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Now your hosts, Jess Navarees, Aisha Morrison, Kelsey Charles, and Jane.
Slater Welcome into Girls Talk, Boys Talk.
I am your host, Jane Slater of the NFL Network, joined by Aisha Morrison. And of course you've got Jess Navarrees and we've got Kelsey Charles joining us remotely. Ladies, get let's get right into it. News of the day, Dak Prescott. Here's how it all went down. Last night.
Thought I jammed it. I mean I've hit my hand on helmets or bodies a lot my career and never really had anything maybe a jam finger here, and actually thought that's what it was. Just the next play he realized I couldn't grip the ball, let the sideline know. And then when I got off, Yeah, I told the trainers the same thing. I was just like, I can't grip. I feel like if you ain't it I'll be okay and no came in got X rays and things are different. Yeah,
it was tough. I mean it was tough. Veteran defense there made it tough on us. We didn't help ourselves with penalties, just bad timing, just didn't play clean all together. And when you put all those things together, you get a three point game, as we just put out. Yeah, I'll be there to support him. I'll be there to support this whole team and coaching staff and everybody every step through it. And for Coop, just continue to prepare,
continue to approach the way that he's done. I mean for five what six years now, so I mean going back to his rookie year. I mean, Coop's always been a guy that I've turned to, whether it be the scheme or whether it just be for help. And now I'll be able to help him in these next several weeks and just hopefully get the best out of him and the best out of the scene.
All right, So let's break it down. It was so ugly.
It was even uglier if you were there for the postgame, ladies. Jerry Jones typically waits in the owner's box before he comes down into the locker room. And he walked towards us, and you know, I've seen him disappointed rams lost playoffs on the road forty nine ers playoff loss last year. I don't think that any of us realized though, that the thing that was upsetting him obviously was a severity of Dak Prescott.
So he most of the players typically come through.
We see Ezekie Elliott, Cee Ceede Lamb, and we're asking questions, where are the rest of the players. They're not walking through the you know, the tunnel to the locker room the way they normally do. Sounds like they went in through the back.
I've been meaning to ask people about that. I thought that was interesting.
So Jerry then comes out and Chris Beam, who works here, tells Cowys informing me that my face said it all when Jerry said that we're going to be without Dak for a few weeks. I was absolutely shocked, because I think we all saw it happen, right. He sort of gets his his hands slapped away, and it felt very much like I covered the Saints too. It felt very much like the UCL injury to Drew Brees which had him out for five weeks.
Of course, there they had Teddy Bridgewater.
I think they went five and oh as a result of that, not the situation here in Dallas. They're saying it's gonna be about six to eight weeks. We just had Mike McCarthy doing the presser. He said he didn't have an update, but that surgery happened this afternoon. Talked to Dak in the locker room after Dak could have gone and gotten surgery last night. As he described it, that's how he's wired. But they're putting a it's going to be a pen and a plate and that right
thumb to stabilize it not jammed. Pretty significant injury and a clean break.
All right.
So that's the news and notes of the day as it relates to Dak Prescott. Let's get right into it. Aisha, your immediate reaction, because again I know.
You weren't in the locker room.
Where were you when you got the news update about the severity of Dak, Because as I said, as I'm standing there with Jerry even I'm shocked by it.
I think I believe I was.
I went to the game, yeah, and I was walking down I was walking down the stairs and I saw, you know, something flashed on Twitter about it. And I was just like, yeah, Trivi, you know wraw him. You know, like I figured he just hit his hand and it wasn't anything serious. And then you know, the flood of information of Jerry, you know, speaking on it started coming out and I heard Bucks fans going by like Jerry just came out and said that is like and I
was like, oh my goodness, this is really happening. He's really injured again. What does this mean for this team right now? And as we look at like the backup quarterback situation, I know we're going to get into that later. This is it just was very disheartening. I could tell.
It was very deflating. Uh And it's also deflating. I feel like it's also deflating because just for Dak as the player, you have to empathize for the fact that he has, you know, come back from the injury he had before and now he's here again.
So I was.
Immediately taken aback like you guys were, and my mind started processing where do we go from here?
And I know we're going to talk about that later.
Yeah. I was also at the game, and you know, my parents actually flew in for this game, and they were not happy very I know they were not happy, to say the very least. They flew in with some of their friends who also was their first Cowboys game.
Wow. Yeah.
So we were all walking out and my phone kind of started going off for the blog and the Boys channel that we have, and I saw Dak surgery. I just saw two words log on Twitter. I'm going through I'm walking out, bumping into people, just kind of central focused on my phone there and yeah, I saw it, and everyone around me heard me telling my dad. So all the fans are asking just as we're walking out, you know, what's going on? What happened?
