Cowboys Break: That Patriots' D

another edition of The Break. We're alive in SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star and appreciate you guys joining us today. We got a lot to talk about. We're going to talk about the Cowboys versus the New England Patriots. That happens this Sunday three fifteen here Central Time, and today Dave He's going to dive into the Cowboys offense versus the Yes, Yes, I am right, I was playing New England defense. I think typically you start off with the team that you're not familiar with God and you're like

the New England defense. The matchup the New England defense versus the Cowboys offense. Before we get to that, though, we are going to talk a little bit about some injuries. There were a couple of guys are actually yeah, there were two guys that did not practice yesterday. M yep, so let's talk about them. Lyle Collins didn't practice, Joe Thomas didn't practice. Joe Thompson was an illness, but Lyle

dealing with a knee and a back. And then you had three guys that will limited, Zach Martin, Connor Williams, which that's actually the improvement that he's actually back out. There's some m and then Antoine Woods talk to me about the guys first that did not practice and then the guys that were limited. Well Lyle, Lyle's still out with his knee and probably will be until tomorrow. That's expected.

They think he's gonna play just like last week. Manage him until Friday and hope he can get out there. So all things situation normal with that. Hopefully we'll see him tomorrow. It's a good indicator that he can play. And Joe Thomas he wasn't there today, so I guess typically you know these guys, you know, you can strap him up to an IV and flush him out and get him out there after a day but maybe he needs a little more time, Maybe he won't be able to go. We'll see. But you're in a pretty good

spot when he's your fourth linebacker, so that's nice. Maybe flu season, he got the flu. I don't know, but I don't know what it is. Sometimes when that happens, though, you know, you need forty eight hours not just for him to be away, but for him not to be around the players. Good point. That could be part of it too. And you want to take twenty four hours after the fever as his parents know when they will no longer be contagious. So that is a good point.

But the other guys that I mean, if if Lyle doesn't play, Cameron Fleming will be the guy. Of course, Cameron Fleming has started a Super Bowl for the Patriots, So there a lot of talk about Bennett playing is former team that he was there for for about you know,

six games, but Fleming was also there. Not to say that, yeah he's motivated or more or anything like that, but the I mean, I get, you know, the Patriots benched him and he got it in you know, he didn't appreciate it, and then yeah, I guess I get why it's a storyline. But I was thinking about that, like, you know, he talked yesterday and he was there was this crush of media trying to get at him, and I was like, it's not like this guy played ten years for the Pats, like he was there for he

was a one year come half a season. Yeaheah great things to say about the Patriots. Yeah, if there's animosity there, he didn't show any of it. Yeah, which so I guess my point being is like it feels a little bit overblown to me, Like if if he was playing the Seahawks, I get why that would be a big story. And the thing about it is he got bitch, but it was more like he got in trouble with because

he got into it with his position coach. Before that, his lack of playing I thought was not so much about him as it was just how they were playing defense. He wasn't a fit and that probably was something that was a mistake on their part of bringing him in as a free agent because he just wasn't a fit for what they were trying to do. That that I think could probably be taking a lot less personal by a player that it wasn't me, it was you, right, you just didn't need my skills in the way that

I should be. You, there's gotta be more to it than that, though, because I mean Belichick's the master of figuring out what you've got and making it work, and he can rush the passage. That's if he wanted to get him in. But if by the way, they were doing quite well on defense, So the scheme that they were running was working, it just didn't include him. So you know, you can't you can't say that it wasn't

working and they weren't figuring out how to get him involved. Well, they didn't need to figure out how to get him in involved because it was working. You know, we're about to say something to him. Not really. I mean I was thinking, you know, you called it a mistake that they traded for him, and I was sitting there thinking, yeah, like, in the off season is for compiling the talent that

you want to use and developing a game plan. Like it sounds just like Belichick for him to halfway through training camp be like, oh, yeah, we don't really need that, like I've figured out something new and better, Whereas I feel like most coaches would be like, well, we got him, so we have to use him, and he's like, I got something better in mine. It's fine, like a god instead as talent as he is. Right. Absolutely, It's like the same thing that we've talked about different players here.

