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It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com with Mbar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Monday, November twenty fifth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number seventy four. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We're live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, presented by LGLG is the world's number one OLED TV brand for eleven years in counting See why at LG dot com, Forward slash O, led Evo, and man, do we have a game to discuss today? Craziest game had If somebody asked me last night, was this the craziest game in my twenty four years? And
I still don't think it was the craziest. I still think the Buffalo game with the five interceptions by Tony was the craziest game I've ever been a part of or been to, But this one was right up there. It certainly was a top three for me. Uh, cowboys get to win thirty four to twenty six. Let's start with stories of the game.
What is the real quick? Sure would the Atlanta game, that Watermelon Kick game be that one came up? Okay? Dan Quinn has been part of two games.
Yeah and then yeah, yeah, it's kind of.
Crazy on the opposite side both times.
Yeah weird to say too.
Yeah, Oh, I'm sure Dan is sitting there what just happened? Because you know, I've seen the graphics of you know, where the score was with you know, five minutes left in the game, and by and large, let's let's be honest, most of this game and were you up there, we were sitting like, yeah, I mean most of this game it was.
Kind of like where's the coffee?
There just was no real offensive firepower. There wasn't a lot of scoring. It was just kind of this back and forth, almost a comedy of errors, and then all of a sudden, bam, it just hits it goes. So what was the story of the game. What was the story game? As you look back now over what happened yesterday.
This team's fighting three and seven going into this game. I think you know you talked to most of the fan base.
Heck, you talk to us. We're moving on to draft.
But this team hasn't stopped fighting, and I think you saw that in the final five minutes last night. I mean, you look at the clock, five thirty to go, the score is thirteen to nine, and then it's thirty.
Four to twenty six.
So they had to weather a lot of storms, a lot of back and forth action, a little bit of luck involved too, no doubt, but this team's fighting on both sides of the ball. And I have to give credits to the defense more so just because it feels like all eleven are playing together right now, and it's trended that way. Over the course of the last couple of weeks. They haven't been able to finish games because
the offense hasn't given them any help at all. The offense finally held them out yesterday, got them up twenty to nine, and then you know, that's when all the craziness happened. But I think this defense is continuously getting better as each week goes by, and once they get fully healthy, once they get everybody back, I think this is a solid unit for Mike Zimmer. But There's a deeper conversation about Mike Zimmer that I think we need
to have moving forward. Is is he a guy that you keep around no matter what at this point, because I think he's a guy that has gotten this defense better as years going on.
He's weathered these injuries.
Might not be a conversation for today, but I think we need to have a deeper conversation about Mike Zimmer moving forward.
We definitely are going to do that. Let's go on, Amber, what's your story of the game.
My story is that man, when it feels good, I forgot what it felt like. No, Like seriously, it's just a different vibe coming in. I'm tired and everything, but it just feels different. The vibe around the office. Lights. All the lights were on today just for reference, like they turn in our floor where we were, they turned half of the lights off, so it's like dimmer and just people enjoy the moody desk watch filmy morning. All the lights were on and we're just over here working.
Everybody is like happy to be here. And then another thing is like Derek's favorite things, favorite thing on the plane are cookies. Last night they ran out of cookies. They were like, sorry, the players and the coaches they all hate cookies. If they run out of cookies.
I'm like, damn, so they're gonna be fa slow. On Thursday, I was.
Like, I don't love that cookies. What's going on?
Hey, I don't mind it.
You celebrate with cookies.
That's fine. Hey, it's fine.
Learned absolutely, But just to that, I just think what the defense is starting to show. It's exciting when you start considering all the different things that they're having to overcome, mainly with the injuries. And once again maybe it's coincidence, I don't know, but it just goes to show again what Micah Parson's presence does to this defense, because that's when everything started to trend upwards. Was when he made his return to the lineup. Things just started improving slowly.
And then when you think of a game without Trevon Diggs and then Kalen Carson. I know he wasn't playing well, but it's still another guy that's taking out of your defense their own bland he had. You know, he's working his way back in it. But just credit to those younger, less experienced quote unquote guys that are just working so hard on defense and it's just it's been impressive honestly. Now on offense you got to step it up more. But again, just celebrating and happy today.
Tip the captain Mike Solari. We've been giving him a lot of crap this whole year, and the offensive line at times has it been very good.
Uh.
