Speaker 1: The following. He's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. Are you ready for
Speaker 1: a break? Are you ready for a break? Absolutely ready
Speaker 1: for a break? Yeah, and so much for that. It's
Speaker 1: time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com with
Speaker 1: Nick Eatman, David Hellman, A bar Garcia, and Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 1: It is Monday, November twelve, twenty eighteen, Season fourteen, episode
Speaker 1: number seventy eight. Welcome to another edition of The Break,
Speaker 1: live in the SWBC Board of Studios. At the start,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm the only one with some energy
Speaker 1: here today. Let's go. No, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, Espresso does wonders. Let's see when when
Speaker 1: we we took off yesterday. Yeah, I mean, like I know,
Speaker 1: Dave was grinding, working, pretty good working. I was working.
Speaker 1: Amber wasn't working. I was sitting beside her. Amber was.
Speaker 1: At one point I looked over at Amber and Amber
Speaker 1: was like knocked out, just like sitting there. But I tried.
Speaker 1: I couldn't really go to sleep. Probably had a video
Speaker 1: or something like that to do after that when she
Speaker 1: landed or say, I think I got home at I
Speaker 1: got home at about five o'clock and I was in
Speaker 1: bed by five thirty. I'm sure you guys had a
Speaker 1: little more to do. Yeah, I know what they were like. Oh,
Speaker 1: I was in the beauty of a three hour flight.
Speaker 1: I was done with everything when we hit the tarmac. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that game took It took a lot of everyone, really,
Speaker 1: including the players. I don't think I've heard a and
Speaker 1: it was late, but I never heard a plane so
Speaker 1: quiet after a big win. Yeah, I know, it was
Speaker 1: really quiet. I mean, like, I think they were spent
Speaker 1: and a game like that took took it out of them.
Speaker 1: Well they had to be, because I mean that was
Speaker 1: a that was a tough game that they went against.
Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna talk about a lot of the
Speaker 1: things that happens, but I don't want this one thing
Speaker 1: to get lost in the conversation. Everything we talked about
Speaker 1: last week, and it started with Dave's assessment of what
Speaker 1: that defense was, said that the Cowboys would not be
Speaker 1: able to do what they did last night, and they
Speaker 1: were able to do it, and not only do it,
Speaker 1: but do it in a convincing fashion. And I think
Speaker 1: that's where we should start talk about, particularly how to
Speaker 1: got Cowboys were able to run against a defense that
Speaker 1: it basically shut down most running games in the NFL
Speaker 1: they faced, you know, and they what they did was
Speaker 1: is they they just stuck to the plan. I mean,
Speaker 1: and because it wasn't really working that well early, but
Speaker 1: they just kind of kept leaning on and kept leaning
Speaker 1: on him. They figured it out. I thought, I thought,
Speaker 1: I thought the addition there of Zavis Hula Philo was
Speaker 1: so important to the point where after one game, I
Speaker 1: think everyone's looking around like, well, he's starting, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: even I think so that could be wrong. You're talking
Speaker 1: about even when even when Connor comes back, I think
Speaker 1: this guy, he's probably he's probably the right the right
Speaker 1: fit for you. I talked about for the game. He said,
Speaker 1: it just took me a little bit to figure out.
Speaker 1: Fletcher Cox is just just how how much burst he has. Unbelievable,
Speaker 1: consistently great player, he said, took me a little bit
Speaker 1: once I figured that out, though I thought it was
Speaker 1: you know, it was pretty good, and we didn't hear
Speaker 1: a lot of it in Fletcher Car. And the funny
Speaker 1: part was, if you watched the early party game those
Speaker 1: first couple of series, flet your consos everywhere, and it
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this is gonna be a long, long day.
Speaker 1: I thought it just stuck to what they were doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I mean I said this last night. Um,
Speaker 1: you're right, you're you're absolutely right. But that's where I
Speaker 1: just keep going back to, is that in the last
Speaker 1: what not even a week because they played on Monday
Speaker 1: last week, Like in less than a week, I just
Speaker 1: feel like I don't know anything about this team. Um,
Speaker 1: and it's annoying. And not not that they I'm not
Speaker 1: annoyed that they won, obviously, it's it's much much better
Speaker 1: when they win. I want them to win, but like
Speaker 1: you know, we've been out, we've been doing this since July.
Speaker 1: Kind of pride yourself on, you know, we're here to
Speaker 1: tell people what what's going to happen, and they just
Speaker 1: dumped it on on our head twice in a twice
Speaker 1: in a row. Like, well, what can you count on
Speaker 1: this team to do? They're inconsistent. When you can count
Speaker 1: on to win at home, Nope, no you can't, Well
Speaker 1: what you can You can't count on them to run
Speaker 1: the ball against the best front and football and one
Speaker 1: on the road. Nope. Yeah, you know, actually they're gonna
Speaker 1: dominate the second best rushing defense in the league, like
Speaker 1: it's gonna look like men playing with boys eight yards
Speaker 1: per carry against that front one hundred and seventy one
Speaker 1: rushing yards. Dak looked like old Dak, which, ironically that's
Speaker 1: just the quarterback position perfectly encapsulated. Is that Dak actually
Speaker 1: didn't play very well, but he got the job done.
Speaker 1: He didn't turn the ball over, he led him on
Speaker 1: a couple of crucial scoring drives, and he looked like
Speaker 1: a hero, which, by the way, when everything else is
Speaker 1: working as it should, yeah, that's what you need from Dak.
Speaker 1: Dad doesn't have to be great for this team to
Speaker 1: win if everything else is working as it should. That
Speaker 1: starts with the offensive line, then goes to the running game,
Speaker 1: then goes to the ability for the receivers to get
Speaker 1: open in critical moments. If those things work, Dak can
Speaker 1: be good for you. And that I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people want you want your quarterback to be better
Speaker 1: than that. They want your quarterback to be Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: But the reality is the way this thing is put together,
Speaker 1: that's what they need from Dak. And I think we've
Speaker 1: we said that going all the way back to the
Speaker 1: summer is like Dak is not and Rodgers and that's
Speaker 1: okay because this, this and this, and it hasn't really
Speaker 1: been there for them the vast majority of the times,
Speaker 1: and so past the halfway point of this season, against
Speaker 1: one of the better defensive fronts that they've played, it
Speaker 1: was eye opening and surprising and pretty unexpected to see
Speaker 1: them do that. I get, you know, I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody's surprised that they won. I picked him to lose,
Speaker 1: but I'm certainly not surprised that they won. But the
Speaker 1: way they did just absolutely having their way with Fletcher
Speaker 1: Cox and those guys. I wasn't ready for it. And
Speaker 1: I wrote about Dak last night he said, you know,
Speaker 1: He's like, I don't want to talk about twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: It was two years ago. But this is the team
Speaker 1: that we have, and this is what we're capable of
Speaker 1: when we play up to our standards. And so again
Speaker 1: I'm just like, well, where has it been? What's going on? Yeah, Ambro,
Speaker 1: give me your big picture thoughts coming out of the game.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I'm not surprised. Nothing surprises me now
Speaker 1: and this team Cowboys veteran right there, Nothing surprised. It's like,
Speaker 1: we've seen this team do this kind of thing. The
Speaker 1: problem is, and like Dave mentioned, is the consistency of it.
Speaker 1: They haven't been consistent enough to keep it going and
Speaker 1: make it work week by week, and last night, somehow
Speaker 1: it ended up working out for them into their advantage
Speaker 1: and clicking. And to me, initially going into this week,
Speaker 1: I'm like I had something just a feeling that they
Speaker 1: were going to get this win just because and not
Speaker 1: necessarily because they're a better team, just because it's gonna
Speaker 1: end up working out and Garrett's gonna find a way
Speaker 1: to make it work and keep you there. And that's
Speaker 1: exactly what they did. As far as the offense goes.
