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It's time for The Break on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Were with Mbar Garcia, Brian brought us Nick Harris and Derek Eagleton.
This Tuesday, November nineteenth, twenty twenty four, Season twenty, episode number seventy.
Welcome to the latest edition of The Break Live from.
SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, presented by LG. LG's the world's number one o leed TV brand for eleven years in counting. See why at LG dot com, Fort Slash o leed Evo. All Right, today we talked about Cowboys lost lose thirty four to ten at home against Houston Texans.
Another game where in the first.
Half you thought, well, maybe there's a chance, and then in the third quarter hits and lots of things happen. We'll talk about a lot of those things. I think we'll at some point in the show. We're certainly going to get to some of the coaching decisions that were made yesterday and just talk about that and see what you guys thoughts are there. Let's start where we always start, story of the game. For you guys, what was the story?
Game?
Will start with you, Nick oh Man, It's still complimentary football.
For me.
This offense is not helping the defense out at all. The defense bends and then the offense breaks, and it's handicapping this team. It's starting to make me appreciate Dak Prescott winning three games a little bit more just because without him, I mean, you're seeing lack of efficiency throughout.
The entire offense.
And on a day where Rico Daubdle regresses to two point eight yards per carry and the attempts go down and you have to lean on Cooper rush, you have to lean on the passing game, you don't find any consistency. And for me, the lack of consistency in the pass game was pushing the ball downfield. We saw him do it a couple of times in the second half whenever they started pressing. But overall, this offense is nowhere close to being an efficient offense.
Yeah.
I don't know whether to blame Mike McCarthy or say he's a genius all the same thought. Because we talked about the running game a lot, I'm gonna blame him for the fact that he's asking guys to do things they can't do. You're asking Ceedee Lamb on the first play of the game to block inside on a linebacker. Ceedee Lamb wants nothing to do with that. He wants nothing to do. You're asking a thirty five million dollar your best player on offense to go wham block a linebacker,
gain to two. It happens more often than not with this scheme, and I wonder, Mike McCarthy, I'm blaming you for that, But I'm also blaming you for like, man, I.
Can't run these plays anymore. I can't run the ball anymore.
Because a lot of my stuff is set up with Now you have some guys that are willing to block.
You have some receivers. By the way, Mingo, I would put him at tackle.
He is your best blocking receiver.
My man will crack people.
He didn't put him at tackle. Let's go.
He will crack people. He will block down, he will block on the edge. That is a mean man. That is a mean man playing football. And there were a couple of times or routes where he was actually opened and the ball didn't go his direction to the knicks point the offense. You watch it, there's no real rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes I can understand why Mike McCarthy doesn't want to run the.
Ball, but I think it's his own fault. I think he's asked.
It's hard to run the ball when you leave people unblocked, when you just say, hey, magically, that guy's not going to be there when we run this play, and then all of a sudden, magically the linebacker shows up in the whole gain of zero, gain of two, gain of one. Because you don't block everybody on the play. Yeah, you got to make some people miss and stuff, but you just can't let people. Now they time a safety blitz. It's a negative play. Okay, that's just chest right there.
Chess match boom. They brought up blitz, you know.
But like I say, Mike.
McCarthy, we complain about your running game, and you say, well, you know, we get behind.
We can't. I want to do it more.
They need to figure out they kind of got They got to figure out how to block everybody. And like I said, that first play of the game. It just was so evident to me why they don't run the ball. And it happened throughout this game when guys don't get picked up and you're asking your best offensive weapon to go in there and crack on a linebacker and you could see he clearly is like.
I'm going and I'm not gonna go.
And then that linebacker steps up and and Rico Duell gets hit for a two yard game where the rest of the play is blocked beautifully, beautifully get.
That one block. You got it?
Maybe an eight nine yard game happens a lot. It happens a lot, and I understand why they don't run the ball because they're asking their guys to do things that they can't do, and they can't go back to it because they see it one time and they're like, man, that didn't work the first time.
I can't go back to that. And that's part of the game plan.
I want to say.
Last week, there was a situation where I want to say it was Tolbert, but one of the receivers they put in motion and he's like lead blocking and it's like that's not gonna work. No, you put a receiver one of these receivers, particularly a situation where they're having to lead block through a hole in the middle of the offense. Like there's just like that just doesn't you're sko for success?
No, no, and there there does? You know?
