Cowboys Break: One More Time

The Break Life nest WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Nick, there is no one hundred, but we didn't get a ninety nine yesterday because we had other things to talk about, So why don't you give me a ninety nine day antin woods. There we go. I can't think of it. That's about it. Like the only ninety nine I think of is like a guy named Hervin McCormick. I remember the name nineties was in the nineties. Yeah, it's about it, though, I mean, I mean, there's been others, but I'm sure

there's some good ones. I don't don't. Chris Canty nine nine, Yeah, Chris not as fun now, it's not as fun it's lost it it's lost its mojost. I think we're at zero zero. That's where we are, one hundred zero. Good to know, just throwing it out there. I'm still smiling. Well, we do have This is the final regular season show. We will be moving to our off season schedule starting next week. Actually is the last show we're gonna do this week. And just you guys know, here's the schedule.

We got all the normal shows today at their normal times. Tomorrow there will be a joint show which Nick will be hosting UM and then on Thursday there will be another joint show that day will be on but not hosting Thursday. Have you not gotten the I was I was taking Thursday off. But okay, we'll figure it out. I didn't schedule. We talked about it. I didn't see it. I told you what it was. This is think we all said, like, now, this is this is very us. This is very us. Dave, you do have a calendar

on that one, buddy, I'll figure it out. I really just wanted to give Derek a hard time, Okay, good, yeah, well that's fair. I can accept that. I just wanted to make sure people were talking, So that's good. At least somebody talk to you. So, yes, we will have a joint show on Thursday. We'll have media mash on Wedndsay. I think Nick right, so there'll be a media mash on Wedndesay as well. And then next week we will be flipping to our offseason schedule. You guys can catch

us every Wednesday at eleven thirty. We will be doing our show from eleven thirty twelve thirty every Wednesday. And so Dave will also be starting up the Draft Show. I'm sure he's already got some good ideas rolling on that one. He's going to be hosting that this year. So mister Dave will be taking my spot on that show. That'll be happening on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I think at ten am. So makes you that I will have the full schedule up on the app. I'm sure William had

that up for you later this week. You'll be able to see what all these shows are and the schedule for them starting next week. All right, let's jump in. There were a few topics that we didn't get to yesterday about the game that I still wanted to hit today. I want to start first with the running game We didn't get a lot of time on the running game yesterday, although we kind of dabbled into it a little bit. Yes Sunday, Zeke's twelve or thirty one yards. His long

was nine yards. He also had four targets and only one catch for zero yards. Pollard, on the other hand, had four carries for fourteen yards. His long was eight. He had two targets and two catches for twelve yards. My question is, why do you think they refused or decided not to use Tony Pollard more in that game than they did? Now? I don't know, it's a valid question. Maybe we can one day ask a coach about it, if they're ever available to talk to us after. Was

that ever discussed after the game? Was that a question that ever got thrown out too? So, especially in COVID times, Just to give you an idea, because it's fair, like that's our job is to grill these guys, that's why we're there. But like Nick spends the postgame talking to anybody that's you know, Nick is the pool reporter for anybody in the locker room that's not the coach or a star. So they weren't playing along this week. Just

they were not case. You guys didn't notice Nick still sore from all the stiff arms he took to the face, right, Um, they should have used those in San Francisco. And then Jerry's going simultaneously as so then there's a green room where like your Zeke, you're a Marii Cooper, your big name guys, they all go McCarthy, Dak and Mica get the main podium. Jerry's talking in the middle of all of all this. So the point is is like you're kind of bouncing around. I did not get to talk

to Mike McCarthy this week. I honestly, I usually don't, and so I didn't get to ask him about it. I don't know if he even was asked about it. Again, with the way the game ended and all of the other storylines, you kind of divvy that up and you're like, okay that we can ask that Monday the wrap up. There hasn't been a wrap up, and that is expected sometime this week either tomorrow. They're expecting it. With the amount of stuff that's in flux. You know, Kellen Morn

dan Quinn are both interviewing for other jobs. Like I get I guess I get why they're doing that, But it is just kind of frustrating to not have a chance to follow up on that. I don't have a wonderful answer for you. I will say in defense of them, the offensive line got pancaked. They need I mean, Dak was running for his life. He got sacked five times. Zeke helped him out in pass protection quite a few times. We've said that a lot. I know people get tired of hearing it, but I do think that was a

big reason why he's on the field. Why he tripled the number of carries as Tony Pollard, I don't know, because you don't need to pass protect if you're running the ball. Then Zeke comes out after the game and says, yeah, I've had a torn PCL this whole time, partially torn. I'm just like, maybe the Tony's been hurt too, But I'm just like, maybe Tony ship touched the ball more often. A lot of plays are run ass options, so you know you have them out there, um, you know, and

