Speaker 1: The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This he's Talking Cowboys,
Speaker 1: screaming live from the Dallas Cowboys World ahours at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisco. Saws Got tay Now your hosts, Nicky Spagnola,
Speaker 1: Rob Phillips, Everson Walls, and Bill Jones, and welcome into
Speaker 1: Talking Cowboys inside the SWBC Mortgage studio here at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisco. Rob Phillips hosting for Bill Jones for
Speaker 1: another day. Hope to get him back later in the week.
Speaker 1: The Great Everson Walls across the table from me. I
Speaker 1: am now official. He's now official. I am now as
Speaker 1: he's on the signage. He's got a badge. I got
Speaker 1: a badge. Hey, I want I want to just uh
Speaker 1: ground rules here. I'm official now, Okay, No, what is it?
Speaker 1: Mike Fences is his name? No, No moments like that. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know I'm talking about silent. What he was a
Speaker 1: silent which was not silent, It was deadly. We'll avoid
Speaker 1: that none of that here, Okay. Can we just agree now?
Speaker 1: Go ahead? Uh? Because he spoke from the other side
Speaker 1: of his his body, which I'm sure people think he
Speaker 1: says that all does that all the time anyway, But no,
Speaker 1: it was a it was unsolicited comment from the other
Speaker 1: side of his from the back side of his body.
Speaker 1: And uh, he tried to deny it, right, and he's
Speaker 1: the only one in the studio. What what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? What are you gonna say? He did well,
Speaker 1: he played it off real well. And now they've they've
Speaker 1: got this controversy out there about who dealt it and
Speaker 1: who smelt it. They could have just said it was
Speaker 1: a drop, yeah, which drop, very odd drop. So we'll
Speaker 1: have none of that, none of that. I'm official now
Speaker 1: now that he's official. Yes, and not from you, even
Speaker 1: on your birthday today, Happy birthday. I appreciate that and
Speaker 1: yours kind of close to it. Yeah, I'm at the
Speaker 1: end of the month. End of the month. You guys
Speaker 1: gave me a cake one time, Bill, Bill gave me
Speaker 1: a cake. I was at the Gay Lord, and uh,
Speaker 1: that's right, give this show out there, gave me a
Speaker 1: big old cake. And I'm not a chocolate cake guy,
Speaker 1: but that was one of the best freaking cakes I've
Speaker 1: ever had. Yeah, it was fancy, that's right, because I
Speaker 1: actually agreed to do the show. I think kind of it.
Speaker 1: Last last million, he took me away from my family,
Speaker 1: said it was my birthday. Well we don't, we don't
Speaker 1: have anything for you today. I apologize, but you got
Speaker 1: forty five minutes with me and every since. That's good.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed you have somebody. I'm sitting right here. You
Speaker 1: got here. Yeah. Absolutely? How many years is it today? Uh?
Speaker 1: Sixty seven and still grinded, that's right? How many years
Speaker 1: on the beat? Thirty five? Wow? Yeah, So you need
Speaker 1: that that whole jack, Jack black, you need jack. You
Speaker 1: got it. I should have been using it reverse time.
Speaker 1: You know that, right? And it dawned on me that Sunday.
Speaker 1: So was it December eighth? If I got my dates right? Correct? Right?
Speaker 1: That was twenty eight years ago. We got the word
Speaker 1: at a Cowboys game on Sunday that Dallas Times Harold
Speaker 1: was being closed. Yes, yeah, twenty eight years ago, right
Speaker 1: before your birthday. Humhuh yeah, but you're right after Pearl
Speaker 1: Harbor day. I said, oh, this is a different guy,
Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor. But you didn't skip a beat. You stayed
Speaker 1: on the beat all the way through. And this twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen season, at least the regular season is coming to
Speaker 1: a close. Can the Cowboys wind up playing into January?
Speaker 1: That's the question that we're gonna get somebody wants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get answers in the next three weeks, and
Speaker 1: it continues Sunday against the Rams. I think it's a
Speaker 1: good time of the week to probably dive into La
Speaker 1: and what they've been able to do the last couple weeks,
Speaker 1: in particular as we look towards that matchup. But before
Speaker 1: we do that, Jason Garrett just had his press conferences.
Speaker 1: What do you glean from that, Mick Well, from a
Speaker 1: injury standpoint, it sounded like things were improving except for
Speaker 1: Layton Vanderich, which you know, I he's not practicing this
Speaker 1: week and there's only two weeks after this. My feeling
Speaker 1: on this and sort of what I've been able to
Speaker 1: get told was that they probably would have to get
Speaker 1: into the playoffs for him to get back and play that.
Speaker 1: You know, he's got a herniated disc in his neck.
