Cowboys Break: Who You Stoppin'?

episode number thirty three. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break, live from the s WBC Mortgage Studios at the Star, and today we get to talk about another win for the Cowboys. Cowboys beat Carolina Panthers thirty six, twenty eight in a game that had a lot of different parts of it. In the early parts of the game, it was pretty close. Cowboys then took a big lead then and they started to see it dwindle a little bit, and then obviously they pull out the win at the end.

So we're gonna give you give you guys an idea of what we thought of that game. There were lots of things too, things to discuss. Let's start first with a big picture. What's the big picture story of this game? As we do every Monday. Let's start first with you, Nick. They they won when they needed to, they needed to get in the third quarter, and in this game, I felt like was slipping away a little bit at halftime.

I didn't have a good feeling about it, and they just kind of they Yeah, I didn't think they're winning. I didn't think they I didn't think they were gonna win it. And then they just exploded and just did what good teams do. They just kind of figure out ways to adjust and go in there and one, you know, they won the game. And you know, I thought I thought it was it was a close, one score game, that's what it ended up being. But I mean I thought it was a game against a good physical football team,

and they they were better than them. I guess if you're talking big picture all seventeen games, I just I don't know what you're supposed to do with this offense. That's the big thing for me. Other teams in a good way. I just week by week, they just keep stacking ways that they can beat you. And yeah, obviously the ground game fueled it all this week, but the way that they played off it as well, and it's interesting,

I know, Michael Gallups hurt, so that changes things. But Kellen Moore loves him some twelve personnel man and it works. They ran for two hundred and forty five yards in this game or was it fifty five? Either way, a boatload of yards and a big PI. And then the reason I brought up twelve personnel is Dalton Schultz and Blake Jarwin come on and are and hold their own in the blocking game. I don't think they're so good in space, but when they're on the line and are

just going after their guys, they're more than adequate. And then that opens up so many other things. Jarwin gets in the end zone for the first time this season, Schultz with another touchdown. Just the way that you can play off of those things, and just week by week, the Cowboys are showing you eighteen different ways they can beat you. They can sling it around with the best of them, especially when Gallup comes back. They've got two tight ends who help in the running and passing game.

They've got a quarterback who knows how to spread it around and doesn't care who the ball goes to. And they've got the best one two running back duo in the league. I said that as a question because I was trying to think if I'm like, is there a better one? If there is, I can't think of it. Zeke and Tony Pollard are playing on another level right now, and so when you think about the big picture and how this team is gonna win games, there can't be more than three or four defenses in the league that

can really match up and stop these guys. Maybe not even that many. Yeah, it's it's pretty impressive what they're doing. And I think that the story of that game when you look at it just from the way they played it is the running game obviously, two undred forty five yards. Zeke at twenty carris for one hundred and forty three yards with a touchdown. Pollard put in another ten carries for sixty seven yards. I mean, it's just really impressive.

I would I haven't done the study, but I would suspect if you took polloge numbers for the season, he's probably up there with some lead backs around the league, and he's getting this as a secondary back here in Dallas behind Zeke, I believe I read this morning, he's leading the league in yards per carry, and that doesn't surprise Zeke's top five by the way, before we get all worried about it. And also I said all of that without really mentioning the offensive line. They mauled those guys.

I mean they and we talk a lot about Tyler battish and maybe the past protection is not where you want it to be. It's not as amazing as it could be. They're pretty damn good in the run game. I mean, second straight week, really, third straight week, they've just blown the opposition over and this was the number

one run defense in the league that they just destroyed. Yeah, Nick, I'll give you a chance to sound off about this running game, particularly because I know, going into last week one of the things and I can't even remember if he said on the show where if it was just in conversations that we have, but you were like, Hey, I'm looking at this opposing defense, and yeah, they're aggressive and they come at you, and they're fast, which means they're probably a little light, which also means you might

be able to push them around. And I think that's what we saw, Yester. Yeah, that's exactly what we saw. And I think we're done saying that. Terrence Steele is a you know, athletic pass blocker, because he did an outstanding job there. I all you have to do is look at the touchdown or not the touchdown, the forty seven yard run by Zeke or forty nine yard That right there is the best example of a team that's blocking. I wish we could kind of show it and put

it out there. But if you get a chance to go and watch that play, everybody is doing their job. Everyone's got their guy. Steele's got his guy nine yards back. I mean he's pushing him into the safety position, but I mean the tight ends open it up. It is a perfectly executed play, and that's just an example of

kind of what they were doing all along. Knowing all of that two point conversion from the one, I just can't even imagine why you wouldn't just say, I'm gonna run these big boys with McGovern now playing, that's some fullback. He's got it figured out there. I love it. I just that's the one calm like I'm kind of surprised about. But yeah, I'm just gonna save that because in the final segment we're gonna talk a little bit about decision making. There were quite a few of those I've got a

few things I think about that. I think we can discuss a little bit about what happened, and again we're gonna put all that in context, because when you win, it's very difficult to kill anybody, particularly the coach, when you get a win. But I do think there was some curious moments in that game yesterday that we that we definitely need to talk about. All right, let's let's talk a little bit about this. The passing game yesterday.

