Cowboys Break: Decisions, Decisions

We're live the s WBC Morria Studios at the Star, and man, we have so much to talk about the day Cowboys lose. Last night, they lose thirteen to nine to the New England Patriots, a game that was pretty messy from the standpoint of the weather, but so many, so many points that came from that game worth discussing, and some things that were said after the game that

will definitely get into as well. Let's start first, as we normally do, a particularly after a loss, and the loss with so many storylines, I want to go around the table and tell me each of you guys what you think was the biggest storyline coming out of yesterday's game. Nicholas start with you, Well, everyone's getting I probably say the same same two things. But I mean I special teams was the issue, and we talked about it all week. When you have conditions like that, with the weather the

way it was, it neutralizes a lot. We had good offenses, good defenses. It comes down to the little things and little things of special teams, and so it just one thing after another just continued to happen. And that's where the biggest differences between the Patriots and the Cowboys on the field is the special teams units, and that was they were exposed. Dave. Yeah, I mean I wrote in

my story last night. You know, people love to call special teams hidden yardage, but there was nothing hidden about it last night. It was right there and playing view for anybody to see. Just a comedy of errors, man, I mean the I mean Bill Belichick himself said the difference in the game was the block punt, like the one short field the I mean, you know, the Patriots only had to go ten twelve yards on that possession,

only touchdown of the game. Cowboys couldn't buy somebody who could handle the ball on a kick team to save their life. The sequence with you know, the Patriots didn't put a return man out there, and that just flummixed the Cowboys beyond belief. Gave up twenty yards of fuel position on an eventual New England field goal drive. You know, it almost like it feels cheap, like it feels like Hindsight's twenty twenty to sit here and harp on the

special teams. But like in the moment, in a game that was that tight, I'm looking at the sheet five out of twenty seven on third down between these two teams, Like when nobody could buy a first down, it was just painstakingly obvious that the Patriots had the details fine tuned and the Cowboys did not. Amber I mean, it's just very unfortunate for the Cowboys. Like Nick said, when it's not one thing, it's another. And when you talk about special teams, this was a game that the Cowboys

could have definitely won. I mean, when you see the way that the Pages were playing, it was just in favor for the Cowboys, despite them being at home and all of the factors that go into that, and the coaching and all of that. This was a very winnable game. But again, the Cowboys just can't stay out of their own ways, and they just keep making mistake after mistake, things that didn't make much sense. And then some of the calls. There were a couple of times, and I

saw people talking about it on Twitter as well. When you're being successful running the ball with seek or poler and then on a third down you decide to throw a pass, it's like, why why go that route? So again it's just cowboys stepping on their own foot and making their own mistakes. All right, let's dive a little deeper into the special teams. What do you guys think was the biggest special team snaff food? Because there were

you debut outlined some of them. You had the block punt you had obviously, and I'll even take the block punt out because I think the block punt we all know without the block punt, there may not have been a touchdown in that game that the Patriots would have scored. But looking at the other things, you got the kickoff returns where they couldn't quite figure out that maybe they should move the returner up ten yards because those kicks

were coming short. You had the situation there with the two penalties that that that were twenty yards of lost yardage that would have pinned the Patriots back instead gave them a ball in pretty favorable a field position. I think it was at their thirty eight. I want to say, um, looking at everything happened from a special team standpoint, what do you think outside of the block punt was the thing that that you look at and you're like, man,

Cowboys just basically got outcoached in this situation. That's the sequence with the twenty extra yards on the punt just felt so in them. Like I said, in the moment, it was so glaring where you know, the Patriots just were like, well, we're gonna, We're not gonna. He was a returner, and the Cowboys were so freaked out by that that they took a delay of game. Didn't they get the punt off? And it I mean it was

a great punt by Chris Jones. The Patriots would have had the ball at their own eighteen yard line inside the twenty, and again the Cowboys were so freaked out by accounting for the change in protection because the Patriots had an extra man, which, like I've never coached football, I've definitely never coached special teams, but like, I don't know it doesn't. It just doesn't seem like such a drastic change that it's going to screw you up twice. But it did, and it was a twenty yard difference

on an eventual field goal drive. I don't have his I mean, that's a bad thing. But they got outcoached by Bill Belichick on that play. You got outcoached by yourself and the and the freaking weather by not realizing that at some point moved the move Tony Pollard up ten yards because they're not kicking it. They can't kick it that far. Yeah, just see the win. So to

