Cowboys Break: Too Aggressive?

The Break, present by Geico. We appreciate you guys joining us. We've got forty five minutes here to talk some Cowboys football. We got a lot of different topics we're gonna try to hit today. Um and it's some point, at some point we'll try to get to some questions from you guys. Hopefully we can hit some questions towards the third segment of the show. So if you want to hit up Amber on Twitter, you can get those questions. And she already has some questions, but I'm sure she'll take some

more if you have a really good one. Welcome to the show. Let's let's get started. Yesterday we find out the Cowboys game that was supposed to originally be played this Thursday against the Baltimore Ravens was moved again. It had been moved to Monday of next week. Now it's been moved to Tuesday. My question for our panel is

how does this affect this team? Now getting a really long break between the last game and the game with the Ravens and then having another short week very very much like what you would typically have for a Thursday game heading then into the game with Cincinnati. Let's start with you, Nick, Well, I don't know everything that's that you know it's going and that's involved in these decisions, and I'll invade the NFL for having to do all that, but you know, I you know it'll it'll affect Cowboys

probably more on the back end. I wish, I wish we could understand why they move the game from Tuesday to Wednesday. Um, I only can think of one reason, and I don't know if that's a good, you know, reason to do it. So I just I don't know. I you know, this is a team that lost their strength coach in the middle of a Thursday, Thanksgiving weeks, so they're having to deal with a lot of stuff.

So how does it affect them. I mean, they'll they get a little bit more time to face a Baltimore team who you have no idea who's going to be out there. So I guess that's good, but I mean, what do you how can you really help with this extra time other than just use it as rest amber It just sucks when I mean, obviously no one wants this kind of situation to happen, but I know, I know it must suck when when your schedule is just thrown off. The fact that you have a weekly schedule,

a weekly structure that you go by. You know, this week your practice, you know this week you look at film and all that, this day and all that. So it it sucks in that way because you can really fully utilize this time because you don't really know what's going on with Baltimore. It's not like, oh, you can fully prepare for them. So in my head, I'm hoping that maybe they use this week and divide it into sometime spending it for the preparation for the next opponent.

Maybe because the next week it's going to be a short week for the Cowboys, so they're gonna have to balance out that kind of preparation and hopefully because of what's happening in Baltimore and the uncertainty there, maybe you use that time to look at the next opponent in there and prepare for the following week. Dave, it's a really,

it's a great point. A g Just yeah. I mean, there's only so much you can do with this extra time, and teams advance scout anyway, so I would bet they will spend some time on Cincinnati as a result of that. My thing is, I just and I'm with Nick, like, I don't envy the people that have to decide this stuff, but I'm I'm just kind of at a loss for why the NFL seems so reluctant to extend the season, you know, I mean at a week eighteen, like you can build that into the playoffs and still get what

you want to do done. It just seems like the links that they're going to play it on schedule is gonna I mean, it's it's it's kind of ridiculous. I mean, you know, all of these late changes, asking teams to play games on four and five days rest. I just think it's bizarre, and I don't understand what the harm would be in just adding a week to the season, but the league seems bound and determined not to do that.

And maybe maybe we're not going to see an outbreak on scale with what we're seeing in Baltimore right now. But like this, I just I have a feeling this is going to keep happening. I mean, it's December now, It's we're in the middle of the flu season. COVID cases are going getting worse and worse. Like I would just imagine this next month is going to be really dicey. So I don't envy the league for having to figure all this out, but I'm not convinced they're doing a

great job. Yeah, it seems a little strange to me, just that there are there are some teams that are being forced to just deal with their circumstances. I look at Denver last weekend where they were essentially they were told basically played the game without a quarterback and that's

what they had to do. And there seems to be this this decision from the standpoint of the Ravens, that they keep making allowances for them with their COVID cases rather than just saying everybody they can't play, just can't play.

Figure it out and put a team on the field. Obviously, there's a lot more to it, and there's probably some things that are being discussed that are far beyond what we know, but it just seems like everything keeps getting pushed back for the Ravens and we'll see how much that affects the Steelers in their game coming up this Wednesday.

That's been moved around quite a bit for them, and the Steelers have to be a little frustrated because they've this is the second time this year when they faced this kind of situation where the other team had issues and because of that, it was games had to be moved and adjusted on the Steeler schedule. But all things considered, we all knew going into this season there'd be lots of changes and they just have to deal with it.

