The following Here's a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club. This is Mick Shot screaming live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys have now Here are Bill Jones, Everson Wolves, and Nicky Spagnola, and it's time to pick up the pieces.
After a season opening loss at the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night, it's down to the business of the ritual of the season, Mickey Spagnola, as we get into the rhythm of an NFL season with the Monday after and all the armchair quarterbacks out there, and we get to discuss what happened on Sunday night, and then we'll move forward and look forward to a home opener against the Atlanta Falcons where there will be fans in the stands at AT and T Stadium next Sunday at noon
ever Sun and Mickey, how are y'all doing after a late Sunday night, Yeah, it was going well. I think I was caught in the time warp last night. Everything changed with the Cowboys offense. Everything changed, but how they lose games? Right? The same story, The reason why they ended up eight and eight last year can't can't win close games, have a weird call in there. And if you think about it, last year they played seven games that were decided by no more than eight points, so
one possession games, and they went one in six. And how do they start off this season going losing by three points and not winning a game when they don't score at least thirty points. So it was all too familiar to me, you guys, with what took place the previous season that caused them to go eight Nate, I
really couldn't. I can't see. You know what we talked about all last year and during the problems that the Cowboys were having, we always talked about the play calls, and everyone wondered, well, is it Jason Garrett calling the plays or is it Kellam calling the plays? Well, who's calling the plays? Who's got the final say? So I hope we're not going through this crap again this year. Please tell me that we're not gonna have coach McCarthy. If he starts clapping his hands all the time on
the sidelines, I swear I'm done. I'm done. It's too much ja ja vu. Last night from a team that not only is talented, it actually showed how talented it is in most parts of the ball game. But that's the problems, always, just in most parts of the ball game, not when we really need it. All right, I'm monitoring comments on Periscope, so if you want to chime in, I will pass them along any questions you might have. Also,
I'm at CBS eleven Bill Jones on Twitter. That's another way of participating, as well as Mickey is in the s WBC Mortgage studios at the Star in Frisco. Everson and I at our respective homes where I guess everybody
watched at home. Mickey, this ould be strange for you, not traveling with the team for the first time in forever for a game, right, Well, actually it's the second time because if you remember that season opener in twenty eighteen, that was the first one I had missed since nineteen the last game of nineteen eighty eight, Remember I had the foot infection, came back, that's when you had the incident, and we're suspended, right yeah, right, and so, and this
was no easier watch. I just feel sorry for the fans that they have to watch it on TV because you just can't see what you could see if you're at the game. Uh, it's hard to determine who's in the game, who's not, what substitution packages uh they're using, and basically you're you're always at the mercy of you know, if they don't put the little stripped down there at the bottom with down in distance and keep the clock there,
you're at their mercy. So yeah, it's hard, it's strange, but you just kind of, you know, as we learned this year, just to uh make do uh. And I don't know where you want to start, Bill, but I just thought that this game, you know what this game reminded me of. And I don't know, you know, folks out there probably didn't don't have an opportunity or don't
watch the Dallas Stars. But when they won the other night against Vegas two to one, they were dominated in that game, and the story of that game as they stole a win, well, the Rams were given the Cowboys every opportunity to steal one. Last night after they dominated.
They had the ball like thirteen minutes more than the Cowboys, they had more total yards, more rushing yards, they doubled the Cowboys on third down conversions, and yet there were the Cowboys at the eleven yard line ready to take the lead early in the fourth quarter, and they didn't take advantage. And so what happens in these games, and it never fails when you're gonna play these close shaves,
these one possession games. Too many times, one mistake, one bad call by the officials, one missed opportunity or decision you make will cost you the game. You know, sometimes you gotta just go out and beat people. But that wasn't the case, and so all those little things that I just said all came back to haunt him. They made a decision to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking the field goal to tie it with
like eleven forty still to go in the game. When they went for it, as the rookie said, Cede Lamb, I didn't make a rookie mistake. I made a mistake by a rookie when he ran his route one yard too short and came down and they missed converting the fourth down by one yard, and then the bad call at the end of the game. And it just never fails. And maybe now Mike McCarthy understands what that feels like. When it happened with the dead catch back in twenty fourteen.
