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Welcome into Girls Talk, Boys Talk, brought to you by Jigsaw Dating. Today the first day the Cowboys players are finding themselves back on the field following Monday night's unprecedented event and the injury to build safety DeMar Hamlin, and as we all continue to wait for news and pray for Hamlin's recovery, we were able to catch up with both head coach Mike McCarthy today as well as the players.
Hayley, you were in the press conference Mike McCarthy today.
Maybe just give us a couple of highlights from that and how he's making sure that players check in not only with themselves but each other.
Yeah.
I loved how I think regardless, that was the first question he was asked, but I think regardless, it was on his list of things to start with immediately, So I love that he really just expressed his concern for Damar and his family sending condolences. But I really thought was interesting though, is obviously all these teams across the NFL are you talking about damar talking about how it's impacted those players. And one of the things that Mike said that really stood out to me is that they
opened the spiritual playbook today. They spent time with the team chaplain and really opened up, leaning into the emotions, what everyone was feeling, what everyone was not feeling, and really making sure that those guys are nourished from that way. And we've talked so often about how Mike McCarthy is a pros pro when it comes to taking care of these guys, but as you mentioned, this is unprecedented. We've
never really seen an injury like this before. So he continues to impress me with his ability to be a player's coach, maybe in a little bit of a different way than we think of that word players coach. So that was the number one thing that stood out to me. Talked about making sure the guys had spiritual guidance. That's what they needed, he said, I wrote downs, be honest, no one is fine, no matter what we're saying. We know what's in front of us. But right now, spiritually,
our playbook needed to be open. So I just thought it was really important that he was keeping those guys at the forefront, making sure that they're all looking out for one another. He also said that he did not see the play live. He said he heard about it. It was obviously jarring. He talked about experiences that he's had in the past with some players, so it really resonates with a lot of us. It hits a little bit personal to some of the players in the locker
room as well, which we'll get into. But I really just thought, you know, it's just so challenging to put into words what everybody watched and what everybody saw and how we feel. And I really just loved that term spiritual playbook because you don't hear that a lot, and so I thought that it was really good that they were able to lean into that.
Yeah, you know, watching it and this is this is not a great comparison at all. It's actually maybe I should be careful and even making this comparison. But when we think about things that we've never seen live on television television before, I kind of go back a little bit to September eleventh. We had never seen planes crashing into a building. We'd never seen a football game stop down for as long as they did, typically with an injury.
I mean, I think back to even Dak Prescott's injury, how brutal that was and seeing the emotions in his eyes, or I covered a Final Four game with the player from Louisville. I don't know if you guys remember how horrific that injury was. It was sort of like shock
and all because you haven't seen it before. I think what really stood out watching that game because some weeks I have Monday Night Football on, and even I don't know if you guys know this, but would talking to some of the players in the locker room, I'm not sure every one of those guys had Monday Night Football on either, because a lot of players sort of take a break during the week.
We've heard them say they're not.
Watching, so they were sort of watching it as the highlights are coming through or whatever. But if you are watching it in real time the way that I was, and some of the guys that were, like Micah Parson said you thought it was a concussion and not saying that that's good either. But at least we were used to seeing some of that, particularly this year with Twatungua Bayolola,
but he never gave the thumbs up. And when you see football players that you're so used to being superheroesque remove their helmets and you're seeing the shock on their faces, the concern, the prayers, the tears, you knew it was severe. And then when you've got broadcasters that have covered so many of these games nothing and very little to say, and you don't want to speculate.
That's just again when I make that.
Comparison, and again I understand it's a little bogus in it's like apples to oranges, But it was the shock and the raw emotion and the concern for people you didn't know is what it felt like. And then having people sort of marinate and digest this information a few days later, and I think it's good. The update that we've been getting is that he's beginning to breathe a
little bit more on his own. His family members have been talking to some of the networks, and so it sounds like it's trending in the right direction.
But as we talk about hitting a little.
Closer to home, they're a two players that intimately know dMar Hamlin and one of those is Quadri Allison, the running back that we had acquired. He is from the Buffalo area. He told me went to Pittsburgh with Hamlin. He said they were really good friends for four years.
They were texting just a few weeks ago. He commented on one of Quadre's fits that he was wearing ahead of the game, and he said he even flew up there for his draft party, and he was so excited when he got drafted to Buffalo because he was from there. And so he said, he and his teammates, he said, he act he's hit. He didn't even knowingly put on his pit shirt today, but he you know, he put it on. And he's been in constant contact with a
lot of his friends and family. And I said, what's the one thing you want people to know about demor Hamlin that they may not. They're like, his nickname is the neighborhood hero, because that's who he was.
He was a blue collar guy.
And I said, what is it that you know about him that makes you confident he's going to get through this? And he goes, it's because he is that blue collar guy, he's that hard worker.
