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It is Monday, November twentieth, twenty twenty three, Season nineteen, episode number seventy four. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break. We are live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the start today we talk about Cowboys versus Panthers. Cowboys get the win on the road thirty three to ten, bring their record to seven and three. We'll break down for you what we think went right and wrong for
the Cowboys. There were a few things that are worth talking about that weren't great for the Cowboys yesterday, but all things being considered, another very very quality win on the road against a lesser opponent. Let's start first the storylines of the game. Let's go around the table. What do we have, Patrick lestar.
You when are we going to start putting deron? Blan in this Defensive Player of the Year conversation, He's there. It needs to be. It needs to happen today, if not last week. I mean, four pick sixes tied the record. He's won away from breaking the single season record for most pick sixes in the year, and there's still seven
regular season games to play. He's been lights out both with the like we talked about the flashy categories interceptions, pick sixes, but also with the quiet categories with like negative target EPA. Leads the league in it right now, second lowest in the history of mgs, only to guess who Stefan Gilmore twenty nineteen, which was the DPO t
y year for Gilmore. Hint hints, So Deron Bland. We had the conversation about if he's the second most important guy on this Cowboys defense, and we said yes, and he goes out and he just continues to prove us right. So for me, that's the biggest takeaway. There are others, and I know we'll talk about it offensive line, run game,
Tony Pollock, but Dron Bland. When you look at the front runners and obviously on favorites to win Defensive Player of the Year, all of them are pass rushers, and that's because no defensive back is doing anything near what dron Bland is doing, which is that much more of an argument to put him in the conversation. So I don't know that he wins because of who he's up against, the big hitters, TJ. Watt, names like that, Miles Garrett,
nick Bosa. But start giving this man his roses. He's earning them.
Mine would be do not ingest anything weird prior to.
Don't try anything, Do not try anything different or weird.
What we did on the show Friday, that's probably not a good idea of going into a game.
Probably not, probably not.
But Michael Parsons, he basically tried some energy drink that everybody else was trying or they've had before. This was his first time having it. He had a scoop of it and then didn't go down well. His stomach was bubbling or something. It was hurting, so yeah, the heart to heart. But then he ended up throwing up twice, I believe on the sideline or somewhere on the field, and after that he started feeling better. But he said, going into the first throw up, yeah.
You can rally sometimes.
Nice.
You never heard that you never saw the movie. Am I drawing a blake on the movie? It was a football movie? No, no, no, it sounds like something that will be from the program. No it was.
It was one of the one of those older football movies. But you can see the face of the guy, Billy Bob was his name. You can rally ahead.
No, it was after that it was gosh, why am I drawing somebody on? Somebody on Twitter is gonna but yeah, go ahead, puking row.
So he did.
He puked, and then he rallied up and went into that game and had the most sacks he's had this season Varsity Varsity Blues, two point five sacks. And yes, he was saying when he started the game, his heart was absolutely racing. So you know that if you've never had energy drink, that can happen to you or caffeine.
Was your heart racing when you had that caffeine shot.
I didn't feel good for a little bit. That coffee, Yeah, that coffee.
That was your first coffee in your life, right.
Ever, first coffee ever. And I walked out of here and I'm like, I'm never doing this again.
Well, he ended up having a great day yesterday and but really I wanted to point out and I don't want to mention two things. But my thing was, you know I've been talking about all week or last week, was the running game and seeing Tony Pollor show some signs of improvement. You saw him getting into that end zone. How hard was that run? That was really really good And he averaged five point one yards per carry, so that was or not per carry?
Yes, yes, per carry.
Per carry, still waking up, but yeah, five for and watch which was I believe I haven't.
Some pre working No there it is.
You do know one glass amber today.
No, But anyways, it was great seeing some improvement there and the way he was playing. And he said after the game, he was basically saying he kind of just starting to feel a lot more comfortable just in the offense and some of the things they're doing right now.
Yeah, he did run the ball with other than that negative ten yards they had on that wildcat formation, it was a positive day for him. The receivers did a really nice job of blocking form down field too when they got him on the edge, and you know, guys were able to the line in the stuff that the crack tosses, the pinn and polls, all those things that
they do pretty well. They showed it yesterday. I want to say that they I think when you watch them play on defense, there was a lot of unselfish play on that defensive line to get guys home on some sacks. You know, guys, they knew that they could attack Bozeman the center and he was going to have problems, and so you have you know, you had guys that were willing to drive down inside hard defensive tackles get loopers home.
There were a couple of times where they knocked Bozeman so far inside on the on the pick that they were right there like Tank was for sacks, Armstrong, Lawrence, all those guys had a really did a really nice job of helping each other get pressure on this defensive line. They had a couple of sacks with these flat ran passes of all of the guards. So give dan Quinn credit again for setting things up inside to get guys home.
