Mick Shots: Bitter Sweet

Spagnola and Everson. I'm not sure if Everson's with us just yet, but Mickey, I know that the area is Everson is here. You know, it is a victory Monday at the Store in Frisco. But Mickey, it just doesn't feel like a victory Monday at the Star in Frisco. Doesn't. No, it sure doesn't. As a matter of fact, I kind of turned that old phrase around from my column today and I said, this was the agony of victory because obviously you won a game. You know, it's like, thank god,

finally you pulled a two in three. You're actually in first place. But you lose your starting quarterback for the rest of the season, and somehow it just seemed hard. And I'm sure it was hard for the team afterwards to celebrate a victory they had every right to celebrate. But again, when you lose Dak Prescott the way they did in such gruesome fashion, I know everybody, I mean, I don't know what other people thought, but when I was watching it and seeing him struggle the way he

did about made me sick to my stomach. To see him have to go through that. Yeah, I happened to be watching it, and and just so happened. My daughter was next to me. If she's a grown woman, she's thirty plus years old. But you know, we're both major cowboy fans. Uh, when even when I went to the Giants, they remained cowboy fans. That just let you know how

much she loves the Cowboys. And uh, of course when dad goes down, you know, she's, you know, black woman seeing a young young black man, and and just she empathized with him even more than she would just being a major cowboy fan and the human being. It just, man, it took away from the the game itself. You know, like you said, you're sick to your stomach. It just felt so uneasy. When I first saw the injury, guys, I just I was he as he was holding his cat, I just thought he had a not in his calf

because that's all I was looking at. And then just you know, it doesn't take much to just go from the calf down to the foot. And when he held it up and I'm like, oh my goodness, he's it's done. He's done for the season. Uh. And I was hoping, you know how it is as a player, you've seen the Joe thisman. You know, we always go back to Joe thisman when we see that injury. And I was I'm hoping that his career is not over, because that's really something tough to come back from. He's he's younger

than Tisment was when Tisman had his injury. Of course, you know, Dak is a stud of a human being, so we just hope he can he can come out of it in some way. Forget it. I almost forgot about the season, that's how much it hit me. I'm thinking, man, it just you just wanted to turn off the TV, you know, And that's just crazy, considering that the game is still going on. Yeah, I mean the game gun was on the backburner then. I mean you just felt for for Dak so much, and you talk about ever

since what you saw as the injury occurred. And for me, I'm sitting there at home watching it with my wife and and I did not when I saw something was wrong. Okay, immediately saw something wasn't right. I did this, I put you know, I charted the game. I got a notebook in my hand. I went like this, and I did not want to see what was going on. I didn't want to see it at all. And I have deadly saw it. Actually, yeah, right, accident, And that's that's the way I reacted in injury like that. I just I

just do not want to see it. And I think there's you know, you could see the pictures of the teammates and the and people on the sideline they didn't want to look either, and um, you know, but uh, the the it was. It was in a way though, it was such a beautiful scene to see the the the Giant as well as the Cowboys, and you could just see how much respect that Dak Prescott has not only among his teammates but and fans here in Dallas,

but across the league as well. We've seen it on social media with so many people reaching out, and this guy has earned the respect and just the way he goes about his life and so forth. That's why it doesn't matter whether I would look at it. If Dak Prescott played for the Giants and I knew what I know about Dak Prescott as a person, I would have those same feelings that Jason Garrett had on the sideline when he came out, you know, and that was a touching moment when he came out, you know, as he

laid there on the term. The good news as far as Dak is concerned, I've talked and Mickey you may have two. I've talked to medical experts, and it looks like this is not going to be an injury that's going to affect his career long term. Obviously it does for this season, but apparently the surgery went well and it looks like that will be able to be back

as good as new after he recovers from this. Sin. Yeah, I think probably want to say something stags in regards to I don't know, it's mixed shots, but I just had to say this. It's It's not just uh, this injury that that Dak has had, It's just in his

entire uh year has been pretty tough for him. So you compound that fact with his brother's suicide and then of course this injury, and now you're talking his bouts with depression also, So it's more than just football here, and I want to make sure people understand that this is about a young man who we've taken for granted all this time. That's why the other team was so involved in their grief, you know, in in the you know, commiserating with everyone simply because he is known as a

