The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Cowboys Let's go.
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 with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Wednesday, October thirtieth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number fifty eight. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break Life in SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star presented by LG. LG is the world's number one old TV brand for eleven years and counting. See why at LG dot Com, Fort, slash O, led Evo. And you have running back money for that said it right, You're going on the air.
Sorry, you do have money.
You're trying to bring my laptop money.
I do not have money. I work for somebody has money, though, so that tends to we.
All do it helps?
All?
Right?
Today, we got a lot we're gonna get into. We'll talk about this Atlanta offense.
Man.
Uh, Nick, I think he came in. You mentioned you kind of started looking at the film and like, whoa, it's got some it's got some challenges over there you got to deal with, particularly on their offense side of the ball.
Yeah, we'll talk about their offensive side of the well today, correct. And that's that's really all I've had chance to look at this week. I've been doing a little bit more draft stuff on a little behind, but I have a chance to Yeah, you know, it's never too it's never too early.
But wow, wow, I looked at their offense.
This is trying to be the smartest guy in the room, now, right, you see that?
Right?
This is a tough match challenge.
This is a tough matchup.
Is a tough matchup.
I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. Give me some good news.
In fact, it's gonna be a tough it's gonna be a tough matchup. We'll get into all that here in the second segment. I want to start first, though, with you still caught on that with injuries.
Let's get the first.
I think there are five injuries that this week Cowboys fans need to be aware of and keep an eye on. I'm gonna run down this list. I want you guys, to tell me what you're hearing about them. Let's start first with the MANI war It's Warrior. Uh, what are we hearing about him? After you got hurt last weekend in the game versus the Niners.
Yeah, saw him in the locker room matter the game versus the Niners. He was walking around, kind of gone up to him, Hey, how you feeling. He's like, I'm good, But you know, that's that's what anybody says right after after a game. So able to follow up this week with with some folks, and it sounds like that injury was a little bit worse than anticipated. He took a knee straight to the spine, and so there's, uh, there's there's fear that that could be some extensive time this there.
But the further testing this week and probably furtheraluation will probably prove a little bit more. I expect to hear more on that front from McCarthy today.
With all that going on with him, it becomes even more important what's happening with the others. Let's talk about Deron Bland and Kaylin Carson.
So today's a deadline for Deron Bland to get activated off the.
Injured reserve.
List that his twenty one day window is up today, so they have to activate him today, but that does not necessarily mean he will play on Sunday. However, I'm going to go ahead and get jump ahead. I think Bland and Carson will both be available when we get to Sunday in Atlanta. That's just me theorizing. I don't really know anything to that point. I want to make sure and clarify that. That's me theorizing. I think both those guys will be ready on Sunday, all.
Right, and yeah, yeah, great job. By the way of doing that, I reached out to a couple of different people, and man, there are a lot of things they're dealing with over there right now, because and you're asking questions about like, hey, you know your injured guy is going to try and give it a go this week practice and all that, and you get answers back like, well, that's an in depth question right now. Then we have too many to decide on. So yeah, that's you know that.
It's unfortunately though, that this is you know where we're at, and you know you needed those Maybe a couple of those guys can come back and help. We'll talk about Atlanta's offense here in a bit, there are some challenges and it'd be nice if you could somehow Carson Parsons, you know, Bland, all these guys. The more guys you could possibly get back, it would help you to deal with what you're about to have happen ahead.
It's always amazing to me, and I don't know if it's I don't know what causes this, but it seems like in the NFL, and you watch with the Cowboys up close, but it seems like injuries just seemed to happen all at one position, all at the same time. You know, it's like you can't spread them out, like can you get an injury at one position and then another position. But it's like this year when it comes to defensive end, cornerback, it's just the Cowboys have just
been decimated. And it's just I don't know if there's I don't know why that tends to happen, but last year was linebacker, right, it just seems like you get this position and then all of a sudden, you take
a bunch of hits at one position. And it could be a position that even you think is a string because I looked when We're going into the season thinking that pretty good depth there at the cornerback position or Warrior was not really even a part of that at the time and has come in and played admirably for them. And now you got to deal with injuries there. Uh, let's talk about Rico Dalda. What are we hearing? Is it at this point? Is he fine?
Is what's told?
He could have played Monday, So yeah, it was just something that kind of spurred up over the weekend and obviously didn't play Sunday because his fever had reached into the hundreds, So just kind of played it on the safe end as far as that goes.
There's some fever.
There's some conspiracy going around. I want to go ahead and Claire, he was.
Trying to come up with some conspiracy theory.
Was not me, for the record, was not me to address Shaggy, right, he wouldn't.
Be to address me.
There has been some conspiracy going around around, like you know, somebody pushed re Go out so Zeke and Dalvin would have more opportunities.
That's just not the case. In the fact game of the Believer or you can't that's just not the case.
