Cowboys Break: Big Bye Week Questions

of The Break Guy. AM Derek Eagleton and joined by Nick Eatman, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia. We're life from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We're talking Cowboys football.

It's a Tuesday, it's the bye week, and so we're gonna try to take a little bigger picture look today at what's going on with this team and try to answer some questions for you guys, with the big overall theme being that we're gonna look at this team and look at the things that they've done well so far, the things they haven't done well so far, and try to answer some questions around how they can be better and once they get back from the buy and they're

going down the stretch, how they can be better to position themselves for playoff run. How's everybody doing this morning? Man? I'm doing good good, I'm great, good, awesome. It don't look great, better than great. You're right, I don't look great. I look phenomenal, really really good stuff. Thanks Dave. We can tell thank you. All right. Let's let's jump right in and I guess the first thing I wanted to just mention and then we can talk about it a

little bit. This NFC East after five weeks is looking, I think, very different than probably what most people expected it would look like going into the season. I know it looks different than what I thought. Um I thought the Cowboys and the Giants would be at the top of the division. Right now. The Giants are sitting at oh and five, and it looks like they're they're just in position where things are going to implode from here,

if they haven't already. They've now lost three wide receivers for the season in one game, which is remarkable, and then another receiver that's gonna be out for presumably maybe a week two weeks, so it just doesn't look good for them at oh and five. And then the Cowboys one peg up at two and three, then Washington second place at two and two, Philly at four and one. What do you guys think about this division right now? Drinking? What do you think that we're both drinking? Oh yeah,

something to say. I thought he meant, like the different type of drinking, like, oh, drinking, After how this thing started out, it might have to. I mean, I'm certainly shocked that the Giants are as putrid as they are because I really thought they were going to be the

Cowboys main competition for a playoff spot. So just to see them just kind of have that start from hell that really, I mean, crazier things have probably happened, But I don't know how you come back from an oh and five start where you know, probably well definitely your best players out for the year and your biggest problem, you're off in the line isn't getting any better. So, I mean, remember when I said they didn't really play that good against the Giants. Do you guys remember that?

Do you guys think that? Do you remember when I said that they didn't really play that well against the Giants? They dominated an NFL team, the Giants all of their losses except for the Cowboys game. Are you saying, yeah, play that well against the Giants? Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah, I said that before the cow But now do you think differently from this Giants team? Absolutely not. The Cowboys played played their best game of season in my opinion against the Giants. I know that. Yeah,

I think that's what our point is. That's not so great now, but it's still an NFL team, it is. And you allow a goal to an NFL team, and I mean every every component of your that defense is sealed that defense, right what's different about that defense? They're like last in the league in rush defense right now? I mean, like, I get the point she's trying to make, but she's not right because you still dominated in NFL team. Yeah,

that doesn't happen. I mean the Giants lost on the last play of the game to Okay, maybe late in the fourth quarter of the charters, they gave up the backbreaking touchdown of the Lions with you know, less than a quarter to play, whereas really against the Cowboys, they were they were hardly in the game at all. They got dominated in an NFL game, which you don't see happen that often, right, especially a division opponent. So they

still I think played fairly well. Okay, no, they did, but I think I don't know if this is what you're trying to say or not, but I think maybe what you were saying back then was, hey, nice win, beat the Giants, the team you couldn't beat last year. But it doesn't signal that everything is fine. They still didn't. You're saying that they didn't play that well, and we're seeing it. They go back the next week, they get crushed. Then they beat a Cardinals team that isn't very good.

So I mean, i'll give you, I'll give you beating the Giants does not look good, and you know, it does not look like as good of a win as you probably thought it was. But I still think they played overall pretty well that game, and they did, but they made a lot of mistakes and it wasn't as great of a win as you would think it was, just because it was against the Giants, a team that they haven't beat and they have ish. I mean, they beat them one time last year, but um no, they didn't.

They lost both games. Oh yeah, that's right, duh. That's why they became from last year when it goes to like further than a year out of my mind, stylers getting a little blurry. But that's my point. That's why it was such a big win for the Cowboys because it was against a team they haven't beat. So aside from that, it really really wasn't a wonderful win. And the way they played, Yeah, I guess the way I look at it is and maybe I'm different in how

I look at these games. I look at him game the game, and when you play a division opponent, you beat a division opponent, you beat a division opponent by difficultly beat them. And by the way, this is a team you couldn't beat last year. And by the way, I know the statistics are what they are. But at Week one, that defense was as strong as a defense. They were missing one guy I think that was a starter last year that was a significant starter, the defensive

tackle that went on to We're going to Atkins. Yeah, but most of the giants, But I understand that. But what I'm saying is most of the guys on that defense that were the difference makers last year were right back there and present in Week one of the season this year, and the Cowboys played as good a game as they've played all season. So I get your point.

I understand that, yes, the Giants aren't great. But whether that was the Giants, whether that's the Cleveland Browns, whether that's you, you plug in, whatever team you think is at the bottom of the league. When you go out on a Sunday and a team gets win where they beat up and dominate another team, that's still significant in my book. And I think that still matters because, trust me, I have a college team that we struggle with every body.

