Cowboys Break: Fixing This Defense

of The Break. We live from Oxnard, California. It is day eleven of training Camp twenty twenty one, presented by American Airlines. Got David Nick with me and we got forty five minutes of Cowboys Talk here with you guys today. The schedule for the day, we got the show here at nine. At ten am, we've got coach McCarthy. He will have his daily presser, and at eleven o'clock the team will take the fill for their practice for today it will be I guess the next The next practice

it will have will be on Tuesday. And this is the week that starts to get a little bit wonky because games start this week. Cowboys will be traveling to Canton, Ohio to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Hall of Fame Game, and don't expect to see a lot of starters. I don't think for either team in my opinion, But we'll see how it goes. It'll be good for some of those younger guys, second third team guys to

get in there. We'll talk a little bit more about that on our Tuesday show by some of the things you guys may be looking for. But seven practices are done, You've got six more to go, and let's start first by giving an injury update, Dave, why don't you tell me, looking at this team, what are some of the injuries we got? Tyren Smith, Jordan Lewis, Kelvin Joseph, tell me where they are. Some came back to practice, some are

still not practicing fully. Where are we? Yeah, It's it's tricky because at this time of the year, at this point at camp, like guys are sitting out for all kinds of reasons, some not most really not necessarily serious. You know, Tyron has been out quote unquote for two days with elbow tendonitis, but he was out there in full pads and did the compete period reps and did some individual stuff, so you know, has he heard or is he Tyrn Smith and they just don't want to

overwork him. The same thing goes for Zach Martin. You know, somebody on the fence line yesterday was like, Dave, Dave, what's what's wrong with Zach? He's missed two days? Is he okay? And I was like, he's getting in the huddle right now, He's fine. Um, I didn't know you were giving people personal injury reports. Yes, absolutely, no, Come find me in Oxnard and I'll let you know. Um, Jordan Lewis mixed back in yesterday, Kelvin Joseph mixed back

in yesterday. I haven't seen Bradley and I return. Um, I forgetting anybody big, Nick, that's that's well, I mean, and I for sure, I mean that's no. Josh Ball did leave practice. McCarthy will probably update that today. But like, I don't get the impression that it's something crazy severe, And that really goes for almost all of these. Like somebody like Bradley and I needs to get on the field because he needs to be making an impression and

be available for preseason games. But buying large, these are all just more knocks and bumps than serious injuries. All right, let's let's get some of our observations. Rolling Nick, give me an observation from yesterday's practice. Well, I mean, I thought that the quarterbacks responded a little bit better yesterday. I thought, I thought, you know, from now now we kind of get an idea. Okay, you know that's that's not throwing for a couple of days, and who knows

how far that extends into. But I thought Garret Gilbert settled down a little bit. I thought Cooper Rush had his best practice, if you will. I mean, I think he's kind of the forgotten guy in this whole roadation, but you know he's he's actually been a backup to Dak Prescott for a few years and it kind of understands their quarterback room and a relationship with him. So I you know, I thought that all the quarterbacks responded

and had a better day. They did, But that's the fun thing about training camp is you don't the play doesn't end when you get sacked, you know. And I thought I thought the defensive line was impressive yesterday. You know, Tyron Smith didn't do a ton. Zach Martin was mixing in and out didn't do a ton. Connor McGovern's getting reps. Connor Williams is playing center and guard Tyler Beotis is running with the ones but also letting Connor Williams do it.

And I thought, you know, Randy Gregory was teeing off on people, Dorian's Armstrong was teeing off on people. Ohso, Diggi Zooa had a couple really impressive reps, as did Quentin Bohanna. I believe like it just seemed like they were getting to the quarterback and the quarterbacks were they were making really like Cooper Rush made an amazing throw yesterday, But how many of those rep up came after they

would have been sacked in a live situation. And that's the thing, you know with Gilbert Cooper rush them and then they they're not the most agile quarterbacks. Dak obviously is and it's very strong. One thing I hate it really annoys me is when defensive players, especially on the pass rush, get off the line and whatever it touched the quarterbacks waste and then they're like, well we've seen guys for years. I mean, I've seen If that's the case,

then d law would have thirty six. I mean like they in a season embodies are Ecuba and I mean be in the Ring of Honor for sure, But like that doesn't have it, doesn't you know? They move up in the and so I get it. For defensive guy, it's like, well, what do you want me to do? You mean, I mean you mean hit the guy in this red jersey. I love that. So there's this fine line. But a lot of time we see these defensive guys are like sack it would have made the player. That's

a good point. I mean, corner comes up to ze because like I got you, you know, he probably would have trucked you getting there. Getting there doesn't mean that you necessarily want the rep. But they were getting there. They were getting there. It stops the drill, or at least it halts the drill a little bit. And we have also talked about the fact that precious can be just as important as sacks in a lot of instances,

