Cowboys Break: Worried About Diggs?

Thy twenty one, season seventeen, episode number fifty seven. Welcome to the latest edition of The Break Life from the SWBC Mortgage Studios at the Star. We got a gumbo show for you today. We've got a lot of different topics we're gonna hit. Before we get to that, Nick, give me a quick fifty seven. Remember Baron Wortham, Yes, I do. Linebacker? Yeah do. He came from the Titans, right, yeah, you know what I like about him. He came from the Titans. He was a good player, four or five

years good player, and came in like two thousand. He actually wasn't. I think he was one of the holdovers from the Oilers. I think he maybe from the Oilers. He were fifty two and he got here and he said, you know, what this young guy that they got Dexter Coakley's he's got it, he's got it going. I'm not gonna take kids number. I thought it. Fifty seven's fine. He was a cool dude. Yeah he was fifty seven. Baron worth it. I can't think of anyone else, really,

can you? Current guys current? No, Damian Wilson, Warrant, m Victor Butler about Davante Holliman, that was one of my I was that's probably one of the saddest stories in the time I've covered the Cowboys, that he didn't get a chance to really let his career. When when we do that documentary on what could have been? Guys, is that him, He'll be up He'll be up there. What could have been? For a lot of reasons, Um, David Irving, Yeah, you know, oh, I thought you meant fifty seven. I

was like, no, no, no, we're fifty seven. No, No, just guys on him, Yeah, I got you, guys are just man, he could have been, it could have been something different. There's a few guys like that, but that actually would be a good documentary. Put that on your listening.

I think, I think I still I'm not gonna say, I follow Holloman, but his name pops up from time to time like he was a he was like a GA at South Carolina after his career, and then I think he's coaching high school football now, Okay, I could see that. I just I feel like maybe it wouldn't be surprising if one day I see him. No, I'm not saying like a head coach, but like in college or the NFL, just like, oh yeah, like what linebackers coach DeVante Hallam And I'm like, well, I'm just what. Okay.

That just reminds me of another guy that keeps seeing a lot of that's coaching. And he maybe wore fifty seven Kevin Burnett, h Kevin. I don't think it was fifties. I don't know, but he definitely is coaching now. Yeah, he's coaching a lot. You see, definitely coach doing a lot of things. Maybe he wouldn't fit shout out to the bros. Was he wasn't he? There's no such thing. There was tru Hey, I had I got a long you can't get I mean a long information can't get

kicked out of the omega. Yeah, I guess, but that's not that's not normal. Yeah, you get kicked out of anything. Always there you go, there you go. And even if you get kicked out, like you're still a brother still if you go to the other team, there's no that does not happen. Okay, that ain't gonna happen. All right, real quick before we get yeah, before we get into the cowboys talk, I do need a real quick I gotta say happy birthday to my mom. It is her

seventieth birthday. Wow um, and so I'm just like very very excited for her today. It's like a really big milestone for her. Happy birthday. Happy birth I know she's listening because she's a long time breaker, Like she've been listening since it was just me and you doing this. So she's been listening to pretty much every episode since we started doing this. So, oh, I got a video

you can send her, which one? Well she's listening, Oh okay, okay. Yeah. Basically, basically, like four years ago, I got Zack Martin to say happy birthday to my dad wearing number seventy. He was wearing seven. Happy birthday from number seventy, Zach Martin, and he said, you know. And then three years later, when my mom turned seventy. I kind of trimmed off the first part when you talked about that, and I sent it to her happy birthday, so I have a happy

birthday from numbers. That would have been so awesome. That would have been so awesome if you just had not just sit that on the air like actually, I could have used it kind of said that. Maybe he shouldn't. Can you told him to say it? Anyway? I did? You're right? Do you think we're gonna get a flat tire in the ditch here as we're maybe driving here? Maybe didn't you write an article about that, something about flat tire if you start, if you keep driving on

a flat it will end in a blowout. Well, okay, let's jump in real quick again. Happy seventy the birthday of your mom. Love you, all right, So here's what we're gonna do. Let's talk a little bit about injuries. Let's start first there because there are quite a few we need to catch up on. Let's start with Tyren Smith. We'll see and we'll see that's what that's what Jerry said. Okay, we'll see. Okay, after you read through what Jerry said and what Mike said, what's your thought? I don't. I truly,

I truly don't have a read. I know Jerry says the best way to get over this injury is to give it rest and to get back on it. Well, well he did well, he did say he did say that this is not one of those injury. He said, It's gonna get better whether you're on it or not, is what he said. And right, and he said, he said, this is an injury about pain. How much pain can

he tolerate? So that makes me wonder like can he come back this week and just deal with a lot of pain or after sitting out a week, is the pain lesson to where it does make sense for him to get because out he was with the rehab crew yesterday working and getting up on it like he's not off his feet, he's he's taking steps to getting back onto the field. I don't know what that means for this week. If it's about if it's about pain tolerance, I'm not going to bet against Tyrn Smith, that's for

damn sure. So yeah, Thursday, Thursday is the new day where I sort of make determinations about how I feel about things. Because we've said with Garrett it was Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you're ramping up. But now it's they kind of do stuff Wednesday. Thursday is the real practice. They don't practice at all really on Friday, and then they do something Saturday. So thursday's the padded practice. We'll see what he does,

all right. Talk to me about Ezekiel Elliott. He had the I think it was a knee contusion there in the game. They wrapped it in a heating pad. Then he came back on the field. What are we hearing at this point? Zeke said, after we were done ask him about that. When the interview was over, he was just like, I'm doing this every Week's first time you'll ask me about it, Like he means the first time he's came out of a game for it. It's right. He didn't come out of the game though, like he

rotates with Pollard all the time. That's yeah. But after the guy fell on it, you saw him limping and he called he went onto the sideline and then he didn't come back out the next time. Maybe that was already gonna be Pollard's series, But I'm just saying he didn't miss like this crazy amount of time. He went back in in the same quarter that he left. He's been dealing with this all season. He's been on the injury rapport before as football. I'm not gonna say he's

fine because I'm sure it bothers him. But he's not gonna miss time because well, he was playing thirty to nothing, right, wasn't he out there towards the while? He was definitely out there? And yes, yeah, first of all, yeah, yeah, so's you know. I mean I think that that's a good sign there too. If if it was really bad and the game was out of reach, you know, he like I said, like if I if I told him you're fine, right, he'd probably like laugh, like, of course,

