Cowboys Break: Adjusting The Expectations?

number thirty nine. Welcome to another edition of The Break, live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star and we got a lot of talk about this morning. Cowboys to get a big win to open the season. They win thirty five seventeen and probably well, at least in my opinion, was one of the most dominating performances I've seen from them in quite some time. We'll talk about all that, We'll talk about Dak's performance, We'll talk about this defense is performance throughout the course of the show.

How's everybody feeling this morning? Great? Great, awesome? Already jump in, Yes, here we go. Let's start first a little blanket coverage. I have one statement for you. There will be a blank you fill in the blank. We're gonna start today with Nick. After dominating performance last night, I learned blank about this team, Nick. I learned that the Cowboys are a lot better than the Giants. That's really all I That's just the Giants aren't very good and I think

the Cowboys are very good. I learned that this team can make it to the super Bowl. That's what I like. Yes, I'm gonna go there. There, I am gonna go there. I know. Okay, I am fully aware Giants are great. Three days ago when you were like, I don't like to get my expectations. This is what the Cowboys do to me. But when they do to my feelings, they gave me very larded against yourself, like three days ago.

I know, but it's hard to control those emotions. And it was just very very exciting to see what they were able to do. Obviously, the things that Kellen Moore was able to apply, and that only gives me hope for the future. Even though it is the first game and it is against the Giants, it's still got me very excited. Dave, you learned what I learned. The Cowboys can win the modern way. And what I mean by that is I mean I'm not sorry I agree with

Nick to a point. I thought the Cowboys would win comfortably. I thought they were much better than Giants. They proved my point, but we've never seen them so comfortably and so efficiently and effortlessly win throwing the ball, you know, the run game was basically an afterthought. They had ninety yards,

which is that's fine by NFL standards. But I was here on Friday saying, you know, the Cowboys sweet spot is like two hundred and fifty passing yards and they need to have one hundred and twenty hundred and fifty rushing yards, like that's how the model goes. Didn't look like that yesterday. The Giants loaded up to stop the run, and for the most part, they did, and it didn't matter at all. And part of that is because they're bad.

I don't think you can totally discount that. But four hundred passing yards and most of it again looking easy. M that's something we're not used to, and it's even if it is against a bad team, it's really encouraging if the offense can continue to do that. Let's dive into this passing game a little bit. You guys, kind of do you want to answer that question too for me, Yeah, yeah, I think I'm guarding against being where you are because but in all fairness, that is probably what a lot

of fans right now are dealing with this morning. Is what they saw yesterday suggests tells their eyes and tells their head. Hey man, this is different. This is not what we've been used to seeing from this Cowboys team, even in good years, you haven't been used to seeing them. Literally, think about that. They had six their six opening possessions, the first one stalled out and they had to punt. The next five they had touchdown, not field goals. They

had touchdowns, and they did it in different ways. Some of them were long drives where they drove methodically down the field and then scored in the red zone. There were others where there was one that was a three play drive where basically it was like pop pop pop, touchdown. Right. So they showed you so many different facets of this offense. It looked like, as Dave said, it looked like a modern NFL offense, which has not been what the Cowboys

have been doing since Zeke Drive. And you know, looking around New England, Baltimore, or Minnesota, Philadelphia, they're they're looking at Super Bowl stuff too, So, I mean that's kind of the way it is right now. But this was a good football team we knew going in and they looked better than that yesterday. So tell me how surprised you were that the Cowboys went so pass heavy, especially early in the game, when we've been used to watching

an offense that would establish the run. They would commit it to the run, especially in the early parts of the game yesterday. It seemed like they came out with the intention they were going to throw the ball if you can. I mean I talked about this Friday, I think or Thursday. If you can get the divas out of the out of the huddle, if you can do that, then you really can say pick your poison. You can really do that. And that's what happened. And next week

that won't happen. They'll have a safety back, they won't let Jarwin and Cobb go right down the middle. And what's going to happen. You'll see Zeke Gasham for six and eight and ten. It's just going to be that kind of game because whatever the defense gives you. That it's a cliche, but that's exactly what they did. Whatever they were giving them. They took it. Yeah, you might not even need to worry about egos if the offense keeps that because every single member of the offense had

a reason to be happy yesterday. I mean, Witton got a touchdown, Cobb had the worst day of the starting receivers and he had sixty nine yards in a touchdown. I mean, it's incredible, And obviously that's not going to happen every week, but it's just really encouraging. It's like, you know, the it's typically a younger crowd, the analytics heavy crowd. Play action is everything, pre snap motion is everything. Don't run on first down, don't run on second down.