Speaker 1: Let's let's face it, you know, and and you those
Speaker 1: things take their time. They're trying to get it to
Speaker 1: calm down. I don't know if it's like I'm not
Speaker 1: familiar with this part of it. But you know, when
Speaker 1: you haven't heard an eighty disc in your back, you
Speaker 1: can you can take a shot. I don't know that
Speaker 1: you can do that in your neck. I don't know
Speaker 1: what you want to do that right in your neck? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and from one eye and stay on that epidural needle
Speaker 1: is pretty long. And so yeah, I got one myself
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. Ye for a back. Yes, different
Speaker 1: story and you probably didn't see it, which you were
Speaker 1: better off. Nope, they put you under, which is good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that that's what they give to the ladies, right, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: So anyway, Uh, they're just hoping that they can treat
Speaker 1: it and calm it down, but not yet. Good news
Speaker 1: is is Jeff Heath uh should do something today. Now
Speaker 1: he's got I think we talked about it the other day.
Speaker 1: He's got two shoulders and we all have two shoulders,
Speaker 1: or he has two shoulder injuries. Well that's why I write,
Speaker 1: don't talk right. Um, he's got laboram tails tears in
Speaker 1: both shoulders. So that is that's very painful. And what
Speaker 1: they're doing is they've he's been trying to wear a
Speaker 1: brace and work through it, uh to and the brace
Speaker 1: restricts your range of motion in your arms so it
Speaker 1: doesn't go too far back and I'm kind of moving
Speaker 1: my arm back behind my back and uh and so
Speaker 1: to reduce where the pain starts hitting. So, uh, he's
Speaker 1: gonna try. I don't know if he makes it, but
Speaker 1: it sounds like he's going to do something today. Antoine
Speaker 1: Woods with the spray knee, looks like he'll do something.
Speaker 1: And same thing for Tony Pollard with the sprained ankle.
Speaker 1: He was close to the game on Thursday. Uh, just
Speaker 1: couldn't get back in time. So now he's had he'll
Speaker 1: have ten days before he has to play, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think he's getting a chance to do. And then
Speaker 1: he mentioned afterwards that the offensive lineman that have been limited, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know Lale Collins, Zach Martin. Um, I guess tiring
Speaker 1: a little bit. The layoff between games as hell, because
Speaker 1: four games in nineteen days I think took a toll
Speaker 1: on some of these guys physically. I would say Mary
Speaker 1: Cooper too, and and maybe no one asked about Coop,
Speaker 1: but I would say yes for him also, I mean
Speaker 1: he was because they were regulating his snaps in the game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the last probably since Detroit, I would think. I think
Speaker 1: he played significantly fewer snaps against Detroit. And then you
Speaker 1: start that stretch like you said, now he's been injured
Speaker 1: when we the whole Gilmore match up, right, and he
Speaker 1: was not happy about the the narrative that was going there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it wasn't full of strength, the weather was crappy,
Speaker 1: and they we said he shut him. He was shut down,
Speaker 1: and his body language didn't look good either way. You're
Speaker 1: on the sidelines, they running the ball. He didn't even
Speaker 1: have a code on. He's just sitting there, you know,
Speaker 1: getting drenched. So it just the body language just didn't
Speaker 1: didn't look good. And and yeah, he was injured before
Speaker 1: that game and was kind of volatile and angry about
Speaker 1: the fact that we thought that Gilmore shut him out.
Speaker 1: He was not happy about that. And and let's face it,
Speaker 1: these last couple games, I think in some instances when
Speaker 1: they went three wide, but they you thought they were
Speaker 1: going to run the ball. They didn't think Tavon Austin
Speaker 1: needed to be in there, right, but he was. And
Speaker 1: so that was a way to give him a break
Speaker 1: and not have him play sixty plays in a game
Speaker 1: and limited to about thirty thirty. So, dare we say
Speaker 1: that after this break that this team will be whole.
Speaker 1: Maybe that offensive line will be e when stronger the
Speaker 1: team that the unit that we've always grown to know
Speaker 1: and love and depend on, yes, depend on for this
Speaker 1: team to really when you're talking last year, especially the
Speaker 1: rookie year with Dak and Zeke, they were they were
Speaker 1: the union on this team. They were the union on
Speaker 1: this squad. They were the studs and train the camp.
Speaker 1: You know, they were they walking around together. It's almost
Speaker 1: like they went slow motion everywhere they went, because they
Speaker 1: looked like the slow motions. Yeah. Now, kind of cool though,
Speaker 1: And you know, and I still say that New England
Speaker 1: game took a lot out of them. I just think
Speaker 1: took a lot out of them physically. Jason Garrett was
Speaker 1: asked about that on the fan a couple of days ago.
