Mick Shots: Where's Your Confidence Level Now?

some reason. I don't know what Mickey had told me earlier, earlier in the week that yeah, he was on that seven thirty flight, just like I was. And then I get to the airport, there's no Mickey. And now here I get to the Star in Frisco and there's no Mickey. What is going on with Mickey? It can't be by choice. No one wants to stay in Florida overnight. They don't have to. Oh yeah, this is definitely something necessary. That's

why we guys back. There's no problem. Well, maybe he got back to his hotel room like I did at two o'clock in the morning and realized oh, this five o'clock wake up call for this flight. Maybe I need to adjust my schedule. You guys have to be geek. Man, y'all have to be geek. Could could you sleep you know after the game like that? Well, after the post game stuff, you know it. It's the process after the game, waiting on the press conferences and then it winds you down. Yeah. Yeah.

And then the fact that, okay, I have to wake up in three hours. That'll wind you down too. But Mickey apparently is en route. He is flying here now. If it was anything like my flight, he is already now supposedly he I think his flight is supposed to land at one fifty or two o'clock. Okay, so he should be joining us here shortly. If it's anything like my flight this morning, his plane has already landed at DFW Airport and they're waiting for a gate to open

for the day. We got good news and bad news from the captain. We made it here early, but no one was ready for us, so we'll be sitting on the runway. Yeah. I told this, bad's gonna be in the bathroom like die Hard, reporting from from the rest from the lavatory, you know, on the plane trying to find out what we're talking about. So we'll hear from him some. Okay, So in the meantime, Everson, the floor is yours. I can't wait to hear what your take

is on what happened last night in Tampa. And I think that at the conclusion of it, here's the way I looked at it. Okay, one game. Now, we got a sixteen game regular season still to be played here, and so that was the preseason last night. Boy, that was a good preseason. The way this man I was geeked last night, I was geeked this morning. I just

loved the game itself. That was real football there. You know, a lot of scores were put up, you know, so it's not necessarily the traditional defensive struggle that you wanted, especially considering Tampa Bay had the number one defense in the league and Cowboys came out and diced them up from really series one. I thought Dak showed, he showed his poise because I'm thinking when the game started, it's no way he's gonna be able to calm himself down.

You know, he hadn't played an eleven months and he's coming out here. The hype has been going on all off season, especially as we got close to the game, just got crazy, crazy hype, everybody questioning him with the shoulder, how's the leg gonna look? I was nervous. I was probably more nervous than he was. But the Cowboys themselves had so much confidence in him, and you know, that's that's so refreshing that they have. First of all, they paid him, you know, and he had the confidence that

he was gonna get paid. All this time everybody was saying, oh, it's too much money. Now he gets paid. He realizes the responsibility, which he always did. But now being able to come out and show against the best defense on the biggest stage, against probably the best quarterback in the history of the NFL, it was just refreshing and exciting to see the Cowboys show some type of not just competence, but competitiveness, you know, from both sides of the ball.

You know, it's interesting because I was there doing live shots for CBS eleven starting at let's see, the game started Eastern time at eight o'clock, and so we started at We got there about four o'clock Eastern time, three o'clock Dallas time, and Dak was out there was he Dack and and Zeke were their first starters that were

out on the field. The inactives came out and worked out for a little bit first, and then the first arders out there were Tyring and Lyle they were stretching whatever, and then Dak and Zeke where they were out there and doing the little yoga routine, the karaoke and all that stuff. That's good stuff. And you know that it's the process that Dak does. We you know, watch it at training camp every day. There's it. I want to say, it's probably a pretty much a twenty minute workout that

he does. Just the bridge poles. I do that in yoga. He get the bridge poles. I didn't know he's doing that kind of stuff. Yeah, good for the core, but but beyond that, I mean, he works up a really

good especially in Tampa. You I mean, I was working up a good sweat and they he was fully clothed, if I'm not mistaken, well he uh yeah, had the long sleeves, sweats right, sweats on and uh But to your point, you know, getting being so hyped, I think I don't know if I can compare it with what his normal pregame routine is I can compare it to what I was seeing on the other end of the field, which was no Tampa Bay players out on the field.

