Cowboys Break: Any Silver Lining?

We are live. You're from the s WBC Morty Studios at the Star and if you can't tell them, I'm buy my voice. There is a lot of stuff that we got to talk about because it didn't look really good yesterday. Cowboys get a loss at home of the Arizona Cardinals. They lose thirty eight to ten, and uh and like I said, there's a lot to talk about. There's a lot to take in from that game. We're

gonna go through some different things. What I basically did in order for us to kind of talk about this game is I'm going to run through some storylines and we'll dive into each of them and talk a little bit about each of them, and some of them are a little bigger picture. Some of them are just kind

of what happened in the game. But I think the game, if you're going to dissect that game, I think you have to start with the offensive line because I think that, in my opinion, was one of the biggest areas where the Cowboys found deficiencies, and I think it affected a lot of other things. The first thing that happens to them, though, Zach Martin goes out. Nick. What do we know about Zach Martin's injury and the status of him going forward? I don't. I don't know. I mean, I don't know.

Jerry got a chance to do an interview this morning, he wasn't asked about it, So don't we don't know. I mean, it's a concussion concussion protocol. Short week doesn't look good brushing him back like that, because you with thank on a short week like that. Um, you know, he's probably I don't know, I don't know if he'll be ready or not, but I would I would imagine probably not. Dave, the Cowboys had to play Connor mcgoverned when he went down in the place of Zack Martin.

What did you see from Connor McGovern at just I guess throughout the game, how would you assess his play? I mean, I hate to throw out blanket statements from only watching it once. I obviously hadn't had a chance to look a look at it again or watch the tape. But I thought he played fine for a guy that that really got his first real NFL action last night on short notice when Zach went out. Um, you know, I don't think he was the reason that the offensive

line couldn't hold up. Let's put it that way, Um, Zach Zach status is. It's gonna be one of those day by day things. I think, no two concussions are the same. I've leaned towards like I agree with Nick. I leaned toward thinking he's probably not going to be available on a short week. But that's gonna be one of those things where you're gonna need to check in on that every day. And if Connor has to play again,

welcome to the big leagues, buddy. Because that Washington front is full of first round picks, so he might have held up pretty well on Monday, but that isn't necessarily an indicator when the talent level rises when you play Washington and but this team yesterday, they had a hard time running the ball. Although there were some moments in the game where they had a couple good runs, they

really had a hard time protecting. And at this point they're running with only one starter from last year, that being Connor Williams, who most people, probably everybody would say was the weakest link of that group last year. That all being considered, how would you assess the offensive lines play yesterday? Well, I went back and watched a couple a few plays. Honestly, it's just those two edges, those

two tackle positions. It's either Brandon Knight or Steal. That's like his guy would always be a little a few seconds behind Brandon Knight's guys, so they're very very close to each other. I did watch a few of Connor McGovern, and honestly, most of the places where I saw the protection being pretty pretty bad was when either tackle was doing something bad. Like I didn't see something major from Connor McGovern Tyler Biadai. I think he's doing a good job.

There are a couple of misses there, but that's gonna happen. Connor is still hanging in there doing whatever he can. I did see a couple of plays where they did utilize Ezekiel Elliott to help protect, and when he did that, the pocket did look a lot better and he gave

Andy Dalton somewhat a little bit more time. So in a scenario, even though you want Seek to be able to run the ball, in scenarios where you know he's not necessarily having a great game, instead of benching him, I think I would rather use him to protect and help give Andy Dalton I had better protection there. But it doesn't doesn't look good. It does not look good

at all so far. Yeah, looking at it, Nick, And when you go down that whole offensive line, what was your assessment of the of the line as a unit? They're one of ten I mean to me, I mean, okay, sorry, I thought we're gonna have a general statement on this game. But as the offensive line, they were bad, and they were they tied with ten other position groups out there

as well. I mean, you gotta give you gotta I mean, this is the second team offensive line with Connor Williams, who many people thought for the first game should go to the second team. So this is just a full line of backups with a backup quarterback and a backup tight end. I mean, it is what it is. You're not gonna win a lot of games on that, you know,

doing playing that way. I mean, there's no excuses really to play that poorly, but you you have to expect that it's going to look really bad when you have all those backups. You know. That's an interesting point because I wonder and it didn't seem like to me last week as we were breaking down this game, and as we were getting ready for it, and as we were making our picks, it didn't feel to me like any of us were as concerned about the offensive line is

maybe we should have been. And I go back to Bucky Brooks and what he said earlier in the week when we had him on, and he talked about the fact that Andy Dalton in his past has been really good when you can protect him. When you can't protect him, he's not very good. And yesterday it seemed like that's the way that it played out. But I don't think I didn't get the impression. I'll speak for myself. I didn't expect it to be that bad. Dave, did you expect it to be that bad? And did you expect

