Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Are you ready for
Speaker 1: a break? Yes? Are you ready for a break? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Ready for a break? Yeah? And so much for that.
Speaker 1: It's time for the Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: Wall with Nick Eatman, David Hellman, and bar Garcia and
Speaker 1: Derek Eagleton. It is Monday, September tenth, twenty eighteen, Season fourteen,
Speaker 1: episode number thirty six, and oh have we got a
Speaker 1: show for you today here Live on the Break, live
Speaker 1: from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We are
Speaker 1: going to talk about this Cowboys game versus the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: Cowboys lose sixteen to eight. Not what any of us expected,
Speaker 1: far from what we expected. Probably, I think we all
Speaker 1: probably expected that that offense would be a little bit
Speaker 1: better than it was yesterday. And and so we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into that. We're gonna talk about everything that happened
Speaker 1: in the game and why the Cowboys end up losing it.
Speaker 1: But first, before we get to to just the intricate
Speaker 1: parts of the game, I want to start with the
Speaker 1: big picture here. Dallas basically blank defensively, they blanked until
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. They didn't, I'm sorry, offensively, they weren't
Speaker 1: able to score until the fourth quarter. The defense, pretty
Speaker 1: much after giving up ten points in the first half,
Speaker 1: then held this team pretty steady there for the rest
Speaker 1: of the game. And really it was a lot of
Speaker 1: the damage that the Panthers did offensively happened early in
Speaker 1: the game, before they started to figure out what was
Speaker 1: happening with Cam Newton. Overall, what did you think of
Speaker 1: the just the poor play offensively and how the Cowboys
Speaker 1: really are going to get any better at this point.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised. I thought they would beat the Panthers by
Speaker 1: thirteen points. I thought Zeke would look good. I thought
Speaker 1: the offense would look good. I was naive to think
Speaker 1: that this team would just magically get it together, and
Speaker 1: they didn't. They looked like they had not played with
Speaker 1: each other before, and a lot of them hadn't, you know,
Speaker 1: haven't because there are new players. It was really ugly,
Speaker 1: and I'm the first one to say I was absolutely
Speaker 1: wrong about it, and I won't do that again until
Speaker 1: they they changed things around, because this is this is
Speaker 1: really looking bad. And I thought last year was kind
Speaker 1: of a well, you know, the Zeke and then the injuries. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a this is a trend that that's been
Speaker 1: happening for a while, and it it showed up again.
Speaker 1: And here, I mean, I was absolutely wrong. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna try to pretend like I wasn't. But I keep
Speaker 1: going back to the last thing I said on our
Speaker 1: show Friday, which ironically a lot of people didn't hear
Speaker 1: because it got cut off, but I heard it. I basically,
Speaker 1: I mean, I said, you know, I'm gonna choose to
Speaker 1: believe what I've seen over the last six weeks, and
Speaker 1: that went for both sides of the ball, and on
Speaker 1: the defensive side. I feel pretty good about that, honestly.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, they they It took them some time
Speaker 1: to get their feet wet. Shaun Lee missed some tackles.
Speaker 1: You know, Cam ran for sixty yards. It's not great,
Speaker 1: but they buckled down two hundred ninety three yards and
Speaker 1: sixty points should win you most football out. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: bad at all. The two or three sacks through DeMarcus
Speaker 1: Lawrence looked amazing. So I chose to believe that that
Speaker 1: could happen, and it worked. And then I chose to
Speaker 1: believe that what we'd seen at training camp would translate over.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Michael Gallup getting involved, Havon Austin
Speaker 1: doing a little bit of everything, Dak Prescott not being amazing,
Speaker 1: certainly not Aaron Rodgers but moving the ball, and Ezekiel
Speaker 1: Elliott doing his thing. Literally, like none of that happened.
Speaker 1: I'd like, all benefit of the doubt is gone. They
Speaker 1: don't deserve it. Dak looked terrible, He looked inaccurate, He looked,
Speaker 1: he looked flustered by the pressure. Connor Williams we said
Speaker 1: on the show, to our credit, we're not wrong about everything.
Speaker 1: He said. Kawan Short and Don Taripoe had the potential
Speaker 1: to erect this game, and they did. Tyrant Smith got
Speaker 1: flagged twice. Lyle Collins called like literally against a good
Speaker 1: defensive front. Ezekiel Elliott ran hard and effectively in a
Speaker 1: game where he was out of his rhythm from the
Speaker 1: get so I'll give him a little bit of credit
Speaker 1: for playing a decent game. Everything else sucked, and we
Speaker 1: can get into it in more detail later, but all
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt out the window in one game.
Speaker 1: There you go. I really really thought that having all
Speaker 1: these receivers was gonna change everything. In a way that
Speaker 1: you were gonna get something different from this offense, and
Speaker 1: Dad was go be able to, as we seen during
Speaker 1: training camp, have a better connection with them, and clearly
Speaker 1: that was in the case. This was a whole mess.
Speaker 1: The offense couldn't get going, and I'm so disappointed and
Speaker 1: upset because there was nothing to get you excited about. Again.
Speaker 1: Ezekiel Elliott obviously a great running back. We didn't really
Speaker 1: see him going and when you look at the stat
Speaker 1: and we were looking at it on the plane, it's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: he got sixty nine yards. Oh, we don't know how
Speaker 1: that happened. And he's known to get those little yards
Speaker 1: here and there and then they start accumulating and adding up.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it didn't help
Speaker 1: at all. And there was one Um what play was
Speaker 1: that Nike where we were like, they need to run
Speaker 1: the freaking ball? Um? There were third and I think, yes,
Speaker 1: the third and three play and the third quarter when
Speaker 1: it that's what I'm thinking, Yeah, yeah, we're Dak went
Speaker 1: in for a pass and it's like, why are they
Speaker 1: calling this play? Like why not run the ball? They
Speaker 1: just needed like three more yards to get first down.
Speaker 1: I think it's the play in the third quarter where
Speaker 1: we're third and three, like on the forty six, and
Speaker 1: they hadn't done anything all day. This is like the
Speaker 1: furthest they've gotten, and it's like, you have to decide
Speaker 1: this is four down territory. And if you can decide that,
Speaker 1: you know, Zeke for two, Zeke for one, you'll you'll
Speaker 1: get the first down. They ran him throw. He just
Speaker 1: threw it away and then ended up punting, and you know,
Speaker 1: I just it's you you're down to nothing. It's like
Speaker 1: halfway halfway, uh second and five, Zeke makes it third three,
Speaker 1: they throw and complete the swam and punt from the
Speaker 1: Carolina forty six. Yeah. I mean I was thinking, you're
Speaker 1: about six seven yards away from from trying to field goal.
Speaker 1: And if this guy's got you know, super strong leg,
Speaker 1: which he does, not sure how accurate he is, but
Speaker 1: he's got a super leg. I mean, you're down ten nothing,
Speaker 1: you might have to try fifty seven yard or the
Speaker 1: fifty seven yard is why he is on the team
Speaker 1: because he made it in Houston, and you know he
Speaker 1: obviously drilled that kick. I never got a good look.
Speaker 1: I mean, it would seem like it was pretty close
Speaker 1: forty seven yard or yeah, he just feel like it
Speaker 1: just drifted off to the right. Just I mean, he's
Speaker 1: got the leg, but I mean, you know, you gotta doesn't.
