Cowboys Break: Who's to Blame?

WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. Today we get into the Eagles. We're gonna talk a lot about these Philadelphia Eagles, particularly particularly the offense of the Eagles. Nick's can also break down his storylines for the week that he sets up every week on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. And of course we have to talk a little bit about an injury. It seems like that's a common topic right now. But yesterday we find out Cowboy's loose Tyrone Crawford looks like

for the season. What do we know about that? I mean, like, when is this something that he came into the year with and just kind of got progressively worse? This is something that he's had since the end of last year, and you know, he tried his best to get it right. I said it yesterday. Is like as far as as far as like injuries that end your season without being like car off the field, Like I feel like the writing was on the wall for this, Like it's not

super surprising. Yeah, Tyrone didn't have much of a training camp. He's been trying to rehab this thing since at least the spring, if not even earlier than that. You know, and you know, he played the first two games and when you heard he missed two games after that, and you know, like right after the Washington game, they were like, well, Tyrone's gonna miss this game. Like it's not even a question of practicing Thursday Friday, He's just not gonna play.

You're like, Ah, that doesn't seem like a good sign. And he tried to got it out, couldn't do it. He's gonna get surgery. It's fair to say this raises a lot of questions about his future with the team. I think they can save something like eight million dollars if they cut him this offseason. Obviously he's a huge locker room guy, big in terms of culture. But you do wonder if maybe this is the end for him.

Tell me what this means for the rest of the roster, what the Cowboys have left, how they filled void that he's he's gonna lead by. You don't fill that void this year because they don't have a player like him. And that's why he's on the team. I mean, it's not why he's on the team, but that's why he's one of the captains, one of the hires paid players on the defense because he can do some things that other players don't and as far as stopping the run

and getting some good pass rush. He's tied for the team lead with tackles for loss with two with Jalen Smith and Christian Covington. Tells you a lot right there, given the fact that he hasn't been playing all the things say, that's a low number for weeks. It's a low number. And we're not talking about a starting defensive lineman right now that's in that group. Um, because Christian Covington has been a backup, he's played some, I guess for our woods, but um, Jalen Smith is a linebacker.

You know, you just think you'd get more tackles for lost there. So I mean Tristan Hill. I think we'll we'll play more. That doesn't that's that's gonna be a drop off, and then they'll have to figure out, you know. And then Dorn's Armstrong's banged up a defensive end. So you know what we were talking before about these these injuries coming bunches. There's your two defensive ends, Crawford and Armstrong. You have two corners banged up, two receivers banged up,

and obviously the two tackles. And they did. They signed a guy by the name of Justin Hamilton. He's a he's a one technique type of guy, six two, three twenty like kind of big fatty that that sounds calling a pro athlete a big fatty. He's the trash can full of dirt type of dtack well that a lot of people have said this team needs. But that doesn't necessarily replace Tyrone, Like, that's not really what Tyrone did. So I am curious about that, especially Dorn's Armstrong is

dealing with the stinger. He's not practicing today, So there isn't an obvious clear cut candidate to take those snaps that Tyrone was interested might not play. Actually, if you think about if this guy's ready to play. Jason Garrett did I mean Jason Garrett anticipates that this will be an opportunity for Hill, but even still much experience. He's been in the eight career games. He's the classic like

on and off of practice squads type of guy. He's been in the league since fifteen, but he's only played in eight career games. He's got three career tackles. Yeah, he hasn't done a whole lot, but he's been around. He's been around since fifteen, but he's only been on

a fifty three man roster twice before this. He was with he was a training camp with the Chiefs and hasn't He hasn't been on a team since he got cut at the end of the preseason, So I would think he's practice squad eligible too, don't you think eight games? I don't know, but that's but he's been on a lot of practice squads already to this point, Like he spent the year with Seattle's. He's been around, so I don't know if he has eligibility or not going back

to training camp. I think we had the conversation a couple of times about Carrie Hyder and the fact that they were moving him around between defensive end and Hyder's a guy that would benefit from Is this a guy that now has to can slide into a role similar to what Tyron Crawford was was having. And I'm not talking about the production necessarily as much as it is just the flexibility of being able to play all those different positions. Maybe he becomes that hybrid player for them,

or maybe you just don't use a hybrid player. And that's why Hamilton's here is like, now you have two pretty clear cut one techniques in Wood. Well you got well, you got Woods and uh and Hamilton. Now you got Hill and Malik and then cot Covington could probably do a little bit of both. Um, you have some guys who could do both in the kitch right, not your end tackle, right, I don't know that you have a true like end tackle. I mean, I know Hyder, but

