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It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought us, Patrick Walker, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Monday, December eleventh, twenty twenty three, Season nineteen, episode number eighty six. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We are live from the s WBC moreh Studios.
At the Star.
We got Ambery Shade, we got Patrick over there just humming along. Brian's just like here like we're all just trying to fill this thing out. Cowboys get a big win yesterday. Dallas thirty three, Philadelphia thirteen. I think we all picked Dallas, but man, I don't think anybody expected to see what we saw last night. That was a domination. From the beginning of the game. Dallas looked really, really good last night. We'll break that down for you guys
throughout the course of this show. We'll start what we start on every Monday with the storyline. What's the big picture storyline coming out of this game today. I want to start with Amber. Let's go with you first, big picture storyline.
Come on, well, big picture, we found out that the Eagles are actually not a good football team.
How are you gonna go there?
I don't know that.
I don't believe that.
I said, no, I don't either. I don't believe that either, But that's what I see all over twel Yeah, so shut.
It, post, move post.
Oh my god, it's ridiculous. It's insane. Some of the takes that I've been reading since last night are seeing on Twitter and other media outlets out there that like they just will not give it to the Cowboys. They're just like coming up with different reasons. Let's just see what kind of insane reason can we come up with this time to change the narrative and make it look again and sound like the Cowboys are not a good damn but they are.
They are.
Sorry, fly birds? What is a fly Eagles flag?
Over?
Man?
Real quick?
You know? For my birthday, I went to six Flags and out there a bunch of Eagle fans and just out of know where people just adults, grown adults riding rides. Godbird, I'm like shut up like that.
Talk to you.
What are you doing?
Like, just enjoy the freaking park. They're so obnoxious.
Oh my god, but I'm.
Why you enjoyed Arlington Texas too much.
Yeah.
But anyways, the storyline for me, I mean, what an amazing job McCarthy has done with this team and everything that he's done and implemented with all the changes. I know, we were very questionable of what he was doing the first few weeks of the season, and rightfully so, because
everything that we were seeing wasn't necessarily great. You know, we were there were concerns there, and to be fair, he was able to change everything very quickly with the new system that he implemented, and it seems to be exactly fitted for what Dak Prescott is as a quarterback. It fits him perfectly. And they just keep exceeding my
personal expectations and playing better and better each week. After the loss, the tough loss against the forty nine ers, so I think, to me, we saw a complete football team in all three facets of the game from start to finish. I was concerned heading into the second half when Dak had that fumble. I was concerned that I'm like, Okay, let me buckle up, buncle up that seat belvet, because
it's about to get bumpy here. Because we've seeing the Eagles come back in the second half of many, many other games, so that wasn't out of the question yet. And the Cowboys handled the situation perfectly, and they just played a beautiful competitive game all from beginning to end.
Produst, It's going to really come down to two things for me in this game.
How well were you going to be able to help your right tackle in the game and how well was he going to play? Were you going to let Hassan Reddick be a factor in this game like he was the first time round or whoever played as the left edge for the Eagles. Those were the worries for me. And the second worry was how well were you able to hold up in the secondary when you needed to? And you know, they're really on both accounts. I felt like it was outstanding. When you watch the film, you'll
see you know, still did a really nice job. The single blocks he had to deal with. They helped him with the double teams with Pollard, they chipped with Ferguson, they spaced him with Ferguson out there. So everything that we kind of talked about in the game leading up to like how would you try and handle how would you handle dealing with Reddick? And I was really impressed because they sometimes when coaches will be really stubborn and they won't have a plan for that, they'll say, Okay, no,
we're good enough. But they realized that there were some issues there at the right tackle the last time that these two teams played, and give gives still a lot of credit the single blocks he had. He did a really nice job, but his teammates helped him well. In the secondary though, you needed to find a way to handle these receivers. It came down to, well you can be able to travel guys. You know a lot of teams don't like to travel guys. Well, they took they took your your your.
Corners, and they moved him around a little bit. You know. Gilmour was able to go uh you know and handle Brown when they needed to him.
The turnovers that they created, we talked about how well that the uh that the safeties needed to play in this game, and to a man, they did a great job. The turnovers, the fumbles, all those things were led to a victory. So things that they needed to work on to get a victory. They were able to take advantage of.
Those first and foremost.
I want every opposing receiver to call Stefan Gilmore old from now on. I just need you to do that so you can learn the lesson that AJ Brown learned on yesterday. Gilmore was outstanding, and so was Bland when he was targeted, and going to Bland kind of brings me back to a central point that I spoke about going into the game, which was, you have to tackle
against this Eagles offense. You have to tackle, tackle, tackle, because a large part of their offensive production in the air comes from yards after the catch.