not be prepared for that. They did that against Detroit and there was no rain or wind, and they still moved it up because they realized that's what the Lions were doing. So I don't know, they just put too much faith and those guys back there to catch it. And you know, I mean, if you're tied in you can't catch the ball like that, Like what I don't understand if Tony Potter can't catch the ball like that, Like, it's just the whole the whole unit is just it's

a mess. It's an absolute mess. And it was interesting after the game Bill Belichick when he was talking about. He said, you know, we went into the game with the intention that we wanted to challenge their their ball handling skills for their of their returners. When you think about that kind of level of detail, you think about, Hey, we're going to go into this game, and one of the things we think we can challenge because of the weather is their ability to be able to fill the kick.

Like that's the part that to me goes well beyond like I don't I don't know. I'm not in any of the coaching meetings, but I certainly don't. I don't suspect that's the kind of thing that that the Cowboys are necessarily doing. And that's the part that really when you when you go up against the coach that thinks about everything. I'm not trying to cut you off. I'm sorry. I know it's hard returning, but you're not gonna do that because this team and this coach doesn't do that.

Because we talked about it earlier. Parking lot, home away, parking lot and moon we do what we do, well, that's crap, because what you need to do is do it differently. When the rain is coming down and there's a win, and then you got to figure out what you're gonna do differently. This hole given us hotel keys that say be who we are. That's that doesn't work because you can't be who you are because that's it doesn't work. Seventy two degrees at at and t Staateum,

that's not the way it was. You have to adjust. They didn't adjust, and Belichick went into the game thinking that Cowboys didn't. They went into the game thinking Tony Polar stands at the goal line like he always does and the ball goes over his head and oh wait, it doesn't do that. Now what it's a scramble drill. Do what we do? Just why not do what they don't do? Like, yeah, do it works? It works? Do

it works? Yeah? And again we are We are making some assumptions that they didn't have these kinds of conversations, but it certainly didn't really if they did, didn't reflect on the field. It didn't feel like they practice or raining on Thursday and in the Forth Center where they practice, but Thursday, I think it might have been raining outside. I mean, I don't know, I've been raining around Dallas.

But they should have been prepared for that part. They really do you need to work gloves or do you go without gloves. I mean you should know that you should know yourself how you handle balls at this point in your fourth year. And to be fair, we had this discussion last week and I think I think I remember, if I remember correctly, I think the conversation went in the way of, Okay, you have two ways you can

look at this. You can look at it as let's get a good day of practice by going inside and not dealing with the elements so that we can make sure that we have a good day of practice, or let's go outside and maybe not have as great a day of practice, but at least you get to simulate

the elements. And I don't know how everybody felt on that, however everybody landed on that, but certainly you look at what happened yesterday and in hindsight, at least you think that maybe they should have given a little more credence to the fact that you had an opportunity to mimic what you were going to face against the Patriots, and you just it was a missed opportunity. Nobody on this team really looked like they were prepared for a slick football.

I mean, you know even you know, the biggest offensive play of the game, Randall cop fifty eight yards, he like fumbled to himself mid play. I feel like it happened again too, like it, I mean, didn't Jar would have a kind of a Jarwin popped it to himself, you know, when bad snap on on a pretty big play for Dak, which, yeah, the snap was bad, but

then Dak needed a minute to corral it. And yeah, like I definitely I wasn't going into this game like clutching my pearls that they hadn't practiced in the rain. So I feel cheap harping on it now. But at the same time, nobody looked ready for it. Um and and the Patriots handled it a lot better than they did, There's no doubt about that. Yeah, And I really, you know, I I know I was the only one on here

that picked the Cowboys, and I don't. I don't take that back at all, because I really think watching that game, I'm even more convinced than I was before. I think the Cowboys have better football players than the Patriots. They really do. They do. And I think that if they played that game again and there's no excuses about it, I get it they play that game again, they play at atnc STAM, I think the Cowboys definitely win that game. I think they win it again if it's if we're

probably going the same way. Finish that. Finish that thought, though I can hear people screaming the rest of that thought into their coaching. Yeah, the Cowboys have much better players and the Patriots have much better coaches. So true, but I mean there's thirty one other teams that that that don't have better coaches than Belichair. But that's also why they're nine and one with a roster right now that offensively isn't doing nothing. Ten and one. I'm tending one.