Give credit to the defensive line for working with each other and making it work, and then give some guys some credit for individual one on one pressures that they were able to get in that game. It really did rattle that quarterback quite a bit.
All right, let's dive into some specific players and how they performed. Dak Prescott yesterday twenty five eight sixty eight percent completion rate, one hundred and eighty nine yards, two touchdowns for a thirty three point score. Didn't really have huge numbers, like he didn't put it up the weeks before, but certainly was efficient in what he needed to do.
How did you assess Dak's play yesterday?
I liked it didn't turn the ball over. There were a couple of plays, a couple of throws that he'd like back. There's one in particular in the end zone that could have been an interception, but it wasn't, so it's not. But for the most part, he didn't try to do too much. And we talked about this going into the game. This Panther's defense, their secondary particularly, they're pretty good. You know, they were sixth rank in the NFL for a reason, and as a unit they can
really make things challenging for you. So Dak Prescott, he didn't press. Some of those throws were great. He dissected their man coverage and absolutely killed their zone coverage. One in particular, if you look at the play to Jake Ferguson, and then also kudos to Mike McCarthy because some of the play calls he dialed up, not the Wildcats, because let's put those away please.
We'll talk about I think we'll talk about that that.
If you look at the Schoolmaker play, for example, the Schoolmaker touchdown, you motion Jake Ferguson over to the tight right side of Schoolmaker and then he does a soft wheel and then school goes up the deep scene. Well, then that confuses the coverage because no matter which one they choose, if you look at that play on film, it's a touchdown either way. But Dak Prescott reads exactly where and he doesn't hesitate. There's no pump fake that
it's spam there. It is so efficient, timely and had control of it the offense the entirety of the game, even to when the offense kind of stalled on some of those three and out series, you never felt like Dak Prescott in the offense was out of the game.
Kind of felt like though this was one of those games of surprise, how many contested balls they had to try and catch in this game, and so it was a little bit tougher for Patrick has mentioned some of the combination routes. They tried to get Lamb up the sideline one time, which would have been a pretty nice play. They're doing something I love when they do this with when they take Lamb or any of the receivers and they put them in motion and it gives them a
running start. They don't let these corners or safeties have an ability to play and when they're static or just in one spot, so by them running, it gives them an opportunity to get going up the field. Though, you know, they I love the combinations of those routes. But I got to give Carolina a little bit credit for playing the way they did in the secondary. You know, the
way they were able to knock down balls. There was a couple of different times these officials, this Clay Martin group, they were the least penalizing group of all the officials in the league. Or a couple of times are felt like that Hill had receivers hooked and then he was able to play offhand knocking the ball, but they didn't call it, so okay, you keep playing that way. So
it was a challenging day that way. But their ability to run the football, their ability to make some third down plays when they really needed to make some third down plays or what really helped them offensively in this game. It wasn't huge numbered by any means, but I think Carolina's secondary had a little to do with that.
Yeah, I thought he had a very clean game blowing didn't blow up the stats or anything like that. But again, another week of him showing that he can be consistent and just keep doing what he needs to do. So that has been what five weeks now, where he's just been week.
To week, just been ever since ever since.
Yeah, so that's impressive and dark Hater's been very quiet right now the past few weeks. So anyways, he done a great job. We also learned that he can line up a receiver. Uh, that play didn't lead to absolutely anything.
Zero gain, but what's interesting to see. I would have liked to see what exactly how.
It would have looked if it would have gone through, but it didn't work out.
Yeah, I noticed Brian's same thing you noticed, and I'd mentioned it to Nick during the game. Like, there were a lot of plays yesterday where there was no separation and it's to me it was about the cornerbacks, the defensive backs for that team. They are not a good team,
but that part of their team is really good. I don't know that I've seen a team that the Cowboys have played these this year that was that tight on these receivers in man covers, and what the Cowboys had to do in a lot of situations was they'd have to run these route combinations. It was one deeper pass
they got I don't remember how many yards. It was a scissor route combination where basically they won one receiver, the receiver's crossed the one receiver took a defensive back and kind of bumped into him and it was kind of a rub route and got somebody open. Then when they did that against man covers, they were able to get some success. But just manning up and going against those guys, that was a tough, tough day.
I think San Francisco was probably a team that remember how much man coverage in that game, so that there
was a lot of contested catches in that game. And I kind of felt like watching that game yesterday that CD might have got banged up a little bit, you know in that game early in that game, the route that he caught it, when you go back and watch it, he catches the drag underneath for about ten yards and he avoids the he avoids the linebacker in the middle of the field and he kind of gets knocked off balance and then turns it up the field. And it
was the same play that they dump Turping. So Turpin like knees him in the back as he's laying on the ground. But I think there might be something with something he was dealing with in that game yesterday because it kind of awkwardly got knocked off balance and maybe something with his left knee that he's dealing with. Need to check with that a little bit if he's completely healthy. But it was a little bit of a struggle for those guys yesterday.
