Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This He's Talking Cowboys
Speaker 1: training live from the Dallas Cowboys World Howers at the
Speaker 1: Star in Fris Joe. Say now, your hosts, Nicky Spagnola,
Speaker 1: Rob Phillips, Everson Walls, and Bill Jones, and welcome into
Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys inside the SWBC Mortgage Studio. Rob Phillips hosting
Speaker 1: for Bill Jones for the next couple of days. They'll
Speaker 1: be back later in the week. Joint as always by
Speaker 1: the great Everson Walls and Mickey Spagnola. To my right,
Speaker 1: we're here for the next forty five minutes. The Cowboys
Speaker 1: are off today. They'll get back to practice on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: That's why Spags was on time. That is exactly why
Speaker 1: there's there is no reason to be late today. Why
Speaker 1: are they off? They should be working hard, so said
Speaker 1: the old man from the fifties. Yes, is that what
Speaker 1: your Twitter mentioned? Safe this week? Yeah? Right? Him a
Speaker 1: day off, lock him in a room, practice work. Well,
Speaker 1: something's got to get changed, right at six and seven
Speaker 1: and now tied tied with the Philadelphia Eagles for after
Speaker 1: dinner all week. That's right, No deserves nothing. That too.
Speaker 1: Not too about the game last night. Amazing that they're
Speaker 1: tied with that after that last night? What do you
Speaker 1: think of the game? I knew what was going to
Speaker 1: happen there. I didn't even get excited. I just said,
Speaker 1: I know what's going That was a lull there. Well,
Speaker 1: really the entire game, with the entire second half almost
Speaker 1: but that third quarter, that low, that low. You can
Speaker 1: tell the Giants were done. Yeah, you know, they had
Speaker 1: nothing and Philly was still kind of forcing it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And as you looked at the game,
Speaker 1: you had to think, you know, if the Cowboys were
Speaker 1: going to have a resurgence, it would be I would
Speaker 1: take that fashion. I would take it in that fashion,
Speaker 1: you know, just just grind, grind, grind. You know, we've
Speaker 1: been taking it for the last three games. We could
Speaker 1: easily take this one and everyone would go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I figured. But they hung in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get him a little credit. It was ugly, ugly win.
Speaker 1: But if I'm a Cowboy team, I'll take an ugly
Speaker 1: win like that and hopefully, you know, they'll spurred me
Speaker 1: onto something else. They would have lost one more wide receiver,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I was. I was. I started stretching,
Speaker 1: man start trying to find some flights. I saw it.
Speaker 1: I saw a headline. I didn't get a chance to
Speaker 1: read the story. But the backup quarterback mccount he was
Speaker 1: ready to go into or maybe just a whole third
Speaker 1: down full of tight ends. So you know, did you
Speaker 1: say to yourself watching this now it's in overtime right right,
Speaker 1: they drive down to the two yard line, they try
Speaker 1: to run and they didn't get anywhere. And I'm sitting myself,
Speaker 1: this pass is going to zach Ertz, right, it's going
Speaker 1: to Arts. He's wide open. Nobody covered him. Now if
Speaker 1: I'm sitting on my couch, knew what was coming. What
Speaker 1: were they thinking? Hey, you could have done that the
Speaker 1: entire drive, right, That entire drive was ers. If you
Speaker 1: would call even on the scramble, he's wide open. You
Speaker 1: don't drop ERTs, okay, especially when all the other receivers
Speaker 1: are down. What number seventeen, what's his name? I'm sorry
Speaker 1: the wide receiver Jeff Once he went down, that saw
Speaker 1: him sitting on the cart. It's over. I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna triple team Oats and just damn anybody they're playing
Speaker 1: the guys I'd never heard of or take up a
Speaker 1: defensive end in past covers looking for fats. That's just
Speaker 1: how And they blew the coverage because there was a
Speaker 1: safety there and he played zone and but he packed
Speaker 1: them up. It was like indible, you know. And I
Speaker 1: was thinking of you because you said when you were
Speaker 1: talking about Beasily, you gotta have a plan, right. You
Speaker 1: can't just say, Okay, I'm going to cover a man
Speaker 1: to man. They didn't have a plan for anything. Crazy.
Speaker 1: He was just freewheeling down the field. It's like, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? And yet the Giants were up seventeen
Speaker 1: to three at half, and I really felt like Eli
Speaker 1: was going to get Everyone was pulling for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't think they gained a hundred yards. The second hand,
Speaker 1: they probably did well. Well. What they wanted to do
Speaker 1: was keep touting all the past laws of Eli Manning
Speaker 1: so no one would change the channel. That's why they
Speaker 1: kept bringing up all of this Eli stuff because right
Speaker 1: now he was the only star in town. You know,
Speaker 1: he was the only really really image on that on
Speaker 1: that field, really on TV at that particular time, on
Speaker 1: that on that game, and then the last two drives.
Speaker 1: Whatever the Giants were doing putting pressure on Wentz disappeared.