Well, the Cowboys did exactly exactly that.
They were exceptional in deleting potential yak once the ball was caught. Talk about Bland and how he takes down Dallas Goddard on the left flat. Talk about Gilmore and what he was able to do on two consecutive plays, critical plays late in the game as the Eagles were really gasping for some air there. And then on the one particular play which was kind of a microcosm of the game when the Eagles were able to get some yak.
Talk about that Devonte Smith playing the fourth quarter, what happens come from behind force fumble, So even when they were able to get some yack, they paid for that. So Cowboys defense stepped up, and we talked about them giving up that many points to the Seahawks, but we were saying, well, three games in eleven days, and then you look at the offense they were going up against, maybe they were tired coming off of a manybody.
They proved that that was actually the.
Point you come in and you shut down Jalen Hurts in that offense. You don't allow them a single touchdown throughout four quarters of football. And this was supposed to be a front runner for MVP. You asked about Nick Bosa last week and what Nick Bosa said. The blueprint was out there, and I said the Cowboys had the blueprint and the personnel to execute the blueprint.
So there you go.
Dak Prescott now has to be the not a the front runner for MVP based on what he was able to do.
As well.
Mike McCarthy, he's out there calling a great game with suitors in his stomach. So I mean, just it's a statement when it destroys all narratives and I'm with you. I love what you said on Twitter last night. We're not I'm not accepting any goal posts moving. There's no Oh, well, they didn't beat a good team. Why is it that you're saying this team is not good? Is it because they got beat up? Well maybe that's because the team
that beat them up is just a better team. So it's time to change that narrative to that.
Yeah.
In fact of the matter is like when you look at at this is this is typical of the NFL every there. There are lots of teams out there. There are a few really good teams. There's not a team most of the time that doesn't have at least a portion of their season where they hit some adversity. This is the nature of it, right. But you don't get to ten and three without being a good team. So don't move the goalpost now. Now, Philly is a good team. They got beat by a better team last night. And
that's what Mike I said after the game. He was like, we were a better team tonight. And by the way, you run this thing back in Philadelphia in two weeks, who knows what it might be. Last night, Dallas was clearly the better team. So there is no moving the goal post. Philadelphia is a good team. Dallas just played a phenomenal game. They had a great game plan and they executed really well, no doubt. Let's talk about Dak
Prescott last night. He was twenty four to thirty nine, sixty two percent completions, two hundred and seventy one yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. He did have the one fumble, which was a turn for a touchdown, the only touchdown of the night for the Philadelphia Equals. And by the way, when you mentioned that about them not scoring a touchdown, it had been since twenty seventeen. That was the last time to them that Philadelphia and Dallas did to them.
Then that Philadelphia didn't score an offensive touchdown in a game, that's a long streak. That's a very long streak. But Dallas shut it down last night. Deck did also have a ninety nine point four quarterback rating.
How do you assess this play overall?
I think the only mistake he made and he admitted it on the he got a little sloppy on the fumble and they're going to take a deep shot. Cooks his wide open and ch it's a touchdown and he.
Tries to go back to it late and he drifted in.
Now, Martin didn't exactly have you Cox lockdown, I mean, but Dak drifted into into Cocks, which made it difficult.
That's why you get the sack.
And as he's trying to unload the ball or trying to set it up to launch it, that's where all of a sudden, when he gets hit, it's on the ground. So really the only mistake he talks about him not playing perfect, there were a couple of throws he'd probably like to have back with some guys that were open. There were you know, some missed some early in the game. I thought he threw the ball a little high. But
many dial things back in. The things that he's really really getting so much better at is seeing an understanding pre snap though where he needs to go with the football. That throw he the throw he makes uh you know, to ferguson the one that goes.
Up up the hash. I mean, he realizes that he's going.
To get a drop linebacker there, and it's going to be and you know, when you when you get a drop linebacker that's not used to playing coverage, was really a defensive end that's playing as a linebacker that's dropping the coverage. He saw exactly what was going to happen there, and he says, well, you're going to match that guy up with that guy, Well, I'm gonna take a shot up the middle of the field. And that's exactly what he did. So his ability to read and understand what's
ahead of him has improved so much. And the coaches are doing a great job with these combination routes of allowing routes to be run off other routes and it's given him some really, really good throws and he's taking advantage of that too.
Yeah, dek Is, he's seeing the field like I mean, he's Bruce Lee right now. As far as being able to read defenses, reading zone, reading man handling blitz packages, he's.
Just getting it all done. Now. Was it a perfect game for him, Not at all.
