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Cowboys, Let's go right.
Are you ready for a break? Yes?
Are you ready for a break?
Absolutely?
Ready for a break?
Yeah, and so much for that.
It's time for the Break on.
Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Were on with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Monday, October twenty eighth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number fifty six. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We are live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Start, presented by LGLG is the world's the number one O lead TV brand for eleven years in counting. See why at LG dot com Ford slash O lead Evil. How's everybody doing this morning?
Good?
We'll wait?
Yeah, you know, feel a little bit better educated about what happened? Got you. I would just sleep like everybody here, but gotta get up, educate myself and yeah, get ready for the day.
So you saw some film and I say, we got a lot we'll get into. There are so many things about that game. I think that that are worth discussing because it was really a tale of multiple quarters, like there were just serious, serious, Yeah, you're talking about these wild shifts from very very poor football play to very very good football play that happened throughout that game. And we'll get into all of it. I know what ambers feelings are. I could tell by the way she was
on the plane last night. This ain't gonna be good. But remember remember just pace yourself, all right. Take deep breaths, Yeah, take deep breaths. Let's start first. Obviously, Cowboys get the loss last night, they lose thirty to twenty four on the road on Sunday Night football. Let's start with storylines of the game. What was the biggest storyline. I'll start off with you, Brian.
Yeah, there's a couple of things that I just the really bad third quarter of offense I think set you back. The three and outs. Mike addressed it last night postgame, talking about just didn't really give your defense any kind of a chance. I think the defense is, you know, as we all understand, is being held together with gorilla tape and baling wire right now, you know, with the
way they're trying to play. The bad third quarter of offense, I think really really affected you in that second half there. They didn't have a really great plan for how to deal with Kittle. And this is what bothers me the most. And we talk about Amber always ask about practicing and things like that. You know, you go into a game kind of understanding that they're limited, maybe in some of the receivers that they have, maybe some of their weapons.
No Brandon Nyuk, you know, Deebo Samuel has having to go to the sidelines every other play basically to kind of catch his breath. But it's George Kittle, you know, it's Kittle. It's Mason. Mason gets hurt with a shoulder Garrindo though, if you watch the Draft Show, and Derek, thank you for letting us have the Draft Show every year because we talked about we talk about these types of players, and so to me, he fit in very very well to what they We were all worried about
their ability to run the football. That was not gonna be a problem. But you didn't handle the Kittle situation all that well. Donovan Wilson against Kittle is we all saw as not a good, uh, not a very good matchup at all, you know, especially if you allow Kittle to play from where you have you give him space, where you give him the ability to run, to operate, to move in routes. It's going to be a difficult cover for most all safeties in the league, but especially
Donovan Wilson. What was the adjustment late in the game when they started getting some stops all of a sudden, you saw Jordan Lewis play a rep over there. Yeah, you saw mcwalman play. You needed to treat him like a like a wide receiver. He was the one guy in this game. If this, for example, was Bill Belichick New England versus Dallas, I am not letting Jason Witten beat me in this football game. Everybody else could beat me in this football game. I'm not letting that guy
beat me. And you know that's the thing with you know, I look at it going into it and you just say, well, that's unfortunate. Could have done better. There, Rock Party running the football his legs and Ambar has been asking about
this for your own quarterback. Where's the quarterback's legs? You saw what example last night, and if you watched a lot of NFL games yesterday, you saw quarterbacks taking advantage of plays that break down in their ability to run and rock Party hurt you last night with his ability to run, to pull it down to make big plays. Heck, one time they've got it screen defensed really well. He kind of like I'm throwing that we're up the side up, you know, right through the scene we go for about
you know, sixteen yards or so. So Yeah, defensively, there were some things that you know, but like I say that that group's getting held together. The offense is just wildly inconsistent from from series to series. It's it's it's difficult at times to watch and in other times you study the tape and you're going, that's what you gotta do it. But it's just that's that's kind of what your football team is right now.
