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With mbar Garcia, Brian brought Us, Nick Harris, and Derek Eagleton.
It is Monday, September sixteenth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number thirty. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break with live from SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We're presented by LGLG is the world's number one OLED TV brand for eleven years in counting. See why at LG dot Com. Forward slash O Ledevo. All right, I gotta talk about this Cowboys get a lost yesterday. Really, it wasn't much of a game most of the game from the opening kick. I think the Saints really had
their way, especially offensively with the Dallas defense. I don't think I think it was all the way until the fourth quarter before Dallas even got a stop. And what I mean by a stop is didn't allow them in the end zone, not even field goals. It was a beating, and so we'll talk about that. Let's start first, as we do every Monday, I want you to go big picture. We'll dive into the nuances of the game, but big picture, tell me what you think was the storyline of yesterday's game.
We'll start with you, Nicka.
Yeah, defense just getting overwhelmed, both in the past game and the run game. But I think it started in the run game. You see these guys getting absolutely assaulted at the point of attack.
I mean it was it was bad.
I look at the defensive interior line and I know there's a lot of still new faces there, but you bring in these two veteran guys that you would hope would have some sort of impact at least in the run game, and you just did not see that. I know we talked back at camp whenever George and Phillips was traded for from the Giants, and I was a little bit bullish on how I didn't feel like he was an effective run stopper.
And I think that really.
Started to rear its head yesterday, especially as that game started to wear on and and those reps started to get a little bit more taxing physically. Lin Val Joseph. He wasn't getting after it either. He was reaching at times and was just getting pulled around, and it made life really.
Difficult for that second level.
I mean, there's there's multiple snaps where you see Mary cleafel De, Marvin Overshown, Eric Kendricks trying to play two gaps while they have another guy coming on top of them to block, so they're trying to fit around the block and cover two gaps at the same time. And it just it allowed Alvin Kamara to have the day that he had four touchdowns and over one hundred and what am I looking at? One hundred and eighty all purpose yards? He had a day and I think offensively.
You know I've mentioned it time and time again, but this running game needs a hard look in the mirror. It's getting to a point now to where do you feel comfortable with this running game being the statfablished product for the rest of the season. And I know it's only two games in and I know we have a limited sample size, but this is gonna be a situation where we look up in five six weeks and it's if they haven't made any changes at that point, they
will have to make a change. Before it's too late, and then they're probably running up against time with the trade deadline at that point. But nevertheless, I think whenever you look at the biggest problems that this team had yesterday, I feel like it starts with stopping the run and running the ball. And it's kind of funny because I go back to mobile at the very beginning of the offseason and Jerry Jones said the two things he wants to get better at this offseason is stopping the ball
and running the ball better. And those are the two things that were the biggest catalysts to the loss yesterday.
What can I say? I say in this year, I was like, you know what, I'm not gonna care. I don't care.
I do not care.
I'm gonna handle this as a job. I'm gonna come in and do what Derek requires me to do in this job. But the reality is that I do freaking care and every time, like, I'm still finding myself getting upset because and I'm gonna divide it into two parts. Let's start with the offense. The offense, I know what I saw last week, so what they did this week didn't necessarily surprise me. I did expect them to be
a lot better, especially playing at home second week. I expected the offense to be more in sync and just get into the end zone more times. But it was very similar to what happened in Cleveland, where they just could not produce offensively. They got two places where they were moving the ball, but they just cannot get into the end zone. And then you got Brandon Aubrey again being the one scoring the most points for the offense. Now on the defensive side of the ball, it is
extremely disappointed. Disappointing because what I saw week one was extremely exciting from the get go, from beginning to end. You saw such an aggressive defense, and then it was letely the opposite happening what we saw yesterday, just a defense that they just could not catch.
A break and.
There were a lot of mistackles. You saw it, people just not being on time where they needed to be. It's just like the New Orleans offense were just so much more ahead. They just had so much more juice to them, and we're playing such a much faster football, such a much faster game, and so that's that's the most disappointing part. That, at least the side of the ball that I expected to be a lot better once again. They just cannot handle the running game. It's just it's
gonna be a problem again. And what's troubling is like, I don't know how you fix that right now. You know, you brought in size. We talked about it last week. You bringing guys that have the size, and you expect it to be better. And it's just a very disappointing performance of a Mike Zimmer defense that I expected to be so much better.
