. You
Speaker 1: start looking at all these guys you thought you were
Speaker 1: gonna have, and we're talking about Pro Bowl players here
Speaker 1: that are gone. You start looking around at what's left.
Speaker 1: You better figure out how to take advantage of what
Speaker 1: you have and who's there. And to me, this would
Speaker 1: be and should be a feed Zeke game plan. Man,
Speaker 1: we're not good on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1: We gotta go ahead, in my mind and take face
Speaker 1: in your Washington team. That's a one win team. You
Speaker 1: gotta figure out how to make Ezekiel Elliot a major
Speaker 1: part of the game plan. You and I are right
Speaker 1: there together here, because, dude, how sad is it that
Speaker 1: you and I don't believe they could be the one
Speaker 1: win football team at who? I don't think I really
Speaker 1: don't think it's that it's not rocket science, right Listen.
Speaker 1: Like for all the stuff that we don't have on offense,
Speaker 1: we still have a lot of weapons, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, that we can go to. So you can
Speaker 1: still get the ball to Cede Lamp quickly. We saw
Speaker 1: the Rams do that with Robert Woods and Cooper. You
Speaker 1: can still get the ball to Amari Cooper quickly, get
Speaker 1: it in their hands and see what they can do
Speaker 1: with it. After they get the ball in the hands,
Speaker 1: you can still get the ball to Zeke. You can
Speaker 1: throw it to him, you can pass it to him,
Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want to. It's creative ways
Speaker 1: to get these guys the ball to where you don't
Speaker 1: have to necessarily throw it down the field fifty or
Speaker 1: sixty yards. You can still get this done because when
Speaker 1: you run a jailbreak screen or a two yard out
Speaker 1: or you know what I'm saying, a quick hitch, that's
Speaker 1: an extension of your run game. We still count that
Speaker 1: as run plays where you can you know, saying you
Speaker 1: get four or five yards on first down, that that
Speaker 1: is positive yards and Zeke is still getting four yards
Speaker 1: to carry. So it's not rocket signs. We can still
Speaker 1: get it done. We just have to focus on it.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get in a break right here. You're
Speaker 1: check out the Players Lounge. We are in our SWBC
Speaker 1: Mortgage Virtual Home studios. I'm new He Scruggs. He is
Speaker 1: Danny mccraig. When we come back, there's some news that
Speaker 1: I've found kind of interesting. Some people were celebrating it, thinking, hey,
Speaker 1: look this shows you how effective to take lawrence has been.
Speaker 1: And I've got a different opinion. So let's get to
Speaker 1: that after the break right here on the Players Lounge
Speaker 1: on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hey, they're Cowboys fans
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Speaker 1: in the players Lass right here. Bride brought to you
Speaker 1: by Hotels dot com. NWI Scrugs longtime Cowboys reported joined
Speaker 1: by Danny McCree so. Earlier in the week, James Later
Speaker 1: of NFL Network UM put out a report where several
Speaker 1: players complained about the Cowboys coaching staff, saying that the
Speaker 1: Cowboys coaching staff would not prepare and that they're not
Speaker 1: good at their jobs. So Shaun Lee tried to come
Speaker 1: out this week, and we hadn't heard from Shaun Lee
Speaker 1: all year loans and they put Shawn Lee on a
Speaker 1: zoom callers. Shawn Lee tried to say there was no
Speaker 1: issues in the locker room. Ja Smith said that the
Speaker 1: Cowboys coaches and players coaches, and what do you have
Speaker 1: now here, Danny mccraie, what's being said. Yeah, we got
Speaker 1: Laton Vanders coming out saying that, you know, he said,
Speaker 1: you know, I think if you're gonna put that out
Speaker 1: there and you should put your name on it, and
Speaker 1: if you don't, then you're absolute cowards, some coward as
Speaker 1: simple as that, And that echoes the same thing that
Speaker 1: that that we all pretty much said earlier earlier this week.