Maybe they had some place to work out, But this was literally two hours before the game, and he's out there, and I want to say, he's just getting used to the elements. He's getting used to the field. He's getting you know. And also I think it probably calms him, calms him down, and it just makes it especially his first game back in eleven months. UH, it got him acclimated to the situation. You know. Now he did, he

did a great job. And yeah, we'll get into this all of this later, but I just like the way the entire UH team responded because you're talking about being out there early. Could you hear yourself talk oh pre game, pre game? You could, yeah, but but I mean, and and you know that there was an early arriving crowd and so on the radio, it was just loud so

pre game. When the traditional pre game started, which is a little less than an hour before kicking off, a seven twenty kickoff, and so teams came out around just after six twenty and they were already I want to say the stands probably were pretty close to be in half full because everybody wanted to get there early because they were having their Super Bowl ceremony, which was unusual that you would have that, you know, because they weren't

able to really celebrate before, you know, outside of course they had their their parade and everything, but but this was the first time. You know, I'd forgotten what the attendance was at the Super Bowl, and it was twenty four thousand and so it was one third the crowd at the super Bowl. And of course they aren't Tampa

Bay fans that even it was their home stadium. There's so many corporate tickets that are sold at a Super Bowl, and so this was their opportunity to celebrate, and they were made sure that they're going to get be in their seat at least a half Yeah, that's right. I know. I could hear Bread and Babe trying to try to talk over the crowd, and and I remember Babe was trying to make a point, and then the middle of his point, he goes, man, it is loud, and they

couldn't even hear themselves talk. There was one other time that that I think the Cowboys would have been in that same environment, and it was actually a preseason game after Seattle. This was back in oh four when Seattle went to the Super Bowl and it was their first preseason game. And that stadium is so loud to begin, just just the way of it contains the noise in

there exactly. And we were just doing our pregame hits before doing the preseason game, and I Babe's here, I'm we're literally a foot apart, and I couldn't hear what he was saying, you know it, so that that was true. Couldn't hear? Yeah, right, And sort of kind of the same environment last night. Uh, But what a great game.

And who would have thought that Dak would wind up in a game you might have predicted fifty eight pass attempts for Dak if they were getting blown out, if it was like one of those first five games that he played in last year, or the first four at least that he played in last year. The Cowboys, we're falling behind one hundred yards. But I'm saying if they had fallen behind twenty one points like they made a habit of doing last year, now you're gonna throw it

fifty eight times. And you know this was in a nip and tuck game and you're throwing at fifty eight. Yeah, and we'll get to it later. But it's almost as if, I guess around the second quarter, it's like, hey, man, forget this, We're just gonna duel. It's just gonna be a duel. It's gonna be two two straight shooters, you know, facing each other at sundown or whatever, high noon. And that was a high noon shootout, that's what that was.

And it's almost as if Kellen Moore and and of course Brady himself, they just decided to hell with the run game. You know, we've got to make it happen the way we can. And let's be real, the Cowboy was kind of fourth braided into passing the ball. We were not going to give up a bunch of running yards in this game, no matter what. I want to ask you a question, did I see six defensive linemen

in the game at some point for the Cowboys? Well, you know, it's interesting what the way dan quinn and then we're going to be studying it further, but it's but it's interesting the way he's using personnel, and it may have I love the way, you know, in this league you're looking at more and more hybrid type players, whether it's hybrid playing a defensive end rushing from inside, or a linebacker coming up and so forth. It's more

of a hybrid defense than you know. He traditionally has been a four to three guy, and he has talked about it that he is a You're going to see more not what you saw last year, but the same type ideas of last year in terms of a hybrid between a four three and reforms. So there would be times where you might see it. And I guess what I said, with Parsons being a football player, right, he could be part of that, that defensive line, and he chooses.

The stellar part of it is it's hard to figure it out with the number changes to Yeah, Brady made himself knowing about that. Yeah, but you know I saw what we were definitely stacking the line with Biggs and it was a few times Brady came up. Maybe he changed a lot of plays. Yes, she is always coming up looking around, and you know that's he and Dak were kind of doing the same thing. They were noticing certain things and you gotta wonder how many times he

changed from a running play to a passing play. You know because they we we we really left him no choice, you know, and you know he's like, okay, I can I can feast anywhere you want me to feast. And even though he did have some good numbers, the Cowboys secondary and defense, they had all eyes on the ball. I loved it. They were very aggressive and focused and yeah, gave up, gave up yours, you know, Tip Brady of course,

and Gunk and all these great receivers. But I gotta say, man, when you when you walk away with four turnovers in the game, you gotta be how defense plus three turnovers down, You're you're you're thinking you're unless you're going up against the greatest quarterback, Yeah, you're gonna win the game. Trust me.