Speaker 1: Forty seven yard is not a gimme, and I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody act like it is. It's not
Speaker 1: a gimme in the NFL. I mean, but but first kick,
Speaker 1: you kind of want to see it. And certainly when
Speaker 1: people are going to compare him to Dan Bailey, which
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the refrain everything he does from this
Speaker 1: point forward, it will be compared to Dan Bailey and
Speaker 1: not Dan Bailey that was here when he left Dan
Speaker 1: Bailey's career. That's gonna be a thing. And a forty
Speaker 1: seven yard or was a gimme in Dan Bailey's prime exactly,
Speaker 1: and that's what he's going to be compared to. That's
Speaker 1: the problem. I'll say this. I'll say this about about
Speaker 1: the Bailey situation. I don't know if he would have
Speaker 1: made the forty seven yarder. I do not know that
Speaker 1: history says that he probably would. Recent history said that
Speaker 1: he might not. But I know this, he's not. He's
Speaker 1: not given um. He's not getting four touchbacks at all
Speaker 1: and the way that the Cowboys were covering punts um
Speaker 1: that if they covered kickoffs the same way then that
Speaker 1: could have been a problem. So that's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why they did it, is that they can't tell
Speaker 1: Dan go get get me a touchback. They could tell
Speaker 1: this guy and most of the other kickers get one.
Speaker 1: So that's a big difference there. But I know no
Speaker 1: one cares about that. They want to They want to
Speaker 1: see him made field goals and he missed. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on. Let's talk about particularly about the offense.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Dak Prescott and the protection.
Speaker 1: Uh Dac was nineteen of twenty nine. That was sixty
Speaker 1: six percent completion, one hundred and seventy yards, zero touchdown,
Speaker 1: zero interceptions, eighty one QB rating for the game, he
Speaker 1: was sacked six times. If you watch the game, there
Speaker 1: were there were sometimes it was just kind of like
Speaker 1: guy just got beat. There were other times where it
Speaker 1: was just like it seemed like maybe they were out
Speaker 1: of sync and not knowing where it was coming from.
Speaker 1: That I think about the Shack Thompson blitz where Zeke
Speaker 1: was Sposa picked him up. It seemed like Zeke ad
Speaker 1: just it too late, No way he's gonna get there
Speaker 1: in time. Guy just gets clean shot on the quarterback.
Speaker 1: But obviously your rookie Connor Williams had a rough day
Speaker 1: and he gave up two of those sacks. So just offensively,
Speaker 1: looking at the offensive line in the protections, do you
Speaker 1: think that do you blame this more on the fact
Speaker 1: that this unit has not did not play a lot
Speaker 1: together during the preseason, or do you think it was
Speaker 1: just literally they were overmatched and this defensive front was
Speaker 1: just a ton better than they were to give up
Speaker 1: six sacks, Well, a combination of both. I mean, clearly
Speaker 1: they haven't had enough time playing time against another opposing team,
Speaker 1: you know, together, so that's gonna show up. And one
Speaker 1: of my biggest things, like Dad, he's known in the
Speaker 1: past for his confidence level and the fact that he's
Speaker 1: able to, you know, keep it together and kind of
Speaker 1: figure out what to do a little bit. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that I noticed as far as him,
Speaker 1: when the offensive line did give him some time, he
Speaker 1: just wouldn't really process things and think quickly enough. And
Speaker 1: there were times like the I think it was the
Speaker 1: past to Blake Jarwin where he missed it and he
Speaker 1: could have read, he was wide open. He could have
Speaker 1: just ran the ball. And that's one of the things
Speaker 1: he used to know. And the fact that you see
Speaker 1: the opposing team doing it so much, we can and
Speaker 1: I mean, you should be inspired to run the freaking
Speaker 1: ball too and just go for it. A lot of
Speaker 1: the times he just wouldn't really think quick enough, and
Speaker 1: that obviously got to and with the offense having some
Speaker 1: struggles to combine the two, it's a disaster. I got
Speaker 1: a couple things to touch on, but and we sort
Speaker 1: of argued about this in the press box yesterday, which
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna give them the didn't
Speaker 1: have enough playing time excuse, because Connor Williams did get
Speaker 1: a lot of playing time in the preseason, and so
Speaker 1: did Joe Looney because they didn't have another option, Lyle Collins.
Speaker 1: But the unit, the unit is where I'm more talking about.
Speaker 1: You talk about offensive line, any offensive lineman will tell
Speaker 1: you the value the offensive line is dim playing as
Speaker 1: a unit, not about the individual. The three. The three,
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, the all five of them
Speaker 1: are never gonna get a ton of playing time together
Speaker 1: in the preseason, even if the Cowboys had done a
Speaker 1: different even if they'd handled it differently, that's just not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. You might get a maximum of like three
Speaker 1: or four series in one game, Lyle, that's not true.
Speaker 1: The dress rehearsal game usually the offense usually plays through
Speaker 1: the first half and sometimes comes back and gets a
Speaker 1: series into the into the third. How many possessions do
Speaker 1: you get in an NFL game? Nine or ten? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you probably have about five or six in
Speaker 1: one game, cool, you're quibbling, true, Lyle, Joe and Connor
Speaker 1: Williams got plenty of playing time. Zack Martin and Tyron
Speaker 1: Smith or supposedly two of the best players on your team.
Speaker 1: I don't none of us have anything bad to say
Speaker 1: about the way Zach played right necessarily, I mean, from
Speaker 1: what I know, it seemed like he played like Zach
Speaker 1: Martin Tyron Smith. I mean, for the way we talk
Speaker 1: about him, that's not good enough. Two flags that get
Speaker 1: you behind the chains. I'm sorry if you didn't get
Speaker 1: enough playing time, but you're on that level where you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be better than that. And then the play calling.
Speaker 1: Two things come to mind. One, if you're playing a
Speaker 1: front that you think has the potential to wreck your
Speaker 1: game like that, which we us idiots who don't get
Speaker 1: paid to game plan, we saw that coming, so I
Speaker 1: would hope that they did. And so it didn't seem
Speaker 1: like there was enough creativity, not just in the sense
Speaker 1: that Dak was in the pocket too much against the
Speaker 1: front that had the potential to kill him, but even
Speaker 1: the stuff that they did to combat that was so
Speaker 1: incredibly predictable, like the waggles that Dak has become known for.
Speaker 1: He had a guy in his face when he got
Speaker 1: done with the action every single time, Like that's that's
Speaker 1: not great. That suggests to me that Carolina watched some
Speaker 1: tape and had a pretty good idea of what to expect,
Speaker 1: Like can I get some read option, can I get
Speaker 1: some misdirection? Can I get I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't remember for sure, but I'm I feel like
Speaker 1: most of Dak's carries were improvised and not planned, which
Speaker 1: that's stupid. I mean Carolina's offense didn't look great either, literally,
Speaker 1: like the difference between them winning and losing his fifty
Speaker 1: eight rushing yards for Cam Newton, like just give me something, yep.
Speaker 1: So what I say all the time up in the
Speaker 1: press by He's got to keep this balls. Dak's gotta
Speaker 1: keep it. I mean, give Carolina credit because Cam Newton
Speaker 1: is not a good passer. To me, he can get
Speaker 1: the job done. He's a good manager because he can
Speaker 1: run the ball, and that they know what he is, like,
Speaker 1: he knows what he is. He's not trying to be
Speaker 1: anything that he's not. He's a big, strong tight end
Speaker 1: that just decides to play quarterback and he's really good.
Speaker 1: Well no, I mean he can throw the ball better
Speaker 1: than any tight he can throw the ball, okay, end
Speaker 1: basically quarterback. He's he's like a Tebow with that's better.
Speaker 1: He's a better thrower than Tebow. But I'm just saying
Speaker 1: he is what he is and they don't try to
Speaker 1: do anything different out of it. He doesn't, you know,
Speaker 1: throw the ball down the field a whole lot. He
Speaker 1: does some, but he takes his shots. But he runs
Speaker 1: the ball, and that's what they need to do. Dak's
Speaker 1: not a passer right now either. Dak is better at running.
