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It's time for the break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. We were on with Mbar Garcia, Brian brought us, Patrick Walker and Derek Eagleton.
It is Monday, September twenty fifth, twenty twenty three, Season nineteen, episode number thirty eight. Welcome to the latest edition of Breakwire Live from s WBC Morriage Studios at the Star and Man.
For the first time in.
This season, we have to come in here on a Monday morning and tell you what went wrong, because there was a lot that went wrong yesterday Cowboys on the road twenty eight to sixteen to the Arizona Cardinals, and we're going to break it down for you guys.
We've got a whole list of.
Things where the Cowboys just weren't weren't playing up to what we've expected from them, and we'll go through each of those different areas and give you our insights there. But where I want to start first is just a big picture look I go around the table, I would love for you guys each tell me what do you think was the big picture storyline for you coming out of this game?
Patri let's start with you.
Well, there were a couple, but I'll just go with one run defense. Coming into this season, you asked the question, you know, for me, what would it take for this defense to be special? And the biggest thing I drew a circle around was the run defense. And you know, you know, thankfully, we saw them perform well in that capacity against the Giants, we saw them perform masterfully against the Jets in that capacity, but it was still about consistency and two outings does not consistency make. So then
you're going against the Cardinals team. Then, yeah, you know what James Connor can do, and you know more can do. But you want to believe that the Cowboys run defense is showed up and that it's upgraded. But when you allow two hundred and twenty two yards rushing and then at halftime it was the most rushing yards allowed by a Cowboys team since nineteen ninety one, that's not what you want to see. That's not going to win the game for you. So yeah, we can point at the
penalties as well. But for me, it's got to be the run defense.
Cowboys spread zone problems were more about what Arizona was doing to them than really what the Cowboys were trying to do to Arizona. There weren't clean routes, there weren't clean reads. They had some opportunities where some miss blocks along the way, maybe some unfortunate play calling. I take example of the option to seed lamb. You leave two
guys on blocked. It's a minus negative play there. So really more about what Arizona was doing to them scheme wise than really what the Cowboys were doing execution wise.
A whole lot of confusion had something. They went into that game very well prepared. They looked confused at times on both sides of the ball. But just to that point, what I was initially going to say is that the Cardinals were able to exploit their weaknesses, their their weak
points on both sides of the ball. You talk about the running defense, the run defense, and you talk about the red zone issues that they've had, and this is going to serve as a game that opposing teams are going to watch and rewatch and try to copy and do what they were able to do to the Cowboys and try to attack their weak points.
This seemed very much to me, Brian, like what you mentioned last week, the desperate team theory. After the game, I was literally just watching. We have TV monitors in here on an NFL network. They're showing some replacement game, and I didn't realize at the end of the game they actually gave their the coach a gatorade bath, which again tells you how important that game was for them.
They went into that game, yes, yes.
Yeah, exactly, a week three game gatorade bath your coach like that tells you how desperate they were, and they came out and played like it, and it tells you maybe how flat the Cowboys were. I did hear that at least by one player in the locker room yesterday, that they maybe it may have been a little flat, may not have had the same level of intensity that you've expected from them, or that they've shown in the
first two weeks. And I do think that showed up yesterday and in the way those two teams played and the way they approached that game.
All Right, here's what we're gonna do.
I'm gonna go through I have a list a list of five things that I think went wrong for the Cowboys yesterday. I'm gonna throw them out for you guys, and I'd like for you to tell me a little bit more about what you saw and why things went wrong in this area. Patrick, you mentioned the first one run defense yesterday. Here with the numbers, CAW, I mean the Cardinals had thirty rushes for two hundred and twenty two yards a seven point four average. Here's another interesting
stat I noted. Check this out when eight men eight plus men were in the box.
So this is a stack box.
This is when you expect that you should be able to stop the run because you're paying inordinate amount of attention to stopping the ru They still between Connor and Dobbs, they ran twelve times for ninety five yards seven point nine average on the ground when the Cowboys stacked the box. What did you see yesterday from the Cowboys run defense or runoff run defense?
Sorry, I mean you were just losing one on one battles.
I mean you you For example, the more touchdown, I mean that red Sea just absolutely parted. He went untouched and it was just a bunch of green in front of him. From there and then he rattled off the touchdown, and the same thing for some of those runs by Connor. It's again, it's a run defense that has shown us that it was short up. But then yesterday they just got beat straight up, They got outpowered, they got out executed. It was the Cardinals that was basically teaching class on yesterday,
and it shouldn't have been that way. And I mean, you could talk about the three offensive lining that didn't play yesterday, and yeah there were pressures there, and we will talk about that here shortly, But for me, if you go back and you look at the film, it just really boiled down to the Cardinals offensive line were winning their assignments and winning their keys far more often than the Cowboys were, and those lanes were just opening up and the running backs didn't have much work to do.