I think somebody would probably offer the rebuttal and say deadverse situation didn't involve an ongoing spread, at least not that we knew about. You know, they had their high risk contacts, they didn't have any positive tests, whereas I think Baltimore had nine straight days of positive tests, which is to say they don't even know if they've contained it, so they don't feel comfortable having guys travel or play. I guess I get that, but I do agree with you.

It doesn't seem like there's a lot of consistency. I mean, this all happened with Tennessee back in October. It was very similar, and it is interesting. You know what constitutes getting the league to make all these accommodations verse saying oh, sorry, you're just gonna have to deal with it. Like I said, it doesn't seem very consistent, and I would guess we're going to have a few more situations like this before the regular season is over, and God help us if

it happens in the playoffs. Yeah. I just wonder if at some point the league is forced to make teams, especially if they find proof that the teams weren't following the protocols as they should, if they will force teams to forfeit games, that'll be interesting to see. They haven't been willing to do that to this point, but that would definitely be interesting if they go that far with this whole thing. Let's change the subject. Let's flick a

little bit more into internally at the Cowboys. Let's start first with the offensive line. We didn't get a chance to talk extensively about them. Yesterday, but obviously they lost both their tackles, both their second string tackles in the game against the Washington football team, and they were left

with Brandon Knight and Terrence Steele. Again, my question for you guys is is there another option that they have at this point at the tackle position or are they forced Not that they haven't been willing to do it in the past, but are they forced at this point to just roll with Brian. I'm sorry with Brandon Knight and Terrence Steele. Let's start first with you Amber, not that I know of. I mean, these are the guys,

you know what the worst part. I mean, obviously it sucks seeing sick Martin going down and all that, but then I'm like, oh my god, here comes still back again. Just when we got him out of the feel he comes back. And I feel terrible for saying that. I apologize because I know he's trying the best that he can do. But it just sucks. It sucks all these injuries.

It sucks that you cannot find any kind of consistency there and as of right now, I mean, maybe Dave and Nick have a better answer here, but I don't know. No name comes to mind right now, someone who would be better at the tackle position at this moment, Dave, I mean there are other names on the roster. You got Eric Smith, who they claimed off of waivers back in September. You got Greg Snott who they poached from Cleveland's practice squad. And then Jordan Mills, who was the

veteran guy that we've talked about before. You know, he started a few seasons for Buffalo in Chicago. But like I'm okay, I did, Like you know, I get we're doing we're doing our due diligence, but are we talking about improvements? I tend to doubt it. So maybe they want to trot one of those guys out, but I would guess not based on how firm they've been about Terrence Steele all season. I would be surprised to see that at this point. Nick, Yeah, I mean, I don't

think that they have any intention of doing that. For some reason, they want to see this through with Steele. You know, I don't know how many times I mean, he's you know, he's he's struggled for sure, and he struggled, you know, with giving up sacks, penalties, whatever. I mean, Brandon Knight, you I think I was telling you this other day, Derek. You know Brandon knyat uh it doesn't have one penalty against him this year. I was surprised

by that. Um, uh, the steel leads the offense and penalties, don't lead the team. I think we know who leads the team and penalties, but he's the leads of the offense. He's got six and uh, you know, I just it's kind of weird for Brandon Knight, first time starter. Um, and he hasn't played a whole lot, you know, but but I think that you know, he's he's been a good option for them. But but yeah, I don't see any other option of the other than Steele and Night.

Right now, would you guys consider and I know the Cowboys, I should say, I know I feel pretty certain that the Cowboys are not going to do this. Would you guys consider the possibility that when Tyler Beatis is healthy, that maybe you put him in at center, you put Luni in at guard, and maybe you get a look at at Connor Williams at tackle. I would because I think I look at next year and I don't and I think Connor McGovern is probably going to be a

better guard than Connor Williams. So when I think about all that for next year, where does Connor Williams go, I probably would look a look at him as a being a swing tackle there, So yeah, I would do it. Dave, Okay,

I like that. I like that idea. And if if Tyler Beatis comes back, I'm you know, Joe Looney is going to play center till he's healthy, but I'd like to think if he can come back this season that they would want to get him some reps and keep you know, getting him experience and having him playing games. So that's certainly an intriguing option to try at different best five. Yeah, I don't know if you do it right now while while Tyler's hurt, but I would definitely

try to give that a try. If Tyler can come back. I don't think they will, but I would. Yeah, I'd be interested for sure. Amber absolutely. I mean, we've been talking about this for quite a while now, wanting to see Connor a tackle and giving him a try it. But I'm curious to know to really know what the coaching staff think is and how do they feel, because clearly we have not been on the same page as them.

