Speaker 1: This he is Talking Cowboys Screaming live on Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: dot Com and the Official Dallas Cowboys No. Your hosts Mickey'spagnola,
Speaker 1: Brian brought us, Taylor Stern and Rob Phillips. Welcome everybody
Speaker 1: into the SUBC Mortgage Studio. Of course we have had
Speaker 1: a minute since we last talked to you guys. Cowboys
Speaker 1: lose on Thanksgiving and then have a busy weekend with
Speaker 1: different roster moves and other injury updates. Of course, today
Speaker 1: is a Thursday in Cowboys world because they do play
Speaker 1: this Thursday against the Redskins at home. So let's jump
Speaker 1: right into it. But how is everyone's Thanksgiving? Quick? That's good,
Speaker 1: it's good, it's good. Good. Yeah, you're one day off,
Speaker 1: got the win, got the win, it's right, mxas A
Speaker 1: and m Hey, New Mexico didn't either. Yeah, and maybe
Speaker 1: we're getting a new coach. I'm gonna miss Vin your case.
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving kind of tied to football in that way, you know,
Speaker 1: and and does your Thanksgiving? And I know we're all
Speaker 1: thankful for things, don't get me wrong, but do you
Speaker 1: feel like you're just when it's over, You're the game's over,
Speaker 1: and you're like, man, you just you just don't. It
Speaker 1: takes so much out of you. Thankful it's over about
Speaker 1: this particular Chargers. Yeah, but it was one of those
Speaker 1: games where you just couldn't nothing went right. You couldn't
Speaker 1: stop them. You know, it's third down. You can't stop them.
Speaker 1: You really can't do anything yourself, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not trying to be wet blanket guy,
Speaker 1: but it's just you're dedicated to your craft. Well, no,
Speaker 1: it's just Thanksgiving. I guess it's so tied to how
Speaker 1: I you know, with my with my job. And then
Speaker 1: you know, and I love being around people. I love
Speaker 1: the holiday. I love all the food. Of course, I
Speaker 1: love the food. But then when you don't have success
Speaker 1: at kind of sours the rest of the weekend. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: taste good. No, no, the food tastes great. But I
Speaker 1: know what you're saying, it's just it's just a it's
Speaker 1: it's because you're you're you're so invested in this. You know,
Speaker 1: we're all invested in this. Yeah, and then you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, I you know, I was nice enough.
Speaker 1: I mean, like we were here at the Star and
Speaker 1: the folks made us a meal. And all that, and
Speaker 1: it was really nice for them to do that. Didn't
Speaker 1: have to do that. But then you know, you was
Speaker 1: suppered to three in the morning watching tape trying to
Speaker 1: figure things out, you know, and because you're so invested
Speaker 1: in trying to say, okay, why, I mean, there's too many?
Speaker 1: Too many? Last year were kind of rolling along, things
Speaker 1: are going good, you know, this show was all happy
Speaker 1: and everything, and now you're sitting there drinking. Okay, you
Speaker 1: know you're you're basically now in playoff mode. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: are in playoff mode. You don't think about the playofs,
Speaker 1: but you are in playoff mode right now, no doubt. Well,
Speaker 1: let's get to some of the roster moves that they
Speaker 1: made this weekend, and then we can talk about the injuries,
Speaker 1: and then we can get where Brian's at and trying
Speaker 1: to figure it all out as we move forward. With
Speaker 1: five games left Earth yep, five yeah, five games left,
Speaker 1: so roster moves. Of course, they release Darren McFadden and
Speaker 1: Mike Nugent. That was expected with Mike Nugent, and they
Speaker 1: signed the pastor shirt. I always pronounced his name Wrongton
Speaker 1: Jones Dayton Jones Ula, Yeah, great name and promote the
Speaker 1: running back Trey Williams to the active roster, so Darren McFadden.
Speaker 1: He had been inactive even after ezekiel As suspension. Was
Speaker 1: that expected, do you guys think from this team, just
Speaker 1: not having a place he had a plan for him,
Speaker 1: I thought was what was expected. Were you surprised to
Speaker 1: hear that he had been released? Not really after it
Speaker 1: was time to play and they didn't play him, gave
Speaker 1: him one carry in three games. I like your plan
Speaker 1: though my plan I thought was solid, but they obviously
Speaker 1: didn't agree with it. Yeah, and I think part of
Speaker 1: the deal was I think he wanted out. He was
Speaker 1: frustrated and he didn't want to put up with it anymore.
Speaker 1: I actually said this to Mickey walking out of the
Speaker 1: stadium on Thursday night. Why she let him go if
Speaker 1: he wants to go? And he hadn't expressed that publicly
Speaker 1: or anything, but yeah, of course he wouldn't. He's a
Speaker 1: team player, he's been a pro and that's what Jason
Speaker 1: Garrett said. But you're eleven games in and as Jason
Speaker 1: said in his press conference yesterday, this role wasn't changing
Speaker 1: because Alfred Morris had won that job, had outplayed him
Speaker 1: and rod Smith is really the deciding factor because McFadden
Speaker 1: doesn't play special teams and there's there's a role for
Speaker 1: Smith as a up and coming runner and a guy
Speaker 1: that can help you on special teams. It just wasn't
Speaker 1: changing for McFadden. It kind of is what it is
Speaker 1: for him here. Did you keep him around until you
Speaker 1: figured out what rod Smith was? Did you keep him
Speaker 1: around until you figure out what was gonna happen? Zeke
Speaker 1: and that that's what's surprise I think. No, I think
Speaker 1: you're right. Yeah, I think it was more about rod
Speaker 1: smithy that. I think that's what they were waiting to see.
Speaker 1: They were waiting to see if rod Smith could handle.
Speaker 1: They had an idea that Alfred Morris could do what
Speaker 1: they needed to do. But I thought you thought that
Speaker 1: McFadden had played outplayed Morris. That's not true. No, I
Speaker 1: clearly said that that he out that Morris outplayment, and no,
Speaker 1: that that was the preseason. That's the reason why. Remember
Speaker 1: we were talking about the some of the Blitz pickup
Speaker 1: stuff wasn't good. He wasn't hitting the whole. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've seen some positive things from Morris and he started
Speaker 1: developing more as a complete back. That's what they were
Speaker 1: worried about at Washington. He never had to stay on
Speaker 1: the field and pass protect and do things like that
Speaker 1: and catch the football. But you know, but you know
Speaker 1: what if it had been reversed and if McFadden had
Speaker 1: beaten out Morris, Alfred probably would have been in the
Speaker 1: same boat because he doesn't really play special team and
Speaker 1: so then how do you qualify getting him on the
Speaker 1: game day roster. He basically have to give him the
Speaker 1: football a few times. So it's it's it's a tough
Speaker 1: thing when you're getting down to your forty six. So
Speaker 1: do you think his inactivity the year before created more
Speaker 1: rust than he could knock off? So I don't get it.
Speaker 1: He should have been really healthy going into the YEA
Speaker 1: and he can't. He played several of the games, so
Speaker 1: I mean he Morris was the one that was inactive
Speaker 1: and they played three games in twenty yeah sixteen. I
Speaker 1: thought he ran the ball fine in preseason. He averaged
Speaker 1: over five yards of carry. It wasn't like he was
Speaker 1: really struggling something they didn't like. I just felt like, though,
Speaker 1: Rob there was a couple of those games I remember
Speaker 1: doing them with Brad and I'm like, man, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't look like the same burst All Fame game. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of struggled in that game. Yeah, I just well,
Speaker 1: I mean in practice too, they just didn't see it.
Speaker 1: Seemed like everything was a hesitation and then try, you know,
Speaker 1: and hey, good for him, you know what. That just
Speaker 1: shows they have a lot of respect for him to
Speaker 1: let him go, you know, they have a lot of
Speaker 1: respect to say, Okay, fine, we'll move on from you.
Speaker 1: And I thought that he shared a nice message on
Speaker 1: Twitter saying just wanted to say thank you to the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. I grew up a Cowboys fan and it
Speaker 1: was awesome to wear the star in my helmet. I
Speaker 1: wish my boys good luck. Just you know, who knows
Speaker 1: how genuine that was. I believe it was. But you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of times there's this awkward tension between teams
Speaker 1: and when they go, specially mid season, but I don't
Speaker 1: think that was with him. Well, they did him, you know,
Speaker 1: they kept him under wraps for quite a long time.
Speaker 1: I mean last season there was talk about him being
Speaker 1: actually ready to go, and it kind of goes into
Speaker 1: the whole thing where your team's going well and you
Speaker 1: don't want to mess with things with the forty six
Speaker 1: and you know, and they were just saying, Okay, keep him,
Speaker 1: keep him in, keep him under wraps. But I think
Speaker 1: this at the end of the day was more about
Speaker 1: not so much about Zeke as it was about rod Smith.