and so that would be in that instance. Pressure. Talk to me a little bit about the offensive line, because Dave you mentioned you mentioned that you know, you got all these guys on the offensive line that are kind of moving in and out, some getting reps with certain teams and that kind of thing. One thing we've heard from coaches over as long as I've been covering the Cowboys is you know, you kind of want to find that continuity with your offensive line, and you want those

guys to work together that first unit. You want them to work together as much as possible to create that continuity. But what we're seeing in this camp flies in the face of that a bit because they're moving guys around, They're trying to get a little help, and I think there's some value in that and seeing like can this guy play at this position with the ones or whatever?

Talk to me about how you how you rectify that in your mind of continuity versus trying to give guys opportunities to see what they can do with in different positions. I asked McCarthy that the other day, and I don't he didn't. I don't. I didn't feel like he gave me a very good answer because I don't even remember what he said, so it couldn't have been that memorable. But I'm I'm with you, like and you you want to be trying as many combinations and seeing what works

and who can play and who can't. But like it's important to have you know, offense and defense, Like they didn't play together all at most unless which I wonder if maybe they're scarred by what happened last year, Like let's get as many guys as reps as possible in case this happens again. But um, I agree, I agree, Like you know, continuity is important. Knowing the tendencies and the you know, the particulars of the guy next to you is important. Um. And they've been mixing and matching

a lot, even by training camp standards this year. But I will see, you know, it's still you know, I guess we're into the second week now, but like they haven't played a preseason game. I feel like the first ten to twelve days of training camp is you know, I mean, they's actually they're not done installing, Like today's the final install and I feel like you'll probably the further and further we go, especially like when we get

back to Frisco. That's when you kind of settle in and you're like, all right, these are the guys that we're counting on. Whereas right now, I think you got a little more freedom to experiment. That's there every position right now, you could see there. I don't think there is a position on the field where you don't see guys working with the first team that are probably going

to be on the first team. They've got things all over the place at every position, right, Yeah, And that's a good thing to do because I mean that's what happens in the season, like like we saw last year, and so, you know, offensive line, I think it's the one group where you do want that continuity. Other than that, I think, you know, Gifford has to go in there and play and play next to late vander esh or play next to Jaylen. I mean, d line, I'm the

same thing. You never know what happens, and that's a great way to evaluate a young corner Reggie Robinson or somebody all of a sudden is running with some ones. It's like he doesn't look that much different than the other guys, or he looks way different, you know. Yeah, I mean it's most important on the offensive line, but I will think you want guys who know each other working. You know, you want your safety to kind of know

his cornerback. You know, defensive lineman like knowing how to run twists and stunts and all of the fun games that they do and kind of feeling each other out. I think that's important. Which if they're still if they're still rotating this much when we get back to Frisco, I think that'll be weird. And I would even say

I would be alarmed by that. But out here, whatever, unless they plan to get into the season and that's how they're going to play, they're gonna constantly be rotating guys, which again will be a different thing than we've seen. You've seen that in some positions, but not at all positions. If that's their planning, then you know, because I do get the impression at linebacker we might see that. We might see a lot of shuffling of guys in and out.

And you know, my line all you know, three to play two at linebacker, But like this defense feels like it's gonna be fifteen to play eleven. You know, like there's gonna be yeah, And defense doesn't bother me as much, but like the offensive line in particular, you know, and I get it, Connor Williams needs reps if he's going to be the second stringth center. Spect Joe Looney is a New York Giant. Now, I guess we should bring that up. So we've been sitting here in we were joking.

Kellen Moore like two days ago said Joe's not with us right now, and we were like, are you saying now? It might be all right now? So I guess that's not going to happen. So I get it. Guys need the reps, but but I would like to see a little more continuity as we get closer to the real stuff. All right, So talking about the quarterbacks, I want you guys to based upon what you've seen so far. Obviously

we know Dak is the starter. Put him in order of the way you think they should be, not the way they are right now or the way you think. Coaches you then, based on what you've seen, how would you order though that second through fourth quarterback Nick Gilbert, Rush Denucci. That doesn't mean those are year three yep, Because if I think to keep on the I think Gilbert would be your number two. I think you cut the other two and I think the Nucci's the one I keep on the Yeah, I think I agree with