Speaker 1: You know, I am surprised that Si was able to
Speaker 1: do everything that he did, especially going up against the
Speaker 1: defense like the Eagles. But at the same time, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of things that I wasn't very pleased with,
Speaker 1: and when you talk about Dak Prescott and the little
Speaker 1: mistakes that, like you said, if you take the running
Speaker 1: game away, then you're back to one and how this
Speaker 1: thing where the problem originates from. But when you flip
Speaker 1: it to the defense, they did an amazing job and
Speaker 1: I think the victory, even though Zeke ran his bot
Speaker 1: off last night, I think that this victory comes from
Speaker 1: the Cowboys defense and what they were able to do.
Speaker 1: You guys talk, I mean, you talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about what Dak did, and Davey talked about it a
Speaker 1: little bit as well. Dak with twenty six or thirty six,
Speaker 1: seventy two percent completion rate, that's a pretty high number.
Speaker 1: Two hundred and seventy yards, one touchdown, no interceptions. One
Speaker 1: hundred and two point eight was his passer rating. He
Speaker 1: ran the ball six times for only nine yards, one
Speaker 1: of them being a play that I thought was a
Speaker 1: really really great heads up play by him. We thought
Speaker 1: he's gonna maybe spike the ball. He runs up, he
Speaker 1: gets the snapp, he puts the ball over into the
Speaker 1: end zone that gets in the touchdown there before the half.
Speaker 1: Talk about just assess how he played yesterday. I know
Speaker 1: you guys said there was something you didn't like. What
Speaker 1: were the things you didn't like? Did not like? Did
Speaker 1: not like? He's not accurate all the time, and he's
Speaker 1: just that's just not his game. I mean, and that's
Speaker 1: too bad because he's a quarterback and there's just there's
Speaker 1: some throws. There's just some throws that he misses. He
Speaker 1: missed one to zeke I. It took me about five
Speaker 1: minutes to get over that when it was right there
Speaker 1: on the flat by the goal line. You just can't
Speaker 1: miss that throw. He misses some other ones, but Cole
Speaker 1: on the out. Yeah, but you know what I was
Speaker 1: right before the fake punt, right yeah, yeah, But then
Speaker 1: they get that fake punt and they're and they're driving,
Speaker 1: and then he goes and does another out to Beasley
Speaker 1: and he hits it. I mean, he's just he's one
Speaker 1: of those guys. And I know, you know he what
Speaker 1: he's dealt with with his personal life, you know, with
Speaker 1: with losing his mom to cancer. And the reason why
Speaker 1: I say that because when you deal with stuff like that,
Speaker 1: missing a throw here and stuff that doesn't fade you
Speaker 1: to the point where you still you still have confidence
Speaker 1: to go and do that. I know I'm taking a
Speaker 1: little deeper, but I'm just saying, that's it. That's why
Speaker 1: we love Dak because even though he's got shortcomings, he
Speaker 1: still said, you know what, I believe what I can do.
Speaker 1: Just look at the when he got that hit, the
Speaker 1: big hit last night, and then runs again. You're right,
Speaker 1: I mean very next play. Yeah yeah, And we can
Speaker 1: talk more about Dac later on. He's just not he's
Speaker 1: he's gonna frustrate you at times because he says there's
Speaker 1: nothing he does that's great. Nothing, But I think, what
Speaker 1: does he do that's great? The intangibles that you just
Speaker 1: talked about are great, and that's important. That's important, which
Speaker 1: this is speaking of. I think that was Kent leadership. Leadership.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, which those are, but those
Speaker 1: are things you can't really measure, so it's really hard
Speaker 1: to know. You're absolute well that this this might have been.
Speaker 1: This might have been like the quintessential Dak game because again,
Speaker 1: like you look at the stats, you're like, he completed
Speaker 1: seventy two percent of his passes. He did that. He
Speaker 1: he had a nice night, but he had there when
Speaker 1: he could have been a lot better. He left some
Speaker 1: throws there, He made some questionable decisions. The Beasley through,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, you're you're an NF you're starting NFL quarterback,
Speaker 1: and you missed that throw. But then right before the half,
Speaker 1: he looks like Joe freaking Montana just zipped him, like literally,
Speaker 1: I mean, oh, my god, and then Herns and I
Speaker 1: think the other one was to I want to say
Speaker 1: it was Basi on the yeah, it was Beasley. Both
Speaker 1: those throws I thought were really really great. The drive
Speaker 1: to take the final lead twenty seven twenty like again,
Speaker 1: you know, Winz is doing his Wentz stuff and just
Speaker 1: punching back and just calmly, coolly. I don't like bringing
Speaker 1: it up. Dad doesn't like bringing it up either, but
Speaker 1: it reminded me of twenty sixteen. Is like every time,
Speaker 1: you know, they always they had an answer. We haven't
Speaker 1: seen it this year. We didn't see it for a
Speaker 1: lot of last year. But that's what it looked like. Um,
Speaker 1: it's bird game right, yeah and shot you know it
Speaker 1: when you're good enough against a good team to do
Speaker 1: that and actually get a win, which to be to
Speaker 1: be fair, it probably helped that the Eagles secondary was
Speaker 1: down to it's you know, you know true, I don't
Speaker 1: even know the names of the guys that were playing
Speaker 1: cornerback by the end of that game, but you still
Speaker 1: it's the NFL style. Points still matter. You still got
Speaker 1: to do the job. And speaking of quotes, I think
Speaker 1: Zack Martin, who you know, for my money's probably the
Speaker 1: best player on this team, him or Zeke Um. He
Speaker 1: kind of he took me a back last night because
Speaker 1: he he was like, yeah, Dak is He's the best
Speaker 1: competitor I've ever been around in my career, which you
Speaker 1: know that carries some weight comes from him. So get
Speaker 1: the intangibles. If Dak does something great, it's that. And
Speaker 1: you know, for whatever doubters he might have outside the
Speaker 1: locker room, I don't think he has any inside the
Speaker 1: locker room, which that is way more important. So exactly right,
Speaker 1: And he has some lucky moments too. It's like he
Speaker 1: almost had an interception, Yeah, then where he lost the ball,
Speaker 1: he just kind of came out of his end. I
Speaker 1: don't know where you And that was a touchdown too,
Speaker 1: he was able up. You don't think, No, I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily think because I've seen Cooper running free twice in
Speaker 1: the game that he didn't well the difference because he
Speaker 1: saw it doesn't mean the difference. The difference here is
Speaker 1: he had gotten loose. The defensive backs stumbled, he gotten loose,
Speaker 1: and it would have been a throw to a target
Speaker 1: rather than a throw to a moving target. You're right,
Speaker 1: because the end zone was right there, yeah, I would
Speaker 1: have said that he that he would have thrown a
Speaker 1: touchdown there, But I mean Cooper rent free a couple
Speaker 1: other times. Actually doesn't make it go ahead. I'm sorry, No,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, just because he saw him and recognized
Speaker 1: him doesn't mean it was a touchdown, but it would
Speaker 1: have been. It would have been right there. He probably
Speaker 1: would have underthrown him and still made the catch. But
Speaker 1: that ball just bounces right back to him. I don't
Speaker 1: know that's happened like two or three times this year.
Speaker 1: From yep. You mentioned that that deep passed the deep
Speaker 1: pass on the left sideline when they were going down
Speaker 1: the field. Actually, Cooper said after the game that that
Speaker 1: was his fault. He said, he said, when I released
Speaker 1: off the line, I was basically trying to read the
Speaker 1: defensive back, so I didn't just run like he was
Speaker 1: expecting me to, and that's why I didn't get to
Speaker 1: the spot where he expected me to be. So it
Speaker 1: looked like he overthrew him. But Cooper said that was
Speaker 1: on him. Said, that's the kind of thing that you know,
Speaker 1: working together a little bit more will get a little
Speaker 1: better chemistry each other. It's actually pretty good. Other than
Speaker 1: his price tag. But but I do, I'd like everyone's
Speaker 1: got to bring it no, bring it down. No, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying I don't love that. But that was the price.