So to go out and dominate a team that still matters the Giant thought about that your colleges team, though, I thought about that from last year. Remember they go and they beat Notre Dame and overtime and it's like, wow, this is great. Texas football is back. You know. Notre Dame is not very good. And I think the point is is that, like what looked good in Week one is it doesn't look as good anymore. Yeah, that's that's it. What they played well in the game. But now you're

realizing that I think Auburn could beat them. Maybe. I mean, I'm just saying, oh, the Giants are bad though, Giants, Giant, They're gonna be even worse now because of those three guys being but they one of them was gone when they played the Cowboys, and it was noticeable. The New York's margin of defeat so far this season is five, two, three, fourteen and sixteen. I'm just saying, and I get it. I get it. Is one of those games is without

their best player. And we'll see moving forward without their best player how they are. Oh, it's gonna get worse now, it definitely, I'm just and theydn't play. They structure that team, no running game, no offensive line. That's fine, we got Beckham. I don't know what we're arguing about at this point anymore. Anyway, I don't either. Fact is when they play at night, they're good. When they play in the day, they haven't won. That's it. Yeah, night day, It's a night and day

difference of this team. It might be a headline on Arst. No, Um, you don't control that the Giants. Giants being the Giants being terrible is certainly pretty surprising. Um, giants break nothing else really stunted me. I think the Eagles had the defense that I thought that they would be a competitive team, and I would have said, however, good they're gonna be probably rests on how well Carson Wentz plays, and so

far he's playing really, really well. Did you expect their offense to be as good as it's been, because their offense has been really Yeah, no, I didn't. I'm you know. I know they signed al Shan Jeffrey and Tory Smith, had moments in Baltimore, not really so much in San Francisco, um and and they lost Aaron Sprowls, So I didn't see a lot there that made me think they were going to be a Jugger not But again, if your quarterback is playing at an amazing level, it doesn't really

matter who's around him. Ask Aaron Rodgers. So it's a little surprising that their offense has looked as good as it has, But overall, I think that had the makings of a competitive team. And then it always surprised me that people were so eager to write off the Redskins, like they didn't make a playoff push of their own

last year. I mean, they were up, they were in the wildcard race up until late December, and they took the week off, so it's kind of hard to judge, but they gave the Chiefs everything they could handle on the road on Monday night two weeks ago and just and beat the crap out of Oakland when Derek Carr was still playing. So they look formidable. So I think it's a it's I think this division is going to be a dogfight all the way. I mean, I would be surprised if Philly runs away with this thing one

way or the other. They haven't really beaten anyone yet. And the Eagles, oh the Eagles, and like you look at the rest of their schedule, it's not going to get that much worse for them. So they're in They're in a good situation because they are beating well. They beat the Redskins on the road, which is that was a big win, you know, on the road obviously, Um, they lost to the Chiefs. They beat the Giants by three,

it was a really close game. Uh. They beat the Chargers by two on the road, and they beat the Cardinals. You know, all three of those teams are really are struggling right now. They'll face the Panthers on the road. I'm trying to push this week forward, but it's just not going that fast. I actually this morning kind of thought, is it is it Friday? And it was Tuesday. That's really the worst thing to think is it's Friday and it's Tuesday. Anyways, they play the Redskins again forty nine

Ers Broncos Cowboys. I mean, that's the thing. And you're down two games to the a team that you're gonna face twice. So yeah, I agree, day they're not going to run away with anything, but they are playing pretty well, and they they're doing it with receivers that you don't

you wouldn't expect to be that great. I mean, Alshan Jeffreys good, but you know, they're finally getting that some stuff out out of call learn and I think the key of there is is the tight end and they just move the ball with the tight end there nerds.

So all right, let's um, let's bring I did want to hit a bigger topic today, Like I said, I want to kind of look at what this team does well and what the team does they haven't done so well, and see if we can figure out, you know, how they need to progress down the stretch in order to get themselves into position to make a play to make it to the playoffs number one, but then be able to make a push in the playoffs So I started looking at some of the numbers and I found a

couple of things that are that are kind of trends that I'll be interested to see if you guys agree with these things. These are things that the Cowboys do well. Looking at them statistically and how they rank to the rest of the league. Scoring, Uh, they are right now ranked in points per game ninth in the league with twenty five, doing pretty well there. They are limiting the number of turnovers. They have zero fumble, which is always a good thing. They only have a few interceptions, but

again nothing that's alarming. So they're limiting the number of turnovers that they're having. And they're running the ball. Okay, if you look at the yards per carry, they're actually third in the league with four point seven yards per carry. Doesn't feel like that though, as you're watching the game, So I think that that number can probably be a

little bit misleading. So I'll ask this question, based up on those things and any other things you guys can think of, what do you think is the best thing the Cowboys do right now? Based on the first five games? First, what do you think is the best thing that they do? Are we talking offense? Offense? Just on offense right now. Yea, the best thing the Cowboys do what Dad does. I was gonna say, play quarterback, just whatever goes along with that.

He's He's the best thing about this team right now, in my opinion. I actually looked at this. I know you can't take out I know you can't take out the bad stuff and only look at the good stuff. But he was He was pretty mediocre to bad by his standards in the first two weeks of the season, even against the Giants, to Amber's point. Since then, in the three games since then, his average pass rating is one thirteen point five, which would put him in the

top five in the league. He's been outstanding. He's the only reason why the Rams game was even as close as it was, and he certainly gave them every opportunity you could want to beat the Packers as well. Um, they run the ball all right, but again, like it's just it's not what it was, which is disheartening because that was I think that was the key to everything last year. So it's weird. I mean, they I don't know the stats off him, but they probably run the

ball better than two thirds of the league. But it doesn't feel like it. Well, it's very obvious that the teams have decided that Dak Prescott has to beat them. And you know, right now he's two and three, so I mean as great as as we think that he is playing, and he has played well, but this is the this is the game plan, this is what teams are betting on, is that we're gonna we're gonna put it in Dak's hands and see if he can get it to the receivers who don't scare us and the

tight end who doesn't scare us. You know, they're letting those guys try to beat them, and you know it's a recipe that that's so far is you know, it's work that they have three losses this year, three losses last year, so they're not letting them run the ball like they did last year. But Dak is playing well, but I mean they're it's not resulting in victories, not many. Do you think that's the best thing they do is

