Cowboys Break: Too Much Prep?

number seventy three. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break, presented by Geico Live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We got Dave and Nick at the Star. They are in the studio, myself and Amber. We're at our home studios, and we got forty five minutes of Cowboys Talk here for you guys. Today. We're gonna have Bucky Brooks joining us here in a moment. He's going to talk to us about the Baltimore offense versus the

Dallas defense. We'll have some questions for these guys about the Dallas Dallas defense versus the Baltimore offense, and maybe even hopefully get to a question or two there. Towards the end of the show. We're gonna turn over first though to Nick and Dave in studio. Mike McCarthy had his press conference this morning ten thirty. It's been a

little while since he's met with the media. What do you have to talk about today, Nick, Well, I mean he basically talked about just how unique this schedule is and how he uh, you know, he looks at it as he's got like the a positive vibe about it that you know, this is unique that they get the chance to to practice, like get a chance to evaluate the team they're playing in the middle of their of their installation in practice week. So you know, he's he's

not looking at it as a negative. He's he's got some you know, positivity vibes there. And and Dave, I know, he talked a little bit about injuries as well, but I mean it just sounded like he was kind of relieved and kind of get back on the field. Well, yeah, what I keep thinking about is you remember, like we used to make fun of Jason Garrett for being like it's Wednesday, it's Thursday, Like today's today's our Friday. Like I need that right now, like I need I need

a little bit of structure in my life. So I appreciate Mike McCarthy, I mean, it's been so weird. So they I mean, they play Thursday, and the expectation is you're going to go right back into a game week for a Thursday game. Obviously, that hasn't been the case. The game's been moved two or three times, and so they're coming off basically what was a half bye week, but now it's kind of a short week. And another big thing Mike McCarthy talked about is the memorial service

for Mark Marcus Paul is going to be tomorrow. It sounds like the team's gonna watch that virtually. You know, they can't all go to the church with COVID obviously, so they're gonna watch it virtually. And that's so it's kind of built into their game week where yeah, I mean this is some Monday, it's on it kind of it's like a Monday, but it's also a Wednesday, like they're going through an install. This is an install day where they kind of have their game plan for Baltimore.

They know what they want to do, but when practice is over, they're going to go watch the game together and just sort of get a feel for what Baltimore looks like. Right now, I guess maybe try to get a feel for how many of those guys are even going to be able to play, because I think the Ravens only have thirty eight players on their roster right now, and so then Tomorrow is sort of like they're going to do a little bit of work, but it's kind

of a day off to commemorate Marcus Paul. And then Friday you really get into the swing of like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, where you're really, you know, gearing up for the game. So all of I just said all of that and

just confused myself. Honestly, it's this is weird. Sorry, what's up? Hey, Hey, Dave and Nick, I'll ask you as a question, Aimber you can chime in this too, but like, how much do you think that they can really glean from that game that's going to happen this afternoon with Baltimore and Pittsburgh because of the fact that Dave, as you said, so many of their guys are out and so many of their big players players that will make a difference

it's in the game against the Cowboys. How much you think they can actually get from watching that game together? You know, I'm glad you asked me that, because I asked Mike McCarthy that, So I'm glad that we're on the same page, you know, I was, as usual, it's weird, Yeah, right, it's weird because I mean, by this point in the week, you've already put your plan together and that's you know, Mike, Mike said that. He was like, you know, we've we've

already done a lot of that. We know how we want to attack, we know what we want to do. But I think this game you can glean you know, what personnel do they have, who are they using, what do the snap counts look like, who's available? And then obviously you got to keep an eye on guys that

might become available. You know, I would guess Lamar Jackson's not going to play today, but he will very likely be available against against Dallas, which that's Nick's that's Nick one oh one, right, there's well, there's no other reasons. There's no other reason. They haven't come up with another reason. There's no reason why they've moved the game from when from Monday to Tuesday other than to get more players in there, maybe a raining MVP. I mean, because it

makes no sense. It hurts the Cowboys even more. And I didn't say this yesterday, but when I found out that the Ravens play on Monday night the following week, like that pissed me off, But it didn't piss anybody else off. I mean, Jerry wants to play on national TV. You're not subject to league discipline if you question it either. I mean, like Mike McCarthy or Jerry Jones could get a fat envelope from FedEx if they say something like that, I would just, you know, I would just ask the question.

I mean why, I mean, why, why why are we moving? Why are we moving a game? Why are you giving the Ravens six games six days between each of their games and the Cowboys get four and five? Why? I'm just is it because Lamar is he because he's on the cover of Madden? If so, just tell me it's an interesting thought, and it's certainly you know, I know

there's been a lot of arguments. You know, the Denver game didn't get called off because they felt that they had you know, they had contained that and it was really just the quarterbacks. Whereas this is an ongoing outbreak with Baltimore where I think for ten straight days they had at least one positive test and you can't play the game until you have your hands around it. But at the same like, it's hard, it's hard to parse out the real rhyme and reason to it. All you saw.

