Cowboys Break: What Went Wrong?

The travel was The travel was a mess. It was from just as messy as the game, just as messy as the game. The Cowboys lose to well ten against the Saints, and that was not necessarily what we expected the game to be. I mean, we were talking a lot about scoring more points than that, but the Cowboys failed to move the ball. There were a lot of things that didn't seem quite like the offense that we've been seeing so far. Let's just start off with their performance.

Dak Prescott, what he wasn't able to get done. You know during the game, you know what I thought that. You know, you're right, we didn't expect that. I don't know why we didn't. I mean last year it was kind of that kind of game, but we just thought, well, that was kind of different, and it would it would open up, and you know, I just kind of felt like the offense just thought that, well, now I missed that one to Randall Cobble, or we'll come back, you know,

fumble there. No, that was unfortunate. Before you know it, you're in the middle of the third quarter and almost fourth quarter, you're like, they don't have any points, Like it's like that at some point they're gonna get into into gear and they never did. And it's unfortunate. I thought the Cowboys were a better football team. I mean, I thought they were better than that. I still think they're better than the Saints. But that's what's embarrassing about

it is losing a game like that. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm aggravated with myself just because I felt like I was halfway there, Like a lot of it I did expect to see. Like what we saw on the defensive side of the ball against the Saints was exactly what I expected to see. Like a lot of Ben don't break Kamara and Mike Thomas, they got their yards, they

didn't break the game wide open. Forced the Saints to settle for a lot of field goals that played out according to script perfectly, and then I just you know, I didn't think it would be the most amazing offensive performance of the season, but it was. I mean, it was basically a no show. They just they looked rough. They looked like the first four games of last season. Like go throw on the Panthers tape from the season opening last year, and that's what it reminded me of.

Like Zeke couldn't get any running room, That's what. But my biggest expectations were to see Zeke running the ball, and he only got thirty five yards. Again, I'll sound like a douche. I'm sorry, Like I didn't. I didn't expect to see that. I said it on the show last week. I was like, I don't think you're going to have a lot of success charging Zeke up the middle against this defense. I know the stats don't look good on the Saints part, but I think they're up

to stopping that. And the Cowboys disagreed with me, because that's all they wanted to do all night long, was just charge him into a loaded front. Well, when you have Michael galloping there and then Mark battling with the

ankle thing. The run game didn't work. The Cowboys receivers couldn't get open for whatever, for whatever reason you want to pinpoint, when you're tight ends or your leading receivers, it's never it's not going to be a good thing unless you have like you know, Jason Kelsey, Travis Kelsey, excuse me, if you have him, then he can be your leading receiver. Jason Witten and Blake Jarwin. If they're your leading receivers, it's not gonna be a good night.

And the offense just was bad the receivers. And I said it last week and Derek Um we just we just got started here talking about how bad it was offensively. Yeah, pretty bad. I think from a receiver standpoint. I said it two weeks ago. Well, we'll see, is Gallup you know that good? Is he making that much you know improvement? Or is this offense is so good that the second guy is gonna get in there? And I was wrong about that. I mean they're missing Gallup, they're missing another

playmaker because Devin Smith can't really get open. Randall Cobb is him or miss with him. It's just like it works sometimes. But then another times it's just it doesn't happen. Yeah, I thought he had you know, he didn't play. Is great that they missed on two big plays Cobb and Dak. One of them was on Dak, other one I think was really more on Cobbin in the fourth quarter. But either way, the receivers aren't getting open, you gotta put

Cooper in there as well. Are we allowing for the fact that maybe the quarterback didn't have his best game and so if if it's a part of saying that weren't getting open, could it have been a situation where they were open more often than they got the ball and the quarterback just didn't get them the ball as affect, there are there plays going around like social media and stuff like that. I haven't seen that. The thing is, is there some places where it's like, oh he missed

that one. Well, I mean it's the cop throw is a classic example one no, no, no, the fourth quarter. I mean, yeah, cops should have caught that ball. It wasn't well placed passed. It can be both, like everybody wants to pick out both. But I think he put the ball where he needed to on that place. He actually don't I don't put that as much on dec

because I think if you look at it, Lottimore. I think it was a Lottimore that was coming straight for him, And if he'd have thrown that ball in front of him, the cop would have might not have gotten up. I mean he was he was answering. So sometimes the quarterback

has to protect him from what's around them. And I think that was a situation where he threw it behind him so that he wouldn't run him right into that think to sound like Garrett, but on that play right there, and and it happens every time these guys are going over the middle receivers. Yeah, they want to be like Jerry Rice and just be right there catch it on

the move. But line one is catch the football. So he has to stop and say, all right, that's not where I wanted to be, but I've got to catch it and then turn up the field and see and he kind of tried to do it all they're showing the play right there, and you could see you could see he was I mean, he had a beat on him and he was coming for him. And without that,

without him he showed and you couldn't see. You need another I am a firm believer that at the NFL level, if the ball hits both of your hands, it should be a catch. Me too, But thank you, he had to turn awkwardly, like, even with what you're saying about, Latimore could have been a better place ball and Dak

had a few of those. And the crappy thing about this is like, you know when they play the Dolphins at noon and we're done with work at seven, and you can go home and watch the broadcast again or go find stuff on. So I've barely seen anything over again. Like we got on a plane. I collapsed into bed at two forty five in the morning, I got up to come to work at eight forty five, and I can't wait to see the all twenty two. I haven't.