They didn't respect the right side of your defense in this game at all. And the way they formationed you, and then the way they ran the ball and the success that they were able to have very simple with the toss sweeps and things like that to able to get to the perimeter. You know, the right side of the defense has been a little bit of a problem. You know, we've seen We've seen Lords play over there. He got blocked a couple different times on the crack
on the crack toss. They got Parsons blocked over there. Everybody that played off that right edge had a little bit of a problem. If you're going to stop the run for the Dallas Cowboys, your linebackers are going to have to do it, no one else is going to be able to do it. And the Saints did a really nice job of getting blockers up onto your linebackers, and so really kind of starts with the defensive tackles,
as you mentioned. So if they secure the defensive tackles quickly, and now that allows the guards to get up on the linebackers. Every one of these cowboy linebackers were having to fight blocks the whole and they over ransom plays. You ask, well, where was overshown in this game? Overshown is not a nickel player. Well's that's I mean, he's not He's not a bass player. Leah Fallo is your base linebacker. And so if you get into if Dallas plays nickel, and this is what the Saints do to you.
They get in twenty one personnel, two backs, one tight end, they get in twenty two personnel, two backs, two tight ends, and they make you play base defense the whole game. And then all of a sudden, you know a lot of teams are so used to playing nickel and having nickel fits, so all of a sudden, now you're playing with rookie like Lea Foul and he's fighting blocks. Kendricks who makes a million tackles in week one, has to make a ton of tackles. They can't get him to
the ball. The screenplay fifty seven yard screen great call, blitz coming from the right. All of a sudden they slipped the screen to the left. You're thinking, well, wait, brought us Wait, why isn't why isn't Micah on Kamara there? Well, it's Kendrick's on Kamara. I'll take that in space. That's a linebacker on a legitimate big time back. I think I'd be okay. Carbridge, boll overrun the play. You know, these are the kinds of things. Run the ball, the
outside tanks, the right end tank. Seeing this a million times, crack crack, crack. You know, he jumps outside and he's able to kind of maybe make the ball come back inside or they get bodies over there. He gets cracked. Now the corner gets gets blocked out. They did a great job of getting blockers on defenders and then Kamara making somebody miss, and that was that was a big part of your game for them. It's pretty simple. The
toss plays. They did not respect your perimeter of your defense, and they felt like that they could control the edge and then seal everybody to the inside, and they were very successful doing that. I mean again, I mentioned Kamara eleven attempts on the outside left for seventy seven yards and two touchdowns. That's that's digside over there, and we're talking to We've talked about that before, even when Dallas didn't play the run very well. What was it? We've
mentioned this. They take care of the end, and this is when they were played a ton of dime. They take care of the end. They can't get the safety in the fill in the alley and they kicked digs, you know. I mean, that's that's that's where they're at. They're like, hey, they're still not good enough. We're going to take a chance that they're going to not be good enough on their right side.
So let me ask you, I should we be at this point having more conversations about the safeties even and not maybe fix on those gaps. I know yesterday that big long touchdown. Yeah, both your safeties are back there. You gotta be able to run with you.
Yeah, it was. You know what happens to you, though, is the Saints create windows when they throw the ball the early, the very early down when they threw the ball to Shaheed for nine yards. Okay, what did we talk about in Carolina? They did in week one They motioned Kamara to get the space and then sit the guy right in the middle. Well, what did they do in this game? They faked the screen going left, They took the they took Taysom Hill and a blocker and
moved it and that created space. Now your guys are reading flowing boom. That thing opens up there. Now the ball that goes down the field, the deep pass, Okay, it's a it's a it's a cover. It's a cover too. Look, Carson has got to jam that guy. Carson cannot let Shahid just run duck him and run vertical on the safeties like that. Yeah, So you know there's things that you have to do in order to play good defense.
If your technique says, jam that guy, what happens if you jam him, well you get you get a rusher that almost gets home. You know, cars standing there in the middle of the pocket. And if he has if he has to wait on Shahee to clear, then they're going to maybe that's going to be a sack, a hit ball in the air. Just just that, just that not getting a jam off the line of scrimmage, allow the guy who could really run to get on your safeties.
That's that's just the kind of the things that happens to this team when they're there's some physical problems, don't get me wrong, but there's also problems that they have when it comes to playing the scheme.
Yeah, o diggi'szel almost got home on that play. Yeah, it was. But it was a beautiful ball, hell of the ball.
Yeah, And it was so interesting I saw. I noticed early in the first drive. What they did was they were running those crossing routes and they hit Dallas twice on those crossing routes.
