Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This he is Talking Cowboys,
Speaker 1: screening live from the Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the
Speaker 1: Star in Frisco. Sat. Here are Mickey Spagnola, Brian Brons,
Speaker 1: Rob Phillips, and Bill Jones. What's up? Welcome into Talking
Speaker 1: Cowboys inside the SWBC Mortgage studio. As the returning Mickey
Speaker 1: Spagnola would say, it's a blue Monday out here at
Speaker 1: the Star in Frisco, but we're here for the next
Speaker 1: hour to talk about it. Rob Phillips hosting for Bill
Speaker 1: Jones today, Brian brought us joining as always, read his
Speaker 1: notebook on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Right now breaking down
Speaker 1: the cowboys sixteen to eight opening loss Carolina, William Boykin's
Speaker 1: next door producing and before we get started, welcome back, Mick. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Should I hang my headphones on the on the mic here? Yeah? Sure,
Speaker 1: that was pretty cute. I hang them up. That's being
Speaker 1: really creative, right there, some creative producing. Yes, absolutely, that
Speaker 1: was kind of genius. I expecting done. I expect we
Speaker 1: have more drops of you, Mickey, so we could have
Speaker 1: just done you from Scott Ahead and just kept dropping
Speaker 1: and have my answers. Yeah, I expected to see one
Speaker 1: of those big head fans sitting here, you know, with
Speaker 1: my face on it, a big mickey fathead. That'd be cool.
Speaker 1: I watched, Yeah, almost called in, but I didn't want
Speaker 1: to stop down the show. Blood pressure, Okay after watching
Speaker 1: that night, Yeah, I think so it actually went down
Speaker 1: this morning. That's good. That's good. We're glad to have
Speaker 1: you back. Glad you're feeling better, and uh, glad you
Speaker 1: could join us for breaking down a tough loss yesterday.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was some good, There was some and
Speaker 1: like Brian's headline said on the website, there was definitely
Speaker 1: some ugly. Cowboys lose of the Panthers sixteen to eight,
Speaker 1: fifth time in the last nine games this football team
Speaker 1: hasn't reached ten points. Yeah, single digit points. Offense struggled.
Speaker 1: What's what's y'all's first impressions or quick impressions from the game.
Speaker 1: It was awful. It was as bad as opener I
Speaker 1: think I've seen. It actually took me back to nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, a one in fifteen team twenty eight to
Speaker 1: nothing to the Saints offensive ineptitude. They didn't do anything
Speaker 1: right that day. I think they ran for like twenty yards,
Speaker 1: never came close to scoring. The quarterback got beat up,
Speaker 1: and yeah, this was I expected it to be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a struggle, but not that bad. I
Speaker 1: just think it didn't think it would be that bad.
Speaker 1: My column that I'm going to send to you here
Speaker 1: and when we finish said it looked like a team
Speaker 1: that hadn't played football in three weeks. And that's exactly
Speaker 1: what it looked like. Maybe they needed a few preseason reps.
Speaker 1: Well I don't know. I don't know how you handle that,
Speaker 1: but it took them all the way to the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter before offensively, they acted like they were knowing what
Speaker 1: they were doing. And the worst part was is those
Speaker 1: first four possessions, you had two penalties and two sacks
Speaker 1: out of those four possessions, and you were facing second
Speaker 1: and seventeen, third and twenty six. And then finally when
Speaker 1: you got to the fifth possession, when you had a
Speaker 1: chance on third and seven, Dak on the run instead
Speaker 1: of setting his feet, tries to throw off his back
Speaker 1: foot and short hops Jarwin by what ten yards? Yeah,
Speaker 1: clearly wide open. Yeah, And when you're struggling like that,
Speaker 1: you just can't make a mistake like that, and you know,
Speaker 1: and not to keep going on and on, but the
Speaker 1: darnedest thing of the whole game, they only lost sixteen
Speaker 1: to eight. It was sixteen to eight, had a chance,
Speaker 1: had possession right. As bad as they played, Carolina wasn't
Speaker 1: great either offensively, Brian, but they were. But it's hard
Speaker 1: to be as poor offensively as the Cowboys were, especially
Speaker 1: early in the game. Yeah, you know, and I want
Speaker 1: to believe that the coach and staff had a really
Speaker 1: good plan for how to handle Looke Keekley early in
Speaker 1: that game, you know, or how to how to kind
Speaker 1: of take care of him, and it seemed like though
Speaker 1: in the second half they were able to do some
Speaker 1: things where they were able to get him blocked and
Speaker 1: didn't allow him to completely wreck what they were doing.
Speaker 1: The thing that you know, Mickey talked about the third
Speaker 1: and seven and the short hot plays and all that
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and you know that he's absolutely right
Speaker 1: about that. It looked just as bad on film this morning,
Speaker 1: is that, as you saw yesterday, he could have helped
Speaker 1: Williams on the sack that he gave up. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Kwan short beat him clean early, but he had, He
Speaker 1: had Jeff Sway curled up, you know, and he was
Speaker 1: looking right at him for a chance to throw the ball.
Speaker 1: I have no idea why he didn't try and hit
Speaker 1: Jeff Swain to get the first down. You know, he
Speaker 1: looked at him, and you know, he just didn't pull
Speaker 1: the trigger. And there were several plays like that where
Speaker 1: you know, people are saying, well, with the receivers open,
Speaker 1: and that was something I was looking at last night.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, okay, am I gonna watch this tape
Speaker 1: this morning and feel like that receivers weren't getting open.
Speaker 1: And there were times where there were receivers open and
Speaker 1: Prescott came off one one time where he had the
Speaker 1: opportunity on third a third down play, you know late
Speaker 1: in the game, where he could have hit Swain for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. He could have hit a Gallop for a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Uh in the you know, on the same play he
Speaker 1: didn't throw, he ran. He luckily he got the first down,
Speaker 1: kept the drive going. He missed a Gallop on the
Speaker 1: on the crossing route right there late in the game
Speaker 1: that would have put them deep in Carolina territory. If
Speaker 1: he throws the ball in front of Gallop right there,
Speaker 1: Gallop is on his way, and you know, you're looking
Speaker 1: at maybe a different situation right there. But I just
Speaker 1: feel like though that there was there was too many
Speaker 1: times in this game where Prescott made reads and didn't
Speaker 1: read the correct thing or for some reason, and he's
Speaker 1: going to sit down and look at the tape and go,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, why did I not throw that? Why
Speaker 1: did I not see that? Why did I You know,
Speaker 1: he's got Cole Beasley on a third down play too,
Speaker 1: where you know, it's a bunch of formation. It's the
Speaker 1: third and three play. I want to believe and if
Speaker 1: I had the distance right, but he's still they got
Speaker 1: bunch of formation, and the design is to get Beasley inside,
Speaker 1: and Beasley's inside it, but for some reason, Prescott not
Speaker 1: patient enough to allow him. You know, he looks at
Speaker 1: him and then he immediately takes his eyes and goes outside,
Speaker 1: and you're going, wait a minute. Design of the play
Speaker 1: is to get Cole Beasley inside. You had him, he
Speaker 1: had the corners beat, you had their coverage on their heels.
Speaker 1: You could have hit him. It would have been a
Speaker 1: first down. So there were a lot of plays in
Speaker 1: this game where either Dak Prescott reads affected the way
Speaker 1: that the play was executed, and the offensive coordinator will
Speaker 1: get a lot of grief for bad play calling, but
Speaker 1: there was a lot of poor execution, mainly by your quarterback,
Speaker 1: that affected the way those plays were run, you know.
