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It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Were with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought us, Patrick Walker and Derek Eagleton.
It is Tuesday, September nineteenth, twenty twenty three, Season nineteen, episode number thirty four. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We're a live from the WBC Mortgage studios at the Star. Got the crew with me today. It's our Gumbo show on Tuesday. We got a lot of things we're gonna throw into this. We're gonna talk about the NFC East, We got a little news. We'll get to talk a little bit about Michael Gallup and what he's shown so far this season and where we are
with that. Also, we're going to try to get into the run offense and what the Cowboys have been able to do on the ground and if we think that's enough or will they need more from their running backs and their running game as the season wears on. We got a segment of lab Coat with No C. So we got a lot of stuff. We're going to hit a lot of different things, a lot of different topics in this show. So let's get it going. Let's start first with little news. Yesterday Cowboys announced that they have
released Ronald Jones. Any surprise with that move or was that kind of expected that after he came off the suspension that the Cowboys would move on.
I was expecting it actually prior to them just moving him to the reserve suspended list. We talked about it at training camp, and you know, the more training camp went on in preseason and then Ronald Jones gets the two game suspension and then he suffers the growing injury
that basically deletes his entire preseason participation. In the meantime, you had guys like Hunter Lipke, Deucevon, these younger guys stepping up, Malite Davis who earned a spot on the practice squad, Rico Dowdo stepping into the RB two row. Question was where do Rojo fit? And I could not figure out where he fit. I figured they would just go ahead and let it go. Maybe they held onto him for that two week period as insurance against injury or whatever the.
Case may be. But here we are. Two weeks has passed. He's now eligible to be activated.
But instead of doing that, which would have cost him a roster spot, they would have had to release or waive someone. They just want to hit him parted ways. Now, I will say that doesn't you know, preclude him from possibly circling back and being a practice squad guy alongside Malik Davis. Because he's vested, he's not subject to waivers. He can sign with whomever he want effective today. So I don't know that the options off the table, but as it stands, yeah, Rojo is a free agent.
Yeah. I felt like that he was going to be a guy. That he was going to be a bridge player is what he was going to be. And he was going to be much like what a dooga was. And so you know, I was thinking, Okay, veteran guys kind of this is Will's way of protecting himself. I like the way he does this. I wish I would have done it along time ago myself. But you know, you find ways to say, Okay, we got young players we want to look at, but I got to keep a veteran player over here, and he keeps him for
a low salary and all that. In case something happens where it doesn't work out that way, you're kind of the coaches can go to their guy if they feel like you'ren't forcing a young guy on them. You're saying, hey, I got a veteran guy here. It's played a lot of snaps. If things don't work out with our young guys, we can do it. I've been told he's not going to be on the practice squad, so that that you know. I know, so he's going to be out there for
anybody else. Maybe he appears on the Cowboys emergency board down the road if something happens, he knows the scheme and all that stuff like that. But you know, it was just like I say, it was a veteran move to protect the young players. They found out the young players can play a little bit, so they don't need Ronald Jones anymore.
It's unfortunate, especially if what he said at training camp was true, and just a reminder he violated the what do you call that.
Enhancement policy on performance enhancement.
Performance enhancement, and what he said at training camp was basically he was taking some medication that was prescribed by his doctor for his heart and it pop up in the test. So he wasn't aware that whatever chemical was in there was going to show up as that. So in those instances and he was pretty upset, and he said he tried to fight it. So when you hear something like that, obviously you feel bad. If that's the true story, it sucks. But it's just the nature of
this business and how things go down. And these younger guys were able to take advantage of every single snap and opportunity. And here there are there, everybody is at a good spot for the backs that they currently have. So it is what it is. I wish him well and we'll see if he ever, I mean, if he lands back on here or not.
Yeah.
Tough thing for him is that coming off a year last year where the Chiefs brought him in and hopes that he could be a player for them, and he ends up near the bottom of their depth chart, and then he comes to the Cowboys and two weeks in the season he's no longer on the team.
That doesn't bode well for him.
But right now there are two teams, particularly the Giants in the Browns, who've lost their running backs at least for a short period of time in the case of the Giants. For the Browns, probably for the season, and so it could create some opportunity for him if they see him as a guy that, as you said before, Brian, that bridge type veteran player, maybe he could be that for them and maybe get some burned there.