Speaker 1: That's just me, that's just my makes sense. You know
Speaker 1: that they were they wanted to make sure that rod
Speaker 1: Smith could do everything that they needed him to do.
Speaker 1: And then and then it's like, okay, well, the fact
Speaker 1: that Alfred or excuse me, that Darren doesn't play special teams,
Speaker 1: he tried to play special teams, you know that that's
Speaker 1: you know, but Rob's right. If if the shoe was
Speaker 1: on the other foot, I think we would have seen
Speaker 1: Alfred Morris get put on the street, you know, which
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people thought was going to happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when but the seasons was eligible to play, right, Like,
Speaker 1: oh Morris, yeah, fooled me. Yeah yeah. And especially I
Speaker 1: remember thinking exactly what you're talking about, Mickey, when Darren
Speaker 1: mcfedon had been on a two year deal when he
Speaker 1: came in here in twenty fifteen, resigned him for the
Speaker 1: one year. I think he had was on a one
Speaker 1: year deal this year and then Morris was still on
Speaker 1: his two year deal, so it was just kind of
Speaker 1: something to think about. But yeah, of course Mike Nugent.
Speaker 1: That wasn't as a prize to most people because Dan
Speaker 1: Bailey did return on Thanksgiving from his groin injury. Never
Speaker 1: had never really used him, never had to use Mike
Speaker 1: Nugent in a game where you would have worried. But
Speaker 1: the terrible thing is the teams you played lost their
Speaker 1: kickers both times, and you couldn't take advantage of their
Speaker 1: They're actually had backfired. They're misfortunes. It did backfired. You'd
Speaker 1: rather have him kick it than go for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it cost him five points, said it. I think Philly
Speaker 1: was going on one of their other two point conversion
Speaker 1: because that's four more points. Yeah. You can't, you can't,
Speaker 1: you know, you can't plan on that stuff. But my gosh,
Speaker 1: I mean they just didn't. They never forced anybody to
Speaker 1: have to think about kicking a forty two yard field goal.
Speaker 1: It's been a weird season or fifty seven yeah now
Speaker 1: Philadelphia and let go Yeah, yeah, so it has been
Speaker 1: a weird season. But tell me, guys, okay, the defensive
Speaker 1: lineman Daytone Jones, Yeah, I watched a little of him,
Speaker 1: so tell me about him. Yeah, you know, it's played.
Speaker 1: The games I've watched. He was last in San Francisco
Speaker 1: and the games I've been watching of him where the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia gained the Arizona game and then the Giants game
Speaker 1: with the Giants where they got the victory against the Giants.
Speaker 1: So they use him. Really is a defensive end. He's
Speaker 1: kind of got a defensive tackle body though, is really
Speaker 1: what you know, And there's some initial quickness there off
Speaker 1: the snap. I felt like though for the most part,
Speaker 1: he used technique handover swim move, you know, try to
Speaker 1: use technique, and that's that's important. I mean, you didn't
Speaker 1: want him to be a guy that was constantly getting
Speaker 1: stuck on blocks. I don't know if he's If he's
Speaker 1: one of these guys, it's going to remind you of
Speaker 1: anybody attacking the edge with any types of real, real quickment.
Speaker 1: Like again, that initial and then he tends to kind
Speaker 1: of get stopped and in his rush and he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the bend. He doesn't have that bend. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's the problem. If they're looking at him as a
Speaker 1: defensive end, he might have to be an inside guy.
Speaker 1: I mean, they might think more about him. I think
Speaker 1: when they, if they if this is something, if this
Speaker 1: is one of those things, you're looking at him and saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're giving him a try out for the next five
Speaker 1: weeks to see if you want to resign him or
Speaker 1: do something with him. I think they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: find another position for him. I'm not sure that he
Speaker 1: is the type of defensive end. You know. Now we
Speaker 1: see two year deal, I think, ye, did he get
Speaker 1: a two year deal? Okay, well then yeah, then obviously
Speaker 1: then he's he's like the what they did with, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to bring guys in and and uh like the
Speaker 1: George Selby's of the world and guys like that. They've
Speaker 1: done that before. More was a two year deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you just see what they can do, see what
Speaker 1: they can do, and we'll keep you the next year
Speaker 1: if you play for I think he's a defensive tackle.
Speaker 1: I do too. I don't know about you, guys, but
Speaker 1: when they bring in the backups, how well do you
Speaker 1: feel when you see Ash and Neil standing next to
Speaker 1: each other. I feel better about Neil, but Ashes bought.
Speaker 1: I mean Ashes had a when he first started was better.
Speaker 1: And then now I'm starting to see where teams are
Speaker 1: having success blocking him. And you're right, Mickey, I see
Speaker 1: you shake your head, and you're right. I don't disagree
Speaker 1: with what you're doing. I think, And he said, Jones
Speaker 1: said that he's been a first and second down defensive
Speaker 1: end and third down inside. Yeah, but they play a
Speaker 1: three to four. It's what they do. At San Francisco.
Speaker 1: He was at Detroit. No, no, but this last gig,
Speaker 1: he's been everywhere lately. Yeah, yeah, Green Bay, so he
Speaker 1: was he was a three, he was a he was
Speaker 1: a three four defensive end, and then he was and
Speaker 1: then he was a and then in Detroit he played
Speaker 1: a four to three and then now he played and
Speaker 1: then San Francisco he's playing as a three to four end.
Speaker 1: So really, in actuality, he's probably better suited to play inside.
Speaker 1: But right now I've just kind of heard initially, Hey
Speaker 1: jumped in on the scout team. That's what they did.
Speaker 1: They've got some guys they got to figure out two.
Speaker 1: They've got no Ross. Ross is another guy they need
Speaker 1: to kind of figure out there. If he's you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if Daniel Ross has done anything to
Speaker 1: make him want to deactivate Richard ash or anything like that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Any if he gets to the point
Speaker 1: where they start looking at guys, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: whole lot more of these get ready and know, hey,
Speaker 1: this guy coming. You know this guy. I just I
Speaker 1: don't think this guy's an end. I think he's a
Speaker 1: defensive tackle. He told me he's lined up at linebacker
Speaker 1: before it stood up. Yeah, in a three or four.
Speaker 1: Probably he's a little bit bigger body than Lewis Neal,
Speaker 1: so maybe you know, they've lost some tackles. They don't
Speaker 1: have as much size in the middle, so maybe he
Speaker 1: can help there. Yeah, and of course promoting Trey Williams.
Speaker 1: He was he's been on the practice squad all year long.
Speaker 1: Uh no, no, they sign him now, they sign him.
Speaker 1: He's been on the practice squad in the past. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they recently brought him. Yeah, yah, okay, yeah, Zeke's when
Speaker 1: they needed a running back. When they lost the running back,
Speaker 1: they had to have an extra guy to practice. This
Speaker 1: is his second or third go round here. Actually yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: more depth. Uh, he's I don't know if he's a
Speaker 1: guy that's active on game day. I don't think, probably not,
Speaker 1: but maybe as a future. Yeah, I mean he's yeah,
Speaker 1: he's got a little juice to him. I think the
Speaker 1: thing that to me now, too much plotting going on
Speaker 1: at the running back position. Yeah. Well the thing that
Speaker 1: too though is and I Mickey makes a point about
Speaker 1: the plot you know, with the problems you're having in
Speaker 1: the secondary, I would have taken a look at White,
Speaker 1: Martin qu Marquez White. I would have thought about maybe
Speaker 1: bringing him up and Okay, if you're interested in looking
Speaker 1: at guys, you know, that was that was the big
Speaker 1: discussion today among the at the press conference. It was
Speaker 1: the secondary. Okay, what are we going to do with
Speaker 1: the secondary? How are you going to move guys around up?
Speaker 1: And you know all that stuff. You know, I would
Speaker 1: have maybe thought about, Okay, you got White, take a
Speaker 1: look at him. You drafted him, you know, obviously you
Speaker 1: want to see him on the practice squad. Especially with
Speaker 1: the talk of Anthony Brown being benched, and well that's yeah,
Speaker 1: that's WOOSI let's get ready for a WUZ to start
Speaker 1: this game. I think, I mean, I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: take I think that they're gonna you know, and I
Speaker 1: asked a question about about Anthony Brown playing in the Nickel.
Speaker 1: The best times that he was really playing for you
Speaker 1: was when he did play nickel slot. So I have
Speaker 1: a feeling we're gonna see a totally different secondary on Thursday.