we haven't really seen it since the season started. And you know my thoughts on that, I think, as good as it sounds, as good as it is to have on game day, I think it hurts the players progression too, and it definitely hurts them in terms of their stats and you know, relative to their contract and all that. I mean every year. I remember asking Tyron Crawford at least three or four times since he's been here, what

is your position? And he's like a good question. I mean, you know, and it's a guy had to keep changing his weight back and forth dealing with that, and people don't realize. I when that came out, that the report and the news about him getting the surgery and being out for the whole year, I saw a lot of people on Twitter being like, well, doesn't matter, he wasn't

doing anything. Like. What some of those people don't realize is how he actually impacts the defensive line and even if he's not the one making tackles or getting to the quarterback, he is still affecting the way that the rest of the guys on the d line are. He was playing really well last year, and I thought, you know, I thought, you know, we said yesterday, I thought that was a big issue. Oh this year, you think that that I was making something. No, I didn't. I really

like the way he was going out of yesterday. It kind of took me aback. And then afterwards when I heard the news, I was like, yeah, you thought the emplier was emptn't know that I mean that I'm not I'm not saying that I knew, but like the writing has been on the wall, like you have. You know.

I talked to Tyrone in the cafeteria back during July and kind of got the sense that I was like, I thought you would be further along with this than you are, and like not in like an accusatory way, but just kind of like this is a bigger problem than I thought it was. And then he was admit, he admitted, yeah, just kind of like you know, still working on it's still like really grinding hard in my rehab. And I was like, oh, like I didn't realize that's

where this was. And then you know, he didn't have a training camp, and again you play two games and immediately have to sit down and it's not like, oh, he might be ready to play, it's like, no, he's not gonna play. You just sort of you know, I didn't know he was gonna get shut down for the season, but I was like, this is a prod, Like this is more than you know he did try. Yeah, he tried. He's you know, Brandon Carr. Before he left for Baltimore, he bestowed the crown on tyrone of good dude, good

player will never get credit for what he did. Because of what he made, They're gonna hate you. Yeah, here you go. You know your payment, your repayment for all the money you made. Is nobody's gonna like you. And my hope is my hope is based upon that they can find a contract that's a little more suitable to his role, yes, and keep him here because I think

he's a valuable type player to have. He's just making enough money to where he gets unfair criticism in my opinion, maybe and maybe it's not worth the money that they're giving him for what they're asking of him. Maybe they get a deal that actually works for both sides that is a little more commenced what they're asking. I'll tell you this, much like Travis Frederick, he's not gonna go anywhere like he's again, he is a big part of that culture, that locker room. Like he's going to be

in every meeting. He's gonna be coaching the other d lineman like there's no obligation to be here when you go on IR And he's gonna be right in the thick of everything, just like Travis was. All right, Let's go ahead and take our first our first break. When we come back, Nickell tell us a little bit about the storylines this week, Cowboys versus Eagles, and then we'll get into breaking down this Eagle's offense with Dave Dad when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot

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Quarterbacks n Cresscott pushes up the middle touchdown. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com to get your tickets today. Back to the Break. Second segment of the Break live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star with talking Cowboys Versus Eagles. Nick set this thing up for us. There there's a story right on Dallas Cowboys dot Com each week laying out the five major storylines for each team. Let's talk first about those storylines for the Eagles. For

the Eagles, well, obviously they're head coach Doug Peterson. You know, he had some headlines this week camp coming out and saying, I mean basically saying that day we're gonna go down there in Dallas and we're gonna win this game, and when we do, we're gonna be, you know, first place in the NFC East. I mean, I thought it was it was it was right on what he was saying about. You know, he's he's definitely able to say that, and he did retract it a little bit and say that,

you know, hey, we're playing for first place. Dallas is tough, and you know that they're in the same boat as we are, so you know, he kind of he kind of retracted a little bit, but I think he's got his message sent to his team for sure, and everyone's kind of on alert with that, and NBC, who's doing the game, probably loves it as well. Essentially, he said publicly what coaches say to their team probably every day. Right, we're going to win this game, so right, Yeah, Dave

loves to cover a coach like that. Um, they you're like the third person to tell me that today. Never mind, go ahead, Taylor and lindsay, yep, yeah, wow, it's probably true. Cover four. I'm Berry. Berry didn't care about this. The Eagles cut Zack Brown because because, in my opinion, because he's not playing very well. But it really was convenient. He did say Kirk Cousins the weakest player of the Vikings team. He goes out and throws for three thirty