person that doesn't ever complain. He is known as a professional on and off the court, not just here in Dallas, but in regards to the entire community of this nation really when you think about it, So that's what went along with that injury. It had much more to do, much less to do with football, and much more with what kind of person he is, which is what you talked about, Bill, Go ahead, Spags. I'm sorry, Yeah, I

was just gonna say this. This whole thing was like, so Dak, right, a normal quarterback, he's running, he gained seven yards, go down, Not Dak he's gonna try to power his way for the first down. He knows where the first down is and he's gonna try to get the extra yards. And then on top of that, it's like he's on the ground and by god, he's gonna straighten out his leg. He's gonna straighten out his foot. That's what he was trying to do. I couldn't believe it.

And you can see it turned the wrong way and he's trying to you know, and and mate. It brought back memories. I could remember one time when when Troy Aikman damaged a finger. It kind of dislocated and he asked Kevin Gogan to pull it, like, get it back in. You know, you gotta do this. This is a foot you can't you got you gotta do it yourself. Sometimes it's just it's just automatic. When I heard mine, it's over to the side, and you know, I'm surprised Troy

would let someone else do it. That takes more bravery because I just had to immediately try to pop it back into place. It's just automatic. You see it out, you want to put it back in now. I'm just talking the finger. I don't know if i'd be doing that with my foot your foot, right, yeah, and plus Troy, Troy's asking Gogan to do it of all people, right, yeah,

Gogan would take his whole finger off, right. And then and then when I see him going off and you can see, you know, tears in his eyes, and there was part of me thinking that, yeah, he's in pain. But the other pain is that he can't stand leaving his team like he felt like he was leaving his team behind. And uh, you know you could see that the way Zeke ran, I mean he ran possessed for that twelve yard touchdown. Yeah, because I think he understood

that now this thing's on us. And to me that was yes, absolutely and so yeah, So anyway, so they the surgery last night was successful. Uh, They going to repair the fracture, uh and the dislocation. And the reason they rushed into the hospital so fast because they were worried about infection. So they wanted to make sure they cleaned out the wound from the compound fracture, get that

thing set, take care of the dislocation. And what you hope is you know that he didn't tear any ligaments in there that that couldn't be the other thing you worry about where the other guys had such bad injuries that we've seen on TV as they've had nerve damage, and it didn't sound like he suffered any of that.

The report this morning and Stephen talked about it, that that the surgery was successful, uh, and that the doctors feel like he should be able to come back good as new sou and that's that remains to be seen. But I would imagine, you know, he's he's out four to six weeks before he can do anything on that foot again. And yeah, we had a we had another injury that we can't ignore, was that Pope Tristan Hill.

But Tristan Hill. Before before we get to Tristan Hill, let me say one more thing about a deck and I want to pass along what a doctor told me last night about that whole situation and just how serious this situation was. For first off, down on the field. Okay, when you have an injury like that, the biggest concern, and of course I'm no doctor, I'm just relaying what

a doctor told me. The biggest concern for the trainers the medical staff on the field is re establishing blood flow and you got to make sure quickly that blood flow is re established in that area of the leg. When he was being carted off, you know, they put him in a boot, okay, and amazingly that basically when they set it and put it in that boot, it takes the pain away amazingly for the most part. Okay.

And so those tears that you were seeing as Mickey was talking about, those tears welling up in Dak's eyes as he was being carted off the field, they weren't from pain. They were from the emotion of the moment. In fact, what I remember my wife's reaction as she saw him laying on the ground there. She was going, that guy is so tough. I mean, I think it

was everybody's reaction there. But as he's you know, the the the imagine what it would have been like if whole stadium would have been a full but even with the limited number of fans there, and in just the outpouring that Dak had to feel from amongst teammates and the other side going right by the Giants bench too, and you could see them all given their well wishes to him as he as he was carded by, and then just looking at that stadium and realizing all that

work that he has put in to this season and this here and now and really not knowing what the future holds for him. You can just imagine what kind of emotion that he had and he showed it right there. And to love that he has for his team and the sport and everything everything that he does. And then the other thing, as Mickey was talking about, the really important thing aside from fixing the injury, according to the doctor that I talked to, is is because it was

an open wound, is the chance of infection. And when they went in there, they had to really clean it good and over and over and make sure that he uh does not have an infection that that would not be good at all. And so apparently everything went well with the surgery last night and he was being released from the hospital today. Good stuff, good stuff that all that that that whole thing makes makes my rupture achilles feel like a scrape on my arm. All right now,

