Talkin' Cowboys: Moral Victory?

and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This he's Talking Cowboys training live from the Dallas Cowboys World headquarters at the Star In Preschool, flowing to the gold Line, says and now your hosts Isaiah Stanback, heck My Harrison, Rob Phillips, and Kyle Yeoman's it's a Monday edition of Talking Cowboys here from the s WBC Mortgage Studios and the Cowboys coming off what was a bit of a heartbreaker last night against the Pittsburgh Steelers, leading by ten heading into

the fourth quarter, but they couldn't hold off the charge from now the eight and O Pittsburgh Steelers fifteen unanswered fourth quarter points down the Cowboys and disproved I guess disimproved their record to two and seven on the twenty twenty campaign. Two and seven's no fun, no matter what, it's really not fun at all. But we're gonna talk about some of the positives, and absolutely we're gonna talk about some of the negatives for the Cowboys yesterday and

the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But first let me introduce everybody. Isaiah stand Back, Rob Phillips, heck Harrison, I'm Kyle Yeoman's and guys, there's a lot to unpack in this one. You've got really probably the best effort of the year out of all three phases. Probably your best offensive game since Dak Prescott was hurt. You had the best defensive outing that I think you've had all season long. Same thing with special teams who actually almost won you

the game on a couple different occasions. But ultimately there's a lot to get into. Rob. You were the one that was actually in the building. What were your thoughts yesterday and what stuck out to you? Well, I want to throw something out to the panel to my guys, tell me if I'm being too optimistic about Sunday. Okay, where you guys like this? Where do you guys stand on moral victories in professional football? Oh? That's um man.

I think moral victories are softer than baby poop. I mean, I think, I mean, if you're just looking forward at this, I think I think my answer. You're paying guys to do a job, and I understand that. You know, the narrative on the football scene is the sixteen games, and it's long, but you know there are sometimes where you could say I guess in my in my in my marriage, I have moral victories, but I don't see any moral I don't. I don't know. That's the only way I

could look at that. I just I never have thought that there was a place for moral victories in football. Okay, softer than baby Poop wrote that down. That's pretty soft, uh, and more moral victories? No, Um, Can you take things from this game and be inspired by them going into your bye week and preparing for the second half of your season. Yes, on paper, you're not supposed to be

in the ball game with those guys. You just you just not, Um, the way those guys have been playing, the way we've been playing, you're not, regardless of your professionals or not, that's a better team right now, just period, point blank. Um. You could say, you know, they got professions,

We got professions all day long, but they're just better. Um. But there are a lot of positives that came from this game, as you mentioned, a ton of positives, and you and you take those positives along with the negatives, right and you you you you analyze them, you self critique them. Um, you face them face to face, and then you say, guess what this is where we did good and we need to continue to do this well and this is where we have to get better going forward.

But morally nah, because because as a competitor, you want to win that game. But in terms of when you break it down and you know, analytics and all the other aspects of the game, yeah, you should feel good about the direction that you're going in. Yeah, Zeke said after the game. There's no moral victories, and so I'll go with you guys on that. But I do feel like based on the bar that has been set through the first two months, given all the injuries and just

given the lack of production, it's not a victory. And look, the first the first season I ever covered the Cowboys was Bill Parcels's first year n O three, and he's famous for saying you are what your record says you are. They're two and seven. It's a bad season, there's no way around it. It's another loss. But I do think in a way it was a victory for Mike McCarthy's program. Kind of to your point, Isaiah, that going into the bye week, they can say, look, we are getting better,

there's signs of progress. We're staying the course, We're trying to introduce these new things. We just went toe to toe with the best team in the league by record, with our fourth quarterback of the season. That is at least day sign of progress, even though they lost the game, and it's it's obviously another you know, bad feeling going into a Monday Now. I like that. I really do rob it. And you know, moral victories aside. I just

think you saw a spark from this total team. We talked about if there was gonna be any victory for this team, it was going to be in all three phases, and you saw more from all three phases. I mean special teams Rico down or where you've been my whole life, bro, I mean just everything that we saw. It's just we were not able to convert. And man, there was a couple of times where terrible towels made it down to the field and we're mistaken for flags that cost us.

But I'm sure we'll talk about that also. But it was a lot of a lot of things to be I guess to be happy about as a Cowboy fan. Man Neville Gallimore, the third round pick, come on with it. I like that. I mean Neville Gallimore, he made a bleep on the radar and Randy Gregory Man. Randy Gregory Man, I'm gonna put him on my prayer list because this guy is playing lights out. He's doing a great job as far as getting to the quarterback, applying that pressure not only on the past but also in the run.

