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With Mbar Garcia, Brian brought us, Patrick Walker and Derek Eagleton.
It is Tuesday, January second, twenty twenty four, Season nineteen, episode number ninety nine. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. Were Love from SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, we get to recap a win. Cowboys win. They beat the Detroit Lions at home twenty to nineteen. Last What was that now? Was that on Sunday, Sunday, Saturday, Saturday.
I'm so off at this point.
That was on Saturday the thirtieth, and it did set up some very interesting things, not only the Cowboys getting to win, but also other things that happened throughout the league that created some interesting scenarios for this coming game. But we'll get into all that stuff tomorrow. For today, we will recap the Cowboys victory twenty to nineteen. Let's start where we start typically following the game. Let's go around the table. Give me your storyline of this game coming out of the big win.
Let's start first with you, Brian.
I'll tell you what super impressed the way that the Cowboys played run defense in this game. That could have been one of those times where you look at the offensive line how they were configured there with the Lions, it's one of the better groups in the league. I think one of the top five for sure. When you watch their past block, their run blocks outstanding in the way that they play. Dallas did a great job of handling that. I was super impressed with the way that
they were able to control the line of scrimmage at times. Yeah, they popped couple of runs on you, but if you look overall though, of all the runs they had, the negative plays that were created in the running game, especially on short yarded situations, was super impressive. We talk about Tank and the way that he's able to kind of man. I think he got a little lucky on a playdown on the goal line there where he guessed right. But
that's the greatness of Tank Lawrence right there. He kind of sees that maybe the lineman's tipping a little bit, and he's like, well, I'm supposed to go over here. I'm just going to go over here and go around him and then make a play a negative play. So really nice job. If you follow metrics and stuff, they'll tell you that of thirty one runs, nine of them were what they call stuffed runs, no yards or negative plays.
Right there. I don't think you could have played a better game when it came to defending the run against two quality backs. So tip the cap to the front seven the way they played. The way the safety's kind of helped in the game as well, but that could have got out of hand and it didn't so good for the Cowboys in that run defense.
AG.
Well, don't get me wrong. I am happy, Okay.
I'm saying this. This is a disclaimer.
I am happy. I'm very happy that they've won. You know, you got to celebrate. And at this point, now you're all in. There's no they're picking the other team or thinking anything like you're all in and this is it.
And I'm very glad they won.
But there are a lot of things that still concern me, and and you gotta think that. Okay, now you might be playing one or two games at home. Luckily, somehow the Eagles lose.
Against the Cardinals, but they're broken now.
Yeah, yeah, But the point is, regardless of everything starting to fall into place for the Cowboys, which is great and you're excited to see that, there's still a lot of concerning points and areas for this team. We talk a lot about home games and how well they play at home, which is proven to be true. But even this game against the Detroit Lions, which they're a very very talented team, we know that, but a lot of the times the score didn't reflect how the game felt.
You saw the Cowboys moving along pretty well and taking care of business, but then all of a sudden, once again they keep getting in their own way and making mistakes that don't help them. It hurts them, and then you're like, okay, makes you wonder again. I'm like, dang, if, okay, if this is at home, what happens when you're on the road again against the team like this?
You don't win that game.
So it's just one of those scenarios where, yes, it was great, you saw certain areas that were great for the team. I thought the defense did a very very very nice job despite of the running game and everything happening there with the talent that they do have, but it's just like, man, it cannot be that close. Games cannot be that close, especially when you you see things working, but then you're the ones stepping on your own foot and making those mistakes that luckily this led you to win.
But you almost lost that game for sure, And I'm sure we'll get into what happened in the last few seconds of that game. But it's still great, very happy. But man, don't get too comfortable. Buckle up, because there's still a lot of work to be done.