You know. The one lesson you should learn if you're a player is that if you're taking any kind of medication, these trainers know, and maybe if you get something new, you walk into the training room and you go to your trainer and say, they prescribed this for my medicine, and then the trainer then has the knowledge to be able to say, well, let's look up what's in this medication.
You know, there's really it always is confounding to me when these players say, well, I was taking this, and these players know exactly, they know what they're eating, they know what they're you know, they know what they're there's how their workouts go, everything about what's going into their body. The most of them do. And it's just unfortunate because
it's very simple. These trainers and doctors will help you like you can't take that because it has the Senate and then it just eliminates any problems that you might have going forward. I mean, he lost an opportunity potentially, you know, for two weeks, you know, to compete and have an opportunity. We'll see, but it's unfortunate that you just it's very simple, walk in there, hand the prescriptions to your trainers, your doctors and say hey, can I take this? Is this going to be a problem.
Yeah, And what Ronald was saying was in his explanation after the suspension landed and after the appeal failed, was that this was whatever it was that he was taking for his heart because of a congenital you know, family is.
Sure with heart issues.
He said that he had been taking it for years for the totality of his career, So could have been a situation, again we don't know all the details, but could have been a situation where he felt like if it wasn't a problem with his previous teams before now, it wasn't a problem with the league before now, he wasn't expecting that it will pop up and be a problem now. So, like you said, Ambar, I mean, we have both sides of the story. We don't know which
side of that story is actually the truth. But if it is as he says it is, then you know, Brian's not wrong in that you still need to present this information to the trainers for your new team so that you guys can be on the same accord so they're not blindsided.
You're not blindsided. They can double check with the league.
But from his standpoint, I could see how he assumed probably should not have if he did. I could see how he would have assumed because he's not a first, second, third year guy.
I mean, he's not a thirty year old. He's twenty six.
But I mean if he's been taking it since he joined been in since he's been in the league and there's not been a problem, it's not popular test.
I could see his frustration in surprise to it. Yeah.
Tough thing is these guys can't approach healthcare the way the rest of us do. Now get them Scott from your doc just to assume you're good. Yeah, but they live in a world where there's there's this kind of testing and you have to be aware of it because you're putting millions of dollars at risk if you don't pass the test that the NFL puts out there.
You know, what they're in a situation too where they're you know, they give these guys physicals. Hell, they gave the scouts physicals. I mean the doctors know, they ask you what medications that we've all gone to the doctor, what medications you take? You know, they want to know if you're going in for surgery, they want to know what medications you take. So that's the unfortunate side of it, if you know, if it's a fact, it's a veteran
thing and he's been taking it all along. And you know, with the league, I think they're very specific about what you can and cannot take. You know. That's that's something that I mean, I've seen documentation of just thousands of these prescriptions that appeared that just were like, okay, you can't this that you know, And I don't know, it's just it's unfortunate for him that you know, but maybe, like I say, he knows better now that maybe with
the next team. And you mentioned there are a couple of teams that are looking for running.
All right, let's jump into a little conversation on the NFC East interesting division as it was last year. Right now, there are three teams that are two and oh Cowboys, Philadelphia and Washington all two and oh New York is one and one. Only lost in the division is to a division opponent. So obviously, in early parts of the season, looking like this will be just as tough of a division as it was last year. All that being said, what stands out to you most about this division at this point through.
Two weeks in Jalen Hurts the struggles. I feel like you went straight for the throat. I'm going straight for the throat. We're not wasting any time.
Not the title of the podcast. Yeah, we'll get a guess engagement on.
I mean, I'm ninety percent confident that Jalen Hurts is going to continue to struggle. But it really is a situation where you look back at RG three's breakout year as a rookie and what he was able to do, and a lot of times when you have these particularly these running quarterbacks who dominate in any particular year, Jalen Hurts had a breakout season which was largely predicated on
his ability to run. And the offseason to follow the film is out right, So now teams have an entire off season of your film to dictate and pick it apart.
So then when you come into the.
Next season, the expectation within your organization it's probably that you'll be able to replicate that. But that's not often the case, especially in a league that's dominated by parody.
So when you see Jalen Hurts.
Who rarely turn the ball over over the entirety of twenty twenty two, struggle to not turn the ball over over the first two games, you start to wonder to yourself, well, have teams figured him out? And then you start looking at the personnel around the NFC East, and you land squarely on the Cowboys defense, and you say, well, it's one thing to have a blueprint, but it's another thing
to have the blueprint and the personnel. Okay, well, it's another thing to have the blueprint, the personnel, and the maestro.
