Cowboys Break: What Went Wrong vs. LAR?

episode number forty eight. Welcome to another edition of The Break, live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star in Frisco, and today we're talking about the Cowboys loss. Cowboys lose to the Rams thirty five thirty in what I would call an unexpected loss. I think all of us picked the Cowboys to win. Um. I don't think anybody really expect to see you yesterday. But I will

say this. It was twenty four to thirteen at in the second quarter with one fifty one fifty one left in the second quarter, and then for that yeah, and then the wheels fell off. So I'll answered, I'll ask you guys the question. We can go around the table.

What happened? Just in your own brief synopsis and we'll get into the details, but in your own brief synopsis what happened from that point to the Cowboys final of thirty five thirty Well, I think, you know, I picked the Cowboys to win by three touchdowns, and and I definitely overestimated the Cowboys and more than anything, more than the Rams or anything, they overestimated this team of what they could do. They didn't make any adjustments either that

they should have. They kind of got got, you know, set in their ways. The Rams did a nice job, but they dominated up front on Brilli on both sides of the ball. And you know, there's the Cowboys had no business losing this game, and they did, and that's this is gonna hamp them. This this loss will definitely hamp them. Amber Well, clearly, they like Nick just said, that didn't make any adjustments coming back after the first half of the game. And then I was listening to

Dak Prescott and he answered that question. He basically said that the Rams didn't do anything differently. It was just on them that they weren't finishing plays and making the right moves, which not that is true. But the Rams did make some adjustment and they did come back stronger I don't know what the Cowboys did in halftime. I don't know. Dave, stop me if you've heard this before, because it's gonna sound really similar to every time we've ever talked about a loss in the five years i've

been here. This is a defense that isn't equipped to carry a game if their offense isn't clicking. And that's I mean, that's what I put it on. Clearly, the offense looked great. Honestly, the first half of this game looked like twenty sixteen. They did all of the stuff that we got used to seeing last year on that eleven game win streak, and you know, honestly, defensively, at least, I was just watching the tape upstairs with Brian. The Rams defense didn't look like they changed a whole lot.

It didn't look a lot different. But when you're not hitting open receivers, when you're not secure in blocks on run, not catching passes, and you're getting flagged on you know, crucial two point conversions, this type of stuff happens. And I don't I don't know if if you want to say they came out of the locker room flat because they thought they had everything under control. Or whatever. They

just forgot how to execute. But this offense lost all semblance of competency coming out of the break, and when you put it on your defense to carry the game against an offense like that, it's probably not going to go very well. Yeah, we were upstairs before the show and we were watching some of the tape with with Brian, and that was what the one thing this did to me, Dave, was that they were they were all these little things.

Like every play it seemed like we're as we were watching this, every play, it seemed like there was a little thing. Oh that got missed the block right there, Oh that guy, that guy's routes should have been Cooper had a rough day, but that guy should have gotten a little deep run his route, you know, Oh, Da should have made a better throw there. It was it was all these little and it happened play after play

after play after play. So Amber, getting back to what you said, I do wonder to some degree if there was a situation where it wasn't that the Cowboys needed to do something different, they just weren't executing. They At one point they had two offensive linemen, one of them being they're all pro guard that were trying to block Aaron Donald and move him off the point and could not move him one step. I mean, it wasn't It

was a situation where they just weren't executing. And where you gonna I was just gonna say, we know that the Cowboys strength is the running game. Based on what they did in the running game, they should have won this game. They did. They did pretty well. One hundred and eighty nine yards. That's not a whole bunch, but it's still good a lot. Oh it could have been higher. It could have been higher. But again, I'm just saying I remember you, Derek saying the Cowboys only win if

they're good in the running game. We saw Why are you making that vague? I'm listening. We saw what the offensive line did, and which is consider or was consider one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. Now they're different. And I saw you pretty upset yesterday about why you saw this little line, de little line, but big, big line too. What what is your concern here based

on what you saw last night? My issue with the offensive line is more about the fact that I felt like yesterday Dak was running for his life, specifically in the second half quite a bit. Now, I get it. You were playing a defensive front that had Brockers, that had Aaron Donald, which I'm convinced Aaron Donald's the best defensive lineman maybe in pro football. But all that being said, he was running for his life in the second half.

And to me, there have been two times this year that this offensive line, who I thought was elite, played elite talent on the defensive front that they faced, and in both instances, I felt like they the other line won the battle and ultimately the war because they won both those games. So to me, it start I start to question whether this offensive line. I know they're good, I started to question whether I think they're elite because

I think against elite talent, we haven't seen elite play. Yeah, exactly. I mean that's what I wrote as well, they're not. This is an a dominating offensive line anymore, at least not right now. And I think there's a lot of reasons for that. I mean, I think that teams have looked at this and said, all right, we have to just stack the line and we're gonna We're gonna. Now some of the situations they just got beat, they got beat.

Jonathan Cooper played horrible yesterday, And from what I saw that there was one play where Dak was running for his life at the end of the game where he was straight up with Aaron Donald and then and instead of Zeke having to help, it was just one on one because he got beat so badly right off the line. It was one one one between Zeke and Donald, and Zeke knocked him down to the ground. And so I was like, seriously, like who's the guard, Like who's the

actually left guard in this play? Was unbelievable. But I just think that there's a lot of reasons for this, And I go back to these wide receivers, and they're not gonna beat anybody. They don't scare anybody. You don't go deep, you don't really you have to maybe go make a play in Arizona, but they're not gonna beat anybody. Just like catch the ball and then run away from them. So you can play this way because they don't have

anybody at the passing game that's gonna scare you. So I think that's that's kind of there's more than one reason here. But it's like you got one dynamic player in Zeke and Dez is the is dynamic at times, but not in a speed aspect. So a lot of drop passes yesterday, Debt Terrence, Yeah, I was thinking, who yeah, Terrence, that was the one I remember third third and something