I almost it's almost irresponsible for me to try to, like to do a deep dive on what I saw because I need to see it again. If I see any pass interference, I don't know, Kyle, I don't know if we have that back there, but if we do, yeah, let me know because I have you know, the offensive pass interference? Is that what you ask I haven't seen those two with Cooper. I saw the first one because we were in the press box and you know, broke my neck to look up and see it. And I

didn't think that was a really good call. But the one on the field, I don't know. I haven't well. Cooper did say after the game he was being very careful with his words, but he said the first one, he said, hey, I can understand where they would make that call. Um the second one he said, he really

didn't understand it at all. And I don't know if this is the first one or the second one that was on the fourth quarter of the fourth quarter, it's just, you know, yeah, Cooper's calling for the flag, like yeah, yeah, yeah, flag him. Okay, how was that not on the defense? Like they were hand fighting? There were some really bad calls. Expert showmanship by Lattimore is what that is. But the

problem is Lattimore was already grabbing him. So that's where I'm like, at the war, I mean, best cases, there's a no hauled there because they were both hand fighting. And that's where, you know, it seems like this year, at least, it seems like there's more this emphasis on calling these offensive pass in affearences where there is a

time when you wouldn't get that hardly at all. And again I'm not trying to say that the offense should have an unfair advantage, but I think when they're both hand fighting at the best case show, you don't you just don't call at all. I thought the officials were absolutely terrible. I think I can say that right. I mean to say they were terrible. They were terrible for

both whoever lost that game. If the Cowboys get in position getting another five ten yards kick a field goal, the Saints are sitting here going that was terrible because they got bad calls too. I mean, just be consistent, Just be consistent. I mean, if you're gonna call a tikie tack these quarterbacks slide the last second and Dak barely gets hit and you're gonna give them fifteen yards, then give Bridgewater fifteen yards. When Jalen Smith does it

even worse than that, that's just terrible. I mean, like the inconsistency of that and the fumble no fumble, the OPI which I hate. I really hate complaining about the

refs because they it ain't change. Well, not only that, it ain't gonna change, and I really do believe like it evens out over time, like it's it, but they called that game really terribly, like they were inconsistent, they ruined the flow of the game, like it felt like there were stretches where there was a flag every other play for six seven minutes at a time, and they just sucked. They were bad. They were bad. And tomorrow

maybe we can talk about some things. I mean, I've I've got some some opinions on the refs and we can talk about some of these things. I don't know if we want to bog down the show today with it, but there are some things that I really think they've got to figure out this past interference thing, and and we'll talk about tomorrow. I just feel like you've got to be able to challenge everything. If you can challenge it all, you should be able to challenge throughout the game.

I mean, especially in the like that, Like I guess that Garrett didn't have a time out, but you've got to be able to challenge that. And I just think they've got to figure this out because it's a judgment called this isn't out of bounds, this is maybe it is, maybe it isn't, And those guys upstairs aren't going to sell out their guys down there and be like, yeah, I'm gonna call it unless it's a crazy spearing Saints

Rams play. But that play we just saw, I have a hard time thing even if they could have reviewed that, I have a hard time thinking they reverse it because they still look at it and say, well, it still looks like Cooper pushed out and it still looked like the defensive back gut pushed back. So regardless of what really happened, regardless of all the hand fighting before, I don't think they're going to overturn that, even if you could review it. So I don't know if that necessarily

even solves your problem. But I don't want to get off the rails because we can actually talk about the game. But like the stuff that happened in the Green Bay Philly game on Thursday night just convinced me concrete in my mind. They put that rule in to bail themselves out of another Saints Ram situation, like if a horrible only if a horrible call is going to dictate who

goes to the super Bowl. They gave themselves and out and they're not going to use it anywhere else, Like they're they're just not going to Like I think it was you know it was past interference on Avante Maddox. I think it was Valdez scantling one of those Green Bay receivers. Like it was the most obvious past interference I've ever seen, and they didn't reverse it because they don't want to open that Pandora's box. I like, they're just not going to do it unless it is something

and absurd like we saw in that NFC Championship. You don't think that fumble with Zeke, I mean, I guess I don't understand the rules of what what is coming out the balls coming out or the balls out because the ball was sort of coming out when he was when his elbow was down. I always understood it as the player is losing control of the ball. I don't think he was losing control of the ball at the time his elbow was down. I thought he still had the ball. Now, whether it was moving or not is

irrelevant if he still control the ball. And and so in my opinion, and that's what I understand. I don't again, when you start talking rules in the NFL, it gets so detailed out. I just honestly don't know it did. It didn't look like a fumble when I saw it, and again, like it's so funny, Like if you're listening at home, you have a much better view of what was going on. We're two miles up in the press box.

