Cowboys Break: Boys to Minn

to the latest edition of The Break. We're live from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star. We got some injuries that we're gonna catch you guys up on today's show. We got a few things Coach McCarthy said that we want to talk about. We'll be joined by Bucky Brooks in the second segment. We will focus in today with him on the Minnesota defense versus the Cowboys offense.

And then a little later in the show, I want to ask these guys a little bit about the office in line, and I want to zero in a little bit more on the red zone. The red zone has been a problem for them this year and talk to these guys about what they think or how they think the Cowboys can possibly fix that. Let's start first with some updates. Let's go through this list of the guys who were injured or returning and just get an update on where they are based upon yesterday's practice. Obviously, we

start with the quarterback Dak Prescott calf injury. He was limited yesterday. What did coach McCarthy say about his practice? He said he did a lot of work and he looked good doing it, and the plan is to keep him on that regimen. Today he went through an extensive rehab at the start of practice. It was really funny. Mike McCarthy and Will McClay both watched it from about five feet away, just to give you an idea of

you know, he's a quarterback, he's important. And then when that was over, he mixed into individuals and then they kicked us out of practice. I don't think. I don't know, I don't know how much he did in team and Mike McCarthy doesn't want to say, I don't know. I don't know if he did if he took team reps. But he did a lot of work in the first which the early part of practice is almost an hour long, so I mean he worked at it for a solid hour.

He was throwing passes, he was working with the skill players, and he looked pretty good to me. And so the plan is for him to do that again today, and with any luck, he'll mixing team from the things that he did do yesterday. How much like footwork is involved as opposed to when he's doing team reps. I mean he was doing the quarterback stuff. He extensively worked with the running backs on your footwork, on the handoff pitching, making sure you're lining up right, all that type of

stuff they work on. He was throwing routes on air with the receivers in the tight ends, and even even when he was working on his own, he was practicing his dropbacks. He was torking his hips and going through the throwing motion. So a lot I would add that he didn't look very gimpy to me, if you want me to be honest, I'm not a medical professional, so

try not to read into that too much. But he was moving well in my opinion, and he was working on the chords at one point with the training staff, the medical training staff, and it didn't look like again we see chords, you know, basically, got a guy tethered to you and you're having to move. That would be when you would think it would look a little bit like Okay, I don't know if I can really get when I got weight that I'm pulling, can I really

do this? He didn't look really any different from me. Now, again, I'm not a trained medical professional to know what different looks like, but it certainly didn't look a lot different to me. He looked like he was moving. Okay, I completely agree. Yeah, The question for me is how much Cooper Rush is getting. How many snaps is he getting, because if he's getting the exact same amount, I think

that would be a miss here. I think he needs to get some more, I think, and it's is playing so well in his game right now with this offense that if he doesn't practice on Wednesday or Thursday or whatever, I think he would still be Okay. He's kind of mixing in and out. But this is an opportunity because because of the nature of this injury, it could grab you at any time, and it could happen in the game.

I mean, whatever he's doing out there, he's not going to be doing Sunday at the game with a guy chasing him, tackling him, bringing him to the ground. So Cooper Rush could have to play. I think, you know, if they're not getting him a lot more reps than normal. Again, like I said, that would be a miss. That's actually really a good point because when you think about it, the way he got injured, like that was just a freak. He threw the ball, he came down a little awkwardly,

and that's how the injury happened. What's happened. What's what's to say that you're not in the middle of a game, same thing, You make the throw, you come down a little awkwardly, and here we go. Right, So I think that's a good point. He's not going to do anything out here that he's going to be doing there. And you know they don't. They don't care about his red jersey in Minnesota. In fact, they want to hit him a lot harder. So I'm within the rules, of course, sure,

within the rules. Okay, Everson Griffin and those guys over there. Everson he's over there. I know he's one of them and has four sex like, yeah, yeah, he's not playing poorly. He's back to being the good old ever since that. Yeah, all right, let's let's move on. Talk to me about Dorn's armstrong. He returned to practice yesterday. How much did he work in He was Again, we don't see the interesting part of practice, but he was there. He was participating.