I want to give us him. We've been setting with injury spags not to mention your own. Yeah, you know what when when this stuff happens, all I say, it's twenty twenty, How many more months we have left? Three oh two? Many too many and Mickey about Tristan Hill. What are you hearing on Tristan. I'm hearing that the MRI with that they were taking was to probably confirm that he had a torn acl So it looks like that they'll be without him too. I mean, just that happened.

I tried to see it wasn't when the quarterback was between his legs right and when he rolled over did it? He fell awkwardly, and you know, and I thought Tony Romo made a good comment there. He said, you know, when he went down, it was almost like he was trying to keep Daniel Jones from a bad fall. He was, you know, and this is the guy that got a bad name after the Seattle game because of his tackle and roll, and here he was trying to go down right,

you know. And another thing I noticed last week in the in the Cleveland game, he made a tackle, clean tackle, and then when he hit the ground he rolled. It was almost like his deal. Unfortunately in the Seattle game when he rolled, he still had the guy's leg but that's kind of what he did. I saw when he hit the ground. So this time here he is trying to make sure he doesn't fall on Daniel Jones's leg or probably you know, even get a penalty and he

ends up hurting himself, you know. And the other thing is do what you do guys when it don't let anybody else change what you do whatever it's successful for you. If you start trying to change that because somebody else has a complaint, then you're compromising yourself, which is exactly what happened. Go ahead of him, Yeah, and he was. He was holding up trying not to get a penalty or up on the past or also you know, because

he's had that issue in the past. But you know, then when I saw that he was hurt, he fell so awkwardly. So many times on these ACL injuries, they're

non contact and they are from situations like that. I mean, how about Blake Jarwin's I mean where it's it's a non contact deal where it's like your your leg gives out or I don't know exactly medically why that is, or but that's when I saw he was down, I said, oh, I hope he's signed an ACL because of the awkward manner in which he felt, not because of the contact or anything. It's just AC don't seem to be an

injury that happens that way for whatever reason. And let's just be clear, guys, I mean, we still have the same feeling and empathy for anyone that gets injured on this team, anyone that gets injured in football. I think with Dak it's almost like the Ray Rice thing, you know, kind of a stretch comparison. But you've got a lot of people that have had marriage problems. But when you see that marriage problem culminate on a video, then it's

just totally different and it has an entirely different effect. Yeah, we saw he'll go down, but it didn't have the same visual effect that Dak's injury had. So yeah, we still feel bad for all of these guys. You know, the journey is gonna be long. We just hope that they come through it okay. And that's for all the guys that they've had entries around the league, you know. And the other thing that my doctor that I talked to said, I mean, it's Mickey said, I can't remember

that around six weeks. I mean, it takes a bone to heal, he said six. My doctor said six to eight weeks, assuming everything went well with the surgery, the bone will heal and he'll be good to do whatever in six to eight weeks. Now playing in the NFL is not six to eight weeks away for him, I think, he says. But the way the doctor I talked to put it is he's done for the regular season. I mean he looked at it that it's it's not an

injury like a year long injury. It's something where after the first of the year it looks like he would be, you know, able to do some things. So yeah, it's not like it's not like an Alex Smith injury, right right, right. That's just good to hear. That's good to hear. And I think the other thing is the thing that has impressed me so much about Blake, about dak throughout his time here is this positive spirit that he has and

it can do attitude that he has. And I guarantee you who woke up in that hospital this morning, when he gets back to the Star, he is going to be doing all he can to get back as soon as possible. But he believes in this team. He believes in Andy Dalton. He believes that this team, which is now back in first place in his bad NFC East after winning yesterday, has a chance with a veteran quarterback, and let's we can get into Andy Dalton and talk about the game when we come back here in just