I've been down with Joe going well, all right, think about this, um, when you're talking about Brady changing the play so much, I think that's your credit to what Dan Quinn was doing defensively, of course, and uh think about this now. Quinn obviously he was let go early last year with Atlanta. However, there are a couple of members of this coaching staff who are on the Falcons defensive coaching staff last year, adding Dirty as well as Joe Witt, the secondary coach to them, well, we'll think

think about this though. The they Atlanta did not play Tampa Bay last year until two of the last three games of the season of the regular season, weeks fifteen and seventeen. Okay, so that is when Tampa Bay was in their stretch of winning eight in a row to win the Super Bowl. Week fifteen, the Falcons had the Bucks down seventeen to nothing at halftime in that game, so they were doing something defensively. Point my point is, we have known since the schedule came out that the

first game is against Tampa Bay. Two members of this coaching staff intimately familiar with what Tampa Bay was doing from two times playing against him in the last three weeks of the season last year. And you know, dan Quinn was studying the studying like crazy throughout the last five months or however along it's been, and so they were breaking out all the stops. But Tampa Bay was doing the same thing, same thing, you know, the exact

same right. The mental the mental fight that was going on on the field and off the field, I just thought was extremely intrigued. And that's the beauty of these openers is they've had so much time to prepare because you want to get off to a good start each season.

And let's say it, regardless of who you're going to prepare against for the upcoming games, if you're the Cowboys offense, were really the entire team, you have to feel pretty good about if you can do this against the Super Bowl champions in all facets of the game, even the running game. You Zie just got thirty three yards, But to me, he earned every down. Believe it or not, that he had some yards after contact, that that showed what kind of shape he's in. It shows an improvement

from last year. He never was close to dropping the ball at all in the game. You could see he was intense, but yet playing within himself, sacrifice himself on many blitzes to what he just threw himself on the sword. You know, I saw maturity from players and from a team that is totally different from what I saw last year. Right, And a lot of times it was Dak putting Zeke in position. I mean what Dak did. And Neil Brady's the King of Ben he has set protections and so forth.

Da is really good too. Oh yeah, and they were both motioning to Zeke here here you go, and Zeke has always been good at past protection. They're getting out the huddle early, right, just the things that you saw they were. They out of the huddle early when when Dak's making his changes, they still got the sixteen seconds left on the play cloud. And that's what you need to where you're poised. Everyone everyone's on the same page. Except for the false start, would be honest, didn't snap

the ball. I don't think the crowd started the entire but really just him. Yeah, so you know, those kinds of things didn't bother the Cowboys at all. That was the only time I saw who had that crowd as loud as it was. They would know if they had no effect on us as a team overall. And this was different than a lot of games against defending Super Bowl champions in that this is a Super Bowl champion

that literally is bringing everybody back from last year. Yes, you know, and it played so well down the stretch last year and for the first time as a collective group, just like all the teams had a full off season to be able to work and so forth. Uh, and we're going to see going forward, and we saw it plenty of it, especially in the first half, antony o'brown with you know, that's a totally different element to their offense. We kind of touched on twelve games before the game.

He was prominent in this game, right, yes, right, And you could see it coming. All you had to do is see what he did down the stretch last year and his mind is right. But I think you just you credit the Cowboys. You walk away with a bad taste in your mouth because you didn't win the game,

but you feel pretty good about things going forward. And as for Cowboys fans or anyone who is doubting this team coming in, I think it was sort of a confirmation for the players because they knew that they've got a good team, you know, but we haven't been able to see that because we didn't see that they were they didn't play in the preseason. Yeah, we were nervous that we were nervous that we may not see it because we figured we would and didn't want our hopes

dash too much. But all expectations were met, especially offensively. The culture I talk about, you know, Dan Quinn's defense has never been a shutdown defense, but it's always been an active defense. And when he first came here, I

remember saying that about him. You know, they never had a bunch of talent on the Falcons team, but they had guys flying around making plays when there was you know, when there was good for them, especially living off of a great offense that had Ryan and Julio Jones and these guys that they have. So I'm just liking the activity. I'm liking the turnovers, but of course, you know, when it comes down to it, I still want to see

better coverage. In the second day that we knew it was going to be the weakness, I mean, I knew that we would overcompensate with the run, which is what we did. You know, there was no factor at all in regards to the running game, and you knew Brady was going to open it up. You knew you were gonna have problems with these three wide receivers, and I was a bit surprised. Mike Evans, yep, I was disappointed in him. He seemed to be not engaged at all in this ball game. And I'm wondering if it was

Trey Vaughn that was really giving them some hassles. The active zone that we had two passes really could have been just with a little bit extra effort, maybe a little bit bad throat, could have had two more interceptions underneath Jordan Lewis. As much as I keep wanting to discount, this guy came up and made really some key plays. I mean, he has some issues just by the size of him. Honest, I don't know how he does it. He looks like he's smacked nol out there run around.