Dallas was in man.
My guess is at that point they were like, okay, let's let's back away maybe from trying to try to do as much man, because they're beating us on these crossing routs. You go to cover two, as you said, and then here we go right up the right. You get a flit the safety.
You get a situation too, where you're playing single high and you're playing a single high. Look, so you got Wilson in the middle of the field, you got hookers down taking taking the tight end, and so now you got the single high. Look, well, what happens in Hooker gets hookers out and then the cross I mean the route comes behind behind that. So they carry, they carry Wilson deep and they run the route. And what happened is Dix is playing at depth right, and there's not
just a way for him. If there's no way, I mean, it's a free run inside. And so you're like going, whoa look out? You know?
Is that is that a skime problem? That's I mean, now when you're gonna play I gotta play man, you're gonna give him that much of a cushion.
I don't want to be accused of being a coach guy, because I'm just telling you to me, you're asking Digs to do a lot to have to If you're going to say that's good, route has to be carried, and you're playing that thing at depth and that route is coming inside hard, that's that's that's a pretty That's a pretty tough one to play if you're playing man and you gotta trail it again, I'm not a coach. Not
a coach. I'm sure there's somebody over there is gonna watch this and they're gonna go brought it to your dumbass, and that's that's fine. But to me, it seems like that that's a hard route to carry playing from depth, and it happened to like you say, it happened a couple of different times. But the Saints do a really good job of creating windows for their receivers to run into, and it gives the quarterback the opportunity to make some throws.
Not only the route, but the speed of Shahed too.
Yeah, I think there was a lot of times we looked up at the secondary last year and understood that they had some problems with speed guys. And no matter where, you kind of see some guys come out, see some guys come in. I mean, compared to what that season looked like last year, you don't have Gilmour Bland on the field, but you have Digs and Carson. So where where does this kind of come into play? Are just
all these guys bad at covering speed? And I think I think we're getting to a point to where we probably need to identify that just because I mean, you look at Rashid Shahed in this game, you call back to oh, I'm forgetting his name from the Arizona game last year that had a huge, huge day.
Greg Dortch, I believe.
Yeah, there's Brown also too, right.
Absolutely, And so I just think I think whenever you look at these speed type weapons, it's it's going to be a problem for the Dallas evens.
Well looking at I was gonna say, looking some of the secondary guys and in a cornerback when you're watching this of the film and they're having depending on the routes that was being run and they're having to make the cut to adjust and follow that cut right there, slows them down so much to like the adjustment, and it creates so much separation. And you see some of these receivers and you talk about speed, I mean, that's the main thing that stood out from the offense that
the Dallas defense just could not catch up. They were so much faster in every single play, whether it was running the ball or throw in in the passing game, and even then, like I said, just making those adjustments, they just could not could not follow there exactly and so much separation.
To that exact point, there was a there was a play where Diggs was giving Shaheed quite a bit of depth and she he broke and Digs anticipated that he was going to come at him. Oh yeah, by the time he broke, there was probably seven yards in the tow so much I'm trying to find the exact play, but she ended up getting like twenty yards on that play.
So it's it's just it's tough.
You know, I know every but he made some offensive comments as well about it the running game. The game was out of hand. Their running game wasn't gonna help you. I think the red zone offense needs to be examined.
Yep.
And that's where that's to me. If you're gonna say, as Ambar in her assessment was talking about moving the ball and getting it. Now it turns into Aubrey kicking field goals, you need to look at where you are offensively in the red zone. The running game, I think it is what it is right now. But the red zone offense, to me, is a bigger issue than what their running game is.
And we're gonna get to that that there are some when we start digging into the offense, that team seems to be the stark difference there because the game would have obviously much closer. I'm not sure Dallas would have known with the defensive effort they had yesterday, but certainly would have been much more of a ball game if your offense could have scored more touchdowns in the inn than that.
You needed to stay with them in that game and pray you were going to get a stop. And you didn't get a stop, so that that was the problem. You're going to need stops. You didn't get him. But they also left some plays on the field. The wheel route could have been a touchdown if the balls thrown out there. We saw the one where Lamb had an inside route that was a misconnection that could have been a touchdown. They left some They left some big plays out on that field.
