Cowboys Break: Time for Change?

to the latest edition of The Break. We're Alive from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, presenter by Milli like the only beer of the Dallas Cowboys and Man, today we gotta do what we've done before. This is not new for US Cowboys. Season ends last night. They lose to the San Francisco forty nine. There's nineteen to twelve,

eliminating them from the playoffs at the divisional round. And today we'll tell you what we think went right and wrong for this team and maybe get a little bit probably more tomorrow get into what this really means, because I think there's so many offshoots from this game. When you start thinking about what this means for this franchise and what this means for this team and all the players that are on this team. But let's start first. There are so many things that happened in that game.

If you could kind of crystallize it into kind of one thing, what is the enduring memory you'll have years from now about the game against the forty nine Ers in the Divisional round of playoffs in twenty twenty three. Nick forty nine ers were a really good team. The Cowboys on this day were a pretty good team. I mean I thought their defense was not as good as

though as the forty nine ers. I think their offense obviously wasn't as good as the fortin ers, and their special teams wasn't either, So I mean I thought they was close in all three and that's why the game was close at the end of the day. I think the forty nine just had more playmakers that made more plays, had more weapons amber go ahead. I think it was a game of missed opportunities. I really do. I feel

like though that there were some. You know, we went into this game talking about all the things that you were going to have to deal with, talking to coaches, how do you attack, how do you do this? How do you do that? You know? It really it really kind of comes down to, you know, their ability to make plays and then your ability not to in some ways.

You know, whether it's you get a you know, you dropped interceptions, or you don't quite protect well enough for you know, you you know, you had an opportunity to hit a guy and you know, instead you let the play extend and it throws you into another whole thing where there's defenders. You know, I just you know, it's it's not about playing the perfect game, but it's about when the opportunities that you have to make plays, you

got to capitalize on those. I mean, I know, watching going back and why in the tape of this game, I was worried about Nick Bosa and how he could affect the game. Nick Bosa affected you on three plays in this game, you know, and they were back to back plays down in the red zone where he was able to get some pressure. The way he ables the knife through and get a tackle. You know, you know, when you're Noah Brown, You're trying to run there on

the goal line. Play looked like it had a chance, but you know, Tyron Smith gets beat inside and then the next play, Tyron Smith gets beat on the spin move, and then what happens again is you know then and Bosa, you know beat you you know a third time on the long pass to try and get it to Michael Gallop where he's open, you know. So you know, that's that's the difference of a lot of these games nowadays. It's when these players that when you have an opportunity

to make plays, you've got to make plays. I think, for the most part, if you said, heck, you're gonna give nineteen points six points off turnovers to the forty nine ers and you're only gonna give him nineteen points, you kind of feel like you got a shot to

win this game. But you know, you didn't handle you didn't handle their their defense a tackle really really really well, and you know you had some plays where you just kind of didn't didn't do what you needed to do in order to keep drives going or to be able to finish drives. My heart is being out of my chest right now. I probably shouldn't have had coffee a little bit ago because I'm like, right now, um, you know, every game they've lost this season, we walked out of

those games saying they should have won that game. And this was like another example of they should have won that game. We get to San Francisco, we're at the stadium pre game. Since we stepped onto the field, the forty nine Ers were being nasty. And people may say, oh, well, this is a playoff game, that's how you should be, you know whatever, and it's fine, that's good, but be respectful. And but if you're gonna be nasty, all right, let's

be free be nasty. The Cowboys offense didn't freaking show up whatsoever. There was no fire in them. There was no It did not feel like they were playing a playoff game. There was zero energy. They couldn't connecting anything. The only player that you had there was City Lamp making plays. Everybody else on offense pretty much disappear, and they weren't able to do anything. And what's more most upsetting to me, it's knowing the fact that, seeing how

the defense played this game was within reach. We were talking about here all week, Brian breaking down the forty nine Ers offense, breaking down the forty nine Ers defense, talking about how much talent they had, and knowing that going into the game, the Cowboys defense was able to

do as much as they did contain them that much. Obviously, the second half they started wearing down and all that, but they kept the game to where you should have freaking won that game and your offense should have done so much more than what they did. And that's the most upsetting to me, because if we walked out of that game with that still losing, but they put up a fight and it was a good one. At least

you feel a little bit better. You said, Okay, well it wasn't in their destined once again, but at least they were out there lost with the fight, and there was no freaking fight on the offensive side of the ball at least. And that's just I can't believe it's over. I can't believe we got to start this again after feeling that we were so close and the Cowboys do have a talented team, but it's just finding consistency has

been the whole problem this year. Yeah, for me, this game came down to Dak Prescott and we heard Dak talk weeks ago where he said, after a game where he thrown interceptions, you know I'm going to fix this. I guaranteed it's going to get fixed, and it didn't

get fixed yesterday. Like there were two interceptions, there was a third that should have been and I don't even like normally saying should have been, But in that circumstance that was in the crunch time of the game, it was you got three minutes left in this game, you're right where you got them, right where you want them, like you're down a touchdown, and I'd already meant, Nick could already had the conversations. I thought at that moment, this is where this is where Dak makes his name.