You go into the game yesterday, you get the inactive list ninety minutes for the game, you see Martin and Smith both out. Yep, you're thinking absolute disaster. They're not going to run the ball. They're not going to attempt to run the ball. They're not going to be able to protect well enough to even move the football, you know, and you're picking you know, Commanders thirty two Dallas six. You know, that's one of those games you're thinking about.
But give the offensive line some credit. Yesterday the guys Hoffman came in, he brought he brought toughness to He's not as talented as what Martin is, but he brought
the same amount of toughness. When you start to talk about the way that it was a kind of a chippy game, you know with those guys, they did a really good job with the combo blocks when they were able to you know, run the football, the pass protection, and there were plenty of times where Cooper Rush was able to get to find a receiver, to locate a guy and get the ball out. So you have to
be fair about this. And Mike Silaria has been taking a lot of crap and but yesterday those he did a really good job of getting young guys ready a couple you know, not I say young veteran guys, but as a group, those five guys actually played. They played six guys yesterday. If you include awesome Richardson too, that that contest. But you know they need to work on you know, we go into the game. We talked about this a little bit, I know on our pregame show, uh you know one O five three the fan. We
talked about the officials and Trey Blake. This is a crew that called when linemen were lining up deep. That was one of the calls, and we talked about it when we have a thing called the Zebra Report, and it played out that this is a crew that is going to call you if you line up deep. And there were a couple of times where he was deep. He was deeper than CD and the slot he can't be that deep. You know they're gonna call that. But other than that, those guys did a good job of
holding up up front. They created lanes, they gave you protection. Uh, you know, they'll figure out two what needs to be done on that field goal protection thing with BB and Schoonmaker after the first first block kind of interlocked legs and it was better better that way. So, but tip of the caps of those guys for getting it done up front in that game. Yeah.
I was able to chop it up with Brock Hoffman and TJ Bass in the locker room after the game, just kind of being like, hey, when did y'all find out you were starting?
How did you feel like it went?
And TJ had found out earlier in the week obviously, and then Brock had found out the morning of, So yesterday morning he found out that he was going to be starting, And it was kind of a similar situation for both of them because they both started in the game in Washington last year in Week eighteen, but it was the roles were reversed. Brock found out the morning of and or excuse me, TJ found out the morning of Flip Flop. But I had asked him to, like
what a part. What about these opportunities do you guys like relish the most? He's like, well, we're two undrafted guys like we take that personally. We want to be able to show that, you know, we were worthy of at least a draft spot. And Brock was like, yeah, it was pretty ugly, and TJ was like, that's just the way we like it. So I appreciated those two guys' efforts. Do you want to guess how many total pressures they gave up in the game three?
What do you got?
Total pressure?
Total pressures allowed by TJ bat I didn't look.
This up, but I was just watching the tape this morning. It seemed like they were pretty low. So I just guessed the really, I.
Mean, based on your little giddy smile, I would say maybe two, Okay.
Okay, yeah, I would say probably. I'd say probably three, But because I know BB had zero, Yeah, so I would say probably three between the two of them.
According to Pro Football Focus, it's a fat goose egg for so.
The interior gave Interiero pressure. I said, wow, possible.
Didn't Paine get a sack?
According to Pro Football.
Focus, I think didn't get a sack there in the closer to the end of the game.
I thought they gave. Yeah, they gave. I was trying to think about the that was a sack.
They did regist a sack of pain. I'll see what he was lined up.
I wont Yeah, I wonder who that who that was against?
Trying to think who that was against, because he's.
A defensive tackle. I think he gets one of those three you would think.
But that's why I thought it was yeah, something like that.
Yeah, yeah, well it was to me, it was good.
It was good everyone.
Yeah, let's not get lost in the details on that. The fact of the matter is when I first saw that those those two guys are out on the offensive line, I looked at Nick because on the show I said last week, I said, if you get all these guys back, I think this sets up for the Cowboys to be
able to go up there and get a win. And and then when those two guys are out, I was like, yeah, I don't know how I feel too good about the possibilities here, because what we've seen all season is the offensive line has not been able to protect, haven't been able to to infective living run. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, you lose the two guys in the middle that are the most veteran of this group, and so I just didn't think it was gonna be a way that they were going to be able to get
that done. But what we saw yesterday was and credit to I think you credit not only Mike Salari, but you also have to credit Mike McCarthy and the and the offensive staff of being able to call the right kind of game for these guys because they did take a there were there were a lot of quick throws coming, getting the ball out quick, and so that's just kind of understanding where you are and you're having to play that game.
