Hangin' w/ Talkin' Cowboys Break: What Went Wrong?

spite of that, had a great holiday. We're back at the Star breaking it down, guys, and it's always it's rare, actually in the last several years that the Cowboys have a game left to play and we know what their fate is. So this is gonna be a little bit of a different show. We're gonna break down the game and we can also we can also go big picture here what's next for this team as well, although we

have plenty of time to talk about that. Yeah, like nine whole months, yeah least a few, Yeah, a little ways to go. That's a good I hadn't thought about. That's two years in a row that we head into week seventeen without a whole lot of you know, in the way of drama. At least last year was obviously good this year or not so much. I mean, if you go back to twenty fifteen, four and twelve, yeah,

not a good season. Twenty ten when Jason Garrett took over his interim coach, you knew you were out of it. But other than that, just about every year you go into Week seventeen thinking there's something to play for still and they found out by losing Nate it's over. Yeah, it's it's definitely over. Man. When I looked at this game, Manu and me and brought us talk, you know, we talked during the shows that we do together, and I'm saying and I never doubt it kJ Wright and Bobby

Wagner being bad. I never doubted that. I never doubted been it. But I did know their mental makeup was not right. This was a game that if the Cowboys was just came in execute it, dude, with ahead to do, and I turned the ball over that this was a game to be had because we and I'm not a mathematician, but eleven penaltist for one hundred and forty two and your total offensive output is one hundred and thirty six and the only thing that beat us with some bad

play calling and some and three turnovers. We should It's no way in the world we shouldn't be sitting up in him joking and having funds about talking about Bowl games instead of Yeah, where were sitting at Part nine? Unbelievable, go ahead, hard to win that way, I'm Brian, Yeah, I think you wasted a tremendous defensive effort. I think going into the game, the one thing and even though my gut feeling I picked Seattle to win and I felt like they were gonna win because of Russell Wilson,

it's why. And you know it really wasn't Russell Wilson. He made the one big run on a third and nine for ten yards that you know, I thought, Man, we're gonna see more that they didn't have a downfield passing game. We knew they couldn't run the football. They didn't do a very good job of protecting him. I thought that Rod Marinelli in that group played as well

as they can play against that type of quarterback. But for them not to get rewarded for that type of effort offensively, the strength of this team all year long we thought was the offense, and it really isn't. It isn't the strength. I mean, maybe it's a year when we go back and look at this and have that reflective show where we misevaluated a lot of guys we misevaluated, you know, And I think that if you look at this though, was the quarterback exposed during the six games

where Ezekiel Elliott wasn't playing. That's into something I think we need to look at itself. I'm not trying to throw Dak under the bus, but I'm just saying for some of the things that you needed to do. I'm the one guy came on this show and talked about Scott Linahan will benefit by having Ezekiel l a back. Boy, was I wrong about that? He really was? Well, Scott Lillihan, I mean and that and that. No, I'm just saying that that to me, you've got to find a way

to use him to open up other things. And I didn't feel like that they had a good enough game plan offensively. Now give Seattle some credit for the front they have, you know, for the line boxers they have. Yeah, they create turnovers, the punch out, all that stuff. But you know, overall though Seattle did the right thing. They knew that Dallas's offense was so inept that they even ran the ball on third down at times just to

get off the field. They weren't. They weren't, and they were like, Okay, yeah, we'll play defense today because they're not doing anything that'st us. It was not an overly aggressive game plan by the Seattle and that's we went into it. You know, I wasn't surprised that they lost, but if I was surprised by what it looked like because you mentioned it. Russell Wilson really had one drive where he looked like Russell Wilson. He's seventy something yards,

scrambled for scrambled for ten when he needed nine. I think he went four or five for thirty five yards and a touchdown, and he drew a big pass interference to put him down in the red zone. Other than that, I mean, that wasn't that wasn't up to his snuff. He ran for twenty nine yards and through for ninety three. I mean, if you tell me that's his stat line, I assume the Cowboys are gonna win somewhat comfortably. You know.

The amazing thing about it is, you know, a man, And like I said, you know, we've been brought us going back and forth between all but you know the bad words I was using during the game, and he said they wanted to keep it close because of Russell Wilson. I'm saying, yeah, I'm great witch, and because they believed in their mind, if they overthin seven with two minutes left, either way defensively or offensively, they could make the play. Yeah.

That's a veteran savvy team, a coach that knows this team, and they're like, we're not gonna try to make no great plays. We're just gonna run it. We're gonna're gonna play it by the book. You know, you hear guys, let's played this by the book. They played this game raped by the book and let us fall apart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Zeke kept saying it after the game. We beat ourselves.