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tractor provider of your Dallas Cowboys. Back back to mixed shots, The Cowboys are back at at and T Stadium one week from tonight Monday Night Football to take on the Arizona Cardinals. A limited number of tickets starting at eighty nine dollars available now. Get yours today at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash tickets. By the way, the Arizona Cardinals will come in with a three and two record next

Monday Night, of course, coached by Cliff Kingsbury. The quarterback Kyler Murray gets all the headlines, but they lost a key member of their team and yesterday's win over the Jets, as their star high paid edge rusher Chandler Jones has lost for the season. I believe a torn biceps injury. We're the initial reports. I don't think there's anything official on that yet, but they're without Chandler Jones. But our concern right now is what the Cowboys and what happened

on Sunday. We've talked a lot about the Dak injury and that takes precedence over everything else. But the Cowboys did come away with a victory, and there's a reason NICKI that Andy Dalton is on this team. And there's a reason that the football gods were smiling upon the Cowboys in the late April when Joe Burrow was picked by the Cincinnati Bengals, and it was obvious that Andy Dalton no longer had a home in Cincinnati. He does have a home in Highland Park. It made a whole

lot of sense for him to sign with the Cowboys. Yeah, that one sort of just fell right in their lap, right, and not to mention going through COVID nineteen, he probably didn't want to have to move leave home to go to another team, and it was just too convenient for him to sign with the Cowboys. And if you think about it, you know, these previous few years they've gone with the inexperience backup, and this time, when this opportunity

presented to themselves, it's like, heck yeah. And again he had guaranteed money from Cincinnati, So basically the Cowboys just gave him a three year, I mean a one year, three million dollars guaranteed contract laced with a bunch of incentives. And you know that when you first saw it, it's like, Okay, he's probably not going to hit those incentives, because the first one was if he played fifty percent of the snaps and the Cowboys made it to the playoffs, it

was a one million dollars incentive bonus. Well what was the chance of him playing fifty percent of the snaps? Right? Well, now it's a real good chance he's gonna play probably seventy five percent of the snaps, and then it goes on from there. If they go through the playoffs, he could make another, you know, two million dollars. So eventually, with this from a financial standpoint, they structured the contract just in case, and just in case, just presented himself.

But the more important thing is is you've got a guy that started this is his tenth year in the in the league. If I got it right, was it twenty eleven his draft? And so this is what you want in a backup quarterback because think about it, these guys might get a handful of snaps during the week in practice, maybe maybe half a dozen, and the rest of it is mental preparation and relying on what you

already know. And he came in and played like he'd been playing for four games the order to end up completing nine of eleven passes for one hundred and eleven yards and he should go take Michael Gallop out to dinner for the rest of the year. Those two castles unbelievable, right, But again he had to function and go in and run, and they really didn't back off that much from what their game plan was. So it was a real godsend that they decided to sign Andy Dalton. Well, I really

enjoyed That's bangs, even though my heart was heavy. You know, we're still taking care of business, even after he fumbled the snap from center that he could have folded. You know, of course, I know he's no no shrinking Violet. I know he's a quarterback, has been the league for ten years. But under those circumstances, it was very unusual for him.

Considering the emotions around the entire stadium at that time, I know he was feeling it and to come in and have to perform the way he did the pass to Michael Gallop on the sidelines, tiptoed on the sidelines. He did that on the run, of course, running to his right, thank goodness, But that is an extremely difficult pass to make, coming off the bench cold and needing that particular play. He dropped that diamond there for gallop and then of course now you have to have your

teammates lift you up when you need it. So here comes the deep pass. I never saw that deep pass coming. I just assumed that they were going to continue to play it safe and I put I posted that on Twitter. You know, you see some amazing catches out there that are obviously amazing. The Beckham play against against a Brandon car in text in Capitoy Stadium. That was an amazing play. It just physically he was being pied, caught it with one hand going down. It was just ridiculously crazy that play.