And what happened I think if there's any blame to be put on the team, it's the sense that maybe that we didn't know about this sickness a little bit earlier, but that that's it. That's I don't I don't think there's any other blame that needs to be going around.
He talked to folks Saturday night to try and get a handle on this because there was a lot of tweets that were going around, and I know Nick was working hard on it, and I think we all were working on it. And it never was him being inactive, right, It never was. It was always going to be they're probably going to go light on defense. They're probably going to go a couple of corners here, you know, that's
what probably what they're going to do. It never was that. No, he was going to be you know, he was always going to be active. He always was going to be active until he got sick. And then once that happened. Because I I talked to two three guys in the organization that were like, man, and I was trying to guess. I was trying to play the game of Okay, well how about this, this, this and this, Well, maybe me think about this, this, this and this you know, And
it never was about Rico. It was always Rico was always in the mix, right, Zeke was always in the mix. It was it was going to Cook was going to be in the mix. Cook Cook was going to be in the planet Lipky was in the mix. And it was like, okay, well what's going to happen. Well, think about your injured guys. Okay, take the injured guys off now, then take now think about some other positions. Forty nine
ers a little banged up at wide receiver. Maybe we could go a little bit lighter at at at cornerback because we don't have to deal with maybe so much with all their wide receivers. You know. So there their their planned. I don't think they were trying to pull a fast one on anybody. I think legitimately the guy got sick and they they it looks the optics doesn't look great. But I know Saturday night, you know, before I went to bed at midnight, that there was a plan of him playing in that football.
Yeah.
There's so many times that because we travel with the team, we'll start hearing little whispers and things from time to time. And when I tell you, everybody was like what, Yeah, you know, because it was not it was not something that was that was out there or that anybody really even suspected would happen. I don't even think people on
the team perspected was happening. It was just it was, you know, one of those situations where the next morning that the fever spiked and for whatever reason they decided, yeah, he can't go, and then they put him down. So I think that's just kind of that's the nature. That's no, no, not they didn't put him, he just didn't play. But you know, that's that's the nature of I guess the world we live in now, there's a lot of conspiracy theory.
Everybody's always wondering what's the conspiracy here. Sometimes there really just is no conspiracy. It is what it is. All right, let's real quick. I want to I want to kind of introduce this Atlanta Falcons team. They are five and three right now. They have beaten Philadelphia. They've beaten Tampa Bay twice, which Tampa is a really good team. I think when they took their injuries last week, I thought they might fall off, but they've been playing pretty well
throughout the season. They've beaten them twice. They have loss to Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Seattle. Seattle really is the only team that beat him up good. Most of their games they've lost. If they've lost or if they've won, it's been an eight point differential between the winner and the loser, except for that Seattle game where they lost thirty four to fourteen. They are right now first place
though in the NFC South. If you have to introduce this team to Cowboys fans, what will be the one thing you think Cowboys fans need to know going into this game about the Atlanta Falcons.
Kirk Cousins is not an old man, that is. Yeah, he is. He is.
He's making everybody around him better. He is making that offense better, he's making those weapons better. He's making that team better. And he's he's he's very much a game manager. But he's like the he's like the Lebron James of Brock parties. If that makes sense, I don't know, in the sense of the scale, just like the Lebron James of game managers. He is, he's he can do it. He gets but yeah, he gets everybody involved. He he doesn't try to do too much. He is, uh, we'll
get in some more. I believe in the second segment just about ways, I think they could attack Cousins in that passing attack. But he's not an old man. He's he's definitely playing up to his value right now.
Quality at running back once again. You know, here you are with yeah, with b John Robinson and Tyler Algier.
Uh.
You know they they do a really nice job of of running the football and a lot of it has to do with the scheme. You know, I think that when you here's another one of those we seem to be dealing with all these young play callers, Zach Robertson has done a really nice job of of taking what he has with the game manager, but then marrying it to the running game. You know, they're going to attack the middle of the field, which that's kind of Kirk Cousins.
He's not going to throw the ball outside the pocket much. He's going to stand right there in the middle and he's going to throw. And they've got you know, they finally have somebody that can get the ball to Kyle Pitts. Uh. You know, forever it seemed like that they were just wasting his talent, the big tight end out of Florida. Now they've got a guy that can actually, you know, throw that ball up the scene, attack those seams, and you know, that's what they've been able to do. And
he's Kirk Cousin's always playing at a high level. The thing that always kind of affects him though, and Dallas has played him a couple of times up there in Minnesota where where pressure has bothered him. And that's where I think that this and I think that's what Nick's gonna probably tell us about, is that there's ways to attack this guy and maybe force him into some mistakes.
Which sounds great. But the one thought that pops into my head, I'm like, can we can the Cowboys generate or create some pressures? So that the question that is a big question there and seeing if they can somehow try to I don't even know how to change things up and be able to start generating some of that because we haven't seen it all season.
Really.
