Cowboys Break: Big Questions Through 4 Games

live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios. We've got a lot to talk about on Tuesday. We'll take a big picture look. It's a quarter of the way through the season, and so I'm going to ask these guys a couple of questions on a couple actually, a lot of questions about their bigger picture thoughts on this team after four games and what that, if anything, what that means going down there entering the second quarter of the season with the Cowboys. So how's everybody doing this morning? Man? I'm good,

You're good. Yep good, Dave good, I am well, Derek awesome. And Amber will not be with us. At the beginning of the show. She made jo on us at some point the show, but she has some other things going on this morning, so hopefully at some point she joins us. If not, she'll be back tomorrow. All right, So let's jump right in, and before we get into the questions that I was telling you I wanted to ask, I

want to first start and talk about David Irving. It looks like, I mean, we know he will be returning to the team, I presume today today. That being said, what do you guys think as far as who's going to have to go? Because somebody's got to go in order for him to make room I mean in order for them to make room for him to come in. Well, first of all, before we get into that, I'll let Dave talk about who's gonna go. But it was kind of funny. Thanks, Well, I don't have to think about

have to fire something, think about it. You got about three minutes. Let you do that. I thought it was interesting though, because we were talking to Garrett yesterday after the after his press conference, and you know, he's just the question was about Irving about you know, what, when do you have to bring a guy back? And or when when Canny come back? And who has to be cut? And do you have a roster exemption, and he didn't even seem interested in all those rules. Kind of like

Dave doesn't seem interested in this story there and it's tired, tired. Tuesday, he was like, Yeah, I don't know all about all that. He's gonna practice and he's gonna play. It's like, well, you don't necessarily have to put him on the you know, on the back of the active roster. You can keep him till he's just he's please playing, you know. He was like, Okay, that sounds good. But and all it definitely sounds like that David Irving's practicing this week, I'm

gonna play. Don't know what kind of shape he's in, what he looks like, I'm gonna say. Garrett said that yesterday if and unlike Demontrey Moore, they have not seen David Irving and they have not been allowed to be in contact with him since the season started. So it's possible he could show up here and just not be ready to play in a game, and maybe they use that roster exemption, which they do have. But I also got the impression from talking to Jason Garrett that I

expect him to be on them. You know that I'm going to Sunday. Okay, you're right, they haven't seen him. But if there's a team that knows how to get guys like ready to come back, like hey, do this, this and this and come back. I mean, this isn't the first time we've had a guy suspended and it needs to come back and be ready for a week, four week, four, week five whatever. I mean, it's happened too many times with Hardy, DeMarcus, Lawrence was, I mean,

Scandrick was in the same boat. I know I'm missing someone, Randy Gregory. Yeah, but he's still suspended. Yeah, that guy. Um So, I just think it would surprise me if he's not ready to play. I mean, I think that they know what's coming, they know how to get him ready, and they probably told him this is what you need to do and this is where you need to go. You know. I'm sure they have guys out there that

can help. Yeah. The thing about it, though, is I don't know that any of those guys you just mentioned came back and really like we're really really like one like lit it up. You know. One of them was of him, was hard he was, Well, that's true. He

had two sacks in his first game. Yeah, that's true here, you know, but I mean, I guess my point is like I don't know, Like, yes, you can go and work out and all that, but if you're not playing football, I just don't know that you're ready to play great football as soon as you come back from not play, I need you to be better than Taco. You do that, well, Taco's probably not going to be active now. Okay, so now get to my other question, who's not going to

be on this team? Logic Taco definitely, that's definitely not the right answer. Coach. Logic points toward Bene bin Wickery. Yeah, because you know, we've talked about it before that Cowboys only have to give up their draft pick if he's on the forty six for X amount of weeks. It's either three or four. He's only been on the forty six for two, so as it stands right now, they get that pick back if he's not on the team.

It's also a reasonable guest that should have been a Woozier and Nolan Carroll are able to play this week. You've got Jordan Lewis is seemingly he completely recovered from his injury, so secondary looks about as good as it has since the season started. Would you possibly want to consider even if he's ready to come back, maybe, would you possibly want to consider still keeping Cheeto out because essentially get really like three weeks, because he wouldn't play

a game again until you got this week. You've got next week for the blind, and you've got another week where you play. Not only that, but also somebody probably needs to be inactive, just even one of those healthy you know what I mean that they've been going the last few weeks with four cornerbacks, so now you're probably

now you've got five. Let's just say that they do release been Wickery and if Nolan, if Nolan can come back from his concussion this week, then you could still sit Cheeto and cut Ben Wickery and you'd still be okay the four corners. Maybe you do want five corners for this game? You know, maybe you might? Yeah, I mean, and it's gonna be interesting. I mean, I I woke up this morning thinking about the inactives, like what if

Hitchens and Lee are ready to go? Like are you in the shower or just just kind of laying there? Probably should have got up a little bit before that. Before thinking about all the least linebackers. Is it like cool? Like good, bad, sad that that's what we do, because like I do the same stuff, Like that's what I start thinking, go to bit thinking about it, wake up thinking about it. I wake up like, now, if if Hitchens can do this on Wednesday, what does that mean?