I'm sorry they're tending one. But that's my point. Like, even if you take that game, you put that in at and T Stadium, forget, you put it wherever you want to know the rain did the Cowboys win? I honestly, I came back to the same thing. I don't think that when it comes down to those close kind of games like they have to play there, I think coaching makes a difference. And I think no matter where they would have been, they would have had the same kind

of situation. And I don't I mean the Patriots would have played better us well, agree and don't even don't tweet at me and say that I'm given excuses. What I'm saying is is the Patriots, in their coaching and special rooms, they handle that thing better than the Cowboys. I think that it affected Dallas more than an affected New England. Yeah, I really do, don't you. I mean, I'm not giving excuses. I just think the Cowboys are a better football team if the conditions, but they can't.

I that has to be perfect for them, and that's not a sign of a good football and they have to they have to play a perfect game. And that's the problem this season. Well this season, what we what we've seen is against good teams, they don't have a lot of room for error and they haven't been able to play the clean kind of game they need in order to beat these good teams. And to me, that suggests that maybe the talent may be there, but for

whatever reason, they're not able to click enough. I would argue they have a lot of room for error, and that's how sloppy and unpoised they are. I mean, they lost the turnover battle minus two and all the hidden yardage. We just talked about like they made a ton of mistakes and still only lost by four and had a chance to win the game at the end. They have a lot of room for error, and I think that that speaks a lot of how talented they are and how not poised well coached. You put some of it

on execution too, I mean, untimely flags. Some of that's on the players, But they don't bring their a game basically. Ever, We've said it a thousand times and I've said it at least, I mean, they're not clutch. This is not a clutch football team that wins in the fourth quarter when when the game's on the line and the crowd's going nuts and they've got they're piping in the sound and it's third and eight and all that that they're they're not making the place. We're gonna take the place,

and and I know where we're gonna go. But to think that the Cowboys are going to go and make the play, we're gonna get into the field goal decision, I guess, I mean that just goes back to arrogance of thinking that you're going to go down there. I just want to throw this in there. I hear what you're saying, and I think you have a valid point. But if this game was played and seventy two degrees indoors at at and T, I completely trust Bill Belichick to find a way to use that to his advantage.

He'd be like, well, we knew the light would be in Dack's eyes on in the third quarter, and like that, we knew that the board up there was gonna admit certain certain electronical electronic magnetic field or something, some of it, some of it. Like it's a snowball effect, right, Like he's an amazing coach, he's a Hall of Famer, he's one of the best ever, and he probably gets more credit than he deserves because of it. Just like I said, it just snowballs and you start giving him credit for

stuff that maybe he didn't even do on purpose. At the same time, he deserves it. Yeah, he absolutely deserves it. And for my money, I think he would have found a way to eke out that game in perfect conditions. Maybe, I mean, we we'll never know, but I mean, I just it's unfortunate because this, you know, weather like that neutralizes everything. It comes down to the little stuff, and then that's where it was a huge, you know, advantage

for the Patriots to win. And then that's that's why the Cowboys are not a good football team right now. They're just a kind of a above bridge team that can hang in there with the good teams, but they don't beat them. As if we didn't talk enough about coaching, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're gonna talk about coaching because Jerry Jones had some very interesting things to say last night after the game about his coaches. Well, when we come right back. This

is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. I'm Jay Novachik, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day. I was the guy who always got the tough yards and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Dear three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yard work I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand, John Deer has the equipment that's just right for you, visit a John Deer dealer today and run with us. We are the official

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give me an ass, give me it all. Oh, give me an give me all that So so are just okay? Is not okay, whether it's cheerleaders or your wireless network. At and T is America's best wireless network. Best network based on GWS one score September twenty nineteen. Back to the Break, Welcome back, second second segment on the Break live this WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We're talking about the Cowboys lost yesterday. They lose thirteen nine to New England Patriots, and they got a game coming up

quick here Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. They played the Buffalo Bills, who were also nine and three, eight and three or eight and three. So uh so, ay, is there's no rest at this point? You gotta keep them rolling and the Cowboys be back at practice this afternoon, I think this evening or is it just going to be an open mine? I think it's practices tomorrow and Wednesday. Okay, so they'll do practice tomorrow and Wednesday and they'd be