Speaker 1: That was the price. It wasn't like it was they
Speaker 1: could have done anything better. I mean, that was the
Speaker 1: price for him. But he his stats aren't aren't flashy.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they will be in this offense,
Speaker 1: but you can just tell that he just knows how
Speaker 1: to play. He's got a big, strong body noticeable. Yeah
Speaker 1: to the other receivers, Yes, yes he is. His stats
Speaker 1: are exactly where they need to be for the way
Speaker 1: the Cowboys want to play offense. And I did the math.
Speaker 1: I mean two games is a small sample size, but
Speaker 1: if you average it out over sixteen, he's on pace
Speaker 1: for eleven hundred yards and something like uh seventy five
Speaker 1: eighty catches or something like that, five or six touchdowns
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, he had he was he had
Speaker 1: six catches last night or seventy five yards um. And
Speaker 1: then the last game he had five catches, fifty eight
Speaker 1: yards and a touchdown. So yeah, he's doing He's doing
Speaker 1: there they want him to do. And like I always
Speaker 1: tell you, whenever he catches a pass. You see how
Speaker 1: open he is, like he just has a way of
Speaker 1: being able to get separation. That not that the other
Speaker 1: receivers haven't shown that they can consistently do. But and
Speaker 1: I know we've argued this, you know, forever about do
Speaker 1: they need a number one? Did they need or number one?
Speaker 1: I just think that you're seeing that the fact that
Speaker 1: he's got those skills to be a number one receiver,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, Beasley's open a little bit more.
Speaker 1: At least he wasn't this game hearns is open more.
Speaker 1: I think those guys need that player that they really
Speaker 1: do to help him and that needs you know, that
Speaker 1: number one two and Zeke needs it. I mean, they
Speaker 1: all kind of need it. But we talked really about
Speaker 1: Zeke Zeke, I mean, like his game and everything about it.
Speaker 1: We didn't we didn't. But I actually want to take
Speaker 1: our first break and we come back from break and
Speaker 1: let's take let's talk about Ezekiel Elli. He had a
Speaker 1: monster monster game, did he? And uh and we'll talk
Speaker 1: about maybe something maybe some of the reasons why we
Speaker 1: saw that performance yesterday. We'll talk about that when we
Speaker 1: come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys Dot com radio
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Speaker 1: Back to the Break Welcome back. It is the second
Speaker 1: segment of The Break, live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios.
Speaker 1: At the start, we're talking to Cowboys big win over
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles last night on Sunday Night Football. They
Speaker 1: win twenty seven to twenty in a close game, a
Speaker 1: fun game to watch, and it all sets up for
Speaker 1: the Cowboys to at least be playing for something over
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks. If they would have lost,
Speaker 1: I think it would have been a much more different situation,
Speaker 1: and by Thanksgiving you could have had a team that
Speaker 1: really didn't have much to play for. But this keeps
Speaker 1: it in the keeps it alive. Even though the Redskins
Speaker 1: win yesterday, still keeps the Cowboys in the mix for
Speaker 1: the division and we'll see how it all plays out
Speaker 1: down the stretch. We gotta talk about Ezekiel Elliott. Yesterday
Speaker 1: was a phenomenal day for him. He rushed for ninth
Speaker 1: He rushed nineteen times for one hundred and fifty one
Speaker 1: yards average seven point nine yards per carry, thirty five
Speaker 1: was his longest, and he had a touchdown, a rushing touchdown.
Speaker 1: In addition to that, he caught six passes for thirty
Speaker 1: six yards and a touchdown. So total twenty five touches,
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty seven total yards and two touchdowns. Yep,
Speaker 1: what were gonna know? I keep going what was what
Speaker 1: was different yesterday? Because Cowboys have been wanting to do
Speaker 1: this since the season began. This is what they want
Speaker 1: from him every week. And you can't tell me it
Speaker 1: was the defense that they were playing against, because this
Speaker 1: was a defense that coming into this game had only
Speaker 1: this kind of day, had only been replicated once this
Speaker 1: season against them. It was Saquon Barkley and the Giants,
Speaker 1: but they had been shutting down Russia's all season. Yesterday
Speaker 1: the Cowboys were able to be success. Thank you did
Speaker 1: point out though, and Dave put the stats in front
Speaker 1: of you, but we both saw it. They weren't the
Speaker 1: guys they were shutting down were not elite players. When
Speaker 1: they faced the elite guy at Barkley, he will be
Speaker 1: if he's not elite right now, but he's up there. Um.
Speaker 1: They struggled against that. So you could tell that it
Speaker 1: was there if you if you could really, you know,
Speaker 1: bring a good player like that. And so I thought,
Speaker 1: I don't know what was different. I mean you can
Speaker 1: say I thought, you know, Sue Field definitely helped. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was really good. I think Cooper helped. I think
Speaker 1: that you got a little bit more balanced there. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, he was he he was running well though.
Speaker 1: I mean he had some some juice. It probably seems
Speaker 1: the healthiest he's been. And and we can talk about
Speaker 1: thee deep play right now watching the video, I'm telling
Speaker 1: it was very close. I wish you was close to
Speaker 1: being the greatest play I've ever seen for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: If finishes, I mean, it still was great. But if
Speaker 1: he just goes and scores like that, that that would
Speaker 1: have been well Woody Danceler two thousand and two. But
Speaker 1: other than that, that's still the best play I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: But but here, that would have been right there. That
Speaker 1: was so good. Do you think about how many times
Speaker 1: do you see guys hurdle of the guys. You see
Speaker 1: it not often, but you see it enough nowadays. But
Speaker 1: it's rare you see a guy hurdle someone and keep running.
Speaker 1: That's the big guy. And the fact that he was
Speaker 1: he was almost able to get there and then he
Speaker 1: just couldn't hold up. It really wasn't going low the defender.
Speaker 1: I mean he kind of dove low, but he was
Speaker 1: a being like high, like everybody went into a sprint.
Speaker 1: If he just kept running in his normal pace, probably
Speaker 1: would have scored. As you said, Nick, he was about
Speaker 1: an inch from that being a very painful Yeah, painful.
Speaker 1: He took some contact. No, that would have been more
Speaker 1: painful than any of the contact he took all night.
Speaker 1: He took some contact to the region that you're talking about.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that here later on Tommy John
Speaker 1: I I I mean, I don't I don't, like I said,
Speaker 1: I don't get it, and I don't Maybe Zaviers, Okay,
Speaker 1: everybody is angry in the NFL like that, talk about
Speaker 1: Christopher Shard's talking about Ahead. I mean, maybe zue Xavier
Speaker 1: sue a Philo. You know, he's he's a highly talented
Speaker 1: guy who's a top forty pick. He's bigger, more experienced,
Speaker 1: more powerful than Connor Williams. But am I to believe
Speaker 1: he said he was top forty pick? Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: Connor selected sixty. Okay, I'm just I'm just asking like
Speaker 1: he also, I mean he also didn't catch on between drafted.
Speaker 1: I understand that. What the reason why I say it
Speaker 1: like that is because The one thing that I think
Speaker 1: we've talked about before on this show is when you've
Speaker 1: got a guy like Tyren Smith beside you, you don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have to be great. He was what we saw
Speaker 1: with Cooper. Cooper hasn't been great. He was a first
Speaker 1: round pick. He hasn't been great in his career, but
Speaker 1: you put him beside beside Tyron and he had a
Speaker 1: pretty good year last year. Donathan Cooper. Yeah. So all
Speaker 1: I'm saying is, and I talked about this before the show,
Speaker 1: could we find a situation where because he is stronger
Speaker 1: and more acclimated to the NFL game, he is a
Speaker 1: better solution for you right now, not necessarily down the line,
Speaker 1: but a better solution right now than Connor Williams. Letting
Speaker 1: me go back to my point, which is that I refused.
Speaker 1: I refused to believe it. I refuse to believe that
Speaker 1: he's the difference between not getting fifty yards rushing against
Speaker 1: Washington Houston and this like, are you are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: One hundred and seventy one yards one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: one for Zeke on nineteen carries. That is a college line.