It was similar with Tennessee All you know back in October, the links that the league went to. I don't want to say to protect them, but to but more or less, Yeah, it's kind of how it feels. So yeah, I don't I don't really understand why this game couldn't be happening on Monday, other than if not for what you're saying, then maybe just to keep the TV schedule from being too crowded. But that seems focused to me. Yeah, that, and it may not even be TV schedule being crowded.

It may be a situation literally where you start talking to the networks and the networks are saying, hey, we don't have a spot for this, we can't put this on television Tuesday. We could put it on at this time and it would work, right. So those are the

put things that we don't know. But I agree with you Nick, overall, we just look at it from the surface, it seems a little curious that they would make the decision to move it to Tuesday versus Monday, because you know, it's a five day lead time for for Baltimore coming from a Wednesday game to a Monday game, and that's the exact number of days that the Cowboys are going to have going from a Tuesday to a Sunday. So

you would think it's it's possible. I just again, there may be some things under the surface that we just don't know about this. I don't have I'm not chiming in on this subject because I really don't have any input in the whole situation. There are many things that the league is doing that I don't understand. I know that Dave has been talking about the whole thing of why not make a week eighteen, and there's a lot

of questions around that whole aspect. But my best thinks are what I think about is I'm hoping that the NFL is just doing their best to for everyone, just mutually everyone and trying to figure this out. There are so many moving elements, so many different things that go into place that I wouldn't want to be in their positions. I mean, I'm sure this is a very tough decision.

There's a lot of money involved, and we know that money is what drives everything, and we just don't know as much as they do as far as having to handle so many different factors and elements, which I will say this too. I mean, oh, I'm sorry, Derek. I just maybe Mike McCarthy. Maybe McCarthy's really pissed off about this in private. I mean, all football coaches are always pissed off about everything that affects their team, so he

probably is. But I just my attitude and maybe maybe it's his too, is like in a situation like this, go all the way back to August, this is what you were worried about, playing a season in a pandemic like they made through training camp because you're not dealing

with other teams. And then the first few weeks is one thing, but like now we're into the depths of this where like flu season's part of it, the novelty is worn off, so you got a guard even harder against doing things the right way because you know some I mean, the Ravens are in this situation because somebody on their staff let their guard down. And so my attitude is just like, whatever we got to do to get these last four weeks of the season and let's let's just do it. I mean, I agree with you

guys for sure on that. All I'm saying is is that, yeah, if you know is John Harball, is he quiet about it? I mean, he voices his displeasure on everything, and and here here they are. It's almost seems like the NFL's kind of catering to it a little bit. So it's that whole squeaky wheel gets the grease a little bit. But you know, at some point, you know, just just ask the question. That's all I'm saying. It's just like

I would like to know the answer. But hey, if Jerry's not upset and McCarthy's not upset, I shouldn't be. But I'm just saying, I mean, it didn't it's fine TOI football great, I mean yeah. And the fact the fact is they may have already asked the question, right, They may have asked the question and gotten an answer and they're like, huh, I don't like it, but I see why you made the decision. And maybe that's why publicly they're not as upset about this as as as

we all seem to be. But you know, again, there are lots of moving parts, and I agree with you, Dave at this point, I think the NFL is trying to do whatever they can to cross the finish line

on this season. They in my opinion, have done a really great job from the standpoint that when you're dealing with thirty two teams that have upwards of sixty people, sixty players and then other people involved that are all having to be a part of this to be able to have to go through a season where they've had what maybe I think there's been a total of three or four games that have had to be rescheduled, and you look at college football where they're canceling games and

rescheduling games every week. It's I think an amazing job. Yeah, I think it's been an amazing job by the NFL and what they've been able to do, And really it speaks to the level of care that the players and the staffs have have had to take in trying to do the right things and try to mitigate their exposure. You know, I've never run a marathon before at all,

or even close to that, Derek. I know you've run some or half marathon, but I can imagine it if you're you know, twenty six point two, twenty six point two the whole, and you gets about nineteen or twenty and someone tells you, hey, by the way, we're just moving it up to twenty seven. You have to run twenty seven miles, Like that's kind of what it feels like here, like week eighteen Like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, seventeen weeks only. Great, that's a really great analogy about it.

That way. I'm bad about thirty percent on my analogies. Some are really bad, some are okay. Put you in the Hall of Fame if you're a baseball player. Anyway, So I'm guessing there will be some fights. If someone in a marathon decided they were going to add an extra mile to that, even just an ole a mile, it'd probably be a couple of fights. I might break out with people a little bit unhappy with that. Let me know, okay, because I won't be in that conversation.