More MVP caliber play from Dak Prescott as far as showing resilience and being able to kind of battle through the kind of the ebbs and flows of the game. Offensively, they had some struggles offensively. We'll talk about the run game, I'm sure here shortly, but I'm going to keep it to the defense. Run defense, Like Brian said, it definitely stepped up. It was kind of weird at times because they made so many positive, big plays as far as run stuffs are concerned, and then a couple of plays
later they let a big run happen. So it's kind of up and down. But Cowboys have more positives than negatives in that regard. And then that kind of takes me to a guy that we talked about, Donovan Wilson. We talked about his reps, his snaps getting turned up last week or the week prior going into this game. We talked about what that probably meant for him and what the Cowboys needed from Donovan Wilson. He showed up big in the run game, and he showed up big
in coverage as well with the interception. So if you're going to get prime Donovan Wilson back in conjunction with maybe prime Jordan Lewis, who's been playing some outstanding football the past few weeks, he gets that interception on that RB screen, which is Cowboys first takeaway. They didn't They weren't able to get any points off of that. However, it shows that Jordan Lewis is coming back to top form, Donovan Wilson's coming back to top form. Stefan Gilmore is
playing great in coverage. D ron Bland gave up the big play, but he also had no safety help over the top. I call that just good play called execution by the Lions. Give them roses for that, but I think the Cowboys defense. You know, they were able to for another week because they had good run defense against the Dolphins as well. So for another week without Hankins on the field, you defended the run exceptionally well all things considered, and now you're likely about get Hankins back,
that objectively should make you that much better. So I have a lot of confidence now when this run defense going forward, secondary safety unit, they're starting to take steps forward. Nickel corner as far as Jordan, He's back to top form. So love what I'm saying from the defense. Cowboys offense still needs to kind of get some consistency over the course of a four quarter game.
Though.
We will dive deeper into a lot of those topics as we go throughout the show. But I got to go to this because this is the storyline in my opinion of this game.
It is what.
Everybody is talking about coming out of this game. I want to get everyone's opinions on that. Well, let's not talk about what but they should be talking about. Let's about what people are talking about. The two point conversion and the illegal touching call. What were your thoughts on that specific moment, that specific play and how it all transpired and what it meant to the overall game and the outcome.
I knew they were throwing the ball to an eligible tackle once that skipper came on the field, I said immediately to myself. We were getting ready for the postgame show, and I'm thinking, Okay, the report and eligible here, and you've got to be ready for that. Anything to do Dan Skippers six ' ten. You know him throwing at catching a two yard pass is going to be a probability. You have to be able to where they aligned him was was surprising to me. They try to use deception.
The whole idea of the reporting rule is to not allow deception, right, that is the spirit of the rule. Competition Committee. Stephen Jones one of the chair members of the Competition Committee, they're very clear about the rule. By the way, like to circle back with Steven Jones, he didn't want to change the rule about the ball fumbling out of the end zone. He's like, I don't want to change.
That rule, which I'm good with too.
By the way, we'll talk about but we got to fumble out of the end zone, so we might want to revisit that. But the spirit of the rule is to report is to not to deceive. Now, running plays is deception, but when it comes to jersey numbers that are not traditional receiver numbers, there's a rule for that, you know. And if you're trying to move the eligible receiver around in the line, if you're reporting him as eligible but playing him as a tackle, that is deception.
So in the spirit of the rule, did maybe did Brad Allen and the crew maybe get it wrong? I don't think so, and I'll tell you why, because the entire game, when number seventy has come on the field, Dan Skipper has been the eligible receiver. He's reported as eligible, you know. So to me, you could talk about, you know,
where they put him. But the whole intent of the rule is to alert the defense of possible eligible people, not to formation it in a way that somebody else is eligible and that that that's the NFL is very clear on that rule itself. So did the Cowboys catch
a break? Yeah, absolutely, But in the spirit of the rule, and the lines even admitted this that they the deception was part of of you know, and if you and if you know, in that situation, I think that maybe Brad Allen and his crew should have stepped back and said, Okay, why are all you trying to report? What's you know? Take take time and okay, are you telling me you're eligible? Are you telling me you're eligible? Who? Who is? Who is the eligible player here? You know? Is it you
Taylor Decker? Is it you?
Uh?
Skipper? If it's not, let's get this situated and then but take a little time. That's a key point in the game right there. It's a huge moment in the game because really, to be honest with you, the second seed of the NFL playoffs now it turns out is on the line in that particular in that particular instance. So I think that, uh you know, and that to me, uh yeah, unfortunately for the lines, but you should know the rule better for what you're trying to do.
And and for me, it's like I said this morning, a one oh five three the fan, the lines got cute and trying to outsmart the Cays. But like Brian is saying, it boggles my mind that you would think you'd be able to deceive when the eligible receiver is going to be announced over the loud speaker as it was. So the defense, the Cowboys defense were they were going to hear that eligible receiver anyway, So who were you deceiving except potentially the official who at that point in the game.
As Brian points.
Out, Skipper had reported eligible on more than one occasion up to that point. So when he sees Dan Skipper running up and there's the subterfuge, he's like, okay, well, you're muscle memory, you're the guy.
