Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This is Mick Shots
Speaker 1: screaming live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the official
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys apt Now Here are Bill Jones, Everson Wolves,
Speaker 1: and Nicky Spagnola, And here we are for another week
Speaker 1: of Mick Shots. Bill Jones with Everson Walls and Mickey
Speaker 1: Spagnola back home in his SWBC mortgage studio at Ford
Speaker 1: Center at the Star in Frisio. It's yes, it's it's Mickey.
Speaker 1: Did you spend your whole holiday there at the SWBC
Speaker 1: Mortgage studio? I am proud to say that I was
Speaker 1: here on Friday, but not Saturday and Sunday. There you go,
Speaker 1: all right, So you had your Thanksgiving holiday consisted of
Speaker 1: a normal weekend day, Saturday and Sunday off. Of course,
Speaker 1: you spent Thursday at at and T Stadium, And maybe
Speaker 1: we won't have to talk about that for very long
Speaker 1: here on this edition of Mixed Shots. But we've got
Speaker 1: so much to get to since we last convened ever
Speaker 1: sin hours. Your Thanksgiving, Ah, Thanksgiving was kind of normal,
Speaker 1: except for the depressed part of it. You know, everything
Speaker 1: was fine before three thirty, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden things just went downhill. My weekend was just as
Speaker 1: average as any trying to play it safe. So I'm
Speaker 1: kind of in a brooding mood right now. That's why
Speaker 1: that's why I bought my hoodie. I'm all in, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Still all in, Still all in,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless brooding. Can I can I take that stance? Can?
Speaker 1: I can totally understand that I showed up with the
Speaker 1: hood all I thought maybe he was doing it with
Speaker 1: the windows open outside. Well, you got to have a
Speaker 1: proper ventilation here in these COVID days, So I would
Speaker 1: advise everyone, even if it's forty outside like the day,
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, keep the keep those windows open. We went
Speaker 1: good ventilation, all right, Mickey, There's so much to get to.
Speaker 1: Where should we start on this edition of mix Shots?
Speaker 1: How do you think? Bill? Uh? Last time we talked
Speaker 1: was Wednesday? Right, So much has taken place, not only
Speaker 1: with the Cowboys on the football field, not only with
Speaker 1: Cowboys strength and conditioning coach Marcus Paul passing away after
Speaker 1: our show, and then all the stuff that's happening in
Speaker 1: the league along with the Cowboys. Thursday night game being
Speaker 1: pushed back to the following Tuesday. I'll leave it up
Speaker 1: to you, since you're steering the ship, where you want
Speaker 1: to exactly start this thing, because a lot of this
Speaker 1: is tied together too, by the way, Yep, that's exactly right. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm always start with Marcus Paul because on Friday morning
Speaker 1: I taped the Mike mcco and I got the feeling
Speaker 1: and of course he did a media availability I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: Friday morning too, right, Yeah, And I got the feeling
Speaker 1: that he had basically spent and by then he even
Speaker 1: though it hadn't been officially announced yet, I think he
Speaker 1: pretty much knew that the game against the Ravens was
Speaker 1: going to get pushed back, so he didn't have to
Speaker 1: do the normal things that you he would do on
Speaker 1: a normal work week, which is what it would have
Speaker 1: been had the game still been played on Thursday. And
Speaker 1: so I think he spent a good portion, if not all,
Speaker 1: of the morning on Friday morning taken in phone calls.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people knew that, you know,
Speaker 1: he obviously had a game on Thursday, and they didn't
Speaker 1: call about Marcus until Friday morning. Uh, And so I
Speaker 1: think and he talked with the I believe the family
Speaker 1: on Friday morning and so forth. And I think that
Speaker 1: is you know, it's at a point after all that
Speaker 1: had transpired in the previous seventy two hours, that you
Speaker 1: sit there and you just, um, you reflect on one
Speaker 1: what's happened, you know, you know. And in fact, he
Speaker 1: apologized at the end of a taping of the Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy Show that he just didn't have the energy. I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't either. I mean, none of us had energy
Speaker 1: after that, And so I can only imagine what those
Speaker 1: close to the family are still going through. And then
Speaker 1: for the players too, as we talked about last week.
Speaker 1: You know, the players are very close. We're very close
Speaker 1: to Marcus and Natural Uh, you know, probably as close
Speaker 1: as any coach to the team and the team. Lake
Speaker 1: vanderash talked about it, uh, you know, especially for him.
Speaker 1: You know, he had been side by side with him
Speaker 1: throughout the offseason because coming office surgery, he could be
Speaker 1: at the Star when he was at back home in Idaho.
Speaker 1: And so anyway, Uh, that's kind of where it was
Speaker 1: on Friday. Yeah, and it was it was it was
Speaker 1: even emotional draining. I think after we got the word
Speaker 1: here when the announced or the you know, the statement
Speaker 1: came out. It was about quarter to six on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and you were just kind of waiting to see UH.