Ceedee Lamb is a tough guy, but you're asking him to go dig out a linebacker. Yeah, And I've seen scoon maker, hunter Lipke. I've seen guys that should be able to go do that, not get that job done, and you're asking him to go in there, you know, with a bad back and all that and code block on a guy. Okay, you get what you you get what you set up. And I think we're in a mode right now with this offense. They're asking some of these guys to do things. I'll tell you another thing.
Where was where was Turpin in this game? It's a couple of opportunities. The big play they really watched the game, They didn't really cover him very well. His speed was bought. Was troubling to those guys.
I saw stat yesterday.
Obviously that big touchdown sixty four yards, Well, yeah, that that was certain.
That was the big thing fast since twenty two, I want to say twenty twenty.
Yeah, but it was obviously it was a slant. Do you want to guess how many slants Cavante Turpin has run this year? That was his second slant run all year for the fastest guy on your team.
Yeah, two slants.
Caught him, caught him in, caught him in perfect coverage.
They if you watch the play, they're a cover too, and they rotate it to go single high. So they at the snap they dropped this. They dropped the right safety down and the other safety comes to the middle and he runs away from the safety. So here's the safety coming down. Give Mic and them credit for this, or Cooper Rush or somebody. Turpin, the you know, safety comes down, he runs to where the safety was, Ball's there, and now it's a touchdown.
Yeah, he just you're not gonna catch him when he's even with you.
No, he destroyed Jeff Akuta off the line too.
And yes, but you know he's he's he gets you know, he's gets just that many targets and you're throwing the you know, span Ford's got more targets.
You know, guys like that and and and nothing to get spanned Ford.
But I'm just saying, go ahead, tell us how you really feel.
Heyd Let me tell you what real quick, if I could just real quick, gayg you know, then I think that the interception, and this is maybe a reckless speculation on my part, that that uh you're tied in Ferguson came out after the interception. He might have run the wrong route concussed on the interception. I think he took his man into where they were throwing the slant because of where the collision where uh where uh lamb wran it was rented and and his and you see you see Ferguson running out.
I don't know if you think he defend after on the sidelines, you.
See Linda Wells is like, you know, trying to explain something, and then we didn't see him the rest of the game.
So I don't know.
I mean that might be better actually got it.
Yeah, you don't know.
I mean he might have got it, but then he was but he didn't play after that and was maybe he was disoriented.
I don't know.
I'm that's probably reckless to my part, but it looked like to me, the way the route designed the combination, that they got something wrong there which allowed which got lamp picked.
Off by the flat route. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, it's something that probably need to dig into a little bit.
Yeah, I just feel like you don't know your players, Like I like, you don't really know.
Who your players are. And I hate it's weird.
I hate saying this because who the heck am I to be saying this when they're the ones out there with the players every single day. But watching the game sometimes and like you just questioned some of the positions that they put their own players in and you're like, wait, that doesn't make sense or why'd you do that?
Or why didn't you do that? So it's just confusing.
And with the play calling, and we've talked about it all along, but again it's a combination of play calling and bad execution. It comes to the players too, where they just can't I mean some of those throws that Cooper Rush was throwing, You're like, what the heck?
We know you can do better than that. What are you doing? And I know, heading into this game, I'm like, Okay, I know what we've got. You know, I'm not expecting much at this point.
But at the same time, I can't help but still get frustrated when you see yourself having a chance, and you're so close, and you're like, Okay, you're in the game. A lot of other things are working in your favor when it comes down to you. A lot of those penalties you got away with, so with having so many extra chances, but you still couldn't do anything from it.
So that's the frustrating part. And when you see how the defense is playing, and I'm seeing the score here on the TV right now, the final I mean like that score doesn't truly illustrate what happened in the game, which is the story of the season. Like every score of every game doesn't really tell the story of how the game was and how many times you actually did have a chance, but you just cannot for the life of you. I don't even know the Americans saying here, but you're gonna.
It was a Spanish saying, you just can't do.
Anything offensively to score those points. And then I'm like, we have seven games left. Are you gonna have enough players to play games? At this point? They just keep dropping and dropping, and the injury list just keeps getting longer and longer. And you see how much that affected the offensive line. When two of your guys came out of there, and you're like, oh, my gosh, so I it's concerning knowing that you are about to play another
game and then quickly turn around for Thanksgiving. So that's another area of the game that you're just like, how are you gonna be able to manage to keep playing these games at this rate?