The jumbotrons are one hundred and fifty feet away in each direction, so you have a view, but it's nowhere near as good as you do watching on a fifty inch TV. The ball he had the defenderant put his hand on the ball, but it wasn't out, it wasn't coming, like he hadn't caused the he hadn't called Zeke to lose control of the ball at the point that the elbow is the amount of seconds that you have to have like hold the ball after your elbow is down, or just like your elbow is down, the play is over.

Once the elbows down, the play's over. It's that word. It's the word stands. The you know, the call stands as opposed to the call is confirmed. And then and this is and did they say stands? And this is the issue. I'll just say it now because we're talking about this. The problem that I have is the officials.

I don't know if anyone saw the Detroit Kansas City game where there was a fumble, and now the officials are they don't want to blow the play dead, so they're like, well, if we blow it dead, then we might kill one hundred yard touchdown return. So they just kind of let everything stand and see what happens and all that. I get that that's fine, but then don't come back in a replay and say, well, what was the call on the field? The call in the field

was a fumble. No, the call in the field was a funbel because you're saving your ass, so that's not really the call. You just did that, so you didn't so you have a backup plan. Why don't you just open it up, be you know, objective about it and

go was it a fumble or not? I mean, they should really have a guylin that Tony Romo Corona commercial just sitting out there and just not even watching the game and say hey, oh wake up, okay a college rule like in how they're doing college Like there's a person that's sitting in the boot that should be just watches the game and says, oh, I don't know about that. Let's do something different here, And I think that might be the right way to do. Undertake the challenges out

who killed Lees. College's system is way way way better. It doesn't slow it down in the game to me, and college games go on longer than But I love football, so I don't care. Just don't really care conspiracy theory as long as we're whining about stuff that's not the actual game, Like the NFL cares more about games going quickly than whether they're right. Like that's what they care about. It true. That's so anyway, they did actually play a

football game, they didn't win it. They looked pretty bad. I'm telling you, I don't think we're sitting here whining about what The Cowboys didn't lose the game because officials. I just thought the officials were absolutely terrible. They lost the game because they just they just kept making mistakes and thinking that it was going to get better, and before you know it, it's the fourth quarter and you've

only scored ten points. All right, So I got a bigger picture perspective question, and I'm gonna take We're gonna take a break, but when we come back, I want you guys to tell me, is this really no different than what happened last year with Cowboys versus Saints From the standpoint of the nature of a close game, the difference being the home team ends up edging out because a lot of things look very similar to me. Let's talk about that when we come back. This is Dallas

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We're talking about the Cowboys loss last night, the first loss of the season. They now finished the first quarter of the season three and one. But just before the break, I wanted to ask the question, how much how much of this is similar to what we saw last year? Last year when the Cowboys played the Saints, it was a defensive struggle. Both teams defenses played really well, both teams offenses didn't really get much going. Seemed to be

the exact same thing this year. From that standpoint. The only difference is in both instances, the home team ended up being able to have just a little bit more than the road team. How many how much of a of a parallel do you see between those? I mean, it's just on the surface, it's eerie. I mean it was one point off of the same score home team one. We were arguing about this a little bit before we came back. It's like, I can't go all the way

there with you. I think for starters, I'm looking at I pulled up the box score, like the Cowboys played such a better game, even on de fence, Like they allowed one hundred and seventy six yards to that team, and that was with Drew Brees. U Kamara had fewer yards on more touches than he did last night. Um, that mean, I said it at the time. I still believe it's one of the greatest defensive performances I've ever seen in the NFL. And the defense played really well

last night. They played well enough to win. They did not play like that, especially considering it was a different, lesser quarterback in the game. Is that also though, the difference of being on the road versus being at home to some degree. Possibly, Yeah, No, I mean that's definitely got something to do with it. And I think you can't convince me the Dome didn't have something to do with how well the Saints played on defense. It was loud,

it was insane. Yeah, Derek's got a freaking noisemeter on his Apple watch that was reading one oh five on the field three. I thought I saw one oh five. Now they were on their big Boy they were saying one thirty, and so it was like, yeah, I'm gonna call BS on that. But yeah, it was it was loud. Yes, we could stop with the fifty fifty. They were wrong. That article was wrong. It was more like, may have at ten percent. Well maybe there were a couple of plays. Yeah,

it did get loud. I said, you know, we leave to go down to the field in the fourth quarter, and I'm walking through the I was walking through the back of the press box to get to the elevator when Robert Quinn sacked Teddy on you know, to force whatever based on I was just gauging it purely from crowd noise. I was like, okay, the Saints picked up the first down because like everybody's cheering, and then the stadium announcers like Bridgewater sacked. It was like, holy crap,