Speaker 1: And this is and I got reminded the downside of
Speaker 1: watching the game on television, which I hadn't done since
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. Broke your streak, unfortunately. Well, but at
Speaker 1: least I was working when I didn't cover those games.
Speaker 1: But when I was at the Olympics in Seoul, South
Speaker 1: Korea in eighty eight, the Summer Olympics, we watched the
Speaker 1: games on TV, and I forgot how much you can't
Speaker 1: see on television. It was frustrating, number one, that you
Speaker 1: can't tell who's in the game and who isn't. And
Speaker 1: then number two, you never know what's going on in
Speaker 1: the secondary with the receivers right right right, And you know,
Speaker 1: and I probably should apologize to the fans out there
Speaker 1: that have to watch the game on TV when I
Speaker 1: get impatient with them when they talk about, well, the
Speaker 1: receivers did this. You can't see what the receivers are doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's impass it's tough, and I went back and you know,
Speaker 1: watch the game again, and you just don't know, and
Speaker 1: so you can't see what the quarterback should be seeing
Speaker 1: or not seeing. And it's it's it's what a luxury
Speaker 1: to be at the games to see those things from above.
Speaker 1: No question two is great. Yeah, And it's one of
Speaker 1: the things why you know, after games and stuff, I
Speaker 1: sit there and talk about Okay, this that and the other,
Speaker 1: a rite about it. Then then you get to the
Speaker 1: opportunity and fortunately we get to sit down and watch
Speaker 1: this and you do, like Mickey says, you do get
Speaker 1: to see receivers run routes. You do get to see
Speaker 1: tight ends run routes. You do get to see, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, Ezekiel, if he doesn't get tripped up in
Speaker 1: the flat, that's going to be a big play. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be him and Luke Keikley one on one at
Speaker 1: the sticks to see if they can get this first down.
Speaker 1: You know, those are things you don't always see, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, Dak Prescott, well, oh on that throw to
Speaker 1: the short hop throw, well, immediately you think run run run. No, Well,
Speaker 1: Luke Keikley standing right there bearing down on you. So
Speaker 1: he had to make a decision like, okay, am I
Speaker 1: gonna beat Luke Keikley to the sticks or I'm I
Speaker 1: gonna try and make this throw with my feet, like
Speaker 1: Mickey said, not being stable. You know, he comes back
Speaker 1: and makes that same throw later in the game. It's
Speaker 1: just from a little bit less of a distance of him. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what though, Jarwin is is you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm not blaming Jarwin. He's a young kid, but
Speaker 1: he's drifting away from Prescott instead of if he felt
Speaker 1: like I'm so open, I need to stop and just
Speaker 1: allowed Dak to get me the ball, that probably would
Speaker 1: have been the best thing to have happened. Maybe a
Speaker 1: veteran tied end or a veteran receiver makes that adjustment
Speaker 1: like I'm so open, I don't need to keep drift
Speaker 1: up the field. I need to keep in position here
Speaker 1: to allow my quarterback to get me the ball. If
Speaker 1: he's probably four yards further up the field, they have
Speaker 1: a chance for a completion there. But it didn't work out.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of plays during this game where
Speaker 1: it was what if, Oh my gosh, they could have
Speaker 1: why didn't they execute? Again, I am not defending Scott
Speaker 1: Linahan here, I am defending. I'm not defending anybody, really,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying though he asked these guys to make plays,
Speaker 1: and there were several guys in this game that did
Speaker 1: not make enough plays. That was the bottom line, because
Speaker 1: that's the narrative coming out of this game. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's fire the coaches and all that, and you're talking
Speaker 1: to a guy who's the blowtorch of fire coaches. Okay,
Speaker 1: I you know that's something that I live with, you know,
Speaker 1: But but I'm trying to also be fair. And when
Speaker 1: you watch, if you know, quarterbacks always Jason Garrey says,
Speaker 1: we try and put these players in position to make plays.
Speaker 1: Somebody should have been blocking Luke Keikley, you know, whether
Speaker 1: it was a puller, whether it was a down block,
Speaker 1: whether it was a combo block. You don't allow Luke
Speaker 1: Keikley just to run free all day. That is a
Speaker 1: poor game plan if that's your game plan. But what
Speaker 1: happened they did in the second half. They got bodies
Speaker 1: on him. One of Zekiel It's best runs was, Okay,
Speaker 1: they get a chip, they get a down block from
Speaker 1: the tight end to seal the edge, and then they
Speaker 1: get and then they get swayed inside on Keikley. Now
Speaker 1: what happens you're running on the safety. That's how the
Speaker 1: plays designed to go when it's executed well and blocked well.
Speaker 1: But again the narrative is the offensive coordinator sucks. And
Speaker 1: to Mickey's point, when you watch the TV copy, you
Speaker 1: say the offensive coordinator sucks. But then when you get
Speaker 1: into watching the All twenty two, you're like, Prescott missed this.
Speaker 1: Oh what was he looking at there? Oh, really good route?
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, why didn't Why didn't Jeff Swayin blocked
Speaker 1: down on that time to get Keikle. If he gets Chickley,
Speaker 1: they got a shot. That's what happens to in these games.
Speaker 1: I think. I think it also emerged that there was
Speaker 1: no Travis Frederick out there. Yeah, but you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't feel like Mickey when you go back, I'm saying
Speaker 1: Looney played, yeah, poorly well, but I think the second
Speaker 1: the second level blocks that weren't fair. That is fair.
Speaker 1: That is where you you know, with with Frederick, we
Speaker 1: always say this, he cuts the defense in half with
Speaker 1: his ability to play in the second level. He knows
Speaker 1: how to Okay, Travis has got he's got excuse me,
Speaker 1: h Zach's goott has got here. I've got to go
Speaker 1: up where Looney's not. Really I'm fighting, I'm fighting. I'm fighting.
Speaker 1: Oh wait a minute, I got to get to the
Speaker 1: second level and I can't quite get there. And then
Speaker 1: now you have guys running free. You're concerned going into
Speaker 1: this game. As we were wrapping up the week, Bryan's concern,
Speaker 1: Mick was that Carolina front seven, not necessarily the defensive line,
Speaker 1: but that whole front seven. Keikley flowing to the ball,
Speaker 1: fast linebackers, he got Coan short and done, Terry Poe
Speaker 1: in there. Can they block up front for Zeke? And
Speaker 1: Zeke finishes with fifteen kerries sixty nine yards. I think
Speaker 1: he only had eighteen yards in the first half. They
Speaker 1: just couldn't get anything going up the front, Zeke and
Speaker 1: the talk coming out of the game, and Zeke said
Speaker 1: in the second half they didn't really run anything much differently, No,
Speaker 1: they just executed better as you said they did. You
Speaker 1: know that first half, Mick, I think you alluded to it.
Speaker 1: Third and twenty six, third and twelve, third and ten,
Speaker 1: third and eleven, third and seven there had said that
Speaker 1: they're behind the change. Really the whole first half. So
Speaker 1: what are you gonna call. You're the offensive coordinator, what
Speaker 1: are you calling? That's tough, right, He called a screen
Speaker 1: and if the if the running back would have kept
Speaker 1: his balance, it might have been a first down. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're trying to chip away at that. Again, I am
Speaker 1: not defending Scott Lenahan. I think there's criticism for everybody here,
Speaker 1: you know, I really do. But but to put to
Speaker 1: put it all, I think my saying is always its
Speaker 1: slow hanging fruit to say, Okay, it's the OC's fault.