And then I stopped and I'm like, you can wait, Like you can wait till you get to work, at least brush my teeth first, right, Yeah, I had a dream last night that I left this job and accepted a job covering the MAVs. And when I woke I woke up, I woke up in a cold sweat, like, oh my god, I made whatever mistake? Why why would I want to cover the MAVs? Basketball is terrible and the MAVs are awful? Why would I want to do that? No? I was just like, I gotta call Derek right now

and beg for my job back. And then I realized I had been dreaming. I was just taken more from the standpoint the number of games you gotta cover. Everything that is a ton different than everything about covering basketball sounds terrible, interviews, zero fund, all of it all right, too? Let's jump in. Let's talk a little bit about these questions that I have for you guys. There's a I got a whole list of questions and they'll be on

all different topics around this team. So some of them true false, some of them are just I'll give you answers and we'll just see how it goes, all right, First question, based on expectations, who's been the biggest Which unit has been the biggest disappointment through four games? The offensive line or the wide receivers. I'll say the wide receivers because I somebody pointed this out to me on Twitter yesterday. I had the foresight to be worried about

the offensive line and training camps. So no, you weren't backup, back up, backup back. He was back up. You were worried about the offensive line as of the Denver game. That's when you were worried about the offensive Remember that, I'm not gonna sit here and say I thought they were gonna suck, but they still don't suck. You can go back and find the tape where I was like, you know, I think it's not smart to assume that they're just gonna pick off and pick up and it's

gonna be business as usual like last year regards. Yeah, you can go find it. It's there. The wide receivers, I really thought. And they haven't been bad. No, nobody's been like atrocious. Like it's not like their own fills are off this thing yet. Yeah. But you know, you talk about getting all of your receivers back, you know, all five of your guys are back from last year. I just thought there'd be more continuity. I thought there'd be fewer drop passes and fewer bad throws, and you

just it wouldn't. I keep using the term herky jerky, and that's what it looks like. Yeah, that's a good word for it. It really is. Um, So I'll go I'll go with them, all right, Nick. Yeah, I mean I think the offensive line is actually the No. I think the wide receivers are the reason why the offensive

line is in question right now. Really yeah. I think when you when you really break it down, I think when teams are looking at this team and defenses look at it, how to stop him, and they say, you know what, like, let's just keep putting that eighth guy down there. Let's just make these guys we're not gonna get run over by them. We're not worried about these receivers. We're not worried about them, none of them. We are really worried about um that's gonna beat us deep, and

we're gonna just take our chances. And I think it's a product of the fact that the wide receivers. Now which one is surprising us the most, maybe offensive line because we didn't expect a ton from the receivers anyways. But I think it all stems from the passing game, whether it's Dak and the receivers. I just think teams

are saying, I'm gonna take my chances. You know. It's kind of like it's kind of like in baseball when you got a guy on third and and and he's tagging up, and you're like, Okay, I'm gonna take my chances that he's gonna make this clean through, you know, catch, throw, the guy's gonna get it tagged. All these things have to happen. My guy just has run from here to here.

I think they think of like that with the defense, just say all right, I'm gonna take my chances that Dak's not gonna get the ball to him, and our guy's not gonna get beat, and you know, I just think that's what's happening. How's that different from last year? Well, I just think I think teams are figuring it out because I think the difference is is that it's from two years ago, you know, when when you or whenever,

when you had Tony there. I think Tony is would get the ball to them a little bit more down the field in different routes better than than Dak does. I'm not trying to sit here and say this is Dak versus Tony, because Tony's gone, But I'm just saying that I think that teams are figuring out that from the passing game, if he's gonna sit in the pocket,

we'll take our chances with them getting beat like that. Well, I think, and you know, I always I don't I always I don't want to oversimplify these things because they're definitely not simple. But you go back, and you know the great thing about as the season goes along, like the gifts start to come out. You know you can find it on Twitter. People break these plays down and you can get game pass and go watch the All twenty two yourself. I think defenses, and you know it's

honestly a little surprising to me. It just doesn't sound logical. But they're doubling Cole Beasley and in situation, yeah, they're doubling the easy throws and that's where Dak feasted last year. They're taking they're like, we think, if you have to make more difficult throws, this will be again do it, you won't be able to do it successfully, at least not on a consistent basis. To this point, that's proven

to be pretty true. Do you think part of the reason that that is is because that means you're going to be throwing the ball more to Dez Bryant, And as we know, a lot of times he's running these fifty fifty routes and just by the nature of them, they are not He's not a guy that separates a lot.

So just by the nature of that kind of route, that kind of passed a kind of throw, you're only going to complete half of them at best, Like you're not going to regularly complete that pass, So you're you're your completion percentage is automatically going to go down when you're throwing that ball versus passes to Cole or passes to Jason and it's not just it's not just Dez. I mean Terrence too. But if you're throwing the ball ten to twenty yards downfield as opposed to four to six,

I mean, that's just that's just statistics. It's gonna be harder to complete and I just like I said, it's it's not that easy. But I think that is part of what you're seeing play out. Can you fix that with different kinds of routes for Dez? I know during training camp, one route that I saw them run will a lot of seeming like a lot of success was that dig route and I haven't really seen a lot

of that in the first four games. But using routes that that are not that maybe a little bit of an easier throw for Dak and at the same time, maybe a higher higher completion percentage type route and throw for Dak and Dez. You think there's a way to do that that maybe improves their ability to throw when they're taking away some of those easier throws. Well, yeah, I mean I'm sure that they're gonna they're gonna tweak

all of that stuff. Yes, that there's ways to get the ball to DEAs that aren't as that are with a higher percentage, and I think that that's one of them. But I also think you can sit here and make the case. Now go back and make call the offensive line.

It's the problem because you know, if the Cowboys were running the ball better on first and second down, especially on first down, then it sets up more third and three, third and fourth, third and five, where Beasley and Witton can kind of get more involved, where those passes make more sense. When it's third nine, third and ten, you don't expect those guys to really get the first downs as much. So it all goes hand in hand. You know, the running game's not great, but it might be a

product of them not worried about the passing game. Passing game hadn't been great because the running game is not kind of backing them off. So play better. You guys have been talking about first downs a lot. I actually did some research last night and I went back to look at what the Cowboys did on first downs running the ball last year versus this year. Last year, on first downs when they ran the ball, they average five point nine three yards per attempt five point nine three.

