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Good afternoon at Cowboys Nation. Welcome to Girls Talkboys Talk, presented by Jigsaw, the preferred dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys. We are coming live from the beautiful start in Frisco. It's a little cold outside. Our heart's also a little cold this morning and all day as the Dallas Cowboys season officially coming to an end after a heart stinging loss to the San Francisco forty nine Ers with the final score of nineteen to twelve. Ladies, what a game
of course. Uh. I'm Jessina VARs, your host. I'm joined by Christie Scail, Asia Morrison, and we have our Haley Sutton here today. I'm very excited to have our Haley bring up our spirits a little bit. Let's just go around the table. Initial reactions. How are we all feeling? Christy will start with you, how are you feeling today?
So disappointed? Mainly because the defense did every you know, I know they kind of faded a little bit at the end with a couple of long drives, but what a great effort in executing a great game plan. And it's just the fact that that cavalcade of all pros and Pro bowlers for San Francisco, the couple of their guys, George Kittle in particular, made the big plays when needed
to be made, and Cowboys didn't. So I'm just really disappointed for in the production of the Cowboys offense and disappointed for the Cowboys defense that it was not a complimentary game.
I agree. Yeah, well, my Mike get so loud. Hey, guys, Yeah, I agree.
I think when you hold a team like San Francisco, a team that's averaging almost thirty points a game, to nineteen points, that's a that's a game you should win.
Uh.
The defense went out there and laid it all on the line, and they set the tone from the opening whistle osa getting in Perty's face. I mean, they did exactly what the game plan was, make Rock Purty look like a rookie. And it's unfortunate that you have a performance where your quarterback has the best game of his career. The week before and then kind of fizzles in the
week prior. And so it's just, like you said, just kind of a disappointing Uh you feel it in your gut, kind of mourning where it's like gang like this really was the team.
Jaron talked about that too, So yeah, just disappointed.
Yeah, definitely. I second being is it third a thrifle being disappointed for this defense? Uh, this is a I think I think this is a second year that they've kept you in in these type of games, in this type of game, specifically against this team, and the offense was not able to find production there and then off obviously to we just we don't know, I personally don't know.
We don't know.
With dan Quinn getting all these interviews and things like that, just to so many questions being up in the air of what this that unit in particular is going to be next year and how hard they work to get to this point of being where they are.
You start to see it all come together also too.
And the disappointing part for me is just how the defense had worked their tails off and they weren't rewarded from the other parts of the ball.
So yeah, disappointed times four around this table, and I'm
sure everybody listening can agree with that same sediment. And I think what bothers me the most about it is everything that lost in this game are things that we've talked about all season being their downfall, So, you know, sloppy play, penalties, no mental focus, miscues, miscommunications, all things that we had talked about throughout the duration of the season that they had time to clean up throughout these you know, past few weeks specifically, just couldn't come through
with the win at the end, of course, And like you said, that free agency list is pretty long when you go through it. There's a lot of key players on there that free agency list. I'm just glad we're not the ones that have to make those decisions pretty soon. But let's go back to that feeling, because Christy were there in Santa Clara. What was that gut feeling that you got being at the game early on? Did you get any kind of specific feeling and why did you feel that way early on?
Well, you knew it was it was gonna be chippy. We knew it was going to be a physical game just because of the style of the forty nine ers, and then the Cowboys defense in particular, and Haley's right setting the tone early and Osa had the sack on that opening drive. Michael made a great play though you know taken away. You know, Perty was just gonna throw it, chuck it out to the left real quickly, but Micah was on the guy.
But when it.
Started pregame with Deebo, Samuel and the forty nine ers just getting in the way of what is part of the normal pregame routine. And so I don't know if we want to get into all that right now, but it's here's the thing. I want to point out one thing, and that is I think the league is going to take a look at what happened in this pregame. I do too, and see if there's something that can be done to make sure that you don't have players walking through in the line of sight and getting in the
way of what was pregame operations for the Cowboys. So it wasn't just Brett Maher kicking off a tee, which he does early early in pregame, but this was actual operations where you had Matt Overton snapping the ball to Brian Anger, who's spotting the ball with the twenty nine yard line for Brett Maher and you've got Deebo Samuel another forty nine ers just standing right there and don't know if anything was said, but they definitely were trying to disrupt this operation and get in the head of
Brett Maher whatever. But here's the thing. Why did you have the two different the players from the two different teams together that's on the same side of the field. The way the rules are structured, part of the pregame operations, sixty minutes before kickoff is when you have to be on your separate side. That's when the official pregame warm ups begin. This is over an hour and a half
before the game. Okay, So when that happens, you, especially the kickers and punters, they go to all different parts of the field. And it's really important because for these outdoor games and Levi's Stadium yesterday it was so windy and the gusts, and then you have a natural grass field and like in Tampa the week before where the field was in bad condition. Anyway, these specialists and other players need to be able to go to different parts
of the field. But I wonder if the league is going to address maybe extending that sixty it period, So I think that there could be repercussions for this moving forward.