Speaker 1: And then after you know, the game and going over
Speaker 1: everything the guys said. Mike McCarthy said on his press conference,
Speaker 1: Jerry said, when he did his radio interview, and UH,
Speaker 1: I got charged with writing about Marcus for the Game
Speaker 1: Day upcoming Game Day magazines, and I'll tell you what, guys,
Speaker 1: and I sort of wrote the story from the aspect
Speaker 1: of after I read all this stuff that came out
Speaker 1: about him, all the tweets from from Syracuse, the university,
Speaker 1: from the former assistant coach Randy Edsel, who recruit recruited
Speaker 1: Marcus to Syracuse, to Darryl Johnston, who I didn't put
Speaker 1: two and two together. They were teammates and co captains
Speaker 1: their senior year there, UH in eighty eight, to the
Speaker 1: Giants coming out with statements and all the people that
Speaker 1: he had touched. I was sitting there going, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel cheated because I didn't get to know him
Speaker 1: that well, but I felt like I got to know
Speaker 1: him by listening to everybody else react to him. And
Speaker 1: by time I got done with that, I was emotionally
Speaker 1: drained from just going through the whole thing and kind
Speaker 1: of reliving it and seeing how much he meant to
Speaker 1: so many different people and so many any different walks
Speaker 1: of life, to the point that you know, he was
Speaker 1: a teammate Ron Riverez at Washington and you know, and
Speaker 1: he had to coach the game on Thursday, and it
Speaker 1: sounded like they were pretty close. And even in the
Speaker 1: pregame show on Thursday, Michael Strahan talking about how they
Speaker 1: were they were bus run or they were ride buddies
Speaker 1: to the airport for the away games that they spent
Speaker 1: that time together, and he goes, and if you know
Speaker 1: about your ride buddy to the airport, you end up
Speaker 1: being pretty close. So it was just amazing how many
Speaker 1: people he touched in his not only professional playing career,
Speaker 1: but when he became strength and conditioning assistant at New Orleans,
Speaker 1: followed Mike Woissick to New England, he was with the Jets,
Speaker 1: and then I guess what I missed was that he
Speaker 1: spent eleven seasons with the Giants and won two Super
Speaker 1: Bowls with them, three with the New England and Pat Hanlon,
Speaker 1: who's their community vice president of communications. I had a
Speaker 1: couple of tweets that were very heartfelt, and yeah, it
Speaker 1: was amazing how many people he touched. But as you said, Bill,
Speaker 1: strength and conditioning coaches, they touch everybody. In fact, one
Speaker 1: guy that I got a text from was who I
Speaker 1: hadn't put two and two together at all on it.
Speaker 1: But it's just sort of an example of you don't
Speaker 1: realize how close the fraternity is if you haven't been
Speaker 1: in that fraternity like Everson has been in. You know,
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, Brian Jones, who works for CBS
Speaker 1: Sports college football analysts, he texted me back last week,
Speaker 1: asked me what I knew about his condition and so forth,
Speaker 1: and I was like, so, how do you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was with the Saints and when Marcus Paul was
Speaker 1: with the Saints twenty years ago, before he was with
Speaker 1: the paid Reach. Remember Wisick was with the Saints for
Speaker 1: a short time. Uh, and so he was his assistant
Speaker 1: there with the Sataness. So that's how he got to
Speaker 1: know him. And then he's and Brian said, he's one
Speaker 1: of the greatest guys that he has met that he
Speaker 1: met in his entire time in the NFL. And you
Speaker 1: know too, a couple of things in regards to what
Speaker 1: you just mentioned, Bill, you are so right. Just being
Speaker 1: an athlete going through the league and having many years,
Speaker 1: you're blessed to go through it. And if you're blessed
Speaker 1: to play with several teams, then you're going to have
Speaker 1: a connection in some kind of way. There's always going
Speaker 1: to be a six degree of separation, and that's just
Speaker 1: as a player. And he continued to be part of
Speaker 1: different staffs even after he played, and that really solidified
Speaker 1: his relationship throughout the entire NFL with whoever he touched.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry I don't know her name, but his
Speaker 1: daughter Conspats what's her name, Tabitha, Tabitha Man. She really
Speaker 1: personalized everything for us with the words, her words of
Speaker 1: hope and and just her words of love and then
Speaker 1: recollecting what her father meant to her and also where
Speaker 1: he meant to so many other people. So I thought
Speaker 1: Tabitha's addition to this entire emotional experience, I just thought
Speaker 1: it kind of tapped it, topped it off in the
Speaker 1: right way to where you know, yes, it's a game,
Speaker 1: but right now, this is someone's father who's going through this.
Speaker 1: And so that family U had had my prayers and
Speaker 1: I'm sure everyone else's, and really that's that's what's more
Speaker 1: important here than anything else. And by the way, she
Speaker 1: posted uh Friday or Saturday that her dad was an
Speaker 1: organ donor and saved four people's lives. Right, I saw that.
Speaker 1: I saw that bill Thanksgiving Day. Basically, wow, I didn't
Speaker 1: see that. That's that's amazing, you know. And and the
Speaker 1: thing that it kept coming out about him was that
Speaker 1: he was such a sweet person and it was always
Speaker 1: nice around here, and my only interaction would be passing
Speaker 1: him at the training table during lunch, and always a
Speaker 1: smile on his face, always kind of upbeat and moving quickly.