Speaker 1: That is what Adrian Peterson does to Iowa State. He's like,
Speaker 1: let me go out here and mess around and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna rip half of these for forty and nobody can
Speaker 1: really hang with me. Like this doesn't happen in the NFL. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's the difference, but can you at
Speaker 1: least allow for the fact that he is a part
Speaker 1: of the difference. Oh yeah, that was part of it.
Speaker 1: I think you know what Amber said earlier. The offense
Speaker 1: did great, but the defense. Really the stems from the defense.
Speaker 1: Think about it. This team, I don't know if all
Speaker 1: coaches do this, but this team will go away from
Speaker 1: their game plan if they get down, if they get
Speaker 1: down by seven or ten, you know, the score was
Speaker 1: prohibitive and they have to change. But the defense made
Speaker 1: sure that that never happened. The Cowboys never trailed this game, actually,
Speaker 1: and so the defense kept them to a point where
Speaker 1: they could still be patient and run the offense that
Speaker 1: they want to do. And I thought, you know, it
Speaker 1: just kept coming back to the defense. The defense kept
Speaker 1: putting him in situations good field position, gotta turnover, got
Speaker 1: off the field at times. Just every time. There's so
Speaker 1: many boxing references here, but every time they were kind
Speaker 1: of staggered. They just came back and then they kept fighting.
Speaker 1: We obviously need to talk about the defense. They were amazing,
Speaker 1: but just one. I mean I'd have to go pull
Speaker 1: the stats, but I feel comfortable betting that there were
Speaker 1: at least three or four games this season where Zeke
Speaker 1: didn't have a run longer than fifteen yards. He had
Speaker 1: about five of those last night. I mean it was
Speaker 1: it was just the staggering difference. And Xavier Suafilo. Give
Speaker 1: credit to Mark Colombo, like, I'm sure he's had more
Speaker 1: time to install some of the changes he wants to make,
Speaker 1: more zone blocking runs, some stuff they're more familiar with.
Speaker 1: I thought Tyrn Smith played maybe his best game of
Speaker 1: the year last night. But to just drag a top
Speaker 1: level run defense like that, especially, I mean if this
Speaker 1: was twenty sixteen and they'd been doing it to everybody
Speaker 1: all year, I wouldn't bat an eye. But this running
Speaker 1: game has struggled to play up to it's standard all
Speaker 1: year long, So to break out like that against the
Speaker 1: defense that good was really impressive. Yeah, I think what's
Speaker 1: what's not being talked about enough right now in our
Speaker 1: show about Suafhilo, though, is who he did it. Against
Speaker 1: I mean, if that was Marco Branch or some random dude.
Speaker 1: I know he's not a player, that was just some
Speaker 1: random dude out there, but you know that would have
Speaker 1: been just the random dude, the random defensive tackle. Then
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, but this was Fletcher Coppins And how
Speaker 1: much did we talk last week about how great this
Speaker 1: guy is? And those first couple of series he was
Speaker 1: moving around and making you know he was in the mix,
Speaker 1: and after that, I don't remember hearing much from him
Speaker 1: the rest of the game, and that has to be
Speaker 1: accounted for. And when you're talking about Suepilo, I think
Speaker 1: you have to mention the fact that that's the guy
Speaker 1: he went against for a good part of the night
Speaker 1: and basically shut him down. It is worth noting that
Speaker 1: top notch defensive tackles have messed things up for this
Speaker 1: team all year. Kawan Shore, Jonathan Allen, and Ron Payne.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna step out on a limb. I don't know
Speaker 1: this for sure, but I'm gonna step out on a
Speaker 1: limb and say Connor probably won't be ready to play
Speaker 1: against Atlanta. If I had to guess he had a scope, well,
Speaker 1: I think I would guess Suaphilo will get another start.
Speaker 1: He's gonna have a Grady Jarret's pretty damn good player too.
Speaker 1: We can get into that. Yeah, we'll see what you're
Speaker 1: gonna happen if it If it happens again, then then
Speaker 1: I think you got yourself a conversation about who needs
Speaker 1: to be starting at left guard and the Redskins, that's
Speaker 1: another one that'll be I mean, he's gonna have some well,
Speaker 1: like I mean Randy, Randy Gregory got the same procedure
Speaker 1: heading into the bye week, and he played last night,
Speaker 1: played well. I don't know if we're gonna get into him.
Speaker 1: He really did a nice job he's played. I think
Speaker 1: injury will provide Zavier Suaphilo at least one more opportunity
Speaker 1: if I had to guess, So we'll see what he
Speaker 1: does with it. Yep, all right. Um. We talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about the offensive line and dak Um. I
Speaker 1: don't know if we spent enough time talking about Amari
Speaker 1: Cooper Um. And the reason why is because I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you guys the question, what is the best
Speaker 1: thing that he provides this offense? You look at how
Speaker 1: he performed last night. It really over the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: he's made like a he's been able to get himself open.
Speaker 1: He tends to make the catch. We haven't seen him
Speaker 1: drop balls, and there have been more times than not
Speaker 1: that he's been even open on some players that the
Speaker 1: ball just didn't connect and he in the quarterback didn't connect.
Speaker 1: What is the best thing that he brings to this
Speaker 1: offense at this point, Well, I think it's his route running.
Speaker 1: I think that his ability. He understands what defenses are
Speaker 1: trying to do to him, and he just knows how
Speaker 1: to get open. And you know, he didn't do a
Speaker 1: lot to get to get deep on that that one
Speaker 1: throw that Dak missed him. But he just he just
Speaker 1: kind of knows how to just run by a guy
Speaker 1: or get open and just kind of uses his body
Speaker 1: to his strength. He's just a smart player. He is.
Speaker 1: He's kind of a student of the game. He knows
Speaker 1: what he can do out there in the field. And
Speaker 1: I think that it's just a he's not flashy, But
Speaker 1: they don't need that. They really don't need that. They
Speaker 1: just need a guy that understands how to get open,
Speaker 1: and he does that. Well, Yeah, he seems like a
Speaker 1: technician and I don't know, the jury is still out
Speaker 1: for me because he played well against Tennessee and it
Speaker 1: didn't help anybody else. It did, I mean, it didn't
Speaker 1: help Cole Beasley, that's for sure. I want to see more,
Speaker 1: but I have to believe that if he can continue
Speaker 1: to play like this, it'll keep opening opportunities up for Beasley, Gallup, Hearns, Zeke, etc. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, interesting thing that you just mentioned, you
Speaker 1: said he's not flashy. I think everything about that fits
Speaker 1: this team. You kind of want if you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a number one receiver, you kind of want the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that makes the plays that are there and
Speaker 1: is okay with the idea that some weeks they may
Speaker 1: not need him as much because the running game is
Speaker 1: still going to be the predominant thing. But he will
Speaker 1: make those those underneath catches as well. The five for
Speaker 1: fifty eight, the you know, the six for seventy five,
Speaker 1: those are huge days. But he made some catches yesterday
Speaker 1: that made a difference. The best receiver in the game
Speaker 1: right now this year is not flashy at all. He's
Speaker 1: actually kind of boring. Who Michael Thomas he pulled a
Speaker 1: phone on in the end zone after he scored. That's
Speaker 1: kind of fresh. Still pretty now, you get it. I
Speaker 1: thought you're going to him he did it for them,
Speaker 1: you know what, for the purposes of giving homage to us,
Speaker 1: you know, to do that. I thought he was going
Speaker 1: to say, Adam Feeling, I thought so too. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's pretty good. AJ Green wouldn't isn't really you know, flashy.
Speaker 1: He's not playing anymore right now, he's but I mean,
Speaker 1: Hulil Jones, those guys right there, I think Antonio Brown
Speaker 1: and Odell Beckham are your flashy receivers like that. These
Speaker 1: other guys, they get their job done. And that's okay.
