Cowboys Break: Defense Good Enough?

We are live from the s WBC Board studios at the Star. We've got Dave Amber at the Star as well in different locations. Also have our special guests Bucky Brooks, who is joining us again this week. He'll be on with us every week on Wednesdays and Thursdays. He'll give us some analysis on the upcoming opponent. This week, obviously, we're talking about the Atlanta Falcons. A little later in the show, though, we'll have a few things we got

to get into. We got some transactions that the Cowboys made yesterday, a little report that just came out that we're gonna talk a little bit about in the second segment as well. And then we'll have a little bit more conversation later in the show around the Cowboys defense and what we saw from them last week and how they prepare for next week. So no further Ado. Let's welcome in Bucky Brooks from NFL Network. Bucky, Welcome to the show, hey man, thanks for having me on. All right,

let's let's jump right in. I had a couple of questions for you. I'm gonna start with kind of a big, big picture question for you. Just as you look at the Atlanta offense, talk to me about what you think is their greatest strength, and then what you think is their greatest weakness. Their best strength, the biggest strength, and

their skill players. They are loaded at the perimeter positions, three ward receivers that can play Calvin Riley, Julio Jones, Russell Gage has emerged, Tid Gurley in the bad Feel when healthy is one of the best running backs that you're seeing. And then you have a former MVP and Matt Ryan, so their offense is loaded with a fireprower. I would say the biggest weakness is upfront. They have struggled in the past being able to dominate people at

the point of attack in the trenches. They can be overwhelmed at times, and even though they fancy themselves as wanting to be a physical offense, they're a little more finesse in the way they're constructed at the line of scrimmage. Now, after week one of watching this first game of the Cowboys, obviously we notice many many struggles in the defense. What is something an area that the Cowboys can actually improve within just one week when they get ready to face

the Falcons. I think the big thing Nanda mcnolan has trotted out the guys and he understands what he has from a defensive standpoint. They have to dominate each and every week up front at the line of scrimmage. The Marcus Lawrence has to be a five star player. He is expected to be the best passion should they need him to play at that level, because he is the guy that sets the table all this. Smith gave tremendous effort a week ago. He is heavy handed, he's solid

against the run. Everything Griffin is still settling in. But the biggest area where the Cowboys have to improve, they have to dominate at the line of scrimmage because you don't expect the secondary to hold up each and every week. With the young guys did they have, So they have to be able to disrupt the timing and rhythm of the passing game by really controlling everything at the point of attack. Who's the best receiver from Alabama in the NFL?

I mean, I think this is easy. I think Julio Jones is the prototypical number one receiver that everyone wants. He's big, he's fast, he's physical, he's an outstanding route runner. He's a playmaker with the ball in his hands. I think the only thing that you can knock who your Jones on is For whatever reason, in Atlanta, they haven't found a way to get him enough touchdowns. He hasn't been the dominant player in the red zone. Based on the skill level, you would think that he would be

a touchdown waiting to happen. It just hasn't worked out for him in Atlanta. But look, man, there's the guy averages one hundred and seventeen yards per game. He is hard to deal with. When he gets it going, he's phenomenal. He's a phenomenal player. Who second, Bucky I was just

gonna follow up, who's the second best from Alabama? Mary Cooper? Yeah, you know, like It's funny because the Mary Cooper would have to be there because he is more established and more consistent than I would say Calvin Really Calvin really kind of plays in the sidecar. But Mary Cooper. Mary Cooper is a fantastic player. I think the expectations are always very lofty for him because of where he is now. He's with the Dallas Cowboys, He's on the big stage.

People expect Cowboy number one receivers to be exceptional players. But I think when you look at him and look at his body at work, it's hard to dispute that he's not a phenomenal player, that he's not a top ten wide receiver. Bucky, I want to go back to what you brought up about the Cowboys pass rush, which yeah, I mean that is gonna be how the defense succeeds. I agree with you, but the Rams didn't really give

him a chance. If you watch that game on Sunday, I mean, Jared Goff was getting rid of the ball very quickly. For the most part. When I think of Atlanta, I think of Matt Ryan taking deep shots down field, which you know, maybe that helps the Cowboys, but is that accurate or are we going to see this again where Atlanta doesn't even give the Cowboys pass for us a chance to get going. It's funny that you said that.