Is it bad?
And it's like, I don't know. We don't really have a lot of information right now. I'm just trying to get back to the car to figure out what's going on so I can walk and not be holding up traffic or anything, right, But you know, it was disheartening and I the last game that my family and I went to was the playoff game as well, So I will say that walk of shame.
Allowed in the building anymore.
I think I'm bad.
I think I'm bad luck too, because I hadn't come to any games in the last couple of years because I've been deployed.
Yeah, I went to candidate.
Yeah, so we're not getting your credentials, your family, I'm allowed in the building.
Here's the thing that walk of shame. After the forty nine Ers game felt very long to the car. This this one felt ten times longer. And the Bucks fans were actually being very nice. Yes, as we were walking to the car.
That had a great game. Either you'll get into that and a bit. Kelsey, what was what was your thoughts? Uh? As this is all sort of unraveling.
Yeah, I mean actually my parents too. You can hear my voice between the YouTube game this game, I was not having a good time, so I lost my voice because I'm just disheartening, is the best way to describe this weekend. And I actually took a little bit of an issue with the way Jerry described it. We'll talk about that later, I'm sure. And he called it a surprising and I have to honestly disagree. But it was shocking, and I do think it was shocking to see how
bad it actually went down. And I don't know what my deal is with having a kinship with the Dallas Tabots quarterbacks, but I actually have had this same exact surgery the dak has got today. I didn't get I didn't get the plate, but I did get a pin in my right thumbs. And what's crazy is that I was that kid in middle school who was high school. Actually I did it during dodgeball, so like we couldn't play dodgeball the rest of the year. It was my fault.
But it was like this small little injury that you just thought you kind of you know, stubbed your finger, and it turns out that it's actually way bigger than what you thought, and you have to get the surgery, and you have to get a cast, and it becomes like this whole issue, and I mean, now it's about a survival mode, like how do you keep this boat afloat for the coming week so that the second half of the season this team can actually be some similar
to a contender. I mean, if there's one, I mean, we'll talk silver linings. But at least this is happening in the NFC East and not another division.
Tell how long did your recovery take with the similar surgery.
It was about the six to eight weeks mark. And I honestly like it's the worst because you literally have to get a cast that goes to like the base of your forefingers, like at the top of like it encompasses your hand. Your thumb is like all the way up and then your cast almost goes down to your elbow, so it looks like you like broke your forearm or
something like that. And it's just like this big, booky, annoying cast and it Grant granted, this was fifteen years ago, but still like it was, it was one of the most painful and obnoxious injuries I've ever had. And you're talking to a girl that has broken her back, So it is just it's so annoying and it really does interfere with your life. And again, we talked about this last week when we were talking about our concerns about Dak behind this line and you know, expressing the the
you know, the whole shoe issue. It's turned out to potentially maybe be a little bit more and going there, right, Like, this quarterback, this quarterback has some serious issues that he has dealt with injury wise, and I am genuinely concerned not only just for this team to recover from those injuries, but also his personal mentality and how he recruperates.
Moving boards.
Yeah, you know, I'm glad you brought up the you know, we discussed cleetegate at length. That's what I've called it, cleet gate last week at length because it felt more severe than what they were telling I just having covered.
The lid well.
And it's not so much that I want to say, look, I'm raising my hands to see I was right because the ankle didn't feel limited at all yesterday. Right, So that the ankle wasn't the issue is just they weren't as forthcoming with the information as I think a lot of us might have liked them too. It was more than just two tight of a claque, and I wish
they had just stuck with the story. And Jay Glazer is very close with Stephen and Jerry and Mike McCarthy, and so when Jay Glazer puts it out there, he's getting it right from the source. And so when he said he felt like there was like a pop of some sort, and they're like, oh, it's just a pop of a scar tissue and that typically happens. Well, why didn't that happen last year? You did get X rays, is what it sounds like. But what was more concerning to me is Melissa Stark, who does the broadcast.
We work in NFL Network together. She had a conversation with him.
He said, well, I don't know where Jay got it, but I felt like it kind of felt dead and then it came alive again. Oh, And I got to be honest, I said, no, he didn't say that.
Really.
She's like, yeah, I mean that's kind of how he described it. I'm like, I hope to God that's not some nerve that's interesting to me. And so even Melissa was confused by it and ultimately didn't go with it on TV because I think we both just sat there and said, I don't know what to make of that. So I, honestly, heading into the game, was was nervous about the offensive line.
Saw Connor McGovern go down. You know, Fartiac went in there and.
Did as good a job as I guess as you're gonna do, but you could only you could only be serviceable for so long. And so I was literally keeping an eye on the ankle the whole game. But when this hands situation happened, we watched it when Shaq Barrett came across at him, and I honestly I thought I thought the same thing that Dak did.