Speaker 1: I think because you said at the second half of
Speaker 1: the Buffalo game on Thanksgiving fatigue might have been a factor,
Speaker 1: and he he said, look, it's no excuse. We've played
Speaker 1: this schedule where you played Thanksgiving and then you have
Speaker 1: a Thursday. Yeah many years and then and then that
Speaker 1: Thursday game. You don't necessarily have that ten days break
Speaker 1: that many buy, which they just got. He didn't use
Speaker 1: it as an excuse, but I think, you know, that
Speaker 1: was unusual circumstances in New England, and I think it
Speaker 1: probably did play a little bit of a factor and
Speaker 1: something that we should we should u consider acknowledging. I guess,
Speaker 1: yeah that maybe if they come back after this ten
Speaker 1: ten day break and yeah, we'll see, We'll see, Yeah
Speaker 1: maybe with this is the squad that we've been waiting on,
Speaker 1: and they've just been held back a little bit just
Speaker 1: by the circumstances of the schedule itself and unusual burden
Speaker 1: that is put on us this particular year. Usually we
Speaker 1: handled it very well, but this year we hadn't. And
Speaker 1: hopefully that's one reason that we can be optimistic about
Speaker 1: the return. You know. And I, as I pointed out
Speaker 1: before that twenty fourteen season, when they had the late
Speaker 1: night game against New York on Sunday before Thanksgiving, freezing
Speaker 1: and that the one looks freezing and then they come
Speaker 1: back and get back at four or five in the morning,
Speaker 1: and then you got to play on Thursday. They know,
Speaker 1: showed against the Eagles and they were a twelve and
Speaker 1: four team that year, and that was one of the
Speaker 1: losses they know, showed on Thanksgiving at home against the Eagles,
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't know if there's a correlation
Speaker 1: there or not. I just know how my body feels,
Speaker 1: and I didn't play by the fields right now twenty
Speaker 1: year I feel every more you're talking rooms and like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, okay that yeah, speaking
Speaker 1: of that, when you reach this up, yeah, gotta check everything. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're good, let's go. Everybody's got a little something. Yeah.
Speaker 1: All that being said, Jerry has pointed out multiple times though,
Speaker 1: that overall the health of this team is pretty good.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you miss Vanderesh Heath obviously going
Speaker 1: through some stuff. You haven't had Woods for several games
Speaker 1: this year, off and on, and then we forget. But
Speaker 1: Connor Williams get placed on injured that's it's like when
Speaker 1: he's not in the injury port, you forget about the
Speaker 1: guy that's Tyrone Crawford. They I think they miss his
Speaker 1: versatility and in the middle defensive line or on the
Speaker 1: edge as well. But overall it's pretty healthy group. I mean,
Speaker 1: you look at the Eagles, I mean al Sean Jeffrey
Speaker 1: reportedly out for the year, they're dealing with the more
Speaker 1: out yea. So it's sometimes attrition and being able to
Speaker 1: be the healthier team can be the difference this time
Speaker 1: of year. I mean, and even though you're healthy, and
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that's the case here, even though the Cowboys
Speaker 1: are healthy, they're still fatigued. I'm hoping they're just fatigued
Speaker 1: from the schedule and from the grind that we've just
Speaker 1: talked about. So hopefully when they come back with the
Speaker 1: same healthy players, but with more energy, more vigor, you know,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: has padded practices left or not, if they're in pads
Speaker 1: today or if they've used them up, because I know
Speaker 1: over these last several games they did not practice in
Speaker 1: pat You only get crazy, man, What did I tell you?
Speaker 1: It's something like thirteen at the most. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: get you can't save them for the last three weeks either. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you got to use them. So you know he didn't
Speaker 1: use them before Thanksgiving. He probably didn't use them last
Speaker 1: week because you're playing again, any any kind of like
Speaker 1: en up going into that New England game just knowing
Speaker 1: what was ahead too, So it'd be interesting see if
Speaker 1: they have any padded practice was left and if he
Speaker 1: puts the pads on today, anything else come out of Garrett.
Speaker 1: You know. The other thing that coach Garrett said that
Speaker 1: jumped out to me was he just was bluntly honest
Speaker 1: about the fact that they have not played well enough
Speaker 1: in all three phases, you know, offense, defense, special teams.
Speaker 1: It just hasn't been good enough, regardless of weather, schedule, injuries.
Speaker 1: And that's where the team is right now. I mean
Speaker 1: you could you could throw out a lot, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: could really throw out a lot, but there's got to
Speaker 1: be still just you still have to quantify what's your
Speaker 1: strength At this point. You could just say, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: all playing like crap, but you still as a team
Speaker 1: have to quantify. Okay, what can we hang our head
Speaker 1: on at this point? We can't just what they what's
Speaker 1: the term throughout the baby with the bath water, right,
Speaker 1: which is very odd visual came up with. That's saying
Speaker 1: all right, somewhat person, you know so, but what you
Speaker 1: look at you still have to quantify where how are
Speaker 1: we going to hone our attack now towards our opposition?