three four touchdowns and the win. They were teammates together in Washington. The Eagles decided to cut him. I bet it's because he's not playing well and not because of that comment. I have a hard time of leaving. Doug Peterson's willing to say we're going to go down there and win this game. But he was so mad at Zach Brown for calling him the weak link that he cut him. No, no, it was about the play. It's

about the play. But it was hilarious. I found very personally, found very amusing watching him after the game and they're asking him about his comments and he's like, I'm just here to talk about the game. You want to here to talk about the game before the game, So no, you need right you already. It was hilarious though. I thought it was funny. All right. The Eagles are getting some cornerback help back this week. Ronald Darby's been out with the hamstring injury, and Jaylen Mills has been out

since last year with the Liz Frank injury. He's working back into practice so they get in two corners. They need it. They're twenty ninth in the NFL right now. And pass defense. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little more tomorrow. To Shaun Jackson, he's been a Cowboys killer. He's got more receiving guards against the Cowboys than any other team in the in his career. He is something to watch. Working himself back abdomin injury. He's working himself

back in. He's not going to practice today, but he could play in this game. And I needed a fifth point, and I went with the fact that you know, they're very similar to the Cowboys in scoring, but really the fifth point should be and I'll let Dave speak to this. They've ruled out their their tackle, right, Yes, that's huge Jason Peters, Well, it is until he tells you who they're going to replace him with. Well, and I mean

they kudos the Eagles. They're really smart. They drafted an offensive tackle in the first round knowing that Jason Peters is ancient by enough, probably it's better than Jason Peters, that's the thing. No, it's his name's Andre Dillard. He came out of Washington State. I didn't look before the show, but I believe he was the first tackle drafted in this class. But which I mean, maybe he'll be great,

but he's not rand a night the report on him. Wow. No, I'm just no, I mean no, I don't know what I mean by that is you're not talking about a guy that was undrafted versus the guy that was drafted as the first tackle in the draft. There's a different you were like you were no, no, no, And I know I'm just saying. I'm saying, like there's a big difference between those two kinds of players. The report on

Dillard is that he's very talented, but pretty raw. I mean, the Eagles drafted late, they went to the second round of the playoffs. This is not a guy they got in the top ten. This is not Joe Thomas. So I'm not ready to say that he's ready to step in and be dominant against Robert Quinn from day one. But you gotta give the Eagles credit for foreseeing this

as well as they did. And yes, I'm sure a raw first round pick is still more capable of stepping in than a lot of other guys that could, including an undrafted rookie free agent um. So, the Eagles offense is very talented, but it for a variety of reasons, it has not translated in the way that you would expect at this point in the season. Some of that's there, and some of it's not. Their twentieth their twentieth overall,

they're they're they're well, they're just kind of middling. Like they're sixteenth passing the ball, they're eleventh running the ball, they are ninth scoring. So even with all of their problems, they still don't struggle to put up points on or off, and they're one of three teams in the league that's got twenty points or more in every game, so and should be more in all honesty, And that's the thing is, like,

you know, Dak is a lightning rod. Carson Wentz might be getting it even worse because he's playing pretty well this year. He's completing sixty one percent of his passes. He's got fifteen fourteen fifty through six games, which is just slightly behind Dakh twelve touchdowns, three picks. He is only averaging six point eight yards per attempt, which is interesting to me because dink and dunk Dak is over

here averaging nine. So, you know, don't let narratives or don't let facts get in the way of your narratives. As I should say, the vertical passing game of the Cowboys is that now he's dinking dunk Deck. No, No, that's what people always call. They're dunking dunk deck never throws it. Yeah, it was very tongue in cheek. Okay, Dak's averaging nine yards per attempt, he's anything but. But Carson Wentz is settling for fewer yards per attempt than Dak.

Prescott to this point. A big part of that is probably because his receivers can't hold on to the football. They lead the league and drops seventeen. Actually, Dak is right there behind him, So speak something to what Dak's been able to do, especially not always having the people he'd prefer. But yeah, Deshaun Jackson's been missing for most

of the season. Alshon Jefferies just now getting back. Nelson Agilore's struggles catching the ball have been immortalized by that hilarious dude who saved the babies from the fire in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. They called him out. Yeah, but Winz has not had a ton of help in the wide receiver department because of Jackson's absence. They drafted a kid named jj R Siga Whiteside, who dropped the game winning touchdown against Detroit in week I want to

