Cowboys Break: Breaking Down the W

twenty one, season seventeen, episode number seventy seven. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break, live from the s WBC Morgan Studios at the Star. We appreciate you guys joining us. We got a break down the Cowboys win yesterday, a division win twenty seven twenty. There were a lot of things at that we went right for the Cowboys. There were just as many things I think that could have gone or it'd go wrong for them. We'll talk about all that in the course of today's show. We're

not joined today by Dave. Dave is traveling today, but we got a special guest Dan with us, mister Nate Newton talk a little football with him. Of course, we love getting Nick and Nate together because that goes back to the Nick and Night days when Nick and Nate used to used to be together back in the day of Valley Rent. So we ay glad to be here, man, And I first to say, Man, I guess Washington telling all the guys. You know, hey, man, we was there.

It was a moral victory. It was missing players. And so that moral victory thing is off of the Cowboys and back onto the risk, I mean reserves to reserve people. We'll see we started early, right, I'll just say we'll see. I mean if they if they win four in a row and to finish this season, then yeah, it certainly was. It was a moral victory. So we know that they happen to Thank you, Hey, Nick, real quick, give me a seventy seven. This is how we start off our show.

And Nick using gives me the show number. He gives me a player associated with the number seventy seven. Give me a player first, first player that comes to mind, the seventy seven. Well not for me. Yeah, that's a good one, actually, really good. His son actually just won the Great Cup in Canada. They just his team just won the Great Yeah, Jack, Yeah, that's the one. Jim, Jim Jeff Coote was well, I mean, obviously right now, you know this team doesn't function if they don't have

their seventy seven. Yes, it's Tyrn Smith. He's the guy. I remember we said if I could have one thing in the world, I would take his health. Does his health I think trickles to everybody else, and it's just not there right now. I hope he's going to be fine. I liked kind of the mannerisms I saw from him, but I don't think this is a long term thing. But I don't know if it's a short term thing either. All Right, we're gonna get to that. I want to talk a little bit later about injuries and where we

stand right there, particularly on the offensive line. Before we do, though, let's start with the big picture. Give me a storyline from this game. What is the big picture storyline you think coming out of this game? Well, for me, it was the I mean, they went up there and they hand of their business. I mean, it doesn't matter how it. You know, people say, well, it's not how you start, how you finish. I don't know about that. That's how you start, especially when you go and you lay the

SmackDown on them like they did. They they did. I mean, they absolutely kick Washington's ass up and down the field there. Now it's a division game. If they got any proud at all, they're gonna come back. And they did. And the Cowboys may let off something. But when they needed stops in the second half, they got it. Jordan Lewis with a fumble, Randy Gregor with the fumble, they got it. That defense led to them and they were a better team than Washington. They showed from start to finish they

were better and they won. Nate, what's your big picture story of the game, you know, But it's three things I always say. You know, I don't do it a lot on my show because I'm always the joke man. But you know it's. Yeah, it's football understand at which the universe Texas to get on page. But anyway you gotta go there, go ahead, good finishing, hey, But anyway, when you go on the road, there's three things you

have to have. And I believe it's my heart man, Coach Johnson bleed in the coach and landrul bleed in. It is when you go on the road, you got to have defense, you got to have a run game, and your special teams have to not hurt you. We had four field goals yesterday by Gregg's airline. Great job. We had great outstanding defense, I mean, dominating defense. Great job. And our run game. We had thirty five touches for one hundred and twenty two yards. A lot of people

don't the run game. Gotta get on track. The run game was there yesterday. When you have thirty five touches and your quarterback throw for thirty nine, that's almost a fifty fifty split, and so we don't want those extra fifteen touches to go to our quarterback. Who's who's having problems right now. So that was a great deal yourself. I'm with you, man. We came out with a victory. And this is the NFC East where wacky things happened. So we came out with a victory. I mean, that's

all that matters. There really is all that matters at this point. It's not about style points, it's not about anything anything else. I mean, and I think we've we've kind of under it. We've kind of thought that this offense is what's carrying this team and the defense is gonna be okay, And that's just shifted at this point. I mean, the defense is the better that's got the better players, it's got the guys that are that are

just difference makers. And something's wrong with that offense. I mean, there's no doubt that they were off scenc The quarterback is not on the same page with the receivers and it's just it's not there. But luckily, your defense is absolutely, you know, playing at an elite level. Now I'll say this, Taysom Hill and Taylor Heineken, you're not going to be in the playoffs, and if they are, they're not going to be there for long. So that's just it'll get