Speaker 1: I mean snaps. Did you see a Woozia get defensively
Speaker 1: against the Chargers? I can tell you because he's got
Speaker 1: before before that game, he'd had fifty snaps. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: entire season on defense, it's been it's been kind of
Speaker 1: a wash for him. Yeah, but this is an opportunity
Speaker 1: for him. He's healthy. Now I can say, i'm i'm, I'm.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna throw him out there as a starter.
Speaker 1: I really do. He had five defensive snaps in nine
Speaker 1: special teams set. He has barely been on the field
Speaker 1: defensively this season. Well, it's time, It's time, It is time,
Speaker 1: it is time get out there. Some key injuries happened
Speaker 1: on Thursday. Ask a question real quick of you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you said it's time, And I like what you're saying there.
Speaker 1: I like that atitude. By the way, is it is
Speaker 1: it time to see other things? For for Jordan Lewis?
Speaker 1: Are you okay with Jordan Lewis? Are you more disappointed
Speaker 1: in Jordan Lewis or Anthony Brown, I think, and who
Speaker 1: would you who's both? I think both of those guys
Speaker 1: have hit a wall and we're seeing diminishing returns from both. Right,
Speaker 1: I think you know, but you keep you keep you
Speaker 1: have to keep rolling with Yeah, but I don't know
Speaker 1: that you have to keep starting them, right. Brown surprises
Speaker 1: you a little bit more because of the time he
Speaker 1: got last year. I think he made nine starts last year.
Speaker 1: I think you expect an incline. Nicky wrote down what
Speaker 1: the coach said, confidence, right, technique, frustration. You know somebody
Speaker 1: when I all about Brown, I can't remember who. I
Speaker 1: asked this too about Brown kind of surprising and the
Speaker 1: answer was, I worry about his catchup speed, like he
Speaker 1: can't run down a guy after he gets beat. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's what we're seeing here. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you another thing that he didn't do well. He
Speaker 1: doesn't play zone well. He gets lost out there. And
Speaker 1: I saw the other day they were uh working on
Speaker 1: just backpedaling and kind of breaking on the ball, play
Speaker 1: zone reacting. Yeah, and I don't think he I don't
Speaker 1: think he's good at that, and they I thought, Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't watch every play, but it's
Speaker 1: just felt like they were playing a lot of zone
Speaker 1: and they were getting lost. They got caught last I asked.
Speaker 1: I asked Jason this question the other day about did
Speaker 1: they have communication problems because you look at some of
Speaker 1: the big plays open. Yeah, and to me, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: have guys that open. Yea. They get ready for Washington.
Speaker 1: We all know the Redskins. Yeah, they're gonna run crossing
Speaker 1: rout these guys. That's all they do is run crossing routes.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're if you're Jay Gruden and
Speaker 1: you're not sitting there going my gosh. We just keep
Speaker 1: running crossing routes all day. They're not gonna pick anybody up,
Speaker 1: so get ready for that. Maybe that's why you're going
Speaker 1: to see some of these switches. I think the key though,
Speaker 1: again is pressure because their offensive line isn't any healthy.
Speaker 1: It's barely healthier than it was a few weeks. That
Speaker 1: is a fair point. They had three starters out last week. Again,
Speaker 1: that's a fair point. They are. They're a banged up group. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but how many points did they score? Twenty? Enough to
Speaker 1: beat the Giants, enough to beat the Cowboys Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: enough to beat the Cowboys scored the way he thinks
Speaker 1: ten points might be good enough to beat the Cowboys
Speaker 1: could win ten nine. Yeah, we've seen that before six
Speaker 1: one time, Thursday's game going the way it did. In
Speaker 1: what way in the aspect that they would just feel
Speaker 1: so lackluster? Lackluster or where they just send them the Rams?
Speaker 1: The Chargers just a better team. I mean, they have
Speaker 1: great players, there's no doubt about that. They're an NFL franchise,
Speaker 1: But I mean this was a team that started oh
Speaker 1: and four, you know, yeah, they've boy've won five of
Speaker 1: the last seven and they're in the Hunt's I agree
Speaker 1: that's that's true. But to Tay's point, I think offensively,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about the defense. You just don't expect
Speaker 1: three straight games of just because we've never seen it
Speaker 1: in the history of the franchise. Why not because you
Speaker 1: what have you seen? What have you seen the first
Speaker 1: two games that made you feel any different? The first
Speaker 1: two games of the season, first, the first two games
Speaker 1: of this this Horde straight three games? Yeah, what has
Speaker 1: made you feel any different about this defense? Well, I'm
Speaker 1: not expecting thirty points a game, but I'm expecting every
Speaker 1: now and then to hit a big play down five stops.
Speaker 1: You got five three and outs against the Eagles, I
Speaker 1: mean against the Chargers, they gave up twenty two points.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about offensively, I could win twenty two points, right.
Speaker 1: What makes you feel any different though? What makes me
Speaker 1: feel different? Yeah? In terms of in terms of what
Speaker 1: the offense. I just think you still have enough talent
Speaker 1: to be able to make to adjust without Zeke back,
Speaker 1: And you and I have been in Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: mainly the key thing for me was I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're going to protect better, You're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: have time to move down the field and make some
Speaker 1: downfield vertical plays, and they didn't get them. And you
Speaker 1: and I have been in agreement all year long. Zeke's
Speaker 1: the MVP of this offensive team. But I am surprised
Speaker 1: at how much they've struggled offensively. I still expect them
Speaker 1: to get out of it. But I mean, Mickey wrote
Speaker 1: about it on Friday. We have never seen a Cowboys
Speaker 1: offense struggle this much in a three game stretch ever. Ever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one in fifteen leveted one. Oh, they always score point
Speaker 1: three years didn't have a quarterback, right, three years to.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been a part of some really bad
Speaker 1: football teams around here, but still scored ten points. I know,
Speaker 1: I know, but you know, and they're looking for answers
Speaker 1: over there. Believe me, they're astraighted as anybody. But it's
Speaker 1: tough go around. I think there's a well, let's take
Speaker 1: our first break and then let's do what you're saying
Speaker 1: as far as going down, I want to go around
Speaker 1: and ask each one of you a question that that's perfect.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this first break. Here in
Speaker 1: the SWBC Margage studio, it can be hard to find
Speaker 1: the right resource for learning about him poor and financial matters.
Speaker 1: You search how to build savings, you end up reading
Speaker 1: about the one weird ingredient from supermarkets that can make
Speaker 1: you taller. That's why Bank of America build Better Money
Speaker 1: Habits dot Com, a safe little corner of the Internet
Speaker 1: for answering your financial questions. Full of simple videos and tips,
Speaker 1: Better Money Habits can show you how to make the
Speaker 1: most of your money without resorting to random searches that
Speaker 1: always seem to lead to unbelievable photos of childhood stars
Speaker 1: grown up. To learn more, visit Better Money Habits dot com.
Speaker 1: What does it mean to be a Dallas Cowboys fan.
Speaker 1: It means you've got the passion and the heart to
Speaker 1: do your part supporting the Boys no matter what. That's
Speaker 1: why when the game's on the line, you're on your feet,
Speaker 1: whether you're at home or in the stands. Actually, you're
Speaker 1: more than a fan. You are a member of Cowboys Nation,
Speaker 1: and so is AT and T doing their part to
Speaker 1: keep you connected to America's team all season. Law AT
Speaker 1: and T is a proud member of Cowboys Nation. I
Speaker 1: scold Doctor Pepper and the Dallas Cowboys go way back.
Speaker 1: They belonged together like Texas and football, Silver and Blue
Speaker 1: shotgun formations and Hail Mary's. Having a Cowboys football party
Speaker 1: without Doctor Pepper is like having Thanksgiving without the Cowboys. Basically,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't recommend it. So next time you have a tailgate, homegate,
Speaker 1: or whatever else kind of gate, grab some ice called
Speaker 1: Doctor Pepper for you and your friends to enjoy. It's
Speaker 1: a Dallas Cowboys tradition. Doctor Pepper the one you crave
Speaker 1: to work this big land. You need equipment with values
Speaker 1: rooted as deep in Texas soil as you are, Like
Speaker 1: John Deer Compact tractors with a six year power train
Speaker 1: warrant to in big features that help you work less
Speaker 1: so you have more time to do what you love.
Speaker 1: John Deer was first in the Texas fields, and we're
Speaker 1: proud to be on the field as the official agg
Speaker 1: and turf equipment of the Dallas Cowboys. Find Texas sized
Speaker 1: deals in my John Deer Dealer dot com. Slash Football. Terms, conditions, exclusions,
Speaker 1: and warranty limitations apply, so you love for details. This
Speaker 1: is talking cowboys. A true cowboy loves his freedom, and
Speaker 1: Tommy John gives you that feeling of freedom where it
Speaker 1: counts with a contour pouch and fabrics you can barely feel.