All right, we're going to take our first break when we come back. I do real quick before we move to our attention to the offense. I do want to talk about the pass rush for the Cowboys and maybe the non existence of the pass rush. We'll do that when we come back. Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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It is the second segment of the Break life in that s WBC Mortgage Studios at the start. The segment brought to you by blockchain dot Com. All right, let's talk about the pass rush yesterday. And I know that a lot of this has to be prefaced with the fact that New Orleans had a good game plan for getting rid of the ball quick and when they didn't, they would max protect to be able to give themselves time. They have two guys out in a route and they
would try to do it that way. So they had a good game plan going in, but didn't seem like the Cowboys put much pressure on them at all, even in situations where maybe there were plays where there wasn't there wasn't you know, Max protect or plays where they didn't get rid of the ball quick and Dallas still wasn't able to manufacture the kind of pressure that we've seen them put on other teams. What did you guys see from the standpoint in the pass rushing their ability to affect the passer?
For me, I think the Saints were really creative in attacking the cowboys best pass rushers, and for me, I was I was seeing it in the first half and them specifically going after number eleven, understanding where he was pre snap and motioning over a tight end to go give a tackle help And on a couple of occasions which I thought this was this was pretty interesting.
They would have a guy in the slot.
It could be it could be Shaheed, it could be a Lave or it could be Kamara as well. They would motion him over snap the ball right as he
was crossing the right guard. Let's say, if Mike is coming off the left side and as he's running his route, he's gonna chip him on the way out and it would just crumble Micah and so like he would be crumbled at the top of the at the beginning of the play, at the at the point of the snap, and he's trying to attack the left tackle, and even if he does get around him, by that point, it's already three and a half seconds into the play in Shaheed's eighty yards downfield.
So it's it's it was.
It was an interesting attack of how they went after Micah, but it was a very intentional effort that they did pre snap, and you see them calling out things pre snap and pointing out eleven pre snap almost every single play.
I think they did a good job just washing him out.
And I think whenever you look at the run game, I mean, I talked about it a little bit previous in the previous segment, there was just no push generated
at all. But I think when you look at the demarkets Lawrence case in particular, they're putting two guys on him in the run game almost every single snap, And so it was they did a really good job understanding where eleven was on pass downs and where ninety was on rundowns, and they attacked both of those guys and their plan was perfectly executed.
I mean, neither of those guys got any sort of push.
I thought it was really when you start to talk about, you know, playing with the tight ends and the full backs and stuff like that, and it was clear that there were probably some times where Micah lined up thinking he was going to get one on one and then all of a sudden. You mentioned about the chips, but to me, having a wing or a tight end, a Taysom Hill or a Foster Morow lined up on the right side. So here's Parsons going to rush the opposite side.
He's probably thinking, you know, okay, I'm gonna get a I'm just gonna get a tackle here. But then it turns into it the snap. Here's that guy comes all the way across and and not even a motion just he immediately it's like a running back checking like inside outside, and they were able to so then all of a sudden, it's like, oh wait a minute, this is a double now.
And so they they felt comfortable, and there were a couple of times where they put a tight end over there, like Moreau, they put him in line over over Parsons and then motion and then now it's two tight ends blocking on Parsons and then it allowed Fawaka the tackle to go help elsewhere. So they they were they were kind of thinking like keep two guys on him and then and then, but don't let him, don't let him have an understanding of what was going to happen to
him pre snap. Sometimes he's like, okay, there gonna double me here. And now it's like okay, I got single ball. No wait, they're gonna double me now. So they really kept him off off balance with the way that they blocked up their front.
And every play. I thought it was so well designed by them. Everyone was completely in sync. And I'm talking about the Saints' offense. They and again I go back to just playing a faster game, because if you look at the at some of the film, Micah would get there where he needed to, whether it was to make the tackle, tackle the running back, or get to car, but it was just a few seconds too late. Car was just so much faster. He wouldn't hang to the
ball too long. He would get rid of the ball quickly, whether it was a pass. And I thought there was along with the motion a lot of some misdirection being created when he was going to hand off the ball to the running back where it just drove everybody to the right side or the left, and then while the play was just getting created the opposite way. So I thought, I mean, credit to the Giant Giants, to the Saints offense, but I think they just they played so much faster.
Quick draft show plug for Wag is so good, isn't he? Yeah, he's so good. Forty four pass snaps that he's had in his first two weeks, zero pressures allowed.
He was getting affur in the run game too. That guy's a marler.
What was he drafted again?
First round?
I know, first round?
Yeah, what were they That would have been fourteen?