better than that. Kyler Murray is better than that. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, they're better than that. So it'll be challenged more. But you know, they took advantage of a crappy offense and they you know, they dominated the team. That I know and I think you guys know, is that the guys that we're talking about on defense are guys that can start for other defenses. They the guys that he just mentioned the teams that each one of

number eleven Parsons can start. Gregory can start, de Marcus Lawrence can start, Gallimo can be a hell of a role player because I don't know as much about him as the other guys. These guys can start. So what I'm saying is when we play these other teams, our level of defense can rise up. We know Gregory have much more to give. We know de Marcus, Lawrence and all of these guys have much more to give. Now our back end will be questioning. But the pressure we're

bringing up front, yeah, we can answer that offensively. I'm with you, Nick, offensively. Yeah, we have one thing to fix. If we can get we can get a hundred yards or maybe thirty carries or thirty touches from our backs. I'm good with that. One thing we have to find out is what's wrong with number four. Once we figure out what's wrong with number four, this offense is gonna roll number four four. Something is not right. I can't

figure it out. I'm not close enough to the players of coaches to tea create with that, So I'm not gonna make no speculations. We're gonna get to the offense in just a second, and we're gonna spend the majority of the show on the offense. I do want to give the defense it's due, though, you look at some of the numbers from yesterday. They only allowed two hundred and twenty four yards only one hundred and twenty four yards passing. They had five sacks, nine quarterback hits, three

fumble recoveries, an interception, and a touchdown. Defense was outstanding. Talk to me about how they used their players, because they had for the first game, really for an entire game, they had Gregory, they had Lawrence, they had Mica, they had them all out there. Gallimore was back there. How did they use that rotation with those guys? What were they doing with Mica? That may have been a little different than maybe what we've seen having those two pass

rushers now back. Well, you know, I have the same view as you did, and it wasn't always awesome. But no, from what it sounded like Mica, what it looked like was Micah was all over the place. I mean, I did notice him in probably three to four different spots. The only person that played more spots yesterday was Connor Williams. But I mean, I think for the most part it was just it was he was all over the place,

and that's what that's what it's designed to be. When Gregory's back and Darren's Armstrong's there, and of course Tank on the other side, and then you got Gallimore in there. You've got this roaming, you know, freelance linebacker who can just play everywhere. And that's what he is. And that's what I keep saying. I want the quarterback. I don't care if if it's Tom Brady or a guy like Taysom Hill or Heineke. I don't care who it is.

I want him to have to find eleven every time because I think back when when you were playing in the eight you know, eighties, late eighties, early nineties, and no matter who the quarterback was, Troy still had to find Lawrence Taylor, he had to find him, He had to find Rady Lewis. You have to find those guys. And I think that's the level that he's playing on.

You know, it's just amazing. Four weeks ago, hey man, he's a defensive van and I'm like, okay, all right, he's earned the right to be at the defensive in But y'all, you do not understand from an offensive lineman point of view that you walk up to the line, here's Gregory, here's the Marcus Lawrence, and he said, okay, boom. Now we're getting ready to set our protection, which one we think the most dangerous, you know, even with even with Gallimore sitting there. Oh, we're gonna turn to this

side because the extra pass rush is here. Then all of a sudden, you getting ready to turn from a left guard over here to help with the nose and to help with the defense. That's two on that's four on two. Guess what? Then this guy walked to my outside eye and I'm talking about number eleven, and I have to say straight, straight, straight, everybody's one on one.

Now you got to handle your dog over you and if you ain't right, bro, this is number eleven, I'm gonna hurt you because it's a race to the quarterback. Now you went from three on two, possible four on two to all of a sudden, he brained this dude, and only the right guard and the right tackle have a and you'll send his naked. I'm naked and my left tackle his naked. But I mean, we buy ourselves and you're running back. Ain't chip, Please clarify what's that?

Clarify what that means? Because we want we're one on one block. That good, we're one one block. You know, you know, yeah, I'm not gonna take my clothes off of him. But anyway, yeah about I was naked? Cool? Yeah, I mean you want you never know, you got to clarify. Okay, how you doing? Yeah? Hey, and but real quick, give us your your big picture. What do you take away from yesterday's game? You were watching it along with everybody else. What were your your thoughts as you watch the game?

