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: with Nick Eatman, David Hellman, and bar Garcia and Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 1: It is Susie. November twelve, twenty nineteen, Season fifteen, episode
Speaker 1: number eighty. Welcome to another edition All Break, where you're
Speaker 1: live from the s WBC Morty Studios at the Star.
Speaker 1: You got about forty five minutes to talk about the
Speaker 1: Cowboys with you guys. Today, we're gonna talk about levels
Speaker 1: of concern coming off a game like that one that
Speaker 1: we saw on Sunday. There's a lot of things that
Speaker 1: you could be concerned about with this team. But I
Speaker 1: think it's up to us, It's up to this group
Speaker 1: in here to add some perspective to this conversation of
Speaker 1: how much should you be concerned about certain things that
Speaker 1: we saw Sunday, about certain position groups, about particular players
Speaker 1: that may not have played so well in that game.
Speaker 1: But is it a real trend or is it something
Speaker 1: that you're seeing that you think will be a problem
Speaker 1: as we go forward. So I got my crew here,
Speaker 1: got Nick, even Dave Hellman, Danny no excuse me, Danny
Speaker 1: serekis joining us today as well. So let's jump right
Speaker 1: in level of concern. It's gonna be a rating of
Speaker 1: one to ten, ten being I am losing my mind
Speaker 1: concerned with this one being as this is not a problem.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's start first with the offensive line. And
Speaker 1: I heard you guys actually had some interesting conversation on
Speaker 1: that yesterday. And so before we get to your levels
Speaker 1: of concern, why don't you guys give me a little
Speaker 1: news on what's happening there on the offensive line. Don't
Speaker 1: you take care of that? Nick? And you called your
Speaker 1: shot like, babe, freaking I didn't he always done? And
Speaker 1: then later he's like he has no I didn't know anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: He's like, I don't have a source, I don't know anything.
Speaker 1: He didn't know anything about an injury to Connor Williams.
Speaker 1: And and as I was telling you this earlier, if
Speaker 1: he would have had like a you know, like a
Speaker 1: soreness in his knee and we'll see he's not going
Speaker 1: to practice then and be like, all right, they're they're
Speaker 1: protecting him and they're trying to start Sufilo. I don't
Speaker 1: think you have to go under the knife to like
Speaker 1: prove a point here. So I do think he's got
Speaker 1: a legitimate injury. He's gonna have scope on his right knee,
Speaker 1: I believe. I don't think it's left because last year
Speaker 1: was right, he had the same thing. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, to Afilo came over and they had a
Speaker 1: game you know, seven game winning streak or whatever. So
Speaker 1: we'll see if that happens again. But I think it
Speaker 1: was just because a Sufilo, and I think he's a
Speaker 1: better lineman, and I think the Cowboys things so too.
Speaker 1: They just didn't draft him. But as I saw you,
Speaker 1: there there are tons of legitimate injuries in that locker
Speaker 1: room right now that could have surgery or decide not
Speaker 1: to have surgery. So yeah, I think he's got a
Speaker 1: legitimate injury. I do wonder though, if if it was
Speaker 1: kind yeah Connor, you know, you might want to go
Speaker 1: ahead and get the surgery, Like it's let's just go
Speaker 1: ahead and do the surgery and you could sit for
Speaker 1: a few weeks. We got a plan. I think he's
Speaker 1: a better lineman right now in his career. I think
Speaker 1: he gives him a little bit more strength, and you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see. I wonder, I was gonna say, I wondered too,
Speaker 1: how much this decision comes from them liking what Suefila
Speaker 1: did last year when he filled in for Williams. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure that came into you know, we can go
Speaker 1: a few weeks you feelab be ready. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: came into play some too. Put on my draft show
Speaker 1: hat real quick, and I'm going to defend the guy
Speaker 1: who I was very excited that they were going to draft.
Speaker 1: Maybe instead of saying, you know what, Connor, maybe you
Speaker 1: go get that surgery. Maybe they watched it back and
Speaker 1: they were like, you know what, you're clearly not right
Speaker 1: because you would be playing better than this if you
Speaker 1: were healthy. Because he hasn't been perfect by any stretch
Speaker 1: of the imagination, but I don't think he has played
Speaker 1: as poorly as he did against the Vikings. And so
Speaker 1: maybe they took a look about look at it and said,
Speaker 1: you're not helping us right, You're not going to be
Speaker 1: effective enough to help us in your current states, So
Speaker 1: go get this taken care of. Jason Garrett said he
Speaker 1: doesn't it. I mean, I don't think irs in consideration,
Speaker 1: and when you think about how far into the season
Speaker 1: we are, that I'm interested to see he You know,
Speaker 1: you don't ever want to put a firm timetable on it,
Speaker 1: just in case. But you know, when he says short term,
Speaker 1: I assume that means he can be back in three,
Speaker 1: three or four weeks. I mean, Michael Gallup had had
Speaker 1: a situation like this earlier in the season, so you know,
Speaker 1: he's a second round pick and a guy that everyone
Speaker 1: thought might be a first round pick, so you don't
Speaker 1: expect him to be a starter. But even if his
Speaker 1: career is a backup to a lot of spots, that
Speaker 1: is a valuable position, especially with this line. That's probably
Speaker 1: not what he wants or what the team wanted. But
Speaker 1: if he's your swing tackle who also can play guard
Speaker 1: and all that like, it wouldn't be the worst thing
Speaker 1: in the world. Are you? Are you saying that's where
Speaker 1: you may need to be. Maybe? I mean, what if
Speaker 1: Connor mcgovernan comes back and he's absolutely really good and
Speaker 1: Frederick keeps keeps improving, and you know, and they've signed
Speaker 1: the tackles, and so we're you know, maybe he's a
Speaker 1: backup swing tackle but also has ability to play guard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we kind of that's a very valuable persons. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we abandoned the whole moving him to write tackle
Speaker 1: thing because nobody expected Lyle Collins to resign. But now
Speaker 1: that he has, Yeah, and then you know McGovern's torn
Speaker 1: peck has kind of sidelined that conversation as well. But
Speaker 1: when the offseason gets here, I don't know, it's it's
Speaker 1: something to consider. I mean, you would as sorry, you
Speaker 1: would assume Connor Williams is still going to have a
Speaker 1: leg up, just based on multiple years in the in
Speaker 1: the strength program, starting experience, Connor McGovern has basically not
Speaker 1: played a snap of NFL football, not even in practice
Speaker 1: for the most part. But something to watch if we're
