Cowboys Break: Zeke or LVE?

live in the SWBC Board of Studios. At the start, I feel like I'm the only one with some energy here today. Let's go. No, what is wrong with you? I'm telling you, Espresso does wonders. Let's see when when we we took off yesterday. Yeah, I mean, like I know, Dave was grinding, working, pretty good working. I was working. Amber wasn't working. I was sitting beside her. Amber was. At one point I looked over at Amber and Amber was like knocked out, just like sitting there. But I tried.

I couldn't really go to sleep. Probably had a video or something like that to do after that when she landed or say, I think I got home at I got home at about five o'clock and I was in bed by five thirty. I'm sure you guys had a little more to do. Yeah, I know what they were like. Oh, I was in the beauty of a three hour flight. I was done with everything when we hit the tarmac. Yeah, that game took It took a lot of everyone, really,

including the players. I don't think I've heard a and it was late, but I never heard a plane so quiet after a big win. Yeah, I know, it was really quiet. I mean, like, I think they were spent and a game like that took took it out of them. Well they had to be, because I mean that was a that was a tough game that they went against. We're gonna we're gonna talk about a lot of the things that happens, but I don't want this one thing

to get lost in the conversation. Everything we talked about last week, and it started with Dave's assessment of what that defense was, said that the Cowboys would not be able to do what they did last night, and they were able to do it, and not only do it,

but do it in a convincing fashion. And I think that's where we should start talk about, particularly how to got Cowboys were able to run against a defense that it basically shut down most running games in the NFL they faced, you know, and they what they did was is they they just stuck to the plan. I mean, and because it wasn't really working that well early, but they just kind of kept leaning on and kept leaning

on him. They figured it out. I thought, I thought, I thought the addition there of Zavis Hula Philo was so important to the point where after one game, I think everyone's looking around like, well, he's starting, right, I mean, even I think so that could be wrong. You're talking about even when even when Connor comes back, I think this guy, he's probably he's probably the right the right fit for you. I talked about for the game. He said, it just took me a little bit to figure out.

Fletcher Cox is just just how how much burst he has. Unbelievable, consistently great player, he said, took me a little bit once I figured that out, though I thought it was you know, it was pretty good, and we didn't hear a lot of it in Fletcher Car. And the funny part was, if you watched the early party game those first couple of series, flet your consos everywhere, and it was like, oh, this is gonna be a long, long day. I thought it just stuck to what they were doing. Yeah,

I just I mean I said this last night. Um, you're right, you're you're absolutely right. But that's where I just keep going back to, is that in the last what not even a week because they played on Monday last week, Like in less than a week, I just feel like I don't know anything about this team. Um, and it's annoying. And not not that they I'm not annoyed that they won, obviously, it's it's much much better

when they win. I want them to win, but like you know, we've been out, we've been doing this since July. Kind of pride yourself on, you know, we're here to tell people what what's going to happen, and they just dumped it on on our head twice in a twice in a row. Like, well, what can you count on this team to do? They're inconsistent. When you can count on to win at home, Nope, no you can't, Well what you can You can't count on them to run the ball against the best front and football and one

on the road. Nope. Yeah, you know, actually they're gonna dominate the second best rushing defense in the league, like it's gonna look like men playing with boys eight yards per carry against that front one hundred and seventy one rushing yards. Dak looked like old Dak, which, ironically that's just the quarterback position perfectly encapsulated. Is that Dak actually didn't play very well, but he got the job done.

He didn't turn the ball over, he led him on a couple of crucial scoring drives, and he looked like a hero, which, by the way, when everything else is working as it should, yeah, that's what you need from Dak. Dad doesn't have to be great for this team to win if everything else is working as it should. That starts with the offensive line, then goes to the running game, then goes to the ability for the receivers to get open in critical moments. If those things work, Dak can

be good for you. And that I know a lot of people want you want your quarterback to be better than that. They want your quarterback to be Aaron Rodgers. But the reality is the way this thing is put together,

that's what they need from Dak. And I think we've we said that going all the way back to the summer is like Dak is not and Rodgers and that's okay because this, this and this, and it hasn't really been there for them the vast majority of the times, and so past the halfway point of this season, against one of the better defensive fronts that they've played, it was eye opening and surprising and pretty unexpected to see them do that. I get, you know, I don't think

anybody's surprised that they won. I picked him to lose, but I'm certainly not surprised that they won. But the way they did just absolutely having their way with Fletcher Cox and those guys. I wasn't ready for it. And I wrote about Dak last night he said, you know, He's like, I don't want to talk about twenty sixteen. It was two years ago. But this is the team that we have, and this is what we're capable of when we play up to our standards. And so again

I'm just like, well, where has it been? What's going on? Yeah, Ambro, give me your big picture thoughts coming out of the game. To be honest, I'm not surprised. Nothing surprises me now and this team Cowboys veteran right there, Nothing surprised. It's like, we've seen this team do this kind of thing. The problem is, and like Dave mentioned, is the consistency of it.

They haven't been consistent enough to keep it going and make it work week by week, and last night, somehow it ended up working out for them into their advantage and clicking. And to me, initially going into this week, I'm like I had something just a feeling that they were going to get this win just because and not necessarily because they're a better team, just because it's gonna end up working out and Garrett's gonna find a way to make it work and keep you there. And that's

exactly what they did. As far as the offense goes. You know, I am surprised that Si was able to do everything that he did, especially going up against the defense like the Eagles. But at the same time, there were a lot of things that I wasn't very pleased with, and when you talk about Dak Prescott and the little mistakes that, like you said, if you take the running game away, then you're back to one and how this

thing where the problem originates from. But when you flip it to the defense, they did an amazing job and I think the victory, even though Zeke ran his bot off last night, I think that this victory comes from the Cowboys defense and what they were able to do. You guys talk, I mean, you talked a little bit about what Dak did, and Davey talked about it a little bit as well. Dak with twenty six or thirty six, seventy two percent completion rate, that's a pretty high number.