When you studied the numbers from Matt Ryan's performance against the Seattle Seahawks, he really struggled on passes air yards fewer than ten yards, meaning a quick rhythm pass game. For whatever reason, the first half against the Seahawks, he was right about a fifty percent completion mark, didn't really have a lot of success. Now, when the Seahawks backed off at the end of the game in the fourth quarter and kind of played that two minute defense, he

was eleven for eleven. But the numbers are deceiving. But yes, the way the Rams attacked the Cowboys, the quick rhythm throws, the bubble screens, the quick els, the movement passes, where they neutralized the pass for us by really getting the ball out in under two and a half seconds. That is the way teams will approach to Dallas Cowboys. And

so that puts the onus on the corners. As much as we talk about them, as much as we want to see them get more interceptions, they're going to have to walk up and put their hands on wide receivers to disrupt the timing, and so Mike Nolan may have

to get out of his comfort zone. He may have to play a little more man to man, a little more pressure to try and disrupt the rhythm of the Atlanta Falcons passing him Bucky Against the Seahawks, the Falcons put up five hundred and twenty two yards of total offense, second in the NFL last week in Week one, Why did they end up losing? Like that's a lot of yards.

Obviously they only scored twenty five points, But why did they end up losing after having such a what looks like such a productive offensive day Because they were basically eating potato chips, a lot of empty calories, a lot of empty calories. In the fourth quarter, they were chasing, they were chasing points in the fourth quarter. That's really when at Ryan got going. But early in the game, this was a very competitive game. And what happened They

went for it on down, they were stopped. The swac yards came back and kind of stretched it out. But this game, in the third quart fourth quarter, it was twenty one twelve, it was pretty tight. The Seeyaks had a couple of things go They were and stretched out. Then in the fourth quarter it was previous defense Matt Ryan kind of throwing it down the yard. They were still throwing the ball with less than a minute left,

and so that's where the yards come. I think the big thing when it comes to the Falcons, how are they going to play dirt cutter? Can't put the ball in Matt Ryan's hands and say fifty four times and think the DEA's a winning recipe. Todd Gurley has to be a bigger factor, and will they be committed to running the ball to kind of balance out this offense. The way the La Rams were able to win, they ran the ball, they were very patient and it was

a ball control approach. They played with their offense to keep Dallas's offense on the sideline. And more teams are going to do that because when you really look at the Boys offense, it is really an unstoppable unit. They only can stop themselves, so you have to play a little keep away to keep them on the sidelines. The Atlanta Falcons will probably take some of that approach to

try and take some of that out of the game. Now, something that a lot of fans keep bringing up is the Cowboys run defense and how unefficient they've been last year and even a little this year. In this first game, when you speak about the Falcons, do you see this being a problem with the running game that they got going on over there? Well, I mean, here's the thing

about the National Football League. Once you put stuff on tape that you can't defend, you're going to have to defend it each and every week until you show that you can stop it. So the Rams are gonna take I mean, the Falcons are gonna take what the Rams did and they're gonna put some of those things into play. They're gonna run the outside zone. They're gonna continue to

see if they can pound in it. If the Dallas Cowboys are disciplined enough to stop it early, If they stop it early in the game, you won't see it again. But if the Cowboys don't stop the run early in the game, the first quarter of Russian yards really matter. If they don't stop it, they're gonna get a heavy dose of the run game. You can't allow a team

to have forty rushing attempts too many Russian attempts. You really got to cut it off, and you have to get the game where you're dictating part of the reason the Cowboys. I don't think they played a bad defensive game, but they never could control the game because they couldn't get the Rams and lawn yards third down situations, third and two, third and three, third and four. It's even Stephen,

it's easy for the play caller to do it. So against the Rams, they have to win first and second down to force the ramp force the Falcons to throw in obvious passing downs. Buck yet did not see the Falcons game. I'm curious though they didn't go for it on fourth downs. Should they have kicked the field goal instead? And are they still talking about that in Atlanta all week? Well,

so here's the thing where the Falcons. The Falcons were oh for four on fourth down attempts, and so they had a fake punt where they got the first down, but the guy fumbled it, gave it back to the Seahawks and read his own territory. They went for it on a fourth and six, didn't get it in the red zone, and then they had a couple of other failures, and so yeah, they're disappointed because they were trying to

be aggressive. But the thing about being aggressive when it doesn't go your way, you have to answer for it. And so fourth down would be a huge game considering both teams tried to be aggressive and it didn't go their way. To be interesting to see how those situations play out on Sunday. But yeah, you kind of touched

on this when you were answering Amber's question. But and this, it feels like it goes back to last season with the Cowboys defense too, in the sense that, like, if you watch the game, it felt like they got dominated. You know, they gave up one hundred and fifty three rushing yards and they obviously lost the game. They also only allowed twenty points and they actually only allowed three

point eight yards per carry. And I feel like the narrative here, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but people are dogging on the run defense, dogging on Jalen Smith for the way that he played between the linebackers and the defensive tackles. What did you see from them? How poorly or maybe not as poorly as we think. Did you think they played? I think outside of the first drive, I felt like the defense was pretty solid. The first drive.

