Cowboys Break: Luck Running Out?

Lee running around and that made me happy. And why'd you make that face? Derek? No, I'm nothing. I'm saying, I guess for a different reason. And it was still players that I saw running around. That's another one that is little exciting. Tavon Austin finally finally running around, just running around, been running around, He hurting around helmet on though, Can we stop and always? Oh no, no, I can add some No, Okay, let's just appreciate thinking back to

where this team was last year. Yeah, you're more excited about the gadget player that barely touches the ball coming back than the all pro linebacker who his absence sank the season last year. That's crazy as the NFL as a fickle, fickle beast. So they're both gonna play about six snaps a game now, I mean, you're not wrong, yeah, I think, But I get your point. No, I get you.

But we know how much of an impact bringing Tavon Austin back to the offense and adding him with and we talked about it yesterday or the day before him. I don't remember if I was on the show yet. Oh there you go, adding him next to Amari Cooper and just having Michael Galla do some things as well as Ezekiel Elliott. I mean, so it's just a little gadget player. It could be a lot more than that. Listen you go back to April and May and listen to this show when I was gushing about what I

thought Tavan could do. Like, I absolutely I'm a fan of his skill set, the downfield ability that Cooper and the Gallup have and the fact that Zeke commands, as you know, the defense to keep a presence in the box. The stuff Tavon Austin could do as a side to side player is very exciting. I just we were talking about this before we went on the air. I gotta see it to believe it, because they didn't utilize him

enough when he was healthy. In my opinion, The most important part of that, too, is that right now the Cowboys have two players that have exhibited their ability to be able to take us a routine, ordinary play all the way to a touchdown, no matter how what part of the field they're on, as Zeke and as Cooper at this point, if you add him, he has that same kind of ability because he has that kind of speed, and so you get him in the open field, he breaks a tackle or he happens to make a guy miss,

and now if there aren't enough defenders on him, he has a speed to take it all the way. Those kind of players are rare, and they have three of them on one team. Now you're starting to see, I think the big the interesting part about this is you're starting to kind of see this offense and the vision of what this offense can be. It's not there yet because they still got a lot of things. They got to get Gallop and Dak on the same page. They got to really figure out how to integrate Tavon into this.

But you're starting to see kind of how this thing could you can envision how this could work and how you could have really you have the pieces of a great offense not there yet. Again, they got a long way to go, but you see how it can start to develop into that. It's got to start with that

offensive line, though, and that's the that's the thing. The offensive line is still banged up and Zach Martin, Um, you know clearly that's going to be an issue that they're gonna have to, you know, deal with this week and moving forward. Hiring Smith's not one hundred percent probably won't be maybe the rest of the year. And so you know that that's that sounds great and I get you. I get what you're saying, and they've done a really

nice drive of patching this together. But I think if you're gonna have a dominant team in an offense, which they're far away from that, they got to get that offensive lineback, and it's I don't know if it's ever gonna get there. Not this year. Travis Frederick obviously won't be back, and Travis's not coming back. Tyron probably won't be one hundred percent healthy, Zach won't be a one hundred percent The last time Tyron was hit healthy in two thy fourteen season. Yeah, it's in a while, a while.

He plays hurt a lot because he's to do it or Sue Field is another one. He's I mean that ankle injuries don't heal when you're reacting, I mean playing and re aggravated. Yeah, so that's a that's a thing Zach's not practicing today. That's something to watch. But but we'll say this, clinching this week could change of a few things. I don't think you know, you're not going to arrest everybody and you're still gonna have things to

play for. I mean, there's no doubt you you'd want to get that three seed because of the difference between Seattle and the other teams is big and nameless, faceless, opposed and who knows if the Bears, you know, the Bears could win, you know, their their game and you could be i mean lose their game, right well, I mean, I mean if you get to the fact that they're they're the fourth seed and you're the three. Oh okay,

I mean it could be important there. I mean, I don't know if when the last time a three seed is hosted a you know, championship game two thousand and wow, actual, Well, okay, I think the last time a team that did not have a buy put it that way hosted a championship game. Oh wait, no, I was gonna say twenty eleven, the forty nine ers or the yeah, twenty eleven, but they were the two seed that year, so I take that back.