I mean, they've just got that. They got to be through the roof with what they saw from the way Kellamore called this offense yesterday because that's exactly what it was. And the running game will never be an afterthought if you're paying your running back ninety million dollars, but it can be a compliment to a passing game, clearly, and that's not what we've seen. Like through Zeke's career to this point, the running game has been the engine, and

the passing game kind of operates off of that. That's not what we saw yesterday. What I loved about the first touchdown by Blake Jarwin is that it was a play action that sucked in the you know, linebackers of safety. But it wasn't even Zeke. It was Pollard in the game, you know, and Pollard he just faked it there. And that's another thing I love is that it doesn't have to be my series, your series, just running both in the in there and when one guy's tired, put the

other one in May. And maybe Zeke coming back from a six week hold out helps because you feel less pressure to have him in the game. You're just like, well, we're only giving you forty snaps, so you know, hopefully they don't resort to that when Zeke is more ready to play a full load. He had a play around the corner and it was and think the third quarter, and there was one of the corners was there and

he kind of made the tackle. And I think everybody in the press box right around said the same thing, like in about three weeks, he'll make that guy this or running over or something. But his ten yard touchdown run looked like old Zeke to me. We'll get to some of that I want to go back a little bit. You guys mentioned Kelvin Moore. He's getting a ton of credit last night and this morning for how this offense looked. There were a lot of things that you could notice

about it. I'm gonna point out three and I want you to tell me which one you think was bigger or if there's another thing you think was bigger. To me, it was pace, it was the pre snap movement, and it was the play selection. Which one do you think is was was a bigger had more was more responsible for the improvement in the offense we saw yesterday relative to last season. Let's start with you. I think it's

just a combination of everything. If you do one more than the other, I think you wouldn't be You wouldn't have been able to do what you did last night. You know, him being creative, him coming up with different ways to involve everybody. That's where it comes down to. I think had this been the like last year and we still had Scottland calling the place, I feel that we would have seen, for example, Zeke getting the ball more and being forced even though when he was taking

him a while to get going. I think we would have seen forced plays, and last night it wasn't that way. He just made it all look so seeming less and was smart about the play calling. And you can tell by everything that the player said last night in regards to him and his decision making, it was not a completely new different book playbook. It was more of being smart about it and knowing when to call what play.

Dave Dak actually said, and he said this before, He's like, I don't think we ran a single play that hasn't been in our offense for a while, to which I responded and asked, yeah, but they didn't look like that, like you have changed. The play might be the same. The guys might be going in the same spot, but they're starting out in different spots. It's obvious. And Dak also he said, I think it's the timing of the way Kellen's calling it. He's the quarterback. He just had

a perfect passer rating. I defer to him, but I don't really buy it because Scotland hand coached in this league for a long time, Like he just has no feel for the timing and win to call that type of stuff. Like, I think it's more about confusing the defense and keeping them on their back. Foot. I mean, we were just watching Brian Baldinger's tape. They break down before we came down here. You got Witten, Cobb and Cooper lined out left and then they all flex across

the formation. The Giants linebackers are going every which way. But the way the play eventually went, I think that stuff matters, and it might not change the meat of the play, but it just makes it harder to defend when you don't know where it's going. You know what's a huge difference to me is when you have players

that respect your coach. I don't think they had respect for Scotto and yeah, the normal respect, but as far as respecting him and what in him knowing what he was doing, I don't think it's the same way like that with Kellen. They feel like Kellen is really really smart about the the whole game, and when you're bought in to somebody, you tend to do better. And he has the support of that locker room for sure, big, big time. Yeah, I don't I forgot the three that

you mentioned. I said, pace, pre snap, movement, and play selection. Yeah, it's it's never pace because nobody ever has good pace if they don't, if they don't execute and that, and you could say, well, maybe that's great, thanks for that, no huddle, free and out, you know, but it was nice to see them use some some different, you know, some stuff where they were They were that play which I thought was a very big play in the game, when he caught over the middle short of the sticks