A couple of things happened the tempo that the Rams were operating, with the misdirection game that they were using, meaning the fly sweep action, with the zone and the counters and those things coming behind it, it can put your defenders in quicksand because you just don't know where to go. And I would give Sean McVay credit. He had them operating at a fast clip. He threw a lot of stuff at him. But really as well as

the Rams looked like they were playing. At halftime, it was a fourteen thirteen lead for the Cowboys, And when you go back and you really look at the game, if the Cowboys kicked the field goal early in the fourth quarter, it's a twenty twenty ball game. And what you do is you now put the pressure back on

Jared Goff to have to make plays. And so I may understand the gamble, but I would say the way the game was, it was an unnecessary gamble because it was an even game and the Rams hadn't generated any big place and so at some point you have to think Jared Goff is going to give you another opportunity to get a turnover, and so they kind of let the Rams off the hook by going for it and not getting it. That's it's things to hear you say that.

I can see the smirk on Derek's face. You knew although here smiling about it, you know I was over smiling. I had a few more questions for you, though, Buckiet. It's kind of shocking to me that we've gone through all these questions and nobody still asked about Todd Gurley. He's a guy that obviously coming in the league was very very highly towed. It had some years of really great production, and then over the last couple of years

experienced a lot of injuries. Does he look like he's back to one hundred percent at this point or is he still battling some things that just are going to be a part of his game for the rest of the time he plays in the NFL. Well, I mean, I think the one thing that we don't know, we never would have a true sense of how he feels. On tape, he looked like the same guy that first drive, the first two drives that he had for the Falcons.

He ripped off a couple of big runs at a team yard run where he looked at sprite as ever. The thing that Tyd Gurley has run up against he has play callers who prefer to pass the ball as opposed to run it. For whatever reason, he is a very talented back. But they get enamored with throwing the ball all over the yard and sometimes they forget about the running game. I do believe against the Cowboys the running game will be a big part of their recipe because they don't want to give the ball to Dak

Prescott Ezekiel Elliott in that offense. So I would think that you would see Tyd Gurley touch it more. But I'll say this, When Todd Gurley gets it twenty times, his record, his team record is twenty twenty one. When he gets it twenty five times, he is undefeated. So to me, it's pretty simple. If this was a video game, I'm gonna make sure that he gets it twenty or more times to see what happens. We'll see if Atlanta Falcons followed the script real quick. Before you let you go,

one more question. Not many teams have had success defending Julio Jones over his career, But in the instances where he has been somewhat neutralized or at least kept in chet, what have those teams done? Man? You gotta commit to taking him away. You have to double team he's too good to play one on one, So you have to have a safety overtop. You have to play a little two man where the corner is trailing and playing underneath

him and undercutting all the routes that he has. With a safety overtop, you have to make a concerted effort to take him away. The problem with the falcons, they're so good in other areas that they can work you with. Calvin Ridley, Russell Gage showed up and those things. But I think if you are a gamblerman, if you're Mike Nolan, you live with those other guys getting their yards. What you can't do is you can't let Julio Jones dominate this game. You have to figure out who do I

want to take away. We've seen Julio Jones go for three hundred yards. He cannot be a factor. Make Calvin Ridley, make Russell Gage, make make hayten Hunter whatever you got, make those other Hayden Hurst, make those other guys do stuff. You can't let Julio Jones be the guy to beat you. All right, man, we appreciate you taking some time with us today. Another week of really great stuff. We'll have you back tomorrow talk a little bit about this Atlanta

Falcons defense. We're gonna check our first break and we come back. We're gonna jump into some transactions. We're gonna talk a little bit about report out there on Sean Lee and maybe what his status is over the next few weeks. We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. We're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor bad Cream Soda. Is he a newcombone that's music