that going into the game. I don't want to quibble, but I'm pretty sure I talked about being terrified about how much the Cardinals were gonna blitz, and I read this morning they blitzed on about forty percent of their snaps. Dalton was getting rocked by safeties linebackers. Obviously the front

four got home as well. But I mean, yeah, I wasn't surprised by anything that I saw, and especially when Zach went out of the game, I was early confident that they were going to dial up ways to pressure him and like, like not to be a jerk, but I'm pretty sure I said that at times last week as well. Well. That all being said, are you surprised at the Cowboys coaches didn't expect that and decided that in a lot of instances they opted to go with an empty backfield and they had to tight end split

out wide. I mean, they were really giving no help to try to help these these tackles. Particularly. Can I be real, because you brought this up to me in the press box last night, and I think you have a point obviously. I mean, you know you want to give those guys as much help as possible, and I want to be careful because again I don't even think the all twenty two for this game is available yet. If it is, I certainly haven't watched it. I think

I got four hours asleep last night. I thought a bigger problem than that was Andy Dalton just held onto the ball for far, far too long. Maybe that's because his throwing lanes were clogged by blitzers, Maybe that's because guys couldn't get open. But I counted what felt like half a dozen to ten snaps where he had three three and a half four seconds of protection and didn't know where to go with the ball. You know, I know you put you put in your rundown that he

carried twice for four yards. I think those were both plays. They weren't designed runs. Those were plays where he stood there and had to pull it down and go somewhere. And we've seen it's been a hell of an impressive month for these Cowboys receivers, you know, when Dak was in the lineup. So I'm hesitant to say that they just couldn't get open against this defense. I just don't

know how well Andy Dalton was seeing the field. But again, I want to go back and watch because I don't know that for sure, But that's what it looked like to me and Andy Dalton had He was thirty four fifty four with sixty three percent completion percentage, two hundred and sixty six yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Amber, how did you assess his play overall? Bad? Really bad? I And it sucks because I honestly had very good

hopes about Indy Dolts. And yes, part of it has to deal with the offensive line, but at the same time, either he was holding onto the ball too long or in the place where he was getting rid of the ball quickly, it was like they didn't even look like passes. They looked like he would just quickly toss it and they wouldn't be any good. So it just looked like

an inexperienced quarterback. And I know he has a ton of experience, and that's one of the main reasons we kept talking about him last week and the fact that this is probably the best backup quarterback that the Cowboys could have had. But at the same time, watching that game, to me, he did not look like an experienced quarterback. There were things that I expected him to do a

lot better as far as instincts. Yes, he's not going to be necessarily the quarterback like that is as far as getting out of the pocket and running and making just having better instincts. You know, I don't know what to tell you. I really thought he would do better, and I'm a very disappointed and I'm not very excited as what is to come next, because at the beginning of the game, that was the main thing I was excited to see this game, was like, Okay, let's see

what Andy Dalton can do. I'm ready for this too serious in I was so bored and I was ready to just call it a quits, but we kept hanging on, and I kept thinking, Okay, maybe the second half, but wait, we don't have Dank Prescott and I doubt it. And yeah, it did not work out, and he was not able to carry the team in the second half of the game like Dak did. Nick, how much do you attribute

the poor offensive play to Dak not being there? Because there is this kind of competing thought process out there. Some say, well, Andy didn't have time, but you in a lot of instances, I mean, like I wouldn't you say a lot of instances, But in this instance particularly, there are most of those guys that were out there yesterday. Dak's been playing with most of those guys most of the season and has gotten the offense to at least be more productive. From the standpoint of points, how much

do you put on Dak not being there? Yeah? I mean, do you think Dak's a bus driver quarterback? No? Do you think Andy Dalton is? Yes? Yeah, me too. And I think that's that's what it comes down to. Like Dak, it doesn't drive the bus. I mean, you know all the I mean, he drives a better car than that, and he'll drive a lot more if he can get

this deal done. But if if Andy Dalton is a bus driver, and when the wheels aren't working and the you know, kids are messing, you know, yelling in the back and all that stuff, it's gonna be a hectic day. And it was you gotta help Andy Dalton. They didn't. His running back didn't help him at all. His running back. When I said, and I know I tweeted this, when I said he was going to ball out, I didn't mean that the bumble would come out. I thought he was gonna play inspired. He did not. He did not.

That was the most disappointing part. The best part about Zeke's day was stepping up to the podium and admitting it. And you know, but that's all nice and good, you know, but my Michael Gallup's not catching a touchdown pass. I mean, he didn't get help. And Andy Daldon needs help. He's a he's a guy that has always needed help in an offensive line that can block for him and all that stuff. I don't think he was terrible. He I thought he would have played a little bit better than that.