I don't think I'm sorry to cold drop it. I just don't think that you know, if you had to play in a game, I would play Rush over Nucci. I think I agree with that, although like Rush looked good yesterday, but has he looked good any other days? Yeah, I think it might be a little bit of recency bias. Was it also because maybe he's getting more reps now and he's working in Yeah for sure. And he had back tightness so he missed two days of practice. That

might be why. But and like de Nucci doesn't look terrible, but it can be spotty. I mean for a lot of reasons, Like the play breaks down a lot when he's in there. There's some accuracy issues. He has trouble getting it over the defensive line sometimes if he is in the pocket. Um, so it's it's not awful, but I just it's very spotty. He's a scout team type of quarterback though, Yeah, that's why. I mean, he know, he's got a you know, I'm not saying he'll be hey,

you're playing Arizona, you're Kyler Murray. I'm not saying he could do that, but there's not many on the team that can. But he gives you a little bit more of a mobility type guy. And I think it's easy for me to imagine Danucci being on the practice squad, Whereas I think if if Cooper gets cut at the end of this camp, I think that's probably it for his career, for his career here at least, I don't.

I mean, he's been in the league since twenty seventeen, played like he's been in He's gotten into like two games, both of which were like well over with by the time he got in there. And the you know, his Jason Garrett, his coach who brought him in as an undrafted free agent and loves him, let him go from New York. Yeah, so I'm you know, I don't know, maybe not, but it's easier for me to imagine Jannucci

being here than Cooper Rush. You know, when that waiver wire hit the first time that that, you know, a bunch of quarterbacks hit the waiver wire, it'll I mean, all of them are going to be evaluated against them, Garrett, Gilbert included. And the biggest thing there is just availability to learn the offense and play like, you know, do

you want to get this guy? Is he better than Gilbert? Yeah, he might be, but he doesn't know this offense right now, and so I don't, you know, it'll be interesting to see what that happened that they've tried, They've tried to find guys they haven't yet. Lake Bortles would be here if anybody gave a damn about my opinion, but they don't. Over the last few days, have you seen anything since

he's been running with the ones? Have you seen anything from Garrett Gilbert that gives you more confidence than you had maybe before camp begin that he let's assume that Dak is down for four games, that he could at least get you to a five hundred record in that time. That that Dack's out. I think my opinion of him is exactly the same, Yeah, which is like I don't feel great about it, but I don't feel awful, Like

he doesn't gonna look lost out there. It's it's easy to forget because he's only started one NFL game, which was last year. We've been playing horrible in that game. No, No, he didn't know. But he's been playing pro football for a long time. I mean he left, he got out of college and like he was twenty he was on the Patriots Super Bowl team that beat the Seahawks. That's

how long he's been playing pro football. And he was the he was like the MVP of the Alliance of American Football for however many weeks that lasted, Like he was great in that league and so, and he was Baker Mayfield's backup for a year, so he's he shouldn't be lost out there, and he definitely isn't, especially having had a year to get acclimated and understand the offense. So you know, he's not dicing the defense up by any means. But he doesn't look awful. So I feel

the same. Yeah, I saw him yesterday in practice. There was a couple of throws I saw him make. I was like, oh wow. And then there was one play where I think it was Cedric Wilson was in the end zone and by himself and he just completely overthrew him. Oh. And those are the moments where just like, yeah, You're like, I want to give him the benefit. I want to say he's like, he'll be fine. And then you have those moments where you like, can't miss that kind of thrown. Right.

He had a gay a game winner in the two minute, like last play of the game. They're down by six. He hits Cedric on a post for the game winning score, and I was all I was impressed. And kind of juiced up. And then I went back and looked at my phone video and Cedric was matched up on Micah Parsons, which, like, I mean, that's the defense's fault, but kind of a pita. It's been okay, he's been okay, but yeah, I mean, which, Hey, they got him into a bad matchup. Good for them,

but it was kind of less impressive. When I realized, I was like, oh, yeah, well you should be able to find him if he's going against a linebacker. All right, we're gonna take our first break. When we come back, I'm gonna talk defense. We're gonna focus in on the defense. I went and identified four areas of defensive play that I think are most representative of good defenses. Those that do well in these categories tend to be good defenses

and tend to be on good teams. And we're gonna talk about those and talk about where the Cowboys rank in those areas and where we think the Cowboys may be able to get better in some of these areas, or if they can get better in some of these areas heading into the twenty twenty one season. We'll be right back. This is Dallas Cowboys Dot com radio before

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more Cowboys gear than anyone in the game. Becausit your local Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop or online at shop Dallas Cowboys dot com. Welcome back. It is the second segment of the Break Life from the Oxnard, California. We are talking about defense. Now We're gonna jump into this conversation on defense. What I want to do is there are four different areas that I've identified as the key indicators of good defense in the NFL. Let's start first with

stopping the run. Run defense. Last year, the top five run defenses in the league, all of them won at least ten games. Dallas. You want, guys, want to guess where Dallas was ranked first thirty hundred and fifty eight point nine yards per game. Exactly. Question for you guys, how much of a problem was it for this team and what are they counting on this year in order that they will in order to be better than they

were last year. It's fine, I mean, won six game, that's fine, but there are a lot of things that could be a part of that. But how much a problem was that in the context of all the other things that were going wrong. I mean, it's it's the Garrett says it. It's line one in anything, pro, college, high school, junior high stop the run or stop the run. That's the teams are gonna try to run the ball.