Yeah, they were right in the middle fourteen Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, all right, real quick, I do want to, real quick go back to the defensive tackles, and I'm looking at the guys that the Cowboys brought in. Phillips and Joseph neither really got a training camp. Is there any chance, like, as you're looking at this, is there any chance that fans should believe that this is about time.
Those guys have to work up, work in and they'll get better as the season go on goes on, Or do you think that this is just one of those where they just got to fair how to play better, because that doesn't necessarily factor in when you're talking about this position. This the skill set necessary to play that position.
Yeah, I think that could be said for anybody, you know, two weeks into the season. That's why, like I kind of mentioned earlier when I was talking about the offensive running game, like I understand it's only two weeks in the season. I think with this specific case, they'll looking at the defensive interior line. Yes, those two guys they
got a late start, a much later start than everybody else. Granted, Linnval Joseph knows the scheme, he's been around it, and he's started he didn't start his career in the scheme, but he understands where he is in that scheme. And as far as Jordan Phillips goes, he's not really asked to do a whole lot, you know. And I think when you look at a defensive interior lineman, from my standpoint, yes, scheme matters, and yes you need to know what your responsibilities are under a certain.
Scheme any given play.
But I think you can look at all thirty two teams and you understand like where defensive interior lineman's responsibilities hang, and they're pretty consistent, and I don't feel like either of those two guys really matched those responsibilities yesterday. For me, it was just those guys were getting pushed at the point of attack.
I mean, and that doesn't get on the ground.
I mean there was one play I believe it was Kamara's first touchdown and Jordan Phillips was pushed all the way into the back of the end zone and that play started at.
Like the six yard line. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was. It was.
It was a rough day for Jordan Phillips in the run game. I don't want to see Jordan Phillips on rundowns anymore. That's that's how I feel.
About I feel like I let folks down here a little bit because we talked about this in training camp. Because if you do watch him play at Buffalo that there were you know, the Dallas game, he was effective player there. Philadelphia played a lot better, uh Kansas City. You watch those games and you could actually see a guy that you know that that is active, plays outside the tackle box, gets up the field as a pass rusher.
This doesn't even look the same player. I mean, and I wonder you know if you talk to some people in the pro personnel department with the Cowboys that they would probably feel the same way. But yeah, they really really struggled. You know, all their defensive tackles struggled yesterday in this football game, and and Phillips and Joseph and you know you're not gonna I mean, I understand the question. I'm not going to make an excuse for him because
they were bad yesterday. And whether they've been in training camp or not, you know that it you have to play off blocks. You have to be able to hold up, you have to be able to turn your guy, hold him in place, allow the linebackers. Like I said, Dallas's run defense will only be as good as their linebackers are. And if their linebackers are getting blocked every single play and having to fight those blocks, Dallas will give up. They'll have more days like they did.
Yesterday, not only fighting blocks, but having to play two
gaps at the same time on multiple occasions. That's that's where I think I saw the biggest lack of accountability up front for the defensive line was these guys were just getting isolated and they were trying to reach around, and it was it allowed the left guard Lucas Patrick to get into the second level and just get after Marrisloulfout or get after Eric Hendricks, and those guys are trying to take on Patrick while trying to identify, Okay,
it's Camerica going to come over here. It's Camerica going to come over here. And somehow he just does both at the same time because he's a really good running back. Yeah right, he just splits in half, it goes around and then comes back together. He had a hell of a day too.
And again it is week two. It is week two, and now my huge believer that the more you do something, the better you're gonna get at. Obviously given no injuries or anything like that come into play, but at the same time, it is to a point where you know, I believe it when I see it, and I think
that's where a lot of us are. That we expect something and then something doesn't happen, and now you're just like, there's no other there's no other thing that you can do other than sit here, hope for the best, and then take it one week at a time, one ponent at a time, because every opponent is going to be completely different.
Than the prior.
This should be an exciting week for this defense. It should be a very exciting week for them because all last year they were told, hey, they don't know how to respond whenever they get run down their throat, and it would happen week and week and week again. Now you have a different scheme, you have a lot of different personnel, especially on the first two levels, and you have the best running team in the NL.
You're going to get challenges.
Yes, Since since two thousand, if you look at any point since the year two thousand, the Ravens have the most rushing was in the NFL, like twenty thirteen to twenty twenty four Ravens, twenty ten to twenty twenty four, Rape, twenty twenty two to twenty twenty four Ravens. So you're gonna get the best running team in the NFL weekend, week out, and it's an opportunity to respond. And I think you wouldn't want a bigger opportunity than this one. And it's week three. Like you said, there's still a
lot of learning that can go into place. How does Mike Zimmer approach this with that team this week. They should be really excited about the opportunity.