There's so much to be proud of from a defensive standpoint them uh not allowing three hundred, two hundred yard rusher this game. Historically the defense has been so bad that you just needed to see something passing game. I know, we're look, there's a lot to talk about as far as the passing game is concerned, but you know, look, I just I just want to see a sign of life, and I think I saw it this Sunday is sah yeah, I mean yeah, Hector's hit it. I mean, like I

alluded to already. Man, there's there's a lot of positives to take away from this game, especially in the situation that you're in as an organization. Um, they'll be they'll be okay, they'll be okay. Things are not okay right now, but this game, you know again, you know you got a team, you thought a team was Danny, you heard a little back a little bit. You know, there is some life. Um, there's some life. So I think I think there'll be okay going to second half of the season. No,

what did what did Isaiah do? Last night? Y'all not telling Hey, what did you do? Heckma, heckma. We're gonna wait until the second segment for this. We're gonna we're gonna continue the second segment for this. So we're gonna chill for a second. And I want to kind of go off of what Robins said, and rob brought it up saying that that you did. You went toe to toe with the best team in the league right now,

at least record wise, with your fourth string quarterback. So yeah, no, no, moral victories aren't necessarily a thing, but the bar is starting to rise, and you're starting to see a turn of the corner, because what were we talking about four weeks ago, three weeks ago even, was the fact that this coaching staff was losing track, It was losing the locker room, it was unraveling a little bit whenever you came to the blowout loss against the Cardinals, and then

you got blown out again twenty five to three against the Washington football team a week later, you were saying, what is happening in Dallas because Mike McCarthy apparently doesn't have a hold on this ball club. We now see he does have a hold, and they're starting to bring energy. They're starting to look like a real football team again. They're starting to feel like the Cowboys that we anticipated to see, except we just have a ton of injuries mixed in there as well, and they're just not the

personnel that we thought they were going to be. But the energy and the improvement has been there, Isaiah, and that's something that I think you can look forward to going into the byeweek. Absolutely, I want to tip my hat off to all three coordinators, offensive, defensive, and special team. They all they all brought their eight game and so many times they get overlooked on the positive end of things, a lot of times they get a lot of the scrutiny.

I mean, they've had their fair share from all of us this year. But this game they came to play. You know, we challenged Kellen Moore in terms of his last game. Is said that he had a failing grade. At least I said it. He had a feeling grade last game when he when he brought in d Nucci and he did. He failed as that was the first challenge he's ever really faced, in my opinion, UM with you know, with a lack luster roster UM, you know, lack luster UM. You know, a set of assets that

he's had. You know, this time he had a chance to come back in UM and revived himself and he did so. Right, he had opportunity to do so, he came to play. He called a great game. I think offensively they did well. They averaged four and a half yards per carry. UM, they threw the ball well, you know,

they kept him in good situations. There was probably only one series that I wish Kella Moore would have done things differently, and that's when when we had the interception, UM, you know, when we had a lot of momentum on the ground. I wish you would have ran that. Uh defensive wise, you mentioned it. These guys are they came

to play right. These guys are, I think, are finally start starting to to really take on and incumbass the you know Mike Nolan's um, you know, regime and right and what he's trying to propose instead of trying to be so defensive towards it right. A lot of times when you're trying to say this is the way I do things. And that's why they got rid of those veterans, because those guys had enough experience where they can say, and what is I don't want to do it like that?

Well got rid of those guys. Now you have a bunch of young guys to say, I'm willing to do it like that, and now you're starting to see the positive positive end of that. I mean, then the special team's coordinator, he is what we thought he was. Uh. He's aggressive, he's relentless, um, he doesn't care. He has a short memory. And hats off to coach McCarthy for giving these guys the confidence and do what they want. A lot of times head coaches don't allow you. They'll say, na, no, no, now,

we're not doing that. He is letting Fossil go. He has a freedom to do whatever the heck he wants to Fossils coming up to him and say, hey, coach, how about a throw back on a kick off for turn? Most coaches would be like, the heck is wrong with you? But I guess what. He keeps trusting him, and he has a freedom to keep being creative and I think it's gonna pay off. Yeah, I know, like Mike McCarthy, he's gonna get criticized and challenge for, you know, electing

to go with that field goal. I think it was a third quarter the third quarter to go up nineteen to nine, go up ten, and you know, at the time time, the logic makes sense in terms of this is your defense is playing, by far, it's best game of the season, and take take the points and try to try to stand up a couple more times and