third quarter, I think is their second possession. Dak mid range, probably fifteen eighteen yard throw on the left side, low ball, not the best throw ever, but went right through, right through Jez's hands, right right in between his arms and onto the ground. Yeah. Just and that's I came out of that. I came out of that game thinking Dak's just gotta be better, like he wasn't good enough. And I still believe that. But having gone back and watched

the offense play over again, they all were bad. The offensive line had its miscues. Daz drops a big ball, Terrence had a couple drops, Dak had some probably three or four pretty poor throws, Jason Witten's missing blocks. I mean, that's the great thing about the tape is it doesn't lie, and it very clearly points you in the direction of you know, what all went wrong, And there's plenty of

blame to go around, that's for sure. Yeah, I think this morning, if you're looking at it, I know there were a lot of people a lot of articles I'm seeing online today where people are pointing the finger at Dak, and yes, Dak needs to take part of the blame for this, because it's the quarterback that's your responsibility. Even when things aren't going well and other guys around you aren't doing what they're supposed to, necessarily, quarterback still is

the one that's going to fall to. He's got to make the play, and there was some plays yesterday that he left on the table. He even said it after the game, he said, there's some throws in the second half that I didn't make that I did make in the first half. But I gotta be better. I gotta be more consistent. But all that being said, this was a team loss, and we talked about that after the

game yesterday. This is a team loss because around that offense, there are a number of guys that had their moments, and when you've got everybody having a moment at different times, and it platoons every play because on every play somebody screwing something up. It's amazing that we've gotten what twelve minutes into the show, and we haven't talked about Ryan Switzer's muff the punt. I mean that's was that the biggest If you had one play that you could take

back in that game, is that the play you take back? Yes, because the Cowboys had just scored two times in a row on two touchdowns in a row, and they were starting to get it. They had the ball with about five or six minutes to go. I believe maybe it was about eight minutes to go in the second quarter, and you know that they had shown everything that they were going to go down there, marched down and drive again twenty to six, twenty four to six, and then

that would change everything. Instead the Rams score touchdown. You realize the Rams never drove the field and scored a touchdown. They had a long pass to to Girly and then they had that short field. You know. So it's hard to put the whole thing on the defense because it's a bend but don't break defense, and they did a lot of bending and then they would they would buckle down and lead to field goals. So I mean they got off the field when it was time to kick

field goals. The problem is there was just too many of them. They add up too. Yeah, you know, if I had one play to take back, though I'm not certain I wouldn't take back the two point conversion where Terence drops the ball, because at that point you tie that game up. If the Rams drive down the field as they did and kicked the field goal as they did. Now all you need is a field goal to tie. You'd rather have back the one where Terrence drops the

tipped ball. Why wouldn't you just take back the one where Travis Frederick gets called for holding on them. Either way, you take either one of those, either one of those. But that's that's a little part of the game. That little part of the game to me was that that ultimately I think doomed the Cowboys. I think I do. I think it. I think it did. I didn't feel comfortable when they were when they were in a situation.

We were down on the field and we were talking about and I asked, you know, different people like you think that if if they hold them a field goal here, Cowboys win. I didn't feel comfortable with the fact that they were going to drive the field and win at that point. I really didn't. I just I'm thinking, Okay, even if you get the two point conversion, it's tied

to tide. I mean, the way it had been going I don't have a ton of confidence that the Cowboys are going to stop them from scoring points right there, and they took and they wouldn't have. They took four minutes off the claus That's what I'm saying, they wouldn't have. I still don't think they would have. I stid. I think the difference, though, is if you're driving to get into field goal range versus driving for a touchdown, I

think it's different. And I do think the Cowboys could have gotten into field goal range field goal range to at least tie and then go to overtime. I said this after the game because people were people were in my Twitter mentions killing Ryan Switzer and saying, you know, that's the difference in the game. That's not the way football works because every action completely, you know, every game, every action is informed by the last play. So to just say, well, you take out that play, you win

the game, that's not reasonable. But I would still if I could take back any play, that would be the one because if he doesn't Muffet, Cowboys get the ball on their eighteen with eight thirty to play, up seventeen to six. Best case scenario, they go down and make

it an eighteen point game heading into halftime. Even worst case scenario, they run three plays and punt from their own thirty And I like their odds of keeping the Rams from scoring a tome down on a long field at least, so I think that changes the complexion of the first half. I still think that's probably the biggest play in the game. It's clearly not the only reason

why they lost. That's lazy, but it was big yep, one of the five players that I had, but obviously there were some other ones too, And you know, after that two point conversion, and we were going to the elevator on this, so we didn't really maybe get a great look, but it seemed like Anthony Brown had a chance for an interception. On second down. They floated up a pass that when they do defensive back drills, that's

what they do that. You know, Joe Baker throws the ball a high in the sky and you die and you jump up at you and like that. There couldn't have been an easier interception, wasn't to me. I looked at that. I thought he was fully outstretched and the ball went over his hand. Is that not what happened? Hit him right in the hands. I need to see it again. It was that happened while we were going down to the field, and I didn't get a good look at it. Yeah, me either, and it but that's

what I saw. Maybe you're saying it had actually hit his hands and he just dropped it, dropped it. Okay, I look at it again either, I mean, whether or not that's the case. I mean, how about the force fumble by DeMarcus Lawrence that Tyrone Crawford you would think would have seen but clearly didn't. That's two games in a row without a takeaway. Yes, that's they didn't ever take away against, not against Arizona. Yeah, that's not what

you want. It's not hard to getty hard to get to forty when you're chunking up donuts two weeks in a row, for sure. But you know, honestly, I don't think I saw anything different from this defense. It goes back to what you said in your first thing. I didn't see anything different from this defense than what we saw last year. And that's always been my contention about this defense. I don't think this defense is any worse.

