Cowboys Break: Passing Team?

of The Break. We are live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star coming off a Cowboys win, Cowboys beating Detroit Lions in Detroit. They moved to a record of six and four in the lead in the NFC East. And we're gonna break down for you guys what happened in that game yesterday. There were lots of moments in that game, lots of ebbs and flows, and obviously a lot of storylines that come out of that game. And to me, there's really no bigger storyline than Dak Prescott.

So I'll start right there with you for you guys, he was twenty nine to forty six sixty three completion rate, completion percentage. Sorry, he was had four hundred and forty four yards of passing, three touchdowns, one hundred and sixteen point six quarterback rating. Man, it's pretty freaking good. Nick. After the game, though, you made the comment there on the sideline, did miss a couple throws? No? No, No,

that's not really what I was trying to say. Okay, okay, Well I wanted I wanted to talk about it because I actually agree with you. There were a couple of throws he missed, but I didn't think they were necessarily a big deal. But let's talk. No, I wasn't trying to I was only trying to see if this was the best game he's ever played, got it? And so I was like, did he Am I missing something here? Did he you know, seventeen in completions but they threw a lot. Yeah, I'm like, but I mean, I know

that they went to beat the Lions. But I'm just saying that he's doing things that are that he's kind of the guy that's and I even wrote maybe he's the straw that stirred this drink. So now because he's starting to do things even though they're trying to take away his weapons and he had a great game. Estray I thought, I thought he played phenomenal. He made it rain on them bros. You know everyone gets that because not everyone knows his name. It's true. His name's rain

Dakota Prescott. I would hope you know that if you're a Cowboys fan listening to this show in twenty nineteen. Man, he was. He was really impressive. And it's funny. I always say it like it's dumb until they come to that conclusion and then it's smart. Like last week, it was like, well, you want to stay balanced. We did make some adjustments, we threw the ball forty sixth time in the game, but you still want to try to

run and establish the run. And then after the game yesterday, I was like, well, why would you go away from something that's working. Of course we're gonna throw the ball like that's what we're gonna do, and why wouldn't Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you? I wish they had come to that conclusion in the week before, But everything was working for dak Yeah, Tavon Austin bailed him out. He had ball inexplicably go through Darius Slay's hands. But them's

the breaks. He is playing out of his mind. If the Cowboys had beaten the Jets, I think he'd be right up there with Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson in terms of MVP conversation, like it was a nationally televised flop of a game and rightful, I mean, there's six and four. I'm not and again people love to jump to conclusions. I'm not saying he should win the MVP because I think Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson have both

out played him to this point. He would be much more a part of the conversation if the Cowboys resume was just a little bit better and highlighted by this game right here. I know the Lions aren't super impressive defensively, but that's impressive no matter who you're playing, right You Know what's really exciting to me is in the past, when we talked about Dak Prescot, we talked about him needing that talented player to make him look better or to help him out. He couldn't be just an average guy.

And I'm just saying the White Sievers are average or anything like that. They're better than average at this point. I think based on what we've seen, but the fact that Dak has been able to play like that with so many different targets rather than him having to lean on one person, which is Amari Cooper. You see him just throwing the ball all to so many different guys.

So that's exciting to see from him, and at the point that he's at in his career as a quarterback as we look to move forward in the future with him. That's actually a great point because it's not just even about Amari. Basically, yesterday, he did that without his two best offensive weapons, and I shouldn't say without, but they didn't have statistically the best games. I'm talking about Ezekiel

Elliott and Amari Cooper. Neither one of them had great games statistically, but they were able to find the guys that were open. He was able to get the balls, to get the ball to them, and they were able to make place. You know, he's going to show these defensive coordinators that you want to keep playing like this,

that's fine. I'm going to keep throwing it around. And of course, obviously this game coming up, you know they've got the critical they got they got the best coach in NFL history, um coaching this week and so we'll

see what they scheme up for him. But the thing is is that he's showing that if you want to just continue to crowd the box and stop Zeke, you know, I could make place in the red zone, though they haven't, they haven't proven that they can do that when but that that's the only down part about that is shortened shortened space. Can they make throws to get that? That is a really fun element. And I mean, and look, you know this this wasn't like just the most complete

dominant effort. I'm sure we'll get to the defense. I want to be careful not to just heap too much praise for an eight point win against the you know, a team that they should have beaten. But everybody wants to knee jerk like, well, Zeke had another bad game, blah blah blah blah blah. Is Tony Poller better? And