And at the end of the game. My thoughts, well, I'm I'm starting to panic a little bit, to be honest, because every week since Dak got back from the injury, every week, you know, he'll miss some passes bink assistant and you're like, what's dyk, He's shown he can do it. He'll be better next week. Then another game comes by and you're like, all right, well they wont okay, well they can get better. You got your receivers back, this and that. So every week it's like, you know, you're

expecting them to get better. But then how many games has it been? And he's like, Okay, well maybe we're at that point where maybe it won't get better. So

right now I am very concerned. I wasn't before, but after last night games I'm like, Okay, maybe this is the time that we might have a serious problem at quarterback and you might not have the kind of quarterback that you thought you had and maybe and I see a lot of people on Twitter, you know, wondering if he's still dealing with something with the injury or something else that it's maybe affecting the way that he's performing on the field. But right now, I'm worried and they

should be worried too. All Right, We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, I want to dive into that topic and I want to ask you, guys, what do you think is the biggest problem right now for this offense, particularly Dak Prescott and why he is not playing at the level that we've been accustomed to seeing and play well. That one come right back this Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio at ATNC everyone new and existing customers get our best deals on every smartphone. Why,

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exceptions may apply. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with man. I'm Jay Novachek, and we're both with Turf, the official tractor provider of the Dallas Cowboys. So if you need a tractor to bail some hey, I'm more to cut some grass, or a gator to get some chores done, get a John Deer at unantagin Turf and then let's get to work. Hey Jay, that's my line, Well not today, get to work with a John Deer tractor package that's just right

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Second segment of the Break Life from the s WBC mortgage studios at the Star. Let's dive into the topic that I think most fans out there are thinking, and we're thinking yesterday, what is wrong with Dak Prescott? He was twenty two to thirty nine, fifty six percent complete ship percentage, two hundred and eleven yards, one touchdown, two interceptions that were kind of baffling even to me, and he took four sacks. What is wrong with Dak? I don't know. I mean, it's not something that you can see.

He's not limping. He's not he doesn't have like his arm isn't you know, hurt, He's not on Enturyport. Let me change the question. What do you see from Dak that's different now than earlier in the season when he was actually functioning at it? Consistency, inconsistency in his throws, in consistency in the timing, and consistency in getting first downs. I mean the three an ounce that is all you

need to know. I mean, that is ridiculous. In the first ten games of the season, they had nineteen I'm sorry, they had sixteen three and ounce sixteen times in ten games three and ouns an average, you know, one point six or whatever. They've had like twenty four in the last four, So they're averaging six a game now, six three and ouns a game. That's just I mean, that's actually consistent, which is terrible. Yeah, the fact that their defense can still play well under those kind of circumstances

even speaks even more highly of this defense. Amber. What do you think's wrong with Dak? I never thought I would say this, but I think he has lost his confidence and that's coming. That's coming me seeing a guy that from the moment he was a rookie and had to step into that job, he has shown confidence one

thousand percent. I feel that what I watched yesterday, I could tell that he's not that same confident guy because we've seen him play bad at times miss strows, but he'll go right back in it and he'll continue playing like the last play it never happened, and he'll keep his focus going. But this time around, you can see him kind of hesitating, you can see him out of his comfort zone, just nervous, just not that same confident

guy that we've seen all alone. So I think that Nate has some good points about his mental aspect that that could be very concerning. If that's the case that it's all mental, because how do you fix that? You know, I don't know how you fix it, no more than you get into yourself, getting into your coaches, getting into your people that you trust. But you know I was selling Heckman earlier. I said when Dad it bothered me at the game as well, just trying to make a

play that picks. You don't have to make a play. You got two minute horses, brother, Just get them the ball. I looked at Tom Brady over time last night. Just throw a crossing right route that went like sixty yards. Just get your horses the ball. And this is what bothers me is rookie Dak. You couldn't have made him throw that ball in a thousand years. And so go into what missus Garcia is saying. That is it He's lacking that that smoothness, that confidence that hey, another play

will pump another play. He ain't thinking like our normal rational Dak. Don't force nothing. You don't have to. You got two minute horses to have to force something. So it could be the confidence thing. You know, do you think that maybe maybe what it is he's kind of a victim of his own success. And what I mean by that is you get away with doing things when things are rolling, and you you take some chances and you maybe throw some balls and they end up getting converted.