And if you can't do it, then that means that you're not physically strong enough to handle it, you know, in the trenches, you know. I mean, it doesn't matter if you got these fast guys around the edge, they can get sacks if they can't hold up and block. I mean, that's that's how that's why a six A high school team is going to be to one A team every time. They got bigger guys up front and they're gonna dominate you on the line of scrimmage. And

it's same with the NFL. It's a passing league. And you know, I love the analytics side of football, and throw it, throw it and early and often I get it. I'm I'm down with that. But we learned last year. If you can't stop the run, and everybody knows you can't stop the run, that's almost all that matters. Like you're so screwed. I mean, they were so bad. Two

different three hundred yard rushing performances. I mean, we said it all last year, like high school defense has handled the fundamentals of stopping the run better than Dallas Cowboys did last year. That's not an exaggeration. And I mean you you you can't win. You cannot win if the other team just knows that they can run it down your throat whenever they want to. And I think they faced four of the top five backs in the league

this year. This year man or Derrick Henry, you know, put him in there, and they got Kamara, they got se Quon twice, Dalvin Cook again. Kaffrey's not bad. Kaffrey's pretty damn good. Not bad, that's good. Hey, if it shoot, if the playoff version of Leonard Fournette shows up on number one, yeah, I mean that the way that they run the ball, you, I mean, it doesn't matter who it is. I mean, you know Jones as the other guy. They but they both of them, they're efficient enough that

they're gonna run it. And you know, you gotta stop Clyde Clyde Edwards, Zhilaire. I mean you want to go through the whole thing, Hi, Yeah, Yeah, I don't know it. Yeah, it's your guy, it's your gay forever. But I mean like it, and I get My point is it's it's easy Raiders oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. I didn't even

think about him. But yeah, it's easy to overlook that because you know, most NFL teams are at least decent at it, you know, I mean, the Cowboys have never the Cowboys have not added any elite defense in the entire time that I've worked here. But more often than not, you're not going into the game like really, You're like, yeah, I mean, they might be able to run the ball, but it's not gonna be crazy. I mean, last year,

I've never seen anything like it. It was unbelievable. And so the bad part is you're not gonna have a winning record playing defense like that. But the good part is it shouldn't be that hard to improve from that. I mean, that's how bad it was, and that you know, you can see the blueprint in front of you. They bolstered the linebacker crew and the defensive line is enormous

compared to what we've been used to. I mean, Rod Marinelli loved those Let think about the guys that played defensive line for this team over the last five years, like he loves the undersize three techniques. But you know Austin, you know, fun guy, underrated player maybe, but Antoine Woods was tiny by defensive lineman standards. That was not the case here. I wrote a note about it yesterday. I mean, Bohanna's six four three thirty, Brent Urban six seven three ten,

Carlos Watkin is six four three ten something like. I mean, these guys are enormous and they're long too, and so putting that much beef in front of these linebackers and hoping that cleans them up to make more plays, I mean, it's it's pretty obvious what they're trying to do. Don't get all work. You think they'll be better stopped and run this year. It will work in the sense like they will be better they will not give up one

hundred and sixty yards per game. I refuse to. But like dan Quinn's been doing this for too long, and I know his defenses haven't weren't amazing in Atlanta, But they're going back to something these guys are more familiar with, and I think they have a little bit more talent. I'm not saying they're gonna be top ten, but they have to be better. There's no way they can be worse. Definitely.

I think the scheme will be there. I think they'll play more downhill, they'll put the linebackers will be closer. I think you got physical players, now you got physical safeties. Yeah. I do think that they're going to be a better run stopping team. And I think that's important when you look at the quarterbacks that they face this year, they face better running backs, and they face quarterbacks. And I know that they faced the top two in the league and the two and they're in the super Bowl. But

after that there's a considerable drop off. You have quarterbacks that are good, they don't necessarily scare you all the time, not as much as the running backs. I think stopping the runs way more important. Yeah, you made that point to me the other day, and I was I had to take a second and think about it, because you do.