Dak in the passing game? The best thing. Sorry, but this looks a lot like it did three or four years ago when Tony. When Tony was the best thing that they did, and sometimes it was good enough. Sometimes it wasn't And you know what, did you just finish eight and eight? And this is the path that this team is on. I mean they're gonna finish eight and eight,

nine and seven, just depending on how things go. If it doesn't change, if they don't start dictating what they're gonna do and say, now we're gonna run it regardless of what you think, we're gonna run it. And but

do you think that's the best thing they do? Dak Prescott in the passing game, yeah, I said a Dak, And then I mean for the running game again, the numbers, like Dave said, it's not too bad, but I just think it's because we were spoiled from last year that we expected to be a certain way and we just haven't seen it be that way. So aside from that, I think every other area. There's an issue in every other area, aside from quarterback and even quarterback. But it

goes back to what the offensive line is doing. I mean, Dak has been doing a phenomenal job just making sure he's not sacked or he's been under pressure a lot. So defensive line, there are some issues there. We've seen issues at the wide receiver position again, tight end some white. I mean, we barely start seeing Jason Winn doing some things, so there's a problem in every area. You know. We didn't talk about it because we talked about the end

of the game. But the first drive of the game he made to Bryce Butler give him getting out of the sack, and it felt like or it looked like the guys were on his legs like trying to bring him down and he still had enough arm string to get it out there to Bryce. I thought that, I mean, that's just another example that this guy, like you said, Embert, he's he's getting harassed on every play. The things that they're doing is because of him. And you said the

best thing him in the passing game. I don't even think it's the passing game. It's just like, but he's moving the change and he's moving them. He's doing a great job with that. And it's interesting you say that because right now the Cowboys are ranked six in the

number of sacks loud with only seven. But as you watch the game, you know, you know, sometimes that's a number that you look at the offensive line, but if you watch the games, you know that he's he should have been sacked way more than that it's his ability to be able to escape pressure and be able to make plays that's allowing this team to not have as many statistical sacks, although he's being pressured a ton and he's kind of flirting with danger on interceptions too, Like

he's he's had probably five or six that you're like, oh wha. I mean, he's's kind of gotten lucky that they haven't been picked out. Unlucky with the Terrence pick six that lost the game for him, But for the most part, he's had a lot that should have been picked. That's the nature of it though. I mean his first pick in Denver was was on Dez, and his pick

against the Packers was on Terrence. And then you know, you think the Rams game, he had to throw to Terrence that probably should have been picked a play action. Terrence was coming across and he just didn't throw it the right way. Guy got a hand on it. Happened. I think it happened on a throw to Witton in this last game, where you know, the defender had a pretty good beat on it and it got batted away.

So des leads the league and pass breakups. Yeah, he's playing some good corner He tried to throw that one on Alfred Morris. Hit Alfred Morrison the head and the head and bounced up and he could have been I mean, it's he's doing a good job of avoiding sacks, but he's gonna get more interceptions doing it that way. This is a frustrating question to answer, like the more I'm really thinking about it, because you know, the fourth quarter against the Packers is best rush offense in the league.

They're doing whatever they wanted to. I mean, you're running the crack sweep and Zeke's just plowing through guys. And you know, you've seen some electric passing plays You've seen in every game except Denver. You've seen flashes of what we know that they can be. And again they haven't been able to sustain it for a whole game. And you keep thinking this will be the week when they kind of get it on track, and they still haven't quite gotten everything flowing the way that you expect it

to flow. And I'll cater, you know, to the fan who's about to throw his iPad out the window at me right now. I mean, it's very easy to argue that. I mean, I know I said the opposite yesterday, and I still feel that way, but it's hard to It's hard to reasonably demand much more from your offense than what you saw in that Green Bay game. I mean, one hundred and sixty three rushing yards, two hundred and fifty passing yards, three touchdowns, an interception that's not the

quarterback's fault. Thirty one points should win you a lot of football game. You would think, you would think a lot of footballs too. This season that they've had, we've scored plus thirty and have won. So maybe just well that other ono it was on them rather than the opposing team. Well, either whoever you want to give, whoever

you want to say was at fault. The point is, you score thirty plus points in the NFL at home, you would you would think in most circumstances, And I don't know what the statistic is, but I would say if you look across the league, the percentage probably is extremely high that you win those games. So um, it still does point to the fact that offense just isn't seeming to be enough at this point for the Cowboys to get wins, even when they score an inordinately large

number of points. All right, let's take our first break when we come back. I want to talk a little bit about what this offense doesn't do so well, and then we'll get over to the defense. And we got a ton of things to talk about there. We'll do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. We the entertainment loving people demand the best unlimited wireless plan ever from ATNT. What else do

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Back to the Break, Welcome back. It's the second second of the Break, live from the SWBC Mortgage studios at the Star. We're trying to fix this team. We've now what we're doing. I think that's what we're doing. I think here in the bye week, it's up to us to try to figure out what's going on. And so I'm hopeful that we can come out of this show with some good pointers that then I can take over to Coach Garrett's office after I leave here and just like throw him down on his desk and say, here

you go. We're trying to fix this team. Why we spend the first part of it talking about the offense, because well, because there's there's always whenever you whenever you look at a particular situation, you should always look at all the positives and the negatives on both on all of her sides. So then you figure out what you're doing well, keep doing that, what you're not doing well.