Just taking a deep breath, Like my heart starts beating so fast every time we go back, if we get back from games like these. And Brian is absolutely right on everything he said for what no, but on the defense. But to Amber, yeah, right, no, you're right with everything you said. But right now, my beef is not with the defense. My beef here is with the offense. Because you got to look at the list of items of issues right and prioritize where are your biggest issues coming
from you should have won that game. You should have won this game against the forty nine ers. You were very close. The defense gave you what they could give you, given all the circumstances, given the things that they're struggle with consistently. But they held it there and they gave you a chance. But offensively, you screw it up again. And what is more, the reason why I get so frustrated is because you see those instances that Brian pointed
out where you know they can do it. You know the offense can't put plays together and work positively and score and get to the end zone. But they just they just screw it up every time. And at key moments, like again when the forty nine ers score that field goal and then they get the Cowboys get the ball back with like three minutes left in the game, you had all the chances and then all of a sudden it took like I don't know how long it took, honestly, but they were in and out, yeah, and they could
not do anything. And some of the decision making on some of those plays I think, in my opinion, and I'll say it again, I haven't been a fan of McCarthy play calling. Some of the decisions that he made in this game. It makes me wonder, I'm like, do you and considering like they don't have Brandon Cooks in the offense, considering the struggles that the O line is having currently, But at the same time, some of those
plays to Covanta Terpin, it makes me wonder. I'm like, do you know your players well enough to where you're positioning them the best way? Like those long throws to Kavanta Is It's just not a play that you would think should be structure for Kvanta Terping like you would imagine some other type of players. So it's just a lot of question marks there that you're like, man, these
games keep slipping away from you. And you've had even in games like Detroit where they got completely dominated in the first half of the game, the defense still kept you in there where you had a chance, but again the offense hasn't been able to step up. Dak is just I've been defending him his whole career, but I'm at a point where I don't know what else to say, Like,
I can't I can't find anything positive right now. And we can argue about the offensive line struggles all day long, but there are so many players where that's all on Dak, that's all on him making the decisions that he's made. And again you mentioned him using his feet. What the heck is going on? Like what somebody needs somebody, somebody
needs to ask the question. I don't know if anybody in the media has asked that question yet, but it's like, why why There were several opportunities even last night where he could have run and he doesn't and I don't understand why.
Yeah, it might be going back to when we were in training camp and stuff, when he was in a walking boot and stuff like that. He might be his injury might have compromised the older that he's got. I haven't asked about this, but I'm just kind of thinking out loud.
Yeah, I would love to hear his thoughts on that, because that's the same thing that popped in my mind. And obviously I don't want to make that declaration because you don't know, but I want someone to ask him that question, like is the is this a situation where you have chosen not to run? And if so, why are you choosing not to run? Because there seems to be as you mentioned Namber. I think it was the
last series that the Cowboys at. It was maybe second or third down and there was an opportunity for a run. He probably doesn't pick up the first down, but he definitely changes how you play the class two downs, right, Yeah, And I think that's the part where I'm like, come on, let's let's and think about think about it like this
with Dak. In my opinion, if you go all the way back to college Dak and then to his early party, his game has always been predicated on Yeah, you can take me for granted if you want to, but if I take off running, good luck trying to get me down, especially in the open field. And you got one guy
trying to get me down because I'm a big dude. Right, That is now flipped and he's kind of taken away or for whatever reason, not using his own superpower, because that's the superpower, and that's what makes his game I think so much better. If there's an element of the possibility of him running. I think it changes everything with how defenses have to defend him. That creates opportunities for him to open up his passing game. It's sounds kind of like when you talk about offense, you say the
running game will open up the past. I think it's the same thing for Dak individually in his game. I think his ability to run opens up the pass for him. And I'm just interested to know why we aren't seeing that anymore. It's like this year it's just nonexistent.
Yeah, I just maybe I could say when we started to hear about things about walking boots and you know, and having to take days, and maybe there's maybe the older that he's got, the more difficult it is. Maybe the area is not as flexible as it once was. Maybe he doesn't have the confidence with the burst that he feels like, you know, on the interception that he had the first one, and you mentioned the ball that went down the to Turpen. He always talks about his footwork.
