Speaker 1: The following Here's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Lets go. Are you
Speaker 1: ready for 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: Is Wednesday, September fifteenth, twenty twenty one, Season seventeen, Episode
Speaker 1: number twenty one. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break,
Speaker 1: live in the SWBC Mortgage studios. At the start, we
Speaker 1: got a lot we're gonna get into today. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about some topics that came up
Speaker 1: earlier in the week when the Cowboys coordinators, offensive, defensive,
Speaker 1: special teams had their press conference. There were a few
Speaker 1: topics that I thought were interesting they will dissect. We'll
Speaker 1: also get into a little talk on the Chargers offense
Speaker 1: versus the Cowboys defense. We got Bucky Brooks joining us
Speaker 1: in the second segment. He'll answer some questions and uh
Speaker 1: and give us some scouting review on the team the
Speaker 1: Cowboys will face on Sunday. Uh and and we'll maybe
Speaker 1: get to some questions. We'll see how it goes. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much Dave and Nick want to talk today,
Speaker 1: but if they don't talk as much, then we'll maybe
Speaker 1: get to some questions. We'll see. I take offense to that,
Speaker 1: But why do you take offense? It's not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: I like the fact you guys talk. That's good. That's
Speaker 1: why people tune in. All right, whatever, Okay, all right, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, let's go. Come on, let's go. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk today coordinator press conferences. Let's start first, Dave,
Speaker 1: you had an interesting question for uh for for um
Speaker 1: the offensive for the offensive coordinator um. You asked him
Speaker 1: about the disparity run versus past. What was his answer
Speaker 1: and what did you think of it? It's and I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a controversy, but it's just it's something
Speaker 1: that's kind of rankled me here over the last week
Speaker 1: because you see differing opinions about the way that the
Speaker 1: Cowboys played that. But essentially, I asked Kellen, you know
Speaker 1: they famously threw fifty eight times and ran whatever it
Speaker 1: was like, fourteen or fifteen, and Kellen even said they
Speaker 1: checked out of half of their run calls from the game,
Speaker 1: and I just asked him, you know, it's it's so
Speaker 1: easy to put it into boxes of like throwing verse running,
Speaker 1: like Zeke hast to hit this magic number, or we didn't,
Speaker 1: we weren't balanced enough. And I was like, you don't
Speaker 1: look at it that way, do you. It's a much
Speaker 1: more collective approach. And he went into this whole spiel
Speaker 1: about He's like, yeah, I mean, I don't care what
Speaker 1: it says on the stat sheet. I mean, we threw
Speaker 1: a quote unquote pass to Tony Pollard that traveled four
Speaker 1: inches out of Dak's hands, and that counts as a pass,
Speaker 1: but he picked up nine yards on it, and we
Speaker 1: talked about it. We've talked about it a few times.
Speaker 1: You know, they few They threw at least three or
Speaker 1: four smoke screens in that game, just getting the ball out,
Speaker 1: and it counts as a pass, but it's effectively a run.
Speaker 1: And I love that approach. I love the fact that
Speaker 1: Kellen moore and it's one game. It's a small sample size.
Speaker 1: But that's what worries me, honestly, is that Zeke is
Speaker 1: a ninety million dollar player, and you worry that the
Speaker 1: team would feel pressure to feed him because of who
Speaker 1: he is, and that was not the case on Thursday night,
Speaker 1: and I think that's a wonderful thing. And I, like
Speaker 1: I said, it kind of rankles me when people are like, well,
Speaker 1: Zekes go to good as torches. You gotta no, you
Speaker 1: do it. It's smart attack the defense in the way
Speaker 1: that presents the best opportunity for success. And I've thought
Speaker 1: about this over the last week is it reminds maybe
Speaker 1: my least favorite game in the time that I've covered
Speaker 1: this team is the twenty nineteen Vikings game. Pissed me
Speaker 1: off so much because they kept running into that defense
Speaker 1: on first and second and long and putting themselves in
Speaker 1: situations and Dad kept bailing them out, only for them
Speaker 1: to go back to the run at the end of
Speaker 1: the game and it costs them in the game. It
Speaker 1: was awful coaching, and so it was really encouraging to
Speaker 1: see them do the opposite. I've been talking for five
Speaker 1: minutes now, but it's something that I clearly feel passionately
Speaker 1: about the It's interesting you mentioned that DAK changed a
Speaker 1: lot of those plays. Nick. I think you said at
Speaker 1: twelve of the past plays that it will call pass plays.
