Mick Shots: Mr. Fix-Its

we recovered from Sunday yet, gentlemen? No, I have not. I can. He'll continue as if this is just a continual show. I could continue from yesterday easily if I wanted to, But I'm gonna this is mix shots, so I'm gonna let you guys have it. Y'all go ahead, No, all right, I'm very good. I'm recovered. Uh. You know, I've learned over all these years that when they throw in a game like that, that ain't on me. So uh and I and I dug a little bit more into it. Today. Finally got a chance to watch the

majority of the all twenty two. So yeah, I'm I'm and loaded ready to go. All right, Yeah, just educate all of us. Uh. In fact, I got through the first quarter, and I had looked at the TV copy of the third quarter after the game on Sunday night and Monday morning, and finally the all twenty two appeared on Game ass and so I was able to start diving into that. I mean, I just don't like the thirty six hour or forty eight hour delay on it.

And so one of the things that I was talking about yesterday that you obviously, Mickey saw as the game transpired because you were in the press box and can see who's on the field, is they use that five man front from the get go in that game yesterday or on Sunday, And you know, they to me, they just don't have the personnel to play a three four defense and they had to in this case, and they

don't have a Sam linebacker. I mean Alden Smith is not a four to three Sam linebacker, and so they have by necessity, are having to play that, especially against a run defense, a run offense like the Brown's head to have enough guys on the field, and it ain't working. I think you must have read my column yesterday because I said, you know, I hate to come to four game inclusions because they're still twelve to go and don't

mean to jump the gun. And I understand that they've got if we include Gerald McCoy, eight starters not playing at this point. But they don't have enough linebackers. They don't have the personnel to play a three four defense, which for some reason, even in the second half, they consistently tried playing this three four. And the other thing they don't have is the ability of these defensive ends.

Even if they want to line up with a four man front to use one of those guys as the strong side linebacker, they don't have the recognition on the line of scrimmage to do that. And so I'm glad to see somebody else saw that, you know, And I was just telling somebody today, I said, you know, when you think of a and Everson, you chime in here, you think of a three four defense. So you got those outside linebackers, but the defensive ends part of the three.

They're usually these big, gargantuan guys for summer, and I got this vision of techniques, Yeah, I got this vision of DeForest Buckner, you know, some some big old dude that's six, yeah, three hundred pounds. They don't have that. They got these little, short, squatty bodies in there, and they're trying to play a three four And then the worst part of it, And you know, I hate to come down on this guy, but dot Terry Poe. I mean, I hear all this criticism Jalen Smith and everything, but

he doesn't do very much up there for me. And so they just don't have the personnel to do it. And I don't understand why they're trying to force it. They've got three techniques, like like I think at some point they got to think about using if they're in a four man line, Tyrone Crawford's got to be a three technique and if he's not a three technique, and they need him to play defensive end to hold down the edge because they are not holding down the edge.

Those guys are so insistent on penetraining. And then they and then when the play goes the other way, they're out of the play. They didn't hold down the edge at all. So uh, and then the other thing, And I gotta get on this soap box because I probably listened to too much talk radio this morning, but this idea that they didn't give any effort. No, they gave effort. They just weren't good enough. You know. I heard I heard a criticism of Jalen Smith on the fifty yard

Odell end Around touchdown. Right, he was chasing him down for thirty yards. He just couldn't catch them. He was the only one that ef Yeah. Yes, And I heard somebody say he was loafing on that play. I said, well, if he loafed, he loafed for thirty yards at top speed. So I think what people need to do is quit making stuff up on why they got beat. They just got beat. You know, sometimes you're not good enough or

sometimes you get out foxed. But you know what I hate to see is, you know, everybody's taking notes on what happened in this game, just the way they took notes on their inability to pass coverage the previous game. So there, I got, you're done and we're good. Ah, that's good stuff. Well I'm gonna chime in like you allowed me to. I'm glad you got that out of the way. But the first thing is that game itself, the game plan we were outschemed. Let's just be real

about it. We were outschemed. We were outcoached. We I talked about yesterday about how no matter what your personnel is, you have to be able to make your game plan adapt to not just your personnel, but who you're going to be playing that particular Sunday, I saw us as being a very just like last year, just like the year before, I saw us being very stubborn about our

