Mick Shots: Roster Machinations

twenty five, Dallas Time on Sunday. Bill Jones with Mickey Spagnola here inside the SWBC Mortgage studios at the Star in Frisco, and Everson Walls at a remote location somewhere where the sun is shining on Everson's face. Hello Everson. Hello, all right, Mickey. It's kind of a first normal week we've had, right it somewhat norm it was, It was normal until Everson had to leave town. And so now we're back to one third of us is at a remote location, but at least we can see Everson. I

wasn't referring to us. I was referring to the Cowboys on a regular week practice, although they had the extra what three days after that, right, So it's just now to a regular week starting today through Sunday, and then next week it's not a regular week regular The home opener is a Monday night game against Philadelphia, so they get an extra day next week. And it is great though to see the team out on the practice field. Yes, absolutely, a matter of fact, they just finished up their practice

today and it was a you know, full practice. Um, you know, they did team drills. They had to scout team going. And then we can go on with all the roster. What's the word massinations nations? Nice? How about that? Huh? Vocabulary is improving an old age? We just don't know what it means. Yeah, it's I've always been Can you guys hear me? Yes? Okay, can you hear me? Yeah? Can you hear us? I don't think he hears us? See yeah, everysing cannot hear us apparently, Okay, every sin

is gonna fix whatever is? Uh? I hear you, Everson, you can't hear us? All right? So how about we figure out what's going on with this roster? Then? Yes, let's uh take a look at it so we know do we start it right tackle? We started right tackle? We know. Lell Collins has been suspended five games from a little bit of digging I've done. It sounds like

it's gonna be five games. We talked about his agent saying it was still in the appeal process, but it sounds like he doesn't have much of a chance for

the appeal. And another thing that I think starting to get cleared up if you listen to what Jerry said yesterday, it wasn't from so much miss tests as it was, and Jerry said it sometimes it's cooperation with the process, and so it's sounding like that might be something like that, because not only do you have to test, but whatever consoling you're supposed to go through, you have to show up for those two and you get negative marks if

you don't show up for those. So I don't know if that had something to do it, but Jerry's Jerry's point was there there's a consoling that takes place also, so it's an entire process. So it looks like he probably's gonna miss at least this game, if not five. Okay, so we've we've sort of established that now. I chatted with Mike McCarthy on the taping of his Coaches show last evening, and you tell me if he said anything

much different from this. At his press conference today, he indicated that Zack Martin is staying at guard, yes, and that it is Terrence Steele or tight Insecki who would be starting at right tackle. And that's about what he said in his press conference today, even though Jerry Jones on Tuesday said when he was asked the question, it's

going to be Steel. Yeah, he didn't mince words. But you know, I'm sure from McCarthy standpoint, he doesn't want to give the Chargers a scouting report and people wants to make sure they go through they got to go through practice. But if but if it's those two guys, to me, if you're not moving Zach out there, and we can talk about his reasons for maybe doing that, then I think it's Steel. I think he's more versatile,

more mobile, maybe not as strong, not as big. But I think I pointed this out yesterday, if it is Steel over there, then the tight end better be in his hip pocket and saying you've got to have two tight ends on the field all the time. But I think you have to make an adjustment. You have to make a concession that if Steal's out there and Joey Bosa's across from you can't let Joey Bosa ruin this kid that came into the league as an undrafted rookie.

Now he started fourteen games last year. I think he made great strides in the off season. I pointed out yesterday that he was one of the ten guys that won the Workout Award in the off season. And if you look at what happened during training camp, he was playing both sides. He started on the right, he ended up on the left as the backup. So to me, that to me, that tells me that they had more confidence in him than the veteran Naseecki, who you would think would be for sure can play the right side,

but they got to let him work on the left side. Well, they switched that up towards the end of training camp. Sou from McCarthy standpoint, he still say we're working on the combination, but it sounds like the combination is Steal and Secky. And you know last week he was on the injury report, by the way, for a day or so, and he missed time in training camp. So to me, it's probably steal and then well they'll go from there and see what happens. So now you ask why won't