If they have an issue off the field or whatever kind of issues around the team, you put up with it if they're performing well on the field and giving you something. So if that was a guy that they didn't feel like they really needed to be producing on the field and then he's given them issues with the coach and all that, then just get rid of him. Yeah, it's fine. And for them, like there was no mean again,

they could run their defense without him. Yeah, that's what we saw, is they could run their defense without What's funny is that he had two and a half sacks in his time with the Patriots and in the amount of games he played and you know, deep Laws got four and a half sacks here, and so it's like if a guy had two and a half sacks for any part of the season, half the year, like for the Cowboys, that's like that, that's that's good, you know, MALIEK.

Collins or something like that. So it's just funny how two and a half sacks is like, we're gonna move on from that Cowboys. What does he have right now here? He's got three with the Cowboys. Yeah, he did five and a half of the season. It's a pretty pretty good, pretty good player. He'll probably in the season right up there around eight nine. That's a really good year for especially a guy that's playing interior defensive a lot. As much as he plays interior defensive line. That's a really

good number to be in at eight to nine. Zack Range definitely. Um Connor Williams was running with the first team again today. We don't get to see the real part of practice, so who knows? Um He said yesterday in the locker room he expects to be one hundred percent today, which is crazy to me. It's nine days out from knee surgery. I get. I get arthur'scopic surgery is you know, sudden, very small incision. I don't care. Something's like you about it. It It wasn't just a needle.

I especially when you're talking about guys that big, you carrying around walking around with all that weight, and you know the knees supporting all of that weight. That's just insane. These dudes a hardcore h I trend toward thinking he might be back in the starting lineup. Did you guys talk about Monday? I wasn't here, so if you did, say we already talked about it. Do you guys talk about Xavier and how he played in the game? We

hit on it. Yeah, And I mean, like the consensus is that, I mean in general, obviously the whole line was better against the past than the run. I think that goes for Xavier too. So I thought he was fine. I didn't think he was so amazing that I'm holding out saying, you know, if if Connor's good to go, I'd put him back in the lineup. He wasn't. I guess my question would be, was he appreciably better than Connor?

Because if he's not better than Connor, then yeah, go back to the young guy and put him back in there. But did you see anything that suggested he was better? And Nick, I know that was one of the guys that you would see that kind of move. Yeah, I don't think he's a better player at all, but they do for whatever reason, they don't think who's a better player. I don't think Connor is a better player than Xavier Suphilo.

I don't. I don't. I think he's a he is a more of an investment for their team and and they want him to be better. Um, he might have more of an upside. I think Suafilo kind of might be what he is, you know, journeyman guy. He's stronger, but he's just not dynamic where maybe Connor can get to that point. That's I think how they they see it, and they're seeming like like they're gonna they're gonna sack her.

I mean they're going to They're willing to deal with whatever growing pains there might be with him to kind of get him to that level they think he can be at. So I don't you know, with a head coach that is on a one year deal or last year of his deal, I would play the best guy. I think it's Suaphilo. I'm not a practice they are, that's who they think. I just I don't feel strongly

about it one way or the other. But I don't think Suahilo was drastically better to the point where I'm like, like I said, like, whoa Connor take your time, like you're healthy, Let's go, Let's do it all right real quick. I want to hit a couple other things on the injury front. Just looking down at the Patriots, they have two wide receivers now on the injury report. You got Philip Dorsett, who has a concussion. He did not practice for them. You also got Mohammed Sanu, their wide receiver,

who did not practice because of an ankle injury. Twitter is telling me right this moment that they're both at practice today. Okay, so both a practice probably limited and probably limited in some capacity, all right, but trending in the right direction yea. Which, again, that would be big for them if they weren't there. We talked yesterday about the fact that they really don't have that down feel threat Dorset could represent that for them because he has

the speed to do it. Maybe they haven't used him like that, but he does represent that for them, And obviously Mohamed Sanu is a big body for them. Those guys didn't play, that would be a significant, I would think, a significant, yes, problem for them. I'd be worried about the guys that did, though. I just feel like they just kind of grab some guy that we've never seen down a lot this year, it seems like, but they are.