Speaker 1: And I wish I could remember who said this, but
Speaker 1: they talked about what a nice guy he was, but
Speaker 1: in the job he was in and so close to
Speaker 1: the players, being nice was one thing, but also figured
Speaker 1: out how to be tough to get guys to do
Speaker 1: what he wanted them to do. And that's not an
Speaker 1: easy juggling act a lot of times for those guys
Speaker 1: in that position. Because again, offseason, he's the head coach, right,
Speaker 1: he's in charge because the coaches aren't allowed to be
Speaker 1: around the players during that part of the offseason workouts
Speaker 1: in training, and it sounded like, yeah, the guys and
Speaker 1: you know, all they had to say after the game,
Speaker 1: and the fact that I think a couple of things
Speaker 1: stood out. It looked like part of the team meeting
Speaker 1: Wednesday night, Mike McCarthy let the guys stand up and
Speaker 1: say what they had to say about them, whoever wanted
Speaker 1: to talk. And then, you know, before the game, after
Speaker 1: they finished their pregame warm up, they all gathered in
Speaker 1: a big circle basically kneeling, and it looked like Sean
Speaker 1: Lee was kind of in charge of saying something, holding hands.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing I noticed guys before the game,
Speaker 1: and I don't think this might have gotten on television,
Speaker 1: but before they did that started the tribute on the
Speaker 1: big video board, the offensive lineman. The whole group towed
Speaker 1: the line together. They were the only ones there for
Speaker 1: the before the start of it, like they were braced
Speaker 1: for it. And after the tribute, they kind of went
Speaker 1: in a circle and they hugged each other and went
Speaker 1: around and it was like, oh my god, you guys
Speaker 1: are going to break my heart, you know. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a there was a lot of outpouring of emotion.
Speaker 1: And the thing that you know, kind of occurred to me.
Speaker 1: If you count fifty three guys on the roster, you
Speaker 1: got sixteen guys on the practice squad. You got, however
Speaker 1: many guys that are injured reserve. And I counted it
Speaker 1: all up, and it got into you know, the seventies,
Speaker 1: high seventies, and I wanted to see how many guys
Speaker 1: were no more than twenty five years old, and I
Speaker 1: counted forty nine, forty nine. And think about when you
Speaker 1: were twenty five, people close to you, other than maybe
Speaker 1: your grandparent, they didn't pass away. You were young, and
Speaker 1: they were young. And for these guys to have to
Speaker 1: deal with somebody that close to them passing away less
Speaker 1: than twenty four hours before kickoff, I'm sure it was
Speaker 1: a very very tough emotionally time for them that night,
Speaker 1: even you know, before the game started. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it affected how they played, because those guys came
Speaker 1: out and played hard, but just to have to go
Speaker 1: through that a young age is very tough. And you know,
Speaker 1: something else about that spacts When you think about society today,
Speaker 1: everything is just more public. It's just the way it is.
Speaker 1: It's hard enough having to deal with the loss of
Speaker 1: a loved one privately, but that's something that you can
Speaker 1: compartmentalize maybe easier because you don't have to necessarily share
Speaker 1: it with everyone. But when it's when it's a and
Speaker 1: after where everyone's involved, it can be taxing. It can
Speaker 1: be emotionally taxing. It's like being at a funeral. You know,
Speaker 1: you really don't the emotions don't come out until you're
Speaker 1: around all of the sadness and the emotion. So when
Speaker 1: everyone you know, around the sports world and everyone's commenting
Speaker 1: on it, you know, now it's out there in public.
Speaker 1: And to have to deal with something like that, uh,
Speaker 1: like you said, at such a young age, and then
Speaker 1: you know you mentioned just everything that's going on in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, it's uh man, it's a lot to deal
Speaker 1: with and and I feel for these young young guys,
Speaker 1: but you know, they gotta get through it. They gotta
Speaker 1: get through it. Well. I think that Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: we talk a lot of times about the bye week,
Speaker 1: whether it came in a good time or not. The
Speaker 1: postponement of this game came at a good time, being
Speaker 1: able to give them a long weekend here and postponing
Speaker 1: it to where they didn't have to be back. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're they're not back into to practice until Wednesday, um
Speaker 1: and uh with a game push back till Monday, and
Speaker 1: that still gives them an extra day to prepare for
Speaker 1: the Ravens and Ravens play a game on Tuesday night
Speaker 1: with with what's left of the Ravens due to COVID.
Speaker 1: Uh right now, Yeah, we think Thursday a Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: In fact, at least they'll have a quarterback, right at
Speaker 1: least a quarter Yeah, so when we come back, and
Speaker 1: there's so much to get to in terms of whether
Speaker 1: a team has quarterbacks or not, whether the Ravens can play,
Speaker 1: and so much more. But right off the top, I
Speaker 1: thought it's appropriate for us to talk about Marcus Paul
Speaker 1: and let the Paul family know our thoughts and prayers
Speaker 1: are with them as they go through this time. Mix
Speaker 1: Shots continues here in just a moment. Hey, they're Cowboys
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Speaker 1: back back to mixed shots. Well, I'm looking through our
Speaker 1: live reads trying to figure out which one would be
Speaker 1: appropriate for today, and the Washington one would not be.