game plan. You can tell early on if your game plan is gonna work, and you can tell what adjustments are going to be be made before the first quarter is over, especially depending on how much the opposition has the ball. We made no adjustments, just like we've done in the previous seasons. It reminds me of the Atlanta game. You know, you just let Dad get get pummeled out there. Never made the adjustment offensively, well defensively, is what we

did this particular time. So all I can say about that is I hope we don't play another team that has that type of formation or personnel that they rely upon. What we have shown is that whoever we plays against us in the future, they will have that package prepared for us. Even though this may not be the opposition's game plan or what their their mantra is, what their

culture is. They're going to have a moment or a game plan situation where they're gonna say, the Cowboys cannot stop the run with this particular personnel in the game. That's gonna be something they'll see throughout the entire rest

of the season. So for the for the other twelve games that we're gonna see every team we play, if they don't already have it in their package, they're gonna have that personnel package in their game plan when they need when they play the Cowboys and when they want to keep the Cowboys offense off the field, when they want to keep that running game off the field. It's like trying to keep Buffalo's Kate Kate, What is the

k gun offense off the field. You're gonna have to have a good running game, just like the Giants did in Super Bowl twenty five. That's what you're gonna have to have. And the other thing is your d line. You talked about Pole, he's not the only one. If you're going to let your offensive lineman gain position on you so that he can therefore gain position on the next level, which is the linebacker Jaylen Smith in this example, You're gonna have to make a play as that D lineman.

If you let that D line, if you let that offensive lineman get past you to go to the next level and cut off that linebacker, then you, as a defensive lineman, you better shoot the gap and make that play. Otherwise, you have to keep your roaming linebacker such as a Jayleen Smith, such as a Joe Thomas. You have to keep them free so that they can what we used

to call tango up and down the line. Scrimmit, that's all you have that that middle linebacker is supposed to be the guy that fills that gap when the when the offense runs wide. If he doesn't feel that gap, then that means that he's been blocked. If he's been blocked, that means that the D lineman should be the one that take take the blame for that. We saw that all game long, We saw it all last year. We saw it in the Thanksgiving game. We saw it against Buffalo,

we saw it against Minnesota. So right now we are looking at a deja vu MoMA that we just can't wake up from. So, Mickey, Mickey, what do you think their defensive game plan would have been in this case against Cleveland, if they had either Layton vander Esh or Sean Lee available, what do you think scheme wise they would have done on defense. I think if they had both of those guys available now, not both of them,

not both of them, just just one of them. Dala needed was one of them, vander Esh or Sean Lee. If they had vander Esh, then he's in the middle. And see, here's the other thing about Jayalen Smith. He's never played that week side linebacker. I don't think this is a position change for him and his recognition on as that that position, to me is like playing safety. You've got to recognize what's going to happen before it happens.

You have to be able to diagnose things. And I don't think he does that well out there, not yet anyway, because he's never played that spot before. He's used to being in the middle. I think with I think with vander Esch in the middle, he's he's a physically stronger guy than Joe Thomas, and maybe he can fight off some of those blocks. And then the other thing is

he yea and it last year. And then the other thing is you would, you you would, you would, you would have the ability to play a real linebacker as the strong side linebacker instead of a defensive end Dorrence Armstrong or Alden Smith who aren't used to play in that spot. And that's what they try to do. And

they don't have enough linebackers right now now. If you had both of those guys, Vanderish in the middle, Sean Lee is the strong side linebacker where he started most of his games last year, and then Jayleen on the week side. And if Jalen's not working on the week side, do you put Sean over there? You put Jalen on the strong side. But they have Here's what you would Here's what you would see. I was I was gonna talk about this yesterday, Bill because you brought this up

about Sean Lee. The we know the weakness of Sean Lee is the fact that first of all, he just gives, he goes all out okay, and he's usually gonna injure himself because he's gonna stick his head in there, even though he might be the major disadvantage. What we see, what we would see with Sean Lee is number one quicker recognition on any play that they have That's how Sean Lee gets hurt a lot. And this is not a put a put down. He's always quickly wreck acknowledging

everything and he shoots that gap so fast. That's how sometimes he ends up getting injured. But that's also how he makes so many plays. He realized he's not strong enough Bill, so that's why he shoots the gap, tries to blow everything up for his teammates, or before everything gets started by the offense. He stalls their momentum from the beginning of the play, before it even gets started. If you're talking Vanderesh with what we've seen, vanderesh recognition

