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It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com.
We were right.
With Mbar Garcia, Brian brought us, Patrick Walker and Derek Eagleton.
It is Tuesday, September twenty sixth, twenty twenty three, Season nineteen, episode number thirty nine. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We are live from the SWBC Mortgage studios at the Star and it's Tuesday. So it's the data that we kind of make sense of all of the emotions that everyone has been feeling for the last twenty
four hours. Following the game, Cowboys get the first loss of the season, and I think this is where we started to get some perspective and start to realize maybe they aren't as bad as everybody thinks they might be yesterday when they were high off emotion.
But we'll see.
We'll get out of our normal crew here today.
We got Amber, Brian and Patrick ready to talk a little Cowboys football. Where I wanted to start it today though, is Mike McCarthy yesterday had a press conference. There were two quotes that he had that I want to throw out to you guys and just get your thoughts on them. The first one was with regard to play calling more running in the red zone laid in that game. His quote was, I wish I had been a little more aggressive in the passing game on first and second down.
Patrick, you were also there at the press conference.
Where are your thoughts on his reaction to the questioning around how he called the game there towards the end.
You know what love I love when anyone takes accountability because it shows that they're willing to look at what they might have done wrong and then improve, and that that should give everyone a lot of optimism as far as the Cowboys improving in that aspect, because obviously going to be much different than a head coach standing up there in front of the fire and squad and saying, no, you know what I got this.
We know he has been seeing to charge of the this year.
You notice every time he talks he refers us himself and taking accountability.
One hundred percent. So I love that he continues to take accountability. This is not something new for Mike McCarthy. He's been taking accountability, uh for a very long time now. I mean, look at Mike Nolan. He didn't last so took accountability for that.
Moved on to Dan Quinn.
But that wasn't a hard one.
No, it wasn't.
But he didn't that was one of his guys. He didn't have to put him to the acts.
He could have said several coaches that were his that he had to take accountability for.
Absolutely.
So, I mean the accountability aspect of it, I love it. It tells me that the Cowboys are looking inside themselves and we should now expect to see. Like Ambar said yesterday, where's the creativity that's been kind of hitting from the media and we've not seen it through the first three weeks. So maybe this is a strong hint Amber that he heard you and he's willing to start mixing some things in into the red zone.
Right.
You know, if you look at Dak Prescott's numbers, I see why he ran the football. You know, Dak, there's some struggles with Dak throwing the football in the red zone. There's also some struggles with his accuracy. There's also some struggles with the receivers and their inability to get open and to win on the outside. You know, if you're one of those guys or gals that believes in numbers, you know, three of eleven for thirty five yards in the red zone passing, you know that's not going to
get it done. And you know, maybe Mike is and we saw an interception there late. That's another thing you have to account for right there. You know, his offensive line. Maybe he thought he was a little bit compromised there. But to me, there's a lot of things that factor. I think the Arizona Cardinals played really well down there, but this is something that they're going to have to
figure out. And we've talked about it before that there's been problems at times with the blocking guys making mistakes, but sometimes you just get covered. But quarterbacks got to be better down there, Head coach, play callers got to be better down there. You know, the creativity part of it. I think there's things that they've tried to do. You know, when you say, you know the creativity of trying to run an option with Ceedee Lamb is nice when it works.
It's real nice when it doesn't. Work it. It's like, what are you doing that for? So there's a lot of things that they need to focus on to try and make sure that the issues that they've struggled with, the routes, the quarterback, the play caller all are cleaned up before they get into as we go through this season.
Yeah, and he did mention yesterday. I mean, they're very well aware of everything. And he did mention how they lead the league on drives and they're able to move the ball and the most important thing is getting down there. But more important than that is now exit cuting and
actually getting into the end zone. And it's good when you hear everybody talking about that, Steven Jones on the fan, everybody being well aware of where their issues are and then trying to focus and dedicate more time this week as far as preparation and trying to get better in that. We know they have the talent, they have weapons that they can utilize. Now it's actually applying it and making it work.
But it's good.
I love it when I hear people take accountability mention. It's not like Jalen Smith type of vibe, you know, it's more like you take it. So anyways, hopefully we see some progress this week, because again, one of the things that was mentioned when not Kellen Moore Mike McCarthy was taking over the play calling was how good of a play caller he is and how he can be creative. We're waiting to see that and hopefully it happens this weekend.
All right, Let's look at another quote that he had yesterday. He said, this was in regard to the vertical passing game. He said that might have been a slight overreaction by me based on having the three new starters up front. Brian, you had mentioned that earlier and yesterday you said, you know, I kind of think he kind of just was worried a little bit more about those those those offensive linemen. What were your thoughts on this comment.