We see things differently than they do. So I would be really curious to see or no, just kind of their thoughts on that and if that's a move that they would want to make at some point, even if it's not this specific season, but at some point in the near future. You know. The interesting part about that, Amber is that we have been on a different page from them, but it seems like at some point throughout this year they always come around to our line of

thinking happening. We saw it happen with Walley, we saw it happened with Poe, we saw it happened lately with the move of Zach Martin out to tackle again, putting still on the bench. So eventually they come around and thinking like we're thinking, so we must be onto something. We're gonna take our first break when we come back. I want to talk about this coaching staff, particularly about

some of the decision making that's been happening. There's been a lot of criticism for Mike McCarthy, and I want to ask you guys about that decision making and also about what he's done so far as a head coaching, as a leader. We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why Selor pioneers ways to make lenses as unique as you. Varilux for super sharp vision, Essential Blue for protection, and Crisolve

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in stadium experience to the palm of your hand. You could snap a photo with your favorite Cowboys player anywhere and any time. It's now available within the Dallas Cowboys app under the Stadium tab. Welcome back to the second segment of the Break presented by Geico. We are talking Cowboys. We're talking a show where we're gonna talk about a lot of different topics. We're gonna talk about this coaching

staff next, and we're gonna start with Mike McCarthy. There have been a number of times this decision this season when he's made some decisions that have raised eyebrows, and I'm wondering for myself, I'm wondering if a lot of that is because we've just been so used to the Jason Garrett style of coaching, which I don't think anybody would characterize as aggressive, and then flipping to another extreme

where Mike McCarthy seems to be extremely aggressive. But I'll ask you, guys, are you concerned about the decision making of coach McCarthy. Let's start first with you, Nick. Yes, I am. Nothing He's done so far, um has shown what the things that they hired him for. And and when I say shown, I'm talking about what we've seen now behind closed doors maybe maybe it's better, but but you know, you you you've got a three and eight football team. Obviously there's been a lot of injuries, but

but there, you know, you have a veteran staff. You're supposed to be able to figure out how to get guys in place and try to, you know, help with your depth a little bit. And maybe maybe it's just been too many injuries. Then then one team can can take. But you know, from the decision making that he's done within the game, the game management, it hasn't worked. You know, it didn't work even in the first game of the season.

So um, he got lucky obviously with the second game, you know, with the with the on side kick, but you know, I think that was a questionable decision as well. But but nothing that he's done so far you can really say and go, wow, you know, that's that's that's really good. The only thing that's got going for him it is the pedigree in the history of that he

has a Super Bowl Trophy. And Nick, I'm gonna challenge you a little bit here because everybody on this show and everybody who's listening out there knows that you're a fleeflicker guy like you like do it every game. I want to see them do a fleef flicker every single game. So tell me the difference. You're aggressive in that aspect, but you're concerned about his aggressiveness. Tell me that the difference, Well, his aggressiveness. I was really talking more about the fake punts.

But but but his aggressiveness. Um, here's the difference. This team isn't good enough to be as aggressive as he wants to be. He wants to to to put it on the players. Well, the players aren't good enough right now. This team isn't good enough. So he's taking chances like he did and Thursday in the game when he shouldn't have to and and and that's not a calculated risk.

