Speaker 1: The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com
Speaker 1: and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Speaker 2: Cowboys.
Speaker 3: This He's Talking Cowboys, springing live.
Speaker 2: From the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters at the Star in Frisco.
Speaker 4: Six past second, Pascot tizonasdown and now.
Speaker 1: Your hosts Isaiah Standback, Patrick Walker, Josh Rodriguez and Kyle Yeomans.
Speaker 5: Welcome into Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company,
Speaker 5: live from the Star in Frisco, Texas, in the SWBC studios.
Speaker 3: It is the bye week, everybody, and we've got Brian
Speaker 3: brought us, Barry Church and Chris Beam in the back,
Speaker 3: back in the fold and game. You're on this Talking
Speaker 3: Cowboys a wonderful Wednesday edition.
Speaker 2: I'm Kyle Yeoman.
Speaker 6: A little bit of chilly outside.
Speaker 3: Right baby, everybody's got a little fleece action.
Speaker 7: Going on, and Barry's looked like he's ready for eighteen today.
Speaker 7: You see, that's gotta be able to swing. That's a movement,
Speaker 7: that's gotta be able to turn on that ball.
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, if I started a timer from when I
Speaker 3: sign off and I say we'll see you next week
Speaker 3: on Talking Cowboys, Yes, sir to the point where you
Speaker 3: t off on whole one. How what would the time
Speaker 3: be today?
Speaker 8: That's gonna take me probably about forty get under an hour.
Speaker 2: I'm on.
Speaker 6: I'm not going to tell the.
Speaker 3: Fans where you're playing, because then there will be a
Speaker 3: line out the door to see Barry Church to me.
Speaker 7: Off, He'll take your money, he'll take your movie playing
Speaker 7: with today?
Speaker 2: Who am I playing with?
Speaker 8: A guy by the name of Ali and Broderick. Ali
Speaker 8: played for the for the cardon Us for a while.
Speaker 8: Projects just stick out there, mad dude's unreal on the
Speaker 8: golf course.
Speaker 6: So you got to play with What is your handicap
Speaker 6: right now?
Speaker 2: What are you shooting at fifteen? I'm a fifteen okay,
Speaker 2: So I'm just trying.
Speaker 6: To get better than when we were just talking about
Speaker 6: around that year.
Speaker 3: We were like mid forties along the way brought us
Speaker 3: when you when you pulled out.
Speaker 6: That jacket today, this fleece today.
Speaker 3: How how many times have you pulled that out of
Speaker 3: your closet period?
Speaker 7: But the l issues, Yeah, I got more LSU gear.
Speaker 7: That's my love right there. I mean that that I
Speaker 7: live and die with my school there and yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 7: it's it's a but yeah, I enjoy I got a
Speaker 7: lot of a lot of my head. I was telling
Speaker 7: you about my We were talking about Starter jackets. Yeah,
Speaker 7: I was telling me about stuff we used to wear
Speaker 7: in Green Bay and it was like a sleeping bag.
Speaker 7: I had to still have this long like jacket that
Speaker 7: went past my knees that you wore in those games
Speaker 7: when it was like, you know, ten degrees. Starter used
Speaker 7: to make some badass jackets. They still do. We were
Speaker 7: talking about today. You break them out, they're like and
Speaker 7: I have a bunch of packer ones that I kept.
Speaker 7: Always kept my rain suits because of the playing golf,
Speaker 7: for going fishing in them. So like there were a
Speaker 7: lot of times like I would take all my gear
Speaker 7: when I was leaving a job and I would just
Speaker 7: leave it in my locker, just bag it all up
Speaker 7: and okay, it's yours, but I take the rain suit.
Speaker 7: So you might be burying on me, be playing golf,
Speaker 7: and I'll have on a Jacksonville Jaguar, Jacksonville Jaguar rain
Speaker 7: suit all black with the little logo on it, you know,
Speaker 7: and you guys could mention that Jackson Well, I used
Speaker 7: to when I was in Jacksonville Bury. I understand this
Speaker 7: I used to live in Panda Vidra. I lived at
Speaker 7: TPC and matter of fact, I lived on the at
Speaker 7: the eighteenth Green. There was the team doctor of the Jaguars.
Speaker 7: He let me rent his house. Oh wow, yeah, and
Speaker 7: so it was like it's kind of a little bit
Speaker 7: of a funny story. He goes. He goes, hey, you
Speaker 7: have a place to live, Brian, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 7: I don't. He is, I got this place at Sawgrass, Doc,
Speaker 7: I'm just a scout. It's a scout. He goes, two
Speaker 7: thousand bucks this nineteen ninety eight, and I said, two
Speaker 7: thousand bucks. Wig, what's the hook? He goes, I don't
Speaker 7: want the wife to have the house and the divorce
Speaker 7: in this house, I mean this house. So like I
Speaker 7: had pro golfers living around me, and doctor said, I
Speaker 7: don't want the wife to have the house. So yeah,
Speaker 7: he rented it to me.
Speaker 6: While I was that's awesome.
Speaker 2: That course is unreal.
Speaker 7: It is. I used to walk out the back door
Speaker 7: and literally had like my little carry bag and I
Speaker 7: played nine holes of golf every day after work. I drive.
Speaker 7: But you talk about yes, Barry was time from the
Speaker 7: time from the old Alltel Stadium, the Gator bowl to
Speaker 7: where I was living in Ponavidra there. I mean I
Speaker 7: could time it. I mean I was just twenty minutes
Speaker 7: cammera down and I got as soon as I walked
Speaker 7: in the house, I threw my keys, walked out the
Speaker 7: back door, had my club's waiting at the door, and
Speaker 7: went onto the course. That's what we were playing.
Speaker 6: So when you were playing every day, what was your handicap?
Speaker 7: What were you Yes, I got the would I would
Speaker 7: shoot in high seventies. Wow, I got to the point
Speaker 7: where I was playing and then and then it's so
Speaker 7: funny when I left. Matter of fact, when I got
Speaker 7: the Cowboys job. You know, when Larry Lacewell called me
Speaker 7: in nineteen ninety nine, it was the summer of I
Speaker 7: was working in Jacksonville, but I was angling for this job,
Speaker 7: is what I was doing. I was standing in the
Speaker 7: eighteenth fairway at TPC when Larry Lacewell called and said, hey,
Speaker 7: we want to bring you in and all that. I said, great, Yeah,
Speaker 7: I really do appreciate look forward to seeing it. And
Speaker 7: then it hit my shot to the green and made
Speaker 7: the butt and that was really but.
Speaker 6: Like everything's finally coming again.
Speaker 7: But when I came to Dallas. When I came to Dallas,
Speaker 7: I was like, you know, it was like I stopped playing,
Speaker 7: which was weird being from here, but having the ability
Speaker 7: to walk outside and play every single day, you know,
Speaker 7: at least to get exercise. I walked nine holes and
Speaker 7: carried ten clubs and played those ten clubs the whole day,
Speaker 7: you know. And so but yeah, when I came to Dallas,
Speaker 7: and then I was we were laughing about Terrence Newman
Speaker 7: and golf and stuff like that, and playing out a TPC.
Speaker 7: So it's a great, great game.
Speaker 3: It is the second day in a row we've had
Speaker 3: a golf reference. In the opening segment yesterday we were
Speaker 3: talking about we were talking about the Cowboys want a mulligan,
Speaker 3: and today we're talking about the strokes and the handicaps
Speaker 3: and all sorts of stuff. It definitely is fun, but
Speaker 3: no such golf this weekend for the Cowboys. Maybe somebody
Speaker 3: will play some golf, who knows. But right now it's
Speaker 3: really kind of a time to focus in and try
Speaker 3: and fix some things. We talked in depth yesterday about
Speaker 3: what a realistic expectation for a bye week should be.
Speaker 6: Sure, it should be.
Speaker 3: The coaching staff in the front office, doing some self scouting,
Speaker 3: doing some self reflection, and trying to turn some things around.