But this guy still active, and that when you're that small and you have a good team around you, it's easy to blend in with that same activity. And he always did have activity, but it just needed help. The way we approached the ball player, the way that we left no way out when we with good tackling, we didn't see small plays turning into big, goofy plays that made us look so incompetent. You saw none of that. You saw guys getting beat. Now it's football, you're gonna

get beat. But you didn't see a lack of continuity from an entire defense. That's the kind of culture I wanted around here. You know, the flex defense. Come on, we're back in the secondary of giving it up back in the eighties, but we were getting ours. We were giving it up because it's just the way it is. But we were getting ours. You have to get yours, Bill, I always talk about that, you gotta get your turnovers

when it's time, and those want accidental turnovers. That was the turns because guys had their eyes on the ball and they were aggressive. All right, And let's get into more of that when we come back here on Mick Shots. We might be hearing from Mickey himself if he ever gets off his plane on the way back from Tampac. Mick Shots continues at the moment, Honey, big news. Gary, Are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, But the best

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got jealous. Those those shots that they showed to the Miller Lighthouse. It looked like it was a fun place to be to watch the game. Oh man, I tell you it was a good game, so anybody didn't matter where you were, it was gonna be fun. But it's great weather here. It was great weather here right yesterday. No humidity. Yeah, beautiful guy, And it felt that way when I got here this morning. Got off the plane. I went, WHOA did I get this came from a

hot Bandah? I was like sure, I looked up. Sure this is deep because it was not humid at all. So a great place and of course the Cowboys at that Miller Lighthouse will be open for the next road game as well. Great place to watch when the Cowboys take on the Chargers the next game a week from Sunday. Chargers, by the way, play the Washington football team to kick off the season. I can't wait to see how the how the Washington football team plays because everyone's saying that's

our that's our main competician for the NFC East. I have to see how well this defense. I'm sure it's still gonna play. That's still gonna play well defensively. But what's the change with Fitzpatrick coming in? That's I'm gonna be very curious to see. Okay, so big picture, where are the Cowboys now in your opinion to what they were at this time yesterday. As far as the chances of having a postseason this year, well, you can definitely say they had him as a division winner. I still do.

Oh you had him going to the super Bowl. So in your opinion, things haven't changed the actually what you expected. I thought that they would lose the way they did. I actually thought it would be by two scores. And we all kind of agreed that, you know, the cowboysn't been at the end, and of course, you know, Brady would make a play down the field, and it was a lot closer than we thought. But still the outcome

was the same. You know, you're not going to stop an experienced quarterback that wasn't talent, that won their game in a two minute stretch. It was that was just experience, That's all that was. Because if you looked at the Cowboys team last night, I still thought they win the game. I still think we may go O and two. You know that that is a tougher sell in my own mind right now, but I'm gonna stick with my guns. Still think we end up o and two. But this

team is ready to explode. They are. They are. What you saw was a team that's learning a new system. Okay, Defensively, they went up against you know, one of the better quarterbacks and athletes in history, and they held their own. They gave up three hundred plus years, yes, but they held their own. So what they did was they kind

of changed the narrative from everyone else. They didn't believe even those doubters are thinking like whoa, because of course they they, you know, hold Brady in such high esteem. The fact that you performed like that against him, that gives everyone pause. And that's where we already were in this room. So I saw a Dallas team that was in shape. Did you see how Tampa's defense looked a bit fatigue? They looked tired, and the boys were bringing

it to them offensively, right. I love watching that. We looked like we were in much better shape and it looked like we were the ones in control down the stretch. You are thinking more in the front seven or the back end. As far as that goes, I would say the front seven because the linebackers for Tampa they were they were They were blowing, they were blowing. They were have critical. Those those two linebackers, Lavante David and Devin White are critical to that defense and they were. They

have a lot of heart. They were they showed they were great players. They played extremely fatigued and they were still making play. They were so happy to see a running play. That was their reprieved because when they were trying to cover the past. The Cowboys had forced them to go into a zone a lot of the times because we were picking on the little cornerback over there, and so those linebackers had to work a little bit harder in that zone coverage, and you could see that

they were taxed a little bit. Yep. Um. So when what sticks out more than let's let's talk about different uh, let's talk about down the stretch. Okay, the the third and eleven Dak to cdee Lamb thirty one yards just a huge play, I mean, and that's coming through in the clutch. Okay. So now you're down there at the third and eleven in the final two minutes, No way you're gonna make that. And and you're down now into quote unquote field goal range at the thirty four yard line.