So to try to throw the ball to a punter so that I feel like the flee flicker thing is I want those safeties thinking that Zeke might pitch it back. He might because they do it once again. Is this the play? No, it isn't. So go up there and make the tackle. But you were a little bit late and there was an eight yard run. I want you thinking that way. But I don't know the advantage of always thinking, well, this might be a punt, this might

be a fake. So I mean that I think there's way too many fakes when you're talking about fake punts. But I just think he's he's too aggressive for a team that's not good enough to handle it. Yeah, And the point is you're saying you don't think that that a flea flickers aggressive. That's just that should be a part of your offense, just to make safeties have to account for the fact that this could be a run, this could be a pass. And the problem though is

I'm sorry, all right, Dave, what do you think? Go ahead? But but but Nick no Um, what I was gonna say is is it stems back to when you can't run the football on that On that after Jalen's interception first and goal at the four, they get stuff for a two yard loss. Okay, they tried to run it. Then they tried this fake reverse pass to maybe Andy Dalton or whatever. But because they know that you don't, you don't have to worry about the run, they can

look for all that kind of stuff. So and when the special team's coach runs a fake, I mean every other game, they're looking for that kind of stuff, so they'll give up just a you know, a non return and you fair catch it and it's a forty five yard punt no return. That's fine because they're looking for a fake punt. That's a little different than a safety that's always looking for a flea flicker. In my opinion, makes sense. Dave, are you concerned about coach McCarthy's aggresiveness.

I really I don't have too much of a problem with what Mike McCarthy has done during games this season. Obviously we covered it. The fake punt the other day was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen that that is, that's a different category. I don't like that. But even you go back over the course of the season, the fake punt return, you know, the lateral back to c J. Goodwin against Pittsburgh, big part of why they

were able to keep that game close. Great play. I think they did a fake against Atlanta where CJ just dropped the ball like again, probably would have worked. Like these are all decisions where you're like, uh, it could have worked, but it didn't, and that's football. You know, same thing going forward on fourth down against LA all the way back in Week one. Love it, I love that call, just didn't work. It has also worked a

few times. They went forward on fourth down twice against Minnesota, got them both big part of why they won that game. So I love the in game stuff. I think you could probably dial back the special team's craziness a little bit, but I'm even okay with that. My problem with Mike McCarthy is really Monday to Saturday decision making to this point, which is kind of funny because I loved what Jason Garrett used to do Monday to Saturday, and I hated what he did on Sunday. I'm kind of the opposite

with Mike. Can't have it all, Dave, you can't have it all. I mean, like the stuff that others me about Mike McCarthy is, why did it take your defense seven weeks to look like an NFL defense? Like? Why did it look like JV And we can talk about Dontari Poe and Everson Griffin and Darryl Worley all we want. I don't think I buy that that's the difference between giving up seventy yard rushing touchdowns and not like that

that's just unacceptable at the NFL level of football. How about the fact that everybody in the world was like anyone but Terrence Steele and Mike McCarthy was like, that's fantasy football nonsense. And then like three weeks later he tries Zach Martin and it works. Like it's stuff like that that gives me pause. Where like you know, like, like you just said in the first segment, Derek, like us four dummies shouldn't be able to sit here and have better ideas than the coaching staff does. But it

has felt like that at times this season. But as far as like the aggressiveness on game day, I leaned toward liking it for the most part. Like I'll I'll live and die on that hill. You know, even even you're not gonna win all those decisions, but I'll take it if you're aggressively trying to win games. Okay, So as a fun aside, David, if you had to choose between the coach that's great on Monday through Saturday or the coach just says great on game day, which one

are you're taking? Yeah? I mean, look, we're one year into this thing with Mike and everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. So I'm not saying Mike McCarthy's gonna win the Super Bowl for this team, but like, i'll, i'll, I'm okay with trying this out and seeing where it goes as opposed to just going back to what didn't work for a decade. All right, So Amber, are you concerned with Mike McCarthy's decision making? I am. I have very mixed emotions about this whole situation. Obviously, we were

wanting to see a change. We were wanting someone new and hear, someone with a new voice, someone who could be more fun out on the field, who could have more fun when he comes to play calling and have that kind of aggressiveness that we were lacking from Jason Garrett as far as playing conservative football. But at the same time, even though I have liked certain things that he's done, there has been a lot of questionable decisions throughout the season. And the thing with me, how I

see it is you need to have self awareness. You need to know what your team is doing, know what you look like. No that, Okay, we're not really accomplishing this and unable to make this place happen. So maybe as for right now, just for right now, we kind of take it back a little bit, play and more conservative, more conservative. I can't even say the word, but you get my point, Just not be as aggressive, just so that you can start completing place and being more effective