I mean, he's just like Aaron Rodgers and that whoever they put in there, they seem to function well and move the ball, and so yeah, you would like it to be their second or third guy as opposed to their starter. But I don't know if it matters that much. Probably not, I don't. All right, we're gonna take our first break when we come back. We're gonna get it. To Dave's assessment of this New England Patriots defense, it is a very very good unit. Dave will tell us

why when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys Dotcom Radio. I'm Jay nova Check, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day, I was the guy who always got the tough yards, and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Dear three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yard work I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand, John Deer has the equipment that's just right for you, visit a John Dear dealer today and run

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So are we gonna win? Just okay is not okay, whether it's cheerleaders or your wireless network. At and T is America's best wireless network. Best network based on GWS one score. September twenty nineteen. Back to the Break, Welcome back to the second segment of the break. We a lot from the s w VC more studios at the Star. Um. Let's get into this new England Patriots defense. They are a unit that ranks top among the league and a

lot of categories, very very good unit. Dave tell us why it feels like a lot of pressure and I don't like it, Like you don't like pressure. Explain, Dave, explain why the best coach of all time has his defense playing is always at this level. I know this has been an offensive unit for a long time. It just kind of to me just kind of popped out of nowhere to become this good, this fast. It's just fun.

Like even watching the Patriots feels intimidating because like I don't know, Mark, Like you're like, well, it's a four three or three four and they do this. This guy's good. That guy is good. With the Patriots. You're just like, this is just like an amiba of players and they do something different on every like it just looks and feels different. And I feel like part of that is just the reputation. You know, You're like, well, Belichick's like

the Jedi Master. Like of course, of course it's different when they do it. As opposed to everybody else, But it really does feel that way. The big thing that jumps out to me right off the bat is just like typical Patriots, like they've got basically a bunch of cast offs playing at an absurdly high level. That doesn't

mean they're not talented. I saw somebody point that out, Like this defense is littered with first and second round picks, but a lot of them weren't good where they or before, Like Cason point, Danny Shelton was a first round pick right now he was out of Washington. I believe Danny Watkins. I think anyway, go ahead, yeah, firefighter now m Danny Shelton, first round pick of the Browns. Traded him to New England for pennies. He's starting at nose tackle. He's got

forty tackles, two sacks. Kyle van Noy maybe the greatest example of this, top forty pick for Detroit out of BYU, bust of all busts, like he was trending in a terrible direction. Detroit trades him to New England for pennies. He's got thirty two tackles, six sacks. Just plays great rush linebacker for them. Jamie Collins was great in New England, left because he wanted too much money, messed around in Cleveland for a little bit, came back on a bargain deal.

Fifty tackles, three picks, five pass breakups, six sacks. Patrick Chung again, Patrick Chung, great for New England for years, left to get money in Philly. Sucked. Don't even think he made it through his contract there, comes back to New England starting at safety. Twenty two tackles. Jason mccordy came at He's been all over the place. He comes to New England late in his career. He's playing great opposite Gilmore at cornerback. So they just turn other people's

trash into treasure. Treasure basically their first against the past, their second against our second overall eleven points per game, first by far. Not as great as you would expect against the run, but again, maybe part of that is just because nobody wants to throw the ball against him. Yeah, you know about the takeaways twenty eight on the year, nineteen interceptions, most of which coming from the DBS. But their linebackers are really good at it, Like Jamie Collins

has I think three interceptions. Yeah, I just said that three interceptions this year, They've gotten at least one takeaway in every game this season. They've gotten multiple game multiple in seven of the ten which I went back and looked at. This just something to consider if you think the Cowboys or want the Cowboys are gonna win. The Cowboys have committed at least one turnover in eight of their ten games. Like, they haven't been very good with

the ball. I will say a decent number of those are like last minute hail Mary picks thrown by Dak which maybe you don't want to count that, but eighty percent of the time they're committing a turnover. That doesn't seem like a great recipe for success against this defense that's got to be better. What makes them good, in my opinion, is the back seven really is that talented when it comes to defending the past. Like you know, in this day and age, with the way the rules are,

it's hard to be good against the pass. But these guys really seem like they are. Like, for my money, I think Stefan Gilmour's probably the best cover corner in football right now. He's certainly up there. If it's not Lattimore, Ramsey Lattimore even Patrick Peterson still, but like, I mean, he's right up there. How do you quantify best overall? I don't know, but I stole this from a Patriots beat writer this morning. He's been targeted fifty one times

this year. He's given up nineteen receptions for two hundred and thirty yards, no touchdowns. They put him on Earth's, They they will put him on the best guy. He played Earth's on third downs in this Eagles game and handled him well. So being said, do you expect that the Cowboys? I mean that they entered this game and they say, let's put our best corner on the best receiver.