Yeah, kind of amazing then, and when I when I looked back at the score and the and then the stat sheet that they didn't have as much offensive production but scored thirty three points. I know one of them was a pick six, but still that's still a healthy score.
You know, when really helped you with the undisciplined, the roughing. The rough Yeah, the roughing, you know, I mean you get yeah, you get the horse collar, you get the roughing. You know, you kick out a bound kick out of bounce back, gets hitting the head, you know. I mean, there's all kinds of things that they were dealing with yesterday.
And I just feel like and it kind of buried itself out. Will We talked about though they were one and eight coming into this game, that record didn't feel like it matched when you talk about the secondary, how good they are, and then you look at what Tuber Hubbard was able to do, when Miles Sanders was able to, you know, get some chunk plays as well, which was the guy I wanted to focus on last this coming week. But the run game, I mean, Carolina, they fought hard. Their
biggest mistake was well, number one penalties. Right that particular drive, you got two unsportsman like penalties rough, you know, and then it's a touchdown, but undisciplined. But also they could not protect Bryce, which we knew going in, and then Bryce did exactly what we said he'd do, which was he didn't want to escape the pocket. He sat in the collapsing pocket time and again and just became a
tackling dummy and that basically killed them. So but the secondary played well, the running backs played well, but by the time the Cowboys started pulling away. You can't run the ball anymore. You have to be one dimensional. Plays right into their ends.
Yeah, I think the biggest thing that they did maybe coming out of the second half was even tried to throw the ball on the on our halftime show, I Carolina to me was going to lose that game. I just felt like they were going to lose that game. But I also felt like that they could have kept it close to the entire game. I know, in my notes and I typed out these my words, you know, and I used to describe Carolina's big plays running the football.
I used late, driven, sealed, angle, hooked, washed, hesitation, guesses, missed, and pancaked. Those are all bad words when you're playing run defense and through and I just went through and there was some positive run plays, some positive run defense. But you give up a game of thirteen, again of seven, a gain of fifteen, again of nine, a gain of fourteen, a gain of five, you know, again, another gain of fourteen, another gain of eight. It's not very good run defense,
right now, you know. And I think that Carolina, you know, in that game, I don't think they were gonna win. None of us thought they were gonna win. But they probably could have kept that game and control and maybe giving their quarterback a little bit of a chance if they would have continued on trying to run that football.
Well right before the Cowboys scoring, or when the Cowboys before oh my god, I can't even speak right before they score, going into the halftime. Going into halftime, I was kind of raising my eyebrows a little bit. I'm like, by this time I thought we would be having Cooper rush in and taking over. You know, it just didn't feel like the Cowboys completely dominated them, and at times it made me wonder, I'm in.
This does not feel like they're.
One and eight, like like you're playing a team.
With that kind of record.
They were doing some things and it was making me wonder, Okay, are there Cowboys doing that thing that they tend to do sometimes where they just level up with their opponent they play at their opponent's level, or are the Panthers really doing some things that they're just doing well in this game?
And I couldn't.
You know, obviously that changed after the halftime and the Cowboys took over that game and everything, but it just it was makeing.
I couldn't really make of it.
And remember This was while we were still dealing with Jimmy Johnson News and us having to upload things on the website, and you're kind of looking up and down and trying to keep up with the game, and it's just one of those like what what is going on here?
Right?
But you know, I think that this is this is what I always worry about for the Cowboys when they're playing a lesser opponent, especially a lesser offense, is will they be coming aamored with going after the quarterback and they will forget to play sound run defense because defense run defense, to me, is all about discipline. It's about every person on that defense understanding where they should fit
and consistently being in that spot right. And if you don't do that, if you take a little side step, or if you try to go around someone because you're trying to get to the passer, it throws everything off and all it takes is one person doing it and you get gashed in the running game.
And it was we talked about it last week.
That's something that we're a little concerned about, knowing you going against a team like this, and I think yesterday we saw a little bit of that where just they were undisciplined. They didn't play the style of run defense that they had been playing against some of the better teams they faced.