Speaker 3: But from a player standpoint, you're off and there's not
Speaker 3: a whole lot you can do other than your own
Speaker 3: personal training and your own specific routines that these guys
Speaker 3: go through. But it gives us an opportunity to kind
Speaker 3: of reflect on the first third of the season as well.
Speaker 3: And you guys remember getting a report card every six
Speaker 3: weeks back in the day for a little this six
Speaker 3: week report guards. He either got a good grade or
Speaker 3: a bad grade, and you didn't want to show your
Speaker 3: parents either.
Speaker 7: Way, learn how to sign their name exactly.
Speaker 6: I love how Chris is chiming in on that one.
Speaker 6: He's like, yes, sir, got it. I want to give
Speaker 6: some six week grades the.
Speaker 3: Report cards for the first start of the season, and
Speaker 3: I'm going to split it up defense, then offense, and
Speaker 3: then I'm going to categorize the last one as quote
Speaker 3: unquote leadership. Sure in the final segment, but we'll start
Speaker 3: with and these are individuals. I don't want to do units.
Speaker 3: I want to do individuals based on what you've seen
Speaker 3: so far this year.
Speaker 6: I'll start with Trayvon diggs.
Speaker 2: Berry Church I'll let you start here.
Speaker 6: That's grading.
Speaker 3: What would you give Trayvon Diggs in his first year
Speaker 3: or first couple games back from a huge injury last year.
Speaker 8: I was thinking about this a lot, you know, coming
Speaker 8: in on the draft, I saw the rundown. I'm looking
Speaker 8: at the dig situation there, and to me, it's tough.
Speaker 2: It's tough because.
Speaker 8: I played with a lot of good corners who gave
Speaker 8: you both physicality and was able to cover as well.
Speaker 8: And Diggs has made, you know, plays on the ball.
Speaker 8: So far this season, he has done that. He's gotten
Speaker 8: beat as well and get up some passes as well.
Speaker 8: But he's made some plays on the football. But the
Speaker 8: reason I'm going to give him got to give him
Speaker 8: a C plus on this one. And the reason I
Speaker 8: do that is because I've seen too much consistency as
Speaker 8: far as not being able to come down and make
Speaker 8: a play on the run game. And now I know
Speaker 8: that's not you know, the cornerback's primary role, primary roles
Speaker 8: to be able to go out there shut down receivers
Speaker 8: and take the football away. I understand that. But with
Speaker 8: the corners I played with, the great ones, at least
Speaker 8: they were able to give you both you know, the
Speaker 8: Jalen Ramseys of the world, the AJ Boyers. When he
Speaker 8: was at the top of his game, they were able
Speaker 8: to lock down wide receivers, make plays on the football,
Speaker 8: and if the ball ended up coming their way running wise,
Speaker 8: they weren't afraid to stick their head in there. And
Speaker 8: you know, so far this season, I've seen too many,
Speaker 8: you know, inconsistencies. I don't want to say turning it
Speaker 8: down or making business decisions. I don't want to say that,
Speaker 8: but there's been times where hey man, you got to
Speaker 8: stick your nose in there.
Speaker 2: You got to make the play.
Speaker 8: And if you do that, it turns a ten to
Speaker 8: fifteen yard game to maybe a five yard game, maybe
Speaker 8: a six yard game, and you're able to rally as
Speaker 8: a defense. But to me, I've just seen too many
Speaker 8: instances Baltimore Detroit, whatever game you want to call it,
Speaker 8: where the guys were getting ran down, where teams were
Speaker 8: leaving him on an island saying we need you. We're
Speaker 8: going to see if you want to tackle. We want
Speaker 8: to see if you're want to stick your nose in
Speaker 8: there and do this. And there's just been too many
Speaker 8: times where I haven't seen him come to the calling
Speaker 8: and make the play out there. Now, if there's one thing,
Speaker 8: if you want to stick your nose in there and
Speaker 8: you missed the tackle. I mean everybody, there's nobody's perfect
Speaker 8: out there, but you know it's another thing to where
Speaker 8: you know, the effort just isn't there.
Speaker 2: So to me, I'm gonna give him a C plus
Speaker 2: on this one.
Speaker 8: You know, I still like his ability to make plays
Speaker 8: in the passing game, but to.
Speaker 2: Me, he just has to be a little bit more.
Speaker 8: I want to call it physical because that's not his
Speaker 8: you know, it's not his cup of tea. But just
Speaker 8: give me a little bit more effort in the run
Speaker 8: game because your defense needs.
Speaker 7: It's a C minus because his technique is not really
Speaker 7: good right now. And we mentioned yesterday about the routes
Speaker 7: that Williams got behind him on the midst of the jam.
Speaker 7: We talk about the third down play against Baltimore where
Speaker 7: they got the to kind of get the first down
Speaker 7: to to keep the to keep the drive going to Dallas,
Speaker 7: could have got the ball back, they maybe win that
Speaker 7: football game. You know, Uh, it's unfortunate his technique has
Speaker 7: not been nearly good enough. There's been too many times where, uh,
Speaker 7: where he's had, he's trailed, he's missed with his hands,
Speaker 7: things that he is generally pretty good at. Is the
Speaker 7: knee injury? Is it one of those comeback things where
Speaker 7: we've seen this before with guys like Pollard and Steel
Speaker 7: and guys like that, where all of a sudden they're
Speaker 7: trying to play their way through some things. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 7: you talk about the the stuff with the tackling and
Speaker 7: all that. I mean, I've seen this guy make tackles.
Speaker 7: I saw him in a game against Cincinnati, I believe
Speaker 7: a couple of years ago, maybe last year, where he
Speaker 7: where they ran a third down play on a crossing
Speaker 7: route tackle, the guy made it play on fourth down tackle,
Speaker 7: the guy got the defense off the field. He's capable
Speaker 7: of these things. When he plays good technique, he's one
Speaker 7: of the better cornerback in the league. When he doesn't
Speaker 7: play technique and he doesn't want to stick his nose
Speaker 7: in the action, right there, he's just a guy, and
Speaker 7: right now he's playing like at a C minus level.
Speaker 7: If he approves the things that we've talked about here,
Speaker 7: you're going to get a much better football player. But
Speaker 7: through the first six weeks of the season, I've seen
Speaker 7: a guy that looks pretty average right now, Yeah, or
Speaker 7: below average.
Speaker 6: I'll split the difference between the two.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, see right up.
Speaker 3: So I agree with you and everything that you said
Speaker 3: when it comes to Trayvon Diggs. It's been that way before,
Speaker 3: where there's been parts of his career where he doesn't
Speaker 3: want to come down and hit.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but like you said, the ability is there.
Speaker 3: I've seen him do it before going into the injury
Speaker 3: last year. That was a huge key for him, and
Speaker 3: how well he played through the first three weeks of
Speaker 3: the year was because he was showing physicality and he
Speaker 3: was going downhill.
Speaker 6: That didn't lead to the injury, no doubt about it.
Speaker 3: That was just a freak thing on the practice field
Speaker 3: and it just was unfortunate the way that it happened.
Speaker 3: But his physicality in the game was apparently better all
Speaker 3: the way across the board than it had been the
Speaker 3: year poor. We haven't seen that. I'm seeing twenty twenty
Speaker 3: two physicality, not twenty twenty three physicality from Trayvon Diggs.
Speaker 3: And I think there's there's ways that he's been good.
Speaker 3: He's had he's made some plays, he's been decent in coverage.
Speaker 3: He's only allowed eighteen receptions, which is top twenty five
Speaker 3: in the league right now. But the thing you got
Speaker 3: to remember, their teams aren't necessarily throwing that direction. They're
Speaker 3: throwing toward Kaylin Carson, They're throwing toward Amonioliwara.
Speaker 7: You also see those explosive plays of the eighteen go
Speaker 7: back and look at him. Those are you know, the
Speaker 7: big plays and stuff like that. So you got to
Speaker 7: be careful.