Because I've heard it two ways. I've heard it. They do it that way, or they go put him on they go put him on your second best guy, whoever you think that might be, and then they kind of bracket cover. So here's all right, They'll do that on first down, second down, change it up on third down a little bit, all of it, everything, and that it'll always be like it's never as easy as like, well,

he's gonna shadow Amari. But I do wonder like, do you put Gilmore on Gallop and just trust that he can handle it and then double Amari or do whatever you want. The thing is I was surprised to see I guess I shouldn't be. But Cordy's pretty damn good in his own right, like I think, and again that's I think what makes them so good is in the two and a half games that I watched they beat they just single receivers with their with their like mccordy's

on wide receiver two, Gilmore's on wide receiver one. They move them around in certain situations, but they just put those guys on islands and send everybody they help clogged the box, and if they bracket anybody, they bracket the slot with their safety and their slot corner, and they just trust that those two guys more often than not are not going to get beat. If they can do that,

then it's hard. It's hard to do anything because now you're two guys on outside are right best fifty fifty Let's say you're safety, I mean you're you're slot guys. Now got two guys he's got to deal with, and you got a situation where they still have a number of guys they can put in the box to stop the run, Like, how do you beat that? How about this? That the Cowboys are first in the NFL and third down conversions on offense, they get fifty two percent of

the time. That's number one in the league is getting it fifty percent of the time. The Patriots are first and third down defense and they're allowing nineteen point nine percent of the third down. That's a hell of a stat. Let's figure out how this is gonna go ahead. I'm just saying that that's one of those big on big but it's a lot bigger over there with what the Patriots are doing less than I mean a twenty percent

of the time. Yeah, basically in every game, one of every five times you get the third down, you're getting off the field. It is and I kind of mentioned that at the top two is like get the third down. Belichick just seems like he's mastered the art of finding like versatile guys. So like he's got he's got two corners that can pretty much handle whatever he wants. And then the middle of the field, it just looks ridiculous, like they never have more than two or three down linemen.

Sometimes it's just one, it's Danny Shelton and somebody else. Sometimes it's a rush linebacker. Sometimes it's like a three four end. Then Jamie Collins and Van Noy or your rush guys, they cover pretty well for rush linebackers, Like they're not They're not in that Von Miller type of mold, right, they're more additional linebackers. They'll put Collins on running backs.

Van Noy can do it too. And then even you know, Dante high Towers their big name in the middle, and he like he covers pretty well, but he also like he looks thick on tape, like he looks big and bulky. He can rush the passer, he clogs up space. And they'll just put seven guys in between the numbers and they're just like, well, have fun figuring out who's doing what, and offenses aren't good at it. I don't blame him because I'm sitting there and I'm not an expert, but

I'm watching. I'm just like, what's going on, Like this guy's a down line, and this guy's dropping, this guy looks like he's rushing, and then or you know, they'll send both the safeties down and have them sprint back into coverage right before the snap. It's just a lot of moving parts. And I don't know that a lot of defenses can do it because not very many defenses have that many guys that can wear that many hats. Yeah, when you think about the strategy of how the kind

of players they have, think about it. For the last I don't know, maybe last fifteen to twenty years, the Patriots have been drafting pretty consistently in the thirties, maybe in the late twenties, but that's the earliest that they're drafting, right. So when you start thinking about the draft, and the guys that go early typically are the guys that have really high measurables. They're your greatest athletes, they have all

the things that they check all the boxes. By the time you get down to where they're drafting, they're taking guys that may not have that level of skill. They got some skill, but not that level of skill. And then they what they're really looking for though, is people that are smart, people that are versatile definitely, right. So you start getting those guys and you get a good collection of those guys and it ends up being like this defense where they got some skill. Don't get me wrong,

they're not your top skill guys. They're guys that are just smart and versatile. And if you get smart and versatile guys that have some skill, you can create a really, really great unit. Can't you just see like a conversation Like this guy, we should look at him? His forty is this? He benched this at the comp what's his wonder ALI score? Yeah, well, I don't know, I haven't checked, like find that out. Yeah, I bet you that they do that. I bet they have a high I would

bet they put a high premium on that. I also don't think it's a coincidence that they love guys from Alabama. Well, I mean the Saban Belichick connection is so obvious. But again, I mean Saban's very similar in the way that you know he asks a lot of his players on the

mentally emotional thing. Yeah, it's like the guy that the story I heard from a scout that says, you can tell Alabama guys when they walk in the room because they have that look like PTSD, like they've just been beaten up for four years because physically and mental, mentally and physically, right, exactly, you've been beaten down because you're kind of battle hardened at that point. Right, most of their good players have been there three years. That's true.