stop them. But to Isaiah's point, while you could criticize that for being conservative, man, some of these decisions on special teams, I mean they they went into the game thinking, we've got to do something kind of crazy, get kind of weird here and try to make some big plays to catch them off guard, you know, kind of like they did last week against the Eagles with some of

the offensive formations. But yeah, you know, John Fossil Bones Fossil dialing some things up, man, and they almost they almost pulled it off on top of a pretty efficient performance by the offense given what they're missing. You know, Garrett Gilbert did a nice job overall. I know he had to turn over. But but you know, he there was a clear difference between a seventh round rookie making his first start and a guy that hasn't played much but has been around the league in kind of managing

that offense and driving the bus. He gave him a chance to win the game. Let's talk about Garrett Gilbert a little bit, and heckmo, whenever it comes to Gilbert and what he brought last night. He passed the eye test,

he absolutely did. And there's gonna be a lot of controversy, and there's gonna be a lot of conversation going into the bye week and then after the bye week on whether or not Andy Dalton should come back and be the quarterback, because even with Andy Dalton playing that whole game against Arizona and even the first half against Washington, he didn't look as competent back there as Garrett Gilbert did. Now, there was a leak year offensive line at the time.

You didn't have Zach Martin for a little bit of that as well. But overall, against a very very good team in an incredible front seven, he stood up and he passed the eye test. Yesterday. What did you think of Gilbert? Man? The big ge Wagon double g got you got a nickname here Wagon, Hey Man. You know Garrett Gilbert, Man, he had command of the offense. I loved, you know, a lot of what he had going into the day. I didn't know what to expect from him at all, so I found it quite refreshing that he

stood in the pocket. He delivered some really good throws that touchdown pass awesome, He did some I mean, look, he did some really good things that and it begs the question, going, who do you go with going forward? I know that's that's the controversy. And then also, had he played last week, we have been able to pull that out. I mean, all those are ifs and maybees. But still you could just tell from the way that Garret Gilbert stepped up and he made those throws. He

wasn't afraid of the moment. And that's what I really loved the most about Garret Gilbert's performance last night. Man, he was a stunt. He did really good except for in the red zone. That one throw. I'm sure that's one that he wished he had. Yeah, I'm sure that's the one that he wished that he had back. But again, all in all, being the fourth quarterback. I was pleased with his performance. Yeah, I think on that one, you got to have the clock in your head. I guess

down down there things happen faster. And he got hit. I mean he got hit as he was throwing, but you got to get rid of the ball. But you know, other than that, yeah, definitely, I mean I he kind of let the receivers get open and make play, let them go make plays, you know. And he also threw some dimes out there. So pretty effective performance. Um. I don't know if it's a is it is it going to be a controversy. I think it is. I think it definitely is really really oh yeah, okay, So are

you saying it's a Garrett I don't. I don't. I mean, I don't know where I sit on I think the way Garrett Gilbert played is exactly what you want from your backup quarterback. Yes, your number two quarterback, much less than the number four guy coming in for the season. But that being said, I just I do feel like once Andy's back, and hopefully that's soon, um, I would expect him to get get the get the job back.

But I guess we'll see. Isaiah Gilbert did it Gilbert did what he was supposed to do, and you know he kept the game competitive. He didn't he didn't mess the game up. He kept the game. He managed the game right, He managed the offense very well. Um, he wasn't asked to do anything outside of himself. Again, you already mentioned it, you know, Rob terms with that that red zone play, it shouldn't never the passionate never been called.

I'll put it that way. Um, once the pass is called, his job is a not turn it over, and unfortunately he did. So you know that's I think that's on both of them, um for making making a bad call and making a bad decision with the ball. But other than that, he did a good job managing the game. In terms of the controversy, everybody knows I like any Dolden, I respect any Dalton what he's done in this league to date. Um the one the time, the two times

we've seen him. Um, you know, we we saw a version of any Dalton that everybody expected, right, Kevi in the game after Za got hurt, after that got hurt and took care of business. Yeah, boom, there we go. That's the anti Dalton we expect to see. Annie Dalton that came back the next week. That wasn't just him right, it was we were, you know, damaged all that kind of stuff, damage and goods upfront. But unfortunately that's what

was put on tape. So if I have to make a decision going forward, I'm going to ride this momentum that the office had and I'm going with Gilbert over Dalton this next game really quick. Yeah, they may do that,