I thought, Okay, he's just jammed it.
And so when we went in the locker room and we're interviewing Ceede Lamb and I revealed a CD no he's out for a few weeks, he goes, oh, well, it's the first I'm hearing it. And Cooper Rush, so a lot of these guys didn't have the full.
Compliment of information.
And then one of the the things that will stand out to me as I look over at Dak and you know, kind of whispered to him like sorry, like mouthing to him. He's kind of gripping the wrapped hand the whole time, and he just looks like he's just in a daze, just like sort of staring out in the space. Because I'm just thinking, you guys are talking about mentality. If he felt some sort of weird pop last week with the ankle, you've got to be nervous
about that. If you had surgery twice, now you've got this hand situation.
It's like you go into.
Season last year it was shoulder, calf, ankle, all of that stuff, and then now you're dealing with this. It does start to get in your head when the injury starts stacking up. Yeah, and so that's what I kept thinking of it, and Kelsey, I know you're kind of alluding to it. I think the frustrating part for all of us is in camp we had questions about the
wide receivers, which we'll get into. We had questions about this offensive line, and we had questions about the depth of your quarterback room, and all of it is coming to bite you right now.
It's very reminiscent of, like I'm just being honest, going to that forty nine Ers game, all of the Cowboys efficiencies were on full display.
Yep.
There was no way to avoid it. You couldn't hide it.
You saw the penalties, you saw the offensive line struggle, you saw literally the run defense struggle.
You saw every single thing.
And then you come to this game and you see the exact same situation and there's no like, what are we doing? And I understand, like you said, the DAC was just sitting in the daze. What does he have to feel like right now? I mean, there has to be something they can do that's better on this offensive line for him because that I don't know. I just feel like we talk about it all the time. This
quarterback is not He's a top ten quarterback. And we understand that offensive line is not something that comes, you know, just regularly. It's not an easy thing to come across. But you just would think that there would just be more of an urgency to take care of this gentleman, given his story, given where what he's done to get to this point, he's done for this organization.
So I'm I'm just.
Extremely frustrated for him and just this whole situation as at all.
And I think, and real quick, guys, I think the issue is now, given where we're at in the season tracking, I mean, already you're seeing Tampa's they're gonna obviously have issues now with their They've they've got their offensive line woes that they're dealing with. I mean, injuries are popping up, fining these guys out in the street. It's tough to find. You're not gonna find a wide receiver right now. You're
not going to find a quarterback right now. Although Mike McCarthy and the presser said they had a list of available quarterback.
List of all the quarterbacks in the NFL in front of them.
Right but you're not gonna go out the Eagles aren't gonna give you Gardner Minshew. I don't think the forty nine ers are going to just be interested in necessarily training Jimmy Garoppolo within the division is Josh McCallen around. Seriously, I'm dead serious on that, Ryan Fitzpatrick, I honestly like your Amazon job.
Honestly, if they're talking about keeping it in house, which.
Is typically yeah, that's why they're gonna to do it.
I understand the conversation of Cooper Rush and all that good stuff, But if you want to not Micha McCarthy said, they're not changing the playbook at all. But if you wanted to insert a gentleman that can maybe do some of the things that Dak does.
Wouldn't that be a Will Greer? Wouldn't that wouldn't he give you?
Well?
What was interesting is, guys, we were having a conversation in training camp that Will Greer until he got insured, and so a lot of fans didn'tet to see him.
In the preseason. Will Greer was pushing Cooper Rush.
I Can'tyeah, he was.
So It's so odd to me and I and I get, you know, him being a veteran, you know, Cooper Rush being a veteran having snaps. But then you you just say to yourself, like, that's what I'm looking at if you want to compete. I think if they're trying to continue to compete, he gives them the best chance. And that's just how I feel, especially with the offensive line possibly like not being you.
Know, super well put together. You want a guy that's a little bit more mobile.
Note I just I think having covered this team, the last couple of your guys, I think that they're because I know Dak is.
A huge fan of Cooper Rush.
Try you and I understand, and so I think because of their time together his knowledge of the playbook, Cooper makes the most sense at this point, given the urgency of the situation.
If this had happened in.
Training camp, I think there would have been a competition, uh for that starting job. But I think at this point it's Cooper's job unless there's somebody that there. I mean, look the Jason Peters thing, I'd thrown out a couple of names before Jason got here. Uh, they got lucky because he's from these text That's what I'm saying. Look, Josh and the McCowan brothers are right there in Jacksonville, Texas.
Still I believe. I mean, I don't know.