Speaker 3: With nearly two hundred yards receiving allowed, so that's yards
Speaker 3: per reception about eleven. And he gave up some big
Speaker 3: plays against New Orleans thirty nine yards per reception and
Speaker 3: then last week against Detroit twenty yards per reception.
Speaker 2: So that's not cut it.
Speaker 3: Not that he's not an all pro right now. He's
Speaker 3: not playing at an all pro level.
Speaker 7: He's he's certainly he's baited at all pro level before
Speaker 7: level before. He's just right now, he's not Chris Games.
Speaker 2: About what we see so far.
Speaker 3: Always in saw films, see across the board, all right,
Speaker 3: Eric Kendricks, Bryan, I'll let you see Eric Kendricks.
Speaker 7: You know, I felt like they really missed him in
Speaker 7: the game last week. I mean, he every week you
Speaker 7: look up with the tackles and where he's at that
Speaker 7: to me is a C plus level right there. Every
Speaker 7: week he leads the team in tackles, but you're kind
Speaker 7: of seeing some things that some a little bit you
Speaker 7: thought maybe there's gonna be a little bit better coverage stuff.
Speaker 7: You thought maybe there was gonna be a little bit
Speaker 7: of downhill play. There's been times where he's been fooled
Speaker 7: on plays. There's been times where he's missed. There's been
Speaker 7: times where he's been late to the ball. You know,
Speaker 7: he does, he does find his way to the ball.
Speaker 7: Some of the finish hasn't always been great for him,
Speaker 7: but he is, Like I said, it's nine ten tackles
Speaker 7: a game, but he's getting a lot of opportunities to
Speaker 7: do that. And so I kind of feel like that
Speaker 7: that level right now is right about a C plus.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I'm in that range as well.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna go see when you talk about Kendricks out there,
Speaker 8: and like me said, he's all over the field as
Speaker 8: far as making these tackles.
Speaker 2: But and I know he's you know, a year level.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 8: You know, you kind of lose a step as you
Speaker 8: get there, as you get older. I was a part
Speaker 8: of that as well. But there was just times in
Speaker 8: previous years where you would see this guy knife through
Speaker 8: the line, like he.
Speaker 2: Would just get through there, get low, get skinny through the.
Speaker 8: Blocks and make plays. We just haven't seen that. We
Speaker 8: haven't seen that so far this season. And I get it.
Speaker 8: It's tough when you got you know, offsive lineman on
Speaker 8: the second level like that and you got to shed
Speaker 8: them to get downhill to make a tackle.
Speaker 2: I understand that.
Speaker 8: But I've seen guys with worst defensive lines make those
Speaker 8: same plays.
Speaker 2: I played with the Orlando mcclaim.
Speaker 8: I've played with a Shawn Lee where our d line
Speaker 8: was nowhere near the level that this Disney line for
Speaker 8: the Dallas Cowboys had.
Speaker 2: They had guys in their lap.
Speaker 6: And you still believe that right now with Tyrus whet
Speaker 6: and and.
Speaker 8: Well, if we're talking about of the season, you know,
Speaker 8: I gotta go about what we've seen from the entirety
Speaker 8: of the season. Yeah, so to me, you know, he's
Speaker 8: not shedding, he's not shock loocking releasing as much, and
Speaker 8: he's and he's the finish like but Brian is talking
Speaker 8: about this guy I'm used to seeing, all Right, you're
Speaker 8: gonna hit a guy and you're driving him backwards. That's
Speaker 8: what I'm used to seeing from m Kendricks, not a
Speaker 8: guy falling forward and getting leaky yardage. Those two three
Speaker 8: yards falling forward, they add up over time. So to me,
Speaker 8: you know, I'd like to see a little bit more
Speaker 8: thumb from him, and hopefully when he comes back from
Speaker 8: this injury, you know, we'll see a little bit of
Speaker 8: that old Kendricks.
Speaker 6: I think I'm a little higher than you guys are.
Speaker 3: I'm going to say a bee just a straight B,
Speaker 3: not being minus just because one, I'm taking in account
Speaker 3: what you got.
Speaker 6: Him for in the offseason, which is what not much.
Speaker 3: And you went out and you got a guy that
Speaker 3: could be this centric part of your defense with the
Speaker 3: green dot, the leadership ability, and a lot of times
Speaker 3: he's trying to do those things where he's trying to
Speaker 3: get skinny, he's trying to shed blocks, and he's trying
Speaker 3: to do all these things, but the entire defensive line
Speaker 3: is getting washed out. He's not getting a ton of
Speaker 3: help from the interior defensive line. And when he did
Speaker 3: it was in one game, specifically against the New York Giants.
Speaker 6: For Mazzie Smith's in his.
Speaker 7: Best game of his career.
Speaker 3: Eric Kendricks is a very capable player, very capable and
Speaker 3: heady player. I think he's probably the best linebacker you
Speaker 3: have in terms of football IQ athleticism. It's just not
Speaker 3: there because he's in year eleven, and so I'm gonna
Speaker 3: give him a little bit of a break there. I'll
Speaker 3: give him a B. But I'll start this next one
Speaker 3: since I went last on the first two, and I'll
Speaker 3: start it.
Speaker 6: Off Mozzie Smith.
Speaker 3: So this kind of goes hand in hand to me
Speaker 3: D for Mozzie Smith, straight up D. And the only
Speaker 3: reason I don't give him an F is because I've
Speaker 3: seen improvement and I think from training camp on the
Speaker 3: expectation is you want to see more from Mozzie Smith.
Speaker 6: Check the box. He's done more. Has he done enough
Speaker 6: as a former first round pick? Absolutely not.
Speaker 3: Has he done enough to make me solidify or make
Speaker 3: me think they've solidified the interior of the defensive line,
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. So I'm going to give Mozzie Smith a D.
Speaker 3: I want to see more from the Giants game. What
Speaker 3: he did against the Giants. That's Mozzie Smith I need.
Speaker 3: And that's not even really the be all end all
Speaker 3: for Mazzie. I want it to be higher than that.
Speaker 3: I want that to be the floor, but instead that's
Speaker 3: been the ceiling so far.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a d and it's and you're absolutely right
Speaker 7: about the thing that always scared me as a scout
Speaker 7: was a flash player that every once in a while
Speaker 7: flashes that ability and then flashes and you talked about
Speaker 7: the Giants game, and you know, there's something there. There
Speaker 7: are there there are say there's twenty five plays. There
Speaker 7: are four to five plays where you go, he gets it,
Speaker 7: that's what you have to do. And then the other
Speaker 7: plays are kind of not negative plays, but they're not
Speaker 7: you know, it's not you can grade him on twenty
Speaker 7: five plays and maybe maybe sixteen of them are just
Speaker 7: neutral plays where you just he didn't really do anything.
Speaker 7: It wasn't you know, it wasn't. He wasn't a he
Speaker 7: wasn't a liability. Last year he was a liability. He's
Speaker 7: far less the liability, but there the expectations for him
Speaker 7: probably were really really low coming in. He had a
Speaker 7: great game against the Giants. You kind of saw that
Speaker 7: ability that he has that they saw at Michigan, but
Speaker 7: we haven't seen that nearly enough. And and and that,
Speaker 7: and that's a big, big problem for them right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, give me a give me a D minus.
Speaker 8: And the only reason I'm not, you know, going to
Speaker 8: that F is because, like you guys just said, we
Speaker 8: saw a little bit of it in the Giants game.
Speaker 8: But you never want to be a flash player. You
Speaker 8: never want to be that where you just show up
Speaker 8: every now and then. You always want to have that consistency.
Speaker 8: And that's what makes the great ones the great ones,
Speaker 8: you know, the consistency no matter what happens, no matter
Speaker 8: what's in front of them behind them, no matter what
Speaker 8: the team is looking like, they're going to play great.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: So when you talk about a Masi Smith, this is
Speaker 8: a first round pick. Now, this is not an undrafted
Speaker 8: guy that you know, came in he's a project, none
Speaker 8: of that. This is a first round pick. So I
Speaker 8: have to grade him on that, and from what I've
Speaker 8: seen so far, it's a D minus because you know,
Speaker 8: he just hasn't solidified that interior that you know, we
Speaker 8: thought he would be. And there's a lot of pressure
Speaker 8: because he was supposed to be the guy to come
Speaker 8: in and this guy right here is.