Kind of felt like we could take advantage of the commander's secondary said that, ye, and we talked about too, and I'm glad it worked out. You know, they they decided they don't want to cover scoon Maker going up the middle of the field. We talked about the fact that they'd given up five touchdowns too tight ends in the red zone. Make that six now, you know. So yeah, it was it was a good a good victory all
the way around. I know there's the there's the folks out there that are like, you know, tank for the better positions and things like that. You you that's not going to happen with this this crew. I mean we could. We could sit there and all the guys and gals that love to talk about the draft and drafting positions and stuff like that. You know, I mean we I believe this Dallas is Dallas is capable of losing games
just without tanking. They're also capable of winning games. They showed you that yesterday, So you know, good for good for the team to get a victory like that, and you know that that was a that was one of the much needed ones too. If you're well, also try and hang in this thing.
I feel like some people tend to forget that when you're quote unquote trying to tank a season or what. It's not a unanimous decision. There might be people that I feel that way, but there are other people that are competing and looking for their next job, like these games are still important. They're having to go out there
and play as good as they can. And that goes for coaching too, Like they're trying to put up a game because their next job might not be here, or if it is here, they're still trying to hang.
On to that job.
So it just it's it's not a unanimous thing and everyone has a different agenda, So don't expect them to just throw the towel and go through the rest of the season trying to lose games.
Well, not only that, but it gets really interesting at this point because over the next four weeks, Dallas plays teams that are right there with them, Like they've gone through the guy of their season. This is the part of their season where they actually can make some Hey, so you start getting back guys and getting healthy at the time that you're going to be playing teams that are not considered to be the better teams in the NFL.
This could get real interesting in December. Not to say Dallas has a shot necessarily to get back into the playoffs, because that's going to be a tough up here uphill road, just because the best they can do at this point is ten and seven, which means you got to go ten and seven and hope Philly comes back to the pack. Like there's there's a lot that would have to happen
for you to get there. The point is, though, if the Cowboys just keep playing every game the way that they played yesterday, they will make it interesting and we'll see where it goes from there.
Who is who is the last seed? Who is that? Do we know who is?
It's Washington.
It is Washington. At seven and seven and five, Dallas. Dallas plays in the last game of the year.
Right Dallas is two and one right now in the division, could move to three and one in the divisions. As bad as their record, as bad as their season has been, they still have a pretty good record within obviously got the record in the division. You gotta win out at this point. Yeah, you got any shot whatsoever. But for those folks that think you want to tank like that's
just the hard thing. As you said, Ambro, I don't think the players are necessarily thinking about it like that, because ultimately they're playing for their next job, playing for the next contract, coaches, playing for their careers. So it just it doesn't always pan out like that.
I will say things get really interesting if this team does make a playoff push in some way shape, even if they come up just short. If they're going into week eighteen with the shot, Yeah, things are gonna get interesting.
Yeah, especially because you start talking about all those conversations people were having prematurely about what's gonna happen with the coach and what's gonna happen with this AND's like all that has to change a little bit, especially you mentioned it with Mike Zimmer, Like this defense has gotten better, and you're starting to think maybe it wasn't the coordinator.
Maybe it was just the fact he didn't have any parts, and now he's getting parts, and all of a sudden, his defense is playing better.
Our next Gen stats, I was just looking this up. For the pressures. They had one for steel, one for Hoffman, zero for bass, one for BB zero for guiding, one for awesome Richards.
Okay, and I'm looking at this.
That's impressive. That's that's extremely impressive.
It's thirty three thirty three snaps, thirty three drop back snaps.
So I'm looking at this sack because it was not credited to anybody. According to PFF, it was not credited to any of the offensive linemen.
They grade that different on those those things.
I think that that one just loving have to play and pain just kind of ran free. It was a broken play, and I rush just kind of fair.
They didn't give anybody the sack on the on the they didn't credit any next Gen did not credit anybody with.
Giving the pressure on the sack with sack, yeah, giving up the sack.
They did not, They did not pin the sack on anybody, but they but the pressures were one for Steel, one for Hoffman, one for BB and one for awesome Richards.
Wow, that's awesome.