This is the kind of game they play last year, and actually this is what they're expecting from their defense. Hold to field goals. Hold, and guess what Roline made, every single one of them. I get in I get in fights with people all the time about this because you know, people are killing me in the game about how bad the defense is. This defense played well enough to win the game. I agree they did. They held

him to seven field goals. They one of the two touchdowns they allowed was on a very short field, like the Rams started in the Dallas red zone. That's how short the field was. They weren't great by any stretch of the imagination. Jalen Smith has a long way to go to be I mean, he's a hard hitter, he is an instinctive player. His abilities in pass coverage have a long way to go. That that much we learned just from watching Todd Gurley in that second half. The

secondary has its issues. The pass rush didn't show up for the first time this year. That looked more like the pass rush we thought we were going to see this year. They're not great, and nobody should have thought they would be, but they they played well enough to win. They forced him to field goals. They kept things manageable, especially in the first half. The Cowboys last year, last year too, last year. In this year, the Cowboys are as good as their offense will allow them to be.

For them to be the team that they want to be, their offense has to click, and it really, for the vast majority of the first month of the season has not been, in my opinion. You know, nobody wants to hear this because they always everyone's afraid to throw out excuses. But you know, they're played without their best player on defense, and then that's a fact. They played without Sean Lee and it was very noticeable yesterday. I mean, I think Sean it would would have made a lot more plays

in the open field. He would have probably stopped some of these runs from being a little bit um from from gashing them into the You know, I don't know if girl's gonna average five point three yards to carry. I mean, he's long with seventeen, so it's not like it was a big chunk play there for as far as runs go. So you know, I I don't know what you can say about the corners. I'm not sure that they're playing not playing with the with their best

corners right now. They've got guys that hurt. But I don't know but see, I mean, okay, maybe Anthony Brown dropped the pick. We need to go back and watch that, But like, did the corners play back? No, No, I'm saying I'm not gonna say that Nolan Carroll and been been um Cheeto being out affects them. I'm not because I don't know who their best corners are when they're all healthy, and I don't know if Carroll's even in there, but I know Sean Lee's won't their best shutterbacker. And

that's what I'm saying. I'm not going to try to pile on and say, hey, also, this guy was hurt too, and David Irving comes back about about I think it's well, it's incredibly noticeable too. And I guess the point I'm trying to make is Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods combined for thirty four yards. Cooper Cupp was their best receiver and he had six d and a touchdown, which, okay, that's fine, but somebody's gonna get yards. All of their damage came from Todd Gurley and the tight ends yep,

what does that say? And mostly from Gurley it's and the vast majority of it from Gurley. A lot of that says says stuff about your lineback. Sean Lee's not there. If there's a silver lining here, I know, I know David Irving's coming back this week. I never bought into the hype that he's that guy, at least not yet. Um. If there's a silver lining that I'm looking for here as a Cowboys fan, it's that I don't expect Sean Lee to miss too much time more time, and I

expect Anthony Hitchins to be back really soon. And I think those two guys healthy and playing together can make a significant amount of difference for the huge different defense, huge difference. I think what we got to do is we got to see Jalen Smith get out there. We got to see him run around. The hope is that by twenty eighteen he's better, But right now, those other

two guys are clearly better linebackers than he is. Even in light of this game, which was easily his worst of the four, I'm still very encouraged about where he is. But he's not He's not that guy. He's not in the top ten pick yet, and I feel I still feel encouraged that he can be in time. But I think Anthony Hitchins is a much better all around linebacker than he is right now. All right, let's take our

first break. When we come back, we do need to talk about the running back, Ezekiel Elliott and what he did and what's going on with him today or tomorrow, today or tomorrow here in court. And in addition to that, I want to ask you guys, if you think the Cowboys short week last week, combined with the Rams long week coming off a ten day layoff, affected the Cowboys in this game. We'll talk about that when we come

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bottle today, doctor Pepper to lunch you grave. I hear all this talk about what it takes to be a cowboy. Everyone's got their ideas, but I just say to myself, it's what's up top that matters. Sure, you need men with the muscle and heart to get her done. But if your scouts and coaches are listening out there, a word of advice. Pick the man with the most well worn stetson. That's the one most cut out to be

a cowboy. Stetson hats her handmade right here in Texas and have been on cowboys heads for over one hundred and fifty years. The rest of you can visit stetson dot com slash cowboy to find a retailer nearest you. Back to the Break Welcome Back. It's the second segment of the Breaklock from the s WBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, we're talking about the Cowboys loss. They lose thirty five thirty at home against the Rams and a little bit unexpected. But that's how the NFL is. You

just never know every single week. And that was as you said, Dave in the break, it is a good team. I'm not. I'm certainly not saying the Rams are not a good team. They are a good team. I just don't think they're a playoff team. Let me, I'll fully elaborate that, which which you know Jason Garrett hates this, but he's not here. That's not his job. It's my job. The Rams are a good team, and I mean I picked the Cowboys to win, so I'm not trying to

sit here and say I told you so. But I'm not going to go as far as to say that was unexpected. I did not. I was unexpected from a standpoint of our picks. We all picked exactly. But I'm not sitting here just like man, I can't believe they lost to that dog crap team like it's it's the NFL. But having said that, you look at the schedule and what's coming for the Cowboys over the next six weeks other than a road trip to San Francisco. This is

the most manageable game on the schedule. And if you can't win this at Spells at home at Spells, trouble. And here's the other part. And when I said, and when I said in the break that I couldn't believe they lost his game, it was less about the Rams and way more about the fact that they were up twenty four to three with less than two thirteen, with less than two minutes left in the first half. Yes, that at home against again, a team that I don't

think it's necessarily a playoff team. A good team, but I don't think they're a playoff tam. I don't think they're gonna win their division, and I don't think more than one team's gonna come out of the NFC West. So all that being said, I still can't believe the Cowboys were in that position at twenty four to thirteen right before the half and end up losing. If you at home, if you had told me on Friday they were gonna lose, I'd say, Okay, that's not ideal, but