He's limited. If you're limited on Wednesday, it's usually a good sign that you are going to progress as the week goes along. They wouldn't start you out doing stuff if you weren't ready for it. So he looked fine to me. I think this is injury high ankle high ankle ankly week two, so I mean it's been it's been six weeks. Um. I think that's that goes for like everybody that you're really concerned about for this game, Like Tyron Smith started with brit but he moved over

to team as they want to. I don't remember Diggs was Diggs was just practicing. He didn't do it like that. I'm sure you know. I doubt he got every rep, but we don't see that he when you're looking for the tell tales of like, okay, he's with the rehab group, Diggs wasn't doing any of that. He was just out there right That injury report is I mean they do it, but they also do the bare minimum because and that's

just that's just the game that has played. I mean, there are guys that are practicing in that twenty one day window, but I don't believe they're on their injury report, right, Michael Gallup? If there I R, If they're still in RR, they're not often removed from my R until the team actually, yeah Gallup and activates them right, Right, Michael Gallup and Kelvin Joseph don't even have to show up on this report because they're not technically on the roster and the

team's the team's gonna take advantage of it. Yeah, I don't have we heard anything about how those guys looked yesterday and practice. Gaya slow? What Cede Lamb said, CDC looks slow? Yeah, he said, looked a little slow, but that you know. Then he said like because he's coming back into it, you can kind of tell. But you know, he said, he'll be back to his old self in

no time. It wasn't it wasn't a dig, but he just it was I thought it was jo especially for a receiver to say another receiver he looked a bit slow, but you know, he was trying to just say that's yeah, yeah, not his old self. But I'm pretty sure McCarthy today, which this shouldn't be shocking, but he I'm pretty sure. He said Calvin Joseph is going to be up for this game, which that is a surprising amount of transparency, but it's also just common sense. Maurice Kennedy's on IR

with a concussion. Joseph is in his second week of practicing. He was doing special teams during practice yesterday. He's going to be up for this game. Not on the roster right now, but I don't necessarily think that that for for fans out there, he's gonna be out there jumping out and taking Anthony Brown's place, just means he'll be up. He'll play special might not spot, might might not play US app of defense unless something goes wrong, but I think he'll be in uniform. Do we hear anything about

this real quick? This is might be just information for me. But by the time I was leaving to go on attorney to leave, I remember he wasn't really doing well and it was kind of like, wasn't that great out in camp out there, the mini camps that they had? How was he after all that? Like months. You guys got to camp and he was fine. That's a great way to put it, too fine. He was fine, Like he didn't he didn't look like he didn't belong. He

wasn't out there making plays every day. I like his confidence. I like his athleticism, so he can do enough to contribute even though he's been out for it. Was he better than Nashan? Right? No, certainly wasn't better than Anthony Brown. Wasn't better than Nashan right. You know what I think was happening. I'm not going to call out names, but when you ask people that we interview at training camp, uh, the there was a lot more praise about him than

what we ever saw in the field. So you're like, wow, don't want what's going on in tape and all that. But it's not like out here where where you know, we saw everything we saw from the start to finish, and nobody and everything gets videoed and charted and all that stuff. And so we would hear from certain people that would say, oh, boss man is looking great, and you're like, oh, if you say so, I don't seen that.

You're like Jerry, you talk about Jerry right, right? He was one of them saying it, so yeah, you know, but no, I just kind of think it was you know, he's coming on too, he's looking pretty good too, and it's something that's more of a scouting. Let me be clear, though, are you saying you think that was more just kind of like, yeah, we want him to be better and they're kind of trying to manifest in the words, or do you think they really were seeing something They're like, man,

this guy's playing. I'm not I'm not gonna say that I see everything we all saw, but but a lot of the media, a lot of eyes are on practice, and it wasn't coming from the media so much that he was playing. It was from kind of from the team, which makes you think that there's a little bit more you know, it's more of a political answer, and hey,

let's get this guy going. He's looking pretty good. Yeah, I don't care about that guy that got cut in wherever, or this free agent that you've heard of that's gonna go in the Hall of Fame. We're not worried about all that. We got this guy and we think he's doing well. And let's also be clear, when we're at training camp, it's a lot easier to notice when a guy gets a pick or gets a pass defense than

it is when he gives up a play. Right, So they may have been looking at things with Calvin Joseph where they're like, you know, he's playing solid in coverage. He may not be getting interceptions, he may not be getting his hand on the ball, but he's he's playing solid in coverage to where they're got throwing at him because this guy's covered. That's the part that sometimes can get lost for the media. He's not gonna unseat either of the guys starting anytime soon unless somebody gets hurt.