This is where you drive your team down three minutes left to go, you score a touchdown and go for two, like you're gonna go for two. And I'm the quarterback, if I'm the head coach, I'm giving him the ball and I'm saying, get in the freaking end zone and we're gonna end this thing and we're gonna move on

to the next round. I think, And what ends up and what ends up happening three and out and the first of those three bad plays where they got zero yards was what should have been an interception, And that, to me is where I look at this, And Dak said it after the game. He takes accountability but it really is that game came down to your quarterback just

didn't play well enough. He put you behind the eight ball way too often, and a defensive performance like that got wasted by the quarterback not playing up to standard. Let's talk about Dak. His numbers twenty three to thirty seven, sixty two percent completion rate, two hundred and six yards passing, one touchdown, two interceptions. He had another four rushes for twenty two yards with a five point five average on the ground. How much do you guys put this loss

on Dak? I mean he's the quarterback, so yeah. I mean, he got all the praise when they when they won last month and he played him He played amazing in that game, so he did not play amazing in this game. There's a lot of passes that he left on the table. I'm not putting all of it on him, but but you know, he's the quarterback, so he gets it. You know. I think I think that they I think they lost the game on the extra point. Be honest with you, when they missed the extra point, I think that lost

the game for them in a lot of ways. Explain that they lost four points on that and they lost the running back for the season and may and who knows after that, Um, if he makes that extra point, they're up seven to six. It doesn't deflate the touchdown too, because it's like here we go again. It's not just one miss. It's like, oh my god, everyone's looking at this guy. Is he mentally tough? The forty nine ers are over there, you know, being classless and trying to

get in his head before and all that stuff. Um that you know that was crap. But but but missing that that was huge because then when they're driving down at the at the you know, the two minute warning, and they're on the thirty four yard line, I think they kick a field goal there. He's kicked fifty yarders all year long. If if you trust that he can make that kick, and if you do make it, even if you miss it, he don't lose your running back for the season, because for the game because he gets

hurt on the next play. But I think him getting hurt then now it's all on them. We can't kick. We gotta we gotta score. We don't have anybody. We're throwing wide now to CD, I think it changed their whole plan. But it all started to me on that extra point that was not only blocked, but that thing was going to Oakland. So it's your I mean that it's it wasn't about the block, because I know there are probably some people up there like, well it was blocked.

That is that his fault? Is this a situation where you think he would have missrepolled. I went and watched it. I looked at it. The ball. The ball was not end over end. The ball was almost sideways when it was coming out of that office that guy, and it was very low. And the guy that blocked it's like I've never blocked the kick because he doesn't line up in the middle like he was just putting his hands up, and I mean that he would you know there was

a guy. But at the same time, even though you know that thing wasn't gonna go in, but the fact that it was blocked, I think that maybe mentally for Bret Mohard, just to go through the game with quote unquote that like, oh, well it was blocked, rather than he missed the first one. You know, that at least I think helped a little bit mentally to kind of come back and be able to make whatever else he made.

I don't think it helped McCarthy though, because I think McCarthy would have tried it, would try to field goal there, and uh and and that doesn't I mean, that's four points to me. He lost by seven. I mean, the whole game could change a little bit, but I just think psychologically that that affected so much. Brian. You put

this game one day. Yeah. I feel like though, there's when you when you start for everything that we praised him for on Tuesday morning, it reverted back to what we what you were talking about earlier, and the ability to see the field, the ability to to make the quick decisions, the ability to you know, you know they're playing six across and you're throwing the ball into that and you know, I mean, it just it seems like things compound for him, you know, the and you want

to believe that like the harder, the tougher it is, the more that he you know, we always talk about him being bloodied and muddied and playing and having that feel of the game. He had no feel in that game yesterday. He had no feel. I don't think he had confidence in some of the throws that he was

actually making. And it again, it doesn't help when you're You're probably feeling like that nick boss to just destroy you, you know, or you know, Tyler Smith's going to give up a pressure, or you're gonna get holding, or something's going to happen this game. But I think that, you know, to me, you look at what the you know, I think there's some questions about this coordinator. I really really do. I think there's some things. There's some you know, I

think there's a question about the head coach. It's fourth and fourth and five on the forty and you take a delay of the game penalty. You know. I mean to me, there's there's there's things that you gotta you know, I always talk about knowing the condition of your team, no one to try and make a spark. Maybe he knew on fourth and five he couldn't go for it on fourth down because his quarterback wasn't any good, you know.