Speaker 1: DAK checked at the line of scrimmage, just playing Devil's advocate,
Speaker 1: because I personally believe, hey, do what's best when you
Speaker 1: get to line scrimmage. If you need to check them
Speaker 1: and you check them all to passes, if that's a
Speaker 1: better look, go for it. But being Devil's advocate here,
Speaker 1: do you think that could become problematic as the season
Speaker 1: goes on if your offensive coordinators really wanting to establish
Speaker 1: a run and sometimes you're running into situations where you
Speaker 1: know you may not get a lot, but you do
Speaker 1: need to keep balance. Do you in those instances think
Speaker 1: that could be a little problem Yeah. I mean, and
Speaker 1: I do think it's problematic. I think that's just being
Speaker 1: Devil's advocate. I think that it is. I like the
Speaker 1: fact that you're not just going to run into a
Speaker 1: brick wall if it's not there. If it's not there,
Speaker 1: you're just doing it for the sake of running it
Speaker 1: to try to, you know, keep them honest. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if I agree with that, but I do
Speaker 1: think that you know, certain plays, those those design screens,
Speaker 1: bubble screens and all that that are really just trying
Speaker 1: to to you know, move the chains in a different
Speaker 1: way and spread them out. They don't work as well
Speaker 1: down by the goal line. So I do think that
Speaker 1: you have to establish that you have to run because
Speaker 1: or you're just gonna kick field goals. And they did,
Speaker 1: and they and they didn't win that way, this way
Speaker 1: of Dak of carrying the team and throwing in all
Speaker 1: these yards. I mean they're two and four. They're two
Speaker 1: and four the last six games that Dak has started.
Speaker 1: He keeps them in a game, but it has to
Speaker 1: start flipping the other way, and it hasn't yet. But
Speaker 1: I think he's amazing. I think he's playing out of
Speaker 1: his mind. But I think they need a little bit
Speaker 1: more balanced, and especially when it gets down to the
Speaker 1: goal line, they're gonna have to figure out wheys to score.
Speaker 1: And if it's just him throwing to a Marii Cooper,
Speaker 1: if they can figure that out, then they'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: But I mean, they gotta figure out ways to score.
Speaker 1: I think running the ball will help them do that.
Speaker 1: When you say balance, what do you mean? I think
Speaker 1: balance as far as is run, not not just run past,
Speaker 1: not just the amount of runs, but is where you
Speaker 1: where do you utilize your yards in the middle of
Speaker 1: the field. I mean, you have to like keep them
Speaker 1: off offset a little bit because you can keep throwing
Speaker 1: it to the wide sides and all that, but it
Speaker 1: gets tightened up down there. I mean, eventually you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to You're gonna have to work the middle, and
Speaker 1: I think they will. I think this is an anomaly game.
Speaker 1: I think in a lot of ways, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: face a quarterback like that. You're not gonna face a
Speaker 1: defense like that. So I want to see more. I
Speaker 1: said this on the radio. I want to see more
Speaker 1: games because Tampa was so unique to what I think
Speaker 1: they're going to see most of the year. But didn't
Speaker 1: they do that? If I'm if I'm remembering as correctly,
Speaker 1: you guys have much much better photographic memories of points
Speaker 1: and games. But it seemed like they were in the
Speaker 1: red zone this last game. And I thought on first
Speaker 1: down they ran Zeke, and then on second down Dak
Speaker 1: ran the ball. Is that accurate? And then they and
Speaker 1: I don't even know if they got an end zone
Speaker 1: on that drive, but it did seem like they ran
Speaker 1: so both with Dak and with Zeke in the red zone.
Speaker 1: It still didn't necessarily mean that they got in the
Speaker 1: end zone every time they were in the red zone, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they got in the red zone is it
Speaker 1: three times and scored one. They scored one out of four,
Speaker 1: one touchdown out of four. I'm looking at it. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the compliment. My memory is not that amazing,
Speaker 1: but I mean much better at that than I. They
Speaker 1: threw three straight times on the missed field goal by Zerline.
Speaker 1: They did try. No, actually they went um. They threw
Speaker 1: three straight times on the right after the quick change
Speaker 1: turnover by Treyvon Diggs. Yeah, then, which I thought that
Speaker 1: was the one that was like you probably ought to
Speaker 1: do a little bit off the different goal. I don't
Speaker 1: disagree with that. And then they did try to run
Speaker 1: on the long drive at the beginning of the third
Speaker 1: quarter and the obviously and some of that's execution, honestly,
Speaker 1: like they did, they did try it, and that's um.
Speaker 1: You know somebody, I think somebody asked us about that
Speaker 1: earlier this week and I was like, that was a
Speaker 1: great play call. You can get Jarwin's got a block.
Speaker 1: Seke's got to do something better. I mean, it is
Speaker 1: what it is like. You can do everything, you can
Speaker 1: make every right decision up until the snap, and it
Speaker 1: still won't work. If you don't do what you need
Speaker 1: to do. You know. What's what's amazing kind of from
Speaker 1: an ironic standpoint, where we were a month ago, you know,
Speaker 1: out in California and worried about this and that when
Speaker 1: it comes to deck, it's just if somebody would have
Speaker 1: been like, oh, don't worry about the ankle. You know,
Speaker 1: he'll run through it four times and and he'll run
Speaker 1: an option on the gold line. They're fine. The shoulder,
Speaker 1: he'll throw a fifty eight passes against the bucks and
Speaker 1: he'll be fine. You know, don't worry about it. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be okay. That's what he said. That what he said, basically,
Speaker 1: that's what he said, and I think everybody else in
Speaker 1: the country was trying to, i mean, paying a different
Speaker 1: stories say this all the time that like next year,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna fall for this. We're not gonna fall
Speaker 1: for the bawn on the tailpipe. You know, we're not.
