Speaker 1: The following Here's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club Cowboys. Are you ready
Speaker 1: for 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: with Nick Eatman, David Hellman, and bar Garcia and Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, December fifteenth, twenty twenty one, season seventeen,
Speaker 1: episode number seventy nine. Welcome to the latest edition of
Speaker 1: The Break. We are live from the s WBC Morgan
Speaker 1: Studios at the Star. I got David Amber with me.
Speaker 1: Nick is out today, but we have filled the spot
Speaker 1: with the Man the Legend. Hey, Jiah, stand back, Colma. Thanks.
Speaker 1: We give you an opportunity to be a real show. Wow.
Speaker 1: This bizarre rivalry, a whole bunch of people that work together. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we love having you on the show. I said, I
Speaker 1: know you and I got a chance to do a
Speaker 1: show back during the time we mix the shows up
Speaker 1: during the bye week. But good to have you back
Speaker 1: with us. We have a lot of stuff we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about today. We're not gonna be joined by Bucky
Speaker 1: Brooks today. He's gonna join tomorrow and give us his
Speaker 1: takes on Cowboys versus Giants. We figure because the Giants
Speaker 1: are so bad, we can figure we put that all
Speaker 1: into one day. We don't need two shows for that.
Speaker 1: Say that we have learned a very hard less no no, no,
Speaker 1: back up, back up. I did not say that because
Speaker 1: they're bad doesn't mean that Cowboys can't get beat. What
Speaker 1: I said was they're bad, and so I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty clear they're bad. Now we'll see what happens on
Speaker 1: Sunday what that means to the Cowboys. But they're not
Speaker 1: a good team. Um. Anyway, we're gonna get to Bucky tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but today we're gonna talk a little bit about Giants
Speaker 1: offense versus Cowboys defense. We'll talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: some other topics. We didn't get a chance to get
Speaker 1: to what Jerry had to say about Dak Prescott yesterday.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that a little bit today as well. Nick.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry not Nick day like that real nofense. Nick
Speaker 1: was about say you might have not not just kind
Speaker 1: of put him out there. I'm my own man, Okay,
Speaker 1: you are your own man, Dave, and you're unique man.
Speaker 1: Give me a seventy nine real quick. I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty obvious Harvey Martin, and I love Harvey Martin for
Speaker 1: it's a cool thing about this job. I'm I just
Speaker 1: turned thirty three yesterday, your birthday. Thanks, you have a
Speaker 1: good birthday. I had a great birthday. Awesome. Um. I
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about Harvey Martin when I started working here. Sorry, Like,
Speaker 1: I know that sounds blasphemous here, but I didn't. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He but you work here and you learned the history
Speaker 1: of the team and you're like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: guy was a badass. I was embarrassed when I finally
Speaker 1: figured out who he was and what he'd done that
Speaker 1: I'd never heard of the the same. But growing up in Houston,
Speaker 1: I'd never really heard. I mean, there's so many legends
Speaker 1: around this team, you know. I mean, I know, I
Speaker 1: knew Stabok, I knew Pearson, I knew all the nineties guys.
Speaker 1: But I just you can't know everybody unless you're like
Speaker 1: a die hard fan of this team. Super Bowl MVP
Speaker 1: one hundred and fourteen career sacks. He's I think he's
Speaker 1: thirty two in career sacks. I don't know if they
Speaker 1: even tracked him for most I don't think they did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year four time for like he
Speaker 1: was a legit player at the very least. He's got
Speaker 1: a ring of honor. What's the word I'm looking for here,
Speaker 1: he's got a case for it. Yeah, and he probably
Speaker 1: has a case to be in the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: as well. And people don't really talk about him. So
Speaker 1: shouts out to Harvey Martin seventy nine, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: All right, let's jump in. We're going to a first.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get a cut catch up on a
Speaker 1: few things. Coach McCarthy just finished talking to the media.
Speaker 1: He did say that there were going to be some
Speaker 1: practice modifications today, Dave, what was he talking about there?
Speaker 1: I think, and this is the type of thing that
Speaker 1: happens anyway you get late in the year, like there's
Speaker 1: fewer padded practices. Everybody's beat to hell, and I just
Speaker 1: think they're kind of dialing it back, like this isn't
Speaker 1: gonna be Some coaches not so much these days because
Speaker 1: it's in the CBA, But like I was listening to
Speaker 1: somebody talk about this other the other day, Like some
Speaker 1: coaches are like, no, we're in pads, no matter what.
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna do. But the more and more
Speaker 1: you get into this and learn about player health and
Speaker 1: try and keep people healthy, like you dial some of
Speaker 1: that stuff back. So I think this will be more
Speaker 1: than a walkthrough, but not your typical I mean we're
Speaker 1: not We're not getting after it in pads and hitting
Speaker 1: each other here. So I just think they're trying to
Speaker 1: preserve the roster a little bit. I see, how many
Speaker 1: more years could you have played in league if they
Speaker 1: let you take the pads off and have these kind
Speaker 1: of practices. This schedule is just different. I'm still I'm
Speaker 1: still back locked into my old school methods. You know,
Speaker 1: we're out there, you know, three days a week with
Speaker 1: pads on, and yeah, these guys now they're just running
Speaker 1: around with with sweatpants on half the time. But is better?
Speaker 1: Is it better on your body? Yes? On your body? Yes?
Speaker 1: I mean they I can't I'm not in the locker rooms.
