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Cowboys Let's go. Are you ready for a break?
Yes?
Are you ready for a break?
Absolutely?
Ready for a break?
Yeah, and so much for that.
It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com with Ambar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Wednesday, November thirteenth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number sixty seven.
Welcome to the latest edition of The Break.
We are Alive from the WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star presented by LGLG is the world's number one O led TV brand for eleven years in counting. See why at LG dot com Forward slash o led Evil. How's everybody doing today?
Good?
Really good.
Let's get the energy up. Let's go, let's do it.
Let's go really good.
Yeah, it's a good it's a good day.
It's a good day.
We all woke up and we're all healthy and it's a good day.
Right, all right.
We got a lot of stuff're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about it. We're gonna introduce the the Houston Texans. Uh, we will start with their offense and how they match up against this Dallas defense.
I want to start first with just kind of.
A general overview of this team because it's an uncommon opponent opponent for.
The Dallas Cowboys.
I was looking at it's just some of the basic information around. There's six and four obviously. Uh, they're are first place in first place in the AFC South. They're coach by Demico Ryans, who is a For those that don't know, he is a defensive coach. Came from San Francisco, was a defensive coordinator there and the last season he was with San Francisco at the number one ranked defense
in the NFL. This year they also have the number three ranked defense in the NFL with the Houston Texas in only his second.
Year with that team.
As I want to go around the table, tell me what you think is the thing that you that stands out to most to you you as you look at this team.
It can be offense or defense.
Just as you look at this Houston Texans team, what do you think stands out the most to you that you would character like if you.
Had to describe them, how would you describe.
This Texans team, talented youth. This is gonna be a team that's gonna be around a really long time. And I guess this is more so a big picture rather than this game specifically. But you look on both sides of the ball, and they have talented players who are young on rookie contracts, who are already taken the league by storm. You can start with c. J. Stroud, He's
developed a weapon in Tank Dell early on. You have Will Anderson on the other side of the ball, Jayalen pe Tree on the other side of the ball, and they've they've paired these guys with veterans and Stefan Diggs on the offensive side. Obviously he tours a cl so it's a little bit different, but Nico Collins as well, Robert Woods is still a veteran presence in that locker room.
You look on the defensive side, you got Danil Hunter who's been able to contribute from a pass rush perspective, as ciz Al Shaier from the linebacking corps.
There, they did a really good job.
A lot of names. Yeah, that's a lot of talented players.
They did a really good job over the off season of pairing veterans with some of these young guys to kind of close in that I guess knowledge gap that I think at times kind of hindered them last year. I think they're still figuring things out, and we'll talk about it today and tomorrow, but overall, you can see the veteran presence starting to kind of trickle down throughout these young guys. They're trying to maximize the rookie contract
of c. J. Stroud and Will Anderson. I think they're doing a great job of it.
They were a bad team at one time this year are just no. No. At one time before one time, once before Ryan's got there, they were kind of they were a bad team, and they took advantage of people needing players. They took advantage of being at the right position, placed perfectly in a draft to be able to get picks. And as you get picks, to Nick's point, you draft and you get young players, and all of a sudden, young players too. They've hit on, have done a really,
really nice job, and now their team's better. They've done a good job with the free agency. It's puzzling to me how they've allowed their offensive line to be what it is though, and we'll get into that today. If there's going to be something that's going to hold them back from being maybe really one of those upper echelon teams, they better figure out their offensive line because they could be wasting some opportunities. With their young quarterback Joe Mixon,
we'll talk about him. He's been a great addition for them. But for all the talented stuff that they have on defense and all the talent they have at skill position at wide receiver, their offensive line could be their downfall going forward as they get into the playoffs and or try and win the NFC the AFC South. Excuse me, they.
Are a talented team there.
And before we started the show, I was sitting here, I'm like, I don't care about this counting report. I don't want to hear about it. It's you know, I don't care about any other teams at this point. But you start looking at them and you got to appreciate some of the that they do have in general, and
also looking at how they've gone through the season. They don't tend to score a ton of points, like, they don't go into games where they completely dominate uh the opposing team, and it just leads me again, my silly.
Me where I always.
Think there is a chance not you know, just for this weekend two where maybe, just maybe if Cowboys found the offense finds a way to start scoring some points.
