Cowboys Break: Buc the Trend?

was gonna say Derek. Brian brought us completely different person. Derek won't be joining us today, but we we got us three to get the show going. And before we getting to think Oh, by the way, presented by meler Lie the only beer of the Dallas Cowboys, and we before we get the show started. Word on the street is that someone is a year older today, and that's someone our producer. Yeah, Chris Ban, Chris Beam, I feel Chris, I feel old. Are you are you keeping score of

like how many people on this show? Like different shows? Because you're gonna do what nine of these today? Eight eight eight? Like I mean, I'm sure talking cowboys And did they bring it up. Yes, at the end of the show they did oh, somebody came in late. Oh, well, well, you know, the earliest I got was brought us this morning about midnight. That's kind of weird. Saw it on Facebook watching tape. I was watching tape and it Yeah,

it just popped up on my birthdays. One of the great things about Facebook is having people's birthdays if you follow him. So yeah, it's kind of cool. So yeah, I said happy birthday, and I didn't know Beam was. He was probably up watching something too. He's probably up playing games. Yeah, I just got finished playing game. Well, happy birthday, Chris. And speaking of playing games, the Cowboys do have to play a game, first game of the

postseason wild Card weekend. We obviously know who the opponent is and we'll get into the Tampa's defense, which is Cowboys offense later in the second segment. But I wanted to start the show asking you guys about practice. We know that Mike McCarthy since the month month of December, he's talked about the difference in how he handles practice. After the game in Washington, he did mention in the in the press conference, he was like, well, I take

all the blame. It's on me. I think we need to practice this better and prepare better during the week. So yeah, me thinking, we know how he's changed to where now sometimes they're not going full paths during practice or going through walkthroughs, or spending more time in the film room and in the rooms with each group of people just planning. Yeah and all that. Do you feel that the way that they've kind of changed the way in the practice in the month of December has actually

hurt them in games? You know what? I think, to me, this is how I look at that. McCarthy likes to try and keep his teams as fresh as he can. That's important to him. At the end of the year. I think that the only team and I might be wrong about this because again I cover this team, but this team went through three game stretch in twelve days twice, didn't they with Thursday games, Thanksgiving games, you know, games

on a Saturday game, a Sunday game. I think his schedule got really messed up for him late in the year, and I think that was something that he was trying his best to navigate. I'm one of those teams. I'm one of those guys though that and I understand this on when you're watching a game and the first thing comes to your mind is did they even practice this week? By the way, you know, some of the mistakes and things, and you're like, what, they're not working on this stuff?

You know, I've had I've had guys around the league, you know, you know, tweet at me or text me and say that this team even practice, you know, and so yeah, they do. The problem is he's trying to manage the way the games have been falling for him. And I don't think it's a normal week to week to week that That's the one thing that these coaches and players, they get so used to routine, and when routine gets kind of messed up, it throws them off.

And I'm not using as an excuse, but I just think they were a team that late in the year they dealt with some some scheduling challenges. I think we're

the biggest thing. Yeah, And I we talked about it every year about you know, once you get to Thanksgiving, the last month of the season, month and a half is just completely different with you know, even our schedule here like for this podcast, like we're all like we're like we're doing it right now, We're moving it around because you know, McCarthy's press conference has moved around a little bit, and we understand how this week is different,

but it's all it's a lot of those. It's a couple of Thursday games, you got Monday games, you got Saturday games, you got Sunday night games. I mean, everything kind of changes. And I think that McCarthy will sacrifice practice so to make sure that his team is healthy and off their feet as much. And with everything, it comes, you know, with a price, and the price is is not practicing as much. And then I think sometimes it shows if you had to choose, like a percentage, how

much is the difference. I'm like, how your week is reflected and how you play during a game. But yeah, he says it all the time, like the games are one on Wednesday Thursday. You know it's not one. I think I'm not missing, but yeah, depending like you know, those practices on Wednesday Thursday. I'm trying to get used to. For ten years, we all dealt with a Jason Garrett schedule.