Speaker 1: It's like, where'd y'all going? They were tired, man, you
Speaker 1: know I read that too. Yeah, they were tired. They
Speaker 1: looked tired in the second half. They were they were
Speaker 1: doing it in the first half. In the second half,
Speaker 1: your offense not doing anything right on the field a
Speaker 1: long time, right, and then those penalties that kept prolonging it.
Speaker 1: How many plays was that drive from Gold to Gold?
Speaker 1: I mean it had to be. It went from like
Speaker 1: the five right, and just the time itself that it
Speaker 1: took because of they were just taking that time Nickel
Speaker 1: and diamond third downs. Everyone went to third down extended
Speaker 1: by penalties. It just got to be that. That was
Speaker 1: the lull there where I said, Okay, Philly's got this
Speaker 1: under control. That's when I knew they had taken over
Speaker 1: the game. Okay, So you have two teams tied at
Speaker 1: six and seven for first place in the NFC East
Speaker 1: and they're not going to recede the playoffs? Is Adam
Speaker 1: Schefter broke on Sunday? So the winner of the division,
Speaker 1: the revelation just because we're that bad? Is that why
Speaker 1: they're thinking of doing this. That was a report on
Speaker 1: Sunday just because the NFC East is that bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think the last time a team with the
Speaker 1: losing record got in. I think it was Seattle in
Speaker 1: twenty ten with a seven and nine record, and they
Speaker 1: won their home wildcard game against the Saints. They did.
Speaker 1: Did you read my column? I didn't read through all
Speaker 1: of it. I glanced. I did read it in nineteen
Speaker 1: said that in nineteen ninety the Cowboys came within a
Speaker 1: couple seconds of making as a wild card team at
Speaker 1: seven and nine? Was that the Romo No. Nineteen ninety? Okay, oh,
Speaker 1: this is before they got were there? Babe Laberg came
Speaker 1: in right for Troy. So they were seven and seven
Speaker 1: playing against the Falcon seven and seven. They had two
Speaker 1: games to go. If they won one and the Saints
Speaker 1: lost one, they were going to get in. Well, the
Speaker 1: Saints and Game fifteen beat San Francisco by I think
Speaker 1: it was twenty seventeen. It was San Francisco's No. Thirteen ten.
Speaker 1: It was San Francisco's second loss of the season. Wow,
Speaker 1: what that wasn't going to happen? Right? So the Cowboys
Speaker 1: had to win one more. Well, Troy separated his shoulder
Speaker 1: in Game fifteen at Philadelphia in the first quarter. Babe
Speaker 1: Laffenburg has to come in. He didn't do so well.
Speaker 1: I think that was nice. That was nice, very nice
Speaker 1: way to put that. He stuck up the joint and
Speaker 1: I love it. But gosh, and then I remember, I
Speaker 1: remember pulling for you guys, and I'm in New York,
Speaker 1: I'm straight. And then in the last game of the year,
Speaker 1: they had to go to Atlanta. It's pouring down rain
Speaker 1: and they no showed. I mean, the whole team no showed.
Speaker 1: And Babe was even worse than he wasn't exactly got
Speaker 1: beat twenty six to seven. I think d On had
Speaker 1: an interception return for a touchdown or punt return for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. So now at seven and nine, if the
Speaker 1: Saints lose the final game of the season to the Rams,
Speaker 1: they're gonna go to the playoff as the third wildcard
Speaker 1: team at seven and nine, right, well, the game, the
Speaker 1: Rams drive in the last minute or so, they tie
Speaker 1: up the game seventeen seventeen, and the Saints drive down
Speaker 1: it's five seconds left. They're going to kick a twenty
Speaker 1: nine yard field goal for the win. The Rams block it,
Speaker 1: but they're offsides. Oh god, this is the playoffs. Maybe
Speaker 1: this playoff. Martin Anderson kicks the twenty four yard field
Speaker 1: goal with two seconds left and the Rams win. So
Speaker 1: it went. It was a Monday night game, so it
Speaker 1: went to the It went to the last seconds of
Speaker 1: the last game of the possible year to say finished
Speaker 1: eight and Nate had the Cowboys finished eight and night
Speaker 1: they were gonna win because they beat the Saints earlier
Speaker 1: in December, right, So where are we going with this?
Speaker 1: So seven to nine they almost made the playoffs. Rob
Speaker 1: just woke up. He just came out of his nap okay,
Speaker 1: So that the worst record that would have hackered. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the worst record to win the NFC East is nine
Speaker 1: and seven. It happened twice, and the Giants did it once, right,
Speaker 1: and that was when they beat U New England. Yes
Speaker 1: and stopped there. Yes, Well they were a wild card team,
Speaker 1: aren't they? Yes? They were, Yeah, and they were horrible
Speaker 1: during the year. I think during that year Eli had
Speaker 1: played in Minneapolis and they I think he threw like
Speaker 1: five interceptions in one game or some crap. They were
Speaker 1: ready to fire everybody, think Washington ever ready fire everybody
Speaker 1: that year Coughlin was under major fire, no question. Washington
Speaker 1: won it uh in twenty fifteen at nine and seven
Speaker 1: because they beat the Cowboys in the No it was
Speaker 1: that was the other year, but they won it nine
Speaker 1: and seven. Okay, So, so I was talking NFC with
Speaker 1: Seattle and that that was the Big Beast mode run
Speaker 1: by Marshawn in twenty ten to beat the Saints. It's happened.