In fart, this's the more desperate team because one team is zero and two to the other didn't stop the run worth the day. They're both they're both ye And you know me, I'm the big guy of the desperate team theory, and I just kind of feel like that that both teams are desperate.
They I think they really are more a little bit because they're going on the road. It would be a big win for them to carry confidence back home. I think personally the Ravens. But yes, I agree with you. Both teams are really desperate coming into this game.
Yeah, it's going to be one of those games where whoever leaves his game is not going to be in a good position moving forward. I don't think just from a psychological standpoint, it's going to be a hard, hard road at that point. All Right, we're going to take our take our final break.
We'll come back.
Let's talk about the offensive side of the ball. There were definitely some things that they could have done better yesterday. Let's talk about that when we come back. Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Welcome back.
Final segment of the Break live from the SWBC Mortgage studios. At the start, it's presented by LG. All right, let's talk about the offense side of the ball. And I don't remember the last time we've gone into the break on a Monday morning and we got to the third segment and still hadn't talked off. But we did it today because I think it was warranted. But let's talk
about the offense. Dak Prescott yesterday is twenty seven thirty nine, sixty nine percent completion rate, two hundred ninety three passing yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and a seventy eight point three rating. How would you evaluate his performance.
I might be on the island here, and I'm completely okay with that. Dak was the only one that showed up yesterday. Offensively, I thought he played a fine game. He had one bad throw in my opinion, I think which one would say that was the Tyron Matthew interception. What was that third quarter? Yeah, But aside from that, I think Dak was he felt pressure. He did a good job getting away from it at times. Granted he
was sacked three times. One of those obviously the fumble happened in the red zone that should have been a turnover, but Tolbert was able to fall back on top of it. But aside from that, I thought Dak did a good job of, you know, distributing the ball all the different receivers and he was able to get involved. I'll give
another bad decision that I didn't love. It was the fourth down and he forced it to Brevin span Ford there in the red zone, and I don't know why you trust an unsigned or undrafted free agent in that.
And then.
Yeah, and it was the first target he's had in his NFL career. So it's like, I don't know if I would have done that, But personally, I think aside from that, I think I look if I look at the connection problems that he had with CD, which it showed up on a pair of occasions, in my opinion.
There was one, obviously, the touchdown ball that he would have had in the first quarter, where he anticipated Lamb to break to the pylon, and it said he broke to the goalpost, and so the ball ended up following you about seven yards away from liter.
Either one of them ever clarify which was right.
None of them ever clarified which was right, And I don't believe they're going to just basically.
I would just assuming one of them would take credit, like, yeah, I probably should have done this. I'm not saying they would have point out the other person was wrong as much as they would have said I'm wrong, But I hadn't heard that.
Dak was asked about it, he just credited to a miscommunication and trying to get on the same page problem. And then it happened on a separate occasion as well, where it was a play down the left sideline. Dak was trying to throw it up to CD. He anticipated him falling back to his left or to his right, Showld and he fell into his left shoulder, and so there was a kind of a miscommunication there and it ended up falling to the turf.
Fortunately for the Cowboys, both of those fell to the turf.
But I think aside from that, I didn't hate the game from Dak Prescott yesterday. He has no running game and he has a wide receiver one that he's still getting on the same page with, and I don't think
that's a fault towards Dak. So I think from the offensive standpoint, whenever you look at stalling in the red zone, not having Jake Ferguson obviously is a really big factor of that, because whenever you look at where Jake Ferguson is getting the most of his money, it's inside the thirty five in my opinion, and they didn't have him in that opportunity. Luke Schoonmaker he did fine in his opportunities,
but he wasn't going to be that guy. And so I think all in all, I didn't hate the day from Dak, but the offense as a whole, I don't feel like was ready to be ready to show out.
I mean, I wasn't a fan of being honest of like some of the things that I've watched yesterday, and mainly one thing that I will criticize, and we'll get into the red zone and all the issues there. But as far as Dak's game, I expected him to be a lot more mobile, And I'm not trying to put everything on his back for sure, because you need everybody like you need to catch the ball. You need to be able to hopefully create some balance in the running
game and get help there. Also, the O line needs to be able to protect you more and create a better pocket for you to be in it. But at the same time, given the pressures that happened, I did expect Dak to be a lot more mobile get out of the pocket, and because we've seen it happen, we've seen him be good at throwing. We've seen him be good at running with the ball, finding somebody open, and
throwing it. So I think that as far as his game, that's something that lacked and I was disappointed in that, But overall, I don't know where to pinpoint the issues in the red zone.