Did what about the approach once they got to that point? Well, it never changed that Tampa Bay uses their timeouts, okay, And and what I liked about it was we still realize, we still realized that that zeke could be used at that point. I believe we in we threw some running games in, some running plays in, and we needed to. We needed to at that point. I like I like that.

I like those calls down the stretch because that's softened things up in the middle, and they gave that even more more room behind those linebackers in the zone that they were playing. That's why he was able to steal move the ball down the field. See the overall game plan. U. Normally you wouldn't like throwing fifty eight passes in a close game like that, but against this defense and who

can quarrel with the production that they have. But having said that, when you get down to that situation where you're down inside two minutes and okay, they're going to use their timeouts, you have to get a first down at that point. And there's other situations where if you have a lead in your four minute offense, you have to be able to run between the tackles and get first down. And that's where they the Cowboys could not

get that first down. That extended to where you then are taking the clock down to nothing in kicking the field. I'm not surprised about that. I mean, you know, Tampa's a smart team. They're thinking just like us. I mean, they're already ahead of us. We're thinking about this post game. They already thought about the pregame. They knew that the Cowboys were going to eventually have to try and change it up, and they were always ready for the run.

The linebackers sniffed it out so quickly for Tampa that it was amazing that we sometimes got out of the back, out of our own backfield. So you've really stuck with what's been working for you, Bill, you know, don't You really don't want to try and change it right now. You know, what we're doing is we're having long handoffs down the field. That's all that are right, Yeah, we're going four and six yards, you know, little dinkers here,

dinkers there. And that's why the production was so good as far as percentage was concerned, which is Brady has made a Hall of fame living doing that same stuff and being patient and then hitting the shorts down. They were mirrors mirrors of each other at quarter hurts some Okay, So we're in that situation where okay, it's get the holding call that sets him back. Now you're third and sixteen at the forty yard line, complete to Cooper down

back to the thirty yard line. So now you're in position for zero lines forty eight yard field go at fourth and six for a minute and a half left. Do you think about going forth there? You just don't. You just don't. Did not either, But no one who's on that other sideline. Yeah, you gotta go with. You gotta go with is the Aaron Rodgers thing from last year. And that's what they keep talking about championship game. That's what they keep talking about. I still it's still in

that situation, fourth and six at the thirty yards. We're not talking about fourth and two or not. Yeah, in my mind, it didn't even occur to me that you would go forward and that there are times when you have to just go with the traditional train of thought. You know, you keep trying to get cute with it because of who you're playing against. Really, the only the adjustment they made based on who they were playing against was how they came got away from the running game.

And finally Kellen Moore was like, look, we're we're just gonna have We're gonna dule it out. Zee, just just be ready, man, Dak will take Dak will put you in position. You know you we're gonna have you been our workhorse right now, you're gonna protect the quarterback and we're just gonna dule it out with this guy because we don't have time against this defense to try and establish something this game. Forget the game plan. We're just gonna go manua mono. And basically that's what it was.

Because a defense like that, we'll take you out of the game plan. All right, now we're talking manua mono. Now now, Okay, Tampa Bay's got the ball, and I think there's not a soul in that stadium who didn't realize that Tom Brady is going to matriculate down the I felt like a genius because I told you this is gonna happen. Okay, right, we all said it in here. However, all right, it's second and it's twenty five seconds left. Okay, it's twenty four seconds left, second and ten at the

forty two yard line. Right now, you''s a sixty yard field goal. Okay, back shoulder, Chris Godwin, Jordan Lewis defending. Was it a push off? That's a push off? Come on. He didn't extend his fore arm, but he certainly extended his entire body and shoulder and elbow to push him off. And the only thing he did was disguised it because he didn't extend his arm, but his entire body leaned on him, gave him the shoulder. Basically, it's almost like a flip. He gave him a flip and he went flying.