The second sack that that they gave up, as they we talked about yesterday, was a double move on the outside and and Marco Wilson didn't bite and dak is either got to let that thing fly or he's you know, he's gotta, he's gotta. You know, it's one of those things you can't I mean, you can't hold the ball in that situation. You just let it go, throw it out of bounce, throw it over their heads, throw it too far. But you know it, we had a couple of problems there, and you had a problem with with
the DOGA. He was beaten on the on the play to the outside, and then also TJ was beaten on the inside. So Dak really didn't have a place to If he can climb the pocket, maybe he can make the throw. But on that particular thing, you know, by holding the ball, you're presenting yourself some problems there. And maybe McCarthy after that play said, listen, I can't throw the ball down the field. I can't even try a double move here, you know, with with with my guys,
because of the stuff with the offensive line. You know, those sometimes those things will scare you if you go into the game thinking you're going to have problems and then you give up a couple of sacks like that. The other sack was just, you know, just a nice read by Arizona. But you know, to me, that was that might have been the thing that kind of scared him a little bit of not wanting to try anything else down the field.
Yeah, it definitely made him gun shy. And even though like we talked about yesterday, after those couple of sacks and you had a couple of penalties to credit credit it to the offensive line, but for the most part, they kind of locked up and they took care of
business for the most part of the game. So I think at that point it would have been a part perfect chance for McCarthy to kind of settle down as far as his apprehension with that offensive line and say, hey, okay, let's try to give these guys another shot to protect on a seven step drop, a five step drop, and then let's see what we can do with the vertical game.
But then there's another aspect of it that I kind of wondered, and I know several people were wondering as well, well, why was Chuma not And we talked about it.
We touched on it yesterday.
Why was Chuma not at left guard and Tyler Smith not popped out the left tackle, which probably would have given you better pass pro and then you could have gotten those deep shots down the field. And Mike McCarthy was asked about it yesterday, and basically it came down to them being unsure about Tyron Smith going into that game because all last week Tyler Smith took reps at left guard.
That was the game plan.
That was the game plan, and McCarthy just was completely uncomfortable with on Sunday, an hour or so before kickoff, saying, you know what, Tyler, we're going to switch this whole game plan. You go up, because that might not have ended well, even though we know Tyler Smith has the ability to do it. But that's a different circumstance. So a lot of things that made McCarthy apprehensive about that offensive line. I mean, you're down three starters, that's seventeen
Pro Bowls, two Hall of Famers. I could see why he would be nervous, and to Brian's point, especially when you see sack number one and then sacked number two and then you start thinking, okay, we're going to have to adapt to shortening the field and trying to play a little bit more laterally than down the field. So a lot went into it. But again, accountability. He didn't have to say that, right, He didn't have to step
up there and say it's on me. I was a little bit overreacted, So kudos to him for doing it, for saying that. But hopefully this is not a situation that we will see going forward as far as the lack of verticality in the Cowboys offense and or the fact that they're missing two or three starting offensive line and hopefully could get them back.
Hold.
I don't want to be a doom and gloom guy on this, but with the way this offensive line is, with the age and a couple of guys, I think now and McCarthy the one thing that I that you talked about taking accountability for something, and I don't know if you're going to get to it, but the fact that he feels like he's got to get his backup
guys more work. You know, when they when they run a script at practice and they have eight plays committed to red zone and the starters get seven and the backups get one, you better now think about okay, instead of that, maybe it needs to be a three to five split. You know, maybe we need to know. And that's something he admitted that and I think there's a lot of people that can take a lesson from that. Coaches around the league that you know, you don't get
your backups enough work. But with this organization, the way this team is and the age you have at certain positions, you better get your backups work because this is that was the absolute worst thing that can happen to you. Of coming up on a Friday or a Saturday and
three guys being out. Now you knew Zach Martin didn't practice all week, be oddish, But this whole thing, as long as Tyron Smith is going to play left tackle, you have to be prepared that he might wake up with a back problem or a shoulder problem, or a knee problem or something pops up here. And so to me, I that's the accountability thing I appreciate the most about with him. I've got to do a better job of getting my backups ready so I have confidence that I could play with them on a Sunday.
Well, here's the thing for me, And that's the tough part of the job. It's a very difficult thing to do because it's easy for anyone to sit and watch and criticize all of it, and you can't win either way. On one hand, you got your guys here for a reason. You have backups for a reason. They're here because you think, at some point, if needed, they can play for you and help you. So on one hand, you got to go in trusting your team.
You got to go in believing that you.
Can absolutely do everything that you need to do and think that with every inch of your body, because otherwise, if you fight the other way, you're gonna most likely lose you if you got to get on the field, fight for your life. This is war and we're gonna die trying. But on the other hand, that's where it's tough. You gotta be self aware. Okay, yes, obviously I'm not saying let's go die on there.