I think you made a really good point in there, and I give credit to the people who taught me the game very early on, and this is something that's kind of stapled in my brain. One of the top responsibilities as a play caller KYP know your personnel, know what your guys do best, and put them in positions to play to their strengths. Having seen Crack a linebacker not handling stunts well, and so you throw in a
guy like TJ. Bass was not handled stunts well, my first guy would have been brock Hoffman in there at right guard.
Personally, But that's that's very minuscule.
I'm just saying, from top to bottom, it doesn't feel like either side of the ball really knows their personnel to the best right now.
And also, how come we didn't see tree Lance like that's confused? That was confusing to me, especially how the previous game against the Eagles, how they played that and they threw him in there, and then this game you don't use him at all. And it's just like, okay, when you would think, my opinion, when you get guys on the offensive line that started coming out and you
see that Cooper Bush will not run. I mean, he had a couple of times that he tried to, but he he doesn't have that in his game to run and escape. Throw somebody out there that can actually run and run for his life.
You know.
Actually that's where honestly, if you look at it, and I know, Brian, you and I talked last week about the the know, hey, do you just flip this into a college kind of offense. I don't know that they're going to do that, but I'll tell you where. I do think they missed an opportunity if you're at fourth and two. First of all, I disagree with the decision to go for it there. I think when you got a team a compromise game, right, when you got a
team miscompromise, you keep them in the game. That's that's priority number one. So you take the three points. There's no question about it in my mind. But if you're just want to be aggressive and you're like, we're going to go for it and fourth and two.
That's the kind of thing where I'm like, if.
You're crea, I know, I know, But if you're creative enough, you had you've had two weeks now to figure out I got a fourth and two situation. If I can use Trey Lance out there, this is a great situation fourth and two. I can show them something a little different, something that's not on tape. What can I do with Trey Lance that I can't do with Cooper Rush? That can pick up two yards for me to extend this play.
That's where I'm like, you missed an opportunity, and it shows me that that you're not thinking creatively enough to be able to take advantage of this guy's skill set in situations where you can use it. It doesn't mean you got to give him a whole series because Mike talked after the game and said, you know, I really wanted to get him a series.
You don't need to get him a series.
There were opportunities in that game rate when you could have put it out there for a play, because in that play, in that situation, the defense would be like, Okay, this is different.
This is something we haven't seen.
How are we going to adapt? And if you're creative enough, you can draw up the right kind of play. Pick up two yards, bring him right back off the field, put Cooper in, try to see if you can convert your touchdown.
So that's where I have more of a problem with not using Trey Lance.
It wasn't so much about getting making him the starter or playing him a lot.
Yeah, I just think it were opportunities.
Where you should have been able to come up with something creative, a creative way to use him and to be able to help this team win.
That's that's another point of just knowing your personnel. I think if Trey Lance is in the situation there, then you're not cutting off half the field on a Cooper rush rollout to the right. I just there was so many things about that play call that I just completely hated. But is an opportunity for this team seven games remaining. They might not know their personnel right now, but they can learn their personnel and it'll give them a lot of clarity this offseason whenever they have to ask these
important questions. They have seven games to answer those questions right now. I think It's an opportunity for this team that you know some contenders might not have, because if you're contending for a playoff spot, you want to have the best chance at winning. I say, right now, you throw all fifty three guys on the field, give them legitimate playing time.
Over the course of the next seven find out.
Figure out what everybody played in that game betray Lance. Figure everybody that dressed. Everybody that dressed played betray Lance.
See he was the only one starting Josh Butler at outside corner, starting Israel mcwama slot, putting Ryan Flinoy at outside corner, giving him all those options. Bingo, Brevin span Ford, throw everything out on the field. You have to know what you have to know what you need.
So how do you go?
Okay, I know we're having to go to break, Go to break, and I have a question from Okay.
Go to break. We'll come back. Aber has a question. We'll be back now. Cowboy's that comradyo.
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Welcome back to the second segment of the Break Life and that's WBC Mortgage Studios at the start of the segment brought to you by blockchain dot com.
Aber, we're right back to you as your question.
Okay, well, I was just thinking here, I'm like, howdo you go from last year from what you had offensively last year to this and what you currently have with you No, Han, let me finish the question. Sorry with you, because he's still the same play caller right, and when you look at the players that you had, I mean nothing, Yes, you've had players that have changed, but nothing that's extremely drastically.