I'm not fine. I get the crap beat out of me every week, but I'm gonna play. I feel like I'm good. I'm good. It's not a big deal. All right, let's talk about Michael Gallup and thank Lawrence, Boats still have not returned. Michael Gallup's going to play against the Falcons, all right, Thank Lawrence. Uh. I mean we've been talking about and I think it was it was longer than

a lot of people anticipated. I think that's fair. I think part of that was Jerry even said that today he was like it was close enough that in hindsight, you're like, maybe we should have played him in this game. Of course, nobody in the world thought they really needed him. Um, but they said last week that if he didn't play again Stenver, he'd be ready for Atlanta. He's his practice window is up either tomorrow or Thursday. They have to activate him. He's going to be up and playing against

the Falcons. Yep, need and needed. Um, you know, I think it'll be interesting to see how they how they rotate him in but um, probably less reps for Noah Brown maybe or definitely a league turner, you know, but he wasn't playing a whole lot anyways until it got bad. So um, but yeah, I'm I'm anxious to see kind of how they could. And even Jerry said this morning that his deep threat, you know, that's something that we're you know, needed and and something that Gallip obviously provides.

Tank to my knowledge, they have not started the twenty one day window. So yeah, what did we say last week? I feel like we said we're hopeful for for Thanksgiving. That would be fun, but that even that, I mean wild how the season works that way where you look and all of a sudden. Thanksgiving is two weeks away, so uh might be Saints. We'll see. And I get that that's frustrating because he got injured week two and you say two months, So two months from September eighteenth

is November. I get that, but these things don't always follow a perfectly linear path. And even if he's even if he comes back in December, you've still got him for four or five games. And then on top of where whatever happens with the playoff situation, which despite the sky falling this week, still think it's a good bet the Cowboys will be in the playoffs. They we have walked off of that one. Well, it depends when you

talk to you. But yeah, so we'll we'll see. I would still I'm still hopeful for Thanksgiving, but maybe a little bit later. All right, Let's let's talk a little bit of Broncos strategy. This week. We heard some interactions after the game. Vic Fangi, who is the head coach of the Broncos, said that the teams haven't played the Cowboys right, talking about how well they were able to perform against this Cowboys offense. McCarthy says, in response to that,

this is a copycat league. I hope they do so. And he was talking about referring to even Dak's comment where he said, you know, I hope teams do actually look at this and want to keep doing what they did, because I think we can beat that. And we even talked about it a little bit last week. Brandon Staley is a kind of a disciple of Vic Fangio and Cowboys did have some challenges offensively against the Chargers. That was one of the defenses that's probably given them more

trouble than any other defenses this year. And so my question for you guys is what did you see in this game that may have been the Achilles heel or the thing that can give Dallas a bit of problem? What did they do that was very different, maybe than other teams have been able to do. I'll be very transparent this. I mean, it's Tuesday morning. It's super annoying. The game pass ALL twenty two. I don't know if

it's up yet. It usually isn't up till Tuesday. I haven't had a chance to watch any type of All twenty two angle and give you some type of great breakdown of it. But just off the rip and Mike McCarthy probably said this four times. The Denver played match Man, which, without going too far into the weeds, it's it's what

he's known for, which is dropping in coverage. Match Man is basically you can switch between more of his own look and a man look depending on what you see, which sounds insanely difficult to me and takes a high amount of precision and communication. You can go. Brian Baldinger did a great breakdown of this. If you bald these breakdowns, he goes viral, like every Monday. Of the interception that Caden Sterns had of Dak, he had a guy coming

out of the slot. He was carrying him over the middle of the field, realized what Dak was doing, communicated with the safety behind him, and passed his guy off and then dropped into a zone in the middle of the field and was just waiting for the past. All of that happened in the time since the all was snapped. You just again, you gotta be on your p's and q's and you can just move within the scheme depending

on what you see. That's not unique to Denver, though, Like that's the thing that most NFL teams can do. I think The big difference for me is that Denver didn't have to bring extra pressure to bother Dak the stack going around, as they blitzed fourteen percent of the time, which is the lowest of the season by far. Dak was like running away with the league lead in terms

of how often he was getting blitzed. So not only were they not doing that, which means you can have six, seven, maybe even eight guys in coverage, but they were still getting home. Like the ridiculous Hail Mary that we talked about yesterday where Dak had like he got all the way out to the sideline and threw it sixty yards to Dalton Schultz on a third and twenty one. It's three man rush, and they still bothered him that much to where he was flushed and had to run twenty

yards to the sideline. I just think Denver did a way better job of pressuring him with fewer people than anybody we've seen before. It's easy to blame the tackles, but I wonder if there was more to it than that. Yeah, and I think just them, like any game, you know, not being able to run, you know, running the football can offset a lot of those things. A lot of the down and distance that you get yourself in and that that I thought was a big problem too, first

and second. Really on first down, they just never seemed to get anything going. Um, you know, every once in a while they did, but it just felt like it was second nine, second and eight, second and ten and unlike what Denver was able to do on second down on offense, the Cowboys just weren't able to do that when this was the one game I thought this year that when they got behind the chains, they didn't make

