Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Are you ready for
Speaker 1: a break? Yes? Are you ready for a break? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Ready for a break? Yeah? And so much for that.
Speaker 1: It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: well with Nick Eatman, David Hellman, and bar Garcia and
Speaker 1: Derek Eagleton. Monday, September eighteenth, twenty seventeen, Season thirteen, Episode
Speaker 1: number forty one. Welcome to another edition of The Break.
Speaker 1: I'm Derek Eagleton and we're gonna talk some Cowboys football
Speaker 1: with you guys here today. We're live from the s
Speaker 1: WBC Mortgage Studios. Cowboys lose yesterday in a game that
Speaker 1: was at least surprising to me in the way that
Speaker 1: they lost, because we really haven't seen them lose like
Speaker 1: that in quite a while. But they lose forty two
Speaker 1: to seventeen in Denver versus the Broncos, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: break that whole thing down for you. How's everybody doing
Speaker 1: this morning? Awesome? I'm freaking great, freaking great, freaking awesome.
Speaker 1: We gotta love this stuff, right, Hey, that's what we do.
Speaker 1: Still my job to talk about football. Regardless of what
Speaker 1: the result was. My mom. I just talked to my
Speaker 1: mom on the phone and she said, how did How
Speaker 1: was the trip? And I was like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: the plane landed. I mean, we got that right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a positive part of it. A lot of
Speaker 1: things that went wrong for the Cowboys. Yeah, they said
Speaker 1: we're gonna break it down. I mean it's really easy
Speaker 1: moving on end result. Yes, you're absolutely right, But I
Speaker 1: think there's so many pieces to that on a level
Speaker 1: that we really haven't I mean, you alluded to that
Speaker 1: on a level that we really haven't seen very often.
Speaker 1: It was the last time you saw them get beat
Speaker 1: like that. I did. You can take your pick between
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen Carolina, twenty fourteen Philadelphia on Thanksgiving, and twenty
Speaker 1: thirteen New Orleans. I'm gonna throw one in. I still
Speaker 1: remember that New Orleans. I'm gonna throw another one in
Speaker 1: there too. From that fifteen season. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think they were ever competitive against the Patriots. See I
Speaker 1: thought about that, and I disagree. I thought they were
Speaker 1: because that score was manageable at halftime. Like they fought,
Speaker 1: and they fought, they couldn't they couldn't move the ball
Speaker 1: and they I don't think the Patriots scored to really
Speaker 1: put it out of reach until maybe early in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Like it was a lopsided looking score, but
Speaker 1: if you watch that game, it wasn't terrible for most
Speaker 1: of the game. And as bad as the score was
Speaker 1: yesterday and the Cowboys were dated, the Cowboys got beat
Speaker 1: yesterday worse than the score. And I know that sounds crazy, yes,
Speaker 1: but they got beat worse than the score yesterday. I
Speaker 1: think this was the second most lopsided game I've seen
Speaker 1: them in other the twenty thirteen at the Saints in
Speaker 1: New Orleans. That's the most savage beating I've ever seen
Speaker 1: in football period and on any level. But I don't
Speaker 1: know about that, considering that they were both professional teams. Yes,
Speaker 1: this was right up there. Though. This is number two
Speaker 1: or one A in my opinion. All right, so let's
Speaker 1: go ahead. And as I wrote in the in my
Speaker 1: column yesterday, then the Keep to Leeves touchdown was fitting
Speaker 1: because that was not a thirty five twenty four game
Speaker 1: that would have been embarrassing really for the Broncos if
Speaker 1: that's all it was. I mean, forty two to seventeen.
Speaker 1: It was every bit that. So yeah, they had a
Speaker 1: chance to do some things, and you know, in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and I thought Garrett maybe could have handled
Speaker 1: it differently there. But I mean, they got their ass kicked.
Speaker 1: And that's what it looked like, all right. Was Let's
Speaker 1: dive into the storylines of this game, and I want
Speaker 1: to start first with what I think is the most important.
Speaker 1: You guys can disagree, but the fact that they couldn't
Speaker 1: run the ball, to me was the biggest storyline of
Speaker 1: that game. Yesterday, Ezekiel Elliott was held to eight yards
Speaker 1: on nine carries point nine average. His longest run was
Speaker 1: five yards. Obviously, we haven't seen anything like that when
Speaker 1: it comes to execue Elliott since he's been with the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: His worst game before that was against the Giants Week
Speaker 1: one of last season, where he carried the ball twenty
Speaker 1: times for fifty one yards, two point sixty yards per
Speaker 1: carry and a touchdown. What do you think went wrong yesterday?
Speaker 1: What happened with the running game that the Execuellett could
Speaker 1: go and get could average less than one yard perry?
Speaker 1: I touched on well, I said this while the game
Speaker 1: was still finishing up. And then Vance Joseph came out
Speaker 1: and kind of and all the Broncos kind of came
Speaker 1: out and confirmed my theory, which is that this is
Speaker 1: a uniquely position team to be able to do that
Speaker 1: to you. They have a secondary where they can put
Speaker 1: their three guys out there and cover your three receivers,
Speaker 1: man up, and then put the rest of their defense
Speaker 1: in the box and say go ahead and try to
Speaker 1: run it. You can't beat our corners. We dare you
Speaker 1: to beat our corners. And they did that, and Dak
Speaker 1: Prescott could not do it. This is about Dak and sorry,
Speaker 1: you're right though. This is about this is Hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna see if Dak Prescott can beat us. Now, not
Speaker 1: everybody can do what Denver did it, like you're saying
Speaker 1: with the corners, so good luck for everyone to try it,
Speaker 1: but we've seen it in the past some teams that
Speaker 1: can do it. Having said that, I'm still stunned. I
Speaker 1: mean that's I mean, that's football, one on one team
Speaker 1: like you can do if you've got the personnel to
Speaker 1: do it, load the box and worse your quarterback to
Speaker 1: beat you. I'm still blown away that they were that effective.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, goyboys weren't that successful running the
Speaker 1: ball against the Giants by the standards that we're used
Speaker 1: to seeing, you know. I mean they were averaging four
Speaker 1: yards to carry. Zeke's longest carry was eight to ten yards. Like,
Speaker 1: wouldn't anything amazing. I mean, we're used to seeing this
Speaker 1: team and run for one thirty one forty one, fifty
Speaker 1: one sixty, So even with the Broncos key enough to
Speaker 1: stop the run, I would have thought Zeke would at
Speaker 1: least have fifty sixty seventy yards. I mean, that's a
Speaker 1: bad rushing day for this offense to hold him to eight.
Speaker 1: Good lord. I mean, I know a little bit of
Speaker 1: that is just on getting away from the running game
Speaker 1: because you're down. But I never thought I would see
Speaker 1: this running game have so little room to work. I mean,
Speaker 1: all credit in the world to the Broncos. That was insane.
Speaker 1: How much of that do you guys put on the
Speaker 1: offensive line? And the reason why I asked that question,
Speaker 1: I know we heard a lot, we hear a lot,
Speaker 1: and we're hearing a lot about them loading the box.
Speaker 1: But when I went back and watched the game, most
Speaker 1: of the time, even though they might have let's say
Speaker 1: eight in the box, it was typically when the Cowboys
Speaker 1: had seven guys out there, they'd load up and they
Speaker 1: were gonna run, and so in most instances, a running
Speaker 1: back is gonna have to beat at least one guy.
Speaker 1: And literally there were no running lanes, like there was nothing.
Speaker 1: There was really no room for Ezeicul Elliott to work.
Speaker 1: And so it to me, it begs the question. Was
Speaker 1: the offensive line just inadequate when it came to being
Speaker 1: able to move this defensive front around. Yeah, they were.
Speaker 1: I thought it was one of the worst games I've
Speaker 1: seen from Travis Frederick. I mean I thought he was
Speaker 1: getting beat in the middle a lot. Um. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: could move it now that Denver did put more guys
Speaker 1: up front, but we've just kind of seen that before.