You're the eligible guy, and then he announces it.
So then for those that are saying, oh, well he announced that it's a loud stadium, maybe the Lions didn't hear when the Cowboys heard it. That's why they didn't cover sixty eight in the first place. So if the Cowboys hear that it, well, if he reports it at sixty eight, then the Cowboys cover that the play doesn't happen. Then you could rewind back and say, okay, well, if that tripping penalty is called correctly against Ayton Hutchinson and not pay Hendershot, then none of this happens in the
first place. Butterfly fact, I say all of that to say the Lions choke. They made it this decision to try to win the game. That's totally fine. It didn't work in their favor because they got cute. And after they got cute, they had another opportunity. Jared Goff throws an interception to Marquise Bell, Lions get bailed out by the off sides to Michael Parsons. And now you have a third opportunity to change your mind and say this is just not going how we should have idea. It's
a bad idea. Let's just kick the ball and he tries for it again and it doesn't work. I have no sympathy in that situation. The Lions got cute. Finally, the Cowboys got a break in their favor because so often this season and these close games, talk about Philadelphia, talk about Miami. You just didn't get these breaks. It broke in the cowboys favor. No apologies should be given out for a win. Lions got cute, and it costume of the game and probably the number two seeds.
Well that's the thing about too. The Cowboys lost the game because of an eligible receiver themselves, right with a Doka exact Philadelia. So you know that's that that in itself right there is you know there are clear rules about eligible receivers. The NFL makes that very very very clear. They they they make it a point to announce to the crowd and and you know to the crowd and to the teams that seventy is eligible. Seventy is an
eligible player. And you know you can if you want to, if you want to put him somewhere else and use in man on the line of scrimmage and all that stuff. I thought it. I thought Taylor Decker was covered by I thought he was covered by the wide receiver. But looking back on film, he wasn't. I thought. Initially, I'm like, well he's covered anyway, that's an illegal formation, you know. So anyway, I I I again, I don't have any
any sympathy for the Lions. You're you're absolutely right. They had they had he should have kicked the extra point to begin with. After watching his offense just go down the field in that final drive and I win the toss. I'm gonna do the exact same thing again. You know. Now, maybe Dallas plays you differently because they they they were in some they did some crazy things, in my opinion. Get to that. Yeah, we'll get to that. We'll get to that.
Yeah.
But anyway, yeah, no, I.
Was the only thing I was gonna say.
I I filled this same exact way Zero's sympathy.
It is what it is. You know, more often than not, that's something that would.
Happen to the Cowboys, like that happens to us all the time. And people want to come and get on on social media and start saying, oh, y'all paid the reps and the refs are on your side and all that. I'm like, say, whatever you want, that's not the case. Finally, yeah, yeah, but either aither way it worked on the cowboys favor. But again, it never should have gone to that point.
It never should have gone to that point. The Cowboys had so many opportunities where they could have been taken the lead and never got into even possible even the possibility of going over time.
But anyway it happened. We're here, they won, and it is that.
One other thing I think that hasn't been mentioned a lot in the conversation around this is after the game, Jordan Lewis was talking to the media and he made it clear that actually in the week previous to the game they worked on this quite a bit, on eligible players players reporting.
How do you adjust to that?
So my contention has always been, if the rules set up so that you can't deceive and you have to make it clear who is this eligible player. Then Dallas was playing based on that, and if you see a guy lined up at tackle and he's not declared as eligible, you don't cover him, you don't worry about him as
a potential receiving threat. Now, if they would have said sixty eight is eligible the eligible guy, then I think at that point I think the Cowboys would have adjusted because again, they practiced it all week and the likelihood that Jay run Curse gets beat by a tackle in coverage it's not very high. So my point is, like, whatever you want to say about the ref messing it up or not, at the end of the day, that wasn't the Cowboys' fault. They did it based upon whatever
they were told. The stadium was told seventy is.
The eligible player.