up for it. And we were noticing that they could do that, and a lot of these games, penalties weren't hurting them. Sacks early weren't hurting them because they were

explosive enough. Not in this game, And I think what Dave said, I mean, I just think getting pressure, because when you can play that way, then you can play his zone and man and do all that because you're you're you're getting there, and it's a it's unbelievable when you think about the injuries that they've had and then trading von Miller away and Chubb and Miller was supposed to be their guys, and you know, and you go back and look early in the season. They were, they

were playing really well on defense. Still are. Yeah, So if I learned anything from this matchup, I don't know much about Vic Fangio. He's in the A. I mean, I know who he is. He was in Chicago. His very well respected. He's a great defensive mind. I knew all that, the two deep safeties. He's a big part of what everybody's trying to do. I just didn't know a lot about him as a guy. And I came out of this matchup like, Okay, Vick Fangio has a really high opinion of himself, which a lot of football

coaches do. But not only did he say he said three things after the game that I missed because you know, we cover the Cowboys. We're focused on what happened to the Cowboys. In the postgame press conference, he said nobody's played them the right way. He said, you know, I'm in charge of the defensive calls in the alignments, so we knew that was going to be good. Like, that's my responsibility, So we knew we were going to be

on top of that. And then he started out as press conference by saying, as Jimmy Johnson would say, how about them Broncos all in the span of like ten minutes. So I was just like, man, this meant a lot to you, or you're really amped about this win, like tip your cap. They beat their ass. But I just I came out of it like, damn Vic Fangio, like talk talk, you're trash. I guess, man, he's gonna be good coordinator for someone next year. Well, honestly he had

to double down in that instant. I mean because all week I'm sure he was telling his team nobody thinks you guys can win. Everybody's counting you out. We're gonna go in there, We're gonna beat him. And so when you do that, that's the kind of win that can propel you are some better things. Like they're a middling team right now, but they certainly can get on a run maybe if they can have the right pieces in

place and do the right things. I'm really interested to see where they go because if they play like that, they're gonna win a lot more. And AFC is not like nobody's running away with AFC. So we've also like and that's the reason why those of us on the outside took them lightly. They haven't looked like that year, Like they're struggling to score seventeen eighteen points in games, losing to the Browns who didn't have anybody the week

they played. I mean, so, I'm just are they all of a sudden gonna go on this run and contend for the AFC West or a month from now? Are they going to be hovering around five hundred losing the bad teams And we're like, man, that's a bad looking they They're going to lose next week at home against Philly. They just will what I think? So, yeah, just the way it works out for the Yeah, yeah, they beat the Cowboys, they beat their hals and then so the cow of like, at least at least you can just

keep it up and beat Philly. They won't. They won't. The free and four they won't. They won't. I don't think you're definitely wrong, but Philly ain't. Grady, No, No, they're not. Think I think the home for teams like Philly, I think the home fil advantage in Denver is hard to overcome when you're not just a better team, and I don't think Philly's a better team like that. The altitude is a like, that's a that's a hard thing to get that is that is a tough place to

play at. This is more. But I was wondering, remember we went up there in seventeen. Broncho fans do this annoying thing every time the opposing team throws incomplete they yell, comb please remember that Dak threw like forty in completions that day. Are so annoying. In the fourth quarter on Sunday, I was like, are we gonna hear that here? Like there are enough Broncho fans that are would have gotten that would have been demoralized. Yeah, fortune we didn't hear it,

which was nice. So how concerned do you, guys, all that being said, how concerned do you that other teams really can do this to the Cowboys? That that maybe playing coverage against Dallas and mixing up your coverages to where Dak can't get a good pre snap read and be able to get rid of the ball quick. How much do you think that can affect them if other teams are able to do that to them. I'm not and I know I know that the Chargers and the

Broncos aren't identical. No team is doing the exact same stuff. But that's Staley's part. Of that tree. Staley does the same stuff. He got a head coaching job because what he was doing as the DC with the rams and they piled up yards on the chargers, uh and and and people disguising coverages has never bothered him to this point, Like the windows that he can fit throws into, it

doesn't bother me at all. Um. And I think there's a little bit of defiance there where it's like, you're not going to be like, I hope we don't see that, Like that's really confident guy. Of course he's gonna say he hopes to see more of it. But no, I'm not thinking I'm not super worried. But there's a lot of factors involved there. I mean, not everybody can do what what Denver does. Not. Not everybody's schemes it the same way. They don't have the pass rushers the same

They don't have the discipline in their secondary. You have to you have to be really well coached. You can't just go out and just do the same thing, um and say, well, we're just gonna run the same stuff that the that the eighty five Bears ran and will be you know, it didn't. It doesn't always work the

same um. But also, you know, I think what we said yesterday and let's don't know, you know, underestimate the fact that that the wide receivers were not at one hundred percent all that they were out of sync with the quarterback. And that's not what we've seen all year long. So if Atlanta comes in here and does it, then I think the next Monday we'll hit panic buttons and stuff like that. But I just think there's a lot of factors in seventy seven. The left tackle. I think

that's a big factor as well. I don't I mean, whoever, whoever was rushing to the edge for Denver, I don't think has the same kind of success. I guarantee you if I would have interviewed Terrence or Tyrn Smith after the game, he probably wouldn't have been like, yeah, I was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. Over there, Now, well that was I mean, that's a seventh round pick that got his first two sacks of

his career against Terrence Steele. I don't know. I don't know that he gets on the stat sheet against Tyron yeah, which yeah, I mean I Tyron being in the lineup is a big part of that. Although, as we talked about and we'll continue to talk about, you can't count on that. You can't count on it this week and who knows how many more weeks where that'll be an issue. All Right, we're gonna take our first break. Comeback. We got to talk about the defense, and I want to

zero in a little bit on Trey Von Diggs. We didn't get a chance to talk about him yesterday, but coach McCarthy had something very interesting to say about his aggressiveness. 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. The crease at his hat, the bend of his brim, and his unbending attitude a man. Stetson didn't just protect