Zeke's I mean they can't block. The offensive line couldn't block. Zeke's gonna help more than Pollard will, obviously. Um, you know, he blocked two guys on one play at one time, it was a great player. So I think that having him out there, you know, it's like they can they can actually do a little bit more things because they feel comfortable if they needed to pass. They also can can run the ball. You know, the results are about

the same. That's probably part of it. But yeah, I mean Pollard could help when when you lose and you're not running the ball, well, yeah, you want to get your dynamic players out there. And you know, and that's on Kellen too. I mean we've seen plays where they're both out there, you know. I mean, why why is it that they only are on the field together just a couple of times. That's a that's a wrinkle that

we haven't seen in a while, I don't think. So that's what I was about to mention, is the lack of us seeing them use them both at the same time, especially when we talk about the time position and how

you're missing someone that can actually help you block. When you have a guy like Zike you can utilize in that way, but also run the ball and keep him maybe, I mean you're not really as a defense, you're not really going to expect Tony Pollard to the much blocking, but it's another thing that you can at least try and see how it goes. And that's an I don't know, but to kind of what you hinted yesterday. And I don't know if we were going to talk about that,

but is it time? Yeah, And I mean I'll set it up for you. I mean what I was getting to was, I think watching them this year, I think there is a difference in how Tony Pollard runs the ball and how Zeke runs the ball. I think he's faster to the hole. I think he's quicker in and out of the hole. I think he's more decisive. I think he's more elusive. Obviously he's faster. I actually think at this point he If I were making the decision, I would actually have him taking the ball with the carries.

And that doesn't mean or at the very least, I would be splitting carries between them. It seems as though they're still in the mind frame that Zeke is the lead back on this team. I would shift away from that. I'd loved your opinions from you guys on whether you think that what you saw this year makes you think it's time to maybe start shifting that a little bit more. Well, I mean, let's see what's up with Is he gonna

have knee surgery? I mean, that's that's what I want to know, because before the season, you know, early in the season, before I guess the injury, you know, I thought what they were doing is fine. If you know, if he legitimately has a partially torn PCL or whatever, it's something that might need a little you know, either surgery or or something, or even a lot of rest. I'm okay with maybe going back and seeing how this thing plays out, because I think together both of them

were really good. And if I can get Zeke healthy again, then I think it'd be better both of them healthy again. You know, but didn't he say that supposedly he won't need any kind of Yeah, but I don't believe damn near anything I heard after that. I mean, first of all, do you know for sure? Second of all, like maybe you get an opinion on it later, Like the number of guys that are just like, yeah, I know, it'll

be fine, it'll be good. And then I'll be, uh, you know, I'll be getting my oil changed in mid February, and Adam Schefter will tweet that Zeke's having a Nisco like cool, let me call Nick all right, I thought he didn't be out. Yeah, I thought he didn't need to do this also though, I mean like I'm fixing the old line. I mean like a thousand percent. I mean, I'm retooling all of that. I'm I probably have three different starters across the board next year, some somehow, some way.

So I three three. I'm with you on that, Like, I think that's your biggest problem. Where who's the third? I think I think Lyle's probably or or or Lyell is playing left guard for him right all year, I'm doing something with those three positions. I gotta have a new center for sure, and I got to have a new left guard now, whether that left guard is moving over from right tackle and and steel comes in whatever. But you gotta be careful with that because you can't

trust timing right now. So you gotta you gotta almost need the three. Um. I don't know if if Lyell's is agile anymore as he as he was. I don't. I don't think he is. I think he might be a guard. He's mean, he's nasty, he's not as maybe quick on his feet as he was. You know, maybe maybe some push in the middle, and I think he is physical enough where he might be able to give me some pushing. Yeah, and I don't have that right now.

And if he's the enforcer like they say, and he is, I mean, he showed that role, but I think he needs they But I got I'm fixing the offensive line and you don't think because I think that's one thing, and I think that's the biggest thing. I do think from at least from what I saw, and it might have everything to do with that PCL. It absolutely may have everything to do with the PCL. It just didn't look like Zeke at the same burst that I was used to sing from Zeke and Polots looked like Polo

looked like he did have it. And that's where I'm like, if if it's not the PCL, if we find out that after this year, you go into next year and it's the same thing. To me, I think you get more out of it. That means that you can get to the whole faster than what I think Zeke's going. That matters. The offensive line needs to be worked on, but I would like to see more of a fifty

fifty split. I think I still think the Cowboys still seem to have this attitude that, like, Tony Pollard is a nice backup instead of a weapon who needs to be touching the ball more often. I'm looking at his game logs right now. He had double digit carries one, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight times, and six of those eight were blowout wins. Like he's getting double digit carries in the second half

of games that are way out of hand. I think the only time where he got double digit carries in a game that was really in doubt, it happened three times Vegas Patriots Chargers, and he played well. He had a hundred yards against the Chargers, had average four yards per carry against the Pats, and not so great against Vegas ten for thirty six. But even still, like I just feel like they still view him as a backup instead of a guy who can really help them. I

would like to see it closer to fifty percent. Do you think this is a nature of just NFL coaches, NFL locker rooms. I was trying to think of a situation across the NFL where you have a running back that has been the man for you and he's still on a team, but his role diminishes most of the time. In that instance, you see the guy go on, the team says, Okay, we're gonna let him walk, we're gonna he's gonna be a free agent, or we're gonna cut him,

or he's gonna get traded or something. It. I couldn't really think of a lot of situations where a guy has been the man, like he was the man here. A guy has been the man, and it's just like now, we think, right now there's a back that's better than you, so we're going to decrease your role and increase their role. Do you guys see that the same way or do you think this is just kind of a just the situation or more of a thing that just happens in the NFL, they just don't necessarily do that when it

comes to lead running backs. Well, Tony Pollard hasn't come in and just been like considerably better than z You know, if he was, then that would be easier. I mean, I think he's faster, he's quicker, and he's more explosive.