They may do that, you know. Uh, kind of going back to that that interception in the red zone, not only did Isaiah at the time, not only did we not like the play calling from Kellen Moore at that point, just run the football at that point and try and I mean you were running the ball extremely well on that drive initially, so why not stick with it and

try and score there. The other thing was is even on that pass after it was called, there was a controversial no call whenever it came to pass interference on Amari Cooper. I wasn't necessarily as adamant about the past interference call at that point. We're gonna talk about some penalties and some calls that were definitely blatant coming up on the next segment. But I hear that you didn't like the call. What are your thoughts on it? Because

I thought it was kind of a back and forth there. No, man, it was they didn't call it. I mean, it's right in the face of rep standing there. I mean, it's pass interference. They would have got it. I mean other teams are getting PI. Why can't we get PI? What's up with that? I mean, I don't know. It's it's obvious. It's not even up a question. And to me to in a situation like that, where you know, we're in the red zone, we're fighting tooth and nail and it's

a PI right there, you don't call it. That's that's lame. I didn't like it. Didn't like it, Rob, What do you think about it? Same deal, same deal. I you know there there were there were some weird calls on both sides, so I think in the end it all kind of evens out. But yeah, I had the same feelings acted Isaiah. Yeah, I mean I think it definitely have been called. I mean, you know, rests. Unfortunately, rests are human, right, so they're gonna be something in your favorite,

something that aren't in your favor. It didn't get caught. So here here we are. You know, talking, you know, really talking about it doesn't It doesn't do anybody any good, you know, just try to find a way to work around it. Unfortunately, we've all been there, and I don't I know, Cowboys fans probably don't want to hear this,

but I'm gonna say it. Anyways, you had that one takeaway a touchdown from you later in the game, but you also had one that was taken away from the Steelers early in the game on what was a no call on pass interference on that play down the sideline to Chase Claypool. I think it was the first drive of the game, and there was one where there was a lot of early contact and they ended up not calling it and it could have easily been past interference and that would have said, I believe the Steelers up

inside the fifteen, and instead it forced a punt. And so I think you're gonna have players that go your way, they're gonna be players that don't go your way. I think that was one that just didn't go your way on kind of a fifty fifty ball that I think it would have been past interference. I would have thrown a flag on it. I'm also paid referee, so nobody cares what I think. But overall, I think it was a game that it was a play that could have gone either way, and they just didn't go in favor

of the Cowboys. Now, there were some penalties that we did agree with from a referee perspective and that the Cowboys didn't agree with from their own personnel perspective. We hear about Jalen Smith and some of the key mistakes that were made late. We're going to discuss whether or not he took accountability for it and what happened later when we come back. You're on talking Cowboys. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why SLOR pioneers

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See more, Do more Selor here on Talking Cowboys. The Monday after a twenty four nineteen loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cowboys now at two and seven, the Steelers, the only undefeated team in the NFL, now at eight n O, securing what is their seventeenth straight non losing season for the Steelers, fourteen of those with Mike Tomlin, who is still now undefeated against Mike McCarthy in the regular season. But McCarthy got him in the Super Bowl, so I

guess that's good for coach. But lots to talk about. In this game from yesterday and including the latter parts of the game, we saw some key mistakes and some key penalties that cost the defense, who had their best game of the year. We have already talked about that cost the defense a couple chances to get off the field and rob Whenever you look at some of these penalties, the Cowboys personnel wives and I mean we heard it from Jalen Smith yesterday, didn't like it. It thought that

they were kind of bogus penalties. What did you think about the calls, especially whenever it comes to the hands to the face, the pass interference and then even the latent vander esh quote unquote punch, but it really wasn't a punch. It was more of a slap. Yeah, I mean it's what the ref saw. He saw him slap him on the helmet. I don't know if he really saw, uh the Steelers player kind of grabbing his you know, pushing his face. So, you know, I think it's what

the ref saw at that time. As far as the Jalen plays thought, the first one, the holding call, uh was was pretty questionable in my opinion. But by the rule, if you if you if you grab the player, then they're they're probably gonna call it. Same thing with the PI. If you hit the quarterback in this day and age in the head, no matter whether it's intentional or not,

they're gonna call it. And I correct me if I'm wrong. Guys, I don't feel like this is the first time that's happened to Jalen where he's rushing and he and he's gotten called for a similar type play and so that's been on tape, and so it happened, and that's kind of by the letter of the law kind of thing, and and that's why they made the call. So especially with the Hall of Fame quarterback, they're probably gonna call

that play. They're gonna call it. Yeah, there's a there's a percentage of guys in the NFL that you can't touch. I mean, you got to sack them just the right way. And it makes me sick the way that the rules have changed the game, uh these I mean and also being sold to hell out of the call also. But you can't do it. You can't touch it, you can't know, you can't have hands to the face, you can't be blocked to a guy's legs. Or any of that that

they're gonna call rough. In the past, the passing ofference one as questionable, you know, it was, and they've called some worse ones and they had no calls on other ones. I just didn't feel like it was as malicious a call. I mean, I thought Claypool felt that's just the way that it looked. I've rewinded, I've looked at it, but he sold it really well. But that's the thing about Jalen.