Two hundred and seventy yards, one touchdown, no interceptions. One hundred and two point eight was his passer rating. He ran the ball six times for only nine yards, one of them being a play that I thought was a really really great heads up play by him. We thought he's gonna maybe spike the ball. He runs up, he gets the snapp, he puts the ball over into the end zone that gets in the touchdown there before the half. Talk about just assess how he played yesterday. I know

you guys said there was something you didn't like. What were the things you didn't like? Did not like? Did not like? He's not accurate all the time, and he's just that's just not his game. I mean, and that's too bad because he's a quarterback and there's just there's some throws. There's just some throws that he misses. He missed one to zeke I. It took me about five minutes to get over that when it was right there on the flat by the goal line. You just can't

miss that throw. He misses some other ones, but Cole on the out. Yeah, but you know what I was right before the fake punt, right yeah, yeah, But then they get that fake punt and they're and they're driving, and then he goes and does another out to Beasley and he hits it. I mean, he's just he's one of those guys. And I know, you know he what he's dealt with with his personal life, you know, with

with losing his mom to cancer. And the reason why I say that because when you deal with stuff like that, missing a throw here and stuff that doesn't fade you to the point where you still you still have confidence to go and do that. I know I'm taking a little deeper, but I'm just saying, that's it. That's why we love Dak because even though he's got shortcomings, he still said, you know what, I believe what I can do. Just look at the when he got that hit, the

big hit last night, and then runs again. You're right, I mean very next play. Yeah yeah, And we can talk more about Dac later on. He's just not he's he's gonna frustrate you at times because he says there's nothing he does that's great. Nothing, But I think, what does he do that's great? The intangibles that you just talked about are great, and that's important. That's important, which this is speaking of. I think that was Kent leadership. Leadership.

Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, which those are, but those are things you can't really measure, so it's really hard to know. You're absolute well that this this might have been. This might have been like the quintessential Dak game because again, like you look at the stats, you're like, he completed seventy two percent of his passes. He did that. He he had a nice night, but he had there when he could have been a lot better. He left some

throws there, He made some questionable decisions. The Beasley through, I'm just like, you're you're an NF you're starting NFL quarterback, and you missed that throw. But then right before the half, he looks like Joe freaking Montana just zipped him, like literally, I mean, oh, my god, and then Herns and I think the other one was to I want to say it was Basi on the yeah, it was Beasley. Both

those throws I thought were really really great. The drive to take the final lead twenty seven twenty like again, you know, Winz is doing his Wentz stuff and just punching back and just calmly, coolly. I don't like bringing it up. Dad doesn't like bringing it up either, but it reminded me of twenty sixteen. Is like every time, you know, they always they had an answer. We haven't seen it this year. We didn't see it for a

lot of last year. But that's what it looked like. Um, it's bird game right, yeah and shot you know it when you're good enough against a good team to do that and actually get a win, which to be to be fair, it probably helped that the Eagles secondary was down to it's you know, you know true, I don't even know the names of the guys that were playing cornerback by the end of that game, but you still it's the NFL style. Points still matter. You still got

to do the job. And speaking of quotes, I think Zack Martin, who you know, for my money's probably the best player on this team, him or Zeke Um. He kind of he took me a back last night because he he was like, yeah, Dak is He's the best competitor I've ever been around in my career, which you know that carries some weight comes from him. So get

the intangibles. If Dak does something great, it's that. And you know, for whatever doubters he might have outside the locker room, I don't think he has any inside the locker room, which that is way more important. So exactly right, And he has some lucky moments too. It's like he almost had an interception, Yeah, then where he lost the ball, he just kind of came out of his end. I don't know where you And that was a touchdown too,

he was able up. You don't think, No, I don't necessarily think because I've seen Cooper running free twice in the game that he didn't well the difference because he saw it doesn't mean the difference. The difference here is he had gotten loose. The defensive backs stumbled, he gotten loose, and it would have been a throw to a target

rather than a throw to a moving target. You're right, because the end zone was right there, yeah, I would have said that he that he would have thrown a touchdown there, But I mean Cooper rent free a couple other times. Actually doesn't make it go ahead. I'm sorry, No, I'm just saying, just because he saw him and recognized him doesn't mean it was a touchdown, but it would have been. It would have been right there. He probably would have underthrown him and still made the catch. But

that ball just bounces right back to him. I don't know that's happened like two or three times this year. From yep. You mentioned that that deep passed the deep pass on the left sideline when they were going down the field. Actually, Cooper said after the game that that was his fault. He said, he said, when I released off the line, I was basically trying to read the defensive back, so I didn't just run like he was expecting me to, and that's why I didn't get to

the spot where he expected me to be. So it looked like he overthrew him. But Cooper said that was on him. Said, that's the kind of thing that you know, working together a little bit more will get a little better chemistry each other. It's actually pretty good. Other than his price tag. But but I do, I'd like everyone's got to bring it no, bring it down. No, I'm just saying I don't love that. But that was the price. That was the price. It wasn't like it was they

could have done anything better. I mean, that was the price for him. But he his stats aren't aren't flashy. I don't know if they will be in this offense, but you can just tell that he just knows how to play. He's got a big, strong body noticeable. Yeah to the other receivers, Yes, yes he is. His stats are exactly where they need to be for the way the Cowboys want to play offense. And I did the math.