Speaker 1: I don't know where Cooper ranks on all that. He
Speaker 1: would probably be in the top twenty, but you know,
Speaker 1: but they do have a number one or two running
Speaker 1: back in the league, and so and he's pretty flashy
Speaker 1: and so it I think you said it best. It's
Speaker 1: just like how he fits this team and what they
Speaker 1: need and they need that. And I think the Cowboys
Speaker 1: have have have learned, you know, they learned their lesson
Speaker 1: this year that they thought they didn't need a number
Speaker 1: one and a true number one, and and I think
Speaker 1: that they've figured out that they do and it helps,
Speaker 1: and it helped last night. Dave, You're right, didn't really
Speaker 1: help that first game. We'll see how it helps in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I'm moving forward, but yeah, we'll say I do think
Speaker 1: it kind of helped in the first game. Now, there
Speaker 1: were a lot of other things that were going round
Speaker 1: in that first game, but that's when we first started
Speaker 1: to see his ability to be able to get open
Speaker 1: and present himself in a way that where the quarterback
Speaker 1: could get makes some easy throws. Super for sure, I
Speaker 1: just didn't trickle down effect did not did not happen
Speaker 1: against the Titans. And you know what you might end
Speaker 1: up seeing is you might end up seeing that the
Speaker 1: more he's in this offense, the more that it helps.
Speaker 1: Last night could have been the byproduct of that. Where
Speaker 1: the Eagles went into the game may be saying, we're
Speaker 1: depleted a set in the secondary. We know this guy
Speaker 1: has some ability, we gotta pay a little bit more
Speaker 1: attention to him. The running game starts opening up a
Speaker 1: little bit more than it has to this point. So
Speaker 1: I think you have to factor all that stuff in
Speaker 1: because you don't really know what the difference was, but
Speaker 1: it has to be a part of the factor, right,
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the defense. Say that was
Speaker 1: actually where I wanted to start the show, and Nick
Speaker 1: just kind of laughed at me and said, really, after
Speaker 1: the running back did what he did, but I think
Speaker 1: equal but I think equally as impressive was what your
Speaker 1: linebacker Layton vander Esch did. Thirteen solo tackles yesterday. He
Speaker 1: had one tackle for a loss, one interception, which that
Speaker 1: happens early in the game. You almost forget about it.
Speaker 1: It was like his least impressive play obviously, right. He
Speaker 1: was just all over the place and he was making tackles.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, the tackle for a lot. I mean,
Speaker 1: this team does anything this year and where we're still
Speaker 1: talking about plays throughout the year, that one's gonna go
Speaker 1: down as one. That was a huge, huge play. The
Speaker 1: tackle for a loss. He had no business making that play.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's two guys out there to block him
Speaker 1: for him for the way, yeah, yeah, yeah, to block him,
Speaker 1: and Clement's gonna go for a little bit and this
Speaker 1: game is gonna be totally different, probably gonna go into
Speaker 1: overtime maybe, and he just snuffs it out and goes
Speaker 1: and makes the play. I mean, that's a veteran like play.
Speaker 1: It was not a Shawn Lee type play. It was
Speaker 1: Sean Lee. Like literally, Sean Lee made the same play
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen against Darren sproles at and t took
Speaker 1: him out of field goal rang and changed the whole
Speaker 1: game senate to overtime win and wins the game. Same things,
Speaker 1: just the old dynamic of the of the franchise. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, I really think that play changed everything because
Speaker 1: if he doesn't make that play, and there's almost starts
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks, pointnant but valid, point yeah
Speaker 1: is going to start because Dak was horrible that game.
Speaker 1: But then the Dak was like, you know what, let's
Speaker 1: go win the game. Let's go tie the game, Let's
Speaker 1: go win the game. That changed the whole France. But
Speaker 1: that play reminded me of that. I mean, if if
Speaker 1: the play is even moderately successful, it's probably a first
Speaker 1: down or at least a fourth and short, and instead
Speaker 1: just completely ruined it. His instincts are off the charts,
Speaker 1: and if you go back and watch it, like he
Speaker 1: he said it after the game, but you can tell
Speaker 1: he knew what was coming before before Clement even had
Speaker 1: the ball. He was already he had already diagnosed it.
Speaker 1: His instincts are uh freaky for a rookie. I think, um,
Speaker 1: he looked awesome. So here's a big picture question when
Speaker 1: suddenly comes exact same want. Do you want Layton Vanderesh
Speaker 1: off the field at any point during the game, because
Speaker 1: that's what it's going to require. It's going to require
Speaker 1: a rotation, which is that's what they were doing before
Speaker 1: Sean got hurt, between those three lineback which when they
Speaker 1: would go to Nickel, you would see that one of
Speaker 1: them would be off the field and the other two
Speaker 1: would be. Honest, they just kind of rotated the three.
Speaker 1: Do you want scenarios where where Vanderesh is off the field?
Speaker 1: First of all, they're calling this afford a six week
Speaker 1: injury in the first place, So like that's future Dave's problem,
Speaker 1: that's future Cowboys problem. Like I don't think I don't
Speaker 1: think Sean Lee is going to be back until December,
Speaker 1: and at that point, who knows what the season looks
Speaker 1: like anyway, But if you know, I trust Sean Lee,
Speaker 1: Shawn Lee is one of the best defensive players in
Speaker 1: the recent memory of this franchise. They can rotate them
Speaker 1: and it'll be fine. There's It's what we've been saying
Speaker 1: since July. There's more than enough tackles to go around,
Speaker 1: assuming Sean is healthy. I got to go back to
Speaker 1: the interview we did on the field in the pregame
Speaker 1: show with Stephen because he said something, you know, I
Speaker 1: was just thinking about the next question or something, but
Speaker 1: he said something like this tonight, we finally have the
Speaker 1: way it should be, where we have two linebackers and
Speaker 1: you play and you know, you have the two starters
Speaker 1: and you don't really rotate. And he kind of said
Speaker 1: it like that on Stephen. I gotta go listen to
Speaker 1: it again, but it just made it sound like it
Speaker 1: was like he's like, Oh, we don't actually want to
Speaker 1: be rotating. Kind of Yeah, we got our two guys
Speaker 1: and they're really good, so we have them out all
Speaker 1: the time, which is what they should do, because I mean,
Speaker 1: these two are playing better. Yeah, they're healthier. And if
Speaker 1: Sean Lee Gunna rotates in that that'll be fine. But
Speaker 1: that's and that I at this point, if he misses
Speaker 1: six weeks and comes back in December, it's Sean Lee
Speaker 1: that should be rotating in right right, not late in Vanderesh. Well,
Speaker 1: but that's the thing. How much you rotating him in?
Speaker 1: Is this a twenty snap of game type situation? Every
Speaker 1: thirty game is every third series? I don't know, and
Speaker 1: maybe rotate for for Jalen. We're still not talking late.
Speaker 1: We're still not talking about the great game that this
Speaker 1: defense played right now. No, we're talking about late, but
Speaker 1: we have another twenty eight. Really yet was good? But
Speaker 1: was he the best? Is Xavier? No? No, And I
Speaker 1: know they say their names differently, Xavier Xavier, Xavier Xavier Woods. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was great. You know what was funny? Best game
Speaker 1: of his career. It was probably after the maybe about
Speaker 1: the first quarter or so. I looked over at Nick
Speaker 1: and said, man, Xavier's not having a good night because
Speaker 1: he had a couple of miss tackles and I was
Speaker 1: just kind of like, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: And sure enough, on que he made a play and
Speaker 1: then made another play and it just kind of kept coming.
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, okay, well that that's take
Speaker 1: Take whatever I said at the beginning of the game
Speaker 1: and just get rid of that because he had just
Speaker 1: a really really great game. What play was that he got?