He didn't just slip down. That wasn't a slip down fall. That was a you know, I've been I wouldn't say catapulted, but I definitely had help in regards to how quickly I went backwards. It was easy. It was an easy call. That was an easy come. That's fine. You see what was that last year or two years ago? Jalen Ramsey got that call and he flopped like he was playing European soccer or something. And you can't you tell me we can't get that call. That was not a flop

and that was not a slipper. You know, they get the call we got, We got that call. They called that on us. Were we at home or was that in the so far? Was that in so far? When Jayalen Ramsey right, you're so far? Okay? So they got that call at home? Yeah? Yeah, season opener last year? It was it was the home field advantage, that's what it was. Right. The referees gave him, gave him, gave him grace. Imagine if if the Cowboys get that call, then you shut them back. It's eighteen seconds left. It's

open unless Aaron Rodgers comes to town. Something right. Tom Brady's on the other side. Yeah, but he can't move like God, because you know we're gonna bring it. Man, We're gonna bring it to him. But at that point they just get shut back to what would be their own forty three. But they need to get to about the thirty five for a fifty three yard field goal. It's not like that. It's doable. Yeah, especially with Brady. I just just from the standpoint a theater. Okay, give

us some drama. Come on. It's almost as if the rest were like it was a foreguard conclusion for them as well. And so you can't get well, he's gonna do it, He's gonna do it. Let's see field, I'm not gonna be able to get out of the stadium. I'm not gonna throw this. That's when the narrative gets in the way of the real game. That's when the narrative gets in the way of the game. I hate that because we start giving people the benefit of the

doubt all the time. The referees are human too. Imagine though, if they've made that call, and now let's see if Brady can get him in a position for a field goal in the last eighteen seconds, I think that would have allowed us to win that ball game. I truly believe that. But like we said, we knew how it was going to end up. And when we had a feeling that the Cowboys would stay close, I never thought that the Cowboys would take the lead. I didn't see

that coming. I thought we would be extremely competent in the game, but I didn't know we would handle that defense as well as we did. Uh that through for four hundred. But I thought it'd being ugly four hundred. No, that was a master for four hundred. It was just the way they planned it. Uh. And like I said, instead of trying to run the ball, we're just instead, we're just bringing the linebackers up and throwing it behind them.

So we're getting four six yards eight yards. And when you talk about this core of receivers and tight ends, I mean you had catches and then you had yards after the catch. That's what I was impressing me. When Ceedee finally was getting stuff together. That was a huge play when I think he called a curl route and he turned quickly. The defenders had no chance right to saw that explosion equipments to get to and even Mary Cooper just in those web very just more of a

minuscule moment as we were marching. He gets you the ball, immediately turns and goes up field. There's no wait, let me see where I'm going. Immediately he broke two tackles and then getting up like five extra yards when he really should have gotten only about six yards. He ended up getting like maybe eleven twelve yards. All of those things. That is a team that is focused. Okay, they are in tune with each other. Everyone knows exactly what's going on.

You saw Zeke Elliott. Zeke knew it. By the time this game had had gone into the second quarter. He's thinking, I'm not getting a hundred today, but I can do some other stuff right and he it was. It was seamless. There was no bad body language, you know, it was only throwing his head in that one time he got he got knocked backwards and one of the livebackers came in. He threw us by the end, got knocked backwards and stayed on his feet and attacked again. By that time

the ball was gone. So just the effort from both sides. Really, that's what made it an exciting game, the effort from both sides. All Right, we're going to examine some more standouts from who stood out in Everson's mind of in the season opener, and we look ahead to the weekend as well. That's there are some great matchups around the league. When mix shots continues in a moment. At Smoothie King,

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to work. Back back to mick shots. All right, I'm gonna find this read does your Cowboys fandom go beyond the game of The NFL Fan of the Year Contest, presented by Captain Morgan is back and we're relaunching the search for one extra ordinary Cowboys fan who is a positive influence and inspires others do their love of the game. Nominate yourself or others for the chance to win a trip to Super Bowl fifty six in Los Angeles to

see the Cowboys take on the Kansas City Chiefs. Nominate today at Dallas Cowboys dot com slash Fan of the Year. I think I just nominated myself. He just did. That is a bold, bold statement. I love try that was your Super Bowl matchup? What right? Okay, all right? If you know me and you on the same So am I hearing that? We've heard something from Mickey? He's trying to he's on the phone. He is on the line now if we can have a meddlement. Hey, Hey, what's up?