I just think it was so poor.
And I mean, I get it, right, I'm all about the you know, the social media trash talk and the you know, building up, and there's there's a certain level of gamesmanship to it, but it takes it to another level when now you're impeding their preparation, right, Like this is something where like even if Brett hadn't had kicking issues before, it's still disrespectful.
I mean, what are you doing? What did you hope to accomplish from that?
And then just for Debo also to go on social media and tag Micah and all the posts to it just was it.
Was so poor.
And to me, if I'm a forty nine Ers fan and that's the type of stuff I see, it just it made me look at Debo differently, right because I think he's a tremendous player. I've never really known anything about him as a person, but now I see, Okay, well you were all up in Brett's space the day before. Now you're dragging Micah like when they're kicking them when they're down. It just it really didn't set right with me.
And just to add one more thing to it when I say that, it's sixty minutes before where you have to stay on your respective side of the field. The officials are not out on the field until fifty minutes before the game. Okay, so there wasn't other than coaches stepping in or Jake McQuaid, who's our, you know, who's our. He's on entered reserve. But luckily no one had to totally be pulled apart. And they kind of, you know,
they were kind of john then each other's face. Trent Williams, the All Pro left tackle and Jake McQuaid, but you know, Jake's trying to step in, you know, trying to get calmer heads to prevail. But petty is the word that was used. Yeah, but here's the thing. Some it could have escalated and not having officials out there, and then the fact that you're allowed to be on the opposite you know, all over the whole field. I just think it's going to be re examined.
It's Robbie Gold was I'm sorry, no good, but Robbie Gold was right there too.
All of them, all of them are there. It's very common that the special the specialists. Hey, that's a fraternity, just like quarterbacks were a fraternity. These guys they all know each other, okay, And there's a good chance that that you're you're deep snapper, you know, used to be with the other team, with the punter for the other team at another you know, at another point of his career.
So those guys all know each other. But yeah, go uh, I kind of lost some I don't want to say I lost respect, but you see different thing I think you were saying about Deebo Samuel. Yeah, yeah, I think I think I was really disappointed with Will and.
Trent has a you know, like I've watched him quite a while. I mean we watched him when he was with the now Commanders, but you know at that time Redskins, and yeah, he's always been kind of chippy.
Like that, but to be.
You know, just throwing many elbows and stuff, I just was like, that's a lot of what we've seen though, is like they take on this personality of.
Like bullies the bullies and we bully you.
And I think there again is a limitation to that, especially like what Haley said talking about preparation. But I mean they saw it, they saw it from the defense last yesterday. They probably felt it. Even though the offense didn't produce that defense. This Cowboys defense made some points in that game, and debo included McCaffrey, all of them they saw.
Yeah, they are like. It was a physical very physical they were.
I thought they were more physical on that side of the ball than even the forty nine ers were.
So sure I think too, this is something this is a discussion we would be having even if the Cowboys won this game. Yeah, because it's just disrespectful. To put
it lightly, it's disrespectful, it's toxic behavior. But no, it's it is something that I think the league needs to look into because next time, who's to say that doesn't turn into more of an escalated situation, And especially with those kind of teams that have this history of a rivalry and all this tension from last season this season, I mean to me, it's just protect your guys, protect your players, don't put them in situations that could escalate, essentially,
But just making that clear, we'd be having this discussion even if the Cowboys won, because if you haven't seen that video on social media, go look it up. It was all over Twitter. If you don't know what we're talking about, but let's go ahead and take our first break, because coming up after this break, we're going to talk about the offensive performance and what goes from the Cowboys past came back to haunt them this time. This is Girls Talk, Boys Talk, presented by Jigsaw, the preferred dating
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WELC Back to Girls Talk, Boys Talk presented by Jigsaw, the preferred dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys. We're talking some special teams and some offensive performance coming up. But first let's talk about the ACMs, because this is how we country Country Music's biggest party of the year is coming to the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco. The Academy of Country Music Awards are always bringing you countries music, country music's brightest stars together under one roof,
and no one does country like Texas. So you can witness history on Mail eleventh and get your tickets at SeatGeek dot com if you are interested in that. All right, so we were talking about the little scuffle with the kicking unit ahead of the game, so let's start with some special teams. They're talking about our guy Brett money Maher, who made his way back to the bank at the
end of this game. He had one mixed missed extra point after the ball was blocked, came back to make uh two field goals, one from twenty five yards the other from forty three. Not confident enough to say the Yips have subsided completely. However, we did get to see Brett kind of have his redemption moment, so that was good to see. A little side note there. Check the weather.