To be able to put all of that together.
Could this be a situation where when the Cowboys go up against Jalen Hurts, they end up getting a multiple takeaway game. I think that could be the case. And I think the Cowboys the speed at linebacker Lv's playing here on fire de Mont Clark, that speed Marquise Bell is helping there. Donovan Wilson is ready to come back. So for me, it's the Eagles. I mean, I don't they should not apologize for the victory over the Vikings, but let's be honest, the Vikings gave that game away.
I haven't seen the Eagles play yet between those two games in a way that impresses me to say, oh, yeah, that's a Super Bowl contender. I'm not saying they're not. But nothing floors me about the Eagles just year.
The one thing I will say real quick, I don't think I don't think it's I think it's too early in the season for me to make any declarations about really any offense in the league, because I think right now what you're seeing is a lot of subpar football. When it comes to the offensive side of the ball. I think the defense is are far ahead of the offense.
I think it's a reflection of the fact that a lot of teams aren't playing their starters a lot during the preseason, and I think that's the workthrough of this, and you go back and look at the numbers, I think it would probably bear out that in the first three, four five weeks of the season of these usually aren't just kind of clicking in the way that they normally do like people making all these same declarations, similar declarations
about the Kansas City Chiefs. It's just it's early, I think, I think, right, I think that's just I think that's just the nature of NFL football.
Takes a litle while for him to get going. But they're going to get going.
And I have no doubts Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are going to be formidable when it comes it off inside of the ball, because that's just what they do.
Boy, Brian, Yeah, the Commanders might have found a quarterback in Sam how and they've got there two and oh right now, and both their victories, Yeah, they're against Arizona and Denver. Both games they had to come back in and you got it as your team. We saw what happened last year with the Giants and with Brian Dayball and what they came in. They had a Week one victory and where he went for a two point play with for the to go for the victory and it
kind of set the tone for their season. Yeah, they sputtered a little bit, you know, down the stretch, but they got into the playoffs. The thing with the Commanders, I've always felt like that they've got really good skilled players with Terry McLaurin and others, you know, with Robinson running the ball and stuff like that. They've got some legitimate weapons, Logan Thomas at tight end. They've got a
really good defense. We saw first hand with the Cowboys in that final game what that front can do to you, how they can control the game. So the Commanders at to and zero it is, it's they're off to a grade start. Both victories coming back, both come back victories. The one in Denver I think was pretty impressive. I know Sean Payton's trying to do a lot of things get that thing going. But the Commanders might have found them a quarterback in sam.
How, which is what they really need.
They get a quarterback how it gets really interesting watch because they got the defense.
For sure.
I think we're already used to the NFCS having this type of competition a year after year and coming down to the last month of the year in December and what happens there and maybe but maybe I'm biased, Sorry sue me, but I just feel like the Cowboys they're different this year.
Like if we were.
Talking about it the other day or yesterday, it's just something about it completely feels completely different. Granted we're not in Philadelphia around the players, we're not in Washington around them either, but it's just even just watching them play. So like, look at the defense, the Cowboys defense, the energy that they have. I think whenever they face the Commanders or the Eagles, they're gonna they're gonna win. They're
gonna win, They're gonna it's always a struggle. I get it when they face an division opponent and all that, but just the whole energy, they're themeanor everything is just working right and unless some type of crazy and yeah, knock on everything you can, but some crazy type of injury that would ruin your whole season basically, then you're screwed.
And it happens to other teams. But otherwise, everything about the Cowboys right now just seems right, feels right, and feels completely different than the year before, and the year prior and the year since I started working here.
It's just it.
Feels and I don't want to get there. I don't want to say it this early on Week two, but it just feels like they have everything they need to compete.
Well.
My main declaration is that the Eagles remain the top contender against the Cowboys. As far as taking the NFC East, I like the strides that the Commanders are taken with Sam Howe. I don't have much to say about the Giants right now because you know forty ZI. Congratulations to them for coming mount and that comeback against the Arizona Cardinals, But then you lose Saquon Barkley. What does that offense
look like without Saquon Barkley going forward? So for me, it is going to go down to the Cowboys versus the Eagles. But there were questions going into this season, well, where do the Cowboys stack up against the Eagles and the forty nine ers. Well, we'll find out in a few weeks where they stack up against the forty nine ers. Forty nine ers still look fantastic, okay, but the forty nine ers feel like it feels like there is a bigger gap between the forty nine ers and the Eagles.