Speaker 1: There's no creativity here. You know they were they were
Speaker 1: a Travis Frederick blocking the back from having a really
Speaker 1: good design. Play on that screenplay, second play of the game. Smith,
Speaker 1: Oh it's gonna be Tyron Smith. Excuse me, Tyren Smith. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that Tyron Smith at this fighting like hell to get
Speaker 1: to the outside to get that block. Bradberry, the cornerback,
Speaker 1: ducks him and it makes it Tyren Smith's in a
Speaker 1: rough spot because he's thinking, if I don't get this block,
Speaker 1: is Tavon Austin gonna make this play? And this is
Speaker 1: not having enough experience with Tavon Austin knowing that he's
Speaker 1: a little bit of an elusive guy. You know, if
Speaker 1: you have a guy out there you're kind of comfortable with, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't need to get this block. He's gonna make
Speaker 1: the first guy miss. But he gets caught no man's land.
Speaker 1: He says, I've got to get this block, where an
Speaker 1: actual ouity he really didn't need to get the block.
Speaker 1: Smith's gonna make the play. Those are the kinds of
Speaker 1: things that happen when you do call the good play,
Speaker 1: but you do have a negative play or a negative
Speaker 1: result because of a penalty or a misread or an
Speaker 1: indecision or a sack or a sack yeah, or a
Speaker 1: minus run early and that is that one of the
Speaker 1: rules they changed on the line of scrimmage that you
Speaker 1: can't push a guy from behind. You can't push a guy.
Speaker 1: I always thought you could do it within the tackle box. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was clipping and pushing and all that
Speaker 1: was available there but on the outside. Because they had
Speaker 1: it come back, they ran another screen that had the
Speaker 1: same exact thing happened and they got another push. I
Speaker 1: mean Zack Martin pushed as well, but they didn't call it.
Speaker 1: So sometimes you're at the mercy of what happens. But
Speaker 1: I'm not sitting here and making excuses for the offense
Speaker 1: because they've got to be better. They've got to be
Speaker 1: better running the football, they've got to be better executing blocks,
Speaker 1: and the quarterback has to be better making decisions. He
Speaker 1: didn't help Connor Williams on that sack. Connor Williams is beating.
Speaker 1: We talked about that at nauseum, that Connor Williams is
Speaker 1: going to struggle at certain points and times in this game.
Speaker 1: And that was the one time that Kawan Short got
Speaker 1: him and dacted at an opportunity to get rid of
Speaker 1: the football, and for some reason he didn't do it,
Speaker 1: you know. And on that play, it was very smart
Speaker 1: on the Panthers because it looked like Looney was set
Speaker 1: up to help Connor Williams, but Short went to the
Speaker 1: outside where there was no help, right, and then he
Speaker 1: got bent over. You know, you were talking about Keekley.
Speaker 1: There was one play he was in the middle and
Speaker 1: he ran across all the way to the end to
Speaker 1: make the play and no one touched him. It was
Speaker 1: just like me saying, Okay, I'm going to go over
Speaker 1: there and run around and make a play. It's it's
Speaker 1: you know, there's it's a bad If you want to
Speaker 1: blame the coaches for that, then bad game plan. If
Speaker 1: your game plan was not to block Looke Keekly, that's
Speaker 1: a bad that's a bad game plan. But I want
Speaker 1: to believe their game plan was to block Looke Keeklely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's there, Sean Lee, He's gonna make plays all over
Speaker 1: the field. The one the one thing I didn't like,
Speaker 1: and it was almost being stubborn. I think that this
Speaker 1: is what we do on offense, right when you run
Speaker 1: two tight ends, when you run three tight ends, all
Speaker 1: you were doing is inviting Carolina and put eight guys
Speaker 1: in the box. And the one time they had three
Speaker 1: tight ends, they had nine guys. They had nine guys
Speaker 1: up there. Well, where do you think you're going? Yeah,
Speaker 1: why this team is always ability to run out eleven
Speaker 1: personnel And I guarantee the Giants game plan this week.
Speaker 1: They need to sit down and look at the Giants
Speaker 1: and what Jacksonville tried to do to him. But you know,
Speaker 1: you know they Garrett even mentioned it in the post game.
Speaker 1: He said, hey, we started to spread them out a
Speaker 1: little bit. We had some success. Should have done that soon.
Speaker 1: But that's that's that's where that's where, that's where you're
Speaker 1: that's where it. Now you fall the coaches, how quick
Speaker 1: did you get to the adjustment? Should you have been
Speaker 1: running the ball inside? And Connor Williams didn't play terrible.
Speaker 1: He Connor Williams and Joe Looney did not play terrible. Kanto.
Speaker 1: I thought he was going to wreck this run game,
Speaker 1: but they had. It was really Luke Keikley. Luke Keikley.
Speaker 1: The inability to stop Luke Keikley hurt them early, but
Speaker 1: again once they started blocking him or at least getting
Speaker 1: a hat on him. You know, they run a play.
Speaker 1: They ran a play where um, they get the ball.
Speaker 1: They get the ball the outside to Zeke and he's
Speaker 1: but you know, Lyle Collins is able just to get enough,
Speaker 1: just to get enough at Keikley. It was the the
Speaker 1: option play for the touchdown, you know, on the I
Speaker 1: thought it was all designed play option on the goal line.
Speaker 1: Dac does a nice job fake the read and you know,
Speaker 1: or fake the pitch, gets the defense to commit and
Speaker 1: then pitches it. You get a block on the outside
Speaker 1: from Hearns. But but Lyle Collins was able to get
Speaker 1: just enough of Keikley to affect his ability to get
Speaker 1: all the way of the outside, like Mickey's talking about,
Speaker 1: so Zeke outruns him. That's what you had to do.
Speaker 1: You didn't have enough of those affect Luke Keikley affect
Speaker 1: Luke Keikley, affect Luke Keikley. You allowed him early in
Speaker 1: that game to affect the way you ran the football
Speaker 1: tackles that he was all over the field. He was
Speaker 1: man of the match. He trust the man of the match.
Speaker 1: And by the way, else struggled some too. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: wasn't just those guys in Oh no, the holding call
Speaker 1: was a devastating play late in that game. Yeah that
Speaker 1: led Oh yeah, well, n of the one that led
Speaker 1: to the forty seven, not the one where not the
Speaker 1: one where he tackled, not the one where he tackle
Speaker 1: the guy where he the holding call on the final
Speaker 1: drive of the game was it was a and he
Speaker 1: and it was a rodeo move. I mean, he he
Speaker 1: was over extended. He had no choice but trying to
Speaker 1: pull the defender down. And you know the official is
Speaker 1: standing right there. They're gonna call that every time that
Speaker 1: is a He's like it was like bulldogging. You know,
Speaker 1: you grabbed the stair around the head and you take
Speaker 1: him to the ground. Which, by the way, I did
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to watch the Giants game, and the
Speaker 1: Jaguars did a really nice job. When Fournette was in
Speaker 1: the game, he got hurt, sure. I think it was
Speaker 1: sometime in the second quarter, and they were doing a
Speaker 1: lot of misdirection. They were getting the ball on the outside,
Speaker 1: pulling their offensive lineman and not trying to go head
Speaker 1: up with snacks and all the rest of them, and
Speaker 1: they were having a lot of success running the football,
Speaker 1: and then for some reason when Fournette went out, it
Speaker 1: just kind of changed what yelled in there. It wasn't bad,
Speaker 1: but they had they had gotten the ball on the
Speaker 1: edge on those guys the way you would want to
Speaker 1: put those big heavyweights if you if you find a
Speaker 1: way to get the ball to the edge, you could
Speaker 1: set some stuff up going inside. The adjustment is play wide,
Speaker 1: play wide, play wide. Don't you get him. Continue to
Speaker 1: do that and then you have some opportunities up inside.