Speaker 1: So play off of that and kind of quit trying
Speaker 1: to make Dak what he isn't. And maybe that's what
Speaker 1: Carolina I'm figured out with Cam over the years, he's
Speaker 1: liked play to his strengths. And that's what I think
Speaker 1: this team is really struggling with with Dak. They're trying
Speaker 1: to make him something that he's not. This is simplistic,
Speaker 1: but and let like, if if this team can run
Speaker 1: the ball, if they can do their thing with Ze,
Speaker 1: can just crank out yard and stay ahead of the chains,
Speaker 1: they will take the game to anybody. And fortunately for them,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of defensive fronts in the league that
Speaker 1: can't handle that. When they go up against the defense
Speaker 1: that can take that away, they just seem scared and lost,
Speaker 1: and like they they let the defense dictate what happens,
Speaker 1: Like it sounds good when Jason garretts it, sounds plausible
Speaker 1: and excuseable when Jason Garrett says it, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: we got behind the chains. We let you know, circumstances
Speaker 1: take us out of or in the NFL, that sucks.
Speaker 1: Like if it being second and twelve instead of second
Speaker 1: and five. Is the difference between you being good and bad?
Speaker 1: You're not good, and you saw that. I mean to
Speaker 1: let defenses dictate that to you the way the Panthers
Speaker 1: did yesterday, it's an indictment of everybody involved in the
Speaker 1: way this works. You mentioned that, but you look at
Speaker 1: the division, that may be your hardest problem. Like there
Speaker 1: are an there's several teams in this division that can
Speaker 1: stop run well unfortunately for the Cowboys. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of defenses that can't handle the way
Speaker 1: they run the ball. There are a lot that can.
Speaker 1: And that's I mean, the Giants have a front that
Speaker 1: can do that. We've they were the first ones to
Speaker 1: crack this code. The Eagles obviously, like that's disgusting. Watch
Speaker 1: out for those those Ridskins that those two guys that
Speaker 1: they got from Alabama, like they could become that kind
Speaker 1: those kind of players that certainly have the ability. So
Speaker 1: all I'm saying is there are going to be teams
Speaker 1: that will be able to stop this running attack. And
Speaker 1: we've been saying this back since the Cowboys made this
Speaker 1: decision to get rid of Dez Bryant. That you can
Speaker 1: go with that option of just saying we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a lot of good receivers and not really have a
Speaker 1: great receiver. But the problem is you're gonna get into
Speaker 1: those games you can't run. Who's going to be the
Speaker 1: guy to catch the ball. And yesterday they didn't have
Speaker 1: anybody who could get the ball there. First of all,
Speaker 1: let alone be able to make a catch and make
Speaker 1: a play. And to be clear, I think it's simplistic
Speaker 1: to sit here and I can hear somebody saying it,
Speaker 1: like the difference between success and failure is not Dak's
Speaker 1: ability to throw it to a receiver thirty yards downfield
Speaker 1: and back the defense off. I don't believe that you
Speaker 1: just have to have a Plan B that works, whatever
Speaker 1: that is, and we didn't. I mean, honestly, it looked
Speaker 1: like they didn't even have one, Like they didn't try,
Speaker 1: and like I can't. This is what I just can't
Speaker 1: get over, which is that Blake Jarwin had twenty two
Speaker 1: snaps to Tavon Austin's ten. They gave Tavon Austin the
Speaker 1: ball on the second play of the game. It was
Speaker 1: nullified by a Tyron Smith flag. They handed the ball
Speaker 1: off to him halfway through the second quarter, and then
Speaker 1: he disappeared from the offense. Why, I mean, if everything,
Speaker 1: if he was so good at training camp and we
Speaker 1: would all agree that he was, where was it like?
Speaker 1: Where I mean missed? How about if the defensive front
Speaker 1: is collapsing on you take the game out wide. At
Speaker 1: least try. I mean, I can't say with a certainty
Speaker 1: that it would have worked, but they didn't even try.
Speaker 1: They gave him the ball one yard off the ball.
Speaker 1: He's a little guy, he needs a little bit of space.
Speaker 1: Put him in a shotgun. Give it to him from
Speaker 1: the shotgun so he has some running start. I mean
Speaker 1: Lyell was getting pushed back every time, so as soon
Speaker 1: as he got the ball, he was getting hit right
Speaker 1: on the line like it was too close. That was
Speaker 1: a bad play call. And then and then that's it.
Speaker 1: It was almost like, okay, I'll show you Tavon Austin nap.
Speaker 1: It's almost like they didn't want to really do it,
Speaker 1: and then they gave him a play that he's not
Speaker 1: going to succeed at and now, like them, that's it.
Speaker 1: And I'm pretty sure correct me if I'm wrong. I
Speaker 1: know there was at least once. I think there were
Speaker 1: twice that they ran a tight end screen in that
Speaker 1: game twice, right, so, so the tight ends got more
Speaker 1: screens than Tavon Austin. That to me is still a problem.
Speaker 1: It's like it's almost like they're out thinking themselves, because
Speaker 1: if you think about it, who would you rather have
Speaker 1: in open space with the ball in his hands, a
Speaker 1: tight end or a guy that runs a four three forty.
Speaker 1: I mean, it just it doesn't make sense to not
Speaker 1: get him more involved in the Austene What's weird to
Speaker 1: me is which two receivers. Which two receivers were missing
Speaker 1: for most of training camp and preseason, Beyonte Thompson and
Speaker 1: Tavon Austin. I think it would be Beasley and oh,
Speaker 1: you're right, Beasley too, And they got thirteen targets combined,
Speaker 1: I mean, more than anybody else. And then the next
Speaker 1: receiver with the most is Hearns at three. I mean,
Speaker 1: so it was kind of weird to go back on
Speaker 1: the preseason stuff like you can say, well did it matter?
Speaker 1: Did it? I mean, I don't really blame the Cowboys
Speaker 1: for anything. I mean, is it a factor, Yes, it
Speaker 1: probably is. But I'm not sitting here are going to
Speaker 1: point fingers because again I said this over and over.
Speaker 1: I think it was a domino effect that they could
Speaker 1: not control. They could not control what happened to Travis
Speaker 1: Frederick and at the same time it happened, it was
Speaker 1: Zach Martin got hurt. So those two things are out
Speaker 1: of your middle. There's no reason to play Time and Smith.
Speaker 1: Then now we're not playing Dack and we're certainly not
Speaker 1: playing z So that kind of affected what the what
Speaker 1: their third preseason game usually isn't. I don't blame them
Speaker 1: for that. I do think it factored in. But there's
Speaker 1: enough quick crying about it. It's time to move on
Speaker 1: from there. Let's take our first break. When we come back,
Speaker 1: we need to talk a little bit about Zeke Elliott
Speaker 1: and what he was able to do. We'll talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about three receivers, and of course we got
Speaker 1: to talk something about the defense because they did play
Speaker 1: a quality game yesterday, and I'll ask the question as
Speaker 1: to whether these guys think this defense is for real
Speaker 1: and they can expect to see that more throughout this season.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that when we come right back. This
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Speaker 1: Back to the Break, Welcome back. It is the second
Speaker 1: segment of The Break live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios.
Speaker 1: As the Star, we're talking Cowboys versus Panthers. Cowboys loses
Speaker 1: from sixteen eight. Close game, but not really that close
Speaker 1: when you watched it, it seemed like it was a
Speaker 1: game that the Cowboys got beat up pretty good, even
Speaker 1: though the scores is that they had a shot. That's
Speaker 1: if anybody's curious. That's what it's like being an LSUE
Speaker 1: football fan. No, Like it's ten nothing and you're just like,
Speaker 1: we're not winning this freaking let's not talk about football. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: it's not the greatest, all right, so let's talk about
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Ezekuel Elliott yesterday, he runs fifteen times
Speaker 1: or sixty nine yards four point six average. He gets
Speaker 1: four I'm sorry, three catches, four targets, seventeen yards five
Speaker 1: point seven yards per catch, all in all against a
Speaker 1: good defensive front. Not a horrible day. Probably not what
Speaker 1: you want. And certainly if you're looking at this offense
Speaker 1: and how it's going to have to perform in order
Speaker 1: to win, probably not what you need from the running
Speaker 1: game if you're going to be expected to win. So
Speaker 1: my question for you, guys is what do you think
Speaker 1: the Cowboys can or will need to do in order
Speaker 1: to get themselves to a position where their offense can
Speaker 1: still run when the Russian game is not what it
Speaker 1: should be. Well, I thought you just said it wasn't
Speaker 1: a horrible game. I mean, I thought Zeke actually played
Speaker 1: a really good game. Um, I mean that's the four
Speaker 1: point six yards to carry is pretty good. Fifteen attempts
Speaker 1: is not what you want to give. What you think
Speaker 1: is that one of the best backs in the league.