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get to them. So as always, our people can't wait to take you to yours. American Airlines, you are why we fly back to the break. Elevate your work environment at Formation at the Star, offering a unique workspace amenities, with a variety of membership options including private offices, dedicated desks in open workspace, bookachure, and formation at the Star dot Com. Welcome back. It is the second segment of the Break. We are live from s WBC Morig Studios

at the Star. Nick and Amber joining us as well from the Star in other offices we've got. We just finished up with Bucky Brooks, really good segment. If you didn't get a chance to check it out, make sure you go back and check it out. He had a lot of good nuggets about that Atlanta Falcon's offense. Tomorrow again we will have him on the show. He will probably be in the third segment tomorrow though, but he will be on the show talking about the Atlanta defense

versus the Cowboys offense. Nick run me down some I know there were some transactions at the Cowboys did yesterday. They signed a couple of players and just once you kind of run down the players and maybe what you think this means relative to the players that they signed. Let me find the list here because I've lost it, just because there was a bunch. There's a bunch going on. I mean, they signed off the practice squad of the Cardinals, They signed a tackle, Alex Light. They signed a linebacker

Rashad Smith, off the Bears practice squad. I think those are the two biggest things. They did activate a Brandon Carr again from the practice squad, still learning what those rules mean. I thought he was already on the team. I guess he gets to get moved back to the practice squad. For those two that they are allowed to bring up on Saturday, I get the biggest part. And then they signed some other guys to the practice squad, placed Cam Irving on i Art's return, same with Jarwin

and Vanderesh. I think the biggest part is that they they signed a tackle and a linebacker that they are better than the guys they have so um France Bernard, I guess is not really in the equation for them to play. They just want them to develop. Rachard Smith, I guess is a better option. Alex Light tackle this also, you know guy that they feel like we're ready to play, but you've got they've got seventy two hours they've got to pass, you know, I think three tests or so

just to just to get in the door. So they're not ready to play right now, but just ready to play. At some point. You guys know how those rules work. As far as obviously, when you sign again, you sign a gap for the practice squad of another team, you have to sign them to your active roster. You can't take them and move them to your practice squad. Once they are though established on your roster, can you then move them back to the practice squad. The rule used

to be three weeks. They have to be on your Yeah, sorry they yeah, Nick? Is what Nick said. They have to be on the active roster for three weeks before you can do anything with them. I don't know. I mean, again, there's a lot of rules that have changed, so I'm not one hundred percent sure about that. I would imagine that is still the case. You can't just be moving. I can't imagine they would change that because then you can just willy nilly poach people however you want without

any repercussions. They changed it, I have to imagine that's the same. If they changed that rule, it would be more weeks that you have to stay. I mean, because I mean, now you're moving over here and I've got a test over here. Nah, I bet you that's still the same, if not more, But um, you know, the cam irving to IR to return. You know, that's a new rule. You can put as many guys as you want, and they can and you can bring them back as many guys as you want to. And you know, we

thought that was the case for Lyle. He still might be We thought that was the case for Sean Lee. Well, speaking of which still was a report. Thank you Nick for the setup. There was a report from Jane Slater that came out about twenty minutes ago where she said that a linebacker Sean Lee is expected to be out six weeks after undergoing hernia surgery last week in Philadelphia.

That means he wouldn't be back until mid October. M guys concerned not with what weeks from now, from today or six weeks from when he was initially placed on IR. It would probably be from the time he had the surgery, which is which is according to this report, it happened last week. Not sure on the timing of this, and

again these are this is her report, not sure. The team has not made an official statement, so not sure if that's officially what happened or actually what happened, But just according to this report, six weeks, which would get him back about mid October. It doesn't matter where, like when, what the timeline is. If he's not ready to go two weeks from now, that's concerning, which that was always

going to be a possibility. And if you think about the timelines, Mike McCarthy said today, probably four to six weeks for cam Irving and so now we're here in you know, maybe six weeks for Sean Lee. So it makes sense that they would go get Smith and Light. You know, they're not going to be able to help on Sunday, but they can help you account for that, you know, over the next month or so. But hell, yeah,

it's concerning. Yeah, I mean, all of a sudden, these three positions you throw in the tight end with it history positions, I think are are really really problems with this team because I don't think they have number one, a person that could step into those roles that have now been been lost, and even their depth, I don't think they have much depth at those positions. And so I think all three of them I'm concerned about. Yeah, I just I mean I'm more concerned. I mean, yeah,