I mean two games is a small sample size, but if you average it out over sixteen, he's on pace for eleven hundred yards and something like uh seventy five eighty catches or something like that, five or six touchdowns something like that. Yeah, he had he was he had six catches last night or seventy five yards um. And then the last game he had five catches, fifty eight yards and a touchdown. So yeah, he's doing He's doing there they want him to do. And like I always

tell you, whenever he catches a pass. You see how open he is, like he just has a way of being able to get separation. That not that the other receivers haven't shown that they can consistently do. But and I know we've argued this, you know, forever about do they need a number one? Did they need or number one? I just think that you're seeing that the fact that he's got those skills to be a number one receiver, and all of a sudden, Beasley's open a little bit more.

At least he wasn't this game hearns is open more. I think those guys need that player that they really do to help him and that needs you know, that number one two and Zeke needs it. I mean, they all kind of need it. But we talked really about Zeke Zeke, I mean, like his game and everything about it. We didn't we didn't. But I actually want to take our first break and we come back from break and let's take let's talk about Ezekiel Elli. He had a

monster monster game, did he? And uh and we'll talk about maybe something maybe some of the reasons why we saw that performance yesterday. We'll talk about that when we come right back. This is Dallas Cowboys Dot com radio are there. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a right thing, then cutting the chord is scary. But then I found out I could switch to DirecTV Now and still get the live sports I love. No satellite needed, no bulky hardware, no annual contract, just

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the Philadelphia Eagles last night on Sunday Night Football. They win twenty seven to twenty in a close game, a fun game to watch, and it all sets up for the Cowboys to at least be playing for something over the next couple of weeks. If they would have lost, I think it would have been a much more different situation, and by Thanksgiving you could have had a team that really didn't have much to play for. But this keeps

it in the keeps it alive. Even though the Redskins win yesterday, still keeps the Cowboys in the mix for the division and we'll see how it all plays out down the stretch. We gotta talk about Ezekiel Elliott. Yesterday was a phenomenal day for him. He rushed for ninth He rushed nineteen times for one hundred and fifty one yards average seven point nine yards per carry, thirty five was his longest, and he had a touchdown, a rushing touchdown. In addition to that, he caught six passes for thirty

six yards and a touchdown. So total twenty five touches, one hundred and eighty seven total yards and two touchdowns. Yep, what were gonna know? I keep going what was what was different yesterday? Because Cowboys have been wanting to do this since the season began. This is what they want from him every week. And you can't tell me it was the defense that they were playing against, because this was a defense that coming into this game had only this kind of day, had only been replicated once this

season against them. It was Saquon Barkley and the Giants, but they had been shutting down Russia's all season. Yesterday the Cowboys were able to be success. Thank you did point out though, and Dave put the stats in front of you, but we both saw it. They weren't the guys they were shutting down were not elite players. When they faced the elite guy at Barkley, he will be if he's not elite right now, but he's up there. Um.

They struggled against that. So you could tell that it was there if you if you could really, you know, bring a good player like that. And so I thought, I don't know what was different. I mean you can say I thought, you know, Sue Field definitely helped. I mean, he was really good. I think Cooper helped. I think that you got a little bit more balanced there. Um, you know, he was he he was running well though. I mean he had some some juice. It probably seems

the healthiest he's been. And and we can talk about thee deep play right now watching the video, I'm telling it was very close. I wish you was close to being the greatest play I've ever seen for the Cowboys. If finishes, I mean, it still was great. But if he just goes and scores like that, that that would have been well Woody Danceler two thousand and two. But other than that, that's still the best play I've ever seen. But but here, that would have been right there. That

was so good. Do you think about how many times do you see guys hurdle of the guys. You see it not often, but you see it enough nowadays. But it's rare you see a guy hurdle someone and keep running. That's the big guy. And the fact that he was he was almost able to get there and then he just couldn't hold up. It really wasn't going low the defender. I mean he kind of dove low, but he was a being like high, like everybody went into a sprint. If he just kept running in his normal pace, probably

would have scored. As you said, Nick, he was about an inch from that being a very painful Yeah, painful. He took some contact. No, that would have been more painful than any of the contact he took all night. He took some contact to the region that you're talking about. We're gonna talk about that here later on Tommy John I I I mean, I don't I don't, like I said, I don't get it, and I don't Maybe Zaviers, Okay, everybody is angry in the NFL like that, talk about

Christopher Shard's talking about Ahead. I mean, maybe zue Xavier sue a Philo. You know, he's he's a highly talented guy who's a top forty pick. He's bigger, more experienced, more powerful than Connor Williams. But am I to believe he said he was top forty pick? Yeah, he was Connor selected sixty. Okay, I'm just I'm just asking like he also, I mean he also didn't catch on between drafted.

I understand that. What the reason why I say it like that is because The one thing that I think we've talked about before on this show is when you've got a guy like Tyren Smith beside you, you don't necessarily have to be great. He was what we saw with Cooper. Cooper hasn't been great. He was a first round pick. He hasn't been great in his career, but you put him beside beside Tyron and he had a

pretty good year last year. Donathan Cooper. Yeah. So all I'm saying is, and I talked about this before the show, could we find a situation where because he is stronger and more acclimated to the NFL game, he is a better solution for you right now, not necessarily down the line, but a better solution right now than Connor Williams. Letting me go back to my point, which is that I refused.

I refused to believe it. I refuse to believe that he's the difference between not getting fifty yards rushing against Washington Houston and this like, are you are you kidding me? One hundred and seventy one yards one hundred and fifty one for Zeke on nineteen carries. That is a college line. That is what Adrian Peterson does to Iowa State. He's like, let me go out here and mess around and I'm gonna rip half of these for forty and nobody can

really hang with me. Like this doesn't happen in the NFL. Now. I'm not saying he's the difference, but can you at least allow for the fact that he is a part of the difference. Oh yeah, that was part of it. I think you know what Amber said earlier. The offense did great, but the defense. Really the stems from the defense.