Speaker 1: gonna just start the game. I'll say a seven for
Speaker 1: the the line because I do think they're getting a
Speaker 1: little bit better here at left guard. But I also
Speaker 1: think there's also injury concerns to Zack Martin with his elbow,
Speaker 1: Lall Collins with his back. A couple of things to
Speaker 1: look at this week. Tyrant Smith is coming off one
Speaker 1: of his worst games we can remember, So Frederick, I
Speaker 1: don't think played that well either. Yeah, they I mean
Speaker 1: that was they got beat up by the Viking Vikings
Speaker 1: beat him across the board. It was just not I mean,
Speaker 1: it was uncharacteristically bad. Injuries are probably part of that,
Speaker 1: but Everson Griffin gave Tyrant Smith the work. Zach and
Speaker 1: Lyle are injured. Seven's too high for me. Ten is
Speaker 1: like jump off a cliff. I'm gonna say six. Six. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say six again. I mean, you know, you
Speaker 1: never want to overreact too much. They've played well way
Speaker 1: more often than they haven't. Yeah, and to a field
Speaker 1: I should be able to help. Well, it's hard to
Speaker 1: say you have all these concerns when you see the
Speaker 1: level of talent allong offensive line and you know that
Speaker 1: this is more than likely just maybe like a bump
Speaker 1: in the road. This isn't something that's concerning for me
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season, because you know what
Speaker 1: they're all capable of. Okay, so let me play Devil's
Speaker 1: advocate with that. There have been two really good defense
Speaker 1: is that they've played this year. Both those instances, they
Speaker 1: didn't win the battle. Does that concern you more when
Speaker 1: you're talking about this team? If they can win the
Speaker 1: division and get into the playoffs playing some of those
Speaker 1: though that caliber of talent in the playoffs. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: speak for the fans listening right now and say, playoffs,
Speaker 1: all right, let's string together some good results before we
Speaker 1: worry about what that means. Well, but the one thing
Speaker 1: we do know about this team, they can win in
Speaker 1: the NFC East, and if they keep winning the NFC East,
Speaker 1: they're gonna find themselves in the playoffs. So it's true,
Speaker 1: if they win their next two games in the NFC East,
Speaker 1: I have a hard time thinking that. I have a
Speaker 1: hard time thinking that Philadelphias. Philadelphia is just as schizophrenic
Speaker 1: as the calf. They know they could go. They could
Speaker 1: theoretically go six and ozho in the East and finish
Speaker 1: seven and nine, So I'm not willing to concede that.
Speaker 1: All right, their only other win outside the division as Miami,
Speaker 1: my thought has not beaten a good team, got it.
Speaker 1: But my thought is if they go seven and nine, somehow,
Speaker 1: Philly's gonna end up being seven to nine or less,
Speaker 1: because once again, those two teams are they're playing the
Speaker 1: same kind of football. Philly, it's really good. Well then
Speaker 1: that's so you still will win the division, right, y'all
Speaker 1: know who's who Philly has to end. They're not a
Speaker 1: good team, but they're playing. They got two Giants games,
Speaker 1: a Redskins game, a Dolphins game, and that's but that's
Speaker 1: my point is if they are, if they play like
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, which to this point they have, they've been
Speaker 1: up and down, then it may not depend on the
Speaker 1: caliber of their opponent. They may lose some games that
Speaker 1: right now you're looking at like they can't lose that. Okay,
Speaker 1: lose to the Giants. Absolutely, anybody can lose to anybody,
Speaker 1: of course. But but the whole point is, are you
Speaker 1: more concerned about these better teams, because that's where the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: like how was offensive line can bully some other teams,
Speaker 1: and they have. When it comes to some of these
Speaker 1: better lines, they've not gotten the better I mean, the
Speaker 1: last night's game was a good example. I mean, the
Speaker 1: two good football teams going back and forth, and you know,
Speaker 1: it came down to plays at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: And I think the the Vikings game is very similar.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it sucks to be five and four
Speaker 1: not six and three, because that's it seems like a
Speaker 1: really big difference. But you know, if they make a play,
Speaker 1: and I'm just saying, I know that's a big if,
Speaker 1: but I mean they're right there. Whin the game. We're
Speaker 1: not even talking about all these numbers were about to
Speaker 1: throw out or aren't it all because of a one
Speaker 1: play here and there. I mean, that was a very
Speaker 1: good two good football teams I think that are playing
Speaker 1: in that game. The Vikings won the game. They were
Speaker 1: a little bit better. But I don't think it's I
Speaker 1: don't think the cow I mean, the Cowboys can compete
Speaker 1: with anyone, but they will lose to anyone if they
Speaker 1: don't play well and they're injured. So I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a panic button situation. They can they can get
Speaker 1: in here and they can be better than Philly. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the tight ends, Jason Witten, Blake Jarwin,
Speaker 1: Dalton Schultz. I what's a level of concern there. I
Speaker 1: don't know about concern. It's just I mean, even yesterday,
Speaker 1: Garrett was asked why they're not using Jarmin more when
Speaker 1: he seems to be playing well when he gets the opportunities,
Speaker 1: and it's Whittenes is just that good, and it almost
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of Wait he said that. Did
Speaker 1: he say Witten is just that good? Or are you
Speaker 1: saying that? No, I mean paraphrasing what he said. I mean,
Speaker 1: like Jason Witten is Jason Witten, right, And you know
Speaker 1: you can only play so many personal packages and it
Speaker 1: almost kind of reminds me of like Tony Pollard of
Speaker 1: you just you're not getting the opportunities that you need.
Speaker 1: I'm going to disagree with you there because you know,
Speaker 1: Zeke has been the best running back in the league
Speaker 1: for the last few years. He wasn't the other night, obviously,
Speaker 1: but we know what Zeke is and uh but what
Speaker 1: Witten is not that guy anymore, you know, And so no,
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I would like to see more
Speaker 1: jarn I'm just saying what Garrett's and Garrett's you know,
Speaker 1: Jarwin seems to swam the nose and all the start.
Speaker 1: I mean, Garrett, we saw it at the press conference
Speaker 1: where you know, he was tearing up and all that.
Speaker 1: That's this guy. But this is it's a tough situation
Speaker 1: because it's not like Jarwin is is great at everything.
Speaker 1: He's just a more athletic tight end than Witten, faster.
Speaker 1: So with Schultz, but that doesn't mean Choltzon needs to play.