So I don't know, it's been a while, but um, maybe what I was saying is you could you could rest a little bit, you know, maybe a suphie little here or tiring there. And Zeke, you know, Zeke's not practicing right now. He's uh you you're definitely you know that's that's the name of the game in the NFL. As you're like, can Zach be ready to play? Like? Can we get him there in six days? Can we get him into uniform? But if you win this game,

you don't have to do that. I mean you can obviously you still got stuff to play for it, but it is no longer this urgent issue. I mean, he could sit for as much as two weeks, and I know the Cowboys won't probably won't do that because Garrett preaches to his team play through circumstance, no matter what the circumstance, and that's not just in the bad time, that's also when things are going good and you may have wrapped up everything, you still play football because it's

time to play football. But I would probably go different way on that. A guy like Tyren Smith, who like you said, aggravates his injury every week, a guy like like Zach who may be in order to play this week, will aggravate that a little bit. Again, not necessarily causing more damage, but just you know, it is when you got an injury and you got something that hurts, you

keep pounding on it. It It doesn't feel any better. So guys like that, I might shelf for two weeks and say, because I know, and I'm not talking about guys like a skill position is a little different because you don't want them to lose that chemistry that they maybe have developed with the quarterback or whatever. But when it comes to the offensive line, I think those guys are these guys I'm talking about specifically, are so good good that they don't need those weeks in order to be good.

They'll still be good if they sat for two weeks, right, they'll come back and they'll probably come back better because they'll probably be a little healthier so for me, I would probably look at that again. If the Cowboys rap everything up this weekend, you know, then they get back into that preseason mode. Remember what happened back in the preseason with they didn't have a um they didn't have yeah Gress Russal game because Zach didn't play, because and

Travis is not playing and the Tyron didn't play. So then do we want to play quarterback? I'm gonna play Zeke and then the next thing, you know, don't see Cooper rush? Right right, that's a great time to see Cooper rush. Is a rushing title matter at all? And Garrett rushing title does a matter of to who, well does it making the decision? Okay, it does not. It does not matter to Jason Garrett, I don't think. And Girly might be you know, held out some as well.

It's girly and that's layer type of accomplishment than a team or like head coach or any of that. So absolutely, I don't know. That's that's interesting because it's almost and you know, there's a lot of football left, so who knows, but it almost feels like the the one and two seed will have more to be playing for it in the final stretch of the season than because yeah, maybe the Cowboys and Bears could trade place, but they're certainly

not catching the Saints and the Rams. But the Rams and the Saints, I mean, that is a razor thin margin between home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and that is a difference. Like you can see a scenario where one of those teams loses in the other one gets to hope whoever the second seed gets to host that NFC championship game. So yeah, it's it's definitely that's that's something worth playing for. And they may be playing right

down the wire final week of the season. Yeah, where but I could easily see I could see a scenario where Week seventeen rolls around and the Bears and Cowboys are like, cool, we're three and four or whatever, and the Saints and Rams are like, we gotta win if

we want home field. Yeah. So, which that's interesting. And by the way, they both get about a bye week, so they can afford to play through Week seventeen because they're gonna have two weeks to rest before their next game, unlike the Bears and Cowboys, who have to turn around and play that next week in the wild card weekend. My new goal for today is to find out when, if ever two teams that didn't have a bye played in the conference title game. I thought, I thought maybe

twenty ten Giants. It was Packers Bears in twenty ten, but the Bears were the two seed that year. There was a year in the I want to say, the mid two thousands or something where you had a few years where you had fifth or six seed teams that

got to the Super Bowl. I would check those years, and the Steelers did it once obviously, the Giants did it once or twice, the Packers Packers did it, So check those years as those might be years when it was twenty ten was the year the Packers won the Super Bowls a sixth seed, but the Bears were too ill. We don't have to do that here. I'll look it up. I'm curious, and by the time we finished the show,

somebody's gonna tell us. You know that, right, I hope, so some foller apt here is already somebody tweet me the answer. Okay, well, sorry to back it up a little bit, a bid back to Tavon Austin and that topic. We know how we would like the Cowboys to utilize him. But how do you really expect them to use him? Is are you expecting something different than what we already seen before when they first got him and he was

healthy and the things they were doing with him. Let's let's first talk about what they might do with the position at with the inactives. I know we talked about that on Friday, But like, who's inactive is at lance Lenore and he runs down on special teams, he does things. What about Noah Brown? He's got a role as well. The guy that really well could be inactive here is Alan Hearns. It's possible because just just to get another

receiver in place, I mean, that's an interesting thing. I mean, it's still still I wouldn't do it, though, because if if something happened, not gonna wint to Gallup or Cooper. He's a better outside guy than Tvon or Beasley or lean Or Brown. So I wouldn't do it. I probably would sit in Lance Lanor and just be like, well, I we'll figure out that. I mean I don't I don't know. I mean, you guys tell me if you've noticed something different. I haven't noticed him making a lot