Speaker 1: But we were just waiting on somebody to come out
Speaker 1: and be straight candid with it and let let their
Speaker 1: teammates know that if this is something that you did,
Speaker 1: that you are called for doing it and you should
Speaker 1: have put your name on it. And I think the
Speaker 1: entire team should be echoing this. So whoever did it
Speaker 1: could feel like absolute crap uh. And it was set
Speaker 1: a set an example for something that you shouldn't be
Speaker 1: doing in the locker room where you would have to
Speaker 1: answer for it. So I'm absolutely proud that that Vanderess
Speaker 1: did that, and hopefully some other guys can can step
Speaker 1: up and say something, say something toward the two. Okay,
Speaker 1: So having been a player how is this addressed amongst teammates? Man,
Speaker 1: it's listen, I hadn't been in that situation because we've
Speaker 1: never had that that I've known of guys who would
Speaker 1: actually go out and do something like that and be
Speaker 1: anonymous source. But if I was in there, um, it's
Speaker 1: just a tough thing. You have to call the entire
Speaker 1: team in there, have one of those team meetings again,
Speaker 1: and you're pretty sure that the person's not gonna stand
Speaker 1: up and said was them, But you have to let
Speaker 1: it be done that that is unacceptable and everybody should,
Speaker 1: you know, speak out against it. If they're asked about it,
Speaker 1: then they should knock it down, just like Lake Vendor
Speaker 1: is this so you don't have this issue because like
Speaker 1: we said earlier, this like creates a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: distrust within the locker room, and that's one of the
Speaker 1: things you don't want within your team, especially in a
Speaker 1: situation where the sink is shipping the sink. The ship
Speaker 1: is sinking a little bit and you're trying to get
Speaker 1: these guys on the same page so they can finish
Speaker 1: out the season with a running record, hopefully and make
Speaker 1: the playoffs. What does this say about Mike McCarthy and
Speaker 1: his staff that this early on they have guys who
Speaker 1: have that little amount of respect for them that are
Speaker 1: going this route. In Jason Garrett ten years here, we
Speaker 1: hadn't seen anything like that. Yeah, listen, I really won't
Speaker 1: say it's that bad, just because of the situation that
Speaker 1: we're in with COVID, and these guys hadn't been able
Speaker 1: to be around Mike McCarthy as much as they had
Speaker 1: hoped to have him and kind of get that relationship
Speaker 1: with him and see, you know, how he is and
Speaker 1: how he wants to run things. So they only got
Speaker 1: there I think maybe at the end of ju Lot
Speaker 1: beginning in the August, so they'd been there for maybe
Speaker 1: a month and a half or two before they really
Speaker 1: got started on football. So they don't really know him.
Speaker 1: So I don't really take that much from them now,
Speaker 1: But at this time, if it happens again, then it
Speaker 1: shows that they hadn't learned from them and they really
Speaker 1: don't have that much respect for him. It can happen
Speaker 1: once just because of this situation is a very extreme
Speaker 1: and different situation than we're in. But if this continues,
Speaker 1: then the respect lovel is very low for the coaching
Speaker 1: staff or whatever coaches they are actually talking about now.
Speaker 1: Mark Arthey has spoken about, you know, trying to to
Speaker 1: you know, have a new coaching staff and and you
Speaker 1: know learning that and then also you know, being new
Speaker 1: here with these players in the locker room. How much
Speaker 1: of that is a legitimate reason versus an excuse Because
Speaker 1: I look at the Carolina Panthers, who I expected to
Speaker 1: be one of the worst football teams in the NFL.
Speaker 1: That has not happened. They've been a good team in
Speaker 1: the factor. They handled Arizona and Charlotte about two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: And then I look at Cleveland. Cleveland came in here,
Speaker 1: Kevin Stefansky, brand new coaching staff, and they punched the
Speaker 1: Cowboys right in the mouth. And they look like a
Speaker 1: totally different organization from what we've seen in the past
Speaker 1: two seasons. So that's why I come back to Mike McCarthy.
Speaker 1: You've got some issues here, but you have something that
Speaker 1: Cleveland and Carolina what we felt at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the year. You had the better you had the better squad,
Speaker 1: you had more talent. So how is it that they're
Speaker 1: looking more competitive? They're not turning the football over the
Speaker 1: way you guys are, So how do you see it, Danny, Well,
Speaker 1: that's the thing about football, man. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of rosters look great on paper, but once they get
Speaker 1: together and start playing as a team, things are a
Speaker 1: little different and these type of things come up. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, turnover margin, it's a huge thing, but sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, those things do come in bunches and the
Speaker 1: team isn't playing as well as they should. I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing for us is that the coaching issues right,
Speaker 1: because if your players don't have trust and the coaches,
Speaker 1: then that's a bigger issue. Then then you turn the
Speaker 1: ball over. Because you can get those turnovers fixed, guys
Speaker 1: can focus on a little bit more through the rest
Speaker 1: of the season. You could possibly not see Zeke fumble.