It was fifty eight degrees with winds coming in the northwest at fourteen miles p hours, so, like you said, Christie, a little gusty there at Levi's Stadium.
But that was a meteorologist, hands and everything.
Sorry, now I needed like a green ball right here when you like do the little exit like I used to. But I always wanted to check the wind too, because you could even see when the kicks were being kicked and from videos I saw from the warm up. So it's just a little sway And I'm trying to give our guy Brett the benefit of the doubt here and saying it was it was a little gusty. And when you're in a stadium and you just look at the rolls of how wind works, it's a little more gusty
in the stadium than outside. So something to keep in mind there. But what did you ladies think about Brett Maher in this game? Specifically? We can even widen that to special teams. Of course, we know Kelvin Joseph having himself a play there with that strip that was fumbled and recovered by de Mont Clark. We can talk special teams there, so overall special teams. First reactions, what did you think, Christy will start with you.
I've never been more entertained by a crowd than the one yesterday at Levi's Stadium. Because have you ever been to a college basketball game, college in particular, where the other team is shooting a free throw and so the student body section behind the you know, behind the backboard is you know, waving bricks or you know, fat heads, or just going crazy and trying to distract the free
throw shooter. That's what it was like at Levi's Stadium yesterday, the people behind the uprights where they were going crazy and amongst the biggest buzz. I think the George kittleketch was the biggest chair of the game, followed by the touchdown run for San Francisco. But the three other moments were when Maher was on the field.
He quieted him.
With two of the field goals. But did you notice Haley all the fans going crazy trying to distract Mah yeah.
I think on the broadcast you could you could hear it. I think that was something to be expected for Brett. I was really proud of him. I don't I and I said this in our pregame show too. I think that Monday's game last week was an anomaly for him. I really don't see that. As you know, we've talked about his pre game prep against Tampa and how he wandered the field a little bit and it might have
psyched him out. The field conditions weren't great, so I was not particularly surprised that he had, you know, a performance that we're used to seeing. So I was just really proud for him to be able to get back out there and just bounce back quiet the noise, so to speak, especially after going through that pregame skirmish, if you will. But I thought Special Teams was one of
the better units on the field. I thought, you know, Kelvin Joseph, you mentioned him getting that force fumble, always joke about him being a little reckless, and I think this was one time where you wanted him to be reckless and it paid off Damon Clark having the instinct to get down there and grab that fumble. And it would have been nice if they could have converted a touchdown as opposed to just three points there.
That would have been a game changer for sure.
But I think overall, just Special teams in general, I think they were phenomenal. Cavante Turpin put this team in some really good field position.
He I think has.
Felt the impact of playing two professional football seasons up until the last couple of weeks, and so for him to get out there and really continue to put his body on the line.
He had some really great returns. I thought that was special.
So it goes back to what we were talking about at the very beginning. It's unfortunate when you know you have a defense that's firing on all cylinders, your Special Teams is coming out here and being special, and that your offense can't match the energy. So it's for sure something I think on that front that the front office will have to think about in the next couple of weeks. But Special Teams was back to being special.
I think absolutely.
Yeah, came out to your point, I felt like Cavante Turpin put them in great situations because that was my concern is starting field position with going against that defense, is where were you at on the field?
And you could tell he came out and.
Decided to be explosive.
I think he averaged thirty yards of return, which.
Was he had four with the forty four? Is long?
Can I ask? Am I just being Debbie Downer, but I thought that that should have been a touchdown on that kickoff returns. Oh, he's the one that initiated contact with the kicker, What are you doing turning and backing into the guy. I'm I respectfully disagree on that particular play, and there have been other instant I really like Cavante Turpin and what a great fine to have him on
this team. But I'm sorry, there were too many plays this season that we're out there that were left on the field right there, and oh my gosh, that just would have changed everything. Yesterday It's like, yeah, what the heck? And the other one. The other one. Again, I'm not I'm not piling on Cavante, but there were the three series at the start of the third quarter, and one of them was not fielding the punt. Oh, letting it bounce and you lost twenty yards of field position and
have the ball at your own nine yard line. I was standing next to a player on the sideline who's screaming, you get it, get You've got to field that punt.
Yeah.
Yeah, So your point, there's there are areas specifically with Cavante's game that he can improve his vision. I think he can improve his awareness of the field, especially being like this is his first NFL years. He's a rookie in his own right, and he is in this league, Right, So I do agree with you that there were there were several instances this season where you were like, there was yards there, there's opportunity there, and I do think that could.
Have broke the game wide open.
Yeah.
I also think too, there's these expectations that have been set for him since preseason when he took what was it to two punt returns all the way back to the end zone, and I think that set the standard higher than you would set for any other kind of punt returner in that situation. So, look, the man's put his body through a lot in the last two years.
