Cowboys Break: Assessing The Defense So Far?

weekend against the Redskins thirty one twenty one. Before we get into it, how are you guys doing. I'm fantastic. We got home at eight fifteen, at a regular night's sleep. Cowboys looked good. What could you possibly complain about? Oh, I'm sure there are there's things that people could find, and they are finding him. But I think that just goes to the expectations of this team that you know you can Oh my god, what's wrong with the defense?

I mean, give it up twenty one point. This is a good football team, and I think we knew that before this season started, and we're finding it out and don't know how good Washington is or the Giants don't look that great. But you're gonna face bad teams, and what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to beat them down. And I think they're gonna face a bat even I almost said batter team. They're gonna face a batter. You could probably come up with new adjectives to describe

the Miami Dolphins, but well you know that. Well, yeah, we'll get to them. You never know what could happen. You know, it's very impossible. You're right, they might cover, but you never know. But let's start off with this game. I mean, you know, the offense started kind of bad.

Dak ended up doing what he does basically usually takes him a little while to get going, and yesterday he aside from being under pressure, aside from throwing an interception which wasn't really his fault, maybe that was kind of on Randall cup a little bit. But then after all that,

he didn't. He stayed put, very focused, ended up getting completing twenty six out of thirty attempts for two hundred and sixty nine yards his final his final eighteen passes and all fourteen of his passes in the second half. Very impressive. Yeah, so where how did he turn the switch on? What happened then that we saw the offense finally being able to get moving even after being pressure.

I think this team just does a good job and whether it's Kellen Moore, whether it's John Kitting up top, whoever on offense, they do a good job of figuring out what can we do here? What what what is working? And what are the Redskins trying to do? And as the Giant or whoever, and let's beat them. I mean, the most impressive thing to me when I look at all these stats is that for the second straight game,

they have scored touchdowns on five straight possessions. Last week was five touchdowns, this week four touchdowns in a field goal. They are figuring out, Okay, I see what you've gained planned all week to do. Got it. Good job, nice sack, good interception, not happening again. Watch this and then they just take over. Yeah that's you know, not to pat myself on the back, but it looked let me pat myself on the back. Yeah, always when you say that,

that's what you're gonna do. But it kind of encompassed like what I thought was going to happen. Although I didn't expect them to struggle so much early and then after they struggled. I didn't expect it to be that easy the rest of the way, Like I kind of thought it would be more back and forth. I said they'd win by ten, but I thought it would feel a little bit closer than that. And like they got all the struggles out of the way in like twenty minutes and then they were like, all right, let's go

carrot it over time. You should listen to your buddy, Derek. I'm just saying, oh, what do you say? I don't remember what about. So what I said was we can go back and play if I want to. I actually said it was going to be adversity at the beginning of the game, and everybody would be like, man, this isn't the team we saw last year, last week. Then the Cowboys would get going, the Cowboys got out to a comfortable lead at the end, the Cowboys would win it.

Thirty one twenty three was my final score. And I'm sorry, thirty one twenty three was my final score. I said, But the Redskins would score late in order to make you look closer than it actually was. That's exactly I'm just every once in a while, if you get these right. It really every once in a while you get these right. It really was finny one. I gave you about twenty. It did have a twenty plays a game, and I

got one. Yeah, and it was a good one. And it was we were standing we were sitting there and all of a sudden, Nick says, Devin Street to the house. Now I'm Darren Smith. Now I'm doing I did that because I watched New We should do it last night. Anyway, very different players, it very different. Nick was like Dev Smith to the house. And I just kind of I didn't even really pay attention to it. It was just kind of like, okay, here Nick goes with his predictions again,

and then here he's gone down and play. And so, yeah, that was a good one. That was a really good one out of twenty. That was a good one because that's not one that you would just if you would just say Cooper to the house thing, you know, that doesn't count. But I honestly saw him out there and I thought, they don't think he can run that fast. I bet you that they don't think that he could just fly right by him. But you know the thing about that, and the play action is huge. I mean