Speaker 2: Going to solidify this run defense and it just hasn't
Speaker 2: been there so far.
Speaker 8: So to me, can he improve? Of course he can,
Speaker 8: but right now, from what we've seen so far this season,
Speaker 8: I gotta give my guy D minus.
Speaker 7: See. The thing about what's happened with Mazi is the
Speaker 7: run defense overall. It's been so bad. Yeah, well for
Speaker 7: you know, for three games, especially all three games at home,
Speaker 7: but it's been so bad that it's overshadowed that his
Speaker 7: inability to really make plays. I mean it's like, well,
Speaker 7: take your pick. You want to blame it all on Masie,
Speaker 7: Well you can blame it on We talked about Kendricks,
Speaker 7: We've talked about Digs, We've talked I mean, everybody has
Speaker 7: kind of taken a turn at not doing a very
Speaker 7: good job playing this run defense. And Mike Zimmer included.
Speaker 7: You know, it's a defensive coordinator, I mean trying to
Speaker 7: figure out ways to to stop people, slow people down,
Speaker 7: but they have not had the consistency that they need
Speaker 7: to play really good run defense.
Speaker 3: Well, and I think the grades that we just gave
Speaker 3: for all three of those players, I mean that's a
Speaker 3: player at each level. Defensive line, linebacker, corner. I did
Speaker 3: that on purpose, but the the it was C, C
Speaker 3: and D. It is kind of the if. Then let
Speaker 3: me tell you of average yea, the only player that
Speaker 3: I would give an A two on defense is Jordan Lewis.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, that's what that's. I mean, you could you could say,
Speaker 7: you know, with Tank, you're probably a C plus B
Speaker 7: minus maybe there uh Micah Parsons, you know, you know
Speaker 7: me a B I yeah, I think so maybe yeah,
Speaker 7: C plus maybe there too. Uh. You know. It's but
Speaker 7: if you if you said, hey, give me who's your
Speaker 7: who's been your best, well, your most consistent defensive player
Speaker 7: throughout this whole thing, it's been Jordan Lewis. So if
Speaker 7: you said, hey, throwing a who's your best, give you
Speaker 7: an A, Jordan Lewis would be my guy.
Speaker 8: Interesting, I agree with him on that one. Jordan Lewis
Speaker 8: has been playing his butt off in the slot. What
Speaker 8: about the safeties real quick?
Speaker 2: Too many mistackles for me, too many mistaples.
Speaker 8: I mean, I know it's it's one of the toughest,
Speaker 8: you know, jobs in the National Football League when you
Speaker 8: got a guy running at you in the open field
Speaker 8: and you're coming down. But that's what you get paid
Speaker 8: to do. You got to make these plays. And it's
Speaker 8: just too many mistackles and I see too many shoulder dives,
Speaker 8: Like I don't know what happened to, you know, just
Speaker 8: hitting and wrapping up and coming up with a body part.
Speaker 2: But everybody's going in there trying to just blow up
Speaker 2: everybody and you can't.
Speaker 6: It's kind of been Donno's calling cards.
Speaker 2: He reminds me about Guy will Cox, who I played
Speaker 2: next to.
Speaker 8: I mean, when he connects, hit.
Speaker 7: But you gotta but man, just you know, have you
Speaker 7: ever seen Berry You remember that practice in Oxnard where
Speaker 7: JJ went after Dez.
Speaker 2: He knocked his block off.
Speaker 7: I have never seen. I have never seen a player
Speaker 7: throw hands as fast as he did. He hit Dez
Speaker 7: like three four times.
Speaker 2: Was this the fight.
Speaker 7: I think I got? I think I got the picture
Speaker 7: on my horn phone sweet like because I took it
Speaker 7: when I was watching tape. I'm like, god, dang, he
Speaker 7: hit him. He hit him four times before Dez even
Speaker 7: knew what happens. I've never seen. I was like thinking,
Speaker 7: pro boxer, pro boxer hands. It was like, you know,
Speaker 7: like ye, I mean, he was it was crazy, but
Speaker 7: will Cox was a nut. That game was crazy. But
Speaker 7: I've never seen I've never seen a guy fight that fast.
Speaker 2: It was quick.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, said he had the bow. Bullcock's got his
Speaker 7: helmet knocked off.
Speaker 3: See okay, I mean he's like you see these dreads
Speaker 3: just flying.
Speaker 2: It was crazy. I love it.
Speaker 6: I love it. So there's the defensive side.
Speaker 3: We'll give Zimmer a grade here in the final segment,
Speaker 3: but when we come back, we're gonna get to the
Speaker 3: offensive side.
Speaker 6: What's the great for CD Lamb right now, gentlemen?
Speaker 7: Is it?
Speaker 3: Is it higher than passing at the moment. We'll talk
Speaker 3: about it right after this with more talking cowboys. If
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Speaker 3: To the Talking Cowboys. Back here on Talking Cowboys. This
Speaker 3: portion of the show is brought to you by Quaker.
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Speaker 3: Sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys. Quaker Oats trusted since eighteen
Speaker 3: seventy seven.
Speaker 2: There you got the bowl?
Speaker 7: Got the bowl?
Speaker 6: Yeah, eighteen seventy seven. Yeah that crazy watch You get
Speaker 6: your oags this morning?
Speaker 7: Are they yes? Quaker Battle Got Battle Creek Michigan? Or
Speaker 7: is that kills good? Quick question? Battle Creek, Michigan. I
Speaker 7: just want I just always remember companies where they're is
Speaker 7: that like a headquarters. It's a Chicago in Chicago, Okay,
Speaker 7: but I think maybe it's kill Ogg's is Battle Creek, Michigan,
Speaker 7: So I'm sorry. My apologies to Quaker Oats. It is
Speaker 7: Battle Creek, all right, Well, my apology.
Speaker 6: Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 7: We got Chicago, good town.
Speaker 6: Don't blame him. He's not on our show every time.
Speaker 6: It's fine.
Speaker 3: He's got blockchain dot Com on the on there, there
Speaker 3: we go. Brian brought us my apology, Barry Church. Sure,
Speaker 3: I'm Kyle Yeomans. Barry was funny when when Brian in
Speaker 3: that last segment he called Manzi, he said, you fear.
Speaker 6: A flash player. You don't, He's not.
Speaker 3: He wasn't calling Mansei flash player, but you fear that
Speaker 3: as a stout. Were you ever called a flash player
Speaker 3: in your career? Or is there a worse in soult
Speaker 3: because you kind of reacted like you kind of like
Speaker 3: shuddered a little bit, like I mean, yeah, what was
Speaker 3: the worst thing anybody ever.
Speaker 7: Called you in your career?
Speaker 8: Like a legitimate you know, any disrespect to you know,
Speaker 8: my guy d Mac and anybody else who cut their
Speaker 8: teeth doing you know, the teams, the team stuff, because
Speaker 8: that's you gotta do it, you gotta do it. But yeah, man,
Speaker 8: I was you know, he's just he's just a special
Speaker 8: team team and.
Speaker 2: You know, no disrespect, no disrespect.
Speaker 8: But to me, that was extremely disrespectful because I felt
Speaker 8: like I was better than the guys that were in
Speaker 8: front of me at the time. This was year maybe two,
Speaker 8: so I was playing heavy on team your team, but
Speaker 8: I didn't want to get labeled as that because then
Speaker 8: they put you in that category and it's like, oh,
Speaker 8: he can be nothing more than a special teams guys.
Speaker 8: So no disrespect, but you know, to me, I found
Speaker 8: that extremely.
Speaker 6: Just like being called a one trick pony exactly.
Speaker 2: That's no disrespect to TJ. Goodwin, just everybody.
Speaker 8: I mean it by no disrespect, but you know, hey,
Speaker 8: I couldn't there.