So you leave yourself open to have things like that decide the game when you need to decide it yourself. And they didn't take advantage the Rams. If you looked at it, didn't you think the Cowboys are way behind just because the Rams always had the ball and they were always moving it. And then here they were certainly an opportunity to win twice and they didn't steal the game. I think the problem that you have, guys, is the
same one that we had last year. Once again, we need to come out of the box full of steem. We seemed to at the beginning of the game. In the beginning of the second half, it's almost as if we're trying to prode and probe and see what's going on, which you at that point allow your opposition to control the clock and control the tempo of the game. You could see it so easily. Once the Cowboys had their tempo going, they were unstoppable. You saw the matchup between
our wider receivers and their cornerbacks. Clearly, our wide receivers had no fear of Jalen Rose, they had no fear of that Ram's secondary I love the battling that was going on. Ceedee Lamb was doing his thing, except for,
of course, the big mistake on fourth down. What you can't do as any team, really, the Cowboys found out last year and even when I played as a Cowboy, when you put yourself in a desperate situation, more times than not, and this is what Spags was speaking on, more times than not, the referee is going to do you in and if nothing else, they're not going to do you any favors, meaning they will let that pass
interference call go by against your wide receiver. They may not call that holding call against their offensive tackle, when your defensive end has a debt, has your quarterback debt to rights, clear calls that can be missed. Those things happen when you put yourself as a team in a desperate situation. I've been through it myself. Extremely frustrating to play in those games, and I found out that it's more frustrating to watch it happen, especially over and over
again to this extremely talented Cowboys team. You know, and uh, you break it all down, and you know, Cowboys, we sit here, we talk about what should have been on the Michael Gallup play. As Jalen Ramsey clearly sold it and the official bought it. But on the cheeto, and we need to quickly point out on the cheeto interception, there was Alden Smith did make contact with the head of Jared Goff and so that that that call went
the other way. And to your point, Mickey, it's when you have these close games, those calls are all going to even out. But there are certain plays that have to be made in close games in order to come away victorious. And here over the last season and now one game this year, the Cowboys weren't able to come up with that one play to win the game. Yeah, and you know, I get it. It's a short sample size.
This is the one game. It's the first game. But you know there there there's there's losses that you look at and you go that one's going to come back in honess. They had one like that with the Jets last year. Remember they lost twenty four twenty two and to a terrible team by the way, And my point after the game was this will come back to Hanum. Had they won that game, you know, they might have won the NFC East, they might have gone to the playoffs.
But you can't lose those games that are winnable, and this one to me on the road, no fans, no home field advantage for the for the Rams, and you couldn't you couldn't take it. It was there and there was reasons why. So let's think about this. The two things we were probably most concerned about going into this game. The right tackle position would out layl Collins there and just what was this defense? How well would this defense
play well? In the end, they did hold the Rams to just twenty points, but it sure felt like they scored thirty five and they had trouble doing what stopping the run. Gave up one hundred and fifty three yards rushing, and I would imagine to a couple of running backs
not a lot of people knew of. They didn't get any pressure hardly at all on Jared Goff, and they looked like they had no clue that they were going to throw to the running back or throw these little screen passes to the wide receiver, and it took them forever to adjust for that. And so like that, the first two possess the Rams had Cowboys heads on defense were swimming. And the other thing that I thought we talked about that I was concerned about was what was
going to happen at that defensive tackle position. Well, nothing happened, and that was a huge problem. There were too many plays that defensive front got pushed five yards back. Now I understand the fascination with rushing the quarterback, but as I always say, if you don't stop the run, you don't earn the right to rush the quarterback. And they were getting gashed right up the middle. That reminded me,
guys of the Minnesota Vikings game here in Dallas. I believe that was on Thanksgiving Day or Thanksgiving weekend, to where we were being gashed by Dalvin Cook and all the running backs for the Minnesota Vikings. What we see here is the same thing as last year. And it's like you said, Spags, it's only one game. I do understand that, but what it is, it's so eerily similar.