Speaker 1: He needs ten more carries than that. At least you
Speaker 1: do that. You're sitting at one hundred and fifteen yards
Speaker 1: or so. And and you know, I thought he his
Speaker 1: worst play was the was the block that he missed.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he was standing on the right side
Speaker 1: of the quarterback there, but I mean that they just
Speaker 1: got him. But the run right after that, the very
Speaker 1: next run, I mean I remember saying that is a
Speaker 1: big boy run. That's like, all right, I messed this
Speaker 1: thing up at second in eighteen or first and eighteen,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna just go and get everything I can.
Speaker 1: He put his space right in it. He did a
Speaker 1: nice job there. But I mean I thought he ran hard,
Speaker 1: did everything he could. They need to give him more carries,
Speaker 1: and they got to move the change to give him
Speaker 1: more carries. See I And I mean I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: upset if they'd given him more carries. But I said
Speaker 1: this last night, I'm not even mad about the carry
Speaker 1: count the run when there in the first half the game,
Speaker 1: the score got away from him. You're in a two
Speaker 1: score hole in the second half. That's what it looks
Speaker 1: like when you're trailing by two scores for most of
Speaker 1: the game. My thing is, dude ran fifteen times for
Speaker 1: sixty nine yards, three catches for seventeen No, No, that's
Speaker 1: them and bad. And that's what we've been saying, is
Speaker 1: Ze going to be more involved in the passing game.
Speaker 1: Early returns aren't great, and that really the theme for
Speaker 1: this And to be fair, to be clear, it's one week.
Speaker 1: It's the NFL, Like everybody obviously needs to calm down
Speaker 1: a couple notches. But through one game, we have seen
Speaker 1: nothing to give us confidence that this offense will be different,
Speaker 1: not only just one game, because you got to take
Speaker 1: this back to last year. Well, that's what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is we changed the coaches, we brought in all these receivers,
Speaker 1: we did this, we did that, we traded for Tavon.
Speaker 1: There's no reason to believe that anything's different and and honestly,
Speaker 1: more so than Tavon and anything else, Zeke's performance in
Speaker 1: the passing game is what makes me think that. I
Speaker 1: mean because what he got thrown a couple of screens.
Speaker 1: There was an aborted waggle because the Panthers read it
Speaker 1: like a book, and then there was a swing pass
Speaker 1: where maybe other than the Blitz pick up, I thought
Speaker 1: that was that was such a big play because Zeke
Speaker 1: was one on one with either a linebacker or a
Speaker 1: dB and the guy made the tackle for a one
Speaker 1: yard game. If he makes that guy miss, it's probably
Speaker 1: a crucial third down conversion. Maybe a different ball game.
Speaker 1: But I had a lot of green grass absolutely there,
Speaker 1: as if he's one of the best backs in the league,
Speaker 1: that's the play he needs to make. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: thought he played really well. I need to see more,
Speaker 1: and I put that on coaching, like can my guy go?
Speaker 1: Can he hang in the middle of the field? Can
Speaker 1: he run a Texas route? Can you do some thing
Speaker 1: with him? Literally? I got home last night at one
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning and turned on you know sports
Speaker 1: center James Connor first went crazy. Okay, first NFL start
Speaker 1: replacing Levon Bell. You know what his receiving line was
Speaker 1: fifty yards I think five catches, for sixty yards. That's
Speaker 1: better than all but two of Zeke's receiving performances in
Speaker 1: his career, and the two that were better were when
Speaker 1: he broke super long screens for touchdowns. And by the way,
Speaker 1: James Connor coming out of college was not considered a
Speaker 1: pass catchy running back like in college, he did it
Speaker 1: very little. Don't tell me that you can't do this
Speaker 1: with an all pro. If a guy making his first
Speaker 1: start can be that involved in the passing game, it's crap,
Speaker 1: and it can it should be better, and that is
Speaker 1: what upsets me the most. It's fine if you got
Speaker 1: to get away from the run when you're down two scores,
Speaker 1: do something else like that's I think people attributed to
Speaker 1: Mike Tyson. I don't know if he actually said it,
Speaker 1: but everybody's got a great plan until they get punched
Speaker 1: in the mouth. The Cowboys have a great plan and
Speaker 1: we've seen it work when they're the ones doing the punching.
Speaker 1: When they get punched in the mouth, it just they
Speaker 1: just fall apart. And that's the way it is. It's tough,
Speaker 1: and you really, really, when you look at it, you
Speaker 1: start thinking about the fact that you watch a lot
Speaker 1: of teams around the NFL, especially teams that have that
Speaker 1: go to kind of player, whether it's a running back,
Speaker 1: whether it's receiver, they get into crunch time, they get
Speaker 1: into times of the game when they're having a hard
Speaker 1: time moving the ball, and they start feeding those guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, like play after play after play, and the
Speaker 1: Cowboys seemed, for whatever reason, right now, there's only one
Speaker 1: of those guys on this team right now. That's Zeke.
Speaker 1: So when you get into that situation, like you said,
Speaker 1: whether it's in the running game or in the passing game,
Speaker 1: get him the ball, figure out creative ways to get
Speaker 1: him the ball in space, and let him do what
Speaker 1: he does because he is your best player. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna lose, at least lose on the back of your
Speaker 1: best player, right Yeah, I mean, like he should touch
Speaker 1: the ball upward of twenty two times per game, all
Speaker 1: things considered. It doesn't always have to be carries. It's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's not ideal. Let's talk about the I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, move to defense. Actually I was gonna talk
Speaker 1: about the receivers. Okay, go ahead, Okay, did you you
Speaker 1: want to say something? What was the main thing that
Speaker 1: you guys noticed when that was the change, when the
Speaker 1: ball was finally able to get moving, and that got
Speaker 1: into the end side, they went to their two minute offense.
Speaker 1: Basically they were in spread, and they were in eleven
Speaker 1: personnel and they were basically just moving the ball. And
Speaker 1: they've done that before. When they tend to find themselves
Speaker 1: in games where they can't really get anything going, they'll
Speaker 1: go into their two minute and usually that gives them
Speaker 1: a little bit more no huddle. You know, it moves
Speaker 1: a little fast, you got a little bigger, a little
Speaker 1: better pace, and it tends to get him into a flow.
Speaker 1: And that's when they got that one drive that drove
Speaker 1: all down the field. I think it was a ten
Speaker 1: play drive. They ended up with a touchdown. They were
Speaker 1: exclusively in two minute and there was no third down
Speaker 1: except for the one run that deck went eleven yards
Speaker 1: or nine yards on the scramble. Right. But that he
Speaker 1: was I mean, he was bad. Objectively, he did not
Speaker 1: have a good game. I think we would all agree
Speaker 1: on that. But and I Nick tweeted this during the game,
Speaker 1: that was that was a gutsy drive on his part.
Speaker 1: I'll give credit where it's dude, like that third down
Speaker 1: conversion fighting those guys off to get the two point conversion.
Speaker 1: Just I mean, there's there's reason to believe that this
Speaker 1: thing can work. But you got it's got to show
Speaker 1: up for more than three minutes of a sixty minute game.