You know, it was very regimented. You knew exactly with McCarthy, you don't know, And like I say, I think there's you talk to people in the organization they say he the best thing he does is trying to keep the team. Not not the best thing, but one of the positive things about him is trying to keep the team healthy. That's coming from the medical people. I mean, I mean you talk to them like it Oxnard and stuff like, man, your team, what do you what you really like about

Mike does a great job. He thinks about the players, he thinks about their health. He thinks about how we're going to go forward here. So yeah, I think that these practices is like when you when you start to install and put in stuff on, you know, on Wednesday Thursday, you know how you practice Fridays kind of like okay, we're gonna do some goal line stuff, finishing touch stuff. You know that you really have to focus on those

Wednesdays and Thursdays. The things that these games come down to, you know, third down defense, you know, you know the third down offense. You know, those are the things that are now, you know, winning these football games. It's ability to stand the field, ability to get off the field if you if you have bad days on Wednesdays and Thursdays, that affects I remember watching practice as a scout, and and and we can do it too, because we've done

it before training camp. So I'm not excluding you guys from this. But how many times have you ever seen coaches say repeat the play please now when you're repeating plays on a Wednesday or on a Thursday. And I remember it during the the Mike Nolan administration when we were here watching practice some there was a lot of the there were a lot of busts, Rob Ryan, there were busts during practice and you're like, coach, guys, that again, please, coach,

can I see that again? But if that's happening during practice, it's likely to happen in the game. You know you're gonna make a call. I'man sure there was a I'm

sure that Kellen Moore has made calls that. You know some of the interceptions like the screen the past that got in the Philadelphia game that got intercepted, you know every time the one to dacked through that when uh, you know Sweat went up and got the and got the ball that in practice, I'm sure they ran in a couple of times and it just kind of clicked along good and Tack McKinley didn't try and intercept the ball like you know, it didn't like extend and make

a great catch. So now you're like, wait a minute, we practiced this play all week with a defensive ends not going to make a brilliant play on me like that. So that's that's the issues we're running into practice. You can tell when a team is struggling getting I remember as a scout watching practice and going, we got no chance this week, just because I saw how many mistakes and coach, can I see that again play? You know,

some could like Garrett would just power through it. You know you make it mistake, but other coaches will you know, I need to see that coach. My players don't understand what's going on here. And you know, the later it gets in the week, the more likely you are to have a mistake on a Sunday or a Monday, for sure. Well, yesterday they did practice, and when we spoke, we've been waiting to see Layton Hankins and then be odd ish, Yeah, is there any progress there on the field happening with

those three guys. Well, McCarthy Usually we do this after McCarthy and we had to flip. So McCarthy will still talk later today. And because of the way the schedule is, they didn't have to do an official injury report, so we won't get one of those until later Today will be the first one of the week, like a Wednesday, since it is Thursday. So well, I don't really have the answers for you there officially, but I do think

that Hankins and I guess be honest, is ready to go. Yeah, they're thinking so I will definitely and Hankinson Layton for sure, I think are gonna be. Yeah. I think Nick is absolutely right about that when you look at the injury to be oddish by the time they get him ready or he's starting to get it. I was told like, it's eighteen days that he's had now since the injury, the time off another week, another day. I mean, trainers look at this, and I've learned this over the years,

been dealing with a lot of them. They don't look at days. They look at hours. Okay, now hours make up days, but every hour that they can steal to get a player ready, that's what they look at. It's like, you know, if you ask him right now and say, hey, Jim Mauer playing on Monday, good for you? Goes you know, yeah, for injury, sure, because it's more hours that they have to. I'm not ready right nowt at eight, but I'll be ready on nine. Yeah, right out about nine, I'll be set.

But the more hours, yeah, the more hours, because that's the you know, that's the Britt Brown on the chords out here, you know, that's the that's the opportunity to see. Like when you watch Beyotish, I'm sure when he's on the cord, what BRIT's trying to work with him on is the lateral stuff. You know, he's also has to

work with him on. You know, the one thing with a high ankle sprain that they'll tell you with offensive lineman is when and especially when when we're talking about a guy like Vita Vea and everybody out there that watches our podcast know when you talk Tampa Bay, they think of this this mammoth Winnebago in the middle of the defense that doesn't move. You know that he just you know, you fight him all day and that's and that's and that's the problem that you run into a