Everybody's banged up, everyone's tired. But you saw that zoom in him, and for me, it was you hadn't seen that in the last few weeks from him, So it was it was a breath of fresh air that you know, it wasn't him necessarily, aside from that one kickoff return you're talking about, But it wasn't him that was putting the Cowboys offense behind the sticks. That was true, that was their own doing. And so point, let's go ahead and transition. My cord got stuck on my belt. Oh
my goodness, let's go ahead and transition. Now to the offense. Let's talk stats first, because there's a lot to break down and I don't want to run out of time for that. So sixty total plays on the offense, fifteen first downs, they had five of fifteen with their third down efficiency two hundred and eighty two total yards, two hundred and six of which were passing, seventy six were rushing. Seven penalties for fifty yards to turnovers. Time of possession
twenty seven minutes and seven seconds. A little side note, Dak Prescott passed Tony Romo for the fourth most completions in Cowboys post season history. So a little side note there. And as we know we're going through, girl, you kill me.
I'm sorry.
It was just it was killing me because you were reading those stats and immediately.
I know, I know, I should I should have given you like a little warning to like brace yourself.
There.
Let's go back to the two turnovers, because the week before we were all talking about the turnover bug is done. It was gone. Dak had a clean game last week, not so much the first not so much of this game. The first interception, let's talk about it. It was Dallas's second drive pass was intended for Michael Gallup and Leonor came with the interception, who returned it to the Cowboys
twenty one yard line. Second interception was on Dallas's fourth The pass it was intended for Ceede Lamb was tipped and picked off by Warner. Thoughts on interceptions, let's start over here, Aisha, how how are you feeling about that specifically, and seeing that you were strong enough to go back and watch the game kind of dissect it. What did you notice from those interceptions?
I'm glad, hey, hey, hey, hey, I'm glad y'all recognizing it because my therapist is tired of hearing the bob sure the strength that I have that like, but no, seriously, the first interception, I one thing I've been taught that since I'm watching film is to not to give blame because I don't understand. We don't know what's supposed to be happening on that play. However, it looked like a comeback route and then Michael Galdann come back and that.
Just that's that.
But then moving old to the other one though.
Moving old to the other one, though, is a situation where Fred Warner is fan. Fred Warner was everywhere yesterday. I am and he's not the norm. He's not the norm in which you would see a linebacker be able to break that quickly on the ball to make those decisions. And I really think that Dak in several instances playing against him, miss timed how fast that man is.
But I also feel like you've been talking about it all year.
You said it already with these with these route concepts and the way that this offense is Listen, the way that this offense is run and the way it's been run this year. I think we're gonna continue to see these type of things happen until there are different there's a different way that this offense is run. From a passing standpoint. Mike McCarthy's talked about it defens is playing mirror defense.
Well, they're literally just waiting for the quarterback to make the decision.
That's something we've seen numerous times, and I think a lot of that.
I don't think Dak saw the field entirely well yesterday. I think he could have played better.
He made some crappy decisions in certain situations. But I also feel like that what they do schematically from a wide receiver standpoint, and the way that they the routes that they run, the way they passed the ball around. I don't know if that's conducive to your offense being successful in this sense, like it's it does not seem like what these players are doing fits what fits what you I think you would need to do in these situations.
And again I could be wrong, but I just don't know if what that, if that fits what that.
Player does well in that situation.
And that's just me, So I was just That's how I felt about the interceptions, and how I feel is that they're gonna they could definitely continue if we don't figure out what this.
Player does well, Okay, let's do it. What does this player do? Well, let's do it.
How about not how about no more mirror routes? How about we not do so many comeback routes? How about so not so many hitches? Because they were biting on everything they like, those dbs were biting on everything. They were focused on everything intermediate And at no point in time besides the deep pass to CD LAMB.
Did you make them pay yep?
And what reason did they have to back up and to not play you know, tight defense when.
Your run game's not going.
And I know we're gonna get to that, but there's a mint pressure at the court, and grant it, Dak did not play well.
I'm holding him accountable.
I'm not saying none of that, but there's a mint pressure on the quarterback to perform well when so many other things aren't going right around him, and we need to really look at that on that side of the ball moving forward.
Perfectly said, let's go ahead and take a listen, Jazzy. Do we have that SoundBite from Dak about what he said concerning him regarding regarding his interceptions. We don't have that sound bite, but he basically said, you know, he promises this won't be the case going forward. There's a lot of offseason work for him to do. Ladies, how do you feel about that promise? Haley? How do you feel about that? I mean, that's we're talking about the highest interception rate of his career. I mean, does it
get worse than that? Does it stay the same? Does it get better? What do you do during this offseason to ensure that it doesn't get worse and it doesn't stay the same, but it's improved.