I told you I would. They don't get the four. I told you I would, and I did. I watched the Baltimore game. Baltimore made them look pretty foolish though, and I don't mean to suggest that the Cowboys can't, but it's hard to watch that and really get a good sense for how the Cowboys are going to replicate it, because the Ravens were basically running the wishbone like they have a mobile quarterback and Dak's mobile, but obviously Lamar's

a different animal entirely. They've got a mobile quarterback. They were putting two tight ends in the backfield with mark Ingram or a fullback in mark Ingram and just readoption these guys to death to a comical degree, like to the point like tight ends or flexing off the line coming through the backfield, give and go Ingram, you know Ingram hits the hole and gets fifty three or Lamar keeps and gets sixteen, and like for the first two drives,

I feel like the Ravens weren't even throwing the ball. They were just doing that, and the Pats took a half to adjust to it. They eventually did. I think a big not I think like a big part of the reason that game looked as lopsided as it did was turnovers. Marlon Humphrey had a fumble six touchdown that kind of blew it open in the second half, but the Patriots had a really hard time adjusting to all that.

Misdirection counterplays seem like they work really well, like get a guy going one direction and have them reverse field and saw the Eagles got that to work a couple of times. So if traditional running team has been successful against them, or was it just did it get blown out by that game, which is not a traditional running game. I didn't watch anything from further ago than three weeks

or whatever the Ravens game was. But I mean they're giving up what three three in something yards per carried, still less than a hundred yards per games, So if you're lining up and making it easy on them, I don't know how well that's gonna go for you, which is what like. But at the same time, I don't expect the Cowboys to do anything drastic in the sense of, like all of a sudden they're running read option exclusively,

like that's not who they are. That's a but it sure did work against New England, which honestly, I was watching it last night to the point where I was like, Belichick, I wouldn't I probably wouldn't do it because Belichick was probably so pissed off by how poorly they played against that that they worked on it. And they know the Cowboys have a mobile quarterback, so so they're prepared if you get Yeah, they're like, if you want to try it,

they'll probably play a lot better against it than they did. Yeah. Again, we're talking about smart players, right. Yeah. I looked this up. I went through all their games and looked up how many purely offensive scoring drives they've allowed. It's pretty funny. They've allowed excuse me, not scoring touchdown they have allowed in Okay, in all their other games, they've only allowed one touchdown drive like pure offense, so nine plays, seventy

five yards. The Eagles only touchdown of that game was a sixteen play ninety five yard drive. So just making them convert down after down piece at a time. Then the Ravens had four in one game. They just they cut them to shreds. And I mean, I think a

lot of that is kind of unique. Not saying that you can't do it, but I think misdirection could be a big part of that outside of the Ravens, obviously, had there been another offense that they've played this year that has been near the top of the league as an offensive unit, like Cowboys? Obviously they're number one in offense. I think right now, is there another team even in the top ten that they've beaten? Because I'm trying to get a gauge for is this defense a really great

defense on its own? Or is this a really great defense because the people that they've played haven't had great offense. I'm not interested in taking credit away from the Pats, but they have had a bit of a perfect storm of playing crap offenses. I mean, they play so well right off the bat. They played Baltimore, who's two in Baltimore kicked their ass? Yeah? Um, who else we got?

I mean, you know they they've played two games against the Jets, they played the Giants, they played the Browns, who were nowhere near as good as their talent has suggests the Dolphins. Thank you. Hang on one second, I'll tell you besides the raven who's the next best that they've did they played? They haven't played the Chief shit, you know they have not. That's coming up next. I think it's the Bills guys. Yeah, and again, but I don't think the Bill is a top ten I don't think.

I think their defense seventeen. Yeah, they I mean the Eagles would be the next best one, and they are probably a mid league I would think offensively where they at, where they at, I don't even see them in here. So I mean you're right about that. But part of that is, yeah, they're no, they're bottom third. They can make you look like you said yesterday, they can they can take you out of your game and make you

look even worse than what you are. So I mean there are a reason the Patriots or the reason why some of those teams are ranked as low as they are because they've had really bad games against them, and obviously that doesn't help your you know, help help your rating. So I mean, I think you're right. I wouldn't give I wouldn't take any credit away for what they're doing. But yeah, they haven't faced the best guy, right, and

