Cowboys Break: Different Opinion?

twenty twenty two, Season eighteen, episode number seventy two. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break, Live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, presented by Milla Lake. The only beer of the Dallas Cowboys were a little earlier time today. So for you the for those of you out there listening live, thank you for joining us. The rest of you guys will be like Norman, just get us on demand. Got Nick in studio, We got Amber studio. Brian should be joining us momentarily. Nick, before

we get into it too much. I did want to we had a question yesterday and I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. I asked these these guys, um did anything that happened Monday night in that Washington Philadelphia game change your opinions of Philadelphia, Washington or the NFC East. Uh, yeah, a little bit. I mean, well just just knowing that, you know, if Philly's not going to run away with anything. I mean I did kind of mention that I thought Washington had a chance. You

did you call that? And somebody on Twitter actually called that out there, like Nick actually said this was going to happen. Yeah, but as you and Todd Archer point out, when you make a lot of predictions, yeah, there's about that. But but division games, we've seen it several times where you know, you blow out the team the first time, and the second time around, it's not the same. So, and I said this before, I think Washington's gonna be a factor in this thing. Had they even played the

Giants yet? Washington and the Giants, I'm not sure if they have. And I know that Giants haven't played Philly yet, So, like, there's there's a lot to be done here. I just think that it's going to it's going to be interesting how how it goes. Philly though, they're good, I mean, they were better than Washington. You know, face mask penalty didn't get called, and that deep ball with the Fumm, it's just kind of some slooky things. But I mean, I think you know, but it's good to know that

they can be beat. Yeah, looking at Washington, No, and looking at their ability to u to run the ball pretty good, Looking at their ability to stop the run, they're pretty stout there. As you look at all the teams in the NFC East, if you had to prioritize them as the team that is the worst matchup for Dallas through to the how would you rate them? Um, I think it's I think it's Philly, Washington and the Giants. That's just because of that run matchup and stopping the run.

It's what they're trying to do. Um. Also, you get to go at Washington, so Philly, Washington the Giants, which I think that's what y'all said, right, Yeah, I think we all agree the same. Yeah, yeah, order, And I mean they're all they're all tough. I mean, it's I think you said that. I think you said on the

show that you felt better about the game. I felt worse about the Packer game because you're just like, I mean, think about just think about what the what the perception of the Cowboys would have been if they would just win the game. Just whatever, whatever play you want to say, it goes their way and they win that game. And then that happens to the Philly You're like, there we go, Cowboys could get the one seed. That that's what you'd be thinking. They could get the one seed. So that's

that's why it's a little frustrating to know. That's why I would, you know. I mean, I'm not saying I'm gonna take the headset and slam it down. You know I'm not doing that. But you're the only one. Yeah no, But you know, honestly, though, I still look at it again because of what happened Monday night, I do think the Cowboys still could get the one seat. I think it starts with this week, and they gotta win this weekend if they want to to get that in that error.

But look, Philadelphia is not unbeatable and the Vikings aren't unbeatable. There's nobody in the NFC that you're like, I really worry about them. The teams that I worry about most are below the Cowboys right now. And I heard you talking this morning on the fan like San Francisco is the one I still look at, like man, I don't really, I don't know how well Dallas matches up there. And Tampa Bay is still a team. I'm like, I don't

know how well Dallas matches up there. And if the Packers, who now are only two games out of the playoffs, they happen to get back into it, I don't know how well they match up there if they had to play them again. So it's the teams below than the teams that are right now. I'm there at the top for the psake of the discussion, and you know, like, how confident are you even about the Cowboys right now? Because we I mean, I get it, you got to win these games and you can get up there or whatever.

But when you look at what the Cowboys currently are, what they did last week or yeah, I guess that was last week some day when they did what they did there, and when you start looking at the issues that they currently have, and you've seen them in their best moments, and you've seen them what they can do and when the offense is working, when the defense is attacking the way that they do, being able to pressure the quarterback and all that, But now when you look

at the areas where they're really lacking, and you can still point out the receivers group and also the quarterback, I mean Dak at times is not perfect. And then on top of that you add the run defense and what they're currently struggling with there, and you look at the analysis of now where we're at with them, how is your like, where is your confidence level at when looking at the Cowboys as a whole for the for the second half of the season. To me, yeah, that's

same they got. They got one major flaw in my opinion, and that's they can't stop the run. And my belief is if and this is going to start with the defensive coordinator and go down the line, if everybody from the defensive coordinator all the way down to the players says, stop worrying about getting after the quarterback as your primary concern, Your primary concern is stop the run. If all of those people make that the primary concern, my belief is

that they will be adequate at stopping the run. If their adequate is stopping the run, they win that game. They win that win game going away in Green Bay they had a fourteen point lead in the fourth quarter, Like, they win that game going away. And you can say what you want about the offense and DAC and whatever, but guess what yet started off. It wasn't perfect. They got twenty eight points by the beginning of the fourth quarter. Yeah, if you can stop the run, you win that game.