say that was Week three. Matt Hollins has had problems with job drops and even then, even when they're not dropping, I would say his receivers haven't been helping him out. It's been all over Twitter this week went through a dime to Alshon Jeffrey. Last week in Minnesota, Jeffrey kind of leaned the wrong way. I mean, he was two yards behind his coverage and wound up running out of bounds on what could have been an absolutely easy touchdown. Just stuff like that. Like Winz is not playing poorly

at all. I just don't think he's getting a ton of help. Probably the way they're offsetting that is they have two very, very good tight ends. The Eagles actually run more twelve personnel than any team in the league thirty three. They have Zach Ertz, who is one A or one B with Kelsey in terms of best tight end, and then Dallas Goddard at the second round pick coming

into his own playing pretty well. I would bet they're going to lean on both of those guys pretty heavily, even if de Sean Jackson comes back, like you're gonna have to account for both of them. Jordan Howard is the starting running back. He's very good, but the guy, like Miles Sanders, was one of my absolute favorite players in this draft. The Eagles are struggling to get him involved,

which I think is a gigantic mistake. He's averaging nine carries a game and two catches a game, but he's explosive. He's averaging two catches a game, but he's averaging seventeen yards a catch. Last week in Minnesota, they sent him on a wheel route right through the center of the defense and again two yards behind the coverage, easy thirty five yard touchdown. Linebacker didn't stand a chance. It's the type of stuff I'd love to see the Cowboys do

with Tony Pollard. But that's his topic a week. When you have some injuries at wide receiver, that's a nice That's another topic for another day. They're very good at converting third downs fifty percent. Peterson. We know he's aggressive. We all watched that Super Bowl. They went forward on a fourth and two at midfield in Minnesota. They actually didn't get it, but they're willing to. Like. This is a team that their coach is, I think, a little

bit out in front of popular coaching tactics. So I mean, let's be fair, Garrett does that, I would not like Garrett is it goes for a fourth and one of the Saints and they gets it and Zeke fumbles. I mean, I think Peterson's more aggressive, which and it's probably most aggresive in the league when it comes to it, and

maybe outside of the Patriots. Yeah, they seem like they do it quite And there's the whole thing with you know, you saw him they went for two when they were up what they scored to go up seven against Green Bay and went for two, which I thought was honestly ludicrous. But that's that's the thing analytics people tell you, that's the thing to do. Is like, that's when you have the best chance of making it, and you can make it a two possession game. But I just take the

easy points. Take the easy point. That's gonna put pressure on the other team to convert a two point conversion, right, Am I crazy for thinking about unless you weren't three or four years ago, But now with extra points are kind of dicey too. It's almost like, you know, it's not as easy as we'll just get making the extra point.

You know. Maybe, yeah, you're like, but I feel just as confident that we can run this route here to Jeffrey and we'll go up nine and put the game away, as you know, if it's if it's a slam dunk extra point. But I don't know how many kickers in the league are slam dunk extra point guys who they have Elliott his name is Jake, Jake oh boy, Yeah, yeah,

Jake Elliott, Yeah, you're right. Yeah. I mean, if you have a team that's really good in the red zone, if you have a team that's really good in short yardage, then the argument, especially if you have a kicker that's kind of in then I think you can make the argument that you should go for two pretty often because, like you said, the likelihood of converting one is about the same as converting the other, and you do put an added pressure on the opponent if you can get it,

so that like, honestly, it kind of I think they're playing better than the Dallas defense, but it reminds me of the Dallas defense in the sense of, like there's talent everywhere that hasn't necessarily translated to them being as fantastic as they should be. I mean, they're only one of three, Nick, you said, one of three teams in the league that scored twenty every week. Yeah, and it's not it's Seattle Baltimore in them Baltimore, but even Baltimore

is leading New Division. So they're still having they're still having success, but they just they do not have that They do not have that explosive offense yet, and I think it's I think it's a big part has to do with the supporting cast, Like you don't have that guy that can take the top off the defense, like Deshan Jackson. You don't have just a reliable guy that's just gonna catch it. I mean, you know a guy that you can count on to make tough plays. Because Aglore,

he's had his moments. They get him the ball a variety of interesting ways, but he's not reliable. The rookie Arsega Whiteside doesn't seem like he's ready for it yet. But man, and I don't you don't need me to tell you this, but Carson Wentz is he's really impressive. He's got some Aaron Rodgers to his game in the sense of his arm is incredible. He made he made

a throw against Minnesota in this game last week. He was having the d tackle pushed back into him and I'm not exaggerating, literally falling away and just flips his wrist and throws a twenty five yards to Agalore and I mean it was completed, put it right out in front him and the coverage was good too. Like his arm is just scary talented, is way better of an athlete than I would say he gets credit for being a six four white quarterback or sixty three however tall

he is. I mean, he looks smoother running the read option than Dak does in my opinion. Like he I mean, he can do that type of stuff. Obviously, he got hurt doing that a couple of years ago, so you want to probably be careful with that. But he can hurt you with his athleticism, not just running but extending plays too. So he's going to be tough to account for. I was just thinking what you talked about, Aaron Rodgers.