We referenced, I think David reference earlier, the three turnovers, one pick six for Dak So really Seattle gets fourteen points. That's all the defense allowed in this game. So that's it. That's like Brian said, that's a wasted defensive effort. But I don't think you're wrong and saying I think all of us felt like Zeke coming back off suspension in this game was gonna kind of restore things off posively

the way the offense functions. Didn't it look like the defense did it looked like it was going to in the first quarter or something. Yeah, absolutely, I never I What happened was three and then again three and then a punch out. Yeah. You know, uh you you you've played I don't know how many weeks without Zeke and will ze Yeah, and I'm talking about Dad. You played and you would calm. Now Zeke get back and you

lose it for some reason. Yeah, you got to keep the same calmness because now you'd went out of character and it hurts you. Yeah, because wow, you know what, you know what and maybe this is a whole other thing for a whole other time. But now he opened himself up, in my opinion, for the consideration of like, okay, what do we need to do with his contract? What do we And I know and I know it's not

just now. I mean I shouldn't say it as that just that one game, but now you're in now you're in a state where you're going, Okay, it's twenty some odd straight games without a hundred yards. You know, it's I've said this a couple of times on Twitter, even as recently as like Sunday morning. I'm you know, I'm sitting there like his receiver really that big of a problem for this team, Like these guys can get back

on track, you know. The funny joke is like, there's no way all of them forgot how to play in the span of like five months, you know, because i mean even they had good training camps. All of them did right. Um, And then you see this and you're like, how do you defend it? Especially? I mean the twelve million dollar elephant in the room is you put a game like that on tape and that's the last real impression you're gonna make this Eagles game, isn't you know?

It's not a sure meaningful game, so that the lasting impression for the year. Of course, people are going to talk about. No, he you know, if you look at the big picture like Rob was talking about, and you evaluate the whole team, that's a position you're absolutely going to have to evaluate and you're gonna and as you said it, the elephant in the room is that, Okay, this guy has paid this to do what And if you're not doing what you're supposed to do, then you've

opened yourself up to that. You know, you open yourself up to that, to that that that scrutiny. And you know, I think there's a lot of guys on this team that have opened themselves up to scrutiny, which you know, and you briefly mentioned the quarterback, and I mean Dak Prescott did not play well. No, not at all. No, he had a he had a bad you know, I tried, I beg and I told everybody when that kid got hit the second time against Atlanta, I said, don't do

this to him. Yeah, that's the first thing hit in my mind, I said, because the thing that I called Zeke the MVP every time we get on this show, because he covered up all of my man's deficiencies. Yeah, of being a young quarterback. I'm not saying what he won't be in a year from now, but I'm saying what happens to most young quarterbacks absence of a run game. Well, and that's I guess that's the point I was gonna make.

Is I just you know, looking around Twitter, looking around the different places where you can talk about the Cowboys. There's a lot of criticism of Dak Prescott and he didn't have he didn't play a good game, and it hasn't been a season that was up to the level of expectation. But the second year player too. This game is a fantastic microcosm of just how bad everybody's been. I mean, the pick six is arguably the worst throw

of Dak's young career. Arguably just up there, just missed him right trying to dump it off, and just had arguably two open men in front of him and Jason witch right, so and so the reason I bring that up is I'm not trying to absolve Dak of blame. But his receiver gets stripped on his first reception of the game, his twelve million dollars receiver, let's maybe a poorly thrown ball, but still hit both of his hands,

bounce off for a red zone interception. Um his his offensive line doesn't do a great job of protecting him, His running back doesn't do a great job of protecting his offensive coordinator gave him no healthy offensive coordinate like this. You know, to sit here and try to pin this cluster on one person is a mistake in Maya. But it isn't that kind of where this team goes. Isn't it where all year long? It's hard to pin it on one guy. I think there are some games the losses.

Do you say, well, Garrett took the blame for the lost in Atlanta. There are some games that coaches didn't do that very good job. There are some games where it's easier than others Atlanta for instance, and then there are others where just everything falls. I mean, they looked at they looked at the Charger game and said, we got to do something the secondary. We can't give up a five hundred yard passing game anymore. Yeah, it's funny

you said that. My father in law and Christmas yesterday was talking to me about the Cowboys and the way he described it as a fan was whack a mole and trying to determine what's wrong with this team. It hasn't been just one thing every year, every every week. It's been like you said, they they made efforts to change up the lineup in the secondary. That helped. With Scander getting hurt too, they lost some experience there. But

those guys have been playing well at times. But like Dave said, sometimes it's the receivers, sometimes the offensive line. I think you've got to point out the offensive line. Oh sure, especially you know during that three game losing streak when Tyrone was out, he last one series in the game with the spring knee, Nate and Byron Bell comes in there. Da, It's not all on him, but Dak winds up getting sacked four times in this game.

He was under a lot of duress, you know. And you know, and uh, I got to tell people, you know, I used to fight this hard. You know. I ain't talking about the draft until but I totally believe this right here and and everybody got their pick. Oh my pick is what guy you can find in the draft that can come in here and contribute to this team in a meaningful way. I don't care what position is it. We don't need a kicker, Yeah, we got a kicker. We don't need a partner. We got a punt it,

we got a long snapper. But every other position is wide open in my in my book, I mean that can come in and play and impact this team. Because one thing has been proven over the last eight years that we cannot absorb one suspension or one injury. We can't we can't absorb that one player leaves and it's just mass destruction. That's that's disheartened. As a as a fan, I'm like, wow, we lost one guy. We get this guy,

but we lost this guy. Now we can't play like a game of jinga almost or like a house of cards. It is it is, And you know, there's as Nate said, there's there's multiple areas they can fix. Yeah, going forward to Jerry actually spoke to that on the fan this morning specifically about the offense that we've got to look at ways to maximize the skills of Dak Prescott, Zeke, our receivers. They still feel the strength of this team's the offensive line. We have a cut of it. Huh

do we have a cut of Jerry saying that. I don't know if we do, but the day after Christmas, Nate, We're only gonna know so much. Okay, Well, you know, man brought his work, you know, But I think that when when that that's where Jerry, I think that's Jerry's way of saying, Scott Linahan, why didn't you run the ball in the one yard line? Well, he actually said that earlier in the segment. Yeah, that he you know, and he says, look, I second guess a lot of things.