That's really good day. All Right, we're gonna take our first break when we come back. We usually start with the offense the day we got to star with special teams because it was so much to talk about there when we come back. Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.
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Break lgoled evo is the best TV in the game, but don't take our work for it. Digital Trends said the lgoled G four has the best picture quality they've ever seen, and see it for yourself at LG dot com slash o ledevl Welcome back.
It is the second segment of the Break life from that SWVC Mortgage Studios at the Star. The segment brought to you by blockchain dot Com. All Right, man, Special Teams yesterday, I don't know, Nick said it was drunk. I think it was like, I think the whole game was drunk. But you look at the special team's portion of the find drunk. You at Rob's wedding, that's drunk. That was that was drunk.
I would say, that's pretty drunk.
Yeah, that was pretty drunk.
All right, let's uh, let's look at it.
So they had they had a block thirty five yard field goal, They had a missed forty two yard field field goal, but then made a forty six and a forty eight yard field goal. They had a twenty three yard punt that was tipped so it only went twenty three. Got twenty three yards out of.
That destroyed my poor center.
Right, they had a ninety nine yard kick return for a touchdown. They had a forty three yard kick return for a touchdown on an on side kick. Let's go next to Washington. Right, Washington misses two field goals, misses two extra points. It was just all over the map, and it just seemed like on both sides, special teams.
You forgot, you forgot another gas that table, that one right before hot a r right after how he kicks the ball at a bounce. Oh yeah, they kicked They kick it short of the landing area. Weird, and you give him the ball for forty yard line. McCarthy walked up the bones. He walked up and dropped a few f bombs on bones. Bones, was like, give that.
Yeah, that's what the head coaches coaching the coach, that's.
What the coach. He took off his head said and he said, don't you ever f and do that again? Basically, he said, don't I mean? And he walked away and bones was just bones. He looked like white, the bones.
But let me ask you this, are you starting to get it all concerned about the kicking union because Brandon Aubrey has been very, very consistent and very good. And now it's been a couple of times that you just blocked weird moments.
The block you know, the the the commanders obviously saw something in the protection because the uh, they were able to jump like usually usually and this is you're talking to a guy who's a former long snapper, so I kind of understand protection. Usually the wings block inside out like you will, you will you will check inside and then work out is what you do on the on the outside. And what happened is scoon Maker went he immediately went wide and know what happened, he just planted
his leg. When the cowboys and I watched the ones from there on, they usually interlocked their legs, so like BB and Scoonmaker will interlock their legs. What happened was they jumped right over. They just jumped right over Schoonmaker's legs because BB was blocking his guy, Schoonmaker went wide, natural natural gap right there, so they just jumped over. They just jumped over the leg and then we're onto
the kicker. So later they were interlocked, which made it a little bit more difficult, a little bit tighter, uh, you know, to not allow the the why would they not you know what sometimes it happens where you know you're it's it's like you're doing you know, you do it a million times and then one time you don't do it. But I think the commander saw something off
the edge. You're thinking, hey, if they're going to just keep blocking wide and block down and block white, there's a natural gap for us to be able to try and block this off that off that edge. And so uh but my experience has always been you block, you block inside, and then as you and then you bounce out inside and out. And Schoomaker just blocked out, bebe inside, and now you just get the commander just put right over it, just jumps right over and then he's onto the onto.
The Do you think that affected the second kick that was missed.
No, I just think he missed the second kick. And I always look at his plant foot when his plant foot hits and it kind of gets wonky, like he he he pulled one the last miss he had. Remember this plant foot hit and it went, it rolled on it and it hooked it. You know, it hooked it left this one, it's kind of like it hit it flipped, but he pushed it. So you know, sometimes he kind of punches the ball. He he punches it and he gets it's explosive off his foot, so he's able to
kind of drive it that way. This one was kind of like he was just when he hit it, he was open and it just stayed right where he hit it, and so the plant foot, the snap was fine, the hold was fine. He just kind of shoved it over there is what he is.
What he did.
But I always look at his plant foot because if it flips on him sometimes he could, it makes him pull it. But this one looked like that everything was okay. He just shoved it out, shoved it outside. Yeah.
You know what's interesting, I think.