You're throwing down fill into some situations maybe you shouldn't have, but they get converted, and you are thinking, I think I can do this. I think I can do this, rather than just take what's there, make the right throw and then live to fight another day. You think maybe Dad could be a part of it. Yeah, I mean, I think it comes down to it reminds me of last year when Dad got hurt and then Zeke. The next three or four games, he was fumbling a lot.

He wasn't himself. You could tell he was he was pressing, was forcing the issue. He's never had this before. He's never had to take to carry at all. And I thought that interception it was a perfect example of that. He has no running game. They can't run the ball. It doesn't matter who's the running back. Those old offensive linemen in the center is not going to push that pile so they can't run it. They'll close out this game. He feels like he's got to get first down and

make a play. He doesn't have to do that. Take a sack, keep a clock going, make him burn the time out. I mean I put some of that on Kellen. Why are you throwing the ball anyways? I mean the clock is your best friend at this point. I mean, you're are up by thirteen points. Just you know, just pump the ball. If you're watching the game, Corey Clemence is having some type of success at the end of

the game. It's not always about trying to tell people sometimes that three yards and the cloud of dust is all you need because the clock is continue to move. Now you have to go back into Okay, well, a three yard pass right here to Cede Lamb, a four yard pass here to Cooper. The clock it's moving and pressure is mounting on them. You gotta understand that they defense is trying to get us out the field, but for every four yards we get, they put them in

a panic mode. I don't and so wow, it just you know, I don't see where you have to panic. And I promise you if we can give the ball, try running backs thirty five times and come up with our one hundred and twenty yards one hundred and ten yards. You know, the average may not be great, but the time of possession will mount up and that will give our defense a fresh defense, and they will make plays. They will make plays. But let me ask you this, I'm gonna challenge you a little bit on that name.

When you all, when you're going three yards in a cloud of dust, if you're getting two three yards on a carry, you're still gonna need to pass in order to get that first down. And that seems and that seems to be their problem. Is yeah, they can pick up that two or three yards on any given run, but on the passing downs they're not being able to convert. And I know after the game, Mike McCarthy said, you know,

we gotta get better in our control passing game. You know, when they take away the deep ball, we we got to be able to make things work in that type of scenario. The first question came to my mind is if they're taking away the deep bat pass, that means they probably got two safeties back. So if they got two safeties back, why are you having a hard time running against a seven man box like you ought to be able to run in that kind of scenario. That

should be favorable for you. If they want to take away the deep ball, they got to give something up for that, and giving something up for that means you should be able to run. But they're not being able to run at a clip that can allow them to keep the change moving. But you know what I'm talking about running maybe first down, maybe down. I'm talking about the run. The run to me is always the second option. Dak ought to be able to look up and say,

two safeties back. Now we all know if two safetists back, the middle of that field is free. Who's better than CD Lamb. I don't know. We haven't seen him going up to seem in a while. Yeah, I would just cross cross him in gallup, take a take CD on a long post and bring eighty six the young Bay shots right up under there and let him run a why option that Jason Jason went and greatest play forever. Let him run a wy option. It's they are refusing to throw the mid range game. You have to throw

the mid range game. And I'm not saying Dak is Tom Brady. I am not saying that. But guess who had to learn that? The kid, the kid in Casey say, you know what I'm about to learn to cut you about thousand cuts exactly. I don't have to get it all play. Yeah, Dak has to go into that same mentality. Now every time you see him, it's twenty thirty yards. Its submit range game. And now that says, here's fifteen to twelve yards, let's take advantage of it. I'm just

looking at this. I mean I put I'm put more on Kellen now than I did before. Yeah, that's ridiculous. I mean it's four. They snapped that ball with four twenty four to go and back through an interception. You're up thirteen points. You should have run the football around second and six. You just got four yards with Corey Clement like like Nate saying, so with second and six with four to twenty four to go, you run two in a row. If Rivera wants to cause timeout's great.

If he doesn't, then you're punting the ball with three eighteen to go, up thirteen points against Kyle Allen and whoever is playing quarter your defense playing off the charts. Yeah, I mean it so it was so bad or so good, depending on how you want to say it. That I said this to you in the press box. I have more confidence with the Cowboys defensive backs getting interceptions than I do the Cowboys making catching the ball. I mean I thought, I mean they were gonna make more plays

on defense. Now we got to be careful. We don't know if that was a call run and and Dak checked out of it. We don't know that, but it certainly was whoever made that decision. True, you got to question that decision a little bit. But it comes a point. As a head coach and as an offensive coordinator, you say, when you say, don't no, check with me that run to play and see that that and I go a step further. Zeke, I love you, but no, see players.