they move Zach Martin out there? Okay, I'll ask that, why won't they move Zach Martin out there? And you know I was a promote proponent of it too, right, And McCarthy answered that question today basically saying that Zach at guard, you know, he can give help to the tackle and communication type stuff, and he can help the center too, who's basically in his first full year of starting. I know he started like four or five games last

year before he got hurt. So this is his sixth NFL start, Yes, Tyler be So now you got Zach in the middle there, and you know he can help out there, and I think so coming off COVID, you know, he hasn't practiced in more than well not ten practice days, but ten days since he was on COVID reserve. And

who knows. You may think, well, I better bring him back and put him someplace initially where it's comfortable with and then see if we can compensate for not having Lel Collins on the outside by using our tight ends in the running back to help him out in pass protection. Well, if you go back and look at Washington last week, uh, and they had a rookie, Sam caused me at right tackle, and boy Bosa just flies off the screen at you. I mean, you can you can tell that he's the

guy you got to be worried about. Did they give him help? There were times that they did not give him help that he and uh he came. He came pretty hard off that hitch. Yeah. So, and you know, and they're in a three they're in a three four. But if you go three wide receivers, you know, or even if he's at playing linebacker in that three four, he's still lining up the line of scrimmage and you know he's coming right. Um, and he's a load uh so. Yeah, And then they were in a lot of four man front.

When you're going with your three wide receiver set, he's in a four man front. And then move him around. But I saw him. He was seemed to be most effective coming from a left defensive end against the rookie

right tackle from Texas. Sam caused me, so, oh, so he's going to go up against another tackle that's not like it's college ball in techs that's right Texas tech yep So So anyway, um, otherwise, as far as practice goes, so we know Randy Gregory has been placed on reserve COVID, so he's not out there and we'll see where that happens. But again, I can see Everson now, Yah, Everson has reappeared on the screen. He can hear us, I can hear you. All right, all right, all right, So what's

the what's the deal with Gregory? He has an opportunity to play, right, Well, it's an opportunity to it maybe slim, yeah, But so I think they have to operate now as if you know they're not going to have him. Uh that means you know, and McCarthy mentioned it today. More more snaps for Dorin's armstrong. They'll need him to step up. More STAPs from Terrell basham, we need to play then Zach Martin correct say that again he will have a better opportunity to play and come off the list than

uh was it Zach Martin had correct? Oh you mean off the COVID list? Yeah, last week? Uh he does. But again, as McCarthy said today, normally when we've had guys test positive, it's been a ten day period, not a five day period. So I think going forward they have to assume they're not going to have him which means you know, you've got at least three guys. You know, I mentioned U Dorrin's Armstrong, Terrell Basham, Uh Bradley and I can play there. I you know, Bret Urban could

probably go out there if they needed him to. Uh and then uh boy, and you better keep DeMarcus Lawrence on the field right because now you're starting to get a little thin going up against the quarterback. You better get pressure on him. You know. I think there's seems to be like there's this sense of relief out there that, Okay, we survived Tom Brady on no loss, but it was close. Well, this kid is pretty darned good. You better be careful with them. So we'll see how they feel that defensive

end spot on the on the right side. Why is it always the right side, the right tackle, the right defensive end. I thought d Law played extremely well in the ball game. Of course, we all bring up that they had no pressures necessarily, they didn't have any sacks. But we know how that goes with Brady. If you don't cover them down the field, then yes, you're gonna have issues stopping him from throwing the ball on time. But d Law was all over the field, and he

was trying to make things happen. You can see there was a sense of urgency in his game, and you can see that he's playing with a healthier body. Now. You can see that was the whole DeMarcus Lawrence in the ball game. I think he'll play pretty well this season. I'm predicted right now, like like Broccoley says, I guarantee, I guarantee d law is gonna get two sacks this weekend. We're gonna have to write that down two sacks this week Well, he was the one that forced that fumble,

wasn't he in the game? Yes? And it was a violent fum fumble hit or a fumble hit whatever, forced fumble. Yeah, he punched it out. He punched it out. Yeah Yeah. And then one other thing in practice, Donovan Wilson, they held him out aggravated his groin that had been bothering him prior to the start of the season. So we'll