like that many people were excited about that. Like there were some Cowboys fans there, just not fifty percent. Not see is a beast and we got to talk about that I for real quick. Though, Even like even in that thirteen to ten game, the Cowboys offense played better. They were fifty percent on third down. Zeke had seventy

five yards. He only averaged three yards three and a half yards per carry, but he ground out yards Like none of that, none of that translated last night, like the offense looked and it's, for lack of a better word, I don't know. I think they moved the ball fairly well. They just kept I mean, when you think about how the drives ended, the drive ended with an incomplete pass in the end zone. Cobb is there, he just misses it. Whitten fumbles that's on Witten. Doesn't happen a lot, but

it happened at a bad time. Yeah, that's on Zeke and d midpoint of the the field. They had opportunities. I mean that fumble was Zeke was big because it's what six to three, got a chance to get points four half to him say you know what we're getting this? They got it and then I mean it's a six point swing because they're probably gonna go tie the game with a field goal instead it's nine to three. Yeah, I can big one at two point loss. Jason Garrett is going to say this later today, and I'm not

making fun of him because it's true. Like it's something covering this team has taught me that. It's like, you know, when you're watching the game at home, it's like a three and a half hour marathon, but it's I mean it's nine possessions, like it's so few possessions and one of them end's in a mistouchdown pass, two of them in didn't fumbles, Like all of a sudden, that's three, you know, thirty percent of your drive where you had it. You know, it looked like you had a good chance

to get points. One was in the end zone, tour at midfield, take away a third of that. If you even get field goals on all of those, then all of a sudden, you've got nineteen points. Yep, I mean it matters. And that's not to let anybody off the hook, but you know, yeah, if they I mean, there were several untimely mistakes that drastically swung the way that looked. You know, I had to feel I knew this was

going to happen at some point. The whole fact of them not starting very fast and then coming back in the third quarter and moving the ball, and that's exactly what happened last night. It just wasn't enough and they weren't able to keep that going. It's unfortunate to see the mistakes that they caused themselves, you know, in their

own fault. But we keep talking about killing Moore and what he's been able to do in the offense and being creative do it that, Yeah, it didn't happen like there, You're right, it did, right, And I've been super excited with what he's been able to do. But yesterday they faced the real challenge. I was telling Dave before. When you look at the teams that they've played, the previous three teams, two of those teams haven't even won a single game this season, So it's like, Okay, you start

really seeing what these teams are made of. And then now you face a team like the Saints. We all knew it wasn't gonna be easy, but at least use your guys differently. You got so many different tools even without Michael galloping there. It's disappointing to me knowing that ezekularly it got paid. And then you look at this thirty five yards that usually when he's able to run the ball here and there at the end of the game, it adds up and we see that in the stats

and how he was able to help. But when you look at this, it's really upsetting just the way they used him. I thought, even though the run defense is really good, I just personally feel they could have used him a lot more. We're watching here this play like there were even that one he was open on that play that they didn't complete to Cooper. But I don't know.

It's just very upsetting to see the outcome of this game, even though you you mentioned, oh, it's against the Saints and they when you look at them holding them down to ten points, when you get beat by a team that only scored field goals, that's ridiculous. Yeah, do you guys, Do you guys think that that was coming into this game? The strategy offensively was We're going to run the ball

because we want to take this team. We want to take the crowd out of this game, and we feel like we can match up well to be able to run it effective. I think they always feel like they can run the ball. I think that that's just not an ego thing, but they think this team is built to They didn't do that. It didn't seem like they did that early in the season. It seemed like they came out way more great and when I say more aggressive, I mean more aggressive from the standpoint that they were

passing more to set up opportunities to run. It seemed like yesterday, they came out with the intent we're gonna run to hopefully set up the pack. I think that they try to take what's there. I mean, I really believe that they you know, without Gallup, Uh, they don't. I don't think that they have as much confident in the passing game. And you know, we saw it with Cobb on on a player before. I mean, I don't know if Cobb and Dak are on the same page

as much. I mean, obviously they're not gonna be on as much as as Beasley or whatever. But I still think the Cobb situations a little you know, she said earlier's just hit or miss, and that was the way in camp too. Like he had some ten days a camp where he dropped balls unexpectedly, just random balls. Yeah, I mean he's not very smooth. He there are plays that, yes, he'll be perfect, they connect perfectly, but there are some that he he just doesn't react fast enough to where

it's completely in sync with Dak. You know, you've seen like for example, and Maria Cooper, Michael Gallup, they seem to be like on the same page for the most start with for the most part with Dak, but with Randall it's and I think I think too. I mean, let's don't let's don't give Himara Cooper a pass too. I mean, he's supposed to be that. He is one of the best receivers in the NFL, and he's gonna get paid that way. But I mean, I think Lattimore

beat him. You know, I think Lattimore got matched up a lot and Lattimore outplayed him. And you know, he kind of whipped Xavian Howard last week. Uh in you know, we thought it was going to be very similar, but I thought Lattimore, you know, won that. If they if they're doing the top ten players like we're doing, I think Lattimore probably should be number one or two on that list. He played a really good game. I just and you know, I want to watch it again to red.