Speaker 1: We're not We're not gonna do that. Like like if
Speaker 1: they say that they're hurt, it's probably not a big deal.
Speaker 1: But it's training camp. And then we do it. We
Speaker 1: fall for it because if we gotta, you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna write about this and that, but like next year,
Speaker 1: when a guy gets pulled out for one little thing,
Speaker 1: like we're gonna be like, ah, it's probably not nothing. Well,
Speaker 1: but then you go back two years ago, you just
Speaker 1: got it that with with case by case basis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just you just never know. But I will say this,
Speaker 1: I won't make a habit of doubting Z. I mean
Speaker 1: Dak when he says something when it comes to that,
Speaker 1: because what we've seen is when he says I'm good,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be out there and and I will I
Speaker 1: will follow that. I guess at this point, can I
Speaker 1: just kind of throw this out there. I mean, I
Speaker 1: said this, I'm talking about the last two seasons. We've
Speaker 1: got one game, we've got five that Dak played and
Speaker 1: they and I said, you know they're they're two and four.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not blaming Dak. I'm saying this, this
Speaker 1: style of play, it doesn't necessarily is not conducive to wins,
Speaker 1: because both of those two wins were last second place.
Speaker 1: But I think there are teams in the NFL that
Speaker 1: have used that kind of formula and have one. Right,
Speaker 1: Bucks played the same style of game and one they
Speaker 1: ran the ball fourteen times for three and a half
Speaker 1: yard Brady through fifty times. I mean, it does work.
Speaker 1: The question becomes, as it worked for this team, do
Speaker 1: you have the other pieces in place? Is the defense
Speaker 1: good enough? Is the is the kicking game good like?
Speaker 1: Those are the things. I don't know if it's necessarily
Speaker 1: Dak in the style of using Dak to just throw
Speaker 1: the ball a lot. If that's you know, yeah, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of games that come down to the
Speaker 1: last play, last field goal. I mean that that's that's
Speaker 1: that's going to happen. All I'm saying is is when
Speaker 1: we've seen this shift of what's the best thing they do,
Speaker 1: and right now the best thing that they're doing is
Speaker 1: is kind of leaning on the deck. It's been great
Speaker 1: and it's if you have Dak in your fantasy team,
Speaker 1: you're loving it. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they're
Speaker 1: winning games yet, and that that that could be for
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. That's it's it's funny. It's
Speaker 1: that Thursday night was a truer showing of what they
Speaker 1: can do in my opinion, because again, and I know
Speaker 1: Dak played five games, but it was such it was
Speaker 1: so weird. I mean, getting down minus three in turnover
Speaker 1: to differential, like probably three out of the five times
Speaker 1: they played. That's not normal, but that's not normal by
Speaker 1: any teams standards, and that is you know, going back
Speaker 1: to the fact that they're not going to have Lyelle.
Speaker 1: I have faith in Dak to make this work because
Speaker 1: of how much he's grown as a quarterback, but having
Speaker 1: an iffy offensive tackle opens you up a little bit
Speaker 1: for turnovers. I mean, Cleveland's a great Terrence Steele gave
Speaker 1: up a sack in that Browns game that I believe
Speaker 1: Dak fumbled it right, Yeah, changed, Yeah, it changed the
Speaker 1: course of it. It really where it started to kind
Speaker 1: of get away from him. And that's I don't worry
Speaker 1: about Dak having time or making throws and that type
Speaker 1: of stuff. I think he can keep things going. But
Speaker 1: that does give me pause because it was the turnover
Speaker 1: problems that really it was that that sank them more
Speaker 1: than the way that they were calling their offense last year.
Speaker 1: So they, you know, credit Kellen Moore in the offense
Speaker 1: is sorry, this is what we've got. We know what
Speaker 1: we've got here in the interior, we know what they've got.
Speaker 1: We're gonna We're gonna do these things on the outside.