But I don't think he was terrible. I just think he's got it. It's got to be a perfect situation for him, and it certainly wasn't, you know. So, but yeah, they missed Dak. They missed Dak because Dak has the dog in him. And then and who else has it? It's not the defensive guys. They don't. They don't have it. So Zeke didn't have it. I thought he did. He would. I thought he would, and he didn't. So who has it? And the receivers don't really have, you know, play like that.

They don't have that fire. Dad gives them that fire, and they missed it, you know, And I think Dad gives him even more than that. I think what Dak gives him is the threat that he can run the ball. And I saw a couple times yesterday, probably more than a couple of times situations where the Cowboys bab heasically blocked it up pretty decent. But there was this huge hole, that gaping hole that developed in the middle of the offensive line, and basically you had all the Cardinals defenders

back playing man coverage. And in that situation most of the time, when you got a quarterback that can run, he says, I'm pulling the ball down and I'm gonna pick up ten yards, twelve yards, fifteen yards whatever. Did you see that last night by any quarterback? Yeah? Yeah, we did see that by one quarterback. But my point

is like, teams don't have to worry about it. And that's what really I think worries me the most about the Cowboys going forward is their probably teams are looking at this and saying, we don't have to worry about Andy Dalton running. And if we don't have to worry about Andy Dalton running, we can cover these guys on the back end, and especially if we can get pass rushed with four guys, which again the Cardinals did a lot yesterday. Especially in the second half they were doing before. Guys,

they weren't blizzing a lot in the second half. In my opinion, it looked like they were sending for a lot. And that being said, you look at this, the way that they played, and I look at it. I don't think that's gonna be a problem for the Cowboys. And it's not like you're gonna all of a sudden teach Andy Dalton how to become a runner. And so I don't know how the Cowboys get themselves out of that hole unless their offensive line plays better. Dave, I'll ask

you this question. I think I know your answer. But there's a narrative out there that Dak got a lot of the yards and the points that he got this season in the second half when they were down big, because big, because teams played soft, and that's how he kind of racked all that up. Yesterday they had a similar scenario, but they weren't able to pick up those

yards and points. Do you think it kills that narrative about Dak and make makes Dak look even more impressive with the things he was able to do in the first five games of this season. I mean, nothing Dak does is gonna convince a certain segment of people until he wins the Super Bowl. But yeah, I mean I made a really snide comment about it. I mean, nobody, you know, somebody forgot to remind Andy Dalton that it's easy to play once you go down and buy a

lot like, it's easy to do that. It's easy to throw your team out of hole because DAC does it all the time. That's just garbage time. But Cardinals were kicking their ass last night and nothing looked easy for them. So yeah, I mean, I thought that narrative was stupid to begin with. I certainly think it's stupid. As we sit here today, all right, we're gonna take our first break. When we come back, I want to talk about Zeke and his fumbles. I want to talk about this defense

and how they performed. And I want to ask you guys the question how much blame goes to this coaching staff because we're now through six games and what we're seeing, as the coach himself is said at this point, it is a It is a pattern. It is a pattern. What we're seeing is a pattern. So we'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com radio. We're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new doctor pepper and

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The Starter includes four Jack Black skincare favorites plus a full size intense therapy lip bomb. Go to get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys and use the code word Team JB. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys. The Jack Black Starter ten bucks, free shipping. Since eighteen sixty five. Stetson Hats are American maid with Pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas

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and new nephews. That's why at American Airlines we've been using enhanced cleaning measures so you can feel confident every step until you get to them. So, as always, our people can't wait to take you to yours American Airlines. You are why we fly back to the break. Don't miss your chance to get tickets to see the Cowboys at AT and T Stadium this season. It will get better than that what we saw Monday night. I would imagine home match against the Steelers, Washington forty nine Ers

and Eagles. A limited number of tickets are on sale now. Get yours today at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash tickets. Yes, it will be better. They said it's gonna get better, and then he led that with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They ain't gonna be hi about twenty eight. I can promise, okay, I'll promise you maybe those other three teams. The Steelers look really GREATY know that they do, and they'll be at home really good because they'll be way more yellow

towels than anything other Cowboys will throw. Their defense right now is just playing, is like really really playing well, So yeah, they're gonna beat him bout twenty eight. What I'm saying, it's thirty eight to ten. Okay, we'll see. I don't think so that's but maybe thirty five, maybe

maybe two. I mean sure that that was just that was that was a really bad bad game against the you know, I mean maybe above average team, but probably average when they when they finished with their division, there'll be an average team, which makes it even worse. Exactly. That's what's the problem. Lead it into your coaching problem. All right, Well, I was gonna go to Zeke, but you're right. Let's let's jump to the coaching issue because there, let me, I'm trying to figure out how I even