He's going to figure this out.
And so, but that's a guy that's in this Dallas Cowboys locker room that does a personal connection to him. Linebacker gabro Cox also was a pre draft workout partner with him, and so you don't have to necessarily know these guys personally. I think it hits close to home because all of these was mark Ingram recently said on k Adams Show he had his sister reach out to him and said, I wouldn't be mad if you quit
playing football. You know, Like we've heard Tom Brady's wife talk about she didn't care that he was continuing to play, but every time she saw him in the game, she
was worried about him. I think that goes for all family members, and you know, I just wonder you don't you know, you're aware of concussions, You're aware of injuries to your legs, your ankles, your knees, but when it's something as severe as that, I just wonder if there's some players that really take that to heart, because we have seen guys walk away from the game prematurely because they are concerned about their health. And so I think
all of this is resonating. I think there's a lot of conversations being held both with players, coaches, teammates, but also I think internally with their families.
Absolutely, and something I really I'm glad you bring up family because Mike McCarthy always says family first and then football, and he echoed that in his press conference this morning of this is the time to show family first. In this case, it's putting everybody on that team with each other,
having each other's backs, making sure everybody's okay. And again we always praise Mike McCarthy on here for the mental health awareness, but just giving the praise really across the NFL to make sure that everybody is okay from what they saw because again the guys on the field, the coaching staff, giving kudos to even just the medical staff that acted so quickly. So just prioritizing all of those things. But absolutely, I think even I follow one of the
recently signing of the Raiders players. His wife is viral
on TikTok Alis and Kosh. I don't know if if you follow her, but she talked about it on TikTok and she just said, you know this, it's very close to home considering I go watch my husband play every day and you know, you don't think that this is going to happen to your loved one on the field, and so even when it happened, knowing that his mom was there in the stands having to see that, I can't I can't even imagine the emotions that she felt
just seeing that and the shock. And now that it's been a few days, I think that shock factor from everybody's starting to come down and you see the reality of Okay, what do we do next. We make sure you know, everything's okay with everybody that was impacted, because it was just such a traumatic and shocking moment for everybody that, like you said, Jane, nobody's nobody's seen before.
Well, you know, Clarence Hill on media Mash made a great point. You know Marcus Paul, the team strength and conditioning coach, when he went down last year, I remember how just shook a lot of these guys were because it happened in the weight room. They tried to revive him and they didn't, and those guys saw that and they ended up having to play after that. That was that was tough. I My heart goes out to a lot of these Bills players and the Bengals players, for
that matter. You know, how can you focus on a football game when you when you see something like that, because there are things that feel, you know, bigger than the game itself. And so again there's there's only so much you can say. I hate pontificating on this too much because it wasn't my family member. I don't have a spouse or a loved one that's playing in this league. All I know is I cover this game. But my
heart goes out to them. Is this feels like it's really hit close to home for a lot of people.
It's a lot to consider, it's a lot to reevaluate on. And one of the things that Mike McCarthy said that stuck out to me and I'm sure we'll go for it, but was that he just was talking about each guy checking on the other guy, and just the fact that there's guys in this locker room that are connected to Hamlin. It just reminds me of so much of my military time. Like in just a military in general, it's so big, but it's so small, and the NFL's like that, like
a lot of these guys do know each other. A lot of these guys did go to college together, were roommates together across the league, and just to see how it's affecting everyone is something that I think I've seen, but just on a different level. So it's it's just I don't know, it's an emotional thing.
That is, you do bring something interesting when I think about that, You know, because you were in such a group of people that you kind of know what you're getting yourself into, right, And then there are these unexpected situations.
When it does hit close to home. What is that like for It's different.
It takes quite a bit of time. It took me quite a bit of time to snap back into being a warrior because when I was in uniform, I took it very seriously and I felt like I snapped into a place.
To where my survival was it.
And it was hard for me to rationalize a lot of emotions because you don't have the time to feel that sometimes. And with them taking this time off right now and the team kind of taking some time away, it probably is setting in for a lot of guys. I had it plenty of times in my military career where I was like, what am I.
Doing right now? And not in a bad.
Way, because you do that's what you're supposed to do. But I know for me and people that I've seen and plenty of other veterans, and it takes quite a bit of time to snap back into it, and you.
Have to have people around you. You have to have support.
So hearing the outpouring of support and people around everyone is the first start to me is that everyone's in communication, because that I think that's what hurts a lot of veterans, and I'm sure is what happens hurts a lot of athletes as well.
I just wanted to add really quick because I was trying to get this in earlier, but I wanted to list you guys talk the update that the bills, the latest that they posted about tomorrow. They said tomorrow remains in the ICU and critical condition, with signs of improvement noted yesterday and overnight. He's expected to remain under intensive care as his healthcare team continues to monitor and treat him. That was at twelve thirty today. I believe that's the
most recent update. But to your point of the military background, I obviously have never experienced that before, and I always give you so much praise for doing what you've done, for you know this country and for your family and everything. I spend a little bit of time in college in athletic training for a couple of years, and one of the last projects or last projects, one of the last checkpoints you have to make as an athletic trainer is spineboarding.