of plays on special teams. That doesn't mean his role is still not important the right ones. But but I do think that I agree. That's what it was just about to say. With Hearns, I mean, his role may not be as a starter. His role may be he's that, you know, he's your swing tackle kind of guy. Like he's the guy that can go in and play a lot of different positions if you sustain any injury with your wide receivers. Let's answer the question now, Tavon, I think he'll you know, I think we'll see a jet

suite or a fake or you know what. We'll see him out there and stuff. But but kind of what we talked about yesterday is, you know, he was running around playing receiver a lot. I don't think you'll see that. You don't think you have to see that as much. I said this on last night show The Happy Hour. I think that this group, everybody gets to play what they're supposed to be playing. Hearns should be a backup, doesn't matter about the money. Beasley should be just a

slot guy. Tavon should be kind of a gadget guy. Gallup should be a pretty good two and a deep decent deep threat. And Cooper's your number one and he can do everything, and I think this is this finally has a group that can do that. Yeah, the addition of Cooper kind of crystallize. Then that's yes, if I have hope for Tavon Austin, it's that these roles have become crystallized with Cooper joining the team. Because I just

looked it up. That's the reason I'm not that excited about Tavon being healthy is he had fifteen They targeted him nine times and gave him six handoffs in the six games that he played. That's they tried to give him the ball fifteen times in six games. That's two and a half opportunities a game. But remember that's the time when you were you were switching it around a bunch of everybody was getting it was not really getting a lot of the numbers indicate the numbers. It's not

a good indicator. But yeah, you're absolutely right. Is you can kind of firm up these roles on offense and you know you don't have to send him on a deep post that bangs off his hands and turns into an interception because Amari Cooper and Michael Gallop do that. Now, well, yeah, what much better much better than he'd like. He never should have been doing that, and I think it was their deficiencies at receiver that forced him into that in

the first place. So I'm optimistic that he can focus strictly on gadget stuff, for lack of a better word, bubble screens, jet sweeps, handoffs, reverses, all that type of stuff. What I'd ideally like to see is I'd like to see the Cowboys do more ten personnel now where they can put Gallop and Cooper on the outside, they can use Beasley and and Tavon in the slots and have

Zeke in the backfield. I think that gives you an opportunity to be able to have some quick guys there in the slots of the year and you want to knock him off the field completely. Hey, I'm not saying do it every time. You don't great every place, and you're gonna you're gonna still use the tight ends. Don't get me wrong. If you want to use the tight ends, figure out how to use them in the red zone.

That could help you a lot. Three of them had their best game though, that's great, best week, that's great, but use no moss. But it was still he had a great week on no Moss out here. But no, but that's the point, like, use if you want to use the tight ends more, let's use them in the red zone because right now, that's where you're deficient, and that's where I think you're missing tight end more than anything else. Is that ability to be able to get

you some quick some easier scores. Kind of disagree with that. I would actually keep him out of the red zone. I want it because I want to spread them out and then I'll run the ball a little bit more there. I don't like it, but that's what they're They're already spreading them out. And you know what's happening when they spread them out, the defense is saying, we ain't buying it. We're gonna keep man on the outside. We're still going to crow the box. He really don't. They don't they

go three wide. I mean when you go through wide right now. What they're doing is they're saying we're gonna man up on the outside. You're saying three wide as in three wide receiver. But they don't necessarily go wide. They sometimes will just oh, or Brown's coming in, he's blocking. Well, No,

I I know specifically last week. I was looking at that and because I remember Garrett saying, or it was either Garrett Orlenahan talking about how teams are not necessarily they're they're not presenting the right look for them to run it when they're in the goal line situations. And it happened a couple times in this last game where you had three will and I get it, Yes, still run it. But my point is, my point is run

the ball. When you start talking about just start talking about spreading them out for the purposes of running, I don't know that that's going to help you right now. As a matter of fact, if you're gonna run it right now, I say crowded up because if the defense is still gonna still gonna put eight men in the box in those situations, then give me more blockers, give me an extra tackle out there, and I'm gonna load

up and I'm gonna run the ball. Okay. But the thing about it is this is this is where I think the problem is. The tight ends cannot block and move people off, so they they lose. When you have your saying here's the ten guys in the box, him versus him, advantage them, It's never advantaged tight end. Those tight ends are not winning, true, but get them out. But but if you have a tight end and if they're planned better as receivers, now you block down and

defender heads up. Feel you squeak out? How many times you see that in the NFL these days where tight end is wide open because he blocked down, they thought he was a blocker, and all of a sudden he's wide open in the end zone. I'm just saying that gives you one more option in the red zone in the in the goal and goal on situation to be

able to get touchdowns. In the span of like two and a half minutes, Derek just said I need more ten personnel, and then it's like, give me all the tight ends in the ten ten personnel was not in red zone. I wasn't talking about ten personnel. I'm just giving you crab I know him because you like to do that. Yeah, well, let's go ahead and take a quick first break when we come back. Let's dive into the Colts offense and what they've got going on over