Think about it. This team, I don't know if all coaches do this, but this team will go away from their game plan if they get down, if they get down by seven or ten, you know, the score was prohibitive and they have to change. But the defense made sure that that never happened. The Cowboys never trailed this game, actually, and so the defense kept them to a point where they could still be patient and run the offense that they want to do. And I thought, you know, it

just kept coming back to the defense. The defense kept putting him in situations good field position, gotta turnover, got off the field at times. Just every time. There's so many boxing references here, but every time they were kind of staggered. They just came back and then they kept fighting. We obviously need to talk about the defense. They were amazing,

but just one. I mean I'd have to go pull the stats, but I feel comfortable betting that there were at least three or four games this season where Zeke didn't have a run longer than fifteen yards. He had about five of those last night. I mean it was it was just the staggering difference. And Xavier Suafilo. Give credit to Mark Colombo, like, I'm sure he's had more time to install some of the changes he wants to make, more zone blocking runs, some stuff they're more familiar with.

I thought Tyrn Smith played maybe his best game of the year last night. But to just drag a top level run defense like that, especially, I mean if this was twenty sixteen and they'd been doing it to everybody all year, I wouldn't bat an eye. But this running game has struggled to play up to it's standard all year long, So to break out like that against the defense that good was really impressive. Yeah, I think what's what's not being talked about enough right now in our

show about Suafhilo, though, is who he did it. Against I mean, if that was Marco Branch or some random dude. I know he's not a player, that was just some random dude out there, but you know that would have been just the random dude, the random defensive tackle. Then you're like, okay, but this was Fletcher Coppins And how much did we talk last week about how great this

guy is? And those first couple of series he was moving around and making you know he was in the mix, and after that, I don't remember hearing much from him the rest of the game, and that has to be accounted for. And when you're talking about Suepilo, I think you have to mention the fact that that's the guy he went against for a good part of the night and basically shut him down. It is worth noting that top notch defensive tackles have messed things up for this

team all year. Kawan Shore, Jonathan Allen, and Ron Payne. I'm gonna step out on a limb. I don't know this for sure, but I'm gonna step out on a limb and say Connor probably won't be ready to play against Atlanta. If I had to guess he had a scope, well, I think I would guess Suaphilo will get another start. He's gonna have a Grady Jarret's pretty damn good player too.

We can get into that. Yeah, we'll see what you're gonna happen if it If it happens again, then then I think you got yourself a conversation about who needs to be starting at left guard and the Redskins, that's another one that'll be I mean, he's gonna have some well, like I mean Randy, Randy Gregory got the same procedure heading into the bye week, and he played last night, played well. I don't know if we're gonna get into him.

He really did a nice job he's played. I think injury will provide Zavier Suaphilo at least one more opportunity if I had to guess, So we'll see what he does with it. Yep, all right. Um. We talked a little bit about the offensive line and dak Um. I don't know if we spent enough time talking about Amari Cooper Um. And the reason why is because I wanted to ask you guys the question, what is the best thing that he provides this offense? You look at how

he performed last night. It really over the last two weeks, he's made like a he's been able to get himself open. He tends to make the catch. We haven't seen him drop balls, and there have been more times than not that he's been even open on some players that the ball just didn't connect and he in the quarterback didn't connect. What is the best thing that he brings to this offense at this point, Well, I think it's his route running.

I think that his ability. He understands what defenses are trying to do to him, and he just knows how to get open. And you know, he didn't do a lot to get to get deep on that that one throw that Dak missed him. But he just he just kind of knows how to just run by a guy or get open and just kind of uses his body to his strength. He's just a smart player. He is. He's kind of a student of the game. He knows what he can do out there in the field. And I think that it's just a he's not flashy, But

they don't need that. They really don't need that. They just need a guy that understands how to get open, and he does that. Well, Yeah, he seems like a technician and I don't know, the jury is still out for me because he played well against Tennessee and it didn't help anybody else. It did, I mean, it didn't

help Cole Beasley, that's for sure. I want to see more, but I have to believe that if he can continue to play like this, it'll keep opening opportunities up for Beasley, Gallup, Hearns, Zeke, etc. Yeah. And you know, interesting thing that you just mentioned, you said he's not flashy. I think everything about that fits

this team. You kind of want if you're gonna have a number one receiver, you kind of want the kind of guy that makes the plays that are there and is okay with the idea that some weeks they may not need him as much because the running game is still going to be the predominant thing. But he will make those those underneath catches as well. The five for fifty eight, the you know, the six for seventy five, those are huge days. But he made some catches yesterday

that made a difference. The best receiver in the game right now this year is not flashy at all. He's actually kind of boring. Who Michael Thomas he pulled a phone on in the end zone after he scored. That's kind of fresh. Still pretty now, you get it. I thought you're going to him he did it for them, you know what, for the purposes of giving homage to us, you know, to do that. I thought he was going to say, Adam Feeling, I thought so too. Yeah, yeah,

he's pretty good. AJ Green wouldn't isn't really you know, flashy. He's not playing anymore right now, he's but I mean, Hulil Jones, those guys right there, I think Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham are your flashy receivers like that. These other guys, they get their job done. And that's okay. I don't know where Cooper ranks on all that. He would probably be in the top twenty, but you know, but they do have a number one or two running back in the league, and so and he's pretty flashy

and so it I think you said it best. It's just like how he fits this team and what they need and they need that. And I think the Cowboys have have have learned, you know, they learned their lesson this year that they thought they didn't need a number one and a true number one, and and I think that they've figured out that they do and it helps, and it helped last night. Dave, You're right, didn't really help that first game. We'll see how it helps in Atlanta.