That's my opinion. Yeah, and he's the thing I did like about him. And I remember a play I guess it was Arizona game. It was, you know, it was a deep ball early in the game. I mean, he gave up the pass. But he's got enough athleticism and speed. He's there. He's not He's not getting like burned. It's just gonna take just a little bit of playing for him. I don't I think he's gonna be okay, I really do, but I just think he's not ready. He's not there yet.

But as far as athleticism and all that, I mean, if you can remember Treyvon Diggs last year. He was getting beat a lot worse than that, you know, but they kept throwing him out there giving him those reps. So hopefully they can find a way to do that. I want to be clear, I agree with that totally. Like I'm I'm not worried about him as a player. I think he's gonna be fine. He needs to practice.

Maybe as as the season goes, opportunities will become available, whether that's because somebody got hurt or sub packages or whatever. But he's gonna play in this game, and I think it's largely going to be special team. It's more than anything. All Right, we're gonna go ahead and take our first break. When we come back, we're gonna be joined by Bucky Brooks of NFL Network. We'll talk about the Minnesota defense so that when we come right back. This is Dallas

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Welcome back, second segment of the Break. Life in the s WBC Mortgage studios. At the start, We're being joined right now by Bucky Brooks of the NFL Network Buckey, We're gonna talk a little bit about the Minnesota defense versus the Cowboys offense. One of the things I noticed as I was starting to kind of figure out what this defense looked like, was that they have allowed less than two hundred passing yards in each of the last

three games. They've also kept their opponents under three hundred yards passing in every game except for the game against Arizona. My question for you is is that about their passing defense being really good or is this about the quality of the offenses that they've played thus far. Well, I mean they're really good. They're gonna be really good because Mike Zimmer does a great job and he wants to re establish himself as a top defensive mind, and his

defense played horribly a season ago. And so what they've done is they have their guys up front back Daniel Hunter's back Everson Griffin is playing well. Eric Kendricks is in the middle, and so that allows them to go and do some of the double A gap pressures and blitzes and disguise and changing coverage that they want to do. He also has added some veterans back there. He had

Patrick Peterson early in the year playing. They have some other veterans kind of mixing in there, Harrison Smith notably being there. And so when you have an experienced group that allows you to dig a little deeper into toolbox to give your team the best stuff that they need to be able to play well. I always think of guys like Dion Branch and James Jones, these receivers that would leave come back to their quarterbacks in their system

and they would be so much better. Is that a case of like Everson Griffin and those guys have kind of just playing better in Minnesota than they were at other places. Yes, a lot of it is that Everson Griffin, who I thought was an energy as a bunny throughout his career. For whatever reason, I don't know why I didn't work in Dallas, but I will say in Minnesota he's back to being the Everson Griffin that we've always sent. He has four sacks, he is still a guy with

two moves. He's gonna go with an upfield Russian and he's gonna set you up and come with a spin underneath. And if you're not solid in patient as an age blocker, you're gonna have a tough time because he's gonna get sucks. And so they are very comfortable. And I think it's not only the familiar voices that are in the rooms, coaches knowing how to use those guys the best. Andre

Patterson is an outstanding d line coach. I think that's why some of that stuff works, because they know how to use them and how to mask some of the deficiencies that they may have as an older player. So Bucky going kind of off what Derek asked. I mean, their front speaks for itself. But am I being a hater if I if I'm guessing that the front is the key to that, to their past defense, I guess because like I'm looking at their secondary and I just

don't feel impressed or should I be? Like Patrick Peterson's on IR now, McKenzie, Alexander and Bashad Bryland, who we know from Washington. I mean, they're like, there are plenty of wins there for the Cowboys passing game if if the you know, obviously, if the offensive line holds up right, I mean, if it was a game of one on one and they were playing like all Man and all that other stuff without the front. Yes, theoretically, Ceedee Lamb and Amari Cooper should have their way with those guys