We've seen more explosive production from Dak Prescott and took to Brian's point, in the first quarter, he was a bit uneven. There were some dots mixed with some high throws. That throw that was high to gallop. It was catchable, but it was high. But then the high throwing Ferguson across the middle that was not catchable, but he settled down and he settled.
In really, really nicely.
And then when you look at what he did with his legs as far as keeping them off balance, they were two big gainers on the ground with his legs. They were both delete it by penalties. So the Cowboys didn't get that production. But what it did do was keep that defense honest and say, hey, you know what, if not for that penalty, that would have been a big play. So it keeps it in their mind and they have to stay true and defend that as well. So going throughout the rest of the game they had to.
And that, you know, accounting for that helped make the secondary that was already questionable for the Eagles that much more so over the course of the game. So he did it on the ground even when it didn't count because of penalties.
He did it in the air.
He didn't make many mistakes, only one mistake and he owned up to that one. You got to, you know, figure out how to get that ball out Quicker. That's a deep throw to Cooks. But then there were you know, a couple of mistakes by the receivers, like the deep left in coverage that's an absolute dot to see thee lamb hits them in the hands with the guy draped over him. That ball got in there one of the Lamb's drops. He wants to have that back. But then you see, you know, Cooks come up with that play
Blitz that takes the hit, delivers it. Cooks thirty yards, gets it down to the one yard line. How boys punched that in So it wasn't perfect for Deck, but by all means, it was still an MVP caliber performance, especially when you look at who they were going up against.
If he, by the way, if he wins the MVP award, the play they need to show everybody for when he accepts the award is the throw that he made to Ferguson.
That was kind of a miracle catch when he's.
Got Buyer just unblocked and I don't know how he got the ball over the top.
I don't know how he got the top the ball over the top.
Of him and then get it to Ferguson enough to allow Ferguson to even have a chance because Sidney Brown was in great coverage, and I you know, for that, that's that if you go back and we look at metrics, probably the most difficult throw that they're going to say that he made that game would be that one an n being a thirty two yard catch, And it just goes to show you the relationship that he and Ferguson have.
He has that much trust in Ferguson that like, when he's facing a blitzing safety that is not accounted for, you know, it's like, Okay, I'm gonna throw the ball. That ball could have very easily been tipped knocked up in the air. Heck, Sidney Brown could have knocked it up in the air, but it was put in a really perfect spot, a difficult spot, and Ferguson came up with a huge, huge play.
Yep.
Yeah, not a perfect game, but expecting a perfect game every time it's a very unrealistic expectation to set on a quarterback. I think he's still checking all all boxes. He's checking out all every single box, and it's impressive and very cool to see. From the start of his career, his whole development and everything that we've kind of had to sit here and watch and talk about and discuss, you know, earlier on was him having to relied on
those short passes. You never saw deep throw passes down the field, or him having to sit in the pocket second guess, you know, or trying to figure out what am I gonna do? Where am I gonna throw? And now none of that, like everything has changed. He's throwing that all so beautiful and so perfect all the way down the field. It happens so often now to where he's constantly connecting with the receivers and it's so in sync.
It happens so quickly, so you're you're getting a Dak Presca that's mentally like you were saying, Patrick, he can read everything so quickly now and get rid of that ball so quickly, and it's just like everything in his mind, body, everything is just in perfect time in.
For him right now.
It's like Neo looking at the matrix. He's just seeing it's like ones and zeros for him.
Right now.
The game has slowed down so much for Dak Prescott. And you see it and last night and you can ask Nick Harris this because I kept saying I didn't realize I did until Harris pointed it out. But over the course of the game, you could almost tell when the when the timer went off in Deck's head in the pocket because at a certain point, it'd be like one point seventy five seconds, and you can tell he was about to go. He was not looking to stand in that pocket, not a moment longer than he needed to.
He was looking to get out, extend plays and things like that and apply that extra pressure to the secondary and that passwords. So I mean, like you said, he's just seeing it in slow motion and he is only going to continue to get better.
He's he's so comfortable with.
Mike McCarthy's play callers, so comfortable with his weapons. Like that throw to Jake Ferguson making that throw.
Who does that?
I wouldn't have pulled that trigger he did, but that the amount of trust required to pull that trigger and then for Jake to reward him with a catch like that, and then yards after the catch like that.
This offense is as special as the defense can be.
Let's take our first break.
When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about the rushing game and the offensive line and how they performed. We'll get to the defense a little bit here in the second and third segments. Well, we're back, Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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It is the second segment of The Break, live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start the segment brought to you by blockchain dot com. Let's talk about the running game. Yesterday, Tony Pollitt was sixteen for fifty nine yards three point seven average. Ric o'dowdell was also twelve carries for forty six yards or three point eight average,
with a touchdown. Perhaps you asked in the Break, You're asking if I noticed or if we noticed that there was more It seemed like there was a little bit more usage of dawdall.