see where that one goes. And Nashan right for personal reasons, had to miss practice and to ever Sue's point about DeMarcus Lawrence, Okay, we've talked about the Cowboys issues at right tackle and replacing law Collins well, the Chargers have their own issues at right tackle with Brian Bulaga, the starter who has a back issue, and in fact, he came out of their opener against Washington. He played forty

five plays, they had eighty one plays on offense. He was in there for forty five, had to come out of the game, and so and Storm Norton were replaced him at right tackle. And so that is basically who Marcus Lawrence is going to be going up. And it's a plush here, right And so I think that's a

great prediction on your part, Everson. I don't know if if you were aware of the fact that they've got their own issues at right tackle, and so be d law is going to get his number, and they sort of remade their offensive man and ray Shawn Slater first round picked for out of Northwestern, who a lot of people around here were thinking that the Cowboys might be

interested in taking in the first round. He's looked really good U and early on in preseason and in their first game also, and then they acquire the center this year was either last year Corey Lindsley, Yes, this year Green Bay. Green Bay right paid a lot of money for to get him and their right guard, as well as an unrestricted free agent signing from Pittsburgh. His name

Matt Feeler. Matt Feeler, not familiar with him. Familiar with Coreley Lindsley, and I'm sure McCarthy is too, right, that's right. And he's familiar with Brian Bulage as well, of course, who once upon up time, that's going back eleven years ago, was a first round draft pick of the Packers. So so it's it's not just the Cowboys that are having problems with their offensive line. Sometimes you got to look

at that other side. And so it's it's I love the matchup of quarterbacks though this, yes, Dak versus Justin Herbert. And we'll get into more of that when we come back here on Mick Shots in just a moment, Honey, big news, Gary, are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jennie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, but best deals are only for new customers. So to get a new customer deal, I change my name to it Jackie Flash. Okay, But the best smartphone deals at AT

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to watch the game. On Sunday afternoon, three twenty five, kickoff the Cowboys and the Chargers, and I can only imagine what it will be like for the home opener Monday Night Football a week from Monday against the Philadelphia Eagles. Mickey stepped out for a second. He's working on some late breaking news. Perhaps Everson. We shall see, but Everson, let's think he's on it. That's right, until Micky gets back, because I know he wants to talk about the quarterback matchup.

Let's talk about the receivers for the Chargers for just a second here, and the challenge it presents for the Cowboys DBS going up against a guy like Keenan Allen who is sick two bigger guy, and he's averaged one hundred one hundred receptions of season the last four years.

And uh then they also have Mike Williams, a six four target who caught a nice back shoulder touchdown from Herbert against Washington and the season opener, and uh so those those factor in Jared Cook, the big tight end as well, who's still going strong at age whatever he is, over over age thirty. Uh and uh there's some big targets that Herbert has to throw too. Well. You know, I when I when I think of the tight end that you're mentioned, you know, he always he always looked

like a veteran, even when he was younger with the Saints. Uh, you know, he always looked like a guy. He reminded. He runs like Billy Joe Dupree. Yeah, you know, he's got that old man run right. But he's got the great hands. If you recall Green Bay game, the right, am I right? The Green Bay game where he kind of the great field gold rains. Don't bring that up. Oh my goodness, don't, Oh my goodness, don't get it out. So that's what this team has. A quarterback that throws

an extremely catchable ball. When you look at how he lays in there, it's like Danny White used to throw it a little bit. He has a little bit more unf on it, and his timing is a little better. But he is a quarterback that's gonna put it in there where it's supposed to be. Now, as a dB, you like those kind of quarterbacks because you know they're gonna put it in there. So if you cover the guy, you got yourself a pig because he's gonna go on timing.