Yeah, we'll get into that in the in the second or third segment as well. Just talk about this Cowboys defense, some interesting numbers around that. All right, we're gonna take our first break, We're going to come back. We'll dive a little deeper into this Atlanta offense. We'll be back Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the cheetah Savannah. Todd believed the big Cat repellent he bought online was reliable, and now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles per But the good news is Todd has AT and T five G. It is fast, reliable, and secure, and he learned the best thing to do is stop running and toss her the backpack with the beef stew At and T five G. Fast, reliable, Secure.
Five G requires compatible plan and device. Five G may not be available in your area. See add dot com Slash five G for you fifty deals.
It's the official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black, and right now Cowboys fans can get fifteen percent off their seventy five dollars order. Plus because every deal needs a playmaker, your order will include a free five piece skincare set and free shipping. The Jack Black Playmaker is four of Jack's favorites and a full sized intense therapy lipball. Make a play for the Playmaker at Getjack Black dot com slash Cowboys with the code Cowboys
v VIP. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys with the code Cowboys VIP.
Don't put off getting your oil change.
Dallas.
Take five Oil Change, a proud partner of the Cowboys is faster than you think. They're so fast you don't even have to get out of your car. You can take advantage of Take fives. Stay in your car ten minute oil change at any of their locations across the Dallas area. And remember at Take five you stay in your car because they're faster than you think. That means you won't even have time to show off your best touchdown celebration. Take five the official oil change of the Dallas Cowboys.
From the field to the festivities.
Lu Casey embodies the essence of luxury and tradition. Handcrafted with meticulous precision, each pair offers unmatched comfort and style. Stay in tall while you're tailgating or cheering in the stands with the Dallas Cowboys Collection by Lucasey. Shop the collection today at the Lucasey store at the Starn Frisco, or online at lucasey dot com.
Lou Casey, the official boot.
Of the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
Hey y'all, Matt Pittman of Meat Church here. With football season kicking off, I'm already gear enough to bring the smoker back to AT and T Stadium for some epic tailgates.
But with that Texas heat.
It's crucial to keep my beer hand cramping cold. That's where Yeti's insulated colster canholer comes in clutch this year. You can even get them with the iconic star engraved on the side. Licensed YETI Cowboys gear is now available at stadium pro shops, concessions and on yetti dot com.
Check it out today.
YETI Official cooler and drinkware of the Dallas Cowboys.
Back to the.
Break, LGO led Evo is the best TV in the game, but don't take her work for it. Nick Digital Trends said the lg O led G four has the best picture quality they've ever seen, and seen it for yourself at LG dot com. Slash O Ledevil Welcome back.
Second segment of the Break Life from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. The segment's brought to you by blockchain dot Com. All right, let's talk about the Atlanta offense. The first thing that popped out to me about this offense is that they are sixth in passing yards in the NFL. Talk to me about the two sides of Kirk Cousins. What does he do really well and where can you find where can you also challenge him in areas where where he might be a little deficient?
Go ahead, yeah, I'll start.
Feel free, Yeah, feel free.
Yeah.
He loves the middle of the field, Yes, he does. He absolutely loves the middle of the challenge.
That Week five win against Tampa Bay on the Thursday night where he threw for a million yards, he had three hundred and seventy plus yards over the middle of the field.
Yeah.
Wait, how much he to have the rest of the field there?
One d and thirty issues Yeah yeah, yeah, So it's it was a heavy, heavy difference there. So outside the numbers, if they could start pushing some things to the boundary, I think in coverage, then you might be able to find a little success there. However, he has so many weapons that are just getting better by the week.
Kyle Pitts is on his best four game stretch for his career right now.
He's a guy they've used a high pick on I believe what was a seventh overall, eighth overall something like that a few years ago, and he has just not been able to put it together. They haven't really gotten him involved in the passing offense quite quite frequently. But now with Kirk Cousins in the mix, he is getting Pits involved and this is the best four game stretch of his career. But if you're asking what he does really well, loves the middle of the field.
I don't want to take too much.
Away, but no, I mean I love when you do that. That's good. I appreciate you watching that tape. You got to press these receivers easier said than done. You get these guys free access to kill you in routes. Yeah, that's what they do. There's a lot of there's a lot of movement. There's movement to movement, and so there's a lot of guys kind of you know, Moody, London, McLeod, they all kind of they play a lot of eleven personnel, you know, with the three wide receivers and then the
tight end. But there's a lot of movement within that, the motions and things. So you kind of deal with that but when these guys get pressed, they're a different group of receivers and they and it's not they don't have as much success. And so when you watch people play tight on them and make them have to make contested plays, it's a little bit of a problem for them. And it's been a little bit of a problem for
Kirk Cousins to fit some balls. When I was watching, I mean, he'll we talk about the middle of the field, the routes in the middle of the field, the seams, all those places that he works. He gets pressure, that ball will come flying out of his hand in a funny way. And sometimes these receivers, when they're dealing with bodies on them, will you know, they will struggle to make the reception or you'll see some type of an interception.