Zeke doesn't have the greatest numbers. I mean, good game, great, great game. But to me, this is all about Zeke and and the and the running game. I mean, the two biggest plays of the game on offense to me were Devin Smith and Dack's run, and both of them were off play fakes, one to Pollard and one to Zeke. I think the offensive line, the running game gets so much attention. This other stuff's you know, just falling right into their lap. And the Red I mean, the Redskins

did not. It didn't look like they over adjusted for the four hundred yards in week one, like there were still a ton of guys out in the box. They tried to trash it up and stop Zeke. I think you're absolutely right. Play action was another big part of this. It's just wild to me, you know, last year and for years, like adjustments as everybody's fit. Oh, they'll make any adjustments. They're not adjusting. Well, everything that we thought Washington might do to muck this thing up happened in

the first ten minutes. You know, Karagan, dron Payne not being able to run the ball, Dack not having time certainly looked like they adjusted because it stopped being a problem after about the first quarter, like and again, once they got it out of the way, Washington didn't really put up a fight the rest of the game until it was thirty one fourteen. Like I kind of thought there would be a few back and forth where it's like, all right, Dallas is up twenty one and seven, here

comes the Washington run. Did not happen twenty four Then they went and made it twenty four fourteen. Yeah, that's right. First, there was never a twenty one to fourteen was a one score game, And I thought the interesting part about that was that, Okay, here we go, crowds into it, and what do the Cowboys do? They sit Zeke Yeah, and they let Pollard take that whole drive. I thought that the first down pass to Jarwin, we had a

great view of it. It was a great throw by dak to Jarwin, and it was like, all right, you know, we see your touchdown, and we see that you got the momentum back. We're gonna take it right back with Pollard. There was there was never a point in that game after fourteen to seven where I felt like Washington was threatening to try to retake control of the game, like not no point whatsoever, even when it was at one score game, and that was surprising and impressive to me.

Like I hesitate to call it a complete and total beatdown, but it was a you know, in the NFL, it was a controlled, you hate to say, easy, but easy looking win. You can see. You can have those games sometimes and you're like there was no doubt throughout the game of who the better team was. Yeah, sometimes those things will flip on you another other team will win. But usually in those kind of games you can kind

of sense that. I mean, I don't really want to say this, but it was kind of like Texas playing LSU. I never, at any moment that game felt like we were a better team. I felt like LSU was the better team and there were moments when we could have won it, but that were just a better team. But I think it was the same thing yesterday. Cowboys were just a better team throughout the entire game. And that's probably going to be the case on almost every game.

I don't know if they played that way, yeah, but I think they're going to be the better football team just about every every week. There are probably two teams right now I look at and I say they are equal to them, at least equal to them. Like I wouldn't call them the better team. That would be the Packers and the and the Patriots. Obviously the Patriots are the Patriots. But yeah, yeah, they're gonna have some challenges this year and we'll get to see and they're gonna

lose some of these. Absolutely that you know, a team that you're not expected to be I feel I feel like Jason Garrett right now, and that there was and I'm not you know, I'm not hating on y'all, but there was a lot of chatter last night during that Eagles Falcons game. I was like, well, if the Eagles and Falcons look like this, who can challenge the Cowboys. I'm like, calm down, guys, It's September fifteenth. The Cowboys looked like trash through most of the first six weeks

of last year. I'm not ready to write off the Eagles because they didn't look great last night. I'm not ready to write off a lot of teams. Anybody does that has not been watching the NFL. Yeah, but again, you can only play who you can play, and through two weeks, the Cowboys look about as impressive as anybody in the NFL. There you go. Now, you know, we always talk about the old line and when they struggle, that becomes an issue for the Cowboys and then the

game kind of goes down. But even despite of Connor Williams not playing well, even as regardless of us talking so many good things about him during training camp and all preseason, it wasn't a good game based on the adjustments that we saw Kellen Moore do during the game. Do you feel a little bit more comfortable or confident that you're not so worried from those games where Doc is going to be under pressure but they're able to get out of there and still make plays. I'm not worried.

I mean, I thought the offensive line is playing very very well. Connor Williams. It happens all the time. When you have a great line, there's always a guy or two that they're not elite, and so they kind of stand out a little bit. And he didn't have a great game, and maybe he doesn't play well in Washington. That's two now that he hasn't played well. But you know the rest of the line is playing great and if he if he doesn't pick it up, I think

they'll replace him. I'm not sure there's not a better backup than him right now, but that's not I don't know if they're at that point where they need to do that. Yeah, I'm interested because there are some teams that they are going to play this year that have a similar guy to de Ryan Payne in the middle of their defense that he's gonna have to deal with, and so I'm a little bit concerned from that standpoint. He's gonna have to face that kind of guy every week,

so he'll be fine. A lot of the times. I do wonder though, when he faces you know, better talent at the defensive tackle position, if this is gonna be a common theme because he did not have a good game now, but he's a competitor. And when remember in the playoffs and it was like, how's this guy going to handle the rams? He played really well against the best defensive player in all of football, and so he you know, I would imagine he'll step up to the challenge.