You always tell someone about their positives before you, before you Yeah, I got it, all right, So let's flip that, Dave. Since this is your area of expertise, tell me what's going wrong with this offense? What do they not do well? So far? My area of expertise is being negative kind of yeah, uh okay, sure, Yeah, I mean that's fair. You're okay with that? Yeah, their offensive line is it's just not it's not what it was. And I think there were there were plenty of concerns about that in

the off season, and they they have proven to be true. Um, they're they're fine, they're fine, they run the ball, fine, they protect Dak pretty well, as you said, I mean, okay, okay, again, they're okay, Like they're pretty good, which is good in the NFL, but not compared to the Great Wall of Dallas. Like this is enough, it's not, it's not again. I'm gonna say this, and I just I'm sorry. I feel like a broken record. This team has a lot of flaws,

particularly on the defensive side of the ball. You have a quarterback who's playing damn well, but is not on that Aaron Rodgers level where he can mask all kinds of deficiencies. Your defense, Your defense was not great last year.

It's not any better this year. If this team is going to be good, it's because the offense is going to be a well oiled machine that just zips up and down the field, runs the ball at will, and scores whenever it wants to's was that not the recipe for success last year and they're not doing it this year, and so all those flaws come to the surface when that's not happening. And yeah, the receivers haven't been great. Dak has made more mistakes this year than he did

last year. But I think you can trace a lot of that back to the offensive line. In my opinion, just you know, it's it's not the dominant unit that just dictated football games the way it did last year. What do they not do so well offensively? Well, there's nothing I haven't said already, to be honest. It goes back to the offensive line. We talked about it again. And it's funny because I would get a lot of messages on Twitter it's like, can't you stop talking about

the offensive line? They're fine, blah blah blah throughout this whole process. But I don't know if you guys remember how I mentioned to you guys back at training camp. I think it was how I heard over from that side of the building, you know, from the Cowboys side, how that was their biggest concern this offseason was that offensive line, the guard position and left tackle, And it

clearly has been. You know, a lot of people didn't expect that two guys would really make a difference in between all those older pro bowler guys, but they have and it's shown, and thank god Dak has been able to do what he's done to manage this game and keep it moving. What's been a bigger hindrance for this offensive line the guard position or the tackle position well again. For example, Lyle Collins. I'm still not to where he's at right now. He does good things, but it's just

not perfect just yet. And I don't blame him for that. I'm okay with the job he's doing so far. He's managed well, and Chas Green is still kind of iffy. I don't know it's well. I mean Jonathan Cooper also, I mean, has played the last two games. But with him, I mean, is it really that much different than Chas Green.

They're basically very close to being the same. Chas Green didn't go up against Aaron Donald and and you know, probably I don't think it would have been any different really, I mean all training camp was kind of back and forth, and you could ask twenty different people and you probably got, you know, ten ten, not you know, eleven nine on Cooper or Green. It's that close, and when we've seen it, you know, play it play out, it hasn't been in

that much different. I don't think, I mean with Cooper that they have scored thirty points you know, in these in these last two games. I mean, I'm not saying he's with Cooper doing it. I'm just saying they've they've done, all right, It's just sorry, it's just strange to say because they I mean, they finished with a hundred. It's the same thing as the Rams game. They finished one hundred and sixty three rushing yards. That's outstanding by NFL standards.

But you we all know that that that Zeke had what thirty heading into the fourth quarter or something close to that, and that's that's just not going to cut it, I don't think. And the rushing yards too, I think that is you know when you say with four point seven and all that, and obviously one of those is a really big run by by Morris, but a lot

of it too is Dak. I mean Dak's running, you know, for ten twelve yards every time when when he breaks free, and you know that they obviously count to the rushing yards, but most of the time he runs, it's a breakdown in the play. It's the receivers aren't getting open. And whenever it's my turn to say what they do, what they don't do poorly, I mean, what they don't do well.

I think it would be they don't they don't make plays, they don't get open and just and really have the I mean, they have to work for everything that they do, it seems like even the big plays the past to Bryce, the three passes to Bryce, the two in the Cardinal game, and this one, I mean, it's like it's not perfect. It's not how they're drawing it up that you know. Yeah, it's like playground football, right, and and that works. But they just don't have these guys that they can just

you know, run away from people. I just don't think they have dynamic players. And the best one is Zeke, and he looks like he's you know, not he's lost a little bit of a step or he's gained a few pounds or whatever it is. He doesn't look exactly the same. He still looks like the tough, bruising running back,

but not the guy breaking away from people. And they definitely don't have any receivers that are just going to just make their own play in the open field and take a ten yard play and make it sixty five. You know. The difference with Zeke, in my opinion is it's not so much that I don't think he's lost a step or anything like that. I think for him, what I've noticed this year, it's different. Last year, I

thought he had outstanding vision. This year, I've seen a number of plays where it's almost like the hole is there and he decides not to take the hole as opposed to he'll just kind of run into run into traffic as opposed to taking the hole that that seems to be there. Now Again, sometimes when you're looking from up high, you see things that it's not fair to to kind of say that they should see the exact

same thing. But but that was one of the things I saw from him last year I thought was so outstanding, was as a vision, and he would he would see things that even sometimes you couldn't see that he would see at a little crease and he'd get into it. I think this year that's been more of the thing that I've noticed about him that seems to be a little bit different. Has anybody else noticed that? Oh yeah, I mean I sit right next to you in the press box. I see when we both are like, well,

you know, why do you go that way? So you're right, I mean, there has been some of that. Some of that might be the coaching of hey, run the play, you know, this is this is where it's supposed to go. Can't coach a guy like that, A guy like that that's that dynamic. You don't coach him by saying just run the play like you. You want him to be able to see things and be able to make adjustments. Right. Maybe it's his advisor. Maybe we're that during game. I