He has just been on the end of some horrible calls, and you know, and we've been at the Cowboys that have been at the end of some horrible calls period, you know. But you know, if it goes back to the face masks and Cleveland that continues to drive the Layton Vanderesh one that you know, look, man, you got teams that are just straight up just trying to They're

just trying to have up that way with us. And this guy has his hand up on the Vaderesh's neck and he's trying to swipe this guy's hand away and they called fifteen yards. That takes that three and out all the momentum that we were gaining as a defense.

Those penalties just wiped us out and allowed for the offense could two continue drives, And so people are gonna feel and jump on Jalen and say, look, man, he's and deservedly so you know, he's been a part of some back halls, some mistackles, back coverage, all of that, but man, a lot of that. To me, I looked at it, it's just man, Rothlisberger sold it. And obviously you can't. You can't hit a quarterback in the head.

That's just those are the rules, Isaiah. Before you get started here, this is kind of surprising to me because at least with you and I yesterday during post game, and we were in there with Nate Newton and Barry Church as well, but it was a very different feel on what the penalties meant and what they kind of

showed with this team. I mean, Robin and Heckman both agree that there's a lot of controversy with the calls, and I think there was controversy period, But at some point there's got to be some accountability, right absolutely, And um, you know, I'll double back on what I what I said yesterday. First of all, I have to if anybody doesn't know what I said yesterday, you got to go back and watch the OT. I think we got to broke it down on the website. But UM, I pretty much.

I I commented on Jaylen Smith following following his comments UM in a postgame interview, and I have to I have to clear up some things. My mom got on my head this morning because she saw it. But I opened up my response by saying, you know respond, you know, act like a man. And when I said that, I meant how he presented himself in the post game. Everybody has their own opinions on how you present yourself after a game. You know, my procession how I've always been taught.

You know, this stem from coach Willingham, is when you step up to the podium and you're not only representing yourself, but you're representing your teammates and you're representing the entire organization. So I was I was displeased to how he present into himself. So that's when I made that comment. So

let me clear that up. UM. As we started talking about some of these things, some of these penalties and an accountability to too much yesterday, UM not only just Jalen UM, I think I think UM we also heard it from UM why can I think right now? Um defensive end um yeah, yeah from from law yeah, from the law dog. He complained about the referees a lot as well. Listen up. The penalties are penalties, right, And I recognize that people are fans and there's a lot

of emotions, and you know how I am. Heck, I take the emotion out of it. I don't care right, Um, it was it was a penalty, bro Um. It was a penalty. And you know with Claypool's two hundred and forty pounds, you hit them, You hit them after five yards, you hit them. It is what it is. You don't like it, you don't have to like it, but the rules say and I don't. I as a player, I didn't always like the rules. As a former player, I don't always like the rules, especially with the way the

game's gone. The game is a lot more softer than out than it ever was. Right. But you hit him right, and then you go into the hands of the face. Right, you hit Ben Roethlisberger in the face, his helmet turned. His helmet turn wasn't intentional every time? By no means was it intentional. But guess what it doesn't say if you do this intently that that that you get a penalty.

It says if you hit him in the face, you get a penalty, so that or if that's the fact so and then the LVEE, I know you just talked about it. Heck in terms of dude, push him first. Listen up. These are all men playing the game. But these are all grown men playing the game, right, and these guys all have pride. Lv E made a heck of a play. He came up, got a great hit, boom, stuck him on the ground, drove him into the ground.

There is a very distinct and a very fine line of making a good play and letting that turn into hey, I tackled you and I'm about to get up versus I tackled you. I tackled you and I'm about to punk you. And'll let you know that I that I did this to you. Right, Yeah, you're gonna take this. I'm putting you in the ground, and LVEE cross stay

in line. It was a split second. It's a split second and when that happened, you saw the tackle, and it'll be kind of give him a little extra like, yeah, boy, as a man, as a man, get off me, right, get off me right, and that's what you saw. What LVE can't do is respond that is a lack of emotional intelligence. When you react like that in that situation.