No, there's some people that are cussing you right now. Go ahead.
Did I say something back?
No?
No, No, you're they were going to cuss anyway, do.
You Well, I hope I didn't say anything offensive, Okay, okay, because I'm not trying to be offensive, or I don't know if I missed, I'm sorry, okay. On the other hand, that's where it becomes difficult because you do have to be self aware too, and and be aware of the things that you can't cannot do. Be aware of you're in week three heading into week four. You got to
protect your quarterback. You gotta protect the other guys as well, and so it's just it's a tough balance because you want to criticize one way and some fine sometimes I find myself being like, well, you gotta keep trying. You got to go out there and fight. But at the same time, it's like, Okay, I can be understanding of the other side of it and seeing his perspective of how things played out.
So it's just it's a tough job.
You know something.
I actually, Brian, you and I were talking before we went on the air. I was able to furiously put together some numbers real quick on the breakdown of the yardage of passes that they've been throwing through three games and relate that back to last year, because I think that's the talk right now is are they taking less deep shots this year with this new offense than they did before? He was an interesting thing. I think it goes both ways. The interesting thing is they're not taking
less deep shots. Last year, they took on average two deep shots per game, and that would be twenty plus yards right This year they're averaging two point three of those per game, so actually taking just as many sea shots as he did last year. Then if you look at the ten to twenty yard right intermediate stuff that's where they were last year is about five point seven per game. This year they're taking five per game. So just to tad under what they were doing last year.
Here's where it gets interesting, though. It's the volume, it's the percentage. That's why it feels like they're not taking as many deep shots. It's because if you look at their their zero to nine yards, they did eleven point eight last year. This year they're doing sixteen point seven passes per game in that range, right, so a significant more significant game more passes in that zero to nine Here's the even bigger one behind the line of scrimmage.
Last year, they averaged three point three passes per game behind the line of scrimmage. This year eight point three per game behind the line of scrimmage. So it's not that they're not taking the deep shots. It's just they're doing so much more of that behind the line of scrimmage. So much more of game, yes, so much more of
that zero to nine yards. They're just doing more of that, and it makes it feel like they're not going deep, but they're taking the same number of shots as they took last year.
I think it goes I mean, like you said, a lot of it goes to just perception versus what the actual numbers bear out. So when you look the verticality, and we talked about it, and you know, you talk about this shot the CD LAMB that was successful.
I mean they're taking the shots.
I think it's just a matter of efficiency as far as production is concerned. How many of those deep shots are yielding, you know, actual completions. And then look at the situation because situational football, how many of those shots are in situations where it sways momentum one way or another in the game. And it feels over the first three games that they're down in those categories. As as you relate that to last season, what's.
Interesting you asked the right me throw it out there for you. Okay, so last year you love it, I love this next year.
Yeah.
Let me and Brian have been all over this thing.
But when you start looking at the twenty plus yard passes last year on the left and right side, they actually did really well. He had a one to forty three point seventy five rating on the right side. He had a one thirty two point two to one rating on the left side.
Not so good in the middle of the field.
They were only two of twelve in the middle of the field twenty plus yards with an eleven point eight to one rating.
Now here's what you if you want a.
Juxtae, that's where some of your turnovers well, exactly a solutionary that was a problem for them last year middle diddle the field right, but this year they have not taken a single shot in.
The deep middle at all, not at all. But even on the outside they haven't been as good. They're one of three on the left side twenty plus and they're two of four on the right side twenty plus, so haven't been as successful and they have no touchdowns.
But they're taking the shot.
They're taking the shots, but it hasn't been as successful for them this year. This might go back to your point, Brian, two of are the receivers in position? Are they getting enough separation? Is the quarterback getting the ball way needs to get it. It's not as effective as it was last year, but they're taking the shots.
It's just not hasn't been as successful.
I mean you answered the question.
I mean that that's basically where I was leading to it with was you know, yes they're taking the shots, but what's the percentage level of success? And you answered it magnificently. Shout out to nixt Gen stats because they're all over this stuff. Let me in, by the way, But yeah, I mean, so that's that's what Cowboys, fans and analysts are seen and or not seen. So the shots are there, but the plays are not being made
when the shots are being taken. But then you also have to mix in the aspect of when you have the head coach who readily admits that he didn't give his backups enough reps in practice last week and he said, you know what, you brought up preparation yesterday. You wondered if they were prepared. Well, Mike McCarthy still on that podium yesterday and basically admitted that his backups were not as prepared as he would have liked.
And he owned that. So that answers that question.