It is a.
Matchup where I think they could potentially put up a decent battle and come out with the win this weekend.
Yeah. I have a feeling that we're going to get to their defense tomorrow and it's gonna be or it's gonna be Brian's gonna be over going. I can't believe that they drafted as many great players as the defense. Yeah, and that's that's gonna be the rub. And you know, can Dallas. I think Dallas defensively could do some really good things against this offense. I think think they can depending on what happens at left corner. But again, we'll
get into all this stuff. I just feel like, though, when we sit down and say, okay, well, where where's their real big advent, their real big advantage, that's their defense over Dallas's offense, especially when you don't have your quarterback, you know, and then you have questions along the offensive line and you know, what kind of routes are you gonna run in this game? Are even gonna be able to get open much, you know, with the way that they play, So you know that's that's.
Gonna be the stars aligned correctly. Oh on a seven fifteen pm game, there's always a chance the moon, you know perfectly?
Can I go ahead?
Better time?
You got better chances at nighttime?
I ask you who you're gonna pick on Friday.
But you know that's the interesting part.
I think after the point is, after you listen to the show today, you're gonna walk away being like, maybe there's a chance, No, there is, And then you're gonna listen to Mark, You're gonna be like, no, because that's the way this team is.
No, it's the way it is. And you to me, you're you're So it's such a struggle on offense. You know, if you had your offense kind of humming along, I mean, yeah, you probably wouldn't be three and six either, you know, you would be you'd be much better. You might be like these guys six and four or something like that. But you're not. You're you're you know this is going
to be tough. I know, Nick, and I going to tell you today there are ways to take advantage of this offensive line if if, if you could keep them from running the football. And we last week you played against I think you played against a better back last week. You know with Sakuon Barkley. Joe Joe Mixon's good player, get me wrong, but man, you you find a way to control the running, you have a chance on defense this week. It's it's you know, it's it's the offense.
It might be the might be your downfall there.
Well, I'll tell you this.
As I look at the Houston Texans organization and Brian, you said it a little earlier where you said they once were a bad team. There wasn't even just a bad they were a bad organization. They had all kinds of problems that went all throughout the organization.
Uh.
And that wasn't that long ago, what five years ago?
It was a bad way.
It was in a bad way.
They had a quarterback in Deshaun Watson who they essentially needed to get rid of because of all the off work and but but the point is you look at that, and you look at what they were able to do in again a relatively short period of time to turn it around to be where they are now. It just tells you the fickle nature of the NFL. Right, things can flip pretty quickly in the NFL if you can
make the right moves at the right time. And so that part, I'm like, hats off to them because I thought it was gonna take a lot longer than this for them to get back into this kind of position where they they are a contender.
Yeah, Nick Sirianni, who's the general manager there. Nick was about to get fired, I mean him, Bill O'Brien, all those guys, I mean, they love you Smith. They were they were really not a very good football team, and all of a sudden they changed the coach that worked. They went out, you know, Nick, all of a sudden they hit on a couple of drafts that got them back a quarterback. They got a quarterback. They you know,
everybody was kind of like Levey Smith. If you remember that year, Levey Smith wins the last game of the year against the Colts and everybody's like going, what the hell are you doing? And then up put the second overall pick, and then they end up drafting, you know, Carolina gets the first pick, and then they you know, they they take Bryce Young, the Texans take CJ. Stroud, Somewhere Levey Smith right now is probably laughing sitting on a boat, and can you believe I did that? Won
the last game. Everybody's pissed off at me, and then they got Yeah, I mean he actually left him in a better place. So they they've been really fortunate with that. They do a really good job in free agency too. You know, they go out, they have a good blend, they have the right coach, they have the right draft, and they have a blend with some free agents that they've gotten and that's made their team much better.
Yeah, this is a lot of credits to their front office, Nick Casario and those guys. I think with Demico Ryans as an influence as well, you can start to see that influence trickle down. I think you saw in his very first draft going out and getting Will Anderson and then developing Jalen Petrie over these last couple of years, and hey, I need a linebacker, let's go get sez Al Shaire. I just think they've done such a good
job constructing this team top to bottom. It's going to be a team that's gonna be around a really long time. I do believe that.