At that point, that's what you have to work with, and based on that, I don't think it would have been converted. Even if they would have gotten the number right. The point is they got cute. They were trying to be deceptive, and I like the way you put it, Brian. The rule is put there so that there is no deception. You want to make sure everybody's aware who the eligible players are, and that's how you have to adapt to it all. We're going to take our first break. We'll
come back. We'll dive a little deeper into some of the things. I want to talk about that final drive, not only from the standpoint of the Cowboys and what they did on their offensive possession when they went down and actually got the score, but also the Cowboys defense. What were they doing in that particular possession that allowed Detroit just drive right down the field in a short period of time and get to a point where they were they were in position to tie it up. We'll
talk about that when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Back to the break, Yeah, I'm trying to get my headphones on about DeMarcus Lord of New Year. Yeah, jez it was fumbling around there for a minute. Markslawence is the Dallas Cowboys nominee for twenty twenty three NFL Player of the Year. That's the Walter Payton Award, of course, presented by Nationwide. Help Tank raise funds for Dak Prescott's Faith Fight and Finished Foundation by casting your vote on nfl dot com slash Man of the Year or tweet
your support using the hashtag WPMO Wide Challenge. Voting ins January eighth. Vote for Tank Welcome Back.
Segment two of the of Cowboys break here live in SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start the segment is brought to you by blockchain dot Com. All right, so let's talk about that last drive that the Cowboys were on.
Their defense was on the field.
They've got the lead, and really all they need to do at this point is just keep Detroit from scoring a touchdown, not a field goal, a touchdown.
What happened was just the opposite.
They allow a nine place, seventy five yard drive in a minute in eighteen seconds that gets the Lions into position where they are at twenty to nineteen to go for two, but could have clearly tied up the game and forced likely I'm not going to say definitely, but likely forced in overtime. Dallas would have had some seconds still left on the clock. That all being said, Laporta, who I thought they'd done a pretty good job on most of the game. Was really the guy that killed
them on that final drive. Three catches for fifty yards on that drive alone. Talk to me about what was happening, Brian. You alluded to them what was happening with the Cowboys defense and how they were trying to defend the lives on that last drive.
Well, you didn'tet any pass rush to start with, which really hurt. You know, the Lions did a really good job of holding up there. You initially started the drive playing to defend the sidelines. And we've seen this training camp when we've gone and watched practices and stuff, and they work on those final two minute drills when the other opponent doesn't have any timeouts, and so what you do is you defend the sidelines, so you try and funnel everything back to the middle and then make a tackle.
And then it just was a lot of time left to be playing that kind of a front and that kind of a defensive package in my opinions, because once the ball went to the middle, fine, you rally, you tackle, but it's a huge chunk play right there, and so now you've got all your defenders wide you have to rally, So okay, they get out of that the second time around. Then okay, the second play is they get into a situation where they play two deep safeties, but they played
the safeties so wide. Both safeties ended up on the hashbod excise me on the numbers. So now you got them, You've got the defense really stretched again. Attack in the middle of the field, and now now you've given up another big chunk play. So you're in a situation where now Dan's thinking about He's thinking about, well, I've got to do something different here, So he tries to place some man coverage on it and he matches up Curse on Laporta, and Laportera runs like a pivot and you know,
up the field and back inside and Curse overplays. Now it's another big play right there. Now you're on the doorstep, you know. And they got caught in a situation too between more in the safety when the ball went when Saint Brown went to the outside, they got caught in really how they were aligned and how they were going to play the zone down there. Saint Brown catches the ball and goes in. So he tried three different things
in order to stop them from scoring. Three different types of looks and all two of them were bad in the way, actually three of them were bad in the way that the middle of your field was really exposed. And so that's where the Lion's clear attack. But the lack of pass rush killed you in that particular moment as well.
Yeah, I mean it really boiled down to their inability to stop Laporta on that particular drive. You know, you had a ten yard drive and you had the twenty five ish play. I'm sorry, then the twenty five yard is played right after on the first one. If you go back and look at it, the Porter starts on the left side. He kind of gets the free release for the most part, he goes and he sits down middle, and there you go ten yard gain. I think in that aspect than dan Quinn, Jeron curs in the safeties.
They start saying, okay, well, let's try to keep at least one guy keeping an eye on the middle, because on that twenty five yard drive, Laporter starts on the right side jay Ron, he's eyeing Laporter. So you have the two safeties, but they are they're two, they're stretched wide, they are at the numbers, and now you have jay
Ron and you have Marquise. So when they when the play happens, j N kind of glances at Laporter, but then guess what your running back is coming out of the backfield, and then he sits right where Laporter sat. So jay Ron gets that second thought, he says, okay, I'm going to play for Okay. Well, by then Laporter is already behind him.
But now the.
Safeties who are supposed to help, they're too wide, so Golf just drops it in play design good So good play design versus a not great you know, defensive design, especially because you didn't get pressure in the front four.