Did y'all watch the Lions game the other night? Yes, the throw that he made to Jimmy Graham late in the game, Graham coming across the field and there's a corner coming off at the ball. It's like that ball's got to be absolutely perfect, not just really good throw, it's got to be absolutely perfect or it's picked yep. Just the confidence that he has to man, he put it right on them, I mean, like right on the money, you know, Like and listen, anybody, everybody knows how I

feel about Dak. I think the world of him, But like that's that's the difference between the guys that get drafted in the top five, and you know, people thought Rogers should have been the number one overall pick and a fourth round pick. Like Dak's great, he like not very many guys have that just god given ability where you can be getting murdered and put it on a dime forty yards away, like that's even when you're not

getting murdered. I mean, you think about this last game, and I think a lot of those drops were on the receivers because they gotta make them. But how many times a season have we said, but it could have been a better ball, Right, That's just DA's not the guy that's gonna always just put it right on the target where it needs to and that makes it a little tougher. Yeah, it makes it a little toughs It

seems I can make those tough catches. Aaron Rodgers just needs Alan Lazard to go out there and make the make the you know the route as I say, I mean, you know Dak's capable of it. The Beasley throw against New York and he's thrown some dimes this season. The one to gallop against the Giants comes to mind. But like Wentz and Rogers just seemed to do that type of stuff five or six times a game. Yeah. Hey, the other thing I was going to mention and throw it to you. I know you've watched a few of

the games. It seemed like the best at this offense has been is when to Shawn Jackson was in there, particularly in that first game at the second half, I think was when he really kind of went off and they started really just having all these bombs. How much does that concerned you, knowing that the Cowboys have some injury concerns in the secondary, knowing that, yeah, they give up the big play, how much does that all play into this thing? If de Sean Jackson's back, that should

terrify anybody. I mean, the best, well not the best corner, and then you're starting nickel corner. Anthony Brown are both not practicing today. They have hamstrings, so even if they can play, that doesn't sound And that's I mean, that's

the Shawan Jackson to a t. Right. So people are gonna scoff when I say this, But like I would try to put Cheeto on him as often as I could, just because Cheeto has I mean, he ran twenty three miles an hour to catch se Quon Parkley, like, he's got that speed and athleticism to keep up with him. He might not win every battle, but you would think he's not going to get torched, whereas a guy with

a gimpie hamstring might. That's true. And then if Byron Jones can play, which I think Jones has the best chance to play of those two corners, he can go up against Aglar. But if you if you have to start, you know, Jordan Lewis in this game, you know, and go up. And I like Jordan Lewis. I mean, I like, I think he's playing well. But I mean I al I meant to say, alshon jeff You put Alshon Jeffrey

against Lewis. You don't love that hype matchup? You know, I wonder if they're gonna have to make a move at at corner up Well, you know you got Alumba, you got Mike Jackson. Let's say Byron plays. Who who's still better though a bang dub Byron Jones or healthy Cheeto. Well, I don't think you have to make that choice because Cheeto's gonna play regardless. I mean, well, yeah, but I'm saying in this scenario, like would you prefer I mean

I'll take I'll take my chances with Cheeto. Yeah again, just purely on health, speed, athleticism, straight line speed, which that's what scares you about Sean Jackson. And then Byron if he can play, he's got the length and the athleticism. Like Jeffreys game is more about length and size. I mean, I'll take my chances. And do you think here's another big issue too, is that this is where they hurt you with their tight ends because zach Ertz is the guy that you would like to put a cornerback on

if you can. You know, Byron Jones would be perfect to go up against zach Ertzn. No, not really. So what's Brian actually wrote about this for the site today, which and it's you know, don't kill the messenger. But it's probably gonna be Jeff Heath that has to draw that assignment. And Heath made the play of that game in Philly last year where he broke up the fourth down pass that kind of killed Philly's chances of coming

back to tie the game. Zach Ertz still have fourteen catches for I don't remember off the top of my head, but he had a nice day. That's exactly where I was going to go with that. If you're talking about letting Deshaun Jackson beat you on a fifty nine yard touchdown or letting Zach Ertz catch four or five passes, and that means they still have to drive the ball down the field without making mistakes on a long drive.