It affected the punter though, to be honest with you, the way the punter way they were punting at the end of the game. He he was kind of like, oh geez, what do we do because they tried to do it again. They tried to drive the center again and get back there and see you know, I mean, but let me be honest with you one way, jan Ye Thomas is the personal protector. He's got to step up,
I mean, make him make those guys. Yeah, it's the two defensive tackles that are you know, Newton and and pain they're pushing and one it just kind of hand checks and then releases. Make every make them run over all you to get to the ball. I mean even if you you can't block a three hundred, but a speed bump, yeah, you just make them have to go over the top of you to get to the ball. And why did you really really do that? He he just checked and then released and that didn't help seek
at all. You know, he's just got to throw his body in there, sacrifice himself. So the they you know, they they'd have to go over him to get to the ball.
One of the interesting things for Aubrey he's missed four field goals in his career at Washington. Yeah, he's only missed three anywhere else in the NFL, Like Washington is just a weird place for whatever reason.
Why field the field conditions were pristine, if you can. It wasn't bad that turf had been replaced ten days ago, so nobody had played on that turf. That is brand new turfsy you really can't. Usually you play there late in the year, it's all chopped up and some bags going on, but not.
Just And it was a beautiful day, so everything was it was a little money.
I mean our shoes got.
A little outside our shoes.
I got a little bit of grass and mud.
Honest.
No, but I think you know what.
We all have bad days, right, we all have bad days. It's normal. It's I'm not gonna be mad, and I've said it happened.
Sometimes you should be mad at the commander's kicker. You should be happy that he was not good yesterday exactly we had a day.
It leveled out, you know, I think it canceled out each other with with that. And again, when when you look at everything that Aubrey has done for you and the amount of times where you're where most of your points are only coming from Brandon Aubrey and the field goals that he's made you, this is not enough for me to be alarmed or worried about special teams.
And they made up for it.
Yeah, all right, let's move on. Let's talk a little bit about the offense here before we take our final break. Let's get to Cooper Rush. Yesterday, he was twenty four thirty two seventy five percent completion rate, really high, two hundred and forty seven yards, passing two touchdowns, zero interceptions, a one hundred and seventeen point six passer rating. It
was a career high for him. How would you assess his play overall, because it didn't I was actually surprised at the end of the game when I saw the numbers because during the game, during most of the game, I felt like the offense just kind of it was doing just a little bit, but just not too much. What did you think of his overall play?
I thought the offense sustained drives, they just couldn't finish them. You look at the two miskicks in the first half, you could look at those two opportunities as potential chances to get into the end zone as well. But as far as Cooper Rush and how he played overall, it's what we got used to seeing from him whenever he took over a couple of years ago and he went four to one over that stretch. Doesn't try to do too much, but he does just enough to give you
your team a shot. And I think what was different this week as compared to previous weeks is he really leaned on CD.
And it makes sense.
I mean, you got a guy that is a reliable pass catcher, but it was those first couple of drives where he was He got five receptions on those first two drives. You could see that there was an intention early on from CD saying like, hey, lean on me, I can sustain this offense if we can't get this running game going. I don't think this team expected to get the running game going because of how much they
leaned on CD early. But then Rico was able to sustain some Rico Dawdle was able to sustain some carries nineteen carries for eighty six yards, and it really helped out Cooper rush. At the end of the day, I think when you look at those two touches or the one touchdown drive that ended with the third down pass to schoon Maker, that was one of the better drives we've seen all season.
Well, no matter who was that quarterback.
I think whenever you look at how the running game was able to sustain a finishing it wasn't the red zone, but practically finishing in the red zone, and then you see two backups being able to execute on a touchdown like that, I thought it was pretty cool, especially for Schoonmaker who has pretty much been in the doghouse but got an opportunity and he shined with it. But for me, the difference with Cooper Rush was he leaned on CD, he leaned on some guys and those guys answered for him.
Yeah, it was good to see some improvement and them being able to move the ball, But totally the same with what Nick said. It's just finishing those and converting on those third downs that it gets to them not being able to get into the end zone as many times, or given the amount of chances that they put themselves in or situations as that put themselves in, you should be seeing more points being scored and that. But again, improvement given from last week and what you saw, and
you're like, man, they can't do anything. So I got to give credit to the whole crew and also Mike McCarthy. I thought we saw a couple little nuggets that were a little different than what we've seen so far. So that's improvement in my books.
Yeah, you know, and you mentioned the nuggets and it really came off the play action stuff. You know, they early in the game, they ran a toss sweep and they got good yardage on.
It, and what they do They fake lost that play.