You have spineboarding, and then you also have any type of like heart condition, how you would handle that on the field. And I remember that being like the scariest thing to have to pass, because when you think about spineboarding and how every single person within that group has to do everything exactly perfect otherwise that person is going to lose their life.
It's terrifying.
That being said, I can't imagine what it's like having to be a medical professional, you know, in that scenario and you've trained for this kind of stuff. I believe the term that's floating around, and I don't want to say that this is for sure, because I'm obviously not a doctor, but commocio cordis is what's been floating around where you get an impact at the exact wrong time that your heart is beating and it just shuts everything
down and you go into cardiac rest. So I can't imagine, you know, you do this every day, right like you're athletic trainer, you're a doctor, a medical professional, and you are ready for this moment until it happens, and then all of a sudden, and for them to be able to you know, keep their cool and to keep this kid alive, and to keep everybody around them cool, calm and collected, and to do what they do. I can't speak enough on how much medical professionals are so underrated
a lot of time and so incredibly necessary. And you know, so as we say, you know, our prayers for Jamar Hamlin, I'm like prayers to those athletic trainers, prayers to those doctors for being able to keep them alive. And I also think the one of the most important parts of Monday night's game is when both teams came to the field and they surrounded Tomorrow so that we couldn't see.
And I thought that that was such Initially when it happened, you were like, what are you doing, Like why are you guys on the field to give them some space, But obviously retrospect I just thought that that was so incredible that they wanted him to even in that moment, to say.
To have some dignity space.
Yeah, I just I keep when I think about what's happen. That's like literally the picture that's up on my Twitter right now, it's just like that powerful moment. So we're obviously all rooting for him, We're for him, and we're hoping for the best. So it sounds like he's improving. So that's really good.
And speaking of the medical staff too, something that popped up on my timeline because you know, a lot of things were coming up. But Chris Progner, he was in the NHL and back in nineteen ninety eight, it was in a playoff game, something very similar had happened to him, and so he tweeted out giving kudos to the medical staff that saved his life that day when it happened on the ice again it was a blow to the
chest that he suffered. He posted the video and he just gave absolute kudos to say, if the medical staff hadn't acted so quickly, I don't know if I would be here. Chris went on to play I think the next week after all of that, so he said, if it wasn't for that medical staff, I would not have ever step foot on the ice again. And so again that was that was back in the nineties. That was
what twenty five years ago that that happened. So this is not something that you see often and it's not something that you ever want to see in any sport. And so yeah, just so many kudos to the medical staff that acted quickly to save his life.
And with that we will take our first break.
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We have got some injury updates this Wednesday.
Yeah, the Cowboys one makes me very happy. Tyler Biattish out with an ankle injury. Did not practice, but as we've talked about, he's looking to be pretty good for the playoffs, so that's positive. Kelvin Joseph missed today with a tooth injury, and then the same thing with Tank.
He's got that foot injury. He's been limited with.
Tony Pollard was a full participant and Leyton vander Esch was limited, So positive signs there. I was joking with Patrick earlier on Twitter because when we got the Washington Commander's injury report, both of us had the same idea.
I was going to tweet he beat me to it.
But like, is everybody using like their unused PTO today because everyone's not practicing. Their entire list of guys did not practice. You've got Jonathan Allen, Say, Charles cam Carl Mean, Davis, Antonio Gibson, Cornelius Lucas, Andrew Norwell, Brian Robinson Junior, James Smith, Williams, Benjamin Saint just and Montes Sweat. All did not practice for various reasons. There's a couple concussions.
On there, so Montes Sweat not on there at Jonathan Allen, what's his what's his status?
Jonathan Allen has a knee injury. Montes Sweat is an illness. I imagine he'll be fine.
But it was a do not participate or did not practice for Jonathan Allen.
Every single player I just listed did not practice and that is the Washington Commander's practice report. So, like I said, a little bit of a PTO lingering over from the twenty twenty two year. They wanted to get out of the way.
So Ron Rivera didn't seem like he had ah didn't seem like he necessarily had a plan to sit or play his starters just yet, and he talked about the importance of having them available next year. This is a seven and eight seven eight and one team.
They've gone through.
How many different quarterbacks, Haley, We had this fun little stat earlier.
They have been through three quarterbacks this season. Let me find it, eight different starters though under Ron Rivera in three seasons, and Sam Howell will now be the thirty third quarterback to start since Washington's nineteen ninety one Super Bowl victory.
So now let's talk about Sam Howe.