Keen Knicks is another one of those guys. You run into those big bodies. And so if you're if you're if you're just trying to sit down and just take these guys on. The pressure you put on that ankle is tremendous. So BRIT's trying his best. I'm sure to get Beyotish's ability to handle the pain of sitting on it. And then also though, they're gonna have to run the football and that means lateral and that means him pushing off and then getting up on these linebackers and things

like that. But that, you know, eighteen days since, so that that's that's they're looking at as a positive right now. Think about it, if you hurt your ankle on us on a Sunday morning at ten am and you're like, hey, I gotta go just you know, I gotta go play here in a couple of hours, or I gotta wait till you know, Monday night, and completely different. And so like you said, Thursday, Thursday game against the Titans, that's two weeks today, Yeah, four more days and till till

Monday nights. Yeah, I mean everyone's kind of complaining. I think it's ridiculous that the league does a Monday night game for for pres for a playoff game. But I'm sure in this particular case in the in the Bucks are probably the same way. They probably got some guys that they they you know, a few extra hours are helping. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking about that. I'm like, because it is unfair having a Monday night game when you're talking about

the playoffs. But when you look at guys you're really really needing to come back, that even that one extra day can do a lot. You'll hear it more next week when whoever it is Tampa or Dallas when they go play if they go play cross country to San Francisco, who had a who played on Saturday and has two extra days for you and you really didn't do anything starting doing anything until Tuesday morning. See, that's when it'll

it'll be. That's what the complaints. Yeah, the league, the league will tell you that, you know, just go play. But the Rams won a Super Bowl. Go on this route last year, same thing. Yeah, they did the same thing playing on a Monday night against Arizona and then went and did I think I have that right? And they'll also say, well, wait a minute, Tennessee got a ton arrest, Jacksonville played on a short week that Jacksonville played on a Sunday, then played on the Saturday night

and won that game. So the league really doesn't have any care about what you think. I mean, you could, you could complain about it. But the thing about it is the extra day. If you're a Cowboy fan, on the front end, it helps you for this game. On the back end, you know, probably means you're gonna play late on Sunday. If if you had to really either that or you know, they wouldn't make you play Saturday night. I don't think or anything like that. Yeah, you're probably

gonna play late Sunday afternoon. I would be my guest if you if you win this game, they'll get to probably put you late Sundays. What my guests would be and if not fishing, Yeah, fishing, basketball and average games. Yeah, exactly when I saw Yeah, I saw the Pelicans play the other day. You went to the maps. I go to the maps. I like the maps. I like the maps games. They're fun. They got in who's their second

best player? Uh? Depends some nights on the night. Yeah, Spencer did what He's probably their second best player right now. Mavericks talk care on playoff week. Yeah, okay, we're not We're not there though yet. I'm not. I still I still think, I mean, I think this is It's gonna be a great, really great game. I really think it's I think so. I think the Cowboys are gonna play a really great game, but I think Tampa will too. I'm I think this is gonna be a good football game.

I believe that. I think that Brady, as great as he is, I do think he'll bring out the best in his players. They haven't had a great season. That they're challenged obviously, but I think that they're going to bring it. I don't think they're as talented as the Cowboys, but I think that they'll play a great game. And that's why I think it'll be a fun one. The one thing is why you have this quarterback is you're right that Dallas is a better team. Yeah, the quarterback

is what makes you know. You look across the field and he comes running out and he does his Tom Brady yelled to the crowd and now and then you realize, oh damn, we're about to play this guy. You know that's sometimes psychologically when you see that, you just it freaks you out. And hopefully Dallas has done enough. They played him now the last couple of times opened the season with him both times, so it's you know you've opened, you've played there, and you've played you know, you played

on a nighttime game too. You know when you went there, you were a Thursday night game, and so after a super Bowl and so that height of that opened in the season. There maybe not a lot of guys on this team that were there, but some do remember that, and so you have to be at least it's not like you're playing Tom Brady for the first time in like five years. You're playing you've seen him the last couple of years, and so you kind of know what

you're up against. You guys know, I know we have to go and break but real quick, you guys know, I like to be like receptive of whatever vibe is happening in the environment and just like feeling that energy. And it's weird this week because I don't know how to interpret or how to feel about how he feels in the building, because it doesn't feel like a playoff week, Like it doesn't feel like we're about to go play Tampa Tom Brady in the first week of the playoffs.