If you look at the running backs you're running, you didn't have a great running game last year.
Answer.
You know exactly what his answer is about the baby go ahead offensive line.
It's the offensive line.
I mean, it's to me, it's so clear by the way, it's not just the personnel. It's the fact that the personnel you had last year is not playing well. They're not playing to the standard dat last year.
And I am.
Convinced, and I know this is going to probably this might get me in trouble, but I am just convinced something more has got to be going on with Zach. This is not Zach Martin. And I just look at him and I'm like, this is not the Zach Martin I know. And I don't know if there's more that
he's dealing with. I don't know what's going on, but man, when he was down yesterday and Nick and I were looking at this when he went down the game, he was on that knee and you could just see him just like shaking his head no, And I'm like thinking, Nick was like, man, I don't know if we're going to see Zach Martin playing anymore at this point, Like, I don't know if this is just a breaking point. I just there's no I've not seen a player of
his caliber. And when I say his caliber, I'm talking a clear Hall of Famer that's going to Hall of Fame probably first ballot. He's da caliber player. From the moment he showed up at the Cowboys, he has been stellar. To go from that to what we've seen from him this year, I just don't I don't know how you can make that make sense to me other than something else going on.
I think he knows his body is catching up, Yeah, because whenever he talks at Ota is talking like, yeah, my body, my body, and this could be the last year, you know. And I think maybe we should have taken that a little bit more seriously, all of us, you know, I think. But it is sad to see because it's it's trending towards a situation where he's not going to get a full run at this thing and throughout his
entire career. So I said it yesterday, like, if this is the end for Zach Martin, it's really sad to see it in this way.
No doubt.
But I guess back to your point, Amber, when you look at the right tackle who's not playing as well as he played last year, you look at the right guard not playing as well as he did last year, the center position, which is brand new and having to adapt to the NFL, the left tackle position brand new
having adapt to the NFL. And then as they were talking about I think I was Jerry talking about it this morning, talking about how because they have so much newness on the offensive line, it has affected their communication. So you factored that in to the fact that they're also not playing well. Everything else stems from that.
If you can't.
Puch a drastic regression.
Yeah, but it's the regression happened on the offensive line. And when that happens, now the quarterback isn't this comfortable, so he's not passing as well.
There is no running game.
The receivers aren't able to get open because they don't have enough time because quarterbacks got to get the ball out quick. So it affects everything else on the offense. When the offensive line's not playing well.
It could it could also be affected.
Mike McCarthy calling place yep, that he has no confidence, you know. I mean he could, they could talk about it. But it's also his responsibility, like Nick was talking about, to make sure that you do things that or that can help your personnel. Don't ask this group to do
things that they can't do. And you know, maybe that's some of it right there, But I think I think McCarthy, if if you know, if at the at the end of this, you know, whatever it is, if it's this year or another year, I think if you asked him, he and you asked me, like, what really affected you the offensive line? Offensive line I just did. I had no confidence that I could call any plays. But I'm also pointing out, like I did earlier in that ran I went on that you're also asking your players to
do things they probably aren't comfortable doing. Receivers, blocking inside online. You know they're not comfortable doing that. And if your plays are predicated on that, then you're you're.
Doing the wrong thing. You're just doing the wrong thing.
And if he doesn't have confidence in this offensive line, you know, he has a say in this. You know, head coaches, I've worked in this in this front office before. Head coaches have a say in what type of rosters they have, you know, they really do. Some take the opportunity of Bill Parcells takes the opportunity.
Some don't.
Dave Campbo really you know, Hey, whatever you guys want to do, let's you know, we'll do it.
You know.
So you know, head coaches can come in here and say, hey, yeah, let's play with young offensive linemen. Let's do this. But you also got to make sure that when things are not going well, that you try and find things like Nick was talking about, that they can do well. And I don't think they've done that. I don't think they've done that at all this season, to be honest with you. You know, you know they've switched out offensive line coaches.
Has that made a difference. I mean, at right tackle doesn't like the same guy, you know, and you could talk about last year when he was coming off the injury and stuff, and you know it didn't even look like the same guy out there blocking right now, you know, and for sure the right guard doesn't look like the same guy.
Ye let me ask you a question. For all three of you.