When you start letting players run this ship that ain't been to the top of the mountain, explain that. What do you mean? Zeke? No, Zeke, No, you're not playing. No, you're not playing. See him down, dragging him off the field, like said, yeah, consider yourself, drug chin. I don't look like yeah, yeah, I'm just for the good of the team. For because one thing I did not know just looking at film and looking at TV. Homeboy was a cartoonist.

The quarterback for the for Washington Reserves. He's a cartoonist. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You you look at number four, the original number four for Green Bay. You ain't that, and Neville will be that. You just a rubber arm, that's all you are. Because this defense showed you see, when you have a playoff caliber defense or defense that played on a on a in a caliber, high caliber way, you find out who the real guys are. And he's not real. Yeah,

I hope he plays in two weeks, Yes, sir. I mean because every time Kyle Allen got in the game, I was like, yeah, I'm the same dude that game to ATNT Stadium, Lascari. Yeah that was Alex Smith was at the first game, first game at home. Yeah, first game, LA. So he was scared. He was. He was a little bit more scarier than the other guy. Yeah, when he first came in, you and I both thach other like, I don't know, I don't know about this. I'd be happy,

Well get him back whatever. Heineke was held to start the game. He was a little bit different after a number eleven laid on him and hurt him and forced the fumble. Like that play right, there was a huge play in the game. Now only did he get him a touchdown to make it eighteen nothing, but he wasn't feeling too good after that and um, you know, I mean it was just it was that right there. I mean, I saw two of the best defensive plays we've seen

in a long time. But I mean, I don't know where we're gonna get to Randy Gregory, but that, to me was the greatest defensive player that I can remember seeing ever. I mean that I couldn't stop just thinking that was a phenomenal play. I'm talking about the intercept. No, that was gonna be the other one. I thought he was gonna mention those are the two plays in that game to me defensively, while I was like, those were

just phenomenal athletes. A hat trick. He got a hat trick in hockey that's three goals in one game or soccer or whatever. He bull rushed his guy, got a sack, hurt the quarterback, hurt the center. Yeah, and he's not trying to hurt anyone, but I mean, but he went through he went through both guys. Yeah, and you know this, Yeah, thirty fourteen weeks, thirteen years right in a while, guy like the guy just to run over a guy. Yeah, Okay,

I mean it's been a while since Ratliffe. Maybe do you hear the show this morning on the fan, when I was talking a fan, they asked about when the last time the guys have been like this? And I kind of forgot about Ratliff. I should have mentioned him. But when's the last time that they've had this kind of success with all these different weapons on defense like that? And I really don't think it's it's it's it was

probably too tall, Harvey Martin and Randy White. It was probably that because they tried with the Marcus ware to make that and rat Luff and Canty and spearits, but it just didn't work. They weren't that dynamic. This the thing that makes these dudes different. The one thing that makes them different is they all show up when we need the play. We've had guys that come in hire and be like, Okay, you got two sacks and no fumbles, no turnovers, came off. It was early in the game.

It's the fourth quarter. We need somebody to make This is the difference in this defense. You get to the end of the game. Back back when we've had some of these other guys, you'd be like, oh, they had two sex and you don't even really remember it because it was inconsequential to some degree, these guys are making players and moments they need. And I'm gonna gohea and say it right now, like this is I don't care what's happening with the offense. They're gonna have to figure

it out. But this is the kind of formula that the New York Giants won the Super Bowl with. They had, they had that NASCAR package where they put those guys on the field who could all get after the pastor, and they wrote it all the way to championship. Beat three of the top offenses in the league that year in the playoffs to ride that to a championship because they had such a dominant front on defense. That's what this defense can be if they can stay healthy and

they can keep playing at the level that they're playing. Arose. It was rounded by Eli Manning. I mean, they weren't all right, they weren't great. They certainly weren't great, but they just kind of had to make a player two here or there each game. But that defense was smothering. That was the defense that came in here and beat the Cowboys when that offense that year was one. I mean,

they were really really good. Now, I think they also beat Green Bay and it was one other team they beat that was a really good offense that year in the in the in the it'd be like Tampa and I mean New England. They beat New England and yeah, yeah they were good, they were nice. Yeah they're pretty good. So yeah, this matter. But you're right though, this team can do that. This team can win. They can't. They can win the Super Bowl. They really can't. I mean,

