Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This He's Talking Cowboys,
Speaker 1: screening live from the Dallas Cowboys World Headhowarters at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisia. No, your hosts Nicky Spagnola, Rob Phillips,
Speaker 1: Everson Walls, and Bill Jones, And welcome into Talking Cowboys
Speaker 1: inside the SWBC Mortgage Studio. Rob Phillips and for Bill Jones,
Speaker 1: off for it. You decide that I will not weird.
Speaker 1: We are not better off. We're not right, Mack. Are
Speaker 1: you okay? No, he's not. Oh he's going headphone less.
Speaker 1: Oh he's left the noise cancelers on and the battery
Speaker 1: ran down. No, yeah, I want to come sit by me.
Speaker 1: I'll stay in my spot. Had a power through this.
Speaker 1: We're off to a roaring start today. Yes, we hope
Speaker 1: everybody had a happy Holidays. Yes I did. Did you did?
Speaker 1: It was fun? Get some rest? I know, no rest, no,
Speaker 1: no rest. It was all about family and yes that's
Speaker 1: the good thing about is Christmas and my family. We
Speaker 1: had a good time. Yeah. I think I wore myself
Speaker 1: out on Christmas Eves. I believe it. Christmas Day was
Speaker 1: kind of recovery day. What did you do on Christmas Eve? Oh,
Speaker 1: we had a bunch of people over, did a lot
Speaker 1: of cooking. I had a glass of wine or four
Speaker 1: or five. That's the nick I know some veno. Well, hey,
Speaker 1: i'd love it to you. I'd love to hear you
Speaker 1: do the jack black jack reading. I got it? Well, no, no,
Speaker 1: oh like that after five? Probably better that happens right?
Speaker 1: Rate more well, and what about you tip the same thing? Family?
Speaker 1: It's nice ever since You're right, it's nice to take
Speaker 1: just a break from this season and kind of put
Speaker 1: things in perspective. But we're back at it today, and
Speaker 1: the team is back at it today, practicing outside on
Speaker 1: a Thursday, even though not going on the road. Their
Speaker 1: day out there, back at home on Sunday. Yeah, nice,
Speaker 1: little overcast, but preparing for those Washington Redskins. We'll have
Speaker 1: Bill Jones back tomorrow. Sometimes it's good to get out
Speaker 1: of your routine, change things up a little bit. I think,
Speaker 1: so kind of refresh. Let's hope it works. I just
Speaker 1: want to work it needs. They have all these remedies,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't work. Everything's yeah, we want to lay
Speaker 1: this out for I mean, okay, guys, you guys are okay,
Speaker 1: that's all right. You've been having the tough day, you've
Speaker 1: been having the tough year. It's okay. All you need
Speaker 1: is just so vast and you'll be good. That is
Speaker 1: not it? No, not so far right. Wish that was
Speaker 1: the game. These guys need to be focused, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't look like they get a higher level of intensity
Speaker 1: than anyone around these holidays. It doesn't look like they
Speaker 1: got any healthier either. By the way, Well, let's go
Speaker 1: through it. This list is pretty long. Vacation I needed
Speaker 1: two patents. It looks like, yeah, I'm looking at vacation
Speaker 1: for them or allay? I mean? Is that the mindset
Speaker 1: in this in this arena, that would be That would
Speaker 1: be like the last slap in the face, because, as
Speaker 1: I wrote yesterday, the biggest fear should be the motivation
Speaker 1: should be that you don't win and the Eagles get beat.
Speaker 1: That would scare me to death. I know I would
Speaker 1: be out there trying as hard as I can because
Speaker 1: I don't want that on my legacy of You could
Speaker 1: have won the division title at eight and eight and
Speaker 1: gone to the playoffs, but you didn't beat the three
Speaker 1: and twelve Redskins. Wow, because all year they've been saying
Speaker 1: to us after every loss, we control our own destiny,
Speaker 1: still control our own destiny. Well you don't now, but
Speaker 1: you could. Isn't that sad that the last weeks and
Speaker 1: weeks and weeks of this every week you right, we've
Speaker 1: said that every week and when it was like a
Speaker 1: broken record. So when you guys sit there and you
Speaker 1: go to the press conference, doesn't that sound like a
Speaker 1: broken record? Yeah? Done everything he said, sound like a
Speaker 1: broken record. Done every post game interview, sound like a
Speaker 1: broken record. Yeah, I mean you took it, took you
Speaker 1: and I think I got this right. Fifteen games to
Speaker 1: fall out of first place? Wow? Is that in the
Speaker 1: first place the whole time? Right? Or tiedelievable because when
Speaker 1: they were three and three, I don't think the Eagles
Speaker 1: had a winning record, so that no one else did either.
Speaker 1: That door has been opened for such a long time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just waiting for the Cowboys to just walk through and
Speaker 1: shut it behind. And I'm not sure when they took
Speaker 1: over first place last year at the end of the
Speaker 1: season when they finished ten and six and won seven
Speaker 1: of their last eight, so at some point they moved
Speaker 1: into first place. So it's been a while since they
Speaker 1: haven't been in first place, and that that team's destiny
Speaker 1: seem to be the opposite of what this team's yeah destiny,
Speaker 1: because they were winning all those close games. He talked
Speaker 1: about it, eight out of ten were one score games,
Speaker 1: and this year they've lost everyone that's been a one
Speaker 1: score game. God, this lost six games, right, So do
Speaker 1: those things even out? Like, you're not gonna win them
Speaker 1: all and you're not gonna lose them all. But over
Speaker 1: a course of two seasons it evens itself out. You
Speaker 1: get about fifty fifty on one score games. And once
Speaker 1: again it goes back to you've got the players, is
Speaker 1: it the coaching? Do the players of this caliber? Do
Speaker 1: they need to be motivated? As you spoke of just
Speaker 1: a minute ago, do they need to be motivated? These
Speaker 1: are players that are getting paid a lot of money.