I'm gonna take that. So in this instance, I still say do what you gotta do to make sure Jackson doesn't beat you deep, Like that's the first part exactly, and then you deal with whatever else you gotta deal with others. And the irony is that Cheeto contributed to a ninety two yard touchdown just last week. Yeah, but I still think it's your best bet. But then does that also make the Cowboys change a little bit? They

like to play that single safety hide. Does this force them in this instance to say, hey, this is a week we might need to keep both our safeties back rather than bringing a safety down because we gotta be able to protect the back end of the field. Hurts caught fourteen balls for one forty five and two touchdowns in that game. He if Yeah, So I mean that's it's like, this is one of the probably the most well rounded offenses and Cowboys have played to this. They

have beat by the by the bad Falcons. You know they get beat I mean, but again, I mean, and you're right, they got beat bad by Minnesota. Minnesota beat him by eighteen points. But there are plays they left out there. I mean, yeah, everybody know. Agalore drops a walk in touchdown that would have swung that game. Jeffrey runs out of bounds on what would have been a crazy play. And by the way, the guy they made that first game, their offense looks so good, wasn't there.

And that's the part I think is the big key or the John Jackson plays. It changes everything about how you have to defend their defense, their offense. Did you want to do with Jalen? Do you want to play him closer to the line or push him back a little more? Love? I don't love Jalen out in space cover right now down, feel like I just I personally don't think that's a that's a good thing, laughing because

it's like my answer is I don't like him. At the line of scrimmage, They're going up against even tackles, so I don't So where do you like him? I mean, I don't know. I mean, we probably are giving Jen. We've probably given Jayalen a little bit too much of a hard time. I know I've been pretty adamant about that yesterday. But all that being said, I still don't like him necessarily in coverage situations and playing in space down feel very much. I'd much rather see him just

being a linebacker going sideline. The sideline actually, you know, I like when he blitz he has he tends to have a pretty decent knack for blitzing, So use him in that role, you know, I know, you know, people criticize me because I make it sound like the other teams unbeatable sometimes, but you have to consider the Eagles are capable of running the ball really well too. They killed the Packers. You know, they averaged five yards of carry, ran for one seventy five in that game. That's before

the Packers game. That's all we talked about was, well, the Eagles proved you can run on these guys. And so with the way the Cowboys have played run defense, like it's you can't afford to give up that part of the game because Sanders and Howard are both really good. Like It's not like this offense is purely a passing attack and that's only through for one sixty in that game. That's the thing about this offense, Like I said, it's

well rounded. They have a lot of different weapons at a lot of different positions, and they force you to choose which one you're going to defend and pay extra attention to. And when you do that, they have the ability to be able to take advantage of something else, whether they do or don't, that's the issue. I have a hard time believing that the winner of this game will have fewer than thirty four points. I agree, this is going to be a barn burn. It's going to

be a track me. You have a hard time deliving a lot of things. I do be saying that a lot in this I have a few thanks for calling out my radio tendencies on air, Amber. Thanks, Jerry would be so prepped I do. I repeat myself a lot. Sorry. All right, we're gonna go and take our final break. We'll come back. We'll get some questions from you guys.

Call us the numbers eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven again it is eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven, Or you can hit me on Twitter at Derek Eailton will do that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Your new apartment's big. Such a great deal that'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 hangs. A deal that's just okay, is not okay?

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your travel package today. Back to the break, Welcome back, at his final segment of The Break Black in the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, Nick, what's goat? I got free to play such a predictive game that you don't want to forget about on game days because you got a lot going on in game days. You want to make sure you remember to play. You got last week, this week, we're gonna do it on Friday on the show along with all you guys that are listening to us. We'll do it together. Yeah. And we

got a little um trash trot going around in the office. Yeah, and I don't like that. It comes down to it comes down to what you have to do on Sunday. But you can win ten thousand dollars grand price. It's true. You have to keep updating every quarter. You do, you do, You got to keep fans. You gotta be twenty one also, and also you have to update it every quarter, and you have to be logged into play. You have to download the app, you have to pay attention every quarter,

and you have to access on game day everything. It's like a lot of work, but you can win a thousand bucks a week and the grand prizes. Jeez, I need see let's go ya. See, I thought the nice clothes over there, I thought you would like to have this conversation in your office later. We need to have this co I don't really want to. Yeah, good point. All right, here we go. Let's take some questions. You guys call us eighty eight eight five five two two nine seven. You can also hit us on Twitter at