He's gonna do a lot like Brady does. But their passing game deals more with a deeper seventh step drop than you would see coming from Tampa. The Cowboys are gonna have to deal with in the secondary. Keenan Allen, who is there with Maury Cooper. This guy's an amazing route runner. You talk about the hundred receptions four years that is, I can't remember how many people have done that. It's got to only be a handful of people that can say that they've done that. So this team is

very accomplished in this passing game. I think if we're gonna have any opportunity that we still have to play the way we have to play shut down that run. Still gotta shut the run down. And I think we just take our chances. As far as the passing game is concerned, I think we have a few more playmakers in the Secondarily. I liked the four turnouts we had, and yes the fourth one was of hail Mary, you know, at the end of the half, but we still did well with that. We are more we are a more

opportunistic defense now. I truly believe that, and I think I think we're gonna I think we're still gonna have problems with the passing game. I'm just worried about make sure we stop that run. And here's what those three receivers we talked about did last week against Washington. Jared Cook had five catches for fifty six yards, Mike Williams had eight catches for eighty two yards in that touchdown, and Keenan Allen nine catches for one hundred yards. So

why did they only score twenty points? They turned the ball over there an, there was an interception in the red zone. There was a freaky fumble that should have I thought should have been an incomplete pass. Herbert was back to pass throwing for the left corner of the end zone, got hit and they ruled it a fumble on the field, and I guess there wasn't enough evidence to show that he still had control of the ball as he released it, and so they kept it as

a fumble recovered by Washington otherwise. So a couple of red zone turnovers is what cost them a lot to keep their score down last week. So, speaking of Herbert, I started looking at the Charger's release. Do you want a few mix shots on them? Yeah, an early mix shot here. In the past five starts, dating back to last season, Justin Herbert has led the Bolts on four game winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime. In last week's game at Washington, the Chargers converted fourteen of

nineteen third downs. The fourteen third down conversions were the most by any team in the last decade in a single game. This is what Herbert at quarterback. Remember he was offensive ap Rookie of the Year last year. Third down passing touchdowns since the start of the twenty twenty season tied for first place with Tom Brady is Justin Herbert.

Third down passing Rady raiding one hundred attempts since the start of the twenty twenty season, Herbert is fifth at one h two point five on third down and passing yards leaders first sixteen career starts in pro football. Patrick Mahomes through for fifty one hundred yards and second Justin Herbert four thousand, six hundred and seventy five. So this

guy is kind of the real deal. And I thought the thing that Mike McCarthy said about him that stuck out to me because of the length of their wide receivers, you have to consider their wide receivers always open because you can throw the ball up on them even if they're covered, and they'll come down with the football. So just know that while I'm sure everybody out there is kind of going, oh, we almost survived Tom Brady, well, this guy's pretty darn good too, just doesn't have the

same experience. All right, So, how long have we thought that Justin Herbert is this type of quarterback? Well? I know one person that thought about him this well, long time ago, the same person who said a lot of good things about Troy Aikman when he scouted him coming out of UCLA some thirty two years ago. Now, absolutely, and you think we Hall of Famer, we can hear Gil brand So here is This is Gilbrandt from when twenty eighteen on the Cowboys Legends radio show with two

guys named Bill Jones and Nicky Spagnola. All right, let's take a listen to what Gil Brandt was saying about Justin Herbert before years ago, before anyone had even heard of Justin Herbert unless you're an Oregon Duck fan. And I'll tell you what. The best quarterback I've ever seen is a junior at Oregon by the name of Herbert. And the interesting thing about it is he went to school,

he was not recruited by anybody except Mountain West. He threw two touchdown passes last week by Mountain West team or not Mountain West Big Sky teams and his father. His father went to Oregon State, his mother went to Oregon State, but his grandfather went to Oregon. And the grandfather's name Schwab. He was there in nineteen sixty three. I remember him and Charles Schwab. This guy, this guy's I think is gonna be unbelievable. Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert.

