WEBVTT - Talkin' Cowboys: Fixing The Run Game? 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:04.600 The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.080 and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club Cowboys. This He's Talking Cowboys, 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.840 screening live from the Dallas Cowboys World How Hours at 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:29.000 the Star in Friscott and now your hosts Isaiah Stanback, 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:34.600 heck My Harrison, Rob Phillips and Kyle Yeoman's It is 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.560 a Monday morning edition of Talking Cowboys presented by Toe 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.560 Stito's helping fans get in on the game again from 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.479 the Star in Frisco. We are live and ready to 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.800 go the s WBC the official chip and dip of 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.720 the Dallas I mean, I guess we can not just 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.640 say the our favorite chip and did there we go? 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.680 We can do it. I'll figure it out. An opinion now, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.440 it is an opinion because we love our friends over 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.280 at Tostitou. Even though even if they're not official or whatever, 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.199 if they changed the slogan, we still have our own slogan. 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:08.640 Have a party this week. I mean, I would love 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:10.960 to have some Tostitos there. Oh, I would love it. 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:12.560 I didn't get an invite to this party. I'm just 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:14.560 about to tell you guys about it. Oh were you? Yeah? 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.080 Is it open to everybody. Yeah, you guys coming through 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.000 White White Elephant gift to change, you know, Onesie competition, 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.280 photo booth, onesie competition. The only onesie that I have 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.440 ever worn in my entire life is the one that's 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:29.680 in my truck right now. And it's your bear costume 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:31.959 that you let me. Let me have for Halloween because 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:41.040 they don't go down a hole. You saw the pictures. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.880 I wore a bear costume and that Isaiah wore on 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.720 Hit six for Halloween. That's what I dressed up for. 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.360 I was a thunderbuddy. I'm glad. Yeah you're what'd you 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:57.360 dress up as for Halloween? I don't remember. I don't 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.320 remember what already? That Farna mirror, Yeah, no, I don't. 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:03.920 Holiday seasons and gold to you that much already. It 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.360 has been a hell of a weekend. Once you get kids, man, 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.040 you do tired. Let the kids dress up. Don't drink 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:11.880 a beer. How many kids do we have between? How many? 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:17.320 How many you have? Four? One? Three? So that's too 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:23.600 number two? Hey we got double all right, I've got 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:25.920 a basketball team out here. Yeah, we can field two 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:27.880 teams five on five. Hey, why what is your dream? 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:29.480 How many kids would you like to Hell my gosh, 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:31.680 don't ask me that question. I don't know. Random question 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:36.760 twenty five? Who cares? No? I actually the question, I 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.200 don't care that. This morning girlfriend on the phone. If 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.560 you get she would love that we have a call her. 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:48.760 Well that's ell from Frisco calling calling Friday do the 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.519 picks she could and she would love that. Actually, she's 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:53.440 always wanted to be on this show, she tells me. 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:54.840 She tells me all the time. She's like, why don't 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:56.560 you get me on the on the show. Let's set 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:00.720 it up. I guess Friday. What happened? Larn Now, I'll 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.560 give you a call later. All right, how does everybody's weekend? 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.520 Everybody get a chance and kind of chill out. The 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.080 Cowboys winning on Thursday, had an opportunity to take Sunday 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.720 off and just enjoy sports across the table. There was 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.400 lots of it basketball, of course, the NFL racing if 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.560 you're a racing fan, was fantastic the Sunday. But I 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.840 mean just a relaxing day that I'm hearing more more 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:24.880 people talk about F one, So you're not the only one. 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.160 I keep I keep reverting back to you, Mike, and 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.240 my expert in f one. But I'm having all these 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:31.120 people in my circle now. Maybe it's just because I'm 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.679 more aware of it, but everybody's talking about f one now. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:38.280 It was incredible on Sunday, fantastic. This is not have 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:42.040 you eat? Have you No? Me? Neither watched the show 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.360 on Netflix. There's a show. There's a show on Netflix 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.960 and it's fantastic. Have you watched the show? You're gonna 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.760 start watching the actual races a running show or was 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.680 it like a documentary? It's a documentary, but it's every 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.720 season and there's like three seasons now. This fourth one 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.000 has just been unbelievable. So I cannot wait for the 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:06.000 season one. Drivers huge huge, tiny, super small. It's like jockeys, 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:11.200 got you. Yeah, they're not very big. They're like Shannon, damn, 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.440 damn it that just happened. Shout out to hanging with 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:19.440 the boys. No it did not. Let's not feed this 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:24.120 rivalry for a while on this show. So why that's good? No, 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.440 thank you, beam, I love it. Nate stopped there. Nate 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.000 stopped me in the hallway Friday, and we was just hey, 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:29.240 it's good to see it. Hey, by the way, we're 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.640 number one, all right, we're the number one show. I'm like, 