Derek Eagleson. I'll take those questions. There. We have a question from BA vander Muse. He says, m would the defense be better with Rod calling the plays? Over? Richard? I think Rod is better at knowing the flow of the game. What are your thoughts just if you took it from a big picture of what was happening last

year versus what's happening this year. Is there anything that you can put your finger on as far as how the game's being called, things that they're doing strategically that may account for the differences in what we're seeing he was calling last year. Right, That's it's a poorly kept secret that Chris Rashard was calling the defense last year. Right, Rod Marinelli, I mean tremendous respect for him, But since Chris Rashard got here, his focus has been the defensive line.

He's the he's the rush coach. That's what he does. So like people want answers, that's it's it's weird, like the person is mostly the same. You could argue it's better because Robert Quinn is here and they're not playing as well, and I'm sure they're just as flummoxed by it as we are. But I mean, I don't I don't see this huge difference in tendencies. Honestly, even you go back to around this time last year, they were

still making some of the same mistakes Seattle. Seattle torched him on long touchdowns twice in Week three last year, Detroit got him. Golden Tate was still in Detroit at the time, and he just abused the secondary for two long touchdowns. So you know, it's it's it's easy to think and they were good last year, but it's easy to think that everything was perfect last year, and that's not necessarily the case. They're playing poorly doesn't mean they

will continue to play poorly. Obviously, the hope is that they don't. But I don't think there's like this magical pill or you know, somebody else called the defense and it will magically get better. I just think across the board, they're not playing as well as they were and they need to. And then the relationship between those two, I mean, from what I've seen, it appears to be really good, Like they work well together. It's not that one of them just overtakes one role completely and just has his

own voice, and that's what it is. I think that Rod has allowed Chris Rushard to do his own thing and they do it mutually, and it showed that it worked last year. I just like that. I can't really figure out exactly what has happening this year because when you talk about the personnel, it's still the same and

if anything, after a year, it should be better. The one thing I would point out there, though, is I think what we don't really always factor in is probably the two most positions, the two most important positions on

any defense, your pass rusher and your top cornerback. Both those instances, those guys came into the season, came into season coming off injuries, Yeah, didn't practice drought training camp, and both of them had have a different time shown up on the injury report this year, right, So you start thinking about that from that perspective, I think, yeah, you would expect that it's the same. You'd expect the

personnel's the same. The fact matter is those players may not be as ready to do the things they were doing last year because of injury and because they miss training camp, right, and that may be something that takes a little bit of time for them to get to the point where they're playing at that level. Maybe they're not there yet. And that's and you know, it's it's the it's it comes with the dinner of being an NFL player. Unfortunately, is we spend all offseason like, well,

they'd be ready for the season opener. They gotta be ready for the season opener. They gotta be ready. And then they're ready, but they're not necessarily ready and their play suffers for it. But what else, As DeMarcus Lawrence has said, nobody cares, nobody feels sorry for you. You're handsomely paid, and they're honored out There's well, okay, Byron and DeMarcus, that's fine. What about the other nine, I mean,

there's it's a team sport. There's nine other guys that are well, we already talked about we already talked about the fact that I don't think I don't think right now you could make the claim that's Xavier, that Cheeto, that you know Heath, that any of these guys that that Jalen or vander esh are playing better than they played last year. That's my probably playing worst. So so yes, but they're not necessarily performing better well even the same.

And I just, you know, I don't think it's as I think it's as simple as they're just not playing well. Like you know, it's not like, oh, somebody can come in here and call something better and it'll get better. I think they all just need to hunker down and play better defense. And you know they're we're talking about the last eight games I guess of last year. I mean, I don't remember where they ranked after the sixth game after they beat the Jaguars, But I bet it's not

as good as what it is this year. It's just it's just the perception of the the I mean, they just haven't they haven't played well. The Jets are not a good offense, and they let them make too many plays and they didn't win. They didn't take advantage of when the defense played well. But when you just look at the stats, I mean, the stats are show that

this is a good defense. That's why numbers can lie, because the stats show that overall, this is the ninth best defense in yards, and then you look at points, it's the tenth best defense in points, So it shows that it's pretty good. Yeah, but it hasn't been good enough for an offense that's been just as inconsistent and they're not matching up well in the right games except

for the Dolphins. Feel like there's probably a lot of teams in the NFL that would take what the Dallas defense has done, but the expectations and rightfully so, like the expectations are higher than that based on what they did. And again, somebody else I had this conversation before the press conference day is like they're not bad, they just don't do anything great. And one like they don't have

that one thing. They don't do anything explosive. Again, like to the leader on the team has two tackles for loss, I've seen Tank do that in one game before. Right, they don't do that, they don't stuff the run, they don't get takeaways, all that, and they need to be better because of the offense. Like they had a really good performance in New Orleans, but they needed to be great and outstanding and don't hold them to four field goals, hold them to three and then they could have won.