So that's really those two plays are what kickstarted it because, like Brian said, after that big play, bigger play from Laporter, now you're on the doorstep, and I'm going to say Brown, who had a very solid game against the Cowboys, he gets another play and then all of a sudden, now it's a touchdown drive and we're into the two point conversion controversy. So if they had gotten a handle on the Porter on either of those two plays perfectly the
twenty five yarder, then it's a much different situation. But I mean, you also got to give credit to those guys on the other side of the ball because la Portas, he's been lights out all season. And like you said, although the Cowboys for the most part before that drive did a good a good job of kind of bottling him up, you just had to know at some point during that game he was going to get his and on that draft he got his.
Well, he was able to have some success against your linebackers or some success, but when they put when they put corners on him, he didn't have a catch.
I saw it.
Yeah, yeah, So, I mean they did that a few times, and I think that people are starting to treat Jake Ferguson that way too.
Yep.
They're not gonna let They're gonna put you know, like Brian Branch several times caught Ferguson in this game, and you wonder, like, well, what well they playing Ferguson different. Yeah, they are. They're treating him like a wide receiver. And
that's the thing with the porter I think Dan. I think that if he had to do it over he wouldn't have he wouldn't have left the middle of the field open as much as he did because I think it was really early, you know, when for example, I think we all watched the Philadelphia Arizona game when they have no timeouts and twenty something seconds. That's to me where you played the sideline prevent defense where you just
you don't let them get out of bounce. You you funnel everything to the middle and then you tackle them. Especially needing a needing a touchdown. You know, you just rally and then the time. But with a minute forty on the clock, that seemed like you're not benefiting. You're giving up a big chunk play there and then potentially giving another big chunk play by playing your your secondary that way. He got out of that pretty quick after the first time.
Yeah, it's interesting because I think in those kinds of situations you got a minute forty left in the NFL.
Yeah, I'm like, that's turn it.
Play your regular defense because this is you don't need to switch it up. And by the way, the Cowboys defensive played well. I had said that this This game, in my opinion, came down to the how well the Cowboys defense played, because I don't think the defense played particularly well. I mean I played okay, don't get me wrong. I see he had a career day. Dak had great numbers. I think the offense left something some plays on the field.
I think the defense was really the reason why they were in the game and playing it to the point that they were playing it. And then that drive happens, and you're like, how did this happen?
The whole situation if you look at the turnovers though, the interception on the screen and Patrick mentioned the play, lewis perfectly playing the play. I mean, the flow is going away and he's reading and he sees the he sees the back comeing to his side. He stays. That's just perfect recognition. And then what happens is like Osa is so fast up the field on the screen because they don't block him. Golf just turns and fires it. I mean he doesn't even look. He just spins and
throws and lewis driving on the ball. That's pressure right there. They forced They forced Golf into some really uncomfortable situations in his head of having to deal with the pressure during the game.
Like you said there, they should have just stuck with the defense that was working on for them, the defensive set that was working for them, because once you drop back and you get soft as far as like coverage, you know, spacing quote unquote prevent quasi prevent in that situation, there's too much time on the clock. And on the previous draft, guess what you got. You got an interception from Donovan Wilson and who was the target. It was Laporta on that play. So you shouldn't have backed off.
You should have stayed in their face, stayed in those receivers face, stayed in la porter face, Laporter's face, and even had a greater chance of that not ending in a touchdown.
Draft well, also after so after the interception, i mean, I'm thinking, with two minutes left, I'm thinking that's being dumb with me, because that's plenty of time.
Sometimes I'm thinking, we got this, let me, let me start picking up my stuff to head downstairs.
But even then, like.
This is one of those suggestions where again you see the way that the offense was playing the Cowboy's offense in general, but still not cashing in on everything. You shouldn't have settled for a field goal. I mean, it was great that Aubrey what was it, forty three yard attempt, Yeah, and he gets it in. But I'm like, those are the situations where you should go and drive down the field and score a touchdown, seal the game or quote unquote seal the game. But that would have basically garn
you the win with that much time left. But then you settle for a field goal.
But let me ask you this, because that brings up an interesting point because some say, some would say I would agree with this that the Cowboys may have been a little too aggressive on the drive they were throwing there.
They allowed forty.
Seconds to not be taken off the clock because they were essentially I mean, it was clear Michaels like, we're trying to win this game right here.
And I like the aggressiveness.
I like the aggressive mindset, but I think in that situation, I think it would have been preferable keep running the ball, especially if you get the tripping call, keep running the ball at that point and just try to get as much time off the clock, take your field goal with your money kicker, and then don't give them the time to be able to drive down the field and be able to make the score.