Then there is the forty nine Ers and the Cowboys, which to me means the Cowboys are ahead of the Eagles right now, even if you say it's because the Cowboys have the best defense, definitely in the NFC East, likely in the NFC.
Arguably in the entire league.
So right now my declaration is going into Week three, the Cowboys have the lead on the Eagles, but those are still the two teams to watch to take the thrown in the NFCS.
Would you pick the Cowboys over the forty nine Ers right now in a game.
When they face each other, I'm definitely picking the Cowboys for sure. But and because going back to those games, you saw the Cowboys being competitive like they even though they on offense there were struggles there, but it was still it wasn't a game where they weren't doing absolutely anything.
Because you said injury right why they struggle to get going against the forty nine ers.
Tony Pollard he came up, going out and all that. So I think they have the tools and law of probability it will be the Cowboys turn to beat them atty soon. So we'll we'll find out.
That'd be Cowboys team beats the forty nine ers.
Brian, you asked that question, and I know you usually when you asked that question you got a thought in your head.
Well, I still, I know we talked about the bully factor, and I think the Cowboys are starting to become a bully in this conference. I think the forty nine ers are a real bully though too. And I think that you know, what is it you're you know, to beat the man, you know, or to be the man. You got to beat the man. I guess that's the saying. They they come with. You know you talked about Pollard being out. They they were there. McCaffrey was out for San Francisco in that game too, he was he was hurt.
So to me, they're they're you're gonna have to prove to me as as you're gonna have to prove to me that you can go Santa Clara on a Sunday night and win a football game.
Is it?
Is it lining up to wear the right way with the feel and the talent and the coaching and all that. Sure, it really does. I have a lot of respect for that group though out in Santa Clara. I really really do.
And I feel like though my attitude about it is, I think you can handle the Philadelphia Eagles that you handle the Philadelphi Eagles on a yearly basis, you know, you're either two zero or you split or you know, it's usually very you know a lot of times one of the games yeah, one of the games is an absolute blowout. You know, usually you'll play me then they just completely fall apart.
But this is this.
I think this team at San Francisco is built a lot like you, And I think that's the thing that that me that when I watch that win they had going to Pittsburgh caught my attention. And maybe Pittsburgh's not any good, but I know Mike Tomlins damn good as a coach. I think they got a tough team over there, and the way that forty nine Ers handled them, you know, and the forty nine Ers were down in the rams, which is a division opponent, but what they do in the second half, they found a way to kind of
take over the game. I like their quarterback, I like their roster, but your roster is closer to their roster. So that that's where I was trying to get a gauge. She's bullish, not more. I'm more of let's see, let's see you go be a bully and go beat another bully. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at with San Francisco going down.
And there are times that i think I'm like, are we becoming what the Giants are to us? But now we're the giants to the forty nine ers.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it would get that far because the Cowboys have dominated the Giants for you.
Yeah, it's a short short But what.
I will say is I do think mentally there is something there. You listen to the players talk. They talk abouts the Cowboys players really think of San Francisco as a measuring and they should and should you when a team has beaten you, the put you out of the playoffs the last two years in a row. If you're not to me, I don't think you're thinking about it right. You should be saying that's a target. We want to have an opportunity to beat them because that shows our progress,
That shows how much better we are. But going to your point, Brian, like, I look at them too, and I agree. I think those defenses are equal. And that's the thing about the Cowboys this year. I think there's a certain amount of fear that they put into opposing offenses when they know they have to play the Cowboys. I think that's one team in San Francisco that won't work.
I don't think there's any amount of fear that the forty nine ers will have going up against this defense because by the way, they face the same defense every day in practice.
Right.
I think it's part of the reasons why you see this offense, right. I think it's part of the reason why you saw this offense.
Play the way they did last week is because they don't go into a game fearing any defense because they face this defense every day.
So that's where I think those two things, like you said.
Similarly built. And that's going to mean both teams are going to come in with supreme amounts of confidence. Their defense have extreme amounts of confidence and their offenses no, we can do things against really good defenses because we practice against one every single day.
I think that when we went from ox SNAr to the start of the season, I know myself, I don't want to speak for you guys, I had San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas, Well, now I would say I would have San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia. You know, the ranking of how just if you want the two game sample size and what the teams have done, you know. I feel like though that it's you're getting closer to what my thoughts of San Francisco were tremendously high.