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.080 here we here we go. Yeah, alrighty, We've never been 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.560 one to dive into that competition to do that now. Yeah, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:40.480 let's we'll just keep doing our keep doing our thing, 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.120 have some fun, focus on what we can control, right, guys, 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:44.880 That's how we do it. So do the guys. What's 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.000 the schedule this week? Players are back in the building 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.600 today and just start a normal week. Finally, I think 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.040 they're off tomorrow and then get back to work practice 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.440 on Wednesday. So they had Friday, Saturday, Sunday off three 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.520 straight days. Oh that's nice. And then today they're back 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:04.880 but it's just meetings and workouts. Tomorrow completely off again, 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:09.479 which believes so yeah, and then Wednesday full padded practice. 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.800 Thursday probably a lighter practice, padded practice normally the padded 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.320 practices or Thursday, Oh okay, those are the those are 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.360 the big days of the week. They're running out of 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.360 padded practices. I don't know how many they have left. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.080 Teams get an allotment every week. I know Isaiah loves this. 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.240 They're running out of padded practices. It's probably only two 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.720 or three left for those For those of you at 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.479 home listening to talking Cowboys and not watching you could 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.479 probably hear Isaiah is madness. Were you good for them? 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.720 Were they doing two days when you can days? Get 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.560 real to? Day twenty eleven was the lockout and that's 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.760 when everything that's anything changed. Yeah, yeah, I came in 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.479 a No. Seven. So what was that like compared to 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.680 what they have today? It's this is this is fluff. 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.120 They get't pay more money than their bodies are less 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.839 wearing tear on their bodies during the week. It's great 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.039 for them, right, I mean that's what they great job, 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:03.160 you know, a great job negotiating that. We just didn't 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.680 have that luxury. Did you have an opportunity late in 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.080 your career to have that sort of schedule? It eased 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:10.960 up towards the end of my career, it did ease 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.120 up where we would have one practice and one walkthrough. 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.160 That's what I think our two a days ended up 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.920 turning into and we were like laughing. Everybody was like, 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:20.640 are you serious right now? So that was kind of 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.760 the start of it. But now this days off during 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.240 the week, are you kidding me? Like, no, that wasn't 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.440 a thing. That was not a thing. It ramped up, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.400 It ramped up quickly, It's a delicate balance because you're 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.800 trying to protect guys from injury all the way starting 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.280 in OTA's But then how what's the juggling act with 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.400 the quality of play? Is the quality of play what 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:43.599 it should be? Have we seen the drop off in 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.640 quality of play since this has happened. I think last year. 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.960 We did last year for sure. But then you also 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.479 add an additional game to the season, So I think 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.159 that's the maybe the thinking going into it. I'm sorry, Isaiah, 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.400 but that's what it is. They're trying to save guys 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.800 with the extra game, which makes sense, and should they 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:04.200 add an extra buy, they'll probably add an extra game 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.400 as well as you stated, and probably dumb the rules 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.840 down a little bit more. But you know think, I 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:11.720 think health wise, it doesn't matter how they do it. 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.560 You can tell all around the league that they are 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.480 teams that have beat up a lot of people, getting 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:17.840 a lot of injuries yesterday too. Yeah, some bad ones. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.800 Uh yeah, really bad one. Unfortunately for Washington it sucks 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.400 for him. Yeah you want to go through that? Yeah, 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.840 I mean, was it Logan Thomas looks looks like it's 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.960 going to be an acel for him. I mean, it's 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.320 really unfortant that. I hate seeing guys get hurting like that. 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.480 I hate it. Obviously it's easier to come back from 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.160 a cl injuries now, but I see, I feel like 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.640 we're seeing this a lot this year. Every year it 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.680 seems like there's one injury that kind of plays the 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.360 whole league. Then this year, I believe it's the acl' 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.280 sat sock tissue. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that's your that's 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.600 the whole right there. Yeah, I mean that's a that's now. 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.320 I think that's a solid seven eight month recovery. Back 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:55.840 in the day used to be like a good year. 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:01.360 So I mean the recovery's gotten better, but that alters trajectory. Yeah, 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.040 also is the trajectory of somebody's career. Potentially, depending on 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:06.840 what your contracts are and where you're at in the negotiations, 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:09.080 you're not going to get with you the value that 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.040 you should have gotten until you come back and show 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.400 that you can that you can come back from that injury. 