Speaker 1: I don't know how it's really affecting these guys. I
Speaker 1: just know that we we were physical. It was a
Speaker 1: lot more physical back then, and um, it's a lot
Speaker 1: more tiki tech now. So I think it kind of
Speaker 1: offsets each other. Right, the physicality was dependent on you
Speaker 1: being to go throughout the week, and that carried over
Speaker 1: into the game. Now these guys aren't allowed to be
Speaker 1: as physical in the games, and it's kind of showing
Speaker 1: up on the practice field too. Yeah, I can't remember
Speaker 1: when you came in the league. Were we still doing
Speaker 1: two of the days, because I remember two a days
Speaker 1: and it was a different kind of training camp because
Speaker 1: it did it consumed your entire day because even from
Speaker 1: our standpoint, I mean, you got two practices that you're
Speaker 1: covering in a single day. It was a lot more
Speaker 1: different than obviously we weren't on the field having to
Speaker 1: run around twice a day. But I assume that beat
Speaker 1: in season. No, I'm saying during training two a day
Speaker 1: practices during training camp for that entire four or five
Speaker 1: weeks that we've been a training camp, and there weren't
Speaker 1: these built in day off every four days like it
Speaker 1: is now. Like it was a very very different world.
Speaker 1: But they all, I mean, they did the correct me
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, Like, not that long ago, it would
Speaker 1: be normal in December to suit up in full pads
Speaker 1: and yeah, beat the hell absolutely, especially depending on the
Speaker 1: organization that you played for you were in New England,
Speaker 1: was that the most intense that you ever experienced? You
Speaker 1: were in pads every day, you were in pads. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean all way up until you know to Friday practice,
Speaker 1: which is a jog through. Even then we would probably
Speaker 1: still have shows on, you know. So it's just it's
Speaker 1: just how it's just the culture of the team. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just a culture team and it's evolved, right These
Speaker 1: coaches are evolved and they're they're changing. I'm sure you know,
Speaker 1: coach McCarthy back in the day probably had his guys
Speaker 1: in pads all the way up into it. But the CBA,
Speaker 1: you know, a lots for certain certain things that have
Speaker 1: to change, and this is just one of them. And
Speaker 1: the game's changed. Yeah, And it sounds like they've gotten
Speaker 1: smarter with the use of analytics and the tracking devices
Speaker 1: they used to they kind of know how much stress
Speaker 1: each players putting on their body and they know when
Speaker 1: it's time to dial them back. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go as far as to say it's the only thing
Speaker 1: he cares about, but Mike McCarthy, like the analytics of
Speaker 1: his player usage is very important to him, and like
Speaker 1: he talks about it all the time, Like he's always
Speaker 1: talking about like the GPS numbers on like how much
Speaker 1: a guy ran a practice, how fast he was running,
Speaker 1: how much work he was putting on himself. I think
Speaker 1: he studies that stuff religiously. And you hear people talk
Speaker 1: about the Stay program, which is what they call his
Speaker 1: the weekly method, where like they don't practice Friday, they
Speaker 1: do mental health stuff, and it's all more of a
Speaker 1: mental aspect of it. Like he's big on that stuff
Speaker 1: and he's talked about it before, like he ran some
Speaker 1: Green Bay teams into the ground, and this is like
Speaker 1: the natural learning curve of that. Another question was asked
Speaker 1: him with regard to the health of the team right now.
Speaker 1: There's only really one player, Tyren Smith, that's not practicing
Speaker 1: at this point, which is remarkable for a team in December,
Speaker 1: and given the week that we were having around the
Speaker 1: league right now, no COVID updates either. The only one
Speaker 1: they got right now, Cedric He's the only one that's
Speaker 1: on the COVID list. And we're gonna talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about COVID a little later. I have some questions
Speaker 1: for you guys on that. But that all being said,
Speaker 1: I do think there's still kind of dis lingering what's
Speaker 1: up with Zeke Kyle is he doing? And he was
Speaker 1: asked that question, what if McCarthy say on Zeke and
Speaker 1: kind of what do we feel about where Zeke is
Speaker 1: at this point? I think Zeke is probably gonna be
Speaker 1: where he is. I don't. I mean, we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about let's get to this break after the Saints game,
Speaker 1: and he did, and he said he felt better. He
Speaker 1: looked better in Washington. Would y'all agree with that? He
Speaker 1: looked better? He didn't look we're qualifying this. He looked better,
Speaker 1: he looked a little more sprightly, he had a little
Speaker 1: extra burst. But he's I think he's gonna be banged
Speaker 1: up until this season is over. If I had to guess,
Speaker 1: maybe on the outside chance they can earn a bye
Speaker 1: week that could help out. But I think, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of what Mike said, is Zeke's fine. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's not magically one hundred percent and he probably won't be,
Speaker 1: but he's he's going to continue on this path that
Speaker 1: he's been on. I think, Yeah, I'm disappointing. I mentioned
Speaker 1: this earlier on Talking Cowboys. I'm really disappointed that they
Speaker 1: missed the opportunity to give him seventeen days off. They
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to give Zeke seventeen days off a
Speaker 1: couple weeks ago, and they chose not to, right, and
Speaker 1: they chose not to and then they brought him into
Speaker 1: game and use him for pass protection primarily. So now
Speaker 1: you you're faced with a situation where you're you need
Speaker 1: Zeke right, you need the running game because the running game,
Speaker 1: we're seeing the effect it has on Deck okay, or
Speaker 1: the lack there of the running game. We need Zeke
Speaker 1: when we need a most he's not anywhere near healthy.
Speaker 1: What percentage would you say Zeke is right now? Sixty
Speaker 1: That's what I said. Yeah, I think Zeke sixty percent.
