Cowboys Break: Who's For Real In The NFC?

live from the SWBC Mortgage Studios. At the starts Tuesday. It's Big Pick Tuesday. And today we're gonna make Dave Phil at home because we're gonna have a show that I like to call a gumbo show. We're gonna take a lot of different stuff and throw it all in the pot and mix it up and come away with something great. This is Gumbo weather. It's gumbo weather really is for those of united in the Dallas area. Rainy

forty six, pretty nasty outside, talking gomboy. How's everybody doing today? Good? Awesome, We're good. It's gonna be real gumbo. It's just gonna be like Texas Gumbo because I mean, Dave will call you out on it if it's not like Louisiana's style, because if somebody tries to do some knockoff Louisiana style food, Dave's not having right. I'm out. I'm out if that's the case. I honestly think that Texas gumbo is the

same as Louisiana gumbo. And the reason why I say that, no, No, the reason why I say that is because there's been such an influx of people from Louisiana into Texas that

it just and maybe it's just there I'm from. There's a ton of people from Louisiana, so it's just kind of that culture is now baked into Texas to some degree in my opinion, But I bet you there's gonna be a disagree in to just I mean, if you know, yeah, hopefully it's homemade and you know, somebody who knows what they're doing, because if it's coming from a restaurant, it probably sucks. So let's figure it out. Is it Dave Hellman's famous gumbo like brought Us makes him? Brought Us

makes the mean gumbo? Angie how is undefeated though she's really queen. Any any chance that maybe she sends us some can or she's coming to town anytime soon. Wants to make us a plot. Fly home with me? Can fly home with me this Christmas? Hey talk football? Yeah, talk football. If Cowboys, I mean, I'm sorry, if Texas and and LSU happened to meet up, and maybe that would happen. Really, maybe that would work. We're covering all the non important issues. All right, let's jump into it.

Let's go Cowboys. We've got a lot to talk about today. UM. I was first looking at the Cowboys and where they sit in the NFC East. It's all still jumbled up. With one exception. The New York Giants are just plummeting, uh there at one in five, But all the other teams are right there, kind of lumped in together. The Washington Redskins are three and two, Cowboys three and three, Philadelphia three and three. Um. There are kind of two things that you can look at from the Cowboys schedule, UM,

that you would probably call pretty good. One. Uh, they're playing the Sundry for the division lead after a not so great start to the season in my opinion. But the more important thing is they don't have three games left this season against teams that have winning records as of now, that would be New Orleans, and that would be the Washington Redskins, who they all play twice, who are at three and two, just barely barely above five hundred. Every other team is either at five hundred or below.

And when you looked at the schedule going into the season, you certainly didn't think that about Atlanta. You thought that they would be much better than that. I'm not sure how many other of those other teams that you felt like that. You probably thought Philadelphia was going to be much better than they've been so far. But so far, just looking at the schedule, you have to feel pretty good about where the Cowboys sit and the opponents that

they have to face. They don't have teams like Green Bay, Minnesota, Saint Louis. I'm not saying keep calling Saint Louis Los Angeles rams. They don't have those teams on their schedule. Those are teams that you would say are a lot better right now ahead. That's everything you just said is perception, like it's all for like bs. Basically, I mean, you're you're right, You're right, like I would have thought some

of those teams will be better. But even just then, You're like, they don't have the Packers and the Vikings, like the three two and one three two and one Packers and the three two and one Vikings, like the Packers who needed Aaron Rodgers to be Aaron Rodgers to get past C. J. Beathard last night. Usually is Aaron Rodgers. No, No, for sure, And I'll say it for the ten millionth time. As long as you've got him, you've got a chance. But like, they don't look impressive by any stretch of

the imagination. And really, I don't think anybody does, except for the Rams, the Chiefs, um, maybe the Saints and uh and I'll throw the Patriots in there just because they're the Patriots. I think that what happened on Sunday, it just just shows that you know, they're they're gonna be, they have the ability to be in every game. I mean, this is a this is a team that is starting

to show that they've got something special and that's on defense. Now, if the offense can can kind of piggyback on that, which I believe is kind of what happened. I mean, the offense was able to take advantage of that that strong defensive performances, so I think that you're gonna be Yeah, you don't have those teams on the schedule. You also don't have some of the really bad teams. I guess would that be the Cardinals. I mean, you don't really have that either. So you know, the Giants game is

coming up. They got to play the Giants on the road. That'll probably be tough, just because it always is the Giants, just because the Giants. But so you don't have those teams that are really really tough. You don't have those teams that aren't that good, and you're just gonna be in a fight every game. Yeah. I just after the game on UM, after the game on Sunday, I was sitting there and I was chatting with Todd Archer just about like the league, you know, the breakdown and the