But man, I would I could have can. I would have believed this was the game plan for the Dolphins because like the added, like the the vibe that I got from the Cowboys is like, we're gonna line up and our eleven are better than you're eleven, and we're just gonna bully you and do what we want against the running defense that hasn't given up a hundred yard rusheran like what thirty games and like no so and like that'stically Like I was talking about that with Brian

this morning. Is like stats lie I said it last week. I was like, they're twenty sixth in the league against the run. It looks bad. I don't think you're gonna have a lot of success just trying to plow the ball on these guys. The teams that have had success against them did a lot of misdirection, did a lot of readoption. I said that at the end of the game last night is what the Cowboys wanted to do, Like where down the defense so that the four yard

gains start turning into eight and ten yard gains. The Saints did it, But did you ever get the feeling like they were just smashing into the line for no reason? No, they were running screens all night. They you know, Taysom Hill had that fantastic read option keeper. They were keeping the Cowboys guessing and getting to the edge on them and getting them off balance. Like where where was that from the Cowboys? Like that was the difference? Where where was that? Why did Dak do none of that? Why

did Tony Pollard cease to exist? Why were all of Zeke's carries in the A and B gaps? Doesn't make any sense to me, Like it looked like nineteen fifty five. And I was thinking about this while y'all were talking. What was Dak's best pass of the night, like easily did what was that? It was up the middle of the scene. But it was a play action pass, wasn't it?

I mean? And they did do a few of those, but like it just it did not feel like he did it fifteen times against the Giants, fifteen play action passes. He completed fourteen of them again. I need to see the game again. I struggled to believe. And they even came close to approaching that un they're smashing the run like that, then play actions what you have to do? Yea. I wish we had this play on a highlight because

I don't know if if they do. But I thought the reverse to Tavon Austin, was it really been like the one time they tried something like that it worked. I mean it didn't go for forty yards, but he got it didn't work, you don't think so? No, he got seven yards six on a night when they averaged two and a half I mean the average and giving him too much credive second and five and it was

a reverse to Austin. He gets three yards and they third two was the incomplete pass the cop And you know, I'm not saying Dak needs to play offensive line, but but he did miss the block. He didn't get in the way. He's like he should have if he can get in the way, And I think Tavon goes around the corner, and that could be a really big play. It was just a small little thing in the game, but he couldn't get his body around to get in front of the defensive end. Tavon's probably gonna go ten

fifteen yards. It would have been a difference there. I should have put that one in five places. But my thing about that is really it goes back to as as far as a running game is concerned, there are more creative ways to run the ball, and you don't have They didn't have to just rely on Zeke just running straightforward. They could have done some of those things where Dak could have gotten the ball and run a little bit more. In design runs, you could have gotten

Pollard involved a little bit more. You could have been done a little bit more in your jet sweeps. You got all these different weapons, why not use them in order to be able to pick up yards in a running game? And if nothing else, it forces a defensive respect the fact that, yes, we're gonna run, but we're not gonna run the way you think we're gonna run, and that opens up more opportunities for you to be able to run laze because you're they don't They're an

outlet guessing right. They don't know who's going to get the ball at any given moment and where it's going to come from. You know, ESPN does those next gen stat charts and it's out there on Twitter, like you can see every touch of Zeke's game and where he went with the ball, and it's all it's just like twenty five little squiggly lines in between the guards basically, like it just looks gross watching some of them now.

And I don't know what, you know, I'm so confused because you see the Cowboys doing so many things in the first three games of the season, and then you get to this opponent and you've it's like they were intimidated in a way. They're like they backed down a little bit from doing what they've been doing and just trying to be more explosive, more dynamic, getting everyone involved. Yeah, I understand that certain place that was more on the fault of the play, you know, just missing it or

doing something wrong. But at the same time, it was they just didn't seem aggressive enough. No. I agree with that because I mean, why is it Devin Smith on the team, Like he's on the team because he can run. It's not because he's this great polished route runner or whatever. He's on the team because he could be a track guy and he can fly. They don't take advantage of that. And if they're if they're stacking the run like this and all the like Dave said, play action more and

utilize why Devin Smith is in the game. He's not there to sit there and run passes over the middle, like least throw it deep and be aggressive and back them off. Yeah, and I thought that that was a miss. They're not throwing the ball deep down the field. But I will say that the fact of the matter is, and I was talking to Brian about this, he was able to go back and watch it, and he was saying they were in Cover two a lot last night, which, again, if you know Cover two. You know, the best way

to beat it is right up the seam. That's where they had their big play. The fact that they didn't go to that consistently again, whether they're going down filled with with Devin or not. You know, maybe they just side and cover two. That's not the best option, but at least you could still get chunk plays up the same. My point is they just weren't doing that at all. It didn't seem like and maybe it was because they called it. There were opportunities. Dak didn't see those guys open.