Speaker 1: Shop exclusive Cowboys underwear at Tommy John dot com Forward
Speaker 1: slash Cowboys or twenty percent off your first order Tommy
Speaker 1: John dot com Forward slash Cowboys. I like it, now,
Speaker 1: you know what. I also likes Turvis mugs, cups, I
Speaker 1: don't know, whatever you want to call them from the
Speaker 1: Pro Shop. Of course, it's cyber Monday. In the real world,
Speaker 1: we don't know about those things. But for the Pro
Speaker 1: Shop they're having a huge sale and all the good
Speaker 1: gifts you guys can get these mugs. I think they're
Speaker 1: like fourteen ninety nine or nineteen ninety nine, great prices
Speaker 1: twenty four ninety nine around that area. That hat that
Speaker 1: Mickey has been dying to wear all year, the glitter hat,
Speaker 1: Oh swaggy, it's actually it's a whoops, I can't get
Speaker 1: it on my thing here. That's a good look. Good look,
Speaker 1: the better look for you. And then of course the
Speaker 1: goat Witten bobblehead you have over there in motion. That's
Speaker 1: the head move no helmet. So this must be an
Speaker 1: Eagles game. I like how. I like how. I like
Speaker 1: how the eye black is smeared. That's actually a pre
Speaker 1: realistic I like that. Yeah, they do it up. So guys,
Speaker 1: make sure you check out Cowboys Press shop. Okay, Brian,
Speaker 1: let's play your game. I don't know if it's a game,
Speaker 1: but I just want to is there one thing that
Speaker 1: you can point at? The one thing? I mean, I
Speaker 1: know maybe the thing about Zeke is that maybe, But
Speaker 1: is there one thing on really both sides of the
Speaker 1: ball that you could point at has been the biggest
Speaker 1: factor of this of this this either side or on
Speaker 1: either side, if there's only you can only say one thing,
Speaker 1: is you know, because we've gone through the shan Lee stuff,
Speaker 1: You've gone through the Zeke yellot. We've had some poor coverage.
Speaker 1: Your pass rush hasn't been as great. All that, all that,
Speaker 1: is there one thing that if you said, Okay, Brian,
Speaker 1: I need this to change today. I need this to
Speaker 1: change today and this team will get back on the
Speaker 1: path of winning football games. I think they need to
Speaker 1: get their play action going again. And maybe that's only
Speaker 1: because Zeke's in the game. When they get that going,
Speaker 1: because it helps the receivers get open, it helps something
Speaker 1: to freeze the defense and kind of loosen things up downfield.
Speaker 1: They haven't done as much of it. And I just
Speaker 1: go back to certain games when they're rolling. It's when
Speaker 1: they've got Zeke and it's second and five and it's
Speaker 1: uttered in two and DA's got the play action rolling
Speaker 1: and there's more options and there's more things for the
Speaker 1: defense to consider, and the defense, you know, the running
Speaker 1: game hasn't been bad. It's been pretty solid. It hasn't
Speaker 1: set up the fear, like Mick Yes says, you don't
Speaker 1: have the fear of the it's it's just yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's another thing for the defense to honor and
Speaker 1: consider and that big play threat, and it opens up
Speaker 1: some of the boots and the waggles and all that,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's not the same without him in
Speaker 1: the game, There's no question about it. Does that mean
Speaker 1: they should have three straight games with single digit scoring?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. But he's certainly a factor, a
Speaker 1: huge factor in what they do. I think the root
Speaker 1: of all this is the inability of the offensive line
Speaker 1: to play consistently. This no longer is the best offensive
Speaker 1: line in the National Football League. Yeah, when Tyron's hurt,
Speaker 1: not practicing and playing hurt, you're kind of okay with
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cooper's there's games he's fine, there's games he's not.
Speaker 1: Lele Collins is playing hurt. You lose Zach Martin to
Speaker 1: a concussion. I mean, basically, you had one guy out there,
Speaker 1: Travis Frederick Tyrn wasn't Tyrn right? You got Cooper Looney,
Speaker 1: else's hurt. Zach's got to come out. I mean that's
Speaker 1: the problem to me. You know, everybody wants to blame
Speaker 1: the quarterback, you know, quarterback for six seven weeks. He
Speaker 1: was all right, right, we were all there was nothing wrong.
Speaker 1: We didn't think Yeah, we thought that We thought the
Speaker 1: quarterback was carrying this football team, didn't we Then suddenly
Speaker 1: he can't play now, Canny, No, he's had fourteen sacks
Speaker 1: and twelve quarters and that doesn't count how many times
Speaker 1: he's been hit or had to had to just escape
Speaker 1: and try to make something happen down the field. And
Speaker 1: he you know, he got pressured in the first part
Speaker 1: of the season two, but not not like this too much.
Speaker 1: And and and you know, you want to know why
Speaker 1: he's not getting the ball down the field. Well, you
Speaker 1: don't have the time of day in the pocket. You know,
Speaker 1: there was times when he's going through the first progression, second,
Speaker 1: third day. None of that's happening. Now it's got to
Speaker 1: come out. I mean, we look at all this through
Speaker 1: a three game prism. You know what's wrong with these
Speaker 1: last three games. The first game is basically a wash
Speaker 1: because Adrian Clayborne wrecked their entire game plan. I mean
Speaker 1: that they had no shot he Dak had to do
Speaker 1: that because Chaz Green wasn't able to maintain kind of
Speaker 1: what Mickey's saying, like, oh sure that yeah, that goes
Speaker 1: back to what MC saying about the offensive line. And
Speaker 1: then I thought Dak made a good, good point yesterday
Speaker 1: when he said, okay, so we struggled in the Atlanta
Speaker 1: game because of the protection, right, and he kind of
Speaker 1: suggested we might have overprotected in the Philadelphia game, right,
Speaker 1: and we didn't give ourselves a chance to get the buck.
Speaker 1: Garrett said that today in the walk. Garrett said it
Speaker 1: too in the walk all right, yeah, yeah, so maybe
Speaker 1: they got it right this last game, but they what
Speaker 1: happened then, still getting sacked, still getting pressure, got sacked
Speaker 1: twice in the first half. I think, but is it
Speaker 1: because this is not the threat of the run. And
Speaker 1: I still think teams don't they don't respect they don't
Speaker 1: respect your they don't respect your running. We'll accept it,
Speaker 1: We'll we'll deal with it. We'll let Alfred Morris get
Speaker 1: his seven or eight yards where Ezekiel Elliot will get
Speaker 1: twenty twenty a couple of runs where I said, hunt
Speaker 1: if that was Zeke, Oh sure, he's busting screen screenplays
Speaker 1: and stuff. He's easier to keep back in the pocket
Speaker 1: in these situations. Is it about the running game? Oh
Speaker 1: sure it is, yeah, because you just said it. The
Speaker 1: play action game is not any good. It's not there. Well,
Speaker 1: it's not there. They're not, they're not really using it.
Speaker 1: They don't care. That's what I'm saying. You get you
Speaker 1: get the like the rush in and they stay wide instead,
Speaker 1: you know Zeke, they get those guys chase, they chase
Speaker 1: the ball and all of a sudden, now you got
Speaker 1: the boot and you got Beasley underneath and all that.
Speaker 1: Now they're just kind of hedging on it. Sure, well,
Speaker 1: you know and everybody. And they're saying that defenses aren't
Speaker 1: changing what they do, but they're they're what they're doing
Speaker 1: what they do. They're just priorities are different. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get after Dak Prescott. Yeah, period. Yeah, and they know
Speaker 1: they can period. Is there a concern that this team,
Speaker 1: with all the instability that's happened, either with injuries or suspensions,
Speaker 1: that they're not able to adapt as people had kind
Speaker 1: of expected? And I say that, you know, the free
Speaker 1: agency moves and this is a storyline people have been
Speaker 1: talking about for a few weeks, so you know, bear
Speaker 1: with me. But what I'm saying is, you know, is
Speaker 1: this team just not able that Brian brought us mis
Speaker 1: evaluate how good this team was coming out of training camp? No,
Speaker 1: I don't think so, because we evaluated it with a
Speaker 1: healthy offensive line, would Zeke on the field. Um, we
Speaker 1: thought the defense would have a chance to be better
Speaker 1: as the season went along, and I think it did
Speaker 1: improve until until the suspension. I mean, yeah, look what
Speaker 1: they did to Kansas City. That's by far one of
Speaker 1: the best game. But you know, we look at Kansas City.
Speaker 1: It looks like you look at Kansas City in Denver.
Speaker 1: Those are two games Sackers. Yeah, granted, Packers is the
Speaker 1: obvious one. We'll see people will say, the Packers last
Speaker 1: night went without their running back, their quarterback, and here
Speaker 1: they play a competitive game on the road at Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: I only played great last night. Yeah, I mean that's
Speaker 1: people will say that. You know, hey, they look, well,
Speaker 1: look what other teams backups are doing. They're not faltering.
