The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football clubs. 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 Nick Eatman, David Hellman, A bar Garcia, and Derek Eagleton. It is Monday, September twenty first, twenty twenty, Season sixteen, episode number twenty seven. Welcome to another edition of The Break.
We're live in this WBC Mortgage Studios at the start at Dave and Amber joining us from their homes, and we got about forty five minutes to break down what we saw yesterday. That was That was one of those games that I love being a part of because it's all over the place. There's so many emotions that you feel as the game's going on. There's so many moments that you think, oh, this is going one way and then it flips. And then the great part about it is at the end of the day, the team that
you're kind of rooting for actually ends up winning. So there's really nothing I have to complain about in that game. But we're gonna break down everything. There was so much to break down that game. Cowboys win forty to thirty nine. It was actually a historic game. Wait wait, did you say there's really nothing you have to complain about in that game? Yes, but at the end of the day, I mean they won. At the end of the day,
they won. So yeah, there were gonna be some complaints I have and Amber, you know, because during the game I was losing my mind at certain parts. But yeah, when you get a win then it kind of changes, It kind of changes everything. But it was a historic day for the Cowboys. Here's it's interesting thing. I saw
ESPN Stats put this out last night. Entering Week two of the NFL season, teams that were teams were four hundred and forty to nothing when they scored thirty nine points and had zero turnovers since nineteen thirty three, Like, in the history of the NFL, there's never been a team that scored thirty nine points, didn't have a turnover and ended up losing the game. And yesterday the Cowboys showed the Falcons how to get to that one that lone one of those four hundred and forty one game.
So let's go around the table. I want everybody to tell me what do you think is the biggest story coming out of this game. We're gonna start first with you, Amber. I think the biggest story currently, I would say, is the questioning behind the coaching staff and the play calling and some of the decision making, not just from this specific game, but also looking back at Week one. I think there's still some questionable moments there as far as
some of the decisions that we're made. So I would have to say the biggest conversation I've been seeing going around, it's just the question mark on whether or not McCarthy and his group of coaching have been making the right decisions at the right time. Nick, I think it's it's
Dak Prescott. I mean, it's just it's playing the way he did and and you know, I've been wanted to kind of question him being a clutch player, and he's still got more of that to do, because you know, he this was one game, but he's you know, he's got a good body of work leading up to this. The last couple of years, he hasn't been and the team hasn't been as clutch, but they were on Sunday. And it starts with him he's a linebacker that plays quarterback.
He's he's tough as nails, and he showed it in this game how resilient he was, and um, you know it was it was unbelievable, you know, just just the way he kind of led the team back like that, all of them did, I mean, and it was fortunate. They were fortunate to win. But I thought, you know, Dak been I've been asking for and he showed it.
When you show his stat line, he was thirty four forty seven seventy two percentage completion and four and fifty yards, one passing touchdown, three rushing touchdowns, five rusgertes for eighteen yards. First time in the history of the NFL anyone's done that. Absolutely, rushing touchdowns and four hundred passing yards and then one fumble. Had a phenomenal day statistically, Dave, what's the storyline of this game for you? I'm so disappointed by the energy
happening right now. And if we were all in the same room together, I would have cut y'all all off a long time ago. But it's hard to do over zoom. But like, are you actually kidding me? I mean, Nick's one hundred percent right, The story of the day is Dak Prescott. Like whether it's four because he wears four, four because he scored four touchdowns, four because he threw for four hundred and fifty yards. He put the entire franchise on his back in a hopeless situation, played like
an absolute badass mofo. I want to curse, but I won't. I just think it's so big because I mean, Dak's done stuff like that his entire career. It didn't always look that flashy, but even going back to his rookie year, he's done stuff like that. It didn't happen in twenty nineteen, it was. It's the story of why they didn't get to the playoffs is because they came up short in these types of games. Obviously games not they weren't this crazy, but they were on the short end of the stick.