Speaker 1: Is it. Is it gonna be as tough in the
Speaker 1: middle at San Diego? I'm sorry, dang it, it's over Wednesday. Wednesday,
Speaker 1: dang it, Chargers defense, and uh no, it's probably not
Speaker 1: going to be a stout in the middle, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna get an all pro guard back in there with
Speaker 1: Zach Martin. So I think they can. They can maybe
Speaker 1: run the ball a little bit more, be a little
Speaker 1: bit more balanced in the play calling of of where
Speaker 1: they distribute the ball. I'll be surprised if it's that
Speaker 1: skewed again this week. Yeah, But but you know, games
Speaker 1: take a life of their own, and that's that's that
Speaker 1: game did that, Like you said, the Bucks played that way,
Speaker 1: you know, back and forth, and it was just an
Speaker 1: entertaining game it was, which I agree with you. It's
Speaker 1: funny though, because again going back to when Dak was healthy,
Speaker 1: like of the game's Dak has played in the McCarthy era,
Speaker 1: I think somebody every week, somebody gets up there and
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, it's a weird game. I'm like, when
Speaker 1: are you gonna play a normal game? Right when a
Speaker 1: quote unquote yeah, Like, when are you gonna play a
Speaker 1: game that's not weird, Like they all sort of follow
Speaker 1: a bizarre script when you really boil it, like the
Speaker 1: Rams game Week one maybe even no, no, no, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: you can't call that one not weird, because it was
Speaker 1: the strangest thing I've ever heard of a football game
Speaker 1: other than maybe a junior high game, where you just
Speaker 1: just because nobody was there, nobody like CD caught like
Speaker 1: a thirty yard pass and no one't even you just
Speaker 1: hear CD lamb on the catch, like, oh yeah, it
Speaker 1: was so that one was weird. Atlanta, I mean, top
Speaker 1: five weird all time. You know, Cleveland that was pretty weird,
Speaker 1: Top five weird all times. Seattle was a Seattle was
Speaker 1: weird too. Tony Pollard put him behind the you know,
Speaker 1: he put him in the hole with the safety pay
Speaker 1: the Diggs play. Yeah, Tyler Lockett had a thirty burger
Speaker 1: and fantasy by the second quarter in game. You know,
Speaker 1: the whole reding was weird. I mean the whole season really,
Speaker 1: but yeah, those those games, particularly twenty twenty was kind
Speaker 1: of weird, just a g little weird, a little different.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna take our first break. Go ahead, Dave,
Speaker 1: you guess him, No, I just now, I mean, we're
Speaker 1: still weird, but just we're just normal weird. I guess
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't even know if that means,
Speaker 1: but it sounds about right right. Were gonna take our
Speaker 1: first break and we come back. We're gonna have Bucky
Speaker 1: Brooks join us. He's gonna give us a breakdown of
Speaker 1: the Charger offense versus the Dallas defense that when we
Speaker 1: come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. Before
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Speaker 1: tailgate just got jealous. Welcome back to the second segment
Speaker 1: of The Break live from the s WBC Markets studios
Speaker 1: at the Star. Got Nick and Dave with me, and
Speaker 1: we also got on the line normal addition to our
Speaker 1: show every Wednesday and Thursday. Mister Bucky Brooks from NFL Network,
Speaker 1: What up, Bucky? How you going good? Good? It's time
Speaker 1: to get a little insight on these chargers first. Before
Speaker 1: we get to that, though, I'd love for you just
Speaker 1: to give me kind of a quick review of your
Speaker 1: thoughts on the Cowboys versus Buccaneers really interesting because the
Speaker 1: Cowboys say much better than I anticipated in the game.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a pretty game for them, but I thought
Speaker 1: they adapted and adjusted the hand of the energy I've
Speaker 1: dealing with the defending champions about Dak Prescott was very
Speaker 1: impressive getting the ball out of his hand um. I
Speaker 1: think the football world got a chance to see why
Speaker 1: some have touted him as a top five play at
Speaker 1: the position. I think he showed all of that and
Speaker 1: that was the really impressive part. Vicho Elliott won't get
Speaker 1: enough credit for the job that he did and passed
Speaker 1: the section, but for those who take shots to him
Speaker 1: for the lack of run game production, I think his
Speaker 1: value as that pass protector really showed up. And the
Speaker 1: defensively they took the ball of the head four turnovers
Speaker 1: and so it was a winnable game. I think they
Speaker 1: are rude the job that Blake Joeward did down to
Speaker 1: the goal line on the option player that should have
Speaker 1: been a touchdown. But I think there's things to build on.
Speaker 1: But they don't have to step up a play because
Speaker 1: the team they got coming on deck, it's a really
Speaker 1: good team. All right, Let's move on to that team.
Speaker 1: The Chargers tell me, as we like to start, what
Speaker 1: does their offense do best and what is their greatest weakness?
Speaker 1: For one, this is a well coached football team for
Speaker 1: a young guy. Brandon Staley has a clear vision for
Speaker 1: how he wants the team to play. They do a
Speaker 1: really good job of avoiding the self inflicted team that
Speaker 1: hurt teams, and then they got a lot of talent offensively.
Speaker 1: I would say the best thing that they do is
Speaker 1: that combination of Keenan Allen and Justin Herbert is real.
Speaker 1: Keiman Allen is I mean look and he going all
Speaker 1: the way back. He's kind of like an N one
Speaker 1: mixtape street ball artist on the perimeter. He is going
Speaker 1: to be a problem on the outside in terms of
Speaker 1: his rout running ability and his ability to create separation.
Speaker 1: And then Justin Herbert just plays the game at a
Speaker 1: maturity level that it kinds beyond his years. And so
Speaker 1: this is one where the Cowboys coverage and pass rush
Speaker 1: has to step up because this is a passing team,
Speaker 1: not a running team. What does he I know we
Speaker 1: look at dynamic running backs, but you know, Austin Eckler,
Speaker 1: he's a guy that kind of does so many different things,
Speaker 1: Like how can he hurt Now? I know he wasn't
Speaker 1: one hundred percent healthy this last game, but how does
Speaker 1: he really kind of hurt teams with his ability to
Speaker 1: kind of do so many different things? You know. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna be friends like he
Speaker 1: he's okay, you know what I'm saying. Like, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's great. I don't think he causes like sleepless night.