Speaker 1: I mean, if they were going to receive the playoffs,
Speaker 1: I think that would have been discussed in the offseason
Speaker 1: before they make that decision. And it's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: The winner of this division is going to get in
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be one of these two teams. And
Speaker 1: as we probably we probably said this couple months ago,
Speaker 1: ever since that December twenty second game is going to
Speaker 1: decide the division. And that's crazy. And so who do
Speaker 1: the Eagles plague? And they will they play Washington, the
Speaker 1: Cowboys and the Giants. I don't have any confidence in
Speaker 1: the Eagles at all. I have less confidence in the
Speaker 1: Eagles than I do the Cowboy. Yeah. Are they gonna
Speaker 1: win four straight? I don't think so. No, they're not. No,
Speaker 1: So I don't care how easy that scared. Basically what
Speaker 1: the Cowboys have to do. If they beat Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: win one more game, they're in. I think phil If
Speaker 1: Philly loses one other game other than the Cowboys and
Speaker 1: the Cowboys beat them, the Cowboys are in. They'll be
Speaker 1: in at eight and eight because they'll win the tiebreaker.
Speaker 1: Their final game is at home against Washington, who's three
Speaker 1: and ten. We haven't talked about the Rams yet this week.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that probably more Wednesday. This Sunday, that's
Speaker 1: the first game ahead. And like Mix said, I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe you win two games and of these final three
Speaker 1: and you're in. They just need to win though, right,
Speaker 1: They need to win this Sunday, regardless of playoff position.
Speaker 1: They've got to stop this slide, regardless of the styles
Speaker 1: as well. Like I said, right, if I'm if I'm Cowboys,
Speaker 1: I would take a Philly win like that that last
Speaker 1: night's Philly win. I take it in a heartbeat. I
Speaker 1: would back out, like my boy used to say, I
Speaker 1: back out like I stole something and just go right
Speaker 1: on back to the locker room and be just as
Speaker 1: happy as I don't know what. This is a very
Speaker 1: unusual outcome for the Cowboys when you look when you
Speaker 1: go all the way back to the signing of all
Speaker 1: the alignemen, to the signing of Zeke, you know, to
Speaker 1: Dack's improvement. He's got his little pregame dance, and you
Speaker 1: go back to all of that and the optimism that
Speaker 1: we had. I mean, we're we're like NFC NC Championship
Speaker 1: game a bust. This is it, this is what we're
Speaker 1: going to be there And he started off three. You know, God,
Speaker 1: those are such good times now a long time ago
Speaker 1: to squeak into the playoffs. It's like we felt we
Speaker 1: fell asleep and we're having a nightmare, you know, right
Speaker 1: in between the good times, and we won't wake up. No,
Speaker 1: we won't wake up. And if they don't wake up,
Speaker 1: then they're in trouble. But at like I said, you
Speaker 1: can make it at eight and eight, but they could
Speaker 1: only lose one more game and it can't be to Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: Who's the Eagles remaining schedule again, Washington. Um, they're going
Speaker 1: to lose the Skins, Cowboys at home and at the Giants,
Speaker 1: so they have you know, winnable games ahead as well.
Speaker 1: But the Cowboys due too. I mean, I still look
Speaker 1: at this Cowboys team and I say, I my eyes
Speaker 1: did not deceive me in training camp. There's still talent
Speaker 1: on this football team. Why they're not playing to their level?
Speaker 1: I I mean, Dak said it after the game. I
Speaker 1: can't put my finger on it. Mantal aspect of sports
Speaker 1: is extremely underrated. Let's just say it, guys, if you're
Speaker 1: extremely underrated, you're the man to talk about it too,
Speaker 1: because I mean I had to play with mine because
Speaker 1: I had so many physical limitations. And so when you
Speaker 1: look at these guys that have so much physical abilities,
Speaker 1: and you know, all this knowledge and technology. Now we've
Speaker 1: got the you know, we've got the numbers going. Now,
Speaker 1: we've got the quality of control going. We never even
Speaker 1: thought about that kind of crap when we played. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't think I can't see Pittsburgh Steel is really
Speaker 1: worrying too much, you know, stealing teams of the seventies,
Speaker 1: really worrying too much about you know, if I shade
Speaker 1: myself to the left a little bit, then I won't
Speaker 1: get this pump blocked or you know, worried about tripping out.