Let me know if that ever happens. Other than, hey, Michael, party have anything to say about juries? Now that's I was just gonna say, not really. I mean, we know we know Cam Irving and Zach Martin aren't going to be available. I don't I don't get the impression that either one of them is going to I R. I think, you know, Mike said maybe a couple of weeks for

Zach and maybe more quickly than Cam for Cam. So I'm thinking, you know, San Francisco or Philly for Zach maybe and maybe maybe um Cincinnati or San Francisco for Cam. That's just a guess, but it doesn't sound like either one of them's going I R. Here's the interesting thing. It's three weeks. It's three games, right, so if you put them on IR, it goes all the way. The game didn't even start until Baltimore, so like, yeah, that's

the first game, right, so sore. I mean, at this point in the year, you're kind of shutting them down if you do that, which maybe they should, and I they're gonna make those decisions based on what happens, like if they lose to Baltimore. I mean, let's say Zach can come back against San Francisco. If they lose to Baltimore and Cincinnati, yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's worth it at that point, but we'll see when

we get there. I guess. Yeah. I think what will be more important is what's happening with those other NFC East teams if they're also losing, then maybe they look at it and they're like, huh, we're still in this right. So that's the craziness of this season for the NFC East is no matter who's winning around the league, the NFC East tends to not win, which keeps all the teams in the middle of the hunt to win the division. We're gonna take our first break a little early. Go ahead, Dave.

I'm loving how the delay versus the non delay. It's really nice being in the studio. You're not wrong. I was just I was just gonna joke that, you know, a month or a month or six weeks ago, we were like, no, seven, seven or eight wins might do it, and then now it's like five or six wins might do it. Like three weeks from now, it's like, shoot, whoever can get that fourth one? Well, a couple of them already do. But I mean, I'm just bracing myself

for a five and eleven playoff team. That would be insane. I got five on it better. Yet, all the sudden, Jason's all the sudden Jason's eight and eight doesn't sound too bad. Oh, my god, I didn't have a parade. If hit eight and eight, like, I mean, that's a five game winning streak. Let's go. It's if this sale goes to eight and eight and a baby, oh man, love it. You never know. We're gonna take our first break when we come back. We got Bucky Brooks lined up.

He's gonna talk to us about the Baltimore offense versus this Dallas defense with that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why SLOR pioneers ways to make lenses as unique as you. Very lux but super sharp vision, Essential blue for protection, I'm Krisol for freedom from glare. Three cutting edge solutions in a single

unique lens. So whatever your needs, insist on selor visit your local SLOR experts and find a perfect lens for you. More do mores Lore. Since eighteen sixty five, Stetson hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and Team pride two you can by purchasing your own Stetson. You can look just like how the flag guys do on field at every home game. Stetson Hats the official crown of all self

respecting Cowboys and your favorite football team. Get yours today at shop dot Dallas Cowboys dot com or at Stetson dot com. I'm Jay Novachek, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day. I was the guy who always got the tough yards, and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Deer three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yardwork I need to do, even the tough

yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand, John Deer has the equipment that's just right for you. Visit a John Deer dealer today and run with us. We are the official tractor provider of your Dallas Cowboys. Here it's nineteen oh eight. Don't you think we should get electricity and stop using candles to see it night? It's just electricity lights up the room fast. It's more reliable than candles blowing out, and people seem to love it nationwide. Candles dare did you just run

into the wall? I have a new candle please. Historically, switching to new technology is a no brainer. Today it's AT and T five G, fast, reliable, secure, and nationwide. Switch to AT and T five G. It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plant may not be in your area. See att dot com slash five G for you for details. Back to the break, The Doctor Pepper Big Twelve Championship returns to AT and T Stadium on Saturday, December nineteenth, when the top two football teams in the Big Twelve

Conference faceoff. Tickets are on sale now at SeatGeek dot com gets yours before they sell out. Derek, why do you seem so sad when I read that reading talking about Big twelve football? Man? And I just hey, but I will say this though the VIC twelve, I mean the Longhorn basketball team, keep an eye on him. Stop, keep an eye on him. We might we might restore some Don't tell me to stop. That's the only good thing I've had come out of my college program in

a long time. Maybe y'all Campbell, after the season's over, herban my year. Now lord, all right, let's go on. We gotta have Bucky Brooks joining us. We got Bucky Brooks joining us from NFL Network, Bucky, let's talk a little Baltimore offense versus Dallas defense. We're gonna start with the guy that makes it all work, Lamar Jackson. He was reigning MVP of the league last year, as we all know, but he seems to be a little less potent in twenty twenty than he was in two thousand nineteen.

His quarterback rating then was one hundred and thirteen point three, this year's ninety three point four. Um, what do you think has been the biggest difference between Lamar Jackson last year and Lamar Jackson this year? There are a couple of different things that are impacting Lamar Jackson. He's been a little off his game after playing at the MVP level.