I'm concerned about that. With with Chun Lee, I'm just kind of frustrated by that, I mean, did that help the Rams? I mean, did that help you? I mean, like, just just say it. I mean, this is this is a prominent player who's been in the Pro Bowl twice, he's one of the team leaders. He's having surgery in Philadelphia. I mean Terrence Newman had the same surgery surgery in two thousand and eight, and it was reported right then. I mean, who cares? I mean, I just don't understand

that kind of stuff. Maybe during the week if you don't want to say that a player is playing so much and it's a different running back or a different quarterback, I get it. But you've got you know, you've got a a really good player and a good person that is working. You know, he's worked so hard to get through injuries. He's got another injury. Why don't I just say it? I'm not I'm missing that part. I don't get it. He's going to Philadelphia for surgery. That's not

the end of the world to report that. I just don't know why they wouldn't do that. Yeah, am I missing something here? I mean what I mean, obviously there are there are things that helps Sean McVay, Like, oh man, we thought Sean Lee was going to be out there but Philly. But I do think that they would probably

make the argument, right or wrong. I think they would probably make the argument that, you know, we don't necessarily need every team knowing that, because the longer we hold that information, there may be another team that's thinking of they're trying to look for I mean, sorry, linebackers on another practice squad that may if they know that we're

looking for him, it kind of maybe accelerates that. Right, It's those kind of things we're Again what we all know from covering this team and covering the NFL is coaches live in a whole different world, like their mindset is, it's just the whole different world, and the things they worry about are things that a lot of points that would be you worry about something like you got much bigger things to worry about. It If you're thinking that far ahead, I mean, there's a problem there because your

focus should be somewhere else. Well, I think it's it's all a part of it. And again, it may not be the same person. Maybe this is people who are more responsible for personnel who would prefer that not to be out there than maybe the head coach all I'm saying is we know from covering this team and covering the NFL, they aren't the only people that think like that.

There are a lot of teams around the NFL that try very hard to keep everything behind closed doors because the point is they don't want to give anything away and possibly risk that they lose something that they want to be able to or some advantage that they would have in whatever decision that they want to make. I mean, it's just part of It's part of how football coaches

do it, you know. Yeah, the same coaches that still cover their mouth when they when they try to call play with a mask on and they're covering right Like, It's just that's how football coaches are. Football personnel people are part of ball coach though, Yeah, maybe it's not. But I'm not reflecting so right, Dave. I was just gonna be it's not reflecting in the standings through one week, so I'll see how it goes. That's going for you.

Those those numberless numberless practice, numberless practice there that didn't really help out too much. But anyway, Nah, all right, here's what I want to do. Um, let's go ahead and take our final break. We're gonna take it a little early. When we come back, I want to dive into the Cowboys defense had some interesting numbers coming out of that first week of games, and I want to throw them at you guys and get some opinions on what you think that maybe these things mean in the

grand scheme of things for the Cowboys defense. We'll come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio Sam's eighteen sixty five. Stetson Hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and team pride too? You can by purchasing your own Stetson. You can look just like how the flag guys do on field at every home game. Stetson Hats the official crown of all self respecting Cowboys and your

favorite football team. Get yours today at shop dot Dallas Cowboys dot com or at Stetson dot Com. I'm Jay Novachek, 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 Deer three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yardwork I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand, John Deer has the

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full sized and tense therapy lip bomb. Go to get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys and use the code word team Jay. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys The Jack Black Starter ten bucks, free shipping. We're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new doctor pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor cream Soda. Is he a new Combone's music to my ears? Okay, doctor times, music to my ears and mouths, New Doctor Pepper and cream Soda Delas just do Bad.

Back to the Break, Welcome Back. It is the final segment of The Break live from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star. We got David Amber also here at the Star. We're talking Cowboys versus Falcons this segment. What I want to do is I have some some interesting little tidbits about this defense that I noticed from the game last week, and I want to throw those out at you, and then we're gonna talk about some of the things that they Oh what those things mean

in your minds? Last week, Cowboys were twelve in scoring defense, only allowing twenty points. Buck You mentioned that in the segment we did with him about the fact that even though they gave up a lot of yards, didn't give up a lot of points. They were twenty eight though in the number of yards allowed at four hundred and

twenty two. Did we mis evaluate how they played because it looked so bad at the start, knowing the fact that they did bend quite a bit as far as the number of yards it gave up, but did still hold this team to twenty points. Let's start first with you, Nick Well, I just they didn't make enough plays. I