They fake tossed it and it brought every one of the linebackers up and then what happened? You get spanned four, then behind and now it's a but here's what here it is. You know, you get the running game going, you get some positive plays going, all of a sudden, you play action that think Cooper rush was six to seven on play action passes for eighty nine yards in this game. That just shows you you have somewhat of
a running game you can make. You could affect people in that way twelve yards almost thirteen yards in attempt off the play action game. Just get a running game going and you you know, or at least the thread of it, and that brings defenders up and then you have opportunities to make plays off that.
Yea. If the running game doesn't have to be great, you just have to be committed to it.
And that's what we show people that you can you could bust a couple of runs off them.
But they, yeah, they had In the first alf Rico had nine rushes. He ended up with nineteen.
Yeah, so he got they.
Were rushing the running the ball throughout the game. He had a three point nine average on the first half. But it was enough, I think, as you said, Brian, was enough to make the defense at least respect the fact that there could be a run and you had to You had to make sure you devote to people trying to let me let me.
Let me also be fair too here because I'm not always fair and I need to be more fair. Ezekiel Elliott made a huge play in that game for you. He recovered that fumble, that high snap. All of a sudden, it's like they're scrambling the balls on the ground. That's on the twenty one yard line, that's on your own twenty one yard line. He had the presence of mind like it was all kind of messed up. It's on the ground. He dives, I mean into a pile of
three hundred pound linemen to get that football. You know, that's the kind of thing we could talk about. He can't do this, can't do this. That was a very football intelligent heads up play right there to save your series. Because what happened you get the the next play is the past the lamb that ends up being rough in the passer. Now you're moving the ball down the field.
You know, just think about giving the commanders the ball right there again, you know, and what could have potentially happens so in the in the spirit of being fair, nice job by Ezekiel Elliott making a play, not maybe as an offensive player, but diving in there and recovering that football.
Yeah, and on the flip side of that, I think as we gave a little a little bit of the flowers to Babie with regard to how he was playing yesterday, some of the snaps were errent yesterday, and we hadn't really seen that a lot from him lately yesterday, so these snaps were kind of.
Those heavy dudes get right on him. Sometimes he's like, Okay, I gotta get this blog.
Oh there it goes. And that's a that's an experienced thing, I think too. The more you do it, the more you get comfortable with the idea you gotta snap first, get the snap there, and then you take care of your responsibility. All right, let's take our final break. We'll come back. We'll slip over to the defensive side of the ball. We got to talk about Josh Butler in his average yesterday a pretty interesting game for him. We'll talk about that when we come back. Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Back to the Break, Welcome back. It is the final segment of The Break. We'll live from the s W B C. Morgas Studios at the Star.
Yeah, he said, screw AT and T. Screw them, He said, well, no, Derek, AT and T connects connects everything. We're connecting here right now because of a T and T. So shout out to a T and T.
Change everything too.
It changes absolutely everything.
I'm sorry, like you had me going there, Brian, because you were talking about Texas, Texas. A and M and then we come back from breaking. I'm just like, we gotta go, we gotta go. I'm all excited. Let's go.
No's, I told you the SEC sucks. I mean every every week here, every week you feel like gonna die. Football died too.
I thought coming into this league, I was like, you get the Vandy's, the Kentucky's, and it's like any fun. Those are still hard games.
Man.
You guys pummel Florida. Now, Florida is everybody right.
We just happened to catch him at the right time. Without without lagway, that's the.
Going to be a problem for everybody going forward.
All right, let's go ahead and finish this thing off strong. Talk about the defensive side of the ball. Josh Butler man yesterday playing in relief of Trayvon Diggs, another name that popped up yesterday, and they're like, he's not playing. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, there's no way. Like I was thinking, you got Digs and you got Bland and you got Lewis, you should be fine. And all of a sudden you don't have digs and uh and you have to throw the youngster Josh Butler out there.
But he gets twelve tackles, one sack, three pass defenses. How would you assess this play yesterday? Overall? Just not necessarily looking at the numbers, but overall, how do you assess this play?
Can I can I get some contacts on Josh Butler really quick? This is a really interesting story. Graduated from Michigan State in twenty nineteen, and he actually lost both of his parents while he was at Michigan State. He's a graduate of West Mesquite High School, so he's a Dallas area guy. He's got a huge Dallas tattoo on
his on his chest. He reps it well and went to Uh went to La to go act for two to three years and was actually starring in some in some shows that people probably seen All American on on the CW. He was on All American. He had he had a role on All American. Yeah, and uh like a prominent role. No, I think it was a supporting role. I honestly don't remember the character he was.