Sam Howe has never had an NFL start. They're going to play him against the Cowboys because, as Ron Rivera incredulously learned in the postgame last weekend, they're eliminated. There were, to be fair, there were a couple of scenarios that needed to happen for them to be eliminated. But this press conference announcing Sam Howe as a starter. After this morning, it was leaked that Taylor Heineke was going to get
the start after Carson Wentz was an absolute disaster inactive. Yeah, yeah, Carson Wentz may yeah, he may not even dress out for this one. He was sixteen of twenty eight for one hundred and forty three yards, three picks in a rushing touchdown. So we're hearing this morning early and I'm prepping for the week that Taylor Heineke's getting the start, Which makes sense, right because I think Taylor has not. I thought he's been decent in some of his starts.
A lot of people were shocked that he wasn't your starter. Last weekend here's Ron Rivera confusing us all and if i'm Sam Howe, I'm like man, the bar has been set pretty low. Here here's the sound jazz can he plays for us.
Well, I think at first initially is obviously it's it would be his first start, and it would become a little bit of a circus, you know, having to deal with all the things that come with being a starter. But also uh, you know, you look at the opponent and who you're playing and what they're playing for. You know, going with Taylor would have given us an opportunity to see what they're doing, how they're doing it, and would have given Sam a chance to take a look at it,
you know, if we had gone with Taylor. But you know, at the end of the day, you know, at some point if if Sam ever gets the opportunity to be a start of this, would the chance why not get it over with now and go from there. But the most important thing is that we're really intrigued in terms of watching and seeing what Sam can do as a as a quarterback in this leg.
I just want to get it out of the way. This is a tryout, right, just want to see what he Of course it's a trial. This is a tryout right now, like they was you.
Though, because he is I was reading earlier too that he is the only quarterback that is guaranteed to come back next year.
So I get the trial.
Yeah, want to know what you got, But it does it does present an interesting challenge for the Cowboys. And I asked Marcus Lawrence about this and Micah Parsons. You know, if we think about it, in the last couple of weeks, they've seen a lot of quarterbacks they haven't had a lot of looks on, but.
They've got nothing on this guy.
Now. Mica did talk about a little bit of familiarity given the fact they were both in the same draft class and you're sort of familiar with some of these guys, and he talked about this as a guy you know, going to have to respect here, but you don't. Someone brought up this interesting point. You knew what you were getting with Carson Wentz, like who his guy was, right, you knew that when you've got Taylor Heineke, who his guys like Cooper Rush.
We knew his guy was like sort of Noah Brown. Who's Sam Howell's guy.
I think I caught some preseason looks at him, and he likes Johan Dotson even creeped and found some training camp stuff.
From them, and I think a chance.
The thing about Sam Man is like he's just a oh no, he just seems like a gamer, like he's ready to go, but he's shifty. He has some dual threat ability, and he also is not afraid to throw the ball downfield.
He's not afraid to throw the ball. Sorry. He was forty three, yes, sixty nine for twenty three yards. No, that's forty three of sixty nine. He's sixty two percent completion five and forty seven passing yards.
I mean, I just feel like Ron Rivera at this point is sort of putting his hands up in the air and saying one not I give it nine sacks.
So what's interesting, too is Ron Rivera talked about how this kind of all came to be, and so when Carson Wins got injured, he was taking a lot of the backup quarterback reps, but he was told, you need to work on your footwork. And your decision making, and so now you know, Ron Rivera went on to say, oh, yeah, we had conversations with players and coaches and all of the stuff we day.
I can tell you ye, no, they didn't to say.
That he fixed those things. And so it's just very interesting that the decision was made so sporadically. But yeah, I.
Mean, there's more to let me do it, trust me on this story. Oh we do.
I just also feel like, though, like, what do they have to lose in this?
You know what I mean? The probably just like, look, Washington's been a spoiler before. That's what I'm saying, and like, and this is why I bring all this up and we'll get a little bit more into it tomorrow. Offense has been a little spotty, as you talk about John Dottson though he leads the team and receiving touchdowns with seven, he's got what thirty two catches four or fifty one yards, but it's their pass rush that's top ten in the league.
And in fact, when I'm looking at their defense here hold on.
Oh back, it's insane.
They're front seven.
I mean, they heavily invested in this side of the ball. And even as who was it I was talking to today.
I was talking to a bunch of.
Offensive linemen and they said, they're front seven. Guys are studs. This is Connor McGovern. They always win their one on ones. And I think that's interesting that they do have a very very good defense now. And I'm also looking at this offensive line for the Cowboys. I have never seen so many different combination shifts. And I asked Zach Martin in all your time you played it, Notre Dame, you played in Dallas, fierce and anything like this.
He said no.