It's almost six yards per tempt this year year four point one, almost two yard difference between last year and this year. When they're running the ball and first downs, it is a huge difference. End. By the way, don't forget this in the game against the Rams that that percentage went up significantly because they ended the game with a six point three average. But that was also because

that seventy yard run came on first down. I know, I don't like to take runs out, but if just to look at kind of what they did the rest of the game, if you take the seventy yard or out, their average, actually it was two point three yards per attempt on first down when they ran the ball, So all things being considered, they that's your biggest problem is

on first down. They're running the ball on first down quite a bit, and when they do, they're not getting a lot of yards and that's setting up bad situations for them down the road and they're not being able to sustain drives like they did last year. Another issue I think is the tight ends is either they're not getting the ball to them as much, because when you're gonna play that kind of personnel twelve thirteen personnel, those guys are on the field a lie, you know, showing

that they could run the ball. Hey, two tight ends, three tight ends. Obviously they're gonna run, but they've got to be able to utilize that that type of package on defense and say all right, now we're gonna play. Actually, we're gonna spread out. We saw Hannah get open. We need to see Witton and Swam Swam. I don't think it's caught a ball all year, has he? No? So I mean the utilize that part and say all right,

you're gonna jumbo and match this. We'll watch this. I'm gonna put Swam out and put Hannah out, and we're gonna throw the ball a little bit more. So we need to see more wrinkles from the passing game too. They did do that on one play last week. They had thirteen personnel out there and they passed out of it, which I was kind of surprised because you're right, they hadn't done that much this season. But they are gonna have to start doing those kinds of things. And also

I think and Dak. We saw the touchdown and against Arizona, but Dak has to keep that ball more on that read option or whatever that they're calling it. They need he needs to keep that ball more because you don't want to see him get hurt or you know, and take a lot of shots. He needs to learn how to slide a little bit better than what we saw last week. But still I think that will spread things out. There's a lot of different things that I think the

Cowboys can do. That's from someone that's never called any plays, So I would like, you know, I think other than I'm Madden, of course, right, not really, you know, I don't. I don't. I don't play Madden. Used to. I've played it a little bit, used to play Tech. I was horrible. Yeah, yeah, I say, good Genesis Mad. Let's take our first break. When we come back, we're going to continue with our questions.

The next question I'm gonna have up for you guys, for you think about is which has been more concerning the left guard with Jazz Green and Jonathan Cooper or the safety position with Jeff Heath and Byron Jones. We'll ask that question 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 you want? Are you unicorn? Maybe only a T and T offers you unlimited data with HBO included

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nearest you. Back to the Break, Welcome back. It's the second segment of The Break, live from the SWBC Mortgage studios at the Star. We're asking some questions about this team after the quarter of the season is done. We've got four games in the books, We've got another twelve left to go. Let's go to question number two, which has been more concerning the left guard position with Chaz Green and Jonathan Cooper or the safety position with Jeff

Heath and Byron Jones Day. We'll start with you safety. Why because they haven't done anything I mean at least I mean, you know, it speaks to how good the running game was last year that we're complaining about it. But they have gone over one hundred yards in every game of this season. Have they not as a team as a team as a team, yes, you're right. I'm sorry they have forty. I forgot the worst one. Yeah, they had forty against Denver. I miss something. They had

the worst rushing day. Everybody calmed the hell down. I forgot about Denver. Forgot that that happened. But they went for one twenty nine against New York, one hundred against Arizona, and one eighty nine against the Rams. They're they're doing all right. I mean, you know, and it's not great. It's not last year, but they're doing it, and it's

it's a quarterway through the season. I don't have a ton of problems with the way the left guards have played, specifically Chaz Green and honestly, Jonathan Cooper was going against two of the best defensive tackles in football. The safeties by Byron Jones has had some moments in coverage, good or bad moments both. But I mean, like, but I'm he's had some good moments. He he broke up a third down play in the red zone against the Rams

the other day. He's he's had some past defenses. Um, I know, I was super impressed by the read that Jeff Heath made on that no play in Arizona where he went up and almost picked that ball off. But it just it, it hasn't been there for him, you know,

Todd Todd Gurley's fifty three yard touchdown. I mean you have to consider that a busted play, and like, it hasn't been terrible, but it just hasn't been there, and especially you basically you let Bury Church walk in free agency, and the talking point all offseason is well, we have a lot of confidence in the guys that we have, and it hasn't It hasn't been there as of yet.

I've been really encouraged by Xavier Woods. But again, you know, kind of like Jeff Heath before he got the starting role, is would he look that good if he was out there seventy plays and you know, teams were scheming to beat his deficiencies. I don't know. Um, So it's not awful, but it certainly hasn't been great. It hasn't been what the team tried to sell it as what they thought

it could be. Okay, Nick, I think it is ironic or it's probably actually probably not a coincidence that the two positions that that you know, left and free agency that we were kind of worried about were Bury Bury Church and Ron Leary, And you're sitting here talking about these two guys now in these two positions that they've they've left a void. I would say the answer would be probably safety. You know, I agree with with Dave.