ready to play by Thursday. We do have a seven pm press conference with Jason Garrett, so we'll have Cowboys going for you all day to day. Stay tuned. Guys that are frustrated with Garrett for different reasons, so are we, but maybe maybe no one cares about that. But all right, so here we go. I want to talk about coaching because coach Garrett or I'm sorry, Jason, I'm sorry Jerry where yesterday, Jerry had some very interesting things to say about his coaching staff, and I'm gonna read there were

three quotes I thought were very interesting. I'm gonna read these quotes and I want to get reaction from you guys on what it means for Jason Garrett and his staff. I think that every aspect of special teams, when you really look at it, have been problematic for us. There's no question about that. To me, special teams is one hundred percent coaching. It's one hundred percent coaching. It's strategy, it's having players ready. That's why today Belichick give them credit.

They did a great job on special teams and that was really probably the determining difference. But special teams is nothing but coaching. Final quote. I don't want to get any into anything about coaching relative to changes or anything like that, but I will tell you at special teams is a total reflection of coaching. Do we see a theme there? I love that. I don't want to get into coaching. That's kind of like you know when your spouse says, I don't really want to get in a

fight here, but whatever comes up to. But yeah, I don't want to get into coaching. But this is a reflection of coaching, right, I have been good. They need to block a punt return a kick, those not just one. I've been at ninety nine point nine percent of Jerry Jones's postgame media sessions since I started covering this team, and I have never heard him like that. He's typically hilled. He's a glass half full kind of guy. He's not interested in throwing people under the bus or you know.

I mean, Jerry Jones always makes headlines when he talks, but it's usually not scorched earth stuff like that. I counted, I transcribe the whole thing he said some variation of frustrated or disappointed fifteen times. Uh and and I mean just shot across the bow at special teams in particular. But to me, the whole coaching staff, I've never I've never heard him be that pointed, even in the wake of I mean, and he talks after basically every game,

some of them are really devastating losses. That was new, and it to me, it was putting people on notice that this isn't gonna cut it. You know what else? It was And I only got to hear a little bit of it, But you know how you say, he's optimistic a lot of the times, even on these tough losses. I felt like the frustration of those came out Sunday because he basically said, yeah, don't expect to fix your

problems up here. You're not gonna be he said. He also said that you're going to get out coached up here. So he's basically his frustration about the Jets game, the Vikings game, maybe the Saints game, that all kind of came to the forefront going, you shouldn't have had to come to Foxboro and win this game to right the ship. This thing should have been fixed before it here. I actually he wrote about that last night, and you took the words right out of my mouth. Is like, it's

weird to hear an NFL executive talk like that. Like that's how we talk, you know, Like we said it after the Jets game, like, well they put themselves behind the eight ball now because the Patriots now, yeah, which are still one. That's basically what Jerry said, is like, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but he was like, you know, if we handle business against the Jets and at least like one or two of the Saints and Vikings and Packers.

We're sitting here at seven and four or eight and three, and we're just like, yeah, it's hard to win up here, and it's no big DAC team. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day, but unless your overall record needs it, when it drops you to six and five and compounds all the same problems we've been seeing,

I get why Jerry's frustrated. Well, you know, every week when these guys talk, whether it's Jerry Jones or Jason Garrett or any of the player including Dak, they're usually pretty good at keeping everything very neutral and not really showing their emotions or anything, keeping it very political correct, you know. And this week I feel like everybody I listened to you can tell by the way they answer things.

When you know this, when you're around long enough, you get a feel of how they are and when the way they answer things. And now I'm starting to get a frustration from all of them in the way they answer, including Jason Garrett. Some of the things, some of the ways he answered last night, you can just tell that he is frustrated. And I mean, I'm not saying that's a nice thing to be, but to do but I

don't know. It's just it's good when you get to see that from their end and it makes you feel like, Okay, you're not that crazy after all, or they're not that crazy and you feel like, Okay, we're on the same tune. And at least Jerry Jones it's not blind as to what is going on with the coaching and you know, so it's good to finally hear those kinds of things, even though you're not happy about it. Yep, I think there's from the top down. I think you get a vibe.