I'm moving forward, but yeah, we'll say I do think it kind of helped in the first game. Now, there were a lot of other things that were going round in that first game, but that's when we first started to see his ability to be able to get open and present himself in a way that where the quarterback could get makes some easy throws. Super for sure, I just didn't trickle down effect did not did not happen

against the Titans. And you know what you might end up seeing is you might end up seeing that the more he's in this offense, the more that it helps. Last night could have been the byproduct of that. Where the Eagles went into the game may be saying, we're depleted a set in the secondary. We know this guy has some ability, we gotta pay a little bit more attention to him. The running game starts opening up a

little bit more than it has to this point. So I think you have to factor all that stuff in because you don't really know what the difference was, but it has to be a part of the factor, right, All right, let's talk about the defense. Say that was actually where I wanted to start the show, and Nick just kind of laughed at me and said, really, after the running back did what he did, but I think equal but I think equally as impressive was what your

linebacker Layton vander Esch did. Thirteen solo tackles yesterday. He had one tackle for a loss, one interception, which that happens early in the game. You almost forget about it. It was like his least impressive play obviously, right. He was just all over the place and he was making tackles. Oh my god, the tackle for a lot. I mean, this team does anything this year and where we're still talking about plays throughout the year, that one's gonna go down as one. That was a huge, huge play. The

tackle for a loss. He had no business making that play. I mean, there's two guys out there to block him for him for the way, yeah, yeah, yeah, to block him, and Clement's gonna go for a little bit and this game is gonna be totally different, probably gonna go into overtime maybe, and he just snuffs it out and goes and makes the play. I mean, that's a veteran like play. It was not a Shawn Lee type play. It was

Sean Lee. Like literally, Sean Lee made the same play in twenty sixteen against Darren sproles at and t took him out of field goal rang and changed the whole game senate to overtime win and wins the game. Same things, just the old dynamic of the of the franchise. In my opinion, I really think that play changed everything because if he doesn't make that play, and there's almost starts in a couple of weeks, pointnant but valid, point yeah is going to start because Dak was horrible that game.

But then the Dak was like, you know what, let's go win the game. Let's go tie the game, Let's go win the game. That changed the whole France. But that play reminded me of that. I mean, if if the play is even moderately successful, it's probably a first down or at least a fourth and short, and instead

just completely ruined it. His instincts are off the charts, and if you go back and watch it, like he he said it after the game, but you can tell he knew what was coming before before Clement even had the ball. He was already he had already diagnosed it. His instincts are uh freaky for a rookie. I think, um, he looked awesome. So here's a big picture question when suddenly comes exact same want. Do you want Layton Vanderesh off the field at any point during the game, because

that's what it's going to require. It's going to require a rotation, which is that's what they were doing before Sean got hurt, between those three lineback which when they would go to Nickel, you would see that one of them would be off the field and the other two would be. Honest, they just kind of rotated the three. Do you want scenarios where where Vanderesh is off the field? First of all, they're calling this afford a six week injury in the first place, So like that's future Dave's problem,

that's future Cowboys problem. Like I don't think I don't think Sean Lee is going to be back until December, and at that point, who knows what the season looks like anyway, But if you know, I trust Sean Lee, Shawn Lee is one of the best defensive players in the recent memory of this franchise. They can rotate them and it'll be fine. There's It's what we've been saying since July. There's more than enough tackles to go around,

assuming Sean is healthy. I got to go back to the interview we did on the field in the pregame show with Stephen because he said something, you know, I was just thinking about the next question or something, but he said something like this tonight, we finally have the way it should be, where we have two linebackers and you play and you know, you have the two starters and you don't really rotate. And he kind of said

it like that on Stephen. I gotta go listen to it again, but it just made it sound like it was like he's like, Oh, we don't actually want to be rotating. Kind of Yeah, we got our two guys and they're really good, so we have them out all the time, which is what they should do, because I mean, these two are playing better. Yeah, they're healthier. And if

Sean Lee Gunna rotates in that that'll be fine. But that's and that I at this point, if he misses six weeks and comes back in December, it's Sean Lee that should be rotating in right right, not late in Vanderesh. Well, but that's the thing. How much you rotating him in? Is this a twenty snap of game type situation? Every thirty game is every third series? I don't know, and maybe rotate for for Jalen. We're still not talking late. We're still not talking about the great game that this

defense played right now. No, we're talking about late, but we have another twenty eight. Really yet was good? But was he the best? Is Xavier? No? No, And I know they say their names differently, Xavier Xavier, Xavier Xavier Woods. Yeah, he was great. You know what was funny? Best game of his career. It was probably after the maybe about

the first quarter or so. I looked over at Nick and said, man, Xavier's not having a good night because he had a couple of miss tackles and I was just kind of like, I don't know what's going on. And sure enough, on que he made a play and then made another play and it just kind of kept coming. And I was like, man, okay, well that that's take Take whatever I said at the beginning of the game and just get rid of that because he had just a really really great game. What play was that he got?