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of the Break. Now deep Talks. Yes, Derek Man, all right, let's let's just learn about this Colts offense and what they have for us this week? Can the Indianapolis Colts. This is the this is the most like boring is harsh, and they're not. They're not boring. They're just the most like slept on team in the NFL. Like I honestly think if you pulled NFL fans just basic facts other than the Andrew luck is their quarterback, I bet you

you're not coming back. Naming players would be a problem. Yeah, yeah, going. I mean, we had that conversation about the Titans and you're, yeah, this one, this one takes the cake in my opinion, because this is I think that I look at the Colts as a team that are ahead of schedule because just based on what they've done, they're going to be number one in cap space like that, you know by a large amount, Like they're gonna have like one hundred

and twenty million dollars in cap space this year. Think about that for a second. They've got one hundred and twenty million dollars in cap space. I think the cap is what it's some It's connected between one eight seven and one. So what is that like? Is that a seventy percent sixty percent, and now they are they are paying a veteran and they already playing their quarterback and it's Chris. You could go get ten guys that make

you know, twelve million. Yeah, I know there's more two than that, but I mean you can get seven players like that that are like maxed out players. They could remake their franch like they could remake their team with frontline players this offseason. But the problem is is they live in Indianapolis, and I don't still don't think that many people want to go there unless they in the middle of the nay money money calls. I really I

got that nice. Oh, I get it, I get it, and that happened before I was even born, right, But I don't. I don't buy that. In the NFL though, Like they play indoors. It's not going to be miserable playing games there and the money is the same, and you know you have a quarterback that makes you viable, Like, yeah, but that does because in the league has been there. True, but that does become relevant when you're evaluating two deals

that are similar. I think if you're looking at two things that are similar, you might say, well, I can go play in LA or I could go play in Indianapolis and make the same money, probably gonna go to La right, just because that matter. It's like I'm taking my family to a place where how quality of life will be a little bit better. The cults are in a position to outbid people though, and that yeah, right,

But also ill like I feel this. I don't know why I feel this need to stand up for these cities in the Midwest, Like people crap on Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Indie and Milwaukee, and I'm here to tell you what are you here to tell this? There are redeeming qualities about all of those places. Like look, I don't love cold weather. I get it, it can be miserable, blah blah blah. Indianapolis, I have a great time every time I go, and I've been like six times at

this point. I go to the Combine every year. It's walkable, it's a great downtown, it's centrally located, it's convenient, there's fun stuff to do. Stop Hayden. That's actually how I feel about Minnesota. Like Minneapolis. Yeah, every time I go to Minneapolis, I have a good time. Cleveland, I like, people love to crap on Cleveland and it's just it's not true. In my opinion, I see exactly. Cleveland's a perfectly fine city. I don't want to bag on him, but you just you but you are No, I'm not

gonna say. I'm just gonna say, but the Indianapolis Colts, they're a team ahead of schedule, getting back to where we could, like literally like they looked like they were tearing this thing down, like they don't have a lot of veterans, they haven't drafted well. They brought in a new GM, Chris Ballard, Frank Reich, the Eagles offensive coordinator that helped them win the Super Bowl. So basically all

they have is the quarterback. And you're like, I mean, if you go back to the preseason predictions, people were like, this is a two or three win team, and they looked like that they started one in five, like they were so far out of it it was gross. And then turns out, I think Chris Ballard has a pretty good idea what he's doing because this young talent is playing really well, Quentin Nelson. They drafted Brayden Smith as well, so you know, reminiscent of the Cowboys. You've all a

sudden got some talent on your offensive line. It correlates to Andrew Luck is not getting hit. He has been sacked. The Colts have allowed sixteen sacks in thirteen games, and since Week nine they have only allowed nineteen hits. He's only been hit nineteen times in the second half of the season, So he's getting hit in average of three times per game, which you do the math on DAC for I mean forty eight sacks opposite ends of the time. I don't even know how many times he's been hit,