Speaker 1: You want so hard to like him because he does.
Speaker 1: He says the right thing, he typically wears the right thing.
Speaker 1: I kind of wonder about that one. But for the
Speaker 1: most part, like he's you know, he you know, he's
Speaker 1: playing like a like a warrior. He tries to play
Speaker 1: the game like like you see Newton plant and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. You just wonder what his capabilities are throwing
Speaker 1: the ball. And it begs the question if teams have
Speaker 1: started to figure him out. I mean, they look like
Speaker 1: they did last year. What was one of your question,
Speaker 1: I was gonna get to that good, very good now
Speaker 1: I was gonna get to Okay. For example, last year,
Speaker 1: a lot of the times that we come in in
Speaker 1: the second quarter, in the second part of the game
Speaker 1: and not second quarter, second half of the game, and
Speaker 1: you would see them doing some things and moving the ball,
Speaker 1: but by that time it's freaking too late, Like whatever
Speaker 1: you do, it doesn't matter. And we saw it last
Speaker 1: year too, where you can't rely on just your defense,
Speaker 1: like your defense is gonna get tired. We saw it
Speaker 1: in this game. They can be as good as they
Speaker 1: could be, Like they could be great. I don't believe
Speaker 1: the whole thing, Like, you know, defenses win games. They do,
Speaker 1: but you need to freaking score points otherwise you're not
Speaker 1: getting anywhere. So this whole thing was like, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: exciting to see the defense and the progress that we've
Speaker 1: been seeing. But by the second half of the game
Speaker 1: this time, fourth quarter, by that time, it's way too late.
Speaker 1: You need to figure it out and start doing things.
Speaker 1: You really know the things that that can't do. You
Speaker 1: really know what your players can't do. So now figure
Speaker 1: out how to make it work with what they can do.
Speaker 1: And they've pointed out a lot of those things too.
Speaker 1: Where okay, how do you how do you you delize
Speaker 1: State in Austin this team better or not ever? Ever
Speaker 1: take the ball to start the game ever again not not,
Speaker 1: I mean one of your biggest thing. It was, well,
Speaker 1: it's it's always been one of my biggest things. Now,
Speaker 1: now yesterday wasn't their choice. I'm not saying it was.
Speaker 1: But the strength of this team has changed, It's changed
Speaker 1: it's changed right in front of him. You just said, Amber,
Speaker 1: you said they know what Dak Cannon can't do. Do
Speaker 1: they like? Do they really do? They really still wonder
Speaker 1: that he can be the guy because they need to
Speaker 1: figure that out. Their strength on this team is defense.
Speaker 1: For this team, if they get in a situation where
Speaker 1: they win the toss, they need to defer. They need
Speaker 1: to go play defense. Why are you looking at me
Speaker 1: like this? Would you like to make a lunch bet
Speaker 1: that they don't Yeah, yeah, next time they win the toss,
Speaker 1: whether it's Sunday. I'm kind of I'm kind of we oh.
Speaker 1: I know because knowing this team, I agree with your point.
Speaker 1: But knowing this team and kind of how they do
Speaker 1: things at times, I would not be shot at all.
Speaker 1: They say we're taking the ball, I'm waiting out for
Speaker 1: you going to try to score. Okay, that's that's a
Speaker 1: one change that needs to be made. I'm waiting for
Speaker 1: you to ask if there needs to be another. I'm
Speaker 1: like waiting for you. Okay, So let's get actually, let's
Speaker 1: get into that, because I do think that's a worthy conversation.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of talk right now about how creative
Speaker 1: the offense is being called, and how they're using DAK
Speaker 1: and how they're doing things in order to get Zeke involved.
Speaker 1: And we talked about tavon Austin. Do you think at
Speaker 1: this point that maybe there is a scenario where you
Speaker 1: should consider going back to Jason Garrett calling the plays
Speaker 1: versus having Scott Lenahan calling the plays. I think that's
Speaker 1: something that has to happen here somebody. I think that
Speaker 1: there needs to be some kind of change here, because,
Speaker 1: like you said, it's one game. It's still early in
Speaker 1: the year, but it's not too early for these trends
Speaker 1: to be to be that. We've seen these trends, and
Speaker 1: I've seen other teams do this where it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: you kind of go into this year like all right,
Speaker 1: let's make sure it's different, and when it's not, the
Speaker 1: first sign that it's not, you have to do something different.
Speaker 1: Hopefully they had some kind of recourse in place. I
Speaker 1: think you're right, and I think they need to make
Speaker 1: a change. I think Jason Garrett could could be the
Speaker 1: play caller. Don't know what that means as far as
Speaker 1: job status and all that stuff, but I do think
Speaker 1: that you you need to switch something up here. And
Speaker 1: I think. You know, he's been a pretty good play caller.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you think about him as a
Speaker 1: game manager, all this stuff. From a play caller standpoint,
Speaker 1: he's done a good job over the course of his career.
Speaker 1: Maybe also had Tony though, that was that was a
Speaker 1: big difference. Yeah, yeah, I get it. I mean most
Speaker 1: people will say Tony was the best play caller they've had.
Speaker 1: I mean there may be something to that too. Well.
Speaker 1: They never didn't. They always moved the ball in two minute.
Speaker 1: He was the play caller always. Yes, well maybe, I
Speaker 1: mean that moved the ball in two minute two I
Speaker 1: mean i mean, you can't look the whole game. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: that's a I don't know. That's that's interesting. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're certainly precedent for it. I was talking to somebody
Speaker 1: about that this morning. The Bengals outright fired their offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator after two games last year. I mean, they got
Speaker 1: shut out twice in a row, or you know, close
Speaker 1: to it, and they just bye bye. John Payton got
Speaker 1: it stripped from him when he was in New York
Speaker 1: like people, I mean, before he became the great Sean
Speaker 1: Payton as a head coach, he was him with the Giants.
Speaker 1: Point being, it can definitely happen. Other point being, it
Speaker 1: flies in the face of everything we have established about
Speaker 1: Jason Garrett's tenure here, Like that's just not something that
Speaker 1: they do. So that would be hold on, I just
Speaker 1: want to stop you right there. What what did we
Speaker 1: figure out when we talked about Bill Callahan? Yeah earlier?
Speaker 1: Was that when you right, am I am I crazy?
Speaker 1: Or was that not like an off season that was
Speaker 1: an off season thing they brought in Scott Linahan. After
Speaker 1: they brought in Scott Linahan after the twenty thirteen season,
Speaker 1: Scott Linahan was like the passing game coordinator and Bill
Speaker 1: Callahan was the running game coordinator, which again, they don't
Speaker 1: just get rid of people. That's not something that they do, Okay,
Speaker 1: But something happened in the middle of the season where
Speaker 1: I remember Callahan. I'm pretty sure that Garrett went to
Speaker 1: calling plays like in the middle of the season. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to look this up or figure out. You
Speaker 1: might that sounds familiar. You might be right, jeried never
Speaker 1: or fire a coach in the middle of the season
Speaker 1: until the season with Wade right, hey, there's the first
Speaker 1: time for everything, and that honestly and I'm the first
Speaker 1: one to say, like, no, the status quo is always
Speaker 1: typically the way it goes. But like, like I literally
Speaker 1: I pulled up the scoreboard from the league, Like three
Speaker 1: teams didn't score ten points yesterday, and two of them,
Speaker 1: Buffalo and in Arizona, are widely considered to be in
Speaker 1: the running for the number one overall pick. If I mean,
Speaker 1: it's embarrassing if it doesn't, I mean, hey, if it
Speaker 1: doesn't change something, will I guarantee you? I mean, that's
Speaker 1: not you don't lose anything by making any change. At
Speaker 1: this point, what are you gonna lose? You don't have
Speaker 1: anything else to lose. Like that, end point accurate statement.