and fought and got it and got a first down, and maybe I was typing something in witness in the end zone for I even knew what was happening. So yeah, they did move it quickly. I just think that the pre snap movement I think did confuse the Giants a lot. But kind of going back to what they said, I think this is the best receiving core they've had in a long time. Because as good as Beasley wasn't doing what he does and Daz doing what he does, they can't do each other's job. Beasley has to be in

the slot, he can't be on the outside. Des really couldn't be in the slot, and Gallup is just going to be a better Terrence Williams and a lot of ways, I hope. So I think those three guys right there are just way better because like you just said, David, they are Amber say they can go all over the place three here, two here, and you can be interchangeable. And I think that's what's gonna be really tough to stop. I haven't had time to chart it. I would love

to if I get a chance. But the number of different ways we saw guys line up last night, it was striking if you even pay a baseline level of attention. And I'm not even talking about the wacky stuff like Ola, Wally and Zeke flexing out wide. I'm talking about Witten being out in the slot, then flexing, flexing inline Cooper as a tight slot and moving further out in the

slot and then moving out to the boundary. Like it's little stuff, but when you I mean, it's so obvious that we haven't seen it, because you're like, whoa wait, what's a model like Witten is out furthest wide of everybody on the field, Like I've never seen that before. It just little stuff like that that can make a big difference. Here's here's the thing too, that's going to be interesting moving forward is you can't keep faking into

Tavon Austin without giving it to him. So and Witten out wide and you have to throw it to him out there, So I'm anxious to see do you say, hey, let's call the stuff that works, or do you say, we're going to have to these stuff we've been faking. Now we have to continue to do it. The good thing was they showed a lot of it. They showed Ola Wally down the field. They showed some of these plays that we haven't seen that the Redskins haven't seen.

So not trying to move ahead, but I'm just saying that's all nice and good, but now you have to kind of play off of that. And you guys mentioned that all that movement can confuse a defense. I think the other part that helps quite a bit is it also can illuminate things for your quarterback. As you move people around. You see how the defense reacts when a guy goes, who goes with him, how do they adjust? It tells you a lot about man versus his own

and what the defense is doing. So not only does it confuse a defense, at the same time, it clarifies for the quarterback. And so now you have those two things playing against each other makes it. It makes it so much easier. I think that's a lot of the reason why Dak was so decisive yesterday. He was getting the ball out and he was getting into the place where it needed to be, and he's putting it on point and it was accurate. So that all to me

is about that that pre snap motion. No, you go ahead, remember that sack that that you know was knocked to the ground on No, it wasn't. There was no pass rushing from the Giants, which honestly we talked about last week, and that's that is really a function of the Giants more than the Cowboys. But I'm just saying, you can find open guys, especially when you're just standing up there, and he did have all day. The weird part about this all was that his first five or six passes

were not good. To say that he's gonna have a perfect passer rating, You're like, he's settled in. I heard you and Derek talking about it last night, Like, I mean, his first throw of the game was a completion, but Amari Cooper had to jump out of the socks to get it. Yeah, he's just I mean, I know, I guess people get tired of hearing it, but he's just kind of like that, Like he's not a great practice player. He kind of needs to find a groove. But when

he does, look out but the fun. And this sounds like a backhanded compliment, and I don't mean it to, but the really encouraging thing for me. You know, when we argue about what Dak deserves to make and all that, it's like, well, he hasn't grown into this. You know, he's not making these crazy throws through the eye of a needle and doing all this crazy stuff. What we saw last night is that he doesn't necessarily need to. And he did make some really great throws. The touchdown

to Cooper was amazing. The long pass to Gallop down the sideline he had a he had it wasn't even a go route the post to Gallop. It was near the Cowboys end zone like he threaded it through three defenders. So he did make some great throws, but thanks to the play action and confusing the defense, the vast majority of the balls he had to throw were easy. And that's okay because it's it's efficient and it works. But one to Jarwin was not a good pass. It was

an arable pass. But and I swear to I want to ask Dac about this if I can get a chance. I swear to God, he double clutched. Because he did. He and I have to imagine he was like, there's no way he's actually that open, like I'm missing something. And then he's like, nope, he is there. You go. And Joe and double caught it too, like he caught it kind of it kind of moved a little bit and he caught it again. The easiest players are the hardest to make. That's what they always say. All right,

let's take our first break. When we come back, I do want to talk a little bit about the running game. Zeke had a decent day, Pollard had a maybe not so decent day. Let's talk about a little bit about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. While a player could look good on paper, it's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than just stats and scouting reports when