Speaker 1: I may note of it that first drive out of
Speaker 1: the second half, third quarter, Zee gets two yards on
Speaker 1: first down and then they go four wide. The next
Speaker 1: two plays, Herns gets a twenty yard game right and
Speaker 1: then and then Zeke he captures that edge. A couple
Speaker 1: of plays later they spread them out it. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was an adjustment. I thought that started to work a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah, they did. And the Herns play for
Speaker 1: twenty yards was been critical of Prescott here, but nice
Speaker 1: read on his part, keeping his eyes down the field.
Speaker 1: He's gonna flush to his right, He's gonna go back
Speaker 1: to the inside. Hearns does a veteran move of getting
Speaker 1: making sure that Luke Keickley goes past him. As Keickley
Speaker 1: goes past, he curls up inside. That's what you have
Speaker 1: to have. You need more of those types of plays.
Speaker 1: They didn't make enough of those big chunk plays that
Speaker 1: we that we've seen from them in the past. And
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, Rob, they've they've had a problem scoring here,
Speaker 1: they've had but they've had more of a problem sustain
Speaker 1: aiming offense. That that was that was a big, big
Speaker 1: problem for them yesterday, no question about it. Let's take
Speaker 1: our first break, we come back. We'll keep breaking down
Speaker 1: the offensive struggles. We'll get into the defense a little bit.
Speaker 1: How they played debut of Brett Maher in the kicking game.
Speaker 1: You knew that was going to happen, not what you wanted.
Speaker 1: Two nine seven is the number. We'll return in a
Speaker 1: moment on talking Cowboys, back to talking, back to talk.
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Speaker 1: Get them nestled. I could have used some Tommy Junts
Speaker 1: and neat some nestling yesterday. Nestling offensively. Yeah yes, By
Speaker 1: the way. Cowboys kicking off the regular season at T
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Speaker 1: Tickets are only forty bucks. By the way, night game.
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Speaker 1: dot com, and they'll be looking for a much better
Speaker 1: performance all the way around, especially offensively. Before we touched
Speaker 1: on the defense. Just getting back to Dak Brian nineteen
Speaker 1: to twenty nine hundred and seventy yards, no picks, but
Speaker 1: no touchdowns. He got sacked six times, although a few
Speaker 1: of those were ay, clear catchup mode in the second half. Sure,
Speaker 1: how do you feel about just where he's progressing at
Speaker 1: this point or is it because that's the narrative, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: where's he going? Is he regressing? Yeah? Obviously it's a
Speaker 1: brand new receiving corps and they use all six of
Speaker 1: those guys. They did play all six, shuffling them in
Speaker 1: and out different spots. Do you think, number one, what
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on Dak going forward? And also do
Speaker 1: you think at some point you think they're trying to
Speaker 1: pare down this receiving core a little bit? Well, I
Speaker 1: think they will pare it down. They'll figure out what
Speaker 1: they want to do combination wise and see who works
Speaker 1: who doesn't work. Because Dad didn't want to use this
Speaker 1: as an excuse, but this is the first time I
Speaker 1: think all six of those guys were available in the
Speaker 1: same game, and he only two preseason games. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: had a lot of practice time with most of those,
Speaker 1: Yet a lot of practice time of those guys, not
Speaker 1: a lot of game reps. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's an excuse, but it's something that Look, it's four
Speaker 1: out of six guys or brand new to the team,
Speaker 1: so maybe it's gonna take a little time. No, they're
Speaker 1: gonna need to find They're gonna need to pair the
Speaker 1: thing down to find out the best combinations they have
Speaker 1: for their guys, you know. But there were guys open.
Speaker 1: There were some times, you know that they didn't get off.
Speaker 1: The guys did not get off some coverage. You know,
Speaker 1: Michael Gallup struggled to get off some coverage. We saw
Speaker 1: what happened to him. He got interfered a couple of
Speaker 1: different times, but that was a lot because he was
Speaker 1: just getting getting taken care of it the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just could not separate fast enough, you know,
Speaker 1: to to do that. I thought Cole Beasley was outstanding
Speaker 1: for him yesterday. But really, you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: Alan Hearns the one play that he made the veteran move,
Speaker 1: but they didn't have near enough of those. They didn't have.
Speaker 1: But also though on the quarterback he didn't do a
Speaker 1: very good job of finding those guys, and then you
Speaker 1: know whether he was feeling pressure, whether he was having
Speaker 1: to move. You know, there was some plays that he
Speaker 1: clearly missed. I brought up the Gallop across the field
Speaker 1: late in that game. He throws that ball out in
Speaker 1: front of gallop. We're talking about the Cowboys being camped
Speaker 1: out inside the red zone right there, with a chance
Speaker 1: to go tie that football game. But he throws the
Speaker 1: ball behind and unfortunately, though that's a mistake. Now, there
Speaker 1: used to be a time where if Dak Prescott was
Speaker 1: nineteen of twenty nine for say two hundred and forty
Speaker 1: two yards and a touchdown, they were winning these football games.
Speaker 1: Now those are always kind of the magic numbers for Dak.
Speaker 1: But he's nineteen of twenty nine for one hundred and seventy,
Speaker 1: no touchdowns, no interceptions, and they lose. You know, that
Speaker 1: just shows you, really what the key part is. They
Speaker 1: need the other element of their offense, which is their
Speaker 1: running game, was going to bring up. How many yards
Speaker 1: did they run for in the first half? Zeke had
Speaker 1: eighteen at the league, I think they ran for twenty.
Speaker 1: It's just clear dating back to last season, especially that
Speaker 1: final eight game stretch where he didn't have Zeke for six. Right,
Speaker 1: if they're not running the ball dynamically and they're not
Speaker 1: in those short yardage situation, second third round, and this
Speaker 1: is a lot of quarterbacks in the league, it's not
Speaker 1: good for Dak. He needs he needs to be in
Speaker 1: second and six, third and two, all that kind of
Speaker 1: right stuff. Right, It's tough for him because then you're
Speaker 1: talking about how he has to make plays down the field,
Speaker 1: but he also has to read what's happening. And if
Speaker 1: you want to say there was regression in that area,
Speaker 1: I'll say it. I'll say there was. There was. I
Speaker 1: thought that Dak Prescott in year three would see the
Speaker 1: field better. It's one game. It is one game, and
Speaker 1: you know, Carolina, he's he has to worry about his
Speaker 1: left guard, he has to worry about his center, you know.
Speaker 1: But there were some times where he just did not
Speaker 1: pull the trigger on some throws. And whether that's he's
Speaker 1: thinking like I can't make that throw or I just
Speaker 1: I need to just fight for the next play, I
Speaker 1: don't know. But there were some guys that were open,
Speaker 1: and the problem is these guys don't get open all
Speaker 1: the time and when they do get open, you better
Speaker 1: take advantage of that. And that was the issue they had.
Speaker 1: So did Thompson not get into the game to late
Speaker 1: when I saw him actually catch some passages? No, No,
Speaker 1: he was playing. They were they were playing him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they play from the jump. The guy, the guy that
Speaker 1: kind of went out of the game was Austin. Austin
Speaker 1: was the one they started early. They clearly had a
Speaker 1: package or two for Austin, you know about you know,
Speaker 1: every I always laugh when they throw four screens in
Speaker 1: the game, and I didn't get the what they're run screens?