So when you start to hear things like that, hopefully if there's a situation where the backups need to play again Mike McCarthy is less apprehensive, they will, right and then okay, and then when the shots are being taken, hopefully those turned into catches as opposed to pass breakups or sale throws or whatever the case may be. So it goes to execution, it goes to preparation. You can't have both of those things going wrong at the same time.
All right, we're going to take our first break. We come back, I'm and ask these guys this question. There were three areas that we talked about yesterday with the Cowboys had some challenges run defense, penal, these red zone offense. I'm gonna ask you, guys, which do you think at the larger impact on the game and which do you think is going to have the potential to be a problem going forward that the Cowboys need to address more
readily than the others. We'll talk about that when we come back to the Stoubts Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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It is the second segment of the Break with Life from the SWBBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. The segment is presented to you by blockchain dot Com. All right, here's the question for you guys. Three areas we talked about yesterday that were problems for the Cowboys on Sunday, I'm gonna ask you, guys, which area was the area that had the largest impact on the game? Run defense, penalties or red zone offense.
You know what I'm gonna go with. Yesterday I said my biggest takeaway with was the run defense. So today and that I'm going to pivot to the penalties. I'm going to go with penalties because I think both of them are like one A, one B. And I talked on the run defense yesterday, so let me talk about the penalties today. Thirteen and forced penalties one hundred and seven yards. But even bigger than that, you look at
the context of when these penalties were happening. I brought up Doga's holy penalty that force third and thirteen and Ferguson got ten of that back, but then they failed to convert on fourth and three. You talk about Devin Harper's penalty that negated a fifty one yard return from Cavante Turpin on the punt that came after the defense
it's forced a fourth and thirteen. So it was also the untimeliness of those and it just when you then combine that with the run defense allowing these chunk plays, the Cowboys just became more and more frustrated, more and more demoralized. And then before you knew what, the train was just off the rails in Arizona, and really there was not much that the Cowboys could do. It felt like they could climb back into the game. But then guess what, every time they tried to climb back into
the game, there was another penalty. Then there was another penalty. Good play, solid play, intermediate play, penalty bring them back ten yards. So as demoralizing as the rushing attack became for the Cardinals against the Dallas Cowboys, I think the penalties are equally if not slightly more worrisome, but that can be cleaned up. That can be cleaned up, and
so can the run defense. So I think, and I know Ambar will agree with this, the red zone is what is going to continue to be the concern until it's no longer concern. I don't like what happened with the run defense, but you showed me twy against some really good backs that you can stop that. The penalties, you only had six penalty five penalties in a week on I think six penalties in week two. You kind of got a cap on that red zone efficiency. Though, where's it at? Where is it at?
Yeah?
You get answer today.
I mean, hey, you know, man asked you one, yeah, and I gave them three.
So you do that sometimes too, Bryan, when I don't know, but you do it sometimes, all right.
Self awareness is self aware.
But it's a tough it's a tough question to answer.
I gave them three.
Let me hear your answer.
Ryan, go ahead if you want to answer it.
Well, not jumped in there.
I was going to say to me, it's it's more the red zone because you go back and it's kind of similar to what Patrick said. You go back to what you've seen in the first two weeks. Defensively, it's not a reoccurring theme, like it hasn't become a theme for the cob was although we've pointed out how the run defense is their weakest point area of attack, but it's not something that you've been extremely concerned about as opposed to the red zone offense. That's something that we've
seen since week one. We saw it even now. Remind me of my timeline was this last year when it was happening.
Before the Hanking straight If you're talking about you're talking about red zone A, you're talking about red zone. No, that was it two years ago, two years ago, two years ago.
Again, my timeline after COVID is gone. I always forget what year we're at, but we've seen it before under Mike McCarthy and them having struggles in the red zone, then being effectively able to move the ball. But then when they get down there, they get stuck. And you can't always count on your defense to be the one to score points for you. You got to be as an offense. You got to be able to to score more than just a field goal. So to me, that's kind of the area where my focus would be one
hundred percent. But again that's a that's something tough to answer because you absolutely need both. And if your defense is playing like that again, then I think your whole season completely changes to what we were expecting from what was becoming a really, really great defense.
They cleaned up the run game in the second half. All the rushing yards were in the first half of the game. They were able to kind of sit on the sidelines getting the halftime, and they kind of figured some things out better fits, you know, maybe a little bit you know, they were getting after they were winning the line of scrimmage a little bit better. Guys were in position. It's a red zone offense. Keep going down there and having opportunities to kick a bunch of field
goals here. The last couple of weeks, you know, we've talked about particular players missing blocks, bad play calling at times, not putting your team in the best position to execute. You're not doing a very good job or running routes down there. Quarterbacks not able to throw the ball very well down there. You better clean that thing up. You
know you can't. You're you know, as great as your field goal kicker has been, you know, you're gonna beat a lot of these situations where you need to You're going to need to find a way to make this work. You're going to need seven, not three. In some of these games that hurt them the other day. They could have won that game the other day if they just convert in the red zone. They played good enough of David.