bring this. Like I look at this this team, and there are a number of players on this team that it seems like, to me, the coaching staff is just, for whatever reason, like just hell bent that these guys are gonna be players. And it takes like them seeing over and over and over and over again that they aren't very good before they will actually say, Okay, maybe we ought to back off a little bit. We saw it with darry and Thompson earlier this season. We saw

it was still earlier this season. We saw it last night with with Daryl Worley and he's been bad for a while. And you got Anthony Brown sitting over there on the sideline. And again, I'm not signing trying to say in any way that Anthony Brown is like the

answer to all of this. What I'm saying is, I think he's a better player than Darryl Worley and I and I'm sitting there and I'm wondering, like, why is it that they get themselves in these situations where they just so are so hell bent on the fact that they think one guy is so much better or should be out there when there are other guys that I think on the sideline that that are better than they are. Nick, what do you think I don't I don't necessarily agree

with you there because I don't think that. I don't think the options are way better now the worldly over Anthony Brown. I don't understand really, because Anthony Brown seems like a better player. They're paying him to be a better player. He's made more plays for the Cowboys, so I just think that he I don't understand that one. But like Darian Thompson and for Diamond Wilson, and I think Godivin Wilson is playing better than Darry and Thompson

was playing early in the season. I think it's clearly better in my opinion. Maybe it's not a huge difference. Maybe yeah overall from the defense standpoint, but I think he's playing better. I just think that there's just not a lot of options here. I mean, why are they playing Steel because they don't want to play Cam Irving or they don't want to play you know McGovern there and slide someone else out. I mean, they It's just

I don't think there's a ton of other options. I think it's just you got you got a bunch of C players and it's C plus or C minus depending on the day in the matchup. Dave, what do you think, Dave Amber, what do you think? Hi everybody didn't I hear us, did you? Did you? I got booted off by WebEx I. I didn't hear anything after Derek Sis, Daryl Worley. Sorry, we were talking about the coaching stuff.

And I'll actually go to Amber, but we were talking about the coaching stuff, and and my point was, I think there have been a number of instances this year where it looked like to me, they've gone with the lesser player. Now again, Nick, I agree with Nick's point to some degree that the lesser player may be going from a I'll give it a B minus to a C minus or a C plus to a dah. Yeah. But but the point is, I think there were guys that were out of the game who were better players.

And I pointed out the Worley and Anthony Brown sitting on the sideline last night, and I pointed out Darien Thompson and Donovan Wilson, and you know, I just think there have been situations where the Cowboys seem like they aren't necessarily always putting the best guy out there? Do you agree with that? You get? Okay, I'll go. Dave

was getting ready for his answer. I was just gonna, I would say at this point WI see six, I'm ready to blame it all on the coaches, because yes, there are certain players that don't necessarily have the talent that you want them to have. So at this point, I'm looking at, Okay, what are some of those players that we know and we've seen play good football. You know, you can go back to lay In Banderidge that we finally saw him back on the field doing some things.

We can go back to Jalen Smith and what he's been able to do in the past, DeMarcus Lawrence, I'll don Smith, which is, you know, the better guy in

there out of the bunch. But still when you look at these players that you know have had a talented or a pretty good run in the past, but then are not necessarily performing at the level that you expect them or want them to be this year, then I go back to think, Okay, well, then it's on coaching because at this point you're not seeing any kind of changes. You're all every week it just keeps getting worse and

worse and worse. I will give them credit though the beginning of the game this past week, this past game against the Cardinals, Yes, the defense played better, but I need to watch the game again, because I don't I don't know if it was just the Cardinals offense not playing as good or if it was really the Cowboys defense doing most of the job that they needed to do. So I'm kind of hesitant to give them too much credit in that aspect, But at this point, I'm ready

to blame it on the coaching stuff. And I don't know in the middle of the season what kind of changes you actually are able to make at this point, Dave, how much of the blame do you put on the coaching staff? Well, to be blunt with you, like, the stats don't really bear out what you're saying. Derek Anthony Brown played eighty percent of this naps and Jordan Lewis and Treyvon Diggs played more than ninety like those were

their three. Daryl Worley played I think twenty one snaps, which is just so why was Worley on the field at all? Like, what was the point in putting him on the field? Because get beat they number of times they do not have four dbs that can do the job adequately. That that would be my guest, and I blame the blame that I put on the coaches is that guides get beat in the NFL all the time,

like it just is the nature of the league. And like, we've watched a lot of bad defense over the last decade here in Dallas, but the staggering number of busts that we have seen from this Cowboys defense is beyond appalling. I think they've given up seven touchdowns of thirty yards or more and it would be eight if not for Diggs's forced fumble on DK Metcalf. They've given up three of fifty yards or more in the last three games.