Every time they wound up in a one score game. They flip the script against every odd, imaginable yesterday, and Dak Prescott was at the center of it all. And he's one of the most confident guys I've ever been around, football player or otherwise. But I just have to imagine that he's feeling good today knowing like, yeah, I still can do this. I did this six times in twenty eighteen, and here I am again pulling it out of the fire. My other big impression is, like, listen, a whole bunch
of stuff went wrong. There's a whole bunch of stuff we can criticize, and we'll get to it, I'm sure. But like, that's why you're a football fan, Like that's why you should love this sport is for stupid crap like that. And if you can't just laugh at the absurdity and just say wow, I'm I'm thrilled that the team I care about got to be part of a win like that, Like that's that's why you do it well. And we can critique it because that's our jobs. But just take a deep breath and have a nice laugh
because that was incredible. Yeah, it's interesting day because you wake up in mornings like this the day after games like that, and it's so fun listening to people around the nation responding it. And I'm not talking about football. I'm talking about people around the nation and other sports, other athletes, other celebrities that were watching the game, and it's just funny just to listen to all the different you know, everybody talking about this game and at the
end of it, how was get to win? Like that's the fun of games like this is that everybody's got an opinion. Everybody saw it, and it was just really, really, really fun to be able to be a part of it. If the Cowboys had played that game in a national window like they usually do instead of at noon during ten other games, we'd be talking about it as one of the best regular season games of the last ten years, which it still was, but it didn't have that. You know,
it wasn't on its own. If it had been on its own in a primetime window, it would be it would be on another level than it already is before we get to the moments that matter. I do want to stick with that topic of Dak Prescott. Nick, you brought it up and talked about how how clutch you thought he was in that game. I saw a couple of different things on social media where people were kind of like, well, he didn't play that great for most of the game. I think there is a perception out
there that he didn't play great throughout the game. It was just clutch in the end. I take exception to that. I think of all the players on the Cowboys team. I think he was one of the most consistent players throughout the game outside of the fumble. I don't know that I had a problem with anything else. He'd be at the rest of the day. What did you think? Yeah, I agree, I thought he you know, yeah, he fumbled early on, But that was the story of everybody who
messed up early in the game. I mean they redeemed themselves. Not everybody, but I'm just saying, you know, fumbled by by Dak, fumbled by Zeke, fumbled by Schultz, goodwe d the ball. You know, Fossil, you know, I mean, Fossil redeemed himself. And it maybe it wasn't even what he did, his decision yesterday, but his decision a couple of weeks ago or months ago to practice that kick. So a
lot of them redeemed themselves. But I thought, Dak, I thought, I mean, who comes from the tent to a quarterback sneak? Who does that? I mean it's like, is your head okay, you have a concussion? No, okay, well then go lead with your head and ram it into there to twenty players and see if you can score touchdown. Go okay, and He's like, Okay, what he does? Yeah, what do you guys think? You guys agree that, I mean pretty pretty much do out the game Dak I thought was great.
What did you guys think, David Amber The first thing I did, the first thing, sorry, Angie, The first thing I did this morning was watch you know, the NFL put up a four minute cut up of all of Dak's big plays. It was four freaking minutes long. It was four minutes long, a cut up of his of his completions and his his rushing touchdowns. Yeah, I mean he fumbled. He was trying to do too much. I thought the entire team was pressing in the first quarter
and it only made it worse. Whether I mean anything from Tony Pollard making inexplicable decisions to take kicks out of the end zone to you know, guys fumbling because they're thinking ahead of time and they so. Yeah, Dak does that. He's trying to do too much. He's trying to turn a busted play into a game. Fumbles and from there on out, honestly, what did he do wrong? He had one questionable throw in the third quarter that could have been picked. He was looking for Amari Cooper
on the sideline and threw into double coverage. Other than that, I don't know that he made a bad decision the rest of the way. I mean, I thought he was fantastic from about the midway point of the first quarter through the end of the game. I think it's it's one of the three best games he's played in his career. If I had to guess, as indicated by that seventy two percent completion rate, that is a huge number. I think,
go ahead, Amber, what are your thoughts. I was gonna say that I'm the first one to make to start the argument of whether how great Dak is and the fact that he, to me, has always needed great players around him in order for him to be successful. It wasn't the case in this game, at least that's not how I took it. The way he played, I felt that he was regardless of the mistakes. Let's just forget about that. It wasn't a situation where I felt that