I'm thinking like San Francisco is gonna find And you know, I was in a situation too. You might be thought that Philadelphia had a little bit more talent, and maybe because they were division champs that maybe you have to give them the nod. But Dallas's Dallas's talent, I think is surpassing what Philadelphia's talent is. But that game in Santa Clair will tell you how far they really.
Are the Cowboys are.
In my opinion, they're one tick behind the San Francisco forty nine ers. Like I said earlier, there I have them above the Eagles now, but one tick. But here's the tick. What is the unleashed Texas Coast offense look like? I mean, when it's Brandon Cooks is on the field and he's cooking, and Ceedee Lamb is cooking, and Jake and schooling Tyler and the offensive line, you have your starting offensive line, Like, what does that look like on
all cylinders? And if it looks like what we think it can look like, now it's your right there.
Now we're equal.
So then in a few weeks when you go to have that game in Santa Clara, Okay, now this is the real test of who's the best team in the NFC at that point in the season. Obviously there's still lots of football that we played after that, but yeah, I have them just a small tick. But it's because I don't know yet what the best version of the Texas Coast offense looks like.
Obviously the team will not be looking ahead, but man, I'm looking ahead. I cannot wait until Week five. That's going to be a phenomenal game in Santa.
Clara, what I loved. And we were all standing there right after the game outside the locker room and talk about the focus and their mentality right now compared to last year, where we know at one point they started getting too bakeheads over here smelling themselves what my grandma, Yeah, smelling themselves. But you if you just without knowing what happened in the game, if you were standing there where we were and watch them going to the locker room,
you would have thought they lost that game. That was a loss, that was a beat down.
Michael walking into the locker room.
I'm telling you, it's so different. So that tells you, and that's a good thing. That just tells you how locked focused they are right now. They're not granted, I mean, for week one. That was a fun game for everybody. There was a little energy in there, but it's just they're staying level, they're staying grounded, and they're really really aware of what they're going after this year.
All Right, we're gonna take our first break. We'll come back.
Got a question for you guys about Michael Gallup and what he's done so far this year. There was a lot of hope that he would be back to himself, and I'll get your impressions on what you think where you think he is well, then when we come.
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Second segment of the break Life INSWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start the segment brought to you by blockchain dot Com. All right, let's talk about Michael Gallup. I want to find out what your level of concern is with him, because I think in this last game there was an expectation that you didn't have Brandon Cooks, and so this was gonna be the game where we were going to be able to see I don't know how many times I heard media people as week sand, this is gonna be the.
Game we get to see Michael.
We get to see Michael Gallup kind of breakout and kind of reassume that position as the number two. And he ended up with a catch for three yards. And I don't know that the numbers necessarily always say he did a great had a great game or not, because quite frankly, he could have been opened a lot more
frequently than he got the ball. But I wanted to get your level of, well, what your thoughts are right now on where Michael Gallup is and what you've seen from him in the first two games this season.
I'll start with you.
Brian Patrick was asked a question this morning from Bobby Belt that Bobby and I talked about on Love of the Star podcast yesterday. Is Michael Gallop a round peg in a square hole because of scheme fit? Now? Is he a guy that is the precise route runner? Is he a timing based type of a route runner. Is he a guy that can does the route tree limit with what the West Coast offense requires? I think he could run the slants, some of the end stuff, the outs that they have. Michael Gallup is kind of a
vertical player to me. You know, he's a guy that his routes are a little bit deeperilt. It's built more on protection, a little bit deeper drop. Maybe not the ball getting out as quick. You know, there's times where he doesn't catch the ball completely cleanly. You know, So maybe that that kind of limits. But this might be a situation where he is a guy that it's going to be a little bit of a struggle for him.
The more you really really dive into how this game is going to be played, and especially with this offense, and so I would love for Michael Gallup to have a day this week against Arizona where it's six catches for ninety yards and a touchdown something like that, just to just to give him a little confidence, but I believe he might be a guy that's in a it's a it's not the cleanest scheme fit for him with the way that West Coast offense operate, especially when you
watch him with how they run routes and then how quickly the ball gets out.