So all I'm saying is like, there are lots of areas where they can improve. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they can't improve. Dad can be better, the receivers can be better, the offensive line can be better. They got one major flaw that if they don't fix that, they're not going anywhere. And that to me is a run defense. Yeah, and it's probably gonna come to I mean, they can stop the run. They can get the runs stopped. It's just that that's not the way they want to play.

And there's guys that they that are on this team that are supposed to be here for you know, dynamic pass rushing ability, and they won't get to play the same way. They're gonna have to stop the run. And then after that, well we'll see. I think there's gonna be different personnel. I mean, I think you got to play guys like Chauncey Golston in there, and there's somebody I believe I don't know what I'm implying. Somebody's getting cut. I do think that somebody, somebody that's a player like

that's actually playing games. Yeah, somebody like a pass rusher, they or or or just benched. But but maybe cut because you're gonna need roster spots. I just think that they got too many of these guys. There's just too many of them. They're similar kind of yeah, So I just think that there's there's not enough space who I'm not saying you bring in anybody necessarily unless you unless you've got a defensive end that's out there. I just don't think that they'll they'll keep There's no room for

bash them Fowler, Doran's Armstrong and Sam Williams. There's no room for all of those guys. And we know when you already got Tank, yeah, and you already got Micah and yeah, yeah, there's just not room for all them. And so you can look at it and say, all right, who makes the money, who's drafted, who's young, and you're gonna keep me, and you can kind of figure it out, you know, I mean, you don't have to keep some of those guys. Um, there may be more help on

the practice squad coming. I mean, I mean, there's there's there's names out there being floated out there that are going to happen here on the You know that the Cowboys are bringing in from the practice wide. Not the biggest name, not the OBJ name, but there's some others that are out there. So we'll see, we'll see what happens here. I think today is going to be interesting day, just roster moves wise. You keep hearing this name in Dominican Sue that fans keep throwing around as as an

option to bring in defensive tackle. Obviously I'm not as big a fan of it, but what do you guys think as far as that being something that the Cowboys maybe should consider. I mean, they're not stopping the run on the edge like it's probably defensive tackle. That's that's the problem. I think I think they could get it stopped up the middle. It's it's the outside runs and um, I don't know if he helps you there, and I'm I'm you know, I mean, I know why Obj's out,

you know, he's rehabbing his knee. Yeah, I don't know why Sue is out. Yeah I don't, I mean, I do, you know, I don't know. My assumption is just because he's not in football, nobody just signed him. And by the way, that doesn't mean that doesn't mean players like that can't come in and add something to your team. I just don't know if it solves the problem. I think you got Hankins to solve that problem, and I think Hankins is doing an adequate job. I did notice

one thing. I saw this I I was looking at on Twitter and Brian baal Dinger, you know he does his breakdowns. He did an interesting breakdown and on one play it was actually the touchdown play where Aaron Jones

ran off tackle and scored the touchdown. And and to me, that's where you look at and you're like, whoa defensive coordinator, that was probably not the best idea because essentially what happened play starts defensive end and defensive tackle both just shoot outside and create this gaping hole that now your linebackers have to fill. The problem is offensive lineman's on Micah on him pretty quickly, and so now him trying to get off a block and basically control of this

big gaping hole. It's like, that's a That's an example of where I said earlier in the show. It has a start with the defensive coordinator and go all the way down that the priority needs to be stopping the run, which in that instance you don't send your tackle outside. Now we also have to we were I'm assuming that was not it that was his assignment. Maybe it wasn't

his assignment and he messed it up. But but that's where I think there are some issues here with this run defense that maybe fixable if you just either focus on what you're doing or everybody know their assignment and play their assignment and fit in their gaps. You can't keep worrying about sacks all the time. That's what it is.