he was forcing the ball to a specific player. It wasn't a situation where he was needed to rely on these great players specifically. And again we know cite Lamb, Michael Gallup. They made great catches and great plays at key moments, but at the same time, taking into account the fact that he didn't have the starting two tackles, he was able to play the game. And there wasn't a single instance where I was like, damn, Dak, what are you doing? He was able to be a leader
he did. We know how much confidence he has in himself and the way that he is not able to get startled by the situation, whether it's better or no. We saw him get out of the feel hurt. He had something I don't remember what it was, but he was getting checked by the medical staff, and that he got back riding to the game, made a play. So he was just so consistent throughout the game as far as the kind of leader that you need someone to be in such a crazy game like that. So to me,
he was absolutely amazing. What we're gonna do is we have these moments that matter. We started the segment last week, We're gonna do it, continue it this week, and we're going to go through some of the big moments of the game. Obviously, there were a lot of questionable At least I'll say this, there were a lot of situations in that game where you questioned what the coaches were thinking and what players were thinking. So we're gonna go through. I think I have like four or five of those
that we're gonna go through real quick. And actually, what we're gonna do is, let's go ahead and take a quick early break. We got a couple of minutes before our normal break. We're gonna go and tecond early break. We're gonna come back. We're gonna jump into those moments that matter, and we're gonna start with that first fake punt and talk about that and the circumstances around it. We'll do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. We're back in the tasty
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All news styles are arriving now. Visit your Dallas Cowboys Pro shop or shop dot com Dallas Cowboys dot com for the newest arrivals. Yeah, if you get a chance to go check out that sixtieth anniversary hat collection. Pretty good stuff if you like those nineties hats, they got some of those and they're they're pretty sweet. And actually one of my favorites is that they got the old the old d hat that I think this was around day Andrew sign. It has like the trucker style in
the back, you know, mesh. Yeah it's called mesh, but yeah, they call them truck or style hats. But anyway, yeah, I love that hat I got. I got one of those, So it makes you go check that out on cowaspproch for Derek. Yeah, is that not what it's for? It is? Okay, good, all right, So we're gonna get into the stop. Dave we're gonna get into the moments that mattered here, and
I got four of them for you, guys. I'm gonna walk you through these, and I want you guys to tell me what you think the significance was of these plays and some of the decision making that was made in them. Let's start first with first quarters five to fifty seven left in the first quarter. Atlanta's up fourteen nothing. It's fourth and fourth of Dallas twenty nine, so they're backed up in their own territory and Dallas runs a fake punt where Chris Jones attempts to pass to CJ. Goodwin,
passes low, Goodwin can't make the catch. Do you think it was a good decision there in your own backed up that far in your own territory, down fourteen nothing to be able to go for a fake punt. Let's start first with you, Dave. This is a really classic case of like your opinion being dictated by the result.
And I felt it at the time. I was like, man, awfully early to be this desperate, like you have that little faith in your defense that you think you got to do this right here on this yard line to keep this thing from getting out of control, like, maybe put a little faith in your defense. They've already forced a punt or two. Having said that, if Chris Jones throws a better pass or c. J. Goodwin doesn't slip looking back for it, it's amazing, and we're talking about
it like it's amazing. You know, the Chris Jones fake four years ago where he ran for forty yards against Philadelphia comes to mind. I don't remember the specific circumstances, but it was an aggressive call and everybody loved it because it worked like Gangbusters, So I will you know, it felt desperate at the time, but I'll just say I like the thought that they're going that they are
going to be this aggressive. We know if John Fossil loves to fake punts and do stuff like that, I'm in favor of it as a trend, even if I didn't love it at the time. Camber, I liked it. I liked the call. I thought I'd whipping asking for creativity and for them to be, you know, risky in certain scenarios, and that's exactly what they gave was. But it comes down to execution. I don't I don't know
how often they've been practicing this during their practices. Is this something that the coaching staff was feeling comfortable with their players making or being able to make that kind of play. I don't know, but it just comes down to the player. I thought the call was great, but they were lacking any execution. Nickum, Yeah, I actually got a got some win that this might happen. And I had a conversation with someone about that. They he'll throw the ball to CJ. Godwin or Cedric Wilson, and I
my question was why CJ. Goodwin? Why why don't you throw it to a receiver. It's like, well, whoever's going to be open. But you know, today's point that was that was I don't know if it was desperate because they were. That was like on Friday, They're like, they're gonna do this at some point and then they're gonna find the time where the look is right. So the