Speaker 1: So let's go to the Star District looking for something
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Speaker 1: back to mick Shots, Phil Jones, Everson Walls, and Mickey Spagnola. So, Mickey,
Speaker 1: for your read coming up here, You're gonna have to
Speaker 1: find something other than the start to talk about. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I think those were forwarded to me, and I forgot
Speaker 1: all about him. Oh that's why you didn't have it, okay, right,
Speaker 1: And so I looked at Dog, I'll look at Monday
Speaker 1: last week. Oh, we got single game tickets for Washington.
Speaker 1: You know, it brings us to the San Francisco forty
Speaker 1: nine Ers, who the Cowboys will play on December twentieth.
Speaker 1: They got a little issue there in Santa Clara, California,
Speaker 1: where they cannot play any football games there, and they
Speaker 1: got two home games the next couple of weeks. And
Speaker 1: apparently San Francis forty nine Ers have reached an agreement
Speaker 1: with the Arizona Cardinals to host their next two games
Speaker 1: against Buffalo and Washington at State Farms Stadium there in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: which is now what they call the Dome Stadium there
Speaker 1: in Phoenix that the Cardinals play in. So I guess
Speaker 1: the Cardinals must be on the road the next two weeks.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking, Mickey that it would be and
Speaker 1: I looked up. Arizona is not allowing fans in the
Speaker 1: stands now. There for a little while they were, but
Speaker 1: the COVID outbreak has hit Arizona to the point where
Speaker 1: they did not allow fans in the stands for the
Speaker 1: latest Cardinals game, nor would they for San Francisco. But
Speaker 1: I was thinking what the Niners ought to do is
Speaker 1: come here to Arlington and seeing as how they play
Speaker 1: the Cowboys the third game down the road, they could
Speaker 1: host their two home games this Monday night. It's scheduling
Speaker 1: from Monday against Buffalo and then the following Sunday against Washington,
Speaker 1: and then they would play the Cowboys the following Sunday,
Speaker 1: and they could just set up shop here for a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks and work out at Globe Life Park,
Speaker 1: the Rangers old baseball park which has now been converted
Speaker 1: to football. They'd have their own locker room they stay at.
Speaker 1: The Omney. Would have been the great little bubble for them,
Speaker 1: but they've decided to go to Arizona instead, and and
Speaker 1: and the key on it would be they would be
Speaker 1: able to play in front of as many fans as
Speaker 1: they bought tickets up to what Cowboys have had thirty
Speaker 1: thousand in there, but they decided to go to Arizona
Speaker 1: route instead. Wow we've had thirty thousands. Yeah, yeah, Wow,
Speaker 1: that's tough. It's a big stadium. You can better be
Speaker 1: that only feel not only filled a lot of real
Speaker 1: estate in there that only fills a third of it.
Speaker 1: So it was thirty eight I think on third on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: So yeah, have they opened the suites back up yet? Uh?
Speaker 1: Some of the suites. I think people had the right
Speaker 1: to use their suites, A lot of them remained empty.
Speaker 1: And remember the way they sold tickets. It was like,
Speaker 1: I think season ticket holders had the right to purchase
Speaker 1: tickets to two games and then after that it was
Speaker 1: general general public. But there was rules that you know,
Speaker 1: if you bought four tickets then it had to be
Speaker 1: four people sitting together. You can't you know, sell them
Speaker 1: to some stranger. It had to be the people in
Speaker 1: your group. So I don't know how well they can
Speaker 1: enforce that, but yeah, yeah, man, it was weird last night,
Speaker 1: you know, or yesterday watching the game the Packers and
Speaker 1: the Bears with nobody or there was a smattering of
Speaker 1: a few people at lambeau Field to watch that game.
Speaker 1: That was strange, you know, I would think from the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers perspective on that. Yeah, and if you
Speaker 1: could pre sale tickets and you knew in advance it
Speaker 1: was gonna happen, I mean, how many fans people are
Speaker 1: hungry for football. But could you get twenty five or
Speaker 1: thirty thousand for a Niners Bills game here, a Niners
Speaker 1: Washington game here. It's pretty tough to sell that many
Speaker 1: tickets in that amount of time. Yeah, I can't. I
Speaker 1: can't see that. Yeah, and you just wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1: And the other part of that is who is going
Speaker 1: to handle the cost of staffing it and everything. So
Speaker 1: from the Niners perspective, they probably would just say, hey,
Speaker 1: it's as you know, it's a loss. We're not getting
Speaker 1: fans in the stands. We might lose money if we
Speaker 1: took on that assignment. You got to have more staff
Speaker 1: that comes here to handle it, or you hire people
Speaker 1: here to handle it. They may have just to say
Speaker 1: that said, you know what, it's easier to just do
Speaker 1: this Arizona thing. From a travel standpoint, it probably was easier.