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:15.560 And it's just unfortunate. It's fortunate for Dallas they don't 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:17.640 have to worry about him this week, but it's really 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.120 unfortunate for him and that organization because he's a big 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.320 part of their offense. Well, you'd rather have to try 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.360 and take him out of the picture from a game 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.160 plan states that half him an injured. Nobody ever wants 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.240 that to happen. And you saw that last year with 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.320 Dak Prescott. I mean, as much as people hate the 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.760 Cowboys outside of being a Cowboys fan, there was so 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.560 much love around the league for Dak whenever he went down. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.400 You never want that to happen. You never wish that 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:43.680 upon anybody, even your worst rivals. But talking about kind 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.960 of the war of attrition and starting to happen, we 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.480 know it's a long season, seventeen games as opposed to 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.280 sixteen a year ago. This is going to get into 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.880 that nitty gritty part of the year. Luckily, the Cowboys, 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.120 like night McCarthy has said all year long, kind of 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.800 have that halfway by these ten days in between games, 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.640 have so much time off that it works as almost 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.040 a de facto by following the Thursday game against the 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.880 Saints in prior to the game against the Washington football team, 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:11.959 is that enough time for the running game to wake up? 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:14.959 Because we've had some struggles, at least the Cowboys have 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.160 had some struggles over the last couple of weeks, a 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.640 couple of hundred yard performances, but they both come and 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.360 wins the Saints game in the Falcons game. I don't 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:27.840 know exactly what to think about this run game moving forward. 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:29.760 I don't know if this is a long term problem. 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:31.720 I don't know if this is just because of the 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.000 defenses that you've faced throughout these games. Rob when you 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.680 look at this run game, is this an issue that 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.360 you're worried about as you enter the final five games 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.800 of the season and then of course the playoffs if 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:46.960 you get there. Yeah, I think it's a concern for sure, 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.400 because there's a five five game sample of evidence that 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.280 they're not the same running team as they were early 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:56.800 in the season. And I think you're right, there's there's 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.520 a lot of different factors for it. They played some 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.559 good defensive fronts um they also don't seem to be 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.720 establishing the line of scrimmage like they used to. And 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.400 I don't know if it's a coincidence that, you know, 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.520 five games ago, Tyrn goes out for three games, they 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.200 make a change at left guard. The continuities, you know, 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.439 they've had some shuffling at right tackle. The continuity is 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.319 not what it was um. And you know, I think 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.040 the other part of it too is that they've in 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:23.839 the passing game. They've got to be able to throw 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.720 teams out of that because what we've seen, I mean, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:32.959 blue blue blueprint, come on, come on. I didn't want 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.560 to I didn't want to say it, but you know, 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.480 ever since Denver started that, you know, the kind of 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.199 that type press man coverage and and kind of trying 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.400 to take away the run, it's been more of a 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:45.520 challenge to do that. And in the hope would be 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.079 now that you've got a maricd and Michael Gallibeck, you 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.440 saw flashes of it against the Saints that maybe now 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:56.600 they can get that passing game rolling protection provided and 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.560 throw teams out of that and force those boxes to 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.480 be lighter than they've been. What do you think now, 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.600 I really believe what you're saying the spot on it's 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.320 I think a lot of people don't understand the cause 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:10.920 and effect part of this running game and having the 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.920 injuries up front. We talk about continuity and all of that, 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.720 but we met certain teams and we were hurt upfront. 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.640 We didn't have like, we didn't have our best blocking 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.960 receivers on the field at the same time, I think 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.120 we're finding out the Dalton shows for everything that he 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.679 does great in the passing game, is kind of a 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.679 liability blocking sometimes. We've just seen him with on blocks. 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.720 But I just for me, like you said, the line 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.880 of scrimmage, winning the line of scrimmage, we hadn't been 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.520 able to do that. We saw in those Carolina games 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.560 and Eagles games, and even in the Giants game where 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.640 we were pulling guards and we were relying on Beardest 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.440 to reach block on the backside and guys getting out 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.200 in space. What teams started to do with Kansas City 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.000 and with New England is they started putting those one 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.520 in three techs in the A gaps and just bringing 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:58.400 pressure up front, and that slowed a lot of what 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:02.040 we were doing down Look, Keller Moore also got a 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.199 little cute see with the play calling, and I think 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.920 