Dak didn't get the ball there. And that's why I said at the beginning of the show, until I have to until I can go back and watch it for myself, I can't rely on the fact that Dak had the right the best game either, Like you can't just say I don't think we can just say that the receivers weren't getting open. This could have been a situation where they were getting open as much as they normally do and just for whatever reason, the quarterback had a bad

game and the offensive line got beat. I mean, and that's something we don't see a lot of. I'm not you know, Travis Frederick really there was a couple times where he was struggling, he was missing place. I don't know what to think about Zach Barton right now. I don't know if I mean, he's not practicing very much because of a back injury. There's no way it magically feels better on Sunday. I think that there's an issue there. And then to make it worse, we haven't really talked

about I don't talk about it. Well. I mean you know that that that was probably the worst play in the game in so many levels that like the Arizona game years and years ago, right, And it's so weird that you think you say that, no, because as soon as they got that sack, and I'm like, wow, this is now they do it is go get a field goal. I even thought about that Arizona game in two thousand and eight, like, maybe this is not as good. Maybe they should have just kicked it to go up five.

Then you get the twenty five yard line, you gotta go score touchdown. But as it turns out, the sack was a terrible decision by Dad. Gotta let it go. Then it gets thrown into Tyron Smith. Well he's out what probably three or four games, I mean, maybe we'll see Tyron is the warrior of warriors. But didn't look good, not just in the he got to walk one hundred

and fifty yards to the bus. That's awesome. Thanks, no golf carts available there, Like it's and intends not just he got he got carted off the sideline, tried to walk off the field and like fell to his knee after about ten feet and like it's not good, which costs them ten seconds? It did, and seconds would have been big think about. Yeah, but if you've got you know, what was the final play? What was the four seconds on that final Yeah, it was two seconds left, I

think two seconds when he spiked it. Three, it's just three. If I could if I could go for the guy running the clock, he's pretty fast, so you get quick. Oh no, I'm sure that if I could go, if I could go back in time, and it's like all of this is gonna play out, Tyron's gonna get hurt, You're gonna get to midfield. You can spike it. You have like a fifty percent chance to win this game thirteen to twelve, or you can just kneel it and lose and have a one hundred percent chance of losing.

But Tyron Smith is still healthy. I'd take that and be like, give me Tyron Smith. And that's why we're talking about the O eight game against the Cardinals. They make a fifty three yard field goal to force overtime, and you're like, wow, they came back. Now it's in overtime. And then in overtime they only play. Then ran three plays. Romo breaks his hand on one of them. Then they pumped the ball and it's blocked for a touchdown, and the punter breaks his foot and he's out. He's an

All Pro punter. So you lost your quarterback for three games and your punter. You would have just missed the field goal. We lose the game. We lost anyway, so help me on this. I will say that the thirteen ten Saints win that we gush so much about Cam Fleming started at left tackle, So like, I mean, he's not He's not a horrible tackle. And trust me, we've seen horrible tackles. He's not Tyron Smith. No, but he's not a horrible tackle. You can figure out ways to

make this work. But I did have you must you started doing the combination of Okay, now, Tyron, now you got Sack Martin dealing with something, Travis Frederick who didn't necessarily have the best game, So all your Pro Bowl guys kind of having to deal with something. It will be night before you get to that point. I will say this, and I understand that you know you played a team without Hall of Fame quarterback, so you know you could have won that game. But injuries are are

testing the depth of this team. I mean, without Tyrone Crawford, without Antoine Woods, I think Antoine Woods in the middle there that that's a that's a loss. And then of course Gallop too. You're starting to see and we'll find out when Cam Fleming comes in there too, like they're getting they don't have great depth in some of these areas too, and it's starting to be tested. Question I have for you guys, the play that that Witten ended up fumbling, that was up the same correct or. Was

it like an end route? I don't remember what the route was. I just know we ended up in the middle of the field. I don't know where the route. I think they already ran it they I mean it it was like an in It was an incut, Yeah, it was. It was one of those plays. Where I was like for the fumble, I was like, man, old man still making I mean, it was a nice play where it was like just kidding, well, you know, and

then he fumbles. I mean the only reason I'm saying that is because you look at that play, you look at the jar one play, you even look at the play that was the second to last play to Cob where they got its position, all of that in the

middle of the field. It just screams the fact that the Cowboys missed opportunities but not taking advantage of I take the Cob play kind of out of it because you know, the Saints are guarding the sideline, so that that's going to be absolutely absolutely But I guess the point I'm making no is I do think especially if they were in cover too and I have to go back and watch this, but again talking to Brian, he says they were in covered too quite a bit last night,

and it just seems to me that is a natural opportunity for you to be able to hit the seams and to try to take advantage of the middle of the field, and it just doesn't seem like they were doing it, and they did see them their most success it seemed like happened in the middle of the field.