don't know. Maybe he needs it. I don't know. That's it's and that's you know. I've argued with with Brian about this. I watch I watched the tape with him every Monday. I come here earlier than I need to to make sure that I can see it. And I don't think there's any one thing you can point it on it. I've seen Zeke misreads from time to time. I've seen him stops for a three yard game because Lyle's guide got a hand on him, or the you know,

the whole collapsed because they just didn't get enough push. It's, you know, I think, And that's the thing with the running game. It's in the NFL. Everything has to happen perfectly for you to get the result you want. That's why I mean, it's incredibly rare to see NFL teams break runs of more than about twenty five yards. This

is in college. So I just think on any given number of plays there's just enough things that aren't happening perfectly, and if anything, that's kind of gives me confidence that this thing can still get better because the only the only thing that simulates this is playing games. And I and Zeke, to his credit, he's twenty two years old. I was so impressed when he said that. He's like, Hey, this takes time. You want to be peeking toward mid to late season anyway, and obviously nobody wants to be

two and three. But if we're sitting here calling one hundred and sixty three yards against a playoff team a bad day, that gives me confidence that it can get better. And I think it looks it clearly has looked better over the last three weeks than it did in the first two even I think against the Giants, what Zeke's longest run in that game was eight yards, I think. And so you've seen again, you've seen those flashes. You just haven't seen them put it together over a substantial

period of time. But I do have confidence that they can still get it on the level they want it. So on the topic of the offensive line, and just from what you've seen on film, Nick, from what you've seen, number what you've seen in games. Is it also, I know no one talks about this all the easy target

is left guard, right tackle. Is it also a part of this that other guys I'm talking about, your all pro guys haven't had haven't had their best five games here either, And that's part of what's happening with this offensive line. It's not just those other two positions. It's that the offensive line as a whole. You know, Fred Frederick has had some costly penalties at times. I know

there have been moments. I've seen some moments when when Zack Martins had some struggles, particularly when they played the Rams. So have there been some of the guys that you rely on to be great that haven't quite been great? And that also has affected how good this offensive line is. You know, Jason Witten has been a really good He's been a good blocker over the course of his career based on the fact that he has been an outstanding

receiver and standing tight end. You know, we call him a complete tight end because he's great at getting open, great at catching the ball. He's reliable there and he's been a good blocker. Will that's a good thing, but he's not But he has never been dominant, and that's not been his thing. And there's not many great wide receiving you know, or receiving tight ends that are great at blocking. That's what makes him so good and so special. Fifteen years into his career. Does he does he have

some issues sometimes blocking? Yeah? Does he have penalties? Yeah? He does. And you know, do we give him a passport? Yeah, because because we know that at the end of the day, I mean, that's that's what you do. Von Miller leads the league I think in all sides. But you live with that because of what he can do, and for the most part, you know, that's what you expect at a Witten. But he hasn't been catching the ball as much, and I think it's a product of it's too easy.

Sometimes that's not you know, like they're thinking, we got all these plays that we draw up during the week that can get this, we can go this. But Witten going seven yards turned around, clapping his hands and I'm right here, it's pretty easy. And you could just go up and down the field when you want to. And that's why there's no secret that when when they're down by ten points in the fourth quarter and they don't just need to get a drive going that it's just

Witting for twelve, Witten for six, Witten for eight. Because it's open. Why why why wait till you need it to go? Do it? And that's what they kind of did last week. They just started moving the ball with him. But you're talking about the blocking. You're talking about Witting and the other guys blocking and those tight ends. Yeah, I mean, I don't think swam in Hannah just blow people off the ball either. You know, they're blocking tight ends.

Really aren't that they're They're really not that great a blocking tight ends. That's kind of a problem. The other thing, And I hate to sound like I'm piling on because again for the millionth time, I don't think Cooper Green or Lyle Collins have been terrible. I don't think they've been bad by any stretch. They're learning how to be starters and hold their own. They're not all pros. That's okay. But I think that has I mean, that has a ripple effect, and if you watch it you can see it.

You know, last year t Frederick is probably one hundred percent confident that Ronald Learry's going to handle his business. Now, maybe not so much. Maybe I'm looking over here and making sure you know, Cooper Green doesn't doesn't need help,

isn't missing his block or whatever. Same thing goes with Chaz and Lyle maybe, or you know, if you see a twist stunt and they're they're moving directions and all that type of stuff, you know, Jonathan Cooper is not going to handle that as well as Ronald Leary does and that has an effect on the guy that has to play next to him, and you can see that stuff. So I hate to say that, you know, maybe Travis Frederick and Zach Martin aren't as good because the guys

they're working with aren't is good. But I think there's some validity to that too. And you know, again, it doesn't mean that it'll be this way all year, but this is a this is a step by step process, and I think you can go back to the summer and listen to us say it's not as easy as just plugging guys in when you got two thirds of

the guys different. I guess what you're saying is that that takes some coordination and you're hopeful at least that over the next several games they'll get better at that with time and that Jael, that that line being able to gel as a unit. I really I do feel good that I'm beyond confident that they'll be better at the end of the season than they are right now. Whether that'll amount to them, you know, just tearing off eight wins in a row, I have no idea, but

that's the way football works. If you're a good team with good players, you get better as the year goes on. And how often do you not even recognize the team you saw in September ye by you know, November December. All right, let's take our final break. We're gonna come back. Let's get to the defensive side of the ball. We don't need to talk about it. At least a couple of things that they do well, and then we'll get into some of the things. At least a couple of things.