Let's say you're picking number seven, number eight, and I'm not throwing any guys out in particular. But let's say you've got a left tackle sitting there that you believe in could.
Start Day one. Are you taking that guy?
Sign me up.
I think I'm taking that guy.
Look.
I heard you talking last night on the post game show, Brian, and you were mentioning like at this point where Dallas is, yea, take the best player that's available, with time to pick wherever you are.
And I agree with.
That in a lot in the first round, yeah, in the first round, yes, the mitigate the bus.
Yes, So you want to get the best player possible.
Yeah, My prayer.
Is that that's a tackle because the way I look at this is I think that again, if I think offensive line is my biggest problem, then there are probably two things I'm looking at. Number One, I need to get a tackle, and then I'll figure out what I'm gonna do with Guy, and i'lligure out what I'm going to do with Steele, figure out what.
I'm gonna do with Smith.
I also need to talk about my offensive line coach, because I think that's another big piece to this thing that that has changed. And so everything, like you said, Amber, what's changed, that's another thing that changed that's changed. You gotta look at that and say, were we better coached last year on the offensive line than we are this year?
Was that a part of at.
Least a part of the players that's adapting to the coach. Maybe not being better coach, but are the players adapting to the new coach?
Right?
So there's I think both those things have to be examined, and you might come up with answer either way on both. But my point is you got to examined both the personnel and the coaching when.
It comes to the offensive line. So yes, I take a left tackle if he's there.
It's interesting, though, because do I see them making that kind of decision.
I don't know. I don't think I do.
Why not, because there they've shown over the years that they're gonna stick to their guy, like the whoever they dropped like but not high is that?
But let me be clear, I'm not saying they're going to get rid of Guidon no Nona. They're gonna look at Guiden to say maybe maybe he should be a right tackle because that's what he was in college, and we know there's a problem right now. Right tackle you kind of solve two things with one. So I think they still stick with their guy. They just kind of flipping around.
Cap savings and stuff like that too, you know when you started jesting like that, I that's interesting because I know that I've seen a lot of people.
Have you.
Have you looked at a couple of tackles or what, Yeah, is the LSU tackle your best tackle?
Uh?
No, No, I think the Texas kid is. But I think he's a guard.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, I kind of think that that's why too.
I mean, I I love the kid as a player, but you know, and police folks, don't get me wrong, I.
Know l s U.
That's when we're talking about Banks at Texas at Banks.
Yeah, and you know, and so to me, I just kind of like, I'm just kind of curious. But if people were they were going to play Banks. I mean, I think he's a guard myself. So, but he's damn good, you know, he really really is. So the best tackle in this draft might not be the best player on your board. You know, maybe Carter the linebacker or the end from Penn State something like that. I just, like I said, I am, I am interested if I'm picking
in the top ten. I did do everything in my power to eliminate mistake, just eliminate you know, just figure out, okay, because you're going to have you're going to have the you know, the whole basically the whole field to pick from. It's a lot different drafting players at twenty six and twenty seven than it is drafting players at five or six.
Yeah, it really really is.
Throughout the draft, like yeah, throughout the draft.
It's just it just the draft kind of like flows to you.
Yeah, like well that guy, yeah, that guy, Yeah, here we go.
Yeah, you know that kind of thing.
You know, that's when you're picking at the bottom of that board that it's a little bit of a different challenge for you to have to do. We've seen teams like what the trait did. The trait traded up to you to get that corner. You know, they're like, damn, there's that guy, let's go. You know, they see a player an opportunity to go get. But when you're picking in the top eight, it's a little bit clearer to you who you need to go take.
So hopefully for the Cowboys that works out that way.
Well, we'll see what happens when the draft comes around, because again, it's one of those things that yes, you're looking for the best player available regardless of position.
To get there in general from Colorado.
But it's like, are you are you still like, let's say, because you you can look anywhere and be like, yeah, we need a guy there. But heading into like again we're getting into draft talk here, but do you mentally are you sticking to a certain position group bringing?
Yeah?
Can I flip that question back, like is there any position that you say has to be off limits? I look at him like, there's no position where you tell me if I can upgrade. I don't think can be upgraded at this point or for strategic reasons.
Yeah, kicker, he did miss the forty yard.
The plant foot got jacked. Yeah, it gets plant foot. It's funny and it's been him left.