And yeah, I a lot of this, A lot of this does go on him because when again, when you watch when you watch the plays, when you watch the throws, when you watch what he's looking at, it's really it's one of those things that kind of when Dak is bad, it reminds you of all those things that we've seen this season, and when he has those problems, I definitely

put the blame. Yeah, Dak was he just wasn't good at all and there were a lot of questionable decisions that he made that I don't think he should have made in this game. And I get all the criticism about Dak and at the same time, sitting here like it's hard and I don't want to root against him. It's so hard to because he's such a great guy. He's a tough guy, and he's shown signs to be that type of quarterback. But something has to change now. We can't just keep being the same. And you mentioned

the coordinator. I wonder like under somebody else and we don't and not get into offseason talk over here, but it makes me we are Yeah, and it is hard to draft a quarterback, Hi, It is very hard and to find the right quarterback. But I do wonder if it wasn't with Kellen Moore and he had somebody else, could that person coach Dak Prescott better to the where now you you're making him be the type of quarterback

that you need to be. I don't think he's gone through enough coaching or I haven't seen somebody else coach him, other than when you had like John Kidnap come in or um what was that that other the backup quarterback that helped him out a lot of Sanchez Sanches, Mark Sanchez when he So he's had those kind of little sprinkles of help here and there through his career, but not a legit like somebody else other than like Kellen

Moore build around him and all that. So it makes me I still have that doubt rather than completely moved because people just want to get rid of that. They don't understand the salary cap. And you guys are right. You guys are right. I mean, you guys are not dancing around it, but we're gonna we're flirting around. You guys are exactly right. It's time to move on. It's time to move on from Kellen Moore. Another great guy. You know, he walks by in the hall. You see him.

He seems like a really good, good guy. Doesn't talk a whole lot. But this isn't working, and you can't change your quarterback because of the salary cap of the way it is. In fact, you might even give them an extension to try to get more players in, which is only going to make the problem worse, but whatever. You can't do that, but you can get a new offensive coordinator. Hey, Kellen, it's been great, Well, it's been good about that. It's been good, and it's been great.

It's been it's been good, and it wasn't great yesterday. Some change has to be made and it's a lot easier to change the coordinator than change that. And yeah, that's that's just the way it is. I mean, I think you're absolutely onto something there to me about this. This was always going to be the evaluation of twenty twenty two was going to be about the coaches, whether Mike McCarthy after last year's disappointed I think Mike McCarthy

did a great job this year. And you know, now you now you you know, you won a playoff game. Now you get to that divisional round. You got to find a way to score more than twelve points in this football game. And you know, to me, that's where there's so much inconsistency, you know, with the quarterback and then with you know, and I'm not gonna sit there. I mean, I spent a long time in this lit I'm not gonna act like I know what every call

and every play is and stuff like that. But you could see it when it's not working, you know, you can see it. And I think there were some times this year where Mike McCarthy had some frustrations with Kellen Moore, you know, but give them credit for winning four out of five games with Cooper Rush. Evidently Mike McCarthy went up him and said, listen, you get it. Quinn. Yeah, Queen,

well but I know what you're saying. I mean, but to me, that's where that's where you're that's where you're at right now, though, is that you know you're trying to figure out You're not. To me, the quarterback was

going to be evaluated in twenty three. That's when the quarterback because maybe there was going to be a coaching change and if Dak was able to be better with different coaches, then you could say, Okay, this is this is going to work if if you if you get to twenty three and it's still the same Dak in another press conference of talking about turnovers and it's never going to happen again. But you say that every week. I'm sorry, you say it every week. It's not gonna happen.

It's not Gonnapen. It's not Gonnapen. I'm gonna get better. I'm gonna get better. It doesn't get better, so something has to change. Nick's right, it's not gonna be the quarterback this year. It's likely going to be offensive staff is what's going to change. And once offensive staff change, now the evaluation comes on, Dak, do you give him

the extension? He signed a short contract. His contract isn't one of these six year contracts that they gave Mahomes or any somebody else that that was what he wanted, exactly what he wanted. That's exactly so it might play to your favor if you want to move on after twenty three to three year deal. Right, it was a four year deal. Yeah, but you in twenty twenty three,

they've already hit one of the escalators too. You know, I think they've triggered one of the extensions too, Like like you know, how they do something where they say money, but it pads it to the end. I don't honestly know that thing's so complicated. But you're right, Brian, and you get a new staff in here, because what happens

is is the new staff. They don't get a new quarterback in the first round of the draft, but they get one in the third or fourth round that they like, and then all of a sudden, it's a little different. You know, maybe you're in a situation too, Derek. I'm sorry, you're not getting to talk nothing. No, no, I'm good,

I'm good. But but but the thing about it is, I mean to me, I look at this and if you if you if you happen to change offensive staff, if you happen to change the coordinator, you change the quarterback coach, you change the offensive line coach, you change the receiver coach, which they did last year, you know, you change all those pieces. Now the evaluation really starts because you know, these guys, these coaches probably aren't going anywhere.