Went back and watched all those interceptions, all seven of them. You know, a lot of them were attacks to the middle of the field Pittsburgh early in the game. Week one was pressure in his face and then you know, as he's he gets affected by that, ball flies out of his hands. So that's what you have to do. Amber's right, how do you get pressure? That's gonna be
some key. I think Dallas has to take a chance and hopefully you got guys like Bland and maybe Carson and others back take a chance press these guys make These guys have to win off the line of scrimmage, you know, because if you it might be a problem because if you don't get pressure, maybe a Parsons gets back, maybe that you could get some pressure there. Because Matthews, that left tackle has been giving up some pressures here lately. You know, Lynstrom the right guard has been giving up
some pressures. Yeah, so you know there's ways to do this, but you just have to be committed to making it work. And if but if you play off coverage against these guys, you're playing right into their hands because this quarterback he will he'll pick you apart.
That way, when you mentioned them playing press, that's a good way to be able to kind of combat what they want to do.
Right.
Is that something that you've seen the Dallas defensive backs do often and or do well.
Play a lot of his own, play a lot of his own And that's the thing. I mean, it's you're trying to think about ways of getting off the field, and you're thinking about, Okay, what is Atlanta's weakness in my opinion, when you watch their receivers play, they in routes and stuff, they're good, they can make plays, but when teams get up on them, their catch numbers go way down. So I'm just I mean, I'm like, I'm
working on mysteries. I've got some clues, you know, but I don't I might not have the personnel to do it either. It's like last week with San Francisco, we were like, hey, man, if you could just control the middle of the field, well safeties fall apart. You know. Well, if you could just well they don't take advantage of that, you know, I mean, there was That's the problem you're running into right now. This is a really good offense
because the two backs. I think the wide receivers are good wide receivers, and the quarterback is capable of making plays. But you got to be willing to maybe do something you're not comfortable doing, you know, and maybe it allows you to do that if you have digs and you have Bland, and you have Lewis and just you know, you can get up on these guys and affect him that way.
A couple of stats to back up the point about pressure versus no pressure on Kirk Cousins. He has faced pressure on eighty seven passing attempts so far this season. He has seven interceptions on the year. Six of those have come against pressure. Also, when he is pressured, his passer rating has dropped by nearly fifty points. It goes from one to eleven point seven all the way down to sixty eight point five.
So I can only talk about it. Yeah, I can't help you any other way other than that. Yeah, I mean it's and it's clear on film. Yeah, it's clear on film. Because the great thing about this, the next gen stuff that we have, you can go and separate all the pressures. Yeah, and now watch him. Now Wat's like, oh okay, this is how you can watch the normal tape and you're like, oh, I was a good throw.
Oh there's another good throw. You know, he's gonna stand right in the middle of that pocket and he's going to deliver the football and you know where he is. He's not going to run around. You've played against some run around dudes. You know that, the dude at the Ravens run.
Around guy he's party last week.
Well, he's more like the guy that you played in week two. When you look at you know, when you look at car, I mean, he's going to stand there and deliver the baby. And I know it's a bad thought about Car, but he but that's kind of where this guy is gonna be. He's gonna be standing right there in the middle of that.
Pocket you mentioned pretty last week. I mean, there were many instances where you're watching he's having all the time in the world just sitting there in the pocket, and you're like, oh my god, oh my god. So again, it sounds great that that's an area where they could but it's like can they can they? I mean maybe utilizing some of your linebackers. We've seen overshown he has that kind of potential.
This is where I want to go next. And Nick helped me on this one. I meant to ask you this question last night. Absolutely what you saw with Overshowing on the Blitz, can you turn him into something like what Michael Parsons was, like a poor man's Michael Parsons for sure.
I think yeah.
I think when Michael first went down, I think that's something they can do out there. No, no, no, what I'm saying is I think it's something we all through out there, like maybe that's an option of what they can do. But I think you're right. I think, but at this point I'm trying anything I can do, especially against a team like this. Words so apparent, but hes gonna get
pressure on it. Yeah, if you can get pressure on him, you can actually force And I think last week you made the point Nick that you might give up pass rush last week in order to keep them from gashing you in the run game.
You played well on the edge against them the tosses and stuff.
The question becomes, this week, do you decide to maybe flip that narrative and say, hey, we'll take a few more chances and really try to get up field because we know the quarterback won't take off running on right, so on obvious passing downs, maybe we go after them and maybe we really, you know, try to blitz a little bit more in order to create the pressure that we need.
Yeah, Overshown's an option as well as lea foul. He's probably not as big and probably can't take on those one on ones as well as Overshown, but he's a guy that has been using situational blissing throughout his career, coming down from the second level.
Get those guys involved, That's what.
And I understand maybe not wanting to in this game specifically because because you need well, yes, but you need to cover in the middle of the field, like we're talking passing down. You need to cover the middle of the field. You need to have all three bodies there.