on the field. And it's hard to say because I do like it, because when you're aggressive, it makes football more fun. But at the same time, it sucks when you're losing games. It sucks when you see a fun play, you put it out on the field, but it wasn't effective. So therefore next week you're not scaring anybody because the opponent knows you can't make it happen. So it's just for me, it's just having a little more self awareness. And again, like these other guys said, we don't know

what happens behind closed doors. We don't know how he is in team meetings and any or any of that, but we do know what we see on the field and what we see from players. And the reality is that it took a really long time for it to

start translating to these players. And the fact that the whole first season, first half of the season, we were seeing that lack of emotion, that lack of what's the word I'm looking for, the just being competitive, We weren't seeing that were this team had no soul throughout the first half of the season, so that that's that's a problem because you need your leader to be able to

have a voice and translate at the same time. And you cannot tell me that this is just oh lack of talent of players and blah blah blah, because at the same time you got a lot of guys. How many players are there on a football team. There is no possible way that everyone just simply sucks on the field. No, it has to come from the person who's trying to inspire you. So I'm sorry, but as of right now, it's just not quite working out. Now, I think that

I think those are valid points. I'm personally not willing to completely crucify Mike McCarthy yet, as Dave mentioned, there's been pretty much everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, and a lot of that stuff is well beyond his control. I would have expected with an experienced coach like this that he could have made up that difference and they wouldn't have been as bad as they've been, particularly on defense throughout the year, even with all the challenges that

they've had. But I'm not willing to completely crucify him on that. I think we give him a little bit of a mulligan because this was such a weird year and I want to see what happens in the future. What I do know, or at least what I think I know at this point, is he's not a coach that necessarily knows how to coach his team through adversity well, and that's something that we did always say about Jason Garrett. In adverse situations, it seemed like he had an ability

to get his team to play above their heads. And the problem that we had with Coach Garrett was when then they were in the front, they seemed to play down sometimes. So, however, you want to ment that, I'm not willing to completely crucify him yet. I think we got to still figure out over the next couple of years really what we think of this coach and what

he's able to do here. Let's move up to the special teams though, I want to talk about John Fossil and a lot of these decisions that have been made have revolved around the special teams. My first question for you guys is do you think he has the latitude to be able to just make decisions on what he wants to do on special teams without the head coach's input because we I know, we saw Nick I don't know.

I think it was you that sent the clip of his last game with the Rams, and it was a play where they did they ran a fake on a special teams on a punt and the head coach, you could tell he was seemed very aggravated, as though he didn't know what was really going on, and the special teams coordinator just decided that's what he was gonna do. And it made me think Number one, was that the

reason that maybe the Rams moved on from Fossil? And number two, does he have the same kind of latitude here where he's making decisions and they don't necessarily match up with what's going on in the game. Let's start first with you, Dave. I mean, I think there's there's no way to know the mechanism of that, like publicly basically,

like that's I mean, that's the essence of coaches. You're like, you're going to protect that that process, and if it does come out, it probably means you're heading for like a mess divorce. Like those starts of details start to come out when you're looking for justification for firing a guy or moving on or whatever. So I don't know if he's got that latitude. It wouldn't surprise me based on his expertise and the amount of times they do it. But again, that's what I feel for a head coach

in a situation like that. Maybe McCarthy thought that that was a great call, maybe he actually hated it, but he's got to go defend it because you're opening a can of worms. If you don't like it. It ain't worth it to throw your special teams coordinator under the bus like that, unless you're trying to move on from him.

I will say, just with John Fossil, and it came into crystal clarity after this fiasco on Thursday, is it's great to be aggressive, but if you're so aggressive that teams change the way they play you because of your reputation,

that's not great. Like I don't know if that's great for everybody to be like, well, we got John Fossil on the schedule, we better be on our p's and q's, Like Like how we don't talk about that with like ninety nine percent of teams, But I remember last year when they played the Rams in December, we talked about that leading up to the game. We were like, you gotta be careful with Fossil, Hecker and Zerline like they're

gonna do something wild. I don't know if that's great when people know that right off the bat, Nick, what are your thoughts? What was the question again? I'm sorry, what are you asking? Specific? The question is do you think Fossil has the latitude to be able to make these calls in all? And if so, do you think that's the right decision? No, to give him that lattices. No. I think I think he does have that latitude. I think he's always I think I don't think he sleeps

at nine. I think he thinks about fake double punt reverses and stuff like that, and I think he comes in the next morning about four am and about dreaming about them. He might. He might he bust into McCarthy's office and be like, what do you think about this? You know? And I think the whole game he's probably trying to use you his ear, trying to convince him

to do that. That's what I really believe. I don't think like he he makes the call, but I think he's talking about it throughout the game and trying to do that. Um, you know, and I think it's just too much. I mean, like I said, If If and I, we've been told this punt returners, you know, like like you you have a different plan when you're playing against him because and what are you giving up? Okay, so we're not going to return it this game this time.