Speaker 1: You know, they could have played the game at at
Speaker 1: Global Life Park if they needed to. They could that
Speaker 1: option too. They could go outdoors there, that's right, because
Speaker 1: there's boxing there. There's boxing at AT and T Stadium Saturday.
Speaker 1: So I don't think they want to stay in Dallas
Speaker 1: for three weeks. Bill, that be you'll just being a
Speaker 1: forty nine er. You know, yeah, I don't think they
Speaker 1: feel very comfortable no matter where they were going to
Speaker 1: have to go because they can't practice that their their
Speaker 1: place in Santa Clara. They can't practice either, no no
Speaker 1: contact anything. I don't think even high school sports are
Speaker 1: being played, canceled everything. Yeah, I knew that, and in fact,
Speaker 1: in California high school sports who was put on the
Speaker 1: back burner till the spring. Yeah, Shanahan wasn't the most
Speaker 1: happy with the NFL or with the CAB and they
Speaker 1: didn't communicate with them at a time. They found out
Speaker 1: when they were on the on the flight to the
Speaker 1: to the Rams game, that that's what was going to
Speaker 1: take place. Do you think that was a distraction? But
Speaker 1: they ended up winning the game? Yeah? Okay, let's say
Speaker 1: let's move on to uh, speaking of the game, where
Speaker 1: do you want to go to Thursday's game, Thursday's game
Speaker 1: or yesterday? In the NFL, I would go to Thursday's game.
Speaker 1: Let's go Thursday's game. This is our first chance to
Speaker 1: talk about it. How about we start with ever since
Speaker 1: I saw you, hold on, let me get ready, hold on,
Speaker 1: let me get ready, hold on? All right, here we
Speaker 1: go he's going, Okay, now three days later, what are we?
Speaker 1: Three days later later, there's still stuck in your crawl
Speaker 1: on happened on Thursday? Four days later. You know, I
Speaker 1: have to admit as a guy that you know was
Speaker 1: a former player. Uh, there's a certain commentary that you
Speaker 1: know comes from there, you know, But watching that game,
Speaker 1: you know, when I watched the games, I my emotion
Speaker 1: comes as a fan. I've been a fan since I
Speaker 1: was I guess born, you know, been through the whole
Speaker 1: hell Mary's all of that, all of that, played with him,
Speaker 1: hated them when I had to leave, and then my
Speaker 1: family brought me back. So I'm watching the game as
Speaker 1: a fan, and I'm pretty suious, uncomfortable around me when
Speaker 1: when it's a game like this one, because you know,
Speaker 1: I just turned into my dad. I just started coaching
Speaker 1: almost every play, you know, it just becomes kind of
Speaker 1: ridiculous to watch. And so I saw how as Spags said,
Speaker 1: they came out so strong, they came out very determined,
Speaker 1: and I and inspired. Actually it's what I saw. And
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, the coaches got involved, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell is going on? I couldn't
Speaker 1: help between a couple of things, the fake punt, those
Speaker 1: things that it almost showed me. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it showed me, but it hinted to me that McCarthy
Speaker 1: is in panic mode right now. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: think it was panic time yet. I know he was
Speaker 1: trying to be aggressive. I get all of that, But
Speaker 1: when you look the way this ball game was being
Speaker 1: played up until the point to where we start shooting
Speaker 1: ourselves in the foot, I thought that we had a
Speaker 1: great chance to win this ball game. I thought the
Speaker 1: guys had played well and they deserved to win this
Speaker 1: ball game up until the whole the disappointments started. And yes, fags,
Speaker 1: I know what coaches always say, and I'm part of that.
Speaker 1: That's eternity as well. Any play can work as long
Speaker 1: as you run it right, okay, But you know, then
Speaker 1: there's the whole analytics side of it, such as you
Speaker 1: still don't you don't run, or you don't go for
Speaker 1: a fourth and one on your own nine yard lines,
Speaker 1: so to speak. And I'm just speaking in general, general
Speaker 1: generalities at this point. So I just don't think you
Speaker 1: gamble so much when you have a game that is
Speaker 1: still fully intact and that you have a chance to win,
Speaker 1: I think, and I was torn on Thursday when I
Speaker 1: was writing my column between being too cute and being
Speaker 1: too desperate, and I think desperation had set in if
Speaker 1: you look at how the game was going. You know,
Speaker 1: I know they stopped Washington the previous possession and they
Speaker 1: got the interception, but think about this, the interception gave
Speaker 1: you first and goal at the four, and your offensive
Speaker 1: line was such a mess you ended up having to
Speaker 1: kick a field goal from the six because you couldn't
Speaker 1: gain a yard. And I think this was starting to
Speaker 1: weigh on him, like, I don't know if we're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to score and we're gonna run out of possessions.