it's not the most surprising thing I've ever heard. But to have really full control of that game nearing halftime and to just completely not even it's not like they lose lost control, like the Rams just ripped it away from them. They were like, hey, up yours, We're taking this thing and right nothing you can do about it. That's the part that's kind of surprised. It's hard to that's hard to fathom when you, I mean, the way

we've seen this team win games in the past. To have somebody just bossom around like that down the stretch was surprising and the best and I mean I thought the most interesting part when you look at that is that they actually ran the ball. Well, you look at the Cowboys in their running game, and we always say, we said it last week, the Cowboys team is going going to be successful if they can run the ball effectively. And yesterday they ran the ball effectively one hundred and

eighty nine yards on the ground. That included a big run from a sect from the second running back in Alfred Morris. But Zeke had a pretty good day. He was averaging four yards per carry, so I mean they were running the ball effectively. Even in the second half. They were still when he touched the ball, they were getting good yardage. Out of it. They just weren't able to get enough out of the passing game to be able to make it all work. I never would have

guessed that this. You know, in their current configuration, that they could run for almost two hundred yards, which is a lot in the NFL, by the way, Amber and lose the game. It's okay, lose. I mean that's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. Where is Jason Witton? Where is Cole Beastley? I was telling you this, Derek yesterday. Where are they? Why are they not using them? I just feel like you don't need to keep throwing the ball as many

times to des Bryan. Let's say Terrence Williams after I see him dropping a couple of plays again, I'm not gonna keep throwing it that way. I'm gonna go for the secure, even if it's shorter. I feel secure like Cole Beasley can catch right there, even for a few yards. So can Jason Witten. And you can keep moving the ball just in a more secure way. Let me ask you this question, And because I don't know this, and maybe you guys saw it yesterday, was Cole open a

lot that he was just being missed? Or was this a situation where they would just going to other people with the ball. Well, I mean that can happen. I mean, obviously Cole's gonna be open sometimes. I know, I'm just saying that you can miss him. Yeah, he's easily missed sometimes. But I think Dak's got to be looking for him a little bit more. I mean, six targets only three receptions.

That's actually low for for him because he's usually you know, he's usually gonna catch most of the passes that are thrown his way. Some of them were too high. But I think that I agree with her. I mean, I think that Whitten and Beasley have got to be you have a ball controlled offense where you don't have to try to throw it down the field as much. You don't try to have to throw you know, these outpass passes to Dez and try to get him that involved. He'll get involved if you just if you just kind

of if it goes to him. So I don't know, I don't know why Witten and Beasley are not being I mean, since Witten caught ten passes against Denver, he's only had one two catches for twelve yards, so that was gonna be and I think You're right, there isn't an explosive element to this offense, but there wasn't last year and they didn't need it. Like their whole m is methodical, like you run the ball, you complete the nine yard come back to witness and it works. It

works when when everything's humming the right way. And it is kind of unbelievable to me to think that that these guys just weren't ever open over the course of a three hour game. And you look, you know, I defended the amount of targets des was getting through the first two weeks, but what I meant thirteen yesterday and I think nine in Arizona. So I mean he's been targeted fifty times in four games, which I just don't think that's the way this team's going to be successful.

I think, you know, it goes back to what Dak was so good at last year, which is just making the easy throw to the guy that the defense isn't focusing on. And I'm that's so simplified. I know it's more complicated than that, but it just seems this whole offense seems like they're forcing it and it's not. It worked beautifully for thirty minutes yesterday, and that's probably as well as it's worked all season, and the rest of

the time, it's just been very herky jerky. So not to make an excuse, because I don't believe that an excuse is warranted here other than the fact Cowboys didn't play well in the second half. But do you think there was at least something to the idea that the Cowboys had a short week? They played a Monday night game, then came back to play a Sunday at noon, and their opponent played the previous Thursday, which meant they had

ten days to prepare for this game. Do you think that maybe part of what we saw in the second half yesterday could have been affected by Cowboys having less rest, much less rest than than the Rams did. Well, I don't know about the Rams, but let's just focus on on the Cowboys part of it. Yeah, I mean, having a short week, and even shorter because it's a noon game. You know, you do you think Sean Lee could have

used one more day, one more day for a hamstring injury? Um? Perhaps, but you know that's just the way that it goes. I mean, I don't. I don't sit there and worry about that. I mean the ram that they looked fresh, they had a little bit more juice in the second half. I mean, you can, you can make that case if you want to. I know the NBA is changing their rules all because of that, because they feel like, you know, short and you know, back to backs and all that matters.

So maybe it does. But my favorite garotism that he repeats all the time that I actually like and don't roll my eyes at is when people ask questions like this and he says, nobody feels sorry for you. Yeah, nobody cares. Sorry. I guess what if you don't like it, you got to do it again this week because the Packers have been off since Thursday, So I mean, what

do you want me to do? And honestly, I think the defense getting tired out in the second half yesterday has a lot more to do with the offense putting up three plays, three plays, five plays, three plays for the first four possessions of the second half than what happened on Monday in Arizona. I don't it sucks. It's not an ideal scenario, but nobody feels sorry for you. I don't care. You have to do it again this week, so figure it out. Did they have an Arizona off

a short week? I think they did the Cowboys Arizona played you're talking about when the Cowboys played Arizona. Was Arizona coming off a short week? I don't think so. Remember, No, Arizona played the Colts on a Sunday heading into that game. But I'm certain at this some point that year Cowboys will be the benefactor of you would like to come off short week? You would like I guess going back to what point, That's why I was pointing it out.

It is because there will be Every team's gonna have to deal with that, and that's kind of why you hear Garrett talking about it. And I do agree with the idea like you just got to be prepared to play, doesn't matter. I mean, that's the nature of the NFL. You knew when the schedule came out that it was going to be like that. So it is what it is.