Speaker 1: You'd be surprised to hear this, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: to play by the rules on this particular one because
Speaker 1: and listen, I'm wrong all the time, like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: always wrong. I thought they're gonna beat the Vikings. Definitely
Speaker 1: thought they're gonna beat the Jets. A lot of stuff
Speaker 1: I say is wrong. But the minute Jason Witten unretired,
Speaker 1: I called this from a million miles away. I was like,
Speaker 1: tight end will be a problem spot. Jason Witten will
Speaker 1: be Jason Witten. It probably won't be good enough, but
Speaker 1: he's going to command a certain amount of it, you know,
Speaker 1: snaps and attention that you're not going to get better
Speaker 1: from your younger guys while he's here, and you're not
Speaker 1: going to draft a guy because you don't know how
Speaker 1: long Jason Witten is going to be around. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's killing this team, you know, in the I mean,
Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of problems, you're going to say
Speaker 1: something else that scares me way more than tight end.
Speaker 1: But it's just a subpar position right now, and there's
Speaker 1: nothing they can do about it right now. And that's
Speaker 1: just it just is what it is. That's kind of
Speaker 1: my take on it is, You've got so many things
Speaker 1: that you can put in the priorities as far as problems,
Speaker 1: this is so far down the list for me that
Speaker 1: my level of concern on the tight ends is really
Speaker 1: really small because I don't I'll put it like this,
Speaker 1: I don't think that anything the tight ends did or
Speaker 1: didn't do in this last game one or would have
Speaker 1: won or ended up losing this game for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I don't think the tight ends were part of my
Speaker 1: equation at least on why they lost game. But but
Speaker 1: you know, maybe someone needs to tell Dak because you know,
Speaker 1: after the Jets game, Deck's like, I'm gonna throw it
Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame tight end. Okay, I get
Speaker 1: that same with this last game, the Vikings third down
Speaker 1: critical play, that he's not winning those plays. He's not
Speaker 1: winning those fifty fifty balls where it's fighting with a
Speaker 1: with a defensive backer or a linebacker. He's not He's
Speaker 1: not that guy that's making that play. He's not getting
Speaker 1: those pass interference calls. So it's I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's your best option, especially with critical pivotal plays in
Speaker 1: the game, when the game's on the line, he's like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna throw it to the goat. Well, but
Speaker 1: if but if he's throwing it to him, he's throwing
Speaker 1: it to him, because I don't think he's just throwing
Speaker 1: it just blindly. I think he's blown throwing it to
Speaker 1: him because he sees, Hey, maybe he's a man coverage,
Speaker 1: maybe is not. You know what he said though, what
Speaker 1: he's said is I'm going to take the goat every time.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if that's you. I mean, do
Speaker 1: you really think he's saying I'm just gonna I don't
Speaker 1: care when I come out of the huddle, I don't
Speaker 1: care what I see I'm throwing into Jason Witt. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's what he's saying. I just think they're
Speaker 1: in they're in a unique spot, and not in a
Speaker 1: good way, because, I mean, what do we just talk about.
Speaker 1: Connor Williams was the fiftieth overall pick and we're like, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, so what this is the NFL. If
Speaker 1: we got to move him to swing tackle next year,
Speaker 1: that's what we're gonna do that. Jason Witten is not
Speaker 1: going to be your third tight end he's not here
Speaker 1: to play six snaps and be on special teams. It's
Speaker 1: just not going to happen, right, And that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: and I don't have his snapcount in front of me.
Speaker 1: I bet it's it's not ninety nine percent. You know,
Speaker 1: you were. You pointed out he wasn't on the field
Speaker 1: for the for the door do or Die drive, But
Speaker 1: he's still going to command a certain amount of snaps,
Speaker 1: attention and respect all that stuff. And it just is
Speaker 1: what it is. As we know, they have two tight
Speaker 1: ends on the field as much as they do anything else.
Speaker 1: I mean this year they use two tight ends quite
Speaker 1: a bit. And there are a lot of times, just
Speaker 1: like in that last drive, in games where Jason they
Speaker 1: only have one tight end and Jason's not in there,
Speaker 1: they have Blake Jarwin in the game. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, there was one series this last game where
Speaker 1: they had two tight ends and Jason wasn't on the field.
Speaker 1: So I think they're moving it around. Jason's the starter
Speaker 1: and has more snaps than anybody else. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a situation where they're not using Blake Jarwin. I
Speaker 1: think they're using him fine. I just think it's just
Speaker 1: one of those things where Jason just happens to have
Speaker 1: more snaps, you know. All right, let's move on. Let's
Speaker 1: take our first break. When we come back, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about the running back position. We'll talk about the running
Speaker 1: offense and particularly the running defense. Will do I want
Speaker 1: to come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Speaker 1: based on GWS one score, September twenty nineteen. Back to
Speaker 1: the Break Welcome Back In is a second second of
Speaker 1: The Break live in s WBC Mortgage Studios. At the start,
Speaker 1: we're talking about levels of concern. We've talked about the
Speaker 1: offensive wine, the tight end position. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: running back in Ezekiel Elliott I've seen some I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't even want to characterize, but I've seen some
Speaker 1: tweets that have been floating around over the last day.
Speaker 1: They've been questioning Zeke's effectiveness looking at these games where
Speaker 1: they've had struggles trying to run the ball. Do you
Speaker 1: guys see anything in Zeke that that gives you a
Speaker 1: level of concerned I mean, and I'm talking about the
Speaker 1: separate from the offensive line, just Zeke as a runner.
Speaker 1: Are you at all concerned about hit him and what
Speaker 1: he's doing at the running back position a little bit? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you want him to be a little bit more
Speaker 1: of an explosive player, because that's how you get those
Speaker 1: big yards. That's how you want the guy that's that's
Speaker 1: paid as one of the best in the league to
Speaker 1: kind of every once in a while get a twenty five,
Speaker 1: thirty five fifty yard run. Have that in his arsenal.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he doesn't have it, but most of
Speaker 1: his big plays in his career have been screened. Now
Speaker 1: that's on the Cowboys for not, you know, running one,
Speaker 1: because I think that they saw it once or twice
Speaker 1: or fifteen times. Dalvin Cook did it, so you'd think
Speaker 1: they can try it. But the explosive plays, to me,
Speaker 1: are becoming a little bit of a problem. So what
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the lack of explosive guys fat of Zeke
Speaker 1: or a little bit of a problem. I think he
Speaker 1: has one run of twenty or more yards this season.
Speaker 1: The longest rush of the season is Dak the Redskins
Speaker 1: two yards. I'm almost positive he's got a boatload of
Speaker 1: twelve to fifteen yard runs. And I've said before that'll
Speaker 1: do the trick more often than not. Like Zeke himself,
Speaker 1: I'm probably at like a two and a half or three.