is not as good, but he's also stronger. The problem we had last year was, first of all, he was a little bit injured, so he was really not at full strength, but they still were successful a bit against Vanderesh as well. I don't care who the linebacker is. If you're a d lineman, don't keep you free as a linebacker, then you are going to be nullified. And if they don't make the play, then you're gonna be

looking at being slashed by the the running back. As we saw last year at the beginning, at the end of the year and as we have seen at the beginning of this year. Your D lineman must make the play. The communication between the D lineman and linebacker must be there. It's almost like the flex the flex spags. The flex defense was all about D lineman controlling the gaps so that they can't be penetrated and the linebacker can wrong from sideline to sideline. The same concept, but it's not working,

you know. But there was a domino effect by the fact that they don't have that third linebacker. There's a domino effect on that defensive line now where Don Terry Po and Tristan Hill were playing way too many snaps in this game. Tristan Hill played sixty four snaps in this game and Don Terry Po played fifty nine. Those guys need to be playing half that number of snaps in a four three defense. And then you got Tyrone Crawford who can spell them, and there he had thirty

three snaps in the game. And if you have that third linebacker, whether it's Vander Esch, whether it's Sean Lee, and however you're going to play those three linebackers, then Alden Smith can play a four three defensive end and

DeMarcus Lawrence, they can rotate. You've got guys that are playing DeMarcus Lawrence, I mean, and essentially they're playing a five man They were playing a five man front once they fell behind, and so DeMarcus Lawrence is playing a three to four outside linebacker, which is he's not doesn't have experience doing that in his career. And so it was a domino effect when you don't have that third starting linebacker and to play the run and to be

able to play the pass as well. And what and what Cleveland was able to do offensively with their second tight end, Harrison Bryant. He's really a hybrid between a tight end and a wide receiver, and so they could go either way and that's their play action stuff was working great. He did a good job as far as being even if he was used as a third wide receiver, then he could run around as a second tight end.

He was effective and pass block or run blocking. And so that's where the Cowboys got I think got caught on defense because they did not they do not have a replacement on their roster apparently for losing two tight ends and their four three scheme, and think about this, their tight ends combined for nine catches for seventy one yards and a touchdown. They had no answer for their tight ends. So I think I think we fixed it. You know, now they've just got to listen to it.

I mean, look, you know, whether he's here's my point also, And I thought this was one of the best things Jimmy Johnson did as a head coach, and especially with a defensive mind. He did He did not fool himself on his personnel. He self scouted his personnel, and he understood the strong points and the weak points, and he played his hand to those aspects. He didn't he didn't he didn't over convince himself that, yeah, this guy's better than you know we think. No, it's like, if this

guy can't do that, then we're not doing this. And I think you have to self scout. And you know how, you know how he learned that? You know what? You know how he learned that? What's that? He learned that from nineteen eighty nine by going one in fifteen. He learned a lot in nineteen eighty nine, right, so did I. We were we both learned together that there's a lot of limitations in what your teammates can or cannot do. And the go the game plan as well. It doesn't

matter how you draw it up. You can't get blood from a rock, and uh that's what we tried to do a whole lot in nineteen eighty nine. Did not work. So yeah, Everson learned in nineteen eighty nine that I gotta get out of here. I gotta frank nize with this Arizona car byre and get out what I'm not. Kids, just get on that Whisper jet. Give me their ant out of everybody. All right, we continue with more Mick

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does your Cowboys fandom go beyond the game. As part of the NFL Fan of the Year contest, we're watching a search for one extraordinary Cowboys fan who is a positive influence and inspires others through their love of the game. Visit NFL dot com slash Fan of the Year now to learn more and nominate today. You know, after Sunday's game, if you can find an extraordinary Cowboys fan who is a positive influence and inspires others, now, that would be

an extraordinary Cowboys fan. Don't you think Billy be extraordinary? They're find one right now, that's right exactly. You should do this for a living Bill announcer Bills. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, coming off that game, I'm thinking, if you can find a Cowboys fan who is a positive influence and inspires others, now, that would be an extraordinary Cowboys fan. Hey, how about after watching the majority of that game again, I give you a positive mick shot.