All Right, we're gonna take our first break when we come back, We're going to dive into the Houston offense. Get a little deeper into that conversation.
We'll be back. Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.
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Welcome back to second segment of the Break.
Life in s WBC Mortgage Studios at the start the segment brought to you by blockchain dot Com. All right, let's dive into this Houston offense right now. They are ranked fifteenth across the league. They are fifteenth and passing, eighteenth and rushing offense. Let's start first with Nico Collins. How much does how is how much is him being out because he just got back last week, he'd been
out for several weeks. How much is him being out affected this offense and their ability to be able to move the ball.
I think there's a couple of things here that I think he'll be able to integrate back into and it'll help this offense. I'm going to start away from the receiving game. They love to run Joe Mixon outside, and it felt like in the beginning whenever or Nico was out that they were having some trouble finding some running lanes on the pure outside, trying to find the sideline and ride the sideline.
His Mixon loves to do that.
Nico's a great blocker and he's able to get out in front and pave those ways for mixing. Now that's the run game, the passing game, specifically, Nico's that downfield threat and whenever they lost him, They lost to Von Diggs.
It made life difficult for CJ.
Stroud because he's having to turn to a guy like Tank Dell, who Tank is a good receiver. It was somebody I really liked coming out of Houston a couple of years ago, but I don't necessarily see him as somebody who could fight off coverage get open downfield. I like him in the ten to twenty range, so I think it gives them that downfield presence a little bit more. Nico's a little bit more physical. He's a crisprout runner. I wouldn't say he's the crispist, but he's a crisprout runner.
I think he can make things difficult for this secondary overall. And we might get into this a little bit more here in a bit. But Bobby Slowick, they're off it'sive coordinator. His route concepts make the life really difficult for the secondary, specifically in the safeties. I will run double routes right on top of each other, and they will force that safety to make a split decision, and if you make
the wrong one, Stroud is going to identify it. And he's one of the most accurate guys in the entire NFL. Nico Collins does such a good job of being able to get everybody in line, make sure everybody has the right assignment, right route, and he does a really good job of managing that and exploiting those safeties.
Yeah, you've got it. With Collins, you got a big body guy. It's a six four to two hundred and twenty pounds guy. So that makes it very difficult because some of his best routes, if you go back and watch him, the slants, he cannot. I mean, he is hard to defend when he's running the run to the those to him, you know, his downfield stuff. I mean,
all these guys have the ability to get downfield. The thing, the funny thing about it is some of the of Stroud's downfield passes have resulted in interceptions when they've tried to kind of attack that. The thing with Tank Dell though, playing and when you look at Dell, Colin's the bigger guy, Dell,
the smaller guy, Dell the quicker guy. If I kept watching him, and it was like polation after completion after completion on the crossing routes, you know, the stuff underneath, and I was, you know, I was sitting there thinking, man, that that is a lot of them. And I went and checked on there ten for ten on crossing routes with Tank Dell. You know, so here you talk about putting pressure on what's the one thing we feel like
the Dallas maybe has gotten a little bit better. You know, we always worry about the safety play with the crossing routes or having to carry guys inside, you know. And and here's Dell and and they haven't missed the pass yet on the outside. We'll see what Like I say with Collins, you know, dealing with the hamstring injury and all that. I mean that this this will be a this will be a really really good test, uh for this secondary. And you mentioned also about mixing running the ball.
He's clearly better running the ball to one side than the other, you know. I I just isolated runs and I and I was watching left outside, left outside, left outside, right outside not so good.
So if you're down because of the blocking or is that because of I think.
I think Nick has a really really good point. You're also luaring me Tunsils over there, Yeah, you know kind of helps. Let me tell you Schultz is Schultz is about like what he was here. I mean, the thing you want to get Schultz in is pass blocking, because neither one of these these these tight ends that they stay in and block, they're likely likely to give up a pressure or a sack. They're that bad at it
right now. But everything to the left. When you when you watch Joe Mixon outside outside, outside, but it's all coming to the defense's right side. So how you play over there, that's going to Diggs direction too. That ball is going to bounce outside, that's Digs. He's going to have to play safety's down, linebacker's over. Everybody's going to have to rally over there. But you know, how you play off the edge off that right side will be a big key in this game trying to stop this run.