And you know, for an offensive lineman, you get called for a holding, you get you get beat for a sack, and give up another play and that's three plays and you're like, this guy's terrible. They ran probably but sixty plays. Yeah, he may not have played that bad. I think he was fine on it. Like, I'm not worried about it at all. Like and and yeah, I mean they had their struggles in the first quarter. They got it together.

He's got Travis Frederick to help him out. That's huge. Um. And yeah, it's it's probably unrealistic to think all five of your guys across the line are gonna be all pros capable of handling their business. I mean, Lyle played great against Karagan. Again, you know, Karagan got the sack. That was all paying for me. Like that's so it was all about Connor. Yeah, I was not about Lyle. But again from like from the end of the first quarter on, I did not really notice a problem, So

I'm not super worried about it. Yeah, that's one of the things I love about what Kellen's doing right now. K I'm talk about kell him Moore just because you're right, Nick, I think it was you was saying, like, he's the fact that they are able to make these adjustments, which in both games first possession, but as game wore on, they got better and better and better and better. And that to me is all about adjusting to what the

defense is showing you and taking advantage of your opportunities. Yeah, I mean third and one, you know, I thought that on the first on the interception third and one, I mean, let's run the ball or at least get dacted to it, but miss a shotgun. It was almost like it was third and eight, you know, And they throws it and

gets intercepted. And they come back on the third and one again with Pollard, and I thought maybe the play of the game or one of them when Dak scrambled or and I scrambled, it was the zone read and he got around and faked me out because I think too. I was like, what is Pollard doing? Like run and then I realized that Dak had the ball. Yeah, it's

funny how much really good at faking it. I said this during the game, like, and I mean Devin Smith got open, he burned Josh Norman, great play call, all of that, but like Dak is so good at this sleight of hand and the body posture that fakes the defense out, like fake play, fake to Zeke. Then he play fakes it again on the screen, like if you go back and watch it, like half the defense bites on two different fakes, and he's just so good at

stuff like that. Like Smith beat his man anyway, but it just makes it that much easier of a play when you can throw people off like and I love that of the past to Smith. I love the fact that he was like, that's just knowing your guy is knowing, Okay, where's the open part. I'm gonna throw it way out here, and he's gonna go get it because he can run

and go, you know, and do that. And then now when Devin Smith is in the game or watch fifteen, because he can run, that's only that's just another weapon that you've got. And he might be out there a little bit more now because he's the one guy that can really stretch the field like that. These other receivers, well, I say that Gallup can run too. Now he ran

right by Josh Norman. I was kind of a whose fault was that on that deep ball though he kind of you know, turned, and honestly, I don't know there was anybody's fault. It just I don't think he tracked it the well as well as he should have. And I'm not sure if Dak threw it in the best position for him to have to come back across and

catch on that side. I don't think it was the perfect throw for that route, but I also think he could have adjusted to it better sim I mean, similar to the Cobb interception, is like, yeah, da, Dak could have placed that better. But also he was under duress and it hit Cobb's hands like he would prefer not to bat that into the air. And Cobb did say after the game, He's like, I was on me, I should I gotta catch that Well's and it's you know,

and that's been an issue, especially with Gallup. That's been an issue for Dak, and people kill him for it. And I'm like, I thought that in the NFL, if the ball hits your hands and it's on you, even if it could have been a better throw, Like that's what I've heard since I was a kid. So it seems like his body place, man, he was just not a place right, Like he was turned in word and then the ball was coming behind him a little bit and just making that an adjustment to turn all the

way around. That's just weird. Yeah, that would have been a tough catch. I mean, that's a tough catch when you're tracking on the right and the ball's coming over the left, and you got to kind of track it over your head, like with a helmet and shoulder pads on. Like you think about. You don't have the same range of motion as you normally, so trying to track that that's a tough thing to do. So it would have been a tough catch, I think all the way around. Probably.

I don't know that I blame either one of them. They both could have done things maybe a little bit different or better, but I mean, it is what it is. That's a fifty fifty ball. There's a reason why they called fifty fifty balls. And just the fact that how he turned on the jets to just zoom right past him there, Like he's got some speed. He's a deep ball guy for sure, obviously Devin Smith is, and I still think Cooper can, I mean as well. I mean,

that's not his best part of his game. He can get by you, and I don't know if it's the best part of his game, but he's pretty damn good at it. You can ask Phillies DBS. Yeah, he's a glider. He just kind of cold. How long do we have before we bring about to take him all right, I have. I really want to talk about my favorite subplot to this whole thing, but we can save it for they. Well, we'll do it right when we get back from this break.