I think that because you know, safety is gonna gonna cause more problems, you know, because you're supposed to be the last line of defense. So when Jeff Heath misses Todd Gurley in the open field, it's a touchdown. And and you know, if they if they get the wrong read and they let a guy go over the top like Arizona or whatever, it's a touchdown. So yeah, I think that even though they're playing okay, okay, we'll still give up touchdowns and this team can't do that, and

they can't. They for the most part, they do. But Ben, but you cannot break. And I will see in some breaks, I will say this, I mean, it looks similar to last year with Ben but not break. But last year's defense, with the exception of Odell Beckham's touchdown in the second Giants game, they did not give up thirty forty or more yard plays, especially ones that ended in touchdowns. You saw it happened with Todd Gurley on Sunday. You saw Larry Fitzgerald do it two or three times in that

Cardinals game. Those have been things that they did not allow last year that you have seen happen in I would say three out of the four games this year, you've seen those types of backbreaking games, and that's indicative

of your safety play. All right, next question, what's been tough for the first quarter of the season where you played New York at Denver, at Arizona and versus the Rams, or the second quarter of the season where you will face Green Bay at San Francisco at Washington in Kansas City. I was posting about that last night, right before I went to bed. I broke down the next four for everybody in the NFC East, the Cowboys have the toughest draw out of everybody. Maybe Washington's got a pretty tough

draw to but this and it looks tough. I mean Green Bay. I don't need to say anything about them. San Francisco. I know, I know that they're seen as a bottom feeder, but they've been playing teams tough though they've been, they've been in most of the games they've played. It seems like this year Um and then Kansas City is the only undefeated team in the league, and Washington has looked pretty darn good. They gave why, they gave Casey all they wanted. Last gave Casey all they wanted.

Beat the crap out of an Oakland team that a lot of people are high on, and beat this Rams team that just beat the Cowboys on the road on the West Coast. And if you bet on games, how about that? Why did I why did I think of you at the end of the day game. I don't bet on games. I know you don't. I know you follow those lines. I do enjoy that far Sports Center with a bad beats, like that's like the all timer. That is the number one bad beat of all times.

I didn't stay up late enough to see Van Peltz second, but it's I mean, that's unbelievable. Like you, if you bet on that game, you got to be feeling pretty good about yourself. With four seconds left, you may have turned off the TV, may have gone to bid right because it was like a touchdown. I think I think

the Redskins were getting a touchdown. So when they even when they were driving to kick it to go to overtime with like a minute to go, you're thinking, all right, even if this game goes overtime and the chief score, I've got this. Yeah. The only way would be if if the Chiefs go down real quick, it's kick a field goal and then I have enough time and I

try to do cal Stanford laterals. But by nobody, yeah, say by nobody, and nobody thought that picks up and toward touchdown, and that leads that leads to my favorite call in sports, which doesn't matter who the announcer is. Brent Musburger was really famous for doing it, but the announcer is always like that is not insignificant to a lot of people watching that, you know, right, just a little not to those out there. But I uh, I went and I went and looked at this after the

game last night. So yeah, I mean Green Bay, San Francisco, Washington can't say tough. Honestly, Philly, who's leading division right now, seems like they have the easiest of all the next quarter, which is home against Arizona at Carolina, home against Washington, home against San Francisco. I mean not nothing's easy in the NFL, but that's pretty manageable. Redskins are dealing with

home against San Francisco, at Philly, Dallas and at Seattle. Well, they've got two division games, so that that does crank it up a little bit for them. Here if there's a silver lining and I know what, like three teams in the modern history of the NFL have made the playoffs after an owen four start. But if you're still worried about the Giants for whatever reason, they're going Chargers at Broncos, Seahawks Rams. Yeah, they'll put them to bid.

I'm just sitting here thinking, by the time Halloween rolls around, I mean, unless something crazy happens, I feel like the Giants are going to be out of this conversation. Yeah, And to be honestly, I'm not as worried about them anymore from standpoint of fighting for playoff spots, but they still are a team that they're like a it's like a zombie. Like you gotta finish them off. Yeah, you

don't want them. You want them demoralized and out of the conversation to where they're not even where, like Nick always says, you want them to the point where they may show up on Sundays, but whatever they're doing on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it's not enough to beat you, right, and that's how you got to get him really demoralized at that point. Right. I don't know though, because like you've already beaten them at home, so you still have to go face them

on the road. And you want them to be for the team, be competitive when the Redskins come to town or so, you know, I don't want them to be finished off completely. I mean until the Cowboys play him in December. Yeah, yeah, they want them to kind of be ready to trail off. Dallas is gonna play two teams that I think are almost guaranteed to host a playoff game this year make Kansas City yep. And at home? Yeah, at home sure? And I mean I think this this

Washington team is sneaky good. I feel like, are people write them off because you know, Cousins has that kind of he puts up stats but never delivers, like that's kind of his reputation. But he looked he has looked really good for most of this season. Their offensive line is solid. The defense I think is a story for that team, the one I will I want to check in on them because Josh Norman is now out for

a few weeks and a couple of their injury. Yeah, a couple of their other defensive backs got hurt like they were I mean they were throwing whoever they had left out there, like everybody. It wasn't just defensive backs. It seemed like every play it seemed like a defensive guy was going down. So, but their pass rush I think is improved this year over what it was last year. They say, sorry, they have drafted incredibly well over the last two or three years. They say Norman could miss

a couple of weeks. Cowboys don't face them for what three or I mean weeks two weeks from now, well, no, three weeks now from now because of the bye. Yeah, so it'll be back. He'll be back. They have been fortunate they've played without They played the Giants without Beckham, they played the Cardinals without David Johnson. I saw Time Montgomery with broken ribs, but they're thinking he might play this game against with broken ribs at the running back position.