Which is important. You got those, those linebackers and safeties.
Are what's more important here? What are you trying to do?
You tell me he's not he's not wrong, But you got no answer.
Like how do you want to die slow death or a quick death?
I mean, give me the slow one. Maybe the offense can pick.
It up for talking about yesterday. Then do you make safety changes? You know, all of a sudden, do you have a different idea like hooker juan Ye Thomas something. Do you do something different in the you know, in the middle of the field, you know, I mean, hell, I would, I would damn even think about this is crazy thought. I think about putting Jordan Lewis back there. I mean, just something something that like if if.
Back at safety, well, yeah, something that.
Some guy that plays with awareness, some guys that sees it, some guy that could drive on the ball, you know, some guy that that's the problem. These teams are just so comfortable running routes in the middle of the field. It's just it's amazing. How and that's I don't know, because in this game you got two backs at average about five and a half yards of carry, you know, and that's you know, and here we are once again. You want to stop these two backs and bar play
stack box. Put eight down there. They don't. They average less than three yards of carry when they play. When teams play stack box against them, you play light box six or less or neutral box seven or less, they kind of they have some success. You put eight down in there, they have problems. Well, here's Dallas play eight in the box. Don't play very well with eight in the box. You know, maybe that's something different. Maybe if it is eight in the box, maybe there isn't more
about Wilson being down there. Maybe you have to play a little bit more single high, but that could be death. But how this guy throws the ball against maybe a single high look up the seams.
So for you, Brian Broadus, yeah, if you're putting eight in the box, you have a little bit more confidence. If Deron Bland is back that you can have success on one one matches on the outside.
I do see.
I think there could be a little bit more confidence there because not only will putting eight in the box help against those two runners, but it also helps covering in the middle of the field. So it's like I would almost look at loading up the middle of the field, loading up the box on almost every day.
That's what we talked about last week, you know, I mean, you know, you if if you could, if you could stop the run, you put eight down there. That's that's team's answers. That's just how if you get if you're getting crushed in the running game, you make it an eight man box and you just say, we got more than you could block. Problem is you got more, but they block you with less blockers than they need. And that's that's the issue. And a lot of it has
to do with the tackling and all. But this is tough. A couple of different ways you can go, but none of them are easy.
I'll tell you this, if Kyle Pitts lines up against Donovan Wilson on that first possession, we wouldn't go ahead and start writing our stories, yeah, because that's that's It's going to be very similar to how Kittle had success against Wilson last week, except the difference here is that Pitts has longer strides. He can get across the middle of the field a lot quicker than Kittle can. Kittle just had a little bit more physicality at times, but he was still able to run away.
I think I think Kittle can run away from me. I think Pitts. I think Pitt's. The thing that makes Pitts tough is he's so damn big. He's tall, and he's long, and even like some overthrows to him are like, WHOA, that's a really bad overthrow, you know, I mean defending that guy his reach and all. But the thing with Kittle is he's able to scoot. I think Pitts is a long strider, like Nick's talking about, covers some ground.
But man Kittle could get across, Pitts gets vertically. It's kind of a damned if you do if damned if you don't kind of situation.
Now, it's almost a situation when I was looking at it on film, I was kind of having to posit.
And go, who do you put on this guy?
Yeah, because he lines up in the slot, they put him on the ball as well. So he's getting a quick release off the line. Sometimes he'll be lined up against a nickel, which on his first touchdown against Tampa this last week, he was lined up against a nickel and then at the top of his route, nickel tried to give him a little bit of a fight and he fell down wide open, down down the middle of
the field. So if you're putting Jordan Lewis in that situation, okay, Yes, Jordan Lewis has a little bit of dog to him. He can fight a little bit, but at the end of the day, Pitts is so much bigger And if you're putting a Donovan Wilson on him, then you're sacrifice.
For k That's just say, would you he's a he's a long guy.
Tall guy right overshown would be an option as well.
I might need him rushing.
I'm not saying I kind of need him to do other things, right, How can he do on one play man? Just but honestly, I really think that this might be a game where you use mcgwuamou in that way. He's got a little toughness in him.
Wait, he'll put him on Kittle, Yeah, he'll put him long.
I think I'd like to see MCWAMU kind of get a little opportunity to maybe match up there. Yeah, that's not about think of anybody you got on the team. I think right now he's say I would feel good about Yeah, yeah, all right, let's take our first break, our second break. We'll come back. I do one talk about these running backs a little bit because they will be a challenge and of themselves outside of what we've already talked about, of the challenge to trying to stop
their passing game. We'll be back. Dallas Cowboys dot Com, Radiant Radio.
If you can't be at the stadium, there's no better way to watch your Cowboys than on an LG O leed Evo TV. That's because everything you see is more lifelike, every play, every hit. I mean, you might just will be on the sidelines, that's how clear it is. It's all thanks to LG's legendary technology, perfect black over eight point three million self lit pixels.