And I don't care. Darryl Worley might be awful still an NFL player, and NFL players aren't supposed to be beaten that embarrassingly bad. And it says to me that like the scheme is either too complicated or somebody's doing a terrible job of teaching them how to execute it, because even executing poorly does not look that bad in the NFL. Like, I mean, they are tied for the fourth most points allowed through six weeks, and the three teams that are worse all played in the fifties. That

is the level of ineptitude. So again, like it doesn't I don't even care that the guys aren't very good players, because even bad players don't get beaten that bad. So something is wrong with this scheme, whether getting the players to buy into it or teaching it to them correctly, something is way the hell off. And whatever they need to do, boil it down, pare it down to like

three coverages that everybody can run. I don't care, but they got to make some type of adjustment, and that's what I care about more than like, I mean, yeah, Darryl Worley is not good, but listen, I promise you. Like I watched Reregie Robinson in training camp, I'm not convinced he could do it a whole lot better. I just don't think they have very good dbs. But even bad dbs shouldn't look like this. Will throw out a

couple of things for you. First of all, I think what you're looking at when you look at those statistics and those numbers you throughout Daryl Worley, I think he played a lot less after he busted. He started the game, he was playing cornerback a lot before that, and then after he busted they pulled him. So I don't know that the percentages necessarily would have changed if he would have not had that bust. But even at that, I don't know if you've seen this video. There's a video

out on Twitter right now. I think it's Darius Butler, the former defensive back used to play for the Patriots. He does this little thing and on that video he breaks down that that particular play, and this is not some kind of complex scheme. Basically, he had third. They were playing cover three on the back end. He had a deep third. He basically been on a route that he didn't need to bite on. He had a guy underneath, and he just basically stopped moving feet. I don't think

that's on the coaches. I think that is just a player that just made a bone headed decision. He didn't play good technique. I mean, if you're if you're playing deep thirds, you don't let anybody get behind you. And by the way, there was already another guy in the middle of the field that was threatening, that was already behind him. So again, he just wasn't doing his job properly. I don't think that's on the coaches necessarily. I think that's about him not doing his job. And that's why

I'm talking about Daryl Whorley specifically. I don't think he's played very well this season, but I was gonna say whether he's doing his job or not. You look at the secondary as a whole. These aren't players that the coaching staff chose. I mean these collectively. I know there are a lot of things that go into play when choosing players, but this is the group of players that they chose, that they chose to go with and stick

with regardless of poor performance week after week. We haven't seen them being absolutely any kind of help, even if it's just to look at him we had, So that that's my biggest problem and why it's upsetting and why to me at this point, it just goes back to coaching.

And again I understand that many different things going to play, money, contracts, all this stuff, but at the same time, the fact that we have not seen a single thing happened as far as okay, even the name that we started to hear okay, they're into no. No, Everything that we hear is oh no. We trust our players with trust that they can do the job, and they haven't. So I just that doesn't make any sense to me. No, I could agree with that. I can agree with the fact

that I think that the Cowboys. I mean, we talked about Snax Harrison for a while around here, like the fact that they didn't think they needed help a defensive tackle and that maybe he couldn't provide it is kind of baffling to me. So yeah, I agree with that point. Were you about to say something name or Dave? Dare you about to say something? Well, I mean I'll just say that, yeah, Well go ahead, Dave, go ahead. And sorry. My only point is I mean, this is yeah, it's

a terrible play by Darryl Worley. It's like the fourth game that we've seen this happening. And Warley has not had a good season, but he's not the only one. I mean, go look at the locket touchdown in Seattle. They're running quarters and the safety and cornerback just don't know to take the guy running the nine route. I mean,

and and you're like, that's that's terrible cornerback play. But if it keeps happening again, like, are these guys really that awful that they can't pick up these concepts over the course of six weeks or is it being taught to them in a horrific manner? And I don't really know the answer. But it sure as hell seems like they don't know what they're doing. And if they don't know what they're doing, I think that's a pretty poor

reflection of coaching. Yeah, and you go and you look at the Raiders are playing, well, you know, they're beating Patrick Mahomes with that defense. You know that, then that defensive coordinator that we thought, you know, was it was the over and we all thought that, you know, we thought Jeff Heath couldn't play safety or whatever. But um, you know, I just there's there's not options though. I mean, you say, Snacks Harrison, Okay, nobody wanted to sign him,

Seattle did maybe still in the practice squad. I mean, he could have been better than what they have. I understand that. But like you know, defensive back, I mean, you know, Jordan Lewis gets her, Anthony Brown gets her, Cheeto gets hurt. It's it's it's not it's not a great situation to have guys hurt, you know. I mean, yeah, they added the roster, added players to the roster, but you know it, these guys are still coming back. They didn't do anything all offseason. They go to training camp,