Speaker 1: What what do you guys think it is? What do
Speaker 1: you think still they can hang their hat on to
Speaker 1: quote you ever since, because that's a good point. I
Speaker 1: mean they've got to have something they feel like still
Speaker 1: their strength. Offensive line still playing well, yeah, Zeke still
Speaker 1: running the ball, they opened up the hole's great average.
Speaker 1: You know, you got a couple of touchdowns even amongst
Speaker 1: the incompetence, you could pick that out as the consistent
Speaker 1: aspect of this offense. Passing has been um consistent, but
Speaker 1: it hadn't been exciting, you know, it hadn't been effective.
Speaker 1: It's been consistent, but now effective and simply because the
Speaker 1: other side of the ball just just in holding up
Speaker 1: there their their weight, but they aren't pulling their weight.
Speaker 1: So to me, it's just like where we've always at.
Speaker 1: Our offensive line is really where we need to concentrate
Speaker 1: on being our consistent attack mode. You know, that should
Speaker 1: be that should be our sword is by the running
Speaker 1: game itself and complimenting it with a good passing game.
Speaker 1: That to me, that's something that we've we've always hung
Speaker 1: our head on and if we could just show it
Speaker 1: up defensively at all, along with getting our third downs,
Speaker 1: we have not first drive, not the first drive third downs,
Speaker 1: I mean, continually move the chains on third downs, especially
Speaker 1: during crucial parts of the moment. Let's just be real, guy.
Speaker 1: Numbers are amazing. We can always took a number number
Speaker 1: seven in defense, well number our offenses got some number
Speaker 1: one tag somewhere, but you're still not effective. So forget
Speaker 1: the numbers and I'll tell them the whole story. It's
Speaker 1: all about the situations. That's a great point because four
Speaker 1: for four I think on third down that first drive,
Speaker 1: as you said, they were something like two for thirteen
Speaker 1: the rest of the way or something close to that. Again,
Speaker 1: you could take that two for thirteen and just give me,
Speaker 1: give me a five for thirteen. So those other three
Speaker 1: they got to be crucial third downs. You understand what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, sir. We're in moments now. It's not about numbers,
Speaker 1: and they keep quantifying things. I get that, but it's
Speaker 1: about moments right now. And that's why I brought up
Speaker 1: the Ravens yesterday. They don't care about numbers. The defense
Speaker 1: don't care about numbers. It's just one defense I'm talking
Speaker 1: about with San Francisco. They're gonna ball out no matter
Speaker 1: what the situation is. They don't care about Oh, this
Speaker 1: is third down, guys, here we go, this is what
Speaker 1: we're strong. They don't mention that in the huggle. They
Speaker 1: just come out and ball. They might they were getting
Speaker 1: toasted by the Saints all game long, but when it
Speaker 1: came down to the moments, they made the play. Nick,
Speaker 1: where do you where do you think this team should
Speaker 1: still be confident in terms of strength of the team
Speaker 1: where they can hang their hat on. So I still
Speaker 1: think offense, and I needed to look this up because
Speaker 1: I was gonna say it and I didn't want to
Speaker 1: speak like, oh, you don't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I think's happened with this offense,
Speaker 1: and Everson kind of touched on it. I haven't done
Speaker 1: anything like spectacular, like big plays in the passing game.
Speaker 1: So I looked it up. In these last three games,
Speaker 1: they've only had ten passing plays of twenty yards or more.