Watch film, we would you point out to.
Be like, they have a lot of change that they need to make.
They really do miss somebody that has the ability to find space down there right now. They're their guys are not fine in the space. And that's where we go back to Dalton Schultz and I'm not you know, when you throw Zeke, Zeke is the one guy that is always going to fall forward for a yard, you know, but you had a touchdown last week or two weeks against the Jets six yard run. Pollard gets it in
holding on the back side. Can't have that, can't have that, can't miss blocks, can't throw an interception down there, you know, and the middle of the field like that, can't miss on a fade down there, can't call a play where you don't block two guys. There's a lot of things going on with this, you know, you correct that you've got the type of offense to and you know, with McCarthy, the way they're driving the ball. I appreciate that, I really do. He's trying to help his defense, he's trying
to keep his quarterback from turning over the ball. I appreciate what he's trying to do there. But you better find a way to kind of clean up all the things. It's just not one thing. There's like two three things a game that keeps them from scoring points that they need.
Do you think that in any way the big sixty nine yard are that to me was the death nail for the Cowboys?
Yeah?
Do you think that that.
Was in any way a result of some of the changes they made, or some of the attention that they were paying to the run to stopping the run game that maybe forced them into some mistakes in the passing game.
I think that was one of those things. And I don't know. You know they talked about dan Quinn talked about yesterday me if I'm wrong, because you were there. Dan Quinn talked about how well Hooker played. So I'm thinking, okay, in that big sixty nine yard old Hooker, Hooker or
Lewis Lewis is going to pass. Everybody else looks like they're playing man coverage, and Hooker's focused on the outside, like they're going to Okay, we're not gonna let one of these outside receivers be so maybe they're focused on that.
I don't know.
Lewis, he passes this guy, he drops like he's playing zone and now the guy's Wilson's passed him and now he's into the secondary. Somebody right there with everybody else playing man, something happened between Hooker and Lewis right there that caused that that was a flat bust and they set it up though Arizona set it up because they
went max protection. They kept everybody in. They're like, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna line to sing up and maybe they'll lose our guy across the field and we're going to take a deep shot here, and they hit it. They hit it, and they I think a lot of it had to do with and I don't know if it's it's or if it's hook her, but somebody lost the responsibility of those two guys in the way that thing was playing, especially with everybody playing man elsewhere.
I was with you.
I was confused because I saw everybody else playing man, and I was like, why is he passing him off if everybody else is playing Man? And again, there can be some coverages that are mixed coverages.
Like there's some mixed coverages.
That's yeah, that definitely confused me a little bit as well.
I didn't know who was at fault on that one, and I don't know that anybody will ever necessarily say who was in fault on that particular play. All right here' we're gonna do We're gonna take our final break when to come back. We got a little lap coat with no c will do that when we come BA Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Slash Fan of the US Welcome back.
Final segment of the Break Life ins WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, no Ce, lab Coat, what you got.
Bring me in? Beamer?
Yes, science all right.
So great that we're talking about verticality.
Which I had one of those I love you Beamer jealous.
Great that we're talking about verticality. After seeing what happened against the card News and just the totality of the first three weeks, it prompted me to think about explosiveness, and then, of course, how explosive are the Cowboys as compared to recent cowboys?
Right?
So I used a couple of qualifiers. One, I took the thirty most explosive plays through the first three weeks of twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one. I omitted twenty twenty because it was just a weird year, pandemic.
CBA, it's weird.
It was McCarthy's first year from Grace there, So twenty nineteen, twenty twenty one, those are these seasons. I'm using thirty most explosive plays through the first three weeks as compared to the thirty most explosive plays of this particular season. I also wanted to do McCarthy versus McCarthy, but also McCarthy versus Garrett and Kellen.
More So, that's a qualifier as well.
And also the good thing about twenty nineteen and twenty twenty one when you compare it to twenty twenty three is there's mostly similar personnel, right, so you have at least some form of the triplets. I know it was Randall Cobb in twenty nineteen City Lamb and twenty one, but you at least have a similar personnel.
So here we go.
The two numbers forty and five ladies and gentlemen forty and five. Forty is very bad. In twenty nineteen, the Cowboys were nearly forty percent more explosive than they are through the first three weeks in twenty twenty three. That's kind of a disturbance trend that shows that between those two seasons cowboys are in fact less explosive on big plays. Twenty twenty one, they're only five percent more explosive than they are in twenty twenty three through the first three weeks.