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starters for dot Com. Welcome back to second segment of The Break live from the SWBC More Studios at the Star. Dave will be our master ceremonies at that event, really celebrating Christmas, so make sure you go out and check out Dave. You'll be out there and taking pictures maybe where Santa Suit will see how goes? Who is this star? November nineteenth? Thank you don't listen to the reads? No, what are you doing while I'm doing the read? The reader is for you? Looking at Twitter. Dave will be

all in on this and we'll be out there. Uh, just bring a lot of Christmas cheer? What's what's the Twitter? First thing? Right now? But about everything? Is it? Is it Cowboys Twitter? Or is it lsu gonna beat arkansass to everything? It's everything? It's everything I follow like three thousand people. You need constant stimulation all the time. Is that the first thing you do when you wake at the morning to grab your phone to look at Twitter? Home? Yeah,

and turn off my alarm? Uh yeah, Twitter? I check like what Rappaport and chef they are saying, just to make sure it's anything crazy. Maybe check in with TikTok trying to get a get a laugh in before I get up. Yes, I look at my phone for probably twenty minutes before I get out of it, and dogs just looking at you, like what we go to the broom? Yeah? Can I police go outside here? He knows better. He's like he'll get up when he wants to get up. I just got to hold it, to keep holding it, basically,

keep holding it. All right, let's get back in. I wanted to talk about trey Von Diggs this defense. They had six plays that were twenty plus yards, including a forty four yard touchdown to Tim Patrick. That was some of the work of Treylon Diggs after the game when asks about it, I think, Dave, I think you were the one that even asked him about it, and his response was His response was, it was a double move, good throw, good catch, and I mean pretty simple. That's

exactly what it was. And we've heard that now a couple of times here in the last few weeks where teams got him with a double move, and I actually I saw Mike McCarthy said something that was interesting when asked about that. He said, he's probably a little too aggressive right now. Some of his penalties reflect that. That's really the focal point of what we want him to improve. But by no means do we want to take want him to lose his aggressiveness. That's a big part of

who he is. So my question for you guys is where's the balance. Do you think they need to kind of coach him to be less aggressive and in doing that, risk the fact that he gives up the aggressiveness that gets the turnovers. Or do you let him just keep playing and hope that he can just be a little more, a little more smart about when he's gonna be aggressive

and not well, I mean it's SNU incidents. I mean, he didn't even know who night Train Lane was and Everson Walls and now he's getting compared to these guys, and there were stats and has a chance to break records and all that, and how could you not want to keep doing that? And it's working and then now teams are figuring out ways to to you know, kind of offset that. So, um, there's no I don't think there's a right answer to this. It's just like we

always say, how are they're going to play defense? They're gonna play it in a lot of ways. There are times he's gonna have to learn as a second year guy. He's gonna have to learn when to take the chances, when to you know, to calculate these moves when it's a right time to do it. Yeah, I mean, if the coach says he needs to be less aggressive, then that's probably what you know they'll be because giving up a twelve yard pass, a nine yard pass or whatever,

it's not as bad as obviously fifty yard touchdowns. And so you know, getting rid of those chunk plays, it might it might lose a little bit from him. I might say something controversial right here, Oh, I he got for a touchdown. If you go back and watch the replay, was it just a case of him being this overaggressive corner. I went back and watched it, and I asked Dan Quinn about this yesterday. I asked Trayvon about it too, really good throw a really good catch, Like, go watch it.

He stops short when he doesn't stop, and then when he goes, Trayvon's right with him, Like it's not like he tried to jump a route that wasn't there and was trailing the play by three yards. Like I thought the coverage was pretty good. And so the reason I say controversial is I'm like, am I making excusives? If I just tend more toward well, yeah, you're gonna get

beat sometimes in the NFL. I think the play that I would want back more was the defensive pass interference in the front of the end zone where he just got there too quickly. That's aggressive right there. That's and I get it, it's a tough play to make, but you put him on the goal line by getting there too quick. You just I would think you can time

that up better. I have more issue with that than the still the same issue though, Yeah, I mean the question is do you think that they need to coach him to be a little less aggressive or do you think they just can't let him keep playing. I'll let him keep playing, honestly. The results are good to this point, and it's the same thing as the offense. Like like Nick said in the first segment, like we can press panic buttons if this turns into a trend and Trayvon

has given up yards. That's kind of been consistent throughout the season. But the returns to this point are worth the risk in my opinion. So I don't know, that's just kind of how I feel. Yeah, I kind of agree with you, Dave, because the way I look at it, I think that you need playmakers on this defense with the kind of offense that you have in most weeks, not this last week. Obviously we're not talking about that, but in general, what we've seen from this offense this

year is that they're highly explosive. They'll create a lot of points. They're gonna put pressure on the opposing team's offense to continue to score in that kind of instance, I'd rather have the aggressive type who can get some turnovers, who can make them pay for being aggressive, for having to be aggressive, rather than somebody that sits back and just always gives up the nine, twelve whatever yard catch and never actually takes a chance and creates a turnover

win when you get him in an advantageous situation. I'll even go as far as to say, and again I haven't had a chance to watch the All twenty two. I'm sorry, but I think somebody, maybe it was dan quinn just made the point, or maybe it was McCarthy that defenses have had a month to see what he doesn't handle well and what he does, and it's he It seems like he has trouble with over routes. These you know, these long routes that crossed the field. Remember

Feeling had a big one on the fourth and one. Really, one of the most backbreaking plays in that Denver game for me was the third down. It was only like an eleven yard game, but Teddy slipped the pressure and just threw a beautiful ball to Patrick right on the other side of the sticks, and that was It looked like it was Treyvon's guy, at least at the start

of the snap. Again, I don't know, maybe he tried to pass him off or whatever, but on those plays where it's hard to get leverage, that's where it seems like he struggles to me. But the fact of the matter with that, I think almost every cornerback is very hard. Probably the hardest ride to defending man is at that deep drag route because the guy has the leverage, he has the inside position to be able to go across the field and trying to keep up with that's just

very difficult. Right. And then the very next play was a forty four yard touchdown, So I mean he had him chasing all over the field on that play, didn't make the play, extended the drive first down. The very next play they line up on the same side and they beat him for a touchdown. Yeah. I think, more so than anything with his play style, I worry. I just worry about the challenge of being kind of a lightning rod, because I think that's what Treyvon is right now.