Now you get with your wide receivers in the offseason and you run those routes and you look at the interceptions that you're throwing and you figure out why the timing wasn't working.
I mean, I think it's it's.
Challenging, right, because you want to believe everything that he says, Like, Dak is an incredible guy. He's an incredible leader, He's an incredible quarterback. Regardless of what the national narrative or the fan base narrative is surrounding him. He is a talented quarterback who has done a lot for this franchise.
Very similar to Brett Maher's performance last Monday. I think that this season for Dak is a blip, right, It's an asterisk because you know, he hasn't we haven't seen him operate like that, and he's coming back from a lot, you know, a broken ankle a couple of seasons ago, just to come back in and then you break your thumb. I mean, this is a guy who's really been through the ringer. And I really think that missing those five games at the beginning of the season it put this.
Team back further than what you thought.
And so when you're getting into a postseason and you're facing a defense that's going to press you, you're facing a front seven that's going to make your offensive line work, and you're going to have to be the one to dictate when you lose your star playmaker, you know, in the second quarter like it. It's frustrating and it's hard to believe at this point hearing him say, oh, I'm going to fix it.
It won't happen again.
If it's me personally, I would rather just said listen, I know that this was hard. I know that this was not the season that you expected of me. All I can promise is that I'm going to work to be the best I can going forward, because I think what happens with this fan base is is is they latch on, you know, they last onto the history and you know, oh, this season was such a disappointment because we didn't make it to the super Bowl, and you hold on to that instead of focusing on, you know,
the positives that did happen. Now you've got your starting quarterback saying I promised to get us past the divisional titles. I promised to make it better. And while the intention, for sure is there, I don't want to promise that. You can't guarantee that you're going to keep if that makes sense. So I appreciate Dak. I appreciate him taking that accountability. I think that's the first step that a lot of quarter this season in particular didn't do.
But I don't want to promise that.
I don't feel confident that may or may not come true.
Yeah, I think the way you address it moving forward is, first of all, you upgrade your receiving core. I'm sorry, but seven targets to wide receivers not named ce d Lamb, and one of those was to turp In on that trick play at the end, So I'm going to throw
that out. So six six targets, three of them to Michael Gallup, zero receptions, and I think that there's equal fault on that first interception towards Michael Gallup the second interception that was really even though Warner had the interception, and Ayisha, you're right, what a fabulous player. He had a fantastic game, But credit ward for that. It's a zone defense. He's watching Dak the whole time. That's a great thing about his own You can watch the quarterback and go with him.
And so he reacted.
He's the one that tipped the ball up and uh, subsequently it was intercepted by Wards. So yeah, it's just also that one deep ball to Michael Gallup that was oh so close, but the ball was just off. I think two factors with that. I think the wind caught it a little bit, But mainly Dak was getting pressure
from his right side. Tyrone was basically Bulrush kind of pushed back into Dak's lap almost and so Dak had to take a step to the left and didn't have his feet set and the proper mechanics when you're gonna throw along pass because of that pressure coming from the right side. So it's not an excuse, just a reason. I'm just telling you what I saw from the sideline. But but yeah, you have to upgrade the receiving court and get some guys other than c. D. Lamb who can win on routes.
Yep.
And when when you got the when when the officials are letting the guys play and it's very physical, you have got to come through for your quarterback.
Yeah, and you and to your point, that's what sant Fran did. That's what sant Fran had, That's why they hit. They had to me, that's what they did that last drive, that they scored on that really felt like, Okay, this game is this this game has gotten away from them. Was the fact they didn't do nothing crazy. They did slants, They went at one week point in your defense and just decided to get the ball in.
Their playmakers' hands.
As we've seen through the playoffs all year, I mean this whole weekend and you just that didn't happen there. I mean Don Schultz, I mean like there were so there were no other receivers except for ceed Lamb, and I think it's clear like, of course Ceede Lamb had a dope day. He's the one that can really get busy against. He's better than a lot of guys. It's one on one, and I think that's a lot of what the playoffs are is are you better than the next guy?
Are you better than the guy across from you? Can you go make a play right now? And that's not what happened.
So it's almost like going back to the basics, which is what we've been hearing for the past few weeks when when they have these kind of losses, and obviously this one stings more considering its season ending, but going back to the basics and doing what works and we've seen that. That's what's frustrating is we saw it against Tampa Bay. Going back to the basics and what works for this offense. But the inconsistency within this offensive game plan is just killing everybody.
Man.
I mean to me personally, I don't even have a foot to stand on when it comes down to giving any kind of speculation or analysis on these wide receivers. Wouldn't see any of them, wouldn't see anything. We saw CD Yeah, ten receptions for one hundred and seventeen yards. Cool, we should see that. We also saw Dalton Schultz five receptions for twenty seven yards and one touchdown. Okay, but get your foot get your second foot down.