that's what gives me. I guess, if you want to call it, hope that the Cowboys will go into this and it won't be a situation maybe like what you saw in New Orleans where they just couldn't do anything, couldn't get anything going. Maybe this defense is good, maybe it's not great. Maybe it hasn't been challenged yet. I don't know, but that's kind of what I was trying to get. There's no secret here the Cowboys what the Patriots like to do. They're playing a lot of linebackers

on the field at once a lot. They're smaller than than most. They fly around the ball. You've got to actually run them over. That's the best way that they that the Cowboys can do this as mallum, and that's not hasn't been their strength, but you have to do that get you out of third down. It moves the chain and it forces them to kind of play bigger than maybe the Patriots want to play. Which is why going back to yesterday, I don't care what Dak Prescott's

and the written. The Ravens did run them over. They ran for two hundred yards. I don't care what Dak Prescott is doing. If I were the Pats, I would load up to stop the run like that would be my emphasis and say, again, it's wintry conditions outdoors in November. We've got great cornerbacks. If you're gonna beat us. We're gonna make the quarterback do it. And that's not that Dak can't. But if they give up, I mean, if they give ground a zeke, I think the Cowboys could

just pound on them all day. Yeah, all right, let's take our final break when we come back. I did have a couple of questions for you guys about this team. You just start touching on it, Dave. The weather weather's gonna be a little different than what maybe with the cow was of experienced this season. I wonder how much that's gonna affect the game plan and what the Cowboys are able to deal on do on offense. We'll talk about them and come back back. This is Dallas Cowboys

dot com Radio already okay, gives yes? Oh what does that fell? So? Are we gonna win? Just? Okaying is not okay, whether it's cheerleaders or your wireless network. At and T is America's best wireless network. Best network based on GWS one score, September twenty nineteen. Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time again for tailgating with the Auterbox Boys. Autterbox, the company that builds wildly overproductive phone cases. The one and only, but cases are just the start. Auterbox is

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off Back to the break Couple Back. It is the final segment of the Break Life nest WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We're gonna get to a couple of different questions here. Also, we'll take some calls from you guys. Eight eight eight eight five five two two ninety seven is the number before we jump back in though, Nick, what do you have for you know what? Tomorrow is a Big Day at the Star is the third annual Christmas at the Star, presented by Alvertson's and Tom Thumb,

starts in November. Chris, you just want to keep going. I want to keep saying, you know, if I know the rest of the words, I remember that part. Taking place at the Star in Frisco, enjoy a family friendly events throughout the holiday season, including the Christmas Spectacular presented by Alvertson's and Tom thumb every Friday and Saturday night. It's free to come out to the Star. For more information, go to visit the Star in Frisco dot com. I can't wait to see what you guys are getting me

for Christmas this year. I'm so excited. It's gonna be great. Yeah, I'll be sure to do that. It'd be fun. Well, get you something good? Really? Yep, seriously, I don't know. I mean, why why ruin it? I mean, it's I can't wait. I remember the time when the director of the department got all of us Christmas gifts? Am I gonna do that every year? To have to do that every year? It was nice? Yeah, see I thought about it when I did it. I thought before you got here, Yes,

before you. Then you got here, We're like, no, I'm not five years since you being nice to your employees all nice to my employees all the time, just not just not giving giving on Christmas. Yeah, everybody loves gifts. I do too, every nunson while I'll be nice to receive anyway, let's jump back in. We'll take some college you guys calls eight at eight eight five, five, two two nine seven real quick though, our producer Kyle actually told us in the break that check this out Ball

Ravens number two offense in the league. Obviously, they beat the Pats pretty good. The next best offense the Pats have faced this year is the nineteenth offense in the league that would beat Buffalo. Everybody else was below that. So going back to that original point, and again I think we can't reiterate this enough. This is not to take anything away from this defense, because they have been

remarkably spectacular. The point is, though they have not had they have not faced the better offenses in the league to this point other than the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore beat them pretty good. So something to think about. Let's see how how good this Cowboys offense is number one. Let's also see how good this Patriots defense is. Also. I told you I was going to do this earlier in the week, so I did. I looked up not just their home record, but where those losses came from,

which is highly enlightening. Not that it has doesn't really have bearing on what happens in the future, but in in eighteen years, they've lost twenty one games at home, period, and right, yeah, they've gone undefeated at home seven times and since that stadium was opened in two thousand and two, and they're working on number eight right now. Of the twenty one teams that have beaten them, twelve wound up