It's such a continuation from the same frustrations that we had all last season, especially when we start to go on our little losing streak in the second half of the season. These were the telltale signs that continue to pile up game after game after game. And then we finished the game and we look at the stats and we would say something like, oh, well, Cowboys defense is still number seven in the league or some crap like that. When we look at the offense and we'll say, WHOA
Dak had a good game. Zeke got a close to a hundred yards. Everything looked good. That's what the stats say. But we talked about this, and I have mentioned it over and over again. It's when you make plays that truly counts for this team. What you saw was a game continuing drives because we couldn't stop anyone on third and two. We couldn't stop anyone on third and three. Talked about it earlier, all during the week. All three facets of the game have to come to play each game,
and the penalties have to go away. We assisted the cow the Rams offense on the first couple of drives with so many neutral zone in factions. These are exactly the things that we had to go through last year. And I don't want to wait to see if the head coach is going to do something about it, and we're still talking about this at Thanksgiving in twenty twenty. That is what I do not want. You know, you mentioned the third down. They converted fifty three percent of
their third down opportunities. And if you think about it, if you're in the low forties, that's really good. Fifty three percent to the Cowboys twenty five. They doubled it. And you know, if you look at the difference in the offense as well, that was a huge difference. And going back to the defense, who was the best player out there, Well, it was the guy that hadn't played a game in five years years. He was the best guy on that defense. Uh. He he ends up with
ten tackles, a sack, a couple of quarterback hits. I mean, and I thought he was great afterwards because when he was getting questions about how well he played, he goes, well, Uh, it was encouraging, but it wasn't perfect. He goes, I made a share of my mistakes out there too, and and so and he did, especially against the run, crashing in and not holding down the edge. Uh. And that would have been except I mean, you got to expect
that he was anxious. I mean, how fired up must have this kid been to be able to go I said, kid, he's now thirty some years old to be able to go back out after everything he's done in play a football game. But there was. It was just it took too long for that defense to settle down. You know, we were sitting here, we were so we're watching the game upstairs. We got a bank of four screens, and it got to halftime and it was like, well, how
are the Cowboys winning this game? You know? And one reason was because their new kicker, you know, clunks of twenty nine yard field goal off the upright, and you know what, with no fans in the stands, that was the loudest bang on an upright I think I've ever conferred over the television. Right. And then, by the way, you know, new kicker, and we're all fired up about him. Maybe some of those kicks between thirty three and forty eight we saw him making in practice that he went
twenty nine for twenty nine. They might have and I don't know what they did when we weren't watching, right, but they only tried one kick further than forty eight, and with sixty he missed it, and then he made it. Well, he missed a fifty three yarder, so now he's one for two. That's fifty percent, right, And I understand it was fifty yards fifty three yards, but you lost by three points and we saw that too many times last year.
And the most or two of the most troubling things to come out of this loss are a couple of injuries that the cowboys have to deal with. Now, let's get into that when mick shots continues in just a moment. Hey, they're cowboys fans with Tight Cleaners at Home pickup and Delivery, cleaning your clothes has never been more convenient. Simply sign up at your local store, set out your dirty clothes, and one of our Tight Cleaners professionals will come directly
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run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Deer three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yard work I need to do, even the tough yards way out back. So if you have one acre or a thousand. John Deer has the equipment that's just right for you. Visit a John Deer dealer today and run with us. We are the official tractor provider of your Dallas Cowboys. Back back to mixed shots. Let Dallas Cowboys Rhythm in Blue entertain you with some of
the best hip hop talent in the area. Whether it's high energy co ed dance team or the dynamic drum line. Either can be booked to provide a unique and unforgettable experience for your virtual or in per an event. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot dot com slash d c RB for more information or to book today. All right, very very good there, Mickey got to practice. Let's get into the injuries. Yes, let's go. Let's let's get into the injuries and the
two major ones. Let's start at tight end. As Stephen Jones was on the fan about noon today and he essentially confirmed that it's an acl that Blake Jarwin is dealing with, as he'll he'll be placed on injured reserve season ending injury. And Layton vander Esh looks like the fractured clavicle as the Cowboys announced last night, requiring surgery, and Mickey looks like six to eight weeks for him. Yeah. The you know, anytime you fracture a bone, uh, it'll