I didn't feel like that there were two things that they didn't handle very well. Was Carolina's run game overall. And then and then Adam Thielen. I didn't feel like they had a really good answer for him. And and you know it's it's you know, Adam Feeling's going to make plays, you know, but man, it could have turned into and I think that greg Olsen said it very
well just watching the broadcast. He's like, you know, when Carolina had that drive where they scored, you know, their touchdown, that's where greg Olsen said, this is what Carolina needs to do. They need to do the waggles, the boots. They need to get the ball to Feeling, and they need to run the ball. They don't need to think about anything else right now. They need to try and
help their quarterback. And you know, unfortunately you played against the quarterback, as Patrick said, it wasn't interested in running. The one time he did run, he did some ridiculous fake thing with the ball comes flying out of his hand, you know, and now you get a turnover, right there, but you know that was that was That was a tough game for on a couple of different levels. But
again having to deal with the run. It kind of reminded you when you're not disciplined, when you jump gaps, when you try and run around blockers, when you don't play square, you know you're gonna get dashed. And there are gonna be some better teams down the road that they're gonna probably try and run the ball on you.
And speaking to the discipline aspect of it, one of the main things Mike McCarthy talked about going into this game. The Cowboys are two and three on the road. He said, you got to get the penalties reeled in. You got to get them real in. That I think was the sixth Panther Strive is how I didn't have it noted here. You start off you fourth and two, right, Well, first of all, you get the penalty. It's holding on the punt. They said it was on Carolina. They changed it to
the Cowboys. That put the Carolina on a thirty yard line. You're helping them with field position. Then you get a Sam Williams penalty, you get them off the field. They're punting on fourth and two, you run into the kicker automatic first down, and from there Bryce started to kind of get going with Adam Thielen and then it turns into a seventeen play touchdown drive. And it all began with a penalty, and then that drive was extended by
a penalty. So if you don't if you don't suffer those penalties, if you're the Cowboys, you probably end up getting a forty plus point game out of this because you're gonna get good field position off of that punt and kind of move down. So that was a momentum shifter. So that's a lesson to be taken away from the Cowboys on the road when Mike McCarthy's talking about doing it well with these penalties or minimizing them. This is why.
It's because it gives teams, particularly the other home team, at some kind of momentum to say, hey, we can do this. Stop giving them fifteen yards, ten yards, five yards. When it's time to get off the field. Your defense has earned it. Let them get off the field before they get tired. I like it.
I was just gonna say, I thought at that point the level the game was kind of it just cancel or balance itself out because I think I believe when the Cowboys got the rough end of passer where they hit Dag got back to coffee, I thought that was a back call, like why.
No head, you can't hit? You can't quarterback given up and he came in with them to the head. That's that's textbook.
I see the forearm hit it. But either way that that looked very close. Like you get out of the podcast, you're now a runner. You're running, and then while the guy is already diving in, how are you supposed to stop?
It doesn't matter really, quarterback.
I don't think it's fair.
I don't you join the but that's the join the course. All the other people say that's the same thing.
But the rules are and they I think the NFL knows that it's unfair defensive players. But that's how badly they want this out of the game because they don't want a quarterback taking a shot to the head in that kind of position. And it is unfair because if you watch what the quarterbacks do, the smart quarterbacks anyway, what they do is they run, they run, they run, and they will actually give you that look like oh am I gonna slide and it makes a defensive guy
kind of step for a second. If the defensive guy doesn't commit, they're probably gonna keep run. Now if they do commit, then they'll go down and now they get hit right, so it's like it's a no win for the defensive guy if the quarterback plays.
It was the right way.
The one that that's the worst to me is a quarterback along the sidelines that runs and looks like he's going out of bounce and then goes another eight yards steps back, you know, and then kind of like you're gonna you could blast him out of bounce, or you could just pull up and let him go out of bounce.
But some of these quarterbacks are like, I'm gonna run and I'm gonna be along the sideline and I know you're not gonna blast me here, so I'll run for another eight yards and then I'll get out of bounce. You know. Those are the guys that are like giving up, but they're really not given up.
The quarterback has every advantage in this situation.
There's no It's very frustrating, but I think they the Cowboys were able to get into the end zone eventually because of the help of that penalty.
Well, then the push on on Turp and was stupid. That's only stupid because.
He had nothing to do with He's about to help his guy out and then he comes to get gets push in the back. So I mean, no, they earned those those poor penalties. And then kudos to the Cowboys for after the Panthers make it a one school game with that seventeen play draft what do you do? March down the field and then you see Tony Pollard look very much like a twenty twenty two Tony poll on the.
Play that was That was his best running year in my opinion.
Shouts out the Hunter lip Ky on that lead block.
By the way, Hey, you know what, and I've been wanting to say Hunter Lipkey hadn't been a great blocking full back like earlier in the season, Brian, I know you and I had that conversation. Like you watch him on film, It's like, man, I don't know. Yesterday he had some moments where I was like, Okay, the blocking is starting to come along there.
He got run over on the yeah, the touchdown run. But you know what the idea is, make the guy ender go over the top of you to get to the ball. You go and if they run over, you do that. You're doing your That's okay.
You just want to occupy him. However, you got to do it. All right, We're gonna take our first break when we come back. I do want to talk a little bit about the wildcat.