I mean, you got guys that come off the field and they're they're they're asking about that I get a sack there, and they need to call in the league to see if they can switch the sacked, you know, for it was my sack versus I mean, they're all worried about it. I get it, because that's that's the stat that people view. But it's causing problems. And I say it all the time about the Colts bet way back in the day, Dwight Freeney, those guys, Dwight Freeney

cared about sacks. They didn't ever stop the run because they got up the field. And so you gotta be you gotta find a way to be disciplined and and know that this is more embarrassing. Is getting two hundred yards rushing on you is more embarrassing than finishing a win without a sack. They all need to realize that. And I don't think that they do. I mean, whether they do or not. You know, we've seen, we've interviewed players that aren't real happy about a win because they

didn't get individual stats. That brings him an interesting point. How do you guys think Mike is gonna respond to this? Because this will be the first time in Micah's career with the Dallas Cowboys where people are talking about him in a negative way. I saw this morning on Good Morning Football. They were basically saying, oh, yeah, here's the blueprint for neutralizing Michael Parsons. And and I wonder a guy like him who is very, very prideful and takes a lot of pride in the fact that he is

among the best in the NFL. I wonder how he responds to a game where everybody's looking at him and saying you're part of the problem. What do you guys think? Well, I think he plays I don't think he plays well when he's frustrated. I think he plays well when he's pissed off. Though, Oh maybe that's a good thing for this week. Yeah, I mean I think so. I mean, last time he went to Minnesota, he was a defensive player of the week. I mean, had four tackles for loss.

So you know, we'll see. I mean there's another element on this too that yes, they gave a lot of rushing yards to the Bears because the Bears just kept doing it and that's the only thing the Bears could do, so they just kept running and running, and the Cowboys kind of let him have it and all that. The Packers did it as well, and Aaron Rodgers did a really nice job there. But I don't think other teams are going to have the same success because they don't

have the same quarterback as Aaron Rodgers. And I think, yes, you can keep running it, you can running, but at some point you're gonna have to make a play. And I don't think that the next three opponents, even though they've got three great running backs, I don't think it's going to be the same. But I do I do this week, and it's not so much that the quarterback

is great. I think the receiver is great and the quarterback is pretty good, and so because of that, I do think there will be times in this game where it's the similar kind of thing is what you experience with Green Bay. They may not have to throw it a lot. They can get going with the running game and do a lot of their damage on the ground if the Cowboys are going to give up that ground yardage, but they can make a few big plays in the passing game as well, which is exactly what the Packers did.

They just made a few big plays in the passing game, and with those receivers out there, I think they can make those big plays. They've been making them all season. We saw last week. I should not have been a completion, but just Jefferson is just He's just stupid, crazy good, right, And so that's where I differ a little bit on that. I do think this. I agree with you with the Giants, but I think for this week, I do think it's

very similar to what you face last week. You know, I don't want to say this because it's gonna be recorded, and I don't want to regret saying this. Here we go. It's good time to turn around, I know. But whatever I'm gonna say it, it's in regards to my come I think I do think he's one of the greatest players. He's definitely the best player that the Cowboys currently have

on the roster. But I feel that in the past weeks and he's the type of player, Yes, you can move him around and do all that, but when you take him away from doing the defensive end job and like pressuring the quarterback, and you put him a linebacker and have to and he's still the type of player that a lot of the times you see him just show up, he's like, how how did he get there

faster than anybody else? But there have been time certain places that I've seen, especially in this last game, where him being like that part of the field linebacker, his game is kind of looking like a little slower where he's not as impactful as he can be on the defense. Overall, I'm not saying he's bad or anything, but I think

that his game is taking a hit. When you take him away from just pressure in the quarterback, his game goes down a level, and I'm not saying that level is bad whatsoever, but it's not at the top where it's been this whole time. So I do think his game is just he looks at time a little not a step behind, but just a little slower and differently. Yeah, I don't know if you guys have noticed that, And I know people are kind of starting to comment about him,

and I don't know if you saw the comment. I was trying to look for it, but dan Quinn was act do you know what I'm talking about? Where Mica made a comment about accountability and like players taking accountability and he said some like players weren't taking accountability, and then dan Quinn was asked about it and he just came back and said everybody has everybody's back and kind

of switched it around. But that's the kind of thing that you wouldn't expect him necessarily to say, because I do see him kind of as a leader and all that. But when he gets to him, it does get to him. And that's the difference between how he responds. Does he play harder and go out there and play even more, or does he become that frustrated player where now he's going on Twitter saying all kinds of things, just letting

it the frustration get to him. So it'll be interesting to see when, if it happens again this weekend, how he responds to all those types of comments and how he handles that, because he hasn't faced any of that since he got here. I don't know, I mean, I don't know where do you play him. That's the problem.