Dak always says, my footwork, my footwork on that play. Now, there's a couple of different things that you can you can think about here. And maybe it's unfortunate for the Cowboys in this way that they have. They have Dalvin Cook in the game at the running back, and how many times have we seen a running back make a hero block so the ball gets out? Yeah, you know,
and maybe Dalvin because not much time on task. He's sitting to the side where the pressure is coming from where steel and you know, you're thinking like inside out and we've seen we've seen even Deuce Vaughn like like a pickup, like all of a sudden, there's some leakage coming and now somebody steps up and or doubt all one of those guys. And unfortunately you don't get that pickup, you know, that hero pickup I would call. But Dak's
footwork drifts him. You know, it's like he goes back, but he's like he's planted and now he's not square in the middle of the pocket. He's drifted to the right, which is taking him into bosa. He needs help, he needs a block. He doesn't get it. But now it's an all arm throw and you're thinking, well, damn, it's pressure right there. Yeah, there's pressure. But the way that his footwork took him, it drifted him, you know that that direction. So it's something he always works on. But
you know, it's it's it's it's it's tough. That part of it's tough because you know that to me, the throw wasn't open to begin with. The route and here's to Ambar's point about maybe some things with Mike and some play calling and maybe some play design, maybe stuff that the general manager was questioning last to last week about some design stuff. You know, you see San Francisco with a with a vertical and a drag behind it.
The Cowboys on that route, they have a smash route or an in and out or pivot you know inside with Tolbert, and then they go vertical. There's nothing carrying, there's nothing holding the safety. I mean, I can't tell any times yesterday there was Cowboys hooker and and those guys getting held because of a vertical route and something coming underneath it.
They have to respect it.
They have to respect it. So you know, if Tolbert runs vertically, maybe that keeps Brown in the middle of the field because he has to carry that route or worry about that that little smash route. He's like, they're not whoa, where's this? Okay, here there's a vertical route, so you.
Will pivot route, geek out somebody else that he count.
You're thinking, like, okay, create, you're creating opportunities. And we do. We all watch enough NFL and watch enough college games to see the combinations that like, ah, that route carried like the CD when they got down in the red zone. The routes that that Tolbert and in Turpent ran drug CD across and what happened They lost They lost track on the other side. So you're like, oh, oh, here we go. That's that's what you have to do to
get guys wide open and create separation. But then you're gonna throw a vertical route to a five to nine guy with safety help in the middle of the field.
With nothing help making that safety out, nothing, nothing else.
So those are the things that kind of when you're watching you go, man, they could do better. They I've seen him do better. And then there's other times like what the hell was that? Yeah, you know, and all of a sudden the quarterback's having to make you know. And the second interception was that was on the quarterback too. I mean, he you know, but I look at it too. As the play call, you're you're rolling, you're rolling the
quarterback to his left, which he's good at doing. Early in the game, you kind of saw CD caught a drag underneath with him rolling left. He kind of slung its side arm in there. But that ball's got to be. I mean, CD has separation. That ball has to because he's moving. It's got to go. It's the quick and the longer he holds that ball, the more that needs to be in the bench. If that because that that doesn't need to be I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm waiting.
That's not one of those plays. That's a get the ball there. And you know, he the quarterback, admitted it. He's got to throw that ball away. But you know, but Mike's got to help him. We'll think with the play call a little bit there. You know, rolling your quarterback to where he has to get himself square to throw will take time.
Yeah, all right, we're going to take our first break. We're going to come back. We're going to dive into this a little bit more and talk more about this offense, particularly we'll talk some about Dak. We'll also get into the running game. We saw a couple of things, a couple of new personnel pieces. I don't know how much it changed from the standpoint of the results, but we'll talk about that when we come back this Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Back to the break.
LG oled evo is the best TV in the game, but don't take our word for it. Digital Trends said that LG oled G four has the best picture quality they've ever seen. See it for yourself at LG dot com. Slash ol ed Evil. Today is not today, Derek, for you to be messing with me with little sleep and embarrassing loss like that one.
I'm just trying something to bring a little levity this thing.
Man.
It's it's tough, all right. We welcome back into the second segment, right live from the s w BC Mortgage studios at the Star at the Star. This segment's brought to you by block mock Chaine dot com. All right, let's talk about the running game. We find out roughly about I don't know an hour and a half to two hours before the game that Rico Dawdle is sick, and then find out he is inactive. And then we also knew that Dalvin Cook was being elevated for this game.
He had been elevated on Saturday. You look at it, and to be honest with you, I don't know that I could perceive a real different Zeke runs ten times for thirty four yards or three point four average and a touchdown. Although I will say, for Zeke's credit, there were some runs that I was like, that was a really good run. He had like two or three runs in that game. I was like, that was a really good run.
Half of his runs were successful runs of four plus yards a carry. Yeah, it was.
It was some good moments in there. Dalvin Cook had six carries twelve yards a two point oh average. And my question for you guys is did you was there anything that you saw there that suggests to you Dalvin Cook should have been in there sooner or that Dalvin Cook needs to be more involved in this offense. From the standpoint of the.