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on sale down, get them before they're first. Prescott punches up the middle touchdown. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com to get your tickets today. Back to the break, all right, allow you just take it away, Okay, I wrote I wrote a story last night about how Dak did such a good job of spreading the ball around everybody, eight different receivers, two different running backs, YadA YadA, YadA YadA,

and something that really jumped out to me. I hate to throw shade at him because I love Dez Bryant, but I just couldn't help but think about the old days when win or lose. If Dez Bryant were to finish with four catches for forty four yards in a touchdown win or lose, we would be sitting here today talking about, like how can they get Dez going? What? What was the defense doing that kind of limited Dez's day?

Like that's that's not what he's about, YadA YadA, YadA, YadA YadA, like regardless of seeing so many other guys

being involved and productive, well, well change. First, First of all, the old Cowboys offense never had in the time I've been here, there were never this many guys that could be on top of the stat sheet, like you're talking Dez or you know, Zeke as a runner, passer, combined whatever, But there weren't that many other options, you know, like once in a blue moon, you'll have a Terrence Williams blow up game like the Chiefs a couple of years ago.

But like, there weren't a lot of other options. And that's kind of my point is look down on the stat sheet. Devin Smith is leading the team in yards, Michael Gallup is leading the teams and team in receptions. Randall Cobb had at least one, if not two, pretty clutch third down conversions. There's just so many options that it doesn't really matter. I mean, I hate to say it doesn't matter, but Amari Cooper can be like your

third or fourth option, and the offense still rolled. Everybody got involved, everything looked good, and everybody was happy at the end of the day. And that's first of all, it's refreshing. Second of all, it's scary in a good way in terms of what this offense could be like. If you don't need Amari Cooper to take over to roll, that's exciting. And I just I was writing this story last night and I was like, this is amazing. Like Michael Gallup as your leading receiver through two games, and

it's awesome. And I think the key there, and I think we talked about this before the season, like if you really you know, you can say pick your poison. But the guys have to be able to handle it, Like they have to be able to handle games like this and not having you know, the divas that want the ball all the time. And you know, Mary Cooper came from Oakland, so he's like, well, I'm just happy to win. And you know, I would think he's not

really that worried about it. He was saying it on the sideline and after, I mean during the last game he was telling I think it was Gallop he was talking to where he was like, look, when we present this kind of of of offense to an opponent, it is too hard for them to be able to keep up with. They don't know where the ball is going to go from play to play because everybody's getting involved. So we want everybody to get involved, right. He talked

about that last night. He was like, imagine being a defensive coordinator watching the tape of this and everybody's putting plays on tape and the other somebody asked him like, do you kind of have to fight against that natural instinct to want the ball and classic coup. He was just like, no, I worry about the opportunities that I do get and that's that's enough. Which I just love it.

I love that guy. Which I don't say any of this to like insinuate that Dez Bryant was this problem child, like he really never had that very many moments where he, you know, give me the ball, give me the ball, Like we know that's not true, but it still was this ever president story. Yeah, it was this ever present storyline where it's like, if we're not targeting Dez seventeen times a game, the offense probably isn't gonna do what

we wanted to do. And it's just it's it's new and exciting to see this where it's like everybody's gonna do a little bit. Nobody really has to take over for this thing to work. So what's going on with Michael Gallup and the injury? So he banged his knee. Um, we don't know the severity. He's getting an MRI. I think it's okay, Like Mr sounds scary, but guys, get him our eyes for everything, like you have access to it anyway, why not just be safe but something to

keep an eye on. Hopefully Jason garrettle update us later today. I would hate to sound like an idiot. I don't think it's serious, but we'll see. Let's see what Jason says. All right, well, let's get into the defense, because there's a lot well the same ghost for Antoine Woods for anybody that hasn't heard any injury with MCL doesn't seem to be too severe, but again they're looking into it.