Obviously they didn't need to do a lot. Dak was fourteen of twenty two, one hundred and eighty eight yards. He had four touchdowns, no interceptions, and this was the key staff for me. He was sacked zero times. And this was a team going in we talked about all last week. They are the top pressure team in the league. They come and get the quarterback. That's what to predicate on.

In the first series, we saw them being really aggressive with a lot of blitzing, and it seemed like either they got tired of that or just wasn't working because I just didn't see him around Dak a ton once once that game kept going. How ironic is that the first play of the game was a sack and he just kind of threw the ball over and I can't I can't believe they even allowed that to happen, especially after what we've seen with the Charger game and all that.

That looked like a sack all the way, you know, forward progress being stopped. We've we've seen that a couple of times. Then to think, Okay, that wasn't a sack and they're not going to get one the entire game, that's amazing. Not to mention well, I mean it worked out, but Dak maybe live to fight another play. It reminded me of what Reggie Bush did in that National title game against Texas, just like it's an amazing play if you pull it off, which Dak did, but could be

very disastrous. It really it felt like their pressure was getting to him, to be honest, in the first half, Yeah, the first half it did. Yeah. I mean they're scoring drives. You know. The first scoring drive was just they just ran the ball down their throats. I think Dak might have only thrown two passes that entire possession, but it seem the way they were doing it too. They were doing a lot of extra tight end with three tight ends.

Sometimes they were bringing him a government as a thirteen personnel, a lot of heavy personnel exactly. It did seem like they struggled to get that figured out. But then that's why I loved. I think halftime adjustments gets overused. I mean, all of these guys are in communication constantly, you would just as the game goes on, which people will tell

you every time. But I did love. I mean, first possession of the third quarter, they come out, they've been struggling with pressure, they had to punt a few times

in the first half. Tony Pollard gets in there, steps up, picks up the blitz double move, thirty five yard touchdown, which if you could just give him that extra fraction of a second, those plays open up when teams bring pressure, and then yeah, I mean it's super impressive that they didn't sack him, but from that point that made it a twenty fourteen game, And from that point it just

felt like they were leaning on him with the run. Really, I mean, when you run the ball that many times for that many yards, you're not giving the opposition a lot of opportunity to rush the passer. Yeah, you talk about halftime adjustments, and I don't know if this was a halftime adjustment or if the team just came out

with a little more resolve. I don't know what happened, but you think about that, coming right out of the out of halftime, they go touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, Like that's what That's when I was like, Okay, this team is a little different. They're a little different than even what you've seen in the past when you thought they had

a pretty good team. Like the ability sometimes when you're at you know, when you're when you're facing a really good opponent, which I think this is a good opponent. I think the when we get to the end of the season, we'll look at Carolina. Carolina will be a

good team. But that all being said, I think that you know their ability when in the first half when things were a little bit like Nikki, you even said at halftime, you're a little worried, like I don't know, they're not seeming to find it, and coming out of half, it's just like pop pop pop, just like that, and before you know what, the lead is really big and it's like here you go. You know, well, Zeke said they came out with their piss hot, so that was

probably why. Oh okay, it's just I just wanted to throw. That's my favorite quote that came out of that game. My favorite quote was what Dave said in the press box afterwards. What was it? Oh, yeah, you can't say that on the radio. No, you just said, I it's not you to do with the doctor. Oh that part, okay? I thought you were talking about something else. Yeah, he's I was like, isn't I was like, isn't everybody's piss hot? Like that's just biology but not hot. All right, We're okay,

let's not go down. You need to go see somebody. You asked for the big picture and we gave it to you. But like the story of this one game for me, is the word biology ever been on our show before? Sure somewhere, Sorry, go ahead, it's so far off. I think that third quarter is the best quarter of football the Cowboys have played in the decade that I've

been watching them. Really surround and that's the funny things, Okay, surrounded by three quarters of like football, I mean the fourth letting him, which I try not to overreact to Carolina coming back. It's just like the NBA, Like this is the NFL. You it is hard to beat teams by three scores. In the NFL, you just don't see it a lot. Buffalo is on a crazy run right now. They've played some bad teams during that stretch, but you just don't see week after week beat downs in this league.

So you kind of expect Caroline's gonna come back a little bit, maybe not as much as they should have. Cowboys probably should have won that game by fifteen. That feels fair. Yeah, Um, first and second quarter kind of by that third quarter, seriously, an offense in defense one hundred and sixty yards of offense, twenty points, two takeaways.