Speaker 1: They had. They've got fifty seven for the season. And
Speaker 1: if you look at you know, the Minnesota game, I
Speaker 1: know they lost, but they've got about and i'd have
Speaker 1: to count it up ten plays in that game. Since then,
Speaker 1: what Detroit or not Detroit, New England, Buffalo and Chicago,
Speaker 1: they've got ten pass plays of twenty yards or more,
Speaker 1: and four of them are in the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: this last game, when the Bears are basically saying, all right,
Speaker 1: we'll give you a but there. I think teams have
Speaker 1: adopted this defensive style is we're coming after you, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep everything in front of us, right, and
Speaker 1: we're not going to give you those big plays down
Speaker 1: the field. That's what I was going to ask you,
Speaker 1: because has you think there's been a shift in terms
Speaker 1: of approach by opponents? Yes, from those yes, I think
Speaker 1: it was Minnesota and Detroit where committing a lot of
Speaker 1: bodies in different ways to stop Zeke, but there was
Speaker 1: a lot of openings in the passing game. You think
Speaker 1: it's been different during this three game losing streak. So
Speaker 1: against in Minnesota and Detroit, they had sixteen pass plays
Speaker 1: of twenty yards or more, Yeah, and now ten in
Speaker 1: three games. So I think people looked at what happened
Speaker 1: in those games and it's like, all right, they're slinging
Speaker 1: around the first three games of the season. Yeah. Actually,
Speaker 1: even through Green Bay, I think the Jets game they
Speaker 1: only had two Philadelphia they won the game, they only
Speaker 1: had two, and then the next Giants game they only
Speaker 1: had three, and then the next two games they had
Speaker 1: all those twenty yard pass plays. They were running all
Speaker 1: over the place down in the secondary right now. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's like, okay, how do we stop
Speaker 1: this passing game because we can't contain it. They've got
Speaker 1: too many weapons. Well, blitz and make sure everything's in
Speaker 1: stead is in front of you, right course, especially a
Speaker 1: play action pass. Yes, And that's where we were extremely
Speaker 1: successful during mid season. Up till mid season, our play
Speaker 1: action was amazing. I think uh DAK was about one
Speaker 1: fifty eclip in regards to play action you proficiencies. Passing
Speaker 1: efficiency was about one fifty and that they talked about that,
Speaker 1: so teams became aware of it. Of course, if if
Speaker 1: if a commentator is aware of it, then the other
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator is aware of it. And they felt, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to take the lesser of the evils
Speaker 1: with a talented team, a team that can do more
Speaker 1: than one thing. So they decided, okay, we're gonna stop
Speaker 1: Zeke and anytime they come with the play action, we're
Speaker 1: gonna make sure and not give up the big play
Speaker 1: and make them continue to drive. And this is what
Speaker 1: you've seen has come through. We have the great drives
Speaker 1: going and at that time, we got nothing left. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna let's do the same thing over again. In
Speaker 1: those seventeen plays during that drive, they're not gonna let's
Speaker 1: do those same things over again. We've already exposed ourselves
Speaker 1: and with the still play action mentality defensively, they're gonna
Speaker 1: make sure and keep everything in front of them, and
Speaker 1: it just makes things hard for us offensively, and that's
Speaker 1: what that's what takes away the excitement. That's why we're uneventful,
Speaker 1: because they're just keeping everything in front of us. You
Speaker 1: can drive eighty yards, and seventeen plays have added more
Speaker 1: than once, yeah than once, show you can consistently do.
Speaker 1: And then as we get to the red zone as
Speaker 1: games go on, that's where we become uneffective. Ineffectives in
Speaker 1: the red zone because we'll drive all the way down,
Speaker 1: but then we can't score, miss field goals, bad play calling,
Speaker 1: bad execution. So we've fallen right into that and that's
Speaker 1: been that pattern since they have started playing us like that.
Speaker 1: That's been our pattern offensively. That's been our pattern of
Speaker 1: failure of fancifully and literally eighty yards driving as Mick
Speaker 1: just said, because I think they're average. Drive started against
Speaker 1: Chicago is our twenty one yard line long drives and
Speaker 1: new long fields to go and try to take away
Speaker 1: the big play that has been an issue for Dallas
Speaker 1: offensively and try to get it turned around against the Rams.
Speaker 1: Let's come back and talk about Sunday's matchup with La next.
Speaker 1: When we come back, I'm talking Cowboys. Selor is a
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Speaker 1: what hell, Black Flawless, I have to start handing him
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Speaker 1: Bill Jones should hand him off to too great job.
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Speaker 1: you got a tough matchup coming up in a few weeks.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens there. Welcome back to Talking Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Everson. We're inside the SWBC Mortgage studio. Cowboys
Speaker 1: back to practice outdoors today, getting set for the Rams
Speaker 1: Sunday eighteen te Stadium three fifteen kickoff, something like that,
Speaker 1: three twenty three, twenty five. It's the late it's the
Speaker 1: late game. I would assume Rams played on Sunday night
Speaker 1: beat Seattle twenty eight to twelve, one of their maybe
Speaker 1: maybe a signature win for them, especially after losing forty
Speaker 1: five to six. So probably the best team in the
Speaker 1: AFC right now. The Baltimore Ravens a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: so eight and five Rams, what have you guys seen
Speaker 1: from them? Maybe last couple of weeks this season, maybe
Speaker 1: since the Jalen Ramsey trade that has you concerned, or
Speaker 1: maybe some opportunities for the Cowboys and Jaylen Ramsey trade.
Speaker 1: To me, that's that's an exciting happening because we're going
Speaker 1: to see a good matchup. We're going to see that matchup.