You immediately think the top two quarterbacks in the league arguably that you got, you know, during this season, and you don't think about all the rest, and you're like, yeah, there are a lot of quarterbacks that are pretty good. There are a lot of quarterbacks that you even think are sending but don't face it at the top eight quarterback. And I say eight because even though ten is what people like to say, I think eight is if you ask people the top eight quarterbacks in the league, I

think you wouldn't get a lot of different answers. I think after eight is where it starts to get a little different. And I don't they don't. They don't face any other top eight except for Brady and Mahomes, which is big, and they have a top eight, which so in all but two games you probably give the Cowboy quarterback. They face the top eight, And Dak is that you're saying, You're saying, yeah, yeah, so in fifteen of the seventeen there's you'll feel pretty confident that the Cowboys have the

better quarterback. Yeah, da, Dave, that's pretty impressive. Dave and I were talking about that. You know, I think when you're ranking quarterbacks, I think there's four at the top because because we judge them by winning super Bowls, and four of them have won and they're playing at a

high level. I don't judge Roethlisberger anymore like that. He's on the down slope, But you know, after after you know, Rogers Wilson Mahome and Brady and not in that order, but those four, and then you got another four guys that are just right there that are just if they have a big year that they jump into it. They

get a little help from the teams. Yeah, Roger, I mean Dakh, Dak Jackson, Alan, Mark Jackson, Allen we don't know even what to do with, but yeah, but he should be in that list if he's playing, he's playing. And then and then it's then and then you got

veteran guys Matt Ryan, which the Cowboys do face. Yeah, and then you got those ascending guys like you don't know what's gonna happen with the guy, you know, with guys like Baker, with guys like Kyler Murray, with guys like you know, there's a lot those guys that are kind of right there on that cusp of of taking that next step. We'll see if they do it this year.

But the thing about Kyler Murray, and then I think on our list when we ranked top ten quarterbacks on the schedule, you know they put we put Dak third because he's you know, obviously in the game. I think Murray was fourth. I have to go back and look justin Herbert might have. Herbert is another guy that could have a really great year. Yeah. But but the thing about Murray is that, I mean he dominated the Cowboys in that game because they couldn't stop him and get

him on the ground. We had Murray for well, I don't who else. I don't mean, yeah, I mean we're getting off the Rams, right, But is Stafford on the schedule this year? The Rams aren't on the schedule this year, cousins, it wouldn't be. I would take I would take Murray over both of those guys. Williams over there, william or rank them. Oh busy, Now let's go into the next The next area on defense that I identified sacks. Uh Three of the top five in the NFL had ten

wins or more. Dallas was tied for twentieth last year. How important of sacks for a defense to be successful. Yeah, And the reason for the pause is like we've gone you know, this is the argument we've used to defend Tank for two years. Is like, there's way more to it than whether or not you're getting him on the ground. Pressures are important, moving him off his spot, forcing bad throws.

So you know, the pure number of sacks maybe doesn't define how good you are if you're getting there, but if you're top five six in the league in sackstra defense is probably pretty good. I mean, like, I don't I guess maybe I'm talking out on both sides of my mouth there, Like I think you can be good without him, but it's nice to have him. I guess, Well, yeah, it's the difference of getting into the red zone and getting a field goal or getting a touchdown. I mean,

it's nice to be moving the ball. It's nice to be able to get pressure and do that, but at some point you need to actually get the guy on the ground. That gets them off the field. And a lot of times it causes a fumble as well, it pushes it back even more. Don't even it's fourth down. You know it's fourth and probably fourteen fifteen field position as well. You know it could be third and five and you and you rush to the quarterback, he throws it away, and it's fourth and five. You gets still

worry about a fake putt and all that. You drop him for an eight yard loss and maybe he's hurt, maybe he fumbled. That pushes them back even more. I mean, so yeah, it's a. It's a big difference in in the play and it's just it's just a good play versus a great play. And I think that's what makes it. You have an elite team. You got to get to the quarterback? How many things? How many? How many they have last year? Did you look that up? I did,

but I don't have it all. I'm sorry, Yeah, silly. Mean, here's another question though, but how how how much does Randy Gregory improve the pass rush Overalled and Smith? And in what ways? I saw you put that on there when you should send us the rundown? And like, can we answer that? Can we truly answer that? Like I love Randy and I'm so excited for what isn't But he said it yesterday. He was like a lot of people are talking about how awesome I am, and I

don't feel like I've proved a whole lot. And as much as I'm rooting for him, he's kind of right. I mean, he's had he's had like one season that yeah, not even his rookie year because he twisted his ankle his rookie year. Like he's had one season where he played more than twelve games, I think, and like it was a solid season. He had five or six sacks, and I think he's a better run defender than he gets credit for. And to be you know, Alden Smith was kind of similar last year, coming off of a

