The following is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.
Cowboys.
This is Nick Shot, streaming live on Dallascowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys at now. Here are Bill Jones, Savannah Humuller, Everson Wolves, and Mickey Spagnola.
It's eleven am on a Monday inside the SWBC podcast studio at the Beautiful Star Infrasco. And this is the organized team activity known as Mick Shots, brought to you by Miller Lite.
It's a team here.
It is.
It's not organized, but it is actually.
And right off the top, that's your assignment, Savannah, get things organized for us please, course of the next hour, we need an organized team activity and celebration of OTAs which are this week and next week for your Dallas Cowboys. Everybody has a smile on their face.
Oh anytime you come to the Star, it makes you smile for some reason, whether they put some type something in the air or something. Because I'm not using this nice every day, especially in the morning.
It's for an hour each week. Everson has a smile on his.
Shots.
Are going to start this right or no?
What are you more excited about Savannah.
You know, I'm very excited for our Dallas Sport, Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks.
And by the way, it's been we last week we did a Wednesday morning show and so that was prior to the big announcement and the we've got the This is our first schedule release, a segment on mix shots. The schedule has been released in the Mavericks play on the road in game one on Wednesday, the Stars are home on Thursday, Mavericks on the road Friday, Stars at home Saturday. We got fourteen days straight of conference finals.
That's our schedule release.
Nobody here will be sleeping because we will all be watching sports.
But at least at least all the games are starting like seven o'clock.
Yep, seven or seven, right, that's right.
How many times you guys fall asleep during the Stars game? Not bi, I was working.
I worked. I speak for yourself.
I was working until ten forty five, drove home and almost fell asleep driving home, right, but then stayed up until one am. And that's when the winning goal was scored Dallas time.
That's when our group started going out all right.
Not only did I.
Got the black guy was the first one to sit down, mister hockey saying, man, I know better than you guys. This is crazy.
Not only did the game end at one and I did not fall asleep, I couldn't go sleep until two.
That was crazy fact.
I mean, I thought the shot was amazing, but was that Did he deliberately pass?
Yeah?
I know what you mean. Did he deliberately?
Kind eyed? And said?
How did you how did he get his stick in there to flip it like that?
Because you had you had two guys of the opposition, they were all in there, and somehow he was able to get his stick in there and get that out.
Well, it was tough in that first overtime watching that play where I know, I know it was tough.
Mason March he had it and then they did not.
It's a good thing it was hot enough to have the air conditioning on, because if the windows.
Were open, I would have woke up the neighborhood yelling at your TV.
Especially with two words I was using that you're not supposed to use whatsoever.
Two words put together as one.
Yes, it was like and I just knew, I just knew they would not have the nerve to do what was right and they didn't.
Because that would have decided the series on the losing team's home eyes.
Sort of like the MAVs, right, did you have the nerve to hold the call at the end with you and a half seconds left? And Marchman was right, he goes they didn't want to end the series or the game on a reverse.
You say before that, the explanation that he got from the that was good.
Old wild because I'm yellow, he's not in the blue and the goalies outside the crease.
Cool explanation ever, soon that he got from the official was that Matt Duchhane his skates weren't in the crease, but his dairy air was in the crease.
He used different he used a different word. That's like, that's like, that's like the calling.
But you know, in the booth, only the goalie, the only goalie in the booth was the only one that agreed with the call.
Of course, of course I know his name, and I was yelling at him.
He was talking, but he would not give in no matter how much they went over.
But then to have Matt Dushane go back and score the game winning goal, that was such a full circle moment based off of that first.
Not only based on that, but based on his history too. He was their first round draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche as an eighteen year old fifteen years ago, went straight to the National Hockey League at age eighteen, and so he had played a decade with Colorado. He's thirty three now. Yeah, you know.
What, I don't think I ever heard an interview with him before. He's a pretty sharp guy. Yes, I was impressed.
Most of those hockey guys are pretty sharp guys. It's just they don't have very many teeth when they're gone.
Tah, that was such a good interview, so good. But no, it's it's fun to see the Stars beat the Vegas Golden Knights in round one.
The defending chance has already beaten.
They've already made beat the Chiefs.
They beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round, they beat the San Francisco forty nine ers in the second round, and now it's easy from here on out.
Exactly to night's game of seven, so we'll know who the decider is.
That's why they played the winner of to night's game seven between Vancouver and Edmondton. And uh, since they are the Stars, and since the logo for the Cowboys is the Star. We could talk about the stars there for a little bit, right.
Exactly, well, and think about it. The success the teams have had in this town since last year's cycle, right, not ultimate success the Rangers. Did you know where Mickey's going with you?