I watched next year. I watched the first season. I didn't watch the past the first season, but I watched the first season. I didn't remember seeing it.
He was easily the best football player on that show. I didn't.
I don't even remember when the show was, but they have awful football players on this show because they throw like anyway.
Uh uh.
Anyway, he had a couple of years acting in Los Angeles and decided, Hey, you know, I want to at least try out for the USFL. He tried out for the USFL, made the team for the Michigan Panthers, played really well, and I think we can all remember whenever he had the training camp opportunity. Last year in twenty twenty three, they brought him in. They lost somebody I can't remember exactly who, Derek, maybe you can remember a little bit better, but they had lost somebody to injury
in camp. I think it may have been like Donovan Wilson. They knew they were gonna put him on IR or something like that. I don't remember what it was, but they needed an extra dB basically is just a body. He was one of three guys they brought into workout.
He made the team.
I think we were all looking around like, Okay, he won't be on the final fifty three, and he wasn't on the final fifty three, but he made the practice squad, stuck it through on the practice squad last year, made the practice squad again this year, stuck it through, got his first start last week, and then yesterday had a really good opportunity to play, and yeah, what was eleven twelve tackles? He had a sack, three pass breakups. Granted he was targeted a lot. He was targeted twelve times.
He gave up nine receptions for eighty.
Seventy yards tackles.
That's how you get twelve tackles at corner. But he was feisty.
He was Whenever I mentioned that this defense has been fighting for Mike Zimmer, I think Josh Butler kind of embodied that yesterday.
Oh the place that he made though, I mean with Noah Brown is not easy when you know that big body and stuff, and for him not to it's really easy to go around somebody and put your arm around him and try and knock the ball down with the off hand. And the fact that he was able not to get any calls against him, I think he would love to have back the the the the long touchdown,
the six. Yeah, they were they I tell you what, Honestly, you can't throw a ball any better than they pined that one on Jordan Lewis as the nearest receiver, you know, and Jordan Lewis I thought played really really well for you yesterday. Yeah, he got tagged with the the you know, the nearest player, so that you know, like he gave up one hundred and they said one hundred and three yards, but eighty seven of it came on one play. So that just showed you the kind of game that Jordan
and Jordan Lewis had to play outside too. They played three different guys at that cornerback spot, you know, and talking to some people in the organization this morning about with Bland and his situation, and they kept asking him, how do you feel, how do you feel? And he goes, I'm good, I'm good, that I'm good, you know, and they so they kept trying to go to him and
keep him on the field the best they could. But that you know, for Jordan Lewis to line up outside, he carried that route if you remember McLaurin the ball that ended up out of balance. I mean, he carried Terry McLaren on a deep route and Jordan Lewis doesn't get to do that a whole hell of a lot, but him, you know, Bland Butler. Those guys they played really really well. Is he They all played really really well for you know, a quarterback that for a young guy.
He throw it pretty well, spin it pretty well. They did a good job of covering those guys.
Up and Blanze returned thirty five covered snaps that he played, allowed four receptions for twenty eight yards. Yeah, and one of those receptions was for twenty yards, so you take that away, that's.
Three for eight. He was really good.
I think that you saw the coverage unit and we we re talked about when everyone in the locker rooms talking about how they played as a unit yesterday.
I think Deron Bland's a big part of that.
You look at how how much trust they have over on the outside when twenty six is there, it's a lot different.
Tay what too real quick on the defense, you know, we asked for them to use overshown like a poor man's Micah Parsons. Yeah, they they they're they're figuring it out. Thank god, Mike's figuring this out. You know, you bring him in as a pass rusher, uh, you know, he gets pressures, he gets sacks, you know. Unfortunately on the on the early run, the one where uh, where Daniels got like sixteen yards he was in position he felt on He's coming on the rush and he stumbles and
so he's right there the holes. But he's going to the ground as Daniels is running by. If he's up on his feet, that's a gain of one or two right there. But but they've they the way that they use him with as a as a rusher. But the interception on the goldst in play, he's lined up as
an off ball linebacker. Then he kind of shifts out to the outside and then comes on a blitzer on the backside forces Daniels to kind of have to run and he throws the ball early and then Robinson knocks it up in the air and they're Golston for the interception. So again pressure from the backside. He starts off at one spot, move him to another. He gets pressure there. So you got to love the way that overshown Lewis Butler, all these guys played yesterday.