Speaker 1: It's not like, yeah, um, this is just about the
Speaker 1: fact that you know, as good as we think Dez
Speaker 1: and Terrence and Beasley are, they're not at leeds and
Speaker 1: they can get beat by elite corners, and um, that's
Speaker 1: pretty much what happened is that they dared Dak to
Speaker 1: beat them with these receivers and it really couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at their targets again. For Daz six
Speaker 1: targets and seven he caught seven. Two of those targets
Speaker 1: went to the Broncos, you know, so one of them
Speaker 1: was a touchdown. So I mean, you know again that
Speaker 1: they try to get the ball to death and it
Speaker 1: just it doesn't work as as much as as frequent
Speaker 1: as it should. I guess when you're throwing it to
Speaker 1: your best receiver sixteen times. I agree with everything he
Speaker 1: just said, but I guess going back to my earlier
Speaker 1: point for and I know they've got two new starters,
Speaker 1: and that's you know, that's a growing pain that we
Speaker 1: talked about all eating into this season. For all the
Speaker 1: praise and accolades that they get and the first team
Speaker 1: All pros and the money that's invested in the offensive line,
Speaker 1: I would expect better than point whatever yards per carry?
Speaker 1: What was point nine for Zeke Devils? Point nine yards
Speaker 1: per care? I mean, if they've got ten guys in
Speaker 1: the box, you should at least be able to get
Speaker 1: a yard. You should there shouldn't be a zero starting
Speaker 1: out that statistic. I mean, And that's you know, I
Speaker 1: think about how you know, I always say I grade
Speaker 1: on a curve and Zick or Nick just grades him
Speaker 1: straight up. I mean that that's just catastrophic failure. If
Speaker 1: You're supposed to be the best line in the league,
Speaker 1: and you put in that and I don't I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't care if the Broncos were uniquely positioned to
Speaker 1: stop it. I mean that was that was lacking. Even
Speaker 1: for a bad effort. I mean, it was that was bad.
Speaker 1: And you know what was most interesting to me when
Speaker 1: you talk about the offensive line is the fact that
Speaker 1: they were so um they were so bad when he
Speaker 1: came to run blocking. But in the passing game, they
Speaker 1: for the most part, and I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: a tale of two halfs. If you look at the
Speaker 1: game before it got to the point where there was
Speaker 1: the Cowboys are basically an eleven personnel and throwing every play,
Speaker 1: they actually gave Dak a pretty good amount of time
Speaker 1: to be able to get the ball out. It was
Speaker 1: after that once they once the defense for the Broncos
Speaker 1: knew that they were just passing every down, then good
Speaker 1: luck with that defense trying to stop that pass rush.
Speaker 1: But you look at that and that that's the part
Speaker 1: that seems really interesting to me, is that they did okay.
Speaker 1: And you look at the Denver defense going into the game,
Speaker 1: I think we all would have agreed you were way
Speaker 1: more worried about their ability to get after the passer
Speaker 1: didn't stop the run, and they did exactly the opposite.
Speaker 1: I hate to pat myself on the back, but in
Speaker 1: the Blueprint video that we did on Friday, I said
Speaker 1: they calways have to start fast because if you wind
Speaker 1: up in a situation where they know you have to
Speaker 1: throw the ball, you're not going to win this game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because then you let von Miller who really wasn't a
Speaker 1: factor in the game until the end, you know. And
Speaker 1: and he had more offside penalties than Sad And that's
Speaker 1: just that's just say, well he hadn't had a second
Speaker 1: five games. The Marcus where used to do the same thing,
Speaker 1: you know, the same I mean, as good as the
Speaker 1: Marcus was. He got off side pony every single game.
Speaker 1: Same with Flozell Adams. He'd have false start every game
Speaker 1: because he's trying to anticipate that rush, and so you'll
Speaker 1: give up three or four off sides if you're gonna
Speaker 1: get some. Sad I didn't mean. I didn't mean the
Speaker 1: flag as a bad thing. I know as an illustration
Speaker 1: of the fact that he was coming. That's what he does.
Speaker 1: He comes off the line. Obviously if I had a
Speaker 1: guy like that, I'm fine with it if I'll take it.
Speaker 1: Not because you're getting offside because the offensive line is
Speaker 1: terrified of what you're gonna do, and you know that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll take three offside flags per game for
Speaker 1: a guy that scares offensive linemen and quarterbacks like that.
Speaker 1: And he did get a false start at one of
Speaker 1: those times out of Lyle, so it kind of works
Speaker 1: both ways. Right now, Dak ended up with he got
Speaker 1: ended up throwing for more more times than he has
Speaker 1: in any game previously. He went thirty of fifty sixty
Speaker 1: percent completion rate, two hundred and thirty eight yards, two touchdowns,
Speaker 1: and two interceptions. It was his worst quarterback rating at
Speaker 1: sixty eight points I'm sorry, his second worst quarterback rating
Speaker 1: at sixty eight point six, only behind the second game
Speaker 1: last year versus the Giants, where he had a forty
Speaker 1: five point four And when you look at the interceptions,
Speaker 1: which is uncharacteristic of him. He had two interceptions, but really,
Speaker 1: and you pointed out this to me, Dave after the game,
Speaker 1: if you really think about it, there were two other
Speaker 1: players he probably should have had interceptions if it weren't
Speaker 1: for the fact that Dez Bryant basically played great cornerback,
Speaker 1: as you said in a tweet, Nick, But you look
Speaker 1: at all of that and are you starting to believe
Speaker 1: is there any part of you that believes this offense
Speaker 1: is not good enough yet that without the running game,
Speaker 1: they can put it on Dak in win ball games.
Speaker 1: I think I've always believed that. Okay, I mean, I
Speaker 1: have all the respect in the world for Dak, but
Speaker 1: he is not at a level and this offense is
Speaker 1: not yet at a level where you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: be fine no matter the circumstances like and I know
Speaker 1: they came back in the playoffs, but we saw that
Speaker 1: against Green Bay. I mean, this is a team that
Speaker 1: has to control the game. You have to take it
Speaker 1: to them. You have to be the ones running downhill,
Speaker 1: preferably playing with a lead. I don't think Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: is quite on that Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady level
Speaker 1: where no lead is insurmountable. I don't. I mean, that
Speaker 1: doesn't play well to his strengths, it doesn't play well
Speaker 1: to how you've built this offense. That's I mean, it's
Speaker 1: and it's not I don't mean it as too big
Speaker 1: of a knock on him. I mean, he's in his
Speaker 1: second year and they've designed this to be a run
Speaker 1: happy offense. When when you're based around the run, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna probably farewell and shootouts and comebacks. It's just
Speaker 1: the way it is, and it's part of his maturing process.
Speaker 1: I don't fully agree with that just here we go
Speaker 1: always no no, no no, no no. I just don't really
Speaker 1: agree with that, just based on this specific game, just
Speaker 1: for the reason that not only did Dak play bad
Speaker 1: even when he made good throws, somebody else would play
Speaker 1: by Jason Wit and everyone else in the whole team
Speaker 1: was playing back. Sure, and I'll Dak was not good
Speaker 1: by any stretch of the imagination, but I said it
Speaker 1: last night. He didn't. He didn't get a whole lot
Speaker 1: of help from anybody. So I have a hard time
Speaker 1: putting this on him as him just not having a
Speaker 1: good game. I think this was just a f across
Speaker 1: the board for the offense. I mean just not really
Speaker 1: any There's nobody on the offense that should come out
Speaker 1: of this feeling like, well, I played pretty good, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know at all. I mean there's fifty two guys. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe I need to do better. Marcus Lawrence got two
Speaker 1: sad kind of a penalty that changed the whole game,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't. I don't like that call.
Speaker 1: That's a questionable call in a questionable rule. But you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: you would. There's only Dan Bailey. Dan Bailey is the
Speaker 1: only guy that just went out and did his job.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought the first punt of the game
Speaker 1: by Chris Jones, you're in the thin air. You want
Speaker 1: to push him back. I thought it was a difference
Speaker 1: in two weeks because Denver starts. I mean, he got
Speaker 1: a forty one yard punt that went out of bounds
Speaker 1: at the twenty four yard line, and they went and
Speaker 1: marched and scored. You would expect I know, we're kind
Speaker 1: of expecting more from him, but I think he's gonna
Speaker 1: get that ball inside the ten and that changes their
Speaker 1: drive a little bit. But for the most part, Chris
Speaker 1: Jones was fine. But I thought, you know, that play
Speaker 1: right there, it's a difference of them starting at the
Speaker 1: ten or the twenty. But I have some opinions on Dak.
Speaker 1: I mean, I thought he didn't play well and he's
Speaker 1: I don't think he's good enough to carry the team,
Speaker 1: right now I don't think he's at that point. But
Speaker 1: when you look at it in a T T O
Speaker 1: drop from Romo, like that's your quarterback, like that, that's
Speaker 1: your guy. And I like the way he played, honestly exactly.