This this quarterback, though, is in a situation now where it's like, okay, we're trying to help them, we're trying to get players. We've changed the coaches. Now it's more about the evaluation of you. And you know, I mean, after eight years, you know, we've seen what's going on in the league in this day and age. These teams are willing to eat huge amounts of salary cap to move on from a guy. It used to be like, you know, I mean, hey, we you know, we gotta

keep this quarterback. We gotta no, no, no, no. Teams are just saying move we'll move on, we'll draft a guy, we'll do you know, we'll do whatever we have to do. And I'll say this, this is one of the things I've been seeing more and more creep up in the last twenty four hours less than twenty four hours since the game. People are comparing to what the Eagles were

able to do. The Eagles went to a Super Bowl and completely flipped their roster, including quarterback and the head coach, and now they're back in a championship game and poised to go to another super Bowl. And it was because they got to a point where they felt like, although they had invested a lot in Wentz, they said, he's not the guy that can get us there. We got

to move on. And And then the question becomes, is there a point where you have to say, as much as you might like Dak and you think Dak is good enough, you have to say, well, he's not good enough to get us where we want to go. And I don't know that they're there yet, but that's the kind of things that fans are talking about right now, where they're trying to see like at some point, well, should they be having that kind of conversation that's not

gonna happen this year. Yeah, no, it absolutely can't happen. They not this year. But my point is like, when you get to that point of the of the contract where you can make that decision, do you stick with it because it's like it's safer to say, we got a guy that we think is pretty good, yeah, or do you are you willing to say, hey, we got to go back to the drawing board to see if

we can get somebody better. That's why I think twenty twenty three is if you do make the changes at the at some some of these offensive staff positions, then then it turns into Okay, we've made these changes. Now we're going to see how the quarterback adapts to the changes. And if he doesn't adapt to the changes, then you get to that point where you're talking about where it's the Carson Wentz or it's the Jared Golf So these guys like that where you're like, we're just moving on.

We're not gonna We're not gonna sit here and continue on and we're not going to give him a contract extension, and we're gonna look to draft or obtain a quarterback from another team, a Derek Carr or somebody like that. That's moving on. Yeah. If I if I was the offensive coordinator, new offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore or whatever, what I would do is I would to me one of the biggest plays in series of the game was it was nine to nine, huge pass the CD. Now you

flip the field down. Now you're cooking here. The game is nine to nine. They haven't scored a touchdown on you. Schultz drops a pass on the on the sideline from hell him. Yeah, I mean he. I don't know what was going on on the sideline with him, but um he dropped that one second down run to Zeke third and five. That's where I would say, all right, Dad, walked me through this. Do you think that that you're gonna make this throw over Warner to CD? Do you

not see t Y Hilton? Do you not trust yourself to throw it to t Y Hilton? Just walk me through that, because if you don't think you can make that throw, that's a problem. If you didn't see him, it's also a problem. And you got to throw it high enough that CD can stop. Warner's gonna run into him. You're gonna get a PI and all that stuff. I Warner is a damn good football player, and Micah Parson was mad that he didn't get All Pro, but he

wasn't as much of a difference maker as Warner wasn't. Then, yeah, well, to your point, Nick, you're absolutely right, though, Dak has to make that decision quicker because initially that route, if he throws the ball out front, it's a it's a running it's Warner's not gonna get that. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

So you're saying it should have been to CD, but no, no, no, I'm saying if if, if, in fact, if he sees he reads the middle of the field completely open and they're gonna by the way, but to be honest with you, by the way that Warner's hips were chasing CD, he should have thrown the ball to to t Y Hilton. T Y Hilton because anytime they play that with the Tampa two stuff, when you throw the ball opposite of if the guy's hips are flipped to one side, throw

it to the other side. You know that guy's not going to come back and make the play, they wouldn't have been able to. Ty would have made a big play. But if he throws the ball earlier, because there is Warner's trying to get from the middle there to get him, Yeah, the ball goes out if he just immusiately says I read this, I'm throwing it. Here we go. But how many times have we seen throws to the middle of the field where Dak is like throwing it, throwing it

and then it's intercepted. It's something happens. So now you're wondering, well, is he comfortable even making that throw. He was comfortable. It's like he was like waiting for CD to clear, and Warner wasn't gonna let him clear, you know, he just wasn't. So if you throw the ball sooner, Warner is gonna not get there to make the play on the ball. And so that I think all the problems that Dak has had thrown to the middle of the field this year, I think in his mind he's like

he was like, I'm not sure, I'm not sure. I'm sure. Do you think that was maybe a situation where you don't see why Hilton was wide open? Yeah? Absolutely, you don't expect when you get a matchup saying I got my best wide receiver on a linebacker question, I got him isolated. Yeah he should uncover. Like could that have been a situation where Dak is expecting, Okay, he's gonna uncover, like he's gonna uncovered well, and then he's like, oh, he's not gonna cover. I'm gonna give him a shot.

He can throw it. You can see right off the line that it's got a shot for a big play if because when you watch Lamb he's running and he's running like he's gonna expect in the ball. But like I say, you gotta take it. You gotta almost throw it. You gotta throw it to the spot. You got to throw it to the spot and let Lamb just go get it is what you do. Instead he's holding it and now it's too late, and now Warner, who can just run, is now in collision to make the play.