He's leading the league in interceptions, Cowboys can't keep his jersey on the shelves. Fans are just dying like, oh, Digs, he's Oh, he's our new Dion and then he plays for the Dallas Cowboys. So everybody who doesn't love him hates him and thinks he's overrated. And you can like search his name on Twitter, you'll get both. It's a lot. I've been asked that ten times, is he overrated? And of course I answer the same thing, what's his rating? Like I hate that question, which is well, the thing

that and I'm just relaying the information. I don't have an opinion on it, but I think PFF graded him out like one oh one overall in terms of his coverage grade for the season, and that made a big wave on social media, and social media is not a real place, but that's this. That stuff weighs on players. They don't like to admit it. Some of them are

better at blocking it out than others. But there's just a firestorm around how good or not good treyvon Diggs is right now, and I hope he doesn't let that get to him. Yeah, I mean, but honestly, that's that's a lot of what I think we already kind of knew about him is he take chances. He can make some plays, he's got great hands, but but he also can get beat. Last year, he was a nice little bright spot on a bad team that nobody was really

paying attention to. Now he is the face of the defense of the most polarizing team in the league, and that's a lot. That's a lot. I mean, Dak like, Dak is probably the only person on this team that can truly relate to what that's like. You know, I think it's profile is bigger than than Parsons right now. Yeah, you know, he's on He's on pace first, I mean, and first of all, Mike is a rookie. Second of all, Digs is on pace to break like the all the all time ever record in the NFL. Like that was

the pace. I don't know if he's still on it, but you get my point. And then he plays this position that is also polarizing, where you're either locked down or you're a bum like there's no in between. You're either getting cooked or nobody can throw on you. Again in the eyes of fans and social media, which shouldn't matter as much as it does. But that's the world that we live in. Yeah, all right, let's uh, let's

do this real quick. I want to get to this other topic regarding the defense uh Cowboys yesterday Mike McCarthy said that that. Uh or I saw that, so I think it was Dan Quinn maybe even it said it. Uh. He said they had fourteen miss tackles this game and this this game, which was a season high for them.

Are you concerned at all about teams that come out and have that kind of running game, like, again, it doesn't even have to be a great running back, but just lining up and just running the ball right at this Cowboys defense. We saw New England have some success doing it. Are you at all concerned about what that tape looks like and if there are other teams out there that are willing to do that and on a day when you can get their offense not to be

as explosive. It looks like it's something that can be an Achille zeal for this Dallas defense. Yes, you have to be concerned by it because they don't they have speed. They have they're more under size, they can get to the quarterback, they can get around and make plays. But if you get hat on a hat. They're gonna lose battles. Even Michael Parsons is gonna lose some of those battles. Right there, Layton vander esh is not doesn't seem like the same guy it was a couple of years ago.

As far as taking on some of those blocks and getting hit like that the defensive line. Osa, those guys are quick, they got they got out there fast. But when they don't, they get beat. They get you know, they get well. Do you think that that maybe their quickness and their aggressiveness is also what's getting them hand

that they're trying to get. Feel so quick and sometimes you get right out of the gap, of course, and so you know, there's just not a lot of big, strong, fast guys, you know in the NFL, I mean not super big and super fast. It just doesn't always work dk metcass right, I mean those guys that they're just not normal. So it's one of the other and Dexter

Cokeley that win. Those guys they could fly around and slither around all that, but when they got hit by big sixty two coming right at him, they probably lost that one. Yeah, So it's concerning. It's concerning that that they the way that the makeup is. I think Neville Gallimore when healthy, will help. And I think Tank Lawrence is a really good run stopper for being a defensive

end that's high profile, he's a good run stop. Torrens are strong the same and how I wonder how much more they're going to give him because I think he's a better as good a run stopper as he is now. He's not a a perfect player, but I think it's a good run stop. I'll be interested to see how much they work him into the game. This is an ill adjust as I go if I'm wrong, But that, more than anything, I think, is the evidence that this team just wasn't mentally ready on Sunday because it was ugly.

But at the end of the day, Denver ran for four point six per carry, which is good but not incredible. I mean, it's a lot of it was they got gashed well big play so but here's the thing. New England ran for four point four, Minnesota ran for four point two. Like they're not that great against the run. They haven't been all year. Having the lead is part

of that. But even in closely contested games like New England and Minnesota they had some success with the run, but did you see just that embarrassing sort of effort where guys are constantly getting free, Like Dalvin Cook had one nineteen yard rush, I think it was Stevenson had a twenty yard rush. But by and large they're fighting for those yards. You're not seeing these lapses. Well, we saw Sunday was just probably seven plays that should have ended with a four or less yard carry that went

much longer. The really embarrassing one, obviously being when Javonte Williams was like in a bear hug and just was like, nope, y'all are all. I'm done with all y'all yeah, um, And like it's just such an outlier from what we've seen, even when in games when they weren't good, you know, which just makes me think, I don't think y'all were ready to get smashed twenty five times the way that you typically should be. I think it's pretty obvious when you look at it. I mean, no one's gonna say it.