If you look at the yards after contact, there was a lot of that. But then some of those big plays didn't even have contact. It was just hand off and go, and you just can't have that if you're trying to be a contender.
Arizona took advantage of Dallas's aggressiveness, especially at linebacker. You had guys overrunning the ball and then the cutbacks happened on Patrick was talking about the long run by More Dallas's front was never set. The two defensive tackles were actually moving. They were trying to get them over. They were to the left, they were trying to move them over to the right. They couldn't get them over. And once they got them over, ball was snapped and now
you're in a trouble there. Sam Williams gets caught up the field there and now all of a sudden, though, you got guys pen to the inside.
Kurse saw the ball break late.
I don't think he saw where the run was coming from, so his angle was off and then that kind of threw him out of the way. But a lot of this against the run defense stuff is Patrick's wright. There's a physicality element to that to the game. But if you're supposed to fit in certain gaps, if you're supposed to play your assignment, I'll give you example. Donovid Wilson had a bad day early in that game of not fitting assignments. You know him the long run where Dobbs
takes off on the Reid option stuff. You know they get a double team block on the outside. But what happens is Wilson goes too far to the inside. He's responsible be an edge player. Micah had a chance but kind of got caught no man's land there. So all of a sudden, now you've got a no man's land player, you got a double team on the outside, and then you got a guy taking the wrong angle that's going to lead to a forty four yard run. That happened to the Cowboys way too often in that game yesterday.
Well, you talk about a defense that what we've seen in the first two weeks, We've talked about it over and over, how great. And you see them everybody so in sync, everybody making place from the top two the bottom, and then all of a sudden they're not able to adjust, they make the right changes and be on the same page. Gilmour, that was disappointing to see certain plays that he was playing where he looked slow and he didn't look like a veteran presence that you've seen so far. And again
Micah Parsons multiple occasions, what was going on? Just like confused. I forgot who was telling him, no, you're you have to line up there? Who was that?
Well, him and vander esh were having a conversation, but like during the game, it was there was a couple of times where he rushed and it was hands like pre snap where hands looking inside.
What's going on and you're what's what's the call?
So those things should not be happening. Those are easy fakes and those are the things that kind of baffled me a little bit, like to why, why, how did that happen? And it wasn't just once, it was in multiple occasions.
We talked about it a little bit last week though. What Arizona does to you, the fact that they had a forty five yard run from a wide receiver as a running back, They're gonna put you a lot of different problems. They're gonna make you have to think your way through some things. And I think that the maybe some lack of communication, the lack of execution, the lack of physicality, There was a lot of things. Dan Quinn had a bad day yesterday. His defense had a bad day.
Let's be fair, we give dan Quinn a lot of credit. We also need to tell dan Quinn's defense wasn't ready to play the first half of that football game yesterday, you know, and then some plays in the second half they weren't ready to play, you know, so that's on them to try and fix these things.
But if you're telling.
Me there's confusion and lack of communication and all that on the field, you know, in certain key situations, that is a problem throughout the defense.
Yeah, you were.
We were talking last week when we were talking about the breakdown about how much this team likes to do different kinds of things in their running game.
There's a lot of pulling.
Guards and pen and pull, so, yeah, that kind of stuff, and yesterday the Cowboys are getting beat a lot on those kinds of plays. It wasn't wh you're running straight out of the Cowboys defense is pretty adept at stop that. It was those other kind of plays. That first play, that first long run by Dobbs, to me, set the tone because it was exactly what we talked about about Micah and Philadelphia. What happened against Philadelphia him kind of freezing,
he read it the wrong way. He well, he went for the running back, which and I don't know if you necessarily call that a bad reading, but what you notice is they went back to that play several more times. And what Micah did, he didn't rush, He just waited and he waited until the ball was he knew exactly where the ball was going, and then he reacted to it, which is how you're supposed.
To play that. But I think that's kind of the point of it is.
I think yesterday there were lots of moments where different players just had, you know, moments, They just had moments where they didn't get to their assignment, they overran a play, they just made mistakes.
And it's what we talked about from the offensive line last week.
There just there were so many just little mistakes that everybody was making these little mistakes.
That job one doesn't and the one guy gets exposed. The two guys get exposed when everybody else and you need him. You need to play the scheme that way.
All right, Let's talk about the penalties.
Yes, that's another area that we thought going into this year, or at least so far this year, the Cowboys had been really good about avoiding penalties. Yesterday they have thirteen penalties for one hundred and seven yards. It was just a day when the flags were out and obviously the crew. You could say what you want about the crew and how many of those calls may have been bogus or not, the fact of the matter is that's how they were calling the game, and at some point you have to
adjust to how they're calling the game. But what did you guys think about the penalty?
I think they had an issue yesterday with Froholt the center.