I just honestly, you guys, like I feel like the thing Isa that you just said, and I actually want to kind of dive into this for a quick second, is we've heard this team tell us, you know, as people in the media, as as people that are fans, several narratives. But I think it's important for us to kind of have our eyes wide open as you know,
people that are ingesting this information. You heard last week about the quote non injury or whatever it was with Dak and then maybe you're hearing that something else is actually the truth, like McCarthy saying they're not changing the playbook, Like that's I honestly, spare me with that, with that conversation whatsoever, because there's absolutely no way that you don't have to make adjustment when you go from your franchise starting quarterback to a guy who you know, honestly he's
had minimal starting opportunities in the league. You cannot tell me that any smart person who is looking at the lay of the land knows that that's impossible and impossible, and.
You won on the road.
They keep bringing up the fact he had the one win in Minneapolis, and granted it was a huge win, but you had Amari Cooper, who.
Remember was telling us give me the ball when CD wanted it.
It was like, give me the ball, and we're going to get in to the wide receiver conversation after this break. I don't I've been already like telling you guys, I don't know how I feel about that wide receiver room and Celam being the eighty eight, but the stats up the other day. Guys, Let's go ahead, just jump into a break real quick, because I know we want to deep dive into this offense and how.
Rough it was. So we'll go ahead and we'll get in the break. We come back.
Let's talk about our confidence in this wide receiver room after having a lack of confidence in it heading into the season. This is the Girls Talk, Boys Talk podcast, brought to you by Jigsaw Dating, the official dating partner of the Dallas Cowboys.
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The Sweet Did you get to work on time?
Yeah? But I just realized it's Sunday.
Little sweets his head on home.
Dr Pepper is on its way.
Maybe there's nothing but good. You've probably done something you investistic again an ft.
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Welcome back to Girls Talk, Boys Talk here at the Star in Frisco. I am your host of the NFL Network, Jane Slater, joined by Aisham Worrison, Jessina Varas, and I have got Kelsey Charles joining.
Us remotely, all right.
One of the questions that came up today of Stephen Jones on one of five through the Fan was the lack of playing your starters in the preseason.
Was that an issue?
Uh?
It was Stephen Jones.
Who said that everything's going to be up for scrutiny. I asked Mike McCarthy that specifically, and he said he didn't necessarily think so, because they opened up the game with a fourteen play drive. It was fourteen plays for fifty four yards five point fifty eight there, and yes they got three points on the board. And that was the last time because a Cowboys saw the scoreboard. There was a commitment to their run. So I liked that. But then let's talk about the second drive for the Cowboys.
Ellie gets you seven yards. Then what do we say on Friday death taxes and penalties for the Cowboys.
That was their first penalty. They had a five yard false start.
For the penalty, you had two It completes to Lamb and Schultz three plays for two yards. All right, Then let's get into your third Cowboys drive to knock out your first quarter, Turpin brings out twenty yards. Rico'donald gets the penalty for holding that gives you ten yards. You get pollered for one, Schultz for five yards, go three and out. That's eighteen plays, three drives, three point seven yards to play, forty eight yards passing, nineteen rushing.
They were two for four and third.
Down efficiency time of possession eight sixteen. The biggest thing that stood out to them today when Mike McCarthy was asked about their deficion Was there their issues on third downs?
I think they were what three for fifteen? Yep, Yeah, they had this problem last year.
And so I'll start with the ii issha because I love the fact that you're such a film junkie. We joked about this last week that I needed to bring up the article and I wish that I had. There was an article by Peter King talking about the vic Fangio blueprint and what Key did to the Cowboys. You can expect to see more teams do to them this year. It was a fascinating article. Did you see that when you looked at the film?
And yeah, I mean Tampa Bay really honestly, they ran their base and they rushed for and then they dropped, you know, six seven guys in the coverage, and it kind of it was frustrating for me because last year, I like, I just was telling you guys, I felt like that defenses were doing that to the Cowboys and they were daring you to run the ball.
They were daring the Cowboys to run.
The ball because they knew that the Cowboys gonna run the ball, and well they're dan and pass the ball and they couldn't run the ball, so it was a mixture of both. So now this year you saw success in the run. I believe that Zeke average like five yards of carry like it was.
It was success.
They were successful. Some of the schemes were successful early in that game running the ball, but then there was no separation from the receivers. There was no there's you know, Dak was to deliver in the ball late he was double clutching because he wasn't sure because those windows were so tight.
There's the lack of a vertical.
Threat on this team just completely demoralized them last year. It allowed it allowed Tampa's DB's to play down on everything.
They were key and on everything.
Even Mike McCarthy talked about today that they were biding on every route like they knew, like they were jumping every route like and when that happens, like the forty nine ers game, somebody been studying, somebody know what you do well and what you don't do well?