I lost Fantasy by one point one points last night, and I have Brandon So when they took that five point sixty seven yard field goal off the board, Yeah, that hurt man hurt more than one reason.
That hurt really tough. And he missed the forty yard. Yeah that hurt me. I hurt real bad.
I did a not to continue draft talk here, but I did a mock draft last night.
It I'll circle it back.
I'm probably doing mock drafts already.
Yeah, I am, I am, yeah, I'm at that point.
You're addicted your own story.
I did it on my own just you're dick. It was the first time, the first one November.
It's the first one.
Where were you picking?
Where were you picking?
Nine?
Overall?
Okay, the first three picks that I made or tackle, defensive tackle.
Guard tackle, defensive tack.
Take the Michigan take Graham?
No, no, Dion Walker fell to the second round, second round?
Really good?
Are we still talking about drafting Michigan players? Did you just say that?
Let me just draft Michigan safety later on?
Are we still doing this?
So?
Let me let me, let me tell you, Let me tell you what man, this Graham, this kid, We're going to continue draft talk.
I'm just gonna say this, so please please.
It's a different.
Scheme, am I right, it's a different scheme.
It's different than what it was.
Yeah, Martin Dale, he used to be at the DC and for the Ravens and then for the Giants. Yeah, he's the defensive coordinator at Michigan. Their defensive players don't play like the harrorball regime play they played differently. They play up the field, they attack, they play sideline.
The sideline.
They're not extend and look and look and go find the ball. They're actually quick off the ball. They try and be disruptive. They get up the field. When you watch Michigan play, and they actually have a tight end too.
It's a pretty good player.
But that's but don't think of like, oh, don't look at the helmet and then think it's the same scheme. It's a different scene. It's a different scheme. When you watch this player this he gets off the football. You know he's a tackle. Yeah when you talk, yeah, three hundred and twenty pounds.
The reason I bring it up is because I think the root of these problems with this team start in the trenches and the spine of your defense. Yeah, you got you gotta figure out that offensive line and if it's moving two guys off of it next year, move two guys off of contracts, be damned.
I think.
I think at this point you have to figure out what you have again for these remaining seven games, so you can know what you need in the draft come that time. And I think the safety position is very much in line with the spine of that defense as well.
I totally agree with you on that it's a good one in Georgia, But I don't know if i'd take him at nine.
I don't think I would either, maybe like seventeen.
Yeah, all right, we're gonna take our final break.
We'll come back and we'll go back from Jef jofh Show to kind of dissecting a little bit more of this game.
That's coming.
We're looking for ways to.
Get into the winner is coming.
We'll be back now Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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At and d Can eighteen changes everything.
Welcome back to watch the Nolan Kid.
We're back in the final segment of the Draft show. We appreciate you guys joining us.
Straight. I have to stay straight.
Christmas right so excited, like this time of the year. He gets so excited too. I built.
I'm kind of hoping that Derek sends us to Green Bay for the draft this year.
Hey man, you know something I was telling you can take you guys behind the scene. Like literally we started talking about the other day. We were talking about, Okay, so what are we doing how we're covering this.
Scene is heading into the off season, and.
I'm like, if we're top I don't know, top seven to eight pick, you know, we we might need to be sending more people to senior ball, more people to combine, more people to the draft itself. Because there is there is some excitement when you bring the last time when we when they drafted Zeke.
Like, there was a lot of excitement around that.
You do need to spend a little extra time, a little extra resources covering it's not just.
The first pick.
It's you're picking in you know, your your top talking about totally rebuilding your team.
We able to talk him into if we.
Get the first overall pick, we get the first overall pick, we're going to We're going to Green Bay.
I agree.
I don't think I can go to Green Bay, but I would like you, you guys go to Green Bay. I would love to see you guys go to Green Bay.
I appreciate that your employer is not letting you go to Good Bay.
Not necessarily there.
When the kid gets picked.
Yeah, but then the draft, well we'll get him on the Draft show first, but then the media.
It's Derek. We're giving us on a Jerry's plane coming back.
Okay, we're good.
We'll be right with the kid.
My abilities.
A long time. Wow, you've survived a lot.
Yes, this is off the rails.
I love it, way off the rails.
All right.
We did have a couple more things I wanted to get to in this final segment.