And that's not to say that people are just walking around not carried or just tuned out, completely checked out from the season. No it's it's just I guess because of how things turned out and how the year ended, well, the season with Washington, it just changed the whole mood and roment. I think twenty six or twenty seven years will do that to you. And I think there's I think there's there's that, there's that unknown now, there's that nobody wants to get their heartbroken again. Nobody wants to

commit and maybe not in the building. I know from working on one Hi five three the fan and we all hear on Dallas Cowboys dot com deal, you know, around the world one five three, you know we have the reach and stuff too. But you get the feeling that that fans are just they're they're they're kind of expecting the worst, and it's like, you know, prude to us. Go out and win a game, go out and beat Tom Brady, you know, go to San Francisco and win it.

You know, That's why I think fans are. They want to they want to believe, but they also don't want to get their their hopes up and then get crushed. And then it becomes and then the postgame show becomes told you told you this team twelve wins being the

playoffs one and done. You know, I think people are just really suppressing their real feelings because they feel like that they're probably gonna get disappointed, and you know, the team's job and Mike McCarthy, Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones trying to go out and win these playoff games and get the fan base once again believing that, you know what, it's not a one and done team and this team can do some stuff in the playoffs. And that's unfair, I mean, I think, I mean, it's unfair to the players,

but but that's the reality. That's way they get paired compared to some twenty years ago. Yeah, I mean they you're right, I mean, they didn't do this. I mean they they haven't lost twenty five or twenty seven years since the Super Bowl. Uh, most of them aren't even that old. But but that's the way that it is. And there is a lot of turnover in this league. Like you said a couple of years ago against Stampa, I mean, there's probably thirty percent of the roster that

wasn't even at that game. But but that's that's the way it is. That's that's what what the Cowboys have created. You wear the same uniforms, you wear the same helmet, wear the same star. It is that, it is the whole tradition. It's the history of the team. And these fans that have been, you know, through everything, they're they're frustrated and if they don't win, they don't go to

the super Bowl. We're gonna have the numbers. Is gonna be twenty seven, twenty seven years in a row since that's happened, and that's that's unfair to the players, but it is. That's the reality. That's it, and so you know that's but if they go and win, you know, no one will care about that, and it'll I think, I think you'll you'll feel that excitement that we think that we're missing. I bet, I bet it'll come too. It's not just the way the game ended. It's also

you know what day is it. It's like, wells Thursday, but it's not. It's Wednesday, and you know that kind of messes with you a little bit too routine. And now we're leaving on Sunday and all that. Once you start getting there, I think when the players will get there and then the Monday comes and then people here at the office, so they'll be they'll be ready to go. We're we're still we're still a few days away. You still mourning that game, but things will quickly change. Let's

go ahead and take this real quick. The sad thing about it, though, is when it's over, you will feel a thud. Yeah, we felt that in our lives, you know you mean, and hopefully hopefully that you The thing you want to avoid is the thud because it's like you're going one hundred and eighty five miles an hour and then you hit the wall and you stop, and that's what being bounced is like. And I think people

just don't want to feel that. Yeah, you really don't want to feel that, especially especially this early and this early in the playoffs. Every you know, Minnesota messed everybody up. Yea, and in Minnesota and this Washington game, the Cowboys are not as bad as what they showed in Washington. They're not as good as what they showed in Minnesota. They're somewhere in the middle, and hopefully it's good enough to beat the Bucks. Well, we'll see. Let's go ahead and

take our first break. When we come back, we're going to dive into the Tampa Bay's defense versus the cowboys offense. Todd thought it would be secure to jog and the cheetah Savannah. Todd believed the big cat repellent he bought online was reliable, and now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles per hour.

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Boys needs you. Cowboys Nations show your team pride and support this postseason with the best gear in the league. Heads of the nearest pro shop or lug on a shop dot Dallas Cowboys dot com. And let's get rowdy, all right, Like, let's get rowdy, like to come in here and be on the show or just get you know, it's it's not capitalized, so it just means let's get the all all caps. Rowdy is the person, right, yeah, all caps with a like a little R for what

is that work? You know? You know I'm talking about little trademark are Oh yeah yeah registered, yeah yeah rowdy? All right. Welcome back to the second segment off the Break, presented by blockchain dot Com. The Commander Teddy's like, want to know against us here, that's true? What we got behind you? Brian Nate MP I want to hit Nate's gonna want to hear this about because we're gonna talk about the uh, the Tampa Bay defense. I'm interested to see how he wants to block some of these guys

An open chair. You know, you go perfect, n Nature. Nate has a really nice, expensive suit he just threw on the ground like nothing. He has it in a nice case and he just you know, basically now he's got the wheel of the chair on top of it. So hang on, Nate, say hello, everybod I'm gonna fix your suit for you. Okay, hold on? How everyone doing? Uh? I'm used to Derek Leader that I heard of what like? Whoa? It's a different deal today, you know. Oh yeah, Derek's

on that. He's doing some interviews today. Yeah, you know we had Woody last night and you didn't show up, Sir, I didn't know. I don't I told you I was, but I passed it off to Mickey. How did that go? Oh? Great? Oh it was man did a great job. Kevin Gray. How you doing, young lady? Doing great? Yes, Kevin Gray's a good teammate in mind at one oh five three, You guys did a good job there. Anytime you get he did a great job. What are you doing some

stories now? He's you know, in your Hall of Fame finalists. You know you're kind of making some rounds a little bit. You're gonna see him there a little bit more. That's great though he deserves it well. Boil on the show, we're about to start talking tampas defense offense. Yeah. First of all, I would take my maybe five or six of my best plays that has been very successful during the year, you know, especially teams that we've had struggled against. What were some of the runs that we had and uh,

and I would try to incorporate them. But what I need to know first and foremost is who is my starting lineup? You know, is Tyler be Adish Is he gonna be back? And then Connor mcgovernor can go back home, and uh, Tyler Smith can go back home. These guys

have struggled. Who has been your biggest concern on the line after the kind of shuffling to happen after the injury, Uh, after I wondered about the center because I'm a firm believer that if you're strong in the middle and you're strong on your left side, you can you can you can help everything else. And that that was my big concern. I was one of the guys that was fighting for beardist and economical government at the beginning of the year. I believe that you should you know, and they did it.

They eventually to say, hey, let's just leave these two guys alone and quit trying to replace them and let them get good. I think that average to good players with time and good coaching can be solid NFL players. I don't believe that you have to draft in the first round top flight lineman, but when you do get one, you don't mess around with him. And I was your left tackle, you'd let them stay there. Yeah. I was going to ask you the state, and we're blessed with

your presence here. I know I am, because I have this question for you, and I meant to text it to you or call you. What's going on on the right side with Martin and Smith is there? It seems to be a little disconnect about the thing that Still was able to do. Is Martin had to feel for how Still what's going to fit and how they were going to the combo blocks and things like that. Is that something that like, you got two Hall of Fame guys playing on that side. Is it really that difficult

for those two to work together like that? We're considering how much that Martin has worked with Still this year, your your your right tackle has lost a lot. Yeah, he's not the great athlete that he wants was. He still has the determination. You can see how he's set with the authority and everything. But it's once you set, it's got you gotta fight after that, and and and he wants to, but he doesn't. He doesn't have it.

He's still he's he's an average right tackle now and a lot of the things he does he kind of finishing like from like he's still on the left side, right, you know. So, uh, but that's that's what he's helping the team. Like I said, he's not a he's not a shell of himself like I hear some people say, but he's not what we used to see in and it's gonna take some time. But we don't have time. Yeah,

you don't have time. Yeah, yeah, it's now. So what coach fieldman has to do and coach the offensive coordina, they're gonna have to find out what's your five or six best plays and just run a lot of different formations making sure that you execute these five or six plays. You don't need a pleasure of plays going against this defense. You I would almost want them to stay base so I can see what they're doing, because if they don't stay base and they start blitzing all over the place.

I'm to about run blitzes, not pass bliss, I'm about run blitzes. That's gonna be hard for our offensive line. If if be artist, you don't get back to be able to adjust to be artists you get back. I feel a little bit more confident, you know, because now you're just dealing with Tyron, and Tyrone is savvy enough to figure it out, and he can do just enough

to get by. But if you got to everybody slide down one space, and you got Peterson out there, and you got two weekends when your book is you can't figure it out. Yeah, you know, Brian, we talked about um having the extra night, you know, extra hours on Monday night for for Beotish to get back and play. But it's also important. We talked about it too, about Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Yeah, the practice if they're not if he's not in there practicing,

because then then it's all these other shuffling going on. Yeah, I think I think it'll be clear to see if they have like like a Dakota Shepley or somebody in their backup center as the center for practice, then that that would let me think that Beodish would be back, because if not, then you're shuffling all these other guys around. So it'll be interesting to see kind of these next couple days, even when we get to watch practice, how

they're lining up. Yeah, that's the thing about it. I think that to me, it's you know, it's it's difficult. You would hope that Beodish would be able to get some reps, you know, you would hope that he would be able to get out there and have some opportunity. You know, they they need to, like Nate's talking, I think they need to incorporate him back as quickly. It just move every if they can move everybody back to where they were and yels, Yeah, I really like what

you're talking about. Okay, when when you look at Tampa and you're dealing with guys like Vita Vea and a Keem Knicks okay, and these linebackers with David and then White, the two linebackers, Hey, it's getting scared. Yeah. I mean that's where the problem I have, Nate, is that I want to try and run the football. I want to I want to do that, but now I have to deal with those two big inside techniques and then I have to get somebody up on the linebacker? Where where?

Where would you play this? Is it secure the down guys? Because that's why I was watching San Francisco do when they ran the ball with McCaffrey earlier in this well the middle of the year, and they were hitting it quick, but they were doubling. They were doubling the down guys. And then and then McCaffrey was good enough to make the linebackers miss. Is that more of a Tony powered thing than it was? Or is it because shot? Don't be shy. That is what I'm trying to tell people

is if you're about winning, it's about personnel. Take some of them plays that San Francisco didn't let Tony make people miss. Yeah, don't worry about Zeke. It'll be He'll have his plays. He'll have his plays. But this is about winning. And I'm gonna get off there because I gotta go. Let me. Let me say this. I heard a young lady, miss miss Haley, asks a good question. Are we're gonna try to get ga Michael Gallup more involved?

This is not the regular season. I need for CD LAMB, for Dalton shows and for this this t Y guy. I need for them to have ninety percent of the passes, and with Tony coming out of the backfield, I need for those guys to have ninety percent of them. If Gallup is a part of it, so be it. If eighty five is a part of it, so be it. But these are not the guys. Goal with what you know, goal with the guys that are proven. And that's why I won't be iddish back. That's why I want things

back to normal. Now, Tony, we've nursed you and Zeke, but I need Tony to get seventy five percent of the offensive snaps from the running back position because he could make people miss. Yeah. I have a great a Nate, thank you, Thank you. I will I will say this though as name walking off, but I will say that that they they're gonna have to do some improvement improvement there in the ring game, because I know you watched

the first game. Yeah yeah, and it was in Zeke average five yards to carry there and it was Poler that kind of struggled. Are they Has it changed that much? I think to me, I think that Nate's absolutely right about this. Though. You find your five or six players that you can hang your hat on and and and work from there and then try to The thing I noticed about Zeke running the ball the ball was is a lot quicker, you know. I mean Zeke has not. When Zeke was a little banged up, it wasn't as quick.

But now I kind of feel like, though, you're gonna have to You're gonna have to find a way. And and I think it's about the timely runs. I know everybody loses their mind on the first down run because then it turns into second and nine or second and ten, you know, and everybody's I've said this before. I think it's when you It's when you run when you're supposed to pass, and pass when you're supposed to run. And

I think Dallas has got to find that. When you play the Bucks, I think it's a struggle to have to kind of control their inside guys. I just think it is. I think it's Vita Vea and Hicks. This teams like six and one when those two play together, when they don't you get you get my drift. They don't win games, So you got to find ways. But I think I think there has to be some quickness to this game, and to me, that's where I think Pollard. Now,

Pollard has struggled against teams with big friend unts. Some of his worst games running the ball against the Commanders. The Cowboys didn't run the ball at all against the Commanders. But if you look at Pollard bow times, terrible games for him, you know, and maybe it's maybe it's like if you, like I was talking about with Nate, secure down guys and then let him hit it. But maybe you work more with him on the perimeter, more with Zeke inside. They just haven't had the running lanes that

they had earlier the year. Wear the ball and that. But against Tampa there were a couple of times where they pressed it hard and then and then Zeke was able to cut it back and it's a four or five six yard game. Man, we would take that all day if we're if every time they're impiling, and it's and it's you know, instead of it's second in, it's second in five and you know Zeke's got a first down because you know he's getting four or five yards a shot. I think that's where that's I gotta try.