but I promise you it's a ton. So yeah, and it's it's correlating Luck's playing great. Thirty seven hundred yards, thirty four touchdowns. Actually crazy to me because I think of Luck is like this big cannon armed guy. He's twenty second in the league in yards per attempt like they and again going back to protecting him, probably because of his shoulder short passes everywhere, quick quick releases everywhere, throws a lot of comeback routes, curls and slants and

things like that. He just gets rid of the balls super quick. Um and so it's not like a big playoffense. They definitely still throw downfield. Again, being slept on t Y Hilton, probably the most slept on receiver in the entire NFL, led the league in yards two years ago. Nobody talks about him. Huge, huge, big play threat. He's the guy that's gonna do it. But you know, and that That's the other point though, is there's not a ton of scary talent here in my opinion at least.

I mean, you got Marlon Mack at running back. He's like, he's all right. Um. Jordan Wilkins is a guy they drafted. And then Nahem Hines gets a lot of publicity because he's kind of the scat back. The Cowboys liked him a lot. He's more of a receiving threat than a between the tackles runner. But like, other than that, I mean, you got Ryan Grant, who was like the fourth receiver in Washington. You got um their their gadget guy, the guy that they like to do jet sweeps and stuff with.

Is um Zach Pascal never heard of him. Um. And then the best red zone threat right now is a cast off from Detroit, Eric Ebron, who is finally playing like the stud that he was. By the way, he's having hit by far his best season. It's not even close. And he's having He's had some games that have been monstrous, I mean multiple touchdowns, big yards. Like, he's had some

really good games. Imagine being a Detroit Lions fan and you pass on Zach Martin, Odell Beckham, Aaron Donald for Eric Ebron and he's the he's bad, and he goes and immediately in his first year since leaving the Lions, he has I wrote his stats down fifty eight catches for six hundred and fifty four yards and twelve touchdowns, which tight end. That's great. It's this year he's got twelve touchdowns. He's been money. He's the only guy on their team that scores touchdowns. Yeah, I mean on a

consistent basis. I think Marlon Mack has five. Think t Y Hilton has like six. I mean he has been It's really really it's unbelievable. And even I mean that's not better than Aaron Donald or Odell Beckham, but like just that's got to hurt if you're the leadens. So this is a past happy team. Their offensive line is a lot better, but they don't run the ball well. I think a lot of that is talent to like,

whether free agency or draft. I bet this team goes and gets a better running back in the off season one way or the other, and that's It's a young team, and I think they're gonna be if they keep doing what they're doing. I think they're gonna be scary good soon.

But I think they're ahead of schedule. And that sound like the Cowboys in a lot of ways a little bit, I think on the standpoint of their youth and kind of maybe performing a little better than you expected at this point in their in their experience, particularly about the defensive the Cowboys, but just overall kind of you think about this, it kind of sounds a lot like they may be some of your up and coming teams around the NFL, then the next year or two will be

real players. But especially I mean, and especially in light of the Cooper trade, like there's just there's so much more proven talent on this Cowboys offense, just just between Zeke and Cooper. I mean, I t why Hilton's great, but the drop off after him, in my opinion, is pretty severe. Um And so I like, I mean, yeah, this is a team that they won five or six in a row and then they broke their winning streak

by losing to the Jags six to nothing. So that's that's something that that I it just vision rival though, yeah it's it does but six to nothing, I know, but you know that's division many It is bad. It is it's bad football. This is a young team. They're they're clearly capable. I mean, they're right in the thick of the playoff hunt. But I think I mean it's I think it's the Luck show right now, and he's

lifting these other young talents um. And like I said, I think this is going to be frustrating for the Cowboys because they're gonna try to death by a thousand paper cuts, like I mean, and Luck's gonna take his shots. T Y Hilton's dangerous, but like he's just gonna be danking all over. He hasn't faced the hot Boys. He hasn't. You're right, well, I mean, hey, DeMarcus Lawrence, no body else's sacking this guy, so get after it. That could go a long way toward getting you a win. Obviously,

the Jaguars you mentioned shut them out. What did they do defensively to counteract? What what the Colts want to do? I only watched the Texans game. Sorry, sorry, I guess I should ask that question. There's only so many hours in a day there. Sorry, uh no, that's okay. But I mean I looking at it purely from the Cowboys standpoint, I think I don't want to go as far as to say it's favorable because I worry. I worry about Luck having not not being affected. I mean, you know,

how did they how did they stop the Saints? They got in Drew Brees's face? Can you do that here? Quintin Nelson's a stud, Like can you push the pocket back and make him uncomfortable? And if you can, can you be disciplined? Because Luck is a deceptively good athlete. I think anybody that's followed the NFL knows that. I mean, he can run the ball um. But these Cowboys dbs