I'll say it, but they missed Jayalen Smith. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, but I was. I was, I was bracing myself as like nontroversy stop it, Nick. No, they don't. I don't think anyone does right now. He hasn't been picked up, right, I don't think so we would have heard that, not that I'm aware of. Let's just leave him alone. No, no, But but they they miss a physical presence there, and and and Parsons and Laton they

are they're physical players and they can do that. But I mean, I'm not saying that they missed jas when when they missed the guy that was going to the Pro Bowl, they missed that guy. I mean, he misses himself like that. I mean, but that that guy's not here anymore. But they do miss a big physical presence there, and that's one thing that he provides. And you know, Jabill Cox wasn't going to do that. He's more of a safety type guy, I know. I mean he did not.

Daniel Jones out pretty good. But I'm just saying, I'm just saying they need some physical type linebackers. And I brought not just linebackers. I brought this up on Twitter yesterday too. And I don't know this for sure. It's an underreported thing that they haven't had bren Urban for two weeks either, and that's he's not. His stats are not great, but that's his job is to just clog things up for everybody. He's a super strong, physical guy.

He's playing thirty percent of the snaps before he got hurt. Probably early rushing downs would be your guests, right. Um. Having said that, somebody who doesn't know anything about football could watch that game against Denver and see that they were just running off right tackle at will. And that's not a Brent Urban thing. That's a setting the edge thing.

Back to DeMarcus Lawrence, can you hurry back please, because he I know people don't want to hear it because of how much money he makes, but man, he's good at that. I want to know what the NFL record is for for tackles for loss in a loss. I mean that that's not normal. Ten tackles for loss. That's that's it was feast famine in that game. But by the time Alabama taken on you know, Samford, you know, like that's that's what happens when a you know, FBS

takes on the FCS. By the time the game was over, you know, we get together after it's over and kind of huddle about what we want to write about and everybody's like, yeah, Micah, And in my head I was like really like because I mean, and he did, he had an amazing game, but by the time it was over, I just it just felt like an afterthought because you talked to him. No I did not, but he was pissed. It's a pity he gets pissed after wins. I mean,

he's just that's just his his nature. I mean, he's That's what I said yesterday about you know, I like what they what they have with him, because I think he just he's one of those guys. I mean, he's just it's a cliche, but he's a football player. That's what he is. You know, know what position he is, Linebacker, defenseman, He's a football player. He wants to keep getting better. Um, we'll see what happens, you know, in the next couple of years. He'll he's gonna get asked to do a

lot of things. He already is getting asked to do all all that. If he keeps that kind of drive, which I think he will, I mean, I think he can be a really special player. Yeah, yep, all right, we gonna take our final break. When we come back, I want to talk a little about the decision that they made to keep Dak playing in the end of the game. We had some response from mccarthyon that yesterday even ary this morning. Sounds like they're they're sticking by

their decision. I want to get your opinions on whether you think it was the right decision. Will do that when you come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with man. I'm Jay Novachek, and we're both with Turf, the official tractor provider of the Dallas Cowboys. So if you need a tractor to bail some hey, I'm more to cut some grass, or a gator to get some chores done, Get a John Deer at Unitedagin Turf and then let's get to work.

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by Monument Realty. Santa Claus will be at his Cowboys theme cottage in the Star District across from Ascension at the Star Boulevard from November twenty sixth through December twenty four For more information and to book your photo, visit the Star District dot com. Merry Christmas and welcome back to the final segment of the Great Live from the s WBCAL Studio show. Just like that I wanted for We want treyvon Digs to be aggressive at times. Pick your spot and ASMR type of deal. Huh what are

you saying? Day? I went for a bike ride on Saturday. Yeah, got Saturday off because we're at home. Went for a ride around the neighborhood, went out to the lake. You saw Santa I saw every other house on my way to the lake. Was just all, there's zombies in the front yards and skeletons. But go ahead and tell me that it's Christmas time. It's fine. Hey, our lights are going to be put up this week. Man, and I cannot wait. Weirdos cannot wait. This is Christmas? Your favorite holiday?

You know? Well, the no, the holidays are my favorite holiday because I get to incorporate Thanksgiving, Christmas, my birthday, Dave's birthday. Like there's so much stuff to be grateful for during this season. I love it. It's awesome. Right. Maybe that's maybe that's where this comes from, is like, what is Dave's birthday? Saves my day? It's easy, it's

easy to remember for met them there. Maybe there's something like, you know, us December babies, you always have to It's like, well what about me, Like it's my birthday too, Like maybe that's part of it where it's like, hang on, we got other stuff to get to before we can worry about one year we had four birthdays like in five days. Yeah, it's like Dave and Amber and Brian nick Nicky nicky, Yeah, everybody's in December. You make it like you're like one year, that's pretty much every year.

It's the only one who's gone, That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, And he's still kind of still kind of do maybe the way the week felt and it wasn't a weekend, it was whatever, what's your favorite holiday? Christmas? He just doesn't want us to rush you, that is I just you know that. I don't know, like I love the idea of Thursday's Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving it's its own thing. Everybody you have the big meal and then Friday. If you're

into Black Friday, go for it. That's not for me, but college foot the rivalry games are on, and you can start putting the tree in the decorations up while the iron bowls on. It's just that feels right to me. But I'll tell you, but if you want to put your tree up now, that's this is America. Even in years where I wasn't like star Christmas earlier like I am now, it was still a true like for years,

it's been a tradition for me. On my ride to the stadium Thanksgiving morning for Cowboys Thanksgiving game, I played Christmas music just because it's to me, that's kind of the beginning of the Christmas holiday is Thanksgiving, so that's that's fine. That like Thanksgiving weekend is when all bets are off in my opinion. All right, so we're fair there, which is two weeks away. But so stop it. You do whatever you want, do whatever you want. I'm just saying.