five year absence from playing pro football. Um, so I don't. I don't know that he I don't know how big of an improvement he is. Right, was there an appreciable difference between because in the first half of the season, Alden Smith was probably getting more opportunities and Randy started stared. So did you see an appreciable difference between the first half with Alden and the second half with Randy? No, not really, But I mean I don't think Alden Smith

really had that great of a season. I don't I think he had. Think early he played, he had three sacks in the Seattle game. One of them he touched Wilson when he fell, and that's a sack. Yeah, counts. I mean, this team needs it. But I don't think, you know, it wasn't like just you knowd where you know, just taking over a game. I finished with five and a half I think, right, so yeah, and and four very early. Yeah, he wore down a little bit and

and Gregory took some of his snaps. I think his story was, you know, that's what we remembered, was like, Wow, what just being here is awesome, But it wasn't the impact that Robert Quinn made on the other side from two years ago. And that's something that was not replaced last year, and that's that's where they need to get to. I'll take Randy's potential, no doubt. I'll take it that ten times out of ten, but I'm not ready to say, you know, at the end of the day, he's still

got to prove it. All right, We're gonna take our final break. When we come back, We're gonna talk about points aloud. We're gonna talk about takeaways. Takeaways being a big topic of conversation for this coaching staff and an emphasis for them. We'll talk about when they come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hi, I'm Clint Tullison with you United Agginturf. Before you can park yourself in front of the game, park yourself in a John

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Cowboys training camp. Remember there will be a practice today at eleven am Pacific time, So if you're in the area and want to come out, you might want to get here early because they're saying there's been a lot of people coming out the cap on the number of people that are allowed in, So make sure you come out early if you want to make sure you get in. And by the way, yeah to parking forty dollars for

people that might be figuring that out. Don't want you to get out here and not have your your money ready. So so yeah, well let's get back to it. We're talking about defense. The next category I want to talk about is points allowed. In my opinion, this is the most important and in my opinion, it should be what we what what should be used in at the You know, when you talk about total defense, when you talk about the best defense in the league right now, they use

actual yards. I think points allowed is a better indicator, just because at the end of the day, that's kind of the point of it. You give up less points, you win the game. But either way, um, last year, five of the top six had ten or more wins in points allowed. Eighteen to twenty one points per game is what those teams were giving up Dallas twenty eighth giving up twenty nine point six, almost thirty points per game. What was the biggest reason for the Cowboys giving up

so many points last year? They sucked some piade analysis? Did you watch did you watch the games? Did you see did you see the receipt? I just I'll know, like the Arizona game, I mean well, I could think of eighteen different moments, like the obviously the Cleveland game, but like Arizona, Christian Kirk just eighteen yards behind the nearest dB. I think Tyler Murray only completed nine passes in that game, but he threw for like two eighty

and two touchdowns or something stupid like that. That's the number of like untouched touchdowns that happened last year. Was pathetic. So do you think that was the biggest problem with this defense? That's the question. That was the biggest problem. Okay, any sorry, it was real quick. Any Like any success that this defense had during the rod era was because

they didn't do that. They didn't. I mean, obviously, over the course of eight years they did, but by and large, they didn't allow the forty fifty sixty yard bust they made you drive down the field and you know death, buy paper cut and buckle down and try to force a fuel goal and you know, twenty eighteen twenty it worked, and it worked three out of the eight years that Rod was here, and last year, no, oh my god.

I mean I've never seen so many like not just touchdowns, but bust touchdowns, just like just giving three points to the defense. Didn't stop the run, couldn't stop the big play. Like, they didn't really stop much of any of it. It's not that hard to analyze why they were bad. That's what I like. That's why they sucked is good analysis because it was unlike anything I've ever seen. I mean, Nick,

it's the same. They couldn't give up big plays. Seattle games the one for me, because they couldn't stop them. And even when though Dak got them back in that game and then you know they fought back into it, they were never gonna stop Russell Wilson. Ever, fourth down, they have a chance to get off the field and they can't do it. You know it where it's Lockett, whether it was Medcal, whether it was Will said himself. I mean that was a game I just was like,

you can be in this. You feel like you're in it, but you're really not, and you're not gonna win it because you can't you can't get off the field and you certainly can't give up the big plays. I mean the safety position. That's why you that's why everybody other than George Teague and Darren Woodson have been signed here

this offseason, because because they gotta fix that. You know, Xavier Woods was was a He wasn't a good football player last year at all, and um, you know, sixth round pick, and let's see if he develops into something. And I think he had a good rookie year, but I think it got worse and worse for him. I saw bad angles. I saw it. Just he wasn't the only guy. He wasn't only digs. We love the arrow going up for him, and he struggle up a lot and just you throw you throw Kelvin Joseph out there,

He's gonna struggle too. You know, that's what rookies are they do. I mean, it's gonna be tough, but you hope you kind of surround him with some other players. I think Anthony Brown is having a pretty solid camp. You know, he makes makes some good plays. Here. He's just a solid player. He's not the guy that people want to be the starter here, you know, and all that they want somebody that's more flashy. But he's solid.