He thought they should have gone forward around the goal line in Oakland, he was right by the way. Yeah, but you know that was his feeling. To your point, Brian, about this game the other night, is that pound? It was Zeke. He's the guy that was getting five yards a pop for you earlier in the game. See. This is where I think the frustration level of the owner was that he was excited to have Zeke back, and he was excited to like think, okay, and Dave, you

sat there over my shoulder all week long. I remember I kept turning around saying, wait, look at Jacksonville running in here. Oh, look at the Rams running in here. Brian likes to mutter his notes to himself while he watches tape. Yeah, I kept seeing on the one two yard line teams running the football in and I just cannot believe. I think the direct quote was, well, these guys do not want to stop you on the goal line.

They don't. They don't, and that's the problem I had, you know, And yeah, I like to if you're gonna lose, you're gonna lose it all you know, you're your best player. Yeah, that's that. And Nate made that point in our post game show. He's like, how could you not hand the ball to him? How can you not do that? And to me, that's where that's where sometimes and I've been accused of this or not accused, I say it all

the time. Coaches take turn to the trainer, take give me the two stupid pills and a cup of gaate or aid and let's go. You know, I've never called a third down defense. I've never called players. But you know what, I always tried to find my guys players that could help the coach. And every time I mean, they found a player that can successfully get the ball in the end zone, why not use him in that situation. See, that's where I that's where I have a problem with

this well, and that's probably Brian. That's probably the hottest topic coming out of this game. Decision around the goal line, just real quick, just to reset it. Yeah, first in goal from the three yard line after the Winton pass. Yeah, you're down twenty one twelve midway through the fourth quarter. Yeah, they have an RPO run pass option with Dak and you can argue that Dak made the right read in terms of the way the front looked right. Did they score?

They didn't score. Mate. Now, the question that fans and observers are saying, Nate is do you take it out of your quarterbacks hands and say let's just run the foot? Who was your best player, Zeke? See that's what And we've seen the RPO backfire a couple different times. Nate feels a type of way about this. We feel. We saw the RPO struggle at opening day against the Giants.

We saw the art. This same sequence happened against the Giants. Yeah, and then the RPO failed against the Packers where you should have run the ball and kept the clock going, where they threw the fade to death. I understand in the in and oh my god, if you if you have somebody other than Ezekiel Elliott running the ball, I understand the RPOs. I do I get it. I would even and I'm not trying to defend it. Please God,

don't think I am. But it's it's worked. It's at times this year throws to Beasley, throws to Witton, But you did, but that's without that's six games a lot. It's worked this year. But without Ezekiel in the lineup? Am I right about that? I want to say they did it against Green Bay when Zeke was there, and then the Chiefs for that matter, They've done it in games where he was there because he's a hell of a he's a hell of a bait. This No, he is a bit. But the problem, the problem is the

problem is though you didn't need to be cute. And that's that's that's where I fall on it. This is a game, this is a game where you weren't going to have a whole hell of a lot of opportunities. You've got to score right there. You cannot. If I would rather go down, I would rather die. Yeah, I would die handing the ball to my best guy. And again I would trying to make fifty fifty throws. I'm I'm not interested in defending it. I think maybe maybe

I defended a little harder. If it's the first quarter, if it's a scoreless game, but you're down two possessions and in crunch time, do you need that touchdown? Keep it simple? Stup? Yeah, you know, Nate, I don't have the audio for you, but when we come back, I'll read you The quote from Jerry Jones about that faithful drive, the end of the drive in the fourth quarter, with the Cowboys trailing twenty one twelve, the ultimately lose and

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twelve the Seattle knocking them out of the playoffs. All right, Nate, I got your quote for you, okay, Jerry Jones about that drive near the goal line. Fourth quarter, Cowboys drive in inside the three yard line. He says, yes, hindsight, he would have run the football with Zeke. He said, quote, I think those are our best opportunities in those short yardage situations, even though they've got their lines stacked. I think those are our best opportunities to use what we

do best. Our strength is our offensive line. We've got Dak in there. Our strength is to make short yardage plays. Zeke is probably the best in short short yardage weapon we've had in many, many years around here. End quote. I was on the fan this morning, so run the damn ball pretty much. That's on the head coach though, too. Head coach has the ability to click over and say, Scott, what he got? What are we doing here? I'm thinking about going sprint right, No, Scott, we need to run

the ball here. Let's come on, let's pound it in there a couple of times, see we got let's go. You know, that's on the head coach. I understand that Jason Garrett likes to let you know, Scott linahand called plays. I get that, you know, don't don't always be an observer there and and may hey, you know what Maybe I might be totally wrong about this. Maybe he clicked over and said, hey, run the ball and Scott talked

him out of it. I don't know that, but I do know the head coach has to manage the game and he and that's a responsibility. There. You're seeing how your defense, you're you have got to feel like if you're if you're if you're Jason Garrett, if you get a touchdown there, you can get a stop and get the ball back and maybe score again. They've been playing. Yeah. Absolutely, the way the defense held held up in that game.