No one comes close.
Lgole led Evo is the best TV in the game for a reason. See for yourself at LG dot com, slash o Leedevo.
They say champions are remembered, but legends are never forgotten. United Agen Turf offers a winning lineup of John Deere equipment built to tackle any challenge on and.
Off the field.
Legendary John Deere Tractors combines residential mowers, commercial mowers, compact construction equipment, hater utility vehicles, and a full line of golf and sports turf equipment. United Agon Turf the official lagonturf equipment supplier of the Dallas Cowboys. Visit United agonturf dot com to find a location near you.
If you shout how about them Cowboys, you have that undeniable passion that's the heart of Cowboys Nation. And if you like to drink Doctor Pepper, you love the unique blend of its twenty three flavors. Together, you're one of a kind fandom paired with the one of a kind taste of a delicious ice cold Doctor Pepper is the game day lineup that can't.
Be beat better.
Yet, Gather your Cowboys and Doctor Pepper fan friends to watch the next game and crack open a delicious ice cold Doctor Pepper for everyone.
The wins will be even taste here. It's a Pepper thing.
And we're going to overtime Erica how much have I spent on concessions?
For questions about their money, Dallas Cowboys fans can turn to Erica, the virtual financial assistant in the Bank of America mobile banking app. Learn more at Bankofamerica dot com, slash aericup by your side, Bank of America Official Bank of the Dallas Cowboys. Aerica respondses me. Very digital tools required downloading the mobile banking app and may only be available on select mobile devices. Erica is a mobile feature
only available in the English language. Your chap may be recorded and monitored for quality assurance, Message dat rate and additional terms may apply. Bank of America and a number FDIC.
Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the Cheatah Savannah. Todd believed the big cat repellent he bought online was reliable. And now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles per hour. But the good news is Todd has at and T five G. It is fast, reliable, and secure, and he learned the best thing to do is stop running and toss her the backpack with the beef stew at and T five G. Fast, reliable, secure, five.
G requires compatible plan and device five G may not be available in your areas. See add dot com slash five G for you for details.
Back to the.
Break at and T connecting changes everything.
Welcome back, final segment of The Break live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Real quick, Nick, you said you had a couple more quick little nuggets for us on the passing game before we moved on to the running game.
Yeah, of things I just want to point out, and if you'll have takes on this, feel free to jump in pre snap motion. Obviously we've talked a lot about that with this offense throughout the year. So on Atlanta's first fourteen plays from scrimmage they.
Ran pre in a specific game or just over excuse.
Me last week last week, sorry, they ran pre snap motion on ten of those plays. Do you know what all ten of those plays had in common?
Completions?
They were passing place. So the first ten passing plays they used pre snap motion. I think it was four of the first seven or eight rushing plays they did not. So I think that's just something to kind of keep an eye on. And typically it's like it's not a guy crossing formation.
Most of the time.
It's typically like a guy going from the slot to outside the number, or a guy inside the number coming outside the number, and more times than not they will not throw to that guy. So what they try to do is they like to direct attention to the opposite side of the field. Hey, you see Drake London moving over here, be sure an account for him. All right, we're going this way, ye, So yeah, pit's coming across the armpit and just bang right there over the middle
of the field. Second thing I want to hit on this is not a heavy play action team at all, which is a little surprising given the running attack and also given the fact that Kirk Cousins has been so good with play action during his career. So this is not the only place where there's some question of play calling sometimes I think I think Kirk Cousins needs to get a little bit more involved in the play action. They're only averaging five and a half play action passes per game, so I.
Think that's quite fascinating. Only wait for three.
That's really interesting, especially a game a team that has this good of running backs exactly that they wouldn't use.
Yeah, wow, it's a little a little surprising. So I just wanted to point those couple of things out. I thought both of those were really interesting.
Do you think it has something to do with being new in a scheme that like when he was in Minnesota heavy play action, but you're kind of when quarterbacks turn their back to the defense and then have to find everybody again. Do you think maybe because Minnesota he knew where all the routes were going to be in Atlanta? I mean, I know we're eight weeks into this, nine weeks into this, but do you think that maybe him turned in his back and not knowing maybe where all the routes are going to be.
I think that's a good theory.
I think another good theory would also be maybe there's not a lot of trust in what he has in front of them protection wise.
That's that's a fair point too.
I mean, you look at this right side of the offensive line perspective. I mean, we've talked about Chris Linstrom over the years being this all world ass beater, and he has given up twenty one pressures more than anyone on this offensive line this season. His success is really come and to run blocking though, but in past protection it's not been there. Right tackle Caleb McGary sixteen pressure. So I mean these are guys that have had issues.
Oh they've had Matthews Bergeron Linstrom. Yeah, they've all given up three sacks. Yeah, I mean they have guys that have given up three sacks in this you know. See. So it's not like they're all like, oh, this one guy's just they're having great seasons. I mean, they'll give up some pressures. You know. It's interesting about On he was the guy that was remember to say Draft night, Yeah, between him and sim and Mazzi.