power rankings and who's good and like other. Like I said, there's about four teams that right now you feel pretty confident are good and are gonna have something to say about the playoffs. And then there's I don't even know. Okay, Yeah, the Cardinals are pretty they look like they're pretty rough. Um Raiders aren't. The Raiders are terrible. The Raiders are so bad. Forty nine is record isn't great, but the forty nine is. And that's name name more than like

four teams that you're confidence saying like they're they're awful. Yeah, I mean the Giants because it's try same way. Their records bad, but they're pretty good team. They're not an easy out there. Well did you put in New England in that four first four? I just that of reputation alone,

But yeah, they got beat by the Lions. For you look at the power rankings right now in the NFL and you probably like the Rams are number one, and then the Chiefs and the Pats are right there, and then the Saints have looked really good since they lost in Week one. And then I mean, seriously tell me because it's probably the Cincinnati Bengals if we're talking record, I would guess, and how they've played too, they've played really well. Is anybody really super duper buying the Bengals

to next point? Like, probably not? Are you super duper? I mean the Vikings have a ton of talent, they haven't looked like it. The Packers still believe in the still believe in the Vikings. Well, and that's it's you know, you say the Redskins and the and the who else is the other? The Saints are the only teams of winning records that's going to change, like some somebody will go on up. The Eagles will figure it out. The everybody that get up in the top ten has other

than you know, the Rams and the Chiefs. Other than those two teams, but everyone else has pretty much what you consider to be a bad loss. You know, the Vikings, are they the team that lost bad to the Bills? You know, but the Patriots lost pretty bad to the Lions, and so you know, I mean it happens. I mean, there's another one in there, the two that has a has a pretty bad law. Who else is kind of up there high um, I mean the Saints. Saints lost

their opener to the Buccaneers, who have not looked great since. Yeah. But I think that's also part of this too, is when you look at what the NFL traditionally is, it's about now week six, seven eight when you start to really start seeing teams teams kind of separate out of this pack. And I believe that some of those teams that we saw lose early in the season, that's just the nature of what today's NFL is because as much as there is a preseason, there really isn't a preseason.

The veterans, I don't think, get as much out of the preseason. So they're really getting into their rhythm in those first several weeks of the season. And I believe some of these teams, like you look at Seattle, see that was a much different team than they were and what you thought of them in Week one and two, Like, they're playing pretty good football right now. So I think those teams are gonna start to kind of as they typically do around this time of the year. Pittsburgh's another one.

They're gonna start kind of getting some momentum now, and that's one of the things that actually makes me feel good about where the Cowboys are. To play like they did at that stage of the season in Week six, maybe suggest that they could be one of those teams that finds its footing at this part of the year, because this is when you really got to make Hay, you know, this is the and I said this to you yesterday. I'll probably write something on this tomorrow, but

this is the game of the year right here. This is the game where you have to you can stay on the track that you're on, or you can jump off and get on a different, different plane. And this is it, because this is a division game. This is one that shows the team that they could win on the road, you know. I mean, I don't know if I'm buying in that they're not a good road team

or they're just good at home. Who knows. But this game right here, you can erase all that get a two game leading, you know, pretty much on Washington when you know, be two and own the division. It's just everything you want to happen. It starts right here with this game right here. If not, then you might just be on that track all year long. So I've asked

this question before, I'll ask it again. I like to ask it every Tuesday, based upon what you know now and what you've seen to this point, what's your level of confidence that the Cowboys can be a playoff team? Scale of one to ten, ten being most most convicted that they're going to be in the playoffs. Again, it just comes down to what you think for this game. This is one of those can I can I answer it at seven o'clock, you know, on Sunday? Well, but

I'm saying yes. Every week it'll change to Washington. Then no, I don't think this team is going to be in the playoffs. But did that change at all with what they did last week? As you sit here right now, based on what they did last week, are you more confident or less confident that they're going to be in the playoffs? I'm I'm a little more. I'm a little more confident, but it'll all go down. If they don't beat Washington, then I don't think, because then that game

won't won't matter as much to me. It's kind of what we guys said on Monday, that game won't matter as much as we thought it would. This needs to be a trend. Let's this looks good. Stack wins together. If you lose to Washington and based off everything you know now you're three and four and oh and four on the road, I'll have I will have a lot of confidence that this team can turn this thing around. I would have put myself at like a two going

into the Jags to make the playoffs. Yeah, and that win was impressive enough that I will bump it up to a four. Okay, but I got yeah, I mean that that doesn't mean anything. If they can't translate so yeah, you gotta go beat Washington like this is they got to prove that they can stack two and even three and four types of wins together, especially and that you know, it's no use trying to forecast a month ahead of time.