But I think that when you look at it, it's like still close because Zeke can do some things, you know, better than Pollard, and so it hasn't been heading shoulders above and that's probably why it hasn't just been a quick like we're switching this out, you know, I think, but we don't know if he can be as successful if given basically a bigger amount of snaps on the field. I can only recall one game, was it last year

or maybe two years? I think it might have been last year at where he was a starter and Zeke was out. He didn't play again San Francisco, And now he played, He played pretty good to the point where everyone asking Zeke to sit. Yeah, for Tony Pollard to take over that role. But it does make me wonder on a weekly basis, is he the type of guy that can be as successful being so much on the field.

Maybe right now we see him have those explosive plays because of the way that they're handling, and that allows him to be that effective on the field, But once you give him a bigger role, can he keep up with that? And I'll throw this in too, I think he's a much better pass catcher at this point. I mean, how many times we see Zeke out in the flat and just ball hits his hands, he drops it or for whatever reason it seems like he's not in the right spot or I can't think. I can't go along

with that. And I think Tony Pollard deserves a larger role. And I'm not asking him to carry the ball twenty times. I'm asking him to inch toward double digits. I don't think he's done that his entire career. It's hovered between six and eight. But Zeke, for whatever we want to say about Zeke, he has been good as a receiver this season in my opinion, and I'm not I am not talking about like being explosive and all these big plays. He's bailed Dak out a lot as like the holy crap,

I'm about to get sacked. Let me get this out of here. He did it on Sunday. I know he bobbled the one on the last drive and didn't catch it, but Dak, that was a good play. By the way, it was gonna be a one yard loss, which one maybe I'm thinking of a different play. There was like a little screen that they threw to him that he kind of one handed. It's been and that's what he's

been doing that all year. But what I was about to say is Dak basically lateral to him on an obvious sack and he turned it into like a small game. He's done stuff like that all year, where he's just had the wherewithal to catch a holy crap outlet pass and turn a bad play into at least a neutral play, if not a good one. So I think, and let's not just give Tony all the flowers. Like Tony's had

some drops this year. I can't give you an an obvious example, but I know there's at least been three or four occasions where, especially like over the middle of the field, he let it bounce off his hands. So I think Tony Pollard deserves a bigger role. I think Tony Pollard is a more explosive runner. I'm not convinced he's like this outright better receiver. I do think if you can get the ball in his hands, he's a

more explosive player. That's what I will say. You want to talk about the elephant that's sitting over there, let's go for it. I mean, it's about a thirty million dollar elephant. I mean it's it's money is important in this conversation. It's why you can't really move on. I mean, you have you're stuck with Zeke, and I don't say that in a way that like that is what it is,

but I mean, you're not moving him. So what I think the best way to handle this situation is is figure out a better role for Tony Pollard that both of them can play. And I'm drafting a running back as well in the fourth or fifth round, a bigger back, not a little scat back, but a bigger back. And if this guy comes in here with this retooled offensive line, like I just said, and he may be better, then

that's what happens. I mean, maybe, I mean, I know, I'm going back of several years, but you know, they drafted Marian Barber and they had Julius Jones already and Maryan Barber after a few years turned out to be after one year, it turned out to be we gotta get this guy on the field, and maybe that happens. Maybe you can strike gold, as we found out San Francisco has, but it's because their offensive line knows how

to block in the running game. If I were the Cowboys offensive coordinator, whoever that is, maybe it's Kellen Moore, maybe it's somebody new, but I would go to Tony the minute that all that's finalized, and I would be like, contract to your bud. You want a bigger role, you want a chance to maximize your earnings this time next year, get in there, get great at pass protection like arn, learn this scheme, Learn where you're supposed to be all the time. Get to where Dak trusts you implicitly on

third and nine, and make yourself interchangeable. Don't like, don't make us have to feel like we need to take you off the field in certain situations. And that's I would love to see a true split between him and Zeke next year. And I do think guy that I mean, if if they draft a new guy, that's fine. He bought a fourth rounder from me or whatever. And by the way, keep him coming. Hey every couple years, bring

me a new one. I mean, but again, that's the same, it'll be the same story, Like he can be the kick return specialist. Speaking of missing the state, I think the Packers drafted Kylin Hill late last year just like great college running back. He was like their kickoff guy,

you know, because it takes time, like Zeke is. Zeke is a rare guy who came in and like had all of that stuff and like I get it, it's boring to talk about pass protection, but like, there aren't that many running backs who teams trust to come in and do everything right away. So Tony needs to take a step in that regard. And then yeah, you can have a rookie come in and handle kickoffs and playing some blowouts or goal line packages whatever. But that's what

I would like to see. I'll say this, and I went back and I looked it up, and here's why I think what I think of him, and I agree with you, Dave. If you look at the entire season, Zeke's been a pretty good pass catcher. It's really been the final six games of the season. Checked this out. He had twenty targets in those final six games, he

only had eight catches. Of those twenty targets, most of the games he had all except for one of those games he only had one catch, and a lot of those games he had And so when you start looking at just how he's performed over the last six weeks, that's been where I was like, he just hasn't given them anything in the passing game. This last game he had four targets and one catch for zero yards. Like that's not helping Dak. That's not helping anybody in this offense.