That was the way I'm saying, So stop all the other stuff. All right, all right, So real quick, Dak Prescott played into the fourth quarter. Game was well out of hand. I think everyone knew at that point it was what it was. They were not going to win that game. He was still out there and playing. Michael McCarthy yesterday doubled down on that, said it was the

right decisions what they need to do. Dak said, Hey, if anybody would have told me to come out out of being like, no, I'm not coming out, I'm playing that all being said, do you right, do you agree with the idea that he should have been playing at that point or do you just kind of like, hey, it's fine, he can keep playing. It's it's good for them to find some rhythm before the next game. One thousand percent agree, And I'll tell you why. I agree that he should have been out there if he wanted

to be out there. He should have been out there. He's the leader of the team. And the example I have is the fourth quarter against Denver twenty seventeen. That moment will always stick out to me. As far as Dak Prescott is a football player, that is out. He's a quarterback, but he is a he is a baller. He threw a pick I think a key to leave.

He's either to leave or Chris Harris. I don't remember he win a hundred yards das ninety five yards round there battling with blockers and stuff, trying to make the tackle all that. His running back certainly didn't chase anybody that day. He was just trying to get over ten yards and I don't think he'd made it eight. He struggled that day and it was but not Dak was playing the whole game. He fought his ass off that day.

That was the one time that I remember. It was the second year, but I was like this guy right here, win or lose, like you can go to with me, and and he did the same thing. So you don't expect, I mean win or lose. Fourth quarter. He's your guy. You can't be the guy when you know when when it's going well, you got to be the guy all the time, and he has been the most consistent when it comes to that, so he's got to be out there.

It was to leave. You're right, Uh, this is the same argument as the preseason, Like there's the being smart you don't need to be out there, versus football players play football during football season, like that's what they do. I think you could probably strike a balance. I didn't have a problem with the first drive. The game got out of hand. They looked terrible. He hadn't played in three weeks. Live action reps are a good thing. I

get all that, and they went and scored. I don't you make fun of me if you want keep getting the shut out out of there is an important Yeah. We're both like, yeah, I'm kicking a field goal. I'm not not getting shut No, I wouldn't like down fifty points on the five yard line. I'm kicking the end with two seconds left. I'm the go for it guy, but I'm kicking the field goal at that point because it's like, well, you're not gonna I'm not gonna have to think about this game forever, and that's my only

shut out. This game is not going in the media. Guy, this isn't gonna be a sense this. Nope, nope, we're not doing that. When I told Todd Archer, who sits next to me from ESPN and he's writing a story about nineteen ninety one and an Eagles but home, and I'm just like, I'm sorry, now you can just delete that because they ain't not getting shut out. So there's a balancing act. I thought. The first drive, I'm like, okay, that makes sense. The second drive, I was kind of like,

what are we doing here? Why we're tempting fate? And I get everything you just said, but Dak is a guy that needs to be protected from himself. That's what we've been saying this whole time. He's gonna push it and maybe even too hard, and then to score the second can touchdown and run a QB keeper for the two point conversion? What are we doing? And that like, it's football and we play football, and that's just a no. We gotta use our heads a little bit more than

that guy's. We gotta not be running our quarterback in a BS situation in a game that's already been decided. So what happens if and I think one of y'all mentioned this. Dak does get pulled out thirty to nothing, you're out and they lose thirty to sixteen. What happens then, meaning like Cooper Rush leads a scoring drive, two scoring drives down doesn't change it. I don't care. I don't

change anything, not at all. Not y'all too. Maybe not, But I honestly, I don't think for anybody, because I don't think there's anybody out there is going to make the claim that Cooper Rush is a better quarterback than Dak Prescott. Nobody with any real understanding of what's happening on the field is going to make that claim. Cooper's mom okay, fine, But by the way, Cooper's mom thought that's when the game started. She thought thought before the

game started. This doesn't change down for her. I'm not saying it changes anything. I'm just there's there's some arguments you don't really want to deal with. You know, Dak doesn't want to deal with that. We saw it at Hard Knocks. He doesn't want to do about Yeah, I think Dak. But I think that's also because Dak is just a football player. He wants to play. If the if the game's going on, he wants to play. Okay,

I get it. I'm not gonna sit here and say that they would be like, oh we should play this guy or not play this guy. But I think it

then it comes down to was he ready? Because if everyone believes that Dak's better than Cooper Rush, then why is it that Rush comes in he played, he played really great again or played well against Minnesota they won, and then why is he coming in here doing this when Dak didn't Because we know at that point in the game, for the same reason the Cowboys got sixteen points there at the end of the game, defenses played you different when they're up thirty to nothing. Well, we

didn't have to deal with it, so we didn't. I mean I would. I would kill for somebody to try to make that argument to me. If that had happened, I'll eat it alive. I mean, that's whatever would it would come. It's not about who's the a quarterback. It was the guy wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to come back and play. We thought he was. We thought one game that he was that was immediately. I mean, like the argument that he wasn't ready to play. Yeah, maybe

obviously he played really poorly. It had nothing to do with his calf. I mean, go look at the way he was running for his life all day. Yeah, that play I brought up earlier. He gets flushed by three man pressure. He does like two loop the loops and then gets out to the to the boundary and then heaves it to Dalton Schultz. It must have been a sixty yard throw. You don't do that on a bum calf. So, yeah, he was rusty. He looked like crap. I think I

think that was the worst game. That was the worst game that he's played since Cooper got here, bar none. Even I mean even like Buffalo nineteen, Buffalo Thanksgiving two years ago, Chicago two years ago. Like he's played some stinkers. I think that was the worst he's ever played since he kind of became since he took that step and it happened, and the coincide with a day when a lot of other guys around him we're also having You had receivers that when he did get the ball to him,