Sometimes I always give Garrett, I get on him about this because he doesn't know the condition of his team. He should have seen the condition of his defense was in a good in a good way. It's a good point like we Yeah, you can talk about Green Bay where you need to be. You need to see that your defense. Defense can't get a stop at the end of the day. They were up to yesterday, there were Sunday they were That's what I'm saying. It is a

head coach. You've got to walk over to the OC or click over and say hey, we need a touchdown now. Civil civil question. You know, if they were to kick from the three yard line. How how far would that field goal would have been? Twenty yards? Twenty yards? You had twenty one yards? What was the miss or yeah? Yeah if yeah, for you had a thirty four one and a forty eight both. Because Brides was saying, hey, Nate, you hey, they still miss the field goal. I said, well, Bridess,

now you're kicking the field goal extra fourteen fifteen yards. Yeah, I mean that that could have been a difference. Man, if you'd just say, hey, man, we ain't running the ball, let's just kick this field goal and we'll truck go for on side, right. I mean, it's just it's just too many scenarios that favors the Cowboys taking a chance and dominating this game and taking them just too many chance as they had. We the coach likes to talk about putting players in players in positions to make plays.

We'll do it. Then be that guy, you know, if you if you, if you're gonna put put your running back in a position and make play well. And also the thing that gets me about it is, okay, yes, the way the look was RPO. All right, you go to a pass read, I got it. But how many times have We seen them line up on fourth and one they did in Oakland, even without Zeke in the game, and say, we don't care. Yeah, our offensive line is gonna move the pile. And that's what they do with

Zeke in the lineup. What ze got the lineup they don't. They don't care if you're paying your offensive line the money they are. And I mean, I know Tyron wasn't in there, but Zach and Travis were. And you're you're you're paying your running back a lot top four money, five four point five five million dollars a year. Just do it like that's I could I could picture it with Crystal clarity. Jason Garrett said, you know, it's it's

hard to run in those situations like this is the NFL. Well, you supposedly have the best in the business in that type of You created doubt in the quarterback's mind on the throw because what you did was on the RPO. The best RPOs they've had this year have been with throwing the ball. Who Jason Witton or Beasley? Yeah, well Witton stays in the block. Yeah, Witton's block, and now you got Beasley. So what you did was, though, where the where the safety was where the safety was playing.

He said even in the post game, he said that the read wasn't clean. He didn't he had doubt and why even create doubt in his mind? See take the doubt away. That's the other thing. Okay, it's hard to run down by the goal line, probably pretty hard to throw down there with it'll get Beasley did a great job getting open. The problem Earl Thomas is playing. Yeah, you know, you get a guy flashes right for your

face on the read. The Frank Clark goes so far down inside and now there's the linebacker standing right there, so he's not gonna be able. Prescott's not gonna be able to run the ball. You know, he's not gonna be able to run it in like we've seen him before off the read option stuff. And now you've got Earl Thomas standing in the middle there in the in those lines of sight. So you've created doubt. To me,

what's the most simple thing to do? Hand the ball to Zeke, Let everybody far off the ball and try and score. It's been a theme for this year, I think is outsmarting yourself. That's what I'm saying. This was a time you didn't need to outsmart yourself. You know, if you want to look cute and all that on National TV Game of the Week and all that, do it when you're up by fourteen. Do it when you're up by seventeen. That's not a time to be cute. That's a time to go get the touchdown. Let's let's

take it. Let's keep as much time on the clock as we can get the points. And our defense is playing out of their mind. That's a bad play call by Scott Linehan because he should know what the defense is doing. He gets points there, he gets a touchdown there, He's like, damn, I'm gonna get this ball back. I'm gonna get this ball back with a chance to win one nineteen with how many minutes to play? Yeah, what did you see on film? What our receivers? Man? What

did you see? Because what did you see? I said this morning on Twitter, this quarterback does not have faith throwing a contested ball. He really doesn't, you know. And I'm not saying that they were covered every single play, but he's just not going to throw a contested ball. He's seen it clang up in the air too many times. Yeah, He's like, well, Dak's got this problem. Dak is not perfect. He's a second year quarterback. He's got a lot of he's got a lot of faults. But he's got a

lot of good things about him too. The mobility, the toughness, the willingness to try and make plays. Is his mechanics good. No, we talk about that. The coordinators try and make him play from the pocket. Yeah, he's played well from the pocket at times. But you you his receivers. You know, if if he's got no confidence in throwing a tight window ball, he's not going to throw anybody open. You know, that's a problem. It's a big problem. There's no separation there.