Speaker 1: I think he's the beneficiary of playing with telling the
Speaker 1: troop around him and his his production is more of
Speaker 1: a byproduct of teams wanting to take away other guys
Speaker 1: and they will live with him doing what he does.
Speaker 1: He has not been a guy that since he has
Speaker 1: been given the RB one role that has really lived
Speaker 1: up to expectations when it comes to it. But if
Speaker 1: you let him get his space and work one on
Speaker 1: one on your linebacker, your linebacker can't cover. He certainly
Speaker 1: can give you problems. But as to others that were
Speaker 1: you more than Austin Eckley coming out of back there,
Speaker 1: So Bucky. I used to hate talking about cornerbacks traveling
Speaker 1: because in the Rod Marinelli era they didn't do it.
Speaker 1: It felt like a waste of time. But we saw
Speaker 1: Treyvon Diggs go with Mike Evans a little bit last
Speaker 1: week and he did an amazing job. So my question
Speaker 1: to you is, do you think he's up to that
Speaker 1: challenge against Keenan Allen or maybe do you try to
Speaker 1: stick him with Mike Williams and sort of handle Keenan
Speaker 1: Allen by committee? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's really two different thoughts on how you do
Speaker 1: it right. So if you travel, you're a corner. You
Speaker 1: can go good on good, meaning look, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: Traylon Digg versus Keenan Allen and you have to handle
Speaker 1: him without help. I'm not sending a linebacker or safe
Speaker 1: you're anybody in your direction. Or I can take Trayvon
Speaker 1: Diggs and lock up your number two, double team your
Speaker 1: number one and see if I can force you to
Speaker 1: your third option in the passing end. Not knowing DQ
Speaker 1: well enough when it comes to those that because I
Speaker 1: don't know how he'll elect the handle of that. But
Speaker 1: the one thing about traveling, look, it's easy for the
Speaker 1: guy who is the traveler. It's harder for everybody else
Speaker 1: if they don't have the IQ and the flexibility to
Speaker 1: move around and play different things, even though it seems
Speaker 1: like it'd be easy, like, hey, everyone's playing a man
Speaker 1: to man, but man, it's different playing inside and imposed
Speaker 1: the outside. So you have to know your personnel and know,
Speaker 1: am I okay with Jordan Lewis maybe having to go outside,
Speaker 1: or I'm okay with Anthony Brown maybe having to play
Speaker 1: in the slot if you match it up that way,
Speaker 1: And so you have to feel like what gives my
Speaker 1: as the best opportunity to succeed. And sometimes you may
Speaker 1: flue traveling. Sometimes it may say, hey, let's play right
Speaker 1: and left and just come a line up and play
Speaker 1: whoever's on our side, Bucky, when you When I went
Speaker 1: back and looked at some of the stats from that
Speaker 1: week one game between the Chargers and the Washington football team,
Speaker 1: the Chargers are now after one game, fifth in passing
Speaker 1: in the league, and that's against one of a defense
Speaker 1: that most of us believe is one of the better
Speaker 1: defenses in the league. Certainly has a great pass rush,
Speaker 1: good defensive front. What did they do in this game?
Speaker 1: What did the Chargers do in this game to have
Speaker 1: success against a really really stout Washington defense. They're guys
Speaker 1: the firm were better than the guy. For the Washington
Speaker 1: football team, Ray shown Slater was not worried or intimidated
Speaker 1: or fearful of Chase Young at all, and he played
Speaker 1: that way very early in the game, and after a
Speaker 1: while Washington Chase Young off of him. And so, as
Speaker 1: you know, when you have a good, a dominant blue
Speaker 1: chef left tackle, it allows you to be able to
Speaker 1: do a bunch of different things. And the charges have
Speaker 1: enough confidence that now they're able to expand the playbook
Speaker 1: for Justin Herbert because they feel like he is going
Speaker 1: to be protected. And when you do that, you get
Speaker 1: five out in the route. You have a quarterback who's
Speaker 1: a good decision maker. They can consttely put pressure on
Speaker 1: the defense because they can find Walter, they can find
Speaker 1: the matchup that they like, and they can go to
Speaker 1: it over and over again. And so because they're better
Speaker 1: up front, and also Quinton Lindsay the center the offensive
Speaker 1: lineage echether so because the lineage better, they can do
Speaker 1: more things than offer. I'm glad you mentioned rashawn S later,
Speaker 1: so I don't have to Bucky appreciate that. But well,
Speaker 1: and going along with that, I talked about this on
Speaker 1: the show yesterday, they only pressure Herb. Washington only pressure
Speaker 1: Herbert five out of forty nine times the other day.
Speaker 1: And that's terrifying in its own right. But the thing
Speaker 1: that worries me is it fair to say Herbert is
Speaker 1: a guy he just I mean, he seems like a
Speaker 1: play extender, Like I just feel like Dallas is going
Speaker 1: to be playing a bunch of six and seven second plays.