So yeah, sorry, And as Nick was mentioning during the break, you know, being having the Dolphins coming up next that eases things with guys that are injured that you can probably sit down and not worry about it. And they're I think they're looking for a way to get Tristan Hill in the game, and this would be this would be one to do that. Let's see, let's see what his injury is like. But I mean, I definitely think

they would love the opportunity to get him involved. Well, there are going to be some changes in the defensive line in this week, but before we get into that, let's just talk about the defense overall. People are kind of starting to or keep talking about the defense kind of concern about their production and what they've been doing on the field, not necessarily the kind of defense we were talking about last year, they've been kind of slow a little bit. What is going on? What is the

problem here? Let's start off with the defensive line. Can I correct? I don't think there's a problem. That's I think. I'm glad we're on the side. I think the defense is played. Probably problem in the aspect of when you start talking about comparison between last year and what they

we're doing. You know, people's expectations. We go back with expectations. Yeah, I think there's been plenty of years if you go back and you look that the Patriots had the worst rank defense in the NFL, and that's because of how these games are going when you have a lead like that. The Cowboys weren't having as money many leads early in the season, having to rely on the defense to make

plays and feel position and all that. With the Cowboys score in the way they are, I think I think it's opening up for teams to to, you know, get some chunk plays in the second half. I think the defense they're getting off the field. Yeah, they could get more Saxon turnovers. Jalen Smith said that to be elite, we had to get Saxon turnover. We got to do a better job but they're getting off the field and they're making some plays. I think the defense is actually

playing really well. That's it's so fun. And yeah, like I'm not I'm not trying to talk down to anybody listening to this because I'm with you, like you know, you're see you know Byron Jones, Anthony Brown. They're giving up receptions. The Redskins seemed to be moving the ball pretty well. They go down and score a late touchdown. You're like, eh, I don't know about it, Like it doesn't doesn't feel like they had a good day. Then

you pull out the stat sheet. Two of nine on third down, two hundred and fifty five total yards, less than five yards per play um red zone. They didn't allow three or three in the red zone. That ain't great, um, But like you look at what they did on paper and it was pretty good. Especially with an offense that's cracked thirty points in both games so far. They are not generating enough pressure on the quarterback and they missed at least two, if not three opportunities at takeaways like that.

If you're going to criticize them, that's where it lies. For me. One sack or two sacks in two games

one per game not awesome. I thought, you know, Malie Collins and Christian Covington were great against the run yesterday Washington couldn't really do anything but not blowing up the pocket the way that we thought we might see so far in training camp, or you know what I mean, after what we watched in training camp, and then you know, Jeff Heath and Xavier Woods should both have interceptions today

like both of them had good shots at it. I think that's the key, and I think you're right amber It's really about expectations, and I'm a big believer in that. From the standpoint of what I thought of this defense coming out of training camp to what I've seen through the first two weeks, they haven't been as as spectacular as I thought they would be. And what I mean by that is I thought there would be more bigger plays. I thought these linebackers were be making more or tackles Philossies.

I thought the secondary will be getting more interceptions. I thought the defensive line will be getting more pressure and more sacks. And I'm not seeing that. That's the part that is a little bit troubling, because again, going back to what we thought of them, my thought was they were about to take the next step to being elite. They are a good defense, no doubt about it. Those statue were just reading says they are a good defense

and they're winning games. That's so there are no complaints here. I'm not saying by any means there's a problem with the defense. The problem is with me. The problem is I created these expectations. You know, that's not usually sh goes like you make the expectation and you hold somebody else to your about so many turnovers there in training camp and that always happens, and they did it. They did it during training camp, and I thought that was a sign that this secondary is really ready to take

that next step. And Xavier Woods had that opportunity yesterday. I was I really thought he had that pick and that's the kind of pick he was making in training camp that again he didn't make yesterday. So I understand the expectations part. I don't think the defense is bad. I just think expectation wise, they're not living up to what we thought they were going to be. Two games, that's the other players, just two games. It's a long season. Our view in the FedEx press box is terrible and

you know, we're behind the end zone. So like you don't have good death perception, you can't really tell. But one thing that you can see really clearly is angles on passing plays. And man, I mean I thought Jeff Heath was going to the house. I mean the way he broke from his spot on the route. I was like, he sees it, he's housing this thing, and then it just clanged off his dome. I was like, well, what I you know, sitting back here, I saw it perfectly, like I think he was just and he saw it too.