He throws a ball, he throws a ball to to Brian in the flats and eight yard game, he gets punched out. Here's a ball inside mean to Terence Williams. Actually made a couple of plays where he had some good routes, a couple where where he was able to separate and gets that's what you gotta have. Ball was a little high a couple time Terrence was able to adjust. But to throw a contested ball with these guys, every time it's happened, he's been punished. M that's a problem.

He's not an accurate quarterback. He's not accurate to I mean, now, the biggest problem with him is when he's not throwing well on the move. Now you've got issues. Yeah, that's his game. That is his game. And you talked about how they adjust, teams adjusted against him without Zeke in the lineup. Zeke comes back, maybe you get some of that boot waggle stuff going a little bit. Seattle did a good job of taking that away. Yeah, well, ball he threw, he threw a ball, he threw a contested ball.

He booted to the right, threw a contested ball to Noah Brown on the sideline. Noah Brown, can you know, couldn't come up with it. But the corners all over him. There's nothing there. He they bring, they bring Terrence Williams underneath, he's covered. I mean, it's you know, the things that the things, the strength of his game. When they get taken away, then all of a sudden, now you're in trouble offensively. So why not why not just hand the damn ball off on the goal line and get a score.

We bring it right back around. No, but that's what it really is. See coaches like to say, oh we you know, we want to just put our players in best positions to make plays. Okay, if you do call a successful play, or you do call a play that should work and the players aren't doing it, then that's something. That's something because that's that that happens. But but but this, this was inexcusable on the goal line because your defense

was playing well enough to win that football game. You could have got to stop, you could have got a ball back. Heck, maybe maybe they punt it to you, and all of a sudden, switcher get you twenty twenty five yards on a return. Now you're now you're in business. You didn't even give it. You didn't even give yourself a chance. How do you feel about the way Zeke ran overall leading up to that series. I didn't think he was in great shape. Myself started off fast. Yeah,

but do you think it's the game war on? I think I think he got you ever see Elliott come off the field football shape? Yeah, he's not running sands all. You can run sand dunes, you can get out of hour doesn't and run the sand was about a side hitting you. Yeah, it's a different story. I thought ball shape was. That's like he was nice physical shape. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it looked good, but football shape. No, how many carries? Twenty six? Is that what we said?

I think so I didn't bring my stats. I think I say that that's what I thought it would get. Game I was sending everybody said he about twenty six cares and people like, man, I give it to him thirty twenty four for ninety seven he had eleven. As you mentioned, Dave, in the first quarter, he wasn't even probably playing this week. Well that's another we could have next segment. What happened next week? Nah? Would but maybe not. I mean, yeah, you're out for six weeks, maybe you're

not in football shape. I thought I thought he was good. I thought he I would saying he's bad. I'm just saying, though it looked like how many times did he kind of take himself out of the out of the game? Honest, Like, I mean, I hadn't really thought about this un till we start talking about and no, no, in the second half at least two or three times at least that it's not like but it's not but six weeks off and what twenty eight total carries? I'm not going to

kill him for that. And you should. But they should have handed to him again one more time down on the goal line. How how similar is this game to to that Giant's game to open the season, with the difference being that the Cowboys didn't gift the Giants twenty one points. He was a shop or running at first. It was tough running for Zeke. I think he finished with one oh weight he had. His long on the day was probably eleven. Dak had accuracy issues, couldn't get

on the same page with Dez. They goofed at the goal line and had to settle for how many field goals did they kick in that game? It's nineteen. I think they've kicked four field goals and scored a touchdown. Yeah, sounds a lot like what we watched on Sunday, except that they didn't goof the hell up and give them basically fourteen easy, very easy points. It's just just inconsistent

and inefficient across the board. I know, we keep going back to this last series and it's a huge one in the fourth quarter or the one in question down around the goal line. But you know, you start in the first quarter and you look at the way Zeke was running. Yeah, it was it was their third series where they first got a field goal to go up three zero five yards, six yards, six yards, four yards, five yards. I mean, it was like he was killing them.

It was like, Okay, they're not gonna stop him. And it felt like at some point these five yard runs we're going to turn in the second half, turn into eight nine, maybe breaks a big one. But never had that opportunity. No, not really. But we're talking about you know, that goal line play at the end and that that first scoring drive at the start of the second quarter. They get to the eighteen yard line of Seattle and they go empty and they throw two passes and wind

up with a field goal. So I mean, if you want a second guest play calling, you can look at that one too. I guess the other well, the other thing that's funny there is and it feels like it happens every week for one reason or another. And I can hear Jason are talking about it is like, you know, the circumstances dictate what you do, so you go empty, you kick that field goal. Next time you get the ball, Deaz loses the ball on the first down or second down,

whatever it was. That's a whole possession where Zeke's not playing a role. Yeah, then you get the ball back and you're in a two minute situation and you're minimizing Zeke just because of the circumstances of the game. So for a variety of reasons, you've taken your best player out of most of the second quarter after featuring him for the entire nose. Right. The shame of it all is the shame of it all is we're still waiting I want to receive to make a serious play. Yeah, yeah,

two big your two chunk players, we're both pis. That was your best offense for a large stretch there, and that was Dak running and throwing for Hope because yeah, and it got to the point in the late in the fourth quarter was like, okay, you need something at that final drive, just chuck it up because they're calling that flag. But hey, Nate, to your point, yes, did get a big thirty three yard completion. Yeah, on the crossing route them up. What happened on the next play exactly.