Bag Mickey? Did you oversleep your You said that you were gonna be on my seven thirty fight out of Tampa this morning. What happened? It's a long story. We don't have We all got five minutes, bags man, come on, what's up? Okay? We need your take. We need I wonder if Beam is ready for this. We need a

parting mix shot from ready. So what do you know, Mickey? Well, um, you know, I kept I kept hearing things about people talking about this was a moral victory for the Cowboys, and you know what, it's only a moral victory when you don't think you can go out there and win. And obviously the way they played, uh, they thought they should have won, and they should have won. To me, Uh, they left and I wrote it in my column. I could count fifteen points they left on the field, and

it's almost like they beat themselves. You're first in goal at the eighth you can't come away. Was a field goal, Yep, you have a thirty one yard field goal. You can't miss, I'm sorry, And you can't miss an extra point. They just left so many points on the field. I guarantee you when they go back and look at this thing, they're going to be sick to their stomach that they could have gone in there, in that atmosphere and beaten

the defending world champs. And I'll guarantee you. And I know Bruce arians was against all this, all this celebration stuff, and he was trying to preach to his team this ain't last year's team. This is a new year or a new team. We hadn't done nothing yet, right, and they almost got it right between their eyes. Well, I like, I know what you're talking about as far as leaving stuff on the fields bags, because when Dak was rolling right,

Cedric Wilson was open. Came open a bit late, and you could tell that Dak's vision was a little you know, a little it was it was. It was compromised by two Tampa Bay defenders, one of them was covering someone and like I said, it came open late. That's when he threw the ball out to Zeke. I think Zeke got down to the two yard line or something like that.

If he would have either made his mind and got it to Zeke sooner or waited a bit longer, he could have gotten it to Cedric Wilson in the end zone. Either one of those I think could have been a touchdown. That was a key actually miss. Yeah. Actually after actually after the game, when he did his interview, he said that he got the ball to Zeke too late. Yeah, he said, by his time I decided that's where I was going. He goes, it was too late that I

almost looked like that Aaron Rodgers played last year. It almost looked like that Aaron Rodgers last year. Do I take off and run? Should I've gotten it to him sooner? And then all of a sudden he's in no man's land. I mean, you can go through this game and and not just the things I mentioned that, you know what kind of had to do with scoring, which I can give you five plays that any one of them would have caused the Cowboys to win if it had turned

out differently. It was that close the offense and defense. But again, you know, we talked about the defense. Looks like it was going to be better. They got absolutely no pressure on Tom Brady. H And you know, I know Antonio Brown beat U Anthony Brown on the forty seven yard touchdown, But he had all day to throw the ball all day. Bill. We talked about it when we did that segment with you out on the Bay River. He sat how many times did he pat the ball

before he threw it? You know you laughed when I said that, But no, no, that's what happened on that play. Here's the thing about that play, and this is why you need to know what's going on and what the tendencies are of Tom Brady. I heard Chris Collins was say it last year. Anytime Tom Brady gets on the other side of the fifty yard line, he's gonna go deep. He did in the first half, came and works with Brown, and in the second half he tried it, and all

of a sudden Brown was ready for it. In the second half, when they get on the other side of the fifty yard line, you give him a first down, a second is short, Brady is going for the end zone. That is the tail on him that goes all the way back to when he was a young man. When you get on the other side of the fifty yard line. We're going deep, and we're not doing it with the slot guy. We're gonna do it on the outside. That I know, and I don't even play ball anymore. Chris

collins Worth knows it. He doesn't play ball anymore. These are the kind of things that you got to be in tune all the time. And you know why he does it because you've now moved into four down territory and if he looks at it as an extra play and he might get a PI, so you really have there's no really no downside to that, and that's been his strategy his entire career. I just know that Quinn told the secondary that that was gonna happen, because if Chris Collinsworth knows it, and if I know it, I

know the coaches know it. Yeah. But then it gave new meeting to the Statue of Liberty plate. He stood there like the Statue of Liberty, no one around him, and had all day to throw the ball right. So for me, the defense, you know, we talked about it looked like this to look like that it was improving, but they still gave up thirty points. They gave up thirty points. Point big man, this is Tampa Bay. You think there's gonna come in and handle tom Brady like that? No,

how about giving up twenty eight points? Well, they did give up twenty eight points and then there was a push off, Mickey, Was that a push off? I think it was a pretty good shove. I think even the referee. The referee said it was a push off. He called it. I heard the analysts, look one, you know one twenty four? You know what when? When when they when they kicked the field goal? And I saw one twenty four? I said,