It's like I think he was. I think he was worried more about the receiver than the ball, which and I've never coached safety. Maybe that's what he should have been doing. Maybe it's not, but I thought he had a touchdown and he did. You know. You know, um, it's the second straight game now where the you know,

teams have scored kind of late in the game. But you know, if you're old enough to remember, the Cowboys played a game that still gets talked about a lot back in two thousand and five against the Red where they were dominating thirteen to nothing with five minutes to go in the game, and the only way that you're going to lose the game is if you give up deep balls. Santana Moss got two of them. They won the game. And that's the only way that the Redskins or the Giants are going to come back is if

they score quickly. So thirty one to fourteen, yeah, you're not gonna give up a deep ball. So you're gonna have to work with the clock and just we're gonna give you everything underneath. The Giants took it last week, the Redskins took it. Yeah, it doesn't look good for

your fantasy defense or whatever. It looks good for the scoring, but it's the way to win the game is we've got this lead and we're just gonna choke you out with it with the clock because we got the clock, and so you can go score, but you're not gonna do it again. They you know, they need to pressure the quarterback better if they're going to be a lad. They definitely need to get takeaways. But I mean, so you spent okay, they got once like last week, once

like this week. We spend so much time talking about how much talent there was in the defensive line and how much depth, and then this is what we're seeing. Yeah, it's I mean, and I you know I haven't I haven't watched this game back, but I know the Redskins were paying a ton of attention to DeMarcus Lawrence. Like I said, Malie Collins played a great game yesterday. We

haven't seen the pass rushing aspect of it yet. And then over on that right side, I think, you know you've got Tyrone Crawford, who didn't have much of a training camp, although ironically he got the loan sack and it was one of the biggest players in the game. In my opinion, Dorrence Armstrong looked like he played better yesterday, but you know, still not just blowing people's socks off. And then you know, luckily you got Robert Quinn back in the building today, who you would hope would be

able to help with all of this. You know, I'll say this though, I think Tank has been a disruptive player. No, no, no, Like his stats may not show it, but he's been a player that even when they're paying a lot of attention to him, which they have been, he's still managing to get to make quarterbacks have to get rid of the ball, getting opportunities to get in their face and affect the play. So I think I think DeMarcus is

playing fine. I think there are probably a lot of other guys on this d fince out of playing fine. They're just not making those big plays. They're not turning that into a sack or turning it into a forced fumble and a fumble recover him. Tell him what Tyrone told you? Yeah, I mean, And I went back and watched it and I was asking him about the play. I thought. I agreed, Dave. I think it was the play of the game, and maybe a couple of plays

before that. The penalty that Malie Collins drew. It was first and five and then seven nothing they're driving, you know, and then get a holding penalty, and then that took him back. The sack though on Crawford was not just a stunt inside. But I mean DeMarcus Lawrence went inside and just blasted Brandon sheriff Sheriff just like as hard as he could, just to take the whole thing inside and created a huge lane for him Tyrone to just

loop over. So and afterwards I tried to talk to Tyrone and he didn't really want to talk, but he was like I think he kind of got banged up a little bit too, but he said d Law made the play, and then d Law was right there. It's like, yeah, I did you know what I mean? And he did? You know he made I went back and watched it and it's it was just one of those like all right, I'm gonna take you three out and it'll create a lane.

Just like we talked on the offensive side of the ball about hey, do you want to double team me? That's fine. It's the same on defense too, and it's it's hard to do that because these guys get judged by sacks. Yeah, so, but that's that's made a play.

That's a tough position because even on offensive line, like you're not watching that every play, but typically like if you're not noticing a guy, he's probably playing adequately, if not really well on you know, if you're a pass rusher, you could make a play like that as DeMarcus Lawrence open it up for your boy to get a sack. And nobody's talking about that. Or again, Malie Collins drawing

a holding penalty, it doesn't register. I think they can play better, don't get me wrong, Like I'm not completely absolving them, but there's silent stats there that don't show up on the box score or in your memory of watching the game, Like they're not playing poorly. And again, what I was gonna say a g is give me two hundred and fifty five yards and twenty one points all day. Like you will win a lot of football

game allowing him, especially with this offense. Yeah, especially if your offense is do I mean, you'll win every game if your offense is doing that, So win them all. Who on the on the offensive side of the ball. The one guy we never talked about, but he's probably playing as well as anybody. We just don't never talk about him, is who offense? A lineman? Yeah, it's probably probably Tyring Smith. Yeah, yeah, just doesn't you just take that for grant? You do you do on defense? There's

a guy too that we're not ever talking about. It never doesn't really anything because he's just locking his guy down. Yeah, I mean Cheetle. I mean once again, I mean they tested Byron a little bit. I don't did they even test Cheetle that much? He gave up. He gave up that one ball to Eli. I'm talking last week. He gave and it was a perfectly placed ball. Just tough break. And other than that, I mean, I couldn't tell you for sure that he's given up and we realize at all.