look was right, and and CJ. Goodwin's going to be more open because he's really fast and he's one of the best special teams players on the team, if not the best, and so when he's running, I mean, they know that if he stops, he's gonna be wide open. The pass was lower than it needed to be and he fell and he didn't look like a receiver. But you know, I regret and I was gonna mention that to you guys. I was like, watch watch for this because it could it could happen, because I didn't think
they're gonna do two fake punts. But I mean, I just think it was a look they were looking for. And you know, Chris Jones got to throw the ball better than that. Yeah. Actually I loved this call, and during the game, I actually love the call because you're already down fourteen. Oh you kind of want to get something going and established some momentum and try to flip the game a little bit. And to me, the call was great. I mean, they obviously whatever they saw and
whatever they were working on, it presented itself there. They just didn't execute it, and that you put on the players. I don't put that on the coaches. I think it was a good decision. I think the timing was good. I just think in that situation, the players got execute and they didn't do it very well. And that's where you run into the issue of, well, the guy is a special teams player and a backup secondary player, like the likelihood that he's going to run a great route
and catch it. Yeah, you're kind of playing with it a little playing with fire a little bit there. But at the end of the day, I think the call was right, and I think I didn't have a problem with him doing it. Let's move on to the next moment that matter mattered. It was seven or four left in the third quarter. Atlanta's up twenty one seventeen, I'm sorry, twenty nine seventeen. Third and two at the Dallas forty one. Gage gets a direct snap. He throws a deep past
Julio Jones, and Jones drops it. Now, of course, that's not what you would expect to see from Julio Jones already in Dallas territory. Atlanta lines up to go for the fourth down conversion, only to get a penalty for having too many men on the field and that forced them to punt it. My question for you guys, if Atlanta scores on Jones drop, probably don't lose the game. You guys agree or disagree with that call. Agree. I
just did a video for BOS. Turning to the going of the game, that was the in my opinion, the biggest play of the game. You guys agree that the whole sequence of that, and then not because they're not gonna get stopped on fourth and two. That's why they did it on third and two, because they're not going to stop you on fourth and two. Then stopped you all game until they get a penalty. But it was the stop the Cowboys needed. And then they flip it in the Mary gets that long catch which they needed
a big, quick touchdown to go the other way. So that whole sequence is, to me, the difference of the game. How shocked were you, guys? No, I just I have to laugh because you know, there's there's a fatalist type of Cowboy fan, and given how long the Cowboys have been waiting to win another Super Bowl, there's a lot of them. And people are always like, we never get those breaks, that stuff never happens to us. It's always
us doing the dumb stuff. And I mean that that is a break that is that was such a ridiculous break that the best, the best receiver in football drops an open touchdown pass and then you make a bow and had a decision like that that robs you out of getting points out or being able to go for it on fourth down. Yeah, if either one of those players goes in different way. We're talking about a loss, there's no doubt in my mind, but you know where
that happens. I was talking to a coach after the game, and he was saying high school coach, not one of the coaches, but he was saying that that happens when you do personnel like that. When your quarterback goes over here and you've got like gauge throwing it, it messes up your whole personnel. So then they get in there and then he thinks he's staying on the field and all of a sudden, that kind of led to the fourth down, which I didn't even I don't think about
that kind of stuff. But but yeah, I mean, so it's just all small little things, a five yard penalty, but that that wiped them, you know, off the field, and then that was the break the Cowboys needed. But yeah, Julio Jones dropping that pass like that, Like, how shocked are you guys that the Cowboys were able to hold Julio Jones to only two catches. You only had four targets, but two catches for twenty four yards? Do you think that was more function of the defense, which we're gonna
talk about the defense a little bit later. But do you think that was more of the defense or do you think Julio just had a rough day, Dave. Wasn't he dealing with an injury he was? Yeah. I will say this though, the whole thing a little bit. Yeah, But I will say this, I have watched I have watched Julio Jones play a lot of football because he's only been on my fantasy team a lot of years. Even when he's hurt, that what we saw yesterday is not typical Julio Jones. He still makes plays even when
he's hurt. The guy's a machine, so right that he should have caught that one, right, I mean, didn't he just maybe Trayvon wasn't ready. Yeah. I really like him though, Trayvon Dix, if he can just actually catch the ball, he's gonna be he's gonna drop. No, no, no, no. I didn't say it was a drop. What I said was he makes some extraordinary plays, like him getting in position to even be able to knock that ball down.