Speaker 1: I didn't get that question, you know, I didn't get
Speaker 1: that tweety in a screen to a tight end that
Speaker 1: it was actually a wide delay, which was a great call,
Speaker 1: and it was a well executed play. They're capable of
Speaker 1: executing good offensive plays, they really are. They there, they are,
Speaker 1: they are. But but this team, this the margin of
Speaker 1: RAA for this team now with the wide receivers is
Speaker 1: is pretty pretty slim, pretty slim, because you've got to
Speaker 1: take advantage of when they're open and when they're not,
Speaker 1: and when they're not open, and you you have to
Speaker 1: do something else. Those tight ends they've got to do
Speaker 1: something else. There's nobody there. You know, you could talk
Speaker 1: about Dez and you could talk about Witton as those
Speaker 1: guys used to hang your hat on. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean those guys were big part of what you did offensively.
Speaker 1: But you know, the quarterback has got to be better,
Speaker 1: the play caller has got to be better, and the
Speaker 1: execution overall the offense has to be better. Now he
Speaker 1: flipped this around on the the other side of the football,
Speaker 1: felt like there were some good adjustments. You know, when
Speaker 1: you looked at the first half what they were doing
Speaker 1: with Cam Newton. You know, I don't think they expected
Speaker 1: Cam Newton to sit there and pull the ball down
Speaker 1: as many times as he did on the on the
Speaker 1: readoption stuff. You think that was straight and he had
Speaker 1: fifty nine rushing yards in the first quarter. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then the second half they figured out and a lot
Speaker 1: of it was scheme problem. A lot of it was
Speaker 1: and Sean Lee stood up there and took the you know,
Speaker 1: fell on the sword for hey, I've got to play better.
Speaker 1: I've got to do and he's right. He missed a
Speaker 1: couple times, he missed a cup miss. It was very
Speaker 1: Unshawn Lee, you know, you're thinking about two really good
Speaker 1: mike linebacker or two linebackers, I should say two really
Speaker 1: good linebackers, you know. And I think I said in
Speaker 1: the postgame show, this defense played well without Sean Lee
Speaker 1: and Jalen Smith both playing well, which we kind of
Speaker 1: felt like, oh my gosh, this defense has got to
Speaker 1: have both these guys play well. But they really, they
Speaker 1: really were able to hold up on the back end,
Speaker 1: and they were able to hold up, you know, upfront
Speaker 1: when it came to pass. What was the big worry, Well,
Speaker 1: it was going to be this young secondary, right, they
Speaker 1: played the best. Yeah, secondary, they shut They shut that
Speaker 1: team down. Yeah, basically, uh and Cavan Frasier, I wasn't terrible.
Speaker 1: He was fine, right, broke up a pastor McCaffrey. The
Speaker 1: problem was that they were not disciplined early in the
Speaker 1: game when Cam was running the ball that there was
Speaker 1: one play where DeMarcus Lawrence cut way inside and all
Speaker 1: Cam had to do is come around the corner. Same
Speaker 1: thing with Wilson on the one played Damian Wilson shot
Speaker 1: I think it was the touchdown, right, Yes, he shot
Speaker 1: in there, and it's like, just play your responsibility, you know,
Speaker 1: don't start freelancing on him. You gotta give credits the
Speaker 1: North Turner there in terms of their offensive line is compromised,
Speaker 1: so we might have to Cam's got to use his
Speaker 1: legs a little bit more in this play he did.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, Rod Marinelli, you want this aggressive offense,
Speaker 1: everybody getting up the field. Defense, Yeah, I mean defense.
Speaker 1: Everybody's being aggressive. Well, okay, now you better account from
Speaker 1: our quarterback because he's coming at you. That's something that
Speaker 1: you never felt like with under the Mike Shula administration
Speaker 1: when he was the OC. It was a lot of
Speaker 1: the readoption, read option, camera on camera, on camera on
Speaker 1: you know, you're getting a lot of that, and then
Speaker 1: you kind of go back. You're thinking, well, Norve's not
Speaker 1: gonna want him to run, Norves want him to throw
Speaker 1: the ball beyond time and all that stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But no, he really pulled it out. He reverted back
Speaker 1: to play to the strength of Cam Newton. Cowboys, like
Speaker 1: Mickey said, took the bait on a couple of those
Speaker 1: some outside runs pulling the ball. But you know, second half,
Speaker 1: I think Chris roh, Shard, Rod Marinelli, those guys did
Speaker 1: a much better job of saying, hey, everybody just do
Speaker 1: their damn assignments here and we'll be okay. The receivers
Speaker 1: didn't really affect the way they played. Greg Olsen got
Speaker 1: hurt in that game early, and that I think that
Speaker 1: helped the fact that he wasn't out there and they did.
Speaker 1: They took advantage of a beat up offensive line. They've
Speaker 1: got some talent when guys like Ross and and and
Speaker 1: those guys are making plays. And you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not Taco making plays. That's that's only that's Randy.
Speaker 1: Randy Gregory wasn't even really in the game. He got
Speaker 1: early early concussion and he was out. So now it
Speaker 1: was up to Taco and ross And and those guys
Speaker 1: to have to make some plays up front in order
Speaker 1: to kind of hold this group together. Funny part of
Speaker 1: the broadcast when he started running Cam Joe Buck turns
Speaker 1: to Troy and he goes, So did North carl your
Speaker 1: number that many times? But in the nineties. But the
Speaker 1: point was is that, like Brian said, he took advantage
Speaker 1: of what maybe Cam does best. And I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody was expecting that out of North. They wanted to
Speaker 1: structured timing based off absolutely and in the interviews ahead
Speaker 1: of time before the game, they did a uh they
Speaker 1: did an interview with Cam Newton and he said that
Speaker 1: when Norv was named the offensive coordinator, he was scared.
Speaker 1: He was nervous because he thought Norv has this cookie
Speaker 1: cutter idea of what a quarterback is and he was
Speaker 1: going to do that to me. And then when he
Speaker 1: came in, he said, we started talking and Norv told me, well,
Speaker 1: if you don't like that, we'll throw it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: We're going to take advantage of what you do best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I thought that's what he did. Well, that's and
Speaker 1: that's where that's where the fan out there is going
Speaker 1: to go, well, why doesn't r OC do there? Why
Speaker 1: doesn't r you know, And to a point, they're absolutely
Speaker 1: right take advantage. When they started running a little bit
Speaker 1: more of the read option, they started blocking Luke Keikley better,
Speaker 1: they handled the front a little bit better where they're
Speaker 1: able to make those four or five yard runs. You know,
Speaker 1: things are a little bit better. But you know, there
Speaker 1: wasn't that a jay. It wasn't using it wasn't using
Speaker 1: Dak press guy. They did finally two point conversion. Yeah.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, Troy called it. Oh, we
Speaker 1: all we were in the studio, we're away. Here comes yeah, quarterback,
Speaker 1: everything walls goes, he goes, he goes, oh man, this
Speaker 1: is quarterback draw all the way and we're all like
Speaker 1: holding our breath because he's right. We knew, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of okay, Ken Dak beat somebody
Speaker 1: to get into the end zone, and he beat the
Speaker 1: safety h Jones there to get in. Yeah. Did anybody,
Speaker 1: I mean, did you read the line on DeMarcus Lawrence?