Speaker 1: You could, you know, tone down on the interceptions. But
Speaker 1: the trust and the coaches, especially now that the difference
Speaker 1: between Cleveland and what was the other team that you mentioned,
Speaker 1: the difference between when them and Cleveland and Carolina, we're losing.
Speaker 1: Carolina went on to win three straight at one point,
Speaker 1: Cleveland's four and two. We, on the other hand, we
Speaker 1: haven't been able to get this thing together, and only
Speaker 1: two teams that we beat, our teams that were bad
Speaker 1: and we almost lost to so you know that had
Speaker 1: no wins, They had no wins the TP. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's different, different circumstances here, and we could have
Speaker 1: easily lost those games playing over six. So it's just
Speaker 1: a different circumstances for us. Uh. And when you're losing that,
Speaker 1: those things start coming out a little bit more. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what's the hope really at this point in time?
Speaker 1: If you're if you're the if you're the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: you're the team, what is the hope for you right now?
Speaker 1: What do you hang your hat on? You know, how
Speaker 1: do you try? How do you try and fix this thing?
Speaker 1: Because it's it's bad from several reasons. It's bad because
Speaker 1: the scheme clearly the guys on defense haven't figured it out,
Speaker 1: and then the injury factor has hit this team on
Speaker 1: both sides of the football. Listen in football, in every
Speaker 1: locker room, no matter what your record is, no matter
Speaker 1: how bad you're playing, how good you're playing, a win
Speaker 1: can fix all, no matter who you're playing against. I
Speaker 1: guarantee you this. If they come out and they beat Washington,
Speaker 1: they will have a whole different attitude about themselves. If
Speaker 1: they play well, and then you might see a whole
Speaker 1: turn different turn to the season for us. If we
Speaker 1: come out and lose, then the hope for this is,
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully these guys can stick together and you
Speaker 1: don't see a lot of infighting in there and guys
Speaker 1: starting to play for themselves, worried about, you know, their
Speaker 1: their own food futures and you know, trying to make
Speaker 1: these plays outside of the system, just so they can
Speaker 1: make sure that they paid their stats and they're prepared
Speaker 1: to go on to another team, because that's something that
Speaker 1: players do worry about. You know, you come out here,
Speaker 1: you got a new coaching staff, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the record is bad and the stats are bad,
Speaker 1: and then you hit the free agent market and they're
Speaker 1: saying that you sucked just because you know, you played
Speaker 1: on that bad team and it was it was a
Speaker 1: bad year for you. So when you start playing this
Speaker 1: way and you start having to lose the record, those
Speaker 1: type of things seep in the minds of the players.
Speaker 1: So that's one thing that you want to try to avoid.
Speaker 1: A win can fix it off. Although I still don't
Speaker 1: think we will beat Washington, Okay, Danny, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: this next five game stretch for the Cowboys. It's really
Speaker 1: the critical point of this season here. So at Washington
Speaker 1: this week at Philadelphia, and that's a Sunday night football game,
Speaker 1: so the nation's going to be able to watch this
Speaker 1: game here. And then it is a home game against
Speaker 1: at Pittsburgh Steelers, a road game against Minnesota, and then
Speaker 1: a home game against Washington. So you're looking at Washington, Philadelphia, Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and then another game against Wash. So four the five
Speaker 1: next game four five next football games or against teams
Speaker 1: that have issues that are losing football teams. And if
Speaker 1: they can't figure out how to beat these losing football teams,
Speaker 1: it can get rough the rest of the way because
Speaker 1: after Washington, these are the next five games the end
Speaker 1: the season at Baltimore, at Cincinnati home against the forty
Speaker 1: nine ers on Sunday night football home against the Eagles,
Speaker 1: and then on the road against the Giants. So I
Speaker 1: gotta say, man, by December, we're gonna know exactly where
Speaker 1: this team kind of is in terms of of any
Speaker 1: hopes or what's going on here. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: scratching my head right now. Maybe they figure out how
Speaker 1: to turn it around. Maybe they do, but but right now,
Speaker 1: and I just have so many question marks about the
Speaker 1: football team. No, listen, when when you think about this team,
Speaker 1: like I said, like we talked about earlier, you have
Speaker 1: to be really really honest with yourself and believe in
Speaker 1: what you're seeing. Without Dak Prescott having an MVP type
Speaker 1: performance for those games, we are O and six, like
Speaker 1: we don't win a game, So we're really starting at
Speaker 1: the bottom here. And the thing is we're lucky enough
Speaker 1: to be playing some of these teams. We got Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 1: we got and like I said this early, I'm not
Speaker 1: counting Philly out because somehow they always find a way
Speaker 1: to get back into at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: and then sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but they're
Speaker 1: always fighting and close at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: So we gotta play Philly twice, and we got Washington.