He's really good at his ability to move his head, and they were I think in this game they were trying to judge that when he moves his head down, he's going to snap the ball, and there were a couple of times where he faked like he was and then now Dallas Is they were playing that game where they were watching him and then trying to get make their time their rush or they're getting off the ball
when he moved his head. That caused some problems for some of the off side stuff they're dealing with the least, like on a Jordan Lewis, you know, holding down field, and so those were legitimate penalties, you know, I mean, you can't contact a guy past that five yards and you can't grab the guy. So there were some things that they were doing yesterday in this game where they were trying to jump the snap or just you know, hey, you can't hold a guy down the field like that.
Don't leave the game in the hands of the officials.
It just do not, because then you put yourself in situations where you need the DPI called. When you target CD Lamb on the right end of the end zone, you need the dp You need the flag not picked up when they flag for DPI on the gallop target. That's putting the game in the hands of the officials. And then you see what happened after those two plays. You don't get the DPR call against CD Lamb, they go down and score, right, you had a big sixty
nine yarder on that touchdown drive from the Cardinals. That were subsequent to that, you get the Dak Prescott interception after the gallop DPI was picked up. So don't put the game in the hands of the officials. Fact is, and I have problems with the officials as well in that game. Talk about those two plays, but also you know Ceedee Lamb and him being called for offensive pass and the fans where to me, that was a bang bang football play between those two guys.
Fine.
Nonetheless, to Brian's point, the large majority of these penalties are one hundred percent accountable to the Cowboys, and it can't happen thirteen in force for one hundred and seven yards. To myntality, they had almost twenty that were flagged, but of course not all in forced. That is a ridiculously insane and appropriate number for a team that is trying to be a Super Bowl contender. One thing that stood out some of the a lot of these penalties stalled
or just outright killed drives Cavante Turpett. You have your defense who's eventually going to get tired from being on the field.
They force a punt. Turpin returns the ball.
Fifty one yards, that gets negated by Devin Harper, and then tack on another ten yards on top of that. And then on that drive, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys they start recovering, they start moving on that drive, They're like, okay, resiliency, and then.
You get the holding on too many. Doga makes it three and thirteen.
Ferguson gets ten yards, but the Cowboys fail on fourth and third penalties. Penalties, penalties. It has to be cleaned up. There was a problem in twenty twenty two. We talked about it. Coming into twenty twenty three. It was for the most part rained in the first two weeks, but man laundry Dad yesterday. You cannot continue to do that if you really want to be a contender in this conference.
Yeah, there's just no discipline, and it goes back to the whole not being fully prepared in my opinion. But I think this is where I'm confused though, because I don't think the Cowboys were two in the clouds and two in their own heads. Like as far as preparation during the week, you know, when we go in the locker room or talk to these players, that's not the vibe that I was getting from them, and I know
it was asked to Dak Presca. You know, the media puts them on a pedestal when they're on top and then completely slaughter them when they're down. But as far as what they're doing, my vibe wasn't that they're not taking this game serious, they're not prepared. They were focused. So that's where I'm confused why the lack of like discipline, preparation, the lack of being insane communication occur in this game, because I do think that they were focused throughout the week.
They were they were. I think it's a you know, evidence of two things. One, it's there were some discipline issues obviously as far as not committing the penalties, you know, letting go of a guy, not getting a holding call and not getting a block in the back one. I mean, come on, fifty one yards. But at the same time, as the game went on, there was frustration. I felt like there was frustration that was occurring on both sides
of the ball for Dallas. And the problem is is when you're already trying your best to remain self disciplined in your individual assignments, but then you start to get beat here and then you don't get this call go your way, and then you start to shrink a little bit. Well, then that this that self discipline starts to lessen and now here's now you're playing sloppy. So now what happens is that the guy next to you, he's like, oh, well, this just as in our day penalty.
So then it.
Starts to spiral and snowball, and before you knew it, we're sitting in the press box in this flag flag flag someplace. There were multiple flags, multiple infractions against the Cowboys, and you're sitting there like, are we kidding as seriously as this was happening, because, particularly to Ambar's.
Point, last week.
These guys were focused, and we thought that they were coming in written emotional wave from losing Trevon Diggs. But I mean, I don't know if it's the body's buried in the desert, whatever is going on out there, because the game was weird from the outset with the Tyrone Smith.
You know, situation, and.
You know he's active, but he's and he's named the captain, but then ultimately he doesn't play, and then it was just ominous from there.
So I don't know. Too many bodies in the desert. I guess, yeah, it was. I don't know.
I will say this, I don't know that we can say one way or the other that they were focused or not focused. I certainly don't have any insight to see how much they were on their iPads watching and preparing.
What I can say is that as you watch.
That game, there were moments where you were like, man, they just didn't seem like they knew where they needed to be, and that is usually.
Something that you point to.
What was the preparation like, So again, I don't know whether they prepared as hard or as much as they had prepared the other two weeks or less.