Speaker 1: It was pretty good, Mick, I don't know what off
Speaker 1: the time, everybody was worried about him being a one
Speaker 1: year wonder. So seven tackles, one sack for seven yards,
Speaker 1: three tackles for losses and a quarterback hit and one
Speaker 1: forced fumble. He had the edge in that matchup, no question,
Speaker 1: and he capitalized on it. And and Brian wrote about
Speaker 1: this too. I thought Taco played well on the other side.
Speaker 1: I did. Yeah, Now he and I think we talked,
Speaker 1: you talked about earlier in the week. He's gonna play
Speaker 1: more of those running downs in bass and then when
Speaker 1: you get in those clear passing situations, Gregory, when he's
Speaker 1: st and on the field, he had doing that he
Speaker 1: had a great spin move to the inside. That's yeah.
Speaker 1: If Cam didn't get rid of the ball right, it
Speaker 1: was a sack. See and they and they Unfortunately the
Speaker 1: thing that we might remember a little bit about Lawrence
Speaker 1: was on third down, they get off the field, but
Speaker 1: he has the goes low into and that's and that's
Speaker 1: you know, and I get I get Walt h I
Speaker 1: get Walt Anderson calling that, you know, you want to
Speaker 1: protect these quarterbacks. You would hope that if they went
Speaker 1: low on on Dak that they could have gotten that
Speaker 1: taken care of. But that was the first drive. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's those are the kinds of things that you
Speaker 1: you know, you have to you know, when you get
Speaker 1: your when you get your defensive line up the field,
Speaker 1: and you, like Mickey said, that's you know, those are
Speaker 1: things are going to happen. But the thing that I
Speaker 1: took away from this is that this defense played well
Speaker 1: enough to win the football game. And they played well
Speaker 1: enough without Sean Lee having to play well and Jalen
Speaker 1: Smith having to play well because I didn't think that
Speaker 1: neither one of those guys was all that great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and and all along it was like, oh god,
Speaker 1: they have these linebackers, they've got to play great for
Speaker 1: the to win. They've got to have they got to
Speaker 1: have linebackers played. But the front did a great job
Speaker 1: and the secondary did a great job too, holding up.
Speaker 1: What do you think of vander Esh because he rotated in,
Speaker 1: they would they put him in for Yes, occasionally, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for somebody that has not had a lot of reps
Speaker 1: in the summer in the summertime. And I'm a very
Speaker 1: much a wait and see guy on Layton Vanderesh. But
Speaker 1: Layton Vanderesh in that game didn't do anything that killed
Speaker 1: you that you were like, oh my gosh, he's blown
Speaker 1: a coverage here, Oh he missed a tackle, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. I didn't see that from Layton Vanderesh. I
Speaker 1: thought he had one play where he he tried to
Speaker 1: hit the hole and got blocked up black and it
Speaker 1: was the wrong hole and Kaffrey went right up the middle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that. That's where that's the one time you know
Speaker 1: when you watch him play that sometimes instincts get the
Speaker 1: best to him. He's thinking, Okay, I can I can
Speaker 1: do this and it ends up being the wrong play.
Speaker 1: But overall, I yeah, I don't I didn't you know
Speaker 1: he didn't play very much at all in training camp.
Speaker 1: He didn't get you talking about somebody to get any
Speaker 1: games at all. I was surprised he played that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was too, to be honest with you, but that
Speaker 1: the defense, The defense, I think is the one thing
Speaker 1: that you could kind of say, Okay, they played well
Speaker 1: enough to win this football game. Offensively, you just didn't.
Speaker 1: You give up sixteen points that ought to usually be enough.
Speaker 1: And when they gave up ten points in the first
Speaker 1: half and got down ten nothing, Carolina starts one drive
Speaker 1: on the Dallas thirty five because of a thirty yard
Speaker 1: punt return aloud. That was huge, and then they get
Speaker 1: a field goal at the end of a half starting
Speaker 1: at their own thirty eight after I think it was
Speaker 1: an Anthony Brown penalty, that fifteen yard penalty that got
Speaker 1: him flip fuel position a little bit. So they played
Speaker 1: well enough to win, not good enough all the way around, though.
Speaker 1: Cowboys fall to oz and one to start the season.
Speaker 1: Sixteen to eight was the final score. Let's go to
Speaker 1: our final break and we come back. Let's keep breaking
Speaker 1: it down. We haven't touched on the special teams really yet.
Speaker 1: Kicking situation, we'll take your phone calls as well five
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Speaker 1: But you're okay. Vandersh played twenty five percent of the snaps.
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Speaker 1: here nice. All right, you guys, wanna let's hit some
Speaker 1: phone calls. Why not see what Cowboys Nation feels about
Speaker 1: last night's game, lost sixteen to eight to Carolina. I'll
Speaker 1: say one thing real quick. Absolutely, we're doing well, folks,
Speaker 1: really trust me. We're doing well, just go to it.
Speaker 1: We'll be good. Mark and Tampa, we're doing well. What's
Speaker 1: on your mind? Good morning, gentlemen, Long time playing, long
Speaker 1: time listener day, back to the seventies of the fan.
Speaker 1: What got Nick? Well? I definitely wanted to not pile
Speaker 1: up on the offensive coordinator and the offense itself, but
Speaker 1: I feel that looking at this offense and the conservative
Speaker 1: nature that it continues to show us, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of US fans don't realize how much Tony Romo
Speaker 1: played as far as game planning and being a de
Speaker 1: facto offensive coordinator. I think his offensive mind was genius,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of the success in the
Speaker 1: past was predicated on things that he could see on
Speaker 1: the field. Even when he wasn't planning, he was backing
Speaker 1: up back. He was a godsend to dam And with
Speaker 1: that said, looking at this particular game, I just expected
Speaker 1: more creativity. When you start Deontay Thompson at wide receiver, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I expected some you know, double moves something of that.
Speaker 1: I wrote about that, yeah, and we just didn't see that.
Speaker 1: So it's very disappointed not to see that. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's my ZAM thing. I appreciate the therapy session.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this real quick. Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: don't you do not like the quarterback at all? Am
Speaker 1: I Right? As far as that, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that. Okay, Well you were talking about you were
Speaker 1: singing the praise of Tony. Is that because you're saying
Speaker 1: because as far as the OC, that's the offensive coord Okay,
Speaker 1: I got you, Yeah, I got you. Tony was very
Speaker 1: u integral to the offensive game plan. I think he
Speaker 1: did more than we'll ever know. Okay, Okay, thanks Matt, No,
Speaker 1: thank you. And he did and we do have to
Speaker 1: emphasize how many years he had in this system or
Speaker 1: a lot, yeah, a lot of years in this system.
Speaker 1: Um Dack's in his third year at some point, at
Speaker 1: some point he's gonna have to get it though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and take control of it, to take control of it
Speaker 1: and move forward and be able to a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, consistingly as you said, consistently make some throws
Speaker 1: down the field to kind of break things up. It
Speaker 1: helps when you can run the football though, that helps
Speaker 1: any What is being more creative? Mean? Because the second
Speaker 1: play of the game, they threw a great little screen
Speaker 1: right yeah to Austin. Yeah, I mean they tried the
Speaker 1: jet sweep, and they tried throwing screens a lot of times.