That's that's been the issue with this offense, is just that consistency part of it is uh and out. You could say Dak couldn't throw a great ball but it was two hands with Dez and Argue should have caught the pass. My issue is this, we got receivers and and and I don't know what Sanu is. I don't know what the guy for Atlanta is, the second team guy for Atlanta, Uh, the second Mohammed Sanou Yeah, he's your two. And then behind Jones. Yeah, yeah, so it's

another guy that uh Cincinnati. They let both of these guys go. Yeah. Uh, and I think he plays for Detroit. I could be wrong, Marvin Jones. You don't when you're number two receiver, one thing you don't do is dropped the ball. Yeah, that's you know, because you're taking advantage of single coverage. Now my my question, I'm trying to find some answers. Did you see a lot of doubling and it gets out of received? Was this past game? Was they with they did? Okay? Okay, so what was Williams?

Wis Williams See Williams I didn't think was terrible? He was he was all right a couple first down if so. I'm what I'm trying to figure out. Was the quarterback just that bad quarterback wasn't good? Okay, So let's let's be honest, here, what option really is Terrence Williams in this offense? Four or five? Is he really a two? No? So I'm saying he's if he's your fourth or fifth option? Okay, okay, well who was it? I'm not trying to I'm not trying to jump out no, no, I'm a great with you.

Then Okay, that's and I'm trying to find answers. Yeah, okay, if he's if he's the fourth option, who was the second option behind? This is probably probably Beasley or what happened. That's exactly right. See, that's exactly right. I'm through with it. Is Dad's gray. It's this crab who who needs to be the guy? Who needs? Who needs to? You know what I'm saying if we look at the one one guy and it's taken away that you can't cover everybody.

And what I mean by that is you have to be an athlete at some point and say I'm getting over, I'm getting over. Yeah, I'm making this play for my quarterback. Because Tony Romo wasn't fortunate enough, he had to learn with subpar receivers. Yeah, then once he learned, he helped his receivers. Now it's time for our receivers who's been here for four years, three four. Now it's time for you to help the young quarterback by by some time, not all the time, but by sometime catching some of

these passes. Fair point name this can be. I mean, this is little big picture for two days after Week sixteen, we're not even technically done with the season. But that's that's a baffling. That's a puzzle that this team has to figure out. Because I can look everywhere else on this team and I can kind of come to a really logical conclusion about what they need to do. All right,

Your your linebacker depth was really tested this year. You need you need to sign if you want to resign Anthony Hitchins or draft a guy or bring in a free agent. You know, Uh, your your defensive linemen that have had successful seasons are coming up on contracts. You gotta tag them. You gotta figure out what you want to do with David Irving. Put a tender on him. You're gonna let him go for a draft pick. You're gonna bring him back. All that's really easy. Uh, You're

you're running back. He had a suspension, he's he's been overly scrutinized by the league. You're one strike away from big problems. You're one of your running backs is a free agent. All right, you need to figure that out. All of this is really easy. Look at your wide receivers. All of them are are under contract for good money. There there's not an easy way away from any of them. And yet I think we can all agree that that that's a problem spot for this team. Right. I don't

think Terence Williams was terrible in this game. He wasn't four targets for catches forty four yards, no, five yards. He wasn't terrible. I mean, is he was? That it was a problem I think lives that if if he's the best performance among your he was better than your one. That's what I'm saying. If that, if four for forty four is the best day of your receivers, that's what's

not good. See that's that's that's the Nate's point. I believe. Yeah, you it comes a point where you as a coaching staff for scout and staff, Hey you got every team Locke for Seattle. What's the other kid? Is? No his main receiver? Can't? I mean, I promise you and I could be wrong. But when Seattle has had a little bit better offensive line, ballwin has came up. B Yeah, when he's had a little bit better well, we got a little bit better offensive line with a young quarterback.

And we have not had a serious thread for twenty one games, twenty two games, we've not had a serious thread. No, and everybody expected Zeke to come in and return from suspension and make everything better and it wasn't. At twelve points, four field goals for Dan Bailey, I thought he was gonna help the OC, and the OC didn't take the help. Yeah, I really didn't. Didn't work out all right, let's take

our final break. We got one caller holding hang on, Nick, We'll get you when we come back after the break and continue breaking down Week sixteen. Look ahead of week seventeen as well. Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it, and your skincare should be no different. A long time locker room favored of the players and the official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas based Jack Black is the number one

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T is a proud member of Cowboys Nation. This is the Talking Cowboys Breaking streaming live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the official Dallas Cowboys out Hey, Rob, do you know why Papa John's pizza taste so great? Why? Dave? It's the ingredients, like the veggies that are never frozen in the pepperoni, which is one hundred percent Parking beef.