mean that's the same goes with the offense. I mean that, yeah, they had their moments that they got into turnover, but when they needed to make a stop with them pushed back like that, that's what that McCarthy was counting on. He was counting on that. He was like, you know, if we don't make it here, we at least we got him pushed back. But until they weren't pushed back anymore. So you know, it's not just Dak and the offense that didn't have them up with clutch moments. It was

the It was the defense as well. So in a game like that, I mean, they needed to be better. It's not necessarily their fault. They thought maybe they thought the offense would scored more points, but they didn't. When they were really counted on to go make a play, they didn't. They didn't make it, at least not with enough time. The Rams got too far and flipped the field before they got the ball back. Hamber, dave you go ahead first, before I opened my mouth and started

highly criticized. Yes, no, Derek, I'm freaking buying it. Derek Um. I mean, you know, give some credit where it's due the Rams scored seven points in the second half. Like the defense did become a little bit more reliable as the game went along. But this isn't one of those circumstances where you can say, oh, if you cut out the one long run. They did this, like they allowed the Rams to run twenty five plays I think in

the first like eight minutes of the game. Like the Rams just absolutely marched the field twice in a row completely, and that alters the flow of the entire game because it's gonna wear your defense out, it's gonna swing time and possession. It's obviously going to give the Rams two opportunities and scoring right off the bat. Like, you can't do that. You can't. You cannot just be that inept for that long to start a game. So yeah, they

definitely got their act together. Um, but that doesn't that doesn't do enough to excuse how unprepared they were for the start of the game. Am I the only one who thinks that the Rams didn't play that well either? Like, that's how I see it right now, I see it that. Yes, obviously the Rams got the win and they made it happen. But at the end of the day, looking at the game as a whole. I didn't think the offense did

that great of a job. So in my mind, I don't think that the Cowboys deep offense where trying to stop this amazing offense that's just eating up yards and scoring points. I think that it's just they could have done a lot better. They didn't. Obviously, the score doesn't necessarily fully reflect all their faults there that they made. But at the same time, I just don't think that we're playing against this great, amazing team. You know. I'll say this though, Amber, I kind of disagree with you

a bit on that. I do think the Rams play well for the game plan that they had. I think their game plan coming in was, we want to control the clock, which means that we're gonna play this short, quick game, and that means that they're gonna be some drives that they're gonna stall out. They're gonna be some drives. We'll drive the field. We'll get a touchdown, there'll be someone we'll drive the field, we'll get a field goal.

The point is, if we keep their offense off the field and we keep their defense on the field as the game wears on, we think we can come away with more points than they can because they are a volume offense. So I think they actually played perfectly within

the context of what they have to do. Now, will that work against every team the team's got a good defense, probably not, But a team like this where the Cowboys are a little limited on defense, I think it was a perfect and especially having such a great offense, I think it was a really great game plan. I think they played it well. What do you guys think it worked for them? I just I just I feel like I saw mistakes that they made that had had their game being a lot more clean, they would have been

a lot better. And I guess that can apply to everyone in the NFL, but I just feel that the Rams didn't give the best that they could. But regardless, it worked on their benefit and they made it work and won the game. But the way I saw it, I feel like they had the ability to play a lot better than they did. I gotcha, I think. I mean, if the Rams had played up to their potential, they should have had that game in hand with five minutes

to play. You think about obviously, they missed an easy field goal and then Sean McVay made two or three really questionable decisions that I thought killed a couple of drives. I mean, credit to the Cowboys for stopping it, but I don't know why in the hell you run a toss dive on third and short, and I don't know why you don't go for it with the way that you were playing when you have fourth and short. I think the ball was pretty close to midfield. So I

agree with you the Rams. They could have played better, but they played well enough to win. Yeah. I think in Week one you probably saw that around the league that there are a lot of teams that probably could have played a little bit better without having preseason games. But again, I think they played played within the context of what their game plan was, and I think they executed it pretty well. Here's a question from standpoint of

long term. Do you think that in most weeks, if the Cowboys defense can hold to twenty, the Cowboys will be a successful team overall? Nicholas start with you, Yeah, I mean I think so. I mean, I'd like to think the offense is going to get in gearing and get and get better. You'd like to say that, you know, the injuries will help getting you know, if you can get some of those guys back on the offensive line, get Layout Collins back. Obviously, you got to figure out

what you're gonna do it tight end. But yeah, I think I think twenty is a pretty good number there. If you know, for this team, they can they can get I think the offense is shown that they would be able to get more than that. But you know the Rams to what they were saying about the Rams, you know they they live off their defense. I mean they have the best defensive player in the NFL, and so you know, I think, you know, going for it on fourth down or not going for it, it's like, well,

we rely on our defense. And I think McCarthy's still trying to figure out his team. I think he was relying on that defense to stop him down there and it didn't happen. So he's gonna we hear it all the time. Brian brought Us says it once a week. You gotta coaches have to know their team, they have to trust their team. He's still trying to figure out what he's got on his team. Amber twenty points enough,