that set us back as well. Dak Prescott is facing 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.640 six and seven man boxes and he hadn't been able 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.560 to throw teams out of it, like you're talking about, 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.080 make them move those guys out. But I just think 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:19.079 that teams have been able to tee off on us 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.679 and come after the running game, and we hadn't been 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.559 able to create that space upfront. And so look, if 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:26.400 you just go over the games that we've had, like 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.199 the Chargers, the Eagles, the Panthers, Giants, those were games 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.319 where we were having the most success in our running 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.800 game due to injuries and guys being missing. I think 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.280 that's where you see the running game start to struggle 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.559 a little bit. Again, that's the cause and effect that 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.480 I see. Yeah, I think it's a combination everything that 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.120 you guys just said. I do think that we are 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.319 now kind of entering the phase where Keller Moore needs 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.079 to start taking a book out of was it b 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:57.400 Enemy and Andy Reid's book were they create runs through 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:02.520 screens and they really loosen up their box short passing. 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.800 His short passing game allows for doing get these quick, 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.240 quick screens, get the ball in their hands of their playmakers. 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:13.400 CD CD had a big thirty three lay. Yeah, that's 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.120 a run play. So that's what Kansas City does really well. 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.520 That really loosens up that box, which allows for them 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.600 now to run the ball in those gaps that we're 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:24.640 just talking about. It takes a kind of that seven 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.160 man box out of there now and starts negating guys 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.200 to be able to have five six man boxes, which 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.360 is what you want to run against. So I think 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:33.800 that they Kella Moore has to figure that out. And 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.560 that's why last week puts so much emphasis on, Hey, 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:38.959 this is on more to figure it to figure it out, 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.240 because that's is a responsibility. Yeah, you have guys. You 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.320 got one guy who's healthy, one guy who's banged up 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:45.719 in the backfield, and you still have to find a 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:47.640 way to be productive. And if you can't do it 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:49.760 with your running backs inside the boxing, get into your 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.120 receiver's hands and get those yards that way. I think 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.040 that's important to remember, especially whenever you look at the 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.800 way that they were able to get those yards against 0:13:57.880 --> 0:13:59.800 New Orleans, because if you're listening to this show and 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:01.760 you're looking at the stats of the New Orleans game 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.439 and you're saying, oh, there's one hundred and forty six 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.559 total yards rushing. Why are you guys upset about the 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.120 run game. Well, you take away the two plays that 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.880 they did exactly what you're talking about. Fifty eight yard 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.520 from Tony Pollard catches the edge, that's fifty eight yards. 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:17.280 You take that out of the equation, along with the 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.240 CD Lamb play that was technically a run, but more 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.760 so a screen pass for thirty something yards. That's ninety 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:27.400 yards almost off the table. And so you turn around 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:29.480 and you look at your performance at that point and 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.920 you're running for sixty yards again, which is exactly what 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.000 you did against Las Vegas. You're held to about three 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.480 and a half maybe less than that yards per play, 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.640 yards per rush, and it did not look pretty. That's 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.000 the biggest thing I think. Whenever you look at the film, 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.920 they were stuffed on every single occasion outside of those 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.760 two big plays. Now that helps you want those big plays. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.080 I'm not saying that's they didn't count, because they certainly do. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.360 But you got to have some sort of consistency in 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.240 running the football like they did earlier in the year. 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.200 So you're eight and four, let's go back to that. 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.040 You're a feeling good, feeling good about yourself. You're two 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.160 games up in the division, and you know, look, I 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:06.760 went back over the weekend and I looked at the 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:08.960 New Orleans game again, and you're right, man, it was 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:11.080 a lot closer than we wanted to give credit to. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.440 And as far as the ending score, we kept them 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.520 around way too long. And if you can establish a 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:18.600 running game and you do some things like that that 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.400 changes the dynamic of your offense. But I believe, and 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.680 just from the football that are watch in general, that 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.680 a lot of offensive coordinators in the league are coaching 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:29.560 to get a head coaching job. And I'm not talking 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.600 about Kellen Moore. Just if we win, great, but I 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.680 want you to love my play design. I want you 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.720 to be talking about my play design on Monday morning, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.920 you know exactly. And you see that. You see that 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.280 in the Super Bowl with some of the wild offensive 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:44.920 calls at a play and he's like, oh man, he 