And so yeah, it's it's one of those things. It's like you there's there were so many plays that were that felt negative this year. Dak throwing the ball to CD in the middle of the field. I wonder if that was in his mind about because there was there was a past There was a couple of past plays after the interception where they had spot routes and stuff like that where he throws it past the sticks. It's

a first down. He didn't throw it because he's thinking, lime, I don't see all these red jerseys where, you know, and I think it. I think it gets in his head. I really really do on some of these throws. All right, let's take our first break. We'll come back. We got more to dive into into this game. We'll get to that when we get back to Za Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the cheetah Savannah. Todd believed the big Cat repellent

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We are alive from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star of the segment presented to you by blockchain dot com. Let's let's let's talk about the defense. Many yesterday put up a gem of a game. I was nick I told you I turn around until told you on the plane. If I would have told you on Friday, cowboys would hold Deebo Samuel to a total of a grand total of fifty six yards, and they would hold

McCaffrey to a grand total of fifty seven yards. What would have been your response to what you thought was going to happen in that game? I would have said, how did how many of it? Kittle? Which actually is the storyline of the game, right, I would have taken in that and you know, and just like you would have taken the nineteen points, you know, Yeah, I got your blockchain for you. Yeah, yah, Yeah, we're we are a team here, we work together. Yeah, I did you

read the other day? Yeah? He gave the good radio voice too, did he good radio? Yeah? I bet? Does that mean maybe you want to do it all the time? You're like, he's probably better than this than me. I'm sure you got that Sunday Sunday. Yeah, I know you're right. I would have. I would have taken the fifty six and fifty five yards from McCaffrey and Samuel and and

and take your shot there. Now, Kittle was was big, but as what I wrote in my story, that the difference is is that it's all of the it's all of their their weapons, it's McCaffrey on this play. It's the threat of Debo, It's the threat of Kittle. I mean they when you have a wide receiver who actually runs the ball, and a running back who actually catches the ball, and a tight end who lines out at receiver in a fullback who lines up wherever, you are

very very dangerous and and that's what they are. And you can have a quarterback like Brock Purty who has no interest in running, but he can stand back there and and make some plays. He didn't make any mistakes. He wasn't great. He tried, he tried, but he tried to make mistakes. Yeah, he tried. He was solid. Yeah, he tried to make some mistakes. I know. I don't look at see I don't look at it like Rock Purty just beat you. And he was better than Dak.

I mean he was. They have a better team, that's been They have structured a team way better than the Cowboys, and they went forth. They went forth this year. They went for McCaffrey to put them over the top to win this type of game, and the Cowboys didn't. The Cowboys traded their guy, seriously, they traded their guy, and they Mark Cooper and they hoped that Gallup would be good, and hope that that Noah Brown would be good and CD would take off, and and and it kind of did.

But I was going to ask you that about and again, I totally agree with you about moving on from Amari Cooper. But by moving on from Amurray Cooper, did you learn that Ceedee Lamb was a number one receiver? I mean, if you're if you're looking for a silver lining, you'd strayed off? You did, but but you needed a Maury Cooper because Michael Gallup was nothing this show. Let me throw this out there. I've been thinking about this, Nick, you and I had this part of this conversation a

little earlier. Dak Prescott has not been a turnover machine like he has been this year throughout his career. Oh yeah, and I'm starting I'm thinking like what could be the difference? And it made me start thinking down the path of and this is just conjecture on my part, but could this have been a situation where by getting rid of Amari Cooper, Essentially what they told Dak is it's on you.

You're not gonna have the same number of weapons. You're gonna have to figure out how to make these tight window throws because you're not gonna have guys who are just gonna get wide open. You're gonna have to figure out how to make it go. And it'll all go because you make it go. And as a result of and well, but listen, as a result of that, could that have been a situation where that's how you get to the interceptions. Dak's trying to do more than really

maybe he's even capable of doing. And we see something very different from him than we've seen all these other years because he's trying to do something that maybe it's just not in the wheelhouse of what he's best at. I mean, I hope that's not the reasoning, because then that would be really dumb on their part because you shouldn't know your quarterback. He hasn't shown you necessarily that he can be that type of guy to take it all on his shoulders. There are times where he can

make magic happening, as we saw Monday night. Monday Night. Yes, yeah, excellent game, his best game so far, But he hasn't shown to be that guy consistently. So for you to hope that he can be that guy and take away I mean The one thing that we have talked about over his career is that he needs help. He needs the weapons around him to make it work. He can't be that Aaron Rodgers. He can be that Tom Brady and his prime. So it's just not that and I just I don't get the reasoning behind it. And you

want to talk about cite lamb. Oh, they wouldn't known he's a number one receiver or whatever, but that's what you drafted him for. You knew the talent that he you knew what he could become. But you know Nick mentioning like oh or I forgot who did just now? But talking about hoping they can get better along the seasons. You know him right off the bat. At the beginning

of the year, heading into training camp. We were at training camp knowing all the little holes, all the issues that they had, and still towards the end of the year, of the end of the season, there were still the things that were in question that we're in fully fixed. They started that got ty and then he showed signs