I don't really see that.
Again, I was saying, I really feel like the second half of this year, it's been pretty much to me a running back by committee. I'm not surprised at any moment to see one running back in or the other like it just it seems like they're interchangeable at this point.
For the Cowboys, what were your thoughts.
Well, I'm distinctly remembering we talked about it during the break. There is a point where I want to say third quarter ish where it felt like Rico was really getting a lot of burn. I mean like three four reps in a row, to the point where I kind of sat out loud, I said, is Tony okay? And then a couple plays later, Tony was back in and he got two or three runs in a row, so he was obviously physically fine. But the fact that I had that thought, if I recall correctly, that's the first time
I've had that thought all season. And it may go to your point that it's more so a fifty to fifty and it could be, you know, fifty one forty nine for Tony this week and next week could be fifty one forty nine for Rico Daldo. And that's probably the case, which I would be completely fine with because it keeps both of those guys fresh going into December and in January and then hopefully in February. So I'm with McCarthy if that's his plan. It looks like that
is because it is bearing itself out. We'll see how things go in Buffalo where that run game might really come into play depending on what the weather is. But yeah, I mean it was good to see because Tony. The thing I'm liking about Tony Pollard is as the offensive line has come together and the continuity there, you're seeing the lanes developed and he's not doing a lot of dance and he is running north and south. That at a couple of plays last night where he hit that
hole and he hit it hard. That was very Ezekiel Elliottish to me, and I was like, okay, Tony, I see you getting dirty. And then Rico Dawdle will come in and Rico sees the lane and he either hits it or if that lane closes, its immediate bounce like his quickness is out, which reminded me of Tony Pollard
in like twenty twenty two and twenty twenty one. So it feels to me like those two are kind of settling in those roles and Pollard is getting much more comfortable with doing that dirty work now that his offensive line is is really jelling and giving him those lanes to do.
So, yeah, I'll say I agree with you, and I would have to go back because I can't think exactly like why the reason, like why that thought came into into it. Yeah, because same with what you were saying, Derek, Like, we do see them being interchangeable all the time. That's what it's been. But I do remember twice in two occasions where I'm working on the computer and I look up and I see Rico and I'm like, huh, we're
in situationally where usually you would see Tony instead. But again, because it is interchangeable like that, you don't give it that much thought or look into it that deeply. But it felt like they were using them a little bit differently. I don't know if Brian, if you've had time to kind of.
Yeah, they take a better when they throw the ball. They would rather have Pollard in there. He catches the ball well and he blocks well. The thing that's encouraging me he had eleven yard run last night where he broke an arm tackle of the safety buyered you know, and it's now you're starting to see that where he's making people miss or he's running through arm tackles. I think early in the season you didn't see that happen at all.
Yep.
Yeah.
One other things to note, I just looked up their snap count.
Pollard actually had the lion's here of the snaps between the two. He had fifty nine snaps seventy two percent, where doubt Will only had twenty three snaps twenty eight percent. So he's getting the lion's here of the work. But it doesn't even feel like that to me. It just feels like any either one of them can be out there at any moment.
It might have been that there's a particular stretch of time where there was so much Rico that second half. Yeah, exactly, particularly in the third quarter, where it made me have that thought, well, is Tony okay? Because we had seen Tony a good bit in the first half, and then maybe so after that, you know, you kind of go back to Tony. But Rico got a ton of burn in that third quarter.
We're starting to see it where it's more like it's, like you said, more like a college program. There was a time where it was Zeke and Pollard, and there would be like second or third series you would see a guy come in for that whole series, and they're really not doing that. It's it's like shuffling tight ends. They'll put a back end. Then the little shuffling receivers, they'll put a back end. So they're part of like the packages that these guys are running right now.
If you remember, that was a time when every games we'd finished now and Pollard didn't seem to feel very much like they just didn't use him in the same way. But you're seeing they're using both of these guys, I think is actually a really good thing. It's just a good thing for your offense. And you got two guys you're using regularly. All right, let's talk about the offensive line. They did allow to sacks. Just we talked about the running game, How did the offensive line play specifically, I
want to talk about it. I know you mentioned Steel, but I want to talk about Steel and be Oddish because there were a couple of moments there where you kind of it seemed like the oddish kind of was having a little trouble there in the middle.
What did you see from the offensive line?
He got tripped on the He had twenty five yards of penalties on one drive and the one play where he got hold of he got run over the butt.
He probably would have been.
Able to maintain his feet, but he tripped on Martin's foot going backwards. And so what happens is he's going back, he's got his hands inside, and he just pulls the defender on top of him.