in the back end. The problem is they do have the front and they will junk it up. They will show you. We call that double a gap pression. They're gonna test Dak and see canny tail when they're coming and when they're not. Can they mess with the clock in his head while also playing games with the offensive line? Can they pick up all the switches on the stunts

and loops in games? And then in the back end because you have veterans you mentioned McKenzie, Alexander, Bishard, Brelan, But those guys have played a ton of NFL games. So now Zimmer can do more things when it comes to coverage because they understand it. His frustration and previous years was the team was too young and they didn't know how to do the things that he wanted to do in the back end. With all that being said, I mean, would this be a game where you tried

to rely more on the running game? And if so, can the Cowboys be effective enough to win a game like this by just kind of leaning towards more using Zeke and Tony well, I think a couple of things that are in play with that. One the health of number four and Dak Prescott, how healthy is he. You might have to lean on the running game more because you may be limited in terms of how you have

to throw the ball. Can you do movement passes? Can you do those things that Dak was doing early in the year when they were doing bootlegs and some of the other stuff where you can use his athleticism If he is a statue in the pocket now, you want to make sure that the running game is going because you don't want to kind of leave Dak out there unprotected against the Neil Hunter who has six acts and

everything Griffin, who I told you has four. And so it's just really important that you can run the ball, slow down the pass for us, and when you do it like the past, you can use play action to kind of keep those guys off of number four when you're looking at this defense and the fact that they have those twenty one sacks. I was listening to coach MacArthur this morning. He was talking about how for him, what they're doing right now with the offensive line has

a lot to do with continuity. Do you and just kind of your experience with NFL football, do you think that that's as big a deal when it comes to the continuity of the offensive line. How big a deal is that for you? And do you think that maybe that's the reason why Dallas may opt to keep still in there, especially going against an aggressive defense like what it sounds like they're gonna have to face this weekend. Yeah, I think you have to always evaluate the office line

as a group is unlike any position in football. Those five guys have to be connected, and when they're connected, great things happen at the line of scrimmage. And so when you have Terrence Steele playing will, you have Zach Martin and Timin Smith playing will. You don't want to tinker with the chemistry by moving people around. Even though Layo Collins may be a better player and more talented than Steel, it's working right now. So then what you try to do is plug Leo Collins in a guard

because he's an upgrade over Connor Williams. Maybe you can solidify that left side and give your team a dominant left side. When it comes to the running game, you have to be careful because chemistry really matters a lot at the offensive line. I think that's why you see in the reluctance and the hesitation when it comes to making significant lineup shifts, even though Lell Collins is back

and ready to go. You think Dalton Schultz is playing at an elite level because any stats show that, or do you feel like he's just a byproduct of all these other weapons and you can't just have to just figure out how pick your poison and he's benefiting from that. I think he's a good player. I don't think he's a great player. I think he benefits from the things

around him. Almari Cooper, Ceedee Lamb the running game. If you're having to choose, if we're going down the checklist, he's down on the checklist of guys that I'm gonna spend a lot of time and a lot of extra attention. So he's taken advantage of those opportunities, which is exactly what you want if you're the Cowboys. But I'm not ready to kind of put him in that Darren Waller, Travis Kelsey, George Kittle conversation in terms of being a guy that is special, special enough that you really got

to put extra attention and extra bodies to him. Maybe the free agent signing last spring that I most would have liked to see the Cowboys get in on was Dalvin Tomlinson, who the Vikings did sign. We've seen those tackles. Give Tyler Beatas some problems here this season. How does Tomlinson compare to Vita, Javon Hargrave, whoever you want to throw out there? I mean, is that as problematic as it sounds on paper? Oh, it's problematic because Davin Thompson

is a really good player. He not only is a player who is big and rugged, who has nice hand skills in a power game, he's a high motor player. And so for beatis that means you got to pack your lunch, get your heart head and your lunch bill, because it's gonna be a long day and he's gonna have to battle. Because the easiest way to disrupt what the office wants to do is to wear out the center.