Speaker 1: They're not getting blown out of games. They might be
Speaker 1: losing games, but they're not getting blown out. That was
Speaker 1: really the one moniker of this guy of Jason Garrett,
Speaker 1: was you wouldn't getting wouldn't getting blown out in games?
Speaker 1: You know, weren't losing games by twenty something points and
Speaker 1: they're not getting blown out from to start. It just
Speaker 1: goes back to the second half and what's happening in
Speaker 1: the second half to this team, it's seventy two to six.
Speaker 1: I just wonder if it's incredible what's happened. I just
Speaker 1: wondered if I felt like I overevaluated this team, if
Speaker 1: I over evaluated Byron Jones, overevaluated Lyle Malik Collins, you
Speaker 1: know who. I think he's got a good matchup this weekend,
Speaker 1: by the way, or to our Thursday. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: wonder if coming out of camp you feel like though
Speaker 1: that you know, and maybe maybe maybe this staff overevaluated
Speaker 1: what they had. Is that is that possible that this
Speaker 1: team isn't really I know it was a thirteen win team,
Speaker 1: but you had you had a lot of turnover in it.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of young guys playing on defense.
Speaker 1: I never I never have a problem with that. Well,
Speaker 1: I know, but but that's something to consider here when
Speaker 1: some of the struggles they've had. I mean, they're and
Speaker 1: they're without their captain defensively, and I think that all
Speaker 1: five games piles of play without him. Yeah, it's it's tough. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't think Sean Lee could have prevented eleven explosive
Speaker 1: plays in the passing game from Philip Rivers. That's not
Speaker 1: all Sean leebying absent, but certainly not having him has
Speaker 1: been a factor. Who did you feel worse about the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia the backle and second half or what happened with
Speaker 1: the charge of the Charger? I think the Chargers. I
Speaker 1: mean you look at which would you feel like you
Speaker 1: got dismantled the charge Chargers? Yeah, because in the Philly game,
Speaker 1: you spoke to the five straight three and ounce against
Speaker 1: Philly second half, they just they had a better run
Speaker 1: that was seventy one yards, had five hundred. That's the
Speaker 1: weird thing. They had five hundred and whatever yards total
Speaker 1: offense and then run. But they only scored twenty two
Speaker 1: points exactly. Yeah, twenty two points. You don't take away
Speaker 1: the interception returned for a touchdown. Yeah, Well they got
Speaker 1: screwed in the first half without their kicker. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: the interceptions, I mean I just never expected that from Dak.
Speaker 1: I mean, all those are that was our product. A
Speaker 1: lot of that's a product of the score. I think
Speaker 1: the one that bothers one that bothered me was the
Speaker 1: Beasley one because he was late. He was way late,
Speaker 1: and he had wit and seen him throw that ball
Speaker 1: to Witten down the middle so many times and you're
Speaker 1: worried about the time because he ran side. He's staring
Speaker 1: at guys sitting there. I mean Witton is sitting right.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a it's a whole shot right there,
Speaker 1: and he usually will take it, and he didn't take it,
Speaker 1: and that that right there. I keep saying this. When
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott makes mistakes on the move throwing the ball,
Speaker 1: then you know he's not playing well well. And if
Speaker 1: you looked at his feet, he never set He tried
Speaker 1: to throw off wrong foot, but he never sets his
Speaker 1: feet me, I know. But that one was he's he's
Speaker 1: one of the best. Is spray late. That's we've seen
Speaker 1: it before. You know, we've seen it before. But you're right,
Speaker 1: he was late, and that was still critical because they
Speaker 1: were at the thirteen yard line. Sure, so you're thinking, well,
Speaker 1: ain't gonna score here. I'm gonna make a twenty two thirteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, you're still kind of in the games. The
Speaker 1: last one, I don't that doesn't bother me. Which one
Speaker 1: was that? The one at the end of the game.
Speaker 1: You're just trying to do something to to get the
Speaker 1: ball on the field. Same thing with the other game.
Speaker 1: You know, you have a dropped interception for a touchdown.
Speaker 1: You're trying to make something happen the end zone. Late.
Speaker 1: He had one bad interception that three interception game. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen. Romo will tell you, you know, when
Speaker 1: when it's forced down and you're behind by two three touchdowns,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Throw the ball away? No,
Speaker 1: you're gonna wing it. Yeah, hope for the best. Absolutely well, Mike,
Speaker 1: you brought up earlier that Zach Martin was injured on Thursday,
Speaker 1: and he was present and participating in the open portion
Speaker 1: of today's practice. Leo Collins, Shaun Lee, Anthony Hitchins, and
Speaker 1: Durant We're all absent today. Leo Collins, the back, Shaun Lee,
Speaker 1: the hamstring, Anthony Hitchins the concussion right right, and then wait,
Speaker 1: Durants the concussion. Rants the concussion. What do they say
Speaker 1: about about Yeah, what it was the Hitchens hamstring as well.
Speaker 1: They probably they probably just gave him because I think
Speaker 1: he played through some stuff. Yeah, I do too. On thanks,
Speaker 1: your O line and your linebackers are hurting right now, struggling, yep.
Speaker 1: And Tyron Smith. Tyron Smith was there, he was out
Speaker 1: there participating, of course, I'm assuming they'll put limited yeah
Speaker 1: on the practical yeah, because that's what he was last week,
Speaker 1: so right, they'll probably keep it the same. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: you know you're looking right now to see this old
Speaker 1: line as drastic change, like Mickey was talking about, especially
Speaker 1: now with somebody that you never miss, Zach Martin. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, if he's participating in doing something today, that's
Speaker 1: a great sign. Oh, it's an absolutely great sign. The
Speaker 1: thing you need to worry about is the right tackle
Speaker 1: like s Now. Yeah, that's that's the one you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to worry about. And the right tackle to me,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're clearly going to play Byron Bell over there.
Speaker 1: You're not going to play Chaz Green, So I mean
Speaker 1: they'll get him both ready, But who plays guard if
Speaker 1: if Zach can't go, that's Looney? You think Looney will
Speaker 1: start at guard? Yeah, and then Green's the back swings player, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: or everything everything right? Yeah, So then you're looking at
Speaker 1: your line is okay, so you'd have hopefully Tyrn if
Speaker 1: he's a go for your left Redskins are just as
Speaker 1: much trouble as you are. Jonathan Cooper, Frederick maybe they're
Speaker 1: next man up. And then iron iron Bell. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you're too it Earlier. The Redskins are down, Elsie,
Speaker 1: You'll be there, three starters, and they've lost their top
Speaker 1: two running backs. Now their top two running backs aren't Zeke.
Speaker 1: But they're dealing with some stuff too. But these guys
Speaker 1: just seem to, like somehow become stars even when they
Speaker 1: go down. I mean, you look at the Eagles, Brian,
Speaker 1: and they've had serious injuries. I mean, Jordan Hicks their
Speaker 1: middle linebacker. Yeah, gone Peters, Jason Peter's gone. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're they're playing well as a team though, they really are.
Speaker 1: They they they have. They've done a great job defensively.
Speaker 1: They've made a lot of stops, they've created a lot
Speaker 1: of turnovers. They sack you. And then you got a
Speaker 1: quarterback that's he's having this very similar year to what
Speaker 1: Dak had last year. You know that everything he's thrown
Speaker 1: up is going right, low interceptions, high touchdowns. You know,
Speaker 1: he's moving in the pocket, and you got to give
Speaker 1: them a lot of credit. Personnel that is very good.
Speaker 1: And we saw it with our own eyes. I mean
Speaker 1: it's when they want to, you know, to give the
Speaker 1: Cowboys some credit for stopping them all those times, but
Speaker 1: when they wanted to get it going in the second half,
Speaker 1: they were able to do it. That's gonna be a
Speaker 1: sign of a good team. Yeah. Absolutely, we are going
Speaker 1: to get to our phone lines. We have Horse from
Speaker 1: Atlanta on the line. Horse, what's your question? Hey, what's up? Guys?
Speaker 1: You know, I've just been listening to you and I
Speaker 1: think you know, it's a lot of things to be honest.
Speaker 1: I mean, I look at and you could put fault
Speaker 1: on a lot of places, but I think that Jerry hasn't.
Speaker 1: Our depth is bad. Jerry refuses to spend money in
Speaker 1: free agency. I understand that you want to go through
Speaker 1: the draft. Well, if you want to go through the draft,
Speaker 1: and you better start hitting, especially on your first round ticks.
Speaker 1: You can't tick a guy like Taco and say, oh,
Speaker 1: we're going to develop him a slow hanging fruit Jajjat.