Speaker 1: Is that accurate? And what can they do to kind
Speaker 1: of combat that and get Herbert to get rid of
Speaker 1: the ball a little bit faster. Well, it's a combination
Speaker 1: injective in the Washington ball team. They really don't like
Speaker 1: to bring pleasure. They're not like a blitz happy team.
Speaker 1: So they're different than the Buccaneers were played. They're different
Speaker 1: than the Ravens are play They're not going to challenge
Speaker 1: you to pick up all the exotic and the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. If it is that with Cowboys, you gotta
Speaker 1: eat it up. I don't think you're good enough to
Speaker 1: just line up and say, hey, we're gonna rush for
Speaker 1: play seven and our guys have been in the yor guys.
Speaker 1: I think Q has to be creative and how he
Speaker 1: attacks Herbert. He has to kind of make him pass
Speaker 1: some difficulty uncovering and figuring out what they're doing, and
Speaker 1: some of that may be from packages, moving Michael Parsons around,
Speaker 1: moving people around, put in different spots, guys in different spots,
Speaker 1: so maybe they can't get the protection lined up right.
Speaker 1: But you have to use some creativity to just disc
Speaker 1: up the rhythm of the quarterback because Justin Herbert is
Speaker 1: too good. If you're going to make this a seven
Speaker 1: on seven game, he is going to win in those
Speaker 1: games and he's already shown that as a second year player.
Speaker 1: You know, Bucky, we talked about you talk about Parsons
Speaker 1: from our view or my view, I'll say I'll speak
Speaker 1: for myself in the from the press box. The first
Speaker 1: half looked like a Markeat looked like a rookie from
Speaker 1: you know this playing his first ever game against the
Speaker 1: best quarterback in the world. The second game, he looked
Speaker 1: like the guy that everyone's kind of expecting. Did you
Speaker 1: see the same thing? What do you What did you
Speaker 1: see out of Micah? Yeah? We look man. The game
Speaker 1: is big for rickies particularly, is a big stage, is
Speaker 1: a prime time game the football world is watching. Is
Speaker 1: different like you guysn't been arounded enough to know there's
Speaker 1: something different about playing Thursday night, prime time, Monday night,
Speaker 1: Sunday night, because all eyes are on you, so it's
Speaker 1: taking a while to settle ends. The second half, we
Speaker 1: saw the Michael Parson that everyone wanted to see. We
Speaker 1: saw the versatility, we saw the speed to tire of
Speaker 1: the explosiveness. We saw the disruptive playmaking potential. And I
Speaker 1: like the combination where they had Michael Parsons and Keanomel
Speaker 1: on the field at the same time. I do wonder
Speaker 1: how they're going to continue to reshuffle the deck when
Speaker 1: it comes to the linebackers to put the best eleven
Speaker 1: on the field. But I think Mike is going to
Speaker 1: be fine. I think he has an opportunity to be
Speaker 1: a difference maker, and they need him to be a
Speaker 1: difference theaker just when he gives the Chargers. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about the Chargers and what I think was probably their
Speaker 1: achilles heel in this game. If you look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: they averaged nine plays per drive, which was second in
Speaker 1: the league last year. I mean last week they average
Speaker 1: forty seven yards per drive, which was fourth in the league.
Speaker 1: But the only average two point two points per drive,
Speaker 1: which suggests to me they moved the ball a lot
Speaker 1: and pretty effectively and then bogged down when it came
Speaker 1: to getting the ball into the end zone. What happened
Speaker 1: as far as their offense was concerned that kept them
Speaker 1: from getting as many points as their yards suggests they
Speaker 1: maybe should have had a couple of them. Just saying that,
Speaker 1: want about the sas that you put. If you have
Speaker 1: nine and tim played and the Nastional Football League average, man,
Speaker 1: it's the odds work against you. The more plays that
Speaker 1: j haveb because the eyes could get something bad is
Speaker 1: going to happen. A ton of the negative play a
Speaker 1: turnover is just hard. It's the same drive. So the
Speaker 1: number one thing is they're not getting enough exclusive plays.
Speaker 1: They can accumulate a lot of yards, but they're not
Speaker 1: getting the chump plays because the score point in the NFL,
Speaker 1: you have to have explosive plays twenty five plus passes
Speaker 1: being able to throw it outside of the rid zone
Speaker 1: into the end zone for touchdowns. And so they go
Speaker 1: from twenty to twenty. But then the red zone. The
Speaker 1: Washington football team plays a really good rid zone defense.
Speaker 1: They used the field dimensions to the advantage. They use
Speaker 1: the sideline and the end zone as extra defenders, and
Speaker 1: they were able to keep things in front and force
Speaker 1: them to settle for field goals and those things. And
Speaker 1: so it should be a defensive job. And so for
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, once again, it is understanding what are the
Speaker 1: most important things that you want to take away. Keep
Speaker 1: the ball in front of the defense, don't give them
Speaker 1: the cheat ones. Make them earn those yards and earn
Speaker 1: the points. And so if they can do that, and
Speaker 1: know he's made link up three hundred yards. But if
Speaker 1: we can keep the twenty yard post plast page under
Speaker 1: wraps and not let often Heckler anybody's leak out, I
Speaker 1: think to the Cowboys defense will play one of them
Speaker 1: to get a win. That's really great insight, Bucky. We
Speaker 1: appreciate it. All right. We'll be gon. We're gonna take
Speaker 1: our final break when we come back. We will be
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit more about this matchup between
Speaker 1: the Chargers offense and the Dallas defense. We'll have Bucky
Speaker 1: back on again tomorrow. He'll break down the Chargers defense
Speaker 1: versus the Cowboys offense. That's going to be a really
Speaker 1: interesting matchup. We'll do that when we come right back.