Better ingredients, better pizza. Papa Johns there it is. Thank you, Davy, Welcome back to Hanging with the Talking Cowboys Break one segment left, about fifteen minutes left in the show inside the SWBC Mortgage Studio. Thanks for joining us. Hope everybody had a great holiday. Wasn't the best Christmas Eve result you could ask for if you're a Cowboys fan. But well, let's check in with the film's up, Brian, I'm laughing at Dave's watch. I looked at it. It's not it's

not set Claw, it's not set a new watch. It is a new watch. It's not set. Did you just like put it out of the box on your wrist? I just grabbed it out of my addresser on my way to work and didn't think of one more segment. I looked at at Dave's watch. It, I grabbed it and I put it on and I went to work, and I didn't even think about the fact that it's what movie was you watching before you left the house? Friday at thirteenth? Why would I be watching Friday? Grab

a shirt with Jason? What's going on here? Everybody? I'm sorry, Dad, I just at the time and I looked down just because I didn't want to look at my one, Bob, you shake? What the sixteen? Wait? But when you buy a new watch, do you have to set the time? Or do they you usually have to set? He got his fresh out of the box. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

You didn't get his stocking stuff for it, and he just didn't even You know what happened is I wore the last time I wore this was in Oakland and it was set to California time, and I hadn't touched it since, and now I put it on without thinking about it. Okay? Is that okay? But it wasn't even close to California time. Yeah, it says midnight right now? It it was? It was at ten o'clock, right, and it's twelve here, it's twelve fifteen. Whatever? Why are we

doing this? I just I was just because I didn't want to look at my watch, you know, I didn't want to look down at my watch, so I thought I'd just look at yours. And then that's lazy. That's that's what you just say. It was to look at your own watch instead of mine. How about that? You know what? Nates? You know Nates though, Nates the guy. It's got a twenty five thousand dollars watch and looks at his phone for the time. He just worse than me looking at the guys watch across what I feel like,

that's what we all do now. I feel like watches are just decorated. It's yeah, it's an accessory. It's an accessory. I don't look at this thing to tell time. I just didn't want to be rude and look at my watch in front of you. Well, you got the TV's cut off because you sit in a stare at the TV's that's rude. And they got a show to do. At least. I don't look at my phone. Staff do that. Well, that being said, we still got we're a bunch of haters right now. I just checked the time. We got teams,

all right, let's go for it. I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean to draw your off side. Oh you're good man. We still got a call Kent who we got online? Yeah? Nick, go ahead, Hey guys. A long time listener, first time caller, uh Brian the NFL A Shirley Strange, Lady Nate A happy played birthday. One of my favorite all time fair players all time. Um Yester or the other day. It

was definitely a heartbreaking law. I feel like the Cowboys they've you know, they've done this past a few seasons where when they're when they're on, they're really on, and sometimes they just go out there and lay an egg and they they were definitely they're definitely a better team than than Seattle Seahawks. I'm not I'm not looking for the head coach to be fired. Um, you know, both

coordinators are really good. I think Mary Nellie gets all all that he can out of the guys, and um, you know, for the offensive coordinator, they can go on there and put up thirty points and then uh, you know, other games they just they just don't show up. But

I'm really disappointed with with dead this season. You know, when when he's having those off games, last last game is pretty much just shut down on the on the sideline, and you know, we've all wanted him to be the next Michael Irvin and uh, I was kind of disappointed down his motivation. I was hoping that he'd be pumping up the guys and getting everybody back into it. Um. So I think that the team really needs to look at a new number one and Ternson Williams after he

catches the ball, He's got to keep moving. He catches the ball, kind of looked at the marker and then he goes down. He needs he needs to keep it, keep it moving to his yards after yards after the catch, and uh, I'll hang up and listen. Thanks guys, Thanks Nick, thanks for holding in. By the way, he brought up Jason Garrett just wanted to point out Jerry on the fan this morning. Reiterated Jason quote his job is not an issue here at all. End quote. So Jason Garrett

will be back. I know there was speculation maybe Jerry would look at a head coaching change. Not gonna happen, but he mentioned he covered a lot of ground there. He covered Dez, he covered Terrence Williams. I'm gonna say that's that's about as complimentary as I could expect a fan call to be bait. Like, I don't know what y'all's mentions have looked like the last two days. Mind. Yeah, they're trying to they're trying to fire the security guards here at the Star my mentions, so yeah, I don't

know where to start with that. I mean, job status is what it is. I do. I mean, if you're reading between the lines. Jerry Jones has twice now said that Jason that he feels good about Jason Garrett. He has not extended that confidence to any other coach on the staff. He has not said, you know, I feel good about this guy or that guy, or I like where our offense or our defense is YadA, YadA, YadA. So you know, you can read between the lines with that if you want to. I don't know. I mean,

I don't know what that means. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's some type of change on the coaching staff at some point in the next few weeks. I think naturally they'll be changed, and that's just the nature of the business. Yeah, you have guys that are currently it will be not under contract. I'm not going to get into names and stuff, but I do know for a factors six or seven guys right now they're in

the last year of their deal. And again it's something that the you know, the organization doesn't speculate about it and or talk about contracts, and so I don't feel it's my place too that, but I do know that there are several guys I would not be surprised if there's turnover. I don't know if he'll come from the coordinator spot. Yeah, but several of the position coaches are

in that mode right now where they do. They're in the last year of their contract, and it might naturally be a way of the team saying, okay, we want to move on. Just give an example. We want to move on from wide receiver. We want to move on from defensive back, we want to move on from linebacker. I mean, there's others. There's ways to move on, you know, with could just because of naturally the contracts not being there.