Speaker 1: You got a lot of linebackers something I don't think
Speaker 1: some of the highest paid linebackers maybe in the NFL,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. No, he's not making much. Vander
Speaker 1: esh was on his rookie deal, yes, and san Sean
Speaker 1: took a pay cut to come back and play this year.
Speaker 1: It's just him like serious, like he's making two million
Speaker 1: b bo. I'm sure he was thinking he was going
Speaker 1: to do it because this team has the potential right
Speaker 1: to be off the charts. Such same thing with Whitten, Right,
Speaker 1: he didn't take what he normally makes to come back,
Speaker 1: but he thought this is I'm sure he thought the
Speaker 1: same thing. Oh ten and six, you know, if I
Speaker 1: come back and help out here we go. Hey with Witten,
Speaker 1: he I think he kind of missed his little opportunity
Speaker 1: that he he went into the booth. I think that's
Speaker 1: when things to change for him all of a sudden. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, his hairline goes and he's back with the
Speaker 1: cop and think about it, the cornerbacks aren't you know,
Speaker 1: making big bucks? Oh no, right, the safety the only
Speaker 1: guy that's got paid. The only guy that got paid
Speaker 1: on this defense was DeMarcus Lawrence. You know, Quinn was
Speaker 1: on a you know, uh like a five million dollar
Speaker 1: base and then he had a a bonus for seven
Speaker 1: and a half sacks, so he got that ten and
Speaker 1: a half and I think he had a per game
Speaker 1: bonus also, so but still no one was making like
Speaker 1: ten to twelve thirteen million a year on this team.
Speaker 1: I forgot what Byron Jones would have been on his
Speaker 1: fifth year. Um um, I forget is it like nine
Speaker 1: or ten something like that. Yeah, yeah, and he's played.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't have any more interceptions this year
Speaker 1: than he had last year. I hate to say it,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of no. But you know what if
Speaker 1: you take him off of the secondary and where are
Speaker 1: they at right now? Yah? Know, So just you know,
Speaker 1: turnovers aside, and I know you're the you're you're the
Speaker 1: one of the godfathers of interceptions in the in the
Speaker 1: second area there without an interception. That was that was
Speaker 1: amazing to me. I talked to him about that. I
Speaker 1: talked to him about how did you do that? You know,
Speaker 1: how do you do that? I don't think there's ever
Speaker 1: been a pro bowler that didn't have an interception. That's
Speaker 1: got to be an NFL record. It's because normally they'd
Speaker 1: look at stats, right, So that's the first thing you
Speaker 1: can numbers. I don't know how many times you get toasted,
Speaker 1: they're gonna consider you, right if you've got a number
Speaker 1: of interceptions. Yeah, absolutely. And so when you look at
Speaker 1: this team and you look at the not just the individuals,
Speaker 1: but you look at this group when this season is
Speaker 1: all said and done, they're gonna be who's gonna point
Speaker 1: the finger at who linebackers at that DB's offensive line,
Speaker 1: You're gonna point out the defensive line. And to me,
Speaker 1: the answer, the answer is you all failed. There's not
Speaker 1: You're right there. There's not a position on this team
Speaker 1: that you can look at and say they've been one
Speaker 1: hundred percent consistent throughout the season, and that bar is tough.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent? Is it to give me a lower percentage?
Speaker 1: And it's still gonna be. It's gonna be a few,
Speaker 1: just a few groups, and they're gonna look back at this.
Speaker 1: And so you can help with the history here, it's
Speaker 1: been I would think quite some time that a Cowboys
Speaker 1: team that so much was expected of did this. Didn't
Speaker 1: give us anything because normally there was a reason for it,
Speaker 1: right like in twenty fifteen, Tony Romo played four games,
Speaker 1: finished two, and there was a reason why they finished
Speaker 1: the way they did, you know, twenty seventeen, nine and seven,
Speaker 1: but Zeke misses six games and they had an effect
Speaker 1: on this team, the one that it reminds me of.
Speaker 1: And it's not over yet, but oh eight, they won
Speaker 1: the first three games of the season, and everybody was
Speaker 1: talking about how this is a super Bowl team won
Speaker 1: thirteen games a year ago. Naturally they're gonna take the
Speaker 1: next step. Right, finished nine and seven. Now, Tony Romo
Speaker 1: missed three games, l two of them. Yeah, and that
Speaker 1: probably costs him at the end of the cost him
Speaker 1: getting in the playoffs. And they went to fill weeks
Speaker 1: seventeen with with a chance to get in and they
Speaker 1: got blown out. I don't know that you could look
Speaker 1: at this season and say, okay, there's why, right, it
Speaker 1: wasn't like a quarterback injury. I mean this season, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is and I call it last season. Yeah, this season.