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Gold quarterbacks. Presscott pushes up the middle touchdown. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com to get your tickets Today Back, Welcome back. It is the second segment of Break Life from the SWBC Morgan Studios. At the start talking about the Cowboys big win. They opened the season against the Giants thirty five seventeen victory at AT and T Stadium. This week they'll be heading to Washington take on another division rival who had some moments of pretty good football yesterday, ended

up with a loss. Stop. We'll talk about that as we get later into the week. Let's move on to the running backs. In this game, Zeke Elliott had a thirteen carriage fifty three yards a four point one average in a touchdown polar thirteen runs for twenty four yards a one point eight average, no touchdowns with limited snaps for Zeke was Do you think that was more about easing him back into playing football or do you think

it was just the way the game flowed. They were seeing such success with the running game and they just decided me, I'm sorry, the passing game, and they decided to stick with it, and that ended up being the reason why they really didn't run the ball, particularly with Zeke, as much as they would normally. Yeah, I mean, I do think that Zeke just having him out there, I

thought it was big. But when you're throwing at four hundred and five yards and completing everything, I mean, that's that's what the Giants were giving you, and that's what you're going to take. But I don't know if the Cowboys win the game as comfortable without Zeke. I'm not even sure they win the game really, Okay, I really don't. I mean, I think that's why it was so important to get him back there. Just having his presence there

forces the Giants to play that way. Don't think they played the same way with Pollard, could be completely different game. They couldn't stop Barkley very well, and it forced the Giants to get out of what they wanted to do and get Barkley eleven carries. So I don't know. I mean that sounds weird because they blew him out, but I just think having him back there is so important and play actions with him are different than anyone else. How does Zeke look to you, guys? Just the plays

he dig get an opportunity to run? How did you look to you guys? Maybe it's just because they were playing the Giants, but I mean it reminded me a lot of his first ever game. Like he was fine. You know, he averaged for carry, you scored a touchdown I think as long in the day was ten touchdown? Yeah yeah, and just workman like like. Again, the Cowboys ran pretty well for every other NFL team, not what we're used to seeing. And yeah, I wonder. I mean,

I think they still win this game without him. Maybe it doesn't look as easy, I do think. Again, I haven't had a chance to chart it, but I bet the vast majority of Dak's completions off play action came with Zeke in the game. I know you said it was Pollard on the Jarwin touchdown. I bet that was an outlier, though I think it does. I think it does affect the defense, and that stuff that analytics can't always track is like linebackers are way more likely to suck up on a play action with a guy like

Zeke there. I'm not concerned or anything like I thought. I thought he was fine. And again, it's beyond encouraging that the offense looked that good on a day where the running game was just fine. Right, I think he did good. He was fine. Honestly, I expected it to be a lot better just because of the Giants defense and the defensive line. They're not that great, So in my mind, I thought Paula was going to be able

to do more things. But that's a great thing where this team is at right now that you don't have to rely on the running game. You know, now you have the ability to be able to make some plays through the passing games. So I think, just like Nick said and Date, just having seeked there, just his presence, even if he's not running as much as we were used to seeing him, he's still going to be dangerous. To Nick's point from the top of the show, and I don't want to be Davey Downer, but we hope

that that carries over. Well, I can't sit here and say that it definitely will. It was super impressive. I think the Giants are going to be competing for a top ten pick. And I think it's totally possible that we've seen Eli Manning play his last game against New York I mean, oh again against don't you mean like his last game, and they don't They don't move this week, they don't play again until November. It's totally believable for me to think. And I don't know when their buy is,