Speaker 1: Though if the quarterbacks on the run, it's not easy
Speaker 1: and you can't throw a nine route. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: waiting for it, and I was waiting for it just
Speaker 1: to throw it, to throw it right, to show it,
Speaker 1: show it. Yeah, And I don't know that he ever
Speaker 1: had time to throw it. He missed some throws. He
Speaker 1: missed throws, I give I give you he missed some
Speaker 1: throws and he didn't take some throws. That that was
Speaker 1: the thing. It was funny. He threw a ball that
Speaker 1: was really kind of strange. Beasley ran like a little
Speaker 1: curl and side the ball went way to the right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Troy made a comment. I'm like like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's just awful, And you know, it looked awful the time,
Speaker 1: but then at the end you watch it's like Beasley
Speaker 1: kind of said, was I supposed to stay outside or
Speaker 1: was I supposed to go? You know? And Dak's like
Speaker 1: kind of pointing in Beasley's pointing, and you're wondering, do
Speaker 1: you throw the ball there thinking that Beasley was going
Speaker 1: to be there, or did Dak just flatness the read
Speaker 1: so there's I trust me, I am. I am all
Speaker 1: about what's going on with the offensive coordinator. I get
Speaker 1: it out there, folks, I really really do. But there
Speaker 1: there are times where he does call plays where they're
Speaker 1: not executed well enough. And that's and that's on that's
Speaker 1: on the front office, that's on the coaches, that's on
Speaker 1: everybody to say, Okay, these guys. The responsibility for Dak
Speaker 1: Prescott is to do this, and the responsibility for the
Speaker 1: receiver is to do this, and the responsibility of the
Speaker 1: blocker is to do this. There's a lot of responsibility
Speaker 1: going on here, but that tends to be one or
Speaker 1: two guys to get the finger pointed at him at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. As our mail bad questions
Speaker 1: show this morning, Yeah, we may do that later in
Speaker 1: the day. What are you gonna say, Mick, No, I
Speaker 1: was wondering what the mail pack questions? Oh, a lot
Speaker 1: of Scotland, A hand on Jason Garrett stuff. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's dominating the mail bag. It's it's low hanging fruit,
Speaker 1: it really is. And it's not need to figure out
Speaker 1: need to figure out why Prescott does what he does.
Speaker 1: Need to figure out why the blocking scheme is what
Speaker 1: it is. You need to figure out why the routes
Speaker 1: are what they are. You know, is there poor execution,
Speaker 1: is their lack of understanding from the coaching staff on
Speaker 1: to get it to is the message missing somewhere here?
Speaker 1: But people will people. It's really easy because we don't
Speaker 1: know the XS and nose. It's just never one thing,
Speaker 1: you know, there's always a mixed bag when things go wrong,
Speaker 1: and when they go as wrong as they did yesterday,
Speaker 1: it's it's never one thing. And maybe a young quarterback
Speaker 1: needs more than forty snaps in preseason. See this is,
Speaker 1: this is and I love this argument. It's not an
Speaker 1: argument to me, but he's not wrong. But just from
Speaker 1: my standpoint of being the former personnel guy, I cannot
Speaker 1: find a player if he gets hurt in the preseason.
Speaker 1: I know. I'm sorry. I know. And I love you, Mickey,
Speaker 1: I really do. And I love everybody that wants to
Speaker 1: argue the point of and I shouldn't say argue, discuss
Speaker 1: the point of why you play guys in preseason. I
Speaker 1: get it. It's the most nerve wracking thing for Will
Speaker 1: McClay or any of those personnel guys to sit there
Speaker 1: and watch a game and No, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you got a guy, you got Jordy Nelson laying on
Speaker 1: the field, or you've got one of these guys. You've
Speaker 1: got somebody that you have laying on the field that
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have for the regular season. Quick to
Speaker 1: your point, Travis Frederick's out in that last part of preseason,
Speaker 1: he's still out. Zach's hurt, right, they're saving Tyran. I
Speaker 1: understand I'm saying they should have played him. I'm just saying.
Speaker 1: Even Tony Romo, late in his career, said in preseason,
Speaker 1: I want to play an away game. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure I remember all the different checks. Oh there's
Speaker 1: got into no questions on the road where there's no yes.
Speaker 1: And and we're talking a quarterback that's played two seasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and we're just expecting him to go out
Speaker 1: and perform as if he's a salty veteran. But see,
Speaker 1: that's where I think that we should It's hard, I know, Mickey,
Speaker 1: but that shouldn't we expect that from him. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about salty ven I'm not talking about the guy Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: that lit the Saints up yesterday. I'm talking about a
Speaker 1: guide's play thirty three starts, thirty three starts. I mean,
Speaker 1: if this was something and where it's Mahomes out there
Speaker 1: and he's making mistakes and instead of throwing four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: he throws four interceptions. I get it. But this is
Speaker 1: a this is a guy that's played thirty thirty some
Speaker 1: odd games. Just seemed to be those first several possessions
Speaker 1: seem to be a lot of confusion. They took a
Speaker 1: delay a game, right, Oh sure they did. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: that's when that's your point about personnel, and that's the
Speaker 1: that's you put on the coaches. Sideline management, game management.
Speaker 1: You know, we haven't even gotten into it, and I
Speaker 1: hope we do a little bit. Why did he punt?
Speaker 1: Why did he punt the ball and fourth down with
Speaker 1: three timeouts in a in a two minute warnings? Do
Speaker 1: that right now? Let's holding the call. We got Cameron
Speaker 1: holding real quick. Just we were debating that on the
Speaker 1: sideline Bank of America Stadium. I thought my gut reaction was,
Speaker 1: you got three timeouts, you got the two minute warning,
Speaker 1: your defense is playing well, yeah, and if you give
Speaker 1: them the ball back at midfield, essentially they just need
Speaker 1: to hit one play, yeah, and they're in field goal range,
Speaker 1: or they can run out the clock essentially, yeah, and
Speaker 1: get or get me two scores on you at that point.
Speaker 1: I think you and I were an agreement on that one. Mick,
Speaker 1: what do you think I applauded it when it happened,
Speaker 1: going Forth said, good, be aggressive. Yeah, you're halfway there.
Speaker 1: This team is having trouble drive in the field. So
Speaker 1: you're assuming if you stopped them and you got the
Speaker 1: ball back, say the fifteen twenty yard line, that you
Speaker 1: were going to drive all the way down field. When
Speaker 1: they struggled offensively the entire game except for one drive.
Speaker 1: It's a tough call to risk either way. See that's
Speaker 1: where that's where I look at the defense and I say,
Speaker 1: you know what, my guys are playing pretty damn good
Speaker 1: right now. If I could get a stop here, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get the ball. I'm trying to prevent myself from
Speaker 1: having to drive eighty yards. That's what I'm trying to prevent.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to drive fifty yards. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: drive eighty. But I I'm thinking, well, it got Tavon
Speaker 1: Austin as a returner. Maybe he could get me some
Speaker 1: fuel position here. Maybe they have a shank. Heck, they
Speaker 1: had a bad snap on a fuel goald or you know,
Speaker 1: an extra point. You never know in that situation. But
Speaker 1: I if my offense is struggling, I'm trying to give
Speaker 1: them the shortest path to getting a score. Well, they
Speaker 1: were halfway there, but am I right? Yeah, but you go,
Speaker 1: but you gave the ball. You gave the ball to
Speaker 1: to Carolina and then they were able to kind of
Speaker 1: punch you into now their their punner made a stupid
Speaker 1: That was stupid on their part for him to punt
Speaker 1: the ball into the end zone. That was stupid. I
Speaker 1: mean that almost that almost back gave him a shot
Speaker 1: the ball back. Yeah, but but the field position, when
Speaker 1: you're not driving the ball well enough, and the fact
Speaker 1: that you're defense. If they're handing the ball to McCaffrey
Speaker 1: he fumbled earlier in the game, who's to say you
Speaker 1: don't all of a sudden strip the ball there. I
Speaker 1: I just I know there's a lot of ifs, But
Speaker 1: if you're struggling on offense, give me the ball at
Speaker 1: potentially the fifty yard line and let me go that
Speaker 1: route instead of going eighty yards with minimal time. I
Speaker 1: just I don't I don't. I didn't like it. I don't,
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that I'm critical of him
Speaker 1: not knowing the condition of his team and he he
Speaker 1: should have realized that his defense was playing well enough.