What did they say in yours past with Jason Garrett, how predictable the offense was that they would literally all out to play across the line of scrimmage.
And the even more frustrating thing is that there were in the beginning of that game when the run was working. Then you saw Kelen come in there and start doing some like I don't know.
That put you behind the chains.
And when you start talking about the penalties, they did throw on first down a couple of times, but they were pretty successful when they were in those first few plays. After that, after that penalty, they couldnot overcome the penalties.
They cannot overcome getting behind the chains.
And when you don't have a vertical threat or when you have guys that can stretch the field, that's what happens because who cares.
I can play over the top of I can play over the top.
Of everyone that you have right now. I don't have to respect what you're doing. And you could see on tape. I watched that game this morning. They had no respect for what our receivers brought to the table, to include CD Land and.
Real quick guys.
I think the biggest The other thing that really stands out to me about this team is there ability to make halftime adjustments. Yes, when they came out the first drive out of the half, they went to Elliott twice.
They get a penalty Elliott again.
Then you go to Pollard for a third and six, and then that's when Devin White sacks Stack and your pat and you're literally punning it away. And then when you look at the Bucks, they come out for net eleven yards, nine yards, seventeen yards. They just keep going at them. And so you had all of these power runs from the Bucks and you got the sense that, you know, while the defense I thought did a great job for Dallas, and we'll get into that, the Cowboys
just didn't have answers at the half. And I said, having covered quite a few Tom Brady games, there was a Falcons game that stood out to me about two years ago. He put up more points in the third quarter that he did in the entire first half. He is so good at halftime adjustments. Yeah, and I just thought that was something that the Cowboys absolutely struggled with.
Well, and here's the thing too, is we Yeah, sorry, Kelse, I need to get this off my chest because last week, Jane, we left because I said, I'm the most confident that we're going to see penalties. Remember that, and what did we do? But what ended up killing us like it did the last time we played Tampa Bay, but even worse this time, because all we've heard all of this off season was how the discipline issue is fixed and it's corrected, and that's not going to be an issue
going forward. I'm sorry, but of course the Bucks aren't going to respect a team that's doing the exact same thing that they ruined their playoff game with last season in penalty penalty penalty, one hundred and twenty seven penalties last season. And I'm sorry, but the amount of penalties during this game I expected from the rookie players, the younger players. They were not all coming from them, and to me, it just showed the extreme lack of chemistry
within the offense. And that's the scary part is they couldn't establish a run. They ditched the run early. We see these fancy trick plays from Kellen Moore early on. Okay, if you're going to do that, do that, but.
Keep doing it.
You're going back to the same thing that does not work. You're trying to force these passes. And I asked Jane earlier, does this fall on Dak calling off the run or does this fall on Kellen Moore, Because at the end of the day, if you established that run, Zeke was trying to bust for some holes if you kept establishing him. Let's see, he had ten carries for fifty two yards. There is no reason Ezekiel Elliott should only touch that ball ten times within that game. Absolutely no reason.
Oh Gonestly, you talked about respect, and I think that's a really great point. But here's the thing about respect is it has earned and I do not know what this Dallas Cowboys team, and quite frankly, while we're talking about the team, this front offense has done to earn the respect of other teams in the league, I actually, you know again, took issue with Vick Kanzi was saying
that they had the blueprint. But you know what, maybe they do and it really is a definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting results. Fact, I think David Hellman, one of my dear dear friends, I know you guys are all familiar, had a really great point on his show the other day and he talked about the fact that you go out and you pay your franchise quarterback right, and then what are you doing to equip him with the weapon?
It's not fair and nor is it logical for being frank to expect a guy to go out there, you pay him, and you're like, oh, I paid him so much. We could go all all day and talk about how it's the markets work a certain way. Yeah, you're gonna pay him a lot of money. But you've got to give them the tools, you guys. You've got to give them the tools. The chiefs they went out and got
Patrick Mahomes what he needed. What is your front office doing besides not paying guys that could literally be starters on this offense, key impact players on the line as offensive weapons for this team, and they go, no, you know what, I'm going to go down down the street to the dollar store and expect me mean Marcus results. It's it's absolute insanity and it makes no sense.
I actually really loved the analogy.
I think the issue that I have, though, is Dak felt off in that game too, and I think, look, I'm a huge fan of Dak, and this is not this is not trashing Dak.
I can't play one. But there were questions.
Even when I was looking at the eleven targets intended for Ceedee Lamb and he only hauled in two of those. I think some of those were absolutely Ceedee Lamb. I watched the game. I did not watch back the All twenty two this morning, but I just wanted a I when I even asked CD and Dak, you know how much extra work you oh every time we get a chance, But when you're not playing and you're putting more emphasis on the joint practices versus live game.