Speaker 1: So no, and Jerry has been quick to point out
Speaker 1: on his radio segments, this is a pretty healthy football
Speaker 1: team overall. I mean, he makes a point of saying that,
Speaker 1: and he's right. We knew in twenty two thousand through
Speaker 1: two thousand and two this team, the roster wasn't very good. Uh,
Speaker 1: Troy got hurt in two thousand. Uh, you know, things
Speaker 1: went downhill. You didn't have a quarterback and O one,
Speaker 1: O two miracle and oh three oh four you brought
Speaker 1: in Vinny Testaverdi because you wanted a veteran backup right,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, he's got a start
Speaker 1: fifteen game, right, right, pretty right? I remember that, you know,
Speaker 1: I can take you nineteen ninety nine when they finished
Speaker 1: eight and eight, but they lost Michael after a three
Speaker 1: and old start. They got off to a great start.
Speaker 1: They didn't have wide receivers, right, So ninety seven, I
Speaker 1: don't know if anybody thought ninety seven was going to happen, right,
Speaker 1: and they fell apart they were six seven five. But
Speaker 1: but there's the difference that that team was getting older. Yes,
Speaker 1: the core of that team was getting older. And that's
Speaker 1: why this one is so surprising. Trying to right, we
Speaker 1: don't have anything, don't because this this was a young
Speaker 1: This is a young team that was even younger last
Speaker 1: year that started three and five, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you get Amari Cooper and they grew up. They grew
Speaker 1: up down the stretch. They were able to win closer
Speaker 1: games because I think they the experience benefited them. And
Speaker 1: to y'all's point, and six and games decided by one
Speaker 1: score less this year, yeah, and someone won. And some
Speaker 1: of these games haven't been close, and they haven't shown
Speaker 1: the same Uh, resolve against adversity on the road the
Speaker 1: best word. We have, no resolve. It seems like every
Speaker 1: time we hit some type of adversity, we're ready to buckle.
Speaker 1: We're ready to buckle, it takes us. And then when
Speaker 1: we do buckle, it takes us a while. We're reeling
Speaker 1: for so long, and then at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: here we are got a chance. Guys, we're still in it.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like a distance runner who coasted and
Speaker 1: then that last lap. Okay, my high school track coach
Speaker 1: I hated that. You come sprinting across the run. You
Speaker 1: will hear his voice all over the stadium, the late
Speaker 1: John Freeman. Guys, you man rest in peace. But I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that it's that's kind of how it is.
Speaker 1: We don't We always take sometimes even a game to
Speaker 1: make adjustments. Going back to Atlanta, that gets the heck
Speaker 1: beat out of him. One guy makes a pro bow
Speaker 1: along him in one game made his career. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean, but look how long it took it. We
Speaker 1: didn't even make the adjustment of that game. We didn't
Speaker 1: even put in two tight ends that game. We didn't
Speaker 1: even have a back to chip him that game. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: the next time they started Cameron Fleming, they had two
Speaker 1: tight ends in Low Long that was the next year,
Speaker 1: this year, and then even after that the next week,
Speaker 1: then I was suddenly, oh we got we got dacks back.
Speaker 1: Now we're gonna get protected. But yeah, he just got
Speaker 1: sacked what was it eight times in Atlanta? Okay, So
Speaker 1: our coaching staff, for some reason, I don't know if
Speaker 1: it comes from, they don't trust the players to grasp
Speaker 1: the changes and the adjustment that needs to be made, uh,
Speaker 1: in real time, in real time. When they finally made
Speaker 1: the change in the third quarter in that Atlanta game
Speaker 1: and brought Fleming in, it didn't get any better. It
Speaker 1: didn't get us the same same thing. They just needed
Speaker 1: help over there, and that's all you just to But
Speaker 1: I think they were just stubborn. I think they thought
Speaker 1: that with um A Green in there, uh taking tiring spot,
Speaker 1: that they'd seen him play well before, so it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: sometime it's gonna come along. It's gonna come along and
Speaker 1: at halftime and it hadn't come along. And it took
Speaker 1: them midway through the third quarter to take Chaz Green
Speaker 1: out and put Fleming in, and it didn't get any
Speaker 1: better once again the whole time, and they were they
Speaker 1: were just stubborn. And I know what it cost problem.
Speaker 1: I think it costs the offensive line coach his job
Speaker 1: because they made the change. No doubt that they cost him.
Speaker 1: And it's a ripple effect. That entire season was a
Speaker 1: ripple effect. That's why your offensive coordinated from last year
Speaker 1: it's gone as well. Yeah, it was a ripple effect
Speaker 1: all the way down the line. So I'm just wondering
Speaker 1: if we need I wonder why we don't have more
Speaker 1: of a sense of urgency to make the adjustments sometimes
Speaker 1: they made I mean next drive right. I've been on
Speaker 1: teams where they've made that the next drive ye. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing about Philly last week. Doug Peterson is
Speaker 1: in a situation where he doesn't have any receivers. Zach
Speaker 1: Ertz gets banged up in the game. But they found
Speaker 1: a way to kind of read refigure things offensively and
Speaker 1: win ball games. And yeah they didn't. They said, not
Speaker 1: next guy up, We're just gonna use two tight ends
Speaker 1: because there are two best wide receivers. Guess when that
Speaker 1: falls right into our lap, well, we we fall into
Speaker 1: their lap, I would I would say, because now they're strict,
Speaker 1: and how they were able to to survive the way
Speaker 1: they weble to struggle and still make it in those
Speaker 1: two games and still be victorious. Yeah, and now that
Speaker 1: that fall, that fell right into our weakness, right tight
Speaker 1: ends running backs and when I can't get back into
Speaker 1: the into the eighties. Eighty six, Danny got hurt, right,
Speaker 1: Pilau wasn't good enough to finish those last seven games.