Speaker 1: All right, those are teams that we can beat, and
Speaker 1: we would say if we had that we should be.
Speaker 1: But it's possible for us to not be any any
Speaker 1: one of those teams, and this season could be be
Speaker 1: worse off than it is. So from what I'm seeing,
Speaker 1: I don't have much faith in it, but hopefully we
Speaker 1: could pull off at least the two wins against Washington, Oh,
Speaker 1: at least. But it's it's listen, you believe believe what
Speaker 1: you see. Man, you gotta believe what you see, believe
Speaker 1: what they showing you. Six games in they showed us
Speaker 1: that that they've gotten lucky and one of those two
Speaker 1: games and they fought off or a six, but it
Speaker 1: was mainly because of the heroic player of Black Prescott
Speaker 1: and he's not here. So we have to see Andy
Speaker 1: don't do something serious and Kellen Moore really come up
Speaker 1: with a creative play sheet and stick to the ring
Speaker 1: game and base everything off that if we go any
Speaker 1: any way outside of that, we're not going to win.
Speaker 1: For many years, people have told you how basic football is,
Speaker 1: that it's won in the trenches. And going back to
Speaker 1: what you said, just what are you seeing? Well, the
Speaker 1: Cowboys are not good up front on the offensive line
Speaker 1: or defensive line. And if you can't control those areas,
Speaker 1: you can't win football games. And when I look at
Speaker 1: Washington said it earlier, start to show their defensive line
Speaker 1: is a concern. They've got five first round picks there.
Speaker 1: You look up, they've got six sacks by nine different players.
Speaker 1: You know what Jack del Rio is going to do.
Speaker 1: If you've watched these Philadelphia games, yes they are two
Speaker 1: four and one, but they gave Pittsburgh all they wanted.
Speaker 1: You know, you go and you look at some of
Speaker 1: these losses here um, even in the games where they
Speaker 1: were behind, I mean, I thought Baltimore had these guys handled, okay,
Speaker 1: but they came back and they fought against Baltimore here. Um.
Speaker 1: Look there, their schedule gets a lot easier and defensively
Speaker 1: right up front, I don't think the Cowboys can beat them.
Speaker 1: And so for me, at this point in time, and
Speaker 1: I've said it weeks ago, I think Philadelphia is going
Speaker 1: to win this division. It maybe a losing record, but
Speaker 1: I think Philadelphia will win this division because the Cowboys
Speaker 1: have yet to show us from a defensive standpoint that
Speaker 1: they can stop some folks, and they got to show
Speaker 1: us they can win also win a game on the road.
Speaker 1: This is a team that has not won a road
Speaker 1: game this year. Both wins came at home, and as
Speaker 1: we talked about, they would come back wins and a
Speaker 1: couple of gifts along the way that the Cowboys you know,
Speaker 1: in some ways created their own luck. But still you
Speaker 1: needed some heroic to happen in dak Prescott. The hero
Speaker 1: is not here. So looking at this game against Washington,
Speaker 1: I'm very concerned. And maybe these guys come out here
Speaker 1: show some pride and they hear all the negativity. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's the rallying point that they feel the people have
Speaker 1: giving up on them, and the Cowboys come out and respond.
Speaker 1: But right now, man, if we're just as you said,
Speaker 1: if we're just being realistic and what do our eyes
Speaker 1: tell us, all I can go by is what I
Speaker 1: see is Bill Parcel said, Cowboys are winning up front.
Speaker 1: You can't win up front. You can't win in the
Speaker 1: National Football League. Yeah, listen, And like you said, we're
Speaker 1: not winning up front. And the one player that stood
Speaker 1: out to me, like I said, was the Kenyan Drake play.