We didn't get a chance to hit a lot of different topics so well, some of them later, But I did want to talk a little bit about a couple of the coaching decisions. Sure, and and I kind of teed it up a little bit in my thoughts on the fourth and two. I would love to hear your thoughts on, first of all, the decision to go forward on fourth and two. Well, first the decision to allow the penalty to take points off the board after you
already hit the sixty four yard field goal. Then second to get to a fourth and make it Yeah, well it was that old Deacon Jones kind.
Of Deacon Jones. Poor Steele was like, boom right, he got he got a club.
Yeah.
But then also it was and then the next decision fourth and to the decision to go forward and not take the field goal, and then obviously the play call and how it all ended up.
So let's go across to say, what do you guys think about that whole sequence?
I in the in the moment, shout out to Lawrence Stowe. He works with me out at the fours Artillery, and we were talking about it in the moment, specifically the fourth down and two. It's like, I'm taking the points here, and he asked a very good question. He was like, but do you think your offense is going to get back down here?
That's that's the question you have to ask yourself.
That's a good point.
I was like, I still stuck with my original conclusion that they probably should have taken the points because it down to a one possession game. You can figure it out from there, maybe you find another big play. But he made a great point in being like, do you think your offense gets back down here?
I'm like, oh, probably not. So I don't hate the decision to go for it. I really don't. I hate the play call because you.
Roll Cooper rush out right, you cut off half the field, and then you muddy everything up on the right side of the field, and then you're going for a guy who just got signed to the team last week, and he didn't.
There was a miscommunication there.
There had to be, because a rush threw it completely out of the way of Mingo, so much so that it almost ended up in CD's hands on the back of the end zone. I just I hated the play caff, but I didn't hate the decision necessarily. I would have been cool with either decision.
I like your colleague and what he said, you have to question whether they were going to get back down there. I would have made it a one score game myself, but I would have also in my back of my mind. I'm sicking. You maybe have to take the chance here, you know, you maybe have to try and get some momentum here. I don't like the play call at all. If you look at the tape, they Houston had three guys ever in two no chance, and then you know
what happens is Rush can't set his feet. I mean he's moving, he's looking on the outside, outside, outside the whole time. And then Mingo comes on the break and he's he's open. But Skoomaker's gonna get called for holding. He tackles, he tackles Hunter, they call that.
That was going to be. So what's gonna happen is that.
You know if you even if you maybe the decision was if you score, it's going to be holding.
It's gonna be backed up. Now you kick the extra or you kick the field goal.
That's maybe that if you could have just scored, that could have maybe made the decision because you are going to get called for holding on the play. But I don't like the play call. I understand the decision because the offense just it it doesn't flow the way it needs to flow, and you don't know if you're going to have another chance.
Yeah, I absolutely hated the play call, but thus far as the decision is one of those things that either way, what had you kicked it for the field goal or did what you did, whichever one, you can still be criticized for it because when you look at it, I mean, what's two yards? Right? You feel like you can get that. But that's where I'm gonna go back to knowing your team, Like based on the history and everything that you've seen so far this season. I love that you have some
kind of confidence in yourself here. But if you're the type of guy that look at statistics and you rely on all these numbers and trends and analytics, yeah you should have known. Somebody should have study in your ear. Hey buddy, we don't do well in these situations, so let's just kick it, kick for the field goal that you most likely will get the three points there. So it's just again I fall back into the whole thing
of like knowing your team. You should know your team better or you should know that in that situation, it's most likely not gonna work out, and it will obviously, didn't I.
Think, to be honest, that's what he's done all along, hasn't he that kicked so many field goals this year.
Yeah, you know, he he really doesn't trust, but then he trusts, Yeah, exactly, and then then you call that play.
Yeah.
But to me, that's just not the best. I mean, there's there's other ways to I think to attack that. It's just running, you know, putting Cooper Rush.
On the move probably not a great idea, you know, as Nick says, Cluttering an area and trying to kind of sort that out.
Probably not a good idea, you know.
I mean, it's just to me, it's you're down there, maybe you go, what's your best two point play? What's the play if you're gonna throw the ball? Throw the Pittsburgh game. When he touchdown, play mesh mesh that thing and just and then hit, you know, try and give Cooper Rush the whole field to look at and not an eight yard little box, yep with extra defenders down in there.
I just I look at it and I say, this is a team that, going into the game was compromised due to injury. And when you have a team like that and you're playing up against the team that that on paper looks to be much more talented because they don't have the level of injuries.