The gallap wade made a little bit more subtle in its greatness. It's easy to do the Willie made well, it's not easy, but those that catch I've done it before. Bless with the ability to do the Willie Mays catch over the shoulder with your hands in this position. But for him to be able to catch the ball with his hands in this position, I posted that is one of the most amazing catches I have ever seen. Guys

hanging off of his back. This is easy, guys. It's easier to go like this and to have your hands inverted in that manner. I don't think I've ever seen a cleaner ch in that manner. Those would have to be loved bad guys. The clutch situation, the emotion in the room, the ability for him to come toward his body in that manner. That's why I said, Michael Gallop is going to have a breakout year this year because

of plays like that. Amazingly athletic guy. And then and then add the toe tap right, he got his feet in bound. Unbelievable. But you know what the thing And if you guys remember when I was watching training camp practices and I think you guys asked me what what has stood out to you about Andy Dalton And I said, he's so accurate throwing the ball. You said, those passes

are off target. The ball is always right there. And when they were doing their little drill where they kind of moved in and out of those little block and dummies laying on the ground and have to throw the ball in the square and the net, he was fabulous at that. Now he was fabulous yesterday. That was when he showed this right, yeah, and of eleven right, and that's what they've got to look forward to. Now. I don't think they have to dumb down the offense because

this guy could still sling the ball. There's nothing wrong with his arm, there's nothing wrong with his reads. Sure, you want to maybe rely on Zeke a little more when you can. Right then, everybody was like, wow, they will rely it on Zeke. Well yeah, because once they wiped out the fourteen point deficit, it was they got the lead. It was their ball game. Uh, and you know they you know, great plays, uh, mixed things up,

but relied on Zeke. And and I don't know, I think I think they were Yeah, I think you're wrong, because yeah, on that one drive when they were behind, they just loaded up Zeke and was like okay, let's go. Uh So yeah that was uh you know, and I think you saw a blueprint for for for going forward. But you still got to take advantage of these talented white receivers, including Cedric Wilson, who can throw the football. And I found out that he was a quarterback in

high school. Yeah yeah, and he threw a touchdown passing college at Boise State. Also, I guarantee you Kelvin Moore already knew that. Yeah. Absolutely, a boy that'll give, that'll give some teams some some things to uh to talk about, ye and so yeah, I mean you're not gonna say, okay, doesn't matter. You know, we go on. Now. Dax got a certain thing about him that obviously these guys respect, if you just read the quotes after the game. But again,

you've got a quarterback that still had something. He just didn't have much around him that last year or two in Cincinnati's exactly right, exactly right. In fact, I was looking at at Dalton's career and of course said he led the Bengals to the playoff ops for five years. He's the Bengals all time franchise record holder for completions in a season, touchdown passes in a season. Of course, the big knock on him was the lack of postseason success,

but that's not totally all on the quarterback. And then he didn't have a j Green last year. So he had Tyler Boyd I guess it receiver and Joe Mixon at running back with a bad offensive line in front of him. But he's got to be sitting there going I've got Amari Cooper, I've got Ceedee Lamb, I got Michael Gallup, I got Zeke, I got all these weapons and he's got to be sitting there. Yeah, we can

do this. The other thing on Dak. If anybody tells Dak what that doctor told me last night that in six to eight weeks you can be good to go, I mean I was doing a math on that. It's October twelveth eight weeks would be December twelve. I guarantee you Dak has in his mind. I don't care what the doctors are saying. I'm getting back out there as soon as I can. I would have any great year. Yeah, out Andy, you help us get to the playoffs, but

I'm gonna be there. I'm the playoffs are. It's exactly right. I'm not. I'm not letting you get that playoff. And that's right. You can get you can get the what is it the one million dollars incentive to play fifty percent of the regular season snaps to get about. Don't forget about those postseason incentives unless unless you just have

to be on the team. I'll get you the postseason incentives if it's worded that way, or rework your contract where it is worded that way, and I will be back all right, and we'll be back here on Mike shots in just a moment, so much to get to. In fact, there were some guys who actually shined on defense on Sunday next. Hey they're cowboys fans with type Cleaners at Home pickup and Delivery. Cleaning your clothes has