The officials call that.
I don't know how you could call clipping on him his head his head. His head was across the defender's leg, and so if it was behind or in the back where he was going into the back of his leg, but the fact that his head was already front side of the play, that that.
Shouldn't have been a tripping call. And so you know that happens.
I can't remember the last time I saw a tripping call, by the way, or not tripping clip call inside on an offensive lineman like that.
Overall, though, I tell you what, the combo blocks that they.
Got in the Running Game with Steele and Martin were coming off really well.
Pattish I held his.
Own in the Running Game. They ran some really creative runs. They tried an old school trap, they did some misdirections. They did double screen where they ran both guards and the tackles opposite directions, so they're trying to create some space there. I like doing that. But I mentioned this stuff about with Steel, and they went into this game thinking Okay, we're gonna have to help him a little bit. And I talked about the single blocks he did were good,
the double team blocks Pollard helped him. There the sack, I have a question, and I wish I could ask somebody in the organization about this, because the sack that Steele gave up, it was almost like he was expecting Pollard to help him to the outside, and Pollard was set up to do that because Steele never got out
of his stance. It's like still only engaged with his right hand, and his feet were so slow, so you were thinking, okay, is he slow setting here to give Pollard a chance to get outside and help in that way, Because the very next play they ran the same thing and Pollard helped him and so they were able to So I wonder if maybe Steele thought, hey, I'm getting
help on this particular pass play. But I mean he allowed Reddick and you know, luckily you didn't lose Dak because Reddick went really really low coming in there onto his knees. But overall, I mean, I think you have to be pleased with the way that they were able to hold up both in the running game and then also with their pass protection stuff.
I was looking at Tyron Smith. This is an interesting stat from him.
He was against Josh Sweat nineteen times last night, allowed five pressures, a twenty six point three pressure percent pressure rate, So not great, but you know, obviously it didn't end up being disastrous for the Cowboys. And then juxtaposed that to Zach Martin, who was up against Fletcher Cox twenty six percent of the time. I heard you say it on the sh oh last night, and I went and looked it up, and he had one pressure, one sack against Ta Yeah, which and now he's the league.
Shouldn't have happened.
He's second lowest pressure rate.
He's allowed the second lowest pressure rate of any guard right guard in the NFL through Week fourteen. So Zach Martin playing more outstanding football. Tyron continues to play more outstanding football, though yesterday was a bit of a challenge for him. But overall, you look at the offensive line as a unit. They played pretty well.
No issues. There no issues there with you know that.
It wasn't anything like that some of the protections in Week nine, where there was seemed like every down there was some type of pressure in Dak's face.
In this game, it was a little bit more of a clean pocket for him.
The offensive line looked looked really good.
I mean, like you said, five pressures from Josh Wood against Tyrant Smith, but no sex, and I venture to say those pressures didn't really disrupt with the Cowboys are trying to do on any of those plays. Zach Martin, fantastic football against Fletcher Cox. If Dak Prescott gets rid of that ball, it's a touchdown and out of second. We're not talking about Fletcher Cox having any impact on
the game whatsoever. Jaylen Carter, he gets his scoop and score from that, but other than that, he had one pressure. Jordan Davis, zero pressures. I mean that interior really held up when it comes to Tyler Smith, talerbe ad Ishan, Zach Martin. They were not allowing any pressure up the middle, and that allowed for Dak Prescott to be able to read the field and react.
That's Philadelphia's problem, right there.
If they don't get edge pressure now their secondary gets exposed.
Yeah.
Yeah, and you know, I'll mention this, like, I do think part of this, part of what the offense, what we're seeing from the offensive line right now and how well they look is also, in my opinion, a result of how good Dak is playing. I remember back when when Bledsoe was the quarterback here, they were having all kinds of problems with the offensive line, and then they made that decision to put Tony Romo in there, and all of a sudden, offenserve line is playing great and
everybody's like, Wow, offense lines really gotten better. They're doing the same, but he knows how to move around. He forces the defense to play him differently so they can't just rush because he did rush into a spot. And I think that's that's what gets lost a lot of times, is for an offensive line, a lot of times, the ability of the quarterback can make him look really good or make them look really poor and really exacerbate whatever problems they already had.
Well, the touchdown passed that Prescott had that threw to Lamb the first one, yeah, I mean it was just Lamb running across and then Dak being able to get You get a really good edge block by Tyrone Smith that allows him to get to the outside, and there's Dak. You know, Dak on the move throwing the football. You know, you get the receiver, you get separation, Dak finds the guy, Dak running to his left, Jesusly Money throwing the ball, and.
He was able to complete it.
It was really a really pretty play just because your quarterback was able to move and your receiver kept moving with him, which is.