Speaker 1: I liked not as far as the interception. He had
Speaker 1: some he had some bad games. We were talking about
Speaker 1: the effort and what he brought as a as a
Speaker 1: guy that's gonna keep going, keep fighting. That last play
Speaker 1: where he's scrambling from von Miller and then runs over
Speaker 1: a guy and all that he's running for his life.
Speaker 1: I mean, it can get better, and it's got to
Speaker 1: get better. But there's some things that you can really
Speaker 1: like out of what you saw out of Dak. And
Speaker 1: I think I'm the only person that's sit saying that.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't see anyone that's with me there.
Speaker 1: I think I'm with you there. I mean, I like
Speaker 1: the way his toughness was. And that's nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the running back and not And I don't I
Speaker 1: don't even know that play that everyone's talking about. I
Speaker 1: really didn't see. It has nothing to do with that.
Speaker 1: I liked what I saw from Dak, and I liked
Speaker 1: what he said after the game and all that, like,
Speaker 1: it's got to get better. He knows it, he knows
Speaker 1: it's on him. But I think he's the type of
Speaker 1: guy that's gonna get it better. But are you at
Speaker 1: all concerned that this is now because well, let me
Speaker 1: back up last week, did you think he was a
Speaker 1: little bit off because there were some people who felt
Speaker 1: like he didn't play his best game last week? Are
Speaker 1: you now at all concerned that this is a second
Speaker 1: week in a roll if you believe that he didn't
Speaker 1: play his best game last week, are you now concerned
Speaker 1: that this is two weeks in a row when he
Speaker 1: hasn't been completely on with his passage. Let's let's see,
Speaker 1: but when the defenses don't get I mean, this is
Speaker 1: two of your better defenses in the NFL. We know this.
Speaker 1: Let's see what happens when you're facing that. Some other
Speaker 1: ones coming up? Fine, Arizona is a pretty good defense.
Speaker 1: That's fine. The Rams are actually a pretty good defense.
Speaker 1: Green bas until last night. They played pretty well week one.
Speaker 1: Obviously not in week two, but I think that was
Speaker 1: the Cowboys. That was the Cowboys at that But see,
Speaker 1: they played pretty well week one, but not in week two, right, Packers.
Speaker 1: I was making it right, right, but such a buzz kill.
Speaker 1: Whatever game was a buzz kill, it was big time,
Speaker 1: all right. I just I'm talking about It's one thing
Speaker 1: to have a good defense. That's another thing to have
Speaker 1: a defense like that. It's like, why are you good?
Speaker 1: Are you good because you are? Like Cincinnati was last
Speaker 1: year where they're so good against the run and all that,
Speaker 1: and then now the Cowboys blew them off the ball.
Speaker 1: I think what we're finding out you got good pass
Speaker 1: rushers and good corners, then this is you're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to handle the Cowboys a little bit. Because you can,
Speaker 1: then you can manage to stop the run and you're
Speaker 1: not as worried. I think this is the bigger concern
Speaker 1: that I have is that Williams, Beasley and Dez are
Speaker 1: pretty good. Pretty good is not going to always win. Yep.
Speaker 1: We saw this last year when you look at the
Speaker 1: defenses that gave them problems. It was a defenses that
Speaker 1: had a really good cornerback or two really good cornerbacks,
Speaker 1: and then had a pretty good solid pass front. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty good front to where they don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about giving help on the back end. They could just
Speaker 1: play it straight up in the front. And that's that's
Speaker 1: where the Cowboys that problem. Even in Dak's best games
Speaker 1: last year, when he looked like Joe Montana, the offense
Speaker 1: was predicated around the run, and the passing game was
Speaker 1: a compliment to the fact that the defense was terrified
Speaker 1: of giving up the run. You can go back and
Speaker 1: look at any game you want to, and that even
Speaker 1: includes I mean, there were some games Washington on Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: comes to mind, you know, the Eagles game obviously comes
Speaker 1: to mind, the pits, but there are games where Dak
Speaker 1: made some must have plays in the passing game that
Speaker 1: doesn't take away from the fact that the run set
Speaker 1: it all up. And yeah, if if you can shut
Speaker 1: down the run and force this to be and force
Speaker 1: the Cowboys to play through the air, it's probably not
Speaker 1: going to go great form, at least not at this
Speaker 1: point in time in Dak's career. You certainly have a
Speaker 1: much better chance of being able to beat them doing
Speaker 1: that than you do otherwise. But as you guys both
Speaker 1: started this show saying, there aren't a lot of teams
Speaker 1: out there to have that personnel, it's not until you
Speaker 1: get to those teams that you really had to worry
Speaker 1: about that. But I'm if I'm, you know, a diehard
Speaker 1: Cowboys fan looking for a silver lining to cling to,
Speaker 1: it's that I just don't. I think there's probably four
Speaker 1: teams in the NFL that have the personnel to do
Speaker 1: with the I think you got two more this year.
Speaker 1: You want to guess which ones they are? Kansas City
Speaker 1: comes to mind, yep, and December Giants. I mean, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but Seattle, Seattle, Yeah, yeah, I forgot me. So basically
Speaker 1: those three so far from that's what I say. They
Speaker 1: are like three teams that you have left on the
Speaker 1: schedule that fit that mold of good cornerbacks that can
Speaker 1: cover you man to man and then a front that
Speaker 1: can get after you. Yeah, but you know, it's not
Speaker 1: like it's the only way to do it too. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you, if you if you don't have, if you
Speaker 1: didn't face the best pass rusher in the in the
Speaker 1: league yesterday, you will when you face Oakland when they've
Speaker 1: got Khalil Mack and so, and then they have an
Speaker 1: offense that's explosive on the other side. So that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a different set of problems. But the pass rusher
Speaker 1: by him by himself, I think the Cowboys can manage it. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: I think they managed, but you said it, they managed.
Speaker 1: Von Miller actually played pretty well. Yeah, they managed that
Speaker 1: through most of the game. It's when you have corners
Speaker 1: that you can't that the receivers can't get get opened against,
Speaker 1: and then you have a problem. Right. The thing that
Speaker 1: troubles me the most is, and I just said, you know,
Speaker 1: Denver's got unique personnel. I think that's true. But like
Speaker 1: I said earlier, the extent to which they were able
Speaker 1: to just completely make the running game looking napped. I mean,
Speaker 1: it'd be one thing if Zeke was averaging three point
Speaker 1: four and had sixty yards and a touchdown. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a bad day for him by our standards. Eight yards,
Speaker 1: like I mean, And we'd spent a good chunk of
Speaker 1: the of last week talking about how if there was
Speaker 1: a weakness to this Denver defense, it was their run defense.
Speaker 1: Didn't look much, didn't look very weak. Yesterday this looked
Speaker 1: like a baseball game where you know, you they just
Speaker 1: mirrored each other, like you're getting no hit over here,
Speaker 1: and then you know you can't and then you're giving
Speaker 1: up ten runs over I mean, it's like they couldn't run.
Speaker 1: They couldn't stop the run, they couldn't miss, you know,
Speaker 1: they couldn't avoid tackles. They couldn't make any tackles. You know,
Speaker 1: they couldn't get off the field on third down. On defense,
Speaker 1: they couldn't convert third downs. It was just everything they
Speaker 1: weren't doing on this side the Broncos were, and that's
Speaker 1: that was troubling. I mean, I didn't realize Elway was back,
Speaker 1: you know, playing quarterback for them, but I mean he
Speaker 1: was moving them up and down the field. Hold that
Speaker 1: the We're gonna go and take a break. When we
Speaker 1: come back, we're going to talk about this Cowboys defense
Speaker 1: versus an offense that we didn't expect, or at least
Speaker 1: I didn't expect much from that really showed up and
Speaker 1: played extremely well. We'll do that one. Come right back.
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Speaker 1: Back to the Break, Welcome back. It's the second segment
Speaker 1: of the Break. Lock in the s WBC Mortgage studios
Speaker 1: at the Star. We're talking Cowboys versus Broncos. Cowboys lose
Speaker 1: forty two seventeen in a game that was not close
Speaker 1: really at any point other than the first quarter. Maybe
Speaker 1: even when it was close on the scoreboard though didn't
Speaker 1: didn't feel like I didn't feel close so much for
Speaker 1: the one hour pause. Yeah, due to the inclement weather.