Because if you can disrupt what happens in the middle of the line, it changes how you do everything running game, pass protection and those things. So if we were having to pass out the big sumbrero for the guy who has to play, well, tyl about us, You're up he got the big sumbrero this week because he has to play well. If now it's gonna be a problem. Oh boy, oh buggy. Yesterday I asked you about them coming off the bye week, and I know it was just a

Wednesday practice. They them come back, but the fact that that practice is being described as sloppy does that kind of raise an eyebrower. Is just like the nature of it being the first practice back from an off week. It's the nature. It's the nature of it. Like I know, we're talking about NFL athletes and pros, but they're just

like little league players. If you give seven and eight year olds six days off and they come back, they're all looking at butterflies and picking dandelions and those things. So it takes them a while to refocus. And so it's the same thing that the coaches are telling you. They know that that first practice is gonna be a little rough. You now want to make sure that Thursday and Friday, though, are a little more buttoned up. Friday's

practice in particularly is the most important. You want to make sure that mentally, everybody kind of understands what they're doing. We're all on the same page. We're operating efficiently and smoothly and everything is effective. So I wouldn't worry as much about the Wednesday, but yeah, the next two days they need to be solid. Yeah, thanks for that image. In my mind, I'm thinking of tiring and zac now over on the sideline, like looking for worms in the ground,

and it's interesting. That's an interesting mental image. Yeah, all right, So so now we need a prediction, Bucky, what do you think it's gonna happen to Sunday Cowboys versus Vikings? Now, look, man, I think everyone understands the urgency that the Cowboys need to play with. Like it's one thing to go from good to great, it's another thing to go from great to really be in a title contender. I think we'll see a great effort. The only person I would worry

about is Dak Prescott. What do you have to do to limit Dak Prescott to make sure he doesn't further injure himself. Does that mean more shotgun run because he doesn't have to move and take it back to Zeke and Tony Pollard. You'll see some things, but no, I expect the Cowboys to play well. I think the boy came at the right time. I would expect to see a very energetic effort. But this game is gonna be tough because the Minnesota Vikings up there. The winning game

is gonna just muddy it up. But I think Cowboys winning by seven. All right, I appreciate you joining us. We'll be back next week to get you get ready for the next game against the Come on, you got bacos. There you go, there we go. All right, we're gonna take our final break. We're gonna come back. I got some questions for you guys about the Cowboys office whatever when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hi, I'm Clint Tullison with you United aggin Turf.

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next event. Visit Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders dot com slash Appearances, Welcome Back. Final segment of The Break Life from the SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, I got a few questions for you guys before we end the show. Let's focus in a little bit on this Cowboys offense. I

was looking at some numbers around the offense. They are twenty fourth right now in the league, in red zone scoring percentage and as touchdowns only at fifty six percent against New England, they were really bad, only forty percent on red zone scoring. How much of a problem is this for them? Because they were an offense that scores a lot of points. They they're putting up points to getting a lot of yards. Uh, they're winning. How much of a problem is red zone scoring for them? Number

one and number two? How can they get better? It's a big problem. It's been, it's it's it's the black mark on Kellen Moore's resume, honestly, because it's a trend. It goes back to like nineteen. They have not been as good as you would expect from a team with this much talent on offense. Um road games have they were good? They I think they were two or three against LA. They were good in LA, which you could argue wasn't a true road environment. They were awful against

Tampa two, two or five there as well. So that's he's had about the quality of the opponent. Maybe, I mean, I mean at home though they were they played some pretty bad teams. Yeah, And well, I mean they're a better team than New England, Like they should have won that game by more than they did. Um but I four of ten in those two games, and then they were they were nine of eleven in the other four, which is pretty good. But again, and a lot of

that's against bad teams. Um it is. I think it's the biggest problem facing this team other than just making sure you have good health. As far as fixing it. I think we talked about this with Lyell yesterday. Maybe if they plug him in at left guard, that gives you a little more power. Nick talks all the time about how they can't really enforce their will when they get down near the goal line. Maybe having a big guy like that can help you with that. Um Yeah.