Speaker 1: We have nine guys in the box and all of
Speaker 1: the linebackers and safeties are misaligned outside of their gaps,
Speaker 1: and you got two guys in one gap, you got
Speaker 1: a safety shooting the wrong gap and they break it
Speaker 1: for sixty nine yards and the defensive coordinator sitting there
Speaker 1: and he's scrapped in his head because in his mind,
Speaker 1: he taught that, he taught it. Hey, man, listen, this
Speaker 1: is the gap you got. All you gotta do is
Speaker 1: in front of you is a d libent in that gap.
Speaker 1: That is not your gap. It is at that point.
Speaker 1: It is as simple as that. And they didn't get
Speaker 1: that right, and it costs them a sixty nine yard
Speaker 1: t D run. And those are the issues that you have.
Speaker 1: You can't line up in the right gap your deepensive
Speaker 1: line to get pushed back to the linebackers. You can't
Speaker 1: stop the pass. You got to figure out how to
Speaker 1: do one of them, Like you know, the season is
Speaker 1: going to learn how to do one and give yourself
Speaker 1: a chance to win at some point during the season.
Speaker 1: All right, analytics, let's dive into that and point to
Speaker 1: something where it looks as though Tank Lawrence should be praised.
Speaker 1: Should he? Let's dive into it next on the Player's
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Speaker 1: you were in the Player's Lounge, brought to you by
Speaker 1: Hotels dot Com Knwe Scrubs joined by Danny mc craig.
Speaker 1: Danny m Create, a long time former Dallas Cowboy player
Speaker 1: and longtime remember the organization now works for them. I'm
Speaker 1: just merely a reporter who covers the team mills analytics,
Speaker 1: and this is something where I am not against analytics
Speaker 1: at all, but I also don't look at analytics and say, well,
Speaker 1: this is how it has to be done. I think
Speaker 1: you've got to use your eyes and you take the
Speaker 1: information analytics gives you, and it can help you form
Speaker 1: an opinion. But I don't believe that you have to
Speaker 1: go by what the math sheet says, because numbers can
Speaker 1: be twisted and turned into anything that you wanted to be.
Speaker 1: I bring that up because Pro Football Focus is something
Speaker 1: a lot of people like the reference. When I talk
Speaker 1: to different scouts and different coaches at times, they'll tell
Speaker 1: they'll look at me sideye, they'll just start rolling, you know,
Speaker 1: roll when you started talking about these analytics, aid pro
Speaker 1: football Focus comes up with because they are also talked
Speaker 1: about situation. He's like, what does the situation call for?
Speaker 1: When they came up with these numbers. So they came
Speaker 1: out with something this week called pass rush win rate,
Speaker 1: and they had their top four guys. T J. Watt
Speaker 1: of the Steelers was number one at twenty six percent.
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett of Cleveland number two, at twenty three percent.
Speaker 1: You had Khalil Mack of the Chicago Bears number three
Speaker 1: at twenty two percent, and then you had Tank Lawrence
Speaker 1: number four at twenty one percent. So pass rush win
Speaker 1: rate and you had a lot of people, including our
Speaker 1: own Kyle Yeoman's here Dallas Cowboys dot com. You catch
Speaker 1: out his his went of his podcasts talking cowboys and
Speaker 1: he was like, hey, look, Tanks are doing well. We
Speaker 1: shouldn't beating up Tank. And I come to this and say,
Speaker 1: all right, let me check with Danny and you give
Speaker 1: me your take on this. TJ. Watt, Miles, Garrett, Kalil Mac,
Speaker 1: Tank Lawrence all top four in past rush. When rate
Speaker 1: your thoughts, Uh man, you look like you said numbers
Speaker 1: numbers can be misconstrued and put together to show anything
Speaker 1: that you want. I think we all know that, uh
Speaker 1: And Tank himself knows that he hasn't played up to
Speaker 1: his capability and he needs to play better. And so
Speaker 1: I don't really understand, you know, what goes into that
Speaker 1: and how he could be top four, especially with how
Speaker 1: our defensive playing is playing. We haven't stopped the pass
Speaker 1: and we haven't stopped to run. So I don't I
Speaker 1: don't really understand how that how that can be. With
Speaker 1: that being said, um there, maybe there's something to it.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's playing as bad as um as
Speaker 1: we think he's playing. I think he's playing okay. But
Speaker 1: the same thing I said about the Mark Cooper, the
Speaker 1: same thing I said about Zeke the same is the
Speaker 1: same thing I'll say about Tank. And you're making a
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. Uh, you know that that's not good enough?