He's like six to five, two hundred forty pounds and he runs about four to six. Oh my wow. And you know what, after Gil told us that I remember specifically making a point to go watch an Oregon game when was on television to see what this guy was all about. And my reaction then as then as I was there, Oh my, he was pretty darn good, all right. And Herbert's grandfather, not Charles Schwab, but Rich Schwab, played receiver in Oregon in the nineteen sixties and that's why

Gil remembers him. So Gil scotted him too, back in the sixties. And Justin Herbert also grew up. According to his Wikipedia page, anyway, we could always below. Yes, absolutely, he grew up a San Diego Chargers fan. Even though he grew up in the state of Oregon. He probably graduated. He graduated from Oregon with a degree in biology. And all right, this tells you how smart this justin Herbert is. He was awarded the twenty nineteen William V. Campbell Trophy,

which is considered the academic heisman. So there you go. So, by the way, and Everson, this is uh specifically for you. The reason I was late coming back in I wanted to go out and see who the interviews were with. They were supposed to be with, Ceedee lamb Ezekiel Elliott,

Zach Martin, and DeMarcus Lawrence. Well, Dlawrence Armstrong's coming out for DeMarcus Lawrence, and that just kind of raised my antennas of I don't know, so we need to pay attention to see if it's just he decided not to come out and do that, or if something took place in practice. Hmm. Oh, I hope that's not the case. So there they were. They I think they finished the other three interviews and they were waiting for Dorian's Armstrong

to come out. It may have just been a veteran's decision could have been again, he might have looked where. He might have looked where the where the cameras and the microphones were set up, and goes, now that's too far for me to watch. Yeah, you get out there, You get out there, young pup. So this this justin Herbert got first of all six five? Is he six five? He did not look? He doesn't look six five on

the field. Was he look six seven? He looks, He looks, he looks smaller, He looks smaller, almost looks a little slight. So I was very I'm very surprised to hear that from Guilder, from you Upagnol. He is. And the other thing is, thank god he's young now because he does throw. He does throw some err passes. Because the guy's full of confidence, you know, talking about how smart he is. I can do anything. Yeah. Yeah. And he's feeling himself and he's got that past, happy offense, which is great

for him. I'm sure that's why he likes San Diego. He probably has some memories of fouts or somebody Philip Rivers out there chunk in that rock in the backfield. I mean, that's kind of a quarterback's dream. And he probably knows he's got the same intellect as those two previous guys. I just will actually on their roster. He isn't six five, he's six six and from the from the Scouting Combine he measured the Scouting Combine official measurement for Justin Herbert's not only six six, he's six six

and a quarter two thirty six pounds. Wow. Wow, that he does not look that big. Do you think he he plays hunched over or something. He didn't stand up taller. I would if I saw him if I really thought he was around de Nucci size. I thought he was around Nucci. That's a that's but that's just me. Obviously I was. I was very wrong. He's a half foot taller, and he can move. He can move like de Nucci. Um. And you know he ran a four six eight at

the combine. That's pretty good when your six sets fashion than me. Ye, No, come on, what do you run? What do you run? At Grambling's protect They had me. We'll see. First of all, let's let's clarify some things. Grambling has no glass or turf. We had sand, red dirt and sand. So they said I ran a four seven four, and I I felt good about that until they told me what the number was. I think probably my best forty on the reel was probably a four

to six. You know, as far as being timed, now on the field there's a whole different thing, but times is by the four six. You know, that was the problem with Jerry Rice when he ran his forty at Mississippi Valley State. No grass. Probably we don't have the greatest facility, yes, man, Yeah, they're not running on We got rid all over the place. They're not running on turf inside right in the sterile atmosphere. So they probably

measured it off wrong. That's ever since he probably you probably ran forty two yards instead of forty probably probably, Yeah, that's the scouts fault. They measure so and I um, I was trying to remember. It was McCarthy or Quinn. I think it was Quinn talking about Herbert and he said that, you know, he's very mobile, and when he gets outside the pocket, he's not getting outside the pocket

to run. He keeps his eyes down the field and he's looking to throw the ball, so he's basically extending plays. And he said, you know there's two parts to this. You know, if he's in the pocket. You know you can count one, two, three, You hope the balls out, but when he starts to move, you may have to play that play for seven seconds. You got to stay with your receivers because he doesn't really want to run. If he has to, he will, but he wants to throw the ball down the field, and he did run.