Speaker 1: Then you can say I'm going to develop a guy.
Speaker 1: But unless you have someone out there that's dominating, and
Speaker 1: we haven't had anybody since dominating. Set to market Lawrence.
Speaker 1: He's been finally coming into his own on a contract year,
Speaker 1: which is good. What about your offensive lineman, Horse, Sorry,
Speaker 1: what about your offensive lineman that you're drafted offensive lineman
Speaker 1: have been exceptional. But yeah, when you said when you
Speaker 1: give away, when you let one of those key people
Speaker 1: go like Learry and you try and get a Barbain
Speaker 1: basement deal they signed him and can't do that. You
Speaker 1: can't do that. You can't expect to fill in uh
Speaker 1: to the to the ace there and then oh, well
Speaker 1: I can get a two clubs and that's gonna no,
Speaker 1: not yeah, get them. So you can't you can't say everywhere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. I'm kind of looking at that,
Speaker 1: and I love and I understand it. Yeah, but who
Speaker 1: would you rather have Ron Larry or Zach Martin? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's what it comes down to from a financial standpoint.
Speaker 1: Sure can't have everything, you know they give. This is
Speaker 1: where I give the general manager some credit. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people that had Ron Larry off the board,
Speaker 1: and you know, and I remember the night of the draft,
Speaker 1: the final the final draft press conference. The first thing
Speaker 1: that Jerry Jones, he was so excited about Ron Larry
Speaker 1: that he had gotten word and we're all like looking
Speaker 1: at each other, like, man, he's more excited about Ron
Speaker 1: Larry than these guys he draft. I ever tell you
Speaker 1: when I interviewed Ron Larry when he came in for
Speaker 1: his pre draft visit, and he was wearing like a
Speaker 1: three piece suit. Yeah, and he's about the only guy
Speaker 1: to Memphis, the only guy I've ever seen do that.
Speaker 1: And I think he knew there were questions about him,
Speaker 1: you know, and he wanted to put on the best,
Speaker 1: best impression he could, you know. And he turned out
Speaker 1: to be a great pro. And the Cowboys, Yeah, Cowboys
Speaker 1: took a chance on him, low risk, I mean after
Speaker 1: the draft, but yeah, yeah, I think you know, I
Speaker 1: understand Horse's question too about depth. I think where now
Speaker 1: some questions need to be focused is are you doing
Speaker 1: enough on the pro side? You know, are you doing enough? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you had to hit with David Irving looks like, but
Speaker 1: are you doing enough of rating practice squads or bringing
Speaker 1: in those lower well or budgeted defensive lineman or cornerbacks
Speaker 1: or safeties or whatever you want to you know, if
Speaker 1: that's going to be your way of getting depth, then
Speaker 1: you can make sure those those guys can actually play.
Speaker 1: And we spoke to it earlier in the season that
Speaker 1: there's no way around it. I mean, they made three
Speaker 1: free agent signings that didn't work out. They're not on
Speaker 1: the roster right from the spring, the Montree More Stephen
Speaker 1: Pie retired right and then Nolan Carroll didn't work out.
Speaker 1: And then now you're going with a younger secondary and
Speaker 1: there are going to be growing pains with that, especially
Speaker 1: with yeah, a guy like you know, Jordan Lewis miss
Speaker 1: some time early Woozier, even Xavier Woods in training camp.
Speaker 1: So they they had to know this was this was
Speaker 1: an issue potentially with these guys being so young. All right, well,
Speaker 1: let's take our final break here and when we come back,
Speaker 1: we will have more for you from this Monday that's
Speaker 1: actually a Thursday at the Star and Frisco. Cowboys fans
Speaker 1: know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it,
Speaker 1: and your skincare should be no different. A long time
Speaker 1: locker room favorite of the players and the official men's
Speaker 1: skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas based Jack Black
Speaker 1: is the number one best selling men's skincare brand in
Speaker 1: the country because we make products that help guys look, smell,
Speaker 1: and feel better. Visit get Jack Black dot com slash
Speaker 1: Cowboys to get ten dollars off your first order of
Speaker 1: fifty dollars or more. Jack Black Look Good, Smell Good,
Speaker 1: Feel Good, Official Men Skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Star Sports Tours is the only official fan travel partner
Speaker 1: of the Dallas Cowboys, offering exclusive game weekend travel packages
Speaker 1: with sideline access and photo ops with current players, alumni
Speaker 1: and cheerleaders. That's not all, though, You'll get to talk
Speaker 1: xs and os with Senior Director of Player Personnel Will
Speaker 1: McClay and of course with yours truly, me, Brian broad Us.
Speaker 1: You can trust the official fan travel partner of the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys, and with us you'll travel like a pro.
Speaker 1: Visit Cowboys travel dot com to book your travel package today.
Speaker 1: I hear all this talk about what it takes to
Speaker 1: be a cowboy. Everyone's got their ideas, but I just
Speaker 1: say to myself, it's what's up top that matters. Sure,
Speaker 1: you need men with the muscle and heart to get
Speaker 1: her done. But if your scouts and coaches are listening
Speaker 1: out there a word of advice. Pick the man with
Speaker 1: the most well worn stetson. That's the one most cut
Speaker 1: out to be a cowboy. Stetson hats are handmade right
Speaker 1: here in Texas. And have been on Cowboys heads for
Speaker 1: over one hundred and fifty years. The rest of you
Speaker 1: can visit stetson dot com slash cowboy to find a
Speaker 1: retailer nearest you. What does it mean to be a
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys fan? It means you've got the passion and
Speaker 1: the heart to do your part supporting the Boys no
Speaker 1: matter what. That's why when the game's on the line,
Speaker 1: you're on your feet, whether you're at home or in
Speaker 1: the stands. Actually, you're more than a fan. You are
Speaker 1: a member of Cowboys Nation. And so is AT and
Speaker 1: T doing their part to keep you connected to America's
Speaker 1: team all season. Law AT and T is a proud
Speaker 1: member of Cowboys Nation. This is talkin Cowboys. Well, let's
Speaker 1: not forget Papa John's pizza. We should have a deal here, right,
Speaker 1: just like get a pizza and fill up. What are
Speaker 1: these things? Turvis? Turvis keeps Well, we have hot Papa
Speaker 1: John's pizza and they bring it in here, they'll deliver it.
Speaker 1: The veggies are always perfect, the pepperoni on pork and beef.
Speaker 1: And when you get all that, you get Papa John's,
Speaker 1: get your pizza and get your cup. Go them up.
Speaker 1: So like it. So, yes, we are here and we
Speaker 1: are hearing from the fans, a lot of fans. Archer
Speaker 1: is upset. You know, Bran was saying low hanging fruit,
Speaker 1: but we just got to hear him out. So let's
Speaker 1: hear Curtis from Las Vegas. What is your question? Hey,
Speaker 1: doing man? Sir? Good? Thank you? All right? But I
Speaker 1: think the biggest mistake we made is probably letting somebody
Speaker 1: like Barry Church go. I think we could have kept
Speaker 1: Church and maybe even let Terence william To go and
Speaker 1: got another, you know, receiver, you know, just as good
Speaker 1: or better than Terrence Williams. But Barry Church to expect,
Speaker 1: to expect Heath to come in and replace Barry Church
Speaker 1: and will Cox team behind both of those guys. So
Speaker 1: for him to go to three to one, you know
Speaker 1: that that was kind of suspect to me. But I
Speaker 1: think the biggest that's the biggest free agency mistake we made.
Speaker 1: But I was thinking about, you know, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask broadest about the calls. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know he's probably set a record for not getting
Speaker 1: holding calls this year, and it's just weird to me
Speaker 1: because I you know, I watch everything and It's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, they can call holding on every place, but
Speaker 1: I saw I saw a couple of calls this game,
Speaker 1: you know, just like I do every game, and I'm
Speaker 1: thinking maybe I'm just you know, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: of course everybody wants called for their team, but I
Speaker 1: mean we get stuff like, you know, well, I want
Speaker 1: to know what that when that scored a touchdown the
Speaker 1: call they called on on Tyrn Smith? Did that look
Speaker 1: like a whole did you got? Yes, they do a
Speaker 1: quick screen out to the side and dud just hit
Speaker 1: hit a Jesse right in the bat Yeah, right on
Speaker 1: our side and really crazy and no call. I mean,
Speaker 1: but you can block that way. You can block along
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage that way on a screen in
Speaker 1: the back. Yeah, on a screen you can. Okay, yeah, okay. Now,
Speaker 1: if you want to, if you want to complain about one,
Speaker 1: if you want to complain about one the past that
Speaker 1: the past that they they completed with Keenan Allen, the
Speaker 1: forty six yard pass that was holding. They got Lawrence
Speaker 1: Scott held on that play, I mean got got held
Speaker 1: similar to what they called Tyrant Smith for. And so
Speaker 1: if you want to, if you want to, and and
Speaker 1: it was right in front of the umpire right there,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, you didn't get that call. I know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. I know exactly what I mean.