making the playoffs. Only three finished the season with a losing record, and one of those three was a BS Week seventeen Patriots already have the division locked up game. So twice in eighteen years has a team that was bad enough to finish with a losing record beating them in Gillette Stadium. Four of those sorry, four of those twelve playoff teams wound up winning the Super Bowl. So I'm just saying history suggests you gotta be pretty damn good to win this game. So you can think about

that negatively if you want to. On the flip side, if the Cowboys managed to pull this off at it says something pretty big. If they managed to win this game and where it is in the season, I mean, like we talked about seven and four, you know, they're not gonna be a team that has a losing record. I mean, they're not gonna go seven to four and then probably finish five straight losses. They're not gonna be

seven and nine. They're not gonna be one of those teams and they're probably going to be a playoff team if they can win this game, especially if Seattle goes and beats Philly. So if they win, get to the super Bowl, can they beat the Patriots? Can it happen twice? As long as you want to do that? The Patriots have a big track record of not playing well in Miami. So here we go. Just say here saying here we go?

How I hate myself? No, But you know, like when I start listening to all those stats, I mean, yes, that sounds good for the Cowboys at least you're trying to find something positive and to kind of hold on to for this weekend. But at the same time, it's like, I'm like, okay, yeah, that's irrelevant to me. Like it, I mean, it is, it's irrelevant to this matchup, but one, I mean you stack it up over enough years. Yeah, But it's like the I mean, the Cowboys, they're issues.

They're doing it like themselves. It's not who they're facing necessarily. It's like if they can clean up their crap and tied it up and you know, tackle better, get some takeaways, keep doing well in the passing game, that's gonna be big. I mean, are they now becoming a passing team or are they still a running team? That's still a question mark there. How they're gonna be using Zeke And we're gonna find out what Bill Belichick thinks about that. And he's the best guy to ask are the Cowboys a

passing team or a running team? Because he goes out and stacks the box and says, Zeke's not gonna beat this. That tells you exactly what the number one coach thinks about what this team is. I'm anxious to see just from that standpoint. Yeah, And the fact of the the matter is he's probably gonna show you a little bit everything. So maybe hard to really decipher what he thinks, but if you look at inside the game and really look at when he does what If he's stacking the box

on specific downs, that tells you something he sees. If he's not stacking about him, if he's playing more coverage on specific downs, that tells you a little bit about what he's seeing. Like, there's so many I'm just interested to see how he looks at this team and how he attacks the team, because to me, that does tell you a lot about what he thinks of the team. He's gonna play four three, He's gonna play three four,

He's gonna blitz. He's gonna na blitz. He's gonna travel with Amar and he's not gonna travel with Mar. And that's the first series. I don't know about that. That's the thing. He can adjust so fast and just every after every play. But the Cowboys they're not known to really adjust. And I don't think they have the quickness to even respond to something like that, Like what this

coach does? You know, even with the halftime they go in the locker room and then come back, is Dyga still gonna be enough then playing better in the second half. I don't know. It's gonna be interesting. Oh, this is gonna be a game where fast starts matter because you get down to this team on the road, good luck. I mean, like that's just not that just doesn't know. They don't lose those kind of games, so fast starts

are important. And not to be honest with not to give away my pick this week, but I honestly think it's all gonna be about turnovers. Cowboys turnover to get the ball. They're gonna lose. The Cowboys can manage to play a clean game where they can protect the ball. They got a shot to win. I think it's going to be all about terms because you look at it, like you were saying earlier, most of the games this year they get the ball, and a lot of times

they're getting the ball at scoring. So you just you have to minimize the mistakes with this team because they will take advantage of them. Cowboys also haven't, like I said, they haven't played very many clean games, right and that you know, I was thinking about that while you were talking, and I agree with you, but you know, if they can clean it up, they haven't they consistently. They have not been able to do that. One week it's so and so fumbled, the other week it's this past Scott

tipped or Dak made a bad read. But over ten weeks, they haven't shown that ability to consistently play cleanly and that's what worries me. So how much do you guys think whether we'll be a factor in this game, because what we've seen so far in these last at least last week, for sure, we've seen that this team will chunk the ball around the yard when they need to. If the past the Patriots come out in this game. Patriots.