Speaker 1: How many of you guys when they when they had
Speaker 1: the rain delay or the storm delay whatever it was,
Speaker 1: thought Okay, well they're gonna go in, they'll come back out,
Speaker 1: there'll be a different team. This will feel different in
Speaker 1: when they come back out and resume this game. Well,
Speaker 1: it did actually worse. No, they came back, tied the game,
Speaker 1: and they had the momentum. They actually it did turn
Speaker 1: around briefly. Big play in the game was that not
Speaker 1: not getting that fumble. Jeff Heath went down there and
Speaker 1: got after the touchdown, got the fumble, and I mean
Speaker 1: they're the ball sitting there and then they couldn't get it.
Speaker 1: And then Denver goes and scores. And I thought that
Speaker 1: was a big, big momentum shift there, because you could
Speaker 1: they were starting to hit, they were flying around, and
Speaker 1: Marcus Lawrence made a play at Collins. You know, they
Speaker 1: scored with Dez. It's like, well, here we go. So
Speaker 1: I thought things did change a little briefly. But you know, Denver,
Speaker 1: you just can't. It just couldn't. Cowboys just couldn't get
Speaker 1: off the field and they couldn't tackle him. I thought
Speaker 1: Sean Lee played one of his worst games I've ever
Speaker 1: seen him play. I mean it really did he say that, Yes,
Speaker 1: he said, this is the worst tackling game he's ever
Speaker 1: played in all of his history of football. And it was.
Speaker 1: It was a bad game for him. It was a
Speaker 1: bad game. Really. Again, I have a hard time pointing
Speaker 1: out any person's playing poorly because they all played poorly.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, like you said, there was very There wasn't
Speaker 1: a person you could point to to say, yeah, you
Speaker 1: had a game. Bailey. Bailey did his job. He gave
Speaker 1: every kickoff was of course, he's playing in thin air,
Speaker 1: you know this stuff, so you expect that and I'm
Speaker 1: sure LP did his job and all that. Even though
Speaker 1: there was no it wasn't him. I thought Frederick Snapps.
Speaker 1: I thought Dak was catching him all over the place yesterday. Um,
Speaker 1: That's why I like covering Shaun Lee. I mean when
Speaker 1: when you because I wrote that yesterday, I wrote that
Speaker 1: he didn't play well. But it's always it's always good
Speaker 1: when you cover someone that just says it first, you know.
Speaker 1: With Jason Wenton had a really bad game one time
Speaker 1: in Seattle after that injury, and we were thinking this
Speaker 1: the end for him, and he he basically was like,
Speaker 1: this the worst game I've ever played, and he and
Speaker 1: I will come back and I'll play better, And he
Speaker 1: went and set the catch record for tight ends that
Speaker 1: year or so. Shaun Lee is one of the more
Speaker 1: accountable guys I've you ever seen that. It's like one
Speaker 1: of the classic NFL photos of y a Tittle after
Speaker 1: the game where he's like on his knees in the
Speaker 1: end zone and he's like bleeding from the head. That's
Speaker 1: what Shaun Lee looked like in the locker room yesterday.
Speaker 1: Like you know, it's like it's chaotic. There's interviews going
Speaker 1: on over here, the equipment guys are bagging up the
Speaker 1: locker room the stuff and pads and you know, get
Speaker 1: it on the truck and get out of there. Sean
Speaker 1: Lee was just sitting in the chair at his locker
Speaker 1: just staring. He wasn't there. He was just staring off
Speaker 1: into space. And he was like he had his under
Speaker 1: armor on, he had his game pants still on, Like
Speaker 1: he wasn't talking to anybody, he wasn't moving. He probably
Speaker 1: sat like that for like six minutes, like he was
Speaker 1: just lost, and it was it was just I could
Speaker 1: just show that picture of him sitting there to anybody
Speaker 1: and they would know what happened. And ironically, he wasn't
Speaker 1: the only one I noticed. There were a few guys
Speaker 1: that were kind of just sitting there, kind of looking
Speaker 1: into space after the game. And I think I don't
Speaker 1: think they expected that to go down like that. I don't.
Speaker 1: I think they were shell shocked at how poorly they
Speaker 1: really played. Yeah this is humbling, Yeah they this team
Speaker 1: hasn't had its ass kick even in twenty fifteen. I
Speaker 1: really feel like they didn't get their ass kicked like that.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Panthers game, but this hasn't happened to them
Speaker 1: very often, and you know, you say they had injuries.
Speaker 1: I know we're gonna talk about defense, and you know
Speaker 1: Scandrick that that was big and kind of snowball there
Speaker 1: from that one position. But I don't think Scandrick coming
Speaker 1: back with the cast, Demontre Moore walking into the halls
Speaker 1: here today and David Irving in two weeks, I don't
Speaker 1: think those guys fixed that problem. You know. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: they they'll help, they'll help, but I don't think they'll
Speaker 1: fix the problem per se. Well, let's start with that,
Speaker 1: because I do think that there was one part of
Speaker 1: that that that could be a difference. Yesterday we find
Speaker 1: out that the Cowboys made the decision prior to the
Speaker 1: game when they made their inactives list, they decided to
Speaker 1: make Bene bin Wickery, the free agent, I mean, the
Speaker 1: cornerback that they traded for, they decided to make him
Speaker 1: inactive yesterday, and that means they started with only four
Speaker 1: healthy cornerbacks. And in addition, and as opposed to having
Speaker 1: him active, they make Noah Brown, a sixth wide receiver
Speaker 1: active for the game now quickly as does. This is
Speaker 1: a case when you know, in my opinion, whenever you
Speaker 1: set yourself up like this, it's gonna always turn out
Speaker 1: to be what you don't expect it to be. But
Speaker 1: they lose two cornerbacks in the game. Chittabe goes down
Speaker 1: with a hamstring injury, and then you get an injury
Speaker 1: to Nolan Carroll the concussion, and then they're down to
Speaker 1: two cornerbacks. Obviously, I do think Scandrick helps with that.
Speaker 1: But do you think they made a poor decision just
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of the inactives? Again, I know hindsight
Speaker 1: is twenty twenty, but do you think that was a
Speaker 1: short sighted decision knowing that Noah Brown was going to
Speaker 1: be a six guy and he's probably not gonna play
Speaker 1: a whole lot at wide receiver. I do think that.
Speaker 1: I think it was a poor decision, and not just
Speaker 1: because of what happened, because you're right, hindsight is always
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and I but I mean, when you think
Speaker 1: about having four guys active for a position that you
Speaker 1: really play three a lot, and so most of them
Speaker 1: you don't even have a backup at every spot. And
Speaker 1: that's why I think they were You know, you're you're
Speaker 1: exposing yourself there, you know, that's why they get on
Speaker 1: the field. Terrence can you play or can you? Can
Speaker 1: you not? Are you gonna play? If you're gonna play,
Speaker 1: then let's play five receivers. That's fine. You sit Noah Brown.
Speaker 1: If he gets hurt, then you're playing with four receivers
Speaker 1: and you can figure out other packages there. So I
Speaker 1: thought it was a bad decision by them. Not only
Speaker 1: do you have four corners, but one of them's never
Speaker 1: played a game, the other one's only played one game.
Speaker 1: And then you've got Anthony Brown who's played one season.
Speaker 1: And then in the worst one of the four wards,
Speaker 1: Nola Carroll. He was bad before before he got hurt, right,
Speaker 1: that was so that was not I'll I agree with
Speaker 1: everything y'all just said. I'll throw this out there that
Speaker 1: I don't know that I don't know that Ben a Benwicker,
Speaker 1: he's a cure all there. It would have been his
Speaker 1: first game snaps with the Cowboys. He's been here for
Speaker 1: a little more than two weeks at this point. I mean,
Speaker 1: it would have been nice to have the body, especially
Speaker 1: given that Jordan Lewis had never played in an NFL game,
Speaker 1: But I don't know that would have made a huge
Speaker 1: difference in the outcome to me. Maybe not a big
Speaker 1: difference in the outcome, But I'd like to see it
Speaker 1: rather than seeing a guy that's a rookie safety now
Speaker 1: dropping down to playing the slot. Yes, you know Xavier
Speaker 1: Woods was taking snaps in the slot. To me, that
Speaker 1: was as soon as I saw it. I'm thinking that
Speaker 1: can't be good. And so if you at least have
Speaker 1: been they've been wicker. You have a veteran cornerback that's
Speaker 1: playing cornerback. Yeah, it helps, which so I mean Carol
Speaker 1: has a concussion, Cheeto is dealing with the same hamstring
Speaker 1: that's been bothering him. It's too soon to try to
Speaker 1: make a prognosis on either of those guys for Monday,
Speaker 1: but I think even if they seem like they're healthy,
Speaker 1: I would probably put ben Wickery up this week just
Speaker 1: to have the body. You might have to go sign someone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and not don't say the name. It's gonna be him.