Sportswriter's curses that, Like I watched the Saints Seahawks game and I was like, A J. Klein's not a very good linebacker, Like that's a favorable matchup for the Cowboys, and like that might be the play of the game. Balls at midfield with seven to play, you can run whatever offense you want, go tie the game or maybe take a lead going in a halftime. And he just popped it out against the goat, and it's just you know,

it's not your night of Jason Witten's fumbling at midfield. Yeah, we're gonna take our final break when we come back. Let's talk a little defense. We gotta get some props to this defense and how they performed. We'll do that when we come back back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Your new apartment's big, such a great deal, it's okay, just okay. What's not right above the subway? Well, I bet you don't even notice it after that's my neighbor. Angus.

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You can trust the official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, and with us you'll travel like a pro. Visit Cowboys Travel dot com to book your travel package today. Back to the break Welcome back. It is the final second of the Break Black the WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star Nick you want to give us a little

YEA Cowboys Hour tonight at the Omni Hotel. It's the Miller Like Cowboys Hour presented by Albertsons, Brad Sham, Kevin Turner, Taylors, Turned to Down for LP latasars Abris to a philom for more information and go Dallas cowboys dot com slash Cowboys Hour. I believe that's a six pm, six or seven, so I think it's six six six, six six o'clock. Yes, six pm. All right, let's jump back into this thing. Um. Let's talk about this defense. They held New Orleans to

no offensive touchdowns. There are only four field goals allowed. They had five sacks, one interception. Uh. They own allowed one hundred and forty nine passing yards. Although Kamara seemed like he had a really I think it seemed like he had a bunch better game than he did. When I saw the statue, I was actually surprised he had as few yards as he did. Seventeen carries for sixty nine yards. Again, not a bad day, but I thought he actually it seemed like he had way more production

than that. Also had three catches for twenty yards. I guess when you look at this overall, what were the positives that you can take from a performance like this, because obviously the defense played pretty well. Just as a team, thinking about how well the defense played, we've been waiting to see this defense. What positives do you take well to five sacks and an interception? Though the two things

that you know you wanted them to do. To become an elite defense, you had to have more pressure, more sacks, get the turnovers, keep him out of the end zone. They did all those things. They did enough things where they should they should have won the game. And if the Cowboys have five of those play, if they had two of those five that they score and they're you know, made a field goal and a touchdown, then you know they win that game twenty to twelve or something like that.

That's where it should have been. But they did everything they could to win. Robert Quinn and Jayal and Smith did a great job after the game of saying, you know, this is a team effort. We're not pointing fingers. There's more we could have done. And good on them. It's week four, they're three and one. There's no reason to throw people under the bus. But they did do enough to win. They didn't need to do more. I mean, five sacks, got to take away no touchdowns. That is

a winning effort in the NFL. I'm sorry, and I mean sure, theoretically they could have done more. They could have scored a defensive touchdown, whatever, but like they you cannot put that on them. And he I mean Kimara. He started to have more success in the first in the second half, you saw him. They didn't have a bad game tackling, but he you know, it's that's why Jason Garrett is so insistent on running the ball, because it gets easier as a defense gets more tired. Even still,

he had eighty nine yards of offense. They held him to half of his production against Seattle. Mike Thomas had ninety five yards. Most of it was pretty quiet by NFL standards. Like I said that last week, He's like, if he has ninety yards but you keep Kimara in check and they're not going crazy, then you did your job. I don't know really what you could criticize them for. Can you talk to me a little bit about DeMarcus Lawrence and how much he was out of the game

last night. I know we were watching quite a bit in just different situation where he wasn't out there, and it was in moments where you would think, hey, this is your best player, at least from a stampoint. How much money you paid him, Why is he not on the field? What do we know about that? You know, I asked Jason after the game, and he didn't really

give me a good answer at all. He looked kind of pissed about it actually, because I asked him he wasn't playing in the fourth quarter on a key drive, the biggest drive of the game, and he wasn't playing, and then he kind of got in there late and then he got hurt. So I said, was he playing? Was he hurt throughout the game? Was he rotating? He's like, he's gonna be fun. Okay, Well, that we didn't answer the question at all. It needs to be asked again.

I mean, you know, like you said, and you were like, well, maybe he's not one of the best players, and I'm like no, I mean that was You're like, the best players gotta play. Well, maybe they don't feel like he is. And I'm like, obviously they do. But but it wasn't just him. There were other guys too on the Differenceive, yeah, but nobody was missing the amount that he was. I mean, Jalen there. They've made it clear in these last couple games that Jalen they'll sit him down for a series

or two. I mean it's almost like the running backs that he'll have a series where he's out of the game and no have somebody else in there, or there'll be times no, just put somebody else in. I don't know if they're trying to keep him fresh or what, but they they're doing that with Jalen, But last night it was to Marcus apparently say it was it was even more than that with DeMarcus last night it seemed like, hey,

more than anybody else was out of the game. And situations where you would think your best players should be in the game. Five minutes to go, you're you're down twelve to ten, your field position game, you need a field goal, and you know they paid him twenty one million dollars a year to go and make for moments like that, and so either either just say he's hurt, he's banged up, or what I mean, but don't play Joe Jackson over him, and then just trying to say,