And I said, at one point, did you guys ever get a little frustrated that you were playing so many different guys at a position? He said, yeah, he said, but look how much how well it's working at this point this year. In fact, it was Connor McGovern Tyler Biattis who told me that during the week, going through my copious notes listeners, there's that AMR stuff. Ten to twelve breaths a week is how much. Yeah, tended to
twelve reps a week. They practice these guys out of position, and so they've just they've been doing this just in case, not obviously, not to this degree that they expect that they were going to need to do this. But it is wild to me that you can go in game and just say, hey, Connor, we're going to kick you in to center. We're gonna move Jason Peters over to left tackle, and hey Tyler, who's a rookie, We've already put a lot on your plate this year.
Bud, you're gonna move over to left guard? Is that cool? And they seem to be doing okay. Yeah, it's not normal at all.
And then I think what was really fascinating to me is I did listen to this comment from Stephen Jones on One to Fight through the Fan when we talked about the high ankle sprain for Connor McGovern eric Tyler botdish.
And he's like, I gotta keep it together. And he said, Tyler beyotdish.
When you've it's the same high ankle sprain on the same ankle, it tends to heal quicker.
And I said, what is that like? Explain that to me. Are you like a starfish?
And Tyler said, look, I'm no doctor. He said, but it's kind of almost like a muscle memory, like it knows what to do. And so he feels good. You've talked about this before. He feels like he's going to be ready to go by playoffs. But to have this sort of flexibility on the offensive line is something we've not seen in Dallas, and they've had themselves in a
tough position and we've knocked Joe Filben. I don't know if it's been on this show, but it's been on at least media match before when we looked at this offensive line.
But say what you will about Joe.
And I even said this to Joe Filban as he walked out of the locker room the other day. I go, Huh, they're really making you earn that paycheck this year, aren't they. And he just kind of gave this, like I mean, it's been a lot for coach, and like I said, credit to him, and credit to these guys who have stepped up the way that they have this year and even in the draft process in recent years. Remember they keep talking about they want position flex at certain positions, and.
You know it's worked out for him.
Yeah.
I was just gonna say earlier, as someone who has literally one ligament left in both of my ankles after twenty plus years of competitive soccer, it's a weird phenomenon. With I don't know if this is like with knees or with any other body part. I can only speak on ankles because mine are terrible. But it is this
thing like now, it's so funny. I'll be walking and I'll just like roll my ankle and I'm like, oh, and then it hurts for like five minutes or depending on the severity of it, it hurts for a little bit, and then like the next day it's fine. So I would love to know. I'd love to sit down and chat with the science as far as like why that is what it is. But I can confirm as a source that I don't know what it is about ankles, but they do that.
Thing so well.
Connorc Governn did say something interesting to me too today. So I said, when you're in practice, you know, it's a different look moving from a guard position to a center. And he says he catches himself at times because there is a different level of spotting and you're setting the offense and the offensive line as a center, and so as a guard you're looking at certain things. But he says, I'm catching myself in practice and even film study. Oh wait a minute, that's not my job. This week, and
so I do think that that's interesting. And you know, luckily offensive line is typically your smartest guys on the team that they're able to sort of figure.
The stuff out.
But I mean, it just felt like this guy was falling at the beginning of the season.
Just losing Tyron Smith.
Yeah, I think you've lost every guy on this line except for Zach Martin this season.
Am I wrong on that?
I think Tyler Tyler Yeah, and Tyler's been yeah.
And Tyler then he did with an ankle or something for a little bit, but he was still playing.
The Tyler's missed a game.
They didn't miss a game. We did.
There you go Barnacles, No, you brought up Now you brought up the offensive line. And going into this game because of how good this it could get.
Physical, because that Tennessee game was physically Yeah, say what you will about Tennessee. They brought Mike Rabel always brings those guys, and that was that was a that was a tough game.
Yeah.
And if this if this defensive line, like, if you don't know how good they are, well, number one, you brought up how beefy they are. I'm like, they they drafted those guys to stop the Cowboys run game, Like, of course it's gonna be like that, but I was gonna say, I like what they do defensively with their
front seven, and with the Cowboys. They the last time they played the Commanders, they had put up like one hundred and seventy eight yards on the ground against the Giants the week before and came out against the Commanders and could barely run the ball. I think they only average like two point nine yards of carry, was very minimal.
So if that doesn't tell you how well this front seven can defend, obviously, you've got some guys coming in this offensive line, in this offense that's kind of been weird with running the ball this last couple of weeks. You're trying to find some good traction going into the playoffs. I would like to see how well they schematically figure out ways to run the ball, get the tight ends involved, stuff like that in this game.