but it's totally possible. Daniel Jones could be in there the next time they play, right, So Monday night football, Yeah, yeah, I want to see. I want to I mean, I know Jonathan Allen's probably gonna miss next week. I don't know if y'all have heard that yet. That's huge for the Cowboys. But you still, uh, Duran Payne is still there, Carrigan's still there. They this is a pretty good front seven they're gonna play and I want to see what

it looks like. And again, Washington's still not the end all be all, But if you can take that on the road and still play that well and throw the ball that Well, that'll mean more to me than torching this team. And that'll be The interesting thing is this week's defense that you'll be playing, they don't necessarily have to move that safety down in order to be able to be stout against the run. Yeah, that helps, right,

because that's that's the one thing Landon Collins, right. They were talking a lot about about this after the game. I think I can't remember which player it was, but they were saying, how you know with this With Kelly Moore, the way he looks at it is he's trying to

agree restively exploit what you give him. And then the keyword there is aggressively, right, So if he sees that you're going to be able, you're gonna bring that safety down, and he's going to go hard after the past and sometimes I think in the past they've had the thought around here, we're going to impose our will. So even when the defense is showing you one thing, you're like, well, we want to dictate the terms of what we're gonna do, So you run into an eight man box because we

want to dictate what we're gonna do. Whereas it sounds like Kellen's a little bit different well, very different from that, and that he is aggressive in the in the in the idea that if you're gonna give him something not he only is gonna go after. He's gonna keep going at it until he forces you to say, I gotta do something different. I hadn't gotten around to that. You know, it takes a while to process all the things you see.

But if Kellen Moore can get this team out of we're gonna do what we do and get him into We're gonna do what you can't do, that's exciting. Yeah, and maybe you know onto that is we do. What we do is kicking your ass. I mean, that's what we go up and down the field whatever however we want to do, however we need to do. Whoever, you know, and maybe Jason Witten, Yeah, I thought it was interesting. In the press conference of you there for Dak, Dak said that when he heard the call for Jarwin, he

was like, oh man, that's the play. That's the play that Witten has. He's like, he's not gonna like that. And whether he did or didn't, they didn't make sure when they got to the four yard line that they ran a play exactly for him. But nobody would ever admit this publicly, but like when that happened, I was like, they like they called that for Witten, like they like somebody was like, let's get Whitten his touchdown and his first came back. But it was well done, The play

was well it was well designed. Yeah, and I wouldn't It's not like they forced it to him. But like, I just feel like somebody said, let's let's get Whitten a tuddy and I and I've never heard that before and never heard the phrase okay, no talk tod And and then I also believe when they've got four touchdowns in, I believe that they got to the ten yard line and Zeke was gonna get that touchdown. Yeah, they were

gonna make sure he got in. So were you guys at all disappointed in what you saw from from Pollard? Because I'll say for myself, I had higher expectations of what he would be and I was thinking at the time what he would be in the event that Zeke wasn't back. But at one point eight average thirteen carries

A little bit disappointed you guys. I think that's a little deceiving though he didn't play that great, but a lot of those carries there at the end of the game were when Zeke was out and they took out some linemen and they knew they were running it and they just stacked it and you know what, you don't you're right, but take it right out of Kellen Moore's mouth. I appreciated him saying that last night. He was like, you know, I'm sure his numbers don't look that great

on paper because he got he literally called it. He was like, we got he got stuck in there at the end and the run it out stuff where literally we knew we were just going to charge into the line and try to kill the clock. I mean, that's what they did, and so that's going to affect your stats, I thought. He I mean, I'm not I'm not disappointed, because immediately in the minute they signed that contract, I was like, all right, I'm readjusting my expectations for Tony Pollard.

I mean, that's just what you're goin to figure it out. I don't know if they had already signed him, but when they drafted Pollard, I mean, I don't know if everyone was convinced Tavon Austin was going to be here beyond the team and have the training camp that he did, because I think a lot of the end the round stuff like that were things that Pollard might be able to do, and maybe over time he will, which that would even be even more dangerous because you have a

running back doing it. Absolutely, I think there's more that he can do. But I mean, they were up thirty five to ten. The passing game was humming. Like if we're upset that Tony Pollard, if they didn't show enough of their Tony Pollard package in week one against an overmatch team, I mean, it's kind of splitting hairs at that point. Right. All right, let's go and take our

final break. We'll come back. We got to talk about the defense unit that we all thought was maybe a better unit, but we'll ask the question did they perform like yesterday. We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. It could be hard to find the right resource for learning about important financial matters. You search how to build savings, you end up reading about the one weird ingredient from supermarkets that