It was probably they no, No, well no, but I'm thinking I think it was Arts, because Arts did everything for them last night. But he took a terrible angle and then Ertz just dragged him like a sack of potatoes for about five yards. And that was early in the game. It was and I was like, and I'm like, oh, Xavier, come on, dude. And then he spent the next two hours erasing that from my memory. He played three pass breakups,

saved a touchdown, Uh did one? One of them was in nickel coverage or third and two that forced him to try or either forced them to try a field goal or it forced him to go for it. I don't remember. They've failed either way. So yeah, it was on third down and then on fourth down they got stopped. But he made a nice play out there in the flat front the Eagles bench, which and you know, Layton vander esh deserves all the credit. He's the wolf hunter. He played like a beast. Jale Smith. J Smith not

too bad either. He annihilated that guy on the fourth and one. Just got about four other guys that played. Oh we'll tell you what, let's go to break. When we come back from break, Nick's gonna run down those four guys and we may even get to your five plays from the game. The things, Yeah, the people shouldn't forget about. We'll do that when we come right back.

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Studios at the Star. Cowboys Win, Cowboys Win, Cowboys win gets the Philadelphia Eagles twenty seven twenty. They are now tied and have the tie break hit the current moment over the Philadelphia Eagles in second place in the division at four and five. Redskins are at six and three, two games ahead. Cowboys will face the Redskins on Thanksgiving. So again everything's right there in front of them. See

how it goes. Eagles and Redskins will two games each other twice, so I know it will pain you to do it, but probably need to pull for the Eagles to win that game. You know, it's interesting. I haven't looked at this to verify it, but someone told me yesterday that the Eagles next I think five of their next six are against teams that lead currently lead their division. So the Eagles have a tough That's the thing about being the top team in your in your division every year.

That means you're gonna face the other top teams in their division from the year before, which makes it a little tougher than the next team. And the next team and the next team their reward for losing that game, well, they would play them regardless because they play the South. But they got the Saints next. Wait, the Eagles have the Saints next, so what's saying? Okay, yeah, and the Redskins have the Texans next, who are on a really really they're probably one of the hottest teams in the

league right now. They've gotten on a nice little role of here. You know, every one of the Cowboys losses this year to a team that's that has a winning record. I mean even and it seems like every time they've lost it to somebody like they're not any good. Look, Seattle sucks. So then Seattle gets hot, and Houston got hot. Yeah, and the Redskins have been pretty hot. And then Titans, you know, they go out there and whip New England. Didn't make that loss look so bad from Monday nights.

So it just looks like we're finding out a little bit that some of these losses the Cowboys have had it looked bad. Maybe arn't is bad. I mean, he's still he still gonna win the game, of course, But you know, we're still finding out a lot about this league. I think there's three really good teams right now in the league. That's I think that's and then everyone else's.

You said that five months ago. There's four or five teams here, four or five teams here, but even but even really more so than most years, like I we're finding out though we don't know Jack welcompletely, you know, I don't know. Literally, I feel confident that the Rams,

Saints and Chiefs are good. They're good. Um, I don't feel confident about any other team, but I will say this, and we've seen this happen in the NFL, those teams, I would I would be willing to put money on it that there will be another one, two, maybe three teams in the NFL that at this point we're starting to say, huh that at the end of the season,

I'm gonna be right there in the mix. I think Pittsburgh's want to say if what I'm mean by that is just like it's hard to tell right now who are going to be the dominant teams because s teams start getting on their roles here at the middle of the season, like Pittsburgh's doing, like Chicago, Like there are some teams that that will get it going right now and through the rest of the year, will play like those teams have played through the beginning of the season,

and and one of those teams that you think right now is just unbeatable will probably cool a bit. And that's just how the NFL works over and over a seventeen I don't think those Your point is well made, and you're absolutely I mean, I've bet on Pittsburgh's gonna be in the AFC title game. They're going to be, no doubt about right now. But I don't see I don't see Kansas City, LA or New Orleans fading away unless something terrible happens to them, like a you know,

a drastic injury or something like that. You know too, that's the thing. Well, those things happen in the NFL. Going into Week ten, two teams in the league that you thought were pretty good, I mean, they got pretty good records that they're gonna be in the mix here. They both got fifty put on them this week, the Bengals and the Panthers. So yeah, weird, that's this is a Tuesday talk. It is. Sorry, let's get back to

this defense. Nick, you said you had some players you wanted to throw out there that we didn't mention on the defensive side of the bay. I thought the best defensive tackle in the game last night was Tyrone Crawford. I thought he was he played better than than Fletcher Cox. He's not a better player than Fletcher Coox, but he really did a nice job. He's quietly had a really good season irving spending and out of the lineup, he's

kind of moved around. He's played really well. I thought Randy Gregory had the best play of his career with that sack. Showed some freakish skills. Don't forget about that play in the last end of the game. Yeah, he was great. Yeah, Jeff, he you know, he's had a really nice tackle there at the end on arts Um. Of course he had the special team's play had eight tackles. I thought. I thought he did a nice job. Cheeto

had a really big play in the game too. I was gonna ask the fact that and I agree with, like, all those guys played great, but we got that far down the line without mentioning Cheeto was probably the best play of his career at this point. That was that was big that we were both Nick and I. The angle that we had on that play. It looked like that was just going to be a touchdown and we were like, oh oh oh, and then all of a

sudden he comes flying in there. That I had the binoculars on that guy, so it was really close and I was like, I don't see anyone that all of a sudden he comes flying in. That was the If we want to go five plays, that was the first one. We'll talk me through those five plays. What were the five plays in yesterday's game? And for those of you who don't know, Nick writes an article every week where he details is five plays from the games that you may have missed or you may not consider, but they

are plays that change the game. Nicholas, that one right there we talked about. The Eagles were driving. It was a third down play. He was our second down play. He looked wide open down the sideline and Cheeto comes in and knocks it out. They get a field goal only to make it six to three. I thought that was a really big play. They come back on the next series and Peterson's calling time out to try to get the ball back. He's helping the Cowboys third and fifteen.