With DAK and this personnel set, that's actually not that bad because that goes back to what you were saying about nixt gen perception versus what the numbers bear out.
But then that caused me to dig a little bit deeper into twenty twenty one to say, okay, well, considering it's the same coaching staff in twenty one as twenty three with Mike McCarthy, how Mike McCarthy fair after that first three weeks of trying to figure out some things on the offense, well, twenty five percent jump in explosive explosiveness from week one through week three versus week four through week seven, a twenty five percent jump in explosiveness.
They went on a four game win streak because they became the most explosive team in the NFL weeks four through week seven. A couple of years ago after having a similar start in lack of explosive explosiveness over the first three weeks, So forty and five of the numbers forty as compared to twenty nineteen, they're just not as explosive as they were in twenty nineteen through the first three weeks, but they're not far off where they were
in twenty nineteen. On twenty twenty one, I'm sorry. And if that trend continues in Mike McCarthy, who didn't suffer a two game losing streak last season, Also, if he bounces back and this offense can get going like I think they might. We might be in for a show over these next several weeks.
That'll be interesting.
I do wonder how much games, particular games, factor into something like that. And what I mean by that is, let's say, for example, we know this year week one, the passing game was hampered by the conditions. Yes, yes, I wonder how much when you start looking at that and you're saying.
Maybe the scoreboards two.
Yeah, right, you start looking at three games, are you are you factoring in those kinds of things that may even make this this year seem a lot less explosive because of the fact that there was one game in those three that just didn't have the same There wasn't a potential to be as explosive.
You try to make it as apples to apples as possible, and obviously it's not always going to be. I looked at grass versus grass, turf versus turf, out outdoors versus a dome, and then you look at twenty twenty one, which would be the more apples to apples. They were on the road at Tampa Bay, they were on the road in New York, right, they were on the road in Los Angeles, but see, so those competitors Buccaneers, Chargers,
and then the Eagles in week three. You finish week three and you're sitting at a two and one record. You just finished week three and you're sitting at a two and one record, and your rate of explosiveness is almost equal to what it was then. So all things considered, as much as you can make it apples to apples, there's optimism for the Cowboys, particularly as early as this week,
coming against the Patriots. You asked, well, yesterday, I believe how long will it take for us to know what this Cowboys offense looks like.
I know you're asking about the rushing attack.
And everything, and we talked about maybe by week five, by the time you get to San Francisco, you'll know what you're dealing with. These numbers kind of bear that out. It's like you give them the first three to four weeks to kind of figure things out, particularly with Mike McCarthy, Dak Prescott and having the weaponry now that's similar to what they had in twenty twenty one, and kind of most signs point to them snapping out of it.
Probably as early as this week.
You guys have been NFL observers for years. I never recall I don't recall ever there ever being a time when Mike McCarthy was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers a criticism that that offense wasn't explosed. No, And that's why I kind of wonder where the thought comes that his offense, just as an offense as a scheme, is not exploded, like they don't build in opportunities for explosive plays. Because I don't think that that was the offense in Green Bay. And maybe you could make the
argument it was a different quarterback. Obviously there was a very different quarterback. We're talking about a Hall of Famer. But I just I don't know that I buy into the fact that the offense itself doesn't lend itself to big those kinds of explosive plays as much as I said with those other numbers before that. Maybe it's just that the base of the offense is we're dinking and dunking you. But there's gonna be some shots that are
gonna be taken. But we're going to dink and dunkey down the field.
Yeah, man, those little Green Bay teams. I think about the Donald Drivers and the Adams and Jordy Nelson. It always seemed like those dudes were on the move, catching passes and then finishing, you know, and they get down in the red zone and they really weren't having red zone problems. They'd hand into a back or they throw that red zone screen saw the other which I thought
was a great call in that football game. But to me, with the Packers, I just always felt like that quarterback was going to be just so accurate and if there was a little you know if and the way that the routes were run and the separation that they were able to find. You know, there were things that we saw in this team and and things that were different with the bunch formations, the scattering, the picks and stuff.
You know. The even hell, they tried to run a pick on the damn goal line to get Cooks across. It just didn't work to get him open. But you know, that seemed like to what was always with Mike McCarthy's offense when you're watching those old Green Bay days, that it was that it's just you know, Rogers back ball, downfield, Rogers back ball, you know, ball underneath. Now they're going to run after catch and all that I'm I was hopeful of some of that. I think there's still some
of that, the ability to do that. You know, this this season was going to be about Dhak's ability to be accurate, to throw the receivers on the move. That's what the West Coast offense is. It's just it's about hitting guys. It's the timing, but it's about hitting guys on the move and letting those guys take well. Much like the past that Gallup caught, catches a slant and he takes in another fifteen yards. You know, that's where that's where this offense is. That's what they'd like to
do out here within. You know, hopefully you'll see more of that going forward. But it seemed like just those Green Bay games, they were so exploded, just down, down after down. That quarterback was just punishing you, and those receivers were punishing you with the way that they caught the ball and the way they were able to finish on those plays.