That you do, and they got back a big player, So you're looking at it from that standpoint.
My thought is you want to give your team as much reason to believe we still got a chance as possible for as long as possible, and you keep stringing that little game and hope that you get to the fourth quarter and it's like, here's our moment where we just go all in because we've kept ourselves in the game.
He basically, in my opinion, made a decision that if, by the way, if you weren't compromised, if you had your quarterback back there and and everything's been flowing, your offense, is your offense fourth and two at the eight yard line, go for it, let's do it.
Let's but that's not the situation. The situation, in my opinion.
Dictating, you give yourself the three points and you say, okay, guys, that's a win. We got down to the eighth, we end up with three points, that's a win. Where within a score, let's keep playing football. And they were playing up to that point, they were playing equal football with them like they were playing football. So that's my thing is it's about again, would you guys say no, your
personnel know the situation. I just think that was a bad call based upon the people that he had available to him in that game and where they were mentally. I'm a big believer in the idea of momentum, and not because momentum is some magical thing. I think it actually is about the chemicals in your brain. When good things, positive things happen, your brain responds a certain way. When negative things happen, your brain when you.
See the finish I mean, I'm not a runner, but you are. When you see the finish one, you're like, oh yeah, yeah, you start running faster.
A lot of a lot of it, you talk about running. A lot of the ability to do long distance running is about the mental.
You're gonna get.
You're gonna get to several points as you're running that race where your mind is going to say, you know, I don't know I can do this. I don't know if I your ability to be able to say this is good, I feel good and convince yourself I feel good even though you don't feel good. That's how you get through it, and that's how you actually exceed at it. Right, And it's no different with any other sport thing. The
mental is a big part of it. So the moment you have something like that, when you've met you drive all the way down the field, you get to the eight yard line, and then you say we're going forward on fourth down.
And then you come away from that empty handed. The mental of that starts to creep in. Man, I don't know if we're gonna be able to do this, And.
When that starts to happen, it changes how you play it. Shange and by the way, the flip side happens, Houston says, they had all this opportunity, they got all the way down here, when we stopped them, they got nothing out of it. So I just I think in that situation the mental is just as important. And I think he didn't do himself. He didn't do his team any favors by going forward in that situation. And I think you could have got the same kind of positive moments out of that by just kicking.
The field goal.
That was the first of three things that happened in a five minute sequence. In my eyes, it was the last two minutes of the third quarter, first three minutes of the fourth quarter. It's three things in that sequence that wrote them off from there. So it's twenty to ten. When that happened, you could have cut it to one score. Let's say that they score, that's seven points you leave off the board. Houston gets the ball back, they drive
down the field a little bit. They get to a third and one on their own thirty four yard line. And if y'all are all twenty two nerds, please go back and look at this play the fourteen forty one left in the fourth quarter. Yeah, it's a it's a third and one. It's a throw right to Tank Dell and C. J. Stroud throws at probably two yards behind. If you have Deron Bland, Yeah, that's not only a pick, that's a pick six. That's that is a pick six. But no discredit to Josh Butler. Josh Butler played well,
especially being his first career start. But Deron Bland is looking back at that ball, he's taking it to the house. That's that's another seven points. And then on the ensuing Dallas drive is when the tyler got in, disaster happens, and that gives Houston seven. So that's a twenty one point swing man on a row on Mike McCarthy almost ripped them a new one in the press conference. I
can only imagine what he actually said to him. But if you do go back on film and watch that Butler play, he walks off the sideline and Al Harris goes immediately to him. And I don't want to assume what people are saying on the sidelines because you can get muddy, but I can almost.
Guarantee what he was saying in that situation. Look back at the ball.
Well, it's funny because, like you say, the route Dell ran out. I mean, he's clear, but the ball was so poorly thrown. They gave Butler a chance to spin and get back to it, but the ball hitt him.
I mean you never got back at it.
Yeah, he's right. If Blane catches it, that's going that's going the other way. That's such a poorly thrown pass. Yeah, on a third and one play to an open receiver. Yeah too.
All right, I appreciate you guys. You want to We'll be back tomorrow. We'll do a little more deeper dive into some of these things. I think there were some topics that came up from yesterday's game that are worth talking at.
Yeah, talk about that. We'll be back tomorrow. Till then, for Nick Harris. Brian brought us into DRC.
I'm Derek he This has been the Break Live one Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio.
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