Speaker 1: And I truly believe that the ponent that we're facing
Speaker 1: this week, there's an opportunity based upon what we saw
Speaker 1: last week with Clemens. He came out and he was
Speaker 1: he was shifty, he was explosive, he was he had
Speaker 1: all the things that you all the makeups of a
Speaker 1: of a running back that can run in his backfield.
Speaker 1: I think there's an opportunity to rest Zeke and Poler
Speaker 1: this week and get them healthier going into this last
Speaker 1: stretch and then if you're somehow able to secure the
Speaker 1: division right and take care of of the Giants and
Speaker 1: Philly loses, hopefully, then you have another week at the
Speaker 1: end of the season that you can rest your guys. Right.
Speaker 1: This isn't about I shouldn't use the word rest, it's
Speaker 1: I should use the term. You know, she's getting guys healthy.
Speaker 1: Zeke is not going to be a huge it's not
Speaker 1: going to be a contributor to this offense aside from
Speaker 1: his ability to block, if you don't get him some
Speaker 1: time off. And I don't necessarily disagree with anything you said,
Speaker 1: but I've been saying on our show this whole time,
Speaker 1: like I just don't think you can afford to and
Speaker 1: it sounds completely unsexy, but like that ability to block
Speaker 1: is important, Liken. Like, for example, even this bad Giants team,
Speaker 1: Azizo Glari, they got this rookie edge rusher who's got
Speaker 1: eight sacks. He might be the talk of the division
Speaker 1: if Michael wasn't doing what he's doing. You know, send
Speaker 1: Corey Clements and Edo Smith up there to keep Dak
Speaker 1: on his feet. I don't know, man, I don't know
Speaker 1: about that. I hear you know, and I understand the fear.
Speaker 1: I understand the fear, but I think that if Kellen
Speaker 1: Moore is what we say that he is, he can
Speaker 1: scheme around that. I think it's more important for Zeke
Speaker 1: to get his rest going into the end of this
Speaker 1: year than it is for us to sit back there
Speaker 1: and utilize him. Fifteen plays out the game for sitting
Speaker 1: back in pass blocking. If Kelly Moore can't figure out
Speaker 1: how to block that up without Zeke back there, then
Speaker 1: we have some bigger issue out Tyrn too, without Tyranto.
Speaker 1: I mean, but this is why we These guys are professionals.
Speaker 1: These guys have a job to do, and the giants
Speaker 1: aren't scary, right. I feel like we're evenly mad against
Speaker 1: him with our office a line right now. That sounds bad, right,
Speaker 1: but that's just the way it is. And the replacement
Speaker 1: staff we had to put and put in place, but
Speaker 1: we need Zeke healthy. And we see even with Zeke,
Speaker 1: would you say that he contributed to last the last
Speaker 1: two games? Honestly he contributed on Sunday, I don't think
Speaker 1: it was. I don't think it was to the level where,
Speaker 1: I mean where without him you would not have been
Speaker 1: able to That's and that's what I mean. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would take one hundred percent healthy Clemens, and I would
Speaker 1: take a sixty percent Zeke if I know that I
Speaker 1: can get Zeke to be a seventy five percent next week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm looking at, because right now Zeke
Speaker 1: was running the ball, he looked better. To your point,
Speaker 1: he looked better until what he took a shot on
Speaker 1: his nation and where where do you go? Ben? And
Speaker 1: that's my problem, that's my problem with all of it
Speaker 1: is it seems like over the last two or three
Speaker 1: games they've limited his the amount that they're using him.
Speaker 1: But it's always in every one of those games, there's
Speaker 1: a moment where he takes a hit, and so to me,
Speaker 1: it kind of restarts the clock on him getting healthier.
Speaker 1: And so if you're gonna do that, just sit it
Speaker 1: out and just don't worry about that and let those
Speaker 1: other guys have to step up and provide would you
Speaker 1: need for a week or two to give him that
Speaker 1: extra ress so that hopefully he's more healthy. Counterpoint, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you handle your business against two teams that you're
Speaker 1: better than, you could have two weeks where he like
Speaker 1: where they're not meaningless, but like you've done what you
Speaker 1: need to do, even the Arizona game and especially the
Speaker 1: Philly game probably, and so, like I keep saying, gut
Speaker 1: through it. You should win against New York, you should
Speaker 1: win against Washington, and then maybe you can make those
Speaker 1: types of decisions once the playoffs are one hundred percent secured.
Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, I feel like we tend to
Speaker 1: overcomplicate things sometimes, and I know it would change the
Speaker 1: preparation during this week, and he can change and increase
Speaker 1: potentially an injury depending on how much they use him.
Speaker 1: But let's say limited practices goes in, you still have
Speaker 1: him activated, and then depending on how the game is going,
Speaker 1: I mean, you decide whether to use him or not.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's against the Giants, we said that. I
Speaker 1: think that the Cowboys, and they've shown otherwise sometimes, but
Speaker 1: I think they should be very capable of handling their
Speaker 1: business without seek on the offense this week. But if
Speaker 1: needed in a case of emergency, can't you just have
Speaker 1: him there on the sideline ready to go. And I
Speaker 1: know it doesn't necessarily work that way because you healthwise,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a certain protocol that you have to
Speaker 1: go through it with your body to be ready to
Speaker 1: step into the field. But how how difficult is that really,
Speaker 1: you know, just having him as a backup there. I
Speaker 1: will say this, and as you mentioned earlier, give him
Speaker 1: in antp some time. But I personally think if you
Speaker 1: can get Polot back this week, that becomes impetus for
Speaker 1: me to say, sit Zeke, don't even suit him up,
Speaker 1: because I look at it and say, I've got I've
Speaker 1: got Tony Pollot, who I think is running as well
Speaker 1: at least as well as ze right now. And so
Speaker 1: I got him, and I got these other supplemental backs
Speaker 1: that I can use with him, and to me, that
Speaker 1: should be enough for the running game for for a game,
Speaker 1: for a week or two, um. And so if if
Speaker 1: Poller is ready to come back, I think that's the
Speaker 1: impetus for me. I don't love the idea of going
Speaker 1: into a game without either one of them, even against
Speaker 1: the Giants, just because I do think you want to
Speaker 1: be able to run a little bit better than what
Speaker 1: they're going to get out of those guys. But I
Speaker 1: do think that, you know, if you got Pollard back,
Speaker 1: that becomes my remason to say do it. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: But the reality is Poler's injury that he has right now,
Speaker 1: that's not going away, right, That's not it's not going away.