Just tell CD faircatch it because we're not going to return this because we want to play the gunners a little bit differently. That's that's all you're giving up. Really, and just make sure you don't give up fake punts because you're always watching for it. So yeah, I do think that I think he has probably a little bit more leeway than than he should because I mean they've run two in one game before, they've run three this year.

It hasn't worked. I mean I think he's run four trick plays maybe, um nah, you can you can say they probably run seven trick plays this year and they've gotten two of them. It was an on site kick counts a trick play, which too, they got the watermelon kick and then they got the Steelers and return throwback. The three fake ponts, they haven't gotten the drop kick against Philadelphia. I mean that almost worked, but it didn't. You know, I mean that almost worked, and that's all

I can really think of Cleveland. They tried a couple of weird looking plays there, so um, you know, he did one where and they like snapped it to darry and Thompson too, didn't they? That was that was the It's basically yeah, it's basically been a weekly thing. Yeah, and that's yeah. I wish there would have been a camera on McCarthy's face so we would have seen a reaction and how he really felt about that decision. But

you know, I feel bad for Fossil. I mean, I think he has great intentions and I think he really works hard. He really wants his whole Special Team's group to be able to make game changing plays. But the thing is, again I go back to the whole self awareness thing, like you need to know when you need to take a step back, And to me, I see him, I'm not trying to call him like a nerd or anything, but I see him as a nerdy guy who's like really invested on his playbook and just out there just

trying to come up with creative plays and everything. But at the same time, you gotta make it happen on the field and I think he can get better at this next year. I expect special teams to be better than what we've seen so far with more time to prepare and all that. But that's that's an easy fix. I think when it comes to a play call, I mean, you make the decision and you just you just gotta be more aware of what's going on on the field

and more aware of your players and knowing that. Okay, I love the guys, and I think they can get there, and I think they can make it happen, but I gotta be real and understand that this is maybe not the year where we tried those kinds of things. Unless you you're not trying to win the game and you want to risk it, then that's fine. Be playful and go for it. Let's also point out on that that play with Fossil against them, it was against the Cardinals

last year with the Rams. That was his last game with the Rams. It was the last game of the season after they had lost to the Cowboys and they were out of the playoffs, so it was Week seventeen. There was just playing it to play, so you know, but still, I mean, the head coach didn't didn't appreciate it um When did he get so mad? Then? I mean because it was McVeigh gets so fourth and eight on their own twenty four. But but that that shows to me that familiar Yeah, but that shows to me

that that he was making the call. I mean, I mean he just went ahead and ran it. Anyways, that's on that's on mcvaigh, just like it's on McCarthy if he didn't have control over it. Yeah. The way I look at this is there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is there really is a third phase to the game. There's the offense, there's a defense, and there's a special teams, and I think Fossil takes it very seriously to figure out ways that special teams can

affect the outcome of the game. The bad news is it doesn't seem like they always are all coordinated, the offense, working with the defense, working with the special teams in order to do what's best for the team. And that's where I have a problem here. And whether it's Fossil who's making decision or whether it's McCarthy who's making the decision.

I think that last game and that decision to go for that fake punt in that situation on fourth down, when you're backed up and you're still in the ball game, to me, was a panic and it didn't work. It didn't coordinate with what you were doing on defense. Your defense was, in my opinion, playing above their heads. Why put them in a situation where they as they did on the very next play they give up a twenty three yard touchdown and then the game gets out of hand.