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truly me, Brian Broadest. You can trust the official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, and with us you'll travel like a pro. Is it Cowboys travel dot com to book your travel package today. Back to the break Welcome back. It's the final segment of the break Lap in the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star. Nick take it away? Oh yeah, tell me John's mask comodos. I can understand that. You say you don't need to adjust for anything. You got that one. Hell keep me

going uncomfortable, I think, yeah, tell me John? Uh, how about this? In football, often the quickest plays mix this is gonna hurt me, this is gonna be bad right here, mixed with the good, good old fashioned ingenuity are the key to winning. Kind of like Tommy John's horizontal quick drivela. I'm sorry, how about this? Tommy John dot com for Slash Cowboys you can get pretty good underwear Tommy John bad. If you're a pitcher, good. If you need underwear, Tommy

John good. That's a that's a good that should be there. Ye slogan, Yeah, good slogan. There you go. All right, thank you, thank you for that. Nick, all right, let's get back into it. We're talking about the Cowboys. We took two segments to talk about the offense and what they do well and what they don't do so well. Now let's flip over to the defensive side of the ball.

And I could only find it personally. I could only find one thing that I could point out that this team does really well on the defensive side of the ball. Does anybody wants to take a wild guess of what that would be? Get like a guy named DeMarcus to rush the quarterback in second get thing, Go get sacks and get sacks that don't ultimately matter because that happens we need Well, they don't matter in the in the outcome, but they certainly matter. I think I think they've had

sacks in parts of games where they needed sacks. I don't think it's smart ass, I know, but I'm just saying. I'm saying I think that, and that has been a criticism people have leveled against pass rushers here at the Cowboys for years. But I think they are actually getting

sacks in meaningful moments of games. I do agree with your point to some degree, even though it was kind of facetious that you know, they it hasn't mattered getting sacks doesn't matter at the end of the day, or hasn't mattered at the end of the day when it comes to wins and loss us for this team. The best play of this pass rush has made this season might be the one they made in Denver where they sacked Simon and forced the fumble that led to a touchdown,

and that certainly didn't matter. Yeah, I mean, I think that if Tyron Crawford gets the football that's sitting right down by his feet against the Rams, I mean, first play of the third quarter, DeMarcus comes off the edge and did that. But you know, when the game's on the line, you're gonna in Aaron Rodgers is driving seventy five yards. You know, that's where you wanted to beat your guy and go and tackle them, and Vincent Mayowa

had a chance. You know, how much are we talking about the pass rush if he I mean this is an if, but he's got two hands on him. If he can knock him down, if he if he knocked, if he tackles him for the for the sack. Now, Bevinson Mayo was getting into the act. He got some pressure on you know. Now they had to rush Mason Crosby on the field for a forty something yard field goal with time running out. Does he make it? Does he not? Did the Cowboys go over to you know,

who knows what happens? Then Mike correct and assuming well, they had a timeout, didn't they so? And that end of game drive, I don't think so. I mean, I think they used their they used it. I think they used it after that I did. Are you talking about the Packers the final drive? They did have a timeout, they use the time out that they they used it. But I'm saying with third and eight and was on his scramble run all right, they had they had called

their time. If they if he gets if he sacks him there, they're gonna run their guys onto the field with They're not gonna be You're not gonna be like a you know, fire drill. They're going to go out there and kick the field goal. Yeah, but you're also still talking about a kicker that had already missed twice. Yeah. So demarc DeMarcus has a sack in every game this season, right, at least one. Yeah, DeMarcus is great. He's leading the league with eight and a half. Tyrone Crawford has chipped

in a little bit. MALIEK Collins is doing his thing. He's not getting the sacks that I would admit that I thought he'd beginning, but I think it's fair to say he's having an impact. But Bourbon got two in his got back in his first game. But MALIEK Collins is on pace for I think eight. Yeah, I mean that's a great scene for defensive tackle. Absolutely thinks that two and a half right, I think two of the two and a half came in the same game, for

whatever that's worth. But I get your count account um. The front four has been surprisingly good, I would say, But I don't know. It's hard for me to praise him too much though, because they they're getting pressure, but is it amounting to anything that's and that's I mean they get pressure and the pass is still completed, or they get pressure and it's a delayed handoff and Aaron

Jones rips off sixteen yards. I guess it's kind of that age old question is like what's better a better pass rush that makes your secondary look better or a better secondary that makes your pass rush, you know, mitigates the fact that they're not that good. The pass rush is doing its job, I would say through the first month of the season, and it doesn't. I mean the defense is it doesn't. It's not helping, you know, it's

look any better. What's weird about this team is that the positions that typically get covered up because you can provide help to them are actually the positions that are hurting this team. Usually left guard, that's not a spot that's a big deal, but in this case, you know, it's been a difference, and I think the guys are struggling. Right tackles another spot you can give some help to,

but it's a it's a problem area. On defense, the linebackers are typically a spot where you can kind of like, as long as you cover things up, you can be all right. Backers have been a problem, mainly with Sean Lee's out, Jalen Smith has. You know, let's that's something that I think needs to be said, because somebody, really, somebody really pissed me off on a rant. No it's it's not a ramt, but somebody pissed me off because they said Jalen Smith is like a wasted pick. Uh.