oh no, everybody did everybody for a field goal? Mickey, Let me ask you this now, because this is what's being talked about on sports talk radio. As you turn on your car radio and you leave the airport, all right, fourth and six with a minute twenty four left, fourth and six at the thirty, do you go for it and not kick the forty eight yard field goal knowing that Tom Brady's on the other sideline. No. My my thinking was you don't kick the field goal because I

don't trust the kicker. Oh yeah's a good one. Yeah, we have to do. We have to get So if you were if you were making the call. You would have gone for it, not because it's Brady on the other sideline, but because you don't trust that the kickers going back the field. And I think when it got to to that that fourth and six, I think you had to go ahead and kick the field goal and just hope your defense can hang in. But I don't know that. I was being so facetious, man, I ain't

trusting this guy, especially after his performance. Well, you know what, I had a feeling he would come through those bags. I was always worried about that in preseason. You know, when he's not kicking, not kicking in training camp, and it's like, oh, he'll turn it on. He only needs a couple of weeks to be ready. And then he shanks a thirty one yard or extra point. Come on, man, and then the extra point off the upright, come jesus. I think I think he'll be okay. Those bags. I

think he'll be okay. I think he got the jitters out of the way. I think their line is going to be just fine. That for the that was that was huge in his eyes. Now, no, it was that was huge for him. He gained his confidence back again. Yeah, so the big thing is he okay physically? I mean

it was it was it. There was the reason for the inconsistency because he's has a lingering issue there and the and was it by design they were kicking off to the just my understanding that they were trying to kick short because the one time they did it, they stopped them at the twenty, right, Okay, it's five yards and then got greedy and then they're not covering it and then Mickums made him look like a man that's crazy. Yeah, if we'll get into this next week, this this week,

but next week, but I special teams. Yeah, would definitely have to give them a flunking grade. Oh oh no, absolutely. The tackling wasn't good. No, uh. And and it set up some easy scores for them, It really did, it really did. And then and then what Tampa Bay was able to do with their punter um, you know, pinning the Cowboys down and their own end of the field

and several times and then making the field goal. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, all right, Mickey guy didn't miss his thirty six yards or didn't it's right, uh, Mick, and I believe he made all his extra point the temps. Yeah, okay, it was only drama on our kickings, you know what. And I was thinking, and I got to go back and look at it. I was thinking when I was flying, had they made the extra point at some point, they would have had an opportunity to go for two maybe right, Yes,

you wouldn't have been two points lead. You wouldn't have been two points behind or two point three ahead. What do you want now? You want to chase points? Now that late I'm chasing. So it was sport. Well, let's say it's fourteen thirteen, then a field goal. Cowboys took the lead at sixteen fourteen late in the second quarter. Tampa Bay, of course, came right back and took the lead right back thirty eight seconds later. It's twenty one sixteen play half, make it two plays, okay, and so

then a field goal to start the third quarter. It's twenty one nineteen. That was the four mentioned the first and goal at the eight possession and next possession, let's an interception then the Tampa Bay made it twenty eight eight to nineteen. So your opportunity, well, you scored a touchdown in your next possession and that made it twenty eight twenty six. So the chart, would it would not tell you to go for two at that point to make it twenty eight twenty seven obviously, because if you

if you don't get it, you're only down. I mean you're down three instead of two, right it mathematically it didn't make sense. Then well, Mickey, you got your bag right now? It sounds like it sounds like it sounds like Mickey got to his car a lot quicker than I did this morning. Mickey, it took me an hour and a half after the plane landed. We waited a half hour for the gate to open for us. We were early, of course, and then I had then I came in at a different terminal than where my truck was.

It took an hour and a half for me to just get to my truck after we landed. Well, to see you getting benefits when you show up at at two o'clock that early in the morning. All right, Well, we'll have plenty to talk about come Monday, because it's a great Sunday coming up. What time Monday one thirty? Yeah, we're going every day, every day, every day you're on at every day okay until further notice? All right, right, Mickey, who's missoo? Playing Kentucky. Kentucky. Oh, that's a big SEC battle,

all right. And you don't know who Grambling is playing, right Grambling, though, I don't. I have no idea. Okay, I know we won. Yeah, the state two tall Jones team. That's try out bragging right to the next golf tournament. I see him at all, right, And so that does it for mix shots, and we will see you again Monday at one thirty. Go Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.