Speaker 1: Eighty seven, the strike was there kind of screwed things up.
Speaker 1: Now eighty eight. I don't know what everybody thought the
Speaker 1: eighty eight team was going to be, but it was
Speaker 1: done right, it was it was I put it like this,
Speaker 1: that was the most competitive what we three three, three
Speaker 1: and thirteen. That was the most competitive three and thirteen teams, right,
Speaker 1: I've ever been on. There was a lot of close games.
Speaker 1: I just didn't win them. Didn't win them, didn't win them.
Speaker 1: And and a lot of people thought that Tom's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, age right was getting in the way of
Speaker 1: him being more aggressive on calling plays and being more
Speaker 1: heads up. Right. Yeah, we knew it was gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Eighty nine. Yes, the surprising thing was ninety because they
Speaker 1: won seventy games and it's so funny about ninety we
Speaker 1: won three preseason games and we're like, man, we're going
Speaker 1: to nine eighty nine. Remember nine, we're winning field goal
Speaker 1: against Houston the final, the last preseason game, I think
Speaker 1: or something. I mean, I'm not sending to you a
Speaker 1: fumble return. We were like, whoa, we are good. We
Speaker 1: were like, no, that's so much So it's been a
Speaker 1: while since this has happened to this and every we
Speaker 1: had excuses on all of those years is where you started.
Speaker 1: Excuses in all of those years. I mean legitimate, exclusive excuses.
Speaker 1: No talents. You know, we're getting older. It is what
Speaker 1: it is. You can't change for the time. This team
Speaker 1: no excuses now, they're just they're young, they've been relatively healthy,
Speaker 1: paid and yeah, and just haven't gotten it done technically.
Speaker 1: They're still alive. Got to beat the Redskins on Sunday
Speaker 1: and hopefully loses to the Giants. Let's take our first
Speaker 1: break and we'll come back. Let's carry this over and
Speaker 1: get to some of the injuries as we look towards
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Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. Better to talk in Cowboys. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys inside the SWBC Mortgage studio, Rob Phillips, Everson Walls,
Speaker 1: making Spagnola here for the next twenty minutes or so.
Speaker 1: Cowboys practicing outside. They've got the Redskins at home on Sunday,
Speaker 1: the regular season finale. Will find out about six thirty
Speaker 1: seven o'clock on Sunday whether the season continues. We need
Speaker 1: a couple of things to happen in order for that
Speaker 1: to happen. And Nick, you're chotting down what you got?
Speaker 1: What do you think we should have a split screen
Speaker 1: on the big video board half giants. Oh, that ego
Speaker 1: will happen. No, because they change, they change the time.
Speaker 1: They will not do though, been on the video board.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no no. In regards to the networks, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would look forward to that. Got to get dicey
Speaker 1: on both sides, or either side. Yeah, the other see
Speaker 1: what they're and they changed it. What we were playing
Speaker 1: at noon and now with those games we're gonna be new. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they changed both of them. Come on, man, that
Speaker 1: they want us to fail on national television. That's what
Speaker 1: they want. This is not about Cowboy fans. You We're
Speaker 1: gonna give you a chance to root your team on
Speaker 1: and support them nationwide. No, that's not what it's about.
Speaker 1: They want to see the Cowboys fall flat on their face.
Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith is gonna be I'll get the Cowboy
Speaker 1: hat on, right, Yeah. Yeah. Those those those end zone
Speaker 1: um scoreboards that have stats on them, they just should
Speaker 1: have the running total of the Eagles Giants. So I'm
Speaker 1: just telling you this is this is score time out
Speaker 1: to be Uh how can I put? This could turn
Speaker 1: out to be uh real satisfaction for the Cowboys. It could,
Speaker 1: and that is a shame that they have this opportunity.
Speaker 1: You know, God is good because there's no way a
Speaker 1: team should still have a chance like this. And they
Speaker 1: know it. They know it, and they I mean they
Speaker 1: set it back after the is It Chicago and they
Speaker 1: still found themselves in first place after losing on the road,
Speaker 1: and now at seven and eight. Here's a stat from
Speaker 1: Gil Brandt. We'll get to the injuries in the second,
Speaker 1: but the great Gil brand tweets the Cowboys have the
Speaker 1: best point differential plus eighty two and yardage differential plus
Speaker 1: fourteen hundred and twenty six of any sub five hundred
Speaker 1: team in the Super Bowl era. Last year, the last year,
Speaker 1: they were ten and six with a plus fifteen point
Speaker 1: differential and plus two thirty three yardage deferential, which just
Speaker 1: it speaks again to just how puzzling the season has been.
Speaker 1: They put up yards, they put up points, but they
Speaker 1: have eight losses and are staring playoff watching playoffs at
Speaker 1: home in the face. So it just qualifies what we've
Speaker 1: been talking about. And to me, I promise you guys,
Speaker 1: you can say what you want. The numbers for defense
Speaker 1: is good. Whether they still ain't top ten defensive, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe something. You lost two games when you gave up
Speaker 1: thirteen points and seventeen points of defense only gave up
Speaker 1: six of those. And offensively we don't have them any
Speaker 1: turnout what's doing. I mean, we're not there about they're
Speaker 1: about even. I bet so. Then you look at that's
Speaker 1: just how important it is defensively to tilt that scale.