Speaker 7: There are a lot of terms that scouts well and
Speaker 7: you know, and scouts deserve sometimes for evaluating players need
Speaker 7: to be called the same thing. But when you call
Speaker 7: a player like stiff, oh yeah, you say this guy's
Speaker 7: a stiff player. You're thinking this guy can't move, he's
Speaker 7: not athletic. You know that, that to me would be
Speaker 7: that that would be that would be a bit now
Speaker 7: there there's some other words too that we can't pronounce.
Speaker 7: We can't do that, and they send in a meeting
Speaker 7: and when you hear that word, you just kind of go, okay,
Speaker 7: you know, let's move on to the next guy.
Speaker 3: I feel like being called slow, but like even then,
Speaker 3: like if your forty time is slow, then yeah you're slow,
Speaker 3: you know. I feel like that's a huge disrespective, Like
Speaker 3: I could play faster than that.
Speaker 6: I'm not a track runner. I'm a I'm a football player,
Speaker 6: you know, Like.
Speaker 7: I feel like that.
Speaker 2: See that's about that, you know. I knew I wasn't
Speaker 2: a fast guy.
Speaker 7: That was all top.
Speaker 8: Right because I'm not gonna be able to make up
Speaker 8: with it my speed, so I had to be in
Speaker 8: the right place at the rights ad.
Speaker 7: I was just curious.
Speaker 3: I was curious because you did you kind of you
Speaker 3: were like, oh, like when you said flash player, like
Speaker 3: you don't want.
Speaker 7: To but yeah, you don't want to be that. You
Speaker 7: really don't. You don't want to be a guy that
Speaker 7: like you make one play and then you disappear for six. Yeah,
Speaker 7: you don't. You don't want to be that guy.
Speaker 6: No, not at all. Is this guy one of those
Speaker 6: guys in twenty four.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I mean he just said it, make one
Speaker 3: play and then disappear for six ce D.
Speaker 6: Lamb, what's your grown?
Speaker 2: You don't wear that. I don't want to go first.
Speaker 6: Brian, you want to start it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's playing at a sea level right now too,
Speaker 7: and you know, C D level.
Speaker 2: D level.
Speaker 7: It's unfortunate, you know. And this is this is where
Speaker 7: I need to maybe reevaluate what I thought of CD Lamb.
Speaker 7: And I was believe I was the belief veteran receiver,
Speaker 7: veteran quarterback, and people were trying to tell me that, like, well, hey,
Speaker 7: they didn't have training camp together, they didn't do this,
Speaker 7: they didn't do that. And I was like, it's too
Speaker 7: veteran players, they've known each other, they've gotten better every year,
Speaker 7: every game they gotten better, they got better. There might
Speaker 7: be something to that. There might be something to not
Speaker 7: having a training campaign. Now, okay, we're six weeks into
Speaker 7: this thing, right, We're six weeks into this thing, but
Speaker 7: we still have the mistakes of wait a minute, I
Speaker 7: saw that safety standing over the top and I threw
Speaker 7: the ball to the out and you still ran into
Speaker 7: that safety. You know. We see we've seen the red
Speaker 7: zone turnovers. You know, there's something that veteran quarterback and
Speaker 7: veteran receivers should not have to go through. And that's
Speaker 7: the unfortunate part of it though. What's amazing is that
Speaker 7: And I was just looking at metrics. I'm in this
Speaker 7: weird mode now in my life where I look at metrics,
Speaker 7: so I like to look at the film and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 7: wait a minute, you see this, But does it really
Speaker 7: that the story Ceedee? Lamb's in that mode right now
Speaker 7: where an off coverage, he doesn't have as nearly as many,
Speaker 7: he's less targets and less receptions than he's had. His
Speaker 7: number against against press coverage and man coverage are still
Speaker 7: the same, and what and he's still having the same
Speaker 7: production that's been on track. Where he's fallen off a
Speaker 7: little bit is off coverage when people give him state
Speaker 7: they haven't they haven't targeted him and they and he
Speaker 7: hasn't hadn't had the number of receptions that he's had
Speaker 7: in the past. Now, maybe that's because you got some
Speaker 7: other guys that are kind of maybe some step up,
Speaker 7: some guys stepping up and getting other opportunities. But that's
Speaker 7: something to me not getting the ball to Ceedee lamb is.
Speaker 7: There's no excuse for that. You know, if there's off coverage,
Speaker 7: we saw what he could do in off coverage that
Speaker 7: rowdy ran the other day. Whereas one hand across the middle,
Speaker 7: we saw that. So there needs to be more of
Speaker 7: that involved. But right now, he's not playing at a
Speaker 7: level where he was with Jefferson and Chase and those
Speaker 7: guys that were accustomed custom to see Hill. We're accustomed
Speaker 7: to seeing him play at that level. He's not near
Speaker 7: that level at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna go see minus on this one.
Speaker 8: And for everything Brian had just said to me, like,
Speaker 8: I don't know, I'm not in that locker room, you know,
Speaker 8: I don't know if it's not the amount of targets
Speaker 8: he's getting, if he's not winning this, that and the third.
Speaker 8: But he's just not the player that we've come accustomed
Speaker 8: to seeing so far this season.
Speaker 2: And I can only go back. You know what I
Speaker 2: saw last year.
Speaker 8: I mean, this is a guy who had seventeen hundred
Speaker 8: plus yards fourteen tds.
Speaker 2: And no matter what the situation is, there was no excuse.
Speaker 8: I mean, we saw this guy get triple team double
Speaker 8: team safety over the top and they were still getting
Speaker 8: them the football. He was still winning on rounds, getting
Speaker 8: the ball in the open field and making guys miss.
Speaker 8: We just haven't seen that so far from Cede Lamb
Speaker 8: this year. The explosive plays, getting the guy to the
Speaker 8: ball and letting him do work his magic as a
Speaker 8: YAK receiver yards after the catch.
Speaker 2: That's his biggest to me attribute out there.
Speaker 8: Once the ball's in his hands, he's one of the
Speaker 8: best at making guys miss and getting those explosive plays.
Speaker 2: We just haven't seen that so far.
Speaker 8: So to me, I'm gonna give him a C minus
Speaker 8: just from what I seen so far this year, and
Speaker 8: knowing that the player we saw last year was that good.
Speaker 2: I mean he was right, like you just said, this.
Speaker 7: Is one, you know, Suggs almost like Zach Martin with
Speaker 7: the level of like you've set the bar at the
Speaker 7: sigh you can't get out, and now if you're not
Speaker 7: getting there.
Speaker 3: I was kind of curious just in the middle of
Speaker 3: the segment. I look this up and I was kind
Speaker 3: of seeing where he was at the bye week last year. Right,
Speaker 3: I'm going to read these two stat lines and then
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you the difference between the two.
Speaker 3: So this is twenty twenty three seed LAMB at the
Speaker 3: bye week thirty four receptions, four hundred and seventy five
Speaker 3: yards and a touchdown. Okay, thirty four four to seventy
Speaker 3: five in a tudy this year thirty two receptions, so
Speaker 3: only two less four hundred and sixty seven yards, which
Speaker 3: is only eight less and two touchdowns, which is one more.
Speaker 7: So in terms of total production.
Speaker 6: Right around the same. Not the same though between the two.
Speaker 3: Last year his yards per target nearly twelve yards per
Speaker 3: target eighty one percent catch percentage the comparative to this
Speaker 3: year under eight and a half.
Speaker 7: Yards per targets at sixty so.
Speaker 3: The catch percentage significantly less. He's been targeted fifty five
Speaker 3: times this year as opposed to forty two going into
Speaker 3: the bye week last year, so he's had thirteen more
Speaker 3: targets and two fewer receptions. So even though the total
Speaker 3: production as a whole microcosm you look at yard stats, touchdowns, whatever,
Speaker 3: it's there, the production in the efficiency of CD LAMB
Speaker 3: is not.