Speaker 1: They didn't care about all that crap. You know that
Speaker 1: there was no mental letdown doing some of the most
Speaker 1: physical aspects and the most physical eras of sports. No
Speaker 1: one cared about. No one really put so much on
Speaker 1: the mental aspect of it. To us, it was just
Speaker 1: either all physical we had instinctively, or we didn't. You know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna play this team game. I need you here,
Speaker 1: I need you there. Let's coordinate. Now. You know, we've
Speaker 1: gotten so isolated, we've gotten so specialized, all these guys,
Speaker 1: And no matter how specialized you are, no matter what
Speaker 1: you run your ford end, you can still get beat.
Speaker 1: Somebody's gonna beat you, regardless of how fast you are.
Speaker 1: I don't care how many weights you left. I don't care.
Speaker 1: We got some strongest offensive linemen in the league, and
Speaker 1: we can't pass block half the time. We've got some
Speaker 1: of the best wide receivers athletically, I've gallup do some
Speaker 1: amazing things, but he's probably got still more drops than
Speaker 1: anybody on the team. Right So the mental aspect of
Speaker 1: sports cannot be you know too it can't be emphasized
Speaker 1: too much. And right now, these guys are physically amazing,
Speaker 1: and mentally they are just as weak as they can be.
Speaker 1: Right now, they need a confidence shot somehow, And the
Speaker 1: only way you're gonna get it. If you win, right,
Speaker 1: you gotta win. Now, you were talking about specialized I've
Speaker 1: noticed on the schedule board there yesterday. The first thing
Speaker 1: they had yesterday was special teams meeting. And it's all
Speaker 1: except for one now, right, except for one player. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's interesting. Meeting didn't include the kicker, didn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. Didn't. We'll get to that in the next
Speaker 1: segment real quick though. Piggybacking on what you said, Everson, confident,
Speaker 1: Mickey two. Confidence is so big. The thing that I
Speaker 1: think surprises me the most about this team is that
Speaker 1: it's large. The roster is largely the same as last year.
Speaker 1: And what we talked about last year was it was
Speaker 1: a young team, Mickey. Mickey was dead right about this
Speaker 1: during this early in the season last year, young team
Speaker 1: that needed to learn how to win and get and
Speaker 1: find ways to improve. As the season went on. Not
Speaker 1: only did they improve, but they were able to handle
Speaker 1: some of the things in game better that didn't go
Speaker 1: their way. And Jason Garrett is still talking about this
Speaker 1: after the Bears loss, the adversities of the game, when
Speaker 1: things aren't going well, how do they respond? They're not
Speaker 1: responding as well as you you would think they could.
Speaker 1: And that's what's surprising, because it is a team that
Speaker 1: had a lot of experience, a lot of good good experience,
Speaker 1: bad experience that helped them last year. And it's not
Speaker 1: you would think they'd build on that. It's not being
Speaker 1: built on this year. That's what surprising. Last year it
Speaker 1: was tough. I mean, they overcame a lot, Like we
Speaker 1: talked about the first part of the season, they coup came. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that one guy made a difference, and of course it
Speaker 1: gave Dak all the confidence. The offensive line still work
Speaker 1: and Zeke still running the ball. We can't we overcame
Speaker 1: a lot. Was seven out of eight you said, yea
Speaker 1: to end the year seven out of eight got shut
Speaker 1: out by Indianapolis. The only lie, I mean, besides the
Speaker 1: only difference now is guys are making more money. That's
Speaker 1: the only difference in this team. And I hate to
Speaker 1: be one of those guys that said, well, yeah, they
Speaker 1: finally got paid and now they don't play as hard.
Speaker 1: I just if that's the case, and they we talk
Speaker 1: about this. I hear the media talk about this a lot.
Speaker 1: As far as players, especially in this era, if you
Speaker 1: get paid, you don't play as hard. That seems to
Speaker 1: be the narrative that you guys fall back on if
Speaker 1: you if you're playing for a contract, if a guy
Speaker 1: like playing off his mind, Oh he's playing for a contract,
Speaker 1: you know, then all of a sudden he gets a contract.
Speaker 1: He's not playing off his mind, you know. To me,
Speaker 1: I can't understand that. I never got that, because I
Speaker 1: think that's like in the Book of excuses, like when
Speaker 1: you can't figure out why this is happening. Oh, here
Speaker 1: it is. He's not motivated. Now, yeah, he's not motivated.
Speaker 1: And it's like if they weren't motivated, they don't drive
Speaker 1: down the field in the fourth quarter and get within
Speaker 1: a touchdown right of the Bears. You're you're you're getting
Speaker 1: your ass beat all game long, and all of a sudden, oh,
Speaker 1: let's go score some touchdowns. Now, I just think that's
Speaker 1: that's lame, because there they are. To me, here, this
Speaker 1: is what scares you. They're still playing hard and they're
Speaker 1: getting beat. Right, So it's still running that ball. We're
Speaker 1: still playing playoff style football, running the ball, okay, the
Speaker 1: way you're supposed to the only thing we're not doing
Speaker 1: is playing a good defense. We're moving the ball, we're
Speaker 1: moving the chains. We're just not playing the good playoff defense.