Speaker 1: That feels a little dramatic to go back to, offensively
Speaker 1: what they've been doing from last year into this year.
Speaker 1: I mean, are you saying you gotta be worse than that?
Speaker 1: In that? In that I agree, But I'm basically I get.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, and I'm
Speaker 1: not here to sugarcoat it. That sucked. It was so
Speaker 1: bad it hurt. I still it's still one game. It's
Speaker 1: still just one you know. It was crazy right now
Speaker 1: that Dave is talking us all off the lage, like
Speaker 1: that's that's that's when we know something is wrong here.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't agree though I think you're one
Speaker 1: game into the season, but I don't think it's one game,
Speaker 1: and I think that you know, you'll agree with me
Speaker 1: here that this is a troubling pattern that's been happening. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: You said it on the plane yesterday. You said it's
Speaker 1: hard not to score ten points in the league. And
Speaker 1: yet in the last what seven games? Five? Five? That's embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Five times that they haven't managed to do it in
Speaker 1: the last or ten I mean going back to what
Speaker 1: was the first game of that side, going back to
Speaker 1: Atlanta last year. Okay, this is like the fifth time
Speaker 1: that they haven't scored more than ten points. It was
Speaker 1: historically bad last year, right, didn't the Atlanta Chargers m
Speaker 1: Philly again? Again? And now yesterday said that's that's nine games,
Speaker 1: and that's five times in nine games that you've you've
Speaker 1: scored less than ten points. It's quite mean. You have
Speaker 1: to try to be that bad in the NFL. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean in a league, in a series two, in
Speaker 1: a league where the nine or ten point underdog Bucks
Speaker 1: went into the Superdome and put fifty on the Saints.
Speaker 1: You can't score ten points, ye, And I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about winning. It's hard to win on the road in
Speaker 1: the NFL too, score ten points. My god. And by
Speaker 1: the way, but I was just saying, I thought I
Speaker 1: was gonna really have this cool stat. I started looking
Speaker 1: in the media guy to like figure out, when's the
Speaker 1: last time they won with something less than ten? And
Speaker 1: I got one game. I forgot they won that game.
Speaker 1: You're six nothing like that because you spent you spent
Speaker 1: eight months trying to purge that that wasn't a real game.
Speaker 1: But like, yeah, it was like taking it. But by
Speaker 1: the way, for those people out there who won a
Speaker 1: point two, well they let Dez Bryant go. This also
Speaker 1: goes back to when Dez Bryant was here. So I'm
Speaker 1: not saying des Bryant was the problem last year. What
Speaker 1: I am saying is he wasn't a part of the solution,
Speaker 1: and not having him means you, I mean, they are
Speaker 1: still having the exact same problems they were having when
Speaker 1: he was point That's the biggest problem for me, though,
Speaker 1: is you see so many elements change, but you're still
Speaker 1: getting the same freaking result. So that is what is
Speaker 1: more I know you're setting. I know you're serious because
Speaker 1: you've said freaking like five times. Yes, did I point
Speaker 1: me in the direction of a person that thinks Dez
Speaker 1: Bryant changes the outcome of that because I got a bridge.
Speaker 1: I want to sell him honestly him. Well, he tweeted it,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, did you hear Alan Hurn going
Speaker 1: off in the locker room about it? No? No, No,
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, did I miss something? The difference here? Although,
Speaker 1: let me ask you this question, do you think that?
Speaker 1: And actually, this time for a sake of break, I'll
Speaker 1: ask this question when we come back. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about No, we haven't. We haven't to give talking.
Speaker 1: Do you think do you think, maybe though, that this
Speaker 1: team needs more dog type mentalities, those kind of guys
Speaker 1: that are so so so riled up about not winning
Speaker 1: that maybe it is like that maybe you need that
Speaker 1: in order to be successful in the NFL. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I think it's a question worth asking, and I
Speaker 1: want you guys answer when we come back to the
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Speaker 1: to the break Welcome back. This is the final segment
Speaker 1: of The Break Black from the SWBC Mortgage Studios. At
Speaker 1: the start, we're talking Cowboys versus Panthers, and I posed
Speaker 1: the question right before the break, is this a situation
Speaker 1: where you know we we've already I've already mentioned that.
Speaker 1: I don't think that Dez was a part of the
Speaker 1: solution because last year they were having these same offensive problems.
Speaker 1: I don't think necessarily that Jason Witten was a part
Speaker 1: of the solution because he was here last year when
Speaker 1: they were having the same situation. But I do wonder
Speaker 1: if not having those kinds of guys. What I mean
Speaker 1: by that is the kind of guys that are that
Speaker 1: are are way more emotional, because you could talk about
Speaker 1: Dez throwing tantrums and all that, but Jason was just
Speaker 1: as emotional. Like Jason took losses really hard, and you
Speaker 1: could tell by the way he responded to people after
Speaker 1: the game that he did. Excuse me, not having those
Speaker 1: kind of guys, or at least those kind of guys
Speaker 1: that we can perceive. Maybe they're there and they just
Speaker 1: hold it back and they don't show us, But not
Speaker 1: having those guys that we can perceive with that dog
Speaker 1: type mentality does that hurt you? Does that is that
Speaker 1: one of those things that maybe you need in order
Speaker 1: to be successful in the NFL. And maybe the Cowboys
Speaker 1: at least offensively may not have enough of those guys. Yes,
Speaker 1: they do need more of that because when this this
Speaker 1: thing has to matter, it has to hurt at some point.
Speaker 1: Because if it does, if it really bothers them, uh losing,
Speaker 1: then then you you'll fix it. On Monday. We talk
Speaker 1: about this all the time. You'll you'll work harder on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: You'll watch more film on Wednesday, and you'll practice better,
Speaker 1: and Cristoper and and you'll you'll figure things out more
Speaker 1: and it'll be it'll you'll things will matter more. Um
Speaker 1: and that and that's just what. And I don't know
Speaker 1: who that leader is. I really don't. They are offensive line.
Speaker 1: You've got three guys that they're they're not vocal leaders
Speaker 1: that we see that we see, um. But you have
Speaker 1: to be a great player to be a leader. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone always talks about NFL leaders, Well, who's the best
Speaker 1: leader of all time? I'm like Ray Lewis, Michael Irvin,
Speaker 1: those are Hall of famers. Like you can't just be
Speaker 1: a good player that messes up every now and again
Speaker 1: and then you're a leader. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: they have that guy. I don't think I buy this
Speaker 1: just and I've said this before, but I look at
Speaker 1: myself when I think about that, because if you look
Speaker 1: at me from an outsider's perspective on almost any given day,
Speaker 1: you would think that I don't really care that much
Speaker 1: about my job. I think that's a fair criticism, and
Speaker 1: I also know that it's not true. I care deeply
Speaker 1: about my job. I put a lot of work into
Speaker 1: hopefully being good at it. But you don't have to
Speaker 1: hit people for a living. Oh no, and thank God
Speaker 1: for that. But that's my point though. I think there's
Speaker 1: a part to that. Okay, let's hold on, let him finish,
Speaker 1: because I think I want to sit here. What he's saying,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't believe. And there is something to
Speaker 1: be said for that. This is a violent, physical game.
Speaker 1: There is emotion that goes into it. Case in point,
Speaker 1: Zach Martin, he's probably the best player on this team.
Speaker 1: He's not like that. I guarantee you he's a mean
Speaker 1: soob on the line, and I guarantee you he gives
Speaker 1: a crap what happens. I don't necessarily buy that you
Speaker 1: need to have that wear your heart on your sleeve
Speaker 1: mentality to be a leader, right can I can? I
Speaker 1: clarify though, Can I clarify though, I'm not saying this
Speaker 1: has to be somebody who is wears it on their
Speaker 1: sleeve as much as it is like if he is
Speaker 1: a mean so ob during the game. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. And my question is, do you think they
Speaker 1: have enough of those mean sobs during the game on
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball. Here's that have that
Speaker 1: kind of dog mentality? How about this screw the mentality?