But everything after the Titans looks pretty brutal. I mean, you got at Atlanta at Philly back to back, I believe, Yeah, I think it's Philly then Atlanta or as they landed they feeling I don't remember one of those two. And then but you got a three three game home stretch after that against the Saints and then a division game or a division game, and then the Saints and then another division game, right yeah, So I mean, yeah, this two division games Saints did into I mean Saints in

between the two divisions. Yeah, from from like at Redskins and Titans with a buy in between. Looks pretty manageable, no doubt. And then you got about four games in a row that I would guess aren't going to be super easy, and so I don't feel super confident at all. And then you know, like the recency of the other five games are way too fresh in my mind. And

that's I was gonna say that too. Is like you think the Redskins podcast or you know the uh you know talking Saints, like you think they're like, ooh, watch out for Dallas or are they like, oh, that's an Inconsist's a beatable team, that's an inconsistent team with a shaky offense. Especially they're coming to us. Yeah, like crap game though, that might call it. If yeah, you're watch out for Dallas, then they can put it together on

you know. I said this though, And now the Saints that's a different story because you've got their their quarterback. But I've always thought any level of football, if you've got the best football player on the field, you know, especially one that's going to touch the ball a lot, you always have a chance. And I think that that any team when they're doing their you know who that

talk or whatever it's called there who they sorry? No who that Sorry Dave, It's okay, sorry, um, then you know they're gonna be like you gotta stop seat because you know, if he gets if he gets crazy, then then that team can can be, you know, a factor. And so I think that's why and that's why Dallas I think has a chance in a lot of these games.

Every game because they have a defense that's flying around the ball making plays, and they have a running back who has shown the ability to put them on his back and and and you know, win some games. So and I agree, I agree with you for what that's worth. And that's what you know, it was so frustrating going

into that game last week. Is like, and I get I get fan frustrations, but like fans want to pull the plug on this season right now when you have the ingredients to win this division, like with what it's looked like so far, And that's I know the NFL is a league of parody and it has been for a while now, but it looks even more that way right now, like everybody, yeah, yeah, Like you know, I

kind of my whole storyline. I didn't pick the Cowboys to make the playoffs in the preseason, and my thought process was like, look at all these good teams, like, how are you gonna get too enough wins to make

the playoffs? Well, maybe what I should have been thinking was the NFC is gonna beat the crap out of each other, and maybe you don't need as many wins as you thought, because there's not that big of a difference between best in the NFC and middle of the pack, like the Rams are literally the only team that looks straight up better than everybody else, because, I mean, the

Saints have a bad loss. They had to you know, scratch and claw to get past the Cleveland Browns, and they played a you know, they beat the Giants by two scores, but it wasn't a laugher by any stretch. So yeah, this this the whole conference looks pretty wide open at about the halfway point. All right, we're gonna take our first break. When we come back, I want to talk about this whole idea of the Cowboys on the road versus at home. Jason Garrett was asked about

it yesterday. He laid out four different things that he thought could be factors or at least common themes. I'm going to pose the question, you guys, which of those things seems in your mind to be the biggest the biggest challenge for the Cowboys. We'll talk about them and come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a thing, then cutting the chord is scary. But then I found out I could switch to DirecTV

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Therapy lip bomb and a Cowboys can cooler. Go to get Jack Black dot com, slash Cowboys and use the code word Cowboys. The Jack Black Playmaker ten bucks free shipping. While a player can look good on paper, it's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than stats and scouting reports when building their team. When picking a tractor, it's why you should rely on

more than specs and features as well. You gotta take it out and put it to the test the Cowboys did when they named John Deer their official tractor. To experience one for yourself, visit your local Texas John Deer dealer or go to my John Deer Dealer dot com slash football. Back to the Break Welcome Back. It is segment to of the Break Lock the s WBC Mortgage studios. At the start, we're having our gumbo show. It throwing

in a lot of different topics. You're making me homesick right now, I'm making myself hungry, actually down, So let's let's jump back in now. I want to talk a little bit about the Cowboys and their own three road record. I think a lot's being made of this by the media, particularly in fans to some degree from the standpoint that I'm not saying sty legitimate. I'm saying a lots big made of it. Though. There's a lot of talk about Cowboys being one way at home versus being another way