I just thought they needed preseason chemistry. That was my opinion on it.
And then I would also submit there are a lot of other quarterbacks in the league, Aaron Rodgers who have done more with less, right, and so I'm not sitting here knocking Dak necessarily, and I think you will. I mean, let's talk about the fact that Jalen Tolbert, who you picked up in the draft this year, wasn't even dressed out. Instead, you had Houston out of San Antonio, untraft target who was.
Out there, who got prime targets, He got important targets at it.
I remember I was asked on ESPN Radio when I was doing a hit last week Dennis Houston, and I said who, And then here's a guy that's stressing out over Jalen Tolbert and so.
Well, and you can I think Dak was trying to force the chemistry with him, and it just was not clicking after and again, I don't ever.
And again I don't know if that was because the pressure that he was getting in his face, if it was the if the guy, if if their receivers were not in the right place.
I know they started playing a lot of man coverage. It was a mixture of a lot of things. But I will I will say that I do think I used to be very about preseason, but with the being so short, you need at least one you see the Bills. Even like, even though the Bucks didn't look super special yesterday with some of the things they did, tom it was in a preseason He did play in a preseason game. I watched the preseason game, and let me tell you, it's so funny because we talk about the preseason.
We shayn't.
We say they're not gonna show you anything.
They're not gonna I watched the preseason game of the books, and a lot of what they did to us yesterday offensively was pretty much the same.
It's just quickouts, quickouts.
They I mean, obviously they got some play down the field, you know, before Chris Godwin got hurt, they got a couple of plays down the field, but prior to that, it's quickouts, quick release, quick and not a lot of quarterbacks can do what Tom does, so it's difficult to replicate. But I do agree, like I'm at at that point where I do think that preseason is starting, at least the game, at least the drive something.
But let's talk about that.
Tom didn't have a great, great game yesterday either. Okay, he found the end zone once you lost Chris Godwin, your wide receiver in that game.
I mean, with the exception of that absurd.
Julio Jones catch Julio Jones had today, they were trying to give you the game. Mike McCarthy even conceded that it's like, as much as you even tried to San Francisco tried to give you the game and the playoffs. I think my concern sometimes with this team is I'm told the work ethics great, they're motivated, remember last week, ause they've turned it up a notch. They're locked in. They don't feel it's like you punch them in the face. There's no counter, and sometimes I worry that they don't
get back up. It was the minute Tom scored in the end zone I felt is when that's when it felt like again, we're in the fourth quarter seven oh eight now, right after as we're watching it here in the studio, right here, it started to feel like they felt like this game had just gotten away from them.
Yeah, they weren't playing. Remember you played through the whistle. I worry about this team sometimes.
Well, go ahead, something that I was gonna say that how much of that falls on the discipline aspect that we have been mocking over and over and over, Because here's my thing, Terrence Steele. You have three penalties in a row. Not one, which is bad enough, not two, which is even worse. You have three, and given I get, we don't really have a options. The Cowboys don't really have other options to put in there. I'm sorry as as a fan, I don't want to see any more
of him. Sit him for at least one series, make a statement, or take him out of the game. That is unacceptable for me to see a player have three penalties in a row, and especially going into a game where the penalties were already hurting us the entire game. You look back and those penalties ended up being vital points in something that could have given the Cowboys momentum and they killed it every single time.
Penalties for seventy three yards.
And it is frustrating with Tang still because like he has worked his tail off, but we he has worked his tail yet. But they're just the accountability that has to be taken on this team.
And it's not just for fans or anything. It's for each other.
Because we're sitting here talking about this offense and this defense held them to nineteen points.
It felt I was It felt like the.
Chiefs game again, where you're my does all they can, The defense comes out, the offense is inept where I remember I think Coop and CD had to covid if I'm not mistaken, they were.
Out and I remember the struggle.
But seeing this defense just battle back, battle back, and so we I look at the other side of the ball and your defense was on the field so much that towards the end of the game you start seeing them getting gassed out. There's some injuries that came up as well, and there's when you talk about camaraderie in the locker room and stuff like that, like they talk about playing for each other.
I'm like, where is that? Where is that right now? Y'all, because I didn't feel that at all yesterday. Go ahead, Kelsey, Sorry, No.
Accountability is a great way to describe it, though, Asha like, I love that you guys are saying that, and Jess like I feel that mentality you talk about you want
to sit a player. My whole concern though, is that I really do feel like accountability needs to spread to the front office as well, And because when you talk about wanting to rotate someone out because they are not being disciplined enough, and like a Terrence feels, you may love that guy as a coach, you may think he's quote the right type of guy, but if he's not performing on the field and you need to make a switch, what puzzle pieces do you have to plug in besides noting?