Speaker 1: I don't know if they have enough good players? Yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's fair. Unfortunately for me, I'm I'm struggling
Speaker 1: to come up with the counter example, like a strong
Speaker 1: silent I mean, for so long that was Tyrann Smith.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately did not play a good enough game for me
Speaker 1: to feel comfortable using him. As you've seen left out
Speaker 1: tackles in the NFL who are really really good that
Speaker 1: aren't really really outspoken. I mean, it's been tying for
Speaker 1: a decade. There's been a lot of those guys that
Speaker 1: acrost the NFL. I just I don't believe that you
Speaker 1: need to have that desmntality. I think you need to
Speaker 1: be really good and care a lot. Hell, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cut you off on this part. And I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to bring anything specific to the air that
Speaker 1: we deal with. But you talked about your job and
Speaker 1: what you do and people perceive you and all that
Speaker 1: which isn't true and all that, and I believe that
Speaker 1: you're one hundred percent right in that. But let's say
Speaker 1: another writer or another we have four other stories over here,
Speaker 1: and three of them the head they linked to the
Speaker 1: wrong story. They messed up. Our headline wasn't here. We
Speaker 1: had the wrong picture here. Your two stories were good
Speaker 1: and they had no errors in it, and they were great,
Speaker 1: but these other three things kind of messed up, and
Speaker 1: overall the whole website when you looked at it, did
Speaker 1: not look very good. And so you're like, yeah, I care,
Speaker 1: I did a good job, But do you care enough
Speaker 1: to say and I'm not specifically, I'm saying, do you
Speaker 1: say that's got to be better? Like you have to
Speaker 1: be better to say that to your teammates, to say
Speaker 1: your teammate, it's like, because you did your job, your
Speaker 1: stories were good, but these two weren't good. So Zach
Speaker 1: Martin the only one can say, I've blocked my guy
Speaker 1: all day long, but you didn't. And you didn't and
Speaker 1: you gotta get open. That's what they need. They are
Speaker 1: doing that, like, I'm sure they're not gonna do that
Speaker 1: in front of us. That's true, all true, and that's
Speaker 1: that's the point of what I was prefacing when I
Speaker 1: asked the question. We don't know if they're doing that
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. What I'm saying, though, is do you
Speaker 1: need to have that? And I think I believe that
Speaker 1: you do need to have players that hold other players accountable,
Speaker 1: and that means calling guys out. If if you're a leader,
Speaker 1: calling guys out who are not doing their jobs, so
Speaker 1: that everybody knows that. Ultimately, you have to be accountable
Speaker 1: to your teammate. I'll say this like, sorry, obviously not
Speaker 1: the offense, but as far as let's say, for example,
Speaker 1: Sean Lee, we all know how much he cares about
Speaker 1: this game, and it's very obvious, but he's a very
Speaker 1: quiet guy, at least you would think. So now where
Speaker 1: that changed my mind? It's like when we get to
Speaker 1: training camp and you get to see more of the
Speaker 1: real action happening there and you start paying attentions. Oh crap, dang,
Speaker 1: he's pretty vocal, exactly exactly, So it's like you just
Speaker 1: never really know how vocal these guys are when they're
Speaker 1: you know, doing their own thing in private, versus why
Speaker 1: we get to see from the outside. Absolutely I agree to.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are guys like that on this team,
Speaker 1: whether it's Sean, whether it's DeMarcus. Okay, hey, I'll take
Speaker 1: any of those offensive linemen as far. And they're not
Speaker 1: the yelling types, but they talk about it all the time,
Speaker 1: the standard that they set Zeke and Dak for that matter.
Speaker 1: Dak's got to play better. But we can't sit here
Speaker 1: for eighteen weeks in twenty sixteen and talk about what
Speaker 1: an effortless and natural leader Dac is and then just
Speaker 1: throw that out the window when he's not playing well.
Speaker 1: I think it's there on both sides. It just again,
Speaker 1: do they have enough good players? We don't know, And
Speaker 1: again it's one week, but the early indications are not good.
Speaker 1: Right now. It doesn't look like right now for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: it's working. So whether they don't have enough good players,
Speaker 1: whether they're not calling the right plays, whether they're not
Speaker 1: putting their guys in the right positions, whether they're overmatched
Speaker 1: because of guys that are out like there are a
Speaker 1: lot of different things that it can be. What we
Speaker 1: do know is it didn't work. Yes, you had good
Speaker 1: players last year, it wasn't working. This year you switched
Speaker 1: it up. It's still not working. And it goes I think,
Speaker 1: and I'm not trying to you know whatever, but it
Speaker 1: goes beyond that. I mean, at this point you've seen
Speaker 1: different kinds of players, and it's upsetting when you see
Speaker 1: to me, when you see like a great player like
Speaker 1: Jason went and leave without nothing. Okay, but let me
Speaker 1: ask you this question. Do you think we're sent to
Speaker 1: some degree undervaluing what Travis Frederick means to this offense
Speaker 1: for them to give up six sacks yesterday and on
Speaker 1: several of those situations it seemed like maybe they just
Speaker 1: weren't in the right place at the right time, or
Speaker 1: they just kind of something was a little off. I mean,
Speaker 1: is are we seeing right now the result of not
Speaker 1: necessarily his play, but having his ability to be able
Speaker 1: to make the calls, to be able to get everybody
Speaker 1: where they need to be and know what they're what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. Do you think that maybe that's more of
Speaker 1: a problem than we anticipated it would be. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: in a hard to know but I'm I'm giving his
Speaker 1: first game without him. He he's never missed a game.
Speaker 1: He missed a game. Have they given up that mini
Speaker 1: with that offensive line? They've never played with that offensive
Speaker 1: What I mean by that is when you've got, when
Speaker 1: you've had, when you've had Tyrant and Track, I mean
Speaker 1: Tyrant and Zach without well, you haven't had without Frederick.
Speaker 1: But with Frederick, let's say, with the three of them
Speaker 1: and whoever other two you want. With those three, have
Speaker 1: they ever given him six sacks? I doubt it, But yeah,
Speaker 1: because that last year you go to Atlanta, but they
Speaker 1: didn't have the three of them. I'm I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna buy it in this case. I just
Speaker 1: I can't because you you and I know nobody could
Speaker 1: have seen what happened in Travis coming. But you had
Speaker 1: the offseason, you brought back Joe, You took all these steps.
Speaker 1: Joe has been in the starting lineup for three weeks
Speaker 1: at this point, and I haven't had a chance to
Speaker 1: go back and watch it. I don't remember. I don't
Speaker 1: think Joe was terrible. I mean, but he's also the thing.
Speaker 1: Elliott Zeke ran for four point six per carry, but
Speaker 1: the reason, the reason why you put that rookie out
Speaker 1: there at guard and you felt okay about it is
Speaker 1: because of the guys that were beside him. Joe may
Speaker 1: have been able to do his job. Is he good
Speaker 1: enough to be able to do his job and help
Speaker 1: out with the with Connor Williams, I saw him try.