didn't catch it. You had offensive line in that I know, and so was somebody on Twitter was making an argument, well, he actually had more time than he normally has in

the pocket. This was about Dak. Well, No, I think the problem is if you watch a lot of those plays, he might have had a little more time before he threw the ball, but he was running for his life early on, and there were a number of times that that basically still just got beat around the corner and Dak was the one extending the play because he'd get out of that and then try to look for an opportunity to get the ball down. I don't like that stat at all because it's it's not always indicative of

what happened. The stat was, I mean, how long he took before he threw the ball. Well, some quarterbacks can extend that play longer than others, roll out there because of their athleticism and then throw. It's like, well it took three seconds. It's not like he was standing there one Mississippi to Missippi, three miss If you throw it was one, holy f roll right whatever row. So yeah, So I just think it was that that was the tough part for this game is that not really no

one on the offensive side. I don't think there was a single person on the offensive side of the ball that had a good day. Fine, there a lot of guys that had there had an off day? What's the fine for cussing? I feel like the last two days and who closer I'm getting me, I'm getting closer and closer. It's a job thing. Somebody ending on the words you do. You know what's funny, somebody asked me that question. I heard that before last week. It's not in the manual.

I told you this too. They're asking about as our show live and I'm like, yeah, it's live. And they said, well, what happens if you drop an F bomb? Who's got the button? And I'm like, there's no button at least, but they yeah, like the cowboys, like the third floor, they've got the button. We just don't do it. Like well, what if you drop an F bomb in the middle of the show. I'm like, then did you'd probably just say okay, go and pack up your stuff. You don't.

We go upstairs and we say, hey, well can you go in and kind of mess around with that because I make that call immediately like don't make this slive. I've had some I've had some moments. I've definitely had some dicey You've never gotten to that point though, luckily, yes, Derek. Yes, we've never gotten to that point. Knock on, alum. I do get a little worried every time we have somebody like Charles Haley on No it's I'm like, I don't know what ch'all's gonna go with whatever answer he has.

But luckily I don't recall us ever having death. This is purely equival It's not it's not worth saying. But I'm just gonna say I think Ezekiel Elliott is allowed to like look at himself in the mirror and say, I played pretty well in this game. He played a good game. He made an outstanding catch that kind of spurred them on when the game was that the one where you took off down the sideline after the injury. I averaged five yards of carry in a game where

the run got away. I mean, because I wouldn't fight you on it doesn't matter. But like, for as much as we kill him when he doesn't deliver, he he did his part. I would try to help win this game. I wouldn't fight you on that. I don't know why the game got away from him. Yeah, and so they couldn't use him in the same way. But I don't know why I feel the need to bring that up, like he's he'll be fine. His paycheck. He got his paycheck today and it's very large, but he's good. Yeah.

You know what though, I mean, if he gets and it wasn't necessarily his fault, but if he gets, if he can get one yard on the first drive of the game, on the fourth and one, I mean, it's weird. Things can change totally differently and they still have to go further and score again. I mean, it was only like the forty yard line or thirty five or whatever. But I thought, and I had to look at it again.

I thought he got cute trying to cut it back there when he didn't stay with the blockers on that play. But I don't know, I haven't really looked at the end zone angle. I just felt I felt like the play was going that way and he and a lot of times you can kind of cut it back and you know, he's running the ball more than I have in games. But I don't know. I just thought, you know, the it's flowing that way, you've got Lael, you've got Amord, got the tight end, like, trust them to do their

thing and you can get one. And he kind of cut it back and I mean you're cutting it back behind, be honest at that point. And nothing against him, but he's not the other two. You know, he's not the right side. That's why you run right you play right handed. And so um, I'm with you. I mean, he played great, but I mean those plays that it's I've honestly forgot about the early fours down. There's more to it than

just him not getting it. But yeah, I mean could have changed the whole early part of that game, you know. And we didn't talk about this yesterday. I was a little nervous, just kind of like, this doesn't feel right. You know, what's noon and you know there's there's a lot of orange, and I thought there would be, but just you know, it's like, okay, there's a lot, you know, just keep looking and like, okay, you gotta have a

spark here. And Tony Poller breaks off a fifty yard fifty four yard kickoff return and that bench was insane, like they were jumping around and they got the crowd into it. I was like, you know, this could be

a play. I'm always looking for those five plays. I'm like, this could be one that that you could remember and go, hey, you know, there's could have been a little bit of a letdown, but boom, Tony Pollard fifty yards and then they're gonna go score right four out And so I was like, wow, Denver did a nice job of weathering that and saying now and stopping him. That was kind of key because that kickoff return was setting them up

to get them sparked. Yeah, I thought I thought they were going to blow them out up until probably up until the long touchdown that made it what thirteen nothing like for the like the whole first even after Denver scored the first touchdown, I was like, this has happened a million times. I thought they would win on the

block punt. I thought when it was sixteen to nothing, I was like, Okay, this is setting up for the Cowboys to have one of those games where they come back and they didn't play well in the first half and now they get going and they win his game. It wasn't until much later, like Dax said, when you have that realization that yeah, today they're not gonna win. So they're really not gonna win take your pick, even going all the way back, like we bring up the

Jets games so much, even then it go. It went down to the final play like it's very unusual in my experience for a Cowboys team to just never kind of claw back into it. Just the whole thing is just a beating from beginning to end. All Right, we appreciate you guys you on this. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll start talking Cowboys versus Falcons. Nick Carry, let you know the Cowboys are gonna direct the Falcons this week. We're gonna get into it tomorrow We're talk have we

learned our lesson? Absolutely not, No, not at all. We're gonna double down. This will be tomorrow. We'll talk some Falcons offense versus the Dallas defense. Till then, for Nick Even and Dave, 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.