I always won a division, you know, Okay, Rangers won.
It all the Scholars and Wings were in the playoffs for the first time.
You go back further than that, the Arlington Renegade.
That's right, we all forget only one that remembers that.
Because Bob Stoops.
Is the coach.
I'm not going to say what his record is this year. It's always back to Oklahoma.
Always back to Oklahoma.
Wait, Wade Phillips won another one yesterday, beat Bob Stoops. The Renegades fell to one in seven by the way.
Yeah, okay, So I want to real quick, and I know we'll get in to the schedule here in a little bit, but I did want to talk about another event that happened last week, and it was Dak's Foundation Faith Fight Finish.
I have a really cool story from it.
So I know I talk to you guys about our International Fan of the Year. He came out to the draft in Detroit.
He did a pick announcement for US.
He's a big advocate for mental health and had his own kind of struggles with his family and dealing with loss, and similar to Dak. When Eduardo did that pick announcement, Dak's brother had actually sent him Dak a clip of the pick, and Dak and Tad Prescott they invited Eduardo to the Foundation gala last Friday night, and so Eduardo got to meet Dak in person, and I thought that
was just the coolest story. A guy from Mexico who he lost his dad and just is the biggest Cowboys fan and just loves Dak gets to be in the room with his hero and meet him, and Dak invited him there.
So I thought that was just a really cool story to me.
And the cause itself, the cause itself was benefit was a benefit of that exactly because that just lets you know the guys that run their organization, they're on top of it.
You don't miss moments like that.
And for them to understand how important this to have him there, I thought that was pretty good.
And then he pointed then he pointed out that because of Dak, he kind of saved his life because he was so depressed after the deaths and his family, and he credited Dak and let him know that that's crazy.
Yes, I saw the video that had a long embrace when they first saw each other at the Foundation gala the other night.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, And it's it's an honor for me to know Eduardo. I got to spend so much time with him in Detroit. He's such an amazing human being. And just to know that he got to be there on Friday night and meet Dak and a lot of the rest of the team was there too, and just had that experience unbelievable for him.
So it's very very happy.
Bags.
Did you go, No, I thought you were asking me if I went to the a CMS. No, that was Thursday. We just moved to the a CM.
We do that.
There's a whole bunch of going on around here. No, actually, Vicky, that was the first we ever mentioned it. You just mentioned it. Somebody mentioned already to me today with the MAVs and the Stars and kicking the Cowboys off the front page. I said, yeah, until tomorrow, somebody misses Ota practice.
But you're right, man, you have to include the Cowboys. As far as the success of Dallas sports teams, I mean, I know we've tanked it in the first round of the playoffs, but man, you still want the division.
You know you had a great season. You know, what can you say about this?
I thought it put the Stars thing in perspective. When I think, I can't remember who pointed it out, or if it was one of the players, it's like, or maybe the board it's like, well, we're halfway there all this and you're only halfway there.
Yeah, well, the Cowboys have to be feeling some kind of way because we're talking about the city of Dallas and how the sports teams are doing so well, and the Cowboys just they need to get still need to get over that hump that you see the Mavericks have gotten over, and that you see the Stars have gotten over once again. Still halfway there, still halfway there, but
they have already exceeded. But the Cowboys have done in the last few playoff runs, say, well, I wouldn't call it a playoff run, just the playoff game.
Yeah, haven't gotten over them. So we'll see what goes on going forward here. But anybody looking forward to seeing something at the OTAs.
Sure, what are you looking forward to most?
Seeing that they still don't do a lot of competitive stuff. I just want to see some of these young guys because I wasn't here for the rookie Mini camp, so just to see how guys move, what kind of feet does Guiton have in person? I think I've heard enough about BB that I'm totally sold, especially when he pointed
out in his interview. I can't remember if we mentioned it last week or not, pointed out in his interview he's already practiced snapping to the point when he was in the hotel for the mini camp, he had a ball with him and went into the ballroom and got somebody to catch snaps from center from him. So that tells you how committed this guy.
He didn't break up anything.
In right BLUs the window or something with a bad snap, but evidently they didn't, you know, for whatever they do in the Rookie minning camp, there were no balls on the ground because of bad snaps, So good indication right there.
I'm looking at the DBS, of course, I want to see how well they look, you know, one on one coverage, what kind of attitude they have, you know, what's their style?
Is it physical?
You know?
Is it a neesse?
So I'm just especially the young man from is it Canada? One went through Canadian football? Which one which one of the DB's went through more secure this route to the NFL.
That was the other guy that got drafted by someone else. He didn't we didn't get him in Canada.
Yeah, that's the one. We didn't get him.
Yeah, Quant stickers.