Speaker 1: When you look at the team, like let's say the
Speaker 1: Ravens man you just look at that defense sometimes and
Speaker 1: they just look so brow and gritty. It's like, no
Speaker 1: matter what happens, we don't care. You know what, We're
Speaker 1: gonna blow it up. Playing with a lot of confidence.
Speaker 1: You can just see it in their defense. It's just
Speaker 1: like it doesn't care. Guys. We're gonna be all over
Speaker 1: this field. It's gonna be organized chaos, and you're going
Speaker 1: to react to what we're doing. We're gonna dictate this
Speaker 1: entire tempo of this game. And even without Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 1: that's the way their defense plays all the time. And
Speaker 1: that's just an example of some of the good defense
Speaker 1: in the league that you that's the attitude you have
Speaker 1: to have. We just don't have it. We always seem
Speaker 1: to be when you look at the Cowboys team, that
Speaker 1: just always seems to be a lot of room. You know,
Speaker 1: no one seems to be pressed. You know, he seems
Speaker 1: they just seem like they can just sit back and
Speaker 1: be comfortable. To quarterback sitting back there there's room all
Speaker 1: over the place. You throw it to the back. There's
Speaker 1: no one within five ten yards of him. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of room. When you play against some of the
Speaker 1: better defenses that they just seems to be pressed. They
Speaker 1: seem to be invaded, and that's what that's what good
Speaker 1: defenses do. They invade your space. And I hate to
Speaker 1: giving them an excuse, but I still say that they
Speaker 1: missed two players during this stretch of five games. They
Speaker 1: miss Layton vander esh on the field for his ability,
Speaker 1: and they miss Jeff Heath out there for his just
Speaker 1: knowledge of diagnosing things on what's happening. A lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of times players like that, especially with the Heath.
Speaker 1: It's the plays you don't see right way. It made
Speaker 1: a difference. That's that's the you know, the subtlety of
Speaker 1: good defensive back play. Now, I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: necessarily a case. You talked about Van Due. He was
Speaker 1: having a tough time. He went out, he was Jets
Speaker 1: game was just you know, he was You can see
Speaker 1: that trend going during the Jets game. He couldn't stop
Speaker 1: anybody's better than that. That's true, Although I do think
Speaker 1: some of the coverage stuff he could help in that
Speaker 1: area because the tight ends that that they've been struggling against,
Speaker 1: specially Sean And you look ahead Higbee with the rams Urts.
Speaker 1: You talked about him, I mean coming up. The tight
Speaker 1: ends are involved in these offenses that they're playing coming up,
Speaker 1: So that's going to be a factor. You gotta love
Speaker 1: tight ends in this area. You gotta love tight ends.
Speaker 1: They're just they're the studs of the squad. The studs
Speaker 1: are pretty much every squad. I mean, what what so
Speaker 1: was it the Bears? Yeah, Holtz? Was that the guy's name? Yes, Well,
Speaker 1: who's he? We know him now, but we know who
Speaker 1: he is now. They're getting nipple and dimed underneath, you know,
Speaker 1: and the linebackers and your safeties and you know, God
Speaker 1: bless God, bless Jeff Heath. He's trying, but he's got
Speaker 1: two shoulders. Was talking to him yesterday that need postseason surgery.
Speaker 1: He's got labor in tears in both shoulders, and he's
Speaker 1: trying to get out there and show him that if
Speaker 1: I wear a blrace or on both shoulders, I can
Speaker 1: go out there and do it. Now it's a matter
Speaker 1: of doing it and managing the pain, because the pain's
Speaker 1: not going to go away, and the fact that we're
Speaker 1: not winning, the fact that we're so desperate we don't
Speaker 1: have the luxury to let him sit out and heal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's eating at him because he can't stand watching.
Speaker 1: He wants to go out there. He tried to practice
Speaker 1: again yesterday and basically he said, yeah, it comes down
Speaker 1: to how much pain can I manage? Tough guy. He
Speaker 1: told me after the Pat's game he thought he could
Speaker 1: play on Thanksgiving, you know, but they weren't going to
Speaker 1: let him do it, and and try to get him
Speaker 1: ready to go. I do think you're right, Nickel, diming underneath.
Speaker 1: But that's part of this defense too, is to take
Speaker 1: away big plays and they're not making tackles and open
Speaker 1: field in space, and it's leading to larger games. I've
Speaker 1: seen Sean Lee do his thing, you know, he diagnoses
Speaker 1: it's like he albaally knows the play right, then he'll
Speaker 1: he'll get there man, and the guy goes right through
Speaker 1: his hands. So I mean, I try to go back
Speaker 1: to when I was getting a little older in the game.