He's a tweener. And it doesn't matter what position that is, no matter what sport, basketball, football, anybody that's ever been labeled somebody like that and in between end, in between linebacker, in between a forward or a guard or whatever. Like you, Mismatch problems are are good when it's in favorable for you, but it's also a mismatch problem. It depends on who you're facing, you know, and that's the problem. They just

don't You don't know exactly where to play him. If you just played him strictly at defensive end all the time, I think he'd get I think they'd run at him a lot. I think he'd get worn down a lot more in the games, and he'd probably be playing a lot less snaps. He's defensive, he helps he wouldn't be as effective. And if you play him at linebacker, we're finding why you don't draft linebackers that high in the draft,

because that's why he didn't go that high. I mean, I mean went high, but I mean that's why he didn't go top five because he wasn't a pass rusher until he showed he could pass rush. So it's just it's a cat and mouse game all the time. They're gonna have to figure out how to do it. They gotta stop the run. They gotta get this run stopped. They get it stopped. Put him in third long situations. Then you could play Mica wherever you want. All Right, we're gonna take our first break when we come back.

I'm gonna ask these guys, if you were the head coach, what would be your message to the team coming off that game and now heading into a game against Minnesota, do when we come right back this Dalas Cowboys dot Com Radio, Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the Cheetahs. Even Todd believed the big Cat repellent he bought online was reliable. And now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles.

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Santa at the Star presented by Monument Realty. Santa Claus will be at his Cowboys theme cottage at the Star District across from Ascension from November eighteenth through December twenty fourth book your visit before December second, say five dollars with code star five visit Star district dot com slash Santa from Martin Fall. Well, would this be the year that we get that break picture with Santah? Dave's gone? You don't a lot time ago what to do with it.

We're still here, we're talking about it, and Sanavil was there, like maybe forty steps away from us, and we never went. I just kind of want to see Daves it on this lap. But now we could put Nick on his lap and see how that goes. That'd be fun. Yeah, I don't know. It might hurt the old man. I think you'll be all right, you'll be all right, all right, hurt Sanna? Oh oh, I thought he's sitting on his lap. Yeah, probably don't give don't give her ammunition. Really, why would

you do that. I'm a big dude, and Santa's should be old. Hey, I don't call anybody fat. I know that's not ammunition to me. Okay, no, other things might be, but not that. You'll take other shots that yeah, okay, all right, all right. Welcome second second segment of the Break Life and that WBC mortgag studios at the Star were presented by Miller Light. This segment presented by blockchain

dot Com. Question I have for you, guys, if you're the head coach right now, and you got a team that you think is a really good team, but there are some some cracks that are appearing, and you lose a game like that on the road that you probably should have won, and now you got to face a team that is one of the better teams in the NFC from a record standpoint, on the road again, heading into a period where you got some clean games close back to back to back. What would your message be

to the team right now? My message would be, we're damn good football team, and usually things that that kind of everything that goes up should come down. It all pretty much evens out. I would say of the losses this year, I would say two of the three losses you could have won. The game you made your own mistake, she could have won. There's not many wins that you could say we should have lost. I don't think there's any. Cincinnati was closed. They were better than Cincinnati all day long.

They were better than them, so they won the game there. When you look at it that way, you know a lot of times it's like, well, these four wins, you know, these four loss should have been wins. But then you can also count about the same. Right now, I think they are playing better than their opponents most of the time. They're a better football team and their opponents. That says so in the record, it says so, in the points that are scored, says so in their rankings on you know, offense,

defense rankings. So stick to the script, keep going, keep fighting. Let's figure, let's plug these holes a little bit. Should get some help coming back here, I mean, should get some other you know, Zeke's gonna help. Zeke's better than Leeg Davis, so Zeke will help. I think Tyrant Smith is going to come back. I think he's gonna play left tackle. I think he's better than Tyler Smith right now. I mean, I mean, so I think they're gonna get some help. And I think that they're a good football team.

And I don't think we would be saying that. You know, we wouldn't be saying anything different about them. If there's no holding penalty there, they drive down, they win the game, right then they win in overtime. I don't think we're talking about this team, and it's just that much of a difference. So I don't think it's time to hit the panic button at all. This is a good team. Yeah, I think it all comes down to let's play clean football.

You just have to clean it up on offense because the defense you talk about, the run defense, I don't think you can fix that in a week. It's gonna take a little bit more time to do that. You can see certain types of improvement depending on what dan Quinn decides to do scheme wise and all that. But on offense is where if you play just tight, tight the game, you know, don't get too I'm not cocky is not the word I'm looking for, but a little

greedy or overconfidence. You know, there are some throws on there that you don't need. Greedy's the word greedy, and that was the word. That's what Yeah, it's true, that's what they did when it was seven nothing and they were there was no need to that, especially when you see you're being able to run the ball like the running game wasn't an issue there. They were running successfully, so there was no need to make a throw like that.