They might fluck with that. But and then their backup running back got hurt too, and they Yeah, they had that rookie, that sixth round pick I think is the guy that I don't know who the Aaron Aaron Jones is the guy. Jamal Williams is another one to watch. Um got hurt. I don't think Dorsey's coming back. I think he's done. I think he's done. All right, let's go on to the next question. Um, Running Game will hit it's stride and return to what we saw in

twenty sixteen. True or false? True? Like I said, for all the doom and gloom, the Running Game has not been bad. It was atrocious one weekend in Denver. I'm willing to chalk that up because they've been good in every other game they eat. Like I said, even if you want to play that stupid game and take the Morris run out of the equation, they still ran for one hundred and thirty yards, which is very good. Um, so it's it's going and uh, it sounds like Chaz

Green's injury isn't long term for the time being. What ever, roll your eyes if you want to. I didn't roll you. Rolled your eyes. I expect him. I feel confident that he should be in there for green Bay. I guess we'll see how the things develop as the week goes along. But yeah, and then you know, I don't think every team on the schedule is going to have a defense like these first four either, I mean that's really four in a row where they're you're talking about a lot

of talent on your defense. I mean you remember, I know, you know from year to year it changes, but this Green Bay team couldn't stop them from doing anything on the ground last year and really either of those playoff games, and so we'll see. I feel good that they'll get it on track. Yeah, I think they'll get it on track. But you said, like like last seen, no, because they're not gonna lead the league and he's not gonna lead

the league in rushing. Zeke isn't. I mean, I don't know what he ranks right now, but it's not down there. It's Yeah, that one game killed him. I mean that one game. Yeah, nine yards, that's a killer right there. Yeah he ain't. Kareem Hunt. Kareem Hunt's doing the Zeke thing this year. Yeah, we'll see if that continues all season.

But yeah, he's definitely off to a great start. He had one hundred and one yards last night, rookie, right, and he had an off night kind of you know, it was it wasn't There were tough yards he got last night. Yeah. I respected the way he played last night. He was the leading rusher going into the game. Yeah. I mean that's saying something right there that after three games he's already the leading rusher and everyone else has played four. All right, next question, DeMarcus Lawrence. Lee's the

NFL with seven and a half sacks. He will end with fifteen sacks? Over or under? I like over over fifteen? Yeah, because I still think he's got another blow up game in him. I mean, just the way he plays, the way he rushes. Now that they got some help coming, um, I think he's got another game of of you know, three or so. Mister Dallas Cowboys Encyclopedia, when's the last time a gay went over fifteen? Where? Huh? Where? Where? What? Where's he? Now? I don't know, DeMarcus where? Oh? Wh what?

What year? What year was it? Do you remember what year the last time the Cowboys had a pass rusher that got over fifteen sacks? And in two thousand and eight I believe he had That was the year he had twenty. So I think we're talking about oh nine. Maybe he came back after that with fifteen. I don't really have this. I don't have them media gat in front of me. I mean he was around that time.

I would say anywhere from like two thousand and seven to two thousand and eleven he was in that boat of like ten, you know, anywhere from fit fourteen fifteen he got a couple where he was over twenty, yeah, nineteen, in twenty eleven, nineteen point five, that was the last time. Yes, when did you have twenty? Was it? It was two thousand and eight? Yep. Okay, so two thousand and eleven, so the last time, ken, are you looking at the

Cowboys year by year or just looking career? Okay? Well, and I don't nobody else had I mean, I can't think of another pass rusher that would have gotten that high Hatcher even at Yeah, no, they have not had anybody come like. Hatcher's the closest since I've been here. The double digits. Yeah, Um, I'm gonna say he hits it because at this point he's halfway there after a course, he hits fifteen or he's over fifteen. I think he

hits it. I don't know by how much, but I think it's gonna be tough for him because he's gonna start to be a point of emphasis for these teams, and I don't think his supporting cast is good enough to take that pressure off of him. I think he's gonna be good. He's gonna maybe he opens the door for other people to get sacks um, but I think it's it's gonna get tough for him with the way

he started. But I think twelve games, I mean, what he he only has to he he doesn't even have to average a sack a game the rest of the way to get there. So I think he'll get there, but I think it's gonna get a lot tougher. I think the reason why that I think he is going to get there is because he even if though teams have great left tackles, he doesn't face them. He doesn't really he can go up on both sides of the line, but for the most part he's rushing from the left end.

But they're gonna they're gonna start giving more attension. That's fine. I didn't help, that's fine. Odd Gurley was knocking the crap out of him. No, but that but that's okay because that that's that's to be expected. A lot of teams are gonna play on the right side. They're gonna play that tight end or running back whatever. It's not like, though, he's gonna go up against this awesome Pro Bowl left

tackle that can shut him down. I mean, he's not gonna face that unless they want to switch their whole offense around, which I doubt that they will. So what I'm saying is is that he's either gonna face a matchup that he should be able to win, or he's gonna force teams to do things like that. And that's

when you hope that Malik. And by the way, did he play the other day, Malik, he did for him other than kicking the ball at the end of the game at the end of the half, you know, to like a lot of people on Twitter asking me why that wasn't one of the five players to remember, I still thought the Rams were gonna get the ball and spike it. I didn't think they were running out of time, did you know. I thought they were going to spike the ball and that that kid would have made a

field goal from sixty five yards, so what's five morning yards? Yeah? Anyways, I think that I think he will get it. I think he'll get up there because I think he's really really rushing the well well right now, all right, let's take our final break. When we come back, I have two more questions for you guys. The question that we'll hit when we come back is is this defense better, worse or the same as last year. We'll do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot

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Visit Cowboys Travel dot com to book your travel package today. Back to the break final segment of the break Life in the s WBC Borget Studios, Nick take it Away Oh yeah, let's let's find a good one here. Let's pick out a good one. Just kind of like when you're going in and you're trying to figure out what underwear you want to pick out a good one? Why I pick one out here? A true cowboy loves his freedom.