Running game, I wish we would have seen this like week three instead of week what are we not nine?
K now?
Are we heading into this? Is sweet? Was week coming in?
Week nine, so halfway through the season.
So my point is, like heading into week nine, we shouldn't have these questions around this guy that you picked up earlier on in the season and now you're deciding to give it a go and try it out.
Like I'm gonna ask you a question real quick.
Uh huh?
Could maybe the reason why have been exposed? Brian talked about it a little earlier. You had to play where you wanted Dalvin to kind of make that picture. Yeah, yeah, but is there something to maybe the fact that maybe he wasn't ready because maybe he didn't know what he needed to do. And the last thing they could do is they're already having problems with protection up front. The last thing you want to do is bring in a running back maybe that doesn't know how what the protections
look like, and then you get your quarterback hurt? Could that maybe have been part of it?
Maybe I'm stupid, and I'm sure some people listening will be like, yeah, you aren't listen. No, But to me, it seems like if you're a professional NFL player and get to you get paid in this league, it shouldn't be that complicated for you to understand the playbook and your assignments. It's not like there's a whole encyclopedia, think a book of the things that you should learn. I mean again, maybe I'm completely wrong. You're making these white eyes.
They're big, but it shouldn't be that complicated for you to not get it in like a few weeks if you're studying and sitting there and learning and doing your job of what you're getting paid to do. But maybe I'm absolutely wrong, and it's a lot harder and it takes you half a season for you to get in. Like, I don't know, I'm not over there. I'm not seeing those practices because we're not allowed to watch those portions.
But to me, again, my opinions are based on the things that we do get to see and the things that are on film and during the game day. So it just seems that we keep waiting so long to make certain decisions or to even find certain things out to the point where okay, now you're sitting here wondering, like the little hope that you had in this guy that was sitting in your practice squad now completely diminished. But again, I think the problem goes beyond who the
running back is. I think this is just a collective thing with what the old line is doing. And I feel like even going back to last year, we saw different running backs. Even with ton Tony Poehler, we knew that he could get the ball going and run, but it still wasn't happening. So I think there's a of course, a good running back. You bring it in here, obviously it's gonna show up some things. But I don't think that one person is just going to magically change to the running game for you.
Yeah, I think that to me when you look at it, these running backs are kind of all the same. I think Rico dadd will probably better. You know, and I shouldn't say all the same, but running styles very similar. You don't really have an explosive back that that, you know, I mean, Grindo for them is got some explosiveness when you know when and and you know Dallas in that game last night, weren't you know usually they they they teams just don't respect their run. They play light box
against them. They played neutral box, which much six you know you're talking about, you know, six or fewer defenders down in there for the light ones, seven defenders or less for the you know, the neutral ones. And that's what they got last night. And you know, if you look at Ezekiel Elliott, his success was when they played
six or less in the box. And so, you know, Dallas just is having having a little bit of some issues and a little and I and I say it with the respect of what you know, Cooper Bebe is getting better as a run blocker. Last night he actually showed more of the pushing his guy to the next guy and then getting up. You know, but there were a couple of runs where they just didn't block Fred Warner and you're like going, wait a minute, how can you have a running play if you don't block the
best run defender. I think there's some there's some scheme things that they're not really good at right now. I think they're struggling with some of the combination blocks, the second level blocks, the tight end blocks. You know, you could maybe have EMMITTT. Smith back. They're running the ball and it probably wouldn't matter right now. You just don't have anything that you could really, you know, hang your hat on and say, okay, if Dallas had to call
this running play, they'd get four yards. You know. They just don't have that. There's always there's just something always breaks down for them. Sometimes the backs don't see the holes. Sometimes they don't block the mic linebacker. Sometimes they don't get the point of attack block with the tight end. You know. That's Other teams have issues, but not to the level of the Cowboys have right now.
Let me ask you this. I look at this offensive line and I think three of the five positions are playing below the standard of what I would have expected for them. Sure, particularly the right hand side, right guard, right tackle, and then the left tackle. At this point, like, is this a situation I know where I know.
The left tackle wasn't terrible last night. Yeah, he wasn't as pass blocker, it was really it was. It was very refreshing that they tried to help him some. But I'm sorry to me, but it was nice to see. I was worried for jailbreak. I was ready for just up the field, up the field.