Speaker 1: I think he did, but I think he also realized
Speaker 1: the offense wasn't driving the field. Yeah, but one time,
Speaker 1: how many possessions? No, that's what I'm saying. But Mickey,
Speaker 1: if they were halfway there, but if they punt the ball,
Speaker 1: you're if you're you're if you're halfway there, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean you're you. I don't know. I just you
Speaker 1: could flip a coin on that, which I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I just didn't like it because they usually burned timeouts
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of was proud of him for having
Speaker 1: all three timeouts in that situation plus a two minute warning.
Speaker 1: I was like thinking, Okay, he's got this thing set up.
Speaker 1: Now find a way to get the ball back. We
Speaker 1: would be remiss if we didn't mention the punter was
Speaker 1: awfully good. Yeah, Chris Jones, Yeah he was. And did
Speaker 1: he average like almost fifty yards a punt? Yeah? He
Speaker 1: was forty eight, And I would have trusted him to
Speaker 1: put the ball right onside the four yard line one
Speaker 1: more time. He penned him twice. Carolina's putter did it
Speaker 1: three times. He's one of the best putters in the
Speaker 1: league when it comes to you know, but most of
Speaker 1: his flip flaps were inn at the fifteen. Well, but
Speaker 1: if he's putting from the from his own fifty, maybe
Speaker 1: he can get it down inside the I'm just that's
Speaker 1: just me. And it wasn't a hindsight move because I
Speaker 1: was we were in there and I was screaming at
Speaker 1: the TV, don't don't go for this, don't go for this.
Speaker 1: See and I was doing the opposite. Okay, I was
Speaker 1: yelling to go for it. It's fair. You guys disagree often.
Speaker 1: I love us well so great. I just want him
Speaker 1: to be aggressive. Worried about the kicker already that was
Speaker 1: going to happen. You knew that that was one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars bet in Vegas. They was gonna miss it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: forty seven years absolutely, you knew just the whole thing
Speaker 1: that happened around when that whole thing went down, What
Speaker 1: do you think about that? My initial thought was they
Speaker 1: were trying to trade Mayor and they kept him on
Speaker 1: the roster and couldn't get it done, and they said,
Speaker 1: let's give a couple more days, Bailey, just go home sitting,
Speaker 1: and then we'll resign you. And then when I saw
Speaker 1: him work out for the Jets, I said, oh, so
Speaker 1: much for my theory. But Jason used a word in
Speaker 1: the press conference the first time. Confidence. Yes, yeah, he
Speaker 1: answered the questions. It was about confidence. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: their conf fidence in him. I think it was his
Speaker 1: confidence in himself, right, And I think they saw something
Speaker 1: that scared him and they said, let's give Mirror every
Speaker 1: chance he can to prove he can do this right,
Speaker 1: because he punted basically in three of the four I
Speaker 1: mean kicked three of the four preseason games right, right,
Speaker 1: And then in practice he was kind of taken over
Speaker 1: and it's like, whoa what. We tried to watch, but
Speaker 1: we didn't watch as well enough. I didn't. We didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't chart it like I chart Bailey. And that's
Speaker 1: that's that's a lesson I've learned going forward. You know,
Speaker 1: don't don't assume anything. I don't think I don't think
Speaker 1: he out kicked Bailey in training camp. It might have
Speaker 1: been close to a tie. I just think there was
Speaker 1: something they saw in Dan Bailey that scared him, and
Speaker 1: it didn't have anything to do with money. I think
Speaker 1: that that whole thing about money, because I saw somebody
Speaker 1: nationally all go pay the guy that's your kick or
Speaker 1: he's doot a die, and it's like, Okay, that's fine
Speaker 1: for you to say that, but you weren't around watching
Speaker 1: the whole deal, all right. One last caller, Cameron in California,
Speaker 1: got to be kind of quick, what's on your mind? Hey,
Speaker 1: how you doing guys? Hey, welcome back Mick. But you know,
Speaker 1: you guys didn't even let us know when you're like
Speaker 1: on your way back again. But like when when were
Speaker 1: you on the chords, you know, or anything like that.
Speaker 1: You know, you didn't do it all done back? Well,
Speaker 1: welcome back, Thank You's got a couple of comments, uh Dak.
Speaker 1: You know, he seemed like he had the yips, like
Speaker 1: like he just wasn't quite you didn't see the field
Speaker 1: like he was a yeah, I mean it was obviously
Speaker 1: just hadn't played, so I wasn't. I'm not too worried
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, the cup's kind of half bull there.
Speaker 1: But the other thing is is Connor held up pretty well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but on his technique, he got techniques by by short
Speaker 1: time he got to pull through there. Yeah, on the sack,
Speaker 1: but he held up pretty well. I wasn't too worried
Speaker 1: about that. But Lee, I had never missed league. I
Speaker 1: never seen Lee missed a tackle like Keith. I mean
Speaker 1: he got truck one time by a little guy, and
Speaker 1: then he just took the wrong angles a couple of times,
Speaker 1: which I never see Lee do. I mean, that's just
Speaker 1: I just feel like this was just well as anominally
Speaker 1: games and they were in the game the whole way,
Speaker 1: So I'm not worried about it. And I see the
Speaker 1: same thing gets the Giants next week. Ye, then I'll
Speaker 1: be a little concerned. So I felt good. You were
Speaker 1: right on the money there, Brian with uh with will
Speaker 1: be able to be run run up that defense and
Speaker 1: and and we could miss the time. So um, you
Speaker 1: guys are dead on right, great show. Thank you. I'll
Speaker 1: let you guys go. Thanks for the call. Lee Lee
Speaker 1: not playing enough football again there, I can't And Mackey
Speaker 1: he gets hurt walking ah, I know, I know, And
Speaker 1: you don't want him in there? No, I don't, and
Speaker 1: I don't understand. I totally get everybody's preseason argument, because
Speaker 1: I'm sure we watched a lot of teams yesterday play
Speaker 1: people that looked awful, just awful. And you know, this
Speaker 1: is one of one other thing about theF but remember
Speaker 1: we saw a lot of them pulling. We didn't see
Speaker 1: that as much and set the second half though, that's
Speaker 1: when we saw it. That's what I would have done, right.
Speaker 1: That was to protect Connor. It was protect Looney tight
Speaker 1: ends too. Yeah down, yeah, because they're good at it. Yeah, sudden,
Speaker 1: straight ahead. We'll see that this week. Get ready, Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll find out. And we got four more days to
Speaker 1: talk about it. Yeah, talking Cowboys. Got the Scott Snowpook
Speaker 1: coming up later today to check it out in Dallas.
Speaker 1: Mickey's column coming up, and Jason Garrett will speak later.
Speaker 1: The break is next. Thanks to Kent and William for producing.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you guys small. Keep your eyes wide open.
Speaker 1: This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.