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I got a pair of Tommy John underwear for running that it comes with a little pouch that is that the ones to run anywhere I don't know, or go anywhere. I don't know what they're called. But it has a little pouch that I can put my keys in or like if we're on the road. It's perfect for like a hotel room key or whatever. It's great. Yeah, awesome, So like it's your keys in your underwear. Yeah, it's like there's a little pocket and you just put it

in there and there's they're safe. And I used to have to tie my keys or in on my shoe when I went for a run, hotel key or or back in the day before I had this underwear. If I was running at home, I would tie my house key to my shoe, or if I was in a hotel, I would put my hotel key in my um inside my shoe. We gotta talk after this. What else are you supposed to do? Thank, we're talking now, I mean, well, what else are you We're gonna have a running talking

what else? What else are you supposed to do with I'll tell you after Yeah, I'll tell you if this it doesn't matter now because I have a pouch on my underwear that holds it. So don't wait to go. Tommy John, Tommy John's awesome. Send me more stuff, please please anyway, please, please please. It's getting to the point where I don't have to choose anymore. I can just every day it's a Tommy John day. You know it's getting close, you know, Yeah, all right, let's let's get

back in. We got a couple more questions here. We want to hit and we also will take questions from you guys. You guys call us two one four eighty seven to twenty one h two and we'll take your questions. By the way, during this segment, Tommy John though de Marcus Lawrence did continue his sack streak. Awesome. I'm sure Amber will be very happy to just pointed out last week. Very very good. All right, next question, the defense has been better, worse or the same as last year? Nick? Mmm?

I think the defense has been worse because they've lost. I mean they've lost two games and through the first four they only lost two games last year, like through the whole season up until the very very end. And you put that on the defense. I put some of it on the defense. I also will say this, you face Eli Manning, Carson Palmer, Trevor Simeon, and Jared Goff. It's gonna get worse than that. It's gonna get worse than that, starting starting Sunday. It gets worse than that.

And so you're to go too and two and to lose games against Trevor Simeon and Jared Goff. I know that that they are better than most people expected, but you know, and Goff is up there when it comes to the yards and points, their offense is up. They're at the top of the league. Yeah, they're not. Again, I'm not saying that by the end of the season, he's got a game like the Falcons for two years ago. To me, where you've dominated the first half, you're running

all over the place. What a great It's true, you're right, and the next thing you know, you're like he lost of the Falcons and then they're than the NFC Championship game. They're not bad. I'm not saying the Rams were ready to take that step right now, but you know that that game was very similar to that one. First time since Week three twenty fifteen against Atlanta that the Cowboys have held a double digit lead and not won the game. Really, yep, um,

how how can you argue that it's not worse. It's I mean, I don't think they've been terrible, but it's worse. I mean week last year, for through the first four weeks, they gave up twenty to New York, twenty three to Washington, seventeen to Chicago. And what was Week four was that San Francisco so fourteen points? What was the score of that game? Twenty eight to fourteen. I think something like that. Yeah,

so you've given up the forty nine ers. Yeah, I don't remember, but before seventeen, maybe they didn't give up more than and then they gave up sixteen to Green Bay. They didn't give up more than twenty three points. Through the first like two months of last season, they've given up thirty five to the Rams. And I mean, even if you don't count the pick six, they gave up thirty five to Denver. So yeah, I mean they've been worse. They've given up more big plays. They've had problems stopping

the run two of the four weeks. And like we said in the previous segment, they've caught some breaks too. I mean, they gave up three points to the Giants. But we know that Odell Beckham changes what they do. We know David Johnson changes what Arizona does. So they've caught a couple of breaks there, and those are the two games that they've won. So they need catch some more breaks. I guess I will say this. Through the first month of last season, I would guess they were healthier.

You'll have Sean Lee back soon. You'll have Anthony Hitchins back soon. Cheeto can hopefully at some points start contributing to this defense soon, so there's reason to opt for there. And David irvings back now, so you've got all of your suspended players back in the fold, Um, there's reason to feel optimistic that they can improve. I love it

when you talk optimism, being optimistic in the Cowboys this week. No, being optimistic is being optimistic is fine as long as it's based on something more than that's just a gut field, just what you want. Yeah, I guess all right. This final question, actually you led into it pretty well. Which returning player will have the biggest impact, Anthony Hitchins or David Irving. Man, it's good. I'm gonna say David Irving. And I really like Hitchens, and I think Hitchens. You're

gonna talk yourself out. I am gonna talking myself out of it, you know why, Because I'm gonna talk myself out of them. I think Irving will would be good, but I think Hitchens gives you two better players. Irving gives you a better player. Hitchens gives you two better players. You got Hitchens and you got a better Jalen Smith. Because I think less will be more for Jay Smith. Not to have to play all the time. So really good. I'm gonna say that, But I like what Irving does.

I think that's a big upgrade. But I think Hitchens can give you a better linebacker, Corp. You know, I thought you were gonna say when you say he gives you two better plays. I thought you were going to say he's been better. He'll be better as a run defender. He'll also be better as a nickel guy. Because that game that you just played with that running back was kind of running all around the field. I think Hitchens would have done a better job against him than what

you saw did his answer. Then I got another point here. But I've been driving the Anthony Hitchins bandwagon since probably May, so I mean, I'm not gonna jump off now that he's actually getting ready to play. I think. I mean, he's He's not Bobby Wagner. I'm you know so. But he is a solid all around linebacker. He tackles well. He is better in coverage than Jalen Smith has been through the first month of the season. And not only what you said about giving Jalen a lighter workload, which

should be good for him. He partners well with Shaun Lee. I think that'll be good. I like David Irving. I said this yesterday and actually ironically he had like the best game of his career against the Packers, So maybe he does it again. But I gotta see more consistency from him than just you know, basically two amazing performances and then a bunch of kind of stop and start,

good bad, mixed bag. So the hope is that you put in with DeMarcus Lawrence and now, you know, think about the if you got those four in there with him and with Malie Collins and you have him at tackle, can you with Crawford at in? I think that's a really good front four in a Nickel situation. You guarantee me, like, can you accurately predict where Irving is going to get most of his snaps? Because I can't. I can't. I have no idea I can tell you where I prefer it.