I think it's so silly. And what Nick just said is what really intrigues me and excites me, is like, if defenses are going to keep playing them this way and Dak can keep taking advantage of it to the two four hundred yards, it's gonna stop, real stop. It will stop. And now'll loosen up and Zeke Elliott will be just fine. And that's sorry. You want to make a point, but I mean, like that's balance. It's not we ran the ball twenty five times and throw the

ball thirty times. Like that's not balanced balances. We can get it done either way. Once you decide what you want to take away, will kill you with the other thing. And we know they can run the ball. We know they can, but teams have been focusing on taking it away and Dak is making him pay for it. He couldn't do that earlier in his career and he clearly can now. And again, I don't care that the Lions are twenty eighth in the league in past defense. Four

forty four is four forty four. I mean that's not common even in the modern age of the NFL. It's I can't say enough about how impressive it was what they I will say about that, though, is I do think that you look at how the passing game has gone. They've had other games this year what he's strolling the ball all around the yard and had some big impressive numbers and they ended up losing. And that's where I wonder if teams get to the point where they say, uh,

you know, maybe we ought to rethink this. Maybe maybe they look at the Cowboys and they say, we still would rather have him throwing the ball, because when they're running the ball and running it efficiently, they take way more time off the clock. You have way fewer opportunities. And so yes, they may have a great offensive day statistically, but if it doesn't end up in a win, then

doesn't really matter. And that's the part why I'm a little bit concerned about what's happening with the running game. I do think at some point they got to figure out how to get that thing on track, because they still have to be able to be able to I think in order for this defensive play well, I think they got to have time when that defense is not

on the field. Yeah. You know, the thing that is encouraging is if you're not a very good blocker, you're just not a good blocker, you know, like run, pass, whatever. But the fact that they are blocking so well in the passing game and Dak is going through all of these reads, that makes me think that when they are trying to run it is loaded boxed. It's it's not that they're just missing blocks and they can't push people around.

Maybe strength is a part of it, you know, you want a stronger line on third and one, third and two. But they're doing a phenomenal job with him just standing back there and going through these reads that it makes me think that the road line is fine. They're just having a harder time with these stacked boxes. I mean, for Randall Cobb to do what he did and Gallop and all those guys, I just think it was it goes through the line saying this is how we're gonna

you know, you have to throw to beat us. I would throw this in there, and I wish, you know, I wish I could go back and take a look at the game on game pass before we did this show. But just spitballing off the top of my head. One thing I loved about this game was they executed the basically short, easy passes that qualified as runs that me personally, I've been dying to see. We saw the Tony Pollard

pop pass. We saw a wide receiver screen. I think it was to MARII Cooper didn't like hit for huge yards, But those are basically runs in my book. So that's another that's another fifteen to thirty yards when it copped on the little short shovel. They did two or three of those, and they ran a screen to Ezekiel elliy At that went for a touch night. It's that little stuff that I think we would all agree we've been

dying to see more of. It's not in the box score under rushing yards, but I think of it the same way. And when you consider that, it's a much better day in that category than what the box scores suggests. So I think I take that into account when I think about it. So let's look at the statistical from a statistical standpoint, thinking about the fact that they threw the ball forty six times in the game yesterday and

they only ran at twenty four times. Are we starting to see a shift in how the Cowboys will play offense? Because I do think that even when they all, like I said, other points to season, the offense has has been in my opinion, passing has been what they've done best. I don't know that I've seen this kind of discovery. Maybe there has been, but this seems really really slant it to the side of throwing the ball. Yeah, but

he just said it though. I mean, it's a couple passes to Pollard, a couple of screens things like that that are high percentage rows that you know that that pop pass is. You know, I think that play is going to ruin fantasy football, honestly, but hasn't happened yet. I really believe it will. It's gonna change. You can't just keep doing catches like that. But um, but I just think that that's what Dave said. It was high

percentage place and they trust him and that. I thought the most telling thing was the fourth I mean, the in the final drive of the game. They can keep just running in there, forced you to call all those timeout pun it forty seconds to go whatever, and they said, no, we're gonna just let him roll out the pass. And that's the thing, Jason Garrett. He's not a great game manager if people think that, and they do, and when it happens, it's, you know, high alert, oh my god it.