Speaker 1: We don't get those. It's tell me how we don't
Speaker 1: get those. And they call it every picky tack thing
Speaker 1: against us. I mean it's like, well, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: call it, call it both ways. That doesn't see it, right,
Speaker 1: we get that. I'm right, don't call us America's team
Speaker 1: all that. Yeah, that's right, good one. You know, maybe
Speaker 1: they need Yeah, but maybe the Cowboys need to start
Speaker 1: acting like the rest of them flopping Well, that guy
Speaker 1: got his arm up in the air. Ye please brings
Speaker 1: to noble in here as a consultant, you know, watching soccer.
Speaker 1: I put this in my notes the other day. The
Speaker 1: Cowboys had the least amount of penalties of opponents penalties
Speaker 1: called against them? Oh yeah, how many games has it been?
Speaker 1: No holding? Eight? Wow? Yeah? But they but they that's
Speaker 1: half the season. Going into last week's game. I think
Speaker 1: they were at fifty three, and then the league average
Speaker 1: was sixty eight. David think put something up about that
Speaker 1: yesterday some of my notes I had. I but yeah,
Speaker 1: they're the they're the the opponents the least penalized, and
Speaker 1: when they play the Cowboys, and and you know, usually
Speaker 1: you know it's again, you know, my favorite saying, the
Speaker 1: low hanging fruit. We usually complain about things that you
Speaker 1: know are that way, but no, but it is, we
Speaker 1: it is. It is very strange how it happens, though.
Speaker 1: And the word the one I've come to expect now
Speaker 1: against the Cowboys, the peno I've always expect is third down,
Speaker 1: ball goes in the air. I'm always expecting defensive holding.
Speaker 1: That that's that's you know. Now, I watched the games
Speaker 1: in the Star and you guys are actually at the game,
Speaker 1: and I'm always ready for that FoxBox in the right
Speaker 1: corner to hit yellow and say flag. You know, just
Speaker 1: too many, just Cowboys, just too many penalties on key downs.
Speaker 1: You know, we were talking about Anthony Brown. Jason Garrett
Speaker 1: even said it this morning. You know, you talk about confidence, technique, frustration.
Speaker 1: He is technique. It's just so bad and he gets
Speaker 1: called for holding and you're just I've just grown to
Speaker 1: expect it, which is sad but true. Thanky, you look
Speaker 1: like you're about to say something, But I disagreed with
Speaker 1: the four yard penalty for a first down on fourth
Speaker 1: down on him, Yeah, because if it was only a
Speaker 1: four yard penalty, then you can hit the guy within
Speaker 1: five yards, right, which he did. And then when the
Speaker 1: guy broke away, he didn't put a hand on him
Speaker 1: and he knocked the ball away. So why wasn't that Okay? Well,
Speaker 1: they it, but we've grown to just realize. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was one that I totally disagree, and that was
Speaker 1: fourth and one. Yeah, caller made a good point about
Speaker 1: Barry Church, though I agree with that doing a nice
Speaker 1: job and always I agree. You know what, and if
Speaker 1: it meant going if if you can go out and
Speaker 1: say Noah Brown could be a guy for you next year,
Speaker 1: I mean you went out and you drafted a guy
Speaker 1: like Noah Brown. Maybe Noah Brown, maybe somebody else steps up,
Speaker 1: maybe you know that's that's your guy. But I agree,
Speaker 1: I go back, Yeah, you go back to the I mean,
Speaker 1: they allowed so many big plays in the passing game
Speaker 1: last week, and when Church broke his arm last year,
Speaker 1: that's when they kind of started leaking those. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: when he came back, they kind of got it under
Speaker 1: control a little bit. Sure, he was he was a
Speaker 1: big part of that. I don't disagree with that at all. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Now I got a question for you guys. Of course,
Speaker 1: they had five games left. A lot of these games
Speaker 1: from the outside looking in, look very winnable for this team.
Speaker 1: What is your confidence factor with this team moving forward
Speaker 1: for these five games? Of course, the last two games
Speaker 1: as egel it does return for the Seahawks and the
Speaker 1: Eagles game, Well, you're gonna be about Shaun Lee again
Speaker 1: this week. And the Redskins have the capability of score points,
Speaker 1: especially if you're not going to cover routes. Yeah. Now
Speaker 1: after this week you get a ten day turnaround. Of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Giants, I mean that game, and honestly, that game
Speaker 1: can go either way. I know the Giants have been
Speaker 1: turned very true. I mean it's it's a division opponent.
Speaker 1: They've you know, I mean they've asked me about confidence
Speaker 1: after they win one. Yeah, when do you think they will?
Speaker 1: How can they? There's no way, you know. And I've
Speaker 1: been guilty and gut feeling the last three weeks all
Speaker 1: three games Philadelphia now Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chargers. I picked
Speaker 1: wins in all three. My confidence level and getting away,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they can score enough points to
Speaker 1: be Washington. Are they beat down too, you know Washington? No,
Speaker 1: I mean I know Washington's down. I mean this team
Speaker 1: just that confidence factor as well. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: think after three games like this, you're you start questioning
Speaker 1: what are we? How do we never? Yeah? How does
Speaker 1: it keep from snowballing? Because yeah, I mean it reaches
Speaker 1: a point where there's so many things going on you
Speaker 1: don't really know what one thing to pinpoint. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's not just getting a certain player back. I mean
Speaker 1: Tyrn came back and I don't know if he was
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. I don't think he was, but I
Speaker 1: thought that would kind of settle things down a little
Speaker 1: bit in the past protection and he did. I give
Speaker 1: him credit for playing, but they still weren't able to field.
Speaker 1: They've got to be able to do that if they're
Speaker 1: going to win the game, any game. Well, this is
Speaker 1: the thing that you got to kind of look for
Speaker 1: it to. Again, we talked about Dez and games and stuff.
Speaker 1: At least with des against Washington, we have seen him
Speaker 1: make plays down the field. Yeah, we've seen those routes,
Speaker 1: those deep end routes, the crossing routes, things like that
Speaker 1: to get him the football. No, maybe that's that's you know,
Speaker 1: maybe the ball will go down the field this week.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can get enough protection, you can, you know,
Speaker 1: firm everything up, get the ball to go down the field.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna have to do something. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to find a way to make some of those plays.
Speaker 1: You can't just keep throwing him slants all day. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll buzz linebackers, they'll take safeties. I mean, you got
Speaker 1: to find a way to get him the ball down
Speaker 1: the field. Stay away from Josh Norman and work on
Speaker 1: the other side of the field. Whatever you have to do,
Speaker 1: do it. You know. I think you're gonna see some
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, yeah, but I don't. I mean, I
Speaker 1: this team. I used to think this team every time
Speaker 1: he got inside the thirty was going to score a touchdown,
Speaker 1: And now I just they did. Yeah for a while.
Speaker 1: I just can't. You know, Mickey's talking about you had
Speaker 1: to turn over on the twelve. I mean we've seen
Speaker 1: him turn the ball over now a couple of different times.
Speaker 1: It's it's difficult to watch offensively. There just seems to
Speaker 1: be no flow to their office. Every every play now
Speaker 1: is is anguish. Yeah, you know, oh, gotta hit. But
Speaker 1: that but that goes back to Zeke because everything flows
Speaker 1: off of Zeke and what he does the play action game.
Speaker 1: It's I just I hate saying that he means that
Speaker 1: much because when's the last time you saw a non
Speaker 1: quarterback create this much of a of a of a
Speaker 1: collapse offensively when he wasn't in the game Payton, but
Speaker 1: they were struggling even when he was in the game.
Speaker 1: I'm trying. I'm thinking back to Kayton Manning and Rogers
Speaker 1: and Green Bay. But a running back, you know, and
Speaker 1: he's and he's a special back. But see Zeke makes
Speaker 1: Scott Linehan a better play caller. I think he does.
Speaker 1: I think he makes him a better And the problem
Speaker 1: now is that Lenahan is is in that mode where
Speaker 1: he's like so many times and he's like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: could call this play, can call his play, hang my
Speaker 1: hat on this play, and call this play. And now
Speaker 1: he's back to kind of like what it was two
Speaker 1: years ago when he didn't have Romo. He's trying to
Speaker 1: find plays you know that that his guys can execute,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's including this quarterback. So you know,
Speaker 1: that's a difficult thing when you when you can kind
Speaker 1: of hang your hat on a few plays and scheme
Speaker 1: related then, you know, I don't think it's about adjustments
Speaker 1: all the time. I don't. I think it's about execution.