I think match up really well. I mean, you know, Byron Jones, he's he's one way more often than he hasn't I have no problem letting him handle t Y Hilton. And then I think this is a net win for the Cowboys secondary other than that, like, I'll take these

Cowboys dbs over the rest of these wide receivers. And it's a very interesting clash of strategies because I think the Colts want to dink and dunk their way down the field, ball control, keep luck on his feet, and the Cowboys are the ABV like they're the bin but don't break masters, right, So it's going to be a matter of who plays better in the red zone. Probably.

One of the things that the reason I asked that question about the Jaguars is because if you think about kind of the derivative of the Jacksonville defense, it's it's a derivative of the Seattle defense. Again, Chris rah Shark coming from Seattle bringing some of those principles to the Cowboys, I wonder if they are as equipped to be able

to play them effectively. Maybe not a shutout, I mean, it's hard to shut any team out in the NFL, But are they equipped because of some of the principles of what they do and Chris Rashard understanding maybe the principles of how Jacksonville plays, if maybe that helps the Cowboys be able to slow down that offense in a similar way. You see that all the time in the NFL. An offense or defense that's playing really well and then

somebody finds a way to beat it. And then when you find a way to beat it, then teams that have those similar kinds of skills, similar kind of players, are able to mock that and be able to do the same thing, and then they find the same results here here it is. I mean I just looked at the stats of that game. I mean I never saw one play, thank god, but sixteen rushes for the Colts forty one yards. Yeah, I mean, luck through it fifty two times for only two hundred and forty eight yards.

It was sacked three times, but forty one rushing yards. It doesn't matter if your running game is a lead or not. You have you can't be one dimensional. And I think that that's the Cowboys trying to do. That's any team regardless if they have a top tier back, and that's probably what Jacksonville did. But my question is is that is that? Is that kind of how they play all season? Are they? Do? They have that kind of sparty all season where they tend to throw a

ton more than they throw it. They don't run for forty one yards. I mean they I don't know. I'm I don't know. They average one hundred and two per game, which that sounds good when I say it, but it's twenty fourth in the League, Like, I mean, this this team is They're not a good running team, No, not a good running team, but forty one yards. I mean,

Zeke did that on a couple of plays. I mean, I'm just but I absolutely I think I mean, I think the Cowboys are equipped to do that, though we've seen them do that against better running teams than this, and that's you know, to quote Jason Garrett, the runner matters, Like I'm I'm sorry, I'm not super impressed by their talent in the running game, you know, and even think about it. Nahem Hines is a dangerous He is a

mismatch type of player. But if the Cowboys can limit Alvin Kamara in that offense, surely nahem Hines isn't just gonna go crazy. I don't see how the culture favored in this game. I mean, Vegas is very smart. They know what they're doing. What's the spreads three? And that makes it an even game. But that but that that's

still surprising to me. Yeah, surprising to me that they would say that these two teams are even right now, um, just because i mean, like we talked about the record, I mean, they're six and six, the Cowboys are eight and five, seven and six. Sorry, but they're they're better. I think the Cowboys are better eight and five. We talked about that the other day. I mean they're playing you know this, this team is playing better. I just

am surprised that they they would do that way. But Vegas hot also has a reason why they bet certain lines, knowing that Cowboy fans will be like, wait a second, I mean it would it'll it'll go down. I'm sure this this this is not the most impressive run of success. Uh. They started this winning streak against Buffalo. Well they're not on a winning streak right now, but they started winning against Buffalo. Uh. They beat Oakland, they beat Jacksonville, they

beat Tennessee soundly, they squeaked past Miami. They lose to Jacksonville. But then and to the I mean you could say you could say all the same stuff about the Cowboys though, but then nice feather in their cap by beating the nine and three d Texans stream. Yeah, and we'll get into their defense. Their defense is a big part of that too. It's linebackers, yeah, Darius Leonards. So the Texans actually started um their streak against the Colts in kind of a gift game. Wasn't that one where that was

against the Cowboys? No, no, no no, no, that one the week before kind of a game where I think Frank Reich was like he decided to go for it on fourth down or something. Yeah, no, you're absolutely he did. Like they went for it in overtime on it was like fourth and four on their side of the field or midfield, and they didn't get it, and it's set the Texans up for a field goal and then a nine game winning streak. Yeah, and then they lost it.