to be working. But there's just so much that I feel that could have been avoided somewhat, or that you could have prepared yourself or equipped yourself a lot better heading into the season, and I'm very impressed with what

dan Quinn was able to do. And it breaks my heart knowing that ninety nine percent sure he's not gonna be here this next year, but looking at when he started losing players on defense, there's no way that I thought that going into this game playoffs, Divisional round against the forty nine ers, No way I thought that the defense was going to be able to play at this level, knowing and looking at how the season ended just those

last few weeks. Obviously they did well last week, but just looking at the injuries, the issues that we were talking about with dan Quinn up being able to fix all these things in the secondary, cornerback, the issues that were there. You're losing so many of your starters, and in the space am of a few weeks he was able to finally get things to click in again for you. So it's just it's just a lot to dissect, but

you something's got to give. I guess the quicker quote unquote faxes by Kellen, Yeah, well it's offensive coaches, and maybe it's not. You know, we'll see who's under contract and stuff like that too. I think that's some questions that we have to ask ourselves. Ass Mike mccurthy, Like I said earlier, I do believe there was some disconnect between him and Kellen on some things and maybe Mike had to say, listen, I want to do it this way, and Kellen's like, oh, okay, well then we'll do it

and we'll see. So um, you know, I if Kellen Moore gets an opportunity, that's one way of taking care of that, you know. If if you know, but I have a feeling there's going to be some coaches on the staff or they're going to tell him listen, if you want to go hunt a job, go hunt a job, you know, and we'll see if the offensive coaches, but the major one would be Kellen Moore, that would be the major one, because that's now the evaluation that you've determined,

like okay, we're going to move on from him. Now we're going to change. It. Could very well be Brian Schottenheimer, who they have here on staff as being the OC. I think to me personally, if they go outside or they go for an OC, they need to go for the dan Quinn plan, go for somebody that's outside Dan Quinn wasn't an insider here for the Cowboys. Dan Quinn was a guy that was a you know, I don't think Mike McCarthy had any great relationship with Dan Quinn.

Maybe you could do the same thing with one of these coordinators, you know. I mean, there's several of these head coaches that have been relieved of their jobs are now out there, and so they thoughts on a guy like Nathaniel Hackett. See, that's the thing, there's a connection because again, Mike McCarthy worked for Hackett's dad. You know,

Brian Schottenheimer. He worked for Schottenheimer's dad. You know, maybe you're in a situation where it's you know, Frank Reich or Cliff Kingsbury or somebody, you know, somebody your thinking offense, Your thing can kind of a wide open kind of a thing. You know. Maybe I'm just throwing names. I don't. I don't mean to sit there and like everybody throwing up in their mouth when I'm talking about these guys.

But there's been some head coaches that have been let go, and there's a reason why a lot of those guys got the opportunity they got, particularly anything, I mean, Daniel Hackett was doing a good job as a coordinator. That's why he got the opportunity to head coach. And maybe he's just not a good head coach, but he certainly has some skins on the walls and off there's no question. And again that fis for us now. But that's I

don't know who can right now. That's familiarity. That that to my point, it's if you take somebody that's not part of this guy helped his father, helped me get a job. Guy, Yeah, you know that's that's and and Nathaniel Hackett might be a great hire. But I to me, I'm now connecting things. You how to divide fault or like what percentage would you give Kellen versus Mike McCarthy if we don't know that, because what we don't know is I don't know how much much is Mike involved

in the game planning? Yeah, and during the game is he in his ear saying hey, I need a little more of this or I need a little less of this, and he's he's not a good idea, Let's do something different, right, I don't know, and none of us That's what I wonder though, because here we are just like oh, Kellen, Kelly and Kellen. But it does make me wonder, Okay, how much is it actually Mike McCarthy's fault as well? Obviously he's a head coach, he has some well, so

the buck hasn't stop. Yeah, so he's like, Okay, is it Mike McCarthy and what he's doing, or is it you get rid of the offensive coordinator? See what happens to the fact that they've won thirteen games or fourteen? With thirteen games, is now that the head coach has probably saved himself. Yeah, so now it's not about the head coach, and the head coach can say I everything. We'll know if they get rid of Kellen Moore, if they move on from Kellen Moore, then that's a decision

by Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy, and then then we'll say how much do you want to blame? He's Mike McCarthy's thinking. I try, I had to tell you what I wanted to do, and we did this. Okay, I allowed it. I'm not gonna allow it anymore. Do you think Jerry has the decision to make on let Kelly, let Dan Quinn leave, or make him the head coach. I'm just gonna come out and say it. I'm too tired to dance around. Do you think that that should even be on the table. I don't think it is on the

table personally. And the reason why I don't is because I think Jerry's looking at this and saying, Mike McCarthy got me twelve wins last year, Mike McCarthy got McCarthy got me thirteen wins this year. I don't think my head coach is the problem. But he also got you Mike Nolan as the defensive coordinator to the first year, and then Jim tom and has been one and one

in two in the playoffs. So yes, I get all that. Now, you can depends on who wants to argue which side in the room on the debate team, which I wouldn't want to, you know, debate with you since you're an all state debater in high school, which is true, but does can can any defensive coordinator worth his salt come in here and take Michael Parsons and and be good with it? You know, and like I don't. I don't know what we're going to find out. Probably don't know.