Kaylin Carson is your new guy, the fifth round draft pick out of Wake Forest. He's nearly six.
Yeah, he breaks well, he breaks well on the routes they bad. Watch out for the pump, for the pump and go.
I am interested in seeing are running back group we got Zeke Back, Rico Dudel, Douce, Vaughn, Royce Freeman. I kind of want to see how all of those guys are practicing a little bit and working together because obviously there's still discussions on you know what that will look like.
Well, gone for it brought that up.
Oh what do we have, Mickey, I'm trying to.
Find where all my notes are.
Well, while you would look to find the notes, did you find the notes already?
I did? Oh? There you go.
So on Friday it's quicker than on Friday I wrote about this, this whole thing when we were listening to the assistant coaches of talking about the committee, and I was like, Okay, what does the committee mean mean and what does it look like? And is it a committee of three? Is a committee of four? Who's on the committee? And the best I could tell at this point, especially from Jeff Blasco, the running backs coach, talking about you know, it's it's it might change, you know week to week
who who's who they're using. He said it could be where we have a guy playing than twenty percent, if it's three guys in the stable, and he said it might have to do with what we're doing offensively, what we're doing schematically, and who puts us in the best position to win. Now, when I looked at the eight candidates, the only sure thing on the committee to me is Ezekiel Elliott rico'dodell, since he's got the most experience other
than Royce Freeman. And I looked up Freeman's stats and he has started the amount of games that he started in the league, the most he's started in a single season. You have to go back to twenty nineteen, so It's not like he's been a guy that you say, Okay, he's part of the committee. So Hunter Lipke, is he on the committee? Does the full back count Malik Davis? Where does he fit in? If he fits in? But all I know is the only guy that's got a
lot of experience is Zeke. And I like the fact that when Blasco was talking about Zeke, he said and it came up to be in short yardage and he said, he's a can of kick ass in that department. And I'm going, okay, yeah, that what did they miss last year? Can of kick ass inside the ten yard line?
So again, I.
Don't know if you guys have you know, a definite choice other than Zeke who's on the committee. But if it's by committee, it Zeke and everybody else because other than Freeman, nobody else has got to start on this group.
To me, if you start talking about the running backs, you can't talk about them without talking about the offensive line.
Right.
You can talk all you want about how good a running back is if you don't open up the holes. And I'm still this is my theme from here on. We have to win in the trenches. I don't care who the running back is if the hole is there, you've got a professional running.
Back that can hit that hole the way it's supposed to be. I'm sorry, I can't.
I don't need the Heisman Trophy winning running back or whatever to run behind my offensive line. I don't care who what is as long as that hole is open. I'm sure that our running back can hit that hole. And we're going to need that so much this season because our first down is going to be our most important down for us all season long. And if we're going to play the way we're supposed to play, that running back has got to be not just one running back.
Whatever running backs we use, they're going to have to be adept at hitting that hole because it needs to be open.
It's got to be open.
We can't we can't sit here and have our running back going lateral all the time to the line of scrimmage and not hitting it in the hole. I don't care if it's Zeke, he couldn't do it if there's no blocking. He couldn't do it when there was no blocking. I don't care if it's doubt. He couldn't do it when there's no blocking. We need to go straight ahead. We need to hit it hard. We need to hit it fast.
And I wonder if they consider Cavante Turpin and CD Lamb part of the committee because I know CD CD.
Yeah, I bet he would. Well, we have yeah, we have a CD both.
Last year, the returning receivers had thirty carries for two hundred and fifty eight yards and three touchdowns eight point six yards of carry.
That should count, right, because you want cooks. And if you look at carries, and I mentioned Freeman and I misspoke, I mentioned his starts. I was looking at his carries and Freeman's high of his career was one hundred and thirty two, but it was back in twenty nineteen.
I look at like, what did he do last year? That's what I want to know. And last year he had seventy seven carries for three hundred nineteen yards four point one yards of carry, two touchdowns, had one catch for thirteen yards.
And Donald's career high was last year eighty nine carries. Malik Davis for four point one yards you carry, yeah, only had thirty eight carries in his career. So we got the head guy. Now, who follows.
Who's the head guy?
Okay, he's the committee head guy. Now we got to last year, had had one hundred and eight eighty four carries. He had a basically, he had ninety five more carries than Dowdell did and one hundred and seven more carries than Freeman did. Last year, Zeke had one hundred and eighty four carries for six hundred and forty two yards. But more significantly than that, he had fifty one catches for three hundred thirteen yards and two touchdowns exactly.
And he scored touchdowns too, by the way, So I think that's something that they've got to figure out. But kind of as the coaches keep saying, it's like, well, we won't know till training camp, and maybe not until we play three preseason.