take at least six weeks to heal. They do surgery to kind of speed up the recovery time. Hopefully they can put a plate in there over the over the fracture. But that's a tough injury. You know, Tony Romo came back after fracturing his but then what happened, He refractured it. Uh, So that's a tough injury for a linebacker to come back from. And now they put him they'll put him on IR recall. Uh. And you know nowadays it's only three weeks, but I'm sure his will be closer to
eight until he comes back. So Joe Thomas, this is your big chance. And I would imagine, uh, you know, Luke Gifford got back into practice last week and he was inactive on Sunday. I would imagine he'll be active as as a backup this coming Sunday against the Falcons, and then they'll need to see if they need to put another uh linebacker on the fifty three man roster. Um. That's just a shame for him. After having the next
surgery and recovering from that. And you know the scary part was you guys, is when they he was sitting on the bench and they were they were, you know, kind of checking him out, evaluating the injury. They kept messing with his neck and it was like, oh, don't tell me, right and and and then uh, you know, it ends up being a fractured clavicle his collar bone. Uh. So you go, huh. But it's like, well, no, that's that's bad too. Uh. And then you mentioned Blake Jarwin
and he'll be on season ending injured reserve. He's going to have to have ACL surgery. And normally what the Cowboys do is they wait, unless there's some other significant damage in there, they'll wait a week or two before they do the surgery to try to build up some strength uh in your leg before they do the surgery. Uh. And that's that's a shame because he really had a good training camp. And now you know, it's like Dalton Schultz,
this is your life, remember that old TV show. Uh. And and Blake Bell will have to be kind of the utility tight end because Schultz was kind of going to function as a fullback, which, by the way, did you catch Antoine Woods doing his William Perry impersonation on on Zike's first test out. Hey, he gave a leap block as a fullback and wipe that guy out by
the way, So that losing your tight end like that. Yeah, there's a trickle down effect now, and hey it's it's the old deal, next man up, because it's pretty hard to find replacements out there in free agency at this stage of the game. And uh and in fact, Batman on film on Periscope's asking could they make a trade or sign a free agent to help it tight end, linebacker and even at safety the difficult I think the
thing on the tight end situation. You know, I haven't been able to go back because a coach's film and loaded on NFL dot com yet to see how much twelve personnel they used. But I did see something where Cede Lamb had like eighty seven percent of the snaps, So that tells me they were in eleven personnel pretty
close to eighty five percent of the time. And I think Blake Bell's role on this team will be as that second tied end and whether whether Jarwin was healthy or not, that is Bell's role as is like the second tied end, while Schultz was more of the understudy to Jarwin, having more receiving ability than than what Blake bell Kin catch to football and his athletic but he's not to that extent obviously, not to where Jarwin was.
Sean McKeon is the other guy that they have on the roster who will now be asked to step up. But the really bad thing as far as the vander Ish injury is the fact, of course that Sean Lee is starting the season on injured reserve and he's got at least two more weeks to go before he would be eligible to come off. Yeah, and you know that kind of limits that kind of that kind of limits
your play calling as well defensively. So now you've got personnel issues that you're gonna have to deal with defensively when it comes to third down. In the special packaging, somebody's like Spact said, someone's gonna have to step up next, man up. You know, back in the day, a young guy like myself or Ron Fellows or somebody like that, we would be itching to be that person. I don't know if Robert Thomas is itching and excited about it,
but he should be, because this is his opportunity. This is exactly what we spoke about, guys, when we talked about the preparation for this season, with no training camp, with the really light practices. When Blake went down, he wasn't even touched, you know. All he did was trying to make a hook move coming back to the ball, and he goes down. Those are as scary as the ones that are. The non contact injuries are just as
scarier or scarier than the contact injuries. And when I saw that, I was hoping it was just a muscle cramp, right. I was hoping his calf muscle had just tightened up, you know, because he was out there just doing a lot of great work, making some great plays. And this is we were looking forward to that continuation. Of course, who knows what could have happened during the last part of the game. If Blake's in the game, shots came in, dropped a pass. You know how that goes. If you
see that guy dropped that pass. If I'm a QB, I might be thinking to myself, I might not want to trust him tonight. You know, I'll get him in the future, but but not tonight. So that kind of limits your availability as far as wide receivers that you want to go to in a particular situation. When we talked about Banderash, you know, I was very concerned about the surgery that he had this offseason. Everyone just kind of laid our concerns to the side. I don't know.