And I only saw that once or twice.
Yeah, Yeah, he was. His technique was much better, his hands, his feet, you know, I mean, he wasn't in bad body position, So that part of it was encouraging for me. Yesterday. Yep.
I look at this offensive line and I'm starting to wonder.
Now.
I know Dak has to take accountability for it, because ultimately he's the quarterback. But I do think what I'm seeing right now from Dak is uncharacteristic. This is not what Dak typically is. And I do wonder how much the pressure has gotten to him. I want any pressure, I mean the pressure the pass rush has gotten to him. Not there, Yes, the pass rush. I wonder how much it's gotten to the point where And you see this quarterbacks, sometimes you're under duress so much that you start feeling
deressed before it's even there. Sometimes and you press and you try to get the ball out a lot quicker. You sometimes make ill you know, ill designed throws because you're afraid the pressure is going to get there. And I wonder how much the offensive line and the woes of the offensive line are affecting Dak in the passing game more than even just the miss blocks. What do you guys think?
Well, see, I'm starting to get annoyed with that argument because over the years, we've seen so many different like literally everything has been changed around Dak. Like you've changed personnel, you've changed coaches, you've changed had coaches, you've changed quarterbacks coaches multiple times, Like there are so many different pieces that have changed constantly around Dak in order to cater
the type of quarterback that he is. Now we're at the point in this career where he should be able to make the decisions like a veteran guy, decisions that he's not making, and it goes beyond and maybe it goes hand in hand maybe with the whole running situation and maybe the mental aspect of it for whatever reason, if that is coming back into his mind, the whole
injury situation. But again, thinking back of last year, we did see multiple positive run plays from him, So whatever happened in the summer where he was taking pictures wearing that boot, maybe that's something that's completely affecting his game.
But even then, in some of those throws, like even last night, and I was telling you, Derek, I'm like, it just looks like he's just throwing the ball to throw it, Like there is no sense of like confidence or strategic or like sense of like he actually scanned the field and has a hold of what is happening. Some of those throws, it just looks like he just he's just throwing it and hoping that he gets lucky.
So talking about your confidence, and I agree completely on chrisped uncorrect, uncorrect, Help me out with the word uncharacteristic, sorry, characteristic the thank you of him because we've seen him time and time again, and one of his better qualities throughout his career is how well he can keep his composure as a quarterback and the mental aspect of things, even like when they're trailing behind, he can come back
and just be focused. More often than not. It tends to be too late, too little, too late for the Cowboys. But whatever the reason is, maybe maybe we put it on the on the foot out of I don't know, or the practices. It just seems odd. And I don't want to put all the blame on the offensive line because there are many plays where I feel like he's had a little bit of time and the decisions are still bad.
Yeah, And I'm not in any way trying to absolve him of his responsibility in this because when you're making the amount of money he's making. Guess what the responsibility is yours? Figure it out. Like that's just the part of it. We all know that, like the more you get, the more the more you're compensated for what you do, the more you got to be accountable for everything else that happens around you. So I'm not absolving him of
his responsibilitiness. I am saying, though, that I think looking at this offensive line, in my opinion, this is the worst offensive line he's ever played behind since he's been here with the Cowboys. And I think you're right he should be able to But should and does is a whole different thing. Maybe he's not able to overcome having this level of offensive line and still be able to
be as productive as he's been in the past. That's all the point I'm making is maybe what we're seeing is that's not and a recipe that works, because, by the way, these are not different players. Like Terrence Steel's been here, he's just not playing at the level that he once did. Traving I mean, I'm sorry I keep on to call them Travis Frederick, Zach Martin has been here. This is certainly not the level that he's played at.
So it's not that it's not that he's that they've all of a sudden just you know, changed all the personnel. It's that the personnel that they've had, that they've relied on, that they've relied on for the last several years, just isn't playing to the to the quality that you've come to expect. And I wonder if that has affected the quarterback's ability to be able to really stand in the air and trust the fact that I know the right side's taken care of. I don't know that he feels
like that right now. I don't know how he could feel like that right now, knowing what we've watched over there on that right hand side of the ball.
And maybe, and maybe it's just my own line of thinking of where maybe I just hold him to a higher standard, and we've had this conversation off the air that maybe this is just a quarterback that he is and he does us need so many other pieces to be working around him in order for him to actually be successful and making all this and real quick if I can make this point out something last night during his press conference talking after the game, and you guys know, I always try to look at people's.