He certainly has and continue to play that way. But I would say it's a combination of the offensive line struggles similar to the Dallas Cowboys, They've had a lot of moving pieces and moving parts on the offensive line that has impacted the way that they've been able to run the football. And then it's play called Greg Roman. Greg Roman has kind of changed a little bit of

what they do offensively. They've gone away from some of the run heavy sets they really created a ton of problems a season ago, and they tried to spread it out and open it up and put more athletes on the field. And what that has done is that has allowed the defense to have a more athletic defense, a faster defense than they've done, a better job of containing them. And then finally, when you look at the way they run their passing game, Lamar Jackson is a guy that

doesn't throw the ball really well outside the numbers. For whatever reason, they continue to try and throw the ball outside the numbers and do some things that don't really play to these strimps as a playmaker. Bucky. Intoday's press conference, McCarthy said something that made me scratch my head. He said something like, you don't want to over prepare for games, and given the current circumstances, I mean, is there such thing as that can you really over prepare for this game? Yeah?

I think what you try to guard against is when you have a lot of time leading up into a game, you don't want to kind of give your players too much information because then what happens is a little paralysis by analysis. And so typically what you want to do is you want to keep things as close to your normal schedule as possible, and so the first couple of days may have been let's just have regular practice, let's just work on footwork and fundamentals and technique, and will

slowly implement a game plan. Also, because the Ravens are playing today, you don't know who's going to be available, so you don't want to put a lot of energy and effort until you kind of figure out, Okay, who are they going to have available, what will it look like? Because they really won't get a lot out of this game. RG three is not going to play, and so the

way they play Pittsburgh, you just don't know. So you just want to kind of wait and see and see what it looks like coming out of this game and then put together a game plan after that. That's why he doesn't want to over prepared, because you don't want to waste a lot of time defending things that you won't ultimately see on game day. That I was like, Dave, go hey, Bucky tight Ends that you know, we've seen

Kelsey Kittle there. Like two of the best is Mark Andrews, and he's on the list too, but I mean he's gonna play. I'm sure so Mark Andrews. Where does he rank on your tight end lists? He's not one of those guys. I think he's the benefitiary if you're playing in the system that really creates opportunities for the quarter for the tight end to get open on play action. Lamar Jackson is also very comfortable throwing down the middle of the field, and so the play action passing in

today utilize. Mark Andrews is the star. He's also a bigger target, and so they have him. But if we were to stack him up, if we were playing in the backyard and you told me of all the tight ends to pick, he certainly wouldn't be one of those guys because he's not necessarily special in any area. Um. He is a solid tight end, but he doesn't have dynamic or a level playmaking skills in a ton of different ways where you put him up there with Kelsey

and Kittle and some of the other ones. Will he be a problem though for this for this defense though, because I mean we've seen you've seen those linebackers trying to cover. That's really what I'm asking is this defense. Oh yeah, now they we're talking about playing against the Cowboys. That is to be sorry, I'll just get to the point. It could be it could be a problem if Jalen is forced to check him and they're unable to deal with the running game. Yes, it can be problematic. I

think the big thing has been the deception. And I will say this after they get their hands on the Washington tape and all the blur motion and the misdirection and deception that the Washington football team was able to do. That really created some problems in terms of making the linebackers pause and who do I have and where do we line up? You will see a lot of that because Baltimore kind of introduced a lot of that into the league, this unique offense that they were running with

Lamar Jackson. So now with Mark Andrews being able to get down the field and get to the seam, yes, it could be problematic because if the discipline isn't there, with the eye discipline from the linebackers, they could be big problems down the field the passing game for Mark Andrews and others. How are they coping without Ronnie Stanley because I mean, you know, one of the top two or three tackle duos in the league. I mean are they are they handling it or or what's the biggest difference.

You know, without him in the lineup, they're struggling. They're struggling up front. The reason why the Ravens haven't been the juggernaut offensively that we saw a year ago is because the offensive line is completely different. When you remove Ronnie Stanley, you move Orlando Brown over the left tackle,

and he's simply not the same player. And then the bigger problem is not Brown playing, is you move DJ Flucker out the right tackle and he just does not have defeat and so that offense is not being able to move. The last four games, they've been outrushed by their opponent. That's something that we never would think about

with the Baltimore Ravens. So it's a huge problem. It's a huge issue, and it's one of those things that the Cowboys maybe may be able to exploit because they're really not good up front right now and that's been their biggest issue looking at that and this could be an offshoot of that question a bit. But teams have sacked Lamar Jackson more frequently this year than last five point four percentage of the time sacked when he's attempted to pass in twenty nineteen verses eight percent of the