Yeah, well you're going out of bounds.
Oh yeah, gosh right right.
But we also so maddening.
We also just we didn't see anything. And again that goes back to they're putting themselves in these third and long situations that we talked about all season they can't be doing. And it was like they would have one momentum,
one spark of momentum, and then killer penalty. Like, guys, this is the same stuff all season that just wasn't working for you, And so it's it's just daunting to me that the same exact things that haven't been working is what ended their season in a way in not the similar way from last season's playoff loss to the forty nine ers, in a heartbreaking way that the game ends and you're like, what just happened? What was that?
What have we been saying since the first week we were doing this show the day after a game? The team that wins in the NFL is the one that makes the least mistakes, the one that doesn't shoot itself
in the foot. Truisms are truisms because they're true, Okay, And so whether it was the two first half interceptions that lead to the six points or oh my gosh, the killer penalties on the defense, George Kittle getting that defensive holding call on Donovan Wilson, yes, I think it was the correct call, but George Kittle knew exactly what he was doing and getting his head in there and he oh my gosh, she's.
But that made me so mad because y'all got to be consistent.
Exactly, and and the and the the defensive holding call on the run and but then but then they did, but then they didn't.
Yeah, yeah, holding.
Okay, right, let's be consistent here.
But you that's such a good point because you had the hold on Donald. I believe you had the hold on Donald, and I think that negated that dope sack.
It was society they would have had to settle for a field goals back. And also but the other thing is they were able to run more time off the clock. That was in the fourth.
Quarter, and then CMC ended up scoring on that drive exactly, and he was a ghost.
I'm sorry that. I think they think the penalty may have happened third, But yeah.
C MC got the one at the end there.
Speaking of ghosts, I was wanting to see more t Y Hilton where where where one target? Like it goes back to what I'm saying is, yes, you should rely on CD. He's your number one guy, But where is everybody else in this game plan? Where do they fit? Does anyone? Does anyone know where they fit in that game plan? Do they know? Does anyone know? I don't.
I think I think the game plan went to I can't say the word, but Tony Potter going down. It was the countdown because if I'm the same, if I'm saying France defense and we had listened to them. I listened to the audio about them all week. Their intention was to stop ye tp in Dalton Shultz.
They didn't even care, like crazy enough. I think that they knew CD was gonna get his and they really.
Have the secondary.
So yeah, yeah, he cooked them.
But when Tony Pollard goes down, that's a huge part of their play like the Cowboys play making ability, and from there it's like the bite on everything. You gotta you gotta worry about the backfield like that, because no disrespect to Ezekiel Elliott or and then Malik Davis didn't get that much burn either, but they they those linebackers and that defensive line.
Where were you guys? Surprised? They didn't give it to Maleak a few times for.
Two seconds he missed, he missed the block on the pass pro and they I think they passed it because they don't want that getting hurt. But at that point in time, this offensive line, I thought blocked pretty well. Considering the fact that, uh that you know that their defensive line is insane, this offensive line opened up some holes. When I watched went back and watched that game, and it just was like a tick too slow not getting
through them, not you know, not pushing through them. And I think Malik Davis might have been able to get through them or a TP.
I just I think the run was abandoned at that point. I don't think we were going to see Malik Davis or TP or Zeke running at that point, even if TP didn't go down, because the run was already abandoned. And we've seen time and time again that same trueism Christy throughout the season of Once the Run's not working and Kellen Moore decides the run's not working, you're not going to see it throughout the rest of the game.
Yes, but you can only bound your head into a wall, so at times you can't do it if it's not effective. But the thing is, when a game is that close, it's a one score game, and you have twenty two rushing attempts. Now that includes two by CD Lamb. I really like that one conversion. That was a nice little play on that flip. Four of them by Dak Prescott.
But anyway, Elliott and Pollard combined for sixteen rushing attempts, and just to put that in perspective, twenty two overall, including the Lamb Mike McCarthy was saying, I don't know if this was on the record or off the record, but he did say, La sweet, that it needs to be thirty two touches or more those two guys combined. And when I say touches, that would be rushing, okay, not just you know, dump off passes and stuff like that.
And so when you only have those two guys combined for sixteen and I know that Pollard missed the second half, but yeah, that's but again, you know it wouldn't working.