I love that you brought that up, because Zach Martin and I did have that discussion. I said, how much does it help that you've had tighten help this year? And he mentioned the fact, I mean, look how many times we've gone to four tight end sets and I said, specifically, what does that do to an opposing defense? He said, when you've got big body guys that have speed on you, you've really got it just as a defense with the personnel that you're putting out in the field. And so
it has been a distinct advantage. And he says he also can't remember when you've had a running back duo that has been as effective. In fact, I think it was brought up today, the Cowboys have never had a running back duo. We're both have gone for nine hundred and over and you've got Zeke that I think is like what one hundred and forty shy of getting a thousand yards a season, and you've got Tony Pollard who only needs twelve. So kudos to them for you know, again,
we've we were talking about this in media mash. This is the most heavily scrutinized twelve win team besides the Vikings this season. But the things that we've seen in Dallas are different than seeing things that we've seen in Dallas in years past. They've talked about wanting a commitment to the run game, we've seen it. We've talked about the importance of it's not always the guys on the roster that should be playing. It's the most talented guys
and we're seeing that. I mean, think about the amount of looks at Peyton Hendershot and Jake Ferguson have gotten over your franchise tag guy, Dalton Schultz at times, Tony Pollard over Ezekiel, and it's not necessarily over. It's sort of saving the legs of some of these guys, so you have a fresher look sometimes.
Something too I wanted to throw in. While we're on the topic of tight ends and on the other side of the ball, Washington I think is going to use a lot of their younger tight ends to try to mimic that same model that the Cowboys have put out with this tight end group, because well, you have a brand new quarterback who was making his NFL start. You
need all the protection you can get. So these young tight ends, specifically John Bates and Cole Turner, I think, are going to get their reps in for this game. Logan Thomas Clutch for Washington, but John Baits specifically last couple of years not impressive. I mean, in twenty twenty one he averaged four nearly fifteen yards per game and then this year nearly eight. But Cole Turner had his best game in Thursday night against the Bears. He had two targets for twenty three yards, but one of which
was eighteen yards. Not impressive with the passing, but I think when it comes to blocking and making sure that Sam Howell is protected, I think the tight ends for Washington are going to play a big part in that.
Mike McCarthy said something interesting today too, whenever he was asked, you know, how do you prepare for you know, different quarterbacks or what you're looking for when you have these types of matchups, and he says he looks at three different things from a statistic in an analytical standpoint, he looks at time of possession, rushes and completions for your offense, and rushes and completions allowed.
So I went back and.
Looked at Washington and how well they do that. We know that they have the best third down defense in the league, which I think will be very interesting matching up with Team White, Hilt Yes and the rest of the Cowboys offense. Factoring in the tight ends, because when you looked at the last matchup, you didn't really have the established tight ends the way they have established and developed.
Now you mentioned being limited on the ground. I think Zeke had like fourteen carries for forty nine yards and Tony was like six carries for eight yards, So it wasn't very good from that perspective, but again, the one two punches developed. So when you look at those things that Mike McCarthy was talking about time of possession, Washington leads the league in time of possession.
They've had the ball.
For five and four five hundred and thirty more minutes and thirty five seconds, but they've only scored thirty three touchdowns in that time and they've only scored two hundred and ninety five points, so eighteen point four points per game. That's what you're looking at with that Washington team. As far as the rushes and the completions. From a passing standpoint, they've had three hundred and twenty three first downs. That's not important though, because I'm at the wrong part of
my notes. They've had nineteen nine hundred ninety two rushing yards on four hundred and ninety seven attempts. That's good for fourteenth and eighth in the NFL. This season. They're averaging about four yards per carry. From a passing standpoint, they've thrown for three thousand, six hundred and fourteen yards on five hundred and thirty four attempts, good for twenty first and nineteenth in the league. They're getting about six point eight yards per pass from whichever quarterback lines up
behind center. And I think that that is important because you talk about the defense being so effective. Defense wins championships, yes, but if your offense isn't complementing that, we've seen that with this Cowboys team, you're not going to get very far right. So, sure that the defense can hold you great, but if your offense isn't producing, that number is right there, tells you that they're going to have to work a little bit harder. Now you're factoring in a quarterback who's
never gotten true game reps. I think this bow really well for the Cowboys. I also went back and looked at those same numbers for the Cowboys just for reference, so I could understand. Daubts ranks sixteenth in time of possession four hundred and seventy nine minutes and fifty seven seconds, but they've scored fifty four touchdowns four hundred and sixty one points, They are second in the NFL with twenty
eight point eight points per game. They have passed for three thousand, seven hundred and eighty three yards on five hundred and eighteenth passes. That's good for sixteenth and twentieth in the league. As for rushing, they have rushed for two thousand, two hundred and thirty four yards on five hundred and four carries. That is good for seventh and fifth in the NFL. So we've talked about it time and time again on this podcast. How do you get your offense to go? You lean on the run game.
I think this is a really good opportunity to get Zeke and Tony to that thousand yard mark and to really show like we're going into the playoffs on high note.