How do you suppose that?
But I think both things can be true, because I agree you run the ball to get time off the clock, but then you can also keep pushing the play and get that doesn't mean you have to absolutely settle for just a field goal. I mean, if you set up the design and the plays well enough and then adding some passes here in between, you get to the end zone.
So it doesn't have to be just one thing or the other.
I think you can do with well management and in a good play design you come up with something that contains both a mixture of both kill time off the clock while also driving the offense to get closer into the end zone.
Well, the fact of the matter is on that deep pass, the pass was kind of there, like they just didn't connect on it, like it wasn't They had an opportunity on that pass, I think to convert it. My thing is the chance of not converting, you know, is what you were about the high rate of completion.
Right, Yeah. I have a feeling though, if Dak had to do it over after he watched the tape.
He would take it underneath.
He would hit well, he could throw it. He could have thrown it to Ferguson would have kept the clock going, or he could have taken a dagger shot at Tolbert. And I think Toberbert on the deep, on the deep, on the deep, the deep cross he's I mean, I think if that's Lamb, I think Dak throws that ball, no doubt it's Tobert Man and nothing against Toburt. I love you, bro, You're one of.
The He's the one on the eight and not the eight on the eight and was like, whoa hold he saw he saw the.
End cut and it was Toburt and he said, I'm gonna take my chances with Cooks. And but I think if it was eighty eight on that deep end, yeah, I think Dak would have ripped it and then Ambar would have been packing her bag and like this.
One's over see.
I had visions it's so funny when you the tripping happened. Yeah, I had visions of us being I had visions of us being in Detroit the last time. And remember when Matthew Stafford that game where Tyroed Smith got a holding call and it brought him back and they couldn't kill the clock. They get a positive day and they and it was it was detroiting what happened. It left Detroit time, yep,
and Matthew Stafford and Megatron won't bump wop down the field. Yeah, it just I had that vision of like oh please, don't let this be that game again. But I think that to me, that that that I like the aggressiveness. But I agree with you, I'm about I don't. After the interception, I'm sure the defense is thinking, we don't have to go back out right, We're not going off this game. We are not going back out there. And if we're going back out there, there's going to be
twenty seconds left. Okay, fine, we'll play with twenty seconds left. They weren't thinking once they got that interception that they were going to have to defend for a minute forty There's no way in hell they thought that.
Yeah, But yeah, to me, it felt rush once the offense got in there, it just felt like rush. I'm like, this is the time where you just okay, it's you're the one taking control of the game at that point, and it just felt like all the plays we're kind of just all right, like you're playing behind when you're the one in the lead and you can take care of business.
So here's here's where I'll play Devil's advocate because I completely agree in this in the aspect of the Cowboys needed to eat up more time, need to eat it more time, don't give them a minute. Forty us just don't do it right, especially in a game that's this close, and you just figure that maybe Laporte is going to get his sooner or later. But I think that would
have to require two things. Number one, just run the clock down closer to zero before you snap the ball, even if it's a plass play, so that that has to happen, period.
But you don't have.
Confidence in your in your run game, in the in that in that contest, you just don't Tony Pollard.
I will say this, for as much as we've we've had.
Concern so long, for as much as we've had concerns about the Cowboys rushing attack, rightfully so, because first it was offensive line juggling, and then you know, then it was like, okay, well Pollard isn't completely Pollard yet because he's coming off the injury. Now you get Tyrone Smith, he's back for seven consecutive games, Pollard starts to look more prime Pollard.
It started to make progress, but the.
Parlor I saw against the Lions was the worst version of Pollard that I've seen in a long time.
His vision was not there at all.
So this was I charted him even before Tyler Smith left the game.
Pollard was not getting traction.
He wasn't getting traction right side, left end, right tackle, left tack, I mean right guard, left guard. He just was not getting traction. He didn't get a positive play. Let me pull it this chart here. He didn't get his first positive play until the fourth Cowboys offensive drive, which was a handoff for game of five before then, first drive loss of two yards, second drive handoff right loss of three yards, third drive right flat screen loss of five yards. The third drive two plays later, third
and fifteen flipped the Pollard for no gain. And then you had a situation on another drive where it wasn't the drop in there somewhere This one I'm getting too.
So quarter three guys, helmet almost ripped off of ye drop.