Games, right, And I've got a thought on deuceband too. I will share when we come back, all right, and we will. You're gonna everyone knows what the schedule is by now, but I need your take on where the potential potholes are in the schedule that was released last Wednesday. When mix shots continues, in a moment, I'm.
Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and.
They snapped the press. Who looks right, it's not there, he escapes left. He'll look for pumps down.
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That was a perfect read.
Thank you.
That is a professional broadcaster right there. And you know how you know that, Mickey, How's that she knows how to pronounce all the country's names, Chile.
Chile, La like that? Thank you?
It's not.
Most will say.
Most will say Chile, Yes, Chile, Chile. Have you been to Chile?
It was so perfect it knocked my headset off.
I noticed that for a second. I was like, is met okay?
And that's the other thing that shows how professional she is as a broadcaster is she was not distracted. She's not a distractable.
Player, but ourselves okay.
One other thought on the running back situation, Deuce.
Vaughan is going to be on the committee.
Yes, And I thought going into last season the same way, and I haven't changed my thought on this. I did not expect him to do anything his rookie year, especially a rookie coming in when you're in a situation, uh where you're not the starter, you're not getting regular reps, okay, and there's not really a plan for you because they don't know exactly what you can do, especially at your size and so forth. And so I think it was going to take a year of assimilation into the whole
process here to figure things out. And I also think that the makeup of the running back room now will allow duce Van to do more of the things that he I think he's capable of doing. You know, there's a lot of comparisons, especially because he's a short in stature and out of Kansas State, just like Darren Sprolls and Brian Schottenheimer had darren Sprolls in San Diego when he first came out. I just pulled up here are the numbers for Darren Sprolls his rookie season in two
thousand and five coming out of Kansas State. Okay, I believe Schottenheimer was on the staff there with the Chargers. Then he played in fifteen games. He had eight carries for fifty yards and no touchdowns. He had four targets, three receptions ten yards. Then he missed his second season due to injury at a broken ankle, and so it wasn't until his third year in the league that they
finally started figuring out, Okay, how can we use this guy? Yeah, had one hundred and sixty four yards rushing in his third year with a couple of touchdowns, used a little more in the passing game ten catches thirty one yards in his fourth year. He gradually built up to where they figured out, Okay, this is Darren Sprolls. And I'm not saying Cavante Turpin is necessarily Darren Sprolls, but he's the same type back that Sprolls was coming out of
Kansas State. I think it's going to be time for him to find to take time for him to find his place in this league, right, And it.
Took Sproles a little bit of develop.
And he got delayed further because he got hurt his second year of the league.
But I'm guessing if you look at Sproll's special teams contributions, maybe because they couldn't figure out what to do with Deuce on special m and if he wasn't returning with Turpin back there, then what was he doing on special teams because he didn't you didn't want him in covering, right, Yeah, he might be what.
He might submarine some people out there that was one.
Of the reasons I think he was inactive going on as the season went along, that they couldn't figure it out.
It's going to be interesting what happens with the kickoff and the kickoff return exactly because he is more of a punt return type guy than he would be a kickoff return guy, but not necessarily.
But now it's a different kickoff than what it was, right, And what if Turpin has a bigger role as a receiver, do you maybe shared return ability?
All right?
So that that's a good point.
And so the other thing, it seemed like every time Deuce got the ball, even in preseason games, he was just swallowed up. There was no place to run.
A lot of guys.
I keep telling you, guys, because he's out the string. His plays didn't work last year because we didn't block anybody last year.
And that's no opportunity to get started, none at all.
Right, that's what we got to look at, guys, preseason, regular season training camp. We've got to look at our front line and they have to dominate. You can get anybody back there, and I don't mean just anyone, but if you get a good running back behind a very good offensive line, then you have something going.
You've got something going.
You could put together a drive with any running back that you have back there. And I'm talking about I'm not belittling any of the running backs.
All of their talents.
Are going to be useful, but you have to have holes open for them to use their talent.
And I think if you just look at what happened in Detroit with David Montgomery, kind of the lead back, they used the first round pick on Jamier Gifts and he nearly had a thousand yards. He can go right that young man.
There's a reason they used the first round.
Picking the cowboy.
He is something.
And one last thing on that. Blasco did a little bit of a study on thousand yard rushers in the league and he figured out, if I can find this real quickly, that from two thousand to twenty I want to say it was two thousand to twenty fourteen, the
NFL averaged seventeen one thousand yard rushers a season. And then from twenty fifteen through twenty twenty three, and what three of those years, four of them seventeen games, the average drop to eleven thousand yards rushers for average per year, and last year there were twelve, but to get to twelve for of the guys that made it made it by fifteen yards, twelve yards, eight yards and five yards.