I think the good news when you look at this game is offensively, they're bottom of the barrel this year, so you're not going to find yourself necessarily in a shootout.
But this defense is tough.
I mean, to your point, they are the fourth rate total defense fourteenth and scoring defense fourteenth, and rushing D fifth in scoring D and then as you said, first and third down and they're also tenth and sacks. So this is gonna be a tough team defensively, That's why you need your offense on. But I don't think the Cowbys gonna get themselves in a shootout that we've seen in some of these other games this year.
But I was there in Nashville, Yall. That was a nasty game. Finding out umbrella. I pathetic.
I had a lot of people reaching out to me, going, Jane, it's only like fifty something degrees and you look like I'm like when you are standing out in the cold rain from I was there from eleven o'clock until what eleven pm that night. Yeah, I'm dressed for the elements, folks, and I'll be dressed for the elements again this weekend.
But hearing Josh Dobbs right before I went on NFL Now was going to start, I often wonder if Ron Rivera should have just held off on this one and released this one a little bit, because I feel like they were caught off guard. And when I asked them of the players about that, they even said they were caught off guard for a little then they sort of adjusted not to somewhere from what we saw at the Houston Texans game. So there we have it. We love
Micah Parsons around here. I don't know if I'm speaking for the group, but I think I can speak for the group. He's always some one of my favorite SoundBite.
I don't know if you.
Guys watched the game, he was playing with a clubbed hand. Is that going to be the case against Washington? Will update and what exactly happened to Micah's hand?
It's club gate. We've got that.
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All right, in the break, you guys want to talk about it. I have not been the most respectful to James Washington. When I talked about James Washington always said I didn't want to talk about him because he didn't do anything in Pittsburgh and I didn't see him do anything here, and sadly he was injured and we didn't get to see it. Jess, I know you love talking about him in the talking to him in the locker room and developed a great relationship.
I'll pour out my water for him thoughts in prayers.
Mike McCarthy said that he hoped to see him again, and I do hope he gets another opportunity. But the writing was on the wall when he saw t Y and he had an opportunity and unfortunately it didn't come through. So I don't need to be disrespectful to him. I respect everyone in their jobs. But James Washington no longer here, all right, p all right, let's move on. Micah Parsons. He was playing with a club to hand in this game.
He went.
I asked somebody last week, I said, what happened to MICA's hand?
And they said, he cut it? I said, well, what do you mean? And no one would explain it.
To me, And so it's this big, mysterious thing. And then it was funny. Clarence Hill reminded me that Des Bryant also similarly had to cut hand a few years ago, and when we asked Dez about it, he said he was cutting carrots for.
A soup, which was not the case. It wasn't even a big deal.
What actually happened to it, Clarence and I knew, but we never reported, and again not a big deal. But because Des never put it out there, we didn't feel like it was important to put it out. So Micah is having a similar approach to this club. We will never know what happened to the clubhand, but I think what's most important is he played through it.
He will not have a club as well. I think that's also equally as important is that I did think It was interesting too, though, because I was actually paying attentions that during his press conference, and the whole time he just kept it tucked away in his little pocket. And there was at one point where he lifted the opposite hand and I was like, is that the one? Is that the hand? And he kept it you could tell it in his hoodie pocket like he was moving
it as he was talking about it. But he was very adamant about keeping it in that pocket.
As Clarence yes to me.
I don't know, Clarence wasn't an avenger with it, you know, as Clarence said, it was probably he was doing some clown stuff. So whatever he did he doesn't want to talk about, and that's fine. There are some things that are meant to stay in the locker room, and so if he don't want to talk about it, I'm not going to dig too much. And like I said, as long as he was able to play through it, yep.
It's kind of like when someone.
Shows up to work and they're a little hungover. As long as they do their job. But I can't really tell.
I don't. I'm like, as long as you play hard, whatever, I'll do it.
Not to say I haven't done that several times in my professional career got harder as I got older. Oh my goodness, ladies, it's New Year's and as we get into that, one of my New Year's resolutions is I'm doing what everyone's doing.
I'm on the Keto diet.
But part of that, to accelerate my Keto neish was to give up alcohol for the month, which is honestly not that hard for me.
Just so that was Yes, that's one of my New Year's resolutions. But I also thought we'd have.
A little fun with this when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys in the new year moving forward, Here's what you will do and what you won't do. So I'll go first, ladies, in the new year, I won't doubt the rookie class ever again, so many robust playmakers, namely Deron Bland, and I honestly didn't expect him to have the season he did. Here's what I will continue to do. I will continue to pound the table for more. T Y Hilton, he's not just a third down guy. He's a take it to the house guy.
Love it.
He wants to go next with her.
What I will and won't goal said, Yeah, this is so good.
Okay, I'm gonna.
Go next what I will do, write what I will do or did you do what you want?