Speaker 1: Yes you must tilt the scale. Yes, your dige is amazing,
Speaker 1: But the turnover differential, to me and I we've always
Speaker 1: taken it for granted here in this in this organization.
Speaker 1: I'm going way back to Valley Ranch. I'm going way
Speaker 1: back to Abham's road. Okay, Mail, rentfro Cornell Green, Charlie Waters, Okay,
Speaker 1: Dennis Thurma, Thermo Steves, Dion Sanders, Okay, Darren Woodson. This
Speaker 1: is something that we have taken for granted all this
Speaker 1: time because it's all about offensively. We've you know, we've
Speaker 1: got these stars offensively, we've got this defensive linement. Well,
Speaker 1: the real catalysts of any successful team, and we've we've
Speaker 1: seen it with the Patriots, We've seen me with some
Speaker 1: of the better teams. You've got to have a turnover
Speaker 1: hungry defense. You have to have a turnover hungry defense.
Speaker 1: I don't care how good your offense is. And the
Speaker 1: Cowboys have that culture is no longer here. It's almost
Speaker 1: as if they're immune to interceptions, which is amazing to me.
Speaker 1: It's just amazing to me with these great athletes that
Speaker 1: we have. A Woozier got benched because forgetting the seven.
Speaker 1: You couldn't even cover a guy. Okay, he looked like
Speaker 1: he was tight. He looked like he's going was tight.
Speaker 1: Everybody else had warmed up, looked like he didn't. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have those plays. A defensive back. But to
Speaker 1: offset any of that, you must redeem yourself with tonos.
Speaker 1: And and here's how incongruent it is. Their giveaways are
Speaker 1: the eleventh fewest in the league. So they've got seventeen
Speaker 1: come on, and I don't know that's not all that bad.
Speaker 1: They've lost six fumbles um eleven interceptions. Dack's interceptions are
Speaker 1: up a little bit this year. But but he's throwing
Speaker 1: the ball. He's throwing the ball, damn near fifty times
Speaker 1: a game. Okay, Now on takeaways, only four teams have
Speaker 1: fewer than their fifteen takeaways, six interceptions, nine fumble recoveries US. Yes,
Speaker 1: so that yeah, wow, that's a lot more than I thought.
Speaker 1: But only six interceptions, and I'm guessing that is quickly
Speaker 1: looking tied for with Detroit for the fewest in the league. Six.
Speaker 1: They sit at a minus two turnover margin Reverson tied
Speaker 1: for seventeenth, and they are ranked eleventh in total defense.
Speaker 1: But there needs to be a tweak in the rankings
Speaker 1: formula for defense, I mean, because it's based just off
Speaker 1: of yardage. Yes, and they're giving up three hundred thirty yards.
Speaker 1: Tell you didn't tell you doing the important parts of
Speaker 1: the game, last two minutes of the game, last five
Speaker 1: minutes of the game. How many third downs? What's our
Speaker 1: third down percentage? How long they keep the drives going
Speaker 1: when we need the ball back? Yep. Those the kind
Speaker 1: of things that aren't quantified. And you're talking about you
Speaker 1: and I think they should be able to factor takeaways
Speaker 1: into that formula too, because that is that's as important
Speaker 1: a measure of a defense as anything. How quarterback on
Speaker 1: all of that, So why shouldn't you wait the defense
Speaker 1: on it? I agree, they just do it by yards
Speaker 1: and it's you know, and I think this is the
Speaker 1: first time since I want to say, the second week
Speaker 1: of the season that their total offense and total defense
Speaker 1: hasn't ranked in the top ten. They fell out defensive
Speaker 1: league to the eleven. There's still number one offensively in
Speaker 1: total yards because they gave up what four hundred something.
Speaker 1: And this is all what I used to complain about
Speaker 1: with Tony Romo. Uh he would you know, we would
Speaker 1: all fall into into a deficit a lot of times.
Speaker 1: He was thrown pick six his members Detroit game. He
Speaker 1: became he became this quarterback because the team really wasn't
Speaker 1: all that good, especially defensively. He's trying his best to
Speaker 1: make everything happen. You get a couple of big pick sixes,
Speaker 1: you're down fourteen nothing, and okay, Romo, forget the running game,
Speaker 1: and that's what Dack's doing, either by his own devices
Speaker 1: or whatever goes on. You put yourself in this part.
Speaker 1: Now you gotta fight your way out and throwing one
Speaker 1: in one. Oh those stats look good. Wow, Look he's
Speaker 1: got four hundred yards, but that doesn't really tell the stormid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, uh injuries, Yeah, what you got over there?
Speaker 1: We promised the injury Well I got twice four guys,
Speaker 1: and this was only an estimation yesterday, but I think
Speaker 1: he qualified the estimation today about who's probably not practicing
Speaker 1: because the four guys that didn't practice yesterday where DeMarcus
Speaker 1: Lawrence with a shoulder, Sean Lee Peck thigh, uh, Tyrn
Speaker 1: Smith with a back, and Dak with the shoulder. Now.
Speaker 1: I just saw Tyrn Smith this morning. It was all
Speaker 1: he could do to walk in here on his own
Speaker 1: two feet. So that back's really tightened up on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and because that's a big bay. Yeah, absolutely, So it
Speaker 1: didn't sound like Dak was going to do much today.