Good play call there for gallup twenty five yard play that flipped the whole game around. The Cowboys are just trying to eat up the clock and gets you know, halftime, twenty five yards play. All of a sudden, now the Cowboys are going score and scoring. Um. I thought, I'm actually don't have him in front of me. But there's there's a couple there down at the end in the fourth quarter. I'm gonna skip to the one right before Zeke's game winning touchdown first and goal in the nine

four forty two to go. The fact that he did not score on first and second down was big. I used trying to score, you're trying to take the lead. But the fact that it went seventy yards and then one and then he scores that took off seventy four seconds. Seventy four seconds there when you get to the final minute, you know, the final few seconds of the game, they're all precious. So seventy four seconds to score that that that definitely changed the course of of what the Eagles

were trying to do. And I don't have it all in front of me either. I'm missing a couple of there in the third quarter that were that were big, but uh, I can't think of it right now. I wasn't prepared, damn you. I know, I'm trying to think. There were so a couple of big ones there in the third quarter. But um, anyway, for god, sorry, let's move on. Let's talk about the Uh let's finish this conversation on the defense. With all that you saw yesterday,

are you this defense has played well. Let's be clear,

this defense has played well all season. But are you at the point now where you're thinking this is enough of a sample size that you can say this defense can be relied on as the really as the unit that things have to flow through, because we've been used to for the longest time now that this team's success was built around the offense, and whatever the offense did was going to dictate how whether how well the team was going to actually do from the standpoint of a

win loss record. But do you think that at this point that's starting to change and this defense really is the unit that that everything has to flow from. It's funny. I mean, it goes back to what I saw at the top of the show. They dumped my expectations on their ear on Monday night because arguably the least impressive offense they played put up a season high point total on them. I mean, the Titans scored twenty eight, made them look pretty pedestrian. And then how do they respond.

They go out, they play, you know, arguably probably one of the top five quarterbacks, top ten at least quarterbacks in the league right now. Carson Wentz should have been the NFL MVP last year. He got his stats, but they were effective against him. Um, they played a great game, held Philly to twenty points at home for the Eagles. Yeah, they were. They were outstanding. And the thing for me is um, I'm just so intrigued by the upside of this unit. Actually, you know, I pride myself on how

much I know about this team. NBC had a stat last night that I had not considered that really shocked me, did you. It was on the TVs in the press box as you see it, Antoine Woods is the only significant member of this defense. Like guy who gets a lot of playing time, who's not who has ever played for another team. Wow, I didn't realize that, but I that's true. Literally, I mean, go down they built. He was with the Titan for like a year. I mean

he practice squad whatever. But like, he's the only significant member of this defense. So you don't count David Irving and well even I mean David Irving's played like a game and a half, which okay, but even still, but he wasn't but he wasn't drafted by this I guess is no drafted or discovered. But even if you want to include him, that's two out of like eighteen guys. It's unbelievable. And you know I did the math last night. Late Vanner as just twenty two. Jalen Smith is twenty three.

Cheetos twenty three. Even some of your vet to Marcus Lawrence is only twenty six fire in his twenty seven. So they're homegrown. They are young, and they are coming into their own quickly all together. So you know, i'd like to see you know, you can knitpick you know, takeaways is still you know, still a thing. You'd like to see more of it. You know, they got one

last night. Um, I don't know if I'm ready to say that, you know this, I don't know that this defense is ready to like carry a team into the deep rounds of the playoffs, you know, but they're they're working on it, and they're getting there quick. And the I mean, the guys are young, and most of them are under contract for the foreseeable future. And that's got

to be very encouraging. And what I loved about what I loved about what I saw from this defense last night is I think what has to happen in order for you to become a great defense is not so much can you make the stops during the game, because yeah, you need to make those stops as you go along during the game. Giving up a touchdown here and there's

not a huge deal. The thing is when you get to the fourth quarter, and it is at the moment when this is where you win or lose the game, and the other team has the ball and you have X amount of minutes or seconds left on the clock, can you make those stops? Last night they made those stops. And yeah, and that's the part that this defense hasn't always I'm talking about going back over years. That's the

parts this defense hasn't always done well. They'll go through a game, they'll play pretty well, they'll hold teams to field goals, and then it gets to that last drive and they give up the touchdown or they give up the field goal in order to win. They finished it last night, and that's what you're gonna have to see

from them in order for the video. The pass rush there late in the game, those last few plays, Um, you know, that's not what Carson Wentz really wanted to do, and they forced him to throw the ball excuse me, over the middle when that's not what they wanted. But Gregory on one end, d Law and the other they needed some pressure. Therey didn't make the sack, but they got there and they forced him to do things he didn't want to do. I thought that was that was

really big there late in the game. There's not a big rotation going on in that whole game. I mean, they've had the injuries they were without Taco. I didn't think Doran's Armstrong played a lot. I don't even know what happened to Daniel Ross because he heard it. He don't even know he played. He left the game because it says he did not play, but he had played. He didn't get hurt in the pregame. He know he left. They made the announcement early in the game, so I

don't know that we've seen that before. He definitely played, UM and where to see a Super Bowl MVP, and that didn't not wow, you know, just like oh super Bowl MVP Nick Foles didn't play. Uh yeah, Dan, I mean, Daniel Ross, that's something to watch. So that'll I mean, if David Irving needs more time, that affects your defensive tackle depth. But yeah, I mean, you know, I know this doesn't help him beat the Falcons. But you know me,

I'm a I'm a draft and team building dork. And look, I mean, who who that's important to this defense is in flux for the future. UM obviously to Marcus David Irving well did David Irving and to Marcus Lawrence are the two, and I just I think the Cowboys cannot let to Marcus Lawrence be anything but a Cowboy. That's a drastic mistake if they do so, I'm just going to chalk him up to being here one way and Irving. To be honest with you, I don't think they need Irving.