That takes extraordinary talent, outing his ability. If he can catch it, now he turns into that next level player that they've been looking for. The cornerback position for a while, right, I bet you. I bet if it was the other way around, they might have called interference on it. If it was the defensive guy, you know, if he because he can't close someone's hands like that, can't you get I don't know. On offense, it doesn't work. Hey, the
Cowboys got another break. They got an offensive pass interference that they didn't call this week. Did you see that? I mean it was yeah, it was Tiki ta yah. Yeah. But the guy also flopped too, and you're like, I'm sorry, you're not Jalen Ramsey. I mean, Jaylen can flop and he gets it. You can't flop, you'd get up? Who are you? He just lost the game because he was trying to you know, get him, get him charge. Sorry, all right, We're would have to go back, and I'd
have to. I'd have to. I'd have to watch the tape for sure to see what the Dallas defense did to Julio. It's fair to say he struggled because he dropped a touchdown pass. But that's what I always say, is like, I mean Ridley and Ridley gauge and Hurst ate him alive. So you know, I think the Cowboys probably focused on Julio, but it's it's not like they shut down the passing attack, and they did score thirty nine points, so something worked for them. Yeah, let's move
on to the next moment that mattered. This is fourth quarter to twelve, fifty three left in the fourth quarter, Atlanta's up thirty six twenty four, and it's fourth and five at the Dallas forty. Dallas runs another fake punt. This time it is a direct snap to Darry and Thompson. Do you like this decision to go for it on fourth down? Let's start first with you, Nick. No. I didn't like that one because again, you've got Pollard in there, and like, it's like, let your running backs run the ball,
not your safety. And if fourth and five, if the Cowboys lined up on offense, would they run Zeke up the middle on fourth and five? I doubt it. I mean they might, but it's like, if you're gonna just do that, then why don't you let the guy that's already got three hundred and seventy five yards passing? Whyn't
you just let them try to get five yards? If you really want to go for it, don't give it to Darry and Thompson to run the ball up the middle with those blockers that that's not Connor Williams up there, that's like Joe Thomas and the Schultz blocking and left. So I didn't didn't like that call. Yamber absolutely agree. I think that if that was their decision going in, that should have Just like you, they always say you
want your best guys on the field. So if you're going with that mentality that you're just gonna go try to get those five yards, then keep your best guys on the field and make it happen. So I completely agree with everything that Nick said. I don't think that was the right call for me, Dave. It has it has been a law. I can't remember hating a call more than I've hated that, Like anything Jason Garrett ever did, I can't remember a time where I hated something more
than I hated that. Because what's what is the benefit of a fake? It's that the defense doesn't see it coming right, Who in their right mind would be surprised by a fake? When you're down by twelve and the fourth quarter, you know you need to generate offense. You know you need to stay on the field. You've already faked it. Your special team scored Nator has a reputation for faking it. Put your offense on the field and
just go for it. Nobody is surprised by that. I hated it so much, and I mean Amber and Nick already covered it. But yeah, I thought it was awful. Yeah, I'm glad. Glad. Now I'm glad we all agree because that's exactly the way I looked at it. I didn't have a problem with them going for it on fourth down. It was all about the fact that there was no surprise in doing a fake punt at that point. So put your offense, which, by the way, your offense was clicking.
That was a part of the game where they were actually moving the ball pretty well. Take a shot, go for it on fourth down. Put your guys out there, let them actually make a play and see if you can get a first down and keep the change moving. Let's move on to the final memorable moment that I wanted to talk about. This one happened in the fourth quarter, about four fifty seven left in the game. Dallas is
down thirty nine to thirty. At this point, Dallas scores a TD on a pass from Dalk from Dak to Schultz by the way, really really I thought, really really great route. And we'll talk about Schultz a little later in the show as well, but I thought it was a really great route. Though it was really great passed, they convert, they get the touchdown, Mike McCarthy opts to attempt a two point conversion rather than take the point
after touchdown. After the game, Mike McCarthy was asked about it, and he says that he would prefer to know earlier than later whether he would need to score twice, which is an interesting take that I'd never really heard a coach put out there before. My question for you guys is do you agree with the strategy? Let's start first with you Amber. No, not at all. I kept going back and forth, and I wish I had I wish I wrote it on a piece of paper because I had it on my phone on my note and I
kept writing every single scenario. I'm like, let me try to make sense of this reasoning as to why you would try to go for a two point conversion in this specific play at this time of the game. And honestly, it came down to me not being able to make much sense of it. I would have rather getting to a point where I can tide the game rather than risk it on that last play of the game where I'm sure we're gonna talk about it in death here
with the kick. But that's that's that's how improbable. I think that they got lucky in that play and they won the game because the Falcons didn't do what they were supposed to do. And I know that there was some confusion there as to Okay, at what point should you grab the ball, at what point do you go for it or what? But they just got really, really fortunate and it ended up working in their favor this time. But just going back of it, I just cannot make
much sense of that call, Dave. Let's let's lay let's lay this out and give it some context, because it's I mean, this is a you could you could write a thesis about this if you wanted to. Like, this wasn't a willy nilly decision on Mike McCarthy's part. There's been a ton of study done about this. The numbers show that it is actually a sensible thing to do. We've seen coaches like Doug Peterson do this before. If you think back to the Eagles Packers game last year.