Wow.
So thousand yard rushers kind of a fading statistics, especially after seventeen games. And the guy that made it with five was pollared. He would rushed for one thousand and five yards and nobody and there was another group of four guys that didn't rush for more than one thousand and forty nine yards. So that's with seventeen games.
So and did it matter his team was the most successful? Did it equate to success on the particularly right?
Well, it did in Kansas City, although the second leading rusher was Mahomes.
The checko on the Kansasity's team, the.
Checko was the leader and then Clyde Edwards. Hilaire though had some injuries, but he only rushed for a couple of hundred yards.
Uh.
It's it's a combine. It's be so many combinations. It depends on the scheme of the team itself. You know, if you got a quarterback on a bunch of yards and you're not going to have a running back lenning for a bunch of.
Yards, or if you got a quarterback that can run Lamar Jackson.
There you go.
Then it really minimizes your one depends.
It depends on what your system is.
Yeah, I would it would be interesting to see if they could put that together.
So Pachecko, for Kansas City, had nine hundred and thirty five yards rushing thirty five last year.
And then Mahomes had like seven Homes had three eighty nine, three eighty nine, but he had a bunch of carries, so didn't.
He seventy five carries? Pacheco had two hundred five carries. So anyway, all right, what do you see on that schedule that it's a potential landmine.
Well, first of our seventy.
Thank you.
I thought it was knowing how difficult it was going to be the start, with eleven team having to face teams in eleven games with winning records, nine games of teams that went into the playoffs, it was going to be difficult, right, we talked about it last week. I thought that one stretch could have been difficult because you had to play at Pittsburgh, Detroit and then San Francisco. So that's back to back division winners. But there's a
buy in between. So I think that kind of minimized that and you probably need two weeks to get ready for San Francisco. Right, So, to me, when I looked at it, the tough spot was the three games in eleven days where you play Houston at home on a Monday night, you go on the road at Washington on Sunday,
and then Thanksgiving with the Giants. So that's a tough rutch there, and they made it tougher by giving them the Monday night game the two Sundays before, but at least they don't go Thursday to Thursday, and they get a big break after that, and then they'll go eleven days with before they play the next game, and the next game Cincinnati on a Monday night, so it's normally ten days. Well they'll get eleven. So but that's to me, that was one of the tough stretches.
This is a tough schedule.
Well, what's going to be tough. That's what you get for winning the division, right.
I'm looking at the September twenty six, then October six, you finally get a home game against Detroit the thirteenth, then you have two more even you have a buye, you have two more Rold games and in Philly and start to stretch tenth through the twenty.
Eight Forget home lot Yeah, forget forget home and away, forget to buy. You're just looking at the quality of the opponent that we think the opponent has shown over the last couple of years that they're going to be tough. It's the four game stretch Detroit at San Francisco, at Atlanta now with Kirk Cousins at quarterback and with the offensive talent that they have drafted whatever, Okay, and in Philadelphia and then you get Houston.
You're not looking at New York and Pittsburgh before that.
Well, but I'm looking at the playoff teams, teams that Detroit, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Houston. There's a four out of five games where all those teams made the playoffs last year and they have high hopes to go a long way this year.
I'm also looking I'm looking at these conference games. I mean, honestly, some of these guys, what they've done in the offseason so far, and who.
They've added on their rosters.
I mean, I think some of the NFC East teams are going to be really tough, and we're playing them two times.
I'm looking at the primetime games as well, going back to New York and Pittsburgh. I know that they won't playoff teams, but they can't wait for us to get up right on a prime two prime time games in a row. They can't wait to get at the Dallas Cowboys. That's going to be an issue. That's even before you play Detroit that much on the road too, So I'm just saying you look at it.
Well, the first half of the schedule, for the first eight games, you got five of them on the road.
But again there's a Thursday night game on the road, and then you don't play till the following Sunday, so you get a little bit of a break right from a day's.
Stamping, that's true.
Yeah, And then the same thing Detroit San Francisco. There's a bye in the middle.
That's the only saving grace because the task is still at hand.
It's still a tough task.
And Philadelphia Houston at least you're at home. Yeah, and after the buy and there's a Monday night game there too, so you got a next your day to get ready for Houston.
And after the bye, you still have a full college season to play.
Yes, exactly. They're only halfway there.
They're not even Yeah, well one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, you got eleven games till the end of the season. Then you're hoping you're going playoffs. So that's twelve thirteen four. That's a if you were to win the Super Bowl or even go to the Super Bowl, that's a fifteen game schedule after your by hopefully. That's why you need all these running backs.
That's why you need to pace, your need to have minis right yourself.