I think they move on and it would be it would be nice to have Irving, but would but he it's always something with him. And on top of that, they've played well without him. It's you know, it's not like they're trying to stitch it together without him like they did with Sean Lee last year. They're playing well despite the fact that he hasn't been available for most

of the year. I've kind of changed my tune a little bit with with Irving, and just because of the trade with you know, with Cooper and you don't have that first round pick and you don't need some help here. I would probably offer him a one year deal, Irving, and then if he gets more than that, if somebody says, you know, this guy's freaking we want it, that's fine.

But I think the Cowboys should be players. I don't think they'll just wash their hands, but I think they'll be like another one year deal and just see if you can figure things out. My only thing would just be they need to really figure out if football is his top priority because all the time that he's missing, you know, he's had some injuries and stuff like that.

But I just I would want to if I were the Cowboys, make sure I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, if I'm gonna be a player, Like you said, I know I'm not going to break the bank, But if I'm gonna be a player, does he want to be out there? Is football his passion? And if it is great, go all in or not go all in, but but give him offer something that makes some sense. But if not, then I just as soon say you can walk away and you can find more depth. Right now, Again,

this defense has talent. You can find guys to add to that. You don't necessarily have to bring back a guy that you just can't rely on for whatever reason. There are lots of different things going on with him, including injury, some of the things beyond his control. But it's just it's always something it seems like and that

makes it a little bit. It makes it to the point where you're you don't feel like he's as reliable just to be able to just come off the street and be like, oh, I'm getting to do this and I'm good. I mean, but it's how much do you want, you know, do you want to how much do you want to tolerate? And with MALIEK. Collins, you know, I think I guess he'll he'll need a contract going in after next year. He's got one more season left on his deal after this kind of tricky too. Who I'm

sorry MALIEK. Collins because he's you know, he gets banged up a lot. But defensive tackle is a sneaky big need for this team in the draft is and they don't have a first round pick, which means we don't have to sweat about them not picking one in the first round. But you can get talent those other rounds. I don't need to be a first round to get a defensive tack. My point is is Ross and Woods are playing great and they came from you know, other

other places. We can we can, you know, we can actually talk about them drafting a defensive tackle with their second or third round pick. Is my point, because I'm not trying to waste my energy talking about them spending a first round pick on a defensive tackle. Yeah, it didn't seem like that's something they've ever wanted to do. Nothing to do it, um, but no, I just uh,

I've got everybody on this defense did something heroic. It seemed like, yes the last night, and they are all, for the most part, still coming into their own as players. I mean, that was Randy Gregory's third career sack. Yeah, ever, m and for all the for all, for all the hype and debate about him, I mean, what has Randy Gregory done to like give you a headache since he got back to this team? Like I know, you know,

we made a big deal about him missing out. He's going to league mandated he has to do to stay on the field. He has been a model citizen as far as I'm aware. Maybe you know, you never know the whole story, but as far as I'm aware, Uh, and yeah, just a lot of talented players playing up to their potential and they're all under contract and that's very exciting. Before we in the show, I do one throughout.

One extra little thing that came up last night Cowboys faced a team uh this was now um or better, let me just say last night, the Philadelphia Eagles did not have a single pill. That has happened only thirty times since two thousand um. And here's the interesting part to me. There five of those thirty times it was the Cowboys opponent. It seem a little interesting. What's the record of those teams thirty times? Ah, gosh, I don't know.

I mean, well, definitely not undefeated. No, definitely not. I mean you would think that, you know, if you're playing a clean game, and you know, the before we throw out conspiracy theory and all this crap. I mean, like five Cowboys were a flagged five times, So this crew obviously doesn't throw a lot of flags. I think we all appreciate that. Yeah, I don't see. I didn't see zero. I know, those zero for the Eagles are ridiculous because because you know, and I even asked Tyrone Crawford about it.

If thinks he gets, you know, held every play, yeah he's not. He's not a fan of refs right now. No, But I'm just saying we all saw a couple of plays here and there. But yeah, I mean, Damien was in a chokehold on that one, you know, the yeah yeah, which I NBC was like, look, Carson wentz still through the ball even though he had his hand and his wrist band, and I'm like, Amy Wilson is being like suffocated. Yeah, I thought they were showing, yeah, they were showing this

other play. But zero penalties. That seems anything. I mean, I can't even remember anything being declined. I'm not sure. I don't remember. I never tracked that once it's declined, but maybe maybe. But that's that's still to me, that's just curious. And that the reason why I brought up at the end show because I don't think it's a huge deal obviously, but I do think it's something that

that does raise my eyebrow. That this is only happened thirty times, that you would go through any game and a team would have zero penalties, to me is curious. But for its only have happened thirty times since two thousand and one, sixth of that is against is one team's opponents. When you got thirty two teams out there, that seems curious. That seems very curious to me, and I'm sure the Cowboys are probably looking into it and maybe sending some letters to league off this or whatever.

But they just seems curious. They can send all the letters they went, they went what like, they went eight weeks last year without drawing a holding flag on an opponent. And I'm the number ain't high this year. I don't have it with me, but I promise you it's not high. So they send the calls in every single week, and I'm not sure how much it's doing them. But all right, guys, appreciate you joining us. We're back tomorrow. We'll give you a big picture look at what's happening around the NFC.

Was East what's happening around the NFL? To then for Nick Even, Dave helm and Amber Garcia. I'm Derek Eagleton. This has been The Break live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com Radio. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.