You just gotta figure it out. Do I agree with the NFL's thought process that grown men slamming into each other two hundred times a game need to be playing Thursday games. No, but they do. So you just gotta make do. Yep, not really much. You can do about that. All right, let's get some phone calls and some questions. You guys can call us a numbers two one four eight seven two twenty one O two. Again it is two one four eight seven two twenty one O two.

You can also hit us on Twitter at Cowboys Break. Let's go to Twitter first. Well, I'm just seeing a lot of questions, I mean a lot of comments, not necessarily questions in regards to Dak Prescott's performance, and it's kind of upsetting to me. I just think that's dumb, because, yes, Dad didn't really play his best. He made a lot of mistakes, but at the same time, he's good. He's

gonna be as good as the offensive line is. And yesterday we could all see how much pressure he got and how how that affects him and his success in twenty sixteen came off what the offensive line did came off the running game. Yesterday we had the running game going, but again, the offensive line wasn't performing at their highest level. I'm going to disagree a little bit when you said that he's going to play as well as the offensive

line will. I think he played better than that because the offensive he had to make plays in spite of the offensive line. There's one about one drive. There was three times on that one drive where he was spending in. I mean, it looked the whole thing looked like Romo, you know. I mean, yeah, but you can't go a whole game being pressured like that. Oh, I know. And I know what I'm saying is is that he actually

outperformed the offensive line. Yea, if it wasn't for his upper body strength and you know, throwing off Aaron Donald like that and then going and turning and spending and going back and throwing the ball to Dez Brian across the middle. I mean, he made some plays. He made some plays that most quarterbacks are not going to make because they don't have the body structure to do that. It's it's unfortunate for him that the third down throw to Dez where he literally shook off a blindside hit

from Aaron Donald, which is amazing. And then on the same drive he does the same thing and finds Bryce Butler for a touchdown. I mean, those are like when Dak retires, those will go in the reel. You know. It's very reminiscent of the JJ Watt play that Romo made. In twenty fourteen, but they will be completely overshadowed by the fact that they lost this game. And honestly, I'm gonna go out on a lemon say there's not a bigger Dak fan in here than me. I'm I'm very

much hitched to the Dak Prescott bandwagon. Whatever. You can disagree if you want. That's life in the NFL. If you're a quarterback, Yeah, that's your job in the NFL's and your job in the NFL dictates that you're gonna take some heat if you make some bad plays in a loss. The offensive line was not great, it did not give him a lot of help. A lot of other guys around him made mistakes too, but you're the quarterback. You're the guy that has to go to the podium

and account for that. So I mean, nobody feels sorry for you. Basically, that's the way. That's the way this league works. And what he's gonna be judged on even more than that is that final drive. You had one something left I think it is almost two minutes left, one fifty one, and you had your opportunity at that point to drive your team down to win the ball game, and no matter what the circumstances are. That's how quarterbacks

are judged. Every time those situations come up, they say, this quarterback is won this number of games in a comeback situation, and that is a that is to me, that was what Tony Romo did so well. Is you

got Tony. And I know Tony took a lot of flak from people about, you know, bombing out in in situations, but way more often than not, if you got into a situation where you got the ball back and you had two minutes and you just needed the offense to drive, drive down and score, Tony was usually going to deliver that. I thought, especially in a regular season game. You think it was weird. Did you listen to that? I heard some of the stuff I wasn't in there. I mean,

he's pretty blunt after losses. And he said on the last play, he said, you know, I thought I could dump the ball off to Zeke. I thought he could maybe make one guy miss so we could get a first down. I mean, if you were for nitpicking here, and I'm not trying to, you know, make this a bigger issue, but it was. I thought it's kind of surprising that he would say that you know, because it did kind of sound like I thought Zeke would do it.

You know, I gave it to him and he and if you go back and watch it, he did make that guy miss and he made another guy miss, and he was like kind of bulldozing his way. There's no he had no business getting nine and a half yards, but he did. I really he thought. I thought he was going to get to the sticks. I really did. And honestly, that's you know, I know he played well in some of those touchdowns. Yeah, yeah, he had a

good day. He had a really good day, which is again, why so surprising they lost is Yeah, it's a very it's a perplexing loss. And actually, I mean, you know, talking about going back and watching the tape, it pains me to say it. In that situation, Dak Dak probably had three, maybe four throws that he probably really wants back, and there might not be a worse one than the third down before that Zeke play. Yep, he had deaz on a on a seven out route to the sidelines.

He has room whiffed it as bad as I've ever seen him with a throw like it just I mean, it's sailed on him and it's definitely a first down definitely gets Daz out of bounds and keeps the game alive if he gets it. Um, you get a hindsight here for sure. But I mean it's kind of I even said it to you on the field that it's kind of reminded me of the of the Packer game in the playoffs. But you get down there, and I know that they're moving fast, But in hindsight, do you

stop the clock there? You got forty eight seconds? You're talking about the spike. Yeah, you spike the ball because you need every one of these plays, and if you can get to the twenty five yard line, now you have a legitimate shot. Even with like one second on the clock, you've got you've got a shot to throw it into the end zone and make a play. Because you have dead you're not gonna maybe do a hell Mary.