I mean, from Jerry Jones to the inactive players. I think everybody knows that this team's better on paper than what they've put on the field. And I'll be in I mean, there's five games left that can neither galvanize you to get it together and play better, or I mean it could tear the team apart too. We have not seen that under Jason Garrett. Ever, that would be

new territory. And you know, the interesting part of about that to me is I wonder how much Jerry expressing his frustration last night has players to where they're now looking like we kind of with thinking that, but nobody wants to say it right, you know, when when you hear it now from the owner, then it becomes a situation where it's like, well, you know, yeah, there'll probably some decisions that could have been made differently. We're not being put in the best position to succeed. And that's

when you start really having those problems. Where does the coach Does he have a way to pull the team back together and make sure they don't fracture at this point because he's not and this is probably recognizably so, because his staff is not putting their team in the best position. I wonder how much voice these players actually have when they go into meetings. Do they Are they really voicing their opinions as to like how they're being utilized on the field. I don't know, but i'd be

curious to know. I also think we I mean, yeah, the coaching was was not good, but let's put some of it on me. You gotta put some on the players too. They didn't play very well. I mean that talk about goats, catch it, I'm sorry, catch the ball, Jason, When you catch it the ball, that's right, And that's that's he does, right, You expect he's gonna catch the ball because that's the greatest thing he brings to the type.

But I mean, I'm not just trying to single out him, but there's a lot of guys like that Tyrant Smith. You can't get a false start penalty like that, push the back five yards. Maha needs every yard you can get. You can't do that that. That was a three point penalty right there. So I mean there's I get frustration with the coach because it's really easy to just start here and then it trickles down. But these players that are making a lot of money make make some plays.

They needed you to make more play. Some of these guys on defense, some offensive linemen they needed Dak to step up and make plays. So all around, it was it was a frustrating day for the coaching and the special teams. But these players that are going to be voted to the Pro Bowl, they didn't play that well

either yesterday at times. I mean, there were some times that they dropped the ball too literally, I agree with you to a point, but again, I mean the conditions made that game such a wash, I mean, and it reminded me of the I mean, the last time they really played in conditions like that twenty seventeen, you could point. I mean the defense and the special teams really made the difference in that game. They had a pick six, they had a block field goal that got returned to

the goal line. They needed plays like that. But at the same time, you know, Zeke had thirty five carries in that game because it's the only thing they could do. So, no, they the offense didn't play well. They outgained the Patriots.

I mean, it's it's hard for me to say they put them selves in position to win, but in conditions like that, well you get what you Honestly, again, he said it, it has to be defense and special teams and games like that, and they were clearly outplayed on defense and special teams, and that's where the difference was in this game. Three straight games without a takeaway, and I know what, the Cowboys were the last team in the league to start on the opponent's side of the field.

They finally broke that streak, I think against the Giants. But I mean, how many truly short fields has this offense been given. It's a testament to how good they've been most of the year, that they've been so good despite that, I mean, they're driving the field every time, and I hate to blame the defense. They gave up thirteen points. I really feel like they did their job. But in games like that, you've got to create short fields,

and it did not. Just so you have a frame of referenced, the Cowboys average starting fil position was their own twenty one average starting field position, for the Patriots their own forty one, as twenty yards difference in their star average starting field position. Two of their drives are in Cowboys territory, one of them in the red zone exactly, So I mean that's your difference in the game. Again, a game like that, everybody was having, you know, drops

and misques. I mean, Edelman dropped a couple of passes, So it happens in those kinds of situations. I just think at the end of the day, you gotta be able to overcome that. Specifically, we just special teams and playing a film position game, and that's where coaching becomes so important. We're gonna take our final break when we come back. I do want to dive a little deeper into some of the coaching decisions that were made in that game and get some opinions from you guys on

how egregious they were. We'll talk about that when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. Ready okay? Yes? So are we gonna win? Just? Okay? Is not okay, whether it's cheerleaders or your wireless network. At and T is America's best wireless network. Best network based on GWS one score, September twenty nineteen. Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time again for tailgating with the Auterbox boys. Auterbox the company that builds wildly overproductive phone cases, the one and only,

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Cowboys Nation runs on Duncan exclude coldbrew, limit one for guests. Participation may vary limited time. Offer back to the Break Welcome back into the final segment of the Break Life in the s WBC mort Studios at the Star. Before we jump back into talking about this Cowboys features game, Nick, give us a little sung Oh, this is a Big twelve Championship game. Bailor, Oklahoma, December seventh ATT Stadium, get your tickets at eleven o'clock to seek geek dot com,