It's almost like a scope. I believe it's how they said it. It's just like a scope in your net. It was called on your neck. Yeah, right, that's an oxymoron right there, minus surgery on your neck. But thank god it was not reinjured. But once again, that's just another issue that we have to deal with. Could the lack of practicing, lack of preparation, or the brief preparation, could that have had anything to do with both of
these injuries. It's really kind of hard to say, But when you look at Blake Jarwa's injury, this guy's been running around like a jack rabbit ever since he's been here. Now, all of a sudden, we have this brief preparation and he goes down without being touched. You have to wonder if there's some type of connection. You know, you had mentioned that last week about those short and not having much contact if at all, and then having to play
a game. You know, when I was watching and the other games starting at noon and had both of my TV's uh going uh, there was a lot of injuries that were starting to take place and guys were coming off the field, and you're sitting there going, oh, man, you know, there's got to be something to actually play in football and getting your body in condition to do
the things you're gonna do. And you're right, Everson, when when he went down, the first thing he did he grabbed the back of his knee, and so I was hoping for a tendon or a pull back there and
not so much so. So here here's what complicates everything because you know, okay, now we're not sure how long Cam Irving is out, but evidently he wasn't good enough to start the game over a rookie free agent from Texas Tech Terrence Steele, And I'm thinking, well, when you mentioned they didn't use much too tight end, Bill, I was thinking, well, to help out that right tackle position, they need to use a little bit more to tight end because that kind of destroyed a couple series with
mistakes over there in bass protection. So now you're down to tight end, and now okay, maybe you need to use more to tight end. But I don't think either of those two tight ends are going to threaten the defense the way Jarwin would have down the field. And you know, and the way the Rams were playing the defense, that tight end going down the hash might have made a big difference because they were playing their safeties pretty deep and I don't think their linebackers could run with Jarwin,
so that that injury just hurts. And then you got the right tackle position. Now they got to take. You know, it sounded like from what I heard cam Irving was not going to be It would be sooner than later, but not immediately. So ah, Leo Collins, hurry up, get those two games, two more games in and then get back on the field. They need them. I gotta say, guys, this team hopefully this loss, and I know people hate
to say, well we learned something during this loss. You do learn more from losing than you do from winning. Let's just be real about that. What this team I hope comes to grips with is the fact that they can still be successful going through this adversity. They can. I mean, you see teams do it all the time.
They're surprises out there and you hope that guys like Will McKay and and the front office have signed players with that mindset of thinking, uh no, there's not going to be a drop off because I'm out there replacing a starter. You know, as a team, they need to have this culture of coming through and not looking at east each injury as an excuse to why we were weak in a particular situation, why we wanted to to pull out the ball game. They should be tired of
falling back on excuses. Coach McCarthy should know that this team has fallen back on the excuse over and over again and we weren't able to overcome them. He should come in He should have come in here this offseason with the mindset that we're gonna change the way we think around here as a culture, no matter what happens. And I always use the Ravens as an example because their coaches really really put his stamp on the type of attitude that the Baltimore Ravens have. I always used
them as an example because they're very stubborn. This team needs to be stubborn about their abilities and look forward to proving a lot of people wrong no matter what the hell they go through. You got guys on the bench getting paid. If you're gonna get paid, come out here, make some plays and you'll get paid even more. So whatever is your motivation, then you need to go back on that because this team is not in the position to fall back on the same excuses as last year.
And Bill, I think this will set us up. I know we got to hit a break for our final segment, but I think part and we haven't discussed the fourth down decision, nor haven't we discussed the terrible interference call on Michael Gallup, which I guess we'll get to. But I think in the back of Mike McCarthy's mind when he went for it on fourth down in three at the eleven yard line, he was trying to do maybe what Everson was talking about, instill some confidence in this team.