It's another team too. If you go and look at the metrics of it light box as opposed to the eight man boxes and stuff like that. They've had some problems mixing's had some problems running against stack boxes with eight or more down there. You know, maybe Dallas has found a little bit of something with their with their you know, eight man game, like from last week when they're when they were dealing with Barkley.
Yeah, the Joe Mixon is averaging four point three yards per attempt and ninety three point six yards per game. Obviously really good at what he does. One of the things that I've I've noticed about him he is a very physical runner. Yeah, do you think this is a bad matchup for Dallas from the standpoint that he is more in the ilk of a Derrick Henry, a guy that that that really can be physical.
Uh.
But at the same time, Dallas, one of their achilles heels has been that they haven't always been able to tackle well. And do you think from that standpoint that this is just a bad matchup for Dallas.
I mean, I was watching Joe Mixon run Sunday night, watching back a couple of games.
I think this is gonna be a tough matchup for them.
It's it's still a team that is trying to figure out how to tackle and bring down guys, and this is a guy you can't do that against it.
He's he's gonna fight on those arm tackles.
You need to get a chest on on Joe Mixon, And with how much they run him outside, yeahs out of ten, you're gonna have to be making that play one on one And so you're you're really relying on guys like Moli Cooker, Donovan Wilson to step up, Eric Kendricks to step up and make those one on one tackles. We saw each of those guys miss some critical tackles in that game against Philadelphia throughout the season.
Where this is going to come down though, with with mixing is if the ball is going to go to the outside. Now we've seen with overshown his ability to shoot gaps.
Yep.
These guards and we'll get into this offensive line because I they have some some of the similar problems that Dallas has when it comes to pass blocking, and they don't handle twist stunts all that well. And it really happens at the guard at the guard spot there. They they have they have struggled with offensive lines are defensive lines that have moved on them. And you watch that. You go back and watch the Packers game. Double a gap look down in and a twist from a double
A gap. What did Dallas had? What three? They got three sacks from the double a gap blitz look where they walk those guys up in the A gap and then drop one or drop two, bring one that Texans did not handle that at all against green Bay. Green Bay did it several times, a lot of pressure on Stroud. He wasn't able to kind of navigate that. So if you could find a way, like I say, run throughs,
run throughs against these guards. If they're gonna try and it's trying to stretch you, run throughs you knowing that that ball is probably going to come to your right side, just be ready to come flying downhill on it and make those plays if you can't get him in the backfield. He's had some negative runs, you know, if you look
so they call him stuffed runs. He's had some stuffed runs, especially going to that right like I was talking about, because I kept seeing everything like he's going to left, going to the left, going to the left, everything going to the right was a little bit more difficult. But that's teams got after them, like being able to win at the line of scrimmage. Dallas is gonna have to do the same thing if they're gonna want to get this ky on the ground.
Me a ball to be positive here, but so not me being positive.
But although it's for true what you just said about, we've seen this defense, the Cowboys defense struggle all year long. Against physical players, physical runners. I think what they showed last week gives you gives you hope and a little more positive positivity going into this game because you did see a Dallas defense being more aggressive, being you know,
playing in that way. With Micah's return, I think it helps a lot what happens there with Mica Now with what overshown showed as well, it's a trigger effect where everybody else around around you starts playing a little bit better at higher level. Yeah, it's definitely gonna be a challenge, but at least we saw a little sign of hope there too, where maybe this is a game where starting off they can compete a little bit.
They played against the better offensive line last week and held their own in the run game, yep, my opinion.
Ye, when they give sixty six yards to say.
On the running quarterback was a problem. You know, that was the ability to you know, they pin guys they've got when Dallas plays, When Dallas plays out of position, Dallas gives up huge place. You can see it, four guys covering three. Nett leaves the quarterback a wide open run for twenty something yards.
He strout is he he can run?
Yeah? But the thing about is this guy will run into some sacks. Yeah, he will like go back and like his eyes are downfield and he will just start to move and it's like he doesn't feel the defender right there.
I'll give him credit, though, because he moves around in the pocket way more than some young quarterbacks, right. And I think that that's just coming with the sophomore slump aspect of it, because I think there's a lot to talk about with c. J.