Speaker 1: Tackling was never the issue. It was always trying to
Speaker 1: keep up. It's the legs with Sean Lee's getting there
Speaker 1: with the legs but he's not making the tackles. So
Speaker 1: I don't you know? These things are compounding all the
Speaker 1: with all the other problems that we're having on defense,
Speaker 1: there is another problem they've had on the roster, and
Speaker 1: they made a roster move, a significant roster move. Let's
Speaker 1: get into that next. On Talking Cowboys, Laura's a out
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Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. To talk in Cowboys, Mick, don't miss your
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Speaker 1: so you have to make an appointment with Santa. No,
Speaker 1: Santa's going big time before. We just stand in line
Speaker 1: forever to sit on his lap. Yeah, Sam, you don't
Speaker 1: touch the lap anymore now, Mark you're standing. There's a
Speaker 1: certain age. Yeah okay, Yeah, it's not a high thing
Speaker 1: now like it used to be. With Yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 1: let you sit. You know, we had to go age again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a busy man. Yeah, he's a busy man. So
Speaker 1: are we this time a year. But we've got a
Speaker 1: few minutes left on talking Cowboys, and I tease the
Speaker 1: roster move from yesterday. By now everybody knows there has
Speaker 1: been a kicker change. We talked about it probably thirty
Speaker 1: minutes before the Cowboys made it official. Brett maher cut
Speaker 1: Kai four bath in what y'all's reaction to that move?
Speaker 1: I was just surprised that, you know, you look at
Speaker 1: all these other teams in the league and they're able
Speaker 1: to find kickers, veteran kickers with no problem. Just I'm
Speaker 1: so surprised that we're such slum pickings out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for kickers these days. And you know, this guy's made
Speaker 1: a career out of coming in in emergency situations. How
Speaker 1: does he do? Yeah, when he comes okay, but no
Speaker 1: one keeps them okay for a lengthy period of time. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I think he had to do that in Minnesota
Speaker 1: one year and he finished the year, and he kicked
Speaker 1: the next year, and then they decided they ended up drafting.
Speaker 1: Remember when the the Vikings used a high draft pick
Speaker 1: on some guy named I'd want to say Olsen, and
Speaker 1: so they cut for Bath and then this guy failed miserably,
Speaker 1: and so they started looking for other kickers, and I
Speaker 1: think that's when they they they signed Dan Bailey after
Speaker 1: the Cowboys had cut him and they were struggling with
Speaker 1: their rookie. So yeah, this guy has been with the Redskins,
Speaker 1: the Saints, the Vikings, Jacksonville, and then kicked that one
Speaker 1: game for New England after Nick Folk had his appendectomy,
Speaker 1: and then they were going to bring him back once
Speaker 1: he could kick again. So they released for Bath, and
Speaker 1: for Bath said, you know, I feel a little bit
Speaker 1: better that at least I got one game in before
Speaker 1: I got signed. I had to come here for the
Speaker 1: for the tryout. He made a twenty three yard field goal.
Speaker 1: And one of his problems in his career has been
Speaker 1: extra points, because he was one for two with New
Speaker 1: England in that game, and he's extra points are ninety
Speaker 1: three percent one seventy three, one eighty five. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of missed extra points. He's missed twelve in his career. Huh. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: now the funny thing that that was the one thing
Speaker 1: Maher did consistently, really consistently. I don't think he missed
Speaker 1: an extra point all year, which is not a gimme anymore.
Speaker 1: He did at the end. He did it. He did
Speaker 1: at the end, and that's when he struggled. He struggled
Speaker 1: down the stretch last year. Yes, I think the main
Speaker 1: thing about it was it's not just extra points. I
Speaker 1: think when you try to put together a game plan
Speaker 1: and you try to put together a drive, this is
Speaker 1: a guy to have drive. And at the worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: we can only take a field goal. Worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: we we got to take a field goal and he
Speaker 1: gets out there and misses it and you in grape position.
Speaker 1: He's done that more than once. Yeah, and when you're
Speaker 1: when you're having all these problems that we're having, the
Speaker 1: kicker is supposed to be the solution. He's supposed to
Speaker 1: be that that that that steady guy, and he wasn't.
Speaker 1: I think all the Cowboys had to do was take
Speaker 1: a uh look at Dak Prescott's face after he missed
Speaker 1: the one they drove down and looked like it had
Speaker 1: been what thirteen ten at a halftime, and and Dak
Speaker 1: was just standing there on the sideline and it was
Speaker 1: like they knew he was gonna miss it. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: could feel it, and he just like all the air
Speaker 1: went out of it. They could feel it though. That's
Speaker 1: what the reason you saw the look on his face was,
Speaker 1: because Dak's face is like, I bet he's gonna miss
Speaker 1: this crap that you could that's the that's the feeling
Speaker 1: that you have from your leader. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is better or not, or what this guy's
Speaker 1: gonna do, but it had gotten to a point where
Speaker 1: you just didn't have any more confidence in him. And
Speaker 1: I think he seemed resigned to it because after the game,
Speaker 1: after the game, he's said, I thought I kicked it. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sleep okay at night. That sounded to me
Speaker 1: like a guy that felt like this was going to happen.