Speaker 1: They've put Jayleen on some of their better receivers that
Speaker 1: they've come up against as soon as he got into camp,
Speaker 1: so of course we know he's gonna be on Coop
Speaker 1: and I can't wait for this matchup. This is going
Speaker 1: to be one of those, uh, what we wanted to
Speaker 1: see in New England, but without the weather, you know,
Speaker 1: just really affecting everybody's performance. So I'm really looking forward
Speaker 1: to Coop coming out with rest, hopefully as healthy as
Speaker 1: he can be. And Jalen Ramsey is one of the
Speaker 1: more aggressive of Oh my goodness, this guy is so
Speaker 1: physical that you know, I envy him sometimes he's he
Speaker 1: plays angry, which is the way a defensive back is
Speaker 1: supposed to play. But he plays angry with a purpose
Speaker 1: and with a strong mentality. He's not just out there
Speaker 1: trying to beat up the receiver, which he can do
Speaker 1: because the guys he's bigger than me, arms longer than mine,
Speaker 1: stronger than me. Uh. That's that's the kind of defensive back.
Speaker 1: All wide receivers don't want to see and he comes
Speaker 1: with the attitude of I'm going to destroy you, but
Speaker 1: I'm also going to outthink you. And that's where he's
Speaker 1: a problem because his experience makes him the most effective
Speaker 1: dB cornerback in the NFL this year. Did you talk
Speaker 1: a lot to wide receivers because he's known as a
Speaker 1: trash talk No, no, no no, I had too much to
Speaker 1: think about. Yeah, we're really spags. No, the flex defense
Speaker 1: defense defense, I got too much to look at the
Speaker 1: cornerbacks are looking at the backs in the backfield. No one,
Speaker 1: no defense has ever been like our defense. You you
Speaker 1: don't as a cornerback. You're not supposed to look at
Speaker 1: the flow of the back while you're trying to worry
Speaker 1: about this guy running the four two forty coming at you.
Speaker 1: So those kind of things really just kept you in
Speaker 1: tuned to what was going on, and I didn't have
Speaker 1: time for trash talk. One thing, one thing that I
Speaker 1: locked about not trash talking is when you're whipping their
Speaker 1: butts and you're not saying the word that is worse.
Speaker 1: They hate that, so they go fussing into two referees,
Speaker 1: they go fussing the coaches, and he's holding he's doing this,
Speaker 1: and I'm just just quiet. Definitely were consistently off in
Speaker 1: your in your ego, yeah yeah, in your head. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. And one thing that the Rams have done
Speaker 1: these last games, and they've scored what thirty four twenty
Speaker 1: eight points, they're handing the ball to Girly. Imagine that.
Speaker 1: It's almost like, oh, yeah, we do have this guy
Speaker 1: in the backfield here, let's just hand it to him
Speaker 1: a little bit more. And he's been productive and I
Speaker 1: think that's helped Goff. You can't just have your quarterback
Speaker 1: and we've seen it, throwing the ball thirty five forty
Speaker 1: forty five times a game. You know, it's you. When
Speaker 1: you're balanced like that, you become dangerous. And if you
Speaker 1: you know, that was their recipe against the Cowboys in
Speaker 1: that playoff game, right, two hundred and seventy three yards
Speaker 1: rushing C J. Anderson and C Anders Can you right now, No,
Speaker 1: he's not. I think C. J. Anderson's performance in that
Speaker 1: game confused the Saints. I'm sorry the Rams offense because
Speaker 1: now sudden the coaches he doesn't feel like he needs
Speaker 1: Girly anymore. They go sign Golf to the contract. Now
Speaker 1: they want Golf to be the face of the offense.
Speaker 1: It seemed that way, especially when you're talking Girly wasn't
Speaker 1: really injured when they kept trying to say he was injured,
Speaker 1: they kept trying to rely on that where the doctors saying,
Speaker 1: is this guy injured? Or why are we not giving
Speaker 1: him the ball? This coach of the year, you know this,
Speaker 1: this this professor, this, this genius all of a sudden
Speaker 1: forgets that he has one of the best running backs
Speaker 1: in the league in his backfield, and then he says
Speaker 1: he should he should should slap himself from the face
Speaker 1: or something for not realizing that. To me, that's extremely confusing.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't buy that that you don't you
Speaker 1: forgot that you had this great running back in your backfield.
Speaker 1: You're having problems, you're not as effective as you should be,
Speaker 1: and you're still not running this running back. To me,
Speaker 1: that was extremely confusing. I wish they'd go back to
Speaker 1: that confusion before they play us on Sunday, because with
Speaker 1: Girly in now, they are the team that everyone hits feared.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. I wrote about this yesterday. He hadn't
Speaker 1: gotten more Girly more than eighteen carries in each of
Speaker 1: their first eight games and then these last three that
Speaker 1: they've won twenty five nineteen twenty three, and he's ran
Speaker 1: for a touchdown in all three games. I don't understand
Speaker 1: and Mickey's right it. Goff has struggled it points throughout
Speaker 1: this season, but we've seen it with Dak. You get
Speaker 1: your running game going play action, everything kind of stabilizes.