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Speaker 1: Back to the brink. Invite Rowdy to your next event,
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Speaker 1: book your appearance today. I'm so upset. It's my mom's
Speaker 1: birthday today. I forgot to do that. If I was
Speaker 1: willing to spend the money, wodrowdy just come to a
Speaker 1: sports bar and watch football with me? Yes you think so? Yes, Yes,
Speaker 1: he's two hours. About the money you just you pay
Speaker 1: him for two hours, he's gonna show, sit next to me,
Speaker 1: don't talk, pose for photos with whatever. Well, I know,
Speaker 1: don't don't talk. Yeah, that parts he browny, don't talk. Now,
Speaker 1: the other part of him kind of doing goofy stuff,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know how you feel about that now.
Speaker 1: I don't want him to do goosey stuff. I just
Speaker 1: want him to sit on the stool next to me
Speaker 1: and watch football. Well you drink it's there. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: hot and sweaty in there. Yeah. I thinking he would
Speaker 1: do that. I'll look in there. It would be interesting
Speaker 1: because when you're like especially if your team loses, because
Speaker 1: if your team loses, you get into this like weird
Speaker 1: funk of like, you know, the life is ending everybody, Yeah,
Speaker 1: my nihilistic side, right, So then you just turn and
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Speaker 1: you look over and you see Browdy, You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe he sparks a little bit of you know, energy,
Speaker 1: or maybe you want to punch him in the face.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just love the mental image of
Speaker 1: me being drunk and depressed about my bad football team
Speaker 1: and Rowdy's just sitting next to me, grinning from year
Speaker 1: to year with that permanent smile in space. Yeah, that'd
Speaker 1: be great starring in lsu Jersey. I'll buy him one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be interesting. All right, I don't think that
Speaker 1: would work, but go ahead. Everyone hates us. They want
Speaker 1: us to talk about the Cowboys, all right. I did
Speaker 1: want to have I had a couple of questions coming
Speaker 1: out of our interview with Bucky. For you guys, Nick,
Speaker 1: you I think were the one that mentioned the whole
Speaker 1: idea of traveling. We hadn't talked a lot about that
Speaker 1: from last week? What was that day? Sorry, Dave, don't
Speaker 1: have a good memory. I don't have horrible memory. I
Speaker 1: absolutely have a horrible memory. Um. But that being said,
Speaker 1: what would you guys do? Would you would you consider
Speaker 1: traveling him this week? In future weeks, and if so
Speaker 1: specifically to this week? Which which route do you tend
Speaker 1: to go for? Do you say take away the top
Speaker 1: guy or do you say take away the second guy
Speaker 1: and I'll do it bout committee with the top guy.
Speaker 1: I think I said it earlier this week that Treyvon
Speaker 1: did so great against Mike Evans. Keenan Allen is a
Speaker 1: He's a similar type of player. Um, although that's probably
Speaker 1: when I say that, I just mean they're both big.
Speaker 1: I don't know how similar they're. Like, Mike Evans is
Speaker 1: a big, go get the ball guy. Keenan Allen is
Speaker 1: just as much of a technician as Amari Cooper in
Speaker 1: terms of the way he gets open and his wingspan
Speaker 1: is insane. I don't I would like to maybe I'd
Speaker 1: like to see more from Trayvon before I'm ready to
Speaker 1: ask that of him. Maybe, And that's Bucky. Is it
Speaker 1: more of Ben ask than last week? That's what I
Speaker 1: don't know, I think I think Keenan Allen's I think
Speaker 1: Keenan Allen's better player than Mike Evans. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I said that very unconfidently. I get. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: they're both really good and he played really great. If
Speaker 1: that's the way they want to go, I got no complaints.
Speaker 1: But maybe Trayvon would do a better job of working
Speaker 1: on Mike Williams and you can collectively deal with Keenan Allen.
Speaker 1: I could see it either way. I I didn't even
Speaker 1: think this was a conversation because I didn't think Trayvon
Speaker 1: Digs was good enough to take Michael Evans away like that,
Speaker 1: with due respect to him. So this is sort of
Speaker 1: opening my mind to a brand new set of possibilities
Speaker 1: that we could see as we go. You know. The
Speaker 1: thing of it, and we've done this for years. It's
Speaker 1: like a lot of times when people ask, you know,
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do? Are they gonna do this?
Speaker 1: They're gonna put that. You know, It's not like a
Speaker 1: baseball game where you go into and you have to
Speaker 1: turn in your lineup before the game. I mean, it's everything.