Yeah, he's become and I hate it for him because I really do like Michael Gallup and I love him as a player and as a person, but he he's just become so unforgettable, like forgetful, like forgettable, and even at training camp there are times that I would completely forget get about him. I'm like, oh, yeah that, oh okay, there's Gallup. He's moving around, okay, and then I forget
about him again. So it happened again, like I barely even noticed him in this game, and it's just it's been that way, and now he just feels, just like Brian said, like he just doesn't feel like he fits in anymore. And I'm at a point where I personally want to start seeing even more of a guy like Jalen Tolbert as part of the offense, and obviously together with CD and Brandan Cooks, and I want to see
them three and what they can do. But it's just one of those things that maybe the change in offense and all that, like everything, Like Brian said, that's what's kind of making him be left out because right now he just he hasn't done anything this year or the off season other than me seeing him being able to move around pretty well health wise, but other than that as being part of the he's just faded away slowly.
For me, Well, I'm going to break out a concern meter, since my meters are provocative and they get the people going. I was zero percent concerned with Michael Gallup before the first two games of the season. I put my concern left with about twenty five percent and good great conversation with Bobby Sean RJ this morning with that particular question square peg.
Round hole.
Possibly that's possibly true, but it's too soon to know if that's the case. We're only two weeks in and we just talked about how we don't know yet what the unbridled Texas Coast offense looks like just yet.
Cowboys are still kind of figuring that out.
Didn't have Brandon Cooks on the field last week, so you know, once Cooks is back on the field, and let's really start to see two three games in what it really looks like and how that impacts Michael Gallup. Yes, he's not going to be He can run the slam, but he's not the quick separating guy like you would see Cooks and Turpin and Ceedee Lamb and Duce Vaughan if you line Duce up in the slot. So he's
not going to be that. But there will come a time where you will need the downfield threat that matches the physicality and the violence in which Michael Gallup attacks that ball when he high points it. You will need the physicality of Michael Gallup to be able to run through one or two would be tacklers to get you that first down. And that's a skill set that really will come into handy. The question is how many more games will we see before that happens. And hopefully he
goes out to Arizona and that's his day. It was Ceedee Lamb's day on Sunday, Maybe this is Gallup's day. Maybe the next week is Cook's his day, and then it's Ferguson's day. And that's what Mike McCarthy was talking about in Every Day Every Week might be another guy's week. So hopefully Michael Gallups week is coming up soon. But I think there is reason to have some concern. But I wouldn't write him off two weeks in. Let's play some more football. Let's talk about it midway through the season.
See where his impact is versus a Jalen Tobert impact. Because we talked about in the absence of Cook last this past Sunday, we wanted to see Michael Gallup step up, and Turp.
Step up, and Jaylen Tolbert step up.
Well, none of them really had to. Kassini Lamb took over the game, but Tolbert impacted the game.
Yeah, I think that's where that's where I would go because if you need Gallup to you know, if I think I would feel better if Gallup had five targets and four catches in that game, much like you know what Tolbert had. You know, I know on the pregame show, we were talking about, you know, Week two last year, Cincinnati, Noah Brown five catches, five targets, first downs, fourth downs, you know, everything that he did. He was a big
part of winning that football game. You know, Lamb had a great game the other day, you know, but I felt like, you know, I thought, I know I said this earlier, well yesterday was I thought the Jets were really arrogant with the way they played Lamb. They absolutely were arrogant that they felt like their rush could completely get home and that they could just play him one on one in his own coverage and they would be fine.
You know, if teams are going to do that, then yeah, I'd throw the ball eleven times twelve times to Lamb. But I mean, some of these other guys are going to have to step And I understand what Patrick's saying about the vertical games and stuff like that, but there's going to be a time when if if Tolbert continues to have five targets, four catches, six targets, five catches, seven targets, seven catches, we're not going to be talking about Michael Gallup unless he can come along and play
at the same level. Is what Jalen Tolbert's playing in the.
Things like you'll see him at times have like that one great catch and that one great moment that's exactly exactly and then you're like, Okay, yeah, that's exactly why he's here. Yes, so he has that, But I think it's the fact that we saw what happened last year and it was kind of okay, well you blame it on the injury, which is fair. He's still recovering and all that. So now it's prolonged game. So again, still early in the year, but hopefully it's not a copy paste of what last year was.
Yeah, and I personally think that that's coming for him if he can keep his head in the right place and not get discouraged, because I think at the early part of this year, I think what you're gonna see from the offense is a lot of the quick, short stuff. There's going to come a time when defenses are gonna say, Okay, we see how you're trying to move the ball there. Now we're gonna we're gonna bite on those a little bit more. That's when the opportunities will come more down
the field and the Cowboys will take those shots. And that's when he'll get those opportunities. That's the thing about a long season. He got seventeen games. Then well, as the season goes on, teams will say, Okay, we'll see you being really successful with this, so we're gonna take that away.