Speaker 1: And the Cowboys have dropped not just three in a row,
Speaker 1: four of their last five. I looked this up to
Speaker 1: Dak's averaging forty six and a half pass attempts a game.
Speaker 1: When you're playing catch up, some of it's catch up,
Speaker 1: a lot of it's catch up. But second half the
Speaker 1: defense takes Ezekiel Elliott out of the game, the Cowboys defense.
Speaker 1: There you go your own what was your number? The
Speaker 1: second half deficits you had you had it figured out
Speaker 1: well at halftime. Combined the last two games, they've been
Speaker 1: outscored thirty to fourteen in the first half theirst, So
Speaker 1: they've got the trigger trailing all the time in the
Speaker 1: second half, and it you know, and and if you
Speaker 1: look at the playoff game, you know Goff was okay.
Speaker 1: Goff didn't beat him in that playoff game. That running
Speaker 1: game beat him. You know the girlies. What was a
Speaker 1: thirty thirty six yard run for the touchdown, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, and this still if they go back and
Speaker 1: look at this stuff, it was still after they came
Speaker 1: up with the stop on third down and the guy
Speaker 1: that was twenty five yards down, the field official called
Speaker 1: hands to face on Byron Jones. And what happened in
Speaker 1: the play in the official that was standing right on
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage didn't call it that. He had
Speaker 1: his hand on the guy's chest and when the receiver
Speaker 1: went to get his hand off, he flipped it up
Speaker 1: and his hand went up and grazed the face mask
Speaker 1: and he called hands to the face like he held
Speaker 1: him up. They don't get that call. They don't score
Speaker 1: that touchdown, they don't have the ball that time. Not
Speaker 1: I'm saying it's going to change the whole game. But
Speaker 1: the game was still within reason at that point thirty
Speaker 1: to twenty two thirty two, and we were going for
Speaker 1: that that last drive, we were going for the touchdown.
Speaker 1: And then the other play at the end of the half, yeah,
Speaker 1: the phantom in the grass play and then the head
Speaker 1: official who called it to the poll reporter said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I had, I had in the grass and I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was in Lell Collins grass. Yeah, in the Rams grass.
Speaker 1: And see that. Those are two significant calls that you
Speaker 1: forget about in a significant game. Yes, you say you
Speaker 1: don't want to make a difference like that as in
Speaker 1: a significant game. Yeah, I'm gonna give a quarterback a
Speaker 1: chance to get out of that, because this is a
Speaker 1: significant time in a significant game. You don't just blow
Speaker 1: this off like it's a preseason game. In the grass,
Speaker 1: which you obviously didn't have full view of. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: it was in the glass by the opposition. It was,
Speaker 1: as he said, his offensive, it was like a fall.
Speaker 1: And these are those moments where you say, if we
Speaker 1: could have yeah, you know what the shuldar could have.
Speaker 1: When you're not good enough to overcome those things, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like the two tripping calls. Yeah you know that
Speaker 1: weren't trips. Well okay, but they called it, and it
Speaker 1: changed what was going on in that game because those
Speaker 1: plays were successful. Yes, doing those calls, but in that
Speaker 1: playoff game it did go back to two hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy three yards allowed, the most ever by a Cowboys
Speaker 1: opponent in a playoff game. Wow, really most even more
Speaker 1: than Dickerson. Even how it was there? How many was
Speaker 1: that I think it was in two forties. Well it
Speaker 1: was one player, well two fifteen and that was it,
Speaker 1: just Pa. I don't know if anybody else scrambled or
Speaker 1: got something to go into rounds. I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people forget. I mean, Gurley was over one hundred yards
Speaker 1: in that game in January too, But Anderson was the
Speaker 1: guy that they just didn't have answer for. And we're
Speaker 1: kind of late. I want to ask you, guys, what
Speaker 1: you saw in that game and when they had problems
Speaker 1: in run defense last year, what's is it the same
Speaker 1: issues that they're having this year? Looks like it to me?
Speaker 1: You want to answer that? Now? You want to wait?
Speaker 1: I could go on, Okay, let's wait. Let's because it
Speaker 1: sure looks like it's between the tackles. Let's get yeah,
Speaker 1: let's get that answer when we come back and wrap
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Speaker 1: loop beer Yes, yeah, yeah, bear Bird no, no, liner
Speaker 1: there you just wing that. I read it for a week.
Speaker 1: I think I got it, but we are really doing it.