Guys get hurt early in the season. We've seen it all across the league. It's just that this team, we thought this coaching staff could make up for it. Every coaching staff, every every team has injuries, lots of injuries. Now maybe not to to this different. It's it's big, it's an offensive. This is ridiculous on the injuries, but it's just even you know, even under in the secondary, they just don't have the options there. We knew going in that the guys weren't that great, and then they

get hurt on top of it. So there's there's no excuses because we thought this coaching staff, with all this experience would be able to kind of fix the problem, and they have it at all. And another thing, I'll say that real quick, and you guys can allude to this too. They're just not prepared that they are getting their ass kicked in the first half. That is just embarrassing. I mean, yeah, the defense finally played well, but the offense couldn't do anything. It couldn't be a drop in

the first quarter of the game. And they have it all year. That's preparation. Yeah, I mean maybe Kellen Moore needs that when we need to figure that out. I mean, he's this genius to figure out all these plays and stuff like that. They're not prepared. They don't do anything fun. I mean, why why don't we do fun stuff? Reverse fake reverses, I mean, and he has a bell is running all over the field. I don't even think he

touched the ball, but he's all over the field. Do something different, but they don't, and they're getting there, getting down in every game. Well, but I think part of that has to be blamed on the turnovers as well. I mean, we talked about it last week. There's a big difference between the number of turnovers they have in the first half and the number they had in the second half. Yesterday. Those two fumbles by Zeke happening in the first half, and those are big, big, big momentum shifts.

I think in both instances, either the Cowboys are already cross midfield or they were right around midfield and they're giving the ball away, and that sets up your defense to give up more points. Because obviously we know they're not great. You certainly don't want them to operating with half a field, right, and so all that mean, like I think, I think you got to focus on the turnovers, and we're gonna take our final break. When we come back, I do want to talk a little bit about that

coach McCarthy's taking the hit for that one. I want to ask you guys, how much does coaching really matter in that instance? And how does how can a coach possibly change when it comes to getting guys not to fumble. We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio Sence eighteen sixty five. Stats and Hats are American made with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the

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for something to change up your dinner routine. Help support local Frisco businesses by choosing one of the Star District restaurants. For information on delivery, takeout, curbside pickup and dining availability, visited Star District dot com. It is the final segment of the Break Life from the s WBC Mortgage Studios. At the Star, we're talking about the Cowboys loss to

the Arizona Cardinals thirty eight to ten. Cowboys moved two and four on the season, but they're still in first place, so I guess there is a silver lining to everything. Stop it, Dave. Let's talk a little bit about the fumbles Zeke Elliott. Yesterday, as we kind of alluded to earlier in the show, he had two more fumbles. They

both led two points. And right now the Cowboys are negative twelve turnover ratio for the season and they've allowed eighty four points eighty four points through six games off turnovers. Zeke has five fumbles and has lost four for the season. My question for you guys is, what can the coaches do with a player like Zeke who is arguably your best offensive player but seems to have an issue with fumbles that isn't resolving itself. Nick, I mean, I guess

technique in practice, I don't know. I mean, or tell him to run for a hundred yards a game, because when when DeMarco Murray did it and he fumbled every single week, but he was getting a hundred yards a game and went on to set a single season record, it was okay, it seemed like, you know, you'll take a fumble. We were killing him, but he was also getting a hundred and fifteen yards and so it's it's not so bad. But Zeke hasn't got a hundred yard game yet this year. It's got to be something in

technique in practice, hold the ball differently. I don't know about the sleeve stuff. I heard us all that's going on. I don't know. I think he was wearing that all the last five years of his career. I mean, focus and technique, I guess, because I mean, I don't think you're gonna bench him. I mean I said that on Twitter, and I was trying to people were trying to roast me for that. No, you're not because you got Tony Pollard,

who I don't think can see very well. He doesn't have twenty twenty vision, and you want him to go out there and play, so there's not a lot of options there, you know, hold onto the ball. I mean, I don't know what to say. Amber. Would you have benched Zeke Elly? I mean, at that point of the game, what that did happen? It was like, okay, I did I had zero hope anymore, so whatever, But I'm moving forward, moving forward. I mean, like Nick said, who else is

gonna like? Zeke is one of your best players, and it's hard to bench a guy like that. And it's not like this is a rookie. You know, he has experience, he knows how to hold onto the ball. He knows how to go against guys super super hard and still hold onto that ball. So I don't know what exactly the problem is. I'm sure Zeke is trying his best to eliminate that kind of problem. But I guess I would agree with Nick with the whole just practice, figure

out a way to practice give him. I don't even know what kind of exercises you do, give the ball. Have twenty guys going up against him over and over to see if he can hold on to it. I don't know, but definitely, you just you don't have anyone that's really better, So just I guess, keep practicing and keep hoping he gets better. Dave, I'm gonna change the question a little bit on you tell me what you think of Zeke Elliott this year as a runner. He's