Speaker 1: Like the stats have to be how many sacks do
Speaker 1: you have? How many teams? How many games as your
Speaker 1: team winning? Are you a guy that's that the offense
Speaker 1: is focusing on to stop? Are you wreaking having? If
Speaker 1: you're not doing that, then then you're not living up
Speaker 1: to your price tag? Are you potential? So he needs
Speaker 1: to play better. I come to this conclusion when for
Speaker 1: the people who are trying to say, hey see it's
Speaker 1: more than sacks, it's more of this and more that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, No, I don't care about the pass rush
Speaker 1: win rate. I want to see what is the pass rush?
Speaker 1: What is the pass rush finished rate? You t J
Speaker 1: Watt number four, I should say he's number nine in
Speaker 1: sacks in the NFL with four to a half. Miles
Speaker 1: Garrett number two in sacks right now with seven. Khalil
Speaker 1: mac number nine, tied with t J. Watt in sacks
Speaker 1: with four and a half. Tank has one that makes
Speaker 1: him number one thirteen in the NFL. I'm sorry they
Speaker 1: didn't pay you to be Anthony Spencer to almost get
Speaker 1: to the quarterback. They paid you to be DeMarcus Ware
Speaker 1: and get to the quarterback. The same thing that I
Speaker 1: argue with people about Byron Jones. A lot of these
Speaker 1: analytics people will look at Byron Jones's numbers here and
Speaker 1: they're like, look, you don't pay a dude at the
Speaker 1: highest ranked corner in the game if you don't get
Speaker 1: if you don't take the football away, that's what you
Speaker 1: pay these guys. And this is this is once a
Speaker 1: getting it. This is my opinion. When I'm paying guys,
Speaker 1: I'm paying Tank Lawrence, I need you to sack the quarterback.
Speaker 1: If I'm paying a quarterback, I'm paying you to get
Speaker 1: your hands on the ball. That's how I'm paying these guys.
Speaker 1: If I'm paying a quarterback, I'm paying you to put
Speaker 1: a team on your back. That's what I need you
Speaker 1: to do. That's how I'm looking at paying guys. You
Speaker 1: go ahead, so so you get So this is this
Speaker 1: is the trap that Church fell into when he was
Speaker 1: talking about Buddha Baker and he was like, man, Buddha Baker,
Speaker 1: I think he had like one career interceptions or no
Speaker 1: career in the suptions that he became the highest paid
Speaker 1: safety in the league. And then we watched him play
Speaker 1: against us and we're like, oh, man, that's the guy
Speaker 1: that what we see why Because it's more than just
Speaker 1: getting interceptions for him. He did end up getting getting
Speaker 1: the pick in the game, but he changed the whole
Speaker 1: dynamic of the game by what he was able to do.
Speaker 1: And I think the same thing goes for Byron. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you say, look, do we want picks
Speaker 1: or do we want guys to be covered down the field?
Speaker 1: And Byron was the guy who was was was locking
Speaker 1: down of the opposing the number one receiver, and although
Speaker 1: he wasn't getting picks, he was a guy that you
Speaker 1: didn't have to worry about like we were worried about. Now.
Speaker 1: So you know, you can you can pick either one.
Speaker 1: But if i'm pick in the corner, I want a
Speaker 1: guy who's going to eliminate the opposing team's number one
Speaker 1: receiver and we don't have to worry about him. That way,
Speaker 1: we can focus our defense on everybody else. So I
Speaker 1: think Byron deserved to be one of the top paid
Speaker 1: corners in the league, even though he didn't get a
Speaker 1: lot of in the sessions, the same way Buda Baker
Speaker 1: deserved to get paid like he did because we see
Speaker 1: it in the way that he changed the game for us.
Speaker 1: And see that's where you and I different. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to pay for that. Um Now, I want to
Speaker 1: make sure I say this clearly. I'm a fan of
Speaker 1: Byron Jones the player, and I'm an even bigger fan
Speaker 1: of Byron Jones demand. I feel like the Cowboys messed
Speaker 1: this thing up because they should have locked him up
Speaker 1: probably two years ago, and you could have got him
Speaker 1: at a much better price. But they allowed him to
Speaker 1: go to the marketplace because they were still trying to
Speaker 1: make sure they can get the receiver quarterback signed, and
Speaker 1: so they didn't have enough money to sign him, and
Speaker 1: of course he got paid the highest, got the biggest
Speaker 1: contract ever for a quarterback. If they signed him two
Speaker 1: years ago, they could have got him at a much
Speaker 1: better price, it would have made sense. But once they
Speaker 1: let him go to the free agent market, you knew
Speaker 1: they weren't gonna be able to pay him. And I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be one of the guys that says, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make him the highest paid guy in the game.