What can you do next? That's when I think Michael got But this.
Is us trying to answer your question, right, yeah, you know, I mean you know you're trying to say, well, you know, well, heck, everything's gonna be okay, it's all good here in Cowboys. You know, you're trying to kind of come up with reasons why, you know, why would you think that this guy is struggling, you know, why are they not getting why is he not have five catches? I'll say one thing though. The other day, he's lucky he didn't get decapitated.
And I'm sorry it's a terrible word to say. Goes in the middle of field, goes up, Guys collide and all around you trying to get a ball. Give him a clean ball to catch, you know, I mean, every it seems like every time he he gets put more situations where he gets whacked trying to catch a foot.
Usually high in the air.
He doesn't and I'm like, okay, well give him a chance.
It happened in week one, like down sideline, he thought he had the ball, but he comes out out of bound right, So exactly, I.
Think he goes to what I was saying about, that's I mean, that's a large part of his skill set is being able to high point the ball and play violent and because the Cowboys coaching staff and Deck knows that, unfortunately that will have them put him in more of those precarious situations than Ceedey.
Lamb gets put in those situations.
Every once in a while he got decked as well, but more often than not it is going to be Michael Gallup who is asked to take on those hits.
What I'm learning about this offense is if you're not a good route runner, you're probably going to struggle. And I'm saying or if you're not a clean route runner, if there's a little bit of if you're not, because we've seen with Lamb, with Tolbert, with some other with Cooks, you know, you run routes clean boom where you need to be ball there.
So how do you classify him as a route runner?
I don't think it's great. I think that I think the athletic ability, the high point in the football I packed. I think making himself small in areas and getting feet down and making spectac their catches. I think it's I think he's one of the best I've ever seen it that just you know, like there's no way he's going to get this ball, and he gets it. But in this offense, that's not a requirement being precise timing. You know, Dack at training camp yelling at somebody it's twelve steps.
It's not fourteen, it's twelve. You know. That's that's how precise you have to be running this offense with the timing of it. And so that could be a problem.
All right, we're gonna take our final break.
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Welcome back.
It is the final segment of The Break, live from the SWBC Mortgage studios at the Star.
Bryan, I'm sorry, not Brian Patrick. We look just lab coat.
Go all right, ladies and gentlemen.
In this week's lab Coat Well, the previous two weeks we focused on the opposing quarterback.
Man, don't you have a sounder for this thing?
Oh yeah, bring me in beamer. Yes, science, there we go, Thank you, Bryan.
There we go.
Done.
Superstitious, very superstitious. Last two weeks we focused in on the opposing quarterback. Now the Cowboys are going up against Joshua Dobbs. Not a ton of film on him, and not a lot that stands out as far as what the Cowboys need to account for. Averages less than six yards when he takes off a run, and he can be had in the air as well. So we're going to turn inward on the Cowboys and I have two numbers that we're going to pull out of today's lap coat.
Twenty one and twenty nine. Folks, twenty one and twenty nine went back and did the tally of the Cowboys defensive snaps since Dan Quinn has joined the team. Went back and did a tally of how many sacks and pressures they've had in that same time frame. How many takeaways the Cowboys are sacking opposing quarterbacks one sack every twenty one defensive snaps. That is insane. That is ridiculously insane.
But here's why that, here's what makes that important. Especially when you go into the context of pressures and disruptions in the backfield, it allows them to take the ball away once roughly every twenty nine defensive snaps. That is far and beyond every other team in the league. So when you mix in the fact that the Cowboys to this point now Colnwood hopefully it continues, have not given the ball away a single time. Now you're talking about why it was forty zero, why it was thirty to ten,
and it really should have been thirty to three. If Malie Hooker goes and takes the outside shoulder as far as the inside on the angle Malik. You know he made good on that by getting the interception over the game, but it should have been thirty to three, and we're talking to seventy to three point differential. It's because the
Cowboys applied that much pressure to opposing teams. If they can continue to do that going forward, and the oppo and the Cowboys offense can eat if they can be par or better, let alone electric, If they can be par or better, and you're sacking the opposing quarterback once every twenty one snaps, you're taking the ball away once every twenty nine snaps. Yes, this is a February team. If that continues, Yeah, I love it.