I don't know that.
I just know that yesterday they didn't look like they were as disciplined and knowing where they needed to be and being there consistently, and that's why they got lit up in a number of different areas during that game.
You had penalties that killed your offensive drives, and then you had penalties that extended their offensive drives. Talk about the penalty on Lewis, the DPI and deron Bland. Yeah, I mean, you can't have both of those things occurring at the same time, Like something has to be clean, and just nothing was clean in that game yesterday.
All Right, we're gonna take our first break. When we come back, we're gonna talk about this red zone offense. It was not just a problem this week. It's been an ongoing problem. We'll talk about that when we come back. Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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It is the second segment of the break Life in SWUBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. The segment brought to you by blockchain dot Com. We are talking about the Cowboys loss yesterday, first loss of the season. They lose to Arizona twenty eight to sixteen. Let's talk about one other problem that popped up red zone offense.
Yesterday.
Cowboys were one of five twenty percent in the red zone. Get this.
They were zero for two when they were in goal to go situations. Yeah, that is not good.
But this has been an ongoing issue. Is this something we talked about last week that it was a problem. It didn't kill them last week, but it certainly was a problem. What happened yesterday with regards to the red zone offense.
I mean it's a like you said, oh for two, goal for goal with goal to go. They had an unsuccessful goal to go against the Jets. Yeah, against the Jets with the hand with the hinder shot, and you know Rico didn't get in either.
I mean, it's a problem.
One question is where your wide receivers in the red zone, where your wrote receiver targets in the red zone. As far as being able to produce those those touchdowns that are needed, I mean, you don't have any white receiver touchdowns at all through three weeks of football. That is something that the Cowboys need to look at and try to figure out what's going on there.
So that's a large part of it.
But it also goes to you know, how comfortable or uncomfortable are the Cowboys right now with this Texas Coast offense. We still don't know what it looks like. You just got Brandon Cooks back, but we were talking about this during the break. You didn't have three of your starting offensive lineman. Tyler Smith came back, but Tyrant Smith didn't play, Tyler Biadis didn't play, Zach Martin didn't play.
Was there, you know, a little bit? Was there?
A little bit less of a confidence in those in that start in five yesterday that maybe has had McCarthy kind of scale back on what he might have called Otherwise, if you had your front five out there, or at least four of your front five like they had the first two weeks, a lot to be figured out there, And to be honest with you, I haven't figured it out specifically just yet, because if you look at it, they should be scoring on on some of these plays,
but they're just not. So when it happens like that, and I can't yet figure out what the problem is.
I'm always going to lean back on.
The execution of it because a lot of times that's probably what's keeping you out of the end zone. Now, some play calling is going to be mixed in as well as far as accountability goes. But I mean, I think if they execute on some of these plays, for example, the hindershot play, if he makes that vision go, but yeah, I mean you can they.
Should have red zone points.
And the officials also took a couple of way, but that's not the only reason they don't have them.
Grand twenty four plays in the red zone is what you did the screenplay to doabtle for a touchdown. Well executed, well called. Nice job of blocking out in front. That's something that you know they need to kind of look at that little bit more. But a red zone screen is always a good thing to call there. One time they run a waggle to the right with pres Scott and Arizona has five defenders to cover three. No chance on the play. Fourth down, Arizona sells out on a blitz.
It's picked up line. Lets the furthest man from the ball go. That's usually the responsiblity of the quarterback. You don't want to let anybody inside, So squeeze it down. Furthest guy from the ball. Quarterback, that's your guy. We can't block him. Prescott's got to know that he can't. He's got to know I'm gonna get a blitzer in my face. I can see him right there. They try to run the ball inside the cooks and you know,
Prescott feels the pressure throws the ball too high. But he's got to know he's got an unblocked blitzer over there. Because the way the line had signed slid that way. You had a couple of times there where Prescott drops the snap on the play ferguson Lamb run into each other. They got four Cardinals to cover. Three Cowboys receive it. A dooga gets called for holding on the play. You know, this is the kind of stuff that This is the kind of stuff you're dealing with. They run that I mentioned,
They run the option to Lamb. They you know, no one's fooled on the play. White and a Shashery are there. They stay at home to make the tackle. Both are on block trips left Lamb single. Prescott tries to hit him with the fade. He doesn't make the play. Could there have been a pass interference there? Yeah, it could have been. Didn't call it, didn't work out your way?
You know.
The thing about it is and one more final thing.
I just looked down at my notes. Prescott to Gallop on the fade. He's got Wilson beat off the line. Throw the ball out there, Throw the ball out and up. That guy's gonna go make that play for you. Don't throw the ball short.
You know.
Yeah, the flag gets picked up and then you have the you know, then you have the next plays the interception, you know, which effectively into the game. But you know, you run the ball. There's some things that they do well. I think this was really more about Arizona's red zone defense than it was about Dallas's offense.