They just b slapped them all over the field for a whole quarter and they didn't even get the football to start the quarter, which usually that happens when you dominate the quarter of means you dominate, you had the whole you know, you took it the whole time. I mean, I thought the key play of the game was that was the sack with the two rookies goal stud in Odigi Zua, which, by the way, Michael Parsons really makes

that play, but that's that's what he does. Um. And did you know, and we look this up in this in the in the I asked the PR guys to look this up in the press box. It's the first time since two thousand and five with DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratliffe and Chris Canny that three rookies got a sack in a game, Wally. Yeah. And these aren't just rookies, these are the three that they drafted to help with

this pass rush. Yeah. And ironically, what do they do in two thousand and five though, was a year they went all in on defense, and they remade their defense with the draft, right, and where may it is going to be a Hall of Famer? So which one of these guys, multiple of these guys, probably the one that was drafted eleventh overall, which was where and then let's see Parsons was tenth, but twelve, it's is eleven, but he wears eleven. I'm gonna go there. You're gonna put

him in all right? Yeah, let's go. I'm gonna put him in All Fame Championship the whole night, wish one all in. I'm not doing that. But it's amazing. It's amazing what they're getting. He's I mean, Parsons, I don't want to say it's not surprising, because I'm surprised by just how amazing he is as quickly, but you at least you put high expectations on a top twelve pick Osa and especially Gholston, I can't get pointless. It's unbelievable.

If and and maybe this isn't fair, but if a rookie who's not a first round pick misses all of training camp, which Neville didn't miss all of training camp, but he's a perfect example. Last year, it took Neville Gallimore till November to really kind of understand what was going on and start flashing and start flashing. I mean, he was a healthy and active for at least a couple of games last season at the start. Chauncey Golston misses all of training camp and Mike McCarthy blew me

away when he said this. He was like, Yeah, this will be the first time he's put on pad since he was at Iowa. That was two weeks ago, and he's out there just kicking people around. What's what's that Senior Bowl? Yeah, okay, you're right, Senior Bowl practice. So, just because I know that was a story with technically while he was out of college but he was still a draft prospect. Hasn't done it at the pro level. Let's put it out and for him to come out.

I don't even know how many snaps he played. You know, he made a nice play both of those guys, not just the sack on third and one when Darnold was tried to run the quarterback sneak, which I thought, you know who would get it easily, and it was those two guys that came in there and and stuffed him. He played forty nine snaps second game, no training camp. Half a sack, quarterback hit five tackles. I mean, I'm not the best quote of the days. Zactually get racks.

Racks like it. That's Randy had another good one too. No, you don't have to explain that. I was just making sure Randy keep ran like it's funny like Randy he knows the reality versus the perception all at the same time. So Randy Gregory has a great game, he has two sacks. He finally gets on the stat sheet and he's been saying this whole time. He's like, it's not just about sacks. You do this, that and the other, but you still want the sacks. And today he was like, yeah, I

probably should have had another one. And that's a lot of money getting left on the table today, but it is what it is, and I'm just like, I appreciate that you understand there's more to it than sacks, but you also know what's going to help your contract the most next year. Honestly, just listen to his post game. I'm like, I would love more Randy Gregory. He's awesome on the mic, like that that do fantastic listening to

him talk. It's just he's so like insightful. He gives you good answers, you learn a little something from what he's talking about, and he's out the personality to make it interesting. It's just he's really really good. I think Randy's been through so much that he doesn't really care about being PC on the microphone. You know, not that he says all this inappropriate stuff, but he's just gonna be real because he's like, Oh, what's gonna happen. My

quote's gonna get taken out of context. Oh no, I've missed half of my career due to suspension. Who cares, he's got a tartish for a start. No. I love listening to him talk after the game. All r We're gonna take our first, our first break. When we come back, we gotta get to who I think was the player

of the game, mister Trayvon Diggs. An exciting game for him, a really good game, and then something interesting in the fourth quarter that we got to talk about and what that means maybe going for We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot com Radio. Before there was a draft, you could size up a cowboy by three simple factors. Decrease at his hat, the bend of his brim, and his unbending attitude a man. Stetson didn't just protect him from what life through at him,

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Welcome back. It is the second segment of the Break Life in the s WBC Mortgage Studios. At the start, we got to talk about Treyvon Diggs and this dude is a legit baller. He yesterday had two interceptions, one that he took back for a touchdown. He now has five in the first he didn't nuchdown yesterday. Yest not pick six, Yester pick six, Yes, I mean week last week. But he has five interceptions in four games. Everything he's doing is just different than what we've seen around here

from the cornerback position. Maybe going back and I saw a tweet from from our buddy Clarence Hill where he was kind of comparing him to Dion obviously really early. But the point that he was making, which I agree with, is I don't know that we've seen a cornerback that was a playmaker of that ILK since Dion Sanders. There hasn't been one and on this team since Dion Sanders, and so not trying to say he's don yet, but he certainly adds something to your team that you didn't have,

that you haven't had in a very very long time. Now. They drafted Terrence, knew him to be this type of guy. Terrence was a good player, he really was, and very very athletic. And you know, he played for a long time. I think he played twelve years maybe maybe long time. He played a long time, and I actually he did, but I think it maybe fifteen years, to be honest with you. And the thing about him was, but but he he didn't make as many plays on the ball

is what we've seen Hit with Diggs doing. And I thought his interception was very very telling because he really wasn't playing the first I'm talking about the first one and the second one is just a unbelievable play but the first one, he's really playing safety, you know it just understanding. He does a great job of looking at those quarterbacks eyes. So I thought all of his interceptions this year, he really is studying. You can tell he

studies these quarterbacks. He knows what they're doing, he knows what they're trying to do out there, and then throwing the ball and he just beats him to the punch. I don't know. I don't I don't know how to do describe it, to be honest with you, I'm looking at the I'm looking at the interception totals for the league leaders for the last couple of years. Xavier Howard led the NFL last year with ten. New England's JC Jackson was behind him with nine. Tyron Matthew had six.