I'll guarantee you. Olivier Vernon was glad when that game was over because Tyrn Smith put a clinic on that dude when he was trying to rush the quarterback. And I remember, you know when everybody used to say, you know, don't don't let Tyrn get his hands on you, because once he locks up, it's over right, you ain't going anywhere. And I watched pass after passwords. I think I saw one so far where he kind of got around him. But boy, he put a clinic on blocking the defensive end.

That's good to hear that. That's about this normal a situation that I've heard in quite some time coming from an offensive line that was considered the best in the NFL. Hand down, especially starting in twenty sixteen before the injuries be set us all and with a retirement, of course from the disease. We are now pretty much just an average offensive line with one or two very good superstars on that team. But that that one of the two, you don't know when he's gonna play. You don't know

when he's gonna be full strength. So, you know, people talk about the talent we have on this team. We still have the talent, but we've got to work a lot harder to display that talent considering the fact that our old line has been decimated over the last few years. You know, well, and it's great seeing Tyron Smith out there, and Mickey, want to let me make one more point

on Olivier Vernon. He did make one play on the second series of the game, right before the CD Lamb touchdown, where he stopped Zeke for a one yard loss, but Tyron Smith wasn't blocking him. He Dalton Schultz was left alone on him on that play. And that's the one time that I marked down Olivier Vernon's name, and then going back and looking at the coaches film, Schultz got stuck on him on that particular play and there was a one yard loss. But okay, so go ahead make

your point there, Mickey. And then and then I thought Tyler Badish played awfully well for a guy that has now played where did I write down here? I think he's played like a hundred and thirty three snaps over the last two games at center. And I think he's got mobility to him. Not only does he know where to go blow, but he can get out on the screen passes too. And I thought he did a good job in space on a couple of those, uh, picking

off somebody. So I think, you know what, Joe Looney might just get wally pipped on this one because I think they gotta like what they saw and be out. I love reference. I love it and and uh and and I think this was the game plan and by the Okay, so Mickey, give us an update on Joe Looney. He's got an mclor what are we looking at? Probably on him. It sounds like he's got a sprained MCL. And it's usually when you get those, that's usually two to three, two to four weeks on, just kind of

a normal one, not a severe one. Uh So, yeah, he's gonna be out the next couple of weeks. Now. The scary thing now is who's your backup center in case something happens to be it Ish. Uh that got the guy forgetting his name. He was Henry's. I believe he's on the practice squad a backup center, and so you know, he might be a guy that they would activate. I got a check to see now if he's still on the practice squad because he was one of the guys that was playing center for him. I got him

still on the practice squad, Yeah, Marcus Henry. So he's a guy that they could basically call up because they really don't have another guy that has any experience playing center. And if you think about it, when they started training camp and he was running second team at center before Beatish took over as the as the backup, So they might have to do that because I heard somebody say, well, Connor Williams's next man up. He's never played a snap at center. You can't count on that, and so I

would think that they might have to decee. They could have used Cam Irving if he was healthy, because he's played all three spots, but he's on ir and his sprained MCL sounded like it was more four to six than two to four. So now you know, well, great, you got this guy. But until Looney gets back. You know you're gonna have to find a backup center. Can Zach Martin? Is he that diverse? No? I don't. I

don't know. No, I mean he could. Zack Martin is certainly capable of playing any position on that offensive line, but may come to that man try. I mean, so Connor McGovern is your swing inside guy, right, Mickey and so at something matter, But he hasn't played center since twenty seventeen at Penn right, and he didn't really get any I didn't never see him in training camp get any snaps at center. So yeah, I don't. I don't know.

You're gonna have You're gonna have to have three a backup tackle, a backup guard, and a backup center, because you're gonna want eight so you can keep eight linemen so you can keep forty eight on your on your active roster on game day. And I haven't studied these I haven't studied the newcomers that they picked up since the start of the regular season, which was Alex Light and Eric Smith, to to know how they would play

inside at all, and if they have any experiences. I thought those guys Bill were kind of more guard centered, I mean guard tackled type guys. I did tackle it. I did too. I did too remember seeing any any any center UH experience there. So that's going to be something that, you know, we need to keep an eye on. But I think they they I think they've hit a home run, would be honest. And I always thought if they had, I thought so at the draft. Yes, I

thought so. If they had an I thought so season, a normal training camp, a normal preseason, that that would have given him time to win that job. And then Joe Looney could play his spot the backup center guard on game day, and that's a valuable spot they had. So yeah, we'll see how keep in mind on Biadas. You know, he was a Rimington Award winner at Wisconsin.