Like I think that you get a little bit more, and especially if you're talking about getting him out on the outside catching passes, I think Pollard is more dangerous in those situations and Zeke. Zeke isn't a guy that necessarily makes people miss anymore. I want to be clear, I don't view Zeke as a dangerous weapon in the

passing game. I would like to know. I would like to go back and look at those games and see how many of them are desperation passes to keep a play alive, where Zeke's up here just trying to bobble it and keep it in play like that. And that's what he's been this year's He's been a last resort in the passing game, like, oh god, they blitzed, this is a hot read. Zeke, just just get two yards whatever, We'll live to fight another day. Like that's been his

role in the passing game more often than not. And I just feel like, like I want to say, I want to say it happened against I feel like it happened against either the Cardinals or somebody, Like I just have these like mental images of Tony over the middle, like dropping passes. And I'm not saying it happened a lot, but it definitely happened. It was during a game where a lot of them dropped the packs. Was gonna say,

I mean the whole team dropped balls against Denver. That might have been the one, because I mean I do remember he over the middle dropping the pass, and like everyone dropped one that day. Tony no doubt would be more dangerous in the passing game in terms of like just get the ball in his hands and he'll do something. And that's really my only point. It's not and that's the hard pot about having these kinds of conversations. You can quickly get painted as oh, you're against Zeke. It's

not that. It's that I think right now Pollard provides more in the way of if he has. There was a play this last week. It was a sweep where where Zeke got the ball, he was running to the right. They had it all blocked up. There was only one guy out there that was unblocked. It was a defensive back. There was a time when Zeke either runs that guy over,

he makes that guy missed. He didn't. And that's not Zeke's game anymore, Like he if he has that one guy, it's rare that we see him make that guy miss at this point in his career. I do think poloit makes that got missed. And that's my point. I think Polo is more dangerous because he can do those kinds of things that I'm just not saying regularly from Zeu fun Live question here from our friend Jack, I appreciate it. He says, what about Shiwo Illana Lua would he get

a chance next year? I I just want to bring it up because I do want to say I really think he makes the team if he stays healthy this year and maybe like he's a running back fullback hybrid, maybe Kellen could have done some fun stuff with him, But he is in a big category of guys where I'm like, that's cool and you can come to training camp, but like I'm not carving out a role for you. In February of this year, you know, like like the first thing Kyle Shanahan did when he signed in San Francisco,

his first signing was Kyle Juice Check. He was like, I'm I'm gonna do some fun stuff with you. This ain't that well I mean, I also you got to remember too, is you know all the running backs that come back from neck injuries. I mean, good point. Yeah, I'm pulling for him. That is a fair point. And I have just learned how to say his name, so I'm I was excited about him. But um, we'll see, We'll see how he comes back. But those are you know, those are missed minor little storylines like do they win

the super Bowl because he's on the team. No, but he was a fun player who could have done some unique stuff that that might have unlocked some things for Kellen's offense for sure. All right, let's take our first break. When we come back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about the about some of those jobs. I want to talk about these wide receivers and how they've performed in particularly Ceedee Lamb and what he's done, oh the last few weeks. We'll talk about that we come back.

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is finally here. Back to the break, all right, Get the ultimate fan experience for the ultimate cowboy fan. If you're listening, you are the ultimate cowboy fan for sure. Joined Dallas Cowboys United, presented by Global Life, starting at just twenty dollars. Joined today. That was I'm sorry, I just like Nick's read there like I just can't imagine you listen to this show if you like kind of like the Cowboys, right, you know, there's no way we appreciate it a little bit, especially on a day like

today Tuesday, following a playoff loss. I got the funniest tweet yesterday after you know, my little, my little speech I tried to give. I do it the same thing every year, This guy on Twitter wrote, he said, and some people said thank you for saying that. I kind of needed that, and some people are like probably like fo.

But anyways, this guy says, after time reflecting and speaking with my family, my wife who hates when the Cowboys are on, that's his family, he says, I have decided to return for my senior season as a Cowboys fan. I would like to thank Cowboys Break Nick Eatman for talk taking me off the ledge with his speech. We go Nino is the name there, so I love it. Got like a like all these concerned for the season years, all these college kids with the transfer pro I've decided

to I'm exit the transfer port roll. I'll stay here. I believe in this team. Maybe a little bit like that's funny, No, I mean it's but I also want to reiterate too, like I understand. I mean it's oh yeah, I I wasn't ready for it. I just I mean, I got nothing for these guys, Like what are we doing this week? I'm like, I don't know, preparing for the Bucks? I mean, yeah, I thought we'd be writing yeah, rematch, Yeah, rematch from week one? What's different this time around? Five

things that are different between the Bucks game? You know? Yeah, but Nick, you were talking about you and I were talking about that this this morning. They're really for us. We've never played longer than this, like usually because the NFL is going. But it's true, like when you say when you say one week pass, like this is as long as we've been in it. This is a this is what our bodies know, Like our bodies know about this time is when we're usually heading home at the

very best case scenarios. Wasn't I just wasn't prepared. I mean, I honestly, I thought they'd beat San Francisco. I was rooting for San Francisco. Feel bad about that, m especially after watching them. Yeah but yeah, but like like I got, I got a lot of messages last night that were like, we we played this Cardinals team. I was like, you don't know what's going to happen if they play, Like don't you don't but Cowboys three points, Cowboys don't have

Donald last time I checked. Yeah, well that's I mean Shannon upstairs. Today, Shannon was like, looking at the schedule, he goes some pretty good games next week. Too soon, I would say. I we talked about that after the show. You I don't. I mean, yeah, I wish the Cowboys were still playing, but like if it's on, I'm watching. I watched. I couldn't even watch most of that game. I watched the whole thing. I just watched Eli and Peyton.