Vibe and all that.
You know, it just seemed odd. It seemed like and to your point, Derek, maybe the pressure just more than the getting the pressure on the field. I think overall, he seemed to me in the way that he was answering questions like he's just worn out, Like where you just standing there and like reciting these words, and he's so good at answering questions, but you're just spitting out
words and there's no real feeling behind it. And I'm not saying he doesn't have feeling or doesn't care, but maybe it's to the point where he he doesn't even know what else to say.
At this point, the questions initially start about the interceptions, Yeah, because he's had four games now with multiple interceptions, and that was something that he lived two years ago. And if we remember very well, the summertime leading up to training camp of a couple of years ago, was every one of these shows, the ESPN shows, the Fox Sports shows, every show led with Dak interception questions. And he got tired of answering the interception questions. And then last year
he threw i think nine total interceptions for the year. Well, he's at eight right now, you know, and you've got you know, ten more games ago, and now all of a sudden he realizes once again that it's falling on his shoulders of these interceptions and these turnovers. And maybe to your point, this is why he's like wore out. You know, he's he's got you know guys, you know asking him questions about the interceptions, and he's like, I can't do that, I can't do that, I can't do that.
And it's every week now, you know, every week he is having to answer questions about protecting the football, which last year he did at a very high level, elite level, second in the MVP voting level. Far from that, more like the guy that was two years ago, and you would think in year nine that you wouldn't have that kind of issue.
Was the total for two years ago on interceptions?
I forgot it was it. I can't remember exactly, wouldn't like I could look it up here in a second, but it was it was double digits. Yeah, it was double digit interceptions. But remember every day he had to sit there and you know, Stephen A. Smith and all those yeah, all those people, Shannon STARp, all those people
were talking about interceptions, interceptions. You watch Nfilm Network, that's all they talked about were Dak's interceptions, and you know, and then he really put all that to bed last year. But now that's coming back, and you know, the questions about is he really seeing the field? Well, you know, fortunately for the Cowboys, man, let's be honest. I mean, he tried to throw that that first pass to ceedee lamb. You know, when they got the ball back on that,
they're trying to win the game. When you drive, he's trying to throw it through three red shirts. You know, you're like, whoa, you can't do that, man, You got you gotta get you gotta be better than that. And I think that's what's kind of starting to creep into his his his mind right now.
All right, we're gonna take our final fifteen fifteen last year nine and then so far this year eight.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's right on pace.
Halfway to break in that.
Yeah, all right, we're gonna take our final break. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about this defense and maybe even get to a little bit of frustration we saw there at the end of the game. Once the game was over. We'll talk about that when we come back. Stop it because the Dallas Cowboys dot Com radio.
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Break At and T connecting changes everything.
Welcome back. Final segment of the break Life from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Let's finish this thing strong. Let's talk about the defense. Last night, San Francisco rushed for two hundred and twenty three yards without Christian McCaffrey and without Mason, who was their starter going into the night. He left at what about halftime a little after halftime.
For the shoulder, Yeah, this shoulder problem. Yeah, and Grenda, Yeah, Grendo came in and did a really nice.
Jock, really good game for him. They still rushed for two undred twenty three yards, an average of six point two yards per carry, two rushing touchdowns, explosive. They only had seventy at the half. Seventy rushing yards at the half, And I thought, okay, Dallas, this is you know you in that game. Yeah, you give up one hundred and forty yards on the ground at the end of that game. I'm like, okay, that would be a win. And that's typically a high number, but that would still be a win.
To then end with two hundred and twenty three. What happened in the second half as far as the rushing game and the rushing like the rushing defense that put them in that situation.