well we're rotating, that's that's false. You don't do that because you don't need a twenty one million dollar guy to do that. Because if that's the case, then and also say well, at that point of game, we should put Pollard in. They don't do that, do they. Zeke's out there, and Zeke's gonna be out there. There was this is your guy, get him out. There was a pretty clear pattern at like it was like Carrie Hider was the first and second down and the DeMarcus would

come in on third. And I'm like, I know Rod likes to rotate his guys, but this is crazy, Like unless I mean, unless he's hurt, it's weird. And I don't know what else to say. And I still I take issue with the people that say he's not playing well when he is out there, because I again I think they're that's hidden stats, Like you could see him occupying double teams, blowing up the left side of the

or the right side of the Saints line. He did it a few times, and I would argue, if you don't think he's part of what's leading to Robert Quinn's success, I think you're crazy. Still, what was that like, if he's healthy, he needs to be out there more often. Yeah, And I kept I kept looking at the sideline to see if, like if they took his helmet away or if he looked up said and I didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary, and it's it's just confusing.

And for that matter, I think it's weird with Jalen t I mean, it's it's almost like they pay him an in They're like, let's take care of them, right, Let's let's protect them once you pay him. And I'm like, that's the point when you let's go like they're paying guys, let's get him out there. And this is this always creates weird situations like this happens. There's way there's always

more to the story than we know. Like there's so many interesting things that go on that never make it to the public, not even to like insiders like us, but they keep those things a secret, and it leads to all this speculation and it's like, well, what's wrong with DeMarcus? Does he suck now? Like is he hurt? Is he dying? Like what's going on? And like, I know I'm exaggerating for to prove the point, but like it creates this firestorm and maybe you'd be better served

by just telling the truth. Like it's kind of like Todd Gurley, nobody still knows why he wasn't played the end of that last year, but they just basically what didn't have him out there? And I feel like it's kind of a similar thing going with saying maybe you'd be better served by saying this is why we're doing it, and we think it's a good idea because of this, and we'll go from here, and instead they don't, and there's this firestorm about like what's wrong with Jay Lenner,

what's wrong with DeMarcus? And I don't have a great answer for you, but everything we know about DeMarcus and how fiery is and how much he seems to love to play the game, it suggests to me that there's a reason why he's not out there, like he is not the kind of guy that has traditionally in his career been a guy that's out of place, like towards the end of DeMarcus DeMarcus Ware's career here he was out of game significant amount of time, like he would

be on the sideline during plays that were pivotal plays in the game. That has not been what Tank has been to this point, and so it makes me think that something has changed, whether it's it's either that the team has decided they want to, you know, kind of rotate him more, or there's something going on with him

and we have to figure out which one. I mean, maybe this goes back to the part that he didn't have a preseason and again, you know, coming off surgery, right, and you know not to make excuses for the guy, but like you know, maybe they're trying to work these other guys in who have had more of an offseason in better condition and blah blah blah blah blah. But again none of them as good as him, No, of

course not. But we're we're just spitballing here. And again it creates all these crazy side stories and it's definitely weird. I mean, there's no way his snap count. I mean, he usually plays up near seventy percent, and I just I don't buy that his snap count was anywhere near that last night in a game you needed him, you really needed him, all right, Just real quick, before we in the show, I did want to We talked a little bit about Tyren Smith, but give me a rundown

on the injuries Tyran, Xavier Woods, Cavan Frasier. Do we know anything at this point about those three guys who all left the game at some point for it, dude, injuries not anything concrete. It's a significant ankle sprain situation for Tyron, which again I mean, he's like they'd say, the dreaded high Jared Jerry Jones said it's high ankle. He didn't say sprain, like you know, it's high ankle. Yeah, high ankle. So I mean Tyron's like the toughest dude

I know. So I know you never want to put a definitive timetable on that, but he was moving pretty bad. Doesn't seem like something that he's gonna be able to play with. On Sunday, Michael Gallup is on the chords, which means you know it's getting close to coming back. I still don't think he'll play this week, but we haven't I've been told that at all. I just feel like, probably not. Antoine Woods. I don't know about that one. I don't know if he if he's ready to come back.

I know they need him for sure. And then for Cavon Frasier, pectoral injury out so significant, I mean just quickly ruled out in the game. I think that usually is a significant injury for it. I mean, maybe even I are I hate to throw that out there, but it could be. Let's see its Most teams do their Monday wrap up press conferences earlier in the day, whereas we're later, so four or five pm. You cool with that, though,

You like the night press conference. I love I love the night press conference, especially coming after a night road game. It's my favorite. Yeah, just sit around and wait, Sit around, all right, guys, we appreciate you join us. We're back tomorrow. We'll be our normal time tomorrow at eleven forty five till then. For Nick Keatman, Dave Film, and Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on

Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.