Stroud. I think it's an interesting case study this year specifically.
But he moves around in that pocket so much, even sometimes when there's not pressure.
So I'll give you that.
But he loves to step into a throw right if he can step up into basically his center throw a past ten fifteen yards down the field, that's what he wants to do.
Shaq Mason, the guard's giving up ten sacks. M I mean that's think about that, Yeah, think about that. I mean, that's that's that's problem. You know, that's they've given up twist stunts and you know there's been all kinds of things going on inside. I think that wasn't a misprint on that number. I mean, am I check me on that to make sure.
That I got you, PFF has a different number what I want to.
What do they think it at five? They have five? Well, in our in our metrics and the next gen stuff, it was ten, and I was like, going.
What number ten to be that?
Because the PFF sometimes can be a little different when it comes to.
A I was going through the sacks and I saw ten and I thought, man, that is a lot. And then you watch there's like thirty eight of them and he's involved in a lot of them. Yeah, like the twist stunt stuff and all that. So yeah, I mean it's to me, you know. And last week they tried uh, Juice Scrugs as the as the the guard as the guard at left guard and Jared Patterson played center. So they've kind of had to move some guys around a little bit to try and make some things, to make
some things up here. But yeah, when I saw that number of sacks for Mace, I'm like, Okay. Then I started watching and I'm like, damn, that's seems like an awful lot of sacks for a guy.
It looks like it's closer to your number.
Yeah, sure, Yeah, And the reason they've had to move that offensive line around in the in the middle, there was Kenyon Green going down their left guard, so they moved Jewe Scruggs to the left, bring in Jared Patterson to kind of fill that middle.
I like Patterson.
I don't necessarily love him in the run game, but I think he's I think he's a.
Solid pass protector.
I think obviously the combination of Juwe Scrugs and Kenyon Green a center left guard is better than Jared Patterson jew Scruggs, but I think they have a serviceable backup center there.
Their tackles. How did you feel about their tackle play? Because I saw with with with with with Howard the right tackle, like people walking him. Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean. And then Laramie Tunsel, who forever has been this high level player. You know, there's been times where he's given up some he's given up some some pressures, a lot of pressures. So between Tunsall, Shaq, Mason Howard, there's your hope that Dallas showed last week that maybe
the past Russia circling back. And what gave me more hope is when I watch what Green Bay did to him, blitzing him with that that that double a gap look that Zimmer likes to throw with the two rushers and then or you know, one rusher to drop or to go one drop, Twist that thing up, muddy that thing up a little bit more inside, because like you said, Nick quarterback is like a step up and throw guy.
You could you can maybe get him to step right into a sack because there's been been a few of them I saw watching the tape.
Reality, he's taking some big hits as a result of him doing that too.
That was all And the real reality is if Dallas has a shout of shot of winning this game, I think a lot of that's gonna have to be on the defense actually getting turnovers maybe even right that's my point. With the offense having the issues that they're having, really they're gonna have to have a short feel or the defense is gonna have to score in some instances. And I think that's where you could start seeing a possibility that Dallas could figure out a way to get a win.
It will have to be the defense having he stuff day and basically taking the ball away.
This offense to give it credit. It puts pressure on all aspects of the defense. I think you look at an offense like the Lions. Me personally, I feel like it really challenges the middle of your offense. Excuse me, the middle of your defense. They're going to run the ball, They're going to bring Laporto over the middle on the Ross Saint Brown, let's come a Carson middle of the field.
Eagles are a little bit more spread out. But the Texans, they will challenge your corners, they will challenge your safeties, They'll challenge your linebackers. I feel like more than any other position group. With the way mixing runs, with the way they like to get Dalton schultzo be and taking Dell open over the middle of the field in those crossing routes, it's going to make life really difficult for
your entire defense. But I think the linebackers are the ones that if they're not playing their assignments right, this is going to get ugly.
You mentioned Dalton Schultz, how much they use him at tight end.
He's getting quite a bit. And when he still with Dalton Schultz, it's like the routes that you see him catch, the flat routes, the out routes, things like that that he's able to kind of he will get lost and then they'll find him. So yeah, he still catches the ball very very well for you guys.