Fitting they came back and beat him. But and you know I did set you know, so these are favorable matchups. Ibron is interesting though, and we saw how much success the Cowboys had against Urts this time around. Byron played him on third downs, third and long specifically, But again,

I mean, he's their red zone guy. That's he did a nice job on him too, Like he'd had some moments they had him on him and he plays some He had a couple of really good plays I thought against our I wonder if they roll that into this game. And I think zach Ertz is the best tight end in football right now, but Ebron is as he's a super athletic guy like R too. Yeah, and I mean he does. He's an off the line type of guy. He's not He's not your prototypical tight end by any stretch. Yeah,

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got to stay cool. We're at that point in December here this is considered crunch time. Nobody's better at keeping you cool under pressure than Tommy John. I mean John Underwear has moisture wicking fabrics to keep germs and perspiration at Bay Tommy John dot com forwards last Cowboys, off your first order. You know, a good place to be cool is Indianapolis is probably gonna be cold there. It's not it's not that bad. It's not gonna be terrible

yet it this morning. It's like a low here, like you're gonna open that roof, Brian, Yeah, Brian was trying to convince me they're going to open the roof for this game. That doesn't make sense to me. Oh Brian, no, shut up. You don't even go to games. Sit here, Put him outside of the Ford Center. Put it's a good, good idea. I like that, Derek. Make it happen. I'm gonna do that to them. Why why it's gonna be nice to people? I'm kind of trying to be nice.

It's nice, all right. I'm glad y'all kept talking because I was about to make a comment after years. Oh lord, I thought you were headed in another direction. But no, no thing is. I just keep talking, right, all right? Okay, you would have just killed the whole segment, right yeah, or made it better, made it better, different perspectives, all right. Well, the Cowboys are on a five game winning streak, and before that there was a lot of talk about sorry,

Nate is just laughing at me over there, big. Yeah, he loves talking about the kicker. We're not gonna talk about that right now. Anyways, five game winning streak before that, a lot of talk about the offensive coordinator. What was gonna happen with him? Probably get fired? When is that going to happen? As of right now? Seeing the way that the Cowboys have been playing thus far, has your opinion about him and the way he's been playing the

game or managing the game alongside with Jason Garrett? Has that changed your overall opinion of what might happen in the off season once the season ends. Yes, divided opinions on camera, Yeah, that was a great little exchange. It wasn't on camera. I was looking over Honestly, I don't

know how I can't. I mean, and here's why, Because what we were judging him on was based upon what we now know as a wide receiver cord that really wasn't very good, right, And as soon as he got a really good wide receiver, which again this was all an experiment, can you make this go without a number one wide receiver? What they figured out is you really can't. So you're really going to crucify the guy that he couldn't make something go that you were testing out anyway,

you didn't even know that it could necessarily work. And then he got a number one receiver and all of a sudden, now the offensive movie. Now he saw his issues in the red zone. This offense isn't perfect. But I don't I don't hear a lot of people complaining anymore about the play calls, and so to me, I don't see how you you don't. I don't. I don't hear, not even when they go down in the red zone and forget about their best player. Here's here's another thing. And this is why I don't I say that I

haven't changed yet, because they haven't done anything yet. If they if they go to the super Bowl and they win the super Bowl, okay, different story. But if they do that, right, he's absolutely right, But they's going they're going to If they don't do that, they're obviously going to lose. And if they lose a game, they're gonna have calls that they probably would like to take back. So it's gonna be hard, maybe not for Jason Garrett, but it's gonna be hard, I think for Scott Linahan

to end this thing. In a good way. I remember twenty fourteen Tony Romo. I thought, how is this going to end? You know, well for him, because everything's going great. The only way it's gonna happen is if you make a perfect pass or a guy who catches the ball and the rough set he didn't catch it and you lose. That's it, and that that's what happened, and that's Linnahan's gonna have to have something like that. And I don't see that happening. And I still think they need an

offensive coordinator that can really fit what Dak is. His skill set, what he wants to do kind of reminds me of the tight Ends in the sense of you're like, well, this isn't great. It could be a lot better. That's something we need to look at when the season's over. But this is what we got right now, and we're gonna roll with it. But I mean, and I don't know, it's it's certainly possible that nothing changes. That's totally possible,

especially if they have some real success. I mean, if they get to the super Bowl, if they win the Super Bowl, even if they get to the conference championship game. But maybe somebody hires them as the head coach. If they go that, the college season is already over, like like the hiring firing is done. Like I don't think that's gonna happen. All right, Oh, I get it. It took me a second, but I get it. NFL, but I head coach, I mean, yeah, I'll see the rams.