been I think, kind of off and on. I think there's some moments he probably wishes he could have gotten back. One thing I have noticed is it doesn't seem like he breaks as mini tackles or makes that one guy miss that it made that he may have made miss in the past. How do you assess him overall as a runner this year? I mean the virtual reality is like making guys miss hasn't been his game for a while. I think I've been impressed when he is able to

be a factor in games. I think he's physical. I think he's great at turning you know, two yard holes into four and five yard games. He's been good at carrying guys after contact. He hasn't been that explosive guy. I think he had, you know, one run over fifteen yards and he fumbled at the end of it. Obviously, you know it hurts. It hurts to see a guy like Derrick Henry, you know, house it from ninety four yards out. We haven't seen that from Zeke in years.

But honestly, I'll I will take I will take what we have seen from Zeke if he can hang onto the ball. And the brutal again, the brutal truth of the matter is like, this is not necessarily a new problem. It hasn't always cropped up like this, but I'm looking at it right now. I think Zeke has fumbled twenty times in his career and he's lost half of them. That ain't I mean, that ain't good by any measure, let alone if you're supposedly one of the best three

backs in the league. I don't know what to do about it. I actually asked Mike McCarthy like two weeks ago. I was like, I feel dumb asking you about how to coach guys to hold onto the ball because they're professional football players, Like they have been learning how to carry a football since they were eight and now they're in there late twenties. I mean, what else is there to teach them? I don't know. I mean, yeah, make him carry it around the facility or like working it

in practice. But is that something that they've never done before. I highly doubt it. So it's very troubling because I don't have a great answer for how to make it better. But it's been a bigger problem for Zeke than I think people want to admit. And it's really rare, and it said this year, and I mean, you know, you can tell how exasperated he was last night. He just kept saying, I don't know, but I have to figure

it out. And I agree with him, I don't know either, but he needs to figure it out or this offense doesn't stand a chance. Yeah. The fact the matter is in situations like this with offensive line is as decimated it is and you don't have your quarterback. This is why you paid Zeke the big bucks. Is he's got it. Not only did he have to figure out to hold

on the ball, that's the least of his problems. He's got to figure out how to be better than he would be otherwise because this offense needs him to be that in order for them to be successful. And that's the hard part here is that you got to figure out the fumble thing. But even beyond that, I think he's going to have to figure out how to be a better version of himself in what for them to be succesful. And I bet you that did play a

factor in the game. You know, I kind of thought he would go out and kind of will himself and the team. He probably was trying to do too much, trying to get extra yards. Think about it, you don't have the ball locked in, you caught a pass down, you're getting upfield, and you know they take the ball away. But you know, remember this about other running backs. You know you just want to replace your running back. Okay, that's that's fine, but um, you know they also block.

They also have to pick up protections. They also have to see blitzers. We saw the Cowboys lose their whole season in twenty ten because you know, the baby Gronk, not not the one playing for the Patriots in the Bucks, but the little brother Gronkowski. He went the wrong way and Tony Romo's season was over because the blitzing linebacker. So you can't just say bring in Pollard and bring in the Rico Dowdle and all that. Yeah, every once in a while they might be able to run the ball.

But you know they also they need to be able to pick up and play different different parts of the game. I will say this, I saw a couple of times yesterday when Tony Pollard did nice job picking up the blitz, and so I again, I think Tony Pollard plays well for his role like that's but that's the point for his role. Nobody's expecting him to come in here and be Zeke. And if you're then putting him in the role of being Zeke, I'm not sure what you're gonna

get out of it. Maybe you get something good, maybe you don't. Everybody, you're already you're already paying Dak a ton of money. I'm sorry, not dare paying Zeke a ton of money. You got to figure out how to get him right, because they really need him to play to that level. UM, let's talk a little bit before were in the show about the defense yesterday, Embre you

alluded to it. This defense played, I thought, really well in the first quarter, and then the will's fall off fell off and it just got just completely out of hand. How much do you blame of what happened with the defense yesterday? How much do you blame that on the turnovers and do you think and I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I want you to really think

about this. Do you think the defense is actually getting better since based upon the number of weeks that they've played, are they better now than they were in week one and two? Let's start first with you Amber. Can I ask David question real quick? I don't know if you have the answer to this, Dave, but when you said about Zeke and the amount of time that he has fumbled the ball in previous years, out of those, do you know how many times opposing teams were able to score?