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a Monday. The Cowboys back in first place at the NFC East with a two and three record, can even the record at three and three? Nick's Monday Night against the Arizona Cardinals and a thirty seven thirty four win. I'm trying to remember our picks. We none of us had the score in the thirties, right, I had twenty six? All right, what do you have, Mickey? Twenty six? Twenty and I had and I texted NICKI at one point in the game, I had the score. I had my

pick exactly right. It was twenty four and twenty three at one point. They went in a game right then. But my click, my pick to click was Ezekiel Elliott. That works, It works, No yes, it does. Do we remember my pick to click? Do we remember C D Land? You damn right there, Come on, man, give me some love, man give all right, all right, I got it. I got it so good. I got it. This week. CD Land is so good. I think was fired. I think

he made it. Made me go seriously, especially the one he caught and then got hit in the head and he still went on to the football. The second one he got hit in the head, that was very dangerous. Yeah, yeah, yeah that that. I thought that guy was gonna get tossed. I thought this just proves that teams don't have three or four quality corners. You put him in the slot, if you're not gonna put your starter on him, that's guy's not going to cover that guy because he's not

a third receiver. He is a very good receiver who just happens to be in the slot and it's a mismatch. Now, now you need to hand this show over to me, because that's exactly what I said last week. They don't have another corner to cover him line back of a safety. Maybe, So yes, thank you SPATSH for reiterating what I already said.

As I bask and glory over here, you know. And the other thing with Ceedee Lamb when I watched him in college, one of the things I was most impressed with with him outside of the obvious and his ability to do everything in a receiver, is his toughness. He would take shots like that all the time in college. Yeah, and there were times when he was returning a punt

and a guy would light him up. And in fact, I remember I was a game against Baylor, he took a hit even before the ball lit I mean, the guy let him up before even the ball even got there, and he had to come out of the game due to concussion protocol whatever, and he was back in like the next series. I mean, he was so tough and he he's shown that already five games deep into his NFL career. I think he was inspired by his suitors

winning and four overtimes on Saturday. By the way, speaking of that, Blake bell had to catch Blake Bello catching us gave Billy never Gallimore comes in, and now Gallimore is gonna be a guy that this team is depending on. With Tristan Hill going down well, and then how about this safety a safety number forty people on Twitter who followed this team on a regular basis, was going, who's forty Parker. There's somebody named Parker who plays for the Cowboys.

We'll not Stephen Parker, a former suitor who got twenty two steps who he was? Bill I had. I saw that as well, like, who the hell is number four? They we're putting anybody out there? I did. I must admit I had to pick up my foster and going, well, he's not he's not on the right, And then I said, oh, practice squashy. They moved him up. But you know what they did, so you know what they did is they started playing dime, so they put extra safeties, you know,

and Everson pointed that out. One of the things you can do, uh, if you can bring in more safeties instead of playing that linebacker in there. And that's kind of what they did, and you know, it kind of worked. The other thing I thought defensively that worked, you guys is I only saw one or two plays, maybe no more than a half dozen that they got in a three four alignment. They stayed with that four down alignment. Now, they did try standing up the linebacker or the defensive

end a couple of times. Dorance or Alden Smith, but for the majority it was a four man line, two linebackers in the nickel, or they went to dime and it was working. Now, there was this perception, and I had it after the game that gosh, the Giants just ran right over them. They just couldn't stop the run still, And then when I was typing out my column last night, I said, well, gosh, they must have had like one

hundred and thirty yards rushing. Well, I pick up my sheet here and it's twenty seven carries for eighty nine yards. I'll take that any day. Twenty seven carries for eighty nine yards three point three a carry. They still have problems shutting down in the middle. Those defensive tackles have

to play better. If they can play better, I don't know if they can, but I'll guarantee you Gallimore get some more snaps because the big old guy that's supposed to be stuffing things in the middle ain't stuff in anything. And I just don't know, ma, how much longer they're

going with that. Okay, let me say this because I brought this up because I was a month or so ago I was studying the Patriots and the Patriots had a number one defense in the league last year, and I started looking at how many dbs they got on the field all the time, and it's like I did the math on it. It was like the first game of the year, they had like five point eight per snap dbs on the field during a game, and they've consistently been at five and a half dbs on the

field every game. And that's what I believe. That's what they did last year too. Joe Judge and the Giants are doing that too, of course he was with the Giants last year. And what I believe what's happening here, it's the trickle up effect from college football to the NFL, where you got all these spread offenses, you got more

wide receivers on the field. The Giants were going with a lot of eleven personnel, if not ten personnel, a lot of Ingram is like another wide receiver, even though he's listed as a tight end, and so you need more dbs on the field. Now, it's going to hurt you in the run game. But I hear college coaches talk about it all the time. They have to recruit in the Big twelve and now in the SEC. If you're seeing how many yards those teams were given up.