Speaker 6: And that's what we're talking about. So I'll give him,
Speaker 6: I'll give him a c he can get better.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, And honestly, he's still your best receiver, he's
Speaker 3: your he is your best weapon.
Speaker 6: So I'm not going to give him a D or
Speaker 6: anything close like that.
Speaker 3: But if we're grading on a curve here, like we
Speaker 3: kind of have been already, he's got to be better
Speaker 3: as your number.
Speaker 6: One guy you want to CD.
Speaker 3: Lamb should be nothing less than an anus at any
Speaker 3: point in a season.
Speaker 6: And he's got a C right now. All right, Moving on.
Speaker 3: To the rookie Tyler Geydon. I know we missed last game,
Speaker 3: but we're grading on five games here. I want to
Speaker 3: talk about Tyler guid In. What's your grade so far?
Speaker 7: Bury?
Speaker 6: You you skipped on.
Speaker 8: I'll go first on this one, and you know Brodles
Speaker 8: will be able to break this down a lot better
Speaker 8: than me. I never, you know, played the offensive line,
Speaker 8: but I.
Speaker 2: Could just go bay from very good at it. But
Speaker 2: I could just go back from what I see.
Speaker 8: And I understand he's a rookie first round pick, but
Speaker 8: I'm gonna give him so far.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 8: I don't want to do this to the man, but
Speaker 8: I'm gonnave him a D plus and and it's tough
Speaker 8: because he's gone through a gauntlet of pass rushers from
Speaker 8: you know TJ Wide, Cam Jordan out there.
Speaker 2: I mean, you got the guys over in Baltimore.
Speaker 8: So he's gone through a gauntlet of guys. Miles Garrett,
Speaker 8: I mean, he's gone through a gauntlet of guys out there.
Speaker 8: But from what I see, you know, the pressure is
Speaker 8: giving up, the sacks giving up, and more importantly, the
Speaker 8: penalties that have become Dravet killers at times. To me
Speaker 8: is why I give him the grade that I've given them.
Speaker 8: You know, from from training camp to this point right now,
Speaker 8: he's shown those flashes like he has the ability, the
Speaker 8: feet there sometimes you know, hands here and there, but
Speaker 8: he just hasn't been able to put it all together.
Speaker 8: And maybe that has to deal with the gauntlet of
Speaker 8: guys he's gone against. But like I said, I can
Speaker 8: only go by what I see on tape, and for me,
Speaker 8: I'm gonna give him a D plus.
Speaker 7: Okay, Yeah, it's a D right now. And the problem
Speaker 7: that we're running into is we're so used to the
Speaker 7: Cowboys taking first round offensive lineman and plug and play
Speaker 7: and they're all b's or a's or that kind of stuff.
Speaker 7: You know, we saw it with what you go back
Speaker 7: with Tyron Smith and then Zach Martin, and then you know,
Speaker 7: Travis Frederick, and you know, and then Tyler Smith. I mean,
Speaker 7: everybody you've ever drafted has been a plug and play
Speaker 7: and probably been at B plus to an a player
Speaker 7: right off the jump. This has been a real struggle
Speaker 7: for him. And you know, and I think he missed
Speaker 7: a lot of time during training camp. He got sick,
Speaker 7: he got injured, a lot of time on task, a
Speaker 7: lot of practices. There were times where he was going
Speaker 7: up against Michael Parsons and Tank and looked really efficient,
Speaker 7: hands feet. Everything that Berry was talking about was on point.
Speaker 7: He's in survival mode. He's yet to play and I've
Speaker 7: said this on several platforms. He's yet to play somebody
Speaker 7: that he's better than he is. You know. You mentioned
Speaker 7: the gauntlet of names he's had to go through, you know,
Speaker 7: and a lot of times they haven't helped him. They've
Speaker 7: thrown him in the deep end of the pool and said, swim,
Speaker 7: you know you're going to play, You're going to be
Speaker 7: single blocking seventy five eighty percent.
Speaker 6: Of the game.
Speaker 2: That's so true, Swim.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And so to me, I think that it's we're spoiled.
Speaker 7: We're spoiled with plug and play first round offensive lineman
Speaker 7: around here, and and and unfortunately for him, the transition,
Speaker 7: the learning curve from right tackle the left tackle has
Speaker 7: been really really steep for him.
Speaker 6: And I think it was anticipated.
Speaker 3: I mean when when you guys were wrapping up the
Speaker 3: draft show out on paternity leave, but you guys were
Speaker 3: talking about how it's not going.
Speaker 6: To be plug and play.
Speaker 7: This is not a plug plug and play play. We're
Speaker 7: accustomed to it around here.
Speaker 3: Correct, So there was going to be a curve. There
Speaker 3: was going to be an adjustment process. You think it's
Speaker 3: steeper than what.
Speaker 7: It was anticipated atteper I think a lot steeper. And it,
Speaker 7: like I say, him missing basically weak or two of
Speaker 7: training camp is big. I mean those were practices. Those
Speaker 7: were padded practice, I mean, and we started to see
Speaker 7: it a little bit when he came back and he was,
Speaker 7: you know, working and you're like, okay, that was a
Speaker 7: good rep. The one on one stuff was good against
Speaker 7: you know, tank or parsons when he'd get the opportunity.
Speaker 7: And then we saw Jared verse against the you know,
Speaker 7: against the rams and you're like going, oh oh.
Speaker 3: I actually said that audibly on a I think it
Speaker 3: was training camp, I think no, for real, Jared Verse
Speaker 3: beat him on a on a drill, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is not good.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and so you started to kind of feel like though, Okay,
Speaker 7: this is going to be a little bit of a problem.
Speaker 7: And then you watched the preseason game against the Raiders
Speaker 7: and uh, the the Raiders were getting into his body,
Speaker 7: hands were outside, hands were outside, the feet weren't right.
Speaker 7: And then you know, week one it was a survival mode.
Speaker 7: I mean, he did everything he could to keep his
Speaker 7: body between him, you know, and Miles Garrett. He did everything,
Speaker 7: you know. I mean, he made Miles Garrett run over
Speaker 7: him to get to Dak Prescott. And he just hasn't
Speaker 7: had a breath when it comes to just you know,
Speaker 7: it's hard to work on technique and get things right
Speaker 7: in the season when you're when you're just you go
Speaker 7: from practice to a game and you're really you're just
Speaker 7: working on steps and you're not really you know, it's
Speaker 7: kind of like, you know, two steps, Okay, we're done.
Speaker 7: Two steps, you know, you're done. You know, getting the playoff,
Speaker 7: he hadn't had a he hadn't had a time where
Speaker 7: he could just completely drill on his feet and maybe
Speaker 7: he's doing that this week. Maybe he's going over with
Speaker 7: Duke and those guys and trying to figure out some
Speaker 7: technique stuff that he needs for the second half.
Speaker 6: I'll give him a D plus because we've seen.
Speaker 7: Parts of it.
Speaker 3: We've seen why Yeah flashes again, We've seen why he
Speaker 3: is that pick.
Speaker 6: He's just got to put it all.
Speaker 3: Together and he hasn't had a chance to to a
Speaker 3: significant instinct, whether it's injury or sickness or whatever. The
Speaker 3: competition level I think is significant, but he's got to
Speaker 3: have a chance. He's got a click and it hasn't
Speaker 3: clicked yet. Ye, it has real quickly. Jake Ferguson, I'll
Speaker 3: start it. I'll say B minus with Jake Ferguson. He's
Speaker 3: been better up to this point than he was last
Speaker 3: year as a receiving possibility, even without one game in
Speaker 3: the fold, I still think he's right now your number
Speaker 3: two or number three weapons, depending on the day, in
Speaker 3: terms of your offense.
Speaker 6: I'll give him a B minus.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna give him a C plus. Like you said,
Speaker 8: he's starting not a little bit better than he did
Speaker 8: last year. I just thought he would be more of
Speaker 8: a red zone threat. So far this season, and when
Speaker 8: they got that't had a touchdown, you know, spread him
Speaker 8: out there. He would be able to be a mismatchable
Speaker 8: safeties and linebackers, and we just haven't been able to
Speaker 8: see that so far this season.