Speaker 1: You know, he's in our He's in our mailbox. It's
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. It's in our mailbox. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of dry drill. They're calling for him, are there. It's
Speaker 1: not gonna have the island. He's sitting on an island
Speaker 1: right now. Maybe all right, Let's let's talk some more
Speaker 1: about the defense. Though yesterday I thought the biggest problem
Speaker 1: for them was that they couldn't stop the run. If
Speaker 1: you can't stop the run, everything else will float from that.
Speaker 1: But CG. C. J. Anderson's first hundred yard rusher. They've
Speaker 1: given up uh in the last year. They didn't give
Speaker 1: one up all last season. He goes for twenty five
Speaker 1: carries for one hundred and eighteen yards to four point
Speaker 1: seven average in a touchdown. UM. What was the difference
Speaker 1: yesterday as opposed to what they've been doing all this
Speaker 1: other time as far as being able to stop the run?
Speaker 1: I thought it was tackling. I thought, I mean, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of plays they just couldn't tackle, even
Speaker 1: when they had two or three guys there. He is
Speaker 1: a shifty player there, There is there's no doubt. There
Speaker 1: was a couple of plays down in the gold line
Speaker 1: where they they have him stopped and he's still kind
Speaker 1: of you know, strong. Yeah, he gets as he kind
Speaker 1: of it's low and kind of slippery and gets in
Speaker 1: there and gets a yard or two and and but
Speaker 1: there was a playout in the flat when they had
Speaker 1: what three or four guys and he's spending and moving
Speaker 1: and they just did not wrap up. They didn't play
Speaker 1: very physical. And you know, when Shawn Lee's not playing well,
Speaker 1: when he's not put tackling well, who is going to
Speaker 1: play well? You know? And I just they they were
Speaker 1: that offensive line kind of got after him a little
Speaker 1: bit too, and they just did what they wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was this has stopped me if this
Speaker 1: sounds familiar, but you're not going to see very many
Speaker 1: opponents that have played the Cowboys in the last year
Speaker 1: or so that ran the ball thirty nine times. That's
Speaker 1: no disrespect to them. Obviously, they could have tackled better.
Speaker 1: They did not play I mean, they did not play
Speaker 1: sound defense. But part of the reason the Cowboys have
Speaker 1: been good at defending the run is because teams team
Speaker 1: stopped trying to run the ball after a while, when
Speaker 1: you're down or in an even game in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and you haven't had a lot of success with it,
Speaker 1: or you don't have a lot of time to do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't have the numbers offhand, but go
Speaker 1: look it up. I bet thirty nine attempts against is
Speaker 1: probably right up there with as many as they've had
Speaker 1: to face in the last season plus. Yeah, but the
Speaker 1: one thing that goes against that is in the first
Speaker 1: half CJ. Anderson had twelve carries for fifty eight yards
Speaker 1: or four point eight average. And that's although the number
Speaker 1: the total number of you're right, the total number of runs.
Speaker 1: Cowboys probably haven't faced that, but they were having success
Speaker 1: early in the game, and that's where the bad defense
Speaker 1: comes into play. Yeah, I don't think aside from the tackling,
Speaker 1: there were also a lot of instances and occasions where
Speaker 1: you would see two guys next to each other in
Speaker 1: a hole completely open, a space wide open, where the
Speaker 1: whole defense just looked completely disorganized, and some of these
Speaker 1: guys looked like they didn't know what they were doing,
Speaker 1: just kind of there and then they see last minute,
Speaker 1: don't get fast enough to make that tackle. So it
Speaker 1: was just just the whole thing. If you if you
Speaker 1: were you're right, if you were to look at that
Speaker 1: team and just not know anybody and go, okay, somebody's
Speaker 1: playing their first NFL game out there, you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: picked Jordan Lewis. I mean, you would have picked five
Speaker 1: or six guys before that, like, okay, not him, this
Speaker 1: guy and I'm not even talking about the interception. I
Speaker 1: thought he played pretty well and some in the other spots.
Speaker 1: The interception just kind of came to him, but he
Speaker 1: caught it. And that's better than some of the receivers
Speaker 1: on the team, uh could say. Uh? And which, what's
Speaker 1: going back to that? You guys talked about Dez saving
Speaker 1: a couple of interceptions. He did one, maybe two. I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened on the goal line there. The
Speaker 1: one that was down, well, I think that was just
Speaker 1: the exact same throw the Deck had made those other
Speaker 1: two that Dez knocked down, and Dez didn't make the
Speaker 1: play defensively on that one, but it was the same situation.
Speaker 1: Threw it inside. I don't know if he was expecting
Speaker 1: Dez to be inside. We had a shot for that,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was kind of right in front of us,
Speaker 1: had a shot, almost made the tackle, but I just
Speaker 1: not to. You know what's funny. I would have been
Speaker 1: like Beasley, you know, just go up there and we'll
Speaker 1: just whipple you off. This look at the Broncos stat
Speaker 1: line and like they did exactly what the Cowboys want
Speaker 1: to do. I love the same thing I thought. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: look looked at it, it it would have looked that is
Speaker 1: the that's the Cowboys ideal stat line. Trevor Simeon didn't
Speaker 1: bomb away. He threw for two hundred and thirty one yards,
Speaker 1: but he completed seventy percent of his passes. It seemed
Speaker 1: like every third and every time they were in a
Speaker 1: third down passing situation. It's not like I can't remember
Speaker 1: more than maybe one super long passing game. He just
Speaker 1: found the guy that was poorly covered. Was that touchdown
Speaker 1: pass and he threw over the top of the deef. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was the best roy he made all day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But other than that, you're talking about slants and comebacks
Speaker 1: on soft coverage on third and five, third and six,
Speaker 1: and then even better, he looked like freaking Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: in the red zone. I mean, I think it was
Speaker 1: twice in a row. They just abused Jordan Lewis on
Speaker 1: play action in the red zone. And that's exactly the
Speaker 1: type of stuff that Cowboys love to do. So although
Speaker 1: I'm not certain on that one touchdown to eighty five,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that wasn't Byron Jones, because Byron reached
Speaker 1: for him as though, oh my gosh, my guy just
Speaker 1: got away and he's chasing him. I shouldn't I shouldn't
Speaker 1: use words like abuse until I've watched the game tape.
Speaker 1: But they beat the defense badly on a couple of
Speaker 1: play actions down there. So you look at those numbers
Speaker 1: for him, and I guess you look at the receivers
Speaker 1: and what they did to Marus Thomas catches six balls
Speaker 1: for seventy one yards. Sanders Goes catches seven balls for
Speaker 1: sixty two yards and two touchdowns. Are you all concerned
Speaker 1: looking at what the cornerbacks we did yesterday? Are you
Speaker 1: all at all concerned about the future of these cornerbacks
Speaker 1: facing some pretty good offenses that you love to face. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you got Green Bay, you got Atlanta, you got some
Speaker 1: teams coming up that'll be very tough to handle. Are
Speaker 1: you worried about the cornerbacks? No, Derek, I feel fine.
Speaker 1: I think it's all great. I think they're gonna be awesome.
Speaker 1: This is Radio Dave, not that I got to talk
Speaker 1: about it. Not as concerned as as sarcastic Dave is. Sorry.
Speaker 1: I mean you are gonna get Scandrick back at some
Speaker 1: at some point here, I think Jordan Lewis, you know,
Speaker 1: assuming he doesn't get hurt. I thought Anthony Brown, you know,
Speaker 1: he was he was battling. I actually thought he played.
Speaker 1: He played all right, relatively speaking. Think about this, What
Speaker 1: if the Cowboys would have done what they normally do
Speaker 1: on offense, you know, move the ball, scored some points
Speaker 1: and gotten the Broncos into kind of a shootout. Right
Speaker 1: when you look at Thomas six catches seventy one yards
Speaker 1: Sanders six catches sixty two, it's almost like they were
Speaker 1: taking it easy on him because of what the score was.
Speaker 1: If the Cowboys would have been up on this game,
Speaker 1: Denver would have done whatever they wanted to passing, because
Speaker 1: they would have just these guys would have towarched the cornerbacks.