So I just I like the idea of it being a really truly being a third phase of the game. What I don't like is that it doesn't seem like it's always well coordinated with the other parts or other phases of the game. Dave, what are the three Yeah, Dave, what are the three phases of the game? Offense, defense, and special Right? And I could say the same thing and everybody would say the exact same order. It's always offense, defense,

special team. I don't know if the coach, ever, I don't know if Fossil actually he probably doesn't say that. He probably sad special teams, defense, offense. But there's a reason why that's the order, because that's always the priority. I don't know if if I mean because that's that's true, that's just the way that it is, and so you go, that's a great mentality, that's a great mentality. That's but that's the way that I know. But I don't think

he Fossil thinks that way. He even said in his very first interview that we are a big part of the game. But you know, it's that's not the way head coaches feel. If they felt that way, they'd put their starters on there. They don't. It's a third phase. It can't mess up though, um and we've seen you know, we've seen them mess up. But I mean they've made some plays. They've made some plays. I mean Rico, you know,

Daddle made a really nice play. I mean, they didn't lead to points, but it definitely could have if it's not their fault. I mean, they've made some plays this year. But for both teams. All we're gonna take our final break. We're gonna take our final break. When we come back, We're gonna get some fan questions. Amber has some lined up. We'll be right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. We're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and

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photo with Santa through December twenty fourth. Say five dollars when you book by December the fourth. Book now at the Star and Frisco dot com slash Santa. Any chance this is going to be the year when we go and actually do our show picture with Santa? No, I have socially distanced the global Yeah, socially distance Santa picture. Yeah? I don't know, man, you just we're looking forward to being on his lap you just want to wait till

you can do that? Is that the idea? At the very least, wait until I don't have to wear a mask to do it? Yeah, I mean, okay, I don't know, all right, so we'll wait till next year. Welcome back to the final segment of the Break, presented by Geico. Is there gonna be Santa really gonna take pictures with a mask? That's gonna never mind? And yeah, it's gonna be as it's gonna be a socially distanced. I don't know how they're gonna do it. It's interesting. We'll see.

I'm amber. Let us know how it goes when you get over there. I don't know. We'll figure it out anyway. You guys are the ones with kids. Nick has babies, and well you, Derek, you have grown ups kids Now. I don't have babies. I don't have babies anymore. So we're not doing Santa anymore. We're done. We're done with that. We're through with that, all right, Anne. Let's get to some questions. What you got over there? Well, when we came back from break, I was trying to ask you

were we're going to talk about the defense. We haven't really talked about the defense. No, I had it on the rundown, but I decided that we're gonna go with questions because I promise we would go with questions. And we only have like six minutes left, and we're gonna talk about defense tomorrow when we talk about the Baltimore offense versus the Cowboys defense, I'll save those questions. I stand corrected, then, got it. I guess it's not always

offense defense special teams. On Derek's rundown, it was offense special teams defense. You're going defense when your defenses, when your defenses like the Cowboys right now, we'll spend a little less time on them. Well, okay, sorry to ruin your your little rundown um. Yesterday we talked about we talked about the online um, and I did receive some questions about how hard is it really gonna be for next year for the Cowboys to replace or you know better,

the old line. We know that Lahell and Tyrn Smith are coming back and all that, but as far as depth and other positions of needs, how hard is it gonna be for the Cowboys to solidify the position group once again. They need a swing tackle, they need a competent maybe not even experience. They need a competent, talented swing tackle, whether that preferably a draft pick, because as we've said, offensive tackles are expensive. Like you're not going to sign a guy who's that good for cheap. It

just doesn't happen. So I mean, I would I would say you need to spend a top one hundred draft pick on an offensive tackle, whether that's first, second, third round, whatever. But honestly, other than that, I'm not super worried about it. I don't like and I feel like I'm the offensive line apologist. But if we assume, and we got to keep an eye on it, we don't know that for sure. But if we assume Tyrn and Lyell can come back healthy, you've still got both of the Connors. You've still got