The whole team needs to be a committee exactly. That's the way it is now in the NFL. That's why these all these players are going to be out here that are out here this week. They're in OTAs. You got a ninety man roster. If you go back and look at last year's training camp roster, ninety players, I bet you eighty five of those ninety players on the roster were in some capacity on an NFL team, practice squad or whatever for at least a portion of the
regular season. Because that's the way and with the new rules now that have come into effect here in the last few years, as far as the practice squad, where veterans can be on the practice squad and the expanded practice squad and the injured reserve list where you can only you can go on the list for just four weeks and then come back. Now whatever, you're not out for the entire season. You need as many bodies as you can have in here.
I think the Cowboys' so soft the top of my head, it was just less than seventy players active for a game. It was like sixty seven or sixty eight somewhere there that that's how many players they ended up using with that's active for a game.
And then you add another sixteen that were on and off the practice squad.
I counted those guys that got promoted.
Yeah, if they got promoted, but there's them that don't get promoted, and some you know, from week to week, you're on and off practice squads all over the league. So it's if you've got a job in the NFL, you're probably going to be in a regular season on an NFL roster in some capacity.
When I look at this schedule, I think the Cowboys need to understand one thing. They're going to have to slice this thing up asa as they can to their advantage. You know that you can't. Just as we've been looking at you have to kind of scheme your way through the season, and with this schedule, you got to break it down into smaller increments to where you can you know, break it down to bite sized, uh, you know, chunks week by week.
But when you're looking.
At the Cowboys roster, I don't see us having a great regular.
Season necessarily as last season. But I still do see us.
As we you know I'm projecting here. I still see us making the playoffs. But they're gonna have to be masterful and how they pace themselves. They're going to be masterful on how they play their personnel in certain situations for certain games. And when you look at this, everyone else has a tough schedule as well, so it's not like we're the only ones with a tough schedule. And when it's all said and done, we're going to have
to peak at the right time. I don't care what well, I care what goes on between September and November, but you need to be ramping up by the time November and December comes because you can't. This schedule here will not allow you to just You're not going to run through everyone the way we did last.
Year to underscore that ever soon, and I think they did. The NFL did this across the league. Okay, look at the number of division games the Cowboys have in the first half of the season versus the second half of the season. The first eight games of the year, the Cowboys have one the giants in the division, and then starting with a Philadelphia game, what is it, five out of their last nine games are against division opponents. And the league has done that with a purpose. They want them.
They want teams to at least still think they have a chance because they've got division games left. And I like it much better then. You know, there was a a few years ago they was talking, oh, you got to have division games your last game of the year. Well, a lot of times the last game of the year you're already out of it, So why would you play your division games the last.
Game of the year.
It's meaningless at that point. But if you stack two division games the last two weeks, then you're looking at you go into the last two weeks of the season, since you're playing division opponents, you might if you're two games out, you still got a chance coming into the last two weeks of the seams. So I like it a lot better having two division opponents the last two weeks of the season.
And they got to play three division opponents in the last six.
So and you also have spread it out enough. They're at least a month apart, six weeks apart between playing those that the teams are. You know, you go through highs and lows throughout the season, injury factor in. It's not you're not playing the same division opponent two weeks apart. It's it's spread out enough. Well, did I think they did a really good job as far as making that work like that? So speaking of destractable, yeah, Wavy.
Megan used to work with us, and I kept trying to get her on our show and she no, I can't talking.
The first I've heard this were you.
I feel threatened right now?
Were you doing that in two thousand and five?
What's that?
That's when I tried to get her on the show two thousand and five to replace me.
Guys, stuff is coming out of your head.
You know what made this schedule tough is the fact that in the rotation of playing the AFC division that they got the AOC North and they all had winning records last year. When what are the chances of that happening?
So Well, when I look at well, it's every four years they played, they.
All have chances, but they all have winning records. Smart, thank you a good point.
Good comeback, Nicky, you had the most salient point. The first thing that you said, the reason that the schedule is tougher is because the team finished in first place. That's right, That's why it's tougher. You're playing Detroit, you're playing San Francisco, and you're playing Houston because you finished in first.
If they would have played finished second whatever, they would have got Green Bay. I meant in relation to the seventeenth game, so.
You would have got whatever second place team from that AFC South was Indianapol.
How did the Super Bowl winning Chiefs start off this season?
Last year they lost. They would have a tough time last year. I have a tough time last year.
God forbid if you lose the opener.
Well, they were having a tough time last year and they had to right the ship at the right time. So that's why I say it's it's all about timing. It's all about being patient, not panicking during the regular season and ramping up at the right time, and like you said, this schedule allows you to do that and be successful to move on.