Let's go bailor Oklahoma Cool championship games. They happen in the stars. Sometimes teams get championship games at the start. Let's go AT and T Stadium, at the AT and T Stadum. I'm sorry, let's go. Let's te right football. It's like we buried the lead. It's forty minutes. No one's talking about the fourth and seven. All right, let's talk about that. Let's talk about some of these coaching decisions. The first one that Nick obviously wants to talk about

is the fourth and well, I mean Cowboys. Cowboys make the decision that they want to kick a field goal on fourth and seven. They're in the fourth quarter. It was six something left in the game, and they decided they want to go for a field goal. Howard Gregious, was that mistake? If you believe that it was a mistake, Nick took the words right out of my mouth, So you just go ahead and say it. I just I believe that Jason said if it was more manageable, they

would have gone for it. That's their fault that it's not manageable. I don't don't hate the fourth and seven field goal. I hate the fact that they made it fourth and seven. They didn't have to. It's a rainy, wet game. They can't throw, they can't snap, they can't catch. So how about we run the football, keep running in on third down, on second down, and then maybe it's fourth and two for it. Maybe it's first down, who knows,

it's a totally different situation. They decide that Dak wants to run around and throw it to Blake Jarwin bet in the back of the end zone. He doesn't have the awareness to make that play. Jason Witten doesn't have the ability to make sliding catches behind Gilmore. That's not gonna happen. They didn't. They didn't do a good job of setting that up. So that's all you know. And I still would have gone for it on fourth and seven,

but it didn't have to be fourth and seven. The whole series should have been predicated on the thought that they were going to go for it on fourth down. Yes, um yeah, Like I don't think they would have picked up a fourth and seven. So I can't kill them for kicking the field goal, Like I don't want I didn't want them to, but I think it's asinine to think that they were going to pick up eight yards after what we'd seen all day. But you don't have to throw it to Blake Jarwin with two guys on

him in the back of the end zone. You could scramble maybe, honestly, maybe pick up the first down six yards at the very least and set up a fourth and manageable. How about this. I love creativity, misdirection, all that cool stuff. But they've tried the freaking They've tried the option about five times this year and it never works. Ever, it has not worked once. They did it against the Jets on a fourth down, I believe, and it blew

up in their face. They've run it at least four times this year, and I would bet a paycheck that the longest it's gained is like three yards. So get rid of that, please. But they all four of those play calls should have been predicated on getting that first down, because again, you talk about taking the pulse of your team and something Brian always used to still does love to say, knowing the situation. And I just think, and

to Jason Garrett's credit, it worked out. They got the ball back, But you're again, you're I mean, they would have had to have driven ninety five yards. Even if a Mari makes that catch, they're still sixty yards away from Payder with a minute something to play. It's doable. But why not just go put yourself in this position to win the game right there? It's a way better chance you're gonna pick up twenty yards and score a

touchdown with three minutes to play. Give your defense a chance to pin their ears back and go after Tom Brady because he's gonna need to get down the field. I like your odds of winning that way better. Then Okay, well, if we force this three and out and play this perfectly, then we'll have a chance to drive ninety yards to

score a touchdown. I don't buy that. Still don't hate the decision to kick on fourth and seven because of the way the offense has been playing, But all of your decision making up to that point should have been

about four down territory. In my opinion, I still look at it though, if you would have been fourth and seven, even if they don't get the fourth and seven, I look at it as you force you end up giving them the ball there at the eleven yard line, So most likely they're just at that point trying to solve the game away. You probably get the ball back, you probably still have an opportunity to do exactly what you would have wanted to do anyway. So you're already down there.

It's not likely you're going to drive all the way back down there again take a shot, and again, I think it goes back to what you were saying, Nick, You have to be aware that you're going to do that early on, and then you create two You call two players that you think can get you a little closer, one that can get you a little closer than seven yards, and then a fourth and three, fourth and four you

feel a little bit better about. So I do think it's probably the decision, and that's where it starts getting to these these conversations of analytics. I know there's been a lot of conversation about that. Today. Jason was asked about it, said that that's not something they really use in that way. But when you think about it, you know the Patriots they have analytics people who are talking their coach throughout the game. The Baltimore Ravens analytics people

talking to the coaches throughout the game. It makes you wonder why the Cowboys wouldn't utilize that sort of technology. That's sort of just you know, understanding the game in a different way to give you the best opportunity to win based upon math, based on the probability. Because their head coach thinks that he is that guy because he went to Princeton and all, I mean, maybe he thinks he is that guy. I'm not saying I don't know this. I mean, I'm not having lemonated with Jason Garrett about