Tyler Battish. Maybe you resigned Joe Looney. I think his deal is up, but that's not a terribly expensive contract. And then you've got all these young guys, like I feel really good about Brandon Knight as like a fourth tackle slash guard, you know, Like, I think there's a lot of intriguing depth pieces already here. The problem is that they're having to start right now, but hopefully next year that won't be the case. Hey, real quick, I want to I want to ask this question and anyone

of you guys can jump in on it. Always certain that Brian I'm keep calling Brian Knight Brandon Knight. Always sure that Brandon Knight is not good enough to be a competent swing tackle. Remember, this is the first real action that he's getting consistently week after week, and quite frankly, I think he's had some bad games, but I also think there have been some games where he's been pretty

good relatively speaking. Are we sure that he's not, with more experience, that he's not the guy you're looking for to be your swing tackle. Well, I mean, you make a good point because by the time next year he's going to be a third year pro with you know, I don't know, seven or eight starts and probably starts on both sides of the ball. So yeah, he's got experience in both and he's shown the ability to go in there and be ready and which is what you

need for a swing tackle. But you know, that just seems kind of reckless to me, with knowing that Lyell and Tyrn's injury, it just seems to say, well, we got we got Brandon Knight. I mean, I think fourth tackle for him would be good. I think he should be the fourth tackle. I think they need to draft someone. You know, they need to try again and draft a Chaz Green. I know that that's not I mean that's what they did. They tried a third round from you know,

a big school. He's played tackle, he was a good college player. It didn't work, obviously, but they need to do something like that. A tackle who could maybe play guard right away, but could be a tackle for a while. Um, you know, just maybe one day replace one of these two tackles. All right, Okay, that's it. I completely I completely agree. I'll just say and I want to do another question. But Brandon Knight, I've been saying since June, Brandon Knight is who they want Terrence Steele to be.

I think he's had He's had some bad moments, but for the most part, I think he's been very capable, very solid. I don't think it would be it would be reckless to go into next year with him as your only option behind the starting two. But I feel very good about him being a piece here for sure. I think for the most part, he has been impressive for an undrafted guy. I'd be happy to keep him around just but you know, I think they need to do more though. That's exactly why I say Dave that

I would. I would. I think I might be okay with him being the swing tackle because I feel like there still would be a problem if you lose both tackles next year. But I feel like if you had Tyrn, or if you had Lyle and Brian and Brandon Knight had to be on the other side, I actually feel like he'd probably be okay. If the rest of your offensive line is intact, I feel like he'd probably be okay. And so that's where I'm like, and that's what you need from a swing tackle. You need him to be

cheap and you need him to be okay. And I think that's kind of what Brandon Knight is. And let's not forget what you swing tackle might be. Zack Martin. That might be your swing tackle from what he did this year. I mean, so it didn't It just comes back to your five best lineman. You know, do you have better backups at guard or or do you have him at tackle? And I'm not sure that Brandon Knight and again Derek. We could talk to his parents about changing his name, but it is Brandon. If we could,

we could. I think I'm going to call him, Okay, call him and see. But I think he could be a guard. I mean, he looks like like the body type for maybe a guard. But either way, I think he's a good young prospect. I just don't think you can give this offensive line the benefit of the doubt. Like if these were if these were freak occurrences, that would be one thing. But this is the fifth year in a row that Tyrant has dealt with injuries that

have forced him to miss multiple games. It's actually people forget about it, and it's not fair because they're not the same. But this is the second time Lyell has basically missed the whole season. He was on IR for the most the entirety of twenty sixteen with a toe ligament problem. So and again that's not his fault. I'm not dogging him or calling him injury prone, but you you just can't assume that these guys are gonna be okay. You gotta do more. In my opinion, no, and I

agree with that. I think the issue becomes you only got so much draft capital, and where does this fit in your in your list of priorities for this team when you get to the draft, where does a swing tackle fall in that? And I don't know that it falls high enough for you get somebody more capable than Brandon Knight. So we'll see. We'll have that conversation a little later. I think that's a conversation with having Well just just know this though, that one more thing. You know,

they've gotten their ass kicked twice against Washington. Okay, Washington's not a good football team. They're not They're four and seven, they're not good at all. But their defense is strong and it plays right into the weakness of the Cowboys this year. They better fix that because those guys aren't going anywhere. And that's two matchups every single year. So you can say, yeah, defense needs to be better, but that offensive line was a problem, and they're gonna go

up against Washington twice a year. You know, Philly's probably gonna have a better defensive line as well, and you know, we'll see about the Giants. So I think it's more of a priority than you think because they've lost two football games this year because of it. I think that's definitely a conversation worth having at a future time. All Right, we appreciate you guys, jon Us. We'll be back tomorrow. We're gonna get into the Baltimore offense versus the Cowboys defense.

To then for Nick Eatman, Dave Hellman, Amber Garcia. I am Derek Eigelton. 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.