Quarter three, seventh drive for the Cowboys handoff left end, loss of two next play, second and twelveth middle slant dropped. That drive ended in a punt. So he got going in the fourth drive in the fifth drive. But my point being, for the most majority of the game, including the drive that preceded the final offensive drive, the Cowboys hadn't seen anything from Tony Polter that would then tell them we can salt this game away on the ground.
Because you also didn't see it from duce Vaughan, who finished with two rushing yards on the day, but Yap sent Rico Daudo as well.
I understand that.
My thought would be, you have other ways you can utilize the running game.
Number one, say exactly, the sweep, the jet sweep is, the jet sweep is the best four minute run they got, You know you do.
I just feel like after watching McCarthy who and I said this on the fan this morning, it felt McCarthy and Pollard on Saturday against the Lions felt eerily like Gallop and McCarthy in Los Angeles against the Chargers, and that this guy is having a really bad day at the office, and the play caller is just like, we're going to do whatever we can to get you going, and at a certain point you just should have and figured out another way to get it going on the ground.
My thought is you could have done boots with Dak, You could have run jet sweeps, You could have some of those some of those little bubble screens that they love to throw the wide receivers. There are other things you could have done to keep the clock moving and give you some opportunities. And again I'm not saying that that I agree with you what you're saying. Holistically and in most situations, I'm like, I prefer the more aggressive approach.
I love that about Dan Campbell, Like he's like, I'm going I'm gonna win games.
I'm gonna try to win games.
But at the same time, I think there's a smarter component to it that you have to always think about too, and where is your team and what is your team going to be as to do you put your team in a situation where your defense is played well all day, but you give the other team the ball with a minute forty You're creating a situation where it's hard for them to defend because you know the tendency is to be a little more a little less aggressive on defense
because you're like, don't give up the big play, and that allows team to just drive right down the field and here you go touchdown.
The biggest mistake I think did Dan camp was not going four and fourth and on the two point play. Was going forward on fourth down when it was a seventy three game. Yep, take the points. Ye don't don't don't just any time you get points if you want to, if you want to go forward in the fourth quarter and be aggressive that way, go for it when you know what the game. But him giving up those points, great job by the Cowboys playing defense down there, you know, and getting off the field.
Now, I'm a segments first and goal when they started there and they held him four times.
Absolutely, this was really well, all.
Right, let's take our final break. We'll come back.
It's not often we get through and get to the final segment of the break after a game day. And haven't talked about Dak Prescott, but we'll do that when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Back to the Break, How about this. Sean Polite is your twenty twenty three Cowboys Fan of the Year, and now he needs your help. Vote for Sean to be given the ultimate title of NFL Fan of the Year, presented by Captain Morgan by casting your vote at NFL dot com Slash Fan of the Year.
Welcome back to is the final segment of The Break, live from the WBC Morgan Studios at the Star. We got a few more minutes, will get real quickly to the to the Dak to Dak Prescott. In this game, he was twenty six of thirty eight sixty eight percent completions, three hundred and forty five yards, two touchdowns, one interception, a one O three point five rating.
How just says his play overall, I mean.
It was a step forward over the previous couple weeks, but it's still not I mean there are throws he wants back and when we see him and like I said to start the show, I think it was an MVP performance as far as was resilience goes, but I'm still looking for four quarters of consistencies.
You know, something that we.
Saw in that that sequence of wins that followed the loss in Philadelphia midway through the season, where you saw Dak Prescott was just absolutely on fire and he was he didn't have as many throws per game that you felt that he wanted back. Brian brought up a great one.
I tweeted about it in real time. If he sees Tobert, for example, in that play, that's a touchdown that probably you know, helps put the game first down right at minimum, at minimum because he also had some green in front of him as well as for some possible Yak, So I think that was it a perfect game for Dak Prescott?
Absolutely not. Was it a bad game?
Did he do anything to really cost the team that the interception? He wants back, and I said that in real time as well. You cannot. When he's escaping to the right, you don't make that throw, especially with the dB sticky to your wide receiver like that, and that's why I ended up with the interception. But all things considered,
he bounced back. He led the offense and the situation where your rushing attack was non existent and you needed to try to wield the team forward, will the offense forward.
He did so.
Not the prettiest outing for Dak Prescott, but when the Cowboys needed him most to step up, he and Ceedee Lamb and Brandon Cooks they did. And that's what you need from your franchise quarterback.