But if you get in the twenty five twenty eight range, so I think everything counts, every snap counts to get everything you can to get down into that twenty yard line, and then even with one or two seconds, you can still make plays. And I think spiking it there. I know it's hindsight, but that to that point though, and you know, like Derek was talking about, you can put a little bit of this on everybody because on that same drive, if Terrence Williams catches that pass, he's got

a good to get out of bounds. You probably stop the clock with something like one thirty one brought us and I did the math on this, you're probably talking one thirty one. Instead, he drops it. You run the ball with sak just to make sure you get a fresh set of downs, and then you're taking your next snap at like one oh eight, So you're talking twenty twenty five seconds off the clock that didn't need to come off the clock. Just a regrettable second half by

basically everybody involved. And that's the thing. It's like a little thing here, a little thing there, a little thing there, a little thing there, and it one thing in isolation. If you have that one play, it doesn't kill the game, but you put them all together and it spells how you lose a game when you had, when you had a really good game going, how you can lose a game in that What do you think Terrence Williams's timeline looked like yesterday? I don't know because he blocked me right,

but bet it wasn't good. Oh, I'm sure it wasn't good. But that's also that also comes with the territory. When you play well, then it's you know, it's Terence Williams. But when you have a rough game then' he did. He did. Let everybody know it was his bad. He didn't hate that, oh after the play like that's not me. Yeah he did die? Why like fifty times ninety thousand people in the building. Oh, you know, I think you didn't catch the ball. I hate twelve players do it too.

You know I missed the last They tucking to his teammate. He's not talking to the risk his teammates. No, they know. Maybe they weren't looking busy blocking dack. That was my bad, man, I didn't catch that. Let's work my bad or the clap either way when you do them both like bad clap. All right, let's take our final break. We'll come back. We're gonna get some questions. Call us two one four eight seven to twenty one O two again it's two one four eight seven two twenty one O two or

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dot com. Forward Slash Cowboys for twenty percent off your first order Tommy John dot com Forward slash Cowboys. Thank you Nick, and thank you Tommy John. All right, let's get back to it. We're taking calls. Call us two one four eighty seven to twenty one oh two or hit us on Twitter at Cowboys Break. Let's start with a call. And before we go to this call, just want to say my thoughts and prayers it with all those folks out in Las Vegas. Rob is calling from

Las Vegas. What you got robbing you? Luckily I came in for the game. I was at the game yesterday for my fifty birthday, Happy birthday, birthday. Thank you. So I woke up to what happened in Vegas and you still in doubt where you? Did you wake up in Dallas or did you head back home? Now? I'm still I'm still in Dallas. Okay, okay, okay, all night. I got a text for my daughter. She worked Amanda. Oh wow, and she was, you know, freaking out and shooting. I

can imagine. I assume she's okay though, right everybody, I think I know them? Kay, yes, okay, all right, Well, our thoughts and prayers with you, guys, man. I appreciate it. You know, being at the game first here in Texas, it was a it was a pretty cool scene. But I disagree a little bit. I don't think they ran the ball that good at all. I mean, if you take that seventy something, you'd run them what they have? What Zeke? You know? They didn't really they held them

in check. And I think what's really hurting his team? Come, let's compare it to last year. This team lived second and five last year. I think first down is killing this team. It seemed yesterday a start off play action they throw to jump out the DEAs and everybody's like great. It took everybody, buddy by surprise, because you just assume it's going to be a run up the middle. And then they got away from that, and then it was it was second half. It was second and nine. It

was second and eight. Last year they used to do those uh swing passes, he'd roll out. I think he throw to swing. I don't think swings could bowl the whole year. And I think number eighty four, I forget his name, and touchdown pass. I think that was his first catch all year. Yea, it's like they throw to only a handful of guys. Des Beasley Witten and Williams. That's it. And these defenses are squeezing back yesterday. If he doesn't make kind of Tony Romo plays, they're going

to get blown off this field. And the difference to me in the game Golf was just too comfortable. I mean, he's not going to run. He's not a big guy. You hit him. I mean he was going to fly, but he was just too comfortable. And I tweeted Dave Jalen Smith. Everybody likes Jalen Smith. I mean, he's just

a class guy. But you're asking a guy who cannot really run at one hundred percent play middle linebacker where you have to cover both sides of the field, and now you're going to try to have to cover their best offensive weapon. And that's the best to come up with. You couldn't put maybe another safety, but somebody he was. That was the difference. He was the difference for them. And I think the difference with us was Dak just wasn't comfortable. And I don't know what to deal with

this offensive line. It's hard to watch an offensive line during the game, So I can't tell you who to breakdowns are. But what I'm noticing is Tyrren Smith's not the same guy, and maybe that's because next it is not doing what he supposed to do. And I gotta tell you the president there, the guard on the right side, who's probably regarded as the best, Zack Martin, he didn't. So I think I don't think they're gonna flip it during the season, but I think bytions now you're affecting everybody.

And I don't know if they're gonna I don't know if they're gonna take a chance and try to put it back where Collins goes back to guard. But this offense needs to get back to little little passes. Get let's get comfortable second and five, and that's where I think Zeke could be more effective. But all right, right now, unfortunately I'm starting to see an eight and eighteen. All right, thanks for the call. The one thing I will disagree,

and this is one of my pet peeves. I don't like when when fans say, hey, if you take this one runaway, well that's the point. You can't take that one runaway. Is that seventy yard run was a part of what they did yesterday. But if you if you don't talk about the two runs from Alfred Morris. I still think you look at Ezekiel Elliott and you say the guy was averaging four yards to carry. They ran

the ball well, they ran the ball effectively yesterday. I just think personally, their passing game failed them in moments when they needed their passing game. I don't think there

was anything wrong with the running game yesterday. I know that there are there still has been this this pension this season for these negative runs that we really didn't see last year, like on first down, and so yes, that can be a problem, but in a lot of instances yesterday and a lot of instances yesterday, the Cowboys overcame that and they were picking up first downs on second and eight. So I don't think that that was

the biggest problem the Cowboys experience yesterday. I think I agreed with a lot of what the coller just said. Some of it not so much, but for whatever reason, and it's hard, it's hard to try to simplify it. But so offensive line is not as dominant as they were last year. I think everybody can agree with that. I think the number of negative zero and one yard games we've seen in the running game is shockingly larger than it was last year. I don't know that you

can even argue that fact. I still think they ran the ball pretty well. I still think they found a way to get the job done more often than they didn't. Even if you want to play that game and take the Morris run out of it, they still ran for one hundred and twenty yards, which is good by nil standards. It is more than four yards per carry. I can't really kill him too much for that. Um, Dave, add this up in your head. They're asking the wrong guy.