Speaker 1: It was probably they no, No, well no, but I'm
Speaker 1: thinking I think it was Arts, because Arts did everything
Speaker 1: for them last night. But he took a terrible angle
Speaker 1: and then Ertz just dragged him like a sack of
Speaker 1: potatoes for about five yards. And that was early in
Speaker 1: the game. It was and I was like, and I'm like, oh, Xavier,
Speaker 1: come on, dude. And then he spent the next two
Speaker 1: hours erasing that from my memory. He played three pass breakups,
Speaker 1: saved a touchdown, Uh did one? One of them was
Speaker 1: in nickel coverage or third and two that forced him
Speaker 1: to try or either forced them to try a field
Speaker 1: goal or it forced him to go for it. I
Speaker 1: don't remember. They've failed either way. So yeah, it was
Speaker 1: on third down and then on fourth down they got stopped.
Speaker 1: But he made a nice play out there in the
Speaker 1: flat front the Eagles bench, which and you know, Layton
Speaker 1: vander esh deserves all the credit. He's the wolf hunter.
Speaker 1: He played like a beast. Jale Smith. J Smith not
Speaker 1: too bad either. He annihilated that guy on the fourth
Speaker 1: and one. Just got about four other guys that played.
Speaker 1: Oh we'll tell you what, let's go to break. When
Speaker 1: we come back from break, Nick's gonna run down those
Speaker 1: four guys and we may even get to your five
Speaker 1: plays from the game. The things, Yeah, the people shouldn't
Speaker 1: forget about. We'll do that when we come right back.
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Speaker 1: Back to the Break, Welcome Back. It is the final
Speaker 1: segment of The Break live from the s WBC Mortgage
Speaker 1: Studios at the Star. Cowboys Win, Cowboys Win, Cowboys win
Speaker 1: gets the Philadelphia Eagles twenty seven twenty. They are now
Speaker 1: tied and have the tie break hit the current moment
Speaker 1: over the Philadelphia Eagles in second place in the division
Speaker 1: at four and five. Redskins are at six and three,
Speaker 1: two games ahead. Cowboys will face the Redskins on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: So again everything's right there in front of them. See
Speaker 1: how it goes. Eagles and Redskins will two games each
Speaker 1: other twice, so I know it will pain you to
Speaker 1: do it, but probably need to pull for the Eagles
Speaker 1: to win that game. You know, it's interesting. I haven't
Speaker 1: looked at this to verify it, but someone told me
Speaker 1: yesterday that the Eagles next I think five of their
Speaker 1: next six are against teams that lead currently lead their division.
Speaker 1: So the Eagles have a tough That's the thing about
Speaker 1: being the top team in your in your division every year.
Speaker 1: That means you're gonna face the other top teams in
Speaker 1: their division from the year before, which makes it a
Speaker 1: little tougher than the next team. And the next team
Speaker 1: and the next team their reward for losing that game, well,
Speaker 1: they would play them regardless because they play the South.
Speaker 1: But they got the Saints next. Wait, the Eagles have
Speaker 1: the Saints next, so what's saying? Okay, yeah, and the
Speaker 1: Redskins have the Texans next, who are on a really
Speaker 1: really they're probably one of the hottest teams in the
Speaker 1: league right now. They've gotten on a nice little role
Speaker 1: of here. You know, every one of the Cowboys losses
Speaker 1: this year to a team that's that has a winning record.
Speaker 1: I mean even and it seems like every time they've
Speaker 1: lost it to somebody like they're not any good. Look,
Speaker 1: Seattle sucks. So then Seattle gets hot, and Houston got hot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the Redskins have been pretty hot. And then Titans,
Speaker 1: you know, they go out there and whip New England.
Speaker 1: Didn't make that loss look so bad from Monday nights.
Speaker 1: So it just looks like we're finding out a little
Speaker 1: bit that some of these losses the Cowboys have had
Speaker 1: it looked bad. Maybe arn't is bad. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: still he still gonna win the game, of course, But
Speaker 1: you know, we're still finding out a lot about this league.
Speaker 1: I think there's three really good teams right now in
Speaker 1: the league. That's I think that's and then everyone else's.
Speaker 1: You said that five months ago. There's four or five
Speaker 1: teams here, four or five teams here, but even but
Speaker 1: even really more so than most years, like I we're
Speaker 1: finding out though we don't know Jack welcompletely, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Literally, I feel confident that the Rams,
Speaker 1: Saints and Chiefs are good. They're good. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: feel confident about any other team, but I will say this,
Speaker 1: and we've seen this happen in the NFL, those teams,
Speaker 1: I would I would be willing to put money on
Speaker 1: it that there will be another one, two, maybe three
Speaker 1: teams in the NFL that at this point we're starting
Speaker 1: to say, huh that at the end of the season,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be right there in the mix. I think
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh's want to say if what I'm mean by that
Speaker 1: is just like it's hard to tell right now who
Speaker 1: are going to be the dominant teams because s teams
Speaker 1: start getting on their roles here at the middle of
Speaker 1: the season, like Pittsburgh's doing, like Chicago, Like there are
Speaker 1: some teams that that will get it going right now
Speaker 1: and through the rest of the year, will play like
Speaker 1: those teams have played through the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: and and one of those teams that you think right
Speaker 1: now is just unbeatable will probably cool a bit. And
Speaker 1: that's just how the NFL works over and over a
Speaker 1: seventeen I don't think those Your point is well made,
Speaker 1: and you're absolutely I mean, I've bet on Pittsburgh's gonna
Speaker 1: be in the AFC title game. They're going to be,
Speaker 1: no doubt about right now. But I don't see I
Speaker 1: don't see Kansas City, LA or New Orleans fading away
Speaker 1: unless something terrible happens to them, like a you know,
Speaker 1: a drastic injury or something like that. You know too,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Well, those things happen in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Going into Week ten, two teams in the league that
Speaker 1: you thought were pretty good, I mean, they got pretty
Speaker 1: good records that they're gonna be in the mix here.
Speaker 1: They both got fifty put on them this week, the
Speaker 1: Bengals and the Panthers. So yeah, weird, that's this is
Speaker 1: a Tuesday talk. It is. Sorry, let's get back to
Speaker 1: this defense. Nick, you said you had some players you
Speaker 1: wanted to throw out there that we didn't mention on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the bay. I thought the best
Speaker 1: defensive tackle in the game last night was Tyrone Crawford.
Speaker 1: I thought he was he played better than than Fletcher Cox.
Speaker 1: He's not a better player than Fletcher Coox, but he
Speaker 1: really did a nice job. He's quietly had a really
Speaker 1: good season irving spending and out of the lineup, he's
Speaker 1: kind of moved around. He's played really well. I thought
Speaker 1: Randy Gregory had the best play of his career with
Speaker 1: that sack. Showed some freakish skills. Don't forget about that
Speaker 1: play in the last end of the game. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: was great. Yeah, Jeff, he you know, he's had a
Speaker 1: really nice tackle there at the end on arts Um.
Speaker 1: Of course he had the special team's play had eight tackles.
Speaker 1: I thought. I thought he did a nice job. Cheeto
Speaker 1: had a really big play in the game too. I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask the fact that and I agree with, like,
Speaker 1: all those guys played great, but we got that far
Speaker 1: down the line without mentioning Cheeto was probably the best
Speaker 1: play of his career at this point. That was that
Speaker 1: was big that we were both Nick and I. The
Speaker 1: angle that we had on that play. It looked like
Speaker 1: that was just going to be a touchdown and we
Speaker 1: were like, oh oh oh, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he comes flying in there. That I had the
Speaker 1: binoculars on that guy, so it was really close and
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't see anyone that all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he comes flying in. That was the If
Speaker 1: we want to go five plays, that was the first one.
Speaker 1: We'll talk me through those five plays. What were the
Speaker 1: five plays in yesterday's game? And for those of you
Speaker 1: who don't know, Nick writes an article every week where
Speaker 1: he details is five plays from the games that you
Speaker 1: may have missed or you may not consider, but they
Speaker 1: are plays that change the game. Nicholas, that one right
Speaker 1: there we talked about. The Eagles were driving. It was
Speaker 1: a third down play. He was our second down play.