I love what he's talking about there. I'll tell you one thing I'm going to do. I'm going to go back and watch Josh Dobbs play against the Cowboys though in Week sixteen when he made the start for the Tennessee Titans and he didn't have his running back in that game.
If I remember COVID, I remember it was.
Like this guy nine they played down Yeah.
Fair.
My point being this year they've shown that they're not willing to do that. I think, yeah, lessons like Green Bay, Tennessee, Jacksonville. It burned in their mind and this tattoo on them and to say, remember that we went into Nashville and we were in a dogfight with Josh Dobbs.
Yeah. So, well, they were fighting for a playoff spot too. I mean, everybody was, everything was on the line, and unfortunately for well for Tennessee, they didn't have their quarterback where they're running back in that game. I will say this though about it though. I love the fact that the numbers with the pressures and the number of plays, and I think it just goes to the creativity of the coaching staff. Here, the willingness to take players find
roles for them. Hey, we're going to play Jordan Lewis only ten plays. Well, guess what Jordan Lewis is in the nickel on a third down and undercutting a route and knocking the ball away or being in position to knock the ball away. You know this with the staff does it's to a credit to them, it's a credit to the players. It's a credit for the buy in, the overall buy in on the defensive side of the ball. It's going to be a tough day for Josh Dobbs, There's no question about it. But about it is and
I'm happy about this. At least dan Quinn has an idea. Now he can go back and say, Okay, this is how I try to affect this kid's eye level a little bit. You know, this is how I kind of moved him around. This is how I maybe got him off platform a little bit. And too Patrick's numbers. You know, maybe maybe those numbers are even better on some dropbacks and stuff like that, if they can get him to kind of maybe see some ghosts.
And definitely can be and well if you look at those numbers and you flip it into what does that mean potential wise going into each game for this Cowboys defense, If you're the opposing offense trying to figure out what you're actually up against, it is a horror movie. This Cowboys defense has the potential with these numbers to take the ball away six times per game on any given Sunday. They have the potential for eight and a half sex per game on any given Sunday. That's what opposing offenses
are up against. So yes, it is Freddy Krueger, it's Chucky, it's Michael Myers, it's everybody.
It is the scary movie that we would want.
We're in September.
Yeah, No, the defense, but this is the same.
That's an office joke because we know some people like getting ahead of some holidays around here.
This is the defense.
Are these defensive numbers from twenty to twenty one all the way through week two. So we're not talking about the office when we talk about the offense. The question is can they continue to not give the ball away and or minimize how and when they give the ball away? The defense is the defense that is scary hours exclamation point.
I will say this and I want to talk about this a little bit more Thursday when when we dive into the matchup, and this isn't so much about the matchup with the Cardinals, but really, when you think about this defense overall, I've started now kind of wondering, Okay, what is their kryptonite? Because every unit on every team has some kryptonite and it hasn't become apparent just yet what that kryptonite is, but it's gonna come at some
point this season. We're gonna find out what their kryptonite is, and then teams are going to try to exploit that.
The one thing that we saw with what the Eagles did, and I know that's down the road, is the ability to play that Reid option football on how much is that quarterback willing to run. He looks like he's not willing to run very much. But the one time we saw defense freeze Micah Parsons was running at him and making him have to make a decision on quarterback or pitch that that looked like the one time where it kind of you could you could put two three guys
on and blocking he doesn't bother him. But that was the one thing that paralyzed him as a player of having to make a decision on how to play. The Cowboys probably have an idea what they need to do to avoid that.
Again, Micro speed, damone and lv' that's the situation when he's one hundred percent correct.
The RPO was just it had Michael Parsons paralyzed. It had him running the mud.
So this needs to be a situation where you have so much confidence in the speed of LVE and UH and Demon and then obviously hopefully Donald is in the game with Mark Monkey's bill. You trust those guys to be able to cover if you let Mark Michael go back there as or Michael as some analysts will call him, and you trust that if Michael doesn't blow up that play, that you have speed on the batkend to contain that at the line of scrimmage.
All right, that's a wrap.
We're back tomorrow. We start diving into Cowboys versus Cardinals. Will do the Cardinals defense versus the Cowboys offense tomorrow until then for Patrick Walker.
Brian brought us Ambergarcia. I'm Derek Eilton.
This has been the Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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