Speaker 1: And while they said, yeah, they stopped him, but if
Speaker 1: you look at what happened from the second quarter on,
Speaker 1: it was field goal for Washington touchdown, end of half,
Speaker 1: field goal, interception, and then they finally forced them to
Speaker 1: punt for the first time since the first possession, and
Speaker 1: the Cowboys were sitting there field goal at the end
Speaker 1: of the half when they got to the twenty yard
Speaker 1: line and couldn't get closer. Then they come out they
Speaker 1: fumbled the first possession of the second half, and then
Speaker 1: it was downs, and then it was field goal right
Speaker 1: from the four yard line, or I'm sorry, it was
Speaker 1: fumble punt field goal from the four. And I think
Speaker 1: he was just starting to say, we're not getting anywhere,
Speaker 1: and we're not doing a real good job stopping their
Speaker 1: running game. That's the only way. And he finally kind
Speaker 1: of set it on Friday in his conference call that
Speaker 1: you have to as a head coach kind of judge
Speaker 1: the flow of the game. And even Jerry Jones said
Speaker 1: it on Friday morning. He said, we were teetering and
Speaker 1: they kind of were. Now I understand where they we're at,
Speaker 1: and even if they picked it up, it certainly didn't
Speaker 1: guarantee that you were going to go down and score,
Speaker 1: right And you know, and he said, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't call a game from the negative, which means, oh,
Speaker 1: if we don't get this, here's what we're gonna give up, right, um.
Speaker 1: And the unfortunate thing is that you were relying on
Speaker 1: a wide receiver who had been a quarterback in high school,
Speaker 1: uh to make two reads, and when he made the
Speaker 1: first read, he didn't ever got to the second. Because
Speaker 1: if you go back and look at that play boy
Speaker 1: C J. Goodwin down the field is wide open, but
Speaker 1: he never is. I don't even think he looked, because
Speaker 1: he tucked the ball like this was a running play
Speaker 1: the whole time. And I don't even know if he's
Speaker 1: throwing it. As soon as he got it right, said
Speaker 1: first he was going to throw it to nice Wander
Speaker 1: and the guy out there didn't go. He stood and
Speaker 1: hung in there instead of following CJ. Goodwin, who was
Speaker 1: the gunner. And but CJ. Goodwin I wrote it down.
Speaker 1: Uh when when? When when Wilson, When Cedric Wilson he
Speaker 1: was he was at his thirteen. Goodwin was wide open
Speaker 1: at the forty two. I mean why they just forgot
Speaker 1: about him? And so yeah, it was a gamble, but
Speaker 1: they would have had the ball at midfield if it
Speaker 1: had worked. Unfortunately it didn't have. Then one play later
Speaker 1: and I keep hearing this, but if you go back
Speaker 1: and look at the play, when Gibson ran the next
Speaker 1: one in for a touchdown, the Cowboys didn't give up.
Speaker 1: I just thought they were in another bad alignment with
Speaker 1: how they play on that offensive line or defensive line,
Speaker 1: with only one linebacker in a linebacker position, one linebacker
Speaker 1: in a linebacker position on the field. Yeah, and one
Speaker 1: safety deep. That was it. So all they had to
Speaker 1: do was blocked that side of the line, and there's
Speaker 1: no way that vander rash could get there because they
Speaker 1: had Jalen Smith. I believe it was on the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage or it was just Smith as the linebacker.
Speaker 1: So you're talking on the thirty seven yard run. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: You're talking about the thirty seven yard run, not the
Speaker 1: twenty three yard or right after the fake punt, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and in that situation, there's three minutes or
Speaker 1: so left in the game. It's third and six at
Speaker 1: the thirty seven yard line. It's it's a twenty seven
Speaker 1: to sixteen lead for Washington. They are not throwing the
Speaker 1: football there. Okay, they may give it a look that
Speaker 1: they but they are running the football. They never really
Speaker 1: like the football. Well, the entire game bill and why
Speaker 1: you would be in in a dime defense and you
Speaker 1: have your you're one linebacker that's on the field is
Speaker 1: up on the line of scrimmage. It was just there's
Speaker 1: no little wonder that the red sea opened for the
Speaker 1: running back right there on that play. And Emerson's right,
Speaker 1: because I went back and countered it up if you
Speaker 1: if you count Terry McLaurin. And this was funny. Somebody
Speaker 1: this morning said, can you name can you name a
Speaker 1: wide receiver on Washington other than Terry McLaurin, And I
Speaker 1: couldn't do it. It was Edmond and sums. Right. But
Speaker 1: if you take mclauren's receiving yards along with Gibson's, the
Speaker 1: tight end, Thomas the running back McKissick, those guys totaled
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty four of the one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy seven yards passing. So everything Alex Smith was doing
Speaker 1: was little dump offs, little hooks, except for the past
Speaker 1: that mclauren kind of got him on on the twenty
Speaker 1: eight It was a was a twenty eight yard that
Speaker 1: the touchdown pass, but that was it. They were nibbling.