Unfortunately it was bad timing. Yep. And let's get into that when we come back here on Mick Shotson just a moment. Hey, they're Cowboys fans with type cleaners at home pickup and delivery. Cleaning your clothes has never been more convenient. Simply sign up at your local store, set out your dirty clothes, and one of our tight cleaners professionals will come directly to your home for a totally contactless experience. Your clean garments will be returned promptly the
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Shop introduces the New Era nineteen sixty headwear collection. Find the full assortment at your nearest Cowboys Pro Shop and on Shop dot Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Do you have your cap there, Mickey, it's up on my dead We've been bringing it down shows and then when they came up with the read I left it on my desk. It was a sixty at the anniversary hat. Well, there
you go. This is the new Era nineteen sixty headwear collection, and Mickey the rest of the week we'll be wearing them, or at least he'll have it in the SWBC mortgage studio, won't you make it? I'll use it as a prop all absolutely, All right, let's go back. You alluded to it at the end of the last segment. We got time to get into that in the past interview, Aran says, we head down the stretch here, let's go at the
fourth and three. I was very surprised when Mike McCarthy decided to go for it on fourth and three with eleven and a half minutes left, how about y'all. I was surprised, especially when I realized how much time was still left in the game and that you had an opportunity to basically hit a chip shot field goal to you know, tie the game. The only thing I could think of that that made him do something sort of odd of character, was that he didn't trust his defense.
He didn't trust his defense just to have a tie game, that he wanted to get the lead by four points, which, by the way, had they done that and scored a touchdown in one twenty four to twenty one, my score would have been our twenty four to twenty My score twenty four to twenty one would have been real close too, by the way. So I was doubly mad that he
didn't pick it up, you know what. I give him a lot of credit though, And I think what you said before the break, and it was this kind of what he said when he addressed the media after the game. You know, it was more it wasn't so much what you just said about the defense. It was the offense
giving them an opportunity to do something. And it kind of goes to it's jump starting things or whatever, you know, and giving them, giving them an opportunity to take the lead in this game, which they've been outside of the late touchdown at the end of the first half to take a fourteen thirteen lead, they hadn't got command of the game. He was looking them for a way for them to take command of the game. But I give
him credit for this. And when talking to the media after the game, he talked in general about the game, and he addressed that before he was even asked about it, he knew he was going to get asked about it, and so he even brought it up and gave his reasoning on it ahead of time. He didn't shy away. He knew he was going to be criticized for it. And the other part of it is when you say it was out of character for Mike McCarthy to do that. I went back after the game, and I stayed up
late last night just researching some stuff. I went back through Mike McCarthy's career with the Green Bay Packers, and never has he gone for it in that situation before down three in field goal range and let alone in the fourth quarter. Even earlier in the game. There was one time, it was a two ten game against Miami, when they only had sixteen seconds left on the clock and they had fourth down at the one yard line,
and they ran a quarterback sneak with Aaron Rodgers. I assume in that case they were out of timeouts and he couldn't get the field goal unit on. But that was how out of character it was, and so that's why I take him out his word. He's just doing something to try to get this give this offense an opportunity to make a play. Yeah. I kind of go with you a little bit there, Bill, But to me, like you said, spact said, there was just too much time left on the clock. To me to be thinking
of that type of scenario. I did like the aggressiveness. Let's face the guys, if the rookie just runs this route correctly, we're looking at a great call, and we're possibly looking at a win, and this whole outcome is we're gonna view it differently. But I must say, even after we've done all of this critiquing, even after we've done all of this critiquing, I still like the attitude of the coach himself. I still liked the game plan itself. When the Cowboys were on, they were doing everything that
we complained about last year. They were not pretictable. When they had those scoring drives. What you saw was just efficiency that was out of this world. I talked about it earlier. The wide receivers were going up against a pretty good defensive back. There that just got paid a whole lot of money, and now this guy basically having a tough time. So there we go. They're having a tough time with the expertise and the talents of the wide receivers that we had. That part of the game
I did like. But defensively still falling into the same ruts. Can't stop anybody. And then when you start talking about No. Zero and seven on third downs, you know, those kind of things that just kind of lead you right back in the same thing. But like I said, I must say I enjoyed the aggressiveness about it when we were consistent. When we were consistent, our offense was on the roll and the defense actually fed off of them at one point in time. Just not enough doing the ball game,
you know. I think one other thing that maybe went through his mind is, Okay, if we don't pick this up, we've got them backed up. So you got him at the nine yard line, right. Oh, it didn't take but a minute for them to bid midfield. I swear to god, you know, from a defensive standpoint, that's where you really gotta shut them. You gotta get a three and out and force them to punt from the ten yard line where you're gonna get CD Lamb catching a punt at
the fifty, but the defense can't come through. And again, it was those key moments last year and ever since. Ent it earlier. You know, they finished top ten in yards against, but in key moments when they needed a stop, they could not get a stop. And that was one of those moments where Okay, let's give this this offense a redo. Let's make them punt right from the ten yard line, and we're gonna catch a punt at the fifty.