He's a three years starter. Whatever he was at Wisconsin, he had an injury issue there that dropped him as far as his draft stock goes, And in fact, even

at an injury issue in this offseason. I don't remember exactly what it was which limited him as far as and of course COVID the pandemic limited him as far as his exposure, but the fact that they traded up for him late in the fourth round showed what they thought of Beatas and I agree with you, Mickey that I think if they had a normal off season, that they would have given him the opportunity to win that starting center spot, because ideally you wanted, you would love

to have him to have just blossomed. He's your starting center, and then Looney's your swing guy inside, especially with his experience at center. So they'll do what they can here in the in the meantime, but you're ever send your points on that offensive line, Yeah, you aren't sure. You hope that Tyrn Smith is back healthy again and you can just have him be your Pro Bowl left tackle the rest of the season, Zach Martin your Pro Bowl right guard. They're still issues with Connor Williams and left

guard and then at right tackle. Now with the news coming out over the weekend that Lyle Collins is having the hip surgery and he's gone, you just you're gonna have to make do out there. And by the way, well, Jerry, I'm hoping that he can live up to his Jerry talking. Yeah, Jerry talked about Lele Collins and he said, as of today, it looks like he's headed towards surgery. He said, everything's not certain, but that's the way it looks. So they're

probably without Lele Collins. So you know, Brandon Knight for the season for the season. So Brandon Knight who took over fort Eel who was struggling, actually did okay, but they gave him help. And you know, when you go back to what we were talking about before, the self scouting thing, I don't know why they thought they could leave Terrence Steele out there on his own against Myles Garrett.

Not not every snap right, And so when they moved Night out there, he did a decent job, but they did a lot of chipping and they had a tight end over there quite a bit to help him out. And it kind of worked because after that first quarter and a half, we didn't hear much from Myles Garrett after that, by the way, and so and the one time he did put pressure on dak Zeke missed his chip and allowed him to come through, and it caused

some problems for Dak. He had to step up and then he had to end up throwing the ball away. So they learned something about themselves after that that first order and a half that Okay, we can't just sit here and say, ah, next guy up. Right, that's that guy's job. There's a reason why is the next guy right, he ain't the guy way you can't say that about be honest. That's why they call him mister badass. Right. There are certain there are certain guys that you that

can come through. There are certain guys where you can say next man up. There used to be an entire culture of them just waiting to get in and play, but nowadays it seems like everyone is just we're gonna

adhere to what the narrative is about me. I'm not gonna get any better than that, because they say I'm not gonna get any better than that, And that doesn't bode well for teams who are trying to win this battle of attrition as we go throughout the season, because that's what that's the biggest battle right now, the injury report. That's the biggest game that that's the biggest opponent that we have right now when it comes to this Cowboys team.

So the more guys that we can say can accept that next man up, moniker, then the better off will be because right now you're gonna have some practice guys out there in the thick of things. By the time November comes and that might be just the best case scenario for us. So we gotta be ready to play, no excuses. And Cowboys not the only ones having this problem. It's a league wide thing. Let's see just how good we are up and down our roster. Let's see just

how good we are on who we sign. It's gonna be. I think it's gonna be a very interesting year, and I just can't wait to see what happens at the end of it, because we're gonna hear some names that we've never heard of in our lives coming off the practice field, and they might be very integral when it comes to the Cowboy success, let's hope. And we're seeing that across the league right now. I mean when you look at and by the way, we got to go to break here down a couple of points on seventy seven.