So that's what I'm just like golf, That's what I'm.
Looking not how you drive, It's how you arrive, unless it's the p g A Championship, and it is in the case of Scotty Scheffler.
As long as you don't get in the wrong lane.
Did you hear xandrewf uh his after his round yesterday? He said, you know, I just was thinking to myself all week. I just I just need to stay in my lane.
I know.
No, of course, I immediately, like Scotty Cheffery would have stayed in his lane.
I think I might not be saying in there right now. It's one bad round, right, well, but the bad round was the day after, but he slept, he slept on it. I had time to think about it, right.
I don't know if I think that.
I think the fact that his caddy was at his kids graduation had more than probably bad round. Yeah, all right, there's poor caddy that day. You know, he starts that round, he's got a double bogie and then a bogie and a bogie.
Man, I'm a horrible kaddy. You know who that Caddy was like a chaplain, the chaplin. It was Caddy.
Originally because he would have even have some mental issues.
He needed some prayer, some esteem issues. If not, so did we take our second? We're taking guy now we're back in a moment.
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Jake El Gallo Paul, Hmm.
No thoughts, No thoughts, okay, I asked about there. So he's pulling big time for Tyson.
I think a lot of people likes Jake apparently not at fifty brother eight fifty seven, something like that.
You better do it fast.
The thing is like it's the train because it's like.
Jake Paul's had a run in boxing recently, and it's like here you have Mike Tyson, like the biggest box.
Are on Earth nearly.
But he's yeah, and it's like how much training is he doing at this time to prepare for that fight?
Like where's he at as far as athleticism goes.
Right now, all that training doesn't matter when you get hit in the face.
Yeah, well.
Go out and get him early, because if he doesn't, the old man is going to get tired.
And I know that's what Jake's plan is. He's going, Yeah, he's going.
To try and Okay, there there, and they're also wearing bigger cloths. Yeah yeah, wow ounces because it's softer. Oh okay, although I could vouch for getting hit with a sixteen ounce glove.
You have been by so many different sports. What happened? What do you mean why did you get hit with a glove?
I was in a boxing class.
When was this.
Seventy Oh this isn't like in college seventy eight to seventy.
Okay, wasn't recent, No, no.
Okay, it was actually a self defense class. I was taking a class just so I could get an ID card when I was working.
In You write some bad articles and the players got Maples. Yeah, what's.
Covering Charles Haley?
Just so I can get this off, Jake al Gallo, Paul means the rooster.
But yeah, thank you, thank you. That's what I was going to add.
There was a salvatory Salvatorian restaurant on Maple El Gallo Gallo it was, and they had a rooster.
On the nice Okay, so are all right very good?
And you got me or this? This just made me think.
When you're talking about a fifty seven year old Mike Tyson going in the ring, what NFL player and take quart of it? Actually out the equation?
Okay, well, punter to take them out there, Kenny Stabler, what player all time at whatever other positions you want to think about, could at age fifty seven come closest to duplicating.
What he was able to do as a twenty seven year old or even a thirty year old. Can anyone come to mind?
No.
When I saw the video.
Of Darryl Green throwing a running a four five or four four forty or whatever, I thought at age sixty something, I thought Darryl Green might be the one guy that could come closest to a facsimile of what he was thirty years earlier.
That is a good one until he gets hit.
I saw him his last year going against Randy Moss.
I think it was like Monday, and he played till he was forty years old. Kick's ass.
Randy couldn't catch a pass, he couldn't beat him, deep, couldn't beat him short, don'tkay how tall he was, how short Dale Greene was. Moss couldn't make a play. That's that makes me think of what you just said.
But he'd have to do that twenty years after that.
Yeah, Okay.
Amongst the guys you know now that are either your age older or I mean over the age of fifty to fifty five, who could go come closest to playing right now?
Of that age?
I wouldn't say playing. No, I can't think of.
Anyone that could play, could play a play or a series or.
He was always very good at keeping his body up. And you know those track guys, they really know how to take care of themselves into old age.
What'll it go? I think?
Okay, I'm I want a former cowboy.
Oh I can't think that for a cow.
Outside of Stabat m h Okay, I would not say that.
You gotta take this podcast way back before the podcast talking right, what is he talking about?
Don't even say that. I can't think of anyone, not at all.
Okay, just thought I have to think I could go job out there somewhere.
Me and Troy could go jogging jogging contest.
Say, here's the bottom line on the quarterback. The recent quarterbacks retire. It's not because they don't have a good arm yet. They don't like getting hit.
That's right, too much like to.
That's why when you play an older quarterback, you just gottare them because they don't want anybody around their feet.
They don't. So who you have in mind?