I think so absolutely. I think that that just it's gonna depend on the offense and then doing their part scoring points. I think that seventeen points for this offense. Obviously it's not enough, but looking at the talent that they have, I still believe that they should be able to score a lot more than they did in this game. So at the end of the day, right now, I think that they'll be able to create the right balance there to get wins. But yeah, twenty points, if the

defense can hold them to that, I think it'll be fine. Dave. If twenty points isn't enough, then what are we even doing here? Like? Why? Like, just if twenty points isn't enough on a regular basis, just let me know now and I'll take an early vacation. I'm so serious. Because the quarterback wants forty mill, the running backs make a ninety mill, the offensive line has been to a billion Pro Bowls. One of the receivers is up for is on one hundred mill and then a first round pick. Like,

how is twenty points not enough? This team should be scoring at least three touchdowns on a reliable basis. They should be flirting with thirty more often than not. And you know this guy's not falling because that didn't happen Week one, And honestly, I'm encouraged that I mean they didn't they didn't translate it into points because they couldn't convert third downs, But all of the hallmarks of a

good offense were still there. I mean, Zeke looked great, Dak looked great, the receiver, the big three combined for two hundred receiving yards and that was with shoddy protection. So I'm still optimistic that they'll get there. But if this team can't reliably score twenty one or more points, then just let me know now so I can do something else. And I agree with that. I think at the end of the day, the question will be was

the twenty points that the defense gave up? Was that because at one point there wasn't really a lot for like the Rams. He'd fact, they had to start airing it out like we saw with Atlanta here in their fourth quarter. And if they were in that kind of situation, would they give up a ton more points to a better offense? Right, That's the part that that does concern me a bit. But I think twenty points should be enough on most weeks. If this offense is what we

think it's what it is, it should be. The thing is, who on the Rams offense is gonna make the Pro Bowl. I don't think anybody makes the Pro Bowl on that team. They have some guys that have the probably Woods. Yeah, I mean it's just a matter of they could. They could, but they probably won't. I mean, you gotta be one of the top four receivers. I don't think they will. We've seen it, We've seen it happen. Last one is it'll get a lot tougher for that defense, And it

gets tougher in about four days now. They don't. It won't be as hard on on defense, I mean for their offense because they don't have Aaron Donald on every week. But I'm just saying it gets tougher than Jared Goff to Robert Woods. With Cam Acres running the ball these next two weeks, it's going to be tougher. Yeah, I disagree slightly. I mean I do agree, like defending Atlanta and Seattle is probably going to be tougher than what

they went up against. But that offense was a machine in twenty eighteen and dealt with a lot of injuries last year. And I'll say it for the tenth time, I don't think the world of Jared Goff, but that combination of the continuity that they have, plus Sean McVeigh, that offense is a well oiled machine, like there ain't any shame and giving up, you know, four hundred yards to those guys. I mean that was the offense They went down to Mexico City against Kansas City and combined

for like one hundred and fifty points. Like, those guys aren't slouches at all, So it will it will get tougher, but that's still a really good offense. All right. Let's move on to the next topic. Cowboys were twenty fourth in passing yards allowed with two hundred and sixty nine. There were twenty seven the rushing yards allows on one hundred and fifty three. Which do you think is a bigger problem for the Cowboys defense as you see it

right now, the run defense or their pass defense. Let's start first with you, Dave pass because I mean, Jalen Smith deserves plenty of criticism, but one strength of his game is defending the run. DeMarcus Lawrence is good against the run. Everson Griffin and you know, like I brought up with Bucky, they gave up a lot of rushing yards, but the average was fine. I think a lot of that is a product of trailing for a lot of

that game. So that doesn't concern me as much as a the pass rush didn't look great on Sunday night, and be you know, we knew going into this season that the secondary was going to be a problem or at least a week spot, and you know, I didn't see anything on Sunday that changed my mind about that. Amber That's a tough one for me. I mean, they're equally as important, but and I know we have it's a new season, and every new season you just never know how the team is going to fully change compared