I do not. I'm sorry I didn't run those numbers, but I can later. Well it made me it just out of curiosity and just wondering. I mean, we know how about how bad the defense has been, and it just makes me wonder if previous turnovers in previous years were not as bad because the defense in previous years were able to actually play better and make certain stops to where the opposing team is not scoring every single time. So to answer your question, Derek, I you know, again,

I need to watch the game. I don't know if it was really the defense playing better at the beginning of the game, or if it was just the Cardinals offense not playing as well. I remember watching the game going back. I remember that I was seeing both offenses, the Cowboys and the Cardinals, and I'm like, man, this is really bad. They're both playing terrible. What's going on? So I just I don't know. I keep asking people around what is the problem overall? How do you get better?

How do you fix what's going on with defense? And no one seems to have a good answer. There's not And it's just really really hard to figure out a way to get better. And I don't see them improving week by week. And yes there was that little bit of at the beginning of this game, but that just wasn't enough. So it's hard to imagine that this defense it's gonna get any better as the weeks go by. Layton Benderesh was in, he I thought he did a nice job, you know, based on what he could possibly do.

At least he had energy. The defense is not playing with the kind of energy level that I want them to be at. So that's a huge problem to me and Randy Gregory coming in, I know we have good hopes and expectations there, but again, these guys are coming back into the game healthy. I just don't know if that's really going to be enough to actually make a drastic change at their performance in the in the game day, So dave any modicum of improvement from this defense? No, no, no,

you don't get to know. You don't you know, I'm so serious. You don't get to even be complimented if you give up uncontested touchdowns from eighty and seventy yards away in the same game. Like the skill, the talent of NFL players and the skill of the scheme means to score from sixty yards away or further, you should be doing something bad ass, like just hitting all the right blocks, you know, Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry has to stiff arm four guys and juke three more to go

ninety four yards. The Cardinals just ran in a straight line. That's all they did. And that's pathetic. That is what should happen in Clemson Georgia Tech. Travis etn is so much better than the eleven guys on Georgia Tech that he can do that. This is the NFL. So no, you don't get credit for having that happened twice in

a game. I think it's I think this is all weirdly tied together, and I kind of feel like this whole team is in its own head, Whereas the defense comes out and plays four good series and now they're thinking, oh no, like we've we've been playing well and we don't have isn't gonna go yeah? Yeah, no. Seriously, They're like, we're at the end of our rope and we don't have a lead. Meanwhile, now the offense is saying, oh no, we turned the ball over and put them in a

bad situation. Now we've got a press to do. Even more so, the defense maybe doesn't trust itself to play clean long enough to get a lead, and the offense doesn't trust the defense to overcome their mistakes, and now everybody's got the yips. Like that's honestly my opinion, because the defense looked pretty solid for three or four possessions, and as soon as the offense put them in a hole,

they give up an eight yard touchdown. And then as soon as the offense realize that things are snowballing against them, you see Zeke fighting the ball, you see another fumble, you see Dalton making bad reads, and now everything's a mess. I just I don't know if these two units have confidence in each other to do their jobs correctly, and it plays out in what you see, Nick, can you give me any silver lining on this defense even a

little bit. Brandy Gregory is coming back and Cheeto's coming back, and they're better than the average below average guys that are over there. I mean, Brandy Gregory will be better than Dorn's armstrong, I think, And then I think she will be better than Daryl will stop the run is the question. I don't. I don't. I mean this team problem. The fourth and one big play in the game, Dantari Poe's on the sideline. Justin Hamilton, who was on the practice squad in the morning and then got signed later

that day, is out there on the field. So and to be honestly, I have no problem with that. Yeah, yeah, so you know, I know they can't move players around or whatever. I think the big thing is that they if it's a kickoff and the defense is huddling up and they go out on the field, I think they play okay. But if they're sitting there looking at the board talking about stuff and all of a sudden like oh sudden change, get your helmet oh, you're out on

the field because we've fumbled again. That's when they really sucked because they can't. They do not stop you. You don't have to score. Just because the team gets a turnover doesn't mean well, I would better give up a score. They they're sudden change defense is atrocious. They don't just run on the field and go, oh man, we gotta get this thing stopped. They don't and even hold of the field goal. Now, that's kind of goes Amber's point.

Like in the past, that's one thing you did. I think we did see, and I don't know the numbers, but I think we saw from past defenses, even when they weren't the greatest defenses, they could still at least hold to a field goal in some of those instances. This year, it seems like the Cowboys and they give that up, it's gonna be seven and there's not really much you can do to stop it. All right, we

appreciate you guys joining us for back Tomorrow. We're gonna ahead and start getting ready for the Washington football team Cowboys. We'll travel to Washington this Sunday and play for a noon kickoff. We'll have Bucky join us tomorrow and on Thursday to talk about that Washington offense first and then the defense on Thursday. Well until then for Nick Eatman, Dave helm and Amber Garcia. I am Derek Eagleton. This has been In 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.