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the Trooper soft coolers at auterbox dot com. While a player could look good on paper, it's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than just stats and scouting reports when building their team. When picking a tractor, it's why you should rely on more than just specs and features. You've got to take it out and put it to the test. The Cowboys did when they named John Dear their official tractor experience one

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word Team JB. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys, the Jack Black Starter ten bucks free shipping Back to the Break, Welcome Back. It is the final segment of the Brake Clyde from the SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, we're gonna talk about the Cowboys defense. Now gave up seventeen points. But I guess the part that you could at least start the conversation with, as they gave up one hundred and twenty yards on eleven carries a ten

point nine average. To say, Quon Barkley, are you at all concerned about the cowboys inability to stop the run yesterday? I'm not concerned. I don't. They didn't. They did not play their best game. They weren't amazing by any stretch. I honestly, you know, the Cleveland Browns got spanked yesterday, and I don't care what anybody says, like it looked like a product of them buying their own height before

they actually played a game. I wonder. I mean, they're good, they're very good, but the Dallas defense, all of a sudden, that's I mean, that's where the star power is. I mean that sounds stupid because they have a lot of stars on offense too, But I mean, you got contrary. Jalen Smith just signed his contract d laws of one hundred million dollar player Vander esh is the wolf Hunter. Like there's some I don't want to call them divas, but you know what these are guys that are they're

not the no name orphans. Yeah, a few years ago, and I wonder it looked like they were buying their own height before playing on that first drive, Like the Giants came out and we're like, hey, this is the NFL. We're gonna we're pretty good too, And that's what it looked like. And then they got punched in the mouth a little bit and they responded really well to it. They're like, Okay, that was Embar saying we're not gonna let you do that anymore. And that's kind of my

impression and the reason I say that. I said this on Twitter last night when the game was in doubt, like before the Cowboys had built up this fantastic lead. After the first touchdown, they went punt punt, turnover on down field goal, takeaway punt punt, and by that point it's thirty five ten and you're playing pre event just to keep anything stupid from happening. So, yeah, the Giants

had four hundred and seventy yards. They scored some garbage time touchdowns, but after an ugly first drive, I thought the defense did exactly what they needed to ye, all right, So but I saw this game kind of like a preseason game for the defense, and I know a lot of them did play in the preseason and all that, but it's like just putting all the elements back together, you know, Byron Engine's coming back, DeMarcus Lawrence back in the mix, everyone in the defensive line coming in as

a whole, I think, you know, it was just kind of getting the speed going, getting into the same rhythm, and getting everyone syncd in together. Yeah, on that note, last night, the Cowboys only had six quarterback hits and one sack, which I thought the sack, the quarterback hits, that seems good. The sacks seemed a little bit off to me that this team that's that's full of guys that seemed to be able to push rush the passer

pretty well ended up with only one sack. Do you guys attribute that to the fact that you had guys like Crawford and Lawrence, who are just working back hadn't played much in the preseason. Robert Quinn's out a guy that they spent some money on this offseason to be a pass rusher for them as well. Do you think it's more of those kinds of things or do you think it was something that the Giants were doing that that kept the Cowboys from getting to the passer and

getting him down more frequently. Eline never has been a guy that gets sacked a lot. Well last year he was sixth in the league, he said, Cowboys. I mean for over the years, he just hasn't. I mean he's slowing down obviously, and you know he thought he could get out there on the edge. I think vander I should close this so quickly that he didn't expect on two plays, he didn't expect Bandarash to get there that

that quickly. The intentional grounding playof thought was a really momentum changing play and a bad call actually, I thought, but the Cowboys got a break there. But I don't know. I don't think it's alarming, but I do think that you're not going to face a guy like Sequon Barkley every week. You take away the fifty nine yard run. You know, I hate doing that, but even if you take it away, it's still averaging six yards to carry.