Why I was just gonna say that, I think a lot of the times that I'm watching because it helps him a lot of the fighter. DK gets red of the ball so quickly because at times, and I feel like I've seen many many plays where had he held the ball, maybe three more seconds or somebody would have
gone Dak and riding his face. So it's always like the right timing, the perfect timing, not enough to the point where it just distracts Dak and messes up with what he's trying to do, but just the perfect timing.
And I think, right now, maybe it's the fact that they want and I'm feeling positive and I feel good today, but I feel like giving them more praise than criticism, because we know that even though some of these guys are no longer popping up on the injury report with some type of injury, we know that they're still dealing with stuff, all of them pretty much. So the fact that they've held strong to this point and that we are at least seeing progress in the running game, which
was a huge deal. I think they've done a really really good job.
I think they're better. I think there's actually better idea of how they want to attack fronts with the way that they're blocking these fronts.
And also to that point, kind of circling back to deck really quickly. Excellent point by Inbar. I think that if you compare Dak Prescott post week five to Dak Prescott pre week five. Pre week five, it was much more mechanical as he tries has he tried to figure out how to operate this offense.
It was much more drop back, what's my timer? Let it go? Who's going now?
It's he's so comfortable with it that he's no longer that statue in the backfield trying to figure it out. It's one two, it's not there. I'm moving, but I'm still eyes downfield. I'm moving still, eyes downfield, Okay, screw this ten yard rush for a first down. So because he's so much more comfortable, and the better word is he's in command. He's in total command of this offense. That was not the case week's one through week five. But now that he's in total command, you're seeing it
and how explosive they can be. And the offensive line, like you said, one hand washes the other. They're helping him with continuity and you know, protecting and carving out lanes for the running game.
He's helping them.
When the pressure does come five pressures from Josh Sweat, Sweat can't get his hands on him because Dak the timer went off Dak side of there in a big plays.
Maybe Yeah, I love that word.
I think that sums up his play here over these last several weeks.
His command.
I think you can really see how much he is really commanding this offense. Are we're going to take our final break, we'll come back. We got to talk about this defense. They had another really good night, not a great night necessarily compared, I mean a great night compared to last week.
For sure.
We'll talk about that when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.
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More info ex drave agan We did we.
Read that, Zach Wolcheck in the postgame show. But did this read last night? And we did it?
We did. We yelled the extravagains fun. So they'll be happy with this, or they would start districtation.
Maybe they'll give us.
A little little Christmas cheer, little Christmas with the music.
Yeah, I did like that, like the music?
Yes?
Great, All right, here we go.
Let's finish this thing up. Let's talk about the defense last night. I want to start with Stephan Gilmour. He had nine tackles, one force fumble.
Uh.
He after the game did talk about the fact that he traveled quite a bit with AJ Brown, and he said that they come to him earlier in the week and told him about it, and he was like pretty excited about it, because he admitted sometimes he can get a little bored when you have to sit in one spot. But he did a fairly good job. The interesting thing is it wasn't like a J. Brown got shut down.
I mean, he did have nine catches for ninety four yards, didn't have a touchdown, so it weren't any killer plays, but it didn't really shut him down.
How would you assess this play overall? Gilmore?
I think Gilmore was fantastic, honestly, Like I said, I hope everybody calls him old so he can feel away and play accordingly. And like you said, Aj, he had just under one hundred yards. But it's also fair to say that there was some stat patting going on there as well. Yeah, there was some stat pay going on.
But you know, when you talk about Gilmore in this particular game, you also have to talk about, you know, I mentioned it earlier, his ability to tackle, his willingness to get in there, get his hands dirty, take down a bigger guy like Aj Brown. On more than one occasion, critical stops to delete the yards after the catch. You talk about the force fumble from behind, that was one
of those plays where, yeah, Aj makes the play. He's trying to get some yards after the catch and Stepan comes up behind him and just completely rips the ball out. Another huge play for the Cowboys defense. So you love what you're getting from Stefan Gilmore and quite as it's kept.
He's played some really.
Good football the majority of this season, and that's what you need when you lose a guy like Diggs. And we talked about it when when the Cowboys lost Digs for the season, that made the value of Stefan Gilmore's trade that much more priceless. And now you see why that is. So shouts out to Gilly. He did a fantastic job there.
I thought his fourth down stop was a change the game. I really did.
I felt like the Eagles, I mean with the turnovers were huge as well, but that you know they're going to try and run him through the trash and he you know, on the other side, here's coming from the opposite direction, here's big Brown, coming right at you, and he totally avoids that and is able to stay, you know, with with his man with Smith going across. And I think what was even better about it was that Kurs and Armstrong.