Yeah, I mean I think it was tough, right, Like you knew that the forty nine ers didn't allow a lot on the ground. You knew that going into it, right, So you give it a try. It wasn't working, and then you lose Tony. So it's a game of guesses, right, And I really just think at the end of the day, it was just more it was a poor offensive execution,
you know what I mean? It was there was there was even a moment where and I tweeted about it, and it's the play now that everybody has been talking about. But third and whatever, when we settled for the field goal and Dak's trying to thread the needle into CD in double coverage and Ty is standing like this, yep, yeah,
and he it was a walk in touchdown. And that's why I say, like, it's on Dak to get with these guys in the off season, and it's on him to figure out, Okay, like, why was I laser focused on getting this pass to you? Like sure, like you're my guy, that where I'm at, that's my first read. But you've got when the offensive line is allowing you that much time to you had time, You had time, like the pressure was coming.
But you had a second to go, you know. And I'm not a professional football.
Player obviously, but I just think, like that's the kind of stuff that you want out of Prescott. That's what he did well in that best game of his career on Monday, And those are the performances. I don't necessarily care about the performance against Tampa Bay if we're not replicating or at least getting close to that performance the very next week, right because it it negates everything you just did. And so for me, he's got to get
out there. He's got to work with these guys. He's got to figure out that timing issue that they talked about all season and why.
You know, and even t Y.
I think they even showed on the broadcast, Like Ty came over and he was like, hey, man, like yeah, or are you doing?
And yeah, I think it's just seeing the field. Yeah, yeah, you know, he didn't see it yesterday. But you know, let's credit the forty nine ers. They are the number one defense for a reason. There's number one scoring, number one total, number two rushing and man, now it was so physical.
Gosh.
I wish I just wish that Cowboy fan. I wish everybody had an opportunity to just one game down on the sideline to see what it's really like when you have two physical teams. And I mean it's like gladiators anyway.
Well, speaking of physical, we have to take another break. So coming up, we're talking about the defense, and we were talking about which player went into this game talking about this bad taste in his mouth from last year's loss and did he perform or did he underperform. We're talking about it after this break. This is Girls Talk, Boys Talk, presented by Jig Saw, that preferred dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys.
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Welcome back to Girls Talk, Boys Talk, presented by Jigsaw, the preferred dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys. Let's talk defense, but first, let's talk the Star Districts. Because just steps away from the Dallas Cowboys World headquarters in Frisco, you can visit the Star District your destination for excellent dining from your shopping and exciting events. Visit the stardistrict dot com for more information on that. All right, ladies, defense,
let's talk about it. Drawn Bland, anything but bland. During this game ten combined total tackles, Donovan Wilson having eight, Tank having six total combined tackles, one sack, and two of those tackles were tackles for loss. Keep in mind Tank is somebody who has talked about this bad taste in his mouth. Hayley, We've talked about this before from last year's game. We'll talk about his performance in a bit,
but he recorded this sack in the first quarter. Has three career sacks in the postseason, tied for seventh in team history. So something to keep in mind there. Molly Cooker having eight to combine tackles, Jyron having five, one of those tackles for loss, Dort's Armstrong having three osa Odiggy zuap five tackles, one sack and one tackle for loss. So let's talk about what that meant for San Francisco.
They had sixty three total plays, twenty one first downs they were seven and fourteen, and third down efficiency thirty my goodness, three hundred and twelve total yards, one hundred and ninety nine of which are rushing, one hundred and thirteen passing, or excuse me, flip that one ninety nine passing, one thirteen rushing. But y'all, I don't know about y'all.
I I didn't sleep well last night, and one of the things that kept for playing in my head is that George Kittle bobbled miracle catch just stuck with my head. It's one of those things that you watch and you're like, dang, that was great. But we'll talk about that. Christy, I know you specifically wanted to talk about this catch. What was interesting? What did you hear from the San Francisco locker room? Well, just interesting about this place.
Just the fact that it was improv and that, you know what, it wasn't really intended for Kittle at all, and just how impressed I was that a rookie rock party can come off. The first read on that was Brandon Ayuk, the forty nine er receiver on a crossing route, as I say, Kittle and they were saying who was Kyle use Check the full back were on the backside,
and so it was an adjustment. Kittle saw what was happening and saw that there was an opening up the middle of the field and took off and pretty recognized that and hit him not quite astray. But you know, it wasn't the fact that it was a tip. You know, he tipped the ball to himself and made this awesome juggling catch. It was side adjustments on the on for both of those players, and the fact that the rooky.
Was on one side of it.
I just thought that was outstanding.
Chunk plays was the name of the game. We knew that this was going to come down to it that San Francisco offense gonna have those chunk plays. But other than that, this defense played one heck of a game. So impressed by the defense, Aisha, You're talking about your guy Osa, how he continues to be impressive in what he's done and what he's doing, impactful overall defensive scoring.
How did you feel the defense did yesterday in just overall performance, keeping some hope alive again until they were just gassed at the end of this game.