And of course he got a lot of headlines with speed and all, you know, which is good too because you know, okay, we're not testing him. It feel like to me yesterday the Reskin say we're going to test Byron Jones and and so that was which on the way they went at it, that goes you know, watching the game, you're like, oh, man, another throw at Byron, like he's really kind of struggling. And I come in today and Brian's watched the tape and he was like, oh,

Byron was great. Yeah, Byron he did. He played well. The play he made I think he tackled Paul richardson a third down. It wasn't his man. He came off of a rub and and just dominated the receiver to keep him sure of the sticks. It was a fantastic play. Now, he played well, And that's that's the thing you gotta love, is that if they tested him, I think he passed

the test. And now we'll see in the future weeks, maybe not this week, but a week after that, we'll start to see our our offense is gonna say, okay, do we just kind of go with whoever? Because there's not a clear distinction between these two cornerbacks. They're both really good. Yeah, I think I'm I give him a solid bee through the first two weeks because I don't don't think either one of these teams is going to compete for a playoff spot, So you have to keep

that in mind. But I mean nitpicking to find things that that terribly, terribly concern me. But I will be interested to see him play some better offenses. Go ahead and take a break. When we come back. We still need to talk about Taco Charlton and what's going on there with Robert Quinn coming back from the two game suspension. Your new apartment's big, such a great deal, it's okay, just okay. What's not right above the subway? Well, I bet you don't even notice it after that's my neighbor. Angus.

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slash Cowboys Hour. It's fun time over there. I didn't know I was standing standing by Shannon Gross. Hi hi all right, get your ass up there at that Cowboys hour. That's pretty good. All right, go ahead, all right, Well we don't have much time talking. Cowboys threw us off a little bit, but old men yell at clouds. Yeah, and Brian and Mickey we're getting into it right before they needed to end the show. I'm shock I missed that way? Did I miss that? Better be care full?

Why I'm kid so dumb? Okay, you're saying stop Robert Quinn coming back. You said Dave that he's back in the building. Um, I don't. I don't know that he like I haven't seen him, but he I just would think in the Monday is not the off day anymore. Players are here getting rehab and doing meetings and stuff. Robert Quinn's suspension is over. It stands excited. It stands to reason that he's here. But I have not laid eyes on him myself. Now, keep in mind, this is

a guy that hasn't practiced for a while. Prior to the suspension. He had the whole hand injury back at training camp, so it's been a while since he's been out on the field doing some things. What is the expectation that the Cowboys are going to do here as far as the roster moves. Taco Charlton healthy scratch for two weeks, but they've kept him inactive both times. Is

this the assumption that that might happen? They have they have until Wednesday, They have a roster exemption, so they don't have to make a move until they start practicing for real. And we said all along that this stuff would kind of work itself out, you know, maybe somebody might get hurt or not play well. And I don't think it has really worked itself out because even though Antoine Woods is hurt, he's not banged up to the point where it would be a roster spot there. So

it hasn't worked itself out. But I don't know this. I mean, we've heard that there's trade rumors with Tacco, but there's I mean, Dorian's Armstrong hasn't done enough where you wouldn't just you couldn't just play Tacco this week, you know. In fact, he hasn't done really much of anything, so I would I would think that if you wanted to play Tacco you could. I think there's something else going on here where they're not trying to get him

hurt or whatever. I think I think this week to answer the question, I think he is not on the team this week that like after you know, wins D or three, you know, I'm I'm I'm with you, like in the sense that I feel reluctant to say that because it's a big you know, it's a big thing to say, to say they're gonna like cut or trade

a former first round pick. But there's just so much writing on the wall, like I don't know, like where else does it come because you would think it's a d lineman, Like how many d lineman are you gonna put?