We saw that a couple of times yesterday, and uh yeah, so we'll talk about that.
We'll be back Dallas. Cowboys dot Comrado.
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Back to the Break, The Salvation Army's twenty seventh annual Red Kettle Kickoff returns to AT and T Stadium this Thanksgiving. Get excited to watch the one and only Dolly Parton rocked the stage during halftime when the Dallas Cowboys go head ahead with the Washington Commanders. Tune in at three point thirty on CBS Welcome Back.
It is the second segment of the Break, live from the s WBC Mortgage studios. At the start, this segment brought to you about blockchain dot Com.
All right, so let's talk about wow caat yesterday. Real quick, there Dak.
With a Dolly Partner shirt on yesterday.
Yes, yes, Dally, can we buy those? I think they may be available at some point. But but yeah, yesterday he did wear the Dolly. Now, for those that don't know, Dolly Parton will be performing this red Keviy right at the at the game at halftime reads he has a whole new album.
In to my reads, No, I got, I got.
I'm just reiterating, reiterating, reiterating, mess.
You will be out there as you will be wanting her new from it.
I assume some stuff from her new album rock Star and some stuff from her old collection with plenty of songs.
Right.
But yeah, Dak had on the Dolly shirt. You know, it was a little I love it. It was pretty good.
Yeah.
I don't know when they're releasing it, but they're they're gonna be for sale.
Yeah, so Christmas time we could all have a dollar hey, you know something, and maybe maybe we all on this show will be walking. Well, there was a time where we were like the throwbacks, like the Roger Staubach Bob wear. Yeah, we still have those shirts. I would you know, the Dolly purtn Tree, I'd love one.
Okay, all right, so we know now Brian wants one amber make it happen, all right, all right, so let's talk about Let's talk.
About the boss. Move right there, Let's talk about the bo.
I'm sorry, let's talk about let's talk about the Wildcat. Yesterday, A couple of times we saw, uh, we saw Dallas lineup with Dac out it receiver and they had the guys at the running backs in the backfield direct snap neither word, what did you think of the conce of what they were.
Trying to do.
It's one of those It's one of those things that reminds me what coaches will do every once in a while, but it's a nationally televised kind of game, they'll throw in some wrinkles or something that like, oh look how smart I am, you know, those kind of things. There's no reason. That just wasn't any reason at that point.
I mean, you're you're you know, if you want to try it, if you feel like, was there something that led you to believe that Carolina against Wildcat was going to be they were going to give up big plays or something like that. I don't know, I mean it just I just I never understand. I like I like plays, I like gadget plays. I hate plays that are cute. I hate cute plays, you know, And and that to me seems very cute when you try and do stuff
like that. But uh yeah, unfortunately it didn't work, and hopefully they will never use those plays again.
You know what's interesting. I thought they were trying to set up something they did did well with the whole the coming back around and the fake pitch. Yeah, and my guess is, but Brian burns, But my point is, you gotta make them work. Like nobody's falling for any of the extra stuff that comes from a play if you can't get it to work in.
The first place.
And but it was apparent they're trying. They were trying to set up something for the future, even not for that game. If somewhere down the line, they were trying to set up something where it's maybe a pitch and then maybe a pitching pass, who knows.
I kind of feel like that if anybody on this staff needs to run fake plays, its bones fossil is he comes up with some stuff that you're.
Kind of seeing a lot of that.
Yeah, we've not seen a lot of that, Okay, we got his four sattle. Yeah right, but we gotta we got a nationally televised game coming over. The whole world's going to be watching. Bones Fossil is going to have a I wish he would have saved his his Golston fake field goal though, No, I wish he would have saved that one. He used that one I think too early in the season. Yeah, you know that throwing the ball to Golston there, But I don't know, I think that to me, I love Special Team's fake play, the
kind of the wildcat stuff and all that. If it's short yardage and all that. I get it is they're struggling to try and score down in the red zone, and you know you're kind of like, Okay, I think it's something different here. Don't don't be doing that.
Yeah, yeah, I didn't like them.
You like them when they work, right.
Yeah, that's one of those things where like in basketball, you're like, don't shoot that swish, great shot. But yeah, it's just that's one of those things. What was kind of weird cowboys like the Tony Pollard ten yard loss. I mean, you were threatening, you were moving, you were
only up one score. You know, the thought process is get get in the end zone and really start to kind of pull away from these guys, and they kind of pulled the trickery out, and you wonder if they just wanted to see if it would work, and or maybe, like you said, they were kind of setting up for down the road, and the other teams that are watching film when they see it, they think this is what's going to be run out of it. But then ha ha,
I got you, it's gonna run something else. But I mean, just looking at the polar play for example, the direct snap to Pollard, I mean that play was blown up from minute one. Yeah, Lou had him dead the rights on the right side, and if you were even remotely thinking about handing it back to Dak to run and scramble on the left side, it was done on that side as well, so there was nowhere to go. Coverage
was downfield. You only had two guys going downfield anyway. Yeah, So I don't know specifically why tried it in that situation versus when you're already when you already have a two or three possession lead, which would then go more to Okay, let's see if this works. So yeah, I'm sure you know this won't be the last time we see it. But one of the only times I looked at the game in real time, it was like, Okay, Mike, that that ain't it. That ain't the one. That ain't
the one. So many other times I looked at the game and I was like, ooh, that's the one. But those two times I was like.