Speaker 1: I mean, he three hundred yard games in a row
Speaker 1: before that. He's a workhorse, He fights through contact, he
Speaker 1: does all that stuff. But just I don't know, go
Speaker 1: go flip on that tape of Dalvin Cook and just
Speaker 1: like you weren't here yesterday, but like you're holding your
Speaker 1: breath when he hits the hole because you're like, this
Speaker 1: could be this could be six yards, this could be
Speaker 1: twenty five yards, this could go to the house. And
Speaker 1: you haven't felt that way often watching Zeke. And it's
Speaker 1: not to say he hasn't been good or he hasn't
Speaker 1: been productive, but consider the price tag and you have
Speaker 1: to you have to now that it's there. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: you want. You would like to see more of that,
Speaker 1: But most of my concern with that is more about
Speaker 1: the way he's being used. Like you can also flip
Speaker 1: on the tape and watch Zeke run into some of
Speaker 1: these boxes of five guys trying to block six or
Speaker 1: seven guys and say, well, what is he really supposed
Speaker 1: to do? Much like the Saints game, is Zeke not
Speaker 1: getting yards because he's not good. No, Zeke is getting
Speaker 1: yards because there's unblocked tacklers in the box bringing him down.
Speaker 1: And then what Nick just said, they just refused to
Speaker 1: use him creatively in the passing game, and at this
Speaker 1: point I've given up hope that they ever will. And
Speaker 1: that's that's like a nine. That's a nine, and stubbornly
Speaker 1: running him into brick walls is like an eight. So
Speaker 1: that's but I do not put that on Ezekiel Elliott.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's his fault. He's still strong, he's
Speaker 1: still grinding and making those tough runs and breaking tackles.
Speaker 1: It's just I agree, I'm not sure why we haven't
Speaker 1: seen those explosive plays we talked about when we play
Speaker 1: the Giants. I mean, se Quon is always good for
Speaker 1: at least one every time, you know, we play him,
Speaker 1: And I'm just wondering why we haven't seen those from
Speaker 1: Zeke yet. And again to a Dave, I don't know
Speaker 1: why they don't throw it to him or he's proven
Speaker 1: he can be just as consistent getting the ball in
Speaker 1: the air. Yeah, I'll say my paint by numbers thing
Speaker 1: for the millionth time. But like the way the Cowboys
Speaker 1: play it, They're like, Okay, here comes our screen. We're
Speaker 1: gonna fake the We're gonna fake the jet sweep, fake
Speaker 1: the play action. Dak's gonna look left, turn right and
Speaker 1: throw it to Zeke. And all right, we got our screen.
Speaker 1: We did our screen for the night. We're done. We're good,
Speaker 1: and the Vikings are over here like we're gonna do
Speaker 1: it this way, We're gonna do it that way. Oh,
Speaker 1: here comes another screen pass. Here we go again. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do it coming out of this look. We're gonna
Speaker 1: do it coming out of that look. And the Cowboys
Speaker 1: just aren't like that. And Kellen Moore is obviously doing
Speaker 1: a good job. They have the best offense in the league,
Speaker 1: but said, I just think they could be more creative
Speaker 1: across a bunch of different fronts. The interesting part about
Speaker 1: this is you talked about the money. Christian McCaffrey has
Speaker 1: not reached his second deal. Correct, No, all right, So
Speaker 1: check this out. Five rushers in the league right now,
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey, Nick Chubb, Dalvin Cook, Leonard Fournette, Josh Jacobs,
Speaker 1: all young guys, all still on their first contracts. If
Speaker 1: you go beyond that, Zeke's at six. But then you've
Speaker 1: got Chris Carson, You've got Marlon Mack, You've got Derrick Henry,
Speaker 1: Carlos Hyde, Lamar Jackson, Funny Kenyon, Drake, mark Ingram, Philip
Speaker 1: like you start going down this list, and it is
Speaker 1: the whole argument that was being made before the deal
Speaker 1: with Zeke of do you ever and I've heard people
Speaker 1: make this argument, and I think it's a valid argument,
Speaker 1: do you ever go big on a second contract on
Speaker 1: a running back in today's NFL where you look at
Speaker 1: this and this is not uncommon that you look at
Speaker 1: the top rushers in the league and they tend to
Speaker 1: be young guys on first deals. Does this change? Are
Speaker 1: you looking at this and do you guys have any
Speaker 1: questions now about whether it was a good idea to
Speaker 1: make the decision to pay him the amount of money
Speaker 1: that they ended up paying him. Yeah, I mean, go
Speaker 1: back and you know now and and make that argument.
Speaker 1: But I don't think it was a bad idea. I
Speaker 1: think we were there in training camp. We kind of
Speaker 1: knew what this team was about, what they needed, and
Speaker 1: I think Zeke is the guy that he has been,
Speaker 1: the guy that kind of makes it all go. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, Dak hasn't. This was one of the few
Speaker 1: games that we've really seen Dak really play great game
Speaker 1: without having him out there. I guess you could say
Speaker 1: the Giants from last year, but you know, against a
Speaker 1: much better team and uh, you know, Dak's kind of
Speaker 1: been the guy that's needed Zeke. And let's be honest,
Speaker 1: he still had Zeke. I mean, he had Zeke in
Speaker 1: that game. Like he wasn't rushing for a lot, but
Speaker 1: he was there and the Vikings certainly knew he was there.
Speaker 1: So I think I think Zeke's president certainly helped Dak
Speaker 1: in that game. Um, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we went in we went into
Speaker 1: this with our eyes open, like all that. None of
Speaker 1: that should be surprising to you if you play close
Speaker 1: pay close attention to the NFL. And I even I
Speaker 1: was like, it's scary have that much money to a
Speaker 1: running back. But if there's a guy that I would
Speaker 1: give it to, it's Zeke x y Z. His age,
Speaker 1: his durability, his talent, blah blah blah blah blah. So
Speaker 1: I mean, it hurts to hear that, but you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised, Like it shouldn't have taken to I'm not
Speaker 1: talking to you, ye speaking rhetorically, right, So like it
Speaker 1: kind of stings to hear that, But yeah, I agree
Speaker 1: with Nick. I mean, the Vikings were so obviously keyed
Speaker 1: on Zeke and we I mean coach's fault in my
Speaker 1: opinion that they were still focusing that much on the
Speaker 1: run even late in the game, and the Cowboys did
Speaker 1: adjust to throw more, but I think they could have
Speaker 1: done more, I think, And yeah, and I agree, like
Speaker 1: that was one of Dak's first games where he was
Speaker 1: really able to carry that load on his own and
Speaker 1: they still didn't win. They could have, which hasn't always
Speaker 1: been the case. When Zeke has had a bad day,
Speaker 1: but they didn't, and so Dak will hopefully continue to
Speaker 1: grow into that guy. I don't know if he's ready
Speaker 1: to be that guy a weekend and week out yet,
Speaker 1: and so I still don't have a problem with it,
Speaker 1: even if it does kind of sting to hear those stats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the part that's worsome for me is if you go
Speaker 1: back and watch the game, there were so many plays
Speaker 1: where it wasn't even like the it wasn't even a
Speaker 1: situation where the Vikings were just saying, at least in
Speaker 1: the situations I'm talking about, where the Vikings were saying,
Speaker 1: we're gonna put both safeties down in the box and
Speaker 1: we are committed to stopping Zeke. Like, these are situations
Speaker 1: where what the defense was dedicating to stop the run
Speaker 1: was beatable. And especially when you consider the fact of
Speaker 1: how much money and how many first round draft picks
Speaker 1: have been used across that offensive line and at the
Speaker 1: running back position, You're like, they should be able to
Speaker 1: beat the front that says run against this front, And
Speaker 1: I know they weren't. I get all that, But that's
Speaker 1: the part that's worthsome to me is the guys that
Speaker 1: you've really invested in to say third and two, we
Speaker 1: feel like we should be able to run against a
Speaker 1: four man front and six men in the box, and
Speaker 1: you can't. You get a two yard loss. Right, That's
Speaker 1: where I think there's a a disconnect and a problem.