Yeah, if you if you really really, if say, they got into a situation where they were having to sell out, you know, and and the forty nine ers, the forty nine ers offensive line, I thought, did a really nice job when it came to you're always they're always going to give you probably problems with the movement because they're always going to get the extra blocker, They're always going to find a way to get a motion guy over. We talked about condensed formations and how that helps them
with their block and stuff. Their offensive line did a really great job of you know, and there were some there was some really some good snaps with Massie Smith. There were a couple of times where he was a little bit violent they needed they needed oh soo Diggi's I want to be a little violent in there. They got gashed on some runs where they were gambling a
little bit. What happens is you get you get Wilson goes one way, and then and then Kendricks goes the other, and they're they're gashed inside because they've got things pinned. They got everybody pinned inside and they got a kick
and now they've got an alley. And there were a couple of times where it was it was trying to play downhill, trying to control blocks, not controlling the blocks, but all of a sudden, now you have one guy on one side, one guy in the other, and now you have this natural alley where you know, we always talk about fits and finish and stuff. You know, they they played the toss sweep actually pretty good in this game, and I was worried about being underneath center running the
sweep and then and then capturing the edge. I think Golston did a hell of a job in this game with his ability to play down Phil, him overshowing those guys running it's as he could. I'm gonna are you gonna get into Diggs the conversation about Diggs. I'm just gonna say this real quick about Diggs. I see why Diggs got mad at Mike Lesley.
That's where I wanted to go.
Yeah, I really do. And you know, after the game, I'm like, because to me, when I went back, I felt because watching the game just on the TV copy in the studio, I'm linking Digs wasn't terrible. And then I watched tape this morning and there were several times Digs by far Diggs has had far worse games.
He played physical as a run to heat he did, And.
I'm not I'm not trying to stick up for the guy because, like I say, there have been moments where Diggs has not helped you at all. And last night I kind of felt like maybe one of his best games when it came to having to play with physicality, dealing with receivers, dealing with block dealing with kittle, dealing with guys coming into his face and trying to get rid and step up, you know, make a tackle. Be there.
I think Leslie questioned the ball that went up the sidelines, and maybe his angle wasn't the kind of you know, but I tell you that we're far more good plays than there were bad. I've seen him play with far, far, far less intensity than he did last night.
There were a lot more, in my opinion, there were a lot more busts on that play or bad play on that play that didn't have to do with him. And that's what I think he was getting at when he said, you watched that whole play, and that's what you came away with, Like I think, and by the way, Trayvon as a professional has to not put himself in that situation that that is a like I used to I remember somebody saying this long time ago, and it's gonna fly over the heads of all the young people
with Ryan, You'll get it. Never pick a fight with people that buy ink by the barrel. Like it's just not a good idea. The whole point of that is when you pick a fight with the media. The media's whole jobs to sit around every day and just talk. That's what they do all day every day. So when you pick a fight with the media, you probably ain't gonna win. It's not a good idea. And I think in that situation, Trayvon should have just been like, have it,
you can have it, man, whatever. But I see why he was upset because I think he came out of the game thinking I did exactly what everybody's been saying I got last I got I did what everybody said I couldn't do last night, and you watched that play, which by the way, didn't indict me, and came away from it with something that I did wrong in some way.
See, I agree completely and like, okay, as a professional, you just stay in the locker room, don't even engage. But at the same time, I one hundred percent understand his frustration because that's someone that works in the media. And I'm speaking about Mike. He works in the media. We know he has some power or influence over whoever
his followers are. So when you make a wrong assessment of my job and what I'm doing, You're gonna be mad and you want to confront that, and you're he's human, he's human, and the emotions get there, especially if you feel like you really tried hard. And then the play that you want to point out is not a good example of what you're trying to showcase or tell. So I understand that should have should he have done that?
Probably not?
But and then another thing that I wanted to point out, I see a lot of people on social media saying, really, you go into the locker room, you don't even take your paths off or anything, and you're sitting and getting on social media searching for your name. I think people be better than that, Like use your head a little more than that. I know you guys are more intelligent
than that. Two things. One, when you get on your phone, many people can be texting you, your friends, family members, sending.
You stuff, and that's not typically that's how it goes.
Following like let me see what Mike lastlie put out about me or anything. And another thing, we all we all get on our phones when we get off work, when we get off work, when we get near our phone. Doesn't matter where you're at in the workplace or anything, doesn't matter what's going on in your life. Nowadays, it's an automatic. You get on your phone and it's just like this escape of whatever's going on. But yet you enter another world on your phone and all this craziness.
And of course, so I understand all of that. And again I understand there are many many plays that he's play and I've called him out on this show after games or he's had many miss tackles and things like that. But understand there is a human side to it as well, and in this specific scenario, I don't think. I don't think he was fully on the wrong in this case. You know, stand up for yourself, see the thing and show it on the field too.