So it's just that clean it up on offense and I think you're just a few step away from just fully clicking there. And I think that's the most immediate part of the game that you can change from this weekend to next weekend to go up against the Vikings.

You don't give up no turnovers, protect the ball, and just play clean football, run the ball when you need to, and then when you need to make those passes that you check it down and you're like, okay, I can't make that, But don't play a guessing game either, like if you feel confident. Also, don't don't bring up that CD play into this game. I think you need to put that like over the middle, the one over the middle right past. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they I saw a

breakdown of that play too. It's very interesting they broke it down on one of the ESPN shows. But basically the way that they defined the way they broke it down, which again they they're taking some liberties, but essentially what they said was basically what they showed confused both to CD and DAK. Basically, you know traditional cover two where you got your linebacker in the middle of the field and he's basically dropping deep. They put a safety back

there and he was playing kind of going downhill. And so if if it's a traditional Cover two, then in that situation you've got a CD would would would go upfield. If it were a situation where there was going to be a guy in the middle of the field a

single safety high, then he would cut across the middle. Basically, what they showed him was Cover two and there's a guy in the middle of the field, and Dak decided, I think I need to go upfield and in a post and Dak thought he thought he should have gone across, and there you go. That's your your answer. The point is they actually ran that similar play later in the game and actually connected on it, so they've had some success with it. Did you notice if there were other

options on that particular play, I don't know. I don't know. I didn't see whether there were other I wouldn't need to go back and look at us. That's another thing. I mean, what are the other options? When you see that you can't make that throw with CD, what do you do? Then? Who do you I personally think if CD would have gone across, that's a completion. Yeah, because the guy who was sitting in the middle of the field, the safety'll sit in the middle of the field. He

was too deep. If he goes in front of his face, he was too deep to make a play on the ball that would have been a completion. So I actually think Dak was throwing it to the right place. I think CD misread it, and I think he went up feel where he actually ran into the coverage rather than going across his face and now making an easier completion. But again, those are the kind of things where that happens in the NFL. Guess what, guys, everybody's getting paid

out there. They're all professionals, and these coordinators are looking for ways where they can create indecision, where they can have the quarterback and the receiver not be on the

same page age in these option type situations. And that's exactly what they did, and it worked for it did, But but I think the problem is is that when you see it done right before the half against the Bears, and you let the Bears back in the game because of that interception, and then you go to the bye week and two weeks later, right before the half, you're trying to get some points and you do the exact same throw in exact same play against the Packers, like

they watch film too. They're watching, Yeah, that's their last tape of film that they've got on you So they see that, Hey watch for this Rudy Ford and that's what happened. And so, you know, I get it. Give them five days off, get them off their feed, do all this cool stuff, which is a lot of it's required by the league, you know, but for the bye week. But it's like they didn't learn from there. They don't coaches don't have to be off five days. You know.

Well the other thing too is I don't think you tell me. I don't think the players, according to League US, have to be off as many days as they got. No, you think that was part of the problem here, Well, they weren't. I mean they were flat. I mean they didn't seem that flat. Okay, they didn't seem ready to play. And you know, I don't know. I mean, there's ten coaches that are going back to Green Bay, including the head coach. They were fired up and ready to go.

But where the players ready to play? I don't know, and I'm not You can't. You can never figure that out. Well, heading into the bye week, we talked about it on this show. How okay, Well, this is a week where you'll do some self evaluation and you look at the things that you do some self scouting as well to look at the players you got and all that. But then, like you said, going, well we saw last weekend. I mean, I don't think there's anything that I saw that would

make me think they improved in that aspect. Like I mean, it was about the same. Yeah, if I mean, you could argue the running game, running defense slowly getting worse, and you mentioned that yesterday, Derek, But overall, I don't think there was this pacific area where I was like, oh, yeah, they improved there. I mean, the biggest play of the game. And going back to the Packers, when I mean you could say that the touchdown, the second touchdown to Watson

on fourth down. I mean, obviously they don't get that the game's over, but the first touchdown like that would was huge too, because that let everyone know, okay, this we're back in this, we tied the game. We just bombed, you know, the defense. And then Anthony Brown gets hurt, and I don't care what you think, I don't care what the fans that Anthony Brown is a good solid cornerback and he gets picked on all the time because for whatever the reason, he's a good player and he

doesn't get hurt right there. I think it's a different game because it exposed the Cowboys are already down, Jordan Lewis are already having to play d Ron Bland. Now you have to play d Ron Bland and Kelvin Joseph. I guess Aaron Rodgers man. I mean it's kind of surprisingly they didn't light them up even more really so, because they were they were committed to the run and the run was working. That's why they didn't. Well, he had a concussion, right, yeah, concussion you died, you don't.