That was like a wrong guy. He had five runs on first down in the second half, Okay, minus one zero, two zero, So we're at we're at one. What was the last one? Five? About six? He had six yards on first down and five and five attempts. Yeah, and that was all in a row, all in the second half. Those are your second half runs. Now, only one of those times did they get a first down in that series, and it's a Dak went for twelve yards on a run which probably was more of a scramble where he

did his own there. My question would be how much did they do that in the first first in the first quarter, first and second quarter. I'll start talking about I'm gonna say, now we gotta start. It's gonna take a while, which als I'll check out of I really again, it's it's hard to try to simplify this too much. Sorry, you're just gonna call him out four five, nine, three, twelve, one thirteen, three sixteen. It's first quarter right there. That's way better than the second sixteen on how many was

it four or five carries? It sounded like four, so roughly four the first down. Here's the first down run for seventy. Here we go that one counts. That'll blow up your average, though. And then and then Zeke on first and goal and zero, so yeah uh. And then he get first and goal again from the from the

two and scored um three. And that's whether whether you want to blame Green Cooper and Lyle Collins or get out of here maybe oh good, great, hey shan, Whether you want to blame the newcomers or whether Zach Martin, Travis Frederick and Tyrn Smith aren't playing up to their old level, whatever however you want to pinpoint this, I don't think that they're capable of just dominantly running the ball. We know we're doing it. You know we're doing it

tough cookies. This is what's coming and we're gonna get five yards like I think they could do that last year. Doesn't look like they can do that this year. Is this all about though, the left guard and the right tackle, Like I said, the changes, and what I mean by that is you have different Those are only two pieces

that are different. Is it all about them and whatever you're seeing as a result of their play and those other guys maybe trying to do more than they should do because they're trying to make up for them, or is it more just about sixty four? Like what what can it be? This is a cop out, But that's a question for broad us really, Like, I'm not the scout. I can't. I'm not going to try to tell you that this guy's not pulling the right way and this guy is too worried about his weak side. Help. I

don't have those answers. I am going to go back and watch it again because I'm curious. Um, But I if I had to guess, it's a combination of everything. I think your left guard and your right tackle aren't as good as they were last year. I think your three all pros are probably overcompensating. Plus they've played some pretty dominant fronts. When you think about Aaron Donald, Michael Brocker's Damon Harrison Denver obviously, um, and then on top

of the US, who sucks on defense? Can we get that's a valid that's about Guess what I mean this defense coming up is even though God is coming to town, like, I still think that that. Oh I'm like who she's talking about? Wow? Um, I pray he's one more One more thing that I wanted to point out is I throw some on Ezekiel Elliott as well, because we were

talking about it this morning too. I mean, you can go back and find plays where there's a hole that he doesn't hit, or there's something that he doesn't happen a few times. Yeah, it's all as is usually the case in these situations, Like to successfully run the ball in the NFL, you have to seamlessly do about six things right on every play, and it's just it hasn't been there for him on a consistent basis this year. That's not to say I don't think they can get

it right. And again that goes back to our point from last week. I think continuity is your best bet. It sucks for everybody that Chads Green couldn't start this game. I'm not gonna dog the guy for getting hurt, you know, I don't like to do that, but he needs to be in there getting snaps. But the fact is, and I know you don't want to dog him, and I don't want to dog him either because of his injury.

But the fact is is if you went into this season assuming that Chaz Green was going to play sixteen games, then you're probably the fool because his history does not suggest that that's going to be the case, and as we saw this weekend, wasn't. But here's what I'm a fool about. How are you getting hurt in practice? Or what's happening? What's happening where you have a hip in practice? Well? When was it in the game practice? I was just making an out, Okay, I was gonna say, I mean

we're talking about yes, well what are they doing? Is this like the program? Like what what do they get around in the circle as bullrush? And I means I will say this other injury, I will say this. Okay, you're right, you're probably foolish if you were counting on Chatz to play sixteen games. Based on his prior history, but having just come out of this game, we all feel like Chaz Green has had the better outings at left guard this season. He's well, you want him starting

if you have. The One thing I will say though, is no, I mean Chaz hasn't faced Darren Don Chazz would have, so yeah, I don't know if I know sixty four wasn't the answer against Iron. Donald was slapping Zack Martin around on a case. And that's my point. So I don't know the Chaz would have fared any

better yesterday. Zekel throw him down on his ass. I'm serious, go back and watch that play that he couldn't believe that plays believe the guy could whiff that much that quick and then all of a sudden it was just it was just like one on one with and he kind of tossed him around so fast. Protector. He's gonna play left guard and Alfred Morris can run the ball since he's so great, right Alfred Morris? And does that

mean we get to mark? I mean that that Darren McFadden is now active, maybe he could be active running back now. Yeah, it's uh anyway, keep tweeting me, keep tweeting me on that one like that, oh hide score. I mean that. I think that was my point though. My point all along was about juice, a guy that can bring you a little bit. I don't trusted Darren McFadden. I'll bet you fifty dollars. I don't trust you, Aaron Donald. Darren McFadden's not getting that ball to the end zone either. Yeah,

I don't trust you no way. How are you gonna bet me fifty dollars? I can't, obviously I can, but I just prove it. Hey, the Packers are coming to town. I remember twenty fifteen, Darren McFadden had a hole the size of the Red Sea and couldn't get into the end zone. I mean, and he was running by himself for about twenty yards and got brought down. There aren't a lot of running backs that are scoring from there,

Ezekiel Elliot. It's one of them, unfortunately, but unfortunately be because he didn't have able, he didn't have the ball in his hands. Yes, well, they end up scoring anyways, it's to go back. We kind of deviated from the call, but yeah, I mean there's some really very real concerns with the way the offense is playing and really their rhythm in their consistency more than anything else. Again, that

was great. The first half was amazing. If they play like that all the time, they'll win thirteen games again. But they've only managed to reach that level of play for I don't know, eight of their seventy some odd possessions this season. Yeah, I mean, how many possessions this season have they looked like that? Probably four in the first half, one against the Giants, which resulted in a Jason Witten touchdown. None against Denver, and even against the Cardinals.