Speaker 1: It's everything. You just said, double team him, you know,
Speaker 1: let let Digs travel with Keenan Allen for a series
Speaker 1: and then and then when they sit down the sideline,
Speaker 1: they're like, all right, hey, so when twenty seven follow
Speaker 1: sorry he's seven. Now when seven follows you around and
Speaker 1: then the next thing you know, he's on the other
Speaker 1: side and you double team him. So you're gonna do
Speaker 1: a little bit of everything. But again, I like the
Speaker 1: fact that they're doing a little bit of everything. It
Speaker 1: probably makes it a little more of a challenge because
Speaker 1: the defense has to be smart enough to adapt him
Speaker 1: game to doing different things. But I think that's actually
Speaker 1: a better things. It's a breath of fresh air. I mean,
Speaker 1: Rod Marinelli just he did what he did, and he
Speaker 1: didn't like to do. He didn't like to travel, He
Speaker 1: kept guys where they were, he didn't like to blitz somebody.
Speaker 1: During the Raiders game, a friend of mine on Twitter
Speaker 1: was like the Raiders of Blitz like once, I didn't
Speaker 1: even know this was possible, And I was like, I did.
Speaker 1: I watched Rod Marinelli coach defense for like eight years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what he does. They you gotta give him
Speaker 1: some credit. Though. They did a nice job with nour Jackson.
Speaker 1: They did especially later and they did I mean they
Speaker 1: won the game. I didn't mean to. I'm not throwing
Speaker 1: too much dirt on Rod Marinelli, not on the defensive.
Speaker 1: Would his resume? Wait what in that game? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it wasn't. But he just he doesn't like
Speaker 1: the blitz. See, he wants to get home with his
Speaker 1: front flour and Max Crosby did that a lot for
Speaker 1: him the other night. Yeah. I will say this thought,
Speaker 1: and I feel like a broken record to say it
Speaker 1: all the time. But you know when when you say, well,
Speaker 1: Diggs travels, If Diggs travels, Anthony Brown travels, like they
Speaker 1: both travel, that's the thing like and so, yes, Diggs
Speaker 1: is capable of doing it, but that means the other
Speaker 1: guy has to do it as well. All right, real quick,
Speaker 1: before we end the show, I did want to get
Speaker 1: your perspectives on the linebacker position. Bucky talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about it this week. Do you expect to see
Speaker 1: a similar um? Do you expect to see Dallas do
Speaker 1: a similar thing from the standpoint of how they deploy
Speaker 1: their linebackers, primarily using Parsons and and Kian O'Neil, Because
Speaker 1: in last week's game it was more about stopping the pass.
Speaker 1: I don't like it. Honestly, I think Layton Vanderesh needs
Speaker 1: to play football. I think he needs to be out
Speaker 1: on the field. I think he's a really good player
Speaker 1: when he's healthy. He hasn't always been healthy, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give him a shot. He needs to play more.
Speaker 1: I think him and Parsons need to play in the nickel,
Speaker 1: and I'd put Neil in there too. He used to
Speaker 1: play safety. Let put them all in there. Make him
Speaker 1: a safety in the nickel. I think vander Esh is
Speaker 1: more effective if he's out there. I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: you're wrong, but I just I see it kind of
Speaker 1: trend in that way where Neil and Parsons eat up
Speaker 1: the snaps because this league it's turning into basketball on grass.
Speaker 1: It already has been, but that's not going away. Austin
Speaker 1: Ekeler what he does, and he actually did not catch
Speaker 1: a pass in Week one, but I wonder how much
Speaker 1: more they'll get him involved as he gets healthier. That's
Speaker 1: a guy that I want speed. I want speed on speed.
Speaker 1: I want guys who can move in space. Not saying
Speaker 1: jayla Hella, not saying Laton Vanderesh can't do that, but
Speaker 1: a guy who used to play safety, maybe could do
Speaker 1: a better. We know about MICA's athleticism, so with just
Speaker 1: the way that teams like to attack through the error,
Speaker 1: I tend to think that these snap counts are going
Speaker 1: to stay the way they were, and now if they
Speaker 1: get late and more involved, I'm not upset about that.
Speaker 1: But that's just sort of my expectation. I thought he
Speaker 1: was pretty good and you know, getting interceptions and stuff
Speaker 1: his rookie year. I know that's a few years ago,
Speaker 1: but I still think he can do that. I think
Speaker 1: he's an instinct, instinctive player. Um. I'd like to see
Speaker 1: him out there more. And I'm not saying for for Neil.
Speaker 1: I think Neil can play safety. I really do. And
Speaker 1: I think so in like Neil comes in for Donovan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that, all right. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: or Donovan played pretty well. Yeah he did. I mean,
Speaker 1: or Casey or whatever, you know, trick it up, I mean,
Speaker 1: figure figure out ways to do it. But I think
Speaker 1: vander esh, you know, his biggest achilles heel is when
Speaker 1: he's hurt. When he's not, he's a good football player.
Speaker 1: All Right, that's a rap. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll
Speaker 1: get into Cowboys offense versus the Chargers defense. Till then
Speaker 1: for Nick even, Dave Helm and I'm Derek Eagleton. This
Speaker 1: has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
Speaker 1: This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.