Yeah, real quick talk to me about Johnson Goldston. You mentioned him. Yeah, here the last few weeks, it seems like we keep just seeing these solid performances from him, a guy that finally is playing in a position where he's not kind of moving around. He's he's a guy that that is a defensive end and it seems like he's he's adapting to that role.
Well, yeah, I hate to see that he's gonna up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers doing that and then you know, get the opportunity there. No, but that's really yeah, there's a lot of these guys are getting to play. Yeah, you know, you're getting to see these guys play and uh, you know, full time and it and it's really benefiting him.
You know.
They they get maybe two three plays and then they're not in there for six seven plays and they're back in there for two plays. And you know with Golston, I mean him, oh so Diggy Zua though those guys. Let me tell you this, another game, another division opponent, another good game for Mozzie Smith playing football yesterday. You know power first the first the first play that Robinson, he takes Beaddish and drives him straight back. Robinson's got
nowhere to go. There's osa right there, boom tackle. Unfortunately, Robinson gets hurt. It affected him later in the game. He couldn't even play anymore. So, but that's that's you know, it seems like a divisional opponents. Mozzie Smith his best games Philadelphia Giants, you know, And now this one an interesting point. Yeah, so it's got Giants on Thursday's due for six tackles.
But no, it's good with Chauncey Goldstone. Why was he played a defensive tackle for so long? Because now we're seeing him thrive at edge and he's doing so well. This is the guy that they could have used rotationally last.
Year way too many that had so many defensive ends.
We're still talking at the beginning of the season that I understand to a certain extent that I can understand because the depth was there, for sure. They had Dante Fowler, Dorn's Armstrong. But this year, when they come into a year where they know that there were some young guys, I just I think they didn't use him at the edge until they had to, and now they're starting to reap the benefits of that. You talk about, you know,
he might end up going somewhere in the offseason. I'd pay to keep him here.
I would too.
See, that's that's your hope right there. If you're a Cowboy fan and there's there's a couple of guys right now. Maybe I don't know if you could get all three, But on defense, Jordan Lewis be one for me, Goalsta would be another one for me, and Osa would be another one for three, and everybody else I could kind of like, Okay, well, I'll rally when I have to rally.
But you know, if I if you could get one of those three guys me personally, Jordan Lewis, I think Jordan Lewis, Jordan Lewis might be your best defensive player right now. I agree when you start to talk about with I mean, I get it, Michael Parsons, you're gonna tell me Michael.
Parsons, No, but Louis absolutely.
I mean from down after down after down after down, good or bad, up by never up, up by a little or getting really beat, Jordan Lewis is a good player.
For honestly, those three plus Cavante turpin Is, to me are the priorities for the soft season. In my opinion. If you can get those guys and keep them here, then I think you're you're working with something.
I don't know.
I don't know about Osa, the third guy. Just two up and down.
You need you need beef in the interior and he's an undersized three tech. At the end of the day, I would just like a little bit more physicality and the I I would completely rehaul the interior.
Here's what I don't like. But I don't like.
It's just trying to tell you he loves this defensive tackle drave No.
I like that concept. Problem. My problem is, man, there's so many areas of this team I'm gonna need to address. I don't know if I want to take that one. Like I got a guy who's serviceable to good at INOSA, Like I don't feel like I need to go crazy, Like I don't have to replace that one. There are other areas where I fel like I gotta do something, so I just want to. I want to cover my base. So for me, it's worth And I don't think this
is knock on wood. I don't think you're gonna have to break the bank for an OSA And now, if you have to do that, then let him walk. I think you could probably get a deal that makes sense, that's doable, that that makes him happy and makes the team happy and fits within the confines of whatever they're yeah restraints.
That we're in at fourteen to seven games, fourteen to seventeen game window where traditionally he doesn't play very well. Yeah, all right, let's see, let's see.
Yeah, Ine, all right, appreciate you guys joining us. We'll be back tomorrow. We're going to do. We gotta jump. We got a quick week coming up here. So tomorrow we get into the Giants offense versus Dallas defense. So until the inf nit Harris Brian brought us an Amagarcia. I'm Derek Heiglton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.