For the Texans, twenty nine receptions for three hundred and ten yards hasn't scored so far this ye yeah, all.
Right, let's go ahead and take our final break. We'll come back.
I want to zero in on the Dallas defense, particularly the cornerback position. Find out from you guys what you think the Cowboys should do this year, this weekend or I'm sorry Monday at the cornerback position opposite Treyvon Diggs.
Will be back Dallas Cowboys dot com radio.
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Welcome back.
Final segment of the Break livee in thats WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star.
We're talking Cowboys versus Texans.
Man, this is gonna be an interesting game and interesting weekend. There's a bunch of fans from Houston that are going to.
Be tuned in for this one and probably show up.
What do you mean, who am I rooting for this weekend?
I have not been a Houston fan since the Oilers left. I that was the last time I was a fan. I am still I am still a fan of the Rockets, and I will forever be a fan of the Rockets because I'm just a keen fan, so I'll always be a fan of the Rockets. But when the Oilers left, Yeah, my my allegiance to Houston was gone.
From a football you.
Got a lot of family and friends that are Texans fans.
Not as many.
Most of them have transitioned over to to being Cowboys fans because of me. But I do have some that are still Texans fans. I got a few coming up this week for the game. So yeah, it's it's an interesting, interesting time. We'll see how it goes. Let's talk about this Dallas defense right now. With what you've seen from Kaylen Carson and looking at how he played in this last game. Dallas made the move to take him out
at one point during that game. Do you think it's at a point now where they need to just kind of move on from him for the rest of this year as far as having him out there as a starter and go with another option just so he can, more than anything else, just kind of keep his head from getting in a bad place.
Wow, he didn't listen to yesterday show.
I guess what did you say something about that?
We kind of talked about it, right, did you all?
Right?
Well, for the for the sake of me and those that may not have listened, I was in meetings.
If I could listen, I would have been.
Here, but we didn't get to the that far out like we've talked about it just for now now necessarily for the rest of the season.
Yeah.
Well, I mean I'm just thinking, like for a young guy like him, I think we all agree the guy has some talent.
He's not a bad player.
He's put on films some bad moments, and I think sometimes for a young guy, it can be a good thing to tell him, hey, just sit for a second, let's just watch learn and for more than anything else, just to keep him from getting into such a bad place to where you ruin him for the future. Do you think it's at that point for somebody like Kayln Carson.
I'll answer your question.
I think one of the things that stunned his growth the most was going up against the receiving court training camp that is just simply non talented. And he built a lot of confidence against the receiving corps that has not really shown that they are worthy of being, you know, one of the better ones even in the division, much less the entire NFL. And you see the very first preseason game against the Rams, they start attacking Kayln Carson. If you remember, Kayln Carson not have a good day
that day. Yeah, they're just going at him.
Going at him.
We're like, oh, you know, Kayln Carson has been great in camp. You know these days are going to come. Little did we know those were the days? You know, so I think getting Israel mcwuamu starting moving forward. I think it's a better move. I think Carson needs to build back his confidence.
I think I would shuffle him. What I would do is maybe if mcwama would play two series or whatever, and you know, you're really this thing's not going anywhere. I mean, I don't think it is, that's my opinion. But what I would do is maybe mcwama. You getting a point in time of a game. You know, teams will game plan knowing that twenty one's out there. So all of a sudden, you know, it's twenty four, it's twenty four. It's twenty four. Oh wait, twenty one's out there.
You know. Now you're kind of what do we need to get to it? Now? You're maybe maybe with the flow of the game, things have kind of maybe your pass rush is getting home. You know, maybe you're causing some you know, some pressures and things like that. I don't completely just sit him down. I like, you know, you know you want to play him twice, you know too, and two times in the first half, two times in the second half. But just keep him, keep him occupied,
don't don't put him in time out. You know, he needs reps, you know. Yeah, they're attacking him. Yeah, he's not real confident. Yeah, his shoulder hurts. Yeah, he's worried about getting hurt again. You know. I mean there's a lot of things going on. The double moves, I mean, the more this season is what it is. You know, go out there and just let him get more experience
and let him take his lumps, which he has. But you never know, maybe he'll show up one day and it'll have some success a series to a series, and you know, he gets a little bit more confidence about I just don't sit him down. I mean, if you want to start MCWAMU, you need to figure out what to deal with Bland. But that might be too late to even you know, think about that. That might be something that might be the you know, that might be a whole season thing. I don't know. I'm just putting
it out there right now. But but to me, it's, you know, I keep playing the kid, but alternate him maybe you know once every third series or something. Put him out there and let him get a little bit
more experienced. You know, you don't have to do it in the games on the line or anything, or right before the half that they're trying to stop a two minute drive, but you know, coming out of the half or something like that, just go with him and see, you know, give him, give him a little bit more of an opportunity.