Speaker 1: So why are you playing the way you were when
Speaker 1: they were just going to run the ball? And we
Speaker 1: this is nothing new, right, We've said this before, playing
Speaker 1: that nickel and playing that dime when teams are kind
Speaker 1: of in running situations, And that part is the part
Speaker 1: I still don't understand. Yeah, well, you know, here's my thing, Bill,
Speaker 1: I have to say this last what was that last
Speaker 1: Sunday we were just all over the coaching staff or
Speaker 1: the great adjustments that they made. I don't know if
Speaker 1: them staying in our nickel package and being able to
Speaker 1: control Cook the way they were that Sunday, I think
Speaker 1: that gave him a little confidence that they still could
Speaker 1: stop the red Skins with the dying package. I don't
Speaker 1: know why they continue to do that. But even when
Speaker 1: you look at the lack of defensive adjustment, because they
Speaker 1: came out running the ball from the get and they
Speaker 1: never disguised anything about what they were trying to do.
Speaker 1: They all they ran it the entire time. And when
Speaker 1: you looked at the passing yards, I think at one
Speaker 1: time in the first half, Alex Smith may have had
Speaker 1: fifty eight yards passing, maybe seventy five yards passing, something
Speaker 1: very minimal to where I'm not even going to put
Speaker 1: an extra defensive back in the ball game if that's
Speaker 1: all they're gonna try and do to throw the ball.
Speaker 1: The second thing is we've got our defensive corder, got
Speaker 1: offensive corder killer Moore, I get it. Spacts, you've got
Speaker 1: two offensive lineman hurt. I can't even recall if they
Speaker 1: were hurt yet before we got into that scoring position,
Speaker 1: they were still I'm sorry they were. Well, here's my thing.
Speaker 1: You still have to attempt to run it in spacts.
Speaker 1: You can't just say, oh, well, here we go. They've
Speaker 1: got five first rounders on the front, so it's not
Speaker 1: even try to run it. We got too cute too soon.
Speaker 1: To me, you got to be solid, okay, Or you're
Speaker 1: talking about the first series of the game. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the first series of the game. You do now,
Speaker 1: you got on the running player. I don't care if
Speaker 1: you're in the team. If you're inside the ten yard line,
Speaker 1: then to me, this Dallas Cowboy team they need to
Speaker 1: try to establish a running presence at that time. You
Speaker 1: can get cute sometimes and it works. That depends on
Speaker 1: what the defenship. Playing against the Washington football team. I
Speaker 1: almost said it, the Washington football team. Yes, they have
Speaker 1: the best front line you've seen. So you're not gonna
Speaker 1: have time for a bunch of junk and cute stuff.
Speaker 1: You have to come with the bread and butther you
Speaker 1: have to run the ball as best you can. Yah
Speaker 1: Zeke fumbled the ball again, but that had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with blocking. I'm talking about a guy to need
Speaker 1: to that was hungry enough to where I think we
Speaker 1: could have gotten him mban zone if we would have
Speaker 1: stopped with that game plan instead of relenting and trying
Speaker 1: to be more fin this. Well, all right, we gotta
Speaker 1: take a break. Yeah, go ahead, Wait about all right?
Speaker 1: Breaking when we hold that thought? I got all right
Speaker 1: and I won't just a moment here on mix shots,
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Speaker 1: don't forget what you were gonna say. Yeah, forget what
Speaker 1: you were gonna say. So that the first possession when
Speaker 1: the Cowboys had to kick a field goal their first
Speaker 1: and ten at the twenty, they ran Pollard got all
Speaker 1: of two yards second and eight. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a neat call. It was a tight end screen the Schultz.
Speaker 1: They only got three yards. And then on third and
Speaker 1: five at the fifteen, obviously you're you're throwing the ball right,
Speaker 1: but he tried to throw that slant down the slot
Speaker 1: to to Coop and I'm not sure what happened there,
Speaker 1: if he just missed him or Coop didn't see the ball.
Speaker 1: And then when they got down to the goal line
Speaker 1: after the interception return, it's first in goal at the four,
Speaker 1: they tried to run Zeke. He barely got the handoff
Speaker 1: because the offensive line broke down and he ended up losing.
Speaker 1: He ended up losing two yards. And then he basically
Speaker 1: threw the touch down past the CD in the in
Speaker 1: the end zone and he drops it. It was a
Speaker 1: little high, but I think he catches that right. And
Speaker 1: then the third the CD won't even accept that excuse
Speaker 1: for him, right, and he didn't either, by the way.
Speaker 1: And then third and goal at the six, they tried
Speaker 1: that smoke screen because he didn't think his offensive line
Speaker 1: could hold up. And I think a lot of what
Speaker 1: happened in that game and decisions were made was because
Speaker 1: they lost their starting two offensive tackles, especially Zach Martin
Speaker 1: on that first possession, and they just couldn't hold up.
Speaker 1: I just think trying to run the ball too much
Speaker 1: in the in those situations, they couldn't run it and
Speaker 1: they couldn't protect. So I don't know what you do,
Speaker 1: and that's why I think he gambled, you know. And
Speaker 1: the first gamble, by the way, on the fourth down
Speaker 1: past the CD, how does that guy miss the interference?
Speaker 1: It was so blatant. Man, Oh my god, I mean
Speaker 1: he bout strangled him. Right, and he hit him away
Speaker 1: before the ball got there. How do you miss that?
Speaker 1: I told you we have the We always get the
Speaker 1: COVID teams. They're the one there there there referees in training.