I believe the Eagles scored to take a seven point lead and Doug Peterson went for two and he didn't get it. But again, the numbers bear that out, like you can look at the charts and say, this is what the numbers people say you're supposed to do. So it's not like Mike McCarthy pulled this out of thin air. There's a ton of stuff out on the Internet that you can read about why it makes sense me personally,
and I will acknowledge I'm terrible at math. That's why I became a writer, is I don't understand stuff like that, but at the same time I can't fully wrap my head around it. The idea is that, and Mike McCarthy said it, you want to know as quickly as possible
what you need or what you don't need. So it's almost like it's almost like Pavlov's or not Pavlov's dog, Schrodinger's cat is like the two point conversion is just kind of hanging out there in the ether, and the sooner you figure out whether you have it or not, the better off you all. And it worked in the cowboys favor. They caught every break. It imaginable, and they
made it work. But in my mind, I think you have a better chance of kicking the extra point there, and then it is an eight point game and you take it down to the end and you either get the extra point or you don't. But at least you don't have to get two more possessions. You only need one. And I can hear the analytics people right now. The Cowboys tried that against the Jets last year and they lost on the two point conversion. So it's not guaranteed
to work. But the thought that you're going to get the ball two more times in less than five minutes is crazy to me. And what's even crazier is that it actually worked out. Like you're talking about a point zero one probability, and the Cowboys got it yesterday and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. Nice shout out there on Shrodden, just cat, and I love that that reference. All right, go ahead, Nick, which I'll just say all that stuff said. I still don't like it.
I still don't like it, but there's way smarter people who say it's the right thing to do. So all right, Nick, they can sit right here and I'll argue with them all day. I don't care. I've said it one hundred times, Butcarthur can sit right here with the Super Bowl ring in my face and I'll argue with him. A terrible call, terrible decision. You don't do that at all, And I agree. I mean, it's what they just said you. You need to know what you need to do, like he wants
to find out what he wants. Hey, the Falcons have scored thirty nine points on your ass the whole game. You need to stop him. That's what you need to do. And you need to stop him once, not twice. So like, I don't know what else, what else. Analytics sound great, but the game is telling you what's happening. The game is telling you. And what I hate about it is is that if you get the when you get the ball back and you're down by nine, you got to
score twice your offensive. I mean, your best player is Zeke and he can't really be a factor because you now have to score twice. You have to run down. It worked out for them, that's great, but to me that I think, I think it was a terrible decision to do that, and I see it happen all the time now I see coaches do it, and I definitely don't understand it. But yeah, it worked. It didn't work because of that. It just worked out. It didn't work
because it's like, oh, they went for two. It worked, they got lucky, they went they You can't tell me you're using analytics if you're going to rely on an onsite kick, which is what is the percentage of that nine percent? Eight percent? So I don't know six six percent. I mean, it's it worked out for them, But man, I thought that was a terrible move. Yeah. It's the interesting part here to me is I kind of see this.
I see the point on both sides. I was, by the way, I was losing my mind when he did it, thinking what was that? That is a horrible Nick I texted you. I was like, I'm starting to worry a little bit about the coach's ability to make the right call because I don't know if that's a good call like that just and I'm combining with it with other calls that I've seen over the last two weeks that I'm like, it's another text that I sent to you. Oh oh yeah, Nick did say in the first quarter.
First quarter, Nick did say they were going to win this game. But that's a typical Nick calling the kickoff like that. Nick he does. Don't act like I didn't put it on Twitter. You put it out, you did. You absolutely do it, You absolutely do. But but it was hinted on that that that player like they have to stop him here because twenty four nothing. I'm not in, but I'm in on twenty nothing, but not twenty four. But but I think the interesting thing is what you
always hear from coaches. What I've always heard from coaches over the years I've watched football and played football when I was in high school, was you always keep yourself in the game as long as you possibly can. And
that's the purpose of taking the extra point. You take the extra point, and you defer the thing of having to go for two until later because you just want to keep giving your team hope and giving your team the opportunity to know that, hey, if we get to touchdown, then all we need a two point conversion, rather than hey we need a point, we need a touchdown, we need an extra point, and then we got to get
the ball back and go down and score again. You know, you can make the argument that going for two actually lost the game for the Falcons. Because they're up twenty six to seven, they decide they just want to go up a nice even twenty one points. Why, I mean, just just keep taking points until you need it, because it would it would have changed some things. Now you lost by one point, yeah, the game would have been
a little bit different. But I mean, at that point in the game, third quarters, just keep taking your points, your points. I will say this one one of the arguments that I've heard is, hey, you're gonna have to get a two point conversion either way. At some point you had to get a two point conversion here, and so you're gonna have to go for it. So why
not go ahead and go for it early? And then again goes back to what Mike McCarthy said, you at least know where you are in the game, rather than you miss it with the like in the Jets game, you don't get the two point conversion and then everything's done. My argument back to that is you're probably still in the same boat. You still now have to go and get an onside kick, which they were somehow miraculously able to convert, and then go down to get a field goal.