So that's that. That's the decision, and I think I think that's something that Jerry is has to think about. And again, this isn't mean knowing anything. I believe Mike McCarthy will be the head coach next year, but I don't think it's going to be easy to say bye to Dan Quinn if if in fair, I don't I agree with you on that. I think the thing that you have to now in your line of thinking is if you ask Dan Quinn, if I hire you as

the head coach, who's your OC. That's the question you now have to ask, because if you have an understanding like, Okay, who's Mike McCarthy going to bring in here as an OC? Potentially? Okay, who's Dan? Dan? Who do you got if you were if I were to give you this job, who would you bring in as NOC? Now? Will and Steven have to sit down and say, all right, wait a minute. With Dan, we get this, we get our defense. But he's got a better coordinator idea than the head coach

than the current head coaching. Jerry Jones is open to have that kind of interview with then Quinn. I think he's paying Dan Quinn like he's a head coach right now to be honest with you, I don't think there's anything Jerry's not willing to at least think about. Like I think he's probably thinking about everything. But but I'll

also throw this out there into this mix. Are we sure that let's assume for a second, let's go way out on a limb and assume that they make the decision we'd rather keep dan Quinn and they keep him. What makes us believe that as the head coach, this defense is still gonna be as good as it was when he was the guy that was over the defense, Like when he was in Atlanta, that defense is pretty good the first year. It got progressively worse over the years.

And so it does make me wonder, like, if you're the head coach, you're not pouring as much time into the defense. You're certainly probably not calling the plays on game day, and so you're still not getting the benefit of dan Quinn is your defensive coordinator, he's your head coach. That's a different role. He called the plays when they were in New Orleans that time, when that the COVID game with Mike McCarthy, when he was the head coach, they won the game in New Orleans against against trist

Is it Hillo Hill, Taysom Hill. Yeah, said Tristan Hill, Taysom Hill. Dan was on the sidelines calling defense just that that time, just that time. Yeah, you know, is it one of those things. I mean we've seen We've seen guys like, I know, the guy at New Orleans, Dennis Allen. You know, Now, maybe it's a thing where you trust Joe Wit to be that guy. If you're Dan Quinn, You're like, listen, I trust Joe. I'm not gonna let Joe mess Joe. What do you got? What

do you Joe? What do you know? Joe? Don't go with that. Yeah, think about this one, you know. I mean maybe that's what maybe learned something from his time in Atlanta. I think helps. Yeah, I don't know. I think so. I I think it didn't have Michael Parsons and Trey Von Diggs. I think it's something if you're if you're Jerry Jones, you absolutely have to consider because to me, you want to know, the number one thing I'm thinking about this offseason is fixing Dak Prescott. Yeah,

that's the number one thing I'm thinking about. So every decision has to every decision has to be whether you hire a defensive head coach and dan Quinn, who's the OC? What other staff are we going to bring in here? You know that? Or if you're Mike McCarthy, all right, Mike, listen, congratulations had a nice year. Who do you want as your OC? And tell me why you want? And tell me why and how you're going to not how you're going to fix four from some of the deficiencies he's shown.

And if they decide, if Gerry decides that he does want to go that route and get let say you get dan Quinn. It wouldn't be right away because he'll lose draft picks if he doesn't do it. He's got a he's got an interview, he's an interviewed minority candidates. He's got it. You know what he's like. I don't. Now. You can wink, wink and say, Hank tie, it's coming back to you, but I mean, that's not the spirit of the rule, and not at all. I wouldn't think

that they would do that. And so you know, and I mean, since it's being talked, I've already been asked twice this morning and I've barely even been awake for a long enough for it but I do not believe Sean Payton is in play here. No, I don't think he has either need cheap superstars, and the only way you get cheap superstars is if you draft them. So I don't know why you would want to get a Sean Payton in here, whose resume I don't think is any better than McCarthy's to come in here and lose

a first round pick. It is not talking about a conditional six. This is a first round pick. No, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. The thing about I think with Sean is to me that and maybe the bridges. I'm not saying we're burned, but you know, there's such a friendship there and stuff like that. I think that maybe Jerry's kind of moved on from that. Just listening to people talk. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm friends with Sean. I have not talked

to Sean one day about this job. Now he's yelled at me for talking about this job while others are still having jobs. But I have not talked to Sean about this particular job in a while. I'll say this though, I would be absolutely shocked at this point if anybody other than Mike McCarthy is a head coach of this team,

make I wouldn't. I don't see any reason why Jerry would have gone out there and been so emphatic yesterday and the time he was asked before yesterday about Mike McCarthy's job security, Like he would have just been like, you know, we'll look at everything. There's no reason why you and we're like Odell and well but they but the point is the point with Odell, like they wanted O'Dell. Let's not make any mistakes about like they wanted O'Dell.