And that's a little bit too far. I know, it's so beyond far um And Okay, So first of all, it's you are seeing the signs of where Jalen Smith is at as a player. It's phenomenal the progress that

he's made and where he got to this point. And I was saying this the other day though, I mean, it's like it's like jumping up from from rookie level on Madden to All Pro with the thought that he was playing no more than like twenty snaps in the preseason, and then he's one of your starting linebackers, looked good doing it against the Giants, and then all of a sudden, Sean Lee goes out, this guy's playing sixty seventy snaps

a game. And I don't mean it as and I'm not trying to slight him when I say it just doesn't look like he's ready to be the number thirty four overall pick. And that's not his fault. He's recovering from a catastrophic injury. I honestly, I'm not sure it's fair to him to be putting him out there for the number of snaps that he's that is that he had done necessity and and and it's it's completely out of necessity. Um but in past coverage you saw it against the Rams. I mean it was out there for

everybody to see. And I don't think it's a coincidence that with your top two linebackers being out of out of these games, even when the offense has been playing well, they've been getting run all over. Um. You know, no disrespect to Aaron Jones, but I can't believe how well the Packers ran the ball in that game. Um. So, and so you know, I do I think Jalen Smith

is a bad player or a wasted pick. Hell No, I think as he continues to get healthier and get playing time, and especially looking into like twenty eighteen and beyond, I still think he can be a really good football player. He's not ready for that yet, and I think these last two games specifically have have emphasized that point. Yeah,

and I mean, obviously, I mean, I echo everything. You're just saying about the great story, but he's you know, it's hurting the team, like him being out there in certain areas they figured out how they if teams are like, you know what, let's run him sideline to sideline and he's not going to be able to catch him. And I think you were saying it earlier about the angles. You know what you think you can get because you

did it two years ago. There's a guy running, I can go, you know, I can take this angle and tackle him. Well that's not the case anymore because you know, he's never played at one hundred percent in the NFL, so speed is still something he's having to adjust to. And you know, all right, maybe this is a little bit of a rant. That's That's something that aggravates me that, you know, people seem like they're incapable of seeing things in shades of gray, like it's always got to be

black or white. Jalen Smith has to be an injured guy who can't contribute, or an all pro like as soon as he gets the green light to play, that means he's ready to be that beast that we all saw on tape at Notre Dame. That's not how this works. And so you're great, he's got the green light to play. He looked good in the preseason. Him and Sean Lee, they're gonna be all pros side by side. We got the best linebacker corp in the NFL. That's not the

way this works. And it's a lengthy process to come back from something like that, even when you are capable of playing so and he's not all the way completely bad. That's even at the beginning of the season. The person they even said like, he still doesn't have complete feeling in that exactly. And when he's trying to take an angle on a running back hitting the corner, you can see it. And again, I'm not trying to hate on the guy. That's just the reality of the situation. I

still think he can be a damn good player. I still think all of the you know, all of these things considered, I think he's he's been pretty impressive just in what he's been able to do from not playing for a year and a half. And for people to kill him for not being ready to play at a Pro Bowl level right off the bat, that's bs and stupid and you need to have a more nuanced view

of the way these things work well. I think that you also got to remember that what the fans have to go off of, that's he's a draft pick from last year's class, where those two guys who were playing around at the Pro Bowl last year, Zeke and Dak first year to come in, you know, they're they're all World, All Pro and they make it to the Pro Bowl. So I mean, I'm not saying it's fair, but I'm

saying that's what that's what the people were thinking. MALIEK. Collins, third round pick, you know what, didn't even play in the offseason, had a great season. Same with Anthony and I guess, you know, respecting that our show shouldn't but they are our show and our other shows, and really any reputable source of Cowboys information is way more likely to give you this you know, wait and see, patient, step by step approach, which maybe that's frustrating to hear,

but but that's the way this thing works. So you know, to immediately heap those type of expectations on the guy just because you know what he was at Notre Dame, it's not fair to him. It's really it's not fair to anybody in the situation. It goes back to the coaching, then, in my opinion, if he's not ready to play right now,

then he shouldn't have to play. He's clearly ready to play, but not at that but not at that level right at that at that at that amount or that level to be I mean he playing, like you said, playing sixty seventy plays a game. He's not ready for that.

So the fact that the Cowboys are feel like they're in a position based upon personnel that they have, based upon injuries, whatever, they feel like they have to put him out there, that says to me that that's a that's an issue of the front office and coaching, whether it is an issue Jay Smith, and you're playing the Rams, and maybe they underestimated the Rams, but they went into the game with four linebackers, which no one does that, and around the league they have four because they had

two guys hurt. But they should have gotten some help in here. Because of those four, one of them should not be playing. Sixties seventy snaps. He's coming off an injury that many people thought he would never play again. Another guy didn't even play all of the offseason. He retired. Now he's not retired. That's justin Durant anytime you do. You're dealing with a guy like that. I means he's not gonna play a ton of snaps. Kyle wilbur has never been a guy that's played a lot. He's been

more of a special teams guy. And then you've got Damien Wilson who's still kind of you know, he's playing well, but he's kind of learning how to do that. Those are your four linebackers. And then he got gashed by Todd Gurley in the passing game, in the running game, and you're surprised by it. I mean, get some help if these guys aren't ready. It's the same reminds me of the Bears right now, the Bears fans, Is this as good as Trubisky is gonna be? No, that he's

a young guy. Okay, that was pretty good. You gotta be patient with him. But they even got some help with a backup quarterback to say we'll ease him into it a little bit. And you just can't. Like you said, I agree with you saying about the gray area. There's no gray area there. There should be with Jalen Smith. But the Cowboys, they don't have to throw him out there. There's guys out there. You can sign. I guess you

can get the linebacker you could have made. You could have kept Nazaci on the team if you wanted to, you'd have to cut him. So I agree with everything you just said, but basically, and that's not going to be a cure all. But this defense needs Sean Lee and Anthony Hitchins to both be healthy and playing to resemble the and again they weren't world beaters last year,

but to resemble that average average unit. Thank you. I couldn't think of the right word if if they want to be average too above average, they need those two guys there. And that's weird to say because I think in this day and age, with the way the NFL is linebackers the least important position on the defense. But you know, I think back to the fourth and two fake handoff crack toss that the Packers converted. Sean Lee