But when he does manage the game, well, it's never mentioned. They managed it well. They did went for two like they were supposed to. They got the fourteen point league and they said, you know what, we're gonna We're gonna kill this game right now and go and so when it. When it works, you gotta give him credit if he's gonna get crucified when he does when he doesn't. Which we don't have to get into this debate right now, but we just talked about it because it happened the

last time they went to Detroit in twenty thirteen. The old playing to win versus playing not to lose. This is me. I know you feel differently, but playing not to lose would have been running three times, punning it and saying, Jeff Driscoll can't get that many yards in that short amount of time. That's playing not to lose. Playing to win is calling a high percentage pass that lets you pick up the first down and in the

game on your terms. I thought that was fantastic. Whether it was Kellamore, whether it was Jason Garrett, probably both. However they came to that decision. I loved it. And that's how you get road wins is you put yourself you give you have the confidence to make those types of calls. And the only reason I always argue with you because I just think the result is the same. You know, whether you're trying not to lose or you're playing to win, the result is always the same there.

So it's just how aggressive do you want to be and where is your strength? What do you feel like? And I think the part of Dak Prescott rolling out, being smart with the ball getting it to the tight end is just as high percentage as them going They weren't going to score if they would have punted. The Lions weren't going to drive and score. They don't have the Calvin Johnson type guy to go make the play like that. They don't. Driscoll's not going to do it.

But your past interference penalty here changes everything. Or Xavier Woods leaves the game for two plays and they give up fifty yards back to back, which is something that happened ten minutes prior. Going back to your question about them kind of turning more into a passing game, something that I heard. Someone asked Dak prescotting in the press conference last night about that, and his answer was basically, well, why are we going to steer away from something that

we see that is working? And I'm like, yes, final, oh wow, finally last week. Yeah, but at least being able to hear that from there, I mean, doesn't mean that they're not doing it back there or talking about that. But when you hear it just gives you a sense of like, Okay, we're not all crazy. We you guys are kind of in the same page as us, and

you guys still see what we see. So it was just good to hear that and listen to them have that kind of mentality now of like, you know, if we see that this is working, let's keep doing it and hopefully going into next week and the rest of the season when they go back and see how having Tony Poler on the field, how that helped the Yes, keep doing it. All right, We're gonna take our first break when we come back. We're gonna talk about Ezekiel Elli.

He had sixteen karries yesterday for forty five yards only a two point eight average, and of course that fumble there on the first drive. We'll talk about that and I'll ask you the question, are you concerned about Zeke? We'll do that when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. I'm Jay nova Check, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys back in the day. I was a guy who always got the tough yards and

that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Dear three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yard work I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand John Deer the equipment that's just right for you, visit a John Dear dealer today and run with us. We are the official tractor provider of your Dallas Cowboys. Whether you're into being a part of this or more into something like this, Sea

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best wireless network. Best network based on GWS one score, September twenty nineteen. Back to the break Welcome back. It is the second second of the break block in SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, we're talking about the Cowboys big win yesterday over the Lions. Uh they win thirty five twenty seven. Move to six and four. Let's talk about Ezekiel Elliott. Yesterday he had sixteen carries for forty five yards at two point eight average um. And did

he did you have one touchdown? But he also had that big fumble there in the early parts of the game that the that the alliance turned into points. Are you guys at all concerned about Ezekiel Elliott and kind of how he's performing right now? I'm concerned anytime and running back fumbles, I mean that that is and and you know I made a joke about it on Twitter yesterday is like, I don't want to talk about slow starts for another seven days. But what choice do you

have when they do that? I mean fumble on the second play of the game and a touchdown drive coming right after me? What choice but you have? Do you have but to talk about it? Um like in terms of you know, forty five rushing yards and not not really, I don't know, I'm not not not when your quarterbacks going for forty four. I mean that's the thing, like, give give Dack fifty yards less and give it give it to Zeke, you know that kind of style of

running and and balance. Zeke's got ninety five and Dak's got three ninety four and that's balance. And everyone's excited. But I mean, like we said earlier, as soon as you start, they can't do anything. Like if you have a lot of Saints games where Dad can't throw and Zeke can't run, Yeah, I think you have some concern, But they the defensive coordinators are showing that their respect for Zeke Elliott in the running game is still there. Until they have seven man boxes and still and stop him.