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.200 went in his bag and he called this crazy play 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.640 that if otherwise they're in the regular season, you wouldn't 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:51.840 call that, you know. And so I just think that 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:56.040 those things are Look when I look at Kevin Stefanski, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.440 when I look at the San Francisco forty nine ers, 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.240 the way that they block on those zone but I mean, 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:03.960 they're getting guys out in space and they are dedicated 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.400 to continuing to run the ball. I believe that for 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.080 the for the Dallas Cowboys, our offensive line, we've been 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.240 doing a lot of isolation blocks trying to get up 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.280 and I think that's hard for offensive linemen to get 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.520 a hat on the hat in a lot of ways, 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.000 especially when you're trying to get out in space. We 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.560 got to get back to double teaming, double teaming guys, 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.240 you know, getting our garden center to cut off the 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.320 you know, get cut off, double block and then get 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.560 backside to cut off the linebackers. Those are just things 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:32.440 that maybe we got away from because we were not 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.120 as healthy. We were relying on steal to just kind 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:36.920 of when he was at the right tackle, block down, 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.040 let the guards get out and guys were getting up 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.240 the field. But again, I'm just saying there are things 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.240 that you can change up offensively once obviously hope philbing 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.480 is back and healthy. But they're just things that you 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.720 can change up with the offensive line that can present 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.120 a challenge to teams in the running game. You know 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.840 the other thing too, You guys mentioned Kellen Moore and 0:16:54.880 --> 0:17:00.840 schematically they the Pollard run the screen pass the CD. 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.280 You're attacking the edges and Brian brought us like give 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:04.800 him credit because he's been on this for a couple 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.080 of weeks. Now they're trying to they're they're avoiding that 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.359 part of the scheme. I mean, they're not trying to 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.080 go to attack the edge as much, and Mike McCarthy 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:14.639 was asked about it and he said, yeah, that's we 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.880 probably need some more variation there. So I think that's 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:22.080 that's another thing they can look to do. And Connor Williams, 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:23.719 that's one thing when he was in the lineup. I'm 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.159 not saying they should go back to him necessarily, but 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.280 him pulling and getting out in space and some of 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.800 those stretch runs like that's things he did probably better 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.800 than anything. So that's something they got to look at 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.879 too schematically. Now why would they avoid the edge like 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:41.399 that though? Is it just don't know, you're ignorance to it, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.119 or just they that's what the scheme is drawn up 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.600 certain occasions. I don't know. I think Mike had said 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.480 when he was asked about it Friday that that's kind 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:51.840 of a harder thing to get to to capture. But 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.280 they've had Bobby Belt had a stat from NFL Network 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.760 about when they they're averaging six seven yards of carry 0:17:57.840 --> 0:17:59.520 left edge, right edge. I'm not saying you could do 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.680 it all the time time, but they they've had a 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:03.719 lot more success doing that than just pounding it up 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:05.679 the middle. A lot of first down runs against the 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.679 Saints and went for a yard or two, you know, 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.399 up the middle, and they're just running into a brick wall. 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.160 It kind of felt like the Tampa Bay game. Yeah, 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.760 you know, you're exactly right, and the Raiders did the 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.199 same thing in that game as well. So trying to 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.720 take away Ezekiel Elliott has been a key for a 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:22.679 couple defenses this year and they're going to try and 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:24.719 keep doing that. So maybe it is the Tony Pollard 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.560 Show the rest of the way if they can catch 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.080 the edge and maybe Zeke's healthy heading into this Washington game, 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:31.919 but that's a big one too. You got to make 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.280 sure he's healthy and ready to go. Teams are willing 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.520 to die that way. I mean we've the last three 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.000 contest teams that we've played, they are been willing to 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.680 die that way. We're going to take away the running game, 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.320 and you've got to beat us throwing the ball, and 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.480 that's just I think with the injuries to Dak's calf, 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.920 maybe the limitations in some of his mechanics that we've 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.200 talked about, maybe those have been the things that have 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.800 kept teams closer end games than we'd like. But you know, 0:18:57.840 --> 0:18:59.880 obviously the healthier he is he can he can break 0:18:59.880 --> 0:19:02.600 that real quick question for you guys, when you guys 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.520 watch the game's back, do you see opportunities for him 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:11.320 to run that he's not taking. Hell yeah, day all 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.400 the way back to the beginning of the season. Okay, 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:15.800 because I just I just watching the Saints game back 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:17.600 in particular, I felt like, because a lot of people 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:19.960 were saying that, I do think they're situations where it 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.919