And you saw what Cede Lamb can do when he gets a little bit of space on that one punt return. I think it was twenty yards if I was not mistaken. So uh, that was a big place you just gotta I thought that was a big return we could feed off of. Right. Well, the other part of that when you when you're not starting to drive at your own twelve yard line, your own nine yard line, which their last two possessions, that's where they started, and you're running
out of time. They established Zeke in this game, especially in the second half. He came out and throughout the game really but but once you're down and you're starting so deep in your own end of the field. You take the run game out out of the equation. Yet they should have happened all last year because we couldn't stop anybody defensively. We couldn't stop anyone. That always took away from the effectiveness about running game. That's that is so true, Bill. We sang that song all last year.
All right, Everson, Jalen Ramsey as as an old quarterback, what do you make of it? You know, I must admit, that's the first time I've ever seen a flop in football. Let's think about that. You as a defensive bat, I don't have the guts to play out what I thought was a push off on a wide receiver, because no referee to me that I've seen, really calls that play. You see, I'm gonna come up. We grew up, you guys, we know grew up. But we saw so much of
Michael Irvin. We saw so much of Chris Carter. We saw so much of these bully wide receivers who using their talents as best they can to get open. That is a part of running down the field with your wide receiver. What Jalen Ramsey realized is that, Okay, I'm beat and I cannot recover. Once he realized he couldn't recover, that's when he made the flop move. And for the referee to fall for that, he must have been watching
too many Lakers games. I don't know what's been going on, but to fall for that move, that is the most unusual ending to a play that I've seen in a long time. And of course the Cowboys are very good at that because we always seem to lose a game in the most unusual situation. Very unusual situation, right there, guys, Yeah, you know. And the worst part of that whole thing is that when Crini did the pool report afterwards, he said it was such an obvious call. We had two
guys the bs. Yeah. Well, and if you watched the TV copy of the play, the flag did not come out until Michael Gallop fell at about the fifteen yard line. And then you see the flag come flying out. Why didn't you throw the flag once you saw it? And to sit there and fall for that, And it's like I wrote in my column today, I know we're close to Hollywood, right, Universal Studios, they can hire him as a stunt man for that flop. In hockey, he would have got two minutes. He would have got two minutes
for flopping, and they fell for it. How do you how do you? How do you officiate at this level, at this level and fall for that? And it was the guys that were in the front. They were in the front of the play. The guy that was closest behind the plate, he didn't throw his flag. So what did the other two guys see? They saw this. There's no excuse for it. And that's why you guys, there needs to be a sky judge, right, Oh, we can't
have the sky judge. Well, they were going to try it in preseason, but we didn't have a preseason thanks to the pandemic. Right, so maybe we blame COVID, right, because they need a sky judge up there. It would have been so obvious to buzz down and say pick up your flag. And now they got rid of the
challenge on interference. You could have challenged that, right, And I'll guarantee young but I forgot we didn't have You don't have him anymore, and i'll guarantee you when he sees the replay, he's gonna be sick about the comment he made after the game. Okay, I got that off my chest, all right, and uh and we're out of time. In the meantime of somebody check the analytics, then tell you if they if that play had happened, Gallup makes the catch, do you kick the field goal or go
for the touchdown? At that point, I want to know if the analysts still had thirty seconds to go by golly oh you did Okay, all right, I can't remember how much time was left. All right, that doesn't for this edition of Mixed Shots, and we will talk at you again tomorrow. Remember Mike McCarthy's at five o'clock this afternoon right here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.