Then I think you started getting concerned. But I'm not I'm not there yet, and I don't know if this week's going to change anything. But yeah, Jedi out there. I mean he'll he'll come up with some kind of best defense in the league. Yeah, Ji, he is a Jedi. Oh, he definitely is a Jedi. I just er and seven linebackers and I don't know, he's definitely And I mean we took a call about it last week. We've talked about it plenty, like it is. Yeah, it sucks that

he doesn't have more long runs. I think he's got one run of twenty or more on the season, and you would prefer he's more explosive. I mean, we've seen him do it as a pro, and I mean he

did it at will in college. Obviously that was a while ago at this point, but it's still what he brings to the table as a workhorse, like as a guy who can fight through that contact, take a minimum of sixteen if not twenty five or thirty carries a game and still be productive, be the focal point of a Defensei's efforts and still produce I mean, yeah, forty five rushing yards two point eight yards per carry along

of eight that's bad. But then you know, two catches for twenty eight yards, including a seventeen yard touchdown on a screen pass, which we all know how good he is at that. Again, I mean all of that goes into account, right, I just I'm not ready to be worried about it. Sorry? Could it be? I haven't I'm trying to remember all these plays. But could it be maybe due to what the offensive line is doing and what kind of holes they're being able or unable to

open up for him? I don't know. I think anytime a running back is not getting a great deal of production, I think that's part of it, at least he goes in. What I don't know. What I don't know is is Zeke seeing everything the way he should? Is he hitting the holes with the rate right kind of burst? Like those are things that sometimes you can't really notice. You just noticed there's not a there when he gets there. But the question in becomes was there a hole there

preceding that? In? Was there an expectation that he should have found that whole quicker and should have been through it by the time it closed up? That's what which is what he's being able to do in the past years. It's like he'll make a play out of nothing, and

that's kind of what we're missing now. He actually there was a couple of plays in that game where I thought, and I think we were talking about one of them, where I mean, he just kind of runs right into the line and then all of a sudden he kind of sports out for four or five yards. I thought he did a decent job of that. No big runs.

Once the second week in a row that their longest rush is less than ten yards, and the second week in row that the longest rush is not by running back, because Dak was nine yards and last week Tavon was eight. So they're not getting any kind of long runs at all,

not even decent fifteen to twenty yard runs. It's tough to say this without doing some tape study, but I wonder, I mean, he's such a patient runner, and maybe he's waiting so long for a hole to develop that will give him a longer run that it prevents him from just getting the typical three to four or five yard run.

Like I'd like to go back and look at that, but there is an element of that to where he you know, it looks like he's waiting so long to identify where he needs to be that the play doesn't wind up going anywhere. I mean, you know, Pollard had a great game. I'm ecstatic about it. He would that is a picture perfect look at how I would like them to use Tony Pollard. He caught four balls. Two or three of those catches were really more runs than anything.

But his touchdown was going across the formation out of the slot. I mean he basically ran a drag from the slot. He can do that. It's awesome. He got a couple of chances. It's funny because you know, the opening kick was kind of a disaster, and I mean, like, oh my god, enough of Tony Pollard as a kick returner. And then his play in the fourth quarter on the one that went over his head was fantastic and big play in the game. We talked, talked to a bunch

of people in the locker room. I mean that he played it the way you're supposed to play it, like he lined up on the five or the ten and it went over his head, so you think it's gonna be a touchback. It just took an amazing bounce, like just a hell of a play by Detroit's kicker and then he still managed to corral it and get further than he would have if it had been a touchback.

It was an awesome house. So I think eight total touches for ninety eight yards and a touchdown again, and I would bet his snap count was less than twenty five. I like, I haven't looked at it. Yes, even less than that. Yeah, I mean you look at just a number of times that he actually had the ball, and I'm not talking about special teams. He had two carries for twelve yards, and then he had four catches on

four targets for forty four yards and a touchdown. My question for you guys, are you surprised the Cowboys didn't go back to him. This all happened most that offensive production happened at the end of the first quarter heading into the second quarter, and it doesn't. I don't think he touched the ball again the rest of the game, where you kind of shocked that they didn't going back to that little he had the two point conversion and