Speaker 1: That plan or fashiout is if anybody who knows and
Speaker 1: it just where he probably isn't isn't going away either.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm saying. But but by going by,
Speaker 1: continuing to wear on it, it gets worse. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: So by giving these guys time off, you're allowing them
Speaker 1: to you know, it's like a video game, right, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. It's like the fishing line. You
Speaker 1: throw it out there and you know, you get the
Speaker 1: tension on it and then it eventually he's gonna it's
Speaker 1: gonna pop. Right, But if you ease up off it,
Speaker 1: guess what you restore you you know, you're your stre
Speaker 1: These guys need this break and this built in it's
Speaker 1: built in. TP is not healthy. And if you wearing
Speaker 1: out and then you have something that can get substantially worse. Zeke,
Speaker 1: we see, Zeke is a shadow of himself. And there's
Speaker 1: no disrespect to Zeke. He's given it everything that he has.
Speaker 1: You can there's a lot of guys playing with a
Speaker 1: lot of injuries right now around this NFL Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: are not, and Zeke is gonna play through this thing
Speaker 1: if they allow him to sit him down, don't take
Speaker 1: the decision out of his hand. Sit down. We need you.
Speaker 1: If there's anybody in the Dallas Cowboy Nation wants to
Speaker 1: talk about playoffs right now, you need a running game.
Speaker 1: And I don't believe that our running game against the
Speaker 1: Giants is going to be dependent based upon the skill
Speaker 1: set of the running backs that we have. Is gonna
Speaker 1: be more based upon the offensive line's ability to create holes.
Speaker 1: You make a compelling point, my friend, I will I mean,
Speaker 1: and if you listen to the show, you I'm good
Speaker 1: at this, Like I can turn the worst team into
Speaker 1: like a world beater. In my mind, I'm I'm looking
Speaker 1: hard to do it is. But if there is a
Speaker 1: if there's a place where I look at it, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's some there's some guys there. They don't have Leonard Williams.
Speaker 1: Like that's there, that's the guy you would normally be worried. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and all that, I mean, Dexter Lawrence is still a
Speaker 1: good player and he's available, right. Yeah, I get OJILARI.
Speaker 1: He doesn't. He hadn't. He doesn't have the stats. But
Speaker 1: Lorenzo Carter has been a pretty decent player for them.
Speaker 1: They really like Georgia as rushers for some reason. But
Speaker 1: I mean, no, you make a compelling point. I mean
Speaker 1: they're not. I guess the other thing too, is they're
Speaker 1: not gonna do it. That's that's my big like, Well,
Speaker 1: that's why you think I'm boring, because I'm just like,
Speaker 1: why are we talking about this? They're not gonna do
Speaker 1: It's why we do talk I know, that's why we
Speaker 1: do talk about you. You're right, so we could talk
Speaker 1: about that is that is a compelling point. Although I
Speaker 1: am I'm still inclined to be like, let's play these
Speaker 1: games when the East is actually secure instead of definitely
Speaker 1: or instead of sort of secure. All Right, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take our break. When we come back, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about Jerry Jones and some comments he made yesterday.
Speaker 1: I think they got a little overblown. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: it when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys
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Speaker 1: get sized up a cowboy by three simple factors. The
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Speaker 1: Peppers zero Sugar. You deserve it. I do deserve that.
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Speaker 1: Don't miss the final two shows on Friday and Saturday,
Speaker 1: that's this Friday, December eighteenth. I think a seventeenth and
Speaker 1: eighteenth seventeen. Admission and parking are free. For more information,
Speaker 1: visit the Star District or dot and there is a
Speaker 1: chance you're welcome. There is a there is a chance
Speaker 1: that if you come out here Friday, you might just
Speaker 1: run into one day at hellman Oh yeah, heading to
Speaker 1: his car, I leave, I run into it. I run
Speaker 1: into somebody damn near every Friday, like I'll walk through
Speaker 1: the district or maybe I gotta go to the gift
Speaker 1: shop to pick something up for somebody, and yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: the gift shop is the place to hang out if
Speaker 1: you try to just run into people. Yes, that's the
Speaker 1: place to hang out, because there a bunch of yesterday
Speaker 1: I was in there and a bunch of people I
Speaker 1: ran into that work here just in their shopping because
Speaker 1: it's time of the year. Employees can get a discount.
Speaker 1: My friends know that I get a discount. And I'm
Speaker 1: in there every year at the car, I'm in there
Speaker 1: every other week, like hey, what my dad needs this,
Speaker 1: my sister needs this. That was a great perk when
Speaker 1: I was playing here. You know, take the family and
Speaker 1: so you get the calls from all family friends, need
Speaker 1: the Cowboys to quote, give Jerry his money back to
Speaker 1: quote the great marking, or come see me, check it out,
Speaker 1: check it out. You're gonna say, Dave's lighting the tree.