Speaker 1: Didn't sound like DeMarcus Lawrence was going to do much.
Speaker 1: Joe Thomas probably not going to do much. Uh So,
Speaker 1: I don't know that any of these things over Christmas,
Speaker 1: anybody laid hands on him and said, okay, you're good
Speaker 1: and and by the way, so and that I envy
Speaker 1: right event, And then that doesn't account for having already
Speaker 1: placed Suephilo on injured reserve. He broke the fibula, so
Speaker 1: you know how, you know how you get a high
Speaker 1: ankle sprain and they say, well, sometimes it's better just
Speaker 1: to break or tear. Well, he did both. He broke
Speaker 1: his fibula and he's got a torn ligament in there too,
Speaker 1: because when I saw him in that walking boot leaving
Speaker 1: the game, I said, high ankle sprain, and then it
Speaker 1: was worse than that, and that's why they did the surgery.
Speaker 1: And then also latent Vanderish on injury reserve. Finally, and
Speaker 1: he's going to have surgery in a couple of weeks now.
Speaker 1: Somewhere along the line, somewhere along the line it was
Speaker 1: called mentally invasive. Well I've found out that basically what
Speaker 1: he's having is interior cervical dyssectomy, which means they go
Speaker 1: in and they take the disc out between his fifth
Speaker 1: and sixth vertebrae in your neck and and what they do,
Speaker 1: and it's also called fusion, and so they take some
Speaker 1: bone from your hip and put it in the space
Speaker 1: where the disc should be and they fuse it in there.
Speaker 1: It was and it's the same thing Daryl Johnston had,
Speaker 1: Chad Headings had it, and rocket Ishmael had it. So
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound minimally invasive to me anytimes. And I
Speaker 1: think I saw somebody here say it was minor. Well,
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound minor to me. Jason Garrett called him. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And so four months rehab, so he's basically gonna maybe
Speaker 1: be ready for the surgery before rehab. Yeah, okay, I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever minus surgery. So they people, we
Speaker 1: got some questions from fans why they waited to do this.
Speaker 1: I think they were trying to let it calm down, Well,
Speaker 1: let the inflammation calm down, you see if he could
Speaker 1: do it on its own. And what people don't understand
Speaker 1: is it's surgery. You don't just you know, go out
Speaker 1: there and say, okay, let's go, let's cut the guy's neck, right.
Speaker 1: You try to medically treat it, and you hold the
Speaker 1: less resort invasive surgery. That's what doctors think because what
Speaker 1: you want to do is treated medically. And and again,
Speaker 1: if it was your back, you would get a shot.
Speaker 1: I don't think they can give you a shot in
Speaker 1: your neck. So what they do is they it's it's
Speaker 1: like an oral treatment to try to reduce the swelling
Speaker 1: of the herniated disc. And it it didn't work, and
Speaker 1: they were hoping and hoping and hoping, and I think
Speaker 1: the last time they did the exam it was like,
Speaker 1: this has got to be fixed. There's no two ways
Speaker 1: about it. Because the last thing you want to do
Speaker 1: is take discs out if you don't have to. So
Speaker 1: what I mean we're talking to me sounds like major surgery.
Speaker 1: You're taking a disc, right, and we've been putting it
Speaker 1: into How's it gonna his career? Is it? In? Jeffany? No?
Speaker 1: I those guys that I mentioned had it and came
Speaker 1: back and played. And so you know what you do.
Speaker 1: All those guys came back. They all came back and played.
Speaker 1: So but what what you what you uh jeopardize is
Speaker 1: if another disc goes in that same area, the last
Speaker 1: thing you want to do is have like three vertebrae
Speaker 1: feuds together, because then you will be Randy White. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Randy can't even look up in the sky enough. For real,
Speaker 1: he can't look up in the sky. You're right, that
Speaker 1: is a scary thing. And so you don't want that
Speaker 1: to happen. No, and that that lets you know, guys,
Speaker 1: and I know we're talking about Andrew, but that's just
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta put that into perspective about how
Speaker 1: dangerous this game really is. Well, how old is VANDUS
Speaker 1: twenty two? Yeah, scary man to have to go through
Speaker 1: something like that, and we take it for granted because
Speaker 1: people haven't served you all the time in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and people complain about the salaries that they make, and
Speaker 1: you know that's scary, man. This this guy is an
Speaker 1: amazing athlete, you know, and forget all of that. I mean,
Speaker 1: you just want the guy to be healthy as a person, right,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to get him on the field and
Speaker 1: go out here and probably get hurt again. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you just kinda kind of put things into perspective about
Speaker 1: how dangerous this game in You know what helped me
Speaker 1: put in perspective watching LSU play their freshman corner Stingy
Speaker 1: and I and I heard his name and yeah, oh
Speaker 1: is that Daryl Stingley son. No, it's his son's son.