Yeah, I completely agree. I've said this before. I still like him, and I think they're a lot more to him than what he's currently showing. And I also agree with him needing that mental break where he comes out and okay it doesn't because it can really damage a player, the mental aspect of it, when you're constantly getting attacked and.
Beat down, especially corner.
Yeah, and with him being so young too, you know, so I do think rotate him, throw him in there for some reps, because at the same time, we know NFL experience, like game day experience.
That's very difficult to come by.
So with the way the season is going currently, you're not gonna lose much the way it's trending, you're not gonna lose much by actually throwing him out there and letting him play some more.
Don't let his don't let his going into twenty twenty five be that question of well, you man, it was really rough for you last year. You know, maybe you can find some successful. You're you're three and six team right now. You're really you know, you're looking at everybody above you. You know, you're to the old thing. You're as that old box. It says playoff picture in the hunt. You're not even in the hunt. You're out of the hunt.
So don't you know, don't don't sit there and just say, well, he just had a lot, No, you're you're not a good football team, and just give him an opportunity to try and kind of work his way out of it. That when you know he gets ready for the off season, it's like maybe he had a couple of plays where
he had some success. He maybe got an interception, somebody over threw a ball or they tipped it up and he got it, or something where he can at least feel good going in the off season that he did something the right way, not completely the wrong way.
Duke twenty two on x X asked any word on Bland, and I'll take that question a little bit further. Do you think it gets to a point at some point this season if he hasn't returned to where maybe they look at, hey, we could put him on IR and you could bring up someone like a Josh Butler or a chemen hall where you now get a chance to evaluate some of those guys as opposed to just kind of holding on to the hope that he comes back.
Doesn't sound like he's in a better spot this week than he was last week. As far as your second question there, that's a tough one because if you put him on IRI, it's obviously out for four weeks.
I think if you did that, you'd be saying probably just we're gonna sit him for the year, and.
You're also giving and you're also giving up on on what the what the season has ahead. And while there's a lot of people on that side of the building who have not given up on that, what I expect him to know exactly, and I think if they want to have Bland back in case that they are able to put together a run.
No, you get it right?
Yeah, right, real quick?
Michael Parson's return last week. Give me an assessment on what you think he looked like last week, and and not just obviously we saw the big splash plays, but overall looking at everything else, how would you assess his play?
The defense has some jump when he's in there, you know what I mean? Like he like they they double team him, and it allows somebody else to come around and get a pressure unblocked or one on one or you know, it makes Osa better, It makes everybody in that it made you know, it made Carl Lawson better, It made it made over shown better. You know. It just the defense was did a really nice job. I mean they and like I say, they start the second half and get a three and out, you know, and
what do you do on offense? You three and out? It just right back to them, you know, I mean this defense with him out there, they they they looked like an NFL defense, you know, they got after they pressured. They they had some mistakes because of what's going on at left corner. But he he's a difference maker. There's just no question about that.
Yeah, the defense eventually broke. They were bending and bending and then eventually broke there in the second half. But I think from rush perspective, when Michael Parsons is on the field, it is a trickle down effect for everybody. I actually asked Mike Zimmer about that on Monday, and he feels the same way. He kind of gave me was like, well, it's our best, it's our best pass rusher. Of course he's gonna help everybody else, So.
It's it's a dumb ass.
Yeah, he probably said, yeah, dumb ass. He said that to me before. Yeah, dumb ass, And I keep saying that, but I've heard that before.