It's probably not in that order, but uh yeah. When I saw Eli wearing that death Row Records chain, like that was pretty funny. And I'll be out, I will be front and center. This is this isn't gonna be a fun weekend. Oh by the weekend, I'll be Okay. Yesterday it was too soon. I couldn't do it. Man. I was just because the whole quarter I sat there and watched it. I'm thinking, man like, but Dallas at

their best, they could play with these teams. I just they just can't always show up and play at there but they don't. But here's here's the thing, though, anything that happens in the NFC or even the AFC, because they played one of those teams, Like, I don't think you can watch any game next weekend and be like Dallas could have beat them. They didn't show that they could. They really didn't. They showed they could beat and they could whip the Eagles and the Giants more than this

team beat them. But when it came to like good on good, they didn't. They didn't show they could do that. Yeah, maybe I'm just more forgiving, and I get it is a results driven business and I mean moral victories all that good stuff. But like they played the Bucks to the final snap, They played the Niners to the final snap. They could they played a they were competitive against the Chiefs. They didn't look great doing it, but like they didn't look like they didn't belong on that field. But you

know that. I think that's the point though, Dave, the way I look at it is and they did with with Arizona. They played to the last snap. And guess what in the playoffs in that first round against San Francisco they played to the final snap. Well, it wasn't quite a snap, but they played to the final snap like they're good enough. They are good enough to play with any team in the league. They're not necessarily good enough to beat those Yea, I think different. I think

we're saying the same thing. Yeah, no way, since yesterday. Oh, trust me, I haven't. I haven't. I'm well, your mood is completely different than yesterday. Yesterday we should have had a camera just recording Dave all day long. Yesterday. I I was, I'm I'm still, I'm still pretty bitter, to be honest with you, I'm just yeah, you know, it's most interesting about that. I remember when Day first got here, he was so emotionally detached from this team, Like it

was just kind of like you were very much. I'm a media guy, Like, I don't. I don't get here in the thing, and if we want to do this, we can't. Like I'm not, I'm really not upset that they lost a playoff game. I'm I'm upset and I feel like I this is I feel like this is how a lot of Cowboy fans feel. It's just it's the hamster wheel of it all. It's like, I get you. We did all of this, and like you know, it's like, uh, you got, you got. You didn't get near the mountaintop.

But like, and that's even more frustrating, Like you got back to the same mile marker on the mountain, then you tumbled back down and you look around and we're like, we gotta do this whole thing again. You literally look back up at that mountain again and you're like, wow, I came along, I've tumbled a long way. I went up a long way. I tumbled a long way and I wasn't even at the top, and now I gotta start climbing all over. Yeah, it's I mean, it sucks

that they lost, but like for me, it's not. It's not the pain of the cowboys losing. It's the pain of thinking, like I gotta start walking up the stam mountain again. I don't really want right now, show here we go. Yeah, all right, so let's talk about the wide receivers again. It wasn't a great day for them yesterday either, I guess holistically, if you think about it,

um ceedee Lamb only had one catch. My question for you guys is do you think the challenges with the wide receivers was more about what was happening with the offensive line in the quarterback or do you think that just they weren't getting open, they weren't creating opportunities for the quarterback. Yeah, I had to answer that. Somebody. Somebody asked that question on Twitter he had one catch. Is it Dax fault or is it Kellen's fault? And I was like, I would put three people in that. UM.

I like him as a player a lot. I do. I think he could be really good. I would probably put CD as my most disappointing player of this team this year if they Yeah, I know, Kean O'Neil's of trendy picked there, but CD is probably the most disappointing for me. Explaining that for me, ox Nardi was Randy Moss. Randy Moss, and he was beating the guy that turned out to be really good this year, Treyvon Diggs. He was making play after play after play after play, and

he didn't do that this year. He really didn't. He had he had some nice a thousand yards it's take such sounds, I believe, but he didn't make those. I don't have anywhere. I don't know where to throw it, so I'm just gonna throw it up here and let him go get it, and I thought he would be even more dynamic going into the season. I think it was. It was a close battle between Justin Jefferson and cd On who's the better It's not right now, Yeah, and

it's not like the Vikings were in the playoffs. You know, I just don't think he took the next step that I thought he was going to take. He still took a step, but not as big as I thought he would take. I don't know if I don't know if I'm willing to say he's the most disappointing player on this team. But I'm glad you said it because I was going to like what we saw in training camp. Looked like a guy who was about to take over the NFL. And yeah, and again he wasn't drumming on scrubs.

Raypon Digs led the league in interceptions. I don't get that's cool that he gave up yards. I get it, but like he was doing it against pretty solid cornerback play, and he just looked different. And he had some nice games. I mean, his game against New England was fantastic. Both of his touchdowns in that game were huge. But yeah, it's I was expecting more. To be honest, he had. He had five more catches and two hundred more yards than he did as a rookie, and that was playing

without Dak for most of the year. I just I thought, yeah, I thought we were going to see a Justin Jefferson like season. I think I said that yesterday, like all of a sudden, you know, we joked for a solid year, like I can't believe the league let us have this guy, and the guy taken five or six picks later is better than him by a pretty significant margin. Right now,

that's just facts. I think that's all. You think a lot of that is on him, or do you think again, this is this goes back to the quarterback and him not having and even him not having time, so it still goes back to our original conversation the offensive line.

I think there's a big chunk that's on him because I keep trying to make sense of it all, and I keep thinking, I want to keep bringing myself to Okay, the first half of the season, boat, when you look at how they started the year, you were able to say, Okay, wow, look at all the different weapons that they have, all the talent that they have. I was wont to say each position had one of the best ones in the NFL.