It was great to see Tyrant Smith back on the field for the Cowboys. If you have a chance to go look at the coaches film, look at seventy seven for Cleveland, and they're the big reason why the Cowboys defensive line was having some issues doing anything in that game. Wyatt teller number seventy seven for Cleveland at right guard. He was originally drafted in the fifth round by Buffalo and for some reason they traded him to Cleveland and

he is now emerging at age whatever. He is twenty six, is one of the top offensive guards in this league. And they got a two time Pro Bowler at left guard their offensive line, and what they've done. They drafted the first rounder as well at left tackle, and they've got Jack Conklin at right tackle. They're a big reason

why Cleveland is three and one right now. And then you look at Philadelphia and all the injuries that they've had on their offensive line, and prior to their game against San Francisco, you talk about injuries, San Francisco's got more in reason virtually any team in the league. And Philadelphia was able to patch the offensive line together enough to win that game at San Francisco and now they're

sitting here in first place in this division. Long. Don't worry, it won't last long, all right, come back from break. I got another guy. The next guy up may just be the guy. Oh, I can't wait to hear that. When mix shots continues, I bet I know who it is. When mix shots continues. In a moment, I'll bet you do. Hey, they're Cowboys fans With Ty Cleaners at home pickup and delivery,

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delivery options available via online ordering every week. Check out the menu at at and T stadium dot com slash at Home. You can get your ballpark fair at your house. It's not a bad idea, all right, Yeah, I love that. By the way, there is cheese. I want the macrun and cheese. All right, I will order it up. They might even deliver it to you. Yeah, that's by the way, there is entree. We've got a couple of playoff teams in Arlington this week. That's in the next week, and

the next week. That's right. We got postseason baseball at Globe Life Field starting tonight, Dodger Baseball, the Dodgers and the Pondres tonight, and then the National League Championship Series next week and then the World Series. So yes, we have playoff teams in Arlington, And as Everson alluded to, we're still holding out hope here that there will be a playoff team playing at the other stadium in Arlington.

That would be our stadium at and T Stadium, and one of the reasons why Mickey is going to present that right now here on mix shots and Mickey, I'm thinking you teased it next man up? Okay, who was the next man up in that game the other day? Ever? Sinking you think of who would have been next man up on that defense? It's a defensive player, right, Mickey, Yes, absolutely, d Okay, I'm thinking it's nobody in the front seven.

There you go, all right? So like the fifth play of the game, there was next man up after Jarvis Landry through a touchdown pass that beat Darian Thompson to Odell Beckham's junior. So I'm thinking you were teasing maybe next man up at the safety position number thirty seven Wilson. Yes, he ended up taking over. And I guarantee you he played more snaps in that game than he had in

his career as a defensive player at safety. If I remember correctly, he had seventy seventy snaps in the game, so if the rest of the way, he played nine of the snaps. And look, he wasn't perfect. I saw a couple of times he made mistakes, missed the tackle or two, but he finished with ten tackles to lead

the team. He had one sack, a tackle for a loss, and a quarterback hit, so almost playing like a rookie because most of the time last year he was inactive or he was just a special teams guy, and they had been grooming him more and more to be able to play on the first team defense. And you know, I thought he did a decent job he had. He had an alignment problem or assignment problem on the goal line on the touchdown passed too. I think it was

no No. I think it was the tight end maybe uh I had he Worly Whirly ended up covering like two guys and before the snap, Whirlely was kind of motioning him to move over, move over, and he kind of froze and Wiry actually had he was one guy on three receivers and that didn't turn out. So but he was playing. He was playing red rover, red rover, and I thought E. Wilson didn't come over. But other than that, I and I still don't know what happened on the fifty yard reverse to Odell Beckham because he

was coming like a boy. He was coming across the field like he was shot out of a cannon. And then all of a sudden, I just see him fly by and he missed the tackle. And I don't know how he missed it, um, but anyway I can tell you. I can tell you he had no help. That's why he assumed when he when he hauled ass over there, right, Because Beckham was hauling ass himself, he was he was gonna meet him as best he could. But there was

so much trash in the way. You assumed the traybon Diggs was gonna make the play, and I don't know what happened to him. He just ended up floating out of bounds. It's as if the move that Beckham made, they thought he was gonna step out of bounds. And I don't know why they thought that, because he's got the maneuverability of one of the greatest athletes. So his move inside was a good move, but it wasn't a

great move. When you over commit too much to the sideline, the sideline as your defender, right, that's one of your defenders. But for some reason, they're all running to the sideline. No, you have to gather yourself, use the sideline as your friend. No one did that. When it came to Cowboy pursuit Uh not Diggs. Uh not Wilson. And and that's why

Jayalen Smith was left trying to chase him down. If someone would have just given just halted his progress a little bit, then Jayden's gonna come come from behind them probably knocked the heck out of him. But no one made the play typical. And you know what another thing on Jayalen on that one, he was on the opposite

side of the field. He had he had stepped up to the line of scrimmage like he bit on the on the play fake, which that linebackers got to cover that side and he had to come all the way. He has to. He has to respect that right. And and so you know, anybody that tells me he was loafing on that play, they don't know what they're talking about, or they didn't watch the game. They just assumed, right. But I thought Donovan Wilson did a nice job, especially

uh in run support. I thought he did a good job. And you know, he'll have to work on his coverage deal.