How about the Missouri Tiger. You see the old m hat back up there, so you know what, you know, what's funny about that built Remember when I told you the story that the thing came out when LSU lost the season opener, and I said that was the first day. They said it was the first time the national defending national champ lost the season over since nineteen seventy eight. And I told you it was Missouri beating Notre Dame. And the reason they beat them is they stopped them

three times in gold and goal situations. Right. The last one, Notre Dame had the ball at the three yard line on fourth and goal. They could have kicked a field goal to tie it, and then the line was too proud to tie, so he wanted to beat his old school. Well what did Missouri do first in goal at the one with the game on the line, and stopped LSU

four straight times? Wow? Four straight times. The last one was a pass breakup that they hadn't broke up a pass to t Rris Martschell the whole game long and the guy BLEDSOE broke it up and they win. I was so I'm up here watching it, right the neighbors probably heard me, right, And I'm texting him too, Bill because the game, I'm missoo, question Mark, what has happening?

But where we got off on MISSOI is the fact that that I mean, I think that that this is sort of the trend in the NFL, and you can you know, there's an old saying that you can't have enough cornerbacks and everything. Would probably agree with that, but uh, probably the thing that that goes with that though, Bill, you have to have linebackers. They're there active and not just run stuffing, but also in past dropping with Pepper Johnson. This weekend he's coaching with IMG. They came in town.

I'm surely Duckingville and he and I had we talked a little while and we talked about that that's what you have to have. Linebackers are the active we were blessed with called Banks Lt. Pepper Johnson Gary reasons. We were blessed with that. So the Cowboys can be effective in this defense. And I have to give him props because I've been on him since last thing's giving. Jaylen Smith bawled out yesterday and that's what you have to have.

We saw his weaknesses against the past. We saw some of that, but Jaylen Smith played the kind of football that we need him to play consistently, not just every once in a while. He has to be the anchor for this team day in, day out, weekend, week out. I don't care who we're playing. He has no excuse, but he has to be our lynchpin as far as our linebackers are concerned. That's the strength of it. Romo talked yesterday about the eyes that we don't have in

the secondary. No one can play zone. No one sees the routes coming. No one can figure out how the routes are going to attack them and whether the weaknesses are and where your where your your your weak spots are you in your secondary. That's the problem that the Cowboys have the secondary. They don't recognize routes and people get behind them all the time. In a zone, defense cannot happen. Jaylen Smith made major improvement, major improvement this week.

Well you know why he had major improvement. His recognition of what was about to happen was spot on, guys. It was his Sean Lee impersonation was reading things for a change, and he was there to make plays and the other thing that happened with all those dbs on you're allowed to blitz where people don't know where it's coming from. Because Anthony Brown didn't just happen to be there to pick up. They were blitching him off of from the slot. Lawrence's but right, and he was coming.

So they did that more. And let's also point this out. I keep hearing God they gave up thirty four points to the Giants. Well, the defense really gave up twenty points because you get an interception, tipball intercepts and return for a touchdown, a fumble on the seventeen yard line and they go in for a touchdown. Take away. Those two plays they limited them to four field goals a touchdown in a two point conversion. With this defense, I'll take that every day. I'll take my chance. We can

call offense without day. Yes, and along those lines were out of time, so I don't have enough time to make this point. But I wonder how much it helped Jalen Smith going up against Jason Garrett's offense, an offense that he saw in practice here for many years in training camp. Whatever. And the other thing is, and I guess we'll want the league on this how motivated was Jason Garrett to show people in this building Clay play

collar play caller. He is after having the play calling, not being the play caller here, and he's recently head coach here, and he's running a flea flicker on the first drive, he's got a reverse for a test down on the yeah on the first drive. He was so motivated to show he's a play caller. All Right, that does it. We're out of time. We could go on and on, but we go on and on Tomorrow at one thirty here on mix shots. Make it a great Monday,

and we'll see you again tomorrow. Go Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.