And who's faults that?
Right?
Right?
I mean genuinely, whose fault is that? Because I just I think it really does go back to again, I don't feel like this team has done a good job of setting up these players or these coaches for success because you really do have limited resources, and I just think we have to again be accountable to that. And when I say we, not me because I wasn't the one making a call, but like I think the front office has to wear that mantle and understand it like
you are the reason. Look at the mirror like this is largely your doing.
And you know what's interesting too, is we heard from Terrence Steele in the locker room and we have that sound jazz. If you want to play that sound real quick so we can listen to it, that'd be good.
Especially you know with me three, I think priestnot pilonies. It's unexcusable. That's something we can't have. You know, Coach puts a big infasis on that. So there's definitely something I'm not the work on in the future for sure, but you can't have that.
Here's the thing. Why do we have to work on it now? You should have been working on it. Every single person on this team should have been working on penalties.
After the one hundred and twenty seven penalties, I'm going to keep that number going all year and you're going to get so sick of hearing me say it that the penalties are going to be what kills us, and they kill the momentum, which I mean you see what you see, what happens exactly what you were talking about, Jane, that fourth quarter absolutely, no momentum, no motivation, no accountability, nothing from the Cowboys that said, hey, we're even going to try to push to just get in the end zone.
Being the only team in the NFL on Sunday the played, given we haven't seen any Monday night games, to not make a touch down unacceptable.
I think what stands out to me too, though, is when you talk about Mike puts such an emphasis on it.
If I screw up in my job right.
On Sundays, so like we do game days and it's forty second hits, if I go forty three forty five, they truck it. It sounds dumb, but it's that's three. That's three seconds, then five seconds, then ten seconds that I've taken away from our studio analysts.
They'll bench us.
In other words, you don't get to do game day the following week. And I've seen them do it to reporters.
There are.
There are consequences when you don't meet expectations.
That we have for our show.
What are the consequences when these guys aren't living up to the standard. That is, we have to miniate because the field possessions, the field.
Position is important.
I was going to talk about that.
When you have these penalties that are costing you field positions and you're you're going three and out or it's a second and sixteen or a second and twenty. That's that's why the penalties are a big deal. And again, coming off of last year and Mike is I'll never forget it was before the Broncos game, Mike said it was a point of emphasis, something we worked on. I think that was one of one of their most heavily penalized games, was it not the Broncos last year?
So it was a rough one, and.
So the Raiders game, let's not forget one.
I feel like Mike has done a sort of a good job of endearing himself to this team. He's almost become like, uh, the players coach, right, you know, he's given them some of the off days.
We're gonna cut practice earlier. We're focusing on the bodies.
We're not going to play your body and preseason players love that, right because it allows their bodies that you're not putting so much tread on their tires.
Is that a good thing though.
I think it is if they're being productive. Yeah, if you're working on the things that need to be worked on. You're not giving me seven penalties in a game. You're not giving me how many yardage and penalties? Jane, when you're doing those things, sure take your off day until then, Absolutely not. There's too much work that needs to be done. There is way way too many mistakes that were made.
I mean, man, going through those locker room sound bites, you had Zeke saying, hey, we need to clean up penalties, clean up protection. You had Tyler Smith saying, hey, we had flags and missed opportunities. You had Dalton Schultz talking about too many penalties. You had every almost every single player in those post game interviews in the locker room saying penalties, penalties, penalties. Why are we still talking about penalties?
I'm so sick of hearing the word penalties and Dallas Cowboys in the same sentence.
Honestly, though, like I feel like this, I keep saying this, I will get a guy like a Terence Steel, and I know this coaching staff loved him.
But it was not that long ago, you guys, and buy not that long I.
Mean last season, we're sitting here saying this man has not been set.
Up for success.
He's an undrafted free agent. I had a Texas text. He literally the commentary about the Terrence Steel experiment needs to be op.
They like him though, they love it.
When I was at Combine, listening to Mike McCarthy and this staff talk about their love of Terrence Steele was the most fascinating conversation his agent. His agent is Eric Burkhardt, who also represents Kyler Murray.
Eric kept telling me they love him.
He's I'm like I, there's a lot of people that I like that aren't great at their jobs. Kelsey, I work with a lot of people in this business that are very likable, but I don't think they're particularly good at their jobs. Yeah, both can be the same, both can be right, right, So, I don't know.
We've harped enough on the deficiencies of this team. How do we give them some silver linings. We've got five minutes left in the show. Let's quickly go to a break. That's how much time we need to go over the silver linings. Not a lot of time.