I Mean one of the things that surprises me too is that if we're going back into this Minnesota game where he made you know, CD made best sketch of his career, I think his young career, they haven't. We haven't seen that play have we? In the and during the season now a training camp. I thought we saw it every day, So you know, fade, you know fade he did. He caught a fade against New England. Get back of the end zone, back of the end zone. Yeah, I guess I'm thinking more of the jump ball doesn't

matter either way. You can throw it up there. It's not a fifty fifty ball really with him, and it's really more of a you know, it's probably a seventy five play as far as catch or pi and so, which gives you a first down and at the one. So I think they should try that a little bit more. But yeah, they can't. I guarantee those three games that they've been the worst in the red zone, they're probably the worst running the ball, like you know, and that's

what it comes down to. It just comes down to running the football because you can't you can't go deep, you know, so they kind of know what you're gonna do. It's just it's just man on man and they're not they're not strong enough, especially in the middle. There. The other thing too, and it's madden. You ask about how you can improve and it sounds like a cop out answer, but it execution is magnified down there, right, Like I always go back to, we would still be talking about

how cool that option pitch was in Week one. If Blake Jarwin seals off a man in space, or obviously, yes, if Zeke beats this guy. Either way, if you execute better. That's a fantastic play. If Dak holds onto the ball on the goal line on the sneak, it's a touchdown. And even then you jump two to five to three

to five is huge. That's an enormous percentage jump. And so yes, I think, I mean, you got a more power on the line, maybe just better blocking, better execution, but at the end of the day, just execution across the board as well. And I think again it gets magnified. Connor Williams and Tyler Biadash have had problems with that. Your tight ends are serviceable blockers. They're not mallers. They

never will be, and that is which most tight ends are. Sure, that is not me, That is not a real criticism of either of them. But this this isn't nineteen ninety six. Like, these guys are mainly receivers, and you can take advantage

of that a little bit better when the field gets condensed. Yeah, I mean, if if the ball, if I'm sitting here and the balls at the two yard line or three yard line, and the playcocks running down, and you've already called one time out, and I think I'm just gonna go take a delay a game I think they're a better football team from the seven or eight than they

would be from the two or three. I agree that completely, And I just think because they're tied in everything, more room just to you know, give those receivers a little bit more, you know, and if you if you play too far off, Tony Pollard seven yards eight might be able to get it if you know, on the right call.

So I just think with more room, I think they're a little bit better, which I think the caveat there is like if they actually plug Lyle in it left guard and he is this monster upgrade, maybe now you can bully people a little bit better, especially Connor McGovern jumbo tight end with Lyle Collins playing left guard. I would like to see that left side now gets really

really strong. I would like to see that. But if you're not going to do that, or maybe Elsie's just not as dominant as we remember him being, I think I think there's some like not that he wasn't good, but I do think there's some revisionist history there, Like there's that one play where he just pancaked three guys against Seattle and that's all anybody sees, and they think he was doing that every week. I don't think that's one hundred percent accurate, but maybe not, but I do.

I thought it was interesting you brought up yesterday on Media Match he wasn't alternate to the pro well that year. Like it wasn't like he was a bad player at all. He was. He played at that level as a right tackle as well. He's a very good offensive. He's just to get offensive. So if they do that and it works, I think that could change the way you play it down there. But I'm with Nick the way that we've seen it so far, I think more space is better.

I think missdirection is your friend. You know the play that I was so giddy about, the fake toss throw to Zeke jet action, like every time you snap the ball down there, just anything to buy yourself an extra hesitation. I think they need to be doing because the way what we've seen so far is I just don't think they're powerful enough to just dictate the terms when it gets down there. Okay, Rob Phillips he put together an article.

I don't know if you guys read it or not, but basically, if you take away some of those really really close calls, they would be ranking third in the league, and he listed in red zone defense, in red zone offense obviously, but he listed some of those and I'll read them to you guys. There would be touchdown pass to Cedric Wilson against the Patriots that got ripped out

in the past. Second yea to Dak Prescott quarter quarterback sneaks against the Patriots and Eagles that appear to go past the goal line, but we're in rule touchdowns, and that's when we talk about the microchips and all that um die Prescott throw to Dalton Shoals against the Giants, a bounce off his hands. If you guys remember that, it was pretty tight coverage but it just kind of ended up kind of being a drop and then a

fumble snap by Dak against the Giants. So according to those, if you take those away, that we're really really close calls. I mean, I don't know, but that goes to Day's point, right that it's about execution. But once again, when you're talking about red zone efficiency, most times it probably is about it about your ability to execute. But I think if you compare it to last year how they were,