Speaker 1: I think the head coach has said that a bunch,
Speaker 1: you know, But they're looking for some plays to hang
Speaker 1: their hat on, and without Ezekiel Elliott, they don't have
Speaker 1: that right now, and it's affecting the way that Lenahan's
Speaker 1: calling games. I believe need to get the ball on
Speaker 1: the outside, and they can't do it because they don't
Speaker 1: have enough speed that receiver and running back. Running back
Speaker 1: think about it. Well, then there's how are they trying
Speaker 1: to get the balls outside? They kept they kept trying
Speaker 1: to run a jet sweep or an end around right
Speaker 1: first series of the game, yeah, yeah, it's sign six. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then they tried to end around to Terence Williams
Speaker 1: and he got three yards. I mean, that's a lot
Speaker 1: of effort for three yards. Too many things can go
Speaker 1: wrong with that. So he understands he's got to get
Speaker 1: the ball in the outside. They just haven't been able
Speaker 1: to do it, and I think that comes from a
Speaker 1: lack of speed. Let's get to another call. We have
Speaker 1: Bobby from Washington Online. Bobby, what's your question. I don't
Speaker 1: really have a question. I'll just have a statement. I
Speaker 1: wanted to say that Ezekiel Elliott is pretty much the
Speaker 1: foundation of this team with that offensive line. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it covers up the defense, It covers up the offense.
Speaker 1: He covers up a lot of things. It's it's sad
Speaker 1: to say that one player, you know, not being a quarterback,
Speaker 1: does that, but yeah, I mean he's just that special.
Speaker 1: You know, we said that Rob Mary Mary signed off
Speaker 1: with this, you know, the drafting Zeke because it keeps
Speaker 1: defense fresh. And yes, sir man, that's where we miss.
Speaker 1: You know. You think about those five stops that we
Speaker 1: had against h Philly. I think we could have won
Speaker 1: that game if Zeke would have been there. Now hang
Speaker 1: up to listen time of possession against the Chargers. Chargers
Speaker 1: had the ball for thirty six minutes, Cowboys had it
Speaker 1: for twenty three. Both at eight eight possessions. But they
Speaker 1: their their possessions were explosive. Look at their Look at
Speaker 1: their yards, look at the yards on the touchdowns they had.
Speaker 1: What are they like seventy five nine? I mean it
Speaker 1: was great. You put them into a hole and they
Speaker 1: go ninety yards they had one, two, three, four, five
Speaker 1: at least seventy yards of offense. Yeah, that's what you
Speaker 1: used to do to them, you know, that's what That's
Speaker 1: how you played. Yeah, And I think that's why so
Speaker 1: many people, at least from what I'm seeing from different tweets,
Speaker 1: hearing just from different conversations, so many people are confused
Speaker 1: because this switch of identity all of a sudden. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's not a switch. It's a six games of
Speaker 1: twenty eight points. Yeah, it's it's it's reality. It's reality
Speaker 1: that they don't have their they don't have the engine
Speaker 1: that allows them to do what they do offensively, and
Speaker 1: that it helps the quarterback, it helps the receivers, it
Speaker 1: helps the tight end, and it helps the offensive line.
Speaker 1: That was Bobby in Seattle, right? Is that was his name? Bobby?
Speaker 1: Was that the gentleman's Yeah? Washington, Yeah, Washington, Yeah. He
Speaker 1: I mean he's right, I mean it it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's remarkably different to look at this team with ezekiellet
Speaker 1: and without him. He's over to the defense. You can
Speaker 1: see that. And Mickey's time about the offensive line, you know,
Speaker 1: he is he's that he is the someone described him
Speaker 1: as the old spice. He's the deodorant because he kind
Speaker 1: of can mask some things that you There's no negative
Speaker 1: plays with him, you know, even even it looks like
Speaker 1: a negative play, it ends up being a four yard
Speaker 1: game and everybody kind of like, oh wow, we got
Speaker 1: lucky there. But and then the next time what happens
Speaker 1: Then they block it well, and you know, he gets
Speaker 1: seventeen yards. I give grod Smith growth. I thought he
Speaker 1: had a couple of runs in the game that were
Speaker 1: Zeke like in terms of fighting for extra yards. You
Speaker 1: feeling the tackles, yeah, short yardage, yeah, goal line. He's
Speaker 1: trying to make up for that in some area. Have
Speaker 1: you seen how they what they've had to do to
Speaker 1: try and get a third and one though they get
Speaker 1: they getting pistol formation at the run a reverse to
Speaker 1: you mean that that's it used to be third and
Speaker 1: one hand the ball to Zeke. It's a four yard game,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean it just it's now instead of
Speaker 1: just calling blast ride or whatever, they have to come
Speaker 1: up with some special put Beasley in the backfield, faked
Speaker 1: the option, you know, run a reverse. It just it's
Speaker 1: just it's so different without him, And it's a but
Speaker 1: do you feel like, let me ask you guys this,
Speaker 1: do you feel like that that Rod Smith has run
Speaker 1: the football like he did in preseason? I saw I
Speaker 1: had the ball at San Francisco, but it was into
Speaker 1: game and all that. But do you feel like that
Speaker 1: he's run it with the same physicality that well I
Speaker 1: saw in the preseason. I saw a couple of times
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving. Now maybe you can argue consistently no, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was kind of hopeful that in
Speaker 1: the six games that he would take over for Alfred Morrison,
Speaker 1: be that guy and be the hammer and keep the
Speaker 1: offense on track. It just it really hasn't been that way.
Speaker 1: I don't know how well he sees things. That's fair.
Speaker 1: How do you improve that? That's that's Repso it's also
Speaker 1: an ability. It's an ability, And I just hope all
Speaker 1: those people that were very critical of the Cowboys draft
Speaker 1: and Zeke, you know, go ahead and put your hand
Speaker 1: up in the air right now. Sure, Oh, you can
Speaker 1: have found a third round running back to do that.
Speaker 1: You didn't need to use a first round pick. Sure,
Speaker 1: any running back at oh Darren McFadden rushed for a
Speaker 1: thousand yards. They're not running the ball in the end zone.
Speaker 1: Two yard run for a touchdown. Yeah, they had one.
Speaker 1: Dak goes thirty four and it gets called back, right,
Speaker 1: But that's it. No one's running in the end zone.
Speaker 1: See if it changes this week. Oh you hope so,
Speaker 1: you know, you hope so. And it's it's tough, tough days.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think these we're all looking
Speaker 1: for answers. Oh, you're looking at they haven't had a
Speaker 1: three game stretch like this in Garrett's era. Yeah, they haven't. No,
Speaker 1: I mean you look back at it. Even in the
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen season, four and twelve, there were not games
Speaker 1: like this. I mean there were games where you definitely
Speaker 1: couldn't get your offense rolling. One in particular was the
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay game. I think the final score was ten six. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there were still just a closeness to it. Some way,
Speaker 1: somehow they're they're they're hanging in there at halftime every game,
Speaker 1: but they're they're having breakdowns in the second half of games.
Speaker 1: And it's execution and maybe maybe it's adjustments coaches. Ah,
Speaker 1: I think you could say the defense got tired in
Speaker 1: the second half. I would I would say that um
Speaker 1: and guys start pressing when things start going downhill and
Speaker 1: you're not you know, you're not sticking to your fundamentals,
Speaker 1: and that's when some lapses come. Defensively, I put it
Speaker 1: more on that than you know, a question about effort
Speaker 1: or something like that. I think they're just I think
Speaker 1: they're just getting outplayed in the second half. You've got
Speaker 1: a fine ways to adjust and and be a little
Speaker 1: fundamentally sound. We're gonna hear a lot about the game.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hear a lot about the effort question, and
Speaker 1: I don't I don't subscribe to that. I think you're
Speaker 1: either good enough or you're not. And a lot has
Speaker 1: to do with and we've seen it. If you're good
Speaker 1: enough to cover, you can make plays. If you're not
Speaker 1: good enough to cover, you're gonna give up plays. The
Speaker 1: Keenan Allen touchdown, the long where you eluded five different guys.
Speaker 1: This guy's just trying to make a big hit instead
Speaker 1: of just making the tackle getting to the sideline. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just And it goes back to the point earlier
Speaker 1: about a Bury Church. Maybe that you know, okay, maybe
Speaker 1: Jeff heath is you know you're playing with guys that
Speaker 1: probably shouldn't be your starter. That's that's, that's the reality
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah all right, well, thanks guys for joining us.
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow, same time, same place. Stay tuned
Speaker 1: to everything on Dallas Cowboys dot com. This has been
Speaker 1: a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys Football Club.