the two posion whatever quarter. I guess I was talking about more of the offense at It's like, Okay, you saw him get that touchdown and getting the ball and all that and people are excited. Tony Poler gets sit I can't even say sit Zeke down. But then you see Zeke get the ball and then he gets moving, then he gets a touchdown, and it's like, it made me think of that, you know, when we wonder, okay, what they do at tight end. It's like, okay, you

see Blake jar we're making it play. But now they feel like maybe they need to get the ball to Jason because he's the main guy and blah blah. So it made me think of that, and like, I wonder if because of his small amount of success that Tony Poler had, do the Cowboys feel like maybe they need to give zek the ball and the opportunity for Zeke to make his own play. Yeah, you know, I don't know they think like that during the game, but I

see your point. I mean, it seemed a little curious they didn't go back to him after they saw the success that he was having him. To me, that was more about the matchups that he was getting, yeah, and so why not continue to exploit those? But again, well we're making when we're really splitting hairs because again, the offense put up four yards, so it's kind of like they were moving the ball, they didn't necessarily need to

go back to him. I guess, yeah, fourth straight touchdown, I mean fourth straight scoring possessions after the touchdown, then they punted when zeke Bo was back in there, and then went touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown. So it's not like, yeah, I don't have a problem with that. I can't sit here. They finally give him the workload that I want. I can't sit here and nitpick it. And that's that's kind of my point is like Tony Pollard's good, he brings

some juice, he should be involved. That doesn't mean zeke is a bad player needs to have his snap count drastically reduced. I think that's the most knee jerk thing in the entire world. But it's hard not to look at this. I hope the coaching staff looks at this and says, this guy needs to be a sizeable part of the game plan. I mean sizeable meaning again eight

to fifteen touches. Whereas you know, I can go back and I can show you the snap counts, like from the Miami game until like yesterday, you're talking five snaps snaps or less, and that's just not good enough for a guy with that much talent. That doesn't mean you need to reduce Zeke's role. Was Zeke on the field when these when they're doing these pot passes? Um, I know that that series that he was Tony scored, he was not on the field to that is going to

be important as well. Yeah, and I wondered if if Zeke was there, if they don't like they don't like uh twenty one personnel for whatever reason, they just don't like to do it. I don't get why. But they did do it some yesterday early in the game, and they kind of kind of they dilly with it. They're like, all right, we can do it once. But I'll tell you this in the Cowboys will face to Seem in early December Chicago. Go look at how they use Tercohen. And that's how I would love for the Cowboys to

use Pollard. I mean, he is lining up in the slot at wide receiver. Every once in a while he lines up in the backfield, but they just use him. The whole point of how they use him in the offense is get him in matchups with linebackers. If you can force linebackers to be covering him and he's going down field, he's gonna win every turn every time. Try Cohen caught a touchdown like twenty yards down field last

night with a linebacker on him. I don't get what stops them from doing that, but again, maybe maybe the fact that it worked is kind of like, all right, we can do this now, Like, um, forgive me. I don't remember the game, but Pauler dropped a screen earlier this season that likely would have scored. Was it the

Giants game, the road game? Yeah, maybe if he catches that, then it's kind of forward momentum on getting him more involved and now, so maybe him being able to put this on tape gives them the confidence to keep doing it. Because I'm not going to judge it based on the Patriots game, because that is a whole different animal. But if this doesn't, you know, if if he just disappears for the next month after this game, that would be

really frustrating. I will say this, and we don't want to get too far into this, but I think this is the kind of week against the Patriots when they need a guy like that. Because you look at the history of the Patriots and how they play defense, They're gonna try to take a your top options. What you did last week, you're gonna probably have to do that again because they're probably gonna figure out a way to take a mariout of game, and they're gonna figure out

a way to take Zeke out of the game. It's how can you be able to move the ball and still score points when those two guys are taken out of game? And so that's gonna be really really important. Let's take our final break. We'll come back. We're gonna talk about this defense. That's some issue yesterday, but we'll break all that down for you when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio already okay? So are we gonna win? Just? Okay? Is not okay whether