She will do in the new year, and what she won't do in the new year as it relates to the Dallas Cowboy.
Okay, I'm gonna do I won't. First.
What I won't do in the new year is talk any mess about Ceedee Lamb there, because he, like that, has had a phenomenal season.
I think he is peaking at the right time.
That cliche of it's not how you start, how you finish. I was comparing some of his numbers to some of the best guys in the league right now, guys like Justin Jefferson, a J. Brown, and he's right on pace with those guys. He's a top ten receiver. So I will not ever not consider Ceedde Lamb an elite wide receiver ever.
Again, put some respect on his name, FOT and some respect. And I need to raise my hand there too, because I was quite vocal at the being of the season. I'm like, yeah, he has not embraced this number one wide receiver role.
And things that I will do more of in the new year is advocate for a big check for Brett ma Hurr.
He has been lights out.
I was joking with some of the other day because Leonel Messi the player for Argentina and PSD.
I've always said nyls, so it's a middle lionel. Yeah, Leo Lyo. I'm not a soccer girl, so I don't know.
Yeah, but I was reading an article. He has the most expensive, uh insured body part I think in all of soccer, and I think he's up there in the top three in all of sports. His left foot, his famous left foot, is insured for nine hundred million dollars.
So I insured that side.
So saying Bret.
Maher and get in town with Leo, get that foot insured and keep it coming.
At Stephen Jones, at Jerry Jones, get this man of contract because he is that guy this season that I think he will continue to be that guy.
Well, I'm very sad you took my What I will do. What I won't do is I won't ever doubt Maha.
Again.
That was very vocal on blogging the boys when all this first happened, of.
How everyone was and if somebody says they weren't, they lie.
They sit on a throne of live.
They do But what I will do is I'm gonna change it to say I won't ever discredit Tyler Smith and all of the work he's put in because during the off season there was a lot of talk about Tyler Smith not being able to hack it. And you know, I won't ever doubt that he has his money where his mouth is. So Tyler Smith, you get my kudos. Now. What I won't do, ladies, what I won't.
Do talk about I can't wait for this.
That's what I will do, right, And what I will do, Okay, what I will do is I will continue to talk about penalties, but change. But I am firm on the new year. Knew me, that's not a real thing. So it is new year, say me. I will continue to talk about penalties, and I will be proud of that because as soon as we started talking about it, guess what happened at Bay started mentally focusing it got better, So they played they played.
This podcast that that is why shut up.
About the penalties already? Oh my god, and everyone watching is like, we're tired of taking shots during the show, like, please shut up about it.
It's self awareness.
I will I will continue to talk about penalties, but I will give credit to where credit is due in that they have put that mental focus in gear and it is a fixed problem for now.
Of it we'll see see a right should beat that barnacle yob alright. So what I won't do is that how I go, Yes, all right. So what I won't do is question whether Dak trusts his body. Now he has ran the ball thirty nine times for one hundred and sixty six yards, averaging four point three yards on those carries.
Fifteen it's about fifteen yards a.
Game, and it just matters.
It's it's mattered. It's mattered, open up the run game.
But even last year there were plenty of times where you were just like even in the San Fran game.
Run the ball, run the ball, run the ball.
But post the calf injury, post the leg injury, we knew this was going to be like a slow burn for him. So what I won't do is not trust fact that he is going to run the ball when it's necessary. And that's a huge part of what's made him him in this offense good. And what I will do, Lord dan Quinn, I'm trusting you here. I'm whing to trust dan Quinn.
I don't like how we figure serious matter.
It's a serious matter. I'm going to trust him with this young defense on the back end and these horses on the front end to get this defense back to the level that it was, or at least close to the level that I was playing on.
What am I doing nor?
Yeah, to get this level, get this defense back at the level is playing on at the midpoint of the season.
I like it.
I got some guys coming back, hopefully.
To restore some mortar. You were worried that you were good.
I know that's great.
Well, the that one was a little I didn't think y'all was gonna agree.
Y'all was like, I should know he's trusting his butterline man when you see when he's out there running and using his legs more in recent weeks.
Yeah, I get you. I don't think it's even a thought in his head.
You just came back to that twenty five yard QB sneak against whoever it was at home, and everyone's.
Like, and you talk about on their downs, like the Cowboys being so good at their downs. A lot of it is him being able to pass the ball, but when they get into short yardage situations, having that option is helping out this this offense A lot's gonna have about this run gay.
All right, Well, what I will do is continue being a part of this girl's talk, boys talk. It has been a lot of fun in twenty twenty two. Let's have a lot more fun in twenty twenty three. And what we won't do is ignore you.
The fans. So if you've got any feedback, let us know.
We will be back here same time tomorrow as we continue to dive a little bit deeper into Cowboys versus Washington to finish up the season and see if they can improve their seating.
See you on the next the next one.
This has been a production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
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