Speaker 1: It doesn't necessary. It didn't always work out, but it's
Speaker 1: still not as it shouldn't be as bad to get
Speaker 1: you to the point where you can't move around, and
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not a good enough excuse. And if
Speaker 1: if it had looked like Denver, like literally ten rushing yard,
Speaker 1: like you can't do freaking anything like that's the that
Speaker 1: was different. No, absolutely, I mean it looked a lot
Speaker 1: like Denver, but it was better. I mean the offense
Speaker 1: there were flashes of competency when there weren't flags and
Speaker 1: sacks and bad decisions, and I just think of play
Speaker 1: call was very predictable and not innovative in the slightest
Speaker 1: And on top of that, Dak wasn't good, he wasn't
Speaker 1: hidden people. I mean, the Jarwin throw just has burned
Speaker 1: into my brain, like I saw enough to think that
Speaker 1: it could have been different with better execution. I guess
Speaker 1: that's my point. Like if it had just been a
Speaker 1: nightmare from beginning to end, where you had no hope
Speaker 1: that they were ever going to do anything, then I
Speaker 1: might be talking more about Travis Frederick. But there was
Speaker 1: enough there to make me think they could have done
Speaker 1: more if they'd played and coached better. But that's also
Speaker 1: the problem I think when and again I'm not I
Speaker 1: don't want to get too far into this debate, but
Speaker 1: I believe that when you don't, when you make the
Speaker 1: decision that you're not going to play guys in the preseason,
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna in some instances, as was the
Speaker 1: case with Shaun Lee, you're not even going to practice
Speaker 1: them during training camp. A lot of the time, I
Speaker 1: think that when you go into this game and guys
Speaker 1: are not at their best, then it begs the question,
Speaker 1: did you miss that opportunity? And here's wick and come
Speaker 1: back and bite you. If this is a nine and
Speaker 1: seventeen and they lost this game to Caroline, that's the
Speaker 1: kind of game that could matter when it comes time
Speaker 1: for tie breaks in the playoffs. Is looking more like
Speaker 1: a hey, you know, this is a draft pick game,
Speaker 1: Like you could be picking sixth overall. If you you know,
Speaker 1: if you didn't win this game and this is a
Speaker 1: playoff seven nine seven, seen it right now. I just
Speaker 1: I don't think they used enough of the field on offense.
Speaker 1: I think that they they they're just too egotistical to
Speaker 1: think that they're guys and this scheme works, that you
Speaker 1: can just bring everyone down and Terrence Williams in the
Speaker 1: box is better than Terrence Williams way over here, and
Speaker 1: you have more space. Let's just clutter this whole thing up.
Speaker 1: We're not going down, we're not going side. We're just
Speaker 1: we're just sitting there and just thinking that our guys
Speaker 1: and our scheme is better than yours. And it's not.
Speaker 1: It's it's something that fans, to y'all's credit, you know,
Speaker 1: I know we roll our eyes at y'all sometimes, and
Speaker 1: I'm sorry for that, but fans have been saying it forever.
Speaker 1: Is like the refrain from this coaching staff is like,
Speaker 1: don't worry about them. We focus on ourselves. Maybe you
Speaker 1: should worry about them, and maybe you should scheme, maybe
Speaker 1: they are a problem, to beat them, and not just
Speaker 1: scheme to do your own thing, because it ain't working
Speaker 1: and hasn't been very well for most of the last
Speaker 1: season and a half. And that's what you that's what
Speaker 1: you worry about because you're gonna get blue shirt blue
Speaker 1: shorts today at the press conference, he just sticks with
Speaker 1: this plan and it's like beating, you know, your head
Speaker 1: against the wall, like he just this is the plan.
Speaker 1: This is the plan, this is how we do it,
Speaker 1: and you know what, you need to shuffle the deck
Speaker 1: every now and again. I know it's only one game
Speaker 1: for this year, but I'm just saying you've got to
Speaker 1: mix things up a little bit because I think they
Speaker 1: went out there thinking that what they do it would
Speaker 1: be better than the Panthers, and it really wasn't close.
Speaker 1: Just to be petty to your point, I'm going to
Speaker 1: have a close eye on Rams Raiders tonight because they
Speaker 1: Sean McVay didn't play any of his guys, and I
Speaker 1: have a feeling they're gonna look not like that. Even
Speaker 1: if they don't look awesome, I bet they scored more
Speaker 1: than eight points. I'm gonna guess that's today now. Of course,
Speaker 1: let's also think about it from this standpoint. The defense
Speaker 1: they're playing at night is very different in the defense
Speaker 1: for Cowboys played yesterday. That's a very very different comparison.
Speaker 1: But I get your point, and you're probably accurate. They're
Speaker 1: probably gonna look really, really good. There is an argument
Speaker 1: to be made, and I've always said, you run the
Speaker 1: risk of rust if you don't play your guys. I'd
Speaker 1: still rather have them available in a game that matters.
Speaker 1: And but you're making the assumption that you're going to
Speaker 1: lose them if you play them in the preseason. I mean,
Speaker 1: it happens every year, but that doesn't mean happens to everybody.
Speaker 1: We don't have to do this right now, the point
Speaker 1: being that's my personal preference. I'd rather run the risk
Speaker 1: of looking crappy in Week one than not have them
Speaker 1: at all, if and on top of that looking crappy.
Speaker 1: On top of that, it's the NFL. I refuse to like,
Speaker 1: you can still play and play well and win without
Speaker 1: optimal conditions, and that's I can't I get all that.
Speaker 1: But a guy, but a guy like Sean Lee to
Speaker 1: me is the prime example. Sure, because Sean Lee played
Speaker 1: an uncharacteristically bad game but today, and I refuse to
Speaker 1: believe that it's not, at least in part because he
Speaker 1: didn't get the number of reps that he needed to
Speaker 1: get in the preseason. Is actually he is a perfect
Speaker 1: example because he looked rusty, He didn't look like himself.
Speaker 1: He missed two or three tackles. Most of it happened
Speaker 1: in the first half and by the second half he
Speaker 1: I mean, they buckled down. The defense gave up, losing
Speaker 1: you a game. And in today's NFL. In today's NFL,
Speaker 1: you only have sixteen of them. Here's the only got sixteen.
Speaker 1: The defense gave up eighty five yards after halftime. Even
Speaker 1: if they were rusty from not playing in the preseason,
Speaker 1: they got it together. They held theirs, but never did.
Speaker 1: That's my point is that is what it looks like
Speaker 1: when you're rusty, is like you're like, oh crap, all right,
Speaker 1: we're not great. We got it, we adjust, We're good.
Speaker 1: Sixteen points, two hundred ninety three yards. What happened to
Speaker 1: the offense is not rust. That's just awful football. Like
Speaker 1: there's a difference, you know what I mean? Eight points
Speaker 1: two of eleven on third down, two hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: two total yards. Whatever. That ain't rust. That's just bad.
Speaker 1: In my opinion. Maybe all I'm saying is I do
Speaker 1: think that that the rust was a factory yesterday. And
Speaker 1: I believe that in today's NFL, the games are so close,
Speaker 1: the teams are so close, that every single game matters,
Speaker 1: especially games in your conference and games in your division,
Speaker 1: because those games are going to be the games that
Speaker 1: decide who makes the playoffs and who doesn't. And I
Speaker 1: think if you get to the end of this season
Speaker 1: and the Cowboys were right there and it was one
Speaker 1: game difference, you're going to look back at this game
Speaker 1: and say, should they have been a little bit more
Speaker 1: prepared going into that game by playing those guys a
Speaker 1: little bit more and maybe possibly being it because this
Speaker 1: was not a game that was out of reach. They
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to win it. If they would have
Speaker 1: been a little more prepared, maybe they win it. And
Speaker 1: I think it's just at least worth a conversation. No
Speaker 1: way to know for sure, you're right. I wish I
Speaker 1: could bet my paycheck that twenty extra, twenty five extra
Speaker 1: snaps in the preseason is not the difference between what
Speaker 1: we saw and what could have been. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's hard to know. I don't believe that. All right,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you guys. You want us we'll be back tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a big picture look at where they
Speaker 1: sit at this point, what's happening around the division, around
Speaker 1: the conference. We'll do that tomorrow for Nicki, even Dave Hellman, Ambergarcia.
Speaker 1: I'm Derek Eelson. This has been The Break live on
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys dot Com. This has been a production of
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.