And and there's just so much noise. Like Jerry Jones, he declined to comment last night about trading Taco, but even he was like, you know, I know there's speculation out there about it, so like for him to acknowledge that it's everywhere, and then you know, if you want to take an even deeper dive like Tacos on social media liking tweets for me and Rappaport about how the Cowboys are trying to trade him or uh, you know, Dayton Jones, who used to play here tweeted like you know,

free my man or whatever, and he like liked that and retweeted it or whatever, like it's I feel stupid even talking about it. But funny how he'll get traded to like the Dolphins or something like that. You know, that's not freedom, I just something, Yeah, I wont like is that Is that relationship fixable at this point? Because it seemed like the Cowboys seemed done with him and he doesn't seem super int and being here anymore either,

And so are you really gonna not that? And we said last week like, I don't think it's gonna like derail the locker room or anything, but it's just kind of it's just kind of hanging there in this awkward space. So at some point, don't you just rip the band

aid off and do something about it? Well, yeah, I think if you're in a situation where you think it's clear that the player doesn't want to be here, if you think you're at that point and the team is not going to really find a role that's suitable for him, then yeah, I think you just need to for the sake of your locker room and not having just a malcontent because I think that's one of the biggest dividers and problem causers for groups is a person that's a malcontent,

a person that just isn't happy with their current station. So if he is to that point and you don't feel like it's salvageable, I think you do it quickly. So you don't allow that because young guys are impressionable, and all it takes is the wrong person in their ear. So you see that, you see that, you see why they did that, You see that, and all of a sudden, you got this this malcontents starting to grow among different players in the in the room, which I'm sure they

would prefer to trade him. I'm sure they've tried. But again, like with there's so much writing on the wall, like what what would another team be willing to give up? If anything? And the answer might be nothing, And so are you willing to cut your losses and eat the money? Nothing? It's you got? You mean, you have to eat the contract. You have to deal with the embarrassment of cutting a first round pick in its third year. I mean, that's not a good look for anybody. Say you'll get nothing,

but yeah, you do. You get nothing. But you might have to just suck it up and make that decision. Unless, unless you're prepared to put him out there on game day and try to sale you could play that same drop for him being out there. I mean they really haven't gotten anything. Now. Is there any other guy that you could think of that maybe they would decide to

make that roster move with. Yeah, I think Von is a guy that you have to consider, right, Yeah, once those other two safeties of health, yeah, Cavan, and then you've got some I mean, just you don't need Adam Redman. You just don't need him on the team. I mean I don't think you do. I mean you've got backup guard and to a filough, you got backup guard center and Joe Luney got a backup guard tackle in Brandon Knight. Yeah,

I mean backups do you really need? I mean, he's a backup center, but he would be your third center and guard. I just they like him, obviously, they don't really want to let him go. But I just don't know if you need that much depth. What if you feel more confident that he could develop into a player who can help you down the road, which that's that would be an embarrassing thing. I locked up Lyle Collins, Zach Martin, Yeah, Tyran Smith, I mean Connor is pretty

much I mean, forgot about him. Yeah, he's not doing anything right now, but you got him for Yeah. I mean, it's hard to think there's a place on the offensive life for you to be worried too much about the immediate future. I should say, I'm and I'm talking three to four years. There are several other places where you

could get that roster spot, and maybe they will. But again, like it just feels awkward, like you don't feel good enough about him to put him out there when he's healthy and he is not giving the impression that he's thrilled about being here, and so how they're not thrilled about not playing YEAD receiver wide receivers one now that you're I mean, I didn't even think about that. We're just fine with with Cedric Wilson. Yeah, that's honest. That's

the easiest fix of all. I didn't even think about that. Or they just keep Cedric Wilson, it could, I mean, and let the most also got to see what's happening with Gallup right that that that's happening with Gallup, See what's happening with Tavon. The most surprised I was all of yesterday was when they sent Cedric Wilson out there on like the ten yard line. They hadn't been playing well.

The game was very much in doubt. I was just like, please, God, man, I'm freaking out, like I don't I'm not, you know, like I'm not worried, no offense to anybody. I'm not worried about it from the Cowboys standpoint, like they'll be fine. But I'm just like, Cedric Wilson is gonna just bepublican, I mean number one, and this is going to be bad. He didn't when he caught that thing. I was just like, thank god, Cedric, I'm so I'm so happy for you. I didn't want to see it all in like that.

I did not. All Right, Well, that is all the time we've got for today. Thank you guys so much for tuning in with us tomorrow. I'm not sure what these guys are gonna talk about, but I'm sure it's gonna be good. Real quick. Can you give a shout

out to all those Cowboys fans in DC. That was freaking amazing DMPA fans that were there, and how loud they were, and especially the part where they were basically singing to the Ridskins fans to leave as the game was my buddy, a buddy of mine, big Ohio State fans, So naturally he was interested in the Devin Smith touchdown.

So he went back and watched it and texted me and was like it sounds like a home game, Like basically it was all right, Well, thank you guys so much for derrk kigelton nique in Man, David Hellman, remember go see. This has been the Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.