Speaker 1: And then it made me think, oh, that's right because
Speaker 1: that was Jack Tatum hit him and he was going
Speaker 1: for a quick slant and tam hit him head on
Speaker 1: and ended up paralyzed and in a wheelchair. And this this,
Speaker 1: this is his son's kid. So that was his great
Speaker 1: his grandfather. Yeah, but made me think of that, and
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, that dangerous game and here he is
Speaker 1: out here playing even after what happened to his grandfather. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And his dad was like, you know, that's his decisions, right,
Speaker 1: that's right, and his dad and I read a story
Speaker 1: and his dad qualified it as one of the best
Speaker 1: things that happened to me playing athletics was the discipline
Speaker 1: I learned and how you had to take care of
Speaker 1: your own business all the time every day. And he
Speaker 1: goes and I probably wouldn't have been the person I
Speaker 1: was or am if I had and played athletics. So, uh,
Speaker 1: this kid's a Freshman of the Year, I bet, and
Speaker 1: he'll last. I mean, if you watch him play corner
Speaker 1: at LSU, he's unbelievable. Yeah, as a freshman. So anyway,
Speaker 1: that made me think of that. I know, I just
Speaker 1: got off on a team build, big game for the
Speaker 1: sooner than Saturday night. He's gonna be watching. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: counter him to my own brigant do it just in case.
Speaker 1: Please get that going. I'd love to see that. All right,
Speaker 1: let's take our final break, come back, we'll wrap it up,
Speaker 1: uh and talk a little bit more about Dak and
Speaker 1: what to expect from him this week. I'm talking Cowboys
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Speaker 1: the other guys, we'd better than you was. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's more exciting. He's like black Jack. Yeah he could
Speaker 1: have done that four times before he got one that
Speaker 1: was good enough to keep you seem a little frazzled
Speaker 1: on that one. No, good job, good job. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Talking Cowboys. By the way, you had an error
Speaker 1: earlier talking about the offensive line in tweter seventeen. I
Speaker 1: apologize Byron Bell was the backup, not Cam Fleming. Right,
Speaker 1: it's only the second time I've made baby. They're on,
Speaker 1: They're blowing up my mentions about you, well, good on
Speaker 1: Rob's mentions than mine. You haven't been on Twitter in
Speaker 1: a while, have you. I'm out, No, I'm on. I
Speaker 1: just don't read the mentions. Okay, So if you all
Speaker 1: want to just kind of save your time, well you
Speaker 1: put him on Robs. You told some guy Monday, Hey,
Speaker 1: big boy, come tweet at me again. But Jordan Lewis
Speaker 1: didn't you know, I won't say you gotten that yet.
Speaker 1: I won't see it. I should check in, all right.
Speaker 1: Injury update from practice. According to Todd Archer, don't you
Speaker 1: know what I heard today what Mark Cuban was doing
Speaker 1: his yearly thing, and uh, he was talking about how
Speaker 1: you have to work really hard not to pay attention
Speaker 1: to people that tweet you because the people on Twitter
Speaker 1: are like twenty percent of the entire world, and so
Speaker 1: you get one or two people that aggravate you, you
Speaker 1: just gotta walk off. Because I think Mike Tyson said
Speaker 1: something about, yeah, you can say anything you want to
Speaker 1: somebody on Twitter or over the phone, because you can't
Speaker 1: get punched in the face, can't you. I can see
Speaker 1: him do some Twitter face. I don't think yeah, you
Speaker 1: just I can't punch him in the face. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't pay any attention to whatever they say. That's
Speaker 1: good words to live by for the new year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your black jack reading, go ahead and say what you want,
Speaker 1: because I can't punch you in the face. Not that
Speaker 1: I would punch anybody in the face. You would not
Speaker 1: do that, never verbally maybe never. Dak Prescott courting Todd
Speaker 1: Archer VSPN. Not throwing during the open portion of practice.
Speaker 1: I did go through. The walkthrough should be limited at
Speaker 1: best today as he was yesterday when he was not
Speaker 1: listed as a participant on the estimated interest. So at
Speaker 1: least he was doing the walkthrough, which was more than
Speaker 1: he did last week until Friday. So at least the
Speaker 1: walkthrough mean you're walking through all the plays and they
Speaker 1: weren't even asking him to do that last week. So
Speaker 1: that's it didn't seem to work well for him, not
Speaker 1: at all. I thought physically he looked great out there,
Speaker 1: but yeah, he just he just he looked hesitant, no
Speaker 1: pocket presence at all. The first drive, I believe he
Speaker 1: broke out. They kind of kip clipped him at the
Speaker 1: feed and he stumbled and got up and tried to
Speaker 1: run for a first down. Yeah, that's the best pocket
Speaker 1: present he showed. And that was a little shaky right there.
Speaker 1: So that was that started at the beginning of the game.
Speaker 1: It didn't get any better for him. Um, we could
Speaker 1: talk about all the drops we want and that was
Speaker 1: something and that can throw you off, but we don't
Speaker 1: expect that from that. Yeah, we just don't be fourth year. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: not only his fourth year, but even in this during
Speaker 1: this season, he's been our steady guy, and this particular game,
Speaker 1: he was extremely unsteady. Yeah. It was uncomfortable in the pocket.
Speaker 1: You could tell. And I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: in his mind that, Okay, I gotta look someplace to
Speaker 1: get this ball out because I'm not running and my
Speaker 1: shoulder and somebody could hit me at any time on
Speaker 1: my shoulder. Yeah, I got to get the ball out.
Speaker 1: Oh he did run that one time. Yeah, one time,
Speaker 1: but that was it right landed right on it, yeah
Speaker 1: seven Yeah, and and and it looked up. He looked great.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why he never did it again, because that
Speaker 1: I think the strange thing was not it was he
Speaker 1: he uh kind of went back to the same problems,
Speaker 1: you know, throwing behind you know, like he was last year.