Speaker 1: Danny used the jello analogy that, yeah, it was so great,
Speaker 1: I want to fight through the fan. This morning, Jerry
Speaker 1: was saying he was asked if he has, like any
Speaker 1: concerns I guess more about Cowboys run defense. Was I
Speaker 1: think what the specific question was and is analogy. He's
Speaker 1: great analogies. He said, It's like holding jello in your hands.
Speaker 1: As soon as it starts to like you think you're good,
Speaker 1: it's not seeping through your middle fingers anymore. It starts
Speaker 1: overflowing on the edges. So as soon as you think
Speaker 1: you're good and comfortable in one aspect of your game,
Speaker 1: something else kind of grabs your attention. Which the reason
Speaker 1: I asked you to bring that up is it's very
Speaker 1: fitting in that regard because whether it's injuries, whether it's
Speaker 1: the other talent in the NFL, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: chalk it up to, like, it's rare when you can
Speaker 1: just line up and out talent another NFL team, and
Speaker 1: it takes coaching to compensate for that. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: the forty nine ers, I believe, had they had their
Speaker 1: starting tackles for the first time in like a month
Speaker 1: and a half night which they lost. Ironically, they lost,
Speaker 1: but they also got to eight no without their starting tackles.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that happening here? No? I can't. But
Speaker 1: that also tells you, you you know, you invest so much
Speaker 1: in a particular area of your team, and when that
Speaker 1: part of the team is just performing like all these
Speaker 1: other teams that don't invest at and it makes you wonder,
Speaker 1: is it a bad investment? Right? No, that's and that's
Speaker 1: my You know, yes, you spend all this money on
Speaker 1: the O line, but I mean, you know, Tyrone's his
Speaker 1: injury list is like a CBS receipt, and Lyle's been
Speaker 1: dealing with something. Travis is coming back from a sickness
Speaker 1: that knocked him out all year, and on and on
Speaker 1: and on and on, and it's it's unrealistic to be like, well,
Speaker 1: we spent first round picks on these guys for years
Speaker 1: and years, so we can just line up and run
Speaker 1: over whoever we want to. You gotta be more creative
Speaker 1: than that. All right, Look, I was gonna say, you
Speaker 1: look at the teams, some of who they've lost too,
Speaker 1: and you think if the Cowboys were dealing with those injuries,
Speaker 1: could they have won games? Right? The Saints didn't have Breeze,
Speaker 1: if we didn't have Dak right Cooper Rush, Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Giant or Packers didn't have jamont To Adams. Like we've
Speaker 1: seen how this Cowboys team performs without Cooper. It's it's
Speaker 1: just concerned. Yeah, you see the depth and then when
Speaker 1: they're putting this situation to use their backups doesn't always
Speaker 1: pan out the way it should. All Right, we're gonna
Speaker 1: say our final break, we will come back. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about the run defense, we'll talk about the linebackers, and
Speaker 1: I want to talk about special teams a little bit
Speaker 1: as well. We'll get levels of concern on all those
Speaker 1: players when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot
Speaker 1: Com Radio. Ready, Okay? Oh so so are we gonna win?
Speaker 1: Just okaying is not okay, whether it's cheerleaders or your
Speaker 1: wireless network. At and D is America's best wireless network.
Speaker 1: Best network based on GWS one score, September twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: it's time for tailgating with the auto Box boys. The
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Speaker 1: Hey you think I could fit my seven layer salmon
Speaker 1: salad into the Trooper cooler. Yep, but please don't. And
Speaker 1: that's been tailgating with the Auterbox boys. Learn more about
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Speaker 1: when the Cowboys win, you get to experience the sweet
Speaker 1: taste of victory. Because if the Cowboys win the next day,
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Speaker 1: So don't just celebrate the Cowboys success from the sidelines,
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Speaker 1: Participation may vary limited time offer back to the break.
Speaker 1: You know, it's almost Christmas time. It is. It's getting there,
Speaker 1: getting a look a lot like Christmas. It feels like
Speaker 1: it around here for sure. Cowboys will host their third
Speaker 1: annual Christmas at the Star, presented by Albertson's and Tom Thumb,
Speaker 1: from November twenty second through December twenty first, taking place
Speaker 1: at the Star in Frisco. It's a family friendly events
Speaker 1: through the holiday season, including the Christmas Spectacular. It's an
Speaker 1: opportunity to take a photo with Santa Claus. They've upgraded
Speaker 1: there this year, and for more information, visit the Star
Speaker 1: in Frisco dot com. It's an awesome show, Suspect Arcular. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. You a part of it
Speaker 1: like you were last weekend, mat No I went last
Speaker 1: year as a fan. Awesome. So November twenty second through
Speaker 1: December twenty Friday Saturday, bundle up because if it's anything
Speaker 1: like it's he is right now, it should be cool
Speaker 1: out there a little bit. You never know, it could
Speaker 1: be hot. You're looking forward to Chicago. Yeah, yeah, fine,
Speaker 1: Detroit seems like it's gonna be pretty cool. I know
Speaker 1: it'll be indoors. We'll be indoors, so it's a little different.