Right's interesting because the thing that that's really jumping out to me here is for everything that you guys are throwing out there, that's like, this is how you can beat this team. I don't know if Dallas has the weapons right now with how much they've been compromised by Andre to be able to take advantage of it. That's
the hard part. Now, if you get Michael back, yeah, now, maybe working with something there, but it just seems like there's there are areas where you literally can't take advantage of them, and it's just maybe Dallas doesn't have the horses to do it.
Yeah, yeah, might need Michael Parsons.
Yeah, yeah, all right, let's let's talk about the running game. B John Robinson, Longhorn, great us. He's been averaging four point seven yards per attempt this year. But here was the interesting thing. They are only twenty fifth in the league in number of rushing attempts. Yeah, they don't run the ball a lot to say they've got really good
running backs. Why do you think that is? Have you seen anything that may suggests why they tend to throw more than their running And do you think this is a week that where they look at Dallas and say we need to run the ball.
Yes, on that second point, I believe so. I'd be surprised if they didn't come out in this game with Robinson and Algier and try to hammer it through. Because Robinson obviously a fantastic running back. I'll get into him a little bit later. But Algier is physical. Yeah, this guy, he rarely gets stopped behind the line of scrimmage. He is always gaining positive yardage. I mean, it was a situation last year was like, all right, we got Bijon
Robinson involved in this offense. We used a high draft pick on him, We're gonna run him into the ground. And then they're like, wait, we can really split these carries up with this guy because this guy never loses yardage. This is a This is a really balanced attack with two different style running backs that can both gain positive yardage on a consistent basis.
Why they don't run them more? I don't really have an answer.
They they got this scroup has twenty three yard twenty three carries of ten yards or more, and they don't And they just don't lean on it as much. I know watching tape, I felt like Beijon Robinson was better running to his left and and then and Algiers was better going to his right. Which I was trying to think, Okay, what why is there some rhyme or reason here, But it's just kind of the way that the plays kind
of the broke that broke out. Like I said, I went back and I started watching, like, Okay, give me the run stuffs, give me the plays. Give me why when they didn't have success, why was it? And it was it was the eight man box stuff. Count the guys. Stop the tape. Count them eight guys there, because when they Robinson is only averaging two point six yards of carry, well, well, well Algiers is two point seven. So teams are just
this is against eight man boxes. I was like, Okay, tell me how they stopping these guys, because if they're averaging five and a half yards of carry, there's got to be some runs where they weren't very good. And the common theme and thread was count of Brian. There's eight of them up there, and that's where that's kind of where I was saying, Well, if Dallas is you know, if you're gonna sell out, play the press, play the eight man box if you can, and then and then
hope for the best. And like I say, this quarterback, you know and past the Cowboys have played him well when he was at Minnesota. They've caused him turnovers, they've they've got sacks on him before you know, he'll stand there and hold that ball and you know he's not going to move around stuff. But to the running back point, man, it's it's gonna be about it's gonna be about can you get enough can you get enough bodies in there to defend the run.
It's even more interesting too that they don't run them as often, because with a rushing attack like this, you would think that the Falcons would be trying to control the clock every single game time in possession battles. They've only won the time in possesion battle twice all season. So it's it's it's interesting that they have these guys.
It's not.
It's not they want to find a big play. They want to get all of these weapons involved. I think with a with a fair share or fair split Darnell Mooney, they have really been able to isolate his speed on the outside against guys. You saw that on a touchdown throw that Cousins overthrew, just a bit of a leve. It was in the second quarter last week against Tampa Bay.
But Mooney he can get out and if if he can get lined up against a guy like Treyvon Diggs and where he can really use his speed against Diggs, that's a problem. And then London possession opportunities in the red zone, that's a problem. I mean, they really do a good job of getting these weapons this team.
They're their best pass plays and this is where drives Cowboy fans nuts is the hitch plays. They they go up and curl back inside and then and then and Cousins just bound those them and you look at Drake London, you look at Moody. That's their primary those are the plays that they're they're really really big on, you know, so they're gonna try and get the ball out, but they're like their receivers or they do a really good job of running those routes. I just was kind of
just curious too, London. I was looking at him the outs, the hitch, and the slant, with the three top routes that he ran. So if you're going into the game, you're thinking, Okay, I mean this is the three I'm gonna get. I'm gonna get some type of an out route. I might get that that curl back in like I was taut, the hitch route and then that slant, and you know, it makes a lot of sense. Moody's routes I looked at were the out the screen is one that they're really really big on with him, and then
the hitch and the crossing route. So he's kind of the crossing route guy that they that they used. So if if they attacked the middle of the field with the crosser, then it might be it might be number one doing it.
Are they pretty good like moving the chains right off the bat from beginning like first quarter.