Speaker 7: I'm going to give him a C. I My expectations
Speaker 7: for Jake Ferguson were huge, and you know, it's unfortunate
Speaker 7: we've seen he hasn't made those spectacular plays that he
Speaker 7: made has made in the past. I mean those catch
Speaker 7: the ball that could say the ball that they set
Speaker 7: up for him to run across the field and he
Speaker 7: was out, you know, and he went up and he
Speaker 7: missed the ball and misplayed the ball. It's kind of
Speaker 7: to me it was a microcosm of how the season's
Speaker 7: kind of gone for him. That's a catch that Jake
Speaker 7: fergs easily makes right there. So I don't think, like
Speaker 7: I say, the lack of some red zone stuff, the
Speaker 7: la missing some passes. You know, we haven't seen that
Speaker 7: tremendous run after the catch when he gets the ball
Speaker 7: and he's leaping over somebody or he's running through three guys.
Speaker 7: It's a it's a seven yard route that turns into
Speaker 7: a seventeen or eighteen yard play because of run after catch.
Speaker 7: I think that he's been steady. I just don't think
Speaker 7: there's anything spectacular from him.
Speaker 3: Sure any offense, I don't think I have one. The
Speaker 3: closest would probably be Tyler Smith.
Speaker 7: I'll tell you. I'll tell you what if you want
Speaker 7: to just say consistent play throughout a Hunter lip is
Speaker 7: right now. Hunter Lifkey is a guy that they they
Speaker 7: last week. They didn't hand him the ball, nor throw
Speaker 7: him the ball, but he was used as a blocker
Speaker 7: a couple of different times. To me, anytime you don't
Speaker 7: get Hunter Lipkey involved four or five snaps, get him
Speaker 7: the ball, hand him the ball, do something with him
Speaker 7: with the ball, I think it's a wasted opportunity. I
Speaker 7: think he's one of your better skillful players. He might
Speaker 7: not look that way, but he has size, he's got
Speaker 7: athletic ability, he's got really good hands, he's super tough.
Speaker 7: You know, when he's not involved in the game plan,
Speaker 7: then to me, it's just a wasted it's a wasted
Speaker 7: weekend for him. I would give him a B maybe
Speaker 7: B plus for you know, for how you know if
Speaker 7: you talk about the guys that you're really like, Wow,
Speaker 7: this guy's really getting it done. I think Hunter Lipkey
Speaker 7: is right up there. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Good, good call, good call.
Speaker 6: All right, when we come back, it's leadership time.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about Dak Prescott, Mike Zimmer, Mike
Speaker 3: McCarthy giving the grades in the first six weeks of
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 6: When we come back.
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Speaker 7: Fd I C.
Speaker 2: To Talking Cowboys.
Speaker 7: Back.
Speaker 3: You're on Talking Cowboys presented by a Black Rifle Coffee
Speaker 3: Company with Brian brought us Berry Church, Chris Beam in
Speaker 3: the back. I'm Kyle Yeoman's. This segment is brought to
Speaker 3: you by and viz Line, the official Smile of the
Speaker 3: Dallas Cowboys. All right, gentlemen, this is the tough one.
Speaker 3: This one's gonna be a little bit deeper than I
Speaker 3: think all of us have.
Speaker 6: But we don't have a ton of time here.
Speaker 7: So we've gotta we gotta blow through.
Speaker 2: Okay, here we go.
Speaker 6: All right, Berry, We'll start it off with.
Speaker 8: Dak Prescott okay, and we're talking about leadership. We ain't,
Speaker 8: you know, not play or anything like that. We're talking about.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, all of it all empassing grade of
Speaker 3: the first six weeks, all right, I just I just
Speaker 3: tabbed age as leadership.
Speaker 2: Give me for Dak Man, give me a B plus.
Speaker 2: Give me a B plus.
Speaker 8: I know, you know, so far he hasn't been playing
Speaker 8: as great as he was last year. But to me,
Speaker 8: you know, he's been that that guy that's been able,
Speaker 8: not in his entire career, but at least the parts
Speaker 8: of this year, that's been able to lift those guys
Speaker 8: around him. I mean, I know, Ceedee Lamb and that
Speaker 8: connection may not be where we wanted to be so
Speaker 8: far this season, but look at guys like Tolbert, I mean,
Speaker 8: look at guys like you know, all the younger guys
Speaker 8: Hunter Lipkey's getting involved as well. Tolbert coming into the
Speaker 8: season was supposed to be your fourth option, you know,
Speaker 8: and he's been playing pretty well so far this season.
Speaker 2: So give me B plus for Dak Prescott.
Speaker 8: I like him to take care of the football a
Speaker 8: little bit more, but I feel like sometimes in those
Speaker 8: games he's pressing a little bit to get back into
Speaker 8: the game, so he has to take care of the
Speaker 8: football a little bit better. But give me a B
Speaker 8: plus overall.
Speaker 3: I'll do be minus in that same sense, just because
Speaker 3: there's a lot of times where.
Speaker 6: Dak has helped you at least stay in the game
Speaker 6: or helped.
Speaker 2: You win three games already this year. That's true.
Speaker 3: I mean the Pittsburgh game, you don't win without Dak Prescott.
Speaker 3: You also might not be the way situation without Dak Prescott.
Speaker 3: That's the that's the thought process behind to B minus.
Speaker 3: Red zone turnovers got to stop. There's been three in
Speaker 3: the last two weeks by the same significant contributors. I'm
Speaker 3: not even counting the Rico Doubtle fumble that almost gave
Speaker 3: the game away in Pittsburgh. You got to take care
Speaker 3: of the football, Like you said, If you can take
Speaker 3: care of the football better, I think this offense will
Speaker 3: be in a better way if they can.
Speaker 6: Finish drives too.
Speaker 3: That's the second thing that's been a real knock for me,
Speaker 3: and Jake Fergus plays a part in that. Offensive line
Speaker 3: plays a part in that. Dak is a B minus
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 6: He's playing good football. He's not playing great football, and
Speaker 6: there's a way that he can play grate fuot.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a c effort right there. To me. I mean,
Speaker 7: there's expectator. What's really funny is if you look at metrics,
Speaker 7: his numbers are very similar to Pat Mahomes. But we
Speaker 7: feel very different about Pat Mahomes as we do Dak Prescott.
Speaker 7: You know, we feel very different about Jordan Love. He's
Speaker 7: another guy that has very similar to numbers and his
Speaker 7: team looks like they're playing very well. There's more things
Speaker 7: that Dak Prescott could probably do. I think the pocket awareness.
Speaker 7: There's been times where I feel like he's really not
Speaker 7: feeling totally comfortable. He might not be totally comfortable with
Speaker 7: this offensive line. I feel like I've overrated this offensive
Speaker 7: line and it's probably not helping him a whole lot
Speaker 7: standing there and he just hasn't been able. He hasn't
Speaker 7: been accurate on some of his throws, you know, but
Speaker 7: he hasn't also had the opportunity to step up and
Speaker 7: throw the ball. I know, the ball that went down
Speaker 7: the sidelines to Tolbert, if it was thrown a little further,
Speaker 7: that's a touchdown. I think he's missed on some routes.
Speaker 7: You know, that's the unfortunate thing with Dak The red
Speaker 7: zone turnovers are alarming right now, that is an alarming situation.
Speaker 7: I mentioned him Maholmes. They both throwing six interceptions. I
Speaker 7: wonder if mahomes interceptions or is as alarming as bad
Speaker 7: the past he overshot in the middle of the field.
Speaker 7: To believe it's the Brooks that was just a horrible
Speaker 7: pass that that you know, the safety you know grab
Speaker 7: there for Detroit was just as it was a horrible pass. Now,
Speaker 7: So yeah, I think right now he's not playing at
Speaker 7: a winning level. Sure, the level that you kind of
Speaker 7: got him at the Pittsburgh he was a big part
Speaker 7: of that. But some of these other games they need
Speaker 7: him to be better and it just hasn't happened.