Speaker 1: But famous last words. But like, I don't know, Chicago
Speaker 1: probably won't be any colder than it was when I
Speaker 1: woke up in Dallas this morning. The windy city. About
Speaker 1: to say, the wind changes things a little bit. Although
Speaker 1: this morning in Dallas the wind chill was ten degrees,
Speaker 1: so yeah, it was brutal. It was pretty cold. All right,
Speaker 1: we're getting a right, let's get back in. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: talk some run defense. Uh, this last game, that one
Speaker 1: series is what I just had him my mind because
Speaker 1: it'll be honest with you, And we even mentioned in
Speaker 1: the Prescott press box knicks Nick early in the game
Speaker 1: they were actually doing a pretty good stopping the run.
Speaker 1: Their problems were in the screen game like they were
Speaker 1: having a hard time stop in the screen game. But
Speaker 1: as far as the run was concerned, they were doing
Speaker 1: a pretty good job. And then you get to that
Speaker 1: series and basically Minnesota just lined up and see it.
Speaker 1: We're going to run the ball. You're not going to
Speaker 1: stop us. And the Cowboys had no answers. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: very old school. Yeah, And you know, you can say
Speaker 1: what you want about Tony Pollard, he is a change
Speaker 1: of pace back, but Minnesota does it differently that when
Speaker 1: they bring a guy in, they bring a guy that's
Speaker 1: even bigger and more pissed off than Dalvin Cook and
Speaker 1: he runs that way. And you don't really know the
Speaker 1: difference of these two guys, and it wasn't an advantage
Speaker 1: for them not to say that. You know, the Cowboys
Speaker 1: were doing it in another way, but they were able
Speaker 1: to just interchange them within a drive and keep it going,
Speaker 1: keep it pounding, and it was it was very impressive
Speaker 1: to see for that end. It wasn't impressive to see
Speaker 1: the linebackers and the defensive lines. Isn't it the same
Speaker 1: thing we've been saying all season? Tackling? Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: tackling was definitely a problem in this game. Run defense
Speaker 1: has been at least somewhat of a concern sporadically throughout
Speaker 1: the season. At times I think we were getting better
Speaker 1: at one point, and can anybody pinpoint what the deal
Speaker 1: is here, because I mean, yeah, I'm I'm way, I'm
Speaker 1: way up there, close to ten with the defense. I
Speaker 1: will say this anytime, anytime a team is getting run
Speaker 1: on the way the Cowboys got run on in that
Speaker 1: in the second half in that game, my first set
Speaker 1: of attention goes to the linebackers, and I think there
Speaker 1: were a number of times in that game where linebackers
Speaker 1: overran plays where linebackers slipped and fell, where linebackers had
Speaker 1: a guy like they had him and he got away
Speaker 1: and he's running. And so for me, the number one
Speaker 1: job of a linebacker is make the tackle. Diagnosed the play,
Speaker 1: get there and make the tackle. And I don't think
Speaker 1: enough in that second half of that game the linebackers
Speaker 1: were diagnosing the play, getting there and making the tackle.
Speaker 1: That also means sometimes you gotta run through blocks. I mean,
Speaker 1: sometimes you gotta know enough about what's coming to not
Speaker 1: get in a bad position to get blocked. Didn't look
Speaker 1: like often enough the linebackers were doing that in this game.
Speaker 1: It didn't seem like anybody was really doing it. Getting
Speaker 1: off I mean, m DeMarcus Lawrence played pretty well all things.
Speaker 1: I mean, what else is new? But yeah, get not
Speaker 1: being able to get off blocks, not diagnosing plays, tackling
Speaker 1: I think I think I read the Vikings had one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty four yards after contact. It's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. It's it's it's incredible in all the wrong ways. Yea,
Speaker 1: So maybe they were diagnosing plays. Maybe they were diagnosing
Speaker 1: plays working righta all all season? Yeah, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's been all season. I think yeah, I think consistently, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's been issues tackling throughout the season. I
Speaker 1: get a confused with Texas football sometimes, So I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's sorry for me to say for the whole year,
Speaker 1: please don't bring up college football with David. I think, oh, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: we don't have to go there. You know the guy
Speaker 1: that that's really hard to figure out here is when
Speaker 1: you just watch him plays, Alan Smith. I mean, is
Speaker 1: he good? Does he make a lot of plays? He
Speaker 1: makes some he tells you about it when he does,
Speaker 1: and you think, well, well, you know he's around the ball,
Speaker 1: he's making plays. He doesn't always make great plays, though
Speaker 1: he misses a lot too. And Jalen is very similar
Speaker 1: to this team in that you know, you see the good,
Speaker 1: he sees some of the bad at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. Though it doesn't add up like you like
Speaker 1: you'd want it to. You know, thirteen tackles, but it
Speaker 1: just seems kind of hollow. Would it be fair? And
Speaker 1: I don't have them all in front of me, obviously,
Speaker 1: but like most of Jalen's really great plays this season
Speaker 1: have been as a pass rusher, really, haven't they I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking Saints, I'm thinking he had a
Speaker 1: sack against the Giants. I believe. I don't think he's
Speaker 1: a great rusher, though I'm not saying one way or
Speaker 1: the other. I'm saying most of his good plays have
Speaker 1: been just screaming downfield trying to write, which I mean,
Speaker 1: that's nice, but that's not what I want from my linebackers.
Speaker 1: I want them using their instincts to get side to
Speaker 1: side and sniff stuff out before it gets started. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what you're there to do. Yeah, And I think
Speaker 1: if you're if if we're talking about this holistically, I
Speaker 1: don't think there's a linebacker on among those top three
Speaker 1: that have consistently done that this year, and to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, the one I'm probably most disappointed in,
Speaker 1: and again it's because of expectations, is Latent. My thoughts
Speaker 1: after last year was that Latan's gonna be a bad
Speaker 1: you know what in this league. He was going to
Speaker 1: be a really, really great linebacker. So my expectation is
Speaker 1: sideline a sideline. I think about that Houston game and
Speaker 1: the way they run down that play on the sideline
Speaker 1: and stop the quarterback cold in his tracks and there
Speaker 1: is nothing that he gets out of the play. How
Speaker 1: often have we seen that this year? Like that's the
Speaker 1: part that I'm really concerned about, is they're just not
Speaker 1: flowing sideline the sideline. They're not diagnosing a play and
Speaker 1: making tackles for lasses where they just basically shoot through gaps.
Speaker 1: You're not doing any of that stuff, and so there's
Speaker 1: not the big plays coming from They're not even making
Speaker 1: the kind of plays where receiver catches a ball in
Speaker 1: middle field, linebacker comes up and dislodges the ball. Those
Speaker 1: kind of like what kind of plays are they making
Speaker 1: right now? And I just don't see a lot of
Speaker 1: those splashed plays from the linebacking win late, sorry down,
Speaker 1: Would you even consider him healthy? No? Right? Which what
Speaker 1: sucks is it? Honestly it puts us in a bad spot.