It's the leaders for the entire season, and he's at five. He's at five after four games twenty nineteen. G Norris Jenkins had nine, Tredavious White, Anthony Harrison, Stefan Gilmour had six for the season. That's the top five league lead. So he's got He has a Pro Bowl resume after

four weeks. That's not an exaggeration. So I don't know, Like I said, I don't know what else to say, and I mainly I kind of said this tongue in cheek yesterday, but I'm serious, like Jordan Lewis and Anthony Brown should probably spend some time with the jugs machine because they're gonna stop throwing at him. Why why would you keep doing it? Especially you think who's on the schedule upcoming? You got a rookie quarterback on the horizon and Mac Jones's he's captain checkdown right now, which he

probably should be. He's a rookie, um Daniel Jones, and he had a great game yesterday, had a great game yesterday, but still not somebody who probably wants to definitely throw it away at times. Yeah, okay, Kirk Cousins is pretty good. I'm just trying to think, but you're not playing like a murderer's row of quarterbacks up until you get to my homes. So I would stop throwing at the guy. I mean, I don't want him too, but that's what I would do if I were game planning for this defense.

What makes it hard? But I'm saying that's what's that sounds good? But then what I was talking about with that first interception they're played like a zone coverage there he was kind of right in the middle of the field and just I mean, so it's not necessarily just him lucking down his guy the whole time. YEP, I

agree with that. But also what makes it difficult in this instance is opponents want to be able to throw at their top wide receiver, and if he's on your top wide receiver most of the day, that means you're basically saying we're not going to go to our top wide receiver. And some teams don't have that luxury, you know. You look at the Cowboys, they got a lot of options. A lot of teams don't have those kinds of options.

So if you say I'm going to take away your top receiver for a lot of teams, that kills their offense and what they wanted to do. Which is funny. I haven't had a chance to watch it back, but I assume Treyvon covered Dj Moore a lot. DJ Moore had a wonderful day, Yeah, he did, which his second touchdown was when Trayvon came off the field with his back tightness, which I'm sure we'll talk about, but he Dj Moore had some success even against Treyvon Diggs. But what's fun is if you can get me one or

two of those plays a game. I mean, it's a big ask, but I'll take that all day. Same thing. Keenan Allen statistically had a pretty damn good day, but we don't. It didn't read that way because Trayvon Diggs was able to take the ball away, get it back to the offense and limited him from scoring and doing

all kinds of crazy damage. So it's it's hidden a little bit, but when you weigh it, I'll take that all day if you tell me Trayvon Diggs can get the ball back, like yeah, Look, the game is built for cornerbacks to lose, like this is not the day of Dion Sanders, where he could do a lot of things back in the day that defensive backs just can't do anymore, and so this game is built so that cornerbacks will lose. I want a cornerback that, yeah, you're gonna lose some, but give me some big wins. And

that's what he does. He gets you the big wins even though he's gonna lose some, which every cornerback in the league is gonna lose some, because that's how the game is structured. Let's talk a little bit about the five sacks that the Cowboys had yesterday. Gregory had two Yeah Parsons bash him, Gholston and no DIGGI Zooa both had half a sack. What was the key to their

pressure against this team? I have no choice but to give a lot of credit to Dan Quinn And I think something Randy said yesterday really stuck with me, which was and this goes without saying based on what we've seen, he's like, Yeah, Dan knows where to put guys to give them the best chance to succeed. And when I wrote about this last night shameless plug, you can go

read it. For them to be without everything that they're without in the front seven and get and we know Carolina's offensive line is not amazing, it's not you know, I get that they'll play better offensive lines, but for them to dial up pressure like this with a couple of rookies at three rookies all playing their first month of the season, a journeyman like Terrell Basham, Randy Gregory's a good player, but again, we probably overvalue the guys

that we cover. Nobody, Nobody thinks of Randy Gregory as an all Pro caliber guy around the league, and for them to dial all that up without stalwarts, I guess, and just having guys coming from this that in every direction you see them running games. You pointed out it was Mica that really blew that play up that allowed Osa and Gholston to come in. I think that's just impressive scheming by Dan Quinn. I'm excited to go back

and take a closer look at what they did. Yeah, and I think that you know, it's only going to get a little bit better now. You know. You know that there's gonna be set back, there's gonna be injuries, there's going to be you know, things that happened. That's part of the league. But you know, to think that the success they're having on defense and without their their best player, really, I mean, I think he's their best player.