Speaker 1: A couple of years ago. You know, it's like the
Speaker 1: pregame routine didn't really work. There are certain times where
Speaker 1: he saw he fired it in there right on that out,
Speaker 1: that's right. I mean he was fine. It was almost
Speaker 1: like he wasn't stepping into his passes like normal. And
Speaker 1: that had nothing to do with the shoulder. I think
Speaker 1: it was getting hurried, like okay, I got I gotta
Speaker 1: get this ball. And yeah, that that's always a factor.
Speaker 1: I won't care whether you're hurt or not. I don't
Speaker 1: care if your dad Prescott, or your my homes or
Speaker 1: you're Aaron. You see quarterbacks, I saw Aaron Rodgers the
Speaker 1: other night. I'm it wasn't a good game at all
Speaker 1: for him. It's just they're just right now, they're just
Speaker 1: human defenses. They get played, gay get paid also, and
Speaker 1: sometimes they can cross you up. But we just know
Speaker 1: that with Dak having all of the fourth coreter drives
Speaker 1: that we're accustomed to seeing game winning drives that he's
Speaker 1: accustomed to giving us. But this particular time, he just
Speaker 1: didn't seem to have the confidence that you talked about
Speaker 1: in two thy seventeen when you talk to him and
Speaker 1: said we're gonna win seven out of eight. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: comp that was you didn't see it in his body language,
Speaker 1: nor did you see it in his play. And when
Speaker 1: you did see it in his play, the drops continued.
Speaker 1: I believe for a team that has more drops than
Speaker 1: anybody else in the NFL, they do. And I don't
Speaker 1: know how much we touched on Amori on Monday, but
Speaker 1: his stretch that he's going through right now, it's not
Speaker 1: even close to what he was earlier in the season.
Speaker 1: Wasn't in anybody language as well. Yeah, it wasn't in
Speaker 1: for the end of the game. Neither was random. No
Speaker 1: one's touching on that. No one asked Jason Garrett about that.
Speaker 1: They didn't even is that not been asked and known.
Speaker 1: We haven't got a good answer. And he's not on
Speaker 1: the injury report. He was not on the injury report.
Speaker 1: It was not listed as an injury in the press
Speaker 1: box during the game. He doesn't. He doesn't seem the
Speaker 1: same to me off the line of scrimmage aspen. But
Speaker 1: he says his health is fine. So I take him
Speaker 1: at his word, and so he doesn't really reveal anything.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna he's not gonna go against h status
Speaker 1: quo Uh, I'm sure he's probably like Dak, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm okay, guys, no excuses. You know the previous game
Speaker 1: before the Eagle game, it was the Bears, got that
Speaker 1: before the Eagles game? Yeah, what was the game before
Speaker 1: the Rams? The Rams? The Rams they had started off
Speaker 1: doubling him, for sure, but the Eagles they were in
Speaker 1: basically man defense the whole game. And so that shouldn't
Speaker 1: have been difficult for Dak to read, by the way,
Speaker 1: because you're in man now. I mean, they were playing
Speaker 1: single safety high the entire game, and even when they
Speaker 1: played some weird zones, he still figured out the throws
Speaker 1: was just still bad. Yeah, and he was off and
Speaker 1: were bad. And then from Cooper standpoint, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: what do you attribute to I don't know, because his
Speaker 1: road home splits are they're a thing and I can't
Speaker 1: figure it out. But he's basically doubled his production at
Speaker 1: home compared to a way and he's gonna do it
Speaker 1: this week and some of those same thing this weekend games.
Speaker 1: I understand why it happens because one of the road
Speaker 1: games was New England, so that kind of that one
Speaker 1: shouldn't even be encountered in there, right, m but some
Speaker 1: of the other ones, Yeah, Chicago, Buffalo, and then there
Speaker 1: was games and he only played two snaps that was
Speaker 1: on the road the Jets, right, and so that all
Speaker 1: factors into his road kind of those two games almost
Speaker 1: he didn't play. So but yeah, last week, I mean,
Speaker 1: he needed to be more productive. He was in they
Speaker 1: were in man coverage and he's got to win those
Speaker 1: and I don't and I agree with you. He's just
Speaker 1: not getting off the line of scrimmage the way he
Speaker 1: normally does. So who knows. I hope they don't have
Speaker 1: an issue because this is and I say they, I
Speaker 1: mean it's is QB versus and wide receiver. They have
Speaker 1: to they have to communicate. So as much as we
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on, I hope they're talking to
Speaker 1: each other because this this is it, This is it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love I love Gallup, but he's not
Speaker 1: I go to guy. I do love Gallup. He has improved. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's made the draws, but this guy has still shown
Speaker 1: progress as far as a young receiver doing very well.
Speaker 1: I think Cole has got to be more involved in
Speaker 1: the game. I think on third day and we've got
Speaker 1: to look for Cob or look for Jarvis. Those two guys,
Speaker 1: you can't double both of them and Cooper, Okay, one
Speaker 1: of them has to be open. They got to win
Speaker 1: that one on one off the line. You said it everything,
Speaker 1: this is it very well, could be it anyway. Gotta
Speaker 1: win Sunday. Gotta have some help from me Eli Manning
Speaker 1: in the New York Giants. Oh God, and we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. Hey, no one's coming on him. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: turn that music off. The break will be next. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys for joining us. Bill will be back on Friday,
Speaker 1: and we'll wrap up the week. Talk a little Washington
Speaker 1: to finish out the week on Talking Cowboys on Fridays even.
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