on the road. The question was asked to Jason Garrett yesterday during his press conference, and his response was that there are four common themes to those games that they've lost on the road. He said, good defenses that they've played, he said noise, he said blocking hasn't been great, and he said that they were inefficient in the throwing as

far as throwing the ball. Of those four things, which do you think is the biggest of the challenges for the Cowboys based on those four those three games that they've lost on the road, I'm gonna remove my opinion from it and just go with what Zach Martin just told the Dallas media on his conference call because Jason Garrett gave the team the day off, so the locker

rooms not open to day. But Zach got on a call with us and he was like, our communication and on the road has been terrible this year, Like it's been really bad. You know. Is that the noise is

that what's causing it? And noise combined with having a new guy at center and new pieces there, and yeah, I think all that comes together, and Joe Looney has been awesome all things considered, but it certain obviously has been a trying thing for them for Zach to come out and say like, yeah, like we're not we're not getting on this page to the degree that we're used to when we go on the road. Yeah, you know,

I think all four of those things. I mean, I'm a big fan of the domino effect, I really do. I think one thing leads to another, to another to another, and every one of those things. I think you're going up against a good defense number one, so that's on there. And then when you have a good defense, the blocking is probably not as good. So then that's number two. Now you have to pass, and you're forced to pass.

That's not a strength of the team. And then when you're doing that, you're doing it and it's harder to pass and getting the shotgun and all that when you have noise involved. So I think one thing leads to another and it really comes down to that second thing. Good defense, that's fine, we saw one this week, but you've got to be able to block them, and you know, if that's the noise or whatever. But I mean, I

think they're all linked together. I don't think it's just I mean, I think there's four aspects of it, but I do think they're all linked in together. Yeah, I think I kind of agree with the day that communication and noise I think is the bigger of the ones. And the reason why I say that, I think you were You're onto something when you said, think about the different parts that they have in this offense. Particularly, you're talking about a different center, you're talking about a different

left guard, you're talking about different tight ends. Number I'm talking to a number of different tight ends. You're talking a number of different wide receivers. There are just a ton of different parts here that weren't here last year.

So to think that they're going to have the same kind of chemistry to understand without the convenience of being able to say it, going to be able to understand that when I motion you or when I you know, whatever signals that they use, then everybody's going to always be on the same page and everybody's gonna always see the same things, because that's a really a big part of it. Once the ball snap, are they all sing the same things to be able to adjust the same way.

I don't know that that's necessarily happening because of lack of time. The more they play together, the more they'll have that kind of chemistry, and just right now, maybe they just haven't had it these first few weeks. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to take the All Pro guard at his word, Like, if he says that that's a problem for them, I believe him, and I'm sure it's difficult. But at the same time, like these guys blast noise over practice every day starting in July. I mean, like

you know, Connor Williams played in the Big twelve. It's kind of like every during the winning streak with Dak in twenty sixteen, every week somebody was like, oh, you got to go into lambeau Field, and Dak was like, yeah, okay, I've played at Bama and LSU like a big deal, and that's so I just kind of I'm surprised that if it is this big issue, I'm kind of surprised by that, because you know, it's pro football. I feel like you can kind of overcome that. But it hasn't

been the case so far. Yeah, and the results are all you need to look at. I mean, the results say that something's amiss. Don't know quite what it is, and I don't know that it's because I don't always buy into just the home versus road thing. But I do think that tangible things like noise and communication are real because obviously, when you can't have the luxury of being able to speak the things that you need others

to know, then you have to adjust. And if you're not if you don't know each other well enough that if you can't hear them, or you don't quite know that that sign that they just gave you that you just know from mixed past experience, here's what we typically do in this situation. Right, then you're gonna find yourself in a in a bad situation. And now you know the opposite side of that is Jason Witten did this for so long, Like I'm you know, right tackle and

left tackle. It was probably muscle memory that they knew he was. He knew what was going on in the same thing with Travis and Zach. So you take those things out and replace him with guys who aren't assured themselves. It makes some sense. Zach is making the calls right,

and Frederick did it before. Frederick did it before, and it's I mean, Joe Joe Looney said last week he was like, oh, like basically he was like, Zach does so much for us in terms of like identifying the defense and all that type of I mean, this is really getting kind of to another level here. I don't know if it's this serious, but I mean you're talking about the center of the line making the calls down the road and to the one guy down, two guys down.