Speaker 1: But they got They kind of a little bit fortunate
Speaker 1: that all they had to do was run. But I
Speaker 1: just when you consider that a rookie safety was playing
Speaker 1: in the nickel and a guy with no NFL snaps
Speaker 1: was playing outside, I really thought they could have taken
Speaker 1: more advantage, right, And they did and they didn't have
Speaker 1: to running. But I'm saying if the Cowboy, if this
Speaker 1: game would have been more of a shootout, Denver I
Speaker 1: think would have exposed them a little bit more. You know,
Speaker 1: I disagree a little bit with that because the reason
Speaker 1: why I think, I think that really the play action
Speaker 1: is what allowed them to be as successful in the
Speaker 1: passing and now early on, some of those situations were
Speaker 1: just like literally they were just throwing passes, short passes,
Speaker 1: and the Cowboys corners weren't making the tackles quickly enough.
Speaker 1: That seemed to settle down a little bit. I know, right,
Speaker 1: that seemed to settle down a little bit. But I just,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that because you can't stop the role.
Speaker 1: When you get in situations where you can't stop the run,
Speaker 1: good luck with the passing game, especially if it's a
Speaker 1: game if it's offense that's predicated on short, quick passes,
Speaker 1: which is what they were doing. Yes, yeah, yeah, And
Speaker 1: to your point, you will get Scandrick back at some point.
Speaker 1: Jordan Lewis, honestly, for his he wasn't supposed to play
Speaker 1: defense yesterday, I don't. I wrote about that last night.
Speaker 1: His original game plan was to be a special teamer
Speaker 1: and maybe some spot duty like in dime or something
Speaker 1: like that. So for him to get thrown in like that,
Speaker 1: I'll take that, you know. I mean, when you look
Speaker 1: at the circumstances is what they are. He was all right,
Speaker 1: and maybe the Broncos weren't picking on him the way
Speaker 1: that they could have. But I'll take that as your
Speaker 1: debut in adverse or substances. The thing that troubles me
Speaker 1: is Cheeto. This is the same hamstring. We know how
Speaker 1: hamstrings go. I and I don't know for sure, We'll
Speaker 1: have to wait and see, but I hope that this
Speaker 1: isn't something that impedes him, you know, for at least
Speaker 1: the first half of his rookie season, because that's that's
Speaker 1: how you wind up having a rookie year where you
Speaker 1: don't make the type of impact that you want to.
Speaker 1: So hopefully he can get right sooner rather than later,
Speaker 1: because these are the types of things that you know
Speaker 1: can linger and frustrate and ir season. I might go
Speaker 1: I R with him. I'd like to seat maybe. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the same injury now, right, same hamstring injury.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe this is an eight week thing. It gives
Speaker 1: you a spot a long time it is, but it
Speaker 1: gives you a spot to go get another corner. Are
Speaker 1: you more concerned though about Nolan Carroll? I mean, he
Speaker 1: took that's another one yeah. And let's be honest, like,
Speaker 1: even this goes back to training k didn't look great.
Speaker 1: Not he has not looked great. Like there have been
Speaker 1: a couple days during training camp when we say, hey, wow,
Speaker 1: Nolan Carroll had a pretty good day. We'll do what
Speaker 1: you gotta. I think there were way more days when
Speaker 1: it was like, man, what's what's going on with Nolan Carroll? Right?
Speaker 1: And you know, make the move then. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know what it costs you, but make the move. Well,
Speaker 1: right now, you don't have any options. I don't think you.
Speaker 1: I don't think cutting him is an option. At this point.
Speaker 1: You kind of have to ride with him. But you're
Speaker 1: also hoping that these rookies kind of ascend a little
Speaker 1: bit and they can play a little more. That's kind
Speaker 1: of my point is, And this isn't This is not
Speaker 1: a hard and fast rule because I remember last year saying, well,
Speaker 1: Malie Collins's rookie years awash because he's gonna miss mini camp,
Speaker 1: he's gonna miss most of training camp, and rookies just
Speaker 1: don't recover from stuff like that. Well he did, he did,
Speaker 1: But as a general principle, it's hard for a rookie
Speaker 1: to come up and develop into something super meaningful if
Speaker 1: he's not available to play. And that's and practice for
Speaker 1: that matter. And that's what I worry about with Cheeto,
Speaker 1: given that you know, he missed something like seventeen days
Speaker 1: of training camp. This is bothering him again again. I
Speaker 1: don't know how long this is going to hold them out,
Speaker 1: but it's got to be concerning when the guy that
Speaker 1: you drafted first among all these defensive backs some or
Speaker 1: sixty overall isn't he's not getting the reps that he
Speaker 1: needs in order to get that improvement that you want
Speaker 1: to see. All right, did you have something? Well? Maybe yeah,
Speaker 1: when we come back from break, we can talk about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, and it was pretty much a blowout from
Speaker 1: the start to finish. But I do think in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter I thought Jason maybe mismanaged that a little bit.
Speaker 1: They had a shot there, and we talked about it
Speaker 1: on the sideline, but I thought they should have kicked
Speaker 1: the field goal there. Yeah, I disagree, but I think
Speaker 1: that's a good discussion point. Do that when we come
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Speaker 1: a dress on me. Oh hey, we're back. Hey, you
Speaker 1: guys know a synonym for getting embarrassed in a football game.
Speaker 1: People people call it a deep pantsing, right when you
Speaker 1: get beat really bad. The Cowboys they got caught with
Speaker 1: their pants down yesterday, and hopefully they were wearing Tommy
Speaker 1: John underwear. If you're gonna get deep, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: get deep pantsed, you should do it in total comfort.
Speaker 1: And that is what Tommy and Style Style stylish. Especially
Speaker 1: if you get the Cowboys flavored Tommy John Underwear fantastic flavor.
Speaker 1: You know, well, that could be a different industry altogether.
Speaker 1: But if you go to Tommy John dot com forward
Speaker 1: slash Cowboys, you can get twenty percent off your first
Speaker 1: order and the next time you get deep pansed, you
Speaker 1: might be embarrassed, but at least you'll look good and
Speaker 1: feel good too. So I think we may have just
Speaker 1: made a new tagline for Tommy Jude ariston comfort, be comfortable. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that was that was interesting. Um, let's get back into it, Nick,
Speaker 1: you had a point you want to make there before well,
Speaker 1: I think that you know the Cowboys are driving there.
Speaker 1: It would have been nice if um, um, Jason Witten
Speaker 1: catches all over the middle. Would have been a tough play.
Speaker 1: It was the first play when we walked down there
Speaker 1: on the field. That's the first thing I saw was
Speaker 1: a past to Witten. I thought he could have caught
Speaker 1: it for a touchdown. Would have yeah, would have maybe
Speaker 1: changed things a little bit, made it interesting, made it
Speaker 1: thirty five to twenty four. But with fourth down with
Speaker 1: three fifty one to go, I thought they should have
Speaker 1: kicked a field goal there. I mean, you're down three
Speaker 1: scores already, so make it two scores. I mean, here's
Speaker 1: your shot to do that fourth and three from the seven,
Speaker 1: especially if you're gonna throw a low percentage passed the
Speaker 1: Daz to go and catch the ball. And you know,
Speaker 1: Jason was asked that after the game, and I thought
Speaker 1: he had a good answer. But I still think, especially
Speaker 1: because you make it a fifteen point game, you kick
Speaker 1: it to them, they're gonna they're gonna start, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be conservative. Now you're still gonna get
Speaker 1: the ball back. And they got down there again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess the only the way I disagreed a little
Speaker 1: bit was where they were on the field against this defense.
Speaker 1: I couldn't count on them getting that close again. So
Speaker 1: the chances of getting into the end zone when you're
Speaker 1: at the seven versus getting in the end zone where
Speaker 1: you're starting back at your own twenty or you're own
Speaker 1: twenty five or you're own thirty, whatever it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they hadn't moved the ball consistently all day, so you
Speaker 1: only have to get to about the thirty five to
Speaker 1: get a field goal, thirty seven maybe to get a
Speaker 1: field goal. So I would have felt more comfortable at
Speaker 1: three forty three. That's even better, right, gonna kick a
Speaker 1: sixty yard that's even better. But I guess the point
Speaker 1: I'm making no is, yeah, if you have to just
Speaker 1: get there for a field goal, I think I have
Speaker 1: more faith that they can get there than I do
Speaker 1: that they can get back to the seven for a touchdown.