every everybody's got their flaws, everyone's everyone's got issues. It's gonna get to the tournament and you gotta see what happens. But this defense is good enough to make plays. And their offense, I mean, yeah, they're not playing well, but I'll take my chances. I'll take my chances on an offense that's been ranked number one most of the year. Now they're struggling now, But you know, I was thinking about that this morning. I mean, cold weather is gonna

factor into some of these games. There's one spot that's gonna be cold. And you know that the Cowboys are going there because of McCarthy. You know, you know it's gonna happen. They're probably to go to Green Bay. But I'm just saying Tampa, I mean Arizona, La you don't have to go to La probably unless they win to

Night and beat Arizona. But the counter are hoping for hope. Well, when you start thinking about it like you want Arizona to lose because then you have an opportunity to beat Arizona as well, that pulls it back into the pack. Because that's the one thing you can remember about the Cowboys. If you get into a full tie where all those teams in the top four or five are in a tie, Cowboys, I think I want to say the first tiebreak is yeah,

it's it's up. It's gonna be division first, and then it's gonna yeah, but it's gonna be division, and then it's going to be your record in the conference. Dallas's losses, by and large I come against the AFC. Most other teams are not like that. So this is actually there is a path for the Cowboys if they can keep winning. But again, they're playing some bad teams down the stretch. If they can keep winning, they certainly will be in position and starts with they need Arizona to lose that

game to Night. But let's go and take our final break. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit more about this offensive line. Particularly, I want to talk about Tyren Smith, where he is from a health standpoint, and what that means for this team. If he is if he has to miss some time, We'll do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. I want to use what the pros use. How about the official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black.

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our best deals on every smartphone. Why because you deserve it for turning your living room into your office and your gym. We're teaching Grandma had a video call and teaching her again. It's the button on your left Danna, okay, your other laughs. It's not complicated. Everyone deserves something new, So ATNC is given everyone new and existing customers are best deals with every unlimited plan on every smartphone, even the latest ones. Eighteen team a temporreli's ldate his beach

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the final segment of the Break. Life in the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Let's talk a little offensive line. We got Nate Newton with us, so of course we need to talk some offensive line. The Cowboys yesterday gave up four sacks. They ran the ball, as you said, Nate, you thought they did okay with the running game. Obviously, the number of times they were able

to run kept the clock moving in some instances. Certainly weren't able to run it to the level that I think we want them to be able to run, especially if your passing game is not working. That all being saying, how would you have? What did you what did you see from the offensive line yesterday? Let's start with your nick Be honest, I think they play it okay. Uh, when you're dealing with Jonathan Allen and the round pain, that's different. Brother. That that's Pro Bowl, all pro level.

That's first round picks that have not you know, have not failed. And so even though there's missing two outside guys and Sweat and the other kid, Chase Young, they still had a fortified front and then and they were good. So I knew we weren't gonna move the ball for what we got yesterday was perfect. So the offensive line does not bother me. Now we talked about off air, which left guard we want. I don't have a problem with either one of them. But what you cannot have

going down the stretch is these penalties. We gotta cut out the costly penalties, the holdings, you know, the all sides, we gotta we can't have that. And so that's what I think they sked over Connor, is that that that at the wrong time, we're gonna get that holding and it's gonna cost us dearly. And that's what they're skeed up that happened in this game. I mean an eighteen to nothing pinned back there a little bit deep ball to uh gallop right from forty five yards and it

was holding. I mean, Lyell was holding his guy. Um. But you think I got passed got off if he didn't hold like the guy was coming. Do you think he gets to dock if he didn't hold. Maybe, I don't know. It just can't happen. It cannot happen. And the funny thing that is Lyle has fallen so far. He worked so hard to get that right hand going now to just use that right hand. He was punching before he got hurt. He was punching with that right

hand and dropping. He was playing Pro Bowl ball and now within within a year and a half with the COVID and in the operation, man, he's just a catcher. He's still physical, he's still mean, but he's a catcher. And it's gonna cost you down the stretch. You know, is that something you in your experience as a as an offensive linement, is that something that he still can get back to the level that he was, so you can get back to it. But now is he is he limber? Is he he had flexibility in his hipskin?