To that point.
Dak was asked yesterday just about how he felt he could have been a little bit better, and he's always a guy that would just resort to, hey, I need to get to the film and see you know, ask me on Thursday. But he did say, like a thing that really stood out to him initially was the fact that he needs to use his feet more so that that's that was used in his u his press availability after he says he needs to work that.
Because sometimes he was standing there like just go take off you have you have like use them you have, Like I honestly.
I don't know how he got the ball to to Zeke on that one play where flips and I'm not going, oh my gosh, she made chicken, you know. Yeah, and so it was you know that part of meal. Yeah, But the to me that you know there was there was a couple of times. I think the red zone offense. We're going to examine that of course, and uh, you know, and you mentioned the throat to span Ford, they double inside.
There's really no word for him to go to the ball and then everybody they got it covered across the board. If I could have a couple of plays back for him, I think the Lamb one. When you talk about the miscommunication, how many times have we seen Zach zach Dak touched past the ball to the flat to Elliott and allow him to turn up. I mean there was that play the goal line. He faces pressure and it you know, usually Dak is the the king of getting it over and getting it up the field to allow his guy
to get into the end zone. The ball ends up on the ground. The Saints really don't have anybody in that area. That thing might have been a walk in touchdown right there if they get the ball, if he can get the ball to Elliott the past to Rico Daddle. I mentioned that one the wheel route. They didn't get the pick, but they got enough where if the ball's up the field, he.
Had a couple of steps on him.
Yeah, Daddell could run under that. Now, again that's a back that's not Alvin Kamara running routes and stuff like that.
But what if I could on that place specifically, What really frustrated me about that play was Cooks is wide open over the middle for about a twenty yard game. Yeah, but and I understand that that's the reach and they're trying to created had the room, right, but go to the guy who's got twenty yards of space.
Yeah, there's there's there was no you're you're right, And I felt like, just looking at it some time, if you're gonna nippick some of his throws, I was thinking, bro, just hit that one in the hit that one in the gap to to the CD, hit the wheel, hit the little touch pass to Zeke, and now you're kind of like you're feeling a little bit better about Okay.
Those are big time plays. Those are plays you know, if you get the ball up the field and Doddle makes the catch, I think could have been a touchdown right there, you know, and instead it's not, and and you know the interception. You know, the the second one was a complete force. The first one was you know, Brooks, he's running that route and it's gonna be a big game. I mean, Deebo, the Paulson debo is not even in the debo, is not even in the picture. But by falling down now he's in the picture.
You know.
There were some throws that he that he made and that that were there were quality throws and then there was some just unfortunate ones that he made as well.
So we're talking about the red zone yesterday, the Cowboys had five different times, sorry, five different times when they were within the New Orleans thirty four. They end up with four field goals and one turnover on downs. Three of those times they were in the red zone in those drives and still ended up with field goals. One of them they ended up with the turnover on downs.
That being said, what do you think is the biggest challenge or the biggest problem for the Cowboys right now when it comes to their red zone offense?
Oh?
Man, I don't think I have an answer for you.
I could, I could look at a couple of things that have but I think it's been two different issues in both different games. I think in the Cleveland game, you had an instance where guys were on different pages as far as who okay, when you look at last season, when you look at last season, I was thinking about how exactly I want to break this down. When you look at last season and you look at the red zone threats that they had on offense, you got CD,
you got Cooks, and you got Ferguson. Just talking passing wise, right, Ferguson obviously leaves late last week in the second half, Blam and Dak are still not on the same page, and then Cooks was Cooks was able to get open. He had a he had that red zone touchdown last week, so I would prove him as the exception last week specifically. Uh, but then you look into this week, you don't have Ferguson. That misconnection is still off with Lamb. Pressure was getting
to Dack inside the twenty as well. They really dialed the pressure up inside the red zone, the Saints did, and I think that's what really kind of affected this game specifically. But they also didn't have the running game this week in the red zone whereas they did last week. And so it was all the same problems that you had last week in Cleveland amplified with more pressure and a lack of a running game this week against the Saints, and that's that's what created and no touchdowns.