I think that the question you post is kind of a trap because however you put it, everything you say it kind of leads. It's going to lead you back to the quarterback and having that quarterback conversation and criticism and you know, fans criticizing and questioning, is Dak the right guy? Which those questions are starting to pop back up, and.
They always will, Yeah, always are, They always are.
But I.
Feel like the first two weeks it's not what you see.
Most of the things you saw was like defense, defense, you know, everybody cheering for the defense. But now after week three we hear those things again. Do you have the right type of quarterback leading the team? And people posing that question and this is the guy you got. I personally, there are things that I would like to see more of Dak doing. One is incorporating his ability to run his feet, move, get on the move, because he has the body, the physique, and the condition to
be able to do that. And two, can he be the guy that in critical situations towards the end of the game be able to finish. Can he be the guy that can finish? And we've seen him comebacks and make comebacks really really good, and he turns it on in the second half of the game, fourth quarter when it's tied and they're fighting back, but it tends to not be enough because it's a little too late for
the game and how it ends. But when you start, there's no comparison to be made with a guy like Dak and Aaron Rodgers.
Yeah, I think you make some excellent points. And the thing that that I think the criticism of Dak is if you're down three linemen and you're you know, you're does he have the ability to be the difference maker in a game? Does he have that ability to carry an offense when there's they're not at their absolute best? You know, the defense For the last couple of weeks,
Dak hasn't had to play great. I mean, he's played fine, he has absolutely played fine, But you know, now you're in a situation and it goes to the thing that does Dak have to absolutely have and he hasn't had the same five offensive linemen you know who They've talked about what two thousand snaps or something like that. We keep yeah, we keep, yeah, we keep talking about this. But does Dak Prescott have to have a upper echelon offensive line in order to have success? That's the questions
that people ask. Can he have the ability? Is he talented enough to carry this team when things aren't absolutely perfect?
This is where I look at it and I'm like, I don't.
I think the conversation sometimes with Dak is a conversation that you can have about most quarterbacks in the league.
And quite frankly, let's look at the.
Top three teams in the NFC, right, you got Brock Purdy over in San Francisco, You've got Jalen Hurts out in Philly, and you got Dak Prescott here.
I think, quite.
Frankly, all three of them have had the same first three weeks of the season. The games that they have won have been because they've played excellent defense and they've run the ball really well. I don't think either one of those three quarterbacks have had played their best football in these first three weeks of the season. But the conversation with Dak always turns to, well, Dak is the problem, and I think I think a lot of things going on with this. I think the offensive line this last
game was compromised. I think you're talking about a team that really is a team that's driven by its defense. This year, the defense is going to be the strongest part of this team. So we'll get comfortable with that. That's okay. It doesn't mean Dak's any lesser. It just means the defense is where your strength is. So I just I think the conversation is just a little bit.
I think it's a little bit unfair because I think at the end of the day, Dak is doing with a lot of quarter like offenses are not where defenses are at this point in the season. What you expect is that by the time you get to week five, week six, the offenses are going to start to come around, and Dak should have this offense.
Fall unless you're Miami right now, right Miami's fear Okay, but let me ask you this though, in the expectations, Dak Prescott with a handicapped roster should have beaten the Arizona Cardinals, right, I'm not asking to beat the San Francisco forty nine ers of the Miami Dolphins, or the
Buffalo Bills or the Philadelphia Eagles for that regard. I mean, I'm just saying though, that's why people question because it's okay, I get it, but you you know, are you the difference maker when your team's down but you're playing in fear competition? That's that That's where I think people are looking at and saying, well, he's you know, gosh, he's
got to beat these guys, right, I'm not. I don't think people are asking him to win the game by himself against San Francisco or or any other the top teams in the league.
I think we need to make sure that everyone's applying blame where it needs to be applied.
It's not blame, it's questions. It's questions about it's questions about where your team is and where your team is trying to go. But it may not be blamed for you as much as it's wow, yeah, Kickary.
It may not be blamed for you as much as it's blamed from Cowboys fans. So it's addressing the point about Cowboys fans are going to circle back to blaming Dak Prescott. And for my money, number one, that throw in coverage, that was the interception. You can't make that throw.