time in twenty twenty. Is the reason all about the offensive line? Is it because Lamar is doing something differently, maybe staying in the pocket more. What's the rationalie to why maybe he's being sacked more frequently this year? A few different factors. The offensive line isn't as good, but also what teams are doing. They're playing more zone coverage

against Lamar Jackson. What you're seeing is when you play his own coverage, particularly against athletic quarterbacks, for guys that are mobile, you have more eyes on him, so when he escapes the pocket, you can run them down quickly. When you're a man to man, you make it very very easy for them to see it and attack it. They go run. They also have easier reads for Lamar Jackson. The reason why you want to play his zone coverage

and those things. It makes him have to try and throw with timing and anticipation, which aren't the strong suits to his game. And if he doesn't like what he sees, he pauses, he hesitates, He then looks to run, and that gives the pass rush more time to get to him. So there are a bunch of different factors that are kind of contributing to the fact that he has been sacked Moore this year. You talked about some of the challenges, but what would be some of the most favorable matchup

that would benefit the Cowboys. Would that come from the d line versus the oline that you just talked about. Yeah, it has to be upfronts. It has to be the defensive line being able to really control it. And for the rest of the games, it's gonna be about the front seven. And so how are they able to handle the things up front? The Marcus Lawrence and Alden Smith and those guys Randy Gregg. Can they set the edge

and not allow the running game to get outside? But really the most important part of it is the second level, Lady Vander asked Jalon Smith. Those guys have to be able to get into their gaps. When they're wrong, big plays happened. We saw it against the Washington football team. We saw the big runs from Antonio Gibson and those things. When those guys are not right in terms of where

they're supposed to insert into the defense, it's problematic. And man, you put bad stuff on tape because as good as it been going into the Washington football team game in terms of the way they played run defense. It was all bad. You now put it on tape. Everyone's gonna look at what Scott Turner did in terms of the shifting, the motioning, the misdirection, and they're gonna get a heavy

dose of that until they can answer those problems. You're gonna continue to see it from everybody going down the stretch. Bucky Donovan Wilson. We see the hits, we see the big the big plays, the force fumbles. What what is he doing on the back end? How would you evaluate him as a cover guy? And really, what I'm asking is, do you think that he's somebody that Cowboys can be excited about moving forward as as a starting safety. I

think they should be excited about him. I think the one thing that he has given him is he's given them maybe some jews, some thump and enforcer between the hashes. He plays hard, He's a pretty solid tackler, and he has made plays. And for defense that hasn't had a lot of splash plays, he has been around a ton of them, and I think there's something that you certainly can build upon. Wh when I look at him in coverage,

there's gonna be some live builds. There canna be some things where like safeties are just not It's hard to find a safety that can cover and hit and do everything. Those guys are your elite players. I wouldn't put him in that category, but he's a really good and I think they should be excited about him. I'm more concerned

about the guy that's playing beside him, Xavier Woods. I think they have to find an upgrade at that in If they could find a better safety to go with Donovan Wilson, I think I would feel a little better about the secondary. Sounds like a topic for the Draft show, which Bucky, we can announce that you will be joining me on. So that's great. Speaking of which, you know the Ravens, I mean and rightfully so, Like the Ravens get so much credit for being a great drafting team,

but I am curious. They've thrown a lot of resources at receiver in the last couple of years, and maybe I'm wrong, it doesn't seem like it's working terribly well. You know, Hollywood Brown out of Oklahoma, they drafted boy Can out of Notre Dame, and they doubled up this year too, with Devin Duvernet. And James Prochet, but they still had to go get Dez Bryant. You know, what's the deal with these receivers. I mean, it doesn't seem like despite their efforts, they haven't found a reliable weapons

on the outside. They just don't draft wide receivers really well, like for whatever reason, going all the way back, and I love Ozzy Knewsom, He's a pro. I mean he's a Hall of Famer. I mean he's one of the best to ever do it. They just have always had a truugh a tough time with wide receivers, going all the way back to Travis Taylor and some of the other guys, Brochard, Perriman. I mean, they just cannot seem

to find the guy that works for them. They're better dealing with other teams leftovers that they've already seen and they can plug and play. I would say the challenge that they have now with Hollywood Brown and Dermine and person like, they have smaller guys, and when you have a quarterback that's not necessarily an accurate guy, you need to expand the strike zone, and you expand the strike zone with bigger guys. That's why Dez Brian is there. Daz can't run like he could run in his prime,

but he's a big body. He's a bigger target, and so when Lamar Jackson is looking to find somebody over the middle of the field, he can identify him and find him and get it to him. And so that's the thing. They just haven't lean into who they are. And you have a bit of that rug where you have the front office and maybe the coach said, hey, we need to spread it out. We spread it out,

we can play this way. But this team is built to play a certain way and they haven't necessarily put all the pieces around Lamar Jackson that work for how he plays the position. Hey, Bucky, before we let you go, I did have a little bit of a bigger picture question about the Ravens. They most of their losses this year as have been against teams that are really good Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Tennessee. However, they did have that loss to the Patriots, and the Patriots, in my opinion this year,

are a little closer to the Cowboys. So tell me what were the Patriots able to do in that game to get the win that maybe the Cowboys could possibly look at doing this week or next week to win against the Ravens. Rain well, it would be something. It would be something that we have advocated on this show multiple times, but I don't know if the Cowboys are doing. The Patriots ran the football and they played a keepaway.