Now you got the right guard that's doing it. Now he's now he's three players removed from tiring and two I mean, I'm just saying from a tight end, Yeah, what what you say. I'm just saying I don't think that's that's it at all. I think the fact is that you have an average you know, you have an average quarterback throwing the ball and you have average receivers and I'm being not thinking, being nice, and you know, and then they're you know, that's just not the strength

of the team. And when you get into an element where it's it's hard to run the ball against Caroline and hard to run the ball in Seattle, they did a nice job for the most part against them, in the same with them in Houston. So I'm not there yet. I'm one game away from being like, Okay, this is the problem. I'm just not there yet. I think that I think they could have won the game in Houston and we're not even talking about this. But when you say that, though, I think I think checks have everything

to do with that. If you do have, as you say, an average quarterback, and you do have age, as you say, average receivers, then being able to check out of that run that was called to be able to go to a pass play that you know, gives these average receivers an average quarterback an opportunity to be able to complete a pass because the coverage dick stays, they can complete

a pass. You can do figure it out. I mean, third base coaches have been talking to batters for the last one hundred years and they don't speak, so yes, we can't figure out blue there. It takes sometimes, it takes time to figure it out and get eleven guys on the same page. And it sounds like from what Zach saying is that and I heard a couple other players saying this in a couple in the past couple of weeks as well, that all eleven guys. I think

Cole was talking about it. They had these situations in a lot of these road games where he just didn't have all the eleven guys on the same page. Any given play, this guy may have had two bad plays, and this guy has another two bad plays. When you start adding it up over the course of the game, it's too many bad plays for them to win. And that's the issue is nobody is necessarily just every place

screwing up. But if everybody's not on the same page on every player are as close to every play as possible, then you kind of in a bad situation. I don't think it's a coincidence that, um, you know, twenty fourteen, you're talking about a very veteran team. I mean, what are the what are the new pieces on that team? Zach at right, guard and everybody else had been in

place for at least a year or two sixteen. You got Dak and Zeke, but everybody else around him was on their yeah, right, And that's so, and like literally everything's different right now, like the whole you know, the line is shuffled, the receiving corps new, so there's probably something through that. I think that the biggest play from the game UM last week, last Sunday UM that's going

to carry over is Dak's touchdown run. I think that play right there is gonna could change the whole kind of scope of this offense, and and maybe in how teams prepare for him that they have to do that more. I think one thing about Lenahan and Garrett that I've seen is when things work well, they overthink themselves the next week. Well, we threw it deep so many times against the James. We're not gonna throw it deep at all. And we ran Dak a lot in this game against

the jam We're not gonna run them at all. I don't think you can do that. I think they have to the fact of Dak could run. You want that, You want that linebacker thinking that I don't know, and he's waiting for him, because then if Zeke gets it half the time, that that's one less guy he has to deal with. So I think that they're going to play this game a little bit differently now. I think

they've figured it out. I hope so at least that Dat's better running the ball throwing it at times, the Cam Newton approach can work here, and I think that that's what they're gonna do. I'm not ready to say I think they've figured it out. I hope they have. We'll see. I mean eleven carries, that's I mean, that's not even They don't even do a fourth and one sneaks with him, I mean not really that have they done it all this year? Maybe once that with Dak, Yeah,

they've done it once or twice. If they don't do it a lot, how much do the factory though? I know Garrett said yesterday, well some of those are broken plays that that Daks scrambles. They aren't necessarily called run plays. You get it. You get into games like that where and I don't know, I'd have to go back and actually look at all of his runs. Do you guys

have a feel for how often in these games? Even the games which seems like he's run more all those situations where they're called runs or situation, have they been fair because he Garrett made the claim, they've been fairly consistent when it comes to the number of called runs for Dak and I can't dispute that because I haven't gone back and actually looked at them. It doesn't feel like that to me. But I don't know. I wanted to get an opinion from you guys. I haven't gone

back and charted it, but I disagree with that. I can think. I mean, Seattle and Carolina come to mine as if he was running it was for his life. No, no cold called and Jason Garrett's favorite thing to do is act like you're stupid for asking questions. So I don't That doesn't mean anything to me. No, I don't buy that at all. Any you know, yeah, some you know, the the spin and the twenty eight yard run that was that was pure improvisation. But even still that works too.

Though eleven runs, if half of them were called, that's still six or seven and that's all I ever wanted. Six or six to eight called runs per game is plenty. Yeah, and then you throw away and scrambles and stuff, and you'll get you'll get where you want. And that's why I said that about that specific play, that touchdown play, because that's the type of play that was obviously called.