But it was it was still impressive the fact that he had been out for that amount of time and felt like he didn't necessarily miss miss a beat like he went in there. And we also talked about in your breakdown Brian the prior week heading into the game, how the Eagles have some time been able to manage him and kind of mentally drive him a little nuts at times and.
And frustrate him.
And we know we've seen it before when he gets frustrated and messes up his game and all of that. And I think, uh, he was able to go in there and handle everything and once again goes to show and this works in his favor for whatever else is going to happen for his future. It shows how valuable a guy like him is to this defense.
The thing going into this week, and I know about you guys, I saw the defense try something, you know, I saw them try to do something that and I mean do something by hey, we're not gonna play the same scheme that we've been playing. We're gonna try and play the run a little different. We're gonna try and rush the passer and be more. Parsons had a lot to do with that. They were able to kind of do some things. You know, we our show talked about, Hey,
we'd love to see overshown rush that got him. We saw that could have been three sacks in the half right there from that rush. That's I'm just asking the offense to try and do the same thing. If we're gonna if we're gonna watch losing football, please give me a reason to say, you know what, they tried this, and you know what, for half the game it really worked out well. They ran out of gas. Offense, Please
just try something different. Try try if it's if it's put Trey Lanson in the second series of the game, if it's something that you know, if it's something, just to give it a spark to where it's not just Karth even said it on Monday, he goes, what's second half of football was hard? Now? Some of the hardest football. Okay, sir, you're the play caller, you know, I know you don't have all your guys. But you're the play caller, you know, don't tell me how hard it is. Figure it out.
Figure out something like Zimmer's over there dying with the left corner that's not ready to play. But so what he's having to do double a gap, blitz, he's putting Leo foul out there, he's making overshown a rusher, he's you know, he's doing different things. If you're gonna die that way, die fighting, don't just die throwing hitches and stick routes. Well, no, that's just yeah, but that's what you watch the games and you're we're sitting in the press box. What do we do? We die? We watch it,
we die. We just like football die. We just oh man, you know. But when they come out blitzing and sacking, hurts and stuff, it gives us football life. You know. We're like, yeah, here we go. That's that's what we need right there. And then the offense, it's.
Yeah, a good A good example of that, Brian is you look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right now. They lost both their top two offensive weapons are two receivers, and they are still every week very very competitive against Quarterbacke. Yeah, because they keep just figuring out ways to be in the game. And by the way they they probably are not going to go anywhere this year. But the fact is there's still a team that's very competitive because they're
just still fighting in that way. And that's what you saw in the first half from Dallas. I think last week it just fell apart in second half. But that's what I want to see. I want to see that fight, regardless of what the outcome is. I want to see that fight. And I want to see you trying something different, something different.
You want to see something different.
The different this week will be Jonathan Mingo, and then we'll be talking about the very exact same thing next week.
Oh so you're saying Mingo will be involved.
It'll be the different, that'll be the different, that they'll make it different.
But am I wrong? I mean, and you're like and you're like looking at the game and you're going, damn that I've seen this before.
I've been talking about creativity in this offense, needing it to happen, since I feel like at times year and even when they need it the most, Oh, you can't throw it out.
An illustration of what it was like me at the game, sitting there, computer, sitting there, my computer, doing other stuff that I need to do, and then all of a sudden they get ustacked and I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, hold on, I can't find the freaking graphic because I did not have it ready because I expect that to happen necessarily so and it was exciting to your point.
And if we're not, if we're gonna be you know, out manned, out gunned, all that stuff, come up with something that like, man, they they're not they're not good at doing this. You know. The other team they can't handle this. Like I say, watch that Green Bay game and you tell me if they can handle the double A gap blitz down there an h Town. No, they can't watch it. It's gonna happen this this Monday.
Night, all right, when does Zimmerson micah, so get.
Ready on that one. That way, Mike is, Mike is to the point now where he knows he's got game just a few games left. Probably he's going to he's going to punish.
Somebody specifically, Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's coming because we saw somebody and show get ready send them both through the hate gap maybe, well yeah, at the same time, but alternating each of them.
Yeah, all right, appreciate you guys, Jones. So we're back tomorrow.
We will jump into the Dallas offense versus versus this Texans defense.
Will till then for Nick Harris. Brian brought us Ambergarci. I'm Derek.
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