So he's tough. But they're not going to face that guy every week, and but that will face better receivers and quarterbacks. So yeah, I mean, I has something to watch. There's something I mean in the NFL, it's never a good idea to just boldly just plow ahead and R eleven will just beat your eleven, Like you get beat

that way. At the same time, when you have that guy with his tree trunk legs and just arguably the best back in the league, and on two different like you know, inches to go situations, you're like, screw that. We're gonna roll Eli Manning out and get him on the move. That's that's what's gonna do it. Like I just twice they did that, and twice it blew up

in their face. Like this dude's thirty six. It's at thirty seven years old, Like he's never really been known for his mobility other than a crazy Super Bowl play. What are you doing? Like why would you do that third and two down there? And we were telling ourselves they got two plays to get this and the first one they give it to Penny. I don't even know his first name, Eli, No, I don't know his name. Penny one in one yard, fourth and one and then

they roll out Eli. I mean, can you imagine that's like Lenahan stuff right there, of like we would have led the show with that right not giving it to Zeke, giving it to Ola Wally first, and then you can't even say Dak. It would have to be like a Romo type rolling out Cooper Rush Cooper, Yeah, somebody that you're like this, you know, the best option is Barkley

or Zeke. But because they really hadn't stopped it most of the day that I I mean, he wanted yards, he got yards for the most part it and you know, I definitely don't want to downplay it. Barkley, Barkley got him. It's something to watch. I mean, the first play of the game, you know, vander esh and Heath both got beat.

She fetched him. That was amazing first drive of the game, because really, I think the first play of the game was interesting with you know, he hadn't lost a fumble all year long, and Xavier Woods goes up there on the actual first play of the game and pops the ball out. That could have been a huge, uh you know, tone setting play there by Woods. I thought Xavier Woods did play well. I mean, he played well throughout the game,

had eleven tackles, but to lead the team. But he was all over the place forcing forcing that fumble, had a nice play on the goal line. It looked good. It's so weird. We I said this during the break, but it's so weird. You know, we're big college football fans. Go Tigers. Not that we need to talk about that, right, congratulations. That's what college football is like. The first game of

the season. You usually play like erectional state. You you, you know, you you crap the bed for a quarter and then you're like, all right, all right, let's go. We're playing football now. And all of a sudden you're up twenty eight to seven, and then you get your young guys in and directional State, you get some stuff going and you're like, well, this really didn't look as impressive. The stat sheet doesn't look as impressive as the game was.

And that's what I mean. You don't see that in the NFL, but that's kind of what this was like. The Giants came out and popped them and was like, whoa, that's ooh, that was kind of embarrassing. All right, let's get this thing going, and all of a sudden, it's thirty five ten and Zach Martin's out of the game because he doesn't need to be there, and you just it's kind of trippy when you see that happening. I mean, first downs the Giants had twenty five, Cowboys twenty three.

And then total yards the Cowboys had twenty four more yards. Do you I mean, don't look away from the stat sheet. Do you know what well, you're a big fantasy football guy, do you know what ever? Evan Ingram's line was, Yeah, it was like eleven eleven catches for one hundred yards and a touchdown. Yeah, like he had one of the team some point. He might have had the best game

of any tight end in the league. And I literally up there I saw that last night, and I was like he did, because like I was writing stories and stuff when that all stuff happened, because I was like, I guess he had an impact on the game. Although that's gonna be his role all season. I mean, you think about an offense like that, They don't have a lot of offensive weapons in the passing game, and he's probably the most He's probably the best offensive receiving threat

they've got on their team. He is a very good player. I'm not trying to knock him, but my point is he had a dominant stat line and I'm over here like an afterthought in the game, like I don't even remember him doing anything. It's kind of hard when your best offensive weapon, outside of your running it, your best

receiving weapon, is a tight end. It makes it very very tough, especially you get into a game like they were yesterday, where this team's running up to score on you and you got to start finding ways to get these quick points. You just don't have the horses to be able to do it. Here's the final question I

have for you, guys, and this is more. It goes back to what Amber said at the beginning of the show and how you know she's trying to temper her expectations year for all those fans out there that are listening without completely destroying their excitement today, that's a perspective for those fans on what we saw yesterday and how great it was yesterday in the context of a fuller season and what that might mean for a farmer season. I can say this, the Giants and the Cowboys always