Yeah I doubt it. But no, I mean, this offense has gotten better since Amari Cooper came on board. There's no doubt about that. It's still got a lot awards and and they they haven't yeah, like they haven't all been fixed. We don't know if they will be. I mean if if the red zone struggles contribute to them exiting in the playoffs or somehow not making the playoffs, that's still possible that happens. Yeah, no, for sure they

don't make the playoffs. No, you're right. Yeah, we might be gone if they don't make the playoffs, right, everybody, you're right. But I mean there's this fight if they if they freaking if they scored thirteen points and go one to five in the red zone and go one and done in the playoffs. Get you're absolutely right about that. And again I wasn't saying you have to keep him. I wasn't saying they definitely gonna keep him. All I'm saying is Amber's question was has your opinion of him changed?

And I think, yes, my opinion has changed. It may not be that I think he's the greatest right now, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying my opinion has changed. I do recognize the fact that this offense is appreciably better when you actually give him a number one wide. Now, when you evaluate a position like that, as far as a coaching position, what's your window? What's the window evaluation? Like, do you look at it just from this season? Do you look at past seasons of It's even more than that.

I think it's to me, what's even more important is who you're going to replace him with, Because if you're gonna let him go, then you better have an option for somebody that's better, because you don't want to bring in somebody that's worse, because you can be worse. So you better have an idea of who your next guy is. So I think that's probably even more important than just

how long what the window is of the evaluation. I think you got to figure out who is the best person you can bring in here, are they going to give you the things that you need to make this offense better? And, to be honest with you, if we want to start talking about the people that they should think about replacing, I'm way more on the train of give me a more experienced quarterback coach than I am giving me another offensive coordinator. I must speak crazy because

I don't care about that at all. I absolutely do for a young quarterback. Don't care like I don't think it matters or matters. Not matters is harsh. But he's not the guy coming up with the concepts and calling the play. He is the one, though, that's telling the quarterback here are the things that we want to be able to do, and walking him through those things and making sure that he understands what's important in this offense

and order for him to do. And if you feel like, which I think a lot of people out there do, if you feel like the quarterback is not where he needs to be at this point in his career, and there are a lot of people that believe that. If you believe that, then you probably want to get somebody who can coach him up a little bit more. Did you watch All or Nothing? The show. Yeah, Scott Linahan is the quarterbacks coach just as much as Kellen Moore. Like I do not think Dak has the quarterbacks coach.

But but to me, that's also a part of the problem. If you've got a title and you've got a responsibility to be the quarterback coach, be the quarterback. You need someone. Quartet has a lot of other things to deal with. He doesn't have the time to invest in the quarterback that a quarterback coach should. I sorry, I would like

for Dak too. And I know that Romo is not the guy that that coaches him up and all that stuff, but I would like for Dak to take some of the approach, the offseason approach that Romo always had, which was find a couple of things each year to really improve on. And I mean we're talking like very specific things where you hold the ball in the pocket, laces out feet, all that kind of stuff that that you deal with. You know, what are you looking at, looking

at safeties before pre snap and all that stuff. He needs to do that too, And I don't know who the guy is to help him with that, you know, and Romo did have some veteran quarterback coaches and Wade Wilson, David Lee, guys like that. So I would like to see some kind of veteran coach, somebody that's been able to coach mobile quarterbacks and play the game the way Dak's gonna, you know, have to play it in this

day and age. I can't remember the guy's name, but Dak's got a guy in Orlando like, um he go. He's worked with him every offseason. You know, he took all the receivers down there. He's gonna spend way more time with that guy than Kellen Moore in the office. So he's year all through the song. Maybe we fire him because maybe, I mean, maybe we don't go to Orlando. I had so much more stuff I wanted to say. We got another show tomorrow. Yeah, that's fine, Friday, I

have to bring this conversation. I have a lot of stuff to say. Kellen a straw man, like that's just he's just a punching bag. For There's no such thing. If you've got the if you've got the position on your coaching staff, you have it for a reason, and everybody should be held We're not saying that about the wide receiver coach. When I staying out about the offensive line coach. Everybody has responsibility and if you don't think that they are necessarily the best person as a fit

for that job, then you need to upgrade it. Coordinator is the reason. Okay, coordinator is the overarching reason. By guys, thank you so much. We'll bring this conversation back up some other day. Thank you for Derek Hilton, Nikki Man, David Helmet, and Burgarcia. This has been Cowboys Break on Dallas Scotboys dot Com Radio radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.