Speaker 1: It is probably the end of the line here, you know.
Speaker 1: The funny thing. So they had to try out or
Speaker 1: the workout yesterday morning, probably when we were doing our show,
Speaker 1: because I think it came down right when after we
Speaker 1: finished about noon. Yeah, yeah, And so they had to
Speaker 1: try out home and I was like, okay, we missed that.
Speaker 1: For baths said he was sitting in the in the
Speaker 1: in the the lunch room there and he gets a
Speaker 1: call from his mom because mom goes, hey, congratulations and
Speaker 1: she goes, he goes congratulations for what. He goes the
Speaker 1: Cowboys signed you Instagram and it's like, how do you know? Well,
Speaker 1: his agent figure that the Cowboys had already told him,
Speaker 1: so the agent called his mom. I think it was
Speaker 1: a family friend or something. He told his mother, So
Speaker 1: his mother found out before he did something, right, So
Speaker 1: it sounded like maybe she came to the work and
Speaker 1: you're right, make they are familiar with him. He went
Speaker 1: to camp in twenty eleven. I forgot this. He actually
Speaker 1: worked out for them again in twenty sixteen when Bailey
Speaker 1: had a back issue. Remember that he woke up on
Speaker 1: a yes and they weren't sure if he was going
Speaker 1: to be able to kick or not. Right, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think he made it through a game, might have been
Speaker 1: San Francisco, But then the next week he was banged up.
Speaker 1: He wound up kicking, but they worked him out. This
Speaker 1: guy's been around a long time and I think that
Speaker 1: that was that was the difference from the workouts the
Speaker 1: week prior, is that those other guys just didn't have
Speaker 1: the experience. We'll see what happens. But I think you're right.
Speaker 1: They just felt like something had to change at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I just think from a confidence standpoint. You know,
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine when he was at UCLA
Speaker 1: his junior year, he won the Lou Grozo Award. He
Speaker 1: was the top kicker in the in the league. And
Speaker 1: then when he came out when the Cowboys were going
Speaker 1: to sign him, he had he tore his hamstring muscle,
Speaker 1: and so they signed him anyway, and it was like okay,
Speaker 1: because that was the year, the strike year, so bad
Speaker 1: year for a kicker to come out, because no one
Speaker 1: got signed until right the day before he started training camp.
Speaker 1: A few guys remember, and they were signing guys as
Speaker 1: we went to training camp right San Antonio. So the
Speaker 1: Cowboys had a workout. They had four kickers in and
Speaker 1: Bailey was one of them. Shane Graham was another. I
Speaker 1: forgot the other two, and so they decided on Bailey.
Speaker 1: But they signed four bath and put him on non
Speaker 1: football injury and said we'll keep him because we don't
Speaker 1: know what Bailey's going to do. Well. Bailey has a
Speaker 1: good year and we get to April and then they
Speaker 1: just release him and then he started his caravan through
Speaker 1: the league trying to hang in there. He had a
Speaker 1: big leg, but he did have a little bit of
Speaker 1: accuracy part. But for his career eighty five percent and
Speaker 1: ninety three percent on extra point and he's eighty seven
Speaker 1: and he's eighty seven percent between thirty and forty nine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're going to make a difference, you're going to
Speaker 1: try to make a statements as a staff, as a
Speaker 1: coaching staff, as an organization. You're not playing well, and
Speaker 1: you know, we got to make an example out of
Speaker 1: somebody to let everybody know, you know, okay, we're not
Speaker 1: just going to stand for the status quote we get.
Speaker 1: We just can't do that anymore. This is showing that. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is put up a shet up time. If you're
Speaker 1: going to get rid of somebody, right, kicker, that's that's
Speaker 1: the safest way to go. You get rid of the kicker.
Speaker 1: You could get rid of a punter. You could be
Speaker 1: the kicker. While punter is great, kickers having problems. I
Speaker 1: think it's an obvious move. Yeah, it really wasn't t is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the league high so that was like that year when
Speaker 1: the Cowboys were in that streak. I think it was
Speaker 1: in ninety three. Uh, and uh, Jimmy was trying to
Speaker 1: keep them attention and let them know how important all
Speaker 1: this was. In the former the linebacker from A and
Speaker 1: M fell asleep in the meeting room, right, he cut them.
Speaker 1: Now that's not the only one either. Yeah, but I'm
Speaker 1: and I got one too. And it was like, this
Speaker 1: guy's not playing. Uh was it Quentin Coriot? Just something
Speaker 1: low impact? He wasn't even playing special teams, like he
Speaker 1: was a backup linebacker. And he fell asleep in the
Speaker 1: team meeting. And as a matter of fact, it was
Speaker 1: Jimmy's meeting in the big room tells the story that
Speaker 1: the meeting was over. To man the hair the right
Speaker 1: attitude date tells the story when the meeting was over. Uh,
Speaker 1: he was still sleeping and Jimmy went and so they
Speaker 1: all walked out and left him in that room sleeping
Speaker 1: by himself. Jimmy did that. I guess who the next
Speaker 1: guy in was, Bruce May's bring your bring your playbook.