That ain't lined up a receiver. I'm like, oh, okay, let's see this. And then seconds after, before they even snapped the ball, You're like, uh, I don't I don't know, I don't really like this. And then they snapped the ball, and then you hear the announcer of the press box and a zero gain on the play, and you're like, then you feel like.
Your hand in embarrassed. Man, That's how I felt. I felt embarrassed.
The thing you worry about is the way he pushed Tony yeah here and then went and tackled him, like what are we doing?
Yeah, you worry about that. Like it when you talk about the mesh points and stuff like that too. If his say, Pollard gets hit and he's trying to put now the ball's flying, you know, flying, you know, on the ground, and everybody and now Dak's trying to dive on the ball. Your quarterbacks and they're trying to dive on the ball, and it's just again it's Mike just that's what He's got, a big old play sheet, you know. I mean it just he just needs to cross.
That was very killing ish. I'll put it there. Those two Wildcats, they're very situationally speaking. No, I'm saying that.
Got enough problems over that.
Take that boys job right, They got.
Enough problems over there where he is.
I do want to twist that flipped the defensive side of the ball, And I want to take two things you guys said, I want to put them together. You talked about how you know how well Bland is playing right now, and Brian you talked about one of the challenges in this game was it he didn't really have any answer for Adam Thieling. And I heard a question this morning that I thought was really astute question. I think it was Bobby that threw it out on Sean
and this morning one of them threw it out. I can't remember which one it was, but it was a really good question and they were like, is it time for Bland to travel? Because the thing about it typically you're like, I don't know if I want to travel my guy because can he go into the slot? Well, yeah, he can go into the slot. He can play all over the field. He is obviously playing at a level that's elite.
Do you put him?
And especially when you're going up against a team like Carolina where there was one receiving threat, there was one, and do you neutralize that one receiving threat? Or if you're playing a team that has a dominant and some other guys, do you neutralize the dominant threat or the secondary threat and then double the dominant.
You can do a lot of things with it.
My question is is it time for the Cowboys to start considering Bland as a cornerback?
That shit travel?
I think that's situational to who you're going up against. So, for example, you're about to go up against the Washington Commanders. You know about Scary Terry, You know about Terry mclall McLaurin. You also know his challenges against Treyvon Diggs and some of the elite corners in the league. So Terry, he can take over a game. But I would consider it against mcglorin and the Commanders because there's not that secondary
threat that's anywhere equal. But then you go up against a team like the Seahawks can't really travel because you got locked and then you got Metcalf and it's like picking poison there. So you're gonna have to ask a guy like Stefan to kind of step up on that in that role as well. I just think it's situational. I don't think you go into any particular week saying or I don't think you make the blanket statement is what I'm saying and saying going forward to Ron Bland
needs to travel with whomever their primary is. I think to your point, you got to look at who the secondary is and go from there. It would be nice to see him travel against the Commanders, but when the Seahawks come to town, I don't want to see him travel. I would it doesn't matter what boundary he's on. He's going to have a top shelf receiver on that boundary, so just let him cook in that aspect.
I kind of feel like that I would just every once in a while play him in Nickel in the slot and no rhyme or reason, just every once in a while show people that he could still go in their play know, because a lot of teams will put their best receiver inside and then the Cowboys do it with Ceedee Lamb quite a bit. You know, the routes he gets from the slot. I don't think it's a travel situation. I just think let him go play slot,
you know, maybe two or three times a game. You just show that that he has the ability, and maybe it makes people opponents going forward say, okay, there's a possibility if we put our guy in the slot. It's just not an automatic, you know. And now it's an automatic where okay, we're gonna get We're going to get Lewis in the slot. But if you put it in people's minds that he will walk out there, walk inside and play, then you can't bank on it. It's it's
something that throws off, you know, the teams. You know, when they start to prep and they've looked at tendencies and all that, it's like, wait a minute, now you're getting outside. You know, you're getting outside bland. But wait, now there's fifteen percent of the time he's playing slot reps too, And it's just something to throw them off that they can't just one percent of the time you're gonna get Lewis in the slot. Yeah, you're just trying to kill their their metrics a little bit on it.