to last year. But I just can't forget those games from last year where they were killed by running backs who basically had no, like very little experience in the NFL, and yet they were able to just get them and kill them and score points and lose games because of that. So to me, I think that's an area that I'm still kind of focusing on and keeping my eye on, and I'm leaning more towards the rush defense. But uh, they're both, they're both the problem. Sorry, I mean, yeah,

she's right about that. Yeah, they're both they're both problems. I would say I trust Mike Nolan to do a better job of getting them in position to stop the run. If your secondary is just not good and the guys just can't cover, then there's not much you could really do. I mean, you can try to get a past, you can blitz and all that stuff, But I mean, if they still can't cover that well, that you know they're only gonna get you know, the eighty ninety yard touchdowns

thrown on them. So I think that I trust the run defense a little better than I trust the past defense at this point. All right, Atlanta was second in offense last week with five or twenty two yards. As I mentioned earlier in the show, they were first in passing offense with four hundred and thirty four yards. They had three wide receivers catch this three wide receivers had nine catches and one hundred plus yards in their Week one game against the Seattle Seahawks. So we have a

pretty good defense. That all being said, do you think the Cowboys have enough good defenders to match up against Julio, Ridley, Gauge and even Hurst who had a nice downfield catch last last week at the tight end position. They have enough defenders to defend those guys. Let's start with you day. I mean, I'm sorry, Nick, I mean I'm no offense

to the game. But I think that I think the stats and where the rankings are just way way early, just because you know, it's just one game and it was they don't want that, like they don't want three catch three guys, but nine. They don't want to be second in passing yards because that means they got their ass kicked. And so we saw the last year with all the das numbers, it's because they were a lot of it was hollow. So um to answer the question, yeah, I mean I think they do, but it's on the

offensive side of the ball. It's the offense gonna score points to put them in position to be like that. I think. I think it all comes back to the offense. It's all about playing for your strength, and so I think if the offense does their job, yes, the defense I think can be good enough to stop that atlanted offense. Canberra. Can you repeat your question again? It was a little confusing to me. Do the Cowboys have enough defenders to

stop the offensive weapons for the Falcons? And look, you know the stats what you name I'm like, I was thinking, I'm like, wait, shouldn't that have been the Cowboys. Shouldn't we have had those numbers here in the first week, but oh well, three thousand yard receivers were on a

great path right now. But anyways, I think that it's just going back to your defensive line, Derek, that you keep talking about where it needs to start, where they need to create pressure, hoping because that's where I feel that the Cowboys currently have the most talent on defense, so I think that it absolutely needs to start there. Hopefully the Marcus Lawrence elevates his game this week with the help of Alden Smith, who thankfully at least had

a nice game last week. But I'm just hoping to rely more this week on the pass rush and get those guys putting some pressure there in order to help those secondary players in the back and just trying to stop a guy like Julia Jones is gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough, so they're gonna definitely need to

get help from every single guy on defense, Dave. I mean, if we're gonna criticize dak to no end for putting up garbage time stats, we gotta I mean, you gotta look at the context of this because Atlanta didn't start going off until they were down thirty one to twelve in that game. I think that's worth noting. But they still have all that talent, and yet no, I don't think. I don't think the Dallas defense is equipped to hold

them down. And that goes back to the point of, you know, ideally, if you tell me I can hold them to twenty four twenty eight against that offense. I would like to think the Cowboys offense can be better. You know, Atlanta's defense will you know, we'll get to them tomorrow, but they look terrible against Russell Wilson. So I'm I'm counting on the Dallas offense to be able to score thirty one thirty five points in this game.

Maybe that's ambitious after watching them score seventeen, but I don't think you're winning this game unless you score in the high twenties. Yeah, I will say this. I don't work the thirties preferably. Yeah, I don't. I don't think the Cowboys cornerbacks really were challenged very much last week, and I certainly don't think they were the biggest part

of the problem for the Dallas defense. I think I had a much bigger problem with their defensive tackles, much bigger problem with the linebackers in some degree, a much bigger problem with their safeties, particularly in run support, than I'd get with the cornerbacks last week. But again I don't think they were challenged nearly as much. And again I understand the numbers can can skew that way, and

it's because it's just when we sample size. But I think any of us are disputing the fact that those particularly those two top wide receivers, are great talents and they're gonna be a handful for the secondary to be able to manage. All Right, we appreciate you guys joined us. We were back tomorrow normal time at eleven thirty am Central Time till then. For Nick Keatman, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia, I am Derek Equleton. 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.