stuff like that, so I don't know. But I'm just saying it's hard. I mean, he's been around football forever. I don't know how those coaches think about a guy sitting up their moneyball like telling them that this is a good I don't know, and I don't even know if that's a good way to do it. I don't know if John on Hardball does it. In Baltimore says Okay, I mean, well, the way I look at what I look at is there's not a CEO in America that doesn't have people that are giving him information and then

he ultimately makes a decision. Just because you get the information doesn't mean you have to use it. So if a coach gets the information from let's say a person that knows the probabilities, and says, hey, based on the what I'm seeing in the game, here's the probability of what you should do right here, Jason could still overrule that and say, you know, my guts just telling me to do something. Difference, head Coat, he has the ability to do that. John Harbor The Athletic wrote about this

last week. John Harbaw's got a guy that's younger than me giving him the win probabilities of every outcome of every play throughout it. And did you hear what his training was in? It wasn't just probability. Something he was behavioral I think was behavioral sciences or something like that. But the point was he's not just thinking about the probabilities.

He's also thinking about human behavior and how human behavior factors into probability, which he also I mean, you know we're going way back, but like week four or five, the Ravens played the Chiefs and they went for it on fourth down like five times. They didn't get a lot of them. They lost the game. Harbaugh talked about it. He was like, yeah, you know, we listen to those guys, and a lot of it is my gut, but at some point the numbers kind of tell you what the

right course of action is. Right more than the fourth and seven. To me, the worst play of the game I think that affected the entire game was third and one at the thirty five yard line at the two minute warning. The team that is supposed to be a run football team, that's physical. That's the only thing they're really doing well. Third and one. They got to run the football there. They don't do that. And then yeah, they get the first down. That's great. But I guarantee you,

I don't care what the tripping call was. I guarantee you that's not tripping. If you run the football, you're setting yourself up for a situation. Now it's third and eleven. I am looking at it now. That's not a trip. That's not a trip. It might be an attempted trip, but it wasn't a trip. Putting your knee up like that, Dion Sanders did it for thirty years. Putting your knee up like that is not a trip. It looks like you might have thought about it, but that isn't a trip.

You know what's funny is I said There's some people on Twitter. They're like, we're really killing them for throwing, when two weeks ago that's all we wanted them to do. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, it was working. Throwing was working against the Vikings in a dome. R running was working against the Patriots outdoors. I guess you had to be there to know how many. I think I see shrimp. I think I see one down lineman on that play.

The Cowboy. I gave Kella Moore credit. During the game, they ran a draw in a similar situation and picked up five yards on a third and short. Zeke was averaging four yards per carry. The run was really the only thing they were doing with any consistency. They were averaging four point two as a team. I think um and the past worked. I get it, it was a bad call, but I there's so many more moving parts, and on a night, on a night when nobody could hang onto the ball, I just I think I would

have run the ball. I will say this, I would Yeah, I would have run the ball twice in that scenario had it gotten to fourth and short. I will say this about the tripping, and you and I we talked about this a little bit off air a few minutes ago.

I heard, um, I think it was Rob A. Wreck Ryan this morning on the air on NFL Network talking about the far as ESPN talking about the fact that that he had people that told him that essentially, the tripping was something that Belichick had noticed throughout throughout his preparation his film study on the Cowboys, and because of that sent in some clips to the league, and so the league then it tells their referees, Okay, here's something

that this coach is noticing. Be aware of it. And that all makes sense to me because when you see a clip like that and you see the tripping call, you see right there, Travis Frederick's leg goes out. To me, that looks like the referee saw the leg go out. He didn't actually trip him, but he saw the leg go out, and he's like, oh, yeah, that's what That's what we've been talking about this week. Bam, here goes to flag and a similar thing could have happened with

Tyren Smith. It didn't really look like a tripping call. But if you're alerted to something and told, hey, this is something the Cowboys are doing regularly in these kinds of situations, be aware of it same guy, then the refs are gonna be looking for that particular call, right, Okay, it's the same exact player for the Patriots. Yeah, I see it in high Tower, the same guy. I mean, he's the one that goes in here and here. On this play with Tyrn Smith, he just goes down. I

mean that. But you see in both instances though, he goes down and the leg is out there a little bit, so it makes sense. But again that goes back to coaching. Like when you see those kinds of things and you can create these these things that the rest now have to pay attention to, it creates an opportunity for you, maybe to get these kinds of calls right in a game that features like what how many games? How many plays did they run in this game? Total? Like one

hundred and fifty? Yeah, I hate even you know, even take it all the way back to the NFC title game last year, like everybody, you know the terrible call the Saints should have had it. I get that game went to overtime and Drew Brees through a terrible interception. Nobody ever talks about that. Like I hate, I mean, I hate zeroing in on one play and like acting like that's the reason why you lose a game. Very similar to that situation, and I'm member the Saints Rams game.