But McCarthy said on Monday that he has an excellent chance. I think was it excellent was the word he said? Well, yeah, and to play excellent chance to play with and that's and that's that's big on a Monday. Yeah, it's a big difference, and you saw it. I mean, I don't think any of us trust Kelvin Joseph. No, no, I won't say what Nick said to me when when we

when he first went down. But yeah, I don't think either one of us felt very great about the idea that Joseph was the guy who's going to be coming in. No he um, no at all. Like, honestly, I don't think it's working out. I really don't. That's just what I'm gonna say. It's not working out. And and yes, he runs down and makes plays on he makes plays for you on the special teams. He's had like four or five, but he gives them away. I mean, he

has stupid penalties at times that don't make any sense. Um, And you know, I mean, it's it's it is what it is. It's kind of like what reminds me about when the Cowboys drafted Dez Bryant ten twelve years ago. Here's all these bad things about dis here's all these good things about des and after his ten year career, guess what they were. All Right, he's gonna be late, he's gonna be volatile. He's got off the field issues that you know that are going to carry over. Great passion,

great player, playmaker. He's a leader, I mean or he's an Everyone loves him. He'll he'll he'll do anything for you to make plays. He'll be a highlight reel. They're all true right now, Calvin Joseph. It's all true, except for the pros on great cover guy, whatever got him drafted in the second round. It's just not it's not working out. The immaturity and all that we've seen all of that, not to mention off the field, I mean

that's that's you know, speaks for itself and tragic. But on the field, I mean it's like, oh my god, as soon as he goes down, sous Anthony Brown goes down, everybody in the press box like, oh man, that means he's got to play and think about it this week coming up, Nashan right has been inactive. I think I take my chances with Nahan right at corner. Yeah that's saying a lot, no, But but Nashan, like as as training camp wore on and certainly as the the preseason

wore on, we saw some holes in his game. Like they're like, yeah, he's got some more development to do, right, that's a big statement to say you'd rather see him than than Calvin Joseph. Yeah, you know, and it just hopefully it gets better. But like but just saying, and you said it on here too, like you know, just because all he's a good special teams guy, that's not what you want from a high second round pick. He was a high second round pick, and it's just not

it's not. It hasn't. It hasn't been good there, and I think they got to figure something out if, if, even if Anthony Brown comes back. I still think that their depth there is not what they want. But I don't want to overreact on Darron Bland. Deron Bland had a couple of bad moments in that game, a couple

of them where he slipped down. He also had some good moments in that game too, where he made some plays, and so I still I'm big and I've told I told you actually before he went down, before I said once once Brown went down, I said, Deron Bland, it's the next best cornerback. He should be out there rather than bringing in Kelvin Joseph. Now, they went with Kelvin Joseph. But in my opinion, I think Deron Bland is your

next best cornerback on this team. And I will continue to believe that even though he had some rough moments in this last game. He has a rookie, and so in a late round pick for a rookie, they're gonna be some growing pains. But everything that I've seen from him, from the time he arrived here suggests it's not too big for him. He is a really good player and

he's only going to get better. So I would this week, if you don't have Brown, I would probably opt to have him out there as my other starter playing all downs, and then you'll bring in l. Joseph, even if you push Bland into the slot when you're gonna go Nickel, which is a whole different conversation, I think Cowboys get away from Nickel a little bit and go four three a little bit more if they got the linebackers say that too, And I was also going to say, this

is not a good week to do that. You don't think, Well, it's just it's it's Minnesota. You're you're right. Minnesota can their it out. Minnesota could run. That's why it's one of the reasons why they're so good, as they're very, very versatile. I mean on offense, they can do multiple things. Yeah, got a good tight end, got good receivers, got a good running game. Yeah, it's it's a tough one. It's a really tough one. Are we're gonna take our final break when we come back. We'll talk a little bit

about this Minnesota offense in the Dallas defense. I want to come back, Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. The season is finally here. For months, we've been gearing up to win. Now it's time for the team that performs on any field. United eggin Turn with John Deer zero turns for mowing, compact tractors for loading, many excavators for digging, Gator utility vehicles for hauling, implements for grading, ay tools for bailing. Unite Egg and Turf for winning the official Agg and

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Back to the break, Chris, I'm gonna need some music on this one for a Christmas Here we go, all right, you can amp experience the magic of the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters during Christmas time. With your ticket, you'll enjoy a forty five minute guided tour, Christmas cookies, and a takeaway limited edition Dallas Cowboys ornament. Select dates are now available and we'll sell out fast. Book your visit now. Start in frisco dot com slash tours. It's Christmas time.