I think they've improved a lot. I mean, now they're just they just seem to be right there to really really getting better and benefiting from those and getting into the touchdown zone. But compared to last year, I mean, they're right there, right, they're really improving, becoming. It just makes me, it just makes me nervous though, because I mean, so five trips to the red zone, score on two,

you don't score on three. So three trips to the red zone and you say you run two or three plays per possession, that's it's like eight snaps a game that make the difference between whether you score forty points or twenty four. And it's easy to just say, like, oh, they're so close, but like you gotta do it though,

I mean, that's the that's the tricky. The thing about this team different than last year is that you know you can get by with field goals a little bit more than you could have last year because they can score and their defense is going to take the ball away and not give up as many. So while you don't want to have you know, I don't want to settle for field goals whole game. They can't win that

many games. But you just want to make sure you don't have any empty trips because yeah, you'd like to have seven there, but you've got three you got there. You know the Chargers game as an example of that. I got a couple of field goals there. But it's like, you know, they're they're going to do enough to stay in these games. And so as long as you prevent the turnovers, you think you got an offense that's going to get enough volume to get back there again, score again.

Just don't do anything that that you know makes some mistakes. And that's why I thought when Dack threw that interception against the Patriots, you know, after that, it was a little bit more, Hey, everything's got to be the outside. We're not taking any more chances of turning it over. Of course they did with the fum pule them, but you know, I still think you got in on third down. If there was going to be one thing you would do that you'd focus on outside of execution, because I

do think execution is the big thing. If there's one thing you were going to focus on as a coach of getting them better in the reds on, what would it be more jumbo sets on offense? Um, you find me a defensive tackle that can play fullback, find me something that can you don't like govern the fine too. I'm okay with two of those, you know. I mean, I'm all right, you want to do a wishbone. I've seen the Bears, the Bears with I think it was Matt Naggy. I think the Bears put four defensive linemen

in a game one time. I just want to see Bohanna. I think he could do it. I don't know. I think it'd be fun, but but I think they need that. You know, if they're not going to play with a fullback, play with an un unconventional fullback, I go the other way. I say, wait, we'll just trick it up. And I don't. I'm not saying I want Cedric Wilson throwing, you know, throwing in the red zone. Although that's okay too, sure, as long as we're not doing it every time you

go down there. I just mean again, motion Tony Pollard or a receiver across the line as you go, like something to make the defense hesitate. How about a fricking You can't call it a screen in the red zone? Can you boat like a like what Gronkowski did in Week one? Dalton Schultz fakes block and then just loops back around like stuff like that, trick it up, misdirect the defense, give them something to pause on because what we've seen to this point, and again it could change

if they switch it up at guard. But I just don't think they are powerful enough to bully people, So don't try trick it up. Confuse them. Yeah, coming a meaning, what else can I add to that? You definitely need a combination of both and not be predictable. A lot of the times that they go in there and they're

so close, you just see that they don't move. So it's having that extra power right there on the offensive line to push them off and create some little bit of space and gap for somebody if that's Dak or the running back, to be able to get in. But a lot of times it's like hitting a wall and doesn't get them anywhere. So combination of power, bulk it up, push it, and then trick it up with someplace. Yeah.

I just like a concept that I feel like I don't see enough of in the red zone is mesh because this, Yeah, if you're unfamiliar, just two guys crossing each other in the middle of field. It's that easy. And if the field gets condensed, there's twenty two bodies in not a lot of yardage each other, You're more than likely going to pick somebody off just in the run of traffic. And I just that is a concept that I think would probably work more often than it wouldn't.

But I'm not a coach. Yeah, and now I think they do it sometimes. I'd like to I agree with you. I'd like to see them do it more. I think that is something that works in a condensed space. All Right, we appreciate you, guys, Joan Us. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll give you guys a good picture look at what we think is going to happen this weekend, Cowboys versus Viking Still then for Nick Even, Dave Helming, and Amber Garcia.

I am Derek Eagleton. This has been the Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio