Cowboys Break: Can This Be Fixed?

The Break. We're live from this s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star. We are in a great mood this morning, ready to get going, ready to talk about that Cowboys game yesterday. Was not a good outcome for the Cowboys. They lose twenty five five to three to the Washington football team. But we're all here together and we're all healthy and we get to talk football. So hey, there's a bright side to everything. Right, how's everybody doing this morning?

I was wondering what that butt was for. I was like, please, don't try to throw something positive at me right now. No, no, no no, that's You're right. We're all healthy at this healthy and fine, So that's nice. At this point. The positives are not about the Cowboys. For me, the positives are not about football. My Texas long one to just as bad. So right now, like that's not the positive. Positive in life is that we're all here, We're all alive. None of us have COVID. That's a great thing, right,

so we should be happy about that. And let's talk some football, right right, let's go, Nick, you just got off a right, Nick, you just got off a plane. I guess not just but you you were on a plane yesterday coming back from Washington. We're gonna start with some big picture storylines, but like you just to talk a little bit about what you saw from this team postgame plane? Yeah, Like, because I think they're a lot of people that are looking at this team like, man,

what was that and what is this team at this point? Well, the one thing I was happy to see was Andy Dalton able to just go go where's the bus? This way? Where we having to eat? And that's a good thing. I mean, so that that was good because he obviously left the field and he needed help doing that, so that it was a good sign. Don't know what that means as far as this week, but I know that it wasn't as bad as it is. It you know,

obviously could have been. I was quiet flight back, you know you I wasn't expecting, you know, a lot of music or dancing or any of that stuff. I haven't really heard that at all. Of course they have. They've lost every road game this year, so maybe that Dave's not on the plane anymore. So that helps. Why just you don't have all the gambling and drinking and frivolous

stuff that happened. Always call him back there. Um. Anyways, it just it was a bad I mean, it was just a bad vibe because it was a bad game, and it was it was, you know, the worst game that I can ever I do sometime I don't remember remember one like this where it was just so bad green Bay. I don't know, No, that wasn't baby. It felt like it to me a little bit, like I don't know, yeah that was that was kind of that way.

But green Bay was good. That's the thing. Green Bay went super Bowl that you're yeah, yeah that so that was a good team. That was a good quarterback who deserves to be a starting quarterback. Point So no, this was this was a really really really really bad game all right, Let's get some big picture storyline takes from Amber and Dave. Amber, I want to start with you. I watched the game with you yesterday and with Dave, and I could just see it the wheels turn into

your mind. I knew you had something for me, So bring it. Let's go what you got Amber? Bring it well? First of all, I'm wearing black because I'm warning today and the season like, I am so over it, but we gotta keep going. Um No, the big picture is at this point, I look at it. Who do we need to say bye too? Who are we saying bye to this week? Is it a player? Is it a coach?

And there needs to be a major change or it's kind of hard to make major changes right now, but there needs to be some type of change, some type of repercussion. If you could, like lower someone's salary based on their game performance, I wish you could do that, but you can't. This is just terrible. It is absolutely terrible. And the worst part of it is that after that game, there's absolutely nothing that makes me feel a little sign

of hope, you know, like there's nothing whatsoever. The only thing is maybe the kicker we haven't talked about Greg Sterling really missing a field goal or an extra point except for that one long one a few weeks ago, but other than that, there's nothing that seems very positive at this point. Dave big picture. The big picture for this team is that they are fundamentally broken. There is something wrong in that building right now. I don't know

what it is. I wish we had better access. I wish there wasn't a pandemic, so maybe we could get a better grasp. But you cannot look at that result yesterday and tell me that this is a cohesive team, that this is a bought in team, that this is a team that cares about each other. Drastically, for lack of a better way to put it, they got run out of the building by arguably the worst team in the league. Like they didn't lose. This wasn't like a scrappy,

ugly game like I thought it was gonna be. You know, I thought it was gonna be this terrible, scrappy, you know, seventeen sixteen game. It wasn't that at all. They got run out of the building by arguably the worst team in the league. They do not look like they care, and like I said, like I don't know if the players hate the coaches. I don't know if the players hate each other. But there's something there's something wrong. You cannot convince me otherwise. I pulled up the quote from

DeMarcus Lawrence yesterday. He said we need more belief, which shouts out to Nick for getting it. I really appreciate you, man, because that can't be fun. No, that cannot be fun being down there with those guys. Um. He says, we need more belief, more high spirits around this team, and really more fight. That's one of our weaknesses. We need to build a stronger backbone. I mean, is that not just the most damning quote you've heard in a long

freaking time. Yeah, it's kind of interesting because we I'll speak for myself. I made fun of happening to I made fun of all of the you know, the fight shirts and all that kind of stuff that we're a part of the Garrett era. But the one thing, and it was up until last year. Last year was the first time I ever saw at a Garrett led team with the Cowboys that didn't have that level of fighting him. You remember back to the season when he took off

halfway through the season, they were all but did. But they played didn't play like it like they played down the stretch as as good a football as you could expect from a bad team, right and throughout throughout his time here with the Cowboys, that's what we got accustomed to seeing with the Cowboys, even when they were bad, you rarely left games saying, man, they just didn't feel it. They didn't feel like that team was was really in

the game. It felt like yesterday and it felt like for a while now this team is just not in it. Do you guys think that maybe what's happening here is you lose so many players that you just don't have that cohesion, You don't have that that real brotherhood for lack of a better word, that sometimes you need in order to kind of go through what you have to go through as a football team to be successful. Nick, what do you think? Yeah, I mean that that's not

their guy dying down there, you know. And that's that's the sad part. Is it used to be I thought, you know, put it on the uniform, in the star and the helmet and all that stuff, that was that was the team. But I mean, if DA got hit like that, do you think everybody do you think anybody does anything. I don't know what we talked about just a couple weeks ago how this team acted. Yea, when Dak was laying on the field, it was very different. Right. Let me also say this though, and I wrote this

in the column kind of down at the bottom. Maybe should have led with it. They they did a video that said, let's win, let's win for Dak. Let's do it for Dak, d for Dak. God. I hope not. I hope this isn't doing it for Dak. This this really, this is it, Like, this is what you like, We're gonna do it for him. He deserves more than that. The fans deserved more than that. All right, So let's move on. Let's talk a little bit about some of the moments that mattered. And quite frankly, I think all

those moments happened in the first half. I think this game was a game in the first half, and I think by halftime it was over. Yeah, can you just start with me, because no one's play, nobody's play is going to be before mine. First play the game, first play the game, handoff to Peyton Barber. I mean, who's that Peyton Barber against the ball, gets a one yard, gets hit for one yard, kept going, kept fighting, he's spuned. He got five yards on that play should have been

stopped for one. That was the tone of the entire game. It was that. It was this, they're there, they're in the position, but they just can't make the play. And you can't give Washington better field position, I mean better situations. You need to keep them in third and nine, third and eight. And it was just plays like that, that's just lack of effort, tackling, what technique whatever. It was first play of the game that set the tone right there, and then they were able to do whatever they wanted

to run in the ball. And but what was your moment that mattered well? To me, it was okay, you see the Washington offense moving along, then the defense he's able to stop them from getting a touchdown right there, and you're like, okay, all right. Then the next way, Colways got the ball. First play, okay, a little rush by um um, oh my god, Andy Dalton. I forgot his name for a second, for Dalton. Then the next one the Colways getting huh, I said, so did he

but sorry, we're good. So he's good. Anyways, they get pushed back and then they end up Washington gets up, ends up getting the safety, and right there, it's like, right at the beginning of the game, basically you realize, man, this is gonna be one of those games just by that play. I mean, nothing else after that looked good whatsoever. They just couldn't get anything moving. The defense could not stop them at all. But it was that specific play that's safety, that just told you what kind of game

that was gonna be. Dave, what was the moment that matter for you? I don't know what's more embarrassing. The Cowboys are my internet connection, but I all one in the same, Dave, all one in the same. It's just it's just it's just that kind of year, man. Um. The moment, the moment, honest, this is gonna sound this is gonna sound revisionist. Um. But when they when when Pollard had that kick return, it ran three plays and kicked the field goal and just looked completely flaccid doing so,

I was like, this is gonna be bad. Like, yeah, I know, I'm sorry, poor choice of words, but like that that it was so so unimpressive, so uninspiring. They finally, you know, an element of their team other than the offense finally moved the ball and that was what they came up with. Uh, and you just kind of made you think today's gonna be rough, and it was, Yeah, that's that's kind of how the rest of this thing's gonna roll. I think is there's gonna be moments like

that when where choice will probably be a little bit questionable. Um, go ahead, day. What were you saying? I just I feel like y'all problem covered it while I was dealing with my WiFi. What I'm gonna say is all these same problems year when they were slugging away to eight and eight, but you had your Dak Prescott's and your Tyron Smith's drownedgging you along the way, and those guys

aren't there now, and what's left is really uninspiring. And I just I don't think they have it from a mental standpoint, and that what concerns me is again, like I keep using twenty fifteen as an analogy, that was just that was a team that cared but didn't have the talent. You know, they lost a lot of games in the fourth quarter because they didn't have a good quarterback. But you know they really they never truly just got their doors blown off. I think this is gonna get

a whole lot worse somebody fixes whatever's going wrong. From an intangible standpoint, like this team is not together, and until that changes, I would imagine they're gonna get their ass kicked like this a lot. Yep. And I don't I don't know that they can solve the problems that they have right now. I don't know that they can

solve those problems this year. The way I look at it is, at this point, this coaching staff, this front office, they're gonna have to figure out what players they want to keep and what players they want to discard, and they need to start thinking about next year, because you're not gonna get better like right now. Big part of the problems is just not good. Like the players that

are out there are just not good. You can look at other years where you're like, Okay, well you miss your quarterback, but you still got your offensive line, you still got your running game, you still got an average defense. If you play really hard, you might be able to make yourself look average. Right right now, their players are bad,

and that's why it's looking so poorly. I think right now, and you know, I think it's it's even worse when you put on top of that the fact that I don't think the coaches are really doing them any favor. We'll go to the poem at the moment that mattered for me, and it was Washington's up nine to three. It's ten forty eight left in the second quarter. Dallas as the ball fourth and one at the Washington forty five fourth and one, and they decide they're gonna throw

the ball down field. In completion, they give the ball back to Washington with great field position, mind you, for a defense that hasn't been able to stop anyone. Two plays later, fifty two yard touchdown to McLaren, and that to me was into the ballgame. Like when they when they jumped up there at that point it was at fifteen to three. My thought was, there's no because they don't have the power offensively to be able to come back in those kinds of games, and and they're in

that particular instance, that to me was about coaching. That is a bad decision. Knowing you have fourth and one, you have a defense that can't stop anyone. If you don't convert this, you got one or two options. You can use a punt it, or you do something that's a much higher percentage play than what you decided on. But they opted to go for a lower percentage play and put their defense in a horrible situation. To me, that's bad coaching. Yep, And I'd like to see that play.

I don't really want to watch the game at all, but that's the one player I would have liked to see him again. In the third down, I thought he got that first down. I did too. I thought it kind of thought he got over thinking maybe they should have challenged that. Yeah, but that just kind of shows this is why, like in high school football, the one A two A teams don't play the six A teams because as the offensive line, they don't have the big guys to do it. This is what it felt like

to me. That was the JV against the varsity. They can't move the ball. They showed that because they were like, well, okay, we can't run the ball if the middle was zeke. So we've already drawn them off sides once. That won't work again, let's just try it. I mean, like running that I would have punted. Now, who knows where that ball would have gone, but I would have would have you know, I would have tried to punt. I guess at that point, if you don't think you can get

a yard, then I would take forty. Yeah, I would with the punt. But but the one thing you could say in the scattering report, at least of this Washington team is the one area up front where they tend to be a little more vulnerable was in stopping the run and typically running right at them. So to me, you at least have to test it out and try it right. You have to at least test them if you're going to go for it on fourth and one,

I think that's a higher percentage play. Then deciding that you're just gonna throw a ball down field trying to get a screen. I'm not saying yeah, and it didn't work, and it didn't work, Go ahead, Dave. I'm not saying you're wrong, But those guys were getting ragged alled all day. Absolutely. I just don't know. I don't know if charging up the gun on Jonathan Allen and Deron Payne's gonna work. Maybe not. I'm saying it is a higher percentage play.

You could do the exact same thing as what you did the play before, and as Nick said, I thought they got the first down on the play before try it again. I think that is a higher percentage play than anything else you could call in your playbook against that front on a fourth and one. Maybe I'm wrong.

All right, we're gonna take our first break. When we come back, we're gonna dive a little deeper into the offense, the pass offense, the rush offense, and we also have to talk about this defense when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. We're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and creep Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor bad Cream Soda. Is he a new Combonut's music to my ears? Okay? Doctor Baer time Glass music to

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to take you to yours. American Airlines, you are why we fly back to the break If you would like to see the Dallas Cowboys play at at and T Stadium this see there's home matchups against the Steelers, Washington forty nine Ers, and Eagles. A limited number of tickets around sale Altkitchers today Dallas Cowboys dot com slash tickets Welcome back. It is the second segment of the Breakway Life from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star and let's jump into this Cowboys pass offense. Yesterday, Andy

Dalton was nine of nineteen. That's a forty seven percent completion rate. He had seventy five passing yards, He had zero touchdowns, he had one interception, a thirty six point one quarterback rating, and was sacked three times. Dad to that, Ben Denucci came in and he went two of three and at thirty nine yards, zero touchdown, zero interceptions, and

he two was sacked three times. We talked all last week about how good this Rossington front was, but did you expect the Cowboys to get dominated as much as they were dominated yesterday? Nick? No, I mean, and there's no excuses to anything, but the rain absolutely messed up any chance that they had to do anything because of where, of how they are built. I mean, it just they couldn't run the ball. They're not physical enough affront to run. The only way you're gonna be able to do that

is the quick passes get the ball out. Gallup didn't have a catch, CD didn't have a catch even though he had plenty of chances. I mean, he had his worst game of his career, and it just the passing game needed to be there to offset that. So you can't do that, and now you have to run and you're not strong enough to run the middle. You know it's bad when you can't. You're not strong enough to run up the middle, you're not fast enough to run to the outside, and the ball's not going to be caught.

In the passing game, Well, you're gonna get three points based off your long kickoff return and that's it. Amber. I mean, I honestly didn't expect it to be this bad the way that he ended up happening. But there's

such a lack of chemistry. I mean, we keep talking about Andy Dalton trying to get rid of the ball quicker and that's gonna help them offensively, but at the same time, the lack of chemistry I mean, you can't really do that when you don't have that connection with your wide receivers as opposed to what we're used to seeing with Dad and the receivers that sometimes, I mean, the guy just needs to turn around and then Dad knows exactly where he's gonna be, where he's gonna get

to throw the ball, and then the guy's gonna catch it, as opposed to Andy Dalton. I mean, they're really lacking that. There's no flow or just connection there. There's no like, Okay, I know exactly where you're gonna run and where you're gonna be, and I'm going to you like in this place.

You know I'm gonna throw it to you. So it's it's it's bad because when there's not when you don't have that, there's no way that you can keep asking Andy Dalton to get rid of the ball faster so that the defensive players are just not like completely attacking him and throwing him on the ground. Dave, I mean, I picked Dallas to win this game, so I can't. I can't sit here and say I told you so

too much. But yeah, I mean I did think that the Washington Front was gonna really be tough for them, that it's the most important thing and it's their biggest strength against the cowboy's biggest weakness. I had a feeling it might look kind of ugly, but the thing for me is, and you know, I need to go back and watch it again. But I didn't get the sense that it looked the offense looked different, Like it didn't really look like they tried to change what they would

normally do, which is a mistake. Like you should be going into that game thinking we're gonna really have to pull some tricks out of the box and play a different style of offense than what we've been doing. Like you can't roll out there with the same core plays from when you thought you had all your guys and expected to work. You know, CD Dalton Dalton probably has another fifty sixty passing yards if CD Lamb plays another

better game. I mean, that's neither here nor there. I don't know if that means they win, but certainly didn't get any help from him. And then was Gallop even targeted once? If he was targeted, it was like it was one time, one time. Actually it says on the thing it says twice, but I remember once because I ask you when he when the one time when I remember I asked you, Dave, I was like, as he is that the first time he's been targeted. I don't remember him being targeted a second time, but yeah, it

says two. It just didn't feel like they were all in plays to offset the fact that they didn't have an offensive line. In my opinion, like a lot of slow developing stuff, a lot of the you know, a lot of the same stuff we've seen in the first six weeks, which is fine when everybody's healthy, but they're not. Didn't feel like they adapted very well and they paid

for it. Yeah, you know. One of the challenges was, I don't know even if it was slow developing stuff as much as like over there on the right side, dared still. So many times I saw saw guys just run right around him and literally it was almost as though, you know, in practice they have those those big dummies. It looked like the weebele wobble you have when you were a kid. You punch it and it kind of

pops back up. Like it looked like he was just that He's just like a stanchion that they just kind of put in a certain spot and the guy just needs to run around it to get to the quarterback and kind of hit the arm of the thing and then he's at the quarterback. That's what it looked like. And so I don't even know if if the play calling was necessarily the problem. And by the way, they also had some plays yesterday where they had to tight end stay into block and they got run around too.

So I don't even know. And that's a question I have for you. And he got completely run over. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's I don't even know at this point, but I have the question for you, guys, So figure it out. Um, what could Dallas do differently? Where could they maybe help themselves a little bit? Knowing that you're so completely overmatched between your offensive line and their defensive line, what else could they do at this point? Dave, I mean,

it's a great question. I'm not sure. I'm not sure there's a great answer, And and you know it's I look back on a day like today and I'm I'm mad at myself because I'm like, you saw the indicators that this was a bad matchup, and you went with the Cowboys anyway, Maybe it was almost like blind hope I don't know, but that, I mean, that's tough, Nick, Nick said it, and I agree, Like you know, I've covered a lot of bad high school football in my life,

and that's what that looked like. Like when you're when you're overmatched like that, it's hard to even play what resembles actual football, you know, And it's I mean, I'm not convinced there was a lot more they could have done, Like like I said, you know, maybe maybe if CD plays a better game, they move the ball a little bit better and they kick another field goal. But I don't know that there's a lot they could have done

to drastically improve what we saw. Nick, you know, I mean, you know I said, I said the stat in the pregame. You know, they Jordan Mills was on the practice squad. They brought him up. I mean, he's got eighty four starts. The reason why I brought that up is because the combined starts for the five guys was seventy seven. So all I'm saying is is that combined for the five five five forty two from camp, twenty seven for for the Connor too, for be honest, zero for McGovern and

Steele has six and I just feel like they. I mean, why bring Jordan Mills here if he's not I mean he's He's faced some really good players in his career. Now, I know it's not been pretty. People that have said Bears fans will tell you, man, he was not good. But he's been in the league eight years. They said the same thing about Colombo willing to give it a shot. Let's just see what happens, right, I mean, Kenny get

me worse, it will be my question. I mean, no other than me and other than the four of us to play on the line. No, yeah, right, that could get worse. It's bad. It was just it was bad. But I mean, yeah, I wouldn't have put Andy Dalton in the in the under center so much. You know. I tried to mention it in a meeting today. I asked the question about Looney and like, oh we are now we're waiting on Joe Looney come back. Well, yeah, yeah,

I'd rather Joe Looney than be Oddish. And I don't think I don't think they'll do that because they, you know, looking for the future. But I'm be honest, doesn't have it right now. He's not he's not ready. I mean, get Zach Martin back, you get Looney back, you got Connor cam Irving, maybe you have a better right tackle. Maybe Brandon I can come back at some point. I know he's on ir I mean, they're gonna have to pieces together. You can't just look at next year. You

can't do that. You can't Zack Martin. You have to come back. He comes back, and then you know what I think I would do, And I'm the guy that I'm the guy that didn't want to do this when things were a little more normal. But when Zach and when Zach and Joe are healthy, I'm putting Joe at right guard and Zach at right tackle because that gives me a chance to function at least, which is more than we've been able to say for the last couple

of games. You know, if you have a side, you can at least get some level of reliability with right You know what I thought you were gonna say is move Connor to write tackle. Would I would look at that. If they don't want to do that, that's fine, Yeah, I would look at that too, That's but they gotta do something. I leaned towards Zach because I've seen him do it. Yeah, man. That doesn't mean Connor can't do it though, but I would be happy if they take Connor and put him at one tackle and they take

Zach and put him at the other tackle. You can figure out what you're gonna do. Maybe Looni's at guard, and maybe you stick with McGovern at the other guard, and you got be honest in the middle. I just feel like right now, right now, yesterday you saw a turnstyle at both tackle spot, like there was there were there were times when it was like the two defensive ends were like, okay, I get to the quarterback before you can, and then they get there and like give

each other a high five at the quarterback. Like It's just you need to at least shore up that part of it. And if you can show up that part of it, then I think in the middle at least there's some help because a lot of times that center can kind of go one way or the other and kind of help out with a guy. You got a little bit more flexibility of how you can help in the middle than you can on the outside. Most of

the times those guys are isolated. I take what at this point I guess we all would probably agree are your two best offensive linemen lineman they have both played tackle in college. Put about there and let's see what happens. What do you guys think? I don't know. You look at I don't disagree. Well, who's the quarterback? Well, it's gonna have to be Andy, Okay. How tall is he? Six one? Tall enough? Foot? Now? I know, I know, But what I'm asking is is that do you take

the only six foot I don't know, six two sixty three. Really, yeah, I don't know he's tall enough. You're right. The reason why I'm asking is that do you take the Saints approach? You know, because Drew Brees has played there forever, he's not the tall quarterback ever. They look at it like they protect the end side, you know, center a guard the outside of the tackles that they kind of rotated them basically to give him a lane to throw the

ball and to look over. And I just kind of wonder maybe maybe they need to work on the middle, you know, and keep the outside because you can kind of help chip them in a little bit. I know. But if you've been thinking about it, if you have three guys on the interior that can't do anything, then you can't run you can't. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if that's a good approach. I guess

I just look at it like this. I think right now, to me, as far as performance is concerned, the guy that and this is saying a lot, the guy that is the worst of the bunch is Terrence Steel. I think you gotta get somebody different at right tackle. He's a problem for you right now. And and so I think you need to take either Connor or Zach and put them over there. And then I look at the other side, and I'm like, Okay, you could probably make that one a little bit better too. Maybe you're right.

Maybe you go ahead and stick with cam Irving just because he has experience and you and you keep him in that spot and hope that you know, with back at guard, maybe you get a little bit better. Who knows, I don't get I don't know, but I just look right now, and I'm like, yesterday the tackles were a real, real problem. Most of the past rush, in my opinion, was coming from the outside yesterday. And and so that's where I feel like you kind of have to clean

this up a little bit. For no. I good, We'll pick one. Sorry, I agree with what you said I and I get Nick's point. I do like protecting the front of the pocket is important. The Saints have a couple of really badass tackles though, so like they that might not look as good if you didn't have Ron Armstead and Ryan Ramschick so I and oh it was they were just it was so bad. Yeah, like the pressure was on top of Dalton before he could do anything,

and not from the interior. I mean it was the game was long over, but like one of the last snaps of the game, Ryan Kerrigan basically picked Terrence Steele up and carried he carried him to the quarterback. It's just it's it's rough, and that's why I think I trust. I think I trust the backups on the interior to hold their own more than what we're looking at at tackle.

And maybe maybe it's not a season long thing, like maybe when Brandon Knight comes back, you can do that, but at least until some more guys are available, Like if Zach Martin can play at this point, I would try to play him at tackle. That's I just I just maybe it's desperation, but it seems like it would give you a better chance than what you're seeing right now. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Amber, what do you think. I think if it was up to me, I would

definitely want to move Connor Williams to tackle. I mean, this is something we've been talking about for a couple of years now. He's not necessarily the best guard, and we've talked about the possibility of having him at tackle, which is a position that not only is troublesome this year, but it's going to be in the future as well. Even if your starters come back, we know they have been dealing with health issues and injury, so there's you

need to address the position regardless. So I would rather use this year and right now, given the fact that the old line is just a mess right now, so you're not really gonna get a whole lot worse, So just try it. Move Connor to tackle, give him some in game experience. So let's trying him out, because it's totally different giving him practice, like watching him at tackle during practice, then giving him some actual in game experience.

I would rather go ahead and do that. Now. Let's get that out of the way and try to get a better feel of what that would look like or could look like, and that will give you a better idea of whether that's the route you would want to take for the future. And I'm not saying, oh, let's go ahead and start thinking about the future and tank the season or any of that, but I do think that this is a good chance for you to at

least try different things because it's not working out. Clearly it's not working out, So you're not gonna lose much by actually giving him a tackle. Yeah, that's actually that's the point. Amber. I think you hit it on the head that whatever they're doing right now isn't working, so try some other things. If you keep doing the same thing, expect different results. That's lunacy, right, So try something different.

I think maybe he becomes a guy. And Nick, I think you mentioned this a couple weeks ago too, that you know you're gonna need a good swing tackle. You've been needing a good swing tackle for a while. If you find out this year that he can play well in relief at tackle, then maybe going into next year, you look at this and you say, that's our swing tackle. And if one of those two guys that are the starters are not ready to go for whatever reason or

get injured. We feel like we're in a really good position with him as a guy that can that become a swing tackle and maybe that's a better fit for him than guard. All Right, we're gonna take our final break. When we come back, we do have to talk about the defense and what their day looked like. Yesterday. There were some guys that played a little bit more and I'm wondering did it make a difference. Maybe it did. Maybe it's hard to see through all the bad stuff

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Music to my ears and mouths new Doctor Pepper and Cream Soda. Delet's just do bad. Back to the Break. Are you coming to a Cowboy game this season? Well, have fun and make sure you know before you go, you wear a mask, you keep distance, be prepared for cash list transactions. Please be aware of all safe stadium policies prior to arriving at AT and T Stadium. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com slash safe stadium for details. Welcome back. It is the final segment of The Break, live from

the s WBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, we're talking about the Cowboys loss yesterday twenty five three to the Washington football team and what we're dreary conditions and a drearier if that's a word outcome. Let's talk about the defense yesterday. They give up only twenty three points if you don't count the two points safety. Yeah, it's gave up and only gave up three points. In the second half.

All right, that all being considered, can I'm gonna challenge each of the three of you to Washington, to Washington, make sure you point that out to Washington, right yeah, yeah, Okay, So I'm gonna challenge each of the three of you come up with at least one thing that maybe you could glean from that game that was a positive about this defense. Nick, go first, Um, they had a goal line stand. Ah, that's a good one. That's a really

good one. Okay. And the guy that did that was there right in the middle, Dontarry Poe, which, by the way, folks, we have a really good video of Dontari Poe getting the team together and really kind of getting in their face. Really yeah, what do you say, I'm going to play better? I don't know, but he he had that. And then there was a fumble. I guess they called it a fumble. Was it a fourth down stop or did they actually get a fumble because Worley got the ball? Yeah, it

was Worley and Poe, those two right there. I'm not sure if it was a turnover rundown or if it was it was actually a stand. It turned out to be a five point stand. Because they gave up here of a safety. But yeah, let's go line stand that's positive? Okay, uh Amber, give me something positive? Are you kidding me? Just anything? Question? Is that? Why are you being asking that work? Because because are you gonna get any posi?

Here's the point. Here's the point. If you look at how this defense has played all season, and you look at the fact that yesterday they were able to at least only give up twenty three, and they only gave up three after halftime, is there anything that's positive about that? Is my question? Is there anything was better? No? No, no,

cero Sato, Sato, Sato positive Sato. Now that you keep talking as if this was like the Steelers, the the Seattle you're playing against Seattle Wall when they stopped them twenty three to point. No, this was against Washington. There was absolutely nothing positive. I thought the first player, like in the first series, where they stopped that touch them, I thought that was a positive if you want to look at it positive. Okay, maybe they didn't give up

a touchdown in the first few seconds of the game. Good, great, great for him for them, But no, there's absolutely nothing positive. The worst part to me is that I don't know how you really try to change things around at this point. I mean, what do you actually do to make it better? Do you? And I know people keep talking about, oh, come back this week fire, Mic Nolan, Are you gonna do that? I mean, there's some blame on the players. Again,

this is not just a coaching thing. It's also a thing about the players and the way that they're performing. They just don't seem to care enough. And there's just a lack of chemistry, a lack of enthusiasm, a lack of desire of actually wanting to win because there's I don't see any energy. Little things that you keep talking about, Okay, maybe like for example, Jayleen and Smith, how do you slip a tackle like that? Those things should not be happening.

So no, there's absolutely no positive from the defense side of the ball. So don't ask me again. I don't want to hear any word positive along in the same sentence as the defense. You did see it up nicely though.

For tomorrow tomorrow show, I'm going to ask to ask you, to ask you the question of do you think that if you look at the players at the Cowboys lost this last year, do you think that those guys have accounted for that much of a difference in the result that we're seeing this year, or maybe, just maybe could it be the loss of one man end at being Rod Marinelli. We're gonna talk about that tomorrow because I think that's a very interesting conversation. Dave. Was there anything

positive that you glean from this defense yesterday? I know, like you're asking this with your tongue firmly planted in your I'm still we do have shows we gotta get through for the rest of this season. I'm just saying I'm still. I'm still a fin especially like, okay, they allowed three points after halftime that Like that reminds me

in high school. I used to go out and play basketball with my dad in the driveway like every night after dinner, and he would beat my ass until he had a comfortable lead, and then he would just start chunking shots at the backboard so that it would stay close and I wouldn't get discouraged, you know, Like that's that's what that looked like to me. Is Washington was like, all right, you know, it's twenty five to three, Like

we've done what we need to do. Like I don't I don't give them any credit for not allowing a touchdown after halftime because the touchdowns they allowed before halftime three of them, by the way, which is more than Washington has scored all year, and one of them is a go ball where they just decided not to cover Terry McLaurin for the fourth week in a row. And then the other one is Logan Thomas scoring because Jalen