Speaker 1: He looked wide open down the sideline and Cheeto comes
Speaker 1: in and knocks it out. They get a field goal
Speaker 1: only to make it six to three. I thought that
Speaker 1: was a really big play. They come back on the
Speaker 1: next series and Peterson's calling time out to try to
Speaker 1: get the ball back. He's helping the Cowboys third and fifteen.
Speaker 1: Good play call there for gallup twenty five yard play
Speaker 1: that flipped the whole game around. The Cowboys are just
Speaker 1: trying to eat up the clock and gets you know, halftime,
Speaker 1: twenty five yards play. All of a sudden, now the
Speaker 1: Cowboys are going score and scoring. Um. I thought, I'm
Speaker 1: actually don't have him in front of me. But there's
Speaker 1: there's a couple there down at the end in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. I'm gonna skip to the one right before
Speaker 1: Zeke's game winning touchdown first and goal in the nine
Speaker 1: four forty two to go. The fact that he did
Speaker 1: not score on first and second down was big. I
Speaker 1: used trying to score, you're trying to take the lead.
Speaker 1: But the fact that it went seventy yards and then
Speaker 1: one and then he scores that took off seventy four seconds.
Speaker 1: Seventy four seconds there when you get to the final minute,
Speaker 1: you know, the final few seconds of the game, they're
Speaker 1: all precious. So seventy four seconds to score that that
Speaker 1: that definitely changed the course of of what the Eagles
Speaker 1: were trying to do. And I don't have it all
Speaker 1: in front of me either. I'm missing a couple of
Speaker 1: there in the third quarter that were that were big,
Speaker 1: but uh, I can't think of it right now. I
Speaker 1: wasn't prepared, damn you. I know, I'm trying to think.
Speaker 1: There were so a couple of big ones there in
Speaker 1: the third quarter. But um, anyway, for god, sorry, let's
Speaker 1: move on. Let's talk about the Uh let's finish this
Speaker 1: conversation on the defense. With all that you saw yesterday,
Speaker 1: are you this defense has played well. Let's be clear,
Speaker 1: this defense has played well all season. But are you
Speaker 1: at the point now where you're thinking this is enough
Speaker 1: of a sample size that you can say this defense
Speaker 1: can be relied on as the really as the unit
Speaker 1: that things have to flow through, because we've been used
Speaker 1: to for the longest time now that this team's success
Speaker 1: was built around the offense, and whatever the offense did
Speaker 1: was going to dictate how whether how well the team
Speaker 1: was going to actually do from the standpoint of a
Speaker 1: win loss record. But do you think that at this
Speaker 1: point that's starting to change and this defense really is
Speaker 1: the unit that that everything has to flow from. It's funny.
Speaker 1: I mean, it goes back to what I saw at
Speaker 1: the top of the show. They dumped my expectations on
Speaker 1: their ear on Monday night because arguably the least impressive
Speaker 1: offense they played put up a season high point total
Speaker 1: on them. I mean, the Titans scored twenty eight, made
Speaker 1: them look pretty pedestrian. And then how do they respond.
Speaker 1: They go out, they play, you know, arguably probably one
Speaker 1: of the top five quarterbacks, top ten at least quarterbacks
Speaker 1: in the league right now. Carson Wentz should have been
Speaker 1: the NFL MVP last year. He got his stats, but
Speaker 1: they were effective against him. Um, they played a great game,
Speaker 1: held Philly to twenty points at home for the Eagles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were. They were outstanding. And the thing for me
Speaker 1: is um, I'm just so intrigued by the upside of
Speaker 1: this unit. Actually, you know, I pride myself on how
Speaker 1: much I know about this team. NBC had a stat
Speaker 1: last night that I had not considered that really shocked me,
Speaker 1: did you. It was on the TVs in the press
Speaker 1: box as you see it, Antoine Woods is the only
Speaker 1: significant member of this defense. Like guy who gets a
Speaker 1: lot of playing time, who's not who has ever played
Speaker 1: for another team. Wow, I didn't realize that, but I
Speaker 1: that's true. Literally, I mean, go down they built. He
Speaker 1: was with the Titan for like a year. I mean
Speaker 1: he practice squad whatever. But like, he's the only significant
Speaker 1: member of this defense. So you don't count David Irving
Speaker 1: and well even I mean David Irving's played like a
Speaker 1: game and a half, which okay, but even still, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't but he wasn't drafted by this I guess
Speaker 1: is no drafted or discovered. But even if you want
Speaker 1: to include him, that's two out of like eighteen guys.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. And you know I did the math last night.
Speaker 1: Late Vanner as just twenty two. Jalen Smith is twenty three.
Speaker 1: Cheetos twenty three. Even some of your vet to Marcus
Speaker 1: Lawrence is only twenty six fire in his twenty seven.
Speaker 1: So they're homegrown. They are young, and they are coming
Speaker 1: into their own quickly all together. So you know, i'd
Speaker 1: like to see you know, you can knitpick you know,
Speaker 1: takeaways is still you know, still a thing. You'd like
Speaker 1: to see more of it. You know, they got one
Speaker 1: last night. Um, I don't know if I'm ready to
Speaker 1: say that, you know this, I don't know that this
Speaker 1: defense is ready to like carry a team into the
Speaker 1: deep rounds of the playoffs, you know, but they're they're
Speaker 1: working on it, and they're getting there quick. And the
Speaker 1: I mean, the guys are young, and most of them
Speaker 1: are under contract for the foreseeable future. And that's got
Speaker 1: to be very encouraging. And what I loved about what
Speaker 1: I loved about what I saw from this defense last
Speaker 1: night is I think what has to happen in order
Speaker 1: for you to become a great defense is not so
Speaker 1: much can you make the stops during the game, because yeah,
Speaker 1: you need to make those stops as you go along
Speaker 1: during the game. Giving up a touchdown here and there's
Speaker 1: not a huge deal. The thing is when you get
Speaker 1: to the fourth quarter, and it is at the moment
Speaker 1: when this is where you win or lose the game,
Speaker 1: and the other team has the ball and you have
Speaker 1: X amount of minutes or seconds left on the clock,
Speaker 1: can you make those stops? Last night they made those stops.
Speaker 1: And yeah, and that's the part that this defense hasn't
Speaker 1: always I'm talking about going back over years. That's the
Speaker 1: parts this defense hasn't always done well. They'll go through
Speaker 1: a game, they'll play pretty well, they'll hold teams to
Speaker 1: field goals, and then it gets to that last drive
Speaker 1: and they give up the touchdown or they give up
Speaker 1: the field goal in order to win. They finished it
Speaker 1: last night, and that's what you're gonna have to see
Speaker 1: from them in order for the video. The pass rush
Speaker 1: there late in the game, those last few plays, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, that's not what Carson Wentz really wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and they forced him to throw the ball excuse me,
Speaker 1: over the middle when that's not what they wanted. But
Speaker 1: Gregory on one end, d Law and the other they
Speaker 1: needed some pressure. Therey didn't make the sack, but they
Speaker 1: got there and they forced him to do things he
Speaker 1: didn't want to do. I thought that was that was
Speaker 1: really big there late in the game. There's not a
Speaker 1: big rotation going on in that whole game. I mean,
Speaker 1: they've had the injuries they were without Taco. I didn't
Speaker 1: think Doran's Armstrong played a lot. I don't even know
Speaker 1: what happened to Daniel Ross because he heard it. He
Speaker 1: don't even know he played. He left the game because
Speaker 1: it says he did not play, but he had played.
Speaker 1: He didn't get hurt in the pregame. He know he left.