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the break. If you're not going to fly up to Boston and watch the Cowboys play the Patriots this weekend, that you should at least go to the Star for the Cowboys Official watch Party presented by AT and T. It's on Sunday, November twenty fourth at the Tostitos Championship Plots At the Star, Cowboys will take on the Patriots. Submission is free, Parking is free The Star and frisco dot com for more details. Should be fun out there if the weather cooperates. Song says, please come to Boston

in the springtime. I don't know about the wintertime. I'm sorry, I'm just making all kinds of awful references that I have no idea what that song is. It's fine, all right, good, all right. Let's talk about the defense yesterday. Cowboys defense. It was a weird game for me because I looked at if you watch the game or I'll put it for myself. As I watched the game, and when the

game concluded, I thought, man, this defense had a bad day. However, when you go back and you look statistically, I don't know if it was a really bad day or fields a situation where they got put in some really bad situations. There were a couple times when because of special teams, because of offense turnovers they had, the other team got the ball in in favorable situations and the defense wasn't able to make the stop. But you look at the

yards they gave up. I want to give up two hundred nine yards passing, give up one hundred and twenty one yards rushing, But that that really was about the fact that they could stop Driscoll from running he was I think, well, I mean Scarborough had he had fifty five yards or three point nine average, that's not huge. That didn't kill you. And so my point is, I don't know if the defense was really as bad as

I thought it was. Watching the game, I'm interested to see what you guys said respective if it were in bad And I called myself and I wanted to think that way, I'm like, oh, they weren't that bad. But then when you look at who was like running back, who was playing quarterbacks, I mean, I mean that takes in effect as to how they played. They should have played a lot better. I mean the quarterback. Here's a guy. Yes, he had some really nice throws down the field, and

he impressed me that way. I was like, Okay, I didn't know you had that in you like that. But at the same time, he's a guy with not much experience. You could see his hesitation. He doesn't have good anticipation. He would always kind of self doubt himself trying to figure out what to do. The defensive line was giving him way too much time instead of getting to him

and pressuring him. You know, when you talk about the hot boys, I expected them to get that feeld on fire and stop Driscoll from moving around and being able to escape. The pocket boys didn't get a sack yesterday. Now, now Bennett had two and Quinn had one. Are they Quinn? Is I know for sure? I don't, Bennett said, I remember the He's no, Michael Bennett said last week. I remember the real hot boys. Those guys don't know what

they're talking about. Cash money forever, Yeah, Benness, Michael Bennett's two guys, and then there's Bennett. That's your sentiment. I mean, he's not a part of what's what this whole thing is about. I mean, you know, we see it in the national anthem, we see stuff. He's doing his own thing. He's his own guy. He's here for a different reason maybe I don't know. But when when the lights are on, he goes and he gets it done. Now, he had two off side penalties yesterday and that one was big.

One was very really could have been a big play. But they do buckle down and he had a really nice play that changed the game when he's when he made that sack and forced him to punt, which head scratching. Really um because fourth and twenty six. I would have gone for it, honestly, because what they were asking to do to get the ball back was going to be so they could get into hell Mary mode. So what's

the difference. I understand that the odds of Cleveland, the odds of picking up a fourth and twenty six are not good, But you're not getting that ball back. You're just you're probably not if you do. If you do get Mary, it'll be, yeah, you'll have one play. I mean, damned if you do, damned if you don't. But I think you give yourself a better chance going for it. That's anyway. I honestly, I think it's a that's a good example of stats lying because the stats will tell

you that they weren't terrible. But I don't think they played a good game. I thought Robert Quinn actually he had a good line where he was like, we had a bad day explosively in terms of limiting explosive plays. Yeah, three hundred and twelve yards, that's pretty good. You've got three sacks, two of them came, or excuse me, one of them came, and a couple other pressures when it

really mattered. But explosive plays, I mean they had a five play seventy five yard There were so many times where I was like, okay, they're down for the count. This game is now over, and then they just climbed right back in. If they did it in the they did in the first half where you know, they score on the short field, I'm not going to kill all the defense for that. They've got put in a bad position.

But then after three punts, bad return sets him up, they go forty yards and score a touchdown to to clawback in it before the half, and then coming out of halftime ten plays seventy yards. I mean, they just methodically moved it downfield. That included a thirty nine yard pass the Hall got them down to the Dallas nine and then gave him an opportunity score. And then I mean the really damning one for me. And I know Xavier Woods was heard and Donovan Wilson had to go

out there. I get that, but you know, it's thirty five twenty one. They score, they get the two point conversion, you're kind of like, all right, there, we're iceing this thing away. And then it's not just that they went and scored. They went in five five plays, seventy five yards, took two minutes off the clock. Just just bad performance. And yeah, I mean, you know, we talked about it last week, like Driskolls got better athleticism than what you