Yeah. I felt like, you know, you look at the metrics and you watch the game the eye tests that you have, and then you study the game on tape. The numbers against man coverage were really really good. The numbers against the blitz were really really good. You know, the thing that Dak would probably like to have back is that they always talk about passes that travel more than ten yards in the air, and that's where he
was five of eleven. He was f one hundred and fifty four yards, but a lot of that was on the on the pass that he had to did they scored the ninety two yard pass. But I think that everything about the game though, the way he handled the pressure. I don't know how he escaped that home on the nineteen yard Yeah, it's you know in the Lions, they they you know, and I think a lot of it has to do with their teams are afraid of hitting
quarterbacks nowadays. They don't wrap these quarterbacks up like they did and dak Is you've got to wrap him up. But his ability to escape keep your eyes down the field. Yeah, that was a top shelf and throw. Yeah, absolutely, But he handled pressure well, uh yeah, there's some throws he always gonna want to have back. And but I do wish he would have made that throw to Tolbert right there because that would have that would have killed the
Lions right there. That was a that would have been a big, big play.
Yeah.
I mean, I agree with everything you both said to me. The one thing that did stand out was just him handling the pressure and specifically that play where he threw it to CD for that first touchdown. He was like in a crowd full of guys on him and then he just scapes and his ability to maintain his awareness of everything, still escape look for CD make that throw.
Those are things that now he's I feel like mentally, like as opposed to Buffalo for example, he wasn't there mentally and just kind of now when you see him like that, and when you know the struggles that the O line is haveing health wise, and well, I'm sure we'll talk probably tomorrow about the O line and everything that's currently happening there, but yeah, we got some news there.
But when that happens, you need your quarterback to be able to play that way, and it's great to see him kind of stay focused and be able to run and escape with the ball and still make throws like that.
Yeah, I think when you think about it, like, I know there were some throws he would want back, and I know that it wasn't perfect, but the amount of pressure that they're putting on Dak Prescott for this team to win, you think about it from the standpoint of thirty eight times a threw the ball. They only ran the ball twenty one times in that game. We are back to basically going into games and saying, Dak, here's
the ball, go win it. And so when you do that, yeah, when you do that, it's not going to be Every pass play is not going to be perfect. What I do believe is Dak Prescott is playing the best football of his career because with all that pressure on his shoulders, he's still finding a way to get his team wins. Now again, you can say what you want about the Buffalo game. I think he didn't have a good game there. I think the Miami game he didn't play his best football.
I think yesterday, I mean on Saturday night. I do think he played really good relative to what you were asking him to do, and it can't ended up being a win for you as well. He can't control the fact that ced fummels the.
Ball out of the end zone.
He can't control he actually can't control the fact that the defense on that last drive ends up in a situation where they allow them to drive down. What he did was he drove his team down to put them in position to win, and he got the points that they needed to get and so I look at that and I think Dak played a really good game, especially for what he's being asked to do, and I think he's playing some of the best.
Football of his career MVP caliber.
All right, page, guys, join us.
We are back.
We got one quick headline. Yepes we can report it now, I guess.
So, speaking of the offensive line, a little bit of a reunion possibly in the works. Cowboys are working out today former Cowboys offensive lineman Lywell Collins. He's back in the building today and if that physical looks good, then we might see a reunion there. And they're also going to work out and more reunion Damian Wilson former Cowboys linebacker Damian Wilson, who then spent time with the Kansas City Chiefs. So depth at linebacker with the decision to
part ways with Rashaun Evans. So there you go, two possible reunions.
For the Cowboys.
And then when it comes to Lyell Collins, I know Brian and I were talking about it before the show went on. It looks like it would be for tackle and not guard. So for those that are wondering if this is a Tyler Smith indication that it is not.
Yeah, this is a tackle deal. Yeah all the way.
How long has Damien Wilson been out of football?
Is it?
What do you play last year?
Man? You're I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have asked the question for Jacksonville last year last year.
So he did play last year, he just hasn't been on a roster this year.
Correct, Okay, got it.
All right?
Jacksonville twenty one Carolina and twenty two five starts for Carolina, two sas thirty eight tackles so rotational, but.
The fact is he's played, so you get him in there. It can't be worse than what.
Hey, beggars, cannot be Absolutely.
Practice is a salt team cracker for the starving person.
You practice squad way.
All right, beg you guys for joys. We'll be back tomorrow.
Wisdon start getting ready for Cowboys versus Commanders. This will be a huge game for the Cowboys. We'll start breaking that down tomorrow. Till then for Patrick Walker, Brian brought us in Ambergarci. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been the Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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