And real quick if I could, Derek, I know my personal experience of going from being in scouting to being now in the media and stuff like that. And I remember you talked about Smilica. Jason Garrett, Jason Garrett, Jason Whitten. Oh yeah, one time. You know there was a game where they played the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle and des Brian and him were running routes and got it was an interception and I thought his route carried his man into Dez's area, and that's why you got the interception.
And Jason found out that I said something about that. I brought it up and he came up to me, saw me in the locker and he says, hey man, you got a minute, And I'm like sure, and he grabbed me and pulled me aside and said, he said, listen, let me just tell you what the row of the route, you know, and he explained it to me. What you know, he didn't embarrass me in front of everybody, but he says, you know, if you think I ran the wrong route, let me explain why it happened and what the look was.
And so there's ways to handle that. I mean, it just is the optics are bad when you come out of the locker room and you still have your uniform on. He could have waited for Mike leslie in there and pulled Mike aside and walked outside, walked over by the bus and just said, hey man, I'm just this is what happened. I mean, you look at the run tackles.
He had four run tackles in that game yesterday. You know, there's been games where he hasn't had one run tackle in the game, So you know, he tried to be a more physical player, and I think the film showed he was a more physical er. I think that's what got him so mad. It's like, you know, hey, I played my ass off for me because I don't normally play this way. Yeah, you know, and so you're gonna get on me about this one play.
And you know, I think that's one of the things too. Over the years, I've learned with that. It's why I don't really live tweet games as much as I used to, is because those instant evaluations sometimes can be very, very wrong, and you do need the perspective of being, in my opinion, of being able to two things, one being able to go in the locker room after the game and actually talk to guys and say what happened on this play? What did you see on this play? Why did you
do what you did on this play? And then number two, go back and watch it for yourself, because you will find there's so many times in games I have one opinion after the game is done, or after a play is done, and I go back and watch the game later and I'm like, wow, no, I missed that that was something else went over here? That really affected that play, and so I think both those things have to happen.
And I think Nick at the nail on the head this morning when he was on one on five Do three the Fan with Sean and RJ, and he was like, Yeah, as a reporter, it's your responsibility to ask that question, but not ask it to Twitter. Ask it to the player. Figure out what the player, what happened, what were you doing on this play, what did you see on this play? And then report what you saw or what the player said, and if you have exception take exception that then you
can report it in that way. But you did your due diligence to find out what it actually was.
Supposed to be. We've all been in this league a long time, and myself on the personal side of it, there were things as a personal guy that I did not know and I'd have to go ask yeah, And that's the danger of this when you start to say, well, gosh, it was this guy's fault, this guy's fault. You know, you watch it, you make the best evaluation, but you try and ask somebody if you really really really don't know,
ask somebody in the organization, and usually you'll get an answer. Like, I think about it this way, and I'm like, man, and.
Off the record, players will be pretty honest with They will say, yeah, yeah, I messed that one up. Well, they'll say, hey, that guy over here like this is just look over here. You'll see kind of what happened. They'll tell you off the record, if you developed the right what kind of relationships? And then you go and ask the question and don't just kind of run with something just because you think you saw something.
You know.
Yeah, that's the tough part of this job, trying to find that balance right there.
But I think we have Mike Leslie on the radio today at six o'clock.
That'll be fine.
Three.
Hey, this isn't Mike's first time around the plodam.
I'm gonna I'm going to ask him, like, bro, is there a better way to handle that? Yeah? Seriously, I'm gonna ask him because I go, I know you didn't have the opportunity to watch the tape like I did this morning, but you might want to go watch that tape. Yeah, guy might have played, Yeah, some of his most physical games he's playing in a while.
And I wonder if in that situation, I wonder if Mike will do the right thing in my opinion, which is go to to Trayvon and be like, dude, I probably talk how to turn a little bit on that one, because you did play from the standpoint of what I was trying to point out, which I think what he was trying to point out is he's not playing good in run defense. He played a pretty good game.
Create him in those sixty five players exactly, don't create him on one exactly.
All Right, we appreciate you guys on this. We'll be back tomorrow.
We'll start you guys questions.
Yeah, we're gonna go to the Brian of my the brain of Brian brought us Sure.
I mean that, I'm not gonna let that quote die.
That was that was all.
It was hilarious.
It actually was pretty good. Between that and fix this rich Like those two are now there the top two quotes of all times from players. It's pretty good. All Right, We'll see you guys more until then. For Brian brought us Ambergarci. I'm Derek Eilton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football club