I love it. And you just like when I said seeing you, I don't know. I see you on Instagram singing all the time. I cannot sing, though I sing. They may enjoy myself, but nothing at all of us. No, no, no. On Instagram you can skip, skip or here you gotta listen through that, Okay, all right and suffer. But you can bring your daughter to sing on here. You know it has an amazing voice. She likes to sing a little bit, and she likes to sing a little bit.

She's in that er. She got that entertainer bug in her. So we'll sing. All right, let's jump back in final segment of the show. We got literally only about six minutes here, uh, and we will get into some more of this stuff. Brian actually couldn't end up joining us today. We'll get into a little more of the breakdown of the Minnesota offense tomorrow. We'll get up the offense and then can you Yeah, Dalvin Cook's a really good runner. Yeah,

tough as hell to bring down. Yeah, Justin Jefferson catches just about everything, so good luck with that digs. Adam Feeling is a great route runner, so whoever's on the other corners, that's gonna be a problem. And then they added T. J. Hockinson from the Lions in the division, just another weapon there. Kirk Cousins is not playing at night, so it's a day game. It could be a little tougher for him, and uh, but they're eight and one and they're ready for a loss. Okay, not bad, that's

not a bad little breakdown. Let me ask you this question, knowing how good Justin Jefferson is, what do you do with him? Would you travel digs on him? Yes? You would. Yes. There's too many times in the game that I saw And there was one play in particular last week where it was late in the game and I'm watching and Lazard goes in motion and nobody's no receivers on this other side, Digs, it is just kind of flanked out and he's kind of covering a tight end that's basically yeah,

and he's not covering anyone. It's over there. It's just Bland and Joseph and then you've got, uh seven yards off the b and linebacker, you got Michael Parsons. And I'm thinking, Wow, Packers have them exactly where they want. Their two best players are not doing what they do best, which is cover receivers and rush the quarterback and and and then it was a first down pass over the middle and all that, and I'm just thinking the Cowboys got to do what they do. So Jefferson Diggs. Diggs

will give up some plays. He'll get some as well, and and then you know they have to because if you don't that Jefferson's going up against two. I mean, I think Anthony Brown is going to come back. But Anthony Brown hasn't been There have been moments he I mean, he got the concussion. When he got the concussion, that was a touchdown pass that he Yeah, he looked kind of lost there too. Yeah. Yeah, So I mean I agree with you. I think Justin Jefferson is your biggest

challenge maybe he's a receiving standpoint. No, no, he didn't. They wouldn't. They wouldn't have let him play if they did. Yeah, you can't play like that. Now you can't know his head. His head slammed down into the into the y. So I agree with you. I think justin Jefferson's your biggest challenge, and I think you put your best cover guy, especially when there's such a big difference between your best cover guy in the next closest cover guy. I put him

on Jefferson. You know, it's crazy. It's like I was thinking here how comfortable I was with like the depth on defense and every you know, every spot. The only one was maybe linebacker. But then you kind of address that and you're like, thinkyo, we're good. But then now we're just like, what are you should we should we be allowing that one game to challenge our beliefs on what we think of this defense's depth. I think so yeah.

I mean when you look at when you mentioned, for example, Bland again going back to that kind of a point of they've been good term players, including like Sam Williams, I feel that they've been good when given the opportunity. But Sprinkles of it. You know, Now, what does that look like when you have them out there full time?

You know, So there's a difference there because of the growth that there needs to happen, and when you're playing at this level already in this part of the season, you just you need that person to have it or you don't. Yeah, but if not, you sprinkle them in in rotations like that kind of led them because you

have to also rotate players. But right now, I mean, I'm talking about players like even in the Sean Wright you mentioned him that was someone that I was a fan of even back at training camp, just because of his physique, his all armed, his length, So those qualities that you want in a player that you look for and then how does that translate into when they're out

there playing? And just like it's maybe just the part of not being at that level where you ideally want them to be when you meet them to be at this point. Yeah, but I guess the way I look at it is you're still talking about a guy. You're talking about guy? Is that where your fourth and fifth cornerbacks now having to be your second and third cornerbacks.