Speaker 1: If this is a scenario where it's like forty one
Speaker 1: thirty one and you've been moving the ball all day
Speaker 1: and you can cross that your offense has had some success,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll quibble about do you kick or go for
Speaker 1: the touchdown? But kind of irrelevant. I just never felt
Speaker 1: like this was even remotely close to a situation where
Speaker 1: they could have made it a game. And so I
Speaker 1: know it's like it doesn't matter, but I just look
Speaker 1: at it like, but it should. It should matter to
Speaker 1: the coach that's getting paid handsomely to try to put
Speaker 1: his team in the past as position. I think what
Speaker 1: you always try to do. You see these coaches they
Speaker 1: call time out all the time. You're trying to extend
Speaker 1: the game, And I think in a situation like this
Speaker 1: that you know you're saying you don't think they could
Speaker 1: they could have drive down there. I don't like fourth
Speaker 1: and three from the seven. I mean, I don't like that.
Speaker 1: I think it even it gets tight down there, they
Speaker 1: can't score, they can't find I mean, look at all
Speaker 1: of his options are just to throw it, fades and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. They can't really work it in there.
Speaker 1: So I just would have said, all right, let's make
Speaker 1: it fifteen. Let's let's kick off. They're gonna do nothing
Speaker 1: with the ball, and they got a little bit of
Speaker 1: pressure on them. Now they're gonna punt it back. You
Speaker 1: don't know if you can count on a twenty yards
Speaker 1: turn again from Switzer, but he did a nice job,
Speaker 1: you know, and they got down there again. And then
Speaker 1: so let's say you're down there like they were again,
Speaker 1: they're down there down by fifteen, you can maybe work
Speaker 1: a little bit more clock to run or to do
Speaker 1: something to try to punch it in, because then if
Speaker 1: you score and make it an eight point game with
Speaker 1: under a minute, now you're now all you are is
Speaker 1: an on site kick away from at least throwing it
Speaker 1: into the end zone, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: Jason likes to prolong the game. I kind of thought
Speaker 1: he could have done that, but his answer was, you
Speaker 1: know you're probably gonna you're already there to score, try
Speaker 1: to get another one in if you have to kick
Speaker 1: a sixty yard or try to win, that's where it's
Speaker 1: gonna be. I mean, I see the point. I think
Speaker 1: I would have kicked it. All right, Let's let's jump
Speaker 1: into some phone calls. You guys can call us two
Speaker 1: one four eight seven two twenty one oh two. Again
Speaker 1: it's two one four eight seven two twenty one oh two.
Speaker 1: You can also hit us on Twitter at Cowboys Break
Speaker 1: will start with a call from Chris in Maryland. Chris,
Speaker 1: what up? Hey, guys? Are you Chris can hear me? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can hear you? Okay, sorry about that. It's I
Speaker 1: was having a hard time here you get through my bluetooth. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm calling it about Um, there's a couple of things
Speaker 1: I saw yesterday that really bothered me. And um, it's
Speaker 1: a second consecutive game I've seen this. Um, Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: has to me, has not looked sharp. We're very accurate
Speaker 1: in both games I watched. And UM, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's him or Dez when he's trying to connect
Speaker 1: to him. But yesterday it looked like he was throwing
Speaker 1: straight to the DD. It's De's not coming coming back
Speaker 1: for the ball, or is here? Is Dak just throwing
Speaker 1: it that poorly? And my second point was something you
Speaker 1: guys touched on earlier, was I'm sorry, but I don't
Speaker 1: think dez Really's earned at eighty eight. And that's just
Speaker 1: my opinion. But we look like we got a bunch
Speaker 1: of really good number two's, but we don't look like
Speaker 1: we've got that number one, like that playmaker like Michael
Speaker 1: ervin Is. And um, I'll think your comments off the air,
Speaker 1: and you guys have a good day, all right, thanks
Speaker 1: for the call. Well let's start. I'm not even gonna
Speaker 1: go with that second part. I mean, I mean, isn't
Speaker 1: he Is he not yet the franchises all time leader
Speaker 1: in receiving touchdowns? Yeah, and he makes plays. And I
Speaker 1: heard this morning when I was driving in, I heard
Speaker 1: some people trying to make that argument. And then when
Speaker 1: I got to the office, I started watching the game back,
Speaker 1: and I think people forget about some of the catches
Speaker 1: that he made yesterday, that catch on the sideline where
Speaker 1: we thought it was, that one we thought was was
Speaker 1: not going to be a catch, but on the replay
Speaker 1: a catch. On the replay it looks like one, and
Speaker 1: certainly they called it a catch. So either way, all
Speaker 1: I'm saying is, there's some plays that he made yesterday
Speaker 1: that I thought was some really really great catches for
Speaker 1: this team. Now I get where the callers coming from.
Speaker 1: You want to see him when he's up against really
Speaker 1: great cornerbacks be able to win more. Um. Last week,
Speaker 1: you would have wanted him to win more. This week,
Speaker 1: you probably would have wanted him to win more. You
Speaker 1: certainly don't him to let the ball go through his
Speaker 1: hands and then that ends up in an interception. He's
Speaker 1: saved two interceptions though as well. But I guess that's
Speaker 1: where I understand what the call is saying. I just
Speaker 1: don't think I agree completely because I think you forget
Speaker 1: about the really good plays, great plays that he makes.
Speaker 1: He's a number one receiver in my mind, he's just
Speaker 1: I mean, he's off to not the start that he
Speaker 1: wants for this season. Let me say that first and foremost.
Speaker 1: But he's no nobody ever thought he was in that
Speaker 1: class with Julio A. B And Beckham, did they? I mean,
Speaker 1: like those I think the case that you had to
Speaker 1: put him up there, hasn't you haven't had much to
Speaker 1: go on since about twenty fourteen, and you know, he
Speaker 1: is what he is. I think he's a very good receiver.
Speaker 1: I think he's a number one receiver. I certainly think
Speaker 1: he's worthy of being number eighty eight. I think that's silly,
Speaker 1: but I don't know that he is that Antonio Brown
Speaker 1: always going to produce guy. The guy that he gets
Speaker 1: compared a lot too, for many reasons, is the Marus Thomas,
Speaker 1: the Broncos receiver. They were drafted in the same class,
Speaker 1: very close to each other. I believe they were signed
Speaker 1: on their extension not same day, same day, same amount
Speaker 1: of money. So you know, um yeah, yeah, he sports
Speaker 1: is eighty eight, and he's a more productive player. Damarius
Speaker 1: Thomas has been a more productive player in his career.
Speaker 1: I mean he's you know, he catches ninety balls a
Speaker 1: season for five straight years and you know he has
Speaker 1: a solid, solid game there yesterday, so not as flashy.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't understand when people say as a
Speaker 1: number one receiver. Number one receiver means you're the starting receiver, right,
Speaker 1: means you are You're the number one guy on the team.
Speaker 1: So there's thirty two number one receivers. That's silly to
Speaker 1: say that he's not a number one. He's not an elite,
Speaker 1: top five receiver. That's what you paid him to be.
Speaker 1: Those three you mentioned. Now you've got Mike Evans in there,
Speaker 1: who I think is better, and aj Green probably well
Speaker 1: more accomplished. He's stuck in his own situation. I mean,
Speaker 1: everyone's got you know, and you got Jordi Nelson, you
Speaker 1: got all this situations different receivers. But I think he's
Speaker 1: a top ten receiver. I will say that I'm okay
Speaker 1: with that. And this goes back to your point from
Speaker 1: last week. Nick sixteen targets knowing the type of coverage
Speaker 1: he's going to be facing and the type of cornerbacks
Speaker 1: he's playing. I don't know that you're doing him any
Speaker 1: favors there, and that's I mean, that sounds like a
Speaker 1: knock on him, like he's not capable of beating that.
Speaker 1: But if and that goes back to the fact that
Speaker 1: the Broncos have the cornerbacks capable of playing man up
Speaker 1: on these guys and you don't have to double cover him.