But uh, I went the way. Mike Nolan answered the question uh during his conference call yesterday, and somebody asked about, you know, making the switch, and he says, well, after the uh you know, the end around passed to for a touchdown, he said, we decided to, you know, try something a little bit different, and he spoke well of what Donovan Wilson did in the game that safeties and your defensive backs as your leading tacklers on the field,

you got a problem. And if it keeps going like this, we will have one of our safeties will be our leading UH tackler on the field, and that will probably not bode well for what's been going on with ourt front. Seven. Well, and here you go, just to highlight that Everson they the guy that had the most tackles of the defensive line, the defensive front, it was Antoine Woods. He had five assisted tackles. He was the top guy. Everson Griffin had

three tackles, one assist and four. Lawrence had also had had three, and Tristan Hill had three. But yeah, when it six guys had to have more tackles than the defensive lineman, you know you're having problems up front. Yeah.

Oh and one other Smith, go ahead, go ahead, Alden Smith was going to Alden Smith had fifty four snaps in that game, and he's had over sixty in the last two games prior to that, do you think he's You think that's a good number for him, or would you like to see more of a rotation at the defensive end spot. I think it's too many. I think

that too. If they could keep him to around forty snaps or so, then I think that's about right, because if you think about it, he's had one good game, one off game, one good game, one kind of off game where he's not as active, and his body's probably just not you used to getting hit like that, uh and and probably needs some time to recover. When you have that many snaps, he looks, he looks exhausted. He

looks exhausted. Yeah, that's right, And that's why I would like to see them go to just go to a four three defense and rotate Lawrence, Griffin, uh Smith and Armstrong at the defensive ends, and he rotate your inside guys, and those guys are going to be fresher that way. Also in yesterday, but you need a line viper right. Also in yesterday's conference call, I thought this was interesting

with John Fossil. Uh. They asked him about, you know, how they played the block punt in Jalen trying to pick it up, and he said, well, we were going to have a block on and we knew we needed to score points. So the last thing he said he reminded everybody he goes, if we block it, just remember scoop and score. And unfortunately, I don't think he was talking to when the ball was at your own five yard line to pick it up and run ninety five

yards for a two point conversion. So unfortunately, yeah, Jalen Leon led at it and allowed them to recover in the end zone. Further, hey, that's not fair to make leon let a verb. Okay, that is not fair and the hell of a player I also figured out. I also figured out on my own. I woke up this morning with this thought. Remember yesterday I said something about prior to that fourth and two and Dak's fastball touchdown pass to Amari Cooper that in that time out that

McCarthy was talking to Fossil on the sideline. It dawned on me this morning he was asking about a fake field goal. They were their other option might have been, And I'm just speculating. I have no idea. I was trying to figure out, why is he talking to Fossil on the sideline, and I thought, well, is there's something

wrong with zerline? I mean, it wasn't that long of a field goal, and so the only thing I could figure is they were looking at Okay, what what do you How do you think about a fake field goal? What play do you got for a fake field goal? And they decided to run a player instead? What do you think? Yeah? Like that think I like it? Keep it up, keep it up? Absolutely? Yeah. And the other the other thing, well, you gotta watch those network TV cameras and none have your special team's coach come over

and talk to you. You might give it away if I can figure it out, the other team might be able to. And then all right, and knees and real quick. On Kellen Moore's they asked him on the two point conversion where you're getting towards the end of the two point conversion plays that you had on your sheet, and he goes, we pretty much exhausted it. He goes. The good thing is though, you can always use you could always use your goal line plays as your two point conversions. Yeah,

there you go. Well they worked well the other day, that's for sure. All Right, we continue with more mick shots and no telling what Mickey is gonna come up with tomorrow on the next player to emerge to turn around this season. I'll have to pull out my Jimmy Johnson book Turning this Thing Around for tomorrow Show Today. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club