You just don't make that throw on accountable today. It's also true, as McCarthy said yesterday, he himself was he overreacted to the fact that he was missing sury offensive lineman and then so he took some verticality out of the playbook against the Cardinals. And if you are the play call, you're taking the vertical game out of the playbook. Then you're not asking your quarterback Dak to throw the ball deeply as often as he probably would have. So
there's the accountability for Mike McCarthy as well. So those two individuals have to share that accountability and they do. But the question for me, if the question is can Dak Prescott carry the team? Well, this is a guy with nineteen game winning drives in his career. He had two just last season. One was a ninety eight yard drive against the Texans. I don't know the Texans, but that was a dog fight with the Texans.
But it's hard to win.
But why did that ninety eight drive happen? That ninety eight yard drive happened because he got better protection. Jason Peters came into the game after the Terrence Steel injury. Peters came in and helped save the day at that edge. And with that added time, what did Dak Prescott do? He marched down the field ninety eight yards and won
the game. So, while there is accountability to be had when you're talking about Dak Prescott and whatever interception or interceptions are accountable to him, put him right in his lap and he will only put it in this lap before the added accountability of maybe you take verticality out of it, Well, that's Mike McCarthy, that's on your play call it the protection issues.
Three starters are out.
Three starters, So no matter what how you slice that, three starters are out, and then your backups are young guys going against a veteran front. Even without Carlos Watkins going against a veteran front. Brian did a magnificent job of breaking down that Cardinals front last week. So yeah, you're gonna have apprehension and they're going to have good moments, but they're going to have some bad moments, and then how does that play into.
Whatever the play call might be at any given point time.
That's the only problem I have with sweeping judgments against anyone, not just Dak, not just McCarthy, not Sidney's and Lamb or Michael Gallup. When people are like, oh my, Michael Gallup, throw them away, trade them, Stop making sweeping judgments and actually do the work. Like Brian said, dive into the film, dive into the numbers, look for the tricks, try to.
Figure out what the that stems from a little bit, and I totally agree with you, and that is split into everybody, because there are so many factors happening all at once that you can't just put blame on one individuals. But I think that where that conversation from fans and people that watch stems from is looking at year after year, the things that you've changed around the offense, the team, the talent, the organization, coaches. The one remaining factor that
has remained constant is the quarterback. So I think that's where the crisis and from fans comes from.
It's like, and I absolutely agree.
I don't think it's fair sometimes and Dak will stand up in there and call it how it is, and I love that about him. I don't think it's fair. I think he is a very talented quarterback. But I think that's where, after you see so many changes around him and the team investing in him and trying to find him and give him the right weapons to make his type of game work, I think that's where the conversation leads back to is the right quarterback to lead this team to victory?
Well?
But I think that's that's also where you get into this is not a situation, as Parcels used to say, where they're just growing the growing quarterbacks on trees out there picking new one.
Right.
It's one of those things where I think, is Dak Prescott you know Aaron Rodgers.
No, I don't think he's Aaron Rodgers.
But I also think Dak Prescott is good enough to win a championship.
I really believe that. Now, does that mean you got to have the right piece around him? Yes, I think so.
And going back to your press your question right, and going back to your question Brian when you talk about, like, you know what, should he have been able to beat a Carazona and Arizona team, Yes, with his offensive line compromise.
He should have been able to.
But he should have been able to depending on the fact that his defense would have played the kind of game that they should have played, not failed him in the way that they did.
His defense was.
A big part of the reason why they lost that game as well. And if I go back to the original point I was making about Brock Purty and about Jalen Hurts, they have not had a game this season where their defenses didn't show up. Those two defenses have played outstanding football all three weeks season, and they've had some games where they haven't been as close. But because of the fact their defenses have played consistently over three
weeks is the reason why they're three and oh. So I don't think there's any difference necessarily in Dak and those other two quarterbacks other than the fact that it's gonna come down in the NFC. It's gonna come down to which defense can consistently play the best, because I don't think any of those quarterbacks are necessarily what we've
seen so far that they're transcending quarterbacks. They're gonna need things around them, They're gonna make some plays here and there, but ultimately the defenses are the strongest parts of all three of those teams.
And I just think the Cowboys defense.
Didn't play a great game against Arizona, and that was the main reason, in my opinion, why they didn't win.
Sunday was a bad sandwich of you give up over one hundred and forty yards on the ground in the first half in the same game that the head coach admitted lead scale back the verticality and you're behind on the score boards. So you need those big plays to try to make up the ground, especially when your defense is allowing the opposing offense to have their way on the ground. Those two things combined and you start spiraling, and that's what happened on Sunday.
All right, I appreciate you guys, John Us will be back on tomorrow. Start getting into the next opponent. We gotta Bill now, yeah, we gotta be Bill Belichick. No right, So then for Patrick Walker, Brian brought us Amberg City. I am Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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