I can't just I can't abandon the running game like I did the first time. You played there a couple of years ago. I just don't think you could do that, you know. Um. One of the things that when he went into the offseason with Kellen Moore, Um, it was like, hey, he's got to get CD involved, He's got to figure it out how to get the ball to CD. He's got to figure out how to get the ball to Pollard. And he's done that. He's done that this hit and so you talk about what the focus is a little bit.

It took It took a little bit there. Yeah, I mean it took four years, but they figured out well, I mean this season, yeah, and then first game. I mean neither one of them had a great game against Tampa, no one did. But but um, you do wonder about the focus of you know, what the focus is this weekend. Also we didn't mention this earlier in the show, but you know, you got you got teams at least one

calling to to speak with him. Um, the Panthers are, you know, trying to seek permission and they to get to interview him as their next head coach. So I always wonder that during the week you know, how do you balance the two there? I mean, this is a huge game obviously, and and Kellen Moore is going to do his very best, but he's also well, we'll getting to that. I had that for the last segment. Yes, okay, then we'll talk about that then. But this for preparation. Yeah,

you think that that affects his preparation. Yeah, I think that him and Dan Quinn anytime. You know, because now in the back of your mind, you're starting to get ready for interviews. At least these guys have interviewed before, so they have an idea what they're up against. You know,

you use it. If it's your first interview, then you're like, Okay, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta have this ready and all that, I have a staff list ready, I gotta you know, there's so many things that kind of take away the fact that they've already done it and they kind of know what works and what doesn't work. I think they'll be better prepared for

getting the team ready this week. It's a really delicate situation you have to deal with because when they're doors closed, you're thinking that they're probably getting ready for an interview, when you want to believe they're getting ready for a game. You know, that that's that's just reality, you know. I mean you cannot focus. You cannot focus on you know, like the task on hand when you have something maybe even majorly in your life, a life changing move or

an interview, your your hope, you're focusing. But we're human. Yeah, it's not that. No, And anyone that says, oh, well, he should be focused in the playoff, I'm not even entertained that it does be. Yes, if it was you, you would do it too. I mean that's like you said, it's major, so you and there are very very few opportunities that come up every year, so you gotta, I mean,

look out for yourself. I think your window opens and closes too, right, Like you know, it's hard to think that it'll open back again real quick though, If I could just say this, we've talked about Vita via a Keem Hicks inside. That's going to be tough. The linebackers will be tough to block. They're banged up in the secondary with Mike Edwards is banged up, Logan Ryan's banged up and Carlton Davis checked the injury report today to

see what happens with those guys there. I think they're one of their best defensive players in the secondaries, Antoine Winfield. He's the guy that intercepted Dak in the game. Kind of a guy that plays around the line of scrimmage, you know, is always going to be in an area to tie. You have to watch him on the turnover stuff. He's just like his dad, punches the ball loose, you know, gets in the right you know, area to make plays

and stuff like that. It's a good defense. The defense has carried them in a lot of games this year. They don't score a lot of points. These guys don't give up a lot of points either. Though. It's gonna be a tough one, but a fun one. YEA. Let's go ahead and take our final break, and when we come back, we'll kind of wrap up things up, wrap things up and then talk a little bit more about coaching. The season is finally here. For months, we've been gearing up to win. Now it's time for the team that

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so we only have a few minutes left. I know that Brian threw in quite a few names in their from the defense. In the secondary, wanted to ask you nick Uh specific matchups. Who are you mostly concerned for me. I mean it's got to be right there at the middle, I mean, be Ata Vea and then whoever is your center.