So I don't know that that changes anything. My point is that you still put yourself in a situation early where you did, to some degree make your team feel like there was a larger uphill climb in order to tie or win that ball game that you put yourself in by taking that two point try early. I still think the right call is to go ahead and take your extra point there, Good Dave. I'll steal this line from my buddy Cowboys Stats and Graphics, which, like, you
should follow that account on Twitter. It's it's great, which he said last night. If you can divorce yourself from the idea that losing late is better than losing early, you can open yourself up to this line of thinking, which I appreciate that, Like, he's not wrong, but I just can't get all the way there because I think purely analytical people like they want football to be baseball so badly, and it's it's just not for me, Like some of these decisions don't happen in a vacuum. That's
a great point. If you go for two early and don't get it, you run the risk of demoralizing the entire team, which maybe that's not you know, maybe that's not right. Maybe you should have a more professional mindset, but human nature is what it is. There are so many ridiculous moving parts that go into every facet of a football game that you can't approach it from a purely analytical standpoint. In my opinion, love analytics. I think they're great, but sometimes I do think like gut feeling
and all that other stupid crap come into play. Now. Of course, the irony is that it worked out for the Cowboys. It did. I think if you do if you run that sequence, if you run that sequence ninety nine times, I think you lose one hundred. I mean, I'm sorry, if you run it one hundred times, I think you lose ninety nine. But who am I to talk too much trash? When they pulled it off, I mean they really needed a miraculous moment, which was that,
I mean that an onside kick. Without that, then we're talking today about the fact that you didn't give you a chance. I don't think you gave your team the best chance to win by keeping them in a situation where it could come down to that final two point conversion. We're gonna go and take our final break when we come back. I do want to talk about a couple of players and how they performed yesterday, including Dalton Schultz. Nick, you mentioned that last week. We'll talk about that when
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T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. You could run on the field, to the locker rooms and so much more. At and T Stadium tours presented by seed Geek or available daily. Visit at and T stadium dot com for details. Yeah. Interesting. Speaking of at and T Stadium, yesterday, Cowboys were able to get twenty one thousand people into the stadium and all by all accounts, it looks like it was pretty successful. They had people in the pods based upon you know, you kind of sat with your
friends and family that were with you. Everybody else was socially distant, and I know, it was a nice environment. It was nice to be back in an environment where you actually could hear crowd noise and it felt like a regular game to me, as opposed to Week one, that felt very very weird. Yeah, it where I was sitting, I was away from you guys, but which sucked. But I was sitting in a spot where the you know, the window was opened. You could kind of hear the
crowd and somebody mum. But when they got the onsite kick, I mean, that seemed loud to me. I mean, that seemed like that was not as loud as it could be, but I didn't really notice. I mean, it seemed like it was a big deal. Yeah, it was good. It was It was fun to be in that environment, and certainly after so many, so many months of being isolated, it felt good to be in an environment where there were people and uh, and they were actually enjoying a
game together. So what happens when it's really cold, like in December, They're gonna keep them keep it open like that. I think they will. Yeah, I think you have to. I think you need to and a baby. And by the way, even at that, it's not gonna be nearly as cold as if you're doing an outside game in Pittsburgh. And they managed to filter stadium during a normal season, So I think, I think you'll be fine. They can always have to play in Cincinnati and it's not gonna
be that bad. It'll be all right. Real quick, I did one too before we end the show, talk about a couple of players and their performances yesterday. Dalton Schultz comes to mind. He was a guy that we've given like, we've talked a lot about how he's not the answer. And I think when Blake, yeah you did you absolutely cut him on last Monday, I think it was Blake Jarwin goes down and I think all of us agreed across the board that the Cowboys needed to do something.