He was the best he was. He's I don't know if he still is losing grounds well, but he's he's losing ground and he's probably not losing much as a player either, you know what I mean? Right, Yeah, I mean he looked at the Marcus Lawrence we're talking about it, and he had you know, he looked like he was in great shape, and he had a good game that first game. Then he gets hurt, you know, in practice of the next week. So he expect him to be back,

expect Neville Gallimore to be back. Um, I don't know about expecting anything with Tristan Hill, but he's you know, he's still here and he should be back at some point. Kelvin Joseph is getting close to coming back. Now, I don't know. He doesn't jump right in and you know, jump over Anthony Brown, who, by the way, had had

a really nice game. Yeah, he dropped a pass right right, I mean he dropped it pass for an interception, which, as you as we've said on this show, it's it's the difference between you know, being the player of the month and being just a good, solid cornerback, right Anthony Brown. But I mean I like the fact that he's jumping around, he's in position, he's playing pretty well. I thought he played great yesterday. It's a it stings that he dropped what I mean, that's a that's a that's about as

easy a pick as you're gonna get. It would have been his second or third, second, second one last week. Yeah, um that but he played a really nice game. He had a few breakups, he was good in coverage. It's it was good. It's the pressure though. To me, it's the pressure that's getting there that's allowing these guys to play with their eyes, jump in front of routes and and you know, and it's also the safety help too and trusting those guys back there. I think, you know,

Casey's done done a good job. I mean, they it's just it's fun. It's a it's a fun it's a fun time. But I really believe it's the pass rush and it's a guy like Parsons who is just lining up everywhere. Yesterday was the one example of him probably doing as like almost fifty fifty. It felt like it was the most versatile he's been this year because Week one he was all linebacker, then he was all edge and he was definitely bouncing around yesterday. Yeah, it was awesome.

I loved it. Yep. The the interesting thought that I had though after the game, that'd be interested to get you guys's opinion. They still gave up twenty eight points, and as you said, d J. Moore had a really good day. There were moments in that game that it didn't look great for the Cowboys. What do you think was the biggest challenge that the Cowboys defense faced yesterday? And in giving up the points in the yards that they gave up. I think they underestimated Sam Darnold's the

ability to run. I think that that helped them. That helped early on, and then they kind of button that up in the second half. But um, you know, I thought you but Hubbard did a nice job for them. But you know, let's let's be on. If we're gonna sit here and say these guys that the Cowboys are missing d Law and Keane O'Neill and Gallimore, let's not forget the All Pro player that Christian McCaffrey is. Yeah,

and then and they they certainly missed him. You think that's a different game yesterday if ki Christian McAffrey play, I can't say that it wouldn't be. I mean, yeah, I think it is. It was an eight point game. He he's a really good player because he helps them get off the field. I mean, like on third and downs and stuff like that. He can That's what I was about to say. They so they killed them on third down, well, particularly in the first half. Yeah, I

think they were four of six. Credit to the Cowboys. They buttoned down and I think they went oh of six their first six opportunities in the third quarter or second half. But Christian McCaffrey is exactly the type of player that murders you on third down and so running in catching. Yeah, so I think it's I think it's fair to say it's a different game, more more so than to say, well, d Law was out there, you know.

And maybe maybe we're burying the lead a little bit here too, because a big part of that was just a bizarre fourth quarter, right, Like the way the fourth quarter played out changed probably everything about the way you thought about that game. We joked about it again yesterday. You were like, time to write star, time to just start writing that story. Dave. It's whatever. The score was thirty six to fourteen, and then all of a sudden they score, and I'm like, don't just don't say that

stuff anymore. Oh this second for me? Yeah, they I mean Zeke said it himself. They I mean they let him off the mat. They didn't they had a chance. He was we thought they were. He was full of he was full of good quotes. Yesterday he was like, I want to see us choke somebody out and they did. They had that opportunity and they didn't yesterday. And I said, it's bizarre because I pulled this up to make sure I'm not crazy. Mike McCarthy said, Treyvon Diggs could have

returned to that game if he needed to. That is a great tease. We're gonna take off final break and when we come back, we're gonna lead into the decisions made by the head coach yesterday. There were several that we need to talk about in that being one of them and pulling him and whether he should have come out or not. We'll talk about that. We'll come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hi, I'm Clint

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dot slashap dot com slash Miller Lighthouse. Welcome back. Final second of the Break. Life from the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star. So we got to talk about the coaching decisions from yesterday. It was I saw another employee as I was leaving the stadium yesterday and he was like, man, I don't know if I've ever seen a coach be getting killed as much as less. This coach is getting killed after a win. But you could just feel it on social media. People were unhappy with

a lot of the decisions. It wasn't just one. There were multiple decisions that were made yesterday that fans just thought were bad decisions. And so let's go through some of those. I want to get your opinions on them. I've been talking about Treyvon Diggs. Obviously, he was having a phenomenal game, had two interceptions. After the second interception, the Cowboys score a touchdown and then defense comes back on the field and Trayvon's not there and he's not

there for the rest of the fourth quarter. What was the rationale that that coach McCarthy gave after the game or take us back, what was the ration now in game that we heard, and then what was the rational that he gave after the game as to watch Travlon was out of the game. Well, I honestly think those

are kind of one and the same. The explanation we got in the press box was load management, right, which was he's not hurt, but they're they're resting him, they're dealing with him, and then after the game they say he has back tightness, which is okay, So there is a health concern. And I don't like to speculate too much about people's health. But the money quote from the head coach of the team, I'm reading it verbatim. He could have returned. He could have returned in the game

if needed to. I know it was something. I think he got a cleat on it. He got stepped on at some point. But if so, he could have returned. That's really that's all I need to hear. So that's that's interesting, And it just makes me wonder if maybe they got a little bit ahead of themselves and thought that this thing was wrapped up with what twelve minutes thirteen minutes to play in the game. Well, although it got close, was it? I mean, they ultimately ended up winning,