Speaker 1: Not that anybody, not that I expect anybody to have sympathy,
Speaker 1: But like Layton's got a stinger. It was bad enough
Speaker 1: that it kept him out the game after the bye week,
Speaker 1: so clearly something pretty nasty to sideline him for that long.
Speaker 1: Then he's clearly gimpy in this Vikings game, like he's limping.
Speaker 1: You could see it with your own eyes. He runs
Speaker 1: off the field, he goes to the locker room without
Speaker 1: his helmet, comes back, gets back in, finishes the game.
Speaker 1: And so for all intents and purposes, he's healthy. Like,
Speaker 1: if you're healthy enough to be out there, then you're
Speaker 1: healthy enough for me to critique your level of play.
Speaker 1: But probably not in reality, you know, But how many
Speaker 1: guys on the field are all like that? Absolutely? I'm
Speaker 1: about football is if you're out there playing, you're probably
Speaker 1: playing with an injury. And it's just a matter of
Speaker 1: how much pain tolerance can you can you handle? But
Speaker 1: and again I don't even I don't know, like Jay,
Speaker 1: we even asked Jason Garrett about it specifically. Yesterday we
Speaker 1: were like, did he come out of that game? Okay?
Speaker 1: And Jason said yes. So I'm going to take him
Speaker 1: at his word on that, even if it's probably not
Speaker 1: one the truth. But if he's and again pure conjecture
Speaker 1: on my part, I don't know, I'm speculating, but like,
Speaker 1: if he's got like a mild groin strain, no wonder
Speaker 1: he's not doing that type of stuff, you know, But
Speaker 1: if you're healthy enough to be out there, then I
Speaker 1: have to critique what I see. You know, I think
Speaker 1: the big difference is is, you know, at the linebacker position,
Speaker 1: I think those are a lot of guys in the
Speaker 1: league that make tackles, especially since that's a that's a
Speaker 1: stat that you know, teams keep by, you know, to themselves,
Speaker 1: and it changes with every everybody who's who's grading those players.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think Layton made the Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: last because he had interceptions. He had a couple in
Speaker 1: a row. He had a couple against the one on
Speaker 1: Monday night or Sunday night, and the next week as well,
Speaker 1: And I think that's right when you're really voting, and
Speaker 1: this guy's a stud and now he's making other plays,
Speaker 1: But I don't. I don't know. I think that's the
Speaker 1: big difference here. I don't he hasn't had those turnovers.
Speaker 1: I disagree with you, and I think you're right, like
Speaker 1: interceptions or splash plays and they stand out and they
Speaker 1: run on Sports Center. But just week after week last year,
Speaker 1: he's knifing back into the backfield and like if he
Speaker 1: had been playing like he was last year, half of
Speaker 1: those pitches to Dalvin Cook, they're going for negative one,
Speaker 1: zero or one because Layton vander esh is getting through
Speaker 1: two blocks and getting there before he can get going.
Speaker 1: He did it. He made a huge play against Philly
Speaker 1: on the road last year where he did exactly that,
Speaker 1: and he did that reliably. They did it against Houston.
Speaker 1: They wound up losing that game, but they both were
Speaker 1: doing stuff like that and you just don't see it.
Speaker 1: You remember Layton. I think he did it once in
Speaker 1: this game, and he's done it a few other times,
Speaker 1: and it stands out because it happened so rarely where
Speaker 1: you're like, WHOA, there's the latent that I remember from
Speaker 1: last year. How many games did he miss last year,
Speaker 1: like to start the year, how many he didn't work well?
Speaker 1: He wasn't starting until week four or five, but he
Speaker 1: didn't miss anything. He didn't miss any games. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's on pace to get way more tackles this year.
Speaker 1: And I understand that he didn't, you know, play, it
Speaker 1: wasn't starting a lot in the first few games. But
Speaker 1: I mean, I think he's still making plays. I really do.
Speaker 1: I think he's making plays. I just don't know if
Speaker 1: he's making these splash plays, especially the turnovers. I've seen
Speaker 1: some tackles, but you know where he's chasing them down
Speaker 1: and all that, But I guess they haven't. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Let's ask Corey Miller. How the house. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: very often. And actually the big board up there, how
Speaker 1: many times are they hitting the house? I heard it
Speaker 1: once in the game, and I want to say this
Speaker 1: last game where he did it, it was like a
Speaker 1: it was a play that I was kind of like
Speaker 1: a little nondescript, like I didn't think it was a
Speaker 1: great play, but he made a tackle his wife on
Speaker 1: six yard. I mean, so I don't know. All right,
Speaker 1: real quick, we don't have much time left. I really
Speaker 1: quickly wanted to bring up special teams because I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Brett Maher. Is there any level of
Speaker 1: concern with him? I don't personally put okay, good every
Speaker 1: time he kicks, oh, okay, every time he makes every
Speaker 1: time he kicks, there's a concern. Yeah, there is. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he's gonna make it. I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's gonna make it, including extra points, I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's going to make it. I was really
Speaker 1: wondering if they make that touchdown at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, was he going to make it? You know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just I just thought it was gonna come
Speaker 1: down to either Maha or Bailey or both or whatever.
Speaker 1: But it didn't. It almost did. That's what's concerning. I
Speaker 1: get that they know he can make those really long kicks,
Speaker 1: you know, forty five fifty yarders, but does that mean
Speaker 1: that you have to put him in the multiple situations
Speaker 1: like that every game. Did you guys talk about that yesterday? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's too much, too much faith. Well, extra points that
Speaker 1: I've seen him do it, cool, but I just like
Speaker 1: which he's seen him do it. He also knows that
Speaker 1: he's missed. He's fifty percent this year, which fifty plus,
Speaker 1: so he threw him. He threw him out there for
Speaker 1: the fifty seven yard or and then twenty minutes later
Speaker 1: had an opportunity at the same kick and didn't want
Speaker 1: to do it. It's like, but but you had all
Speaker 1: this confidence in him, and so just watching him miss
Speaker 1: one kick changed all of that, even though you've seen
Speaker 1: him miss plenty of times in your life. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I can't fathom why you would make the decision
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a fifty fifty shot at something, at anything,
Speaker 1: I would take a fifty fifty shot at something that
Speaker 1: early in the game where it's not necessary, Like you
Speaker 1: do that going into a half, when you have any
Speaker 1: more time. You do that at the end of a game.
Speaker 1: Maybe late in a game when you just feel like, hey,
Speaker 1: we've been struggling all game to get into position to
Speaker 1: even get a score. We gotta get something here, then
Speaker 1: maybe you take it was the first series of the game.