He's gonna be hard to take out of the starting lineup when you consider that and then the versatility to do two different jobs. Yeah, I expect him to start, at least at the outset of the season. All right, let's move on to takeaways. Dallas is tied for seventh, something I thought was kind of interesting. I had didn't even remember that with twenty three takeaways. Most of that came in the second half of the season. There were five games where they had two or more takeaways last year,

and they won four of the five takeaways. Very important stat I think from the standpoint of overall winning. My question for you is, why are they so much better in the second half? Do you think than the first half? Quarterbacks that they faced were not very good. I think that's a big, big part of it. I don't think any of those quarterbacks and I'd love to see those

four of those five games, but I'm gonna guess. Nick Mullin, Jalen Hurts, Daniel Jones, Brandon Allen, Brandon Allen and then the big one, which I love to say because it's Carson Wentz. They had four on him, right yeah, yeah they they they Alex Smith. They lost the game, right yeah, they still got four. Yeah that was however many they had. Yeah. So, but Carson Wentz was awful last year. He was one

of the worst quarterbacks in the league. So right now, yeah, which so, I mean he you know, you don't think of him in the same vein as a Brandon Allen or a Nick Mullins because of where he was drafted. But he was terrible and they got a lot of takeaways from meaning Lamar Jackson played in that in down the Stretch, I think he threw a pick to him as well. And now he asked Anthony to Anthony Brown, yea, yeah,

he ran, He ran all over the place. Well sure, but but yeah, I mean I thought at the second half of the season, I thought it was a quarterback play was part of it. I mean, there were more aggressive and down Dondron Wilson was really coming into his own more. He was a part of those. Uh so

the Law was playing well too. You know, let's let's don't just put it all in the quarterback deep Law I thought was playing very well down the stretch, and that he helped some of those turnovers that he forced to fumble against forty nine ers, I believe, and so so yeah, I think it was just a combination of playing teams that weren't as good, playing quarterbacks that really weren't that good, and then also kind of getting after their ass a little bit more. It was Darian Thompson

that picked off Jackson. I'm sorry, I remember he's not as their So if you guys are gonna pick one of these areas where you feel certain the Cowboys will be better, that's either run defense, sacks, points allout or takeaways. Which is it run defense? Just and I'm sorry if that's not bold, but it's just that it's the easiest. It's the easiest thing to fix. It's a one hundred and sixty yards a game. Yeah, it's I mean, and they've done They've done a lot, They've done a lot.

They drafted Parsons, they drafted Osa and Gholston. I know he's not practicing whatever. Um you know, they all most of their primary free agency act positions were defensive tackles. Uh. You know, Gallimore is one of the big exciting names at this camp and then you know you've got a great run defender and tank. Yeah, I think they'll be. I think I think they'll be significantly better. And again I'm not saying top ten, but like you know, I think they could crack crack the top twenty. Maybe maybe

that's too ambitious, but I think they can. I think they'll be better in sacks. I think they will be top ten in the league in sacks. I think that's what Dan Quinn prides himself on. I think with the way Mark Michael Parsons is going to be blitzing, the way Jalen Smith is going to be blitzing more, um, I just think there's gonna be more in an attack to kind of get to the quarterback, even more than

we've seen. I think you'll see more sacks. That's probably something we haven't mentioned often enough, is that they are blitzing pretty frequently. But I'm obviously Micah and Jalen are doing it. But like Darian Thompson and Anthony Brown and you know, these these dvs are taking turns. I think mcquamu and Jayron Curse as well, they're you know, they're

coming out of the slot. And that's why defense can look better in practice, because what the things you would do when people are blitzing blitzing, you can you can kind of change the play, gash them, do pop them with a draw. Well, you run a draw here to Zeke or Pollard and they get through the line and they put their hand on their shoulder and they're like, as dackle, that's not bringing Zeke down and it's not even bringing Pollard down, you know, and they can get

fifteen twenty yards. It's like, well, don't blitz, don't do that crap again. But in a practice like this, they kind of blow the whistle, they stop it, you know, and so you can't team. I mean, defenses don't really get punished for blitzing as much in a practice like this,

where you can really hurt them in a game. So that's why I think sometimes it's a little too early to say defense one or you know, and you can make the same case for the offense too, that the offense sits there for eight seconds and throws and stuff like that. So it's a great evaluation. It's great to be out here, but sometimes there's holes in the evaluation, all right, let's let's move on. I wanted real quick before we end the show. I have a few a few players I want to throw out in our I