So was it still the right decisie? Right? That's that's That's kind of like when you play a prevent defense you give up touchdowns. It's like the idea is to make sure that you don't score quickly, and do you have time times on your on your side here? And so yeah, I mean they did, they did do what they needed to do to win the game. Now, we haven't seen this team run the ball out for four minutes like that very often, So I mean, you got to give him credit for that. That's not something we

had seen. You're playing a little too risky. But I don't know, I don't, I don't. If you do load management, it means that the guy has had something. You know, he's dealing with something, he's playing through it. But here we are. If we get a chance to pull him out of the game, let's do that. So I can see where it can be both. It could be a little back issue, it could be resting. But you know, if you have to play them, you have to play them. But if you don't have to play them, I'd like

to rest them. And that's kind of what they did. Know, I get it, And well I don't love everything that happened there, but I will take this opportunity to be a smart ass and point it like our people in Carolina right now saying, oh, well Darnald did all that in garbage time. The Cowboys were resting their players because that's what Dak got for years, right. I mean that, So, so, which is it, like, is it impressive that Darnald did that or were the Cowboys resting their guys? Does it

matter that dak is always two stories after the NFL game, right, sure? Which, yeah, you would like that to not have gotten as close as it was. But if Trayvon was really dealing with something, you have a twenty point lead, I get the rash now, I'll bet you I said this turn the break. I'll bet you ten dollars. If they hadn't run the clock out, he would have been on the field with Carolina down eight less than two minutes player or whatever. Well they needed to and now that would have been a story

if they didn't. And then they go down and tie it the game. That about it. What's in the really more than anything more than sitting Treyvon digs because again, yeah, you're gonna play soft defense. You're you just want them to bleed clock. Right. They can score all the touchdowns they want as long as you make them work for it.

Which one of my least favorite things that happened in this game was the not even just them converting the fourth and eight, but getting fifty five yards on a fourth and eight, four fifty four to play, They're on their own thirty two. You would like to think that you're gonna make them march the field and take another two minutes off the clock. They get all the way down to the thirteen in one play, so that's that's

a bust. And then the other one. And you know, I love Kellen Moore and I love throwing the ball, but third and three with seven h five to play, you've just run at will on this team all day, and you take it. You take that opportunity to take a shot to ceedee lamb. I don't think that's the right idea, which you get. You're gonna love every play call that works and hate every play call that doesn't.

But just run the ball, keep the clock moving. Now even if you just get that first down and then punt three plays later, now the clock is at four minutes instead of seven. That just was a belly road play for CD. I mean, Schultz, Jarwin, Cedric Amari, They've all scored touch sounds, have all had big games. Pollard's having a nice game, Zeke's having a great game. If you want to rub his belly, do it on first or second down when you're at third and three in

that situation. In my opinion, I don't even like I hear what you're saying, run the ball. But the way I look at it is, even if they didn't want to run the ball, there are so many plays in this offense that can get you three yards to keep the chains moving, rather than going on a on a high a low percentage play throwing the ball down here. I don't care if it's run or past, but something high percentage right, leake Dalton out into the flat or whatever.

You want to do something that's got a higher success rate. And I don't really I don't think that. Maybe maybe CD's got us all fooled, but he seems just as a piece as Amari does with the way that this all works. Yeah, fantasy owners aren't, but hey, if you if you're counting, if you're counting on the Cowboys to carry you in fantasy, unless it's Dak, I say, ze Zeke is doing Maybe because Zeke is doing this, you say that, but everybody was up in arms for the

first two weeks of the season. Yeah, but find a running back that's not going to have a week or two when they're not going to be getting great numbers. But he's fine, he's fine. Yeah, But I wouldn't great. I wouldn't want to count on most of the guys on this team fency points. Even Dack didn't get you a lot of yards, but he got four touchdowns. I'm good with that. He I am a Dack owner. He had a nice day. Yeah, I was even on his

bad days. He's gonna be okay. But yeah, just some of some of the some of the decision making there that play call. I haven't had a chance to watch it back, but whatever happened on the fourth down and then yeah, I mean having having digs and a few other A few other veterans were out as well. We mentioned Jalen Smith was out. Let's talk about the two minute conversion because you I mean the two point conversion.