I would say that back then, and then looking at it now, you start looking around the roster and you're like, okay, you could argue Zeke with the injury. You could argue Dak got injured and came back. There was the mental aspect of things and things like that. Michael Gallup injured, but then ceedee lamb. He stayed pretty healthy and he didn't show talking about the abilities that you were mentioning, those kind of abilities that you've seen him do even

last year when he started. So I don't know what exactly to pinpoint there too, Okay, this is what happened to him, and that's why he wasn't as successful. And yes, obviously the old line is gonna have an effect, Dak Prescott is gonna have an effect. But at the end of the day, there were many plays too that the ball could have been caught by him he didn't. And that's the thing that you saw last year, how many

crazy plays and balls that he would catch. I don't know where You're like, whoa And that made one of the biggest highlights for his career. And then that was all gone, So what do you give the blame to other than just him and whatever? We might not know that he's struggling with, but for sure we haven't heard of any kind of injury that might have been affected him. Yeah, you know. I was also trying to think too, like we didn't see those plays that we saw on camp.

Did they even attempt it? Though? Good question? I mean, like, well, but I think it's also I don't know if it's it's I don't even I don't look at it open though. Yeah, I have to be open for that. It's just first thing, the goal in the floor thrown up. I get that, but I would even ask the question further than that, like that play it was a touchdown last year where he contorted his body Minnesota, and the question becomes was there as has there been a single catch like that

even this year. I'm not talking just to throw it up. I'm talking just to where he does something that's so remarkable, where it's like his athleticism is so much better than the guys that are out there trying to cover him. I don't care about this conversation, to be very blunt about it. No, no, no, I mean I'm taking it in a different direction because I've been thinking about this and I I don't know, maybe maybe I'm feeling a little bit of a philosophy change or something like that.

I don't know. I still I still don't believe in the idea of like being stubborn. But is the play caller doing enough to force the issue to get the ball into the hands of his good players? How many times dolle targeted this last game, I'd barely remember. I think I think he was close to I think he was targeted five times, um, which is insane. Yeah, five targets one catch. But like you look at you look at the numbers. CD was targeted one hundred and twenty

times on the year. Uh, second best after that was Dalton Schultz one hundred and four times, which, like, Dalton's great, but should he be second on your team in targets, like in terms of like trying to get the ball to that guy? Then you go, then you go look at Cooper. Do you know how many times Cooper Cup

got targeted this year? Probably one hundred and ninety one times, Like they always threw the ball him and by the way, he made something of it and all and like these are on teams where there are other weapons, Like I know he got hurt. If you extrapolate his numbers for a full season, Robert Woods was on pace for eighty five targets. Odell Beckham's only been there for half a season, but if you extrapolate, he's on pace for sixty five.

They've got an athletic tight end as well. Tampa. Um, I'm looking at Chris Godwin and Mike Evans were both targeted north of a hundred times. I'm just not convinced the Cowboys are making enough of an effort, like we're getting the ball to our studs instead of go through your progressions and if they're not open, then find the other guy. Yeah, that's useful, don't get me wrong, But there is an element of this thing where like you

gotta be like we are. We have guys that we have brought here tell you that saybody, no, no, go ahead. I'm sorry. I was just thinking, let's be careful now because we did have that situation a couple of years ago. I know, you know it can't be either, or I know it can't be either, or you know we talked about earlier in the year, Like the thing that's making this thing work is that these receivers are mentioned together and Dak doesn't care. He's gonna get it to whoever.

If it's nor Brown, it's nor Brown, which it probably shouldn't be, but you know, so it's a great but they staffs not doing that, and Stafford's like, I'm getting the ball to Cooper Cup. They did it on Sunday. I don't remember the exact moment in the game, but like Cedric and Noah checked in in twelve personnel and that was when Dak through probably his only truly deep pass of the day. Well, I mean, the Amari touchdown was only twenty yards I'm talking he threw it forty

yards down field. I think it was even in double coverage. And I was like, why are we doing this way? Why are we doing this when Lamb and Cooper aren't on the field, Like what why? Like it's great to say we're gonna take what we're given, We're not gonna change what we do based on what they're do, but like you don't have to be willfully ignorant of it either, Like, hey, maybe maybe our pro bowler in our first round pick should be the guys that we're testing double coverage with

or whatever. I just I think you got to find a better balance there, Like you can't just be completely stubborn and just be bound and determined all the time. But I think you gotta make more of a concerted effort to put the ball in your playmaker's hands. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's real quick. I think that we talk about it, and actually they talked about this earlier in the season a lot. They were going to

aggressively take what the defense gave them. I think the difference in that philosophy is you spend more passive recent Yeah. I know, but but I would even say even from that standpoint, you look at a team like we were just talking about Cooper Cup, I think the difference is what they do with the Rams, is they say not, we're just not going to take aggressive of what you give us. We're going to create ways that we can get the ball into cups hands. The same thing with