Got home on the blitz. They ran a six man blitz to and.
The ball came out low and so Smith had to wait on the ball and had to adjust low, and that gave that gave Gilmour even more of an.
Opportunity to close in the open field.
And hats off to him for making a sure tackle on the outside, because if somehow that Smith misses that or gets through that tackle, it's up the sidelines and who knows what's happening. But I thought that play right there changed the momentum of the game for the Cowboys.
Yeah, there are times, and I'm not calling him old, okay, but there are times that.
You think there's a benefit now to doing that.
Well, I'm not doing that. I'm not saying that, But there are times where he does appear slow, where he is slow and not appear he is slow at times in previous games, and there are many plays that I can remember where you see him and he's in pursuit a few steps behind it didn't really happen in this game, at least I haven't gone back and rewatched everything, but nothing that I can recall out of the top of my head where he's constantly having to chase somebody. He
was there and where the action was happening. So that's something that I noticed, where he was just where's the ball. Oh, he's there, he's there, he's involved, He's right where he needs to be. That was one of the differences that I just noticed from his game compared to previous games.
And it was clear that Nick Sirianni made a concerted effort to throw away from Deran Bland because he only targeted Bland twice and Bland only allowed eight yards, so he was really targeting Gilmour and he was trying to take advantage of getting his playmakers in space against an older veteran guy who doesn't have the quickness of Bland and Lewis and some of these younger corners. But all Gilmour did was keep the work in front of him and those that kind of got behind him, he turned
it into a takeaway. So when you look at his stat line and you see nine tackles to lead the team and they were all solo tackles. And then you go and marry that to the film and see that those were, you know, impact tackles, almost each one of those.
Gilmore, he had himself a day.
Michael Parsons scared all Cowboys Nation. I was.
I was sitting at my house before I left for the game. I had a lot of family in town for the game, and they all all my nephews on their pone and they see they see the message come up. Michael Parsons added to the injury board. He's sick, and everybody's like, oh, my.
Goshes that me and I said. I was like, I said, I'm gonna put money on it.
This is gonna be one of those games where Micae's he's sick going into the game, but Michae's going to have a good game.
Don't even don't even right, don't even fret about it.
And sure enough Michael shows up and after the game to ask him like, so you feeling good now?
He's like, I'm feeling pretty good.
You know.
He got to go and get some rest. But yeah, I thought it was he played a good game. But here's an interesting thing against Lane Johnson, who I think is, in my opinion, the best right tackle in football and has been for several years. Against Lane Johnson last night, he was matched up against him eleven times.
Uh, and he had two pressures, one sack.
He was he was against him forty two point three percent of the time and that was only that's going back to Week nine, he was only against him one time. So that was something the Cowboys obviously went into the game saying, we think that Michael may be able to be effective against him, and absolutely was. What were your thoughts on Michael Parsons last side.
Yeah, straight, bull rush got the sack and Lane Johnson's holding him. I mean Lane Johnson, he's he's in. He's in.
Lane Johnson's body so deep that Johnson has no choice, but he's got his left arm kind of wrapped around him. And then Cam Jurgens, the guard is like he can't even get.
It's it's such a bull rush.
That Johnson is back and now Jurgens can't even get in. It can't even help.
Yeah, and then.
Have you ever seen that, I can't even think a situation. Johnson just get bull rush.
Usually Tank will tank back in the day when Tank would like move him the one thing Lane Johnson can.
Do is he can adjust to you. Yeah, he can adjust.
But the one thing is he gets a little tall and you get inside of him, he can't reset his feet fast enough. And Parsons knew this and just took him straight. But really, give give a lot of give a lot of credit, uh to. But Clark was coveraged with Goddard.
It looked like that.
It looked like Hurts wanted to throw the ball inside and and and Clark had such good coverage on Goddard that it made Hurts just kind of have to hesitate to even want to throw the ball. And by that time Parsons is on it. But he just completely just bull rushed him back. He just said, okay, you're not gonna be able to set your feet on me in this one.
And he got inside of that body.
And that's what the ones when you when you affect Lane Johnson, it's usually you get him playing playing back like that.
When when you see and like you said yesterday, I mean I was washing dishes when I got that text message that Michael was added and almost dropped the plate because I was like what And then I read the rest of it and say he's expected to play, and.
I'm like, yeah, okay, yeah.
All right, lead with that.
Next I think we're just protecting ourselves from getting.
In to do what you need to absolute.
Just lead with that next time to say he's expected to play, but he's battling the onn it's okay, make my heart stop. But uh, for him to go out there and do what he did, I mean, it wasn't the most explosive game, but he definitely impacted the game.
He drew several double teams.