You talked about that a little earlier. Cowboys get a touchdown I think it was eighteen yard pass to Jarwin Um. After that, didn't they get a penalty because there were twelve men on the field for the defense. So now it sets up a scenario where for the extra point you have one yard versus two. Cowboys decide, okay, instead of taking you know, some yards still kicking it, we're gonna go for two points from the one Now I don't necessarily have a huge problem with that decision. I

just needed to match up. If you're going to do that, the only reason you go for it with one less yard is if you figure, hey, running behind this big mammoth, you know, when we go big type thing, one yards a little easier than two. Then you say, okay, let's do it. But my problem is really about the fact that you naked two versus one, and then you try to throw the ball and as you told me Nick in the press box, you throw it on a pass

route that isn't even in the end zone. You forced your you're tied end to have to try to get into the end zone. What mean the decision, Dalton Schultz has never been you know a guy that you know mistaken for Mike Alstock. I mean, he's not just gonna run over people, so get him, get him in the end zone. Yeah, I mean, you just I didn't understand that you're gonna do that. Like you said, you moved from two to one. That means you're probably gonna run it and if they stop you at the one, then

they stop you at the one. But I didn't. I didn't of that play call, and maybe it was checked out. I mean maybe that he looked at it and looked at the front and said, oh, this is this is the play. But um, I don't know. I didn't. I didn't love that play, but I was okay with going forward at that point percentage especially Sorry dude, but one point, I think you have to always throw in. There's no chart, there's no there's no you know, nobody's got a cheat

sheet for two point conversions. Nothing on that ever says if your kicker is struggling, if you what is your confidence in your kicker? Do you think this was about the kicker and your confidence? No, No, I don't think it's I don't think we're at that point. I just think,

look at the percentages. If we're gonna do analytics, what are the analytics would say to get two points for a one yard run or one point for a thirty four yard extra point And he's already missed one, So I mean, there's probably a better chances to get the two points from the one yard line. And I don't have a strong take on this. Actually, that play, that play gave me warm and fuzzy flashbacks because it reminded me a lot of the two point conversion the Saints

ran in Super Bowl forty four against the Colts. Lancemore catches it in the flat, same thing happened. He got hit right at the inch line and he extended and hit the pylon and got the two points. Uh So, I don't know. I just I thought the defender made a great play. Sometimes that happens with the way they were running the ball shirt and maybe just run it be a little less cute. But I just thought the

defender made a great play. I mean, to hit a tight end and just stop his momentum like that completely. I think more often than not, Dalton Schultz is gonna win that it didn't work. I'm not super mad about it. That was fine with him going for two there. Yeah, going for two Yeah from the one yard line. I'm that sounds dumb because it's normally on the three anyway. So I mean, like, I don't necessarily understand his rationale on the other two points, Like, you know, why not

do it when you're up? You know it's because then then on the on the next time, when they scored to take a nineteen to fourteen lead, they could have gone for two to make it seven, but they didn't. Let's fine, six points is that's two field goals. But then they scored again to make it twenty six to fourteen, and then they did go for two to try to go I do kind of understand that, So what's just

because I don't. But I'm not saying I'm arguing with you, But I'm just saying, what's the difference of saying we gotta be up two touchdowns but we don't want to be up one touchdown. Well, I think the way I look at it is, in the first scenario, the situation is now you miss it, Now you're down by five, and now that means you're down by like literally they can get two field goals and win the game. So for me, I'm like, I don't want to chase points

at that point. Now when I'm up two scores, now I'll take a chance because if I don't, I'm still up two scores. And I feel a little bit better about that. So I could get that rationale a little bit more. But again we're talking about preferences, like we're talking about I don't think any of this necessarily, And this particular part, this particular decision to me, was like you made a huge mistake. You were absolutely wrong. I don't think it's that. I just think it's like, hey,

this is this is a scenario that could work. There is another scenario that could also work. Both could be true. I just feel vindicated because I said there was going to be a weird number, and thirty six is a weird number. Yeah, I thought it was. I mean, I said twenty five twenty. I didn't think that the offense was going to look that. EXPL said they win by eight. You did maybe four sixteen? There you go, I sure did. Or do we have time to talk about the client

face mask? Yeah? Yeah, that's where I was going next. And uh, And that was one that was really interest Third thirteen twenty two left in the second quarter? Oh my god, is it really thirteen thirty twenty two left in the second quarter? It was second and twelve at the Carolina twenty three to have an incomplete pass and there's a face mask on Carolina. Um, here was the interesting part. The Cowboys decided to decline it, which meant that now it's third and twelve at the Carolina twenty three.

If they would have accepted, it would have been second and twenty three at the Carolina twelve. I know it's a lot of numbers, a lot, and there are only one, two and three exactly, especially when you said there was what thirteen twelve, Yeah, thirty twenty two, thirty twenty two yeah, um in the second quarter, second and twelve. Yeah, everything about it is just really weird. At the Caroline twenty third down third, You're either gonna have third twelve or

second and twenty three. He opted for third and twelve. Was that the right decision? It wasn't the right decision based off of what happened, it wasn't the right Well, but in retrospect, let's let's go back to before you see the result. Yeah, right was the right decision. And I and I did say to you, I didn't like this call. But I mean, I got a guy on to my left over here that's saying I would decline this,

and I'm and I'm thinking about it too. When then I said to you, I don't think I would, mainly because the further I can push you back to your goal line, the less aggressive I think you're going to be to try to get this first down. That's a

good point because I agree with you're talking about Todd Archer. Yeah, I agree with Todd honestly, and then you would have you would have declined it, I think, And that's I think this is a classic case of just killing the decision that doesn't work no matter what happens, because and this is you talk about PTSD as a football fan, how many times in your life as a football fan have you watched a holding call back a team up to like second and twenty and then they get two

shots to pick up twenty yards and the first play always goes for like eighteen and you're like, damn it, like twenty yards and you just gave it up right there and now it's just third and two, like what was the flag even for happens all the time, and I think giving people an extra bite at the apple, maybe it makes them more conservative. But Sam Darnold's not a rookie, and it's clearly seems like they trust them.