They slowed the game down. They muddied it because they ran the ball and ran the ball and ran the ball. It also helped that they had a rainstorm that helped them kind of control it, but that's what it is. Then defensively, they just did a good job of throwing a net around Lamar Jackson. Some of that is playing man coverage, some of that is playing zone, but that's

what they did. But they played complimentary ball. They really leaned on the running game to really allow them to keep the ball, retained possession, and it put pressure on the Ravens to deviate from the style of play that they wanted to. That's really what it is, and so

they can be had. But the problem that you have to do is you got to play a certain way on each aspect and when the defense plays well, the Cowboys have a tendency to, hey, let's throw it all over the yard or let's do a fake punt when it doesn't make sense to do a fake punt. I mean all of those things, like things that you just don't see and I can't really understand what I'm watching

sometimes and it's frustrating. So if they played complimentary ball, they certainly can win, but they have had a tough time doing that to this point. All right, Bucky Man, we appreciate you taking some time with us today. We're gonna have you back tomorrow. We'll talk a little bit about the Baltimore defense versus the Cowboys offense. We're gonna take our final break and come back. We got some questions for these guys, particular to the Baltimore offense versus

the Cowboys defense that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. We're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and Cream Soda. Let's take a listen Doctor Pepper and Cream sodas he a new combone. Let's music to my ears. Okay, doctor time, music to my ears and mouth. New Doctor Pepper and Cream Soda a delicious do. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why slur Pioneers ways to make lenses as unique as you.

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Don't you think we should get electricity and stop using candles to see it? Money? It's just electricity lights up the room fast, It's more reliable than candles blowing out, and people seem to love it nationwide. Sy Dare, did you just run into the wall? I have a new congo. Please. Historically switching to new technology is a no brainer today. It's AT and T five G, fast, reliable, secure, and nationwide. Switch to a T and T five G. It's not complicated.

Five G requires compatible plan may not be in your area. See ATT dot com slash five G for you for details. Back to the break all right now available with the Dallas Cowboys app. Under the Stadium tab, you can find the pose with the Pros on the Go presented by AT and T five G. It brings the in stadium experience to the palm of your hand. You can snap a photo with your favorite Cowboys player anywhere, at any time. Dave, who would be the guy you would snap a photo with? Uh?

Is Dak still on there? Yes? He's on the team? Well but is okay? Yeah? I don't know, I would imagine. I would imagine, yes, probably Dak or yeah he's on there's CD. Yeah, I mean, I hope they don't update it that much where it's like, sorry, guys, it's just the new G this week. That'd be pretty good if you could do the photo and Dak is like on his little scooter or something. I don't know, maybe you never know. That actually would be pretty cool. Yeah, Hey,

real quick. Dave mentioned it a little earlier in passing, but we didn't make an announcement yesterday about the Draft Show. It's starting up this Friday. We will not have our normal podcast schedule this Friday because of the game on Tuesday. So what we're gonna do is on Friday, we're gonna do an hour and a half of Draft talk, and

we have a whole new lineup. We've got brought us, We've got Brugloo, We've got Brooks, We've got Hellman, we've got Kavanaugh, Katie, and we got Kyle trying to corral all those guys. So it's gonna be a really, really good time. I'm at very, very excited about what we're gonna do this year with the Draft Show. So makes you tune in this Friday eleven am. It'll be an hour and a half show and they'll start talking you guys through some topics around the draft and getting you

guys ready. There's a lot of college football left to play, and so they'll tell you some of the guys you might want to keep an eye on down the stretch and into the bowl games. So Ambertan that question you said about McCarthy, over preparing for games. Maybe doesn't sound like you can over prepare for the draft. You can't. There's no such thing. Can't get ahead of it. You cannot. You absolutely cannot last time, And based upon my timeline on Twitter, I don't think that fans think that either.