It was a second and ten and it's a play that that you know, they feel like you're you're basically piggybacking off the fact of what what you know you can do in there with ze and so I think that they've got to do that more. That's that's a weapon that they can utilize and that will help everybody around him quit thinking that this quarterback is, you know, this franchise player that's got to be in the pocket

all the time. That's not a strength. You have to play to a strength, and that's what I believe his strength is. Let's take the final break, we come back. I want to talk about Tava and Austin. Jerry Jones said something really interesting this morning. He compared his groin injury to the groin injury of another player that used to be here, and he sat off a quite a bit of quite a bit of time. We're gonna talk about that when we come back. This is Dallas Cowboys

dot Com Radio. Well, a player can look good on paper. It's when he's out on the field that you really find out what he's made of. That's why the Cowboys rely on more than staffs and scouting reports when building their team. When picking a tractor, it's why you should rely on more than specs and features as well. You got to take it out and put it to the test the Cowboys did when they named John Deer their

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skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. Right now you can get the Jack Black Playmaker, a curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, or just ten bucks with free shipping. The Playmaker includes four Jack Black skincare favorites, plus a full sized Intense Therapy lip bomb and a Cowboys can cooler. Go to get Jack Black dot com, slash Cowboys and use the code word Cowboys. The Jack

Black Playmakers ten bucks free shipping. Star Sports Tours is the only official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, offering exclusive game weekend travel packages with sideline access and photo ops with current players, alumni and cheerleaders. That's not all, though, You'll get to talk x's and os with Senior Director of Player Personnel Will McClay and of course with yours truly me, Brian broad Us. You can trust the official fan travel partner of the Dallas Cowboys, and with us

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America's team. Find Stetson Hats in the Pro Shop or at Stetson dot Com. Today Back to the Break, Welcome Back. It is the final segment of The Break live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Start. Nick take it away. Hey, the Big Twelve Championships returning to a T and T Stadium on December the first be there when the top two teams in the Big Twelve Conference face off. Somebody's hooked into thinking that they are going to be there. Please please to become the conference champion

of the Big Twelve. Gets your tickets down SeatGeek dot com, the official ticketing provider of AT and T Stadium. That's December, the first you are going. Last week I bought eight tickets after we beat Oklahoma, I bought eight tickets. Guess what he didn't do? Uh? What what would you do if you were gonna think about your team being in the didn't worry about that, what would you do? You're like, I'm going to the SEC Championship. What would you look at?

I would look at airfare because the games in Atlanta, but the game to worry about names in Dallas. Okay, So you're just gonna say I'm going to the game. That's what he did this week? Yeah, no, I'm not following. What should he have done? Well, you also need to probably look at the Cowboys schedule and see how things are gonna shape up and not worry about that. Well, well, no games have played on Saturday. It's the first Saturday of December. That's what I was thinking. So i'mwhere in

that time? Whatever? You didn't know? No, I didn't, but I was like, I didn't you, Like I told pay ninth, I thought it was one of those two weekends. Either way, I wasn't worried. He's the boss, so I would have I would have I would have flown to wherever we were going to play that next morning and would have been there in time for the game. So you got

eight tickets. The Texas are going to be one of the top two teams, I don't know, but it got a lot better this weekend when West Virginia lost, because now I'm assuming they have to play each other. West Virginia Oklahoma have to play, so one of them is going to have two losses in the conference. It's only gonna lose more than one more conference game. Never thought about this scenario one time. But so you're saying Texas and Oklahoma could play a good player. Yeah, and I

don't want that to happen. I feel no, I feel like our chances of beating Oklahoma twice in one years and kid, take it from someone who championship statum, yeah, take it from someone who lost a national title game to their biggest rival. You don't want to do it.

It's not I don't want to do that. I quick shout out to my guy Mitch because back a friend of mine, but back during the Auburn weekend when LSU beat Auburn, y'all beat somebody, y'all beat USC that weekend, and like he rooted for LSU, and so I returned the favor and root for Texas, And ever since we've

both been having these great seasons. We are, and that's why I think, Like when you brought it up earlier today about the about the possibilities that maybe we could end up in a bowl against each other, I was like, man, that would be so great because we both have that kind of season where and then you'll necessarily think you gotta be in a title like in the playoff. All this good will, you just all this good will fly out the window and I'll just start being obnoxious and

hating texts. Okay, it's okay, okay, you can hate us for a week and you go back to beings talking about college football. Sorry, especially Nick, Yeah, okay, sorry, sorry, mid Western though diss They were ranked, right, are they not? Still? Yeah, don't get me started on that. I told you, but yeah, you told about that. That That was a little messed up. But anyway, they're they're a good team. They're a good team, all right, all right, So let's go on. Um, let's

talk about Tavon Austin. Um. We know that he has has a groin injury that happened in the third quarter, I think it was um. Jerry then this morning on his radio show said here was his quote. We had something similar to what he has, something similar to what Mo Claiborne had a few years back when he was with us there in his groin area. Um he went on to talk about, well he didn't go on to talk about, but we know looking at Moe's career that that injury led to him being out for about nine

weeks of the season. So my question for you guys at this point, obviously, if he's gonna be out at nine weeks, you would be pretty I would assume you'd be pretty worried. How much does how much does Tavon Austin fit into this offense and make this offense go for whatever his role is, so that if he's out it's a problem. Well, there's nobody that really does what he does from a speed standpoint. They're not using anybody that way right now. That doesn't mean they can't change it.