is there. I don't know if he gets the stop, but like it's got a chance instead of going for six yards the way it did. So those guys can help you clean up a lot of mistakes. When you look at all the all the things a defense does that they're not doing well. The one that I look at that, I think could have as big of an impact as anything else outside of points per game obviously, because that's winning and losing, right, But their turnover differential

right now, they're negative three. They're twenty sixth in the NFL. And this is not a team. Sometimes turnover differentials about the offense giving the ball away too much. As we taught here earlier, they haven't had a bunch of turnovers on the offensive side of the ball. It means that the defense is not pulling their their weight. They're not getting the ball back to the offense with short yardage

by turnovers. This twenty fifteen or twenty thirteen. But that's my point, and so I want to ask you guys, like how important is that? And is this defense never going to be able to be good enough if they can't get to the point where they can get turnovers consistently. Yeah, because they're not going to really just go out and stop people. So yeah, you got to get the football out and it's not I think all of their turnovers are interceptions, right, I mean they had a Fumbel recovery

in Denver. Oh, yes, yeah, Marcus, that's right. I was let's say I mean they're not getting the ball out. I mean that's they're not though, I mean not especially when they practice it as much as they like. It seems like every play in training camp, it's like it seems they forced more funnels in practice in training camp than I've seen them do in games. It seems with the way the pass rush has gotten home so far this year, you'd think they'd be and and they did.

They got the ball out against the Rams. They didn't recover it. They did it against Denver, but even still, you think they could do it more. And they haven't had a pick since Week two, which was just a nice catch by Jordan Lewis on a drastic overthrow. I'll

take it. I'm at this point you will. But if you think back, you think back to Week one, Anthony Brown made a really nice read on a play and made a really nice interception, and I we even said, we were like, that's the type of pick this defense hasn't gotten in years, because usually when the Dallas Cowboys get a pick, the quarterback threw it right to them. Like you don't see guys routes or diagnosed plays. And I actually think it even goes to and I'll talk

to you about this yesterday, Nick. I think one of the biggest problems for this defense is a safety position. And think about how many times you watch other games teams around the league where you see safeties patrolling the back end that run over, they diagnose a play, they run over, they jump right in front of the receiver at the right moment and get the interception. Yeah. I can't even tell you the last time I've seen those kind of plays on this team. I can, and it's well,

it's perfectly indicative of the Cowboys. I've talked about it over and over again. Jeff, he did it in Arizona. He dropped the ball and Orlando Scanderd got flagged, so it didn't even count and count right, let's talk about when it counting. That's just not sounded. That's not something that this team has. And that goes back to last year too, like they had. I thought the safety position played really well, but that wasn't something you used to

sing this team do. Is safeties just being able to patrol the field and get those kinds of picks when when their opportunities to diagnose a play, get in position and make the play. It's just not something they do, and I think until they get a safety that really has that ability on the back end, it's gonna be hard for this defense to be able to get the turnovers that they need. Yeah, we thought Jeff Heath would be better through five games. We thought Byron Jones would

be better. And now I'm starting to think Byron Jones is more of a of a corner I mean, because I've for three years, I've been saying he's safety, he's safety, and they moved him to safety. I was like, yeah, safety. Now every time he gets pushed around by tight ends, I think, well, maybe he should just be a corner

iron kind of something. Byron confounds me because through this point in the season last year, he had racked up four or five really badass plays like the play he made against the Bengals in Week five last year where he just kind of poked that, I mean, and he did that three or four times. Really nice plays. You haven't you haven't seen it this year, And I don't know. I'm I don't know why I might come out Ah yeah,

tongue tied just trying to talk about it. I'm at a loss for why it hasn't why he hasn't been able to take another step forward because I really thought he would and his play through. You know, people kind of roll their eyes at us for talking about training camp, like we watched this stuff every day and he looked he was doing stuff like that. He was diagnosing plays and picking off Dak in the end zone and coming across the field to help out with the corners. And

you just haven't seen it translate to the games. It's tough. I don't at this point. I don't really know. The other Sorry, one more thing I'll throw out is hey against you know a lot like MALIEK. Collins last year, you kind of wrote off MALIEK. Collins like, well, he broke his foot, he won't be able to do anything. Way wrong about that. Jordan Lewis didn't practice all through training camp. You think that's going to set him back his rookie season, Not at all. I don't care that's

when they got out there. I don't care that he gave up that touchdown. He's been phenomenal. I think the sky's the limit for that guy. Cheeto hasn't been able to get in on that conversation because he can't get his hamstring right and so that's potentially half of your secondary. If you think Cheetos good enough to claim a starting spot somewhere, that's two of your four dbs that could hopefully help you revamp this thing, and one of them hasn't been able to get on the field, and that's

really disappointing. But to me, until the safeties, until you get better, more consistent play from the safeties, I don't know this thing can get better because that that's still going to be not only in the passing game, but in the running game. Every been just as many times we've seen those two guys either make bad take bad angles,

or slip it fall miss a tackle. I mean, I'm reminded of the play where Byron kind of got the guy running at him and he kind of takes on the defender as opposed to heading toward the guy bit carrying the ball. I mean, it's it's those kind of moments where it's just like, until they get more consistent play, more consistently good play from their safety position, I think this is going to continue to be a problem with for the defense of them being able to get stops regularly.

He's not an all pro, but I think Barry Church is so early missed around he is now. I've tried to be very optimistic throughout this whole time, but at this point I just don't have anything nice to say, which is why I kept my mouth shut right now, so I'll go off and lose it. But aside from Jalen Smith and the pass rush everyone else, I don't have anything nice to say. All right, We'll go back and correct, Thank you, apprecis you guys Jonas. We'll be

back tomorrow morning. Nine thirty are normal time till then for Nick even, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.