Maybe if you do that, how do you feel about the fact that now Jordan's gonna be on the boundary.
I bring in a mccuamu or something like that. I just I just every once in a while, I'm gonna take Lewis off the field or maybe you know, you know, to me it's I would I think it's a good chance to maybe get mccuamu or somebody ready, somebody else ready. We've learned this. I mean, yeah, the college football season's almost over. The pro season still got what seven more weeks, right, you're gonna need mccuamu here before this thing's all said
and done. I just know again, instead of like him being he played very well the last few weeks of the season, but maybe get him more reps or get somebody at corner more reps. And you don't have to do it every single time, like I said, but you do it maybe two or three times a game to kind of throw people off that they can't one with certainty say we're getting Lewis retire in the slot. No, you're not. They they've walked, they've walked, Uh, you know
they walked bland in their plan. You know, we can't we can't say that with any certainty right there. We can't set this up where we might get bland. You don't know, they might put bland in there on us once they see us go inside like.
That, especially in critical situation.
Yeah, I think both things that you said can both be true at once, and you can do both at once where depending on who the opponent is, So you change him up and on certain days that he's staying still on one side, yeah, you move him to the nickel and back and forth. So I think both things can be done. And just don't be don't become predictable, don't become right like this is what this guy does. We know he's great, we know how good he is
with his hands, interceptions and all of that. Let's figure out another game plan could come Just yeah, I'm not up to I don't like when things become that you're I want to say, I don't want to use the word consistent, because consistently usually is.
You want consistent?
Do you want consistency?
Ability's your quarterback to be consistent?
Absolutely? Absolutely? But change it up and do all kinds of things to keep them guessing all the time.
I think they're going to play some people down the down the road, you know, if it's the San Francisco's again, or there's you know, Philadelphia for sure, Miami. Yeah, create create a little doubt as they prep for that game. Now, Hey, if we do this, oh hell, we still might see that guy in the slot. They might, they might commit to it this game. Just create a little doubt.
And the thing is with he, he's the football where he's so smart that you don't have to worry about messing him up, getting confused, getting.
A better, better nickel guy, better slack guy than on outside. And he's played phenomenally on the outside.
So yeah, I think he can do both. Absolutely.
I don't think he would throw him off or confuse him or anything. I think if anyone could handle that, it would be him.
All right, let's take our final break. Will come back.
I got some question you got about the NFC is getting really interesting, and the matchups that are going to be coming up over the next four to five weeks with these teams out at the top of the division will be very interesting. We'll come back we'll talk about it that when come back Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio.
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It is the final segment of the Break Life in the SWBC Mortgage studios at the Star, Let's talk a little NFC. I was looking at some of the schedules of the teams that are at the top of the NFC. You got Philadelphia's at eight and one, they played a night against Kansas City.
You got Detroit at eight and two, you got.
And then you got San Francisco at seven and three, School Dallas at seven and three, Seattle six and four, Minnesota six and five, New Orleans five and five. And then I started looking at the schedules of who everybody has to play. So the first thing you look at, obviously, Dallas is going to have a tough. This is gonna start their gauntlet. Obviously, they got Washington at home, which again is a division game. Not a great team, but a division game. But then you got Seattle, Philly, at Buffalo,
at Miami, Detroit, tough five games. You look at San Francisco the next four games, They've got next five games. Sorry, they got at Seattle at Philadelphia, Seattle again at Arizona, and then Baltimore. Then you got Philly, they got Kansas at Kansas City, Buffalo, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle. Check out what Detroit has going, Green Bay at New Orleans, at Chicago, Denver, Minnesota, Dallas, Minnesota.
Started looking at that and one of these doesn't fit with the rest of them.
Who do you think has the best shot at being the number one seed when it's all said and done, Well.
We were talking about it during the break.
It could be Detroit based upon the scheduling.
And now, of course, and we say this every week, the other team gets paid to so can't overlook anyone because, for example, look at the Bears. The Bears, you know we're able to get their win yesterday, so I don't The Cowboys just need to make sure they handle their business effective right now, and they are so far. So hopefully they handle it against the Commanders, because here comes a Seahawks team that's looking to bounce back next week
and kind of get gonna run the Eagles. They're going up against the gaunt let starting today, massive massive game between them and the Chiefs. Go Chiefs. And then from there, I mean outside of Minnesota Cowboys, Minnesota like that three game sandwich for the Lianes, they have an easier role. Let's put it that.
I would I would add a game to that. The Broncos were kind of playing, like at the Bronco Broncos won.
I mean, now was it four straight? Five straight?
Yeah?
They were one and five.