In my opinion.
But there were some things that that, you know, like I say, the routes aren't always clean, but there's also some self inflicted stuff there that goes on. But you know, I mentioned four Cardinals to cover three Cowboys, five Cowboys, five Cardinals to cover threes. You know you've got to find a way to not let that happen in a game.
Okay, my heart is fully racing right now, so let me give a disclaimer. Sorry if any insults come out, if anybody from that side of the building is listening, because these are just my emotions speaking right now, So apologies. But you know, I'm looking at this, at the stats, and I'm tired of saying like, on paper, they have this, they have the talent. On paper, they look good. They should be being a lot more effective than what they are. And it could be that the Cardinals and they did
a good job. Credit to them, for sure, But it's not week three. Just it's not just week three. We saw glimpses of it week one, week two, so we know this is a your current issue. So my problem is where is all this creativity that you hide from the media sometimes and you try to act all again, sorry emotions, I'm sorry, no offense, But what are you trying to hide because I'm not seeing it. Are you saving it for when forty nine ers or when we get to compete in the playoffs? I don't know, but
it has to click at some point. I think it was the lack of creativity. And you talk about the offensive line. You had three of your starters out and I get it, that's a big loss for anybody. But at the same time, you saw what you were able to do. You were still being able to move the offense down the field. It wasn't as bad as I thought it could. It was gonna be again, it wasn't perfect, but you were still being able to move the ball around and do some things. But then you get to
the red zone and you get stuck once again. You got a mobile quarterback that can run, that has the pheaz for it, you're not using him. You have the running backs that you know what you can do, and we've seen it before where maybe you get an extra push from somebody else helping you out. Just push through for those extra yards. You have the tight ends, you got Gallup who's been having a good game. I thought Brandon Cooks was gonna be the guy that comes in
here and clicks again. I thought this whole game was going to be completely different, thinking we were gonna have some linements in there and everything. But when you talk about just the talent the skill sets that they currently have on the roster, and you're not able to really take advantage of that and put everybody in their best position and really utilize those weapons. Turpin, you've used them before. Where was that you have? Duce Duce. We've been talking
it up all through training camp, pre season. The first two weeks we've seen glimpses of it, but yet you're not really trying to use them in a game that you absolutely needed to, where your defense is not playing the way that they should and now you have to really take advantage and perform offensively, and it's not happening.
You know what's interesting about that is I actually think I actually think offensively, they were more creative in games one and two than they were yesterday. And I don't know if it's because they felt like they didn't need to necessarily have that same level of creativity.
But we saw them and maybe it was.
Maybe it was.
But that's also where I would say, should you be even a little bit more creative when you're a little worried about them? Should you have a few more guys that you get involved. Should you be running, you know, using Turpin in his speed to maybe use some end rounds or some jet sweeps, like you should be looking for other ways to keep the opposing defense off balance if you're worried about going straight at them because you just don't know if your offensive line is gonna hold up.
That would be my thought.
Maybe you went the other way and said, let's be a little less creative and let's just try to stick to what we do, and maybe maybe that'll be another.
They had a couple of no gains where they brought Lamb and I'm just saying, you know, just when you start talking about running in the line and maybe not trust him. But they had a couple of runs where Ferguson, they're running the ball going left and Ferguson gets beat inside. This guy makes a tackle and they bring Polar or they bring Lamb in motion and he's supposed to block the linebacker and he doesn't block him and it's a
no game there. So I mean they're like they're designing plays as creative as you no, but they're trying to run plays. I felt like there was some times when they ran the ball down there they were able to get some traction. I think the passing game is what let them down. And honestly, I think this is going to sound bad because we all talk about these tight ends.
I think he missed Dalton Schultz down there. I think he missed somebody that has an ability to know how to play in space and kind of work his way around and find his way to get open because the receivers are struggling to get open. And then you know, we haven't seen you know in some of the games. I mean we had was it Ferguson or Hendershot that had the drop in the one game, but you know, down.
In the red zone.
But I just the receivers are just not if it's not a fade or something like that, that they're not doing anything to win. And I think that's but you might miss a guy like Schultz that kind of understands how to get lost, how to open himself open and give Dak the opportunity to throw the ball well.
With this offensive line, Initially it looked like they were probably going to lose you the game because Dak Prescott had only been sacked once through the first two weeks. He gets sacked two times fairly early in the game, and then you're wondering. You're like, oh, well, is this a Clayborne situation? Is this the Burning of Atlanta? But then they kind of locked in and for the most part,
did as much as they could. Because if you look at like the Rico Dowdle scoring scoring drive, Tony Pollard was like Bam handoff, handoff, handoff, and they were effective handoffs plus eight plus five plus six plus eight, and then you know, you hit Daldo in the flat for the quick and then he does the rest of the heavy lifting. So the offensive line they didn't lose you
the game. I will say that it does feel more like this Texas Coast offense, whatever it might end up being, at the moment, it's not taking the shot enough shots down for there were a couple of shots taken downfield, like CD Lamb and Michael gallup in and I actually do think Jake Ferguson performed well yesterday for the most part.