Speaker 1: David's not this week, not this week, but we're working
Speaker 1: on it. Maybe the day Dave needs to be getting
Speaker 1: paid to be here after like three o'clock on a Friday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't even think that's gonna keep you around. Probably not.
Speaker 1: Probably they're black on a Friday. All right, let's jump
Speaker 1: back in. There was some comments that Jerry made yesterday
Speaker 1: on one h five Dout three the Fan. He was
Speaker 1: on with H R, J H and Sean and and
Speaker 1: here's I'll read to you the quote, and then I
Speaker 1: want to get some comments from you guys with the
Speaker 1: guards of what you thought of it when you heard
Speaker 1: he said, I don't want to say that. He was
Speaker 1: asked about Dak whether Dak is in a slump He says,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that slump up. But that's
Speaker 1: probably fair. But it's such a multifact evaluation that I
Speaker 1: would say our offense is definitely away from where we were,
Speaker 1: where we were playing five or six games ago. Now
Speaker 1: I think the narrative that came out of that was
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones says, Dak Prescott's in a slump. I listened
Speaker 1: to the interview. I didn't think that's what he was saying.
Speaker 1: What I thought he was saying was, it's fair for
Speaker 1: you to say that. I don't want to say slump.
Speaker 1: But let's just say the offense, because it is a
Speaker 1: much bigger evaluation than just a quarterback. Let's just say
Speaker 1: the offense is not playing as it should be playing.
Speaker 1: Maybe the offense is in a slump. But I was
Speaker 1: I don't think he was saying that Dak was necessarily
Speaker 1: in a slump. What would you guys say? What was
Speaker 1: your take as you as you heard that quote? It
Speaker 1: reminded me. Mike McCarthy was asked the same question and
Speaker 1: he basically said the same thing without his juicy of
Speaker 1: a sound bite. He was like, I don't believe in
Speaker 1: slumps as a football thing. Which a slump is. It
Speaker 1: is baseball hitting, No doubt, you're not hitting well, it's
Speaker 1: you basketball, you against the pitcher. Yeah, how you're shooting?
Speaker 1: And McCarthy he said it on Sunday. He said it
Speaker 1: a bunch of times He's like, this is the ultimate
Speaker 1: team sport, this is eleven on eleven. There's a million
Speaker 1: reasons why these things happen. And I think Jerry was
Speaker 1: saying the same thing. But yeah, it's fair and obvious
Speaker 1: to say that Dak is not playing up to his
Speaker 1: standard over most of the last five weeks. Fourth quarter
Speaker 1: against Vegas and I'm drawing in the Atlantic Atlantic the
Speaker 1: Atlantic game two times out of the last five weeks.
Speaker 1: He's not even two times one quarter in one game
Speaker 1: out of the last five weeks, he's been great. Other
Speaker 1: than that, he's he's been bad. And so, I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe they don't want to call it a slump, but
Speaker 1: we can recognize that. I for the last four four
Speaker 1: to five weeks, I've been the bad guy around Cowboys
Speaker 1: Nations saying that Dak is off and Dak, you know,
Speaker 1: has his mechanics are off, you know, his decision making
Speaker 1: is off. And everybody's like, oh, you're Dak hater and
Speaker 1: you're cowboy. No. I call it like I see it.
Speaker 1: As a former quarterback. I've been noticing these things. His
Speaker 1: decision making has not been on point. He's been hesitant,
Speaker 1: he hasn't been he hasn't been more proactive in terms
Speaker 1: of across the line of scrimmage for whatever reason. It's
Speaker 1: like an invisible boundary right there. Ever, since a calf injury,
Speaker 1: his release point has been off. We saw that with
Speaker 1: the interception to Collins the other day. Um, he's forcing plays.
Speaker 1: We saw that in to a couple of plays where
Speaker 1: he should have been intercepted or the first player's first
Speaker 1: drive of the game. And also he tried to force
Speaker 1: a screen pass in there the other day as well
Speaker 1: that should have been picked off. He's he's in a slump.
Speaker 1: He's been in a slump and it's not and it is,
Speaker 1: you know, to Jerry's point, Jerry's been trying to save him.
Speaker 1: You know, mister Jones, I respect the crap out of him.
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, if you're a bubble I said
Speaker 1: this other day, if you're a player on the bubble
Speaker 1: and you make a mistake, you you got to own
Speaker 1: up to all of it, right you. You might even
Speaker 1: get fired if you make one big mistake. For whatever reason.
Speaker 1: The high profile players get grace, They get a ton
Speaker 1: of grace, you know. And Daks has been receiving that
Speaker 1: from mister Jones, from the boss Man and he said, Hey,
Speaker 1: last time he didn't want to put any responsibility on
Speaker 1: it's the receiver's fault. And that was last week. It's
Speaker 1: a receiver's fault. They're not running the route to the
Speaker 1: right depth. And this week he doesn't want to say that.
Speaker 1: Dak's into something and he's in a slump. It's okay.
Speaker 1: It's not a bad word. It's something that as a
Speaker 1: professional you can take that. You get coached hard every
Speaker 1: single day. I'm not playing up to my standard. My
Speaker 1: mechanics are all, My decision making is off, and my
Speaker 1: execution is off, and it's affecting everybody around me. Now
Speaker 1: is it just Dak? Absolutely not okay. The office, the
Speaker 1: line playing musical chairs, they can't get things going to
Speaker 1: the left guard position. Teams are picking on our on
Speaker 1: the Connor bros. And Tyler Beads. That is a gaping
Speaker 1: hole whenever you're facing. If you're gonna say there's a
Speaker 1: weak spot on the Dallas offense, that's it, right. And
Speaker 1: so Dak I think got pressured. We I think we
Speaker 1: pressured Washington twenty times. I think we have QB pressure.