would associate with a tall, white quarterback. He did, and he burned him. And somebody said, yes last night in the post game. I can't remember one player said he ran a four? Four or four he ran he had somebody somebody mentioned that to me after I gave my Sky report. They were like, he ran a four or five at the combine. I honestly I didn't know he was that fast, but I knew he was more athletic

than you would associate with him running. There's some running backs that don't run a four or five at the combat like that is that's a really, really great time for a quarterback. But the point being, like he did so many things that sort of defied a basic scouting report, Like there were so many times that the pressure just kind of came off the edge and ran right past him and gave him an easy lane. And honestly, I

said this during the game. I don't know if Jeff driscoll was trying to prove something or what, but he left about seventy five yards on the field by trying to make throws when he had room to run, like five or six different plays he had the first down, he needs four yards or he needs eight yards, and he tried to force a throw instead of just picking it up, like he could have run for one of them, could have got picked he Yeah, no, I mean he could have run for one hundred and extended several more

drives if he had just run, And thankfully he didn't for the cowboys sake, but it was there so for from this standpoint, the explosive plays. Do you think the Cowboys missed Jeff Heath yesterday? No, offense to Jeff Heath, but I don't. I mean, so many of them on team that's you know, Rod Marinelli loves to keep him in the well like that's his line. And they did not keep Jeff Driscoll in the well at all. They did not, I mean he broke contain. And I'm not

so much talking about the quarterback explosive plays. I'm talking about more some of those plays down fill, some of those passes that they were able to convert. The thirty nine yard er, yeah, there was a twenty twenty one yarder to a Mendola, twenty five yarder to Jones. I'm wondering in those plays are you missing having the safety? There's nothing I'm trying to think if there was any play that I would make me think, oh, if Jeff Heath was in there, that would not have happened. You know,

he's not that difference maker for starters. I don't think of pass coverage as being like his amazing strength that he's going to take those away. But then I'll contradict myself, Like Jeff Driscoll through for two hundred yards that's in the modern NFL. I will take that like you're just you're gonna give up some plays in football, Like that's just is what it is. And so Kenny Galladay caught one pass, Marvin Jones have four for forty three, two touchdowns.

But still like I'll take that stuff. It's the it's the explosive runs and not being able to get to driscoll. I mean, up until the fourth quarter, it seemed like the pass rush either couldn't get to him or over pursued him. That's the stuff that bothers me more than him throwing for a few chunk plays. I mean, I get the sense. And we've I've heard a little bit during the game after the game social media that you know, it's like, okay, is it. You know they won, but

that they should have killed the Lions. I just don't agree. Vegas doesn't agree. I mean, they did exactly what they were supposed to do. One by eight on the line was seven or seven and a half, that's what it was, and they did. I mean, like the thought of that this team, this is a team that should be competing for the Super Bowl. They're not, Like, this is not what the Cowboys are. They're not that great of a football team. That's why they're six and four. Can they

still get there? Yeah, they can't. They get on a roll then get get hot. But this is I mean, they did what they were supposed to do in this game. And if if Stafford would have played, maybe, you know, maybe would have been different. Maybe not. He's not going for fifty yards a problems that we're brushing, but he probably can throw for more in Galladay probably has more than one catch. I just think that based off that this is exactly what the cow did, what they're supposed

to do. If you don't like it, that's just on the way the team is. But this is what they were supposed to do. More on your expectations, Yeah, I mean at this point your expectations shouldn't be that different anybody. By Thanksgiving you should have readjusted your expectations. But I still think the way the way it happened, though, is what gives me pause. Like my prediction was twenty seven to thirteen, and we said last week, like, this is not a bad Lions team. They're not. They're not good,

but they're not. This is not the Jets, this is not what they are. And yeah, um, but I don't know. Twenty seven points to a backup quarterback and a guy and a running back that they signed on Saturday. That that gives me pause. And I mean the defense, we thought it would be so much better. The stats say they really didn't play a terrible game, but my eyes told me that they didn't play a good game. Yeah,

you can't gift to anybody. That's the only way you're gonna you're gonna get a team like that in the game is if you just fumble in the second play of the game, or if you give up a punt to midfield, and you know, that doesn't mean the defense has to let him score. You can't, you know, stop him lead to a field goal. But yeah, it's short field,

doesn't mean you have to score touchdown, you know. So that they could have done a better job of buckling down there, but you know, just driving down the field. They did it when they needed to, and that's that's the prevent style, you know, but usually it takes more time off the clock than that. But I just think overall,