So this this defense is not playing as well, but the offense has been crap at times, especially in the first half. So any it's to be better than that. I ask a question. I don't know if you guys talked about it yesterday, you know the clip that was going around on social media with the players coming off the field and Garrett. Y'all talked about it. Yes, I don't think they did. Okay, well, I haven't been in the locker room just yet. Even after the game. I

was listening to Jerry, so I didn't go inside. Do you guys feel or think or even in our having that perception of the team kind of starting to give up on Garrett. I would have to see more than that, more than Malate Collins, who you can't get him to you know, he's not that you know, outgoing anyways, and for him to see it, you know, maybe he saw it, maybe he didn't. I don't know. It's a five second

clip of it, but you know how people react. Of course I do, and that and it's it's ridiculous, which I think, you know, we we probably take that for granted because of how close we are where all of us are like, that's stupid, and but I mean it is a valid talking point among fans and media right now. I saw it as four extremely pissed off and frustrated professionals who are like, probably more focused on whatever crap happened behind him than he was trying to high five

of them. I don't ascribe a lot to it at all. And look at it again, was it more than one? Was like four of them? Two or three guys? Malik is the one who's really obvious in the frame. I don't I don't buy it. And again, you know, we we talked about this last year when they you know, they fell to three and five, and we had the

same conversation and what happened after that. And I'm not trying to say that you know they're gonna go on a seven game winning streak, but you know, okay, I think about I think about the Green Bay game that got Wade fired. I wasn't even here for that. But when when that happens, that's when, you know, not because MALIEK. Collins doesn't feel like giving out a high five, you know, Yeah, And that's the thing. Like in that game, it got to a point where it was literally a nick you

you were there too. To me, it felt like as the game was going on that more and more the team was just kind of like not fighting, like and that's Jason's whole big thing, a fight Like in these games they've lost. These aren't games where they're just like not fighting. They're they're in these games even at the end. They just figures where I think that, But that's a problem that they have to take so long to get there, and it's a problem they're not figuring out how to

win it. But that is a different thing than they're not fighting during the game. That's a whole different bang. Right, But who whose job is it to getting ready to play? Yeah? Right? And that's a problem. That's absolutely it has been a problem. I don't I don't mind them. Like figuring out how to win at the end is not the issue these three weeks. It's being present for the start and criticize Garrett all you want for that. Yeah, that's that's a

huge part of the job. But I think the reason why, my personal belief is the reason why Wade got fired is because the team was no longer willing yeah to fight. They were basically they get down and they just got We're not at that point. Let's not forget too that. The night before the game, I mean, Rob and I were out at a restaurant, a watering hole. Yeah. Well, we saw his son, West Phillips, who was a tight ends coach or receivers coach or whatever at the time,

and he was like, yeah, it's just been tough. We lose tomorrow, Dad's getting fired. And we were like at that point, we're looking at each other, like you know, He's like, oh, it's you don't have to be awkward about it. Everyone knows. I'm like okay. And then it lost forty five to seven, and then like yeah, maybe it's fired. And this is a conversation for another day. But like it's it's hard to put a finger on

like what that point is for this team. Okay. I mean I think everybody last year at three and five was kind of like this could be it, and then it turned around. I don't feel like we're there right now, but I I do wonder how far away that is, you know, I mean, you lose this game and go into the buy. I don't think Jason Garrett's getting fired. But it's it's not crazy to be wondering about it, you know what I mean. And that's the thing. The part of it is whether it is or isn't. It's

definitely gonna be the talking point. So that's gonna be swirling around the team if they should lose this game, and that's two weeks off. It's swirling around the team. And that's where you have to worry about. Just as the mentality of a team dynamic, how much does that start to seep into guy's heads and when they're going off talk to their you know, spending a little time away from the team, and their buddies are talking to them, and their families talking to them, how much that starts

creeping their head? Man? Yeah, coach man, what's wrong with you? Coach? You know that kind of stuff is stuff you worry about when you're dealing with team dynamics. All right, we appreciate you guys joining us today. We'll be back tomorrow. Level forty five for Nick Even, Dave helm and Ambergard, Sam 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