Speaker 1: Why I didn't understand the point of it. I really
Speaker 1: didn't understand the point of It's not gonna give you
Speaker 1: a boost to go up three nothing. Rightly, look at
Speaker 1: the percentages. What's the percentage Chris Jones is gonna put
Speaker 1: the ball in ten yard line? Probably like seventy five percent.
Speaker 1: That's what he does right there? Yeah, that and then
Speaker 1: what's the percent that the Vics are gonna go ninety?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, it's smaller than fifty. Who
Speaker 1: do you don't know they did it on the next series.
Speaker 1: Who do you implicitly trust on this team? Implicitly like
Speaker 1: they're like it's a zero, you got a zero? Since
Speaker 1: we're talking about how concerned you are, I can think
Speaker 1: of a few, all right. I was about to say, like,
Speaker 1: I'm having a hard time coming up with a single
Speaker 1: one other than maybe a Marmari I trust him four
Speaker 1: for me, I don't know. I mean, maybe I'm just
Speaker 1: a homer. Yeah, but I think Forrest shown us that
Speaker 1: at times, like he's had some games where you kind
Speaker 1: of like, yeah, but even there, even when he really not,
Speaker 1: even when I'm thinking that's true, not this year, You're right, nothing,
Speaker 1: and so it maybe past this year that kind of
Speaker 1: closet for me. Right against the Packers, he was forcing
Speaker 1: a little bit, even though he went for four to fifty.
Speaker 1: But I mean he was no, he was he made
Speaker 1: little That's my point. Even even the bad games. I
Speaker 1: mean he threw he ends up threw a pick on
Speaker 1: the first play of the Giants game, and wasn't four
Speaker 1: nineteen and ninety. I'm good with you on nineteen and
Speaker 1: I'll even you know what, I'll probably throw in thirty one.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's just more it's been really good this year.
Speaker 1: I think that's not the reason you say that. I
Speaker 1: think is just more about the struggles all over the
Speaker 1: rest of the secondary. Maybe he's not giving a ton
Speaker 1: of help, but I think he's played really you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if if the reason
Speaker 1: why we're seeing what we're seeing is because teams think,
Speaker 1: why even mess with thirty one when we could just
Speaker 1: go to the other side. And so I wonder it
Speaker 1: is Byron really that good or is it a situation
Speaker 1: where teams just are like, I don't really want to
Speaker 1: deal with that. If I can go over here, this
Speaker 1: is a better match. Guess what that counts is being
Speaker 1: good if teams don't even want to mess with you
Speaker 1: because it's that kind of black. But the flip side
Speaker 1: of that, if the flip side of that is the
Speaker 1: more important part, which is the guy on the other
Speaker 1: side is a guarantee, then it doesn't matter necessarily how
Speaker 1: good that guy is over there, he's I mean, and
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not trying to take anything away from Byron.
Speaker 1: All I'm saying is, I don't know if teams are
Speaker 1: just so heavily focused on the matchup of whoever's with
Speaker 1: with Cheeto that they just say that's a better matchup
Speaker 1: rather than it being on the scheme, then that's on
Speaker 1: Christopher Shard. That's on those guys, because I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: I know football has changed a lot over the years,
Speaker 1: but I've seen Larry Brown get nine interceptions one year
Speaker 1: and win a Super Bowl and MVP. Not because he
Speaker 1: was really that good. He was opportunistic. The other guy
Speaker 1: was the best corner to ever play. So work on
Speaker 1: your defense to make that work to If Byron is
Speaker 1: that good and Cheeto is not, then why can't you
Speaker 1: give him more help and play that way, cheat that way,
Speaker 1: or give him some help. That's on the scheme. If
Speaker 1: that's if that's what's happening, quit just saying one guy
Speaker 1: over here, one guy over here, and god, I hope
Speaker 1: you know, I hope they both win. You know you
Speaker 1: think that's what they're doing. No, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think Cheo's getting some help. I mean, he's got safety
Speaker 1: over the time. A lot of times we see the
Speaker 1: safety running into the screen as the completions being made,
Speaker 1: So I think a safety is there is well, I
Speaker 1: mean maybe, I don't know. I don't think that they're
Speaker 1: they're benefiting from the fact that thirty one is not
Speaker 1: doing anything, like he's not giving up anything. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: need to benefit from that and maybe get even more hill.
Speaker 1: My point was just to say, it's not a long list,
Speaker 1: and that's right, and for a team with you know,
Speaker 1: an MC championship aspirations at the start of the season,
Speaker 1: that's that's not great. What I don't know is if
Speaker 1: you went around all the teams in the NFL, is
Speaker 1: it the same thing, Like why who they implicitly trust
Speaker 1: is still just a handful of guys and everybody else
Speaker 1: just kind of takes their moments when they're really really
Speaker 1: good and the Cowboys aren't getting those other guys to
Speaker 1: step up and have those really really good games at
Speaker 1: just on a rotation. You know what I'm saying, I
Speaker 1: would sack Martin I think I do. I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Is his injuries I feel like I have hurt him
Speaker 1: this year. Yeah, But I mean you know, if you're
Speaker 1: talking about the offensive line, and you could say, well,
Speaker 1: they didn't have a good game because they didn't run
Speaker 1: the ball as well as you wanted them too. But
Speaker 1: they still threw for four you know, like they had
Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty five yards. I mean that that's
Speaker 1: a lot of yards. So they were you know, in
Speaker 1: one sack and Dak could have been through or four.
Speaker 1: He did a nice job of getting out of it.
Speaker 1: But you know, they they did a good job in
Speaker 1: certain aspect. They didn't move the ball up and down
Speaker 1: the field. It's hard to just say the offensive line
Speaker 1: was terrible. They they they're short art situations weren't good.
Speaker 1: I remember during the game when they got down to
Speaker 1: the ten yard line. I think I even said that
Speaker 1: you or Rob I said, okay, that's good, but this
Speaker 1: is where it gets really tough. It's just hard to
Speaker 1: score right in here at the ten. And that's when
Speaker 1: we started dissecting all these touchdowns. When you get inside
Speaker 1: the red zone, you know, they're not as good. That's
Speaker 1: been a problem for a long time. They don't push
Speaker 1: the pile. So maybe Swiftie lokan help there. All right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna say that's in the show. Yea. We will
Speaker 1: be back tomorrow. We're on twenty five and a half
Speaker 1: hour Break. Here you go for Nick Even, Dave Hellman,
Speaker 1: and Danny Serect. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The
Speaker 1: Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has
Speaker 1: been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys Football Club.