I mean, he had a pretty big day.
When it comes to the receiving corps, Michael Gallup obviously had a big day, but this was the biggest day thus far for the tight end unit and it was because of Jake Ferguson. So I don't know that they missed on showts in that capacity when.
You had in the red zone, they missed Schultz.
Well that's fair.
I mean in the red zone.
I mean, how many touchdowns did him and z Cap and I'm not even including Zeke in this thing, but how many touchdowns did Schultz have down there?
You know?
Where where are you getting where? Who is getting opened down there? In three games? Who is getting open to be able to make these plays?
You know?
And the thing that you know when you start to talk.
About, like I said, this this offense, if they're so focused on not making our creative turnovers or bad situations from deb for Dak and they're not, and they're doing it in a way not to push the ball down the field, And this is what this offense is going to be.
We might be in it for a little bit of a long year.
You know, when it comes to if they don't if they're not willing to run more routes.
If everything is underneath and quick and all.
That, you know you're going to eventually have to take some shots down the field.
And I get it.
If you don't trust your offensive line, then max protect that thing, keep back in, keep tight ends in, and then launch it and see if you can win on the outside. But everything yesterday and Mike and the postgame talked about, oh, they're playing their safeties deep. Yeah, they rotated their safeties. They did a lot of disguise. One up, one back, they'd rotate. There was a little bit of a deep drop. Arizona was worried that the ball was
going to go down the field. But if you're going to play the Cowboys, it does look like the Cowboys are willing to throw the ball down the field right now. It just doesn't look like that they're going to take that that shot or two. There were no routes where it was threatening the Arizona secondary.
I would also say, and they did a good job of at least getting We talked about where was Deuce Vaughn in this in this picture against the Cardinals. Hunter Lipkey got some good burn yesterday he showed a lot of versatility. So if we're talking about red zone execution, let's let's get Hunter Lipkey and.
Well they tried to. They did the one man screened again they did.
You know, they just didn't get the blocks down the field like the tight ends last week against the Jets got the blocks. They didn't get the block. They tried it in the red zone. That's you know, talked about creativity. That's a good little play that they have. You know, get Hunter and and and Doubtle out and then throwing
the ball and then try and get a block. I mean, they got some positive yards out of it, but you know, it's it just man, it just seemed like that Arizona was just everything that Dallas tried to do, the waggles, anything in the red zone.
It was plastered, plastered, plastered. Nobody, nobody running free in that game.
I would like to see I agree with you, Patrick, I would like to see Lipkey lip Key get a few more opportunities those we saw yesday on third and short. Thing was third and short nine nine yards. Yeah, and he might is, I won't say might be. I think he is their most physical back. And if you want to replace maybe what you lost with not having Zeke. I think he's a guy that maybe can provide that
for you and give you a little more. I do too, but I think I'm talking about actually moving people, and when it's not blocked up, right, can you still figure out a way to get there. I think I might have a little more I may want to see. I do want to see more of lip Key having that opportunity than what I've seen so far from some of those other guys.
All Right, we're gonna take our final break. We'll come back.
We've got to talk about some of the explosive plays that happened yesterday with the with the Arizona Cardinal offense, and we might talk a little bit about that offensive line, talk about Adova and how he performed.
Will be back, Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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Welcome back. It is the final segment of the Break Life in.
S WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We're going through what went wrong for the Cowboys yesterday and the first loss of the season. Let's talk about explosive plays. These are plays of twenty plus yards on the ground. They gave up one, two, three, four, a forty four yard rush to Dobbs, a twenty yard rush to Connor, forty five yard rush to Moore and that was a TD,
and then a twenty six yard run to Connor. In the passing game, they gave up a twenty three yard to Brown and then another sixty nine yarder to Wilson.
What was the deal with the big plays yesterday? Because that definitely has not been a hallmark of this defense.
No, that's with more or let's help bury them. I mean, you can talk about the penalties, and rightfully so, but like you said, it was not only the number of big plays which were obvious, because it felt like it felt like the Cardinals were being allowed to have a big play every other play.
That's what it felt like.
But then you look at the fact that nearly half of those big plays came on the ground.
If you bottle them up, the number passes right.
If you bottle them up on the ground, then it's a much more manageable game. And you probably still you probably win this game, although with a couple, you know, with a black eye and some real bruises, and it's probably you know, twenty one twenty four, you walk away with the win, but at least you give yourself an opportunity to win, not I mean allowing that many big plays on the ground, just it sets up the big plays in the air and then from there you're just
along for the ride. And I do I know for a fact, And we talked about it, the loss of Trevon Diggs. It shouldn't be as massive as it could be if this Cowboys team didn't have the depth that it had. But it just looked like they were trying to figure out what their identity is going to be in the secondary and on the defense. Without Trevon Diggs being you know, that primary lockdown corner opposite Stefan Gilmore. You were asking you more to do a little bit more.