can't I get around segment basically the object tears. I'm gonna throw out a name. You guys are gonna talk about that player a little bit, give people insight on what you've seen from them, what your thoughts on on them throughout this first portion of training camp. Let's do first. Let's move to Israel Mukwamu, who is a rookie rookie safety six round draft pick out of South Carolina. Dave Go I like him. I think the odds are really

stacked against him. I think just because of where he was drafted and how many dvs are in this secondary. But I mean when him and Nashan right are standing next to each other, I mean, it's like freaking California redwood forest or something. They're so tall and so long. But he's he's he seems like he's got a knack for being where the ball is. Like he's he's had a couple of picks in practice, He's jumped a couple of routes, and when he hasn't he's at least gotten

his hands on it. I'm positive he's you know, he's a rookie. I'm sure he's made mistakes. He's not perfect, but he's disruptive and versatile because he played corner in college and I haven't seen him play outside at camp, but they've brought him down into the slot. They've blitzed him from there. But they've played him in coverage there

as well, So he's been fun to watch. Like I said, you know, I don't feel good about his chances of being on the team, just not because of anything against him, but just there's so many like veteran bodies in front of him. But I think he's looked good. Yeah, I think a year from now we're going to talk about mcquamu is playing two games in twenty twenty one and fifteen inactives on the team, inactive most of the time.

You think they can get him, they'll have him on practice squads, or you think he's gonna make the active rossmans the team, he's inactive. It can't get him to the games, That's what I think. Although, which and this is cheating, and you know the fifty three is what matters, but the rules are going to be similar. I think like they haven't moved out, they haven't ironed it all out in terms of, like, can you move guys off the practice squad the day of the game. I don't know,

but the act I was gonna be fifteen players. We should know by now that the vast majority of their cuts are going to clear waivers. Almost nobody ever gets claimed. So even if he gets cut, I think he's got a great, great opportunity to be here. I mean, he will be here if he even if he gets cut, he'll be here as long as he doesn't get claimed by somebody else. I definitely think that. All right, let's get one more player here. Justin Hamilton's fourth round I'm sorry,

fourth year defensive tackle. He was a twenty twenty free agent that the Cowboys signed go Nick not being impressive to me. Can't remember a lot of plays other than getting thrown by Isaac oller Cohn. Uh and that's not a great thing. So um, he's still learning how to play football, so he kind of threw them around the other day. I was in a drill surprised to see that. I mean, I think Bohana is better. I think when you look at Watkins, Urban, Ohizula. I think Justin Hill

will come back. I think when you talk about training camp bodies, that's what Justin him Mailton is. He's been around for a long time. He understands the business a little bit. He's a big guy. But I don't think his chances of making the team were very high at all. I don't disagree with you, except for the fact that the defensive coordinator shouted him out by name the other day, and that maybe that's an element of what they see in the meetings is a lot different because I mean,

he's he's a big he's a big fatty. His job is to clog things up and make life difficult for everybody else. So that doesn't translate to what we see. And I'm not talking trash on you because I haven't seen him doing anything that either. Dan Quinn was like he was like, you know, I knew that Urban and Watkins, I knew what they could do. But you know, you get out here and you see Hamilton's like stuffing things

up and blocking the run. So if the defensive coordinator brings you up without being prompted at a press conference, that's definitely a good thing. So and The other thing to note is yesterday I noticed he was out there running with the ones. Again. That happens right right now. You can't really put anything on who's running where. I do think though, it is worth noting that he's getting opportunities. That's the point. He is getting opportunities, and we'll see

where they all lands. He has a game that does not translate to the way that we watch practice. Like if we could sit down in their meeting rooms and watch the you know, the zoom in on the lines and see how he's doing I'm watching the film would matter. It might be a different story, but it just doesn't translate to watching. One thing about defensive tackle. When you look at other positions and you think preseason games, who's gonna get in there? What are the starters gonna play?

Defensive tackles one of those where the starters, even if it's a Gallimore, even if it's a Diggy Zooa, those are players that are gonna you want to play. They need to play against Pitts experience and so um. Other other starters are going to be kind of you know, they're gonna be in and out, you know. And and

if at all, if they're even in. But I think tackles one where you know, Justin Hamilton may not get as many snaps as he would in another situation, because you want to see young players get on the field more than you would in other positions. All right, we appreciate you guys. Jonas will be back on Tuesday and we'll guess I get you guys ready for the Hall of Fame game that will be happening this Thursday now Cowboys and this Thursday night Cowboys versus Steelers untill they're

for Nick Eaton, Dave helm and I'm Derek Eakleton. 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.