plays pretty close games. Regardless of who's good that year or not. They find a way to keep it close. And it looked like it was going to go that way for a little bit, and then, like Dave said, like happens in college games, we're just better than you, and we're gonna we're gonna show it over the course

of sixty minutes. It reminds me of that Patriots Cowboys game in two thousand and seven when they were undefeated and they come in here and they were hanging with it for a while, but the clock keeps going, and after sixty minutes, you look up and they've scored forty eight on you because they just keep scoring and you can't, you know. And that's what I think happened. The better team you They just showed that they were better and they don't always do that to teams, and they did

it in this game. So that's a sign. Uh yeah, I mean it, there's nothing wrong with being excited to spet. Like. The offense was fun again. It looked modern. It was all the stuff we've been clamoring for. And I would that's not going to change. It might not be as absurdly effective, but it's gonna be happening all years. So

that's exciting. Um. But man, I mean, the Ravens did this too, and I feel like the Ravens open every season by just plastering somebody like that, like three or four years in a row, they've won like fifty five to ten. They beat the crap out of Miami yesterday and it has come to down. But my point is, you know, the Ravens haven't won a Super Bowl in seven years, like you know a lot. I mean, as good as you look in Week one, it doesn't necessarily

have bearing. But the trends are what I watch, and I don't think Kellen Moore is just suddenly gonna shelve his offense for the rest of the year. So that's what's encouraging for me. But I'm not I'm not ready to crown anybody off of the strength of beating a

bad football team. How much do you guys expecting that The fact that this was the first time the NFL got to see Kellen Moore's offense and they don't really have a good playbook on his tendencies yet how much do you think that was a factor yesterday and then as you move forward, becomes less and less of a factor. The more there's there's more, there's film on tape of what he likes to do in certain situations. See. I think it's pretty similar to when Dak and Seek first

got here. You know, other teams had no idea who these guys really were, what they could do on a professional level, and that's why I believe that they were so successful that year. Now with Kellen Moore, I'm just really curious to see after several games once other teams star studying his playbook and trying better defenses, trying to analyze exactly how to stop them. You know, what is he going to do under that kind of pressure? Is he going to be able to adjust and play a

better game? That's what I'm curious about. But I am still excited. There's nothing wrong with that, I am And here's here's Here's the thing too, is the fact that the offense made me forget about the defense in a way. Does that make sense? Like, um, the offense played so well that you weren't even concerned about the defense and whatever, exactly, thank you you got exactly, but I was chemistry show. But that's the point. And I believe that the defense is gonna pick it up next week and get back

to their groove. And once that happens, and you got both sides of the ball playing at that level, they're gonna be very destructive. I think the defense did play well. This is kind of sounding like they didn't play well. No, no, no, compared to what we've seen in the past. Well yeah, yeah, the expectations. Yeah, I mean I think they I think they did a really nice job in the game, and so um this is they gave up ten points really in my opinion, and that's definitely good enough to win

a lot of games. So it just looks balanced. You know, the special teams did a nice job, and you don't have to worry about you don't have to worry about the kicker. If you're not scoring, you're not settling for field goal. Good point. And how about the red zone? You know, two out of two, but they didn't even get down there because they were scoring above that. I just I just think that Randall Cobb, I mean, Beasley as good as he was doing what he does, cobbed

and just give you a little bit more. He can give you that more down the field type type presence. So, um, just a great start. I mean it's it's a great start, but that's all it is. I mean there's I would say there's gonna be sixteen teams that are one to know, but that's not the case because the Cardinal Tis ruined it and it was the NFL has ruined it with their rules of ties. Yeah, was that you that that put that out? Tyler Murray? Did you call him that? No,

that was Bill Builds a good joke. It was actually really good. That does sound like me. Yeah, that's what someone in the press box. We're gonna it wasn't me. We're gonna have to do math like every time we talk about the Well, no we're not, because the Lions and Cardinals are not gonna playoffs. But when the Packers and somebody tied, I hate ties, I hate it. But it was a good game for a Cowboys, good start

to the season. This week, it'll be a little bit more of a challenge, I would think with this Washington Redskins team. I think they got a little bit more there. We'll talk about that starting tomorrow. We'll start getting you guys ready for that game until they're for Nick Gatman, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.