There there's a no win situation. There's no point in any game where you're gonna be a defender and you're gonna be able to hit somebody, hit down on somebody while you're over them, right, while you're straddling them, and you think that you're not gonna get called for that. It's just not a reality. It doesn't matter if you like it. It doesn't matter if you think the call

was bs'. It's not gonna work to your advantage. And I don't think there's anybody that can come out here and argue that if you straddle a man and you push down on him or whether you're hitting his hand, hitting his fingernail, I don't care what you're hitting if you swing down on him, regardless of it was intent to hit him or not, which it was. It it was open hand slap, but it came across like you got he was punching them. You're not gonna win that. So when you go into the post game and these

guys try to blame everything out of referees. It's soft to me, it's soft, just like heck it said it was. It was baby baby poop. This is softest tissue paper, right, I'm talking about. This is a man, This is like this is this is like the public bathroom toilet paper. Right, and you can see you can see through it, right, you can see through it. You take it, You take accountability for what you did. And I hate and I I don't want to say hey, because that's a strong word.

I very much have a distaste for people who don't take accountability. As a player. They are plays to this day that haunt me as a as a former quarterback in college. Right, it's plays in this to this day in my players that I've had in the NFL that haunt me to this day because not only did they hurt me in my resume, man, because I put it on film, but they hurt my team, right, they hurt my team. Those penalties hurt them. So the first thing

I'm gonna do is say it's on me. It's on me, and guess what, I'm gonna get it wrecked it even if I don't agree with it, Guess what, I'm gonna take a look at it, and I'm gonna make sure that this doesn't happen again so that I'm ensued that I don't hurt myself or my teammates and my organization going forward. Don't place to blame on somebody else. That's a cop out, man, And that was my response. That

was my sentiments yesterday and today. What LV did wasn't like dunking on a guy and putting your shorts on his head. Oh yeah, man, Patrick, man Like, it wasn't like it wasn't like that he made his tackle. It wasn't like he pushed the guy back into the ground. Come off the gas. I said, come on, let me

frame it like this. Heck, if little Heck got tackled like that, and another and another, another little boy stayed on him and was like like, gave a little extra you're gonna be like, Heck, you break get up now. See my son is roguish. So my son, we'd have got thrown out of the game and all that. So exactly like the way you got things going on over here, we've been different. That would have been a teachable moment. But if Heck was getting paid hundreds of thousands of

dollars a game, look and and look cut all that out. Man. I'm saying is that wasn't egregious. And for that guy to put his hand under Layton Vanderess got like that, he got his arms underneath and he was like, get off me. All I'm saying is they called it they killed with That was for us. I think that was the three and that we had done everything defensively that we needed to do. That was something to celebrate in a fifteen yard penalty continues to drive. If you're talking

about emotional intelligence just situational awareness, I get you. I feel you, okay, But at the same time, we have teams coming into at and T Stadium or when we're on the road that think they could just have their way with us dog. And if Layton Vanderess is like na Stadio little lass down here, then I'm support that, right, but at the same support you and then I have it and if that's the case. And if that's the case, then I understand your point. But I didn't feel as

though it was like that. I think that his swiping his hand away was like, come on, bro, you can't just have your hand under my face mask. I guess and guess and guess what I don't and I don't disagree with you in that right. That's anybody's response. However, the emotional intelligence and understanding the situation that you're not going to win, that you're not going to win, that it doesn't matter you're not. This isn't an about my manhood at that moment. I did my job right in

terms of me protecting my manhood and my pride. I did what I was supposed to do. Now, guess what you swinging at me. I expect that. But what I can't do is react to that right because now I'm upon it, you're controlling me. He didn't have his shorts on his head, man, that's all. Yeah, you know, I think what Isaiah's saying. You know, there are so many plays that are things that are called through the course of the game. Things have a way of evening out.

There was a potential PI on the Cowboys defense that wasn't called early in the game. So yeah, I mean, you can't put it all on the refs. I would say, as much as this defense has struggled this year and you're this close to knocking off an unbeaten team, I understand the frustration. Immediately after the game. But Isaiah, I mean, I agree with you in terms of it's not the

refs that beat you. And the thing about it is, when you look back at this game, there's so much to build off of, there's so much to be positive about the spite of loss. But ultimately they kind of lost in the same ways they've lost games when you really think about it. They had penalties that cost them, and they lost the turnover battle once again. They gave up six points off of two turnovers and lost by

five points. And that's that's frustrating too. There's one thing that my dad always told me, and we've already talked about Isaiah's mom. We've talked about heck of A's son. So I'm going to bring my family into it first foot second. But my dad always told me, too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing very quickly. And I think we've been waiting to see the energy. We've been waiting to see the fight, and I use that word intentionally from this defense and from

this sideline for the Cowboys, Well we got it. We got the energy, We've got the fight. We've seen that against Philadelphia, We've now seen it against Pittsburgh. But you got to use it in the right spot. And I think that's what Isaiah's saying. I think he was on that same boat as well. You gotta know the situation, and you gotta know where your team is and who you're playing against. At the same time. That wasn't the Eagles, that wasn't the Washington football team or the New York