Speaker 1: I saw Bruce the other day. I got nervous. Man,
Speaker 1: I sawed me the game, like, oh my god, you're
Speaker 1: still here. So I got one of mind. Is the
Speaker 1: running back number twenty five. Richard was, yeah, come on it.
Speaker 1: For some reason, that name sticks in my head. But
Speaker 1: cut him at Christmas, cut him right around Christmas because
Speaker 1: he was trying to fire. And it was the ninety
Speaker 1: two season, and he fumbled a ball against the Bears
Speaker 1: whole game of the season and then the game didn't
Speaker 1: meet anything right. He was a backup. He was in
Speaker 1: just to show what he could do, and he fumbled
Speaker 1: the ball. And that was Jimmy's way because it was
Speaker 1: around Christmas time, and everyone on the team, according to
Speaker 1: the players, because I talked to some of them, they
Speaker 1: said that was just his way of putting fear and
Speaker 1: motivation into his team. And to me, as much as
Speaker 1: I say he's a dog, that was Jimmy's genius. I
Speaker 1: never thought he was a great coach, but man, he
Speaker 1: is a great motivator and he motivates through fear all
Speaker 1: the time. And it works. It works. They didn't need
Speaker 1: to win that game. They'd already closed. Why he was
Speaker 1: in the game. They were already they were ahead in
Speaker 1: the game. He didn't need to be in there at
Speaker 1: a poor guy fumbles in It's like your auditor. It's
Speaker 1: a tough business there, real tough, all right back to
Speaker 1: wrap it up next on Talking Cowboys. Since eighteen sixty five,
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Speaker 1: look it's hyphenated Okay, day interesting, Yeah, that's sure. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go work. We're gonna write a world. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go write their things. You know what do you think? Okay, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I need to buy your scriptrom It and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: read something. Give me something to man, We'll let you.
Speaker 1: You take my liner tomorrow, you change it up. You're
Speaker 1: the guy in control. Here'll spread the wealth around. Man,
Speaker 1: we're out of time. This stuff is flown by what
Speaker 1: did we forget? I don't know if we I don't
Speaker 1: think we can do that position for position. Brob had
Speaker 1: a great idea maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, but we need
Speaker 1: to talk about quickly. Anything stand out to you ever
Speaker 1: since about this Rams team that concerns you, well, just
Speaker 1: that momentum. Yeah, that it just seems like when the
Speaker 1: cow this is the Cowboys worst case scenario. Every team
Speaker 1: is picking it up as we play them. Uh, they
Speaker 1: seem to be hitting their stride. This Rams team is
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they realize they've got one of
Speaker 1: the best running backs in the league and they decided
Speaker 1: to finally start playing him. I don't know what was
Speaker 1: going on with those guys, And you know, you talked
Speaker 1: about having being a smart coach. I think I think
Speaker 1: he's I think he's really missed the boat and he's
Speaker 1: caused them unnecessary uh, unproductive. It's unnecessary because you got
Speaker 1: this running back in the backfield, and for some reason
Speaker 1: you've chosen to play him cute. You know, don't be
Speaker 1: don't play cute with the with the star of your team.
Speaker 1: I just think that was a big mistake and it's
Speaker 1: until now it has had long lasting problems. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: write about that today. Believe Sean mcvah called himself an
Speaker 1: idiot for not using Todd Gurley enough. Okay, and that's
Speaker 1: twelve months gone. We've been on that for a year. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and they you know what, they were in
Speaker 1: the same boat the Cowboys were. They were both sitting
Speaker 1: there at six and five. And the Cowboys lost their
Speaker 1: next two and they won their next two, and now
Speaker 1: they're the hot team at eight and five. And the
Speaker 1: Cowboys it's when six and seven, when you hit about
Speaker 1: and they're handing the ball to Gurley, they are imagine
Speaker 1: that you have well and I'm gonna write about this
Speaker 1: today too. They haven't. There hasn't been opportunities for Zeke
Speaker 1: consistently throughout the game. Yeah that's two games and running.
Speaker 1: But I mean from their standpoint, ye not complaining Comparing
Speaker 1: to the Cowboys. It's like you got Todd Gurley, feed
Speaker 1: that guy right. Things easier on golf. You watch that
Speaker 1: has been having numbers when we complained about not given
Speaker 1: to z uh bad quarterback has not had numbers. Golf
Speaker 1: hadn't had the numbers, and they still wouldn't give it
Speaker 1: to Gurley's not the best time to see balance from
Speaker 1: the l A rams. But sometimes you don't have to
Speaker 1: be a genius to figure this out. Wells right, we
Speaker 1: got some geniuses on this show. Thank you guys for
Speaker 1: joining us. We'll be back tomorrow. The Break is next.
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