The guys go ahead, Everson. When you start, when you start, when you start talking about the quarterbacks that we're going up against this year, Justin Herbert is just as typical as the ones we're gonna see all season. For the most part, everybody's thrown for over three hundred yards. You just might as well get ready for that. It's gonna be a past happy year, more so now than ever, I believe, especially from what we've seen this past weekend. And the other thing is you've got a secondary that

you have to depend on to still make plays. You're gonna give them up. But the only thing that's gonna stop these three hundred yard passers is you have to offset those big plays that they're gonna have offensively with turnovers of your own. We showed that in this last game. It kept us in the game, and it's gonna have to keep us in every game this season because the yards are gonna come. That's okay, that's the league. Now, don't worry about that. Make sure you're not don't get frustrated,

and you gotta get yours exactly. And to echo what you just said. So I just counted it up. Eleven quarterbacks this first week through for at least three hundred yards, eleven of them. And as we said yesterday, sixteen teams scored twenty seven points or more. So in this league, it's a passing league. I bet all these other teams aren't sitting there asking their head coach about balance. Right

you think anybody asks John Gruden about balance? Because car through for four hundred and thirty five yards, coach, don't you need some balance? Balance this? Mickey? When we come back here on mix shots, I want you to have the number of how many quarterbacks through the ball forty five or more times this in week one of the season. Have that number four us when we come back on mix shots. In just a moment, Smoothie King, we are blending goodness to fuel your grayness. Every blend is crafted

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or delivery. Smoothie King Rule the Dead. Hey Cowboys fans, ready to spice up your next watch party, Bring Yokiero guacamole and be the game day hero. The yo kiro means I want and we know you want. Great fresh tasting, ready to serve guacomole for your home gating and tailgating events. Made with real avocados on the perfect lend of spices. It will be the star of any party. You can find us at your local Albertson's or Tom Thumb in

the Delhi section. If you can't find it, talk to your store manager and tell them Yo kierro, Yo Kiero Guacomole. The Cowboys Way, where sixteen Hall of Famers and five championships shows us what success looks like. Where Turkey is always the second best part of Thanksgiving Day, where we are all defined by one single thing, the star, where we as fans know it's our job to keep the tradition going. Bank of America is proud to be the official bank of the Dallas Cowboys and to support the

quest of living life the Cowboys way. Copyright twenty twenty Bank of America Corporation. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with United aggin Turf. Before you can park yourself in front of the game, park yourself in a John Dear and power through your chores. Our land Run package is a ten twenty five R twenty five horsepower tractor with a loader, rotary cutter and a box blade for two twenty nine a month. And the price you see is the price you'll pay. No surprises, so don't miss another kickoff. Visit

United Agginturf dot com. Offer ins February first, twenty twenty one. Restrictions apply he see dealer for details. Now let's get to work. Back back to mixed shots. I said I had the rated that I'm on the wrong day, all right, So I'm gonna go with Wednesday. Does your Cowboys fandom go beyond the game. The NFL Fan of the Year Contest, presented by Captain Morgan, is back, and we're relaunching this search for one extraordinary Cowboys fan who's a positive influence

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online at shop dot Dallas Cowboys dot com. I should have told you there was a two page deal right player, and the second after the first break did Miller Lighthouse And then I just realized that, well that was for Tuesday, so I had to double up for Wednesday. Say they tried to make us versatile. Now that I got different reads, every day of the week. That's right, all right? So there you get I'll make sure I circle them. Okay.

I did my homework assignment Bill Jones gave me, which was how many quarterbacks in the National Football League in Week one through forty five or more? Passes? Oh, I thought you asked for forty Well we can go forward to give you forty eight. And of those eight, six of them through fifty or more. Okay. My question then was how many sco through fifty or more? Yeah? Now

Herbert through forty seven in a winning propose? And I also looked up how many Um like that can't be right because well, you know what the ones det through forty or more got? It was forty seven or more. Okay. There was a forty seven forty nine and the other ones were fifty okay, So yeah, which was my point? Five or more? So forty seven or more? There are eight quarterbacks, do you happen? Can you read them off for me? I can't you want forty seven or more?