I don't think they would have changed their game plan, and I have no problem believing they pick up seventeen of those twenty three yards on second down, you know, I mean the way that they were again, DJ Moore had a nice night, like they had success on offense. So I like the idea of third and long. I mean, it's third and long, you should be able to get

off the field on third. They had been converting those third and longs, so they I think it may have been a maybe a possession before that or so they have two third loans they converted. But my point is, and this is where I had a problem with it, I'm still gonna make you do it twice, Like you just said that, Like third and twelve, you gotta do it once, right if it's third and I'm sorry, second and twenty three, you got to do that basically twice. But I already made you do it twice. I already

made you. You got three yards on first down and you threw the ball out of bounds on second, town I made you do it twice. No, No, what I'm saying is when you got to pick up twenty three yards on second down, Now you got two shots to be able to do it, like both times, you gotta get over ten yards on average of over ten yards on two different plays. That's where I'm like, I'm gonna make you do it twice versus just one time. You third twelve, you get one play that gets you twelve

thirteen fourteen fifteen yards, it's a first down. Can you I'm gonna make you do it twice? Can you? I really think that this is a situation where there isn't a right or wrong answer. It's gonna work or it's not. But can you at least acknowledge that you would probably be frustrated if you put them in second and twenty three and they picked up enough yard to where it's third and six and you're like, crap, which we hadn't

given them two shots at this? Yes, but I also will say this the likelihood that then they pick up that third and six, they still got to do it right. And so the way I look at it is at the end of again, you're right, there's probably this is probably not one of those situations where it's like there is a clear right and wrong answer. I'm just saying

I would have preferred make them go longer. Make even if you give them an extra down, make them go twenty three yards over those two downs versus just one bite at the apple to one other factor into this two and going into the game. Somebody told me, because I think you know, the Cowboys were talking about it, this is a game is going to be a weirdly officiated game, and it was. There were some weird, kind

of wonky plays in there. So yeah, it's going to Dave's point on you know, to get off the field twice. All it takes is illegal contact five yard penalty by Jordan Lewis at the line of scrimmage to give you an automatic first down. So what I'm saying is is that you gotta be smart about that. But you know, I can see, I can see the logic on getting

off the field one time versus two. Me personally, if it's that close to the goal line, I think I would just push him back a little bit more, like I really, And I think what bugs me is people are so certain all the time. They're just like, this was the dumbest thing that's ever happened, or this was genius. And if he made some fourth down calls that they got first down early in the game, they did a fourth and two, they got it. You know, I mean, no one, no one says that kind of stuff. Nobody

talks about game management usually when they win. Except for this team. We're talking about it for the last three weeks they had. I mean, it comes up. This was well the fourth quarter was just weird. I don't know, and it didn't it didn't bite him in the ass. But the Trayvon thing management versus health, I don't know.

That's I care way more about that than this because ninety percent of the time, if you tell me we're gonna put them in third and twelve, I'm like, yeah, I hopefully trust my defense to get off the field in that situation. It did not work this time, I would acknowledge. I'd also think part of this is that every week there seems to be something that is questionable with regards to decisions. And so for again, I'm speaking from the standpoint of those people who are really having

a problem with a lot of these things. They're like, Okay, you can't tell me that every week there is all there are all these decisions that are questionable because I'll put it like this, I don't remember us doing this with Jason, Like it wasn't a every week. There were moments, don't get me wrong, but I don't remember it being every week. We're like, man, what was a decision with that? Like last week with the whole clock management thing, like

that was a bit of a problem. They didn't lose, but that's also where I just think part of this is people don't trust McCarthy at this point, and so for everything, he's never gonna get the benefit of the doubt because people have already built that up because of all these weeks when there were been things that are

question I gotta take for you. I appreciate it. It's at least interesting and also like, yeah, I think I think that's the big thing with McCarthy, as people just don't know what he's gonna do and it doesn't seem like there's a lot of rhyme or reason to it. Maybe there's not. There was rhyme or reason to Jason and it was just to kind of be a win

unless it was just there for you. Like I remember we used to give Jason a standing ovation when he went for it on fourth and one from the opponent's forty four yard line, and that that is not a that's not aggressive or impressive, that's just what you're supposed to do. So I don't know it can be. It's kind of frustrating, just it's hard figuring out the way McCarthy thinks about this stuff. But it's way more entertaining than what we were used to and you're always down

for the entertainment. Absolutely, Yeah, all right, we appreciate you, guys, Joannis. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll give you guys a big picture look around the NFC East. Interesting things happen, I guess there. Cowboys have another NFC East game this week. We'll start getting ready for that as well. For Nicki mcdave Helm and I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.