Speaker 1: I think they pressured us thirteen or somewhere around there.
Speaker 1: So got sacked four times a game, so he's not
Speaker 1: it's not a clean game. Yeah, it's not a clean game.
Speaker 1: So he's not able to set his feet back there
Speaker 1: the way he wants to and regain his confidence that
Speaker 1: he has lost. So it is multifaceted. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, Dak is in a slump. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Being in the slump is way better than saying you suck.
Speaker 1: So I'll take being you're actually pretty good and you're
Speaker 1: just not right now. Yeah, So they don't suck and
Speaker 1: we know they got it. They're just in a slump
Speaker 1: right now and they need to get out of it.
Speaker 1: And I think the same can be applied to a
Speaker 1: bunch of other players on the offense. Maybe not the
Speaker 1: same level of Dak right now, but you can say
Speaker 1: that about almost everybody, including these top wide receivers that
Speaker 1: we got on the team. Now, another thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to point out on Monday, it was that we talked
Speaker 1: about like the mental aspect and like Nate was talking
Speaker 1: about it, and you know, that's something we can't visually
Speaker 1: necessarily see, but and I'm not blind. Every week I
Speaker 1: look for pictures to upload on the side and things
Speaker 1: like that. I see Dak and like you can tell,
Speaker 1: if you've been seeing Dak long enough, you can even
Speaker 1: see it in pictures, how he just looks different, like
Speaker 1: his confidence is not there. He's starting to now visually
Speaker 1: show it on his face. I've seen videos of it.
Speaker 1: So he's definitely going through something mentally where he's just
Speaker 1: not as confident. And I'm sure, like what's been happening
Speaker 1: week after week when you're not being successful, it creates
Speaker 1: more pressure on you and you start feeling it, you know.
Speaker 1: So hopefully this game against the Giants will allow for
Speaker 1: him to complete plays, go for it, just regain a
Speaker 1: little bit of the confidence that we know he has
Speaker 1: and it's there and it's one of the best attributes
Speaker 1: that he has ever had. He just needs to get
Speaker 1: it back. And here's the thing, Like, obviously, I know
Speaker 1: that's your take, and none of us really knows what's
Speaker 1: going on in his head, because obviously he's the only
Speaker 1: one knows what's going on in his head. But I
Speaker 1: do want to ask you, Isaiah, as a former professional athlete,
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit about that mental part
Speaker 1: of it, what happens. And I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: been through this, but what happens when you get into
Speaker 1: that moment where maybe you're doubting your teammates, maybe you're
Speaker 1: doubting yourself. Maybe there are lingering mental things that you're
Speaker 1: having to deal with from the injury you're recovering from.
Speaker 1: How do you get how do you how do you
Speaker 1: break through that as a professional athlete on a stage
Speaker 1: like this where everybody's watching and everybody's looking at you, like, man,
Speaker 1: you ain't the same, you ain't as good. It's the
Speaker 1: reason why he gets paid forty a year is because
Speaker 1: everybody understands the pressures that he's going to be under.
Speaker 1: Things are going great, it's his fault why things are
Speaker 1: going great. Um, and he's the reason why when things
Speaker 1: are bad, you're seeing it. Everybody's pointing a finger at
Speaker 1: Dac And yeah, he has to figure things out. And
Speaker 1: the way in which you do that is Keller Moore
Speaker 1: has to help him. Keller Moore has to help him.
Speaker 1: The best officer line has to help him. They have
Speaker 1: to give him opportunity. The running game is not where
Speaker 1: it needs to be. The officer line is not where
Speaker 1: it needs to be. This this team, in terms of
Speaker 1: their scheme, it feels like Kelly Moore has he's the
Speaker 1: bag that he was in is empty, right, he needs
Speaker 1: to restock that thing. You know, he gave out all
Speaker 1: the presents and so it's not it's not just Dak
Speaker 1: and Keller. Moore has to find a way to make
Speaker 1: these these these concepts a lot easier for him to digest. Okay,
Speaker 1: teams are growing a lot more too high safety, so
Speaker 1: it's complicating things in terms of his ability to find windows.
Speaker 1: Why are they going too high safety? Well, because the
Speaker 1: running game is not going Teams would never go too
Speaker 1: high against this before, right, So it is they're running
Speaker 1: against a seven man box with you and they're not
Speaker 1: being able to do it. Do it, can't do it, right,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the offset. You go too high safety
Speaker 1: to try to stop the pass, right, you go single
Speaker 1: highest safety to try to stop the run. And these
Speaker 1: teams are going too high safety because they're like, you
Speaker 1: guys don't have a running game and Dak's struggling. So
Speaker 1: guess what beat us and you and you're you're not
Speaker 1: You're unable to the way that you really want to.
Speaker 1: So he has to build confidence by this by this
Speaker 1: the concepts he has to build off some confidence by
Speaker 1: this running game helping him out. And then when you
Speaker 1: have when you lack confidence, you want to be precise
Speaker 1: when you've made mistakes. He's throwing what five or six
Speaker 1: hundred six interceptions in the last six games, I believe.
Speaker 1: So when you're when you're making those kind of mistakes,
Speaker 1: now everything, you're second guessing your throws and your decisions. Now,
Speaker 1: like for instance, on that screenplay, when he should have
Speaker 1: threw it, when he should have threw it the zeke,
Speaker 1: he didn't throw it the zeke. So guess I'm gonna
Speaker 1: wait for him to come to the next window and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure that my next pass is on point.