Forty seven or more? So forty nine? Kirk Cousins. Okay, they lost in overtime, right trying to catch up? Prescott fifty eight lost a close game two point game and two Brady fifty they won, So that's one in two Goff fifty seven, fifty seven. They came back. They were down forty one sixteen, came back, made it, So that's one in three Car fifty six. They won a close game two and three. Herbert forty seven. They won a close game three and three Alan Buffalo. They Buffalo got

beat by Pittsburgh three and four. And then well where's Brady Brady was fifty you said I did, and then Lawrence Jacksonville, so they were three and five. Yeah, the quarterbacks, you threw that many. My point on that was, I think you're what we're finding here. And Everson talked about it earlier in the show, and you've talked about it too, and some of us is fairly obvious just the way the game has evolved, but it even seems like it's

evolving even more towards throwing the football. It's in the dna of so many offensive coordinators in this lead to throw the ball, and with the talent on hand and the abilities that I mean, you just look at the draft every year and how many receivers there are in the draft that the college game is producing. It's it's just more and more. It's a past happy league. And we only have five players who rushed for at least one hundred yards, just five. So Harris New England Damien

Harris did. Is that Damien Harris Okay also fumbled or costly fumbled. Gordon for Denver. Melvin Gordon had a seventy yard run. They got him one oh one. So yeah, so he has ten eleven carries for one oh one and went for seven at seventy so he had ten carries for thirty one and then a seventy yard Yeah. Uh. Mitchell San Francisco, Elijah Mitchell him. He's a rookie. He got a lot of tech I think, and or one of the Louisiana schools. I really liked him coming out

in the draft. One hundred and four yards Montgomery, Chicago. One of the reasons that he rushed for so much Mitchell did is they lost mostart in that game, right they did? And then they got off to a pretty big lead, didn't they if I remember correctly, So they're probably grinding at the end. Montgomery sixteen carries one oh eight for the Bears and mixing in overtime Cincinnati and that went all the way ten minutes of overtime. If I remember, twenty nine carries for one hundred and twenty

seven yards. So the guy that had the best, you know, perk carry average ended up being Gordon An for nine point two. But it was one run. So yeah, So it wasn't like people were just grinding away running the football. But I do think and Parcels talked about this a lot to wait until you get into November and December and you get bad weather and so forth, and teams will run it more. I think every year in September, you're gonnas. There's gonna be more throwing that's going on,

and the game dictates it a lot. But I thought what was remarkable about the Cowboys Tampa Bay game and what the Cowboys did. It wasn't like they came to the line of scrimmage and said we're going to throw it fifty eight times. It is they saw what the defense was giving them, basically, and Dak took what the defense was giving them. You know. The other thing, I'm trying to see the number Mic threw it out today.

He was saying, and some of the runs that we could have had and this wasn't in reference to what Kellen Moore said yesterday, but he said there there was a few RPOs where they could have ran it, but Dak chose to pull it back and throw the ball. So it's like they had those there, and that kind of went up to how many times they ended up running the football. But all told, it's you need receiving cores like these teams have, and you need quarterbacks like

these teams have. And that's what I love about this matchup the Cowboys and the Chargers this week because even though the Cowboys are down, Michael Gallup, with Amari Cooper and with Ceedee Lamb, and with what the tight ends can do catching the ball, what the running backs can do catching the ball out of the backfield, there's still plenty of weapons for Dak to do what he wants

to do in this game. I think what McCarthy's quote was, if you throw the ball fifty times, but fifteen of them are RPOs, so it kind of distorts how many times you actually were calling run plays. They want to run the ball, they want to give Zeke the ball. And I thought it, I don't remember if I said it yesterday. I thought it was remarkable that even though Zeke wasn't they weren't feeding him. He was doing his

job picking up the blitzes and blocking in the pass game. Well, here's the deal I think on running the ball where it factored into that game the other day, is when you, especially in that circumstance when Tom Brady is the quarterback on the other side, you have the football in the final two minutes. You want to be able to move the chains to be able to have the football at the end kicking your field goal to win the game

and not allow Tom Brady back on the field. And in order to do that, you have to be able to run the football because because the way the defense is going to play you, they're doing everything they can to keep you from getting that first down in the passing game, and if you have, if you haven't established the fact that you can run it, then your chances of converting are not great and you can just like in the Cowboys case, they had a holding penalty that