And then you talk about just that bull rush to Lane Johnson, showed me someone else over the course of Lane Johnson's career that has embarrassed him to that particular point. I mean, like, like Brian said, he was he almost ran through Lane Johnson, like he completely obliterated and left him with a bloody nose to boot. So uh, and there was no flag going to play funny all that works. So Micah true to his hands.
The face was legit.
Almost took the helmet. Yeah he was. He was fed up.
But Mike Micah, you know, he he battled through flu like symptoms and basically the flu. He talked to him in the locker room after the game and he said that he took as many medications and as much I V as any human could possibly take to be ready.
To take taking scoops of stuff.
Ye, no more.
That was no, it did not he had to throw that up.
No, it did not.
How did he play that?
Yet?
Then he threw it up and then he still had had facts.
So you want to do it every game, just go for it.
Then it becomes a scene from the program and if you know careful, it's gonna starting buses in half like any given Sunday or so on, cars and half. But no, Michael, he affected the game and he was less than one hundred percent. And to see him do it against the future Hall of Famer like Lane Johnson, I mean, it just tells you just how generational, generationally special this young man is so good stuff.
Yeah, no, same great game, good for Micah, but definitely when I saw that, I was I was concerned too, and like if he if something happens, I mean, that would be a big game changer. I think your defense completely changes. If Mike it's not able to.
Be to step up, there's no replacement.
You can't replicate what they're able to do with Micah on the Field, So yeah, great victory for them.
Yeah, real quick before he end the show. One storyline that dominated the headlines last week shoul kill Leonard. He is now with the Philadelphia Eagles, but he only had fourteen snaps, so it wasn't like they could really integrate him much into what they were.
Trying to think.
Regret, I don't think so.
I think he probably sitting there thinking, once y'all get me in there, more will be better.
Right.
I'm sure he's looking at it like I'll be I'll be more integrated into this defense at some point.
I think they probably think that as well.
He'll play next week in Seattle against Moro. They'll take forty one out of the lineups.
Yeah, they'll do it.
But speaking of Shack Leonard, and you know, not to take anything away from because like you said on only fourteen snaps and you know, two tackles, and that fourteen snaps didn't affect the game for the Eagles at all.
But you know who did is Damon Clark.
And Marquise Bell four tackles a piece, you know, Demon with the fumble recovery in the past, breakup, Marky's Bell with the funk perforce fumble in the past breakup. I mean, those two young men absolutely stepped up, and I feel like they felt a way after hearing all these Shack
Leonard headlines. And I had kind of an EXCLUSI side to side with with the Moon after the game in the locker room, and I asked him, I said, hey, was that kind of a message game for you and Marquise after you know, days and days of hearing Shack Leonard headlines and whatnot. His quote was, we're young, but this ain't our first rodeo end quote. So you take
that how you want to take it. But Damon Clark and Marquise Bell, they're they're here to continue sending a message for the Cowboys linebackers.
It's funny. I heard him say that. I was standing in front of you, yeah, Micah, and I heard.
I was like, who said that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, And.
I was like, that's Patrick back then, I know exactly what he's.
Yeah, exactly a Q and A with Damon Clark and very candid, very very open, and a very intelligent young man who is focused. So not only was he you know, talking about you know how this is not their first rodeo and Basically, what he was saying is, at the end of the day, this is just football. This is the same sport they've been playing their entire lives. But then he immediately started to turn the page to Buffalo.
So in the span of a two and a half minute conversation with him, he talked about the Eagle, and then the last sixty seconds of it was talking about Buffalo and potential temperatures and the adjustments that they might make in Buffalo. So he's already on to the next game, which is the culture of the Cowboys right now.
Guess what, the next time we're on the air, we will also be talking about the Buffalo Bills.
We will not be on the air tomorrow.
Tomorrow we are going out to do a little service in the community, going to work at the Salvation Army.
And so we won't be on there. We won't be on the air tomorrow. We won't be on there tomorrow.
But real quick, because we're not on the air, I do have to go ahead and give an early birthday shout out to my guy, mister Brian brought a very special birthday for him.
So, hey, man, you have a great day.
I appreciate there is No, there's no, it's not on your calendar.
It's not on your calendar. I'm sure christ over that. Like I know, I already said, it's for your bird. What's to say, it's for your birthday. We're giving your day for your birthday. You go kick it. I have a good time, you have some good barber.
What you want to do right? Appreciate that.
We appreciate you. Guys, join us. We'll be back on Wednesday. Will tell you what went right. I'm sorry.
We'll tell you about the upcoming game Cowboys versus the Bill for Patrick Walker. Brian brought us the Ambergarci. I'm Derek Eaglets and this has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.