He twitched and turn and that's what I'm scared he can't do. So now you got still who's not as strong, not as physical, but he plays with technique and technique to save you down the stretch. You know, I think there's something else I think we need to talk about too, with the offensive line, and Nate is perfect to talk about that too, because he was a part of it

back in the nineties. You know, when there's there's other team in some big, bad bullies that got your number and they feel like they own you and you have to take it. You have to take it back. And I know that. You know they didn't play as great in the offensive line, but there was something that happened in that game that can't be overlooked. Okay, because a year ago Andy Dalton got hit and everybody's sitting watching him by how that looked like that hurt dang And

they didn't do a damn thing. They didn't do one thing about that. In all fifteen yards, you're rejected, like, oh, okay, who's in now? De Nucci? This time that gets pushed out of bounds. Zeke goes after him, and Lionel says, I don't give an f I'm going over there to head, but this guy punched him. I don't know what's gonna happen, but that right there, to me was a turning point and a lot of things. You're not gonna come over

here and bullet us around and push us around. We came into your house, but kicked your ass, and we're gonna keep kicking your ass. I thought that was a huge, huge point and it could take I could carry this team on for a while. Believe I know you were asking for it. You get an opportunity to talk to life. I did talk to like, what do you have to say about all that? Hey said, I'm gonna protect my

quarterback at all. Hold on getting Nate to talk about this, and I'm gonna I'm gonna read the quote because I can't paraphrase. That is good and I have it right. Nate O. There times as an offensive lineman where you say I don't care if I get kicked out of the game. I gotta make a point. I was. I was the easy at all of our officive line. I was the most easy going guy you know and then want no problems. But they knew. Everybody knew that. Okay, big Neon, They'm gonna do that, and he gonna play

his game. He's gonna be physically gonna try to mal you. But if you touch Troy, you touch Mike, you touch him and in the wrong way, his own, his own, and its popping. And see the thing about it, I ain't gonna I ain't gonna fight you, ain't gonna we ain't fin the tussle. I'm just gonna look at his name at homeboy, you got to watch out for the rest of the game. Protake your ankles, protaking I'm telling them.

They looking at me and I'm saying, now, you may think it's a joke, but you better look out for the rest of the game. And when I roll up on him, you know, three hundred and thirty pounds rolling up on your on your knee ain't nothing nice. Because they knew I don't play that way. But if you touch my boys, because that was my money maker off. You know, I was like, I had three Super Bowl tickets, but then I get extra super Bowl tickets. Yeah, I'm

gonna let you hurt my money makers. But yeah, all right, So I asked, I, like, y'all about the hit on the sideline. He said, it wasn't really the late hit for me. It was more or so. I felt like he was rolling towards Dak's leg. It was on called for. I'm here to protect my quarterback at all costs, and that's the bottom line. It sounds like the rock here. But I asked them, you saw the play last year with Andy Dalton. He said, I was at home in my bed when I saw that play. It irked me.

It made me feel some kind of way. You don't take cheap shots on guys. We don't play that type of game. We line up and go out there and play ball. We don't play dirty, we don't do none of that. At the end of the day, We're not gonna take no bullshit. That's what he said. And I apologize for that, but I mean that that's what he said. We could beat it out, we want to, but that's that's what it comes down to. And they end up

taking that crap. They didn't take those crappy benches. They put that off the side and not gonna take the crappy play like that. I thought it was very, very important to establish that and and you know, we'll see what happens to play him again Christmas tay after Christmas. Oh yeah, that this thing just got ratcheted up one more notchet Really, what you think about those two go ahead? I mean, yeah, I great, protect your quarterback or whatever,

but I want to see them play better. I don't care about that ruffling, pushing, punching when you're hitting a helmet at the end of the day, hurt your hand. I don't know. I've never been in that kind of fighting before, but have you ever been any kind of fighting before? Not really good but and I hopefully keep

it that way. But you know, this whole thing is very confusing to me because initially, first half of the season, we look at how the offense was playing and we were just like, Okay, the only thing we really gotta fix here is red zone and the old line, you know,

Connor Williams and all that. And then all of a sudden, you look at what they are now, and although they seem very close to be in that kind of offense again, dynamic scoring points and all that, it seems so far at the same time, because not only is it the old line, you got you're now talking about the running game, You're now talking about Dak Prescott, You're now talking about Kellen Moore and the amazing playbook that he had put together in such a creative guy. Where did that all go?