In my opinion, if this website would work, I could look at all the plays.
And the.
Yeah, same thing watching him watching the live game exame thing I'm like, is that thirty one.
No. I don't have an answer for it just yet because I haven't been able to actually pecked all of this properly. But it is one of those things that if I'm being honest, I'm over here on my computer working and the next thing. You look up and like, oh, they're about to come off the field, defense is going back in and you're like, what the heck? How did it get that fast? Like how did that happen very fast?
But to your point, it's just like I think it's the inability to run the football, an area where I think they've been very, very good in past years when they're able to get into the end zone. Is the help that comes from that running game, and we're not seeing that right now. And you talk about the misconnection with Cee Lamb, that's something that is important to know.
I think they're gonna get better for sure, but Ferguson not being in the game, that's another weapon that has been very, very good for Dak in the red zone. In the red zone as well. I wonder how many touchdowns his guying from the red zone. I'm talking about Ferguson specifically, but it's just the tight end position that has come into him and to play years before that I can't imagine. But if you ask me a question and tell you exactly what's wrong, I don't know what to tell you.
Tell you what execution is a big problem because how many times did they try and do something creative. They did the reverse, the flip that that they didn't block, right, they tried a they tried another flip that that Stele didn't get out and block. The sack. That the sack that that Dak took down there was when they ran
five vertical. You see Cooks kind of remove himself like he he kind of goes like gets a little wider, and Dak is looking inside and he's looking at Tolbert inside, and Tolbert gets doubled and by the time he's going to maybe come back to Cooks, they already they're sacked like that. Steele has given up the inside to Granderson and then it's ball game from there. So there are things where they have it blocked. Well, the quarterback they miss.
I mentioned that the little little touch pass that they didn't get to Zeke was a miss. They ran the reverse and didn't block. You know, there's things that there's uh what other things. I mean, It's just it seems like to me that they get down there and when you don't need to have a bust or something happened, it happens, and it's caused them not to have the success that that they need down there.
Let me ask you, what if you're Dak Prescott going into that game yesterday, who are you relying on in the red zone you need to make a play, it's third down. Who are you relying on critically exactly? It's Cooks And he was getting he was he was getting doubled.
Yeah, yeah zone and Lamb Lamb got doubled down there too, and Lamb got whacked. I mean they they here, I mean he got whacked.
Yeah.
But I'll tell you this.
For me, I always look at any team that's struggling in the red zone, My first question is run. What is your running game? Yeah, because if a team is not worried about your runners, if they're not worried about you running the ball, that gives them a decided advantage because now the field is calm, and they can do a lot of different things with blitzing, they can do a lot of different things with playing coverage and muddying things up, like they can make it really tough on
you when you have a compact field. And so I think this still goes back and it may not always manifest itself in that way to where you're like on the running games. Okay, but the fact is if the other team is not worried about the running game, that changes how they play you in the red zone. And that's what I start with, is I just wonder if this running game is potent enough to where it forces defenses to play them honest rather than being able to do the things they're able to do.
They Yeah, you're right, And sometimes it has to do
with the back too. I mean, they run the ball with Vawn for three yards on a little toss and you're like, going, oh, they didn't block it very well there, and you wonder, I mean Saints are down there running and it's seven yards a clip, you know, I mean they're scoring from twelve yards out seven yards out, and you're thinking, like, and Dallas is trying to do things kind of like smoking mirrors instead of being what you're talking about some you know, going on and running the
ball and getting pushed in that.
In that regard, Baltimore would never do this.
But if I was Baltimore, I'm I'm coming out next week and I'm running dime until they can show it that they can run the ball.
I'm running die the whole game.
Yeah, he's gonna force them, Please, you're gonna you're gonna dare them to run the ball.
Daring them to run the ball. Absolutely.
I think that that would be the game plan for a lot of teams as they played Dabllas, because the last thing you want to do is just give us double lamb lamb like he can go all the way in one place. So yeah, you have to almost think about it like that. I mean, I think that that's what most teams probably have.
I can hear Jerry Maddalon in the back of my voice, dime being five guys in the Boss sixteen.
Shout out to Jerry Madeline, G appreciate you guys joining us.
We'll be back to borrow.
We're going to have a little game from Brian, which I'm sure we're gonna have some very thought provoking questions that we will have to answer. Join us until the n for Nick Harris. Brian brought U s Ambregard SI. I'm Derek Eagles and this has been the Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.