Speaker 1: That's how I felt about him, which is where from
Speaker 1: a money standpoint, the kesse the Cowboys messed that up.
Speaker 1: I feel like the Cowboys were ill timed on Byron Jones.
Speaker 1: I thought they were ill timed on Amari Cooper. Thought
Speaker 1: they were also ill timed on Tank Lwins. These are
Speaker 1: deals that they should have got done a lot earlier.
Speaker 1: They waited till the end, and they couldn't get these guys,
Speaker 1: and at the price tag for oh yeah yeah, Dak
Speaker 1: Prescott too. But I was gonna say for all three guys,
Speaker 1: if you look at the deals they signed right now,
Speaker 1: I don't think that. I don't think the Cowboys. I
Speaker 1: don't think the Cowboys won even in losing, you know,
Speaker 1: losing Jones, you didn't win because you lost a good player,
Speaker 1: but you didn't sign it in Tank. You gave Tank
Speaker 1: all that money, and look to me, the with the
Speaker 1: whole Tank deal was. Had you taken t J. Watt
Speaker 1: instead of Taco Charlton, you'd have been in a better
Speaker 1: position where you could have done one or two things.
Speaker 1: You could have seen the potential of t J. Watt
Speaker 1: and said, you know what, Tank, this is our number
Speaker 1: and if you don't want it, we'll let you go.
Speaker 1: And then you had t J. Watton, you could have
Speaker 1: replaced him, but they had nowhere to go, so they
Speaker 1: had to pay the twenty million dollars number to Tank.
Speaker 1: And that's that's that's not getting it right from in
Speaker 1: my opinion, from a salary cap standpoint. And then the
Speaker 1: same thing with Cooper when you trade it for Cooper,
Speaker 1: why did he have a the owned place? Why did
Speaker 1: you wait for him to hit the free agent market?
Speaker 1: And then with Dak Prescott should have taken care of
Speaker 1: him that that training camp before he went into his
Speaker 1: rookie year. So these are issues where they have failed.
Speaker 1: But I just would not have paid Byron Jones as
Speaker 1: the highest paid corner in the game. Okay, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have done it. Okay, so tell me this how and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna add one player. But I think Byron is
Speaker 1: this important? How different do you think that this defense
Speaker 1: looks with Byron Jones and Jeff Heath in the lineup. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's different. I mean, we can't even act like it's not.
Speaker 1: It is different. I mean these are two players that
Speaker 1: that in my opinion, these are two good football players.
Speaker 1: But it's all about the price tag and the way
Speaker 1: the Cowboys. The Cowboys approached these things and and they
Speaker 1: let can't forget they let Zeke jump out of line
Speaker 1: of what they thought they were going to pay. But
Speaker 1: these were mistakes that were made by the team and
Speaker 1: in the timing of how they paid the guys. And
Speaker 1: at the same they were late. Every time you're late,
Speaker 1: the price tag goes up. And in Byron's case, the
Speaker 1: price tag was going up so high that you aren't
Speaker 1: going to be able to pay it. And it really
Speaker 1: kind of came down to two things here, Cooper Jones,
Speaker 1: when you say I'm write about that, it kind of
Speaker 1: came down to one of the one of the two players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they took and they took and they took Cooper.
Speaker 1: And I think it's crazy because they, like you said,
Speaker 1: they watched the price go up each year on Byron,
Speaker 1: they watched him become a better player from playing safety
Speaker 1: to play corner. They watched this with their own eye
Speaker 1: and didn't figure out the way to get this thing done.
Speaker 1: They could have made him one of the highest play
Speaker 1: corners and not have to do what Miami did to
Speaker 1: do that if they would have paid them on time.
Speaker 1: So I don't think that made sense. But I think
Speaker 1: right now that they regret not having him on the roster.