I don't think it was a bad win. You know, we had had a guy turned around and right on the field and said we should be killing these guys, and I'm just like, not really according to who you. I mean, I just don't think so. I don't think this team is as talented everyone thinks they are, that they should be winning. They could have in this game, maybe one by fourteen. But they did it. I said right after the game. It reminded me of the road win against the Giants. Just I mean, yeah, you did

what you're supposed to do. It's not it's not an exciting win. It's not something that you should never feel bad about a win in the NFL. But but I don't, you know, I didn't. I don't feel especially different about this team than I did on Saturday. I guess, you know. No, I'm encouraged that Dak can keep doing stuff like this. That was Actually, this is my hypothetical for y'all. If you could rearrange it, they still win. We'll even say

the margin is the same. But like Dak throws for two seventies, Zeke runs for one hundred and they score, you know, twenty four. But the defense holds the Giants down to like one hundred and seventy five yards, And what did I said? The Giants Lions defense holds them to one eighty and ten points. I mean, just basically the same result, but it's more of a dominant defensive performance than sixteen. Just kind of low. Yeah, well, okay,

they beat him twenty four sixteen. The offense is fine but not great, and the defense really just kind of sets the tone. Would you feel differently, would you feel better? Maybe it also depends on how the game played out, because I think the feelings that people have right now about the defense wasn't necessarily about the end result as much as it was what you saw, like they just

they weren't able like the things when you saw. There was one drive in particular, and I remember which one it was, it was in the second half where they were basically just gashing the Cowboys And that's where you know, to me, that's starting to look familiar now because there have been several games this year where it's certain parts

of the game offenses it happened against Minnesota. Will offense is just say we're about to run the ball and the Cowboys are just like getting gashed just moving the ball down the field. It's those kind of moments that make you say, you know, regardless of what the outcome was at the end of the day, you know they

didn't give up a ton of rushing yards. But when you watched it, you came away from it thinking, man, I said to you at one point, Nick, I was like, I don't know why they're not going to run the ball every because they're getting as much as they want on the ground. And so that's where I still don't know if I would feel differently if it was if it was played the same way and the defense was giving up the stuff they were giving up in the way they gave it up. Well, maybe we can just driscoll.

You know, it's not that great of a quarterback. If we could just face like the best quarterback of all time, then we can kind of figure out where they stand. Well, he's can we do that? The question is is he gonna play like the greatest of all time now? Because he may not. He hasn't been playing like that. Let's just put it like Brady came out that morning and was like, Yeah, the strength of our team's defense. We're gonna lay it into that as much as we can.

You got it. I mean, the only way he's ever been stopped is if you just get after his ass, and you have to that, and maybe the Cowboys have a guy on their team that is kind of pissed off at the Patriots. That's nice, But the crazy, the crazy part about that right now is they're winning with the offense not doing a ton. It's the defense that's playing out of its mind and that matches up against the Cowboy st This is gonna be an interesting game. And just when you look at the Cowboys do have

the number one offense, they still do. I mean in five o nine, I don't. I can't imagine that they wouldn't have the number one offense pages number one defense. Right, let's go. We got like four more days of shows to fill. Guys. I do know this is gonna be fun, all right to answer my sorry, answer my own question. I know. I know defenses win championships. I know the Pats won the Super Bowl thirteen to three. If my quarterback can do that weekend and week out, give me

that every time. And you know the Eagles won the Super Bowl forty one thirty three. Their defense made like one stop when it counted. Like, I'll take my chances that the defense can put it together just enough. But if my offense is scoring and doing stuff like that weekend and week out, I'll take that every the question will be can he do that again? A great defense and we saw it, we saw in New World, that's what happened. Like you, it's a great defense. There are

many that believe. That's why they say defense when Chai Championships is they believe that a great defense will stop a great offense. And so well, we'll see. I think there's a lot of questions around that, but we're gonna find out a lot about that this weekend. What a tease. We appreciate you, guys. Jonas. We were back tomorrow our normal time till then for Nick Eatman, Dave Hambert, Dave, Dave Hellman, Dave Hamberg, Yeah, Dave Hellman, as will though I am Derek. This has been The Break live on

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