set them behind the chains. You typically if you're able to run the ball three four yards five yards at a clip, you're not going to have penalties and you're going to be in third and two rather than third and ten. So and remember when they got the ball back at four fifty two in the fourth quarter against New England degree against Tampa Bay. They're behind, right, so in your mind you're thinking, okay, we got to go and probably got to score a touchdown. We're not trying

to just drain the clock. But once, but once, CD made the play the thirty one yard that got him into the field into field goal range with two minute. It was the first play of the final two minutes, so it was a minute fifty five to play at that point. Now you can manage things. Now you need to get that first down. You need to for them to use their timeouts Tampa Bay and then get the ear first down where you can now bleed the clock all the way down. And the Cowboys weren't able to

do that right, And here what happened. So the first play they ran Zeke right, he got one yard and they're at the ten. So now you got to go ninety yards try to score a touchdown on that drive. Okay, they got to second and ten at their own thirty eight and he hits a twenty three yard pass, the CD lamb and the Cowboys get called for holding, which was that was the one on Tyrn Smith that I think they said Collins were said on TV goes Boa

that was kind of picky. So now you're second and twenty at the twenty six, well, okay, you pass, you pass. They got the second and ten after they got the first down the play you were talking about to Cede Lamb and they ran Zeke for four yards. Okay, they had an incomplete pass first right right, and then they ran Zeke for four yards and then they short passed to Zeke again no gain, but that's almost like a run. And now on that play they got called for holding

right Williams. So now you're third and sixteen, Well you're passing right right, And unfortunately they only ended up with ten yards and then they had to kick the fields. What what I would have liked once they got to the thirty four. I would have liked to have run it on first down and it was an incomplete pass,

So run both both times. Yeah, where if you can you know, even if you just get two yards on first down and you're second and eight, and then if you can get forward and make it third and four, and now the defense doesn't know whether you can run it or passing it, because then then you're in a position if you even get it down to fourth and one, now you could make the decision whether you want to go for it because they've used their timeouts, whether you

want to go for it. And you know people have talked about fourth and sixth at the thirty, Well I would have just gone for it anyway, you know, because that's twenty four left. Yeah, met fourth and one. You can make that decision whether you whether you're going to go forth. So kind of where where it's sort of messed up? Uh, you know, had they not gotten that

holding penalty right right? And even though it was no gain, you're at the thirty now again, think about this, Your kicker is already missed from thirty one and thirty three. How much faith did you have when him when he signed he lined up for a forty eight yard field goal. If you're at the thirty, right, you're thinking, oh, I better get this closer. And so there was there was more to think about than just draining the clock. It was like, can I get my kicker if I don't

get the first down comfortable? At that point when you're third and sixteen at the forty, you got to get it to the third eighty Triapri eight yard field and that's where they were it did, which they were there until they got the holding penalty, right, So yeah, you know when you look back at it, yeah, you shore ran the ball more and you would have drained more time off the clock, but you needed to kick a field goal, and you needed your field goal kicker to

be comfortable, and I don't know that he was comfortable. And that's why a lot of people are sitting there going fourth and six, Oh, you gotta go for And for that matter, at this point in the season, you don't have confidence that you can run the ball down there, Okay, especially against that defense, which was the number one right

run defense in the league last year. So it matters who you're playing against also, And I also think you see this even with really good offensive lines, sometimes it takes a month into the season before the run blocking is really clicking for these teams. And they didn't have these guys all together through all of training camp, right, It was kind of patchwork, right, you know. So yeah, and so that was really the first game those five

played together. And now those five on all they didn't even work together, right, because Zach Martin was missing, that's right, and now they'll have Lele Collins missing, Zack's back, Dat's back. So you'd have to go back sometime in the two thousand nineteen season too, and you had Travis Frederick then, and so they this offensive line has never played together, right, this is this is this is not your ten year

olds offensive line. Okay, all right, that does it for mixed shots for this Wednesday, and Everson hopefully we'll be joining us from a remote location again tomorrow. And for Mickey Spagnola, I'm Bill Jones. We'll chat at you again tomorrow at one thirty. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.