Yeah, I mean, I thought the DT's played so well to start that game. Hankins Watkins Osa, those guys set the tone early and say what you want to say. San France struggled to run the ball too. They just figured out how to get it going in the passing game to a degree, but they struggled to run the ball too. And you're talking about a team that I think it's averaged over like is that over one hundred
yards a game since Christian McCaffrey's been there. The way that the Cowboys were able to bottle him up and for him to not truly be a factor in this game besides short really short yardist situations incredibly impressive. The game plan that dan Quinn had in place to really make Brock Purdy have to win this game.
I think it worked for the majority of.
A time until you just, you know, towards the end of the game where you didn't get enough. I really do wish they could have capitalized out of the opportunities they had to take the ball away.
I think that could have shifted things.
But I just don't know how much you could complain about how they tackled, how they hit. I mean, Donovan Wilson, yeah, definitely made his presence felt known everything. But it's yeah, I thought the defense played as well as I think they could have in those situations, and I thought it was enough in my opinion.
You're talking about a forty nine ers team where the storyline was the yack ability during this gamet Hayley, how do you feel like the Cowboys defense capitalized on and making sure that that yack ability was shut down early on and really through most of the game.
Just look at Debo's numbers.
He's seven of forty five and was really a non factor in the second half. I thought he had an okay first half, but I mean that was kind of it. I mean, when when George Kettle is your guy that's leading the way in that category and just yardage in general.
And that's no disrespect to George Kettle.
I thought, not only was he the most entertaining part of the game, but he was the best player on the field for sure, at least from an offensive perspective.
So listen, We've said it this entire time.
I think that the defense did everything and more that they could have done to win this game. You held to San Francisco's forty nine ers roster that is littered with offensive weapons to nineteen points, and.
That's almost the net right because it was the pick right.
Well, we had the two interceptions led to two field goals, so you were the defense was put on the spot and just holding him to field goals.
Sorry, go ahead, No, I mean that's it, Like, that's there's nothing really more that this team could have done, you know, from a defensive standpoint anyways, and then you mix in special teams and them getting in there and tackling physically like you mentioned, I think they did well.
I think the good news is that there's a foundation built.
I think where it gets tricky.
Is that the list of free agents that we have, especially on the defensive side of the ball, is extensive. You've got Donathan Wilson on that list, Leyton vanderash Is on that list, Anthony barr Is on that list.
Just the name of a couple off the top of the dome.
So the tricky part becomes, do you sustain that defensive foundation that you've built?
Yep, Christy, one last thing before we run out of time. We were talking about injuries and of course sending all of our well wishes prayers to Tony Pollard, but also Carlos Watkins went down and you wanted to talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, he had worked his way up into the starting role at defensive tackle and he suffered the calf injury late in the first quartery up only playing seven plays. And so I think that especially that ninety one yard series by the San Francisco offense in the fourth quarter, you could see that the defense was getting worn down. Well, you were missing one of your top DT's in there, part of the defensive tackle rotation. So I think that
that had something to do with it. But I'm so glad that both of you mentioned Donovan Wilson along with Leyton vander esh I am. I think Donna, I'm sure that the Cowboys are going to make him a priority signing free agent to re sign him. But you know, it's just I think he's one of the most underappreciated players on the entire team.
This is his first full year, this is his first full year playing a full season, So shout out to him. Shout out to him for taking care of his body and being able to stay healthy and be an impact on this team, because I think that that's a big part of why he hasn't been able to because he's been injured in So yeah.
What do we say in the first week of the regular season that he was the Golden Whistle Award winners from coach McCarthy and from the strength and conditioning staff for all of his hard work and coming overcoming injury and that, and so I'm I'm so happy that it paid off for him this whole season.
JK two, Right, we got to say he was fintech. We gotta send well wishes to him as well.
Sounds like he has a torn labroom he's gonna have surgery on the chap.
He played through numerous injuries spring me.
Yeah, so you definitely to that list of you know, gentlemen like I would love to mention him and say that I hope he's good too.
Definitely a lot of banged up guys in this locker room, and now they have time to rest, plenty of time to rest.
You know what the busiest room is going to be for the next two months, the operating room, because everybody goes in and gets their off season surgeries.
Yeah, yeah, please hope. All right, Well that is all for us here on Girls Talk, Boys Talk. I still hope you all enjoy the rest of your day, the rest of your week, or try to you can. You can be in mourning for a little while, and then let's move along and let's focus on the off season. We're not done. A lot of free agency, a lot of draft stuff coming up as well, so plenty to continue to talk about. Just wish it toon end in the way it did. But thank you so much for
joining us. This has been Girls Talk, Boys Talk with Christie Scales, Hayley, sun Nisha Morrison, are Jazzy Marshall in the back. I'm Jessinvariz. We'll talk to you soon. Have a great rest of your day, Cowboys Nation.
This has been a production of dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.