Speaker 1: We get the worst teams every week. I'm sorry, just
Speaker 1: the way it is. And I and I and I
Speaker 1: wrote down the guy's number. It was one sixteen, I
Speaker 1: told Bill, and I looked at finally looked at my
Speaker 1: flip card. Mike Weatherford was the guy on that side
Speaker 1: of the field. How do you miss that ball? I
Speaker 1: don't understand it. That's why you need I will say this,
Speaker 1: you get at least thrown a flag. All right? Do
Speaker 1: you know why the fake punt didn't work? In my opinion?
Speaker 1: I can't wait. I got him an opinion. I got
Speaker 1: two opinions. Why, but go ahead? Well they had it,
Speaker 1: they had it pretty figured out from the from the
Speaker 1: get go right, Yes, all right. I think the Cowboys
Speaker 1: have run so many fake punts that in special teams
Speaker 1: meetings each week, the one theme of special teams meetings
Speaker 1: each week is watch out for the fake punt. This
Speaker 1: team might run a fake punt from its own ten
Speaker 1: yard line, and so the element of surprise is totally gone.
Speaker 1: You are not going to surprise any team with a
Speaker 1: fake punt. And that's okay, Bill, that's okay. It's good
Speaker 1: to be known as a team that's not just gonna
Speaker 1: line up with the same old status quo. You love
Speaker 1: that because now you've got them does not necessarily alert.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have the lake the heels and now they
Speaker 1: don't have the punt return on and so they're going
Speaker 1: to fair catch it, okay, because they're watching for the
Speaker 1: exactly we're gonna get the you're gonna get the total
Speaker 1: distance out of your spunt. Now, okay, we dictate this
Speaker 1: situation is gonna go so to me. I get it.
Speaker 1: People are hurt. Yeah, we're flailing at this point. But
Speaker 1: you don't just throw what they say throughout the baby
Speaker 1: with the bathwater. You can't do that. You still have
Speaker 1: to pump that ball. That does mean we just said,
Speaker 1: oh well, let's just forget conventional football here. Now let's
Speaker 1: just start doing anything. Who was at it says, oh,
Speaker 1: Willie Nilly. Now, let's not go Willie dilly yet, and
Speaker 1: and let's still be a professional football team that has
Speaker 1: still a chance defensively to make some plays. And so
Speaker 1: just gonna go out and give it up. That means
Speaker 1: the defense might go out there and make a play
Speaker 1: for you and put you in physicians exactly and make
Speaker 1: Alex Smith beat you. Okay, load up and stop that
Speaker 1: run and see if Alex Smith can be Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1: I don't think he can be, because what you saw,
Speaker 1: what I say, what you saw defensively from them, they
Speaker 1: knew as facts said, you can't protect, you can't run.
Speaker 1: We're still tru I ain't to run our conventional pass
Speaker 1: routes on a secondary that is squatting down on every
Speaker 1: route that was run. So to me, that's where you
Speaker 1: get the willy nilly going. If you want to be
Speaker 1: if you want to gamble, then that's where you have
Speaker 1: some deep passes that are disguised from what you normally run. It.
Speaker 1: Trust me, it works. I've gotten toasted several times while
Speaker 1: jumping short routes. I know it can happen. It happens
Speaker 1: to the best of us. To me, that's where you
Speaker 1: start to gamble. You can't go into a shell offensively,
Speaker 1: but yet when it comes to special teams, you want
Speaker 1: to gamble away any opportunity you might have instead of
Speaker 1: the ball game I think they got a little twisting
Speaker 1: in that regard. All right, Niky, you got the final
Speaker 1: word here. Oh damn. I tried to talk it out.
Speaker 1: My bad. I didn't talk about well, since it's called
Speaker 1: mix shots, I thought i'd give him. They I just
Speaker 1: I just think that, as I said, they got desperate,
Speaker 1: and I understand, I understand that you probably don't want
Speaker 1: to take that chance at your own Where were they
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three yard line or so? Man, I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever seen that the four yard line.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's why the surprise was supposed to give him.
Speaker 1: Who the world wouldn't do that? Oh wow, you know what.
Speaker 1: I at a time, it's like, whatever can go wrong
Speaker 1: go wrong with this team, from injuries to play calls. Uh.
Speaker 1: When I saw the two guys go down, I thought
Speaker 1: it used bags. When I saw Irvan and and I'm there,
Speaker 1: go down, Martin, go down. By the way, they are
Speaker 1: out multiple yeah, And I kept qualifying because it was like,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be the first consecutive week with the
Speaker 1: same five in the same game in the same spot, right,
Speaker 1: And I kept saying, it didn't even take one quarter.
Speaker 1: I didn't take one quarter. One serious, Maybe we can
Speaker 1: get through the national anthem this time. And they oh
Speaker 1: my god, they had him for six plays. Yes, they
Speaker 1: had him for six plays. Unbelievable. All right, it doesn't
Speaker 1: for mix Shots. We'll talk at you again tomorrow live
Speaker 1: at one thirty on mix Shots. It's been a production
Speaker 1: of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.