I think they're very, very excited. They're ready for it, especially this year. The last time the Cowboys were this bad, Brian started watching tape the day after Thanksgiving. So we're right, We're right where we need to be. This will be fun. It'll be a lot of fun, all right. So let's I got some questions for you guys, particular to the Cowboys defense and some about the Ravens offense. Let's start

first with the rushing defense. Baltimore second and rushing in the NFL, averaging one hundred and sixty one yards per game. Dallas allowed Antonio Gibson in the last game twenty rushes for one hundred and fifteen yards of five point eight average and three touchdowns. That was coming off a game where he it lit him up the last time they played as well. What do you guys, what did you guys see as the biggest problem last game with the

run defense? After what they had been doing where it seemed like maybe they were starting to turn to corner and being able to defend runners. Let's start first with you, Dave. The coaching staff faked a punt in their own red zone and put them behind the eight ball, and they were like, screw this. That's what I think happened because they didn't look that bad for the first three and a half quarters of that game. I mean, look, this, this is a flawed defense. They're not They're never gonna

be great. We know you are what you are by December. But they were, they were doing their thing. They were you know, Washington had twenty points and hadn't driven the field for like, Nick, you were the one that said there, maybe it was you, Derek, Like they had not driven the field since the first quarter, and then the fake punt happens and Antonio Gibson goes untouched the very next play, and then you know, just to hammer at home five

minutes later, he went untouched from even further away. So maybe I'm wrong, but that screams like just mental to me, where you're just like like, what are we supposed to do? Why? Like, what the hell's going on? That's that's what I think happened. I guess I can't prove that I'm right, but I mean that's my theory. Well, he had one hundred and fifteen yards in the game, and he had sixty of it on those two runs in the fourth quarter right after that. So yeah, I mean going into the fourth quarter,

it was about fifty yards rushing. Um, I think, Derek, I think what the biggest problem was was the what they were doing with the backs was getting them out of the backfield. I mean that that was you could tell early in the game that that mckissic and Gibson were going to catch those passes, you know, in the flat. They weren't really trying to throw it down the field too much. And so you know, that's that's the part that I think really kind of messed up the defense,

the linebackers and all that. But but I agree, I just think the bottom dropped out and they just it was over at that point. I mean, they just deflated this team, de moralize them. It was I don't know, it just it was just like the hot air balloon and that fake pond was just like the needle right at the tops, like it's over, which I feel like that's oh sorry, go ahead, a g go ahead, Dave, Okay, I just it's it's been a season long trend that

these things happen in the fourth quarters of games. You know, um Kenyan Drake had his seventy yard er, I mean that game was out of reach. Fourth quarter, Odell Beckham's reverse went fifty yards for a touchdown. That game wasn't even out of reach. But for whatever reason, they have these lapses late in games. Maybe it's a mental thing,

maybe they're exhausted. I don't know, but that, I mean, that's a very real trend that when the game goes on they have a pension for giving up these backbreakers. Their longest runs are probably in the fourth quarter. I would bet my life absolutely. What do you think, aber I was gonna say that if you go back and watch some of those plays. The thing that I noticed from watching back it's that there is a lot of

confusion within the defense. There is and credit to Washington's offense that I thought they did a really nice job, but our defense they lack anticipation. And because of that, because of that lack of anticipation and vision and predicting what's going to happen and keeping an eye on who has the ball, it makes you be a step behind. And if you go back and watch that, the Cowboys always seem to be a few steps behind the Washington offense.

So it just creates a slower game and therefore you can't really catch up to the running back or whoever has the ball at the time. So to me, they just need to get better at anticipating where the ball is going to go and who has the ball so that there's no so that there is not as much confusion during those kinds of place. Let's talk about Dez Bryan a little bit. He was elevated to Baltimore's active roster last week. He's played in a couple of games.

Now for them, what type of challenges as he presented this stage of his career. Let's start first with you Amber. Well, I'm gonna send this question to someone else because I'll be honest, I have not been really watching what this Brian has been doing. It is when I said, I'll say this, I am very impressed at the fact that he is where he's at now. I mean, if you if you follow him on Twitter, you know how persistent he has been in trying to get back on the

field and back on an NFL team. So it's very impressive that he's gotten to this point where he's actually on the active roster now and based on what and we know, we've seen this Brian, we know what he can do, but he is several years have gone by, so I do think that the last time I watched some of his some of the things that he was doing,

it wasn't necessarily anything that impressed me. It wasn't the death Brian that we've been used to share, you know, cheering for and being excited about when he was here with the Cowboys. So he is gonna be a threat because he is a skilled player, and I'm hesitant to say that he's not gonna be a problem because the thing is, we cannot trust Dallas defense, and that's really the problem there is I cannot rely on what our secondary can do. So therefore any wide receiver can really

be a threat to your defense. But it's gonna be really fun to just watch this whole matchup and see him again, and this time playing against the Cowboys. Nick, you know, watching some of those videos on Twitter. I stopped pretty early in the process there, but I've seen some of it, and here like, who who are you going up against? I mean some of these guys, He's like he was bringing in some of his Twitter followers to come in and go up against. That sounds funny.