Giants that you've seen earlier in the year. Wasn't even the Atlanta Falcons. That was the Pittsburgh freakin Steelers who were seven and ozero and in your house. You gotta know the situational levitation or a situation at whatever the word may be. You gotta have the rights mindset in that very moment or else that energy is gonna get to you. And I think it did a little bit. It was still a tiki tack call. I completely agree with all three of you guys, But overall, you gotta

know whether or not you can retaliate like that. And Layton Vanderesh costs his team fifteen yards in a crucial moment of the football game. Now when we come back, we're gonna talk about even less than the yard. We're gonna talk about that fourth down an inches call that Rob alluded to a little bit earlier. Was that something the Cowboys should have kicked a field goal to go up by ten, or at least continue driving when they're

running the ball so effectively. We talk about that when we come back on Talking Cowboys, we're back in a tasty treat that's sweeping air waves and taste buds. It's new Doctor pepper and cream Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor pepper and cream Soda. Is he a new Combonelet's music to my ears? Okay, doctor time, music to my ears and mouth. New Doctor pepper and Cream Soda a delisious. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why SLOR pioneers ways to make lenses as unique as you.

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Bank of America is proud to be the official bank of the Dallas Cowboys and to support the quest of living life the Cowboys Way. Copyright twenty twenty Bank of America Corporation. Dear, it's nineteen oh eight. Don't you think we should get electricity and stop using candles to see it night? It's just electricity lights up the room fast. It's more reliable than candles blowing out, and people seem to love it nationwide. Cales, Dear, did you just run

into the wall? I have a new candle please. Historically, switching to new technology is a no brainer. Today it's AT and T five G, fast, reliable, secure and nationwide. Switch to AT and T five G. It's not complicated. Five G requires compatible plant may not be in your area. See at T doc com slashed for you for details to talk in Cowboys. Well, if you had fun yesterday out at AT and T Stadium, the Cowboys will be back home on Thanksgiving Day to take on the Washington

football teams. Tickets starting at just eighty nine dollars on sale right now. Get yours today at Dallas Cowboys dot Com slash tickets. Bring the fam, Stay Safe, Stay Socially Distant. Continuing on this twenty twenty NFL season, Lots to talk about and not enough time again in this show. Forty five minutes is all we get. But we will get to talk about it again tomorrow. But it's a new crew tomorrow for Talking Cowboys and all of the Dallas

Cowboys dot Com podcast. I will be the only one on this show tomorrow as Nate Newton and Nick Eatman will join me. Isaiah will move his way later in the day to the break. He'll be Oh, yeah, no, I'm just shifting you around. It's it's not why do you get to stay? That's not get stay. I guess because I'm the most That's That's the only reason I guess they kept. Oh so Isaiah is with Barry in Curved Friday Derek on the break and it's not Friday. Does that mean we have to do saying with the

Chest today? Rob with hanging with the boys. We've got uh and then we've got heckma oh. This is gonna be so fun. Mick shots with heckm Harrison, Dave Hellman, Mickey Spagnola, and Bill Jones. Wow, that's gonna be a lot of fun. So tune in throughout the Can you guys make Mickey just throw his headset and walk off. That's what I want to see. I'm gonna do my best do it. Just make it happen for me. Oh, heck, were you on the show with with Mickey at one

point we're talking right at the beginning of this. I can't remember. That was a trial by fire? Yeah it was. And man, I mean Mickey, Mickey would come into the studio, he wouldn't even speak to me. He just lay his folder down and just that's nothing personal. That's just the Spagnola. I didn't take it personally. No good. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Just shifting things around for the

bye week. It's something that we've done previously. Also for those who are watching that are fans of the Draft Show and are expecting a bye week Draft show, that

is not happening. However, we are looking to some big things in December, so we will get started really kind of early this year and get things started in December at least that's what Derek announced last week on Twitter, and man, there are some really really cool things in the works for that as well, So keep up on that one and be ready for some news to come

down here in the next couple of weeks. But let's go into the final couple minutes here of talking Cowboys and whenever you talked about Rob the fourth down controversy and Mike McCarthy's gonna be questioned about this. I thought it was the right call. We had some disagreement and studio back and forth on whether or not on fourth and inches deep in your opponent's territory, whether or not to go for it as you're up by seven, or kick the field goal and make it two possessions. I'm

interested to see what you guys thought, especially Rob. You brought it up earlier as a controversy. Did you think that that call should have gone a different way? I understood the logic at the time. As I said, I was surprised that he did it, and I expected him to go for it because I think that's something we've seen McCarthy do. He's been aggressive in situations like that.