So I do think there's gonna be some changes. I think there's I think this when we get to next week. This time next week, there'll be a lot of coaches around the league. Oh yeah, so back Monday. Yeah, the Cowboys will be able to say, Okay, what coach you know from another team, does Jason Garrett, you know who fits this? Who fits that? And then you can go from there. Be laughing about over there, Nathaniel, because I believe this. If a player can't get open, our player

can't do this, there's no doubt about that. A player can't do his job, you get rid of a player. If a player needs help and getting open and being who he needs to beat. As the coach's job. Get Das Bryant who me. Yeah, I don't know what they do with Das, but I do know this right here that you can't repeat what just happened this season. I agree, you can't slept himself. He's his his his performance this year has left himself open. You can't that for that

for that question, absolutely, and that that happens. But you can say about a lot of guys that that happens anytime in football. I mean, that's that's the business of the league. Is here. Because he's been hurt, yep, Okay, it quite impossible. But do you judge just performance off of okay, because the last few years he's been hurt. So okay, he had a down year, but the second your quarterback. Yeah, so you blame it on on on

the quarterback. But let me say this right here, just because this is what I do believe, is you either expand your route tree and be a better receiving and plus catch the ball. Are you becomes you become a role player. Role Players don't make twelve point five million nullus. Role players don't make that and It's like, I mean, you're either you're either overperforming a cheap contract or underperforming

a big contract. In the NFL, like how many guys are just like adequately paid and nobody really thinks about it. Tony Brown, Yeah, no, that's fair. Do you worry about paying the Marcus Lawrence? Am I worried? Like am I worried about their ability to do it? Worry about handing him seventeen million dollars on a franchise? Tach? Well? Yeah, really one year guaranteed one year. Who's been more consistent to earn their contract? Dez or de Marcus Lawrence over

the course of the year or this year? I mean, just to get the big deal. Now, now you could probably I didn't use Tyrn Crawford because that's that's a little bit of a different that's a different that's a different oversation. I mean, the resume that does put up to earn that contract is far superior. I mean, you're talking about four years worth. Were blaming him or we blaming the quarterback for him? I think, like I think, as with everything else in football, it goes hand in

hand a little bit. I mean, I think would be a better player with a more veteran confident quarterback, like a Tony Romo, And I think when they signed that deal, they expected him to have Tony Romo for two or three more years, and he got two games. I think

that's worth pointing out. But then I look at it at the same time, and I think about New York when Dak put it right on his face mask and it went right between his hands, And I think about Sunday when they were down near the red zone, and I don't care if it wasn't a perfectly thrown ball. Go find the screen cap where it bounces off both of his hands. Yeah, we're making twelve in his hands. Yeah, both hands plural with an S like I can't. I don't care if it wasn't a well thrown ball. Catch

the ball. Jeff has the same thing. Okay, you can say that this quarterback for Philadelphia is better than Dak, that's fine, But Ashanz, jeffers to me, is Daz He's catching the ball, brother, which, well, all right, go back one year. Was anybody Dez did not have a year that measured up of that type of contract, But was anybody killing him for it? He had what fifty receptions for seven hundred, eight hundred yards and eight touchdowns. It's a couple of games, three games, I think, and was

he was a deep threat. He had big gains against Pittsburgh, He had big gains against Minnesota. It was his last hundred yard game right this year. I think he went for one hundred in the playoffs, didn't he? And I'll say this, to some degree, no straight games, and to some degree, when Zeke is the focal point of your offense, you gotta look at number receiver numbers a little differently. He knows he's been a running offense. Yeah, you know. And I guess that's my point is he did not

have having none of this. He did not have mind boggling come out last year. Last year, let me hear it, doesn't it comes? Doesn't it come? Become a point though, where your number is called and you are that guy and we're saying, we're saying the same thing, saying the

same thing last year. He was not putting up those types of numbers to justify that money, but you felt that it was still worth it because within the framework of the offense, he made plays when he was called upon all that he didn't drop obvious catch at all that type of stuff, and then this year it just it hasn't looked anything like he is. He getting paid for an offense that isn't suited to his talents. But that's my point. It's not but he made it work

last year. Nobody felt bad about Dez. Last year. I thought everything combined between the rookie quarterback, between the injury, between the style of offense they wanted to run. I thought he was solid, like he was a good number one receiver. He gave you a big play threat. He made big plays when they called his number. He hasn't done that this year. He's right though, I mean when your numbers call, go make a play. I mean he's right,

He's yeah, And you look at the game. Would you agree with would you agree with me that the difference between even last year and this year is like night and day. Oh yeah, it doesn't even look like the same player. Like last year, he looked like Dez in an offense that wasn't suited for him. Right now, he just I don't know what he is. He's It's been a terrible