No, nobody?
When you have that question, you should have someone in mind.
Well I just thought no, I had someone in mind on the Mike Tyson and and and then saying Darryl Grill. So I had no cowboy in mine. But I thought, since you didn't have anybody, maybe there's.
A I can't no.
Okay, all right, what else is on your legal pasage? I got one here, okay.
Someone asked Mike Zimmer when he realized stopping the run defensively had to be a priority, and he told the story about when he first became the Cowboys defensive coordinator. He had been a secondary coach, but when Campbell was named head coach, he became the defensive coordinator. So he said that when I did that, it was like, oh, I just thought, we go go go pressure you know, go after the quarterback, he said, when I told the
guys just get up the field and give him hell. Well, it was the season opener that year against Philadelphia, and if you guys remember two thousand, there was a famous game called the pickle Juice Game where it was hot, hot hell at Texas Stadium. Guys were having they dehydration ivs and Philadelphia after they won the game forty one, they were bragging. They comment Wait, yeah, they were commenting on how they drank pickle juice and that was the
key to the game. Well, the key to the game ended up being duced Daily running for two hundred and one yards and the Eagles running for three hundred and six. And Mike said, and that was a five and eleven team, right, they were terrible.
He said.
Since that day we concentrated on getting the run stopped. He goes, I learned my lesson about this, and so will go two thousand.
And they were they finished and run defense that.
Year thirty first, and then by two thousand and three they were first under Zoom as a defensive.
Good to know, Yeah, that's damn good to know.
But he learned. So he's such a person stop and then the funny thing was and he said, yeah, we gave up like two hundred and twenty yards of rushing. It's like, well close, because Due said two hundred and one. So that was that was good story. I thought that, all right, make sure you can stop the run. And that's something that they obviously got to work on for sure if you look at the games that they lost.
We want to able to run and we want to stop the web.
That's right it, guys, And it comes down to that defensive front. Just like the offensive front.
I'll go, I like the fronts. I always like the front seven. Yeah, it's not just about seven your.
First four right.
In fact, that's a project I'm going to do over the next couple of weeks.
Here.
I'm going to look up the stats on and the players acquired all the teams in our division, and we'll go position group by position group from offensive line to receivers, the running backs on offense, quarterbacks, and then front seven on defense, secondary on defense. Compare how do the Cowboys stack up with the other teams in our division as far as their talent?
Because we're running out of shows. How many more we got just a couple, probably two or three. Don't we usually take a break after we still got two or three shows, So we were one of those shows.
Yeah, we just got one other to wait til trading came. One other thought, as you we talk about the running back position, yes, okay, and okay, compare this with other teams in our division. Cowboys acquired Zeke Elliott. Okay, forget who who left the team? Okay, but we're just comparing the additions Zeke Elliott versus who was it that the Giants got Devin Singletary. Who was there addition that replaced Barkley? Yes, and then Barkley Barkley's at Philadelphia. And then who is
it that Washington added Austin Eckler? Okay? Who of those four? Now, obviously Barkley is what Barkley is. Okay, if he can stay healthy, he's probably would you rank him number one.
On the list?
Okay, if he stays healthy. But okay, look at Zeke versus Austin Eckler, And what do you think the school of thought is around the nation When Washington adds Austin Eckler versus Dallas adds Zeke Elliott. What's the perspective the perception of those how much does it help Washington that they got Austin Eckler help Washington more tremendously.
But they lost, right, didn't they Look?
Wait, wait, hold on a second. Okay, okay, So that's the perception, yeah, okay, And so then what's the perception when the Cowboys added Zeke Elliott?
It is not impressed, that impressed. No one's impressed.
Zeke Elliott last year had one hundred and eighty four carries for six hundred and forty two yards and three touchdowns. Austin Eckler had one hundred and seventy nine carries for six hundred and twenty eight yards and five touchdowns. They both Zeke averaged three point three point five yards of carry and Austin Eckler averaged three point five yards of carry, and they both had fifty one.
Catches and the Chargers didn't want them.
So, yeah, what's going on? It was the only thing that was doing something.
But that's perception for you.
Ye that, oh wow, Austin. You know why. Austin Eckler has done a lot in the past in the fantasy football game, especially in a PPR league where you get receptions count for you. So and Zeke hasn't been as high in receptions, although last year he did have fifty one. Anyway, just keep things in perspective.
I believe in Zeke. They kiss my butt. Yeah, there you.
Go, all right?
Does it?
And next week it's a Memorial Day holiday on Monday, and so we will be at another.
Bat time right Tuesday.
Or Tuesday or Wednesday. Check your local listings and we'll see you again next week here on mix Shops, Oh Cowboys.
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