Speaker 1: But I would like to think there's an easier option
Speaker 1: out there. Somewhere rather than just you're bound and determined
Speaker 1: to get Dez the ball. I mean, five targets for
Speaker 1: Terrence certainly seems small to me. Five targets for Zeke
Speaker 1: seems small to me. And even in a game like this, Beasley,
Speaker 1: and in a game like this, maybe Ryan Switzer can
Speaker 1: do something for you. Yeah, he was an interesting stat
Speaker 1: to think about. Dez Bryant right now is second in
Speaker 1: the league and number of targets through two games, Yet
Speaker 1: he is ranked down around thirty six, thirty five and
Speaker 1: number of receptions. So you just think about the disparity
Speaker 1: there in the number of targets to the number of
Speaker 1: actual receptions. He only has nine receptions for the season,
Speaker 1: but has been targeted. What's said, gotta be like whey
Speaker 1: five times and through two games that they will They
Speaker 1: will never admit it, and maybe they're not, but it
Speaker 1: certainly seems like they're listening to the noise that says,
Speaker 1: you know, Dez has to do this, this, and this,
Speaker 1: whereas the line is we're gonna run our offense, We're
Speaker 1: gonna get it to the guy there or maybe or
Speaker 1: maybe it's something in between, which is they say, we've
Speaker 1: got this really dynamic receiver. We've seen him have a
Speaker 1: great offseason. We think we need to feed him the
Speaker 1: ball because we feel like it's best for our office.
Speaker 1: We think he can make some dynamic plays, and they
Speaker 1: just haven't been able to. It's interesting because you go
Speaker 1: back and you think about this caller. He said, well,
Speaker 1: Dez hasn't been living up to number eighty. But then
Speaker 1: he also says the quarterback has been highly inaccurate. Well,
Speaker 1: that it be why Dez maybe isn't being as productive
Speaker 1: as you wanted to be. Is because maybe the quarterback
Speaker 1: isn't being as accurate as he needs to be. With
Speaker 1: a receiver like Dez, who we know is not necessarily
Speaker 1: going to get a lot of separation, he sees the
Speaker 1: ball placed in the right position for him to make
Speaker 1: a playoff. You know, unlike other years, Dez has been
Speaker 1: there all of training camp. He really wasn't hurt. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like there was injuries that that slowed them down.
Speaker 1: They were he was there for this offseason. You know,
Speaker 1: there's really no reason why these two shouldn't be on
Speaker 1: the same page. But again, let's wait and see. Not
Speaker 1: everybody's denver in the Giants on defense and and let's
Speaker 1: let's see how it plays out. It's still early in
Speaker 1: the year, but I'm certain, like, on even as bad
Speaker 1: of a loss as that was, I'm somewhere around to
Speaker 1: three in terms of like how troubled I am about
Speaker 1: you know what this means for the season. I mean,
Speaker 1: I went and looked it up. Good teams get their
Speaker 1: asses kicked in the NFL. It's Sunday Night football, last
Speaker 1: night fotball. Two years ago, Green Bay got demolished in
Speaker 1: that same stadium twenty nine to ten. I remember watching
Speaker 1: it in the press by at At and T. It
Speaker 1: wasn't even close. Tom Brady famously lost forty one to
Speaker 1: fourteen to the Chiefs in a year that they won
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. So, I mean, I'm sorry if that
Speaker 1: sounds like sunshine pumping, but it was true. It was bad.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff they need to fix. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that they're a bad football team, and you
Speaker 1: just you take I mean, I loved Sean Lee's quote
Speaker 1: last night. He was like, you watch the tape, take
Speaker 1: what's good from it that you can won't be a
Speaker 1: whole lot, and then you try to fix what else
Speaker 1: was bad, which is a lot let's get a question
Speaker 1: from Twitter. So there's a lot of questions about Byron Jones.
Speaker 1: Can we quickly mention him just are you guys concerned
Speaker 1: about his performance moving forward based on everything that we've
Speaker 1: seen so far? Yeah, I just thought child came up
Speaker 1: with the other guys. I mean, there was a few
Speaker 1: play he made, a play he made he made a
Speaker 1: nice play to save a touchdown. Yeah, you know, showers, Okay,
Speaker 1: he showed some range there, but he also had I
Speaker 1: think he gave up at least one touchdown, maybe another.
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean the whole thing they were scrambling.
Speaker 1: I thought we would see him at corner or some
Speaker 1: that they were probably really close to doing that. Now,
Speaker 1: let's not forget. You know, he did miss sometime this
Speaker 1: week with a growing injury. I bet he was dealing
Speaker 1: with that a little bit, but he was healthy enough
Speaker 1: to play, and you know, it's got to get better
Speaker 1: with him too. It's unfortunate because of the injuries. But
Speaker 1: I mean, to this point, the optimism that they had
Speaker 1: in the secondary, you know, improving it through talent alone
Speaker 1: is not I mean, it's not coming to bear through
Speaker 1: two games and it's early in the season. But you know,
Speaker 1: you have that optimism in the offseason before games actually
Speaker 1: start getting played. And this is what it's actually looked
Speaker 1: like through two games, which, again, to be fair, there
Speaker 1: have been a lot of injuries, but doesn't look awesome.
Speaker 1: I think I think as as fans and spectators and
Speaker 1: media like, I think we're bit spoiled. Maybe, and that's
Speaker 1: maybe a wrong word because it's only been one year,
Speaker 1: but I think I think everybody looks at the immediate
Speaker 1: success of that rookie class last year and they forget
Speaker 1: that rookies take sometimes and most of the time, vast
Speaker 1: majority of the time, it takes rookies a little bit
Speaker 1: of time. And in these cornerbacks, you were expecting them
Speaker 1: to come in and be able to contribute early, and
Speaker 1: especially the cornerbacks, they missed a significant amount of time
Speaker 1: during training camp, which which is which is really their
Speaker 1: only training for the NFL. Yeah, and so to expect
Speaker 1: that they were going to be able to be thrown
Speaker 1: out there yesterday and all of a sudden be able
Speaker 1: to just play, I just think that's a lot to
Speaker 1: ask for for rookies cornerback. Yeah. Let me also throw
Speaker 1: this part out too, because we've said this several times
Speaker 1: about the defense, like facing this defense, it's they're not
Speaker 1: always going to be this tough. You're not always going
Speaker 1: to face defenses like that. That being said, they get
Speaker 1: better than Trevor Simeons, they get better than c. J. Andrews,
Speaker 1: better offense. So that's that's part of it as well.
Speaker 1: And so it's you could kind of take one thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was a bad loss all the way around,
Speaker 1: no way to slice it. The special teams was bad.
Speaker 1: I mean, well they had some moments, but they had
Speaker 1: some They had some misues too. But the one thing
Speaker 1: I will say is in the dack Ar this team
Speaker 1: has been able to perform against better against good offenses
Speaker 1: than they have against good defenses. They played great defenses,
Speaker 1: they struggle, they played great offenses. They can they can
Speaker 1: play with them because again they can stick within how
Speaker 1: they play offense, and that's how they good. I'll take
Speaker 1: my chances against all the best quarterbacks in the NFL
Speaker 1: absolutely before I want to play a defense like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but in more parts of that. But I think that
Speaker 1: you know, teams got to be kind of careful there
Speaker 1: because this they're gonna look at it and say this
Speaker 1: is the blueprint go up there and you stop them.
Speaker 1: Look and you stop these guys on the outside. But
Speaker 1: that's and you're right, the blueprints right there. The Cardinals
Speaker 1: will try, you know, I guess what the Giants set
Speaker 1: the blueprint last year. Only the Vikings could replicate it,
Speaker 1: and they couldn't replicate it to a win. My point
Speaker 1: was going to be that there's, like I said, I
Speaker 1: really only think there's so many teams in the league
Speaker 1: that can replicate that blueprint. You can try if you
Speaker 1: want to, But how many teams have they played. I
Speaker 1: don't know, something like fifteen teams. If you take out
Speaker 1: repeat against division opponents, three of them have managed to
Speaker 1: put that plan together. So I don't think it's worth
Speaker 1: panicking over. It's definitely something to consider when you're going
Speaker 1: up against these types of teams, especially if you get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. Yep, you gotta win your division. We
Speaker 1: know that. And nobody in this division is going to
Speaker 1: go run away with anybody or anything. You know. It
Speaker 1: looks like, depending on what the Giants do, Night might
Speaker 1: have a four way time here in the second week,
Speaker 1: which is not uncommon all. It looks like everybody's gonna
Speaker 1: be bunched up together, and that's probably gonna look like
Speaker 1: a lot of the season. I would have suspect there's
Speaker 1: not gonna be an eleven game winning streak after this loss.
Speaker 1: Who knows. Maybe they were one and one after last
Speaker 1: season two, weren't they? That was fun? Yea, let's do
Speaker 1: that again. All right, guys, we appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 1: We're back tomorrow at our normal time of nine thirty
Speaker 1: AMS Central Time till then for Nick even, Dave Hellman,
Speaker 1: Amber Garcia on Derek Eagles. And this has been The
Speaker 1: Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has
Speaker 1: been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys Football Club.