I like him better as a defensive tackle me too, Yeah, I think so. I think I would prefer And that's not so much that I think he's better at defensive tackle. I think it's more from the standpoint personally for me that if I'm looking at how this defensive line is made up, and I'm trying to get my best guys on the field and pass rush to situations, I think he's best at defensive tackle. With those other three guys I just mentioned, I think you have your best four

pass rushers. Maybe you could sub about Mayoa for Crawford if you feel a little better about that in certain situations, but I think you got your best four on the field at that point. I think you need to figure out where Crawford's going to play, too, Like, where do you want him to play the most? They need more out of him. There's just no doubt about it that they've needed more out of him before. And you know, you getting to a point where, well, yeah, he's got

a bad contracting to live up to that. Okay, forget that you need to play he needs to just play better as a captain, as a guy that they need more from. He needs to do some some things and I don't know if his better spot is an end or tackle and they need him to do something. He's not helping much and they're relying on him. So wherever you're gonna play Crawford to to, you know, utilize him the best, then I would kind of say you put

Irving in at that other spot. Um, I was gonna say this about Jalen Smith, bless you, Jalen Smith and Hitchens, you know, you see, it would seem like Jalen Smith needs to play less plays, and the smart thing to do would just say put him on nickel, because you Hitchens go first and second down and then you put him on nickel. But Nicholas where receivers come flying across the field where he might have to carry them. So I think you actually need to start Jalen Smith with

Sean Lee and Hitchens is your nickel guy. Yeah, probably if you're trying to ease him in. Ease him in and let him play, you know. And I like the thought of Jayalen beyond the field on rundowns far more than passing down. I agree with that too, So that's probably what they you know. So Hitchens, I would think, would come in and help you on the on the nickel, and they'll have different packages that they both of them can play and maybe rotate Shaun Lee sum as well.

He's coming off a hamstring injury. If he's ready to play this week. Let's get to some calls that you can call us at two one four eighty seven two twenty one O two. Again it's two one four eight seven two twenty one O two, or you can hit us on Twitter at Cowboys Break will start with a call from Rob in Las Vegas. Rob, What up? Hey? Everybody? Hey, you know we talk about the defense. Which one's better this year last year? I think I think they're about

the same. I just think at the end of the day, it's the running game that drives this team. Right now, they're losing the time of possession by over three minutes. For this year, they're averaging about twenty eight and the other teams are urging thirty one and a half. Last year, they almost every single game they own time of possession. Kept the defense off the field, and let's face it, it was a good thing because we saw when that

defense has to be on the field a lot. We're in trouble the team at Jason Whitman and Cole Beasley, they're built to get first downs five yards, six yards, and like Nick was saying, third and eight thirty nine, they're they're out of the play. So I think we could talk about safeties, and we could talk about the pass rush, but If this running game does not start producing on first down four or five six yards like they delet, this team's gonna struggle all year because we

knew going in this defense can't put up. And I noticed that if there's a big time running team coming in. If you notice the teams we beat, the Giants no running game at all, Arizona, no running game at all. Denver pounded us, and the Rams pounded us this week. I don't even know if if Green Bay doesn't have a running game, I like our chances. But this offense and this running game is what drives this team and that's what's going to make this team successful. All right,

thanks for the call. I think it's pretty astute point. I mean, I think it all starts there. And he was talking about time of possession. Last year, the Cowboys their average possession, their average drive two minutes and fifty seven seconds. This year two minutes and thirty five seconds, again, almost thirty seconds less per drive that they have the ball. This team is just not and I think it goes back to him not being able to run and specifically

not running well on first downs. They're not sustaining drives like they once did, and that helps you keep that defense off feel a little bit more. I think that's the difference, way more than there are a difference really in the way they're playing on defense, that number would be a lot different than thirty seconds. Yeah, but you gotta think about you gotta think about like when you look across the league, the difference between the top team and the bottom team is very very small. When you're

talking about average time of possession. If you think there's some drives that are forty seconds because you get a deep pass or something like that, so go ahead. I'm sorry, No, it's just I mean it's funny because like I said earlier in the show, I mean, statistically, they're running the ball pretty well. But I think the element that you're missing is and you know, people, and rightly so, people I think have been criticizing the offense for being predictable.

And I think last year they just they could run at will and if and we're gonna do it and we know, you know that it's coming and it doesn't matter, and I don't. I don't think they can do that this year. And whether you want to blame, whether you want to blame, like I said, whether it's the left guard, whether it's the right tackle, whether the all pros aren't playing up to their snuff, whether Ezekiel Elliott's missing his reads, whatever you want to blame it on, it is not dominant.

And therefore it used to not matter that you were predictable, and it does right now. But you know something, and I'll let you get to that real quick. But I want to make this point. I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but I think there is a perception and you watch the games and you almost think that they're running the ball on first downs more than they're passing. They're really not. I mean, they're passing

the ball on first down quite a bit. So it's not that they're just so predictable where every down, every time on first down, here we go to run and they can't get anything. They're mixing it up. They're probably fifty percent, but it's just when they run it on first down. And this goes back to what defenses are saying is basically, we're not going to let you run on first down. Yeah, you might throw it on us, we're not going to let you run on first downs.