San Francisco. We're going to create ways to get the ball in Deebo's hands. By the way, everybody knows who's playing San Francisco. Deebo at Samuels gonna get the ball. We gotta stop Deebo Samuel. They still find ways, creative ways to get the ball in his hands, and that I think maybe the difference here is that Dallas is saying, hey, we'll get it in Cedric Wilson's hands if he's the guy that's open and we expect him to do the things that Amari can do, instead of saying, no, Amar's

our best player or CD's our best player. We're gonna find ways and create ways we can get them open and get the ball in your hands and let them do things right, which and I wanted to talk. I'm glad you brought that up because I do think that's a point worth talking about. And my friend Seth Kalina for Pro Football Focus actually wrote a really great story yesterday about Kellen's offense. You can go read it if

you want to. It's really interesting, just about like it relies a lot on Dak to do everything and like go through his progressions, whereas a lot of other coaches scheme easy looks for their quarterback to get balls to guys, and like there's this weird toxic attitude to where it's like you can only be a good quarterback if like you don't have a line and you make all the progressions yourself, you know what I mean. It's like, well, if Dak was great, he could overcome this off defensive

line killing him every down. It's like, why can you only be good if life is really difficult? Like why, Like, it's not it's not a bad thing for your coach to scheme up easy throws to Amari Cooper for you, and I just that hasn't been a thing enough for this offense. I think I don't like comparing anybody to Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. I don't think that's fair. They're never gonna He's never gonna be that, you know. But you can see, especially for Brady, you can see

why he has played for so long. He is not worried about the stats at all. He's he is not worried about making all the best throws. There was that one play we saw with Dak where all all season he keeps saying, yeah, I got a little greedy there. You don't have to get greedy. You take what's there and keep going. It's first and twenty and Cooper is gonna give you seven eight yards maybe if you break a tackle and make more than that. But you trying to throw the ball to blank Jarwin down the field.

That's not your strength, and that's not his strength right now in the middle of you know, in the middle of him coming back and all that. I just don't think that was a smart play. And now it's second and twenty you're trying to get in field goal range. And I just thought that was an example of somebody like a Brady who's just like, Okay, you're gonna give me that boom. I got it because I'm gonna do another seven, and I'm gonna do another seven and I'm

gonna get a first down. And I just I think that the greedy part of is is something we don't talk about as much. And I wonder do you remember from week from Week two against the Chargers, which was a very penalty heavy game if you remember, not on the level that we've seen in the second half of the season, but there were a lot of flags in

that game. From there going to New England, they kept getting out of those first and twenty situations, like they would get a hold and then they would get it back like instantly, and they did it pretty reliably for like a month. Maybe that just gave him an inflated sense of confident. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, yeah, we're getting this back right here. Don't worry about we're getting twenty two. I don't care if it's first and twenty and that's

not a way to live. You get the feeling that Dak is going to say something like in It won't be the US, It'll be some like CBS Radio, a serious interview or something where he'd be like, I was never the same after the calf injury. It hurt me all year long. I was playing with you know, something like that where you're like, honest. I don't think he'll say that now. I think once he retires and he looked back on his career, I think he will talk about this season and say I wasn't right, because we

all see it. Like some of the things we see from him, I've never we haven't seen Dak be, in my opinion, be as inaccurate as he as he was this year. So many times he doesn't talk about this season. I hope, I hope this isn't the season that he talks well, he'll talk about it from a standpoint of the question will be like, what was the season that was most disappointing you, and I think, get you know, Danny'll get into it. I honestly don't think. I don't think.

I don't think Dak was himself this year for whatever reason. I don't know the reason. Only he knows the reason. I don't think Dak was the same. I don't get why he would be so defensive about it if that was the case. You know, like he just refused to eat because of his personality. He's that type of personality where when you have those people that are extremely optimistic and always thinking the positive, they will never let the negative ever get into their mind, even if it might

be true. They never let it get into their mind because it takes them away from their optimism. Yeah, well, I was thinking of that, and like the injury aspect, I'm like, it would have been so much easier if that was really the case, to just say, Okay, he is struggling with because then you get people that are like us or other people from the media looking at it like, well, makes sense, he's struggling with this injury, but he's out there battling through it and blah blah blah.

So because yesterday I was thinking of that random I'm like, Okay, is this something that in the next few weeks we're gonna hear like kind of like Zeke but we knew about Zeke and we knew he was I don't but something that came about with Dak. Oh yeah, he was still dealing with that, and that's kind of what led to his inaccuracy or the way that he was playing

and all that. But then at the same time, like that would have been if that's the case, it would have been great to be mentioned all throughout the season because then you get a lot less heat for it. No, but that's it's and I've been around the block enough times and I don't want to put words in Dak's mouth, but I could see that happening, or even if it doesn't. That's it drives me crazy because like, and it doesn't

have to be Dak. So and so is struggling and struggling, and we come on the show and we're like, he looks like crap, he's struggling, And then so and so is like a holes, like, hey, I've got a high grade ankle sprain that nobody knows about, and this that and the other. I'm like, can you say it? Then because otherwise, like I got nothing to go on, I gotta just I'm I'm just watching the game and trying

to analyze it based on what I see. You hiding it from me isn't helping anybody, yourself included, because people will go easier on you if they know that you're banged up. But I want to be clear, I don't know that I think that it was an injury or he wasn't right physically from the standpoint if he was still hurting, I know, I think it actually is, and