I mean, because when it was Beoddish, I believe two years ago when he played, I mean he was getting thrown around pretty good up there, to the point where they didn't even as Brian talked about two years ago, they didn't even mess with the middle. They everything was more outside running him and it worked. I mean, they moved the ball. They I think over four hundred and five hundred yards of offense, scored twenty nine points. I mean,

nearly won the game. But but I mean it's got to be balanced because they also got down in the red zone and didn't score. They had to go wide and jar and missed the blocks. He got tackled. That was a huge play in the game. So they've got to be able to kind of control the middle and they can't be intimidated there. And I think it starts

with Bava in the center. Yeah, I think this game is going to come down to how well in the secondary can you just can you prevent the big place they they don't run the ball statistically, I think they're going to try run the ball on you, because they

had success on him, the turnovers, the turnovers. Though they had him in the last they had two games they had back to back games, they had seven turnovers, had five against the Bengals and two against It was two and but it was it was San Francisco and the and the Bengals games were just they've had some turnover Early in the year, they did they weren't turning the ball over. Now they've had some turnovers, but they had They've had a couple of games that were alarming with

the turnovers. The Cincinnati game, since I was down seventeen nothing at half, it looked like to me that Tampa was going to cruise and win and then all of a sudden interception, muff, fake punt, uh, Tom Brady fumble. Tom Brady fumble had four They had four turnovers in like eleven place is what it was. It was crazy

how they how that just fell apart for him. So, yeah, it's a it's something they've dealt with the thing with Brady around when you get around him in the pocket, he's put the ball on the ground, you know, like people have punched the ball out on him. You know, he doesn't move all that great, so but to me, but their secondary can their secondary can of get the fans on the ball. Yeah, they're gonna if you if you're well, they prove that too. They mean you they had,

you know with Dak in that game. But the thing about it is, to me, this game is going to come down to their big plays, and you're big plays. Dallas has struggled to eliminate big plays, so huge chunk plays, screens, you know, the big play down the sidelines. I mean that that's something that you and you know they're gonna they're gonna do that to you. You know, Dallas is playing well in this game, it's going to be They're not going to be given up the chunk plays. That's

the thing I think. And I think it's going to happen in the secondary. Who knows what's going to happen at left corner? You know, is this Xavier Rhodes? I mean, do they trust right? You know, there's just so many unknowns right now, and it's a shame you're going into this game with that kind of unknown Well, since we're running out of time, we'll leave the coaching and the

fan question for tomorrow. But to end the show, I did want to ask one question that I kind of saw repeatedly, people asking should Dak Prescott and how Kellen Moore decides to manage the offense. Should they focus more on just short passes rather than trying to be that aggressive throwing deep down the field. I don't think that they have the receivers that you could just do that.

I really don't. I mean, I think CD has been shifty and he could break some tackles, but Gallop and Noah Brown and t Y Hilton, I mean, I mean, they're kind of more vertical players. They're not these big guys that just catch the balls they get off me and may so you can do it some, but I don't think you can make your living with those kind

of receivers because I don't think that they're built that way. Yeah, the problem with Dak is he's got that never die attitude and he is the thing that hurts Dak Prescott the most. You know, you say, you have to live with his decisions in a game. Some days you're living great, in other days you're just you're sitting on the curb, you know, And and that's the problem with this. You mean, you don't know. You don't know which guy you're gonna get.

You might get the guy that looks brilliant throwing the football like he did against Philadelphia. You know, Dallas got four turnovers in that game and and want it. I think they're gonna have to have a similar type game. I think Dak is going to have to have the ability. He can't throw that he can't throw the killer turnover to He just can't. But history tells you that he is and and that's and that's something you just when

is that going to happen in the game. You know, you don't need it to happen at the end when you're trying to drive or something. You don't need a catastrophic mistake like they had in the San Francisco game where they're driving the ball in all cinema, a quarterback draw and they run out of time. You know, they have to avoid those types of plays, but they also have to avoid you know, his his uh, you know,

willingness to try and create something. You know that's you know, there's a time and a place, and in a playoff game, you get punished when you make mistakes like that. Yeah, well, all right, tomorrow we'll get into predictions and see what we got for this Monday night game. That is it for the show. Thank you so much for Nikki Men, Brian brought us birthday Boy, Chris Beam, special guest Nate, and I remember Garcia. This has been the break on

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