They need to consider something. I know I was looking for, pushing for them to go and look at Delaney Walker. But yesterday Dalton Schultz shows up in a big way for the team. He does have the fumble early in the game, but he comes back. He has ten targets. He catches nine of those passes for eighty eight yards
and a touchdown. My question is, at this point, do you feel like the Cowboys, between Schultz and Bell have enough at tight end for you to feel comfortable with the tight end position moving forward for the rest of the season. Let's start first with you, Nick, because you're the one that called this on Friday saying you expected Schultz is gonna have a big game, Right, Yeah, I expect us that our expectations of him to be a little bit better. I don't know if I'm still comfortable
with that. I mean, I do think his nine catches eighty eight yards was a product of the game being more wide open stuff like that. I don't think he is your prototype tight end to be the blocker and catcher and all that stuff. Um, but he did a nice job and and he he did catch the ball. Well. Again, I don't think in a twenty one to seventeen type of game that he's he's the right answer there. But I mean he's he's got a spot for sure. And I thought he did a nice job catching the ball
and all that. Uh, he surpassed my expectations. I thought he would be better than than he was last week, but not not to this point. But I still think, you know, he's not I mean, he's not like the guy that's just going to be overpowering at the Lion of scrimmage. Dave Um Well, I mean, I gotta give him a shout out first, because yeah, I mean everybody everybody killed him last week, at myself included. I'm not like trying to not be part of that. Everybody was
very critical. Even going back, you know, people were saying he might not make the team out of training camp. There's competition, YadA, YadA. I thought he played great. No disrespect to him. Like all I'm doing is I'm putting a pin in it, like this is something that I'm monitoring week by week. He played great. I don't think at Lanta's defense is anything special. I don't think you're always going to be in a situation where you're just absolutely airing it out all the time like this. Yeah,
I mean, Nick Nick is right. The stats kind of gets skewed. You're probably asking your tight ends to do less in the running game when you're trailing by two scores in the second half. So I was really impressed. So I'm not looking I'm not looking for tight ends right now, but I'm also not just satisfied. And you know, we're all good at the tight end position. But I thought he was great, and but you still want to cut him, just like Dave said, I'm gonna put a
pin on that one. I mean, it was great. It was forgetting the first part of the game, because everyone played bad basically, but forgetting that, I thought it was really nice. And credit to him for making the plays that he did. It was nice to see him take some of what he did during training camp and apply it into an actual game. I was one that really really doubted him and said I didn't think he would be able to carry that from training camp into a game. So kudos to him. But at the same time, am
I fully convinced. Absolutely not. I need to see more. I think the Cowboys will won't go out and get it tight end. I think that after what they saw there, maybe they just kind of stayed put for another week and keep going with what they have. But I'll say this, I don't think he would have a game such a game against a better defense. So I think that next week it might get ugly a little bit there. But great job for him in this game, you know. I
will say this. One thing I think I've learned about him is I think what I'm trying to convince myself of is that he just is what he is and he's not gonna be that great all around tight end that's a great blocker and a great pass catcher. What he is is he's a guy that can catch the ball pretty well. He's a guy that can win when he is the fifth option on the offense. So basically, defenses are gonna say, in most instances, they're gonna say, we'll let that guy have one guy like, we're not
gonna double Dalton Schultz. We got too many other problems to deal with, and I think he can win in some of those scenarios. So when you look at it from that standpoint, this type of high powered offense which yesterday they get the forty burger. It's something we've thought that they could be since they got Ceedee Lamb Right. So I think when you look at it from that standpoint, and even going to Amber's point, I think even a
great defense a really good defense. I think when you look at how they're gonna play the Cowboys, they're still gonna be focused on a lot of other guys before they get to Dalton Schultz. And I think Dalton Schultz is going to be the guy that's going to be the benefactor there. He's gonna be the guy that's gonna get a lot of opportunities this year. And I think in those situations, I think he's shown that he can kind of catch the ball and buy a lot. Now,
I still question sometimes he makes some bonehead decisions. We've seen that before when he's gotten on the field. But that all being said, yesterday made me a little more a little more comfortable in the idea that I think he could play this role on this team with these weapons pretty well. And it made me feel pretty good about what they can do with him and with Blake Bell.
All Right, here's what I'm gonna do real quick. We're gonna end the show, but it's amazing to me that we were able to get to an entire show coming off a game where both starting offensive tackles did not play, and that was not the storyline of the game of the show on Monday. I thought you were going to refer to the play that everyone's talking about, but we did not talk We did not talk about. But that's another one that we're gonna get to tomorrow, so it
makes you tune in tomorrow. We got a lot more stuff we got to dissect from this game, and we'll do some of that tomorrow. We'll also give you guys a bigger picture look at the NFC. So there's a lot going on in this division and a lot of it is actually helping the Cowboys, I think long term. So we'll talk about all that tomorrow too. Then for Nick Even, Dave Helman, Hellman, Amber Garcia, I am Derek Eielton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot
Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.