Speaker 1: I think they regretting not having Jeff Heath on the
Speaker 1: roster because those are two leaders in the locker room
Speaker 1: who probably wouldn't have put up with some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that's going on, and I think for them some
Speaker 1: type of price tag would have been worth it for
Speaker 1: what they're seeing right now. Can I give you a
Speaker 1: name of another guy that I have to look at
Speaker 1: now and say, you know I was wrong about that's
Speaker 1: Malie Collins. Mallie Collins was a guy they allowed to
Speaker 1: go to the Raiders and I will be I raised
Speaker 1: my hands those guys like, yeah, now you can let
Speaker 1: him go. Um, you know what Malie Collins Malick comes
Speaker 1: was that hed come a lot better than than what
Speaker 1: I'm watching out here from Don Terry Poe and what
Speaker 1: we saw from Tristan Hill and even from what we've
Speaker 1: seen from Tyron Crawford. Um, and you know, I look right,
Speaker 1: then there's a guy. There's a guy they paid and
Speaker 1: you talk about just regretting the money. It's Tyrone Crawford
Speaker 1: who's through injuries and just it's not been what he's
Speaker 1: he's been. So they've been to missus here and how
Speaker 1: they've taken care of their roster with some of these
Speaker 1: guys giving them contracts extend. And I'm still putting a
Speaker 1: lot of this on the effect of Rod Marinelli because,
Speaker 1: like I said, a lot of these guys look so
Speaker 1: bad because they are not putting forth one hundred percent
Speaker 1: effort for the entire game. And it's it's standing out,
Speaker 1: especially when you have a guy next to you that's
Speaker 1: going harder than you are and you watch somebody on
Speaker 1: the previous play give one effort. It shows, and it
Speaker 1: shows in their playing. It shows and their ability to
Speaker 1: make those plays and make those tackles. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: if you're jogging and a guy breaks a fifty yard run,
Speaker 1: it looks more obvious because you're jogging, but you could
Speaker 1: have made that play. You could have looked like a
Speaker 1: top notch player. But because of your effort. You look
Speaker 1: like a subpart player. And that's what I think. That's
Speaker 1: what's happening with a lot of the players on our defense.
Speaker 1: So let me come back to this, Danny, and yes,
Speaker 1: Mike Nolan gets a big hit on this from a
Speaker 1: lot of people. But you're a guy in the room.
Speaker 1: You guys are in the meeting room together in a
Speaker 1: position group. Don't people say something to each other to
Speaker 1: the standpoint of, Hey, I'm not here giving mine effort.
Speaker 1: That's not your best effort. Man, If you're gonna come
Speaker 1: out on this football field with me, I need your
Speaker 1: best effort. Is that not set in the locker room
Speaker 1: when we see the kind of performances we're seeing on
Speaker 1: take Well, yeah, we didn't have those issues though, right
Speaker 1: because you gotta remember I played with d Ware, I
Speaker 1: played with Jason Winden. I played with some guys that
Speaker 1: go out there and say, hey, they say follow me,
Speaker 1: and and the thing the sad part about it is
Speaker 1: Sean Lee is that guy. But he's not able to
Speaker 1: be on the field at the time. I believe he
Speaker 1: was out there on the field, and once he is
Speaker 1: able to get back out there, I think things will change,
Speaker 1: you know. But like I said, when him being on
Speaker 1: the sideline, it's kind of hard for him to be
Speaker 1: that that leader out there on the field. I think
Speaker 1: they'll change once he gets out there, but they got
Speaker 1: to follow somebody and somebody has to be that guy
Speaker 1: to step up. And I'm still waiting for but I
Speaker 1: think Tank can still be that guy. Jalen said he would,
Speaker 1: but then I saw him, you know, turn around and
Speaker 1: do something opposite the week after that. So we were
Speaker 1: just waiting for Sean Lee to back to show that leadership.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, So let's end the show by going
Speaker 1: back over our predictions. Here as the Cowboys getting ready
Speaker 1: to go to Washington. Church says Cowboys twenty eight seventeen.
Speaker 1: McCray says Washington twenty three twenty I have Washington winning
Speaker 1: by a point twenty four twenty three. That is the players. Lads,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you on Monday. I'm newly scrugs. He's
Speaker 1: Danny McCray. We'll have buried Church rejoin us on Monday.
Speaker 1: We appreciate everybody who's a part of the show. So
Speaker 1: many people behind the scenes working hard here at Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys dot Com. We will chat to you chat with
Speaker 1: you on Monday. Take care. This has been a production
Speaker 1: of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.