Patriots come out in this game and decide they are going to stack the box and they're gonna try to stop Zeke first foremost. But the weather is rainy and wet. What do you think happens? It is going to be that is taken away what Dak will want to do and throw the ball around like that. I mean you also got to remember, it'll take away somewhat what what New England likes to do, even though he's certainly been a guy that can throw the ball and that way in that weather and by the way, better at it

than Dak. Their offense is we talked about yesterday. They're doing these little short passes so that doesn't get affected as much as you know some of the downfield throws that the Cowboys really have lived on. They had some big plays this year with all three of their receivers. You start messing with that. How effective is their offense and being able to just dink and dunk down the film. I'm sure they're practicing, well, are they? Is there practice

field outdoors the Pats? Yes, yeah, so they are practicing whatever in this kind of weather. They have so much experience in it and the Cowboys. I mean, we get what we get here in Dallas and then we have the indoor field. So, uh, it's gonna be interesting because I definitely think that's gonna affect the passing. Then they can always take it outside tomorrow because I think we're gonna be raining starting this evening into tomorrow, so maybe you can take them outside and get a little practice

in the rain. Who knows. That's always been a tough situation there when you when you're dealing. Do you want to practice where what you're gonna play in or do you want to have a good Chris practice. There's two sides to it. I think I kind of lean towards, you know, getting used to what you're going to be in.

But you know, then you could have a bad practice where you're not focused right, But but then you know what to correct, Like if you know this is happening in these kind of conditions, maybe I do a little something, maybe I use different gloves, maybe you know, whatever it is. Here's the thing about the little weather apps that we all have, you know, when when you go through no but but the thing is that they do tell the

truth most of the time. It's just that. No, it's just that when you look at your little go to Sunday and then have he have showers. Okay, well from ten to eleven thirty, it's gonna pour. So yeah, what you have to put it on there because it's gonna rain. That doesn't mean it's gonna be twenty four hours a day rain. Well, right, if you break it down by hours, it'll tell you what's gonna rain, and it'll say it's at that point it said, yeah, I mean, of course

it can be wrong. It says four o'clock Sunday, seventy percent chance of rain forty five degrees. That sounds like rain's gonna happen. Okay, at the very least, I will be in a press box. Can't tell you if it's gonna rain, but I can tell you the weather won't be ideal for throwing the ball. You know, we do work with someone that is very good at weather and keeping up with all of that. Oh, mister Spagna, Oh Bred is the weather god. I just I took an

inadvertent shot. I took an inadvertent shot at Mickey because he likes to talk at the about the weather. But Fred literally has like Fred is a guy that works he's one of our graphic designers. Fred is like, you, guys, if you're gonna go home, go now, because it's gonna start raining in eight minutes. I'm like, what, okay, Jim Cantory. Cool anyway, But you know the other thing to consider here, and you see this all the time in the NFL.

We all talk about weather and how that affects. But honestly, if you watch games and rain, these quarterbacks and these receivers are very, very skilled. I have not seen unless there's a lot of wind, I've not seen a lot of games where just rain has affected teams to the point where they can't throw the ball. Typically, they'll still

be throwing the ball around. There's still make plays through the passing game, but it can I'm just saying, though, I've not seen a lot of games were throughout the entire game unless there's big wind where that's been a factor. I do the Probably the only game I can remember is that game We're in Miami and now, of course I thought a funnel cloud was coming down because it was this huge black cloud that kind of came over

the stadium. But that was only four period. That was maybe for a couple drives where the rain was so hard that it really was affecting things. But then it was kind of this lighter rain. And that's how rain typically goes. It typically doesn't just storm and pour down for three hours. I still weather. Regardless of weather, I think the Patriots have the personnel to make it a chance. All John Dak, he's still a young quarterback going against

the greatest coach ever. If I were the Patriots, I would take I would try my best to take the runaway. And again, like it's not that Dak isn't good, but I still think that gives you the best success to get turnovers and stop the Cowboys. Their defense will be a much bigger factor than the weather in my opinion. Well, New England and has expert analysis, you know Cowboys right, Well, New England has played, think about it. They play and you know, the road to the super Bowl has gone

through New England a lot of times. And it's not just the rain, it's it's snow and the cold and the wind, and you know, and if the you know, especially if the balls aren't you know, one hundred percent, you know, with air, I mean it's hard to win some of those things like that shot I'm saying, I mean, that's part of it, right, that's happened. You're gonna say something about videotapes, but anyway, No, I don't know. All right, we appreciate you guys, you want us, We'll be back tomorrow.

We're gonna get you guys all wrapped up and ready for this game versus the New England Patriots. Still then for Nick Eatn, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia. I am Derek Eagles and this has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club