Obviously you're asking Deron Bland to do a lot more moving him to the outside, and then you see plays like the DPI that extended the drivet. For the Cardinals, it just feels like they didn't have their usual defensive identity with Trevon Diggs not on that field, and that's something that they're going to have to figure out because allowing this many big plays is going to lose you most games. But allowing this many big plays on the ground is going to lose you nine out of ten games.
So yeah, and you.
Gotta make offenses respect you. Yes, you know they're gonna keep running over you and making plays like that when you keep giving them away and allowing it to happen. I don't think without Trevon Diggs, I wouldn't. Is there anybody else like in the secondary that you would think of posting teams see as like a threat.
I think they respect dron Bland and already six takeaways like they respect darn Bland. But again, this is not dron Bland's base position. He's a nickel guy, so he's I say that with the aspect of I'm awarding him some grace here. It's his first NFL game playing in the outside, and you just knew that the Cardinals were going to attack that, and they attacked it early, and they attacked it early, which is what I would have done if I was to play caller for the Cardinals or any team.
So it's something that Deron Bland is going to learn from.
But as far as the respect aspect, NFL teams respect Bland because they know he can take the ball away just like Lewis Kann, just like Gilmore can. But when you take away a guy like Trevon Diggs because of injury, the immediate question is how quickly can you re establish your new identity because you no longer have two lockdown corners. You have one definitive lockdown corner and a ballhawk that is moved from the inside to the outside and he's trying to figure its way out.
And then of course that also a lockdown corner. Is that what you're saying Gilmore? Yes, still Gilmore is a lockdown corner.
He doesn't have the speed used to have, but I mean, his mental acuity is insane and he has agree with that.
I't know if other teams look at him in the same way they look at Diggs or.
Some of the true lockdown.
I think this is also my thing about I think lockdown corner is used way more than it should be these days.
There are only a few.
Lockdown corners in the league on any given in any given season. In my opinion, Uh, there are some really good cornerbacks, and I think Gilmore is a really good cornerback.
I don't call it.
I don't think he locks down one half of the field. I don't think that's Gilmore's game. That's my opinion.
I would find a way if I was attacking Gilmore.
I'm to figure.
I think the way to attack Gilmore is trying to get him on the move. I think that to me, and and Arizona did a really good job of this when they they ran him through trash on the touchdown, they they start him on the left, the left side, and they are they started the right, and they run him all the way across the field, all through stuff. And you know, I think that you're absolutely right about the smarts and all with him and what he reads. But there is a little bit of that lack of
the burst that he wants. He had an elite burst in the way he played and he's It shows now when you carry him up the field. He'll fight you. You know, he'll battle you and all that stuff that there's teams though. You could see there's a little bit of separation there, and you know, he dove. He made a great effort to try and make the play, but the ball was right there.
It was well thrown.
It was But I would try and attack him on the move and make him have to chase a little bit, because I don't know if he has that burst that he once had. He still could play at a very high level. But there's ways that you I think you could kind of mess with him a little bit. If you get back to the run stuff and how the big plays that they gave up in the running game. I think a lot of it had to do with your linebacker play. I think a lot of it had to do with your safety play. I don't think Kurse
was particularly good in this football game. I don't think Wilson was particularly good in this football game. I don't feel that vander Esch and Clark were particularly good in this game. And then when Belle got the opportunity, he got blocked second level, you know, long forty five with a long touchdown run by More they got hat on hat and it was you know, nobody touched the guy. But if you're going to overrun place, then you better know that if you overrun, somebody better be there to
pick up the pieces when you overrun it. The problem is Dallas has two or three players overrun in plays and then the ball breaks back behind that and there's nobody there to pick up, nobody to pick up the pieces. You know, you get guys that get cut hat on hat, and then linebackers that are flying downhill and you got safety flying downhill. And when they overrun plays, just know that that ball, if it spills to the back side, there's probably gonna be a big game there, all.
Right, real quick, before we end the show, I did want to get some thoughts on what happened with the offensive line. Obviously, had three of your starters out too many. Doga is the guy that I think most people have talked about the most of the guys who came in. But what were your thoughts on Adoga, on Hoffman on bass. They were all in there yesterday trying to kind of make whatever they can make out of that game, knowing that three of their starters were down.
I think considering what you know, the fire they were thrown into. I think they cleaned themselves up pretty well. I mean, like I said, at the beginning of the game, it felt like things were going to get out of hand because of the offensive line. Dak goes down once, that goes down twice, and we're all back in Atlanta all over again. But there were no sacks allowed thereafter.