Speaker 1: And guess what, now it's not. And by the way,
Speaker 1: that defender also knows that. So now he's keyed in
Speaker 1: and just watching like, oh, yeah, throw it now, yeah,
Speaker 1: throw it now. It's there's this weird thing when you
Speaker 1: watch him recently where like and I don't maybe he
Speaker 1: doesn't trust his receiver, maybe he doesn't trust himself. Probably
Speaker 1: a little bit of both, because he's made some bad
Speaker 1: throws and there have been some bad drops and things
Speaker 1: like that. There's it looks like he wants to go
Speaker 1: and hand it to the receives perfect, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, and he's not. That should be instinctual. You're like,
Speaker 1: I see you in this window on this look, I'm
Speaker 1: ripping it and he doesn't look like he trusts himself
Speaker 1: to rip it almost ever. Yeah, they need to get
Speaker 1: that back, which I wonder. I know you can't do
Speaker 1: this for seventy five plays, but I'd like to see
Speaker 1: maybe some more tempo. Probably the best drive of that
Speaker 1: entire game was the two minute they wound up kicking
Speaker 1: a fuel goal, but they went from probably their own
Speaker 1: red zone or near it down you know, he had
Speaker 1: a great completion to Amri over the middle for eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty yards something like that. They just they looked natural,
Speaker 1: They looked more like themselves. And whether it's because you're
Speaker 1: not giving yourself time to think or because the speed
Speaker 1: of the offense is throwing the defense off, either way,
Speaker 1: they look better when they go tempo. They were doing
Speaker 1: a lot of tempo in the fourth quarter of Vegas
Speaker 1: because they were trailing. Like I said, I know you
Speaker 1: can't do that every snap of the game, but maybe
Speaker 1: try to mix that in a little bit more, just
Speaker 1: as a way of kickstarting things. People fail. I fail
Speaker 1: to give credit to the running game on this offense.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to point to the skill set that's at
Speaker 1: the receiver position. Everybody wants to point to the fact
Speaker 1: that Dak, you know, start off the year throwing fifty times,
Speaker 1: and how we can throw it, and Kellen Moore has
Speaker 1: all these games. This team is built on the run.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you try to do passing wise,
Speaker 1: you have to have a running game. And when you
Speaker 1: don't have a running game, this is a result. I've
Speaker 1: fought against that for so long because I do think
Speaker 1: Dak is good enough to carry it when it's not working.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been recently, but he's done that before. He
Speaker 1: did it last season when Ze couldn't stop fumbling like
Speaker 1: he can carry you. It's still not a good idea,
Speaker 1: and there's no denying when you go look at it.
Speaker 1: Their worst rushing performance of that win streak when they
Speaker 1: were murdering everyone was one twenty two. That was their
Speaker 1: worst performance. They went to they got to two hundred
Speaker 1: against the Chargers. They were going for one forty one,
Speaker 1: sixty eighty, that type of thing, and I think New
Speaker 1: Orleans was their best rushing performance since and that was
Speaker 1: one thirty five, and you got the vast majority of
Speaker 1: that off of two big chunk players instead of just gradually.
Speaker 1: It's important, and like I said, DAK is good enough
Speaker 1: to carry you without it, but it's not going to
Speaker 1: be as pretty or as consistent as it is when
Speaker 1: the run game's humming, and everything that could help your
Speaker 1: running game all of a sudden at the same time
Speaker 1: is not working right. Your offensive line isn't doing what
Speaker 1: they need to do. You've got an injured top running back,
Speaker 1: You've got an injured second running back. Your quarterback who
Speaker 1: usually adds to your rushing total is not willing to
Speaker 1: run the ball at the same rate that he was before,
Speaker 1: and maybe not as effective as it was before. So
Speaker 1: everything that could contribute to your running game, what we've
Speaker 1: seen this running game be in the past several years,
Speaker 1: is all broken it all the same time, and so
Speaker 1: I don't know quite how Kellen is going to be
Speaker 1: expected to get that all fixed. But that's the job,
Speaker 1: right The job is you got to figure out how
Speaker 1: to get that fixed real quick. Before we end the show,
Speaker 1: I did want to move on to one more topic
Speaker 1: that I wanted to hit right now. There is a
Speaker 1: major outbreak around the NFL with regards to COVID. I
Speaker 1: want to say the number was at sixty something players
Speaker 1: over the last two days who have now been placed
Speaker 1: in the COVID protocol. Dallas miraculously is not in that situation.
Speaker 1: They got one player on the COVID list right now.
Speaker 1: The question for you guys, though, is how capable is
Speaker 1: Dallas right now to manage an outbreak from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of their depth. Obviously they're doing everything they can from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of their protocols, but do you think they
Speaker 1: have the right depth to be able to handle an outbreak?
Speaker 1: Because as you get closer to the playoffs and in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, I guarantee you there are going to be
Speaker 1: some playoff games this year that will be affected by COVID.
Speaker 1: Question will be what teams have the right amount of
Speaker 1: depth to be able to manage that. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody is equipped to handle. I mean, if it's the
Speaker 1: right outbreak. The Cowboys got. The outbreak that they dealt
Speaker 1: with was mainly coaches, which that's not great, but you're
Speaker 1: not losing people that can play you the game. I
Speaker 1: mean Cleveland on paper, On paper, they have one of
Speaker 1: the more talented rosters in the NFL. They got this
Speaker 1: great old line, they got two of the best running
Speaker 1: backs in the league, and like they might not be
Speaker 1: able to field a team because they've lost so many guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, they lost their quarterback today. If if if
Speaker 1: Dak catches COVID, god forbid and it. You know, it
Speaker 1: seems like he and a lot of these other guys
Speaker 1: are really going out of their way to keep that
Speaker 1: from happening. But like, is that the one guy on
Speaker 1: this team that is the most important guy you couldn't
Speaker 1: afford to lose. I Ironically, they won a game without him,
Speaker 1: but I would still say so. I mean, you kind
Speaker 1: of have a quarterback in this league. But I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what if this is this is just an example.