Smith didn't couldn't tackle him. Well, it was it was atrocious. Um, if I'm looking for positives, I thought Donovan Wilson made a really nice play to break up the two point conversion. I believe it was in the back of the end zone. Um, Layton Vanderesh played the whole game and he got hurt for a second, but I guess it wasn't serious, so you know that's nice, I guess. Um. I am befuddled at how like why did why was Randy Gregory even

up if he only got six snaps? And why is why is Bradley and I are going to be inactive if this is what you're getting from the defensive line, Like I'm not saying tank, but like, let's let's get some of these young guys some looks like because what what has what you've been doing hasn't been working anyway. So yeah, though those are my positives, which is to say, really not any Yeah, and you entered you mentioned, you know,

get some of these young guys opportunities. Yesterday, what we did see was Gallimore and Hamilton played more defensive tackle than Poe or Wood or Crawford. They both played over fifty percent of the defensive snap, both Hamilton and Gallimore. I don't know that we saw a different result overall, because they gave up obviously two uttered eight rushing yards, which is a huge amount to give up to a team that hadn't rushed very well. Antonio Gibson had one

hundred and twenty eight yards on twenty carries. His previous high before that was thirteen carriages for fifty five yards at Arizona. So I don't think the results necessarily showed anything different. But did you as you watch those players play, did you get a sense that maybe they were a little better than the guys that they maybe were replacing Nick? Not really, I'm sorry, and I know where you're going

with this, but I can't. I just can't. There's just nothing really to get excited about it at all I mean, I just said to Antonio Gibson's gonna rush for thirty seven yards next week, and Carol Allen's gonna have a rating of about sixty eight. I mean, like, I just think that those guys were getting tired of getting beat up on, and they got to beat up on the Cowboys. And that's the real embarrassing part of this is that there are a few nice plays here and there. No,

there were like two plays here and there. Yeah, you know what, Layton and Jalen had twelve tackles each. Cool should have been nineteen each. I mean, like, I don't think Layton played that well. I mean he had a really costly penalty too that led to seven points. So I don't know. I mean, somebody told me a long time ago about a play. Yeah, yeah, he led the Cowboys and you know, tackling and they can't tackle, so somebody has to do it, you know, and it's Jalen

Smith and Layton Well. I mean, I do think that as you as we go through the rest of the season, it really is and probably will be for the Cowboys coaching staff front office as well. It's really gonna be about player evaluations. The results won't matter because I think the results are going to be similar to what you saw yesterday. I think what they're looking at is is an individual player playing well enough that we want to keep him around for next year? You know, I think

you know that's where you start looking at it. And that's that's why I asked the question about Gallimore and Hamilton specifically, is because it really is going to be about player evaluation for each of those individual guys. Were there any individual performances? Now I'm not gonna say that we're good, because in the twenty five to three loss, nobody was good. But were there any moments that you looked at and you said, Hey, I like what this

guy was doing here. This is the kind of thing that they're gonna need a little bit more of Amber. I'm sorry, but I can't think of anyone. Honestly, I there was so much bad that it completely blinded my side for any slight of good that there could possibly have been in that game. There was not a single player that necessarily stood out to me for doing good.

So and I know that what we're looking at is maybe just a little bit better, Like, Okay, did this players do a little a little better where maybe we a little something something, but that little something something just got completely washed away from everything else. So I just I'm sorry, I can't give you a better answer to that. But on his there was nothing that I really saw, Dave, I'm with her even you know, I mentioned a couple, I mentioned a couple like positives, and I don't know.

I don't know if it's Donovan Wilson's fault that there was no safety help on the McLaurin play. I haven't seen it back, so I don't want to blame him for that. But my point is Donovan Wilson makes one great play, but like you still see all of the same systemic problems like that. That obviously what makes this so frustrating and terrible is like there is no growth

from week to week. Ye, there is none. They do the same awful stuff every time they go out, and this time they did it against literally the worst offense in the NFL. So cool, Maybe a handful of guys made some nice plays, but like who cares right now? That's just it is what it is, all right, That's gonna be a rap Tomorrow. What we will do is we will talk a little bit more about some of those bigger picture areas where maybe the Cowboys can identify

some issues that maybe they can tackle this year. Some of them are about tackling issues for next year. We're gonna talk specifically about coaching and what's happening right now with this coaching staff, both at the head coach as well as the coordinators, and how much blame do you put on those guys from what we're seeing right now when it comes to this team each and every Sunday. We'll do that when we come back tomorrow to them. For Nick Eatman, Dave helm and Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Hilton.

This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.