Not really, because you're just chunking up fifty fifty balls to Bryce Butler and hoping for the best. It's it's been disjointed. That's the word that I would use to this point. I don't get Jason Witten back involved. Get him back involved, to move the sticks a little bit,

because it's there. It's there, and like he can get eight to nine yards when you want to, So quit trying to be cute and try to go for all these great big plays and you can decondunc with him because he him and Beasley, these guys they can move the ball down the field. And I don't know why they don't use it as much because every single time when they need to, you see it in two minute drill and they like really need to move the ball. It's Jason Witten and there Jason Witten for ten, Jason

went for twelve. And I know defense is played differently in a two minute but I promise you Jason Witten is available to move the sticks and get first down if they went that route. It's got another question from Twitter. We kind of talked about this already, but do you guys think that this would be a solution to pass more on the first down to give Seek a little more running room. I mean, honestly, I don't think that passing more is their answer. Like the amount of times

that they've been passing this season win. Like, if this team's gonna win, their route success is going to be running the ball now again, they're gonna have to vary it up. I think they need to do some more. I was I was happy that they handed the ball to to Switzer on a play yesterday because I do think that they need to do something else in the running game. It can't just always be about giving Zeke the ball in first downs. Um, But I do think the running game is how this team's gonna gonna win.

And so I don't think the answer is let's throw more. I just think they have to be more creative and find better ways to run the ball than than saying let's get away from running the ball. And I throw something out there that I hate myself for even saying out loud. I think these guys miss Lucky Whitehead at all. Well that role, Yeah, I think I'm talking about Yes, I don't care about his snap stories or or you know, uh,

he won't mind the crap in the locker room. I'm talking about defenses for whatever reason, respected the hell out of him going in motion across that formation. But that's not about them all. He averaged ten yards, Yeah, but that wasn't I don't think that was as much about him as they haven't really done it this year like they have. They could try it with Switzer that yesterday was the first time they tried it he has, and

they got what four yards on that play? They got three yards when they actually gave it to him, but he motioned a few more times other than that word. They didn't hand it him. No, But even still, it certainly seemed like teams respected it when Lucky did it,

and I don't think they respect Switzer doing this. Yes, they respected it after If you go back to last season, the Cowboys were regularly running that every game for like the first how many games, Like they were consistently running that play every game, so teams had to respect it. They haven't run it enough for teams to respect it yet. He's come across, but they have only handed it to

him one time in four games. So do you think if you were the defense, would you respect that much and say, yeah, we gotta make sure we watched that guy coming across. Well, he hasn't done it, so that doesn't make me respect it. So just I don't know that they respect that Ryan Switzer's gonna gash him for until he does it. Well, yeah, we'll see. Um it's a funny catch twenty two because I think just about everybody would agree that this offense looks fairly predictable right now.

But you know, you can sit here and say, maybe you throw the ball on first down instead of handing it off to Zeke. But if you if you throw it in completion, then it's second and ten, then you're behind the eight ball. Where now you gotta pick up five yards on second down or you're in third and long. So I just knocked it up. Damned if you do. Damn it didn't. I didn't count it, but it looks

like about almost fifty fifty pass on first down. Yeah, it might be a little bit more run, but that was because when they got down there at the five yard line. They got down there and they they should do it three times. So I don't. I think they're mixing it up pretty good there, run pass first up. I'd just like to see a little bit more creativity,

try try the Switzer play a little bit more. I think there are other things you can do just to kind of um use your running game a little more effectively. We saw it yesterday. When you have Alfred Morrison. There sometimes defenses you bring in the second running back and they're not keying on him like they would the first running back, and so it does create some opportunities for you. I'd like to see some of those kinds of things happen.

That's not saying take Zeke out a game a lot, but I want that second running back to be able to give me a little something like he did yesterday. What if you sorry, nick. What was the what was a two point conversion at the three yard line? It's pretty much yeah, No, it's at the three yeah, I mean, so that's a three yard play. I mean, I'd like to see that more often. I think it just in the middle of the field, you know, spread out a little bit and and use dak in a situation like that. Um,

I just think at holding call, I didn't. I don't know. I don't think he really was holding. I think he was more dominating the play. I don't think he was either. But he had his hand on That's that's the thing. And when you have your hand outside right and you hand outside in the other hand, it's just just handcaking the guy. Um. Because because when you hold a guy, you know, you're holding him up for something. Usually it's he's standing up and you're that's why he's not moving

forward because you're holding him. But when you're smashing him to the ground, I don't really think that hand, that left hand is doing you know, but it's hard to You just see hand and you have to make the call. But it's a tough break. But I can't fault the ref for throw because of what he saw, you know, if Terrence catches that ball, he catches that ball and tie the game, they go win, you win it with

a field goal. We're talking about Dak's strength. We're talking about a guy that's getting tackled, still pointing, tackling, fires it over there. That was a heck of a player. I really don't think Dak played poorly. He had some throws he could take back. But I think they were in this game because of Dak, not because they didn't lose because of him. I think they I think if it wasn't for him and his athletic ability, I don't think they're even as close as they were. I think

that's fair. It is fair. All right, we appreciate you guys us. We're back tomorrow. We'll take a bigger picture look at what's going on around this CNFC East to Nichael Rochington Redskins play the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, so we'll see how that plays out. We'll talk about all that tomorrow. So then for Nick even, Dave hellmant amber Garcia, I'm Derek Eaglem. This has been the Break live on

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