That to me is not a depth issue because if you had one of those guys, like for example, when you lost when you lost Jordan Lewis, then everybody's sliding up one spot. It didn't become an apparent problem, right, It wasn't until you lost two of them, when you lost him and Anthony Brown. Now you got a problem because and that's gonna be on any team in the NFL. You take your fourth and fifth cornerbacks and now making your second and third cornerbacks, you're gonna have some issues

because there's a reason why they're fourth and fifth. To me, I don't know that. I don't know that the depth challenges anymore today than it was before. It's just they're having to tap into guys and make them do more than they're really capable of doing right now. Yeah, I mean, and that's very similar to what happened at wide receiver

as well. Anytime you know, you're talking about Noah Brown last year was the fifth receiver and now he's been the third and at times he's been the number two, and he's not ready for that difference those that was self inflicted. True, Yeah, that's the only difference. It's self inflicted, right. Yeah, they didn't they didn't address that and free agency like they should have, and you know, and I don't know what they're doing right now with with with James Washington.

I mean, I'm not sure why he's not there, you know, and especially with Noah Brown catching one pass and Jalen Tolbert. You know, he's ready, he's ready. Rossington is ready to play. He's ready to play. And I'm pretty sure I don't know exactly what he's gonna do in the route, but I mean he'll line up right, just just so I understand it. So the listeners out there understand, how's that twenty one day thing? Where can you bring a guy

back immediately and not do the twenty one days? Yeah, you just have twenty one days by which you can have him start him. You have to start the window. You can start the window and he can play immediate immediately. He can play that week if you want to, or he can go twenty one days and and he can. You can do that, you know, and then he has then something's got to happen either you know, he's got to go back to IR or you gotta put him on the roster. You don't have any inkling as to

why the whole why there's the hold up. I mean, well, the only thing now we heard them saying from mccarth that's the only thing. I don't know if you've heard anything differently, was the whole thing of like timing. Why it's how the schedule and the opponents and Thanksgiving and all that, how that looks likely and ideally you don't want to bring a player back in with those kind

of weird schedules. Well, they're not practicing that much today, and so that's why the schedules a little bit different. And that was because that's why they didn't do it last week, because last week would have been one week. This week's kind of weird, and then the third week would have been the Thanksgiving week that's not even a real week. So I mean, I don't know. I don't care about all that stuff. I care about like they need to start him. He needs to start practicing so

he can start to play, because it's a problem. Tolbert and Noel Brown aren't really giving them anything. And Michael Gallup only a little bit. And I think Washington, you signed him for a reason. I think he's got the depth. I think he adds some depth. He had some playmaking ability, you know, he's a former second round pick. I think he can. He can make some plays. You know what's crazy now that I thought about it, I forgot like he actually has not practice right at all with this team.

Like if going back to training camp, he was struggling with some injuries one day the second first day of camp and that was it. That was it. So he had also a problem here, right, Like, whenever you get him back, you might need that full twenty one day period and those practices because he literally has not practice. Yeah,

and that's probably what they're thinking. Yeah, they're thinking, we gotta, we gotta really utilize these twenty one days so we can kind of get you know, implemented in the offense, which means you may not open that twenty one day period and so you literally get into December. Yeah, and you get that full week of practice and give him twenty one days and you're hoping he can be back and maybe give us something for the playoffs. Yeah, that's

pretty much how you have to think about at that point. Yeah, if they don't sign other guys, you know, before then, and even if you do, it's still he still could play a role maybe, right. You know, they rotate the receivers quite a bit. So maybe he does play a role. And maybe that means Jayleen Tolber, just go sit down and just watch the rest of the year and we'll figure out how we start growing you next year. Right. I mean, you know, the penalty kind of rubbed me

the wrong way. But you know, maybe maybe he just needs some time just to sit and maybe James Washington allows you to allows him to do that. Yeah, he doesn't have He's not he's not ready. He's not ready to contribute. He's not scaring anyone. Um. I think he plays some on special teams though, which which if like James Washington comes in, I mean, I don't know if he's gonna do that. Noah Brown plays special pay I didn't know. I mean, at some point he gotta be thinking, yeah,

you need to be. He was never, I don't think a starter for most of his career and plays burs Pittsburgh. He wasn't, which makes me think he probably was doing some special teams there. But I don't I don't know that for a fact. I don't know he played some. He played some over there, I mean he I mean, he played a lot of receiver. I don't know if he was a starter, but you know they had they had the four five different guys and he played a lot, especially his second year, so I don't think he was

a regular on special team. Came all right, appreciate you guys, you on us. So back tomorrow we will break down the Minnesota defense versus the Cowboys offense. We're gonna have a little bit more on this Minnesota offense as well. We'll do that tomorrow Southern for Nick Keatman and Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Huelts 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.