I'm hesitant to compare guys to Mo Clayborne. The nine week injury wasn't that at the end of the season two, wasn't that kind of I mean, I think this team was out of it, and I don't like comparing anybody to Mowe because that there was a more going on there with him so it's a significant injury. Yeah, it's not day to day. I get it. He's not gonna play this week. He's gonna have a buy He's probably not coming back for a little bit. I get it.

But I think there's different circumstances there of why that that lasted so long. You don't buy that nine weeks from Moe means nine weeks for Table because I don't think I think they were out of there going on. I think I think you're one of us is misremembering, because if I remember it was he was he was off to a great start. I apologize for not getting all of Mo's injury. No, No, you're fit. That's totally fair. They all kind of run together. If we're talking Abo,

we're talking about what I think we're talking about. Moe was off to a great start twenty sixteen. They went up to Lambeau and he actually like he made a play that led to a takeaway, hurt his groin, and then he was done basically until it was time to start talking playoffs. I believe if I think that's right, um okay, And that's and that's kind of how Anthony Brown sort of got into the mix and got more playing time. I could be misremembering, but it was a

long time. Um, I'm not. I'm not ready to be worried that he's out for nine weeks, because if he was, if that was the timeline they were thinking, then we would already be hearing stuff about i R even at this early date, I think, Which doesn't mean it can't happen. I mean they just delayed an IR decision with two

guys for forever, so that could happen. Um. My main thing is I'm not worried about it because they're not using him the right way anyway, like Tavon Losing Tavon Austin should be a big deal for this offense, but they just haven't been using him that way. Like he's got far too few touches, considering he's averaging nine yards per carry and had a sixty four yard touchdown, and he's way more involved last week even when he didn't

get the ball. I mean that's so I'm going across and them motioning like they were going to give him the ball several times, which to me should have been just as value. To me, that's just as valuable as giving him the ball. And you don't get that at Deontay Thompson's coming across, right, I probably not no, because they don't have that speed, but like they can do that with somebody, you know, they don't have a guy that replicates that that skill set exactly. But Jason Garrett

even said that yesterday. He was like, you know, we've got we've done those types of things with other players before. I think you said it yesterday that Terrence did it a few times. Not great, but Michael Gallup and Deontay Thompson like guys who can do that, which I hope, I hope they do because it's something I think this offense needs. But I just don't. I don't think they did it enough with Tavon that it turned into this amazing thing that they can't live without. Right, So all right,

let's let's move on. Let's let's one other thing I wanted to hit real quick. DeMarcus Lawrence has five and a half sacks right now. At one point earlier in the season, he was leading the league. He had at least half a sack in the first four games. Last two games, he hasn't had a sack. Um. I think it came out last week that he had a shoulder injury that he's been having for a while, it sounds like, and has not had surgery on it, thinking maybe he might do it in this offseason. I'm not so much

concerned about him as the player. I think he's a warrior. He's going to be a great player for the Cowboys regardless. Are you at all concerned about him from the standpoint of what this might mean for the contract? And I mean, he took a gamble on himself and he's been a team player with this all the way. Like when they franchise him, he jumped right in, like all right, cool, I'm signing it. I'm happy to take the seventeen million. But do you think that this is could be a

problem for him as he approaches this contract. I'm actually way more worried about what it means for right now than the future. Because fourteen and a half sacks last year? Cool, do it again? He did five? I mean, or you know, he was on his way five and a half sacks in four games. It's certainly looked dominant, made a huge difference.