And so far they have not been able to impose it will even when defenses last year, right, That's my point is that defenses did that all last year and they were just like, Okay, we're going we're gonna do it anyway, we're gonna get four yards. Sorry. And I think where you're seeing is, you know, look at look at two years ago when this team was four and twelve, they still had like the fourth leading rusher in the NFL, right, McFadden. I mean, they were running the ball pretty well, even

though they were down in some games. They weren't winning, they weren't very good, but they were one of the worst teams, if not the worst team, in short yardage situations. They couldn't run on third and one. They had trouble in the red zone and around the goal line. And I think that's what you're seeing a little bit with this team is that they've had some issues in the red zone when it gets down close. They're having a hard time moving people off the ball when they really

need to. So, yeah, as Dave your point, the stats look pretty good. They are running the ball fairly well. But we even saw after that run by Morris, I mean he got down there, it was kind of hard. You had to throw row the ball to try to get it get it in. So that's where I think the issue is still is it's short yardage downward gets tight in the red zone, being able to just say we are knocking you back off the ball, and we haven't really seen that yet, So I think that's kind

of where the issue is. You think that also we were just kind of seeing a little bit of what we saw last year. It just happens that this was compacted. It's the first four games because last year when they faced good defenses, they struggled the Giants, the Vikings. There were some games that they played really good defenses and

they just they couldn't get anything going. Maybe it just so happens that this year you played the Rams, who their front is as good as any defense they played last year, and they played the Denver Broncos, who obviously their defense is right up there, and you had those in the first four games. Versus being spaced out through the season. It's entirely possible. And these next two games. I mean, this is gonna be a tall task with the Packers just because of Aaron Rodgers, but you should

be able to run on this team. I'd like to think you can run on San Francisco, which I know that they've got a lot of draft picks in their front seven, but that is still a talent depleted team. So we'll see, We'll see what this looks like. Because if if the struggles continue against these next two defenses, then I don't think that excuse holds as much water as it does. Right now, You're saying, who has a lot of draft picks at Francis Scan Francisco Orrus Buckner,

Solomon Thomas, Ruben Foster's in there. Now, you know at some point that I think that that needs to be addressed as well for the Cowboys. Um, you're seeing these teams, especially last week with the Rams. Rod Marinelli as good as he is and coaches up these guys, and he coaches up a lot of no names. They need some names, like they need some players to they need to start drafting, in my opinion, try to get some guys that are

in the elite pass freshers or elite defensive tackles. You know, I mean, you know, go ahead, Yeah, I'm just saying that it's catching up to them of you for you can just keep trying to find diamonds in the rough. Over and over, but at some point you do need to surround them with some really awesome, great players. And I feel like the defensive line has been now at end they've tried it end a little bit more with the Marcus Lawrence a Taco. That's the question is when

could they do that? I mean they they've had They've had two first round picks on this defense. They were later, but that's that's just the factor of where you draft, based upon where you finish, Like when were they really supposed to get these really much higher level players well in the draft? You know, it's a mindset from Marinelli. I mean, we don't sit there and say it. He likes to get these guys because it makes him look

like a better coach. If you can get Nick Hayden to play well when nobody wants Nick Hayden, and you can get David Irving and all these guys and Tyrone Crawford and make them you know, now, he was a third round pick and so was Malite Collins and all that. But I'm just saying it worked out. But you he didn't want Shary Floyd and he could. You know, most guys at defensive line are gonna want a first round pick, and he doesn't really want them. He doesn't want those

type of players as much. So I don't buy that narrative as much as I used to. And I've talked about that before that. Okay, let's go through it. Taco was pick twenty eight, DeMarcus was pick thirty four, Tyrone Crawford was pick eighty one, Malie Collins was pick sixty seven. Mife Jones, Well, I'm thinking purely on the defense. Okay, that's bait. Oh and Randy Gregory was pick sixty. I mean,

clearly did not work out. But you tried. The resources have been spent, and for whatever reason, it has not worked out. I'll do it better, though. What I'm saying is is that's fine, do it better, like do offensively, you know, take the offensive line approach. You know that they were doing the same thing, was second and third round picks for years, and then they finally said, you know what, we need to do a little bit better. That's the question, Like you can only do one of them,

Like you only got that one first round pick. So are you saying that you would have preferred instead of going as heavy as they do with the offensive line, that maybe they should have done on defensive line. Here's another thing that maybe I'm maybe I'm changing the argument to this, Get me some bigger guys up front, Get me more size upfront, guys that can play like this undersize. How many guys do you need that are undersized? I mean the guys that are that are quick and off

the ball. I mean, at some point you can't get moved off the ball. And Tyrone Crawford's playing in sometimes, so that means he's not the biggest tackle. Stephen Pie is not a huge tackle at all. He's undersized. Malie Collins is a is pretty good, but he's a little bit quicker than he is big. They need some big guys up front, and preferably big talented guys. So I think that that's kind of the issue for me, is that they're getting moved off the ball because they don't

really have that size. When everybody's undersized, I don't know, I mean, I just don't. I don't think that it works all the time. Not everybody's Jay Rayliffe that can play undersize. Yeah, they can do that and play for four years like that. I don't And I mean I hear what you're saying, and sure, they've been picking at the back end of the drafts, they've been finding guys

in the middle rounds. But I don't think you can look at the resources they've spent on the defensive line since about twenty fourteen when they trade it up for Lawrence and say we don't have we don't have the talent. I mean, you've spent a lot of resources to put these guys in place. I'm talking about tackles, and I we're talking about the line anymore. I'm talking about tackles. I think upfront, they need bigger guys up front, and even if it's not a first round pick, but I

think that they need more size up there. I think that they're too small, too undersized. All Right, we appreciate you guys. Join us. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll start talking a little bit more about Cowboys versus Packers, which be coming up this Sunday three thirty at at and T Stadium, Tilted for Nick Even and David Hellman. I'm Derek Eatleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and Dallas Cowboys Football club