He trusted his defense in that regard. They did play well last night, but you are playing against a Hall of Fame, future Hall of Fame quarterback who that last touchdown drive when they got to the four minutes. That's Ben Roethlisberger has done that a hundred times in his career, and he was able to be productive and found a way to win that game. When Trayvon Dix goes out,

Savon Smith comes in at cornerback. It was almost like Ben said, oh, you're new in the game, I'm gonna I'm gonna go at you two or three times, and a future Hall of Fame quarterback found a way to win the game. So I was surprised that, who, given who you're up against, you play conservative in that situation. Late, Yes, I was. I just wanted to mention Rob that he was on one leg. He wasn't he was? He was, Yeah, we did. It was flashbacks to the Packer playoff game, wasn't.

I'm pretty I'm pretty sure he sprained his mcl on that play. Just saying yeah, I wasn't surprised. I mean, the Pittsburgh still a defense. These guys have been balling out. Take the points, you know, I mean, your your inches, no matter what I mean, guys did y'all see the way Cameron Hayward was man handling the left side of our offensive lineman. Who's on the left side. Look, look,

let's let's just say this. You have you hey, I know, you know isaid when you're hey, somebody's on your bike and you you're you're living a ride on your handlebars. He was flitting Connor on his handlebars and just riding to the quarterback. It's embarrassing, you know, the job that they did defensively on our left side. But you know, I think they took the points, and a lot of people would have preferred them. What do you have to lose? Is the going mantra here that on that decision. But

I didn't have a problem with it. No, I agree. I think I told Kyll that in studio. Take the points, man. You don't want to You don't want to give those guys that momentum, and your old line is not better than their defensive line, and you're running back hasn't been running as efficient as effectively as you like them to be. So you take those points, no brainer. Yeah. I think the one that I really didn't understand that people were

mad about was early in the game. Where they were like inside their own thirty Hell no, I mean why would you put I mean, all we've talked about all season long was you're putting your defense in bad spots with turnovers. Why would you risk that that early in the game. I think I think the one we just talked about you could question more than that one. And even with the way that things turned out, I mean, you gave up fifteen unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

If you went and went down and scored, you would have only been up by fourteen. So either way, I mean, I know you would have only needed a field goal there at the end, and I guess that does count for something. But regardless, things didn't necessarily work out for you down the stretch like you thought it would whenever you kick that field goal. Initially I thought, you take the points. You don't know how many chances you're gonna get to be back that deep in the territory. And

not to mention it is an extra possession. It went from one possession to two possessions, and I think that's something that's that you can hang your hat on from a coaching staff perspective, saying, hey, let's distance ourselves a little bit going into the fourth quarter and hopefully our defense continues to do what they've been doing, and that's exactly what they made the decision on, but it just didn't work out for the Cowboys twenty four nineteen the

loss yesterday. So that's gonna do it here for Talking Cowboys on this Monday once again. Not the same crew tomorrow on Talking same time though, nine thirty in the morning. It's gonna be so sad. We won't be back until next Monday and we can start talking about really the first half of the season. I'm gonna bring some fire questions next Monday, since we won't have a game to break down, We're gonna get into some some future stuff

for the Cowboys. We're also going to talk about maybe some personnel changes coming up as well, which will be fun with some of these young guys making their names. Uh be heard, Hey Kyle, Hey Kyle, what's that? Kyle? And Rob and Rob pick pick Washington too. By the way, uh Friday doing albums. You guys over You guys overruled me. You guys overruled men. The g men stand up. Yeah, that's true. He did get that one. Okay, how about that? Oh man? That's interesting about those giants. Man, the giants

saving Rob a game, So that's kind of fun. But everybody, have a great week if you're joining us now. I don't even know what I'm about to say. I got thrown off by Heckman talking at the end, but appreciate you guys for joining us. For heck Ma Harrison, Rob Phillips, I stand back in for Chris Beam in the back up Kyle Yeoman saying so long for talking Cowboys. We'll see you tomorrow look up. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football o'clock