But if if Richard Robinson and Savian Smith weren't on the Cowboys, would they be on the street, I mean would they would they be on another team? I mean they probably wouldn't be. So he's gonna I mean, I think she makes a good point. I mean, who's he gonna be facing. He doesn't run routes and you know, well right now, I mean never was a strong part of his game. I saw some of the Tennessee game

to the days he just kind of runs around. So if a play breaks down and it's just him and Jordan Lewis in the back of the end zone, yeah, I worry about that. I don't think he's necessarily gonna just outrun people and and out maneuver them. But if it's just a fifty fifty ball against some of these corners, yeah he could. If the ball's thrown right, yeah, I mean I would imagine he's he's I would guess he's a he's a possession guy now, and I mean we

don't really know for sure. He's got four catches for twenty eight yards since he came back. Also, you know, it won't be Lamar today that I just love the circumstances of the It's gonna be Dez and Robert Griffin, who are I mean, two of the best players to come out of Texas in recent memory. And they're not those guys anymore clearly so, but I'll be interested to see, you know, can RG three get him the ball? Can Dez do something with it? If he does? I have

no idea. Washington hadn't beaten the Cowboys since on Thanksgivings Forever twenty twelve, and in the two players in that game that were starring were Dez and which actually I got in an argument on Twitter the other night because I was talking about DK Metcalf reminding me of Dez. People were like, oh, he's way more athletic than Daz.

Was like, go watch Dez a decade ago. Like, I feel like people forget because he scored a touchdown from about eighty five yards out in that Thanksgiving game where he was moving, I mean, he torched the whole defense on a and it was like an eight yard reception that he took to the house. So so Derek, sorry,

I know this isn't in your plan. But on the in the mail bag this morning, we talked about ranking the speed of the eighty eights, and I had a hard time because I don't really know about Michael Irvin's speak compared to Drew Pearson. But I and I haven't even seen ceedee lamb make it big long play. But I just got him number one. I went seed des Irvin Pearson, Sorry Drew, but Drew even makes fun of his own speed, So I don't know I speed, I've

never seen. I've only ever seen Drew Pearson highlights. Obviously I was getting by people. Yeah, well it was nineteen seventy fight. That's why I would say. That's why I would probably put Mike Glass. You put Pierson, Yeah, I and yeah, obviously I'm biased based on what I have a scene I've I've covered two of them, and I've only ever watched the other two on on highlights. Yeah, I remember a very small amount of Mike's career from

when I was a kid. I'm take I'll take the prime des over all of them, Like twenty ten, twenty eleven, twenty twelve, Brian London, London de London des is better than Odell. You're not You're not catching twenty two year old DEAs. I mean he was. He was explosive. I feel like the R two like speed that That was the fastest I've ever seen him. That took my breath

away too. It was that game was remarkable. It was a ten yard crossing route and man, you would have thought somebody could get an angle on him and it was next thing you know, he's in the end like a Sonic the Hedgehog, just like little yeah, I'll yeah, I'll take a prime which but I mean, but that's not Desert like you know, their sonic And he's running and he does that little you know where you like a little ball and you're like, well, yeah, I got it, I got I had a Sega, I would I'm gonna guess.

I'm gonna guess. Dez Is. They're basically like Dez We're gonna run. You know, it's either a fade or a go or a go. Maybe a hitch. Yeah, Like he can run eight yards, box out Jordan Lewis and go up for the ball still I don't know if he's gonna take over the game, but he can definitely do that. He's gonna try. He's gonna be at Lamarck since that's the other thing too. Man, you know, he wants he no doubt he wants that bad. I mean he'll he'll probably.

He always says winning is what he cares about. So like, if he catches two balls for twelve yards and they win, he'll probably be happy. But he'll be way happier if he's got, you know, a lot to do with with why they went. I hope Sean I hope he's over the middle for Sean Lee. You know, let's not forget he called, you know, Snake Lee. That's that. It seems like even that feels like ancient history. Yeah, it's gonna

be fun. Yeah, But that's also why I think that's also why I think he'll be a threat in the red zone is because that's something I think he does still possess in him and uh and that's an area where he can make a different Yeah, that's a different place where he can make Okay, that place where he can make a difference, uh and and score some points for them, And it's good for him. It's good for them. I think that's an area that you could possibly see

this or next Tuesday. All Right, we appreciate you guys joining us. It sucks. Yeah yeah, sorry, yeah yeah, come on, mask up. Let's get back in here as a group, as a team. Dude. I'll be back. I'll be back on Monday. I'll be back on Monday. I just have to do this this week. I'll be back Monday, Monday, all right, so until tomorrow. We will be back on tomorrow. We'll talk a little bit about the ball to more defense versus the Cowboys offense. That's a really good defense

over there, but we'll talk about that tomorrow. Till then. For Nick Eatman, Dave Helm and Amber Garcia, I'm Derek Eagelton. 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.