So it's just it's hard to fig around exactly how I feel right now with this offensive, with the offense in general, because like I said, it seems very fixable, but it doesn't at the same time, and you look at the teams that they've been going up against lately, and I've learned my lesson never never underestimate an opposing team, no matter how they've been playing. In this season, I have learned that. But now we can talk about the past games, you know, looking at those teams and how

they played, I feel it's it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing the way that Dallas has been performing in the past few weeks. And this last last stretch of the season. We got the division opponents and you look at them, You're like, Okay, yeah, they can go and be the Giants very well. But then are you getting better? Like, yeah, you can't get better. But it makes me wondering question, Okay, how is this gonna really look once you start facing playoff opponents. And

I get it. The defense it's playing well, but you can't just rely on your defense either, you know, I get it. You just talked about that, and many people say defenses win championships, don't get Michael Ervis thought on that, by the way, he don't believe it. But I mean, at some point you need your offense to perform and

you need your and your defense can get tired. And yeah, you can have the explosive guys and this three headed monster which we are all in for and love and are really looking forward to see what else can they do. But it's just it sucks right now. I'm excited, but then it's like, what are we doing? I don't know. I'm just very mixed feeling. It doesn't suck, And I mean that's your opinion, and I respect that, but like, I don't think it's embarrassing and I don't think it sucks.

I think it's December football on the road. You've won two road games in a row. It doesn't have to be pretty. It won't be pretty. It won't be pretty this time of year. But I mean, you go on the road with this banged up team as this has been it's been dysfunctional, and it's not. This won't be like this. This offense won't won't be a team that can go to the Stuper Bowl. Like I said that a couple of minutes ago, the offense is gonna have

to turn it around to do that. But I'm just saying I believe that that this this is winning football. Like they are figuring out ways to win. Uh, they figured out a couple ways to lose, you know, but they they played, they were battling against Kansas City that that wasn't gonna happen. They're battling against the Raiders. Raiders that Raiders suck, right team, But they beat the A bad loss, there's no doubt about it. That's bad loss. You can say all you want. If they had any receivers,

they would have been all right. But they didn't, and they lost. No one cares about what Washington had. No one cares about what you didn't have. No one cares about that lost. So they lost. So that's your opinion. If you think it's embarrassing that, I don't think so, because I just feel like, hey, they figured out I mean, this is a three game stretch on the road. That's the first thing we saw when the schedule came out. Well I did, I'm like three in a row in December.

You gotta kidding me. And they've won two of them right now they have a good chance to win three. And I think that's great. But I'll say it again, it is embarrassing and it does suck. And like I said, yeah, everyone can have their opinion. But how I see it is when you look at this roster, you look at all the talent all the way down from receivers. We praised about the tight end position, how well they were playing. We talk about the talent on the old line, despite

the mistakes that they've made. But you look at just the roster of a law overall and see the way that they're performing, that does suck. Before we end the show, real quick, Nate, I want you to tell me, and I've always had this belief that all teams, championship teams included, all teams have portions of their season where there are challenges, where there are moments where everybody's like, man, this team

and they got some problems. Go back to those nineties days, because we all in retrospect look back at those days as the Chlory days, everything was great. Did y'all have part portions of seasons Yeah, where it was like, man, everybody's looking at your sideways like, man, that team, I don't know, they're not championship quality, they're not doing this.

Did y'all have that? And how did y'all manage to work through that to get back to a level where you then in the playoffs were playing at a championship level. The only problem this team has and we're like, okay, obviously I'm finished state something that's so simple. The only problem that this team has is they have never played two or more consistence weeks on a high level to

know where they're at. They don't know where they're at, and they don't know how good they are, and they're gonna have to somehow in the next three or four weeks find that. So if they get into the playoffs, you got to know who you are. And what kept us, man, is those three guys I told y'all hurt somebody about. They knew that level. The coaches knew that level. Everybody's trying to find out who they are. We know who Michael Parsons is, we know this young guys just playing lightside.

We know that right there. But the rest of the team, they don't know who they are. They don't know how good they can really be. And we've had some guys had some success in college, but it's in college. So until they have that two or three game stretch where they'd be like, boy, we we as a team laid and own somebody, they just don't know. They just don't know. All. I appreciate you, guys, Jonas. We'll be back tomorrow. We're

gonna get into some big picture items. We'll talk about this NFC and where the Cowboys stand there and what has to happen this weekend and maybe next to maybe wrap up the division. We'll talk about that tomorrow. Till then for Nick Keapman, Amber Garcia, Nate Newton. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been Davel on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.