I didn't feel like that they got stopped at the first half. Absolutely.
Yeah.
Last week. Yeah, last week they were moving and they have been moving the ball. They didn't play well against Seattle.
No, Seattle got after them.
I had pretty good, unfortunate error of watching that game in the entirety a couple of weeks ago when we had the Sunday off and they couldn't get the ball moving at all. But aside from that game, they can move the ball.
What did what did? What did you see from Seattle that was so effective?
I need to go back one hundred percent, honest, I need to go back and see a little bit more. I think their interior generated pressure, you know that right off the top, and their secondary is physical, and they were able to press.
Like Brian said, yeah, they got beat up in that game, you know, and they got beat up on the defensive side of the ball too. You know, Atlanta's defense got beat up a little bit there. But the thing that they that Seattle was able to do was the inside pressure. That that was a big They They really struggle when.
Whether the defensive tackles or were they blitzing up tackles.
The tackles they were you know, Seattle. Seattle's got long ends long, tall ends and they got they got inside presence with push and that's what they were able to do. They beat up the Atlanta's offensive line pretty good in that game.
I feel like I was just gonna say, I feel like in all of these games, most of the games that we've seen from the Cowboys so far this year, the defense tends to usually do just enough in the first half of the game for your offense to kind of pick up the pace. But they that's the problem that the offense doesn't do that. But I feel like right off the bat, the defense tends to start pretty good and just do what they can and to manage the game and stop the offense like the opposing offense.
But if this is an offense that right off the bat they're pretty good at like moving everything and getting to the end zone, that could potentially be a big problem for this Cowboys team.
Is this the best offense the Cowboys will have seen this season so far?
I don't. I don't believe.
So.
Okay, Detroit, so I think of Detroit, Detroit. Detroit's have built Baltimore Detroit.
I think of when you got New Orleans in Week two, when they.
Were helping you played New Orleans. Now you you probably run.
That, right, But I don't know.
I think i'd put this Atlanta offense over week to New Orleans. I think it was just the way the Dallas attacked them.
It's just a team with these two backs.
Now, it's tough.
Yeah, it's like Detroit, it was hard to deal with. And you got a quarterback. You mean like Detroit's got a veteran quarterback. Atlanta got a veteran quarterback. You know you've got you know, Detroit has a tight end, Atlanta has a tight end. There's I don't know, I think that I think Detroit's wide receivers are better than this crew. Yeah, yeah, so I would I would say that. But man, they're
they're they're very you know. It's like I say, they do a good job of getting some explosive plays out of this group.
One interesting point, and I'm curious to get all of your takes on this. In that loss against Seattle, Bejon Robinson had his best day of the season, and Seattle seemed content allowing him to get his but and and they were they were trying to just lock down that passing attack and not let any of those weapons get get free.
I'm with you that, yeah, like let him run.
Are you willing to do that?
Yeah?
I mean here's the thing, here's the thing, here's the thing. Though he might have a great day anyway, So if you're going to look at it from that standpoint, and I will tell you this, this is what worries me the most about stopping this running attack. They've got one running back who's extremely elusive, they've got another one's extremely aggressive. And what have we said about this Dallas defense in
a lot of games this season. They have a hard time tackling at times, Like I'm not a good tackling team at times when you're going up against a guy who is very aggressive that takes you more than one guy to get him down. And then you got another guy who's really elusive that can make you look foolish in the open field. That doesn't help your tackling ability. Like those are things that directly make your tackling ability
to go down a bit. So that's the part that worries me most about this particular running attack is you're facing two backs that are going to be very difficult to take down even if you were a good tackling team. And Dallas has showing signs this year that at times they don't tackle.
Well, tell me if I'm wrong here. I'm more worried about them throwing the ball to their backs, then maybe their running game, because they don't miss.
I see where you're coming from, but they don't.
Miss I mean the running game. Yeah, it's scary, but to me, getting those guys getting if you look at separation stuff like that, these backs they don't miss. This quarterback does not miss throwing the ball in the flat or throwing the ball to these backs. You know, you talk about get them in space. How well are they going to tackle? I just worry about their passing game to these backs that Dallas doesn't handle the screens or the flat plays, you know, the balls thrown in the
screen to Robinson. Here comes Wilson, he misses. Now it's a you know, I mean I can't check how many times, Yeah, I mean times it was a It could have been a three yard game. Instead it's a thirteen yard game because of their inability attack. They this these two, these two running backs only run the ball well, but many they catch the ball well too. I worry about that all right, big time.
That's a wrap. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll jump into the Atlanta versus the Cowboys offense and we'll see how that plans out, because, honestly, with all the injuries that the Cowboys have sustained as in past weeks, I think this game is really going to come down to how good can the Cowboys offense be. So we'll get into that tomorrow and we'll see how what we think of that matchup. Until then, for Nick Harris and Brian brought
a Snamburgarcia. I'm Derek. 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.
How was this trouble here?