Nobody could block him. Blah blah blah. So like you know that that talent is there, the thing that scares me is he's got a torn laboram which the fact that that's not just this season ending disaster, just football players are crazy, like the play the pain threshold to play in the NFL is insane and like bait. Like we talked to him on Friday, he was like, well, yeah, Like, it's at the back of my shoulder, so it's not a big deal. It's like your muscle's torn, man, that's

not that's how I can actually push. I just can't pull it. Exact, No, serious, he's like, And so that's why when it got hit that way, I was in tears on the sideline. But it'll be fine, Okay. To Mark, tears are temporary. But the thing that scares he had a shoulder injury and played through it in sixteen and they gave him so much credit for it, and it's part of the reason why they love him. But let's

be real, Like he was out there. He wasn't the guy we've gotten used to seeing over the last twenty games. He wasn't for he wasn't fifteen sa tank. He was right. And that's kind of my point is it doesn't hurt him. And we've heard players say this before and I actually hate it. I love the way this guy does it, and even Tyron Crawford's the same way. But there have been guys that are like, I ain't putting bad tape

out there, especially when I'm up for a contract. So if I'm hurt, I'm not necessarily getting out on the field. I get it doesn't scare like. I've seen enough of him being dominant that I trust that he can do it and he's a warrior and he's gonna play, which so like it doesn't change my opinion about whether or not I would want to resign him at all. It does change my opinion about what he can do for me right now, and that's going to severely impact how

good your defense is. I actually think personally, if I were the one writing the check, which I am not, If I were the one writing the check, I would actually that actually makes me want to sign the guy even more. The fact that he can battle through that kind of stuff and still give me good production, still give me a player that has to be reckoned with the teams are still recognizing as a guy they got a double like that, to me is valuable if I'm the one writing in check, so I don't know that

it hurts him. I think actually him continuing to play, you know, he's gonna get some more sacks. He's not gonna get shut out the rest of the year. He'll get more sacks if he gets at eight nine ten range. I still think that's great, and I still if I'm the one writing a check, I'm still willing to sign him as one of the top pass rushers in the league. Yeah, I think what he did in his first four games

of the season kind of helps with that. So you're right, if he's got more and more things going on here and doesn't have the same kind of production, I think he's done enough, coupled with what he did last year, to probably, you know, get a big time deal with anybody, which I agree with you. I think doing it here and showing that he's going to continue to fight through this and be a part of it. And what I liked about him all along is then he's kind of

been the leader of this, this whole team. I mean, I didn't realize he had this kind of leadership qualities. We thought Sean Lee would be that guy. It's really been him, and he's kind of taking that whole defensive line and the hot boys and all that, and and really playing with an attitude. I think, you know, I think he's shown a lot where where he is a captain. Whether or not he's a captain, you know that that goes out there on the coin flip. He's been a

leader of this team real quick. I do want to get at least one question in from a fan. Tanner Carlson hit Us on Twitter said, was last week's game against the Jacks more of an anomaly or more so sign of things to come? I mean, that's that's the question that all of us have. That's that's what we're trying to figure out. Um, you know, this team has had some big wins like that, Um, you know, and they've come back and been like, what happened there? Why

can't they do that again? So that's that's the biggest question. But that's what every team in the league is trying to figure out too. I mean, you're trying to figure out what was that the real Saints against the Bucks or are they actually going to be better than that? You know, was that the Vikings that played the Bills. There's a different team. So everybody's kind of got those games where a headscratcher is good or bad, We'll find

out this week. That's why I think this week is so important to actually show that, hey, mindset, we're not going to be this back and forth team. I will say this, I think it was an anomaly. Not from the standpoint I don't think the Cowboys can be that good. I think it was an anomaly just because the Cowboys won't face that every other week. There will be different kinds of challenges they're gonna face another weeks. I talked

about it yesterday. I think that what they saw this last weekend was a team that has a certain way that they played defense. They don't trick it up, they don't do a lot of schemes stuff. They are basically, our guys are better than your guys, and that's the way we're gonna play it. And the Cowboys found a weakness in that and exploited it. And I think that

that's not what they're gonna see most weeks. What they're gonna see most weeks this team saying we're gonna throw a little of this at you in a little that at you, and they're gonna have to adjust to that, and especially on the road, when you're talking about communication issues and stuff like that. That's where it becomes extremely vital that they are clicking on all cylinders. So it's an anomaly only because of the opponent, not necessarily because

the Cowboys don't have the potential to be good. I tried to get to the bottom of this yesterday. It's like, Okay, great, you knew you could beat Tyler Patman. What are you gonna do to get Cole Beasley involved? When somebody's like, we're taking him away? Right? They don't have an answer to that, which is why you know, in this hot take society, if you're not just like, oh yeah, they're on the right track, like, then you're a hater. Like

that's not the case at all. I just that they have five weeks of bad stuff to go with this one very good week, So I want to see where they go from here. All right, guys, appreciate you join us. We're back tomorrow. We'll start jumping into Cowboys versus Redskins. Dave will give us a scouting report till then for

Nick Eaton, Dave him and I'm Derek Eagleson. 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 Cowboy's Football Club.