Speaker 1: Please don't kill me for this. But like um, DeMarcus Lawrence,
Speaker 1: Micah Parsons, Treyvon Digs, and somebody else were hanging out
Speaker 1: together watching Monday night football. They tweeting about it, pizza
Speaker 1: hut all that stuff. They're what if they're all close
Speaker 1: contacts or transmitted to each other. Again, that's purely hypothetical,
Speaker 1: but like, you have no idea how this thing can
Speaker 1: get transmitted, I'm sure this new strain omicron is part
Speaker 1: of it. I hope I said that right, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's no rhyme or reason of this.
Speaker 1: So I don't think any team can can handle it
Speaker 1: if you draw the wrong break, you know. And I
Speaker 1: just saw I think, who did I see on Twitter? Uh?
Speaker 1: Taught R He was talking about that the possibility of
Speaker 1: them being in the bubble with the Omni hotel, so
Speaker 1: going back to how they were last year at times,
Speaker 1: so they're starting to look at options to make sure
Speaker 1: it doesn't help. I would check the whole damn team
Speaker 1: into the Omnis tonight. The challenge with that, though, still
Speaker 1: is that, you know, even with that, I mean you
Speaker 1: will you will obviously mitigate your risk because there's less exposure,
Speaker 1: but you can't take risk completely away. There's still going
Speaker 1: to be people that they're around. You know, again, when
Speaker 1: they on the plane, all of us or some of
Speaker 1: us are on that plane with them, Like we're not.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you not right now, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: stay in the Omni for a month and a half.
Speaker 1: So so I mean, that's not happening. So and you
Speaker 1: also got to think about the standpoint two of you
Speaker 1: want your players to be in the right mental state
Speaker 1: as well. So you tell a guy who is a
Speaker 1: veteran player that has two or three kids that now
Speaker 1: you're not going to be at home with your family
Speaker 1: for Christmas. I don't know how I feel about that
Speaker 1: if I'm a veteran player with that kind of setup, Like,
Speaker 1: I know, this is my job, but there's certainly also
Speaker 1: that mental part of it too. Am I creating more
Speaker 1: mental stress for myself by not being with my kids
Speaker 1: and my kids not understanding why I can't be with
Speaker 1: them for Christmas because I'm sitting at a hotel, Like
Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff that goes with that. So
Speaker 1: it sounds good if you got robots. It doesn't work
Speaker 1: when you got people actually humans, you know, I think
Speaker 1: this team is built for it. As long as you
Speaker 1: don't touch the quarterback in offensive line, I think every
Speaker 1: other position and linebacker. This is a defensive team. Now
Speaker 1: you can work it's a defensive team. Now. Absolutely, I'm
Speaker 1: worried about the Cardinal guys about Mica, but the key
Speaker 1: I think with it, you might not play the Cardinals
Speaker 1: with those guys anyway, depending on what happens here over
Speaker 1: the next you know game or so sure you're playing
Speaker 1: that game. You're not sitting guys for Arizona. There's no
Speaker 1: way you need to sit guys for Arizona. Maybe Philly.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a shot at if you have
Speaker 1: the NFC's secured, you don't have a shot at getting
Speaker 1: that first round. By what are you playing again? But
Speaker 1: that's the point to a void, you loser of the
Speaker 1: NFC West in the wild. But both those things can't
Speaker 1: be true though, because if you win the next two,
Speaker 1: then you're in position because Arizona loss Monday night, you're
Speaker 1: in position at that point if you beat Arizona to
Speaker 1: move at least to the third spot, right, which matters,
Speaker 1: like you don't have to face the MS and is
Speaker 1: not buying it. I mean, it's just this playoffs is
Speaker 1: gonna be crazy. Yeah, the amount of talent in this
Speaker 1: NFC is absolutely absurd. I would rather take San Francisco
Speaker 1: and then take the Rams. And so for me, I'm
Speaker 1: playing that Arizona game because I want to at least
Speaker 1: get to three. Now, maybe week seventeen, I'm like, you
Speaker 1: know whatever, if you you get the rest, take the rest.
Speaker 1: But that week sixteen game like that against Arizona. You
Speaker 1: need that game, you need game sixteen. Well if they
Speaker 1: if they beat Arizona, I love getting way out ahead
Speaker 1: of the varsities. They beat Arizona, the Philly game becomes meaningful,
Speaker 1: like you can't afford to lose that, So can't we
Speaker 1: can't because if you lose to Philly because you sat everybody,
Speaker 1: then you just give that ground right back and you
Speaker 1: can get that true true. So yeah, that's what I'm signing.
Speaker 1: Play out the string is what is the point in
Speaker 1: my opinion? I mean, you might not have all right,
Speaker 1: We appreciate you guys join us. We'll be back tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We'll be joined by Bucky Brooks. Hopefully Nick will be
Speaker 1: back in studio. But in the day that he was in, Isaiah,
Speaker 1: thank you for joinings man. Probably a lot of good perspective.
Speaker 1: We appreciate that for a Dave Helm and Ambergard Sea
Speaker 1: Isaiah stand back. I'm Derrek Elton. 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.