Now yeah at Denver's Detroit's got that game at home. But after it's Green Bay, Thanksgiving, New Orleans, Chicago. Okay, those are those should be you should be okay there. Now it goes Denver, Minnesota, Dallas, Minnesota. Like you guys were talking about those two Minnesota games. Minnesota is kind of figuring something out too. I know they had the loss to Denver last night, but if they're playing, if they're playing for a playoff spot and position, that could be a pretty tough game.
And they maybe getting Justin Jefferson back then boon form.
Man.
I just I think you have to add Denver to the four to the you know, you add the three games, but the fact that they play Minnesota and Dallas and the Minnesota again, I that could be that could be something to a sneaky, h tough little run for the for the Lions there.
Looking at the Cowboys schedule. When you say, you know, worry about your own business.
And it's gonna be it's it's a yeah, yeah, yeah, that's gonna be rough. But let me ask you guys this question.
I wanted Buffalo to quit. I wanted wanted to talk. Yeah, they were, they were about ready to quit, their firing coaches. Their guy continues to turn the ball over, and all of a sudden, the Jets show up and say, oh, hey, by the way, I feel feel good about yourselves now right now?
Yeah, so let's put you right back in the race.
You're good. I'll go get them. I was, you know, Miami struggling beating good teams. I mean that's something that you know, you know, you just never know about these season. Miami, though, scares me to death though, with the explosive they.
Have, I think, and when you talk about the top NFC teams like the forty nine Ers, uh and the Eagles for example, now on this part of the season where we're hitting the war of attrition because Dallas Goddard is not going to play tonight for the Eagles, n Kobe Dean is down. And then flip over to the forty nine Ers and they suspect that Hufanga might have took for the town a cl one of the best
defensive backs, arguably the best defensive back they have. So uh, the top NFC teams, they're starting to hit at versity. The Cowboys had already hit their adversity. They had They've long lost trevel On and figured it out with deroyn Bland, They've long lost le Evanderish and figured it out with
Marquis Bell. So the adversity that usually hits the back end of the season hit the Cowboys in the first half and they've already got it figured out knock on Wood that I know others, But these other top NFC teams outside of the Lions, they're starting to lose some key guys, so that's going to matter.
Also, what game out of the remainding games of the schedule for the Cowboys. Would you foresee a.
Loss Detroit against Detroit? I think Detroit's got some San Francisco tendencies to them that give the Cowboys some problems. Physical on the offensive defensive line. You know, they're skill guys that think are pretty good, and they got a quarterback that really doesn't turn the ball over. They do run the ball really really well. You know, you look at what Detroit does. I mean, they play with a certain level of physicality. The great thing for the Cowboys,
in my opinion, is you're playing at home. I think you got it. I think you clearly have a home field in and I really do.
I was gonna say that's also the reason why I think them at Miami is going to be a tougher game for them to win, because I think the speed's going to be a problem. I think the temperature and the humidity could be a problem because again, the Cowboys will have not played or practiced in that in quite a while.
And that's how Miami is all the time.
It's going to be hot, it's going to be human and and I think on the road, right, so you look at all those things I think Miami is going to be one of the toughest games the Cowboys have left on the sky. And it doesn't matter as much because it is an AFC team, so it doesn't kill you with a lot of tie breaks.
But I don't I think it's gonna be hard.
I think they could deal with the heat better than they could deal with the cold in Buffalo.
That's actually gonna be a good question.
We live in here, we live in heat and humidity. We live here. We understand it. We su justedill have a great advantage in Green Bay when people would come up there and play late in the year that you know it's five below zero and you're.
Not it's rocky three. You go into the Arctic like, yeah, it's.
That cold affects the way you play more.
The heat.
You could kind of survive.
Before we leave and then the show just for the of it, win or lose for the rest of the season. Uh, cow was at home versus Commanders.
Just when are we doing We're doing win loss?
Yes, all right, it's Colt McCoy playing quarterback for the Commanders.
We'll see he's not he's not. You never know what?
Okay, yes, when when?
When and the what is it the lady, she's a strange lady.
I gotta get a were talking about.
A home versus Seattle. When when when I was at home versus Eagles?
When when when, Okay, we're sound like now away.
In Buffalo.
I think I think that's the lost Yeah.
Okay, Cowboys in Miami loss. Okay, Cowboys at home Detroit when okay?
Maybe?
And then and then and then when when I think they're going to lose two more, I think lose to and I please, I think it's gonna be those two road games.
But I don't know. Maybe it's not.
The commanders.
Lady, the lady can think anap All right.
We appreciate you guys. Jones. We'll be back tomorrow.
We're gonna jump right into this Cowboys versus Commanders. Brian, don't give us a lowdown on the Commander's offense versus the Cowboys defense.
We'll be back dllas cowboy.
I mean, see you guys tomorrow for Patrick Walker. Brian brought us Amber Garcia. I've been to Derek Eagleton. This has been the Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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