Speaker 1: I mean the announcements. You know when I when I
Speaker 1: took those standardized standardized test in grade school and in
Speaker 1: high school, my retention rate was terrible. I'd have to
Speaker 1: read things about four times to remember. I don't even
Speaker 1: want to know that. I don't even want to know
Speaker 1: my stuff. I don't even want to know my analysis. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I want to know your analysis on the Cowboys run
Speaker 1: defense that very successfully before we went to break what
Speaker 1: what are you seeing different or the same from when
Speaker 1: they had problems last year? I see that you got it? Yeah? Sweet,
Speaker 1: you know it's it's almost the same as I've I've
Speaker 1: been talking about for the last three weeks. Top of
Speaker 1: Tony Tobert one day and his take on it all
Speaker 1: was as a defensive lineman, He's he's getting He's all
Speaker 1: about the D line and how they can help affect
Speaker 1: this run defense. I talk about the offensive lineman that
Speaker 1: are just coming off so quickly and freely into the
Speaker 1: linebackers faces. I do recall when I played with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys that and the Giants. The D line has to
Speaker 1: assist in some way in slowing the progress down to
Speaker 1: those offensive linemen. They have to give the linebacker a
Speaker 1: chance to at least read what's going on, and that's
Speaker 1: an initial read step. By the time the cowboy linebackers
Speaker 1: are taking that initial read step, the linemen are already
Speaker 1: free and in their faces on the successful plays, on
Speaker 1: the successful running plays on that second level. As you say,
Speaker 1: the bubble that I always talk about that exists between
Speaker 1: the linebacker and the uncovered lineman, that bubble has been
Speaker 1: burst by the offensive lineman. And when they burst that
Speaker 1: bubble first, then they have the advantage. Okay, they're cutting
Speaker 1: Jalen Smith at the legs, they're cutting off Sean Lee
Speaker 1: talking two fifty versus sometimes three twenty five. You can't
Speaker 1: even see around them, creating gashes on that second level.
Speaker 1: And by the time they get to the secondary, you're
Speaker 1: running back is full speed. And now you're talking about
Speaker 1: woods trying to make a tackle. You're talking about mister
Speaker 1: laboram two labels trying to make a tackle. That's difficult,
Speaker 1: and they've been consistently doing that. I look at the
Speaker 1: linebackers as needing to read faster. A guy like Tony
Speaker 1: Tobot will tell you the d line needs to assist more,
Speaker 1: and you know, they're encumbering the offensive lineman before they
Speaker 1: come off the line of scrimmage. So that's to me,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the that's the solution coming from a
Speaker 1: defensive back. But if you look at the loose solution
Speaker 1: coming from a defensive end, a defensive linement, those defensive
Speaker 1: linemen have to help those linebackers so that they won't
Speaker 1: have to worry about the linement in their face immediately
Speaker 1: before you can even read the play, you know. And
Speaker 1: that started in that Indianapolis game when they got shut out,
Speaker 1: and it continued in that in that Rams game. In
Speaker 1: the playoffs, it was like they're so ingrained getting up
Speaker 1: the field on the defensive line. They're going this way,
Speaker 1: and the offensive linement are going this way, man, you know,
Speaker 1: and if you're not getting to the line to the
Speaker 1: running back first, then there's gaps big and check this out.
Speaker 1: So ten times in thirteen games they've given up at
Speaker 1: least one hundred yards rushing, and in these last losses
Speaker 1: one fifty three, one twenty one, one oh one, and
Speaker 1: that was in the rain, one twenty four and one
Speaker 1: fifty one rushing from running back and four quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: this five last five games they don't run. They've dropped
Speaker 1: four or five. They've fallen from eleventh and run defense
Speaker 1: to nineteenth under one hundred yards ninety seven to now
Speaker 1: in these last five games one hundred and thirty two,
Speaker 1: which is amazing because they're still a top ten overall
Speaker 1: defense in yards when they're nineteenth against the run. I
Speaker 1: was just going to say that about in that indie game,
Speaker 1: because that's when we first saw it, and you saw it.
Speaker 1: Nelson and those tight ends for the Colts just getting
Speaker 1: on the second level and just washing linebackers out of
Speaker 1: the play. And then what it does is now when
Speaker 1: you drop back to pass, your linebackers now they have
Speaker 1: to play the pass. And now those those those tight ends,
Speaker 1: the same ones that ever been blocking down on you
Speaker 1: and making those good plays, now they're deceptively sneaking out
Speaker 1: and hurting us big time, especially in the wed Zoe.
Speaker 1: So one of the signs on that video shipboard should
Speaker 1: be stop the run. I know we've harked on it today,
Speaker 1: but it was the biggest factor in the playoff game.
Speaker 1: It's probably the key to Sunday as well. We're out
Speaker 1: of time fellas a reminder playing the Rams, then this
Speaker 1: is kind of where it all started. Absolutely, happy birthday, Mick,
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Thank you Everson. Thanks to Kyle
Speaker 1: for producing. Talk to you guys tomorrow, The Breaks Next.
Speaker 1: This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.