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What do you call a group of grown men and women with their faces painted silver and blue who get together every week to share a three hour long ritual of jumping, sinking, and toasting Miller Lite and Tim Gallon hats while yelling how about them cowboys?
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Welcome back to Girls Talk, Boys Talk.
We are live here from the start breaking down an absolutely catastrophic day at ETNT Stadium night.
Rather, it was a long one for me, guys.
I got there at six forty five in the morning, did all the pregame coverage, had to go back cover this game and then the post game, which.
Was just brutal, just an huge, absolute mess.
I love John Mishoda saying that twenty five point one million viewers got to watch that one largest audience for NBC Sunday Night Ober since twenty fifteen.
Oh that's a good one, right.
I loved it that Romo was trending too on Twitter today.
Guys.
I know he hasn't turned in his retirement papers, but knock it off. Okay, silver linings, let's do the silver lining playbook here, guys. The silver lining for me was Brett Maher. Oh, kicking was not an issue in.
This year's opener.
Brett Maher putting three points on the board.
Can you image? And if he did it and they were shut out of this one?
All right, are Yisha, I'm sorry you're silver lining my silver lining?
Uh, tater tots with.
Yeah, there you go.
With McGovern going down, you do got some insurance and Jason Peters there you go.
Who by the way, we were asked, We asked Mike McCarthy about that, and he said that he is still up in their ramp up face.
Yes, I heard that.
Can you accelerate coming down that this week?
Can I?
Okay? Go ahead?
Silver lining for me, I'm gonna go with the obvious. Michaeh. Parsons.
He showed up.
He was ready to give Tom Brady the point of view of a lion attack, if you will, And he really I think his first the first half the game was better for him. And you know, to be quite honest, I don't blame him for the second half of not getting another sack at that point. Really, who was doing much But Micah Parsons. You have to that guy. You have to root for him, and he really he showed Tom Brady. What was that SpongeBob meme or the Quarry's like, we want more of this old man, like he was
ready to go and he was disrespecting his elders. You just love to see it.
Kelsey, I love the Micah Parsons one. That was one of my lists too. His two sacks actually marked his fourth three or multi sack game, which I think is great. He's actually the only player in Cowboys history with four multi sacks games in his first few seasons, beating to Marcus Ware, so we'll take it as a silver lining. I like that Dultan Schultz. That would be a key to the game for me, and he did nothing less than follow through with his promises and continue to step
up for this team. So he was a big silver lining for me, a little victory if you will. Sure we'll talk to more this week. But yeah, Kelsey, why honestly, I just for me. I really respect hal Dalton has been able to He's kind of like what he's just kind of been like the safety net. And that's saying the lot for a guy that has had had minimal expectations coming onto this team. You didn't expect him to be a key part of this offense. Blake Jarwin goes down,
he becomes one of your lead receivers. He's learning more so about being a better like in past particularly. I appreciate what he's been able to do for us and again yesterday too. Let's face it, guys are wide receivers. What wide receivers. It's a little it's a little evisital right now. And Dalton Schultz has consistently been the woob
bee and I respect that. And he's going to continue to be the woobe because Cooper Rush is going to need a big target to help him get through these couple of games.
You need a guy needed to be a bigger woo Be last night.
Will Be, I still had my woodby. I kept it.
Am.
I the only one that doesn't know what.
I just disgusted talking about this team today.
All I've like, literally, I'm just like, can we get can we get done with.
The show, because that's how I feel about. Sorry, I know you guys are fine. People like, where's the optimism?
James?
Sorry, Uh, it's just it's rough.
I've covered this, this will be now my tenth season. It's just it's all the same, Okay. Cowboys safety jay Ron Curse. I know people are curious about jury updates. That knee is going to give him problem. Looks like he's out. We'll see how long that is left. Guard Connor McGovern the ankle, he told me in the locker room he was in a boot. He said they were looking for more X rays to confirm how long it's going to be. It seems like it was the same
one that gave him problems last time. And Stephen Jones said today about a month, month and a half and we're still waiting on Toreal BASHAM News Mike McCarthy didn't have an update on him that looked painfully.
It looks as he was coming off the field.
So as we wrap up this show, Mike McCarthy said that the mantra this year is resilience, told the fans stick to the journey, keep believing in us. We need to perform better. I need to perform better. I will perform better on a Wednesday after I've had a night of sleep, and we can look forward to the Bengals game, which saw an epic collapse of their own last weekend against the Dealers. But guys, for all of you who have tuned in and listened, we look forward to chatting.
With you tomorrow. And I will not be on the show. Kelsey Charles will be leading the charge.
Hey, okay, we'll miss.
You, Jane.
I won't be asleep for one whole day.
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