Speaker 6: Hasn't happened yet, all right, Mike Zimmer Brian brought us.
Speaker 7: You know, Mike is really really struggling right now with
Speaker 7: the lack of personnel. Mike I thought was going to
Speaker 7: be more buttoned up. They haven't been more buttoned up.
Speaker 7: They've given a big plays, They've given an explosive place
Speaker 7: that's been a real problem. It's a d level right
Speaker 7: now with Mike. You know, I felt like that they
Speaker 7: were going to be more sound, more on the screws,
Speaker 7: you know, not make mistakes, not make mental mistakes, not
Speaker 7: be at a position. It's very alarming. It's some of
Speaker 7: the things we saw in the in the Green Bay
Speaker 7: game that we blame Dan Quinn for. Still some of
Speaker 7: the things happening here. It might be a lot of
Speaker 7: your personnel. Mike's a good coach, but right now, that's
Speaker 7: not a it's not a winning level there.
Speaker 8: Yeah, give me a D plus as well. Like rous,
Speaker 8: it's just not at a winning level right now. And
Speaker 8: what's alarming is the explosive place that we've seen from
Speaker 8: this team. I mean, you go all the way back
Speaker 8: to the Saints game where you know Carr was able
Speaker 8: to carve this secondary up, you know, and that's not
Speaker 8: even including what they were able to do on the
Speaker 8: ground game.
Speaker 2: So to me, it's a D plus.
Speaker 8: You know, I look at the Steelers game where you know,
Speaker 8: they were minus a couple of other big time players
Speaker 8: and they were still able to grind out a good
Speaker 8: win out there.
Speaker 2: And understand that offense isn't the greatest.
Speaker 8: Youre talking about fields and everything, but they were able
Speaker 8: to get pressure on fields and and help this team win.
Speaker 2: But overall, to me, it's a D plus.
Speaker 6: I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2: D plus.
Speaker 3: And the only reason I think it's a D plus
Speaker 3: and not a D is because he has had so
Speaker 3: many injuries.
Speaker 7: He's had a lot of injuries. But he'll to you
Speaker 7: that he has to do a better job. He's said
Speaker 7: yesterday in our media availability, he might have panicked a
Speaker 7: little bit and some of the stuff that Detroit was
Speaker 7: doing to him.
Speaker 6: I don't want to give him a pass.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, like that's a lot of
Speaker 3: decimation on your on your defense.
Speaker 6: So you're missing your top linebacker, top four.
Speaker 7: I mean you have to hold him to understand. You
Speaker 7: have to figure out scheme. You have to figure out
Speaker 7: if I'm down, guys, I have to do other things
Speaker 7: to make it work. And yeah, you know, Mike wouldn't
Speaker 7: ask for a pass. No, he would say, Hey, we
Speaker 7: have to be better. That's the thing I love about
Speaker 7: Mike Zimmer.
Speaker 6: I like him. Mike McCarthy. Final one, gentlemen, Uh, give
Speaker 6: me give me a D on this one.
Speaker 8: Your teams have started out slow on too many of occasions,
Speaker 8: and you know the previous years that was one of
Speaker 8: his can cars starting fast and making sure you get
Speaker 8: on teams quick and you are you know, calling plays
Speaker 8: offensively if I'm not mistaken correct. So the lack of
Speaker 8: balance there, to me is alarming. When you're you know,
Speaker 8: you're relying on Dak Prescott to throw the ball forty
Speaker 8: sometimes a game. I don't think that's a recipe for success.
Speaker 8: So I have to get my man a deal on
Speaker 8: this one.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's almost a D minus, maybe an even F.
Speaker 7: Because every week there's been a bad loss, They've talked
Speaker 7: about lack of preparation and practice and things like that.
Speaker 7: That's reflective on the head coach. He's the one that
Speaker 7: sets the schedule, He's the one that makes sure that
Speaker 7: practice has done the right way. He's got to make
Speaker 7: sure this team is listening, learning and implementing things that
Speaker 7: they're trying to do. As a play caller, I think
Speaker 7: he's failed them too. I think there's we've seen, you know,
Speaker 7: you've seen flashes of plays where you feel like though
Speaker 7: that was a creative way of moving the football. They
Speaker 7: haven't been good in the red zone, they haven't been
Speaker 7: good scoring points. You know, it's been a struggle for them.
Speaker 7: Their offense looks like at times it's just a it's
Speaker 7: a fight just to get at a yard, and so
Speaker 7: to me as a play caller, it's almost an f
Speaker 7: As a as a head coach, it's a D minus
Speaker 7: because his team hasn't been able to get they if
Speaker 7: we keep hearing every week that their practices haven't been good,
Speaker 7: that's reflective on him.
Speaker 6: That's a problem, and that's.
Speaker 7: Reflective on the players as well, no doubt, but reflective
Speaker 7: on him for allowing it to happen.
Speaker 3: Well, you mentioned the Green Bay game and some of
Speaker 3: the same problems that are popping up from the green
Speaker 3: Bay game. Same can be said for Mike McCarthy as
Speaker 3: you can for the defense, because the problems of running
Speaker 3: the football, the problems and protecting your quarterback, the slow starts,
Speaker 3: the preparation, all of these things. Checheck check check, check check.
Speaker 3: It hasn't worked this year. It's worked in the past.
Speaker 3: He has three straight twelve win seasons for a reason
Speaker 3: that it's tough to do in the NFL.
Speaker 2: There was going to be a.
Speaker 6: Drop off at some point.
Speaker 3: You didn't expect it to be this year, especially when
Speaker 3: you're paying these guys. You've got talent, got all pros
Speaker 3: on every level of your offense and every level of
Speaker 3: your defense.
Speaker 7: You got to be better.
Speaker 3: And I think we talked about it extensively yesterday. The
Speaker 3: preparation side of things that bugs me.
Speaker 7: That really bugs me.
Speaker 3: If you're talking about preparation and that's.
Speaker 7: It's it's hint his words and other players words. Absolutely,
Speaker 7: and you know, and so you know players, Barry no offense.
Speaker 7: Sometimes players are they're left trying to explain things they
Speaker 7: can't explain, and then they talk about we've got to
Speaker 7: be better at preparation. That is a crutch. But if
Speaker 7: it's a number of guys are saying, it's very telling,
Speaker 7: it's very telling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, those are our report cards offense, defense,
Speaker 3: leadership before we go.
Speaker 7: Brian.
Speaker 3: Of course you're on the break. Yes, you're on the
Speaker 3: Draft show as well on one O five through the
Speaker 3: fan g Bag Nation two o'clock to seven o'clock every month,
Speaker 3: Monday through Friday.
Speaker 7: Check out. We have a job left if the owner
Speaker 7: got rid of it.
Speaker 6: I think so. I think we're good for now.
Speaker 7: We're good for now.
Speaker 3: We're good, Barry Church, you're on the players last especial
Speaker 3: pre opposed game post name average check them out if
Speaker 3: you don't follow their podcast, They're do phenomenal work as
Speaker 3: you can see here over the last two days. And
Speaker 3: since you are on the Draft show in April, if
Speaker 3: the season ended today, what would be the position group
Speaker 3: that you would draft for the Cowboys go?
Speaker 7: I think first round. I think you have to continue
Speaker 7: to look at the defensive line. That situation. You can't
Speaker 7: pass on a running back. I don't think they wanted
Speaker 7: to pass on a running back. I just think it
Speaker 7: didn't fall the right way for him in the draft.
Speaker 7: That's unfortunately.
Speaker 6: I agree.
Speaker 3: I agree Ashton gent Boise State, all right for Frisco.
Speaker 3: Frisco lone star baby, for Chrispy and for Barry Church.
Speaker 3: Brian brought us check both those guys out on Kyle Omens.
Speaker 3: We'll be back nine am Central Time with a full
Speaker 3: cast and crew of Talking Cowboys on Monday.
Speaker 6: We'll see then.
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