The problem I had was was Peyton throwing the ball? I mean to me, it goes down to, Okay, well you know your kid went into this yard and the dog bit their hand, and like, oh why did the dog bright? Well let's well back up, why are they in the yard, Like, let's go. You don't have to do that. You don't have to pass on third and one to set that up. The Patriots or the Saints didn't have to pass down there early on to to even let that thing happen. So I always kind of

take it back a player or two. I just think third and one they should have run the ball. They should have two plays to get a first down and get this thing rolling, and they didn't, you know. And then a Mari Cooper, we haven't talked about that. We don't know why he got shut out, so um they out went. We're kind of we're running short on time. But I don't like, am I crazy? I just like I have no beef with a Mari having the game that he had. Honestly, I know, like you you're all

pros are supposed to step up. Yeah, you're crazy for that, Okay, I think. I mean, but if we're gonna, if we're gonna, if this guy's gonna be worth twenty million a year, like, shouldn't he make a play? I mean, well, he was in a situation where he wasn't getting targets. He can't throw the ball himself though, or he can get targets, he can get old. So are you saying he wasn't open, because I don't know that that he wasn't open as much as maybe you just didn't throw him the ball.

I mean, he caught a pass that tyrant on the on the tyrant holding, we don't have that one, but the tyrant hold that that wiped out, he did have a catch there, and he had a chance. He was targeted here in fourth and eleven and would have been a great catch. It would happen him. And that's a tough catch to making those conditions. So I don't kill him too much for that one. But but I need

my guy him to make it. I get it, but I will I will tell you this too, and that he was asked this question after the game, like don't you think that do you get frustrated that um that they don't scheme up ways to get you open, because they I would assume they could. He was like, yeah, you can get anybody like you can try to scheme up whoever you want to scheme up to get opportunities. He said, Now, in conditions like it was a day, I'm not certain that would have been the best thing.

I mean, they were running the ball effectively and again, and this this is a friends. I think in a game like this, you have to realize your game plan is going to be don't mess it up on offense, take advantage of opportunities, and you gotta be able to play a clean game on your special teams in defense, and you got to be able to hopefully create some some bad take advantage of some bad situations for your opponent in those situations to get yourself a short field.

It was exactly what the Patriots did in that kind of game. You're not gonna move the ball a ton. So I don't know that him getting more targets necessarily makes that game any better, because I don't know the quarterback was going to consistently be able to get it to him in a catchable way. I mean, that wasn't Dak's best game either, and probably because of the field conditions. But at the end of the day, they just have to they have to figure out how to win those

close games. And that's a lot more about all the other things that go into a game than it is about getting Amari Cooper more targets. In my opinion, I think that's letting them off the hook. He's supposed to be an All World player. He had two targets. He didn't make a catch in the game. He got shadow advices Gilmore, who had more catches than him in the game. I think that's bad. I mean, I put some of

that on him. He's got to beat the best cornerback in the game, especially when the conditions are what they are. Imagine if you're a cornerback back pedaling trying to cover this guy, you should have an advantage. And he I mean, I need him to make more plays. In that game, they threw thirty three times. I'd like to think he would be open some of that and be able to make a play. I mean, Gallup was making some plays.

I get Gilmore is tough, but I mean, if if Cooper is an elite receiver, like he's about to be paid. He needs to make more plays in that game. This is my take. I don't killing him for it, but he's gonna have great game against Buffalo and all. I get it. But I'm just saying they needed all of their playmakers to step up there and didn't happen enough. Didn't happen enough yet not all right. We appreciate you, guys. Jonas. We're back tomorrow. We're gonna start getting ready for this Baltimore.

I mean, I'm sorry for this Bills game. Dave. We're gonna doing the baalt I mean, the Bills offense tomorrow and then the Bill's defense on Wednesday till then for Nick Even, Dave Helm and Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Held and this has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club