It just once they finally got a chance to look at him, they were like, who, you're healthy and maybe he's not the guy, right. So I don't think it's a matter if Jerry didn't want him. I think he was very clear about that. I just think this was a situation where he is saying emphatically because I think he believes Mike earned the ability to stay here for another year. And I think I would just be shocked if they do anything different this year that doesn't mean

anything for future years. This year, I would be shocked. You know. It's ironic is that when we go back six weeks, we were when we were all knee deep in the Odell stuff like thought it was happening, And Brian, you kept saying, you know, in the playoffs on third down, third and four, is he gonna make your play? Damn? Did he wish he was? You had somebody that can make a play, And now I know it wasn't him. He wasn't healthy any and a lot of the reason

he wasn't healthy, it's because of Odell. Odell didn't commit to his rehab like he should have. Well, like like like he needed to, not should have. You can do whatever you want, your grown man, but like he needed to to be able to play. They have they have a decision about the running back to that running back might be done. He's already moved to center. I really hope that's not the final play of his Cowboy career,

getting trucked at the center position. But I do agree with you, Brian, like there's no way your lead running back, which he still is, your starting running back, there's no way you lose your backup. And we know I know what Tony Pollo brings this team. I get that, but there's no way you lose that guy. Your starter is still in the game, and your offense just can't go anywhere,

cannot move the ball. And there were a number of runs Nick, you and I were talking about in the game, or number of runs where you're looking at him, you're like, man, Zeke got one or two, maybe three, Polly would have gotten eighty. He just doesn't have that. He doesn't seem to have that first decision if and the one thing. And hopefully we'll have the draft show coming up here in a few days or so. But there's plenty of

running backs in the sea. You go, there's a lot of running backs, and it's and it's hey, go out there and if you want to, you know, if you want to figure it out, if you if Pollard leaves and Zeke moves on and all that, you will have opportunities. You really really Pollard, Yeah, Pollard is a different situation now, polar Yeah, everything changed. I think broken leg, I mean broken uh fibula three months? Three months? Three months? So let's say until what that's yeah, that's what they say,

it's a three month rehab thing. Well then then maybe he doesn't have a broken fibula. Is that? What is that? That's what they called it, But they said it was a three month thing. Three month I mean by April, he would be ready to what resumed flack ativity. So that means he's here for most of the offseason workouts. Yeah, but he's gonna be rehabbing the whole time. Decisions You

got to make decisions on him in March. Yeah, yeah, but what we but what we know about this team, they're not afraid to do it with an injured guy, like you franchise him. I wouldn't. I wouldn't, but I'm not saying I don't three million dollars. I would not. I would win. He won't. He may not be himself

that that whole year. And my thing is just like running backs, you can get them, man, there are there are so many running backs in this league that coming every round of the draft, Like you can get quality running backs and and bring them in here and get them to play. I just look at that, and I'm like, I'm going back to the well and quite frankly, every two years I would be drafted, I will, and he

just keep it rotating. The kid at Texas be Jean Robinson, regardless of positions, one of the best players I've ever seen.

He's a he is a ball. Seriously, I don't know that honestly in the time that I've been a Texas fan, and I don't know that even and I'll even go, this is gonna sound crazy, Ricky even looking at Ricky, like watching Bejon is a different beast, Like I am afraid that we're not gonna have him next year, Like I'm that is that is terrifying to me because as bad as we were at times this year, Beijean still Bijon, like he just he has a way doing some amazing things.

Campbell that was a little bit before my fandom. You guys are so cut through, and you know, and I am too sometimes, but it's about to say, like who's probably who probably on this show? Open the show right, like I have nothing to say, like you, I'm afraid

I'm gonna cuss. Yes you switch to Spanish. Um no, it's it's you know, yes, I am cut throw but at the same time time in a sports way, feelings and I'm a very sentimental emotional person and it just it sucks because I love Zeke, but it sucks every once we got to this point where you know, you got to move on from somebody and then you couldn't get where you wanted to get. With the people you

were in and like hanging in there these people. Tyren Smith, he ain't gonna I think that's it for him as well. Sack Mary. I'm sure he's gonna still be here possibly, But you talked about like just kind of getting a new roster every year, and it happens you're never gonna have the same team year after year. That that's that's gonna happen, but it just sucks us. Huh might keep

Tyren Smith? I think I might too. What I saw at t Smith and Smith on the left side, and they go back with the group you originally thought you were gonna go with. Okay, Now, now here's here's the thing. I'm not bidding on the fact he's gonna stay healthy. Sure, that's the part where you better have all Right, we appreciate you, guys, Jones. We'll be back tomorrow, and tomorrow I think we're gonna get a little more into this.

Where do they go next? Because there's so many questions there on with all the free agents and and all the players that we know will be will have the opportunity to go other places. Where should the Cowboys be looking to improve this team and get better we'll talk about that tomorrow for Nick Keepman. Brian brought us Amber Got See. I'm Derek Hilton. 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.