Now also to that was I did like that. I saw Dak Prescott being more willing than ever, not than ever then thus far the season to take off and run with his legs and try to move the change that way. So that's at least promising. But the offensive line, I mean, those young guys, they came in and performed.
I'm not going to say well.
But above above park, above the median I talked about that. That holding penalty against Idoga was that was brutal. I mean, it killed a drive for the Cowboys and that can't happen. But I mean when you look at Tyron Smith, I mean we thought he was going to play all the way up until he he didn't, right, I mean, he was named captain, he was active. We thought he was going to play. No Tuma, by the way, you're going
in and we talked about this a lot. We like Chumaydoga a lot more on the inside as a left guard then on the outside, and we saw why that is in lateral space he struggles a little bit with his feet in that quickness. But Bass had one penalty. Thankfully, that penalty didn't cost the Cowboys that drive. Cowboys went down and got points on that drive. But for the most part, those that young trio of offensive linemen didn't really account for much of what happened.
Or what went wrong in Arizona for the for the Cowboys.
Yeah, the sacks though, it was they didn't they try and throw waggle with Xavier at Xavier Collins and he wasn't fooled, you know. They had They tried to get the ball to Ferguson and actually had an opportunity if Xavier Collins, I mean here, they're thinking he's gonna come down inside, He's gonna chase, that's his aggressive style he plays with. And they were gonna wheel back out to the left and throw the ball to Ferguson to get a first down. It's a you know, no chance you
get a sack. He's on top of him right there. Adoga gives up another sack there where they trying to double They try to double move on.
The outside and here again.
You know, when you look at Marco Wilson the corner, he's bitten on some of these double move routes.
He's you know, he's a guy.
The first couple of games, they've got the ball down the field, they try to double move him. He doesn't bite. Dak's got nowhere to go with the ball. Now he's sacked because a doga gives up the sack right there. But other than that, I thought the guy's played as well as they could play. You know, I really I think that I'm really happy with bass. I think he's a mal or brawler kind of a guy. Think he's
a tough guy. I think you can rely on him in a game to help you, and if you had to continue to put him in there, I think he's going to be just fine. I was worried, sick about Hoffman, that they were going to cover him and there was going to be problems, But he showed really really good toughness in this game. If the coaches were afraid of their offensive line going in, I get it. But as the game wore on, and I think I would have
been more and more comfortable with what we can do. Again, maybe the offense isn't geared anymore to throw the ball down the field. Maybe everything is underneath in that intermediate range get it out quick. If that's the case, then uh, you know, man, that's kind of what we're gonna you know, that's what we're going to see the rest of the year. You know. I think the ball does need to go
down the field. But again, maybe the coverage or maybe the offensive line concerns were too much for the coaching staff in this game.
With the whole conversation between a dog weather, it looks better as a guard than a tackle.
I'm surprised Tyler Smith didn't play left tackle in that game yesterday.
Is that how you would have lined them up?
I wouldned up. I would have put it. I would have put Yeah.
I mean Tyler Smith from playing guard guard guard all last year to all of a sudden boom, you're the starting left tackle against Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he played the whole year. I think that's how I would have been more concerned about dealing with the edges in this game than I would deal with the inside guys.
Why do y'all think that was their decision.
Though we're doing radio and they're coaching in two thousand and two thousand and five. In two thousand and five, I could have told you that sitting in that room right now. I just I'm just a guy doing radio.
Yeah, yeah, And there's no way to really know unless unless they tell us, right yeah, And they haven't been willing to tell us that about how they came to that decision. But I before the game, when Nick was doing the pregame show and he had talked to Stephen Jones and kind of got win to the fact that Tyrone wasn't going to play. That was he and I both had the same reaction, like, why is Tyler not playing?
Tackle?
Yeah?
And it's just you know, I think part of it, and I think Nick brought this up, was maybe it's just with him coming back from injury, they didn't want to just throw him out there.
You're coming back from that kind of injury.
Maybe they had a little question about whether he'd have the lateral quickness coming off there.
Worked or worked all week at guard, right, Yeah.
It could have been those kinds of things that could have forced him to say, you know, it's better just to keep him at guard.
We'll put Idoga out there.
But I definitely was my first thought is I'd rather have Tyler out there protecting the blindside of my quarterback because I know Idoga has done really I should say really well, but well enough, card, he's been fine, and so I would have kept him there, and I would have said, give me my guy that I think is gonna be my future left tackle.
Let's put him out there and do it.
But that wasn't I'll ask. Mike talked today at two o'clock. I'll ask, all right.
We appreciate you guys.
Tomorrow we're gonna take give you if you answer you ask, if thrown your routes down the field.
All I can do is ask, You're real friendly with your questions.
By the way, coach, Yeah.
We're gonna we're gonna have some some bigger picture topics tomorrow. We'll get into till then. For Patrick Walker. Brian brought us Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Hilton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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