I don't know. I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this, but sometimes when you get an injury, what tends to happen is you start you start overcompensating for the area that was injured. Even once you're healthy, you still overcompensate because you don't quite use it the same way. You don't quite trust that muscle, that ligament, You don't quite want to put the same torque on it, and so it changes your mechanics a little bit on

how you do things. It happens when me running all the time, like you, you just change up what you do because you're trying to overcompensate for the pain that you were feeling before, even though that pain may not

be there anymore. And I just wonder if some of that stuff happened for Dak where he just wasn't the same, It wasn't quite perfect the way it was before because he was still overcompensating for my bone was sticking out of my leg months ago, right, And I just I just wonder, I don't know this, I just wonder if maybe that was a situation hopefully not, because and that makes me think of a guy like late in Vanderesh

and him with the times that he got injured. I mean, every time he came back, he just seemed like worse and worse. And I don't think that it was necessarily a physical thing. It was more well, yeah, a combination of it. But at the same time maybe mentally where he's like not playing or hard throwing himself to tackle as hard because of his mind he's gonna get hurt

again in his neck and this and that. So I don't know, hopefully it's not that, because it could lean melt into like next year and the years to come. I don't know. I would I would probably think this year, I would guess Dak is probably going to spend a lot of time in the off season just work on

his fundamentals. That's what I would guess. Because we saw him a lot of times this year kind of throwing off his back foot, I would probably guess this offseason he's gonna spend a lot of time working on footwork, working on his fundamentals, the things he couldn't do last year because he was rehabbing. He couldn't really work on those things that you have to keep up on as a quarterback. I would suspect he's gonna do a lot of that this offseason. Are you gonna take our final break?

Will come back and we want to hear from you guys. Eight eight eight eight five five two to nine seven. Let's get some phone calls. I'll see what you guys have to say about this team. Where they go from here. We'll do that when we come back to This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. I want to use what the pros use. How about the official men's skincare brand

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to you at Stetson dot com. Slash Cowboys. Back to the Break, Welcome back. It is the final segment of the Break. We don't have a few more minutes here. We're life from s WBC Morgage Studios at the start, So we're gonna take a phone call. We got a call from Lance and Shyene. Lance, what up, ladies, lady and gentlemen, how y'all doing? God good good? Hey, we were talking about Kellen Moore and the way he directed

the offense this year. Kellen Moore is the problem when you got Maury Cooper, which is the best route one on this team, and you don't even attempt to get to him. That's the first problem. CD is the next. I can't blame CD for not catching balls because we don't know how Kellen Moore is calling up the plates. So I'm leaving all this on basically Kellen Moore. What

Garry Jones needs to do and step in. I'm not sure when McCartney was hired, if he was limited to what he could do, what could he not do with the coordinator? But I blame a lot of this on McCartney too, because he used to have stepped in when we stopped running. We need to run to set up the path, and yes, our offensive line needs to be fixed. But Kellen Moore is the problem, all right. We appreciate the problem too, that is the problem too, But Kellen

Moore is the problem. All right. We appreciate the call, and I actually do think there is some truth to that. I do think that it didn't seem like, at least it didn't seem like they had a lot of answers for the issues that they had faced since the Denver game. Offensively didn't seem like they could quite find their groove find their way out of that. And that has to be you have to give a lot of that to

the offensive coordinator of having to figure that out. I don't like, and I'm not going to I don't like calling for people to be fired, and I'm not going to sit here and like call for Kellen More to be fired. But it's two months of really mediocre offense and not getting results against quality opponents. And there's not a very long list of excuses. I mean, the offensive line wasn't good, but like everybody was available. They tried

McGovern that didn't work. They put Connor Williams back in there, that didn't really work. You know, maybe they could have moved Lyle to guard like break glass in case of emergency whatever. I don't know, But there's not a long list of excuses. When you're like, well, why didn't this work? I mean, who am I wrong for thinking that? So, like I'm I'm not calling for somebody to lose their job. But that is something that the Cowboys should look at

and consider, and it's concerning. Like I'm not as confident in Kellen Moore as I was before the bye week this season. I thought the call, I mean I thought I thought the caller was a tad bit hypocritical and some of the things that he said of saying I'm not going to put it on Ceedee Lamb because I don't know how the play calls are with Kellen Moore. But if you don't know how the play calls are, that you're you're also calling him the problem. I mean,

there's a lot of things we don't know. But as Davis pointed out, and then the caller pointed out to offensive line, Dak calling Moore, yeah, it's it's a big problem all the way around. Everybody has a say in this. I just know this. If you fix that offensive line, guys can run behind it and Dak can throw behind it. A rookie quarterback in the fourth round who shouldn't be starting is starting and succeeding and wins Rookie of the Year because the offensive line is awesome. This offensive line

needs to get better. And then I think that's where it first started is because you can't change DAK and you can't change the not right now, So fix that and I will, and if Kellen Moore is here next year, I agree with Nick. I mean that that's just the easiest fix, because I don't agree with that part about like they needed to keep running it wasn't working, Like who what game did you see them play after the buye where you had confidence that they could run the

ball when they needed to. I don't think. I don't think there was a game this year that pissed me off more than the Saints game, just in terms of having to watch it, because they just kept stubbornly running and it didn't work. And ironically Tony scored on a sweep when they finally decided to go outside, but like their bread and butter in between, the tackles sucked and they wouldn't go away from it, and I wanted to scream. I hated that game plan so much, so I don't

think that is the right idea either. I think either either change the scheme or fix the offensive line so that this scheme can get back to work in the way that we saw it. All right, we appreciate you guys joining us. That's a rap. That's the final regular season show for the twenty twenty one season. We will start next week on our offseason shows. We'll start talking about some big picture things like what's going to happen with these coaches, who are going to stick around, who

may be gone? Tot them for Nickiepan, Dave Helm and Amber Garcia. I am Derek Eagelton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.