Speaker 1: They made the announcement early in the game, so I
Speaker 1: don't know that we've seen that before. He definitely played,
Speaker 1: UM and where to see a Super Bowl MVP, and
Speaker 1: that didn't not wow, you know, just like oh super
Speaker 1: Bowl MVP Nick Foles didn't play. Uh yeah, Dan, I mean,
Speaker 1: Daniel Ross, that's something to watch. So that'll I mean,
Speaker 1: if David Irving needs more time, that affects your defensive
Speaker 1: tackle depth. But yeah, I mean, you know, I know
Speaker 1: this doesn't help him beat the Falcons. But you know me,
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a draft and team building dork. And look,
Speaker 1: I mean, who who that's important to this defense is
Speaker 1: in flux for the future. UM obviously to Marcus David
Speaker 1: Irving well did David Irving and to Marcus Lawrence are
Speaker 1: the two, and I just I think the Cowboys cannot
Speaker 1: let to Marcus Lawrence be anything but a Cowboy. That's
Speaker 1: a drastic mistake if they do so, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to chalk him up to being here one way and Irving.
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, I don't think they need Irving.
Speaker 1: I think they move on and it would be it
Speaker 1: would be nice to have Irving, but would but he
Speaker 1: it's always something with him. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: they've played well without him. It's you know, it's not
Speaker 1: like they're trying to stitch it together without him like
Speaker 1: they did with Sean Lee last year. They're playing well
Speaker 1: despite the fact that he hasn't been available for most
Speaker 1: of the year. I've kind of changed my tune a
Speaker 1: little bit with with Irving, and just because of the
Speaker 1: trade with you know, with Cooper and you don't have
Speaker 1: that first round pick and you don't need some help here.
Speaker 1: I would probably offer him a one year deal, Irving,
Speaker 1: and then if he gets more than that, if somebody says,
Speaker 1: you know, this guy's freaking we want it, that's fine.
Speaker 1: But I think the Cowboys should be players. I don't
Speaker 1: think they'll just wash their hands, but I think they'll
Speaker 1: be like another one year deal and just see if
Speaker 1: you can figure things out. My only thing would just
Speaker 1: be they need to really figure out if football is
Speaker 1: his top priority because all the time that he's missing,
Speaker 1: you know, he's had some injuries and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I just I would want to if I were
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, make sure I knew beyond a shadow of
Speaker 1: a doubt, if I'm gonna be a player, Like you said,
Speaker 1: I know I'm not going to break the bank, But
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna be a player, does he want to
Speaker 1: be out there? Is football his passion? And if it
Speaker 1: is great, go all in or not go all in,
Speaker 1: but but give him offer something that makes some sense.
Speaker 1: But if not, then I just as soon say you
Speaker 1: can walk away and you can find more depth. Right now, Again,
Speaker 1: this defense has talent. You can find guys to add
Speaker 1: to that. You don't necessarily have to bring back a
Speaker 1: guy that you just can't rely on for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: There are lots of different things going on with him,
Speaker 1: including injury, some of the things beyond his control. But
Speaker 1: it's just it's always something it seems like and that
Speaker 1: makes it a little bit. It makes it to the
Speaker 1: point where you're you don't feel like he's as reliable
Speaker 1: just to be able to just come off the street
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, I'm getting to do this and
Speaker 1: I'm good. I mean, but it's how much do you want,
Speaker 1: you know, do you want to how much do you
Speaker 1: want to tolerate? And with MALIEK. Collins, you know, I
Speaker 1: think I guess he'll he'll need a contract going in
Speaker 1: after next year. He's got one more season left on
Speaker 1: his deal after this kind of tricky too. Who I'm
Speaker 1: sorry MALIEK. Collins because he's you know, he gets banged
Speaker 1: up a lot. But defensive tackle is a sneaky big
Speaker 1: need for this team in the draft is and they
Speaker 1: don't have a first round pick, which means we don't
Speaker 1: have to sweat about them not picking one in the
Speaker 1: first round. But you can get talent those other rounds.
Speaker 1: I don't need to be a first round to get
Speaker 1: a defensive tack. My point is is Ross and Woods
Speaker 1: are playing great and they came from you know, other
Speaker 1: other places. We can we can, you know, we can
Speaker 1: actually talk about them drafting a defensive tackle with their
Speaker 1: second or third round pick. Is my point, because I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to waste my energy talking about them spending
Speaker 1: a first round pick on a defensive tackle. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: didn't seem like that's something they've ever wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Nothing to do it, um, but no, I just uh,
Speaker 1: I've got everybody on this defense did something heroic. It
Speaker 1: seemed like, yes the last night, and they are all,
Speaker 1: for the most part, still coming into their own as players.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was Randy Gregory's third career sack. Yeah, ever,
Speaker 1: m and for all the for all, for all the
Speaker 1: hype and debate about him, I mean, what has Randy
Speaker 1: Gregory done to like give you a headache since he
Speaker 1: got back to this team? Like I know, you know,
Speaker 1: we made a big deal about him missing out. He's
Speaker 1: going to league mandated he has to do to stay
Speaker 1: on the field. He has been a model citizen as
Speaker 1: far as I'm aware. Maybe you know, you never know
Speaker 1: the whole story, but as far as I'm aware, Uh,
Speaker 1: and yeah, just a lot of talented players playing up
Speaker 1: to their potential and they're all under contract and that's
Speaker 1: very exciting. Before we in the show, I do one throughout.
Speaker 1: One extra little thing that came up last night Cowboys
Speaker 1: faced a team uh this was now um or better,
Speaker 1: let me just say last night, the Philadelphia Eagles did
Speaker 1: not have a single pill. That has happened only thirty
Speaker 1: times since two thousand um. And here's the interesting part
Speaker 1: to me. There five of those thirty times it was
Speaker 1: the Cowboys opponent. It seem a little interesting. What's the
Speaker 1: record of those teams thirty times? Ah, gosh, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, definitely not undefeated. No, definitely not. I
Speaker 1: mean you would think that, you know, if you're playing
Speaker 1: a clean game, and you know, the before we throw
Speaker 1: out conspiracy theory and all this crap. I mean, like
Speaker 1: five Cowboys were a flagged five times, So this crew
Speaker 1: obviously doesn't throw a lot of flags. I think we
Speaker 1: all appreciate that. Yeah, I don't see. I didn't see zero.
Speaker 1: I know, those zero for the Eagles are ridiculous because
Speaker 1: because you know, and I even asked Tyrone Crawford about it.
Speaker 1: If thinks he gets, you know, held every play, yeah
Speaker 1: he's not. He's not a fan of refs right now. No,
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying we all saw a couple of
Speaker 1: plays here and there. But yeah, I mean, Damien was
Speaker 1: in a chokehold on that one, you know, the yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: which I NBC was like, look, Carson wentz still through
Speaker 1: the ball even though he had his hand and his
Speaker 1: wrist band, and I'm like, Amy Wilson is being like suffocated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought they were showing, yeah, they were showing this
Speaker 1: other play. But zero penalties. That seems anything. I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't even remember anything being declined. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I don't remember. I never tracked that once it's declined,
Speaker 1: but maybe maybe. But that's that's still to me, that's
Speaker 1: just curious. And that the reason why I brought up
Speaker 1: at the end show because I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: huge deal obviously, but I do think it's something that
Speaker 1: that does raise my eyebrow. That this is only happened
Speaker 1: thirty times, that you would go through any game and
Speaker 1: a team would have zero penalties, to me is curious.
Speaker 1: But for its only have happened thirty times since two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, sixth of that is against is one
Speaker 1: team's opponents. When you got thirty two teams out there,
Speaker 1: that seems curious. That seems very curious to me, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure the Cowboys are probably looking into it and
Speaker 1: maybe sending some letters to league off this or whatever.
Speaker 1: But they just seems curious. They can send all the
Speaker 1: letters they went, they went what like, they went eight
Speaker 1: weeks last year without drawing a holding flag on an opponent.
Speaker 1: And I'm the number ain't high this year. I don't
Speaker 1: have it with me, but I promise you it's not high.
Speaker 1: So they send the calls in every single week, and
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how much it's doing them. But all right, guys,
Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us. We're back tomorrow. We'll give you
Speaker 1: a big picture look at what's happening around the NFC.
Speaker 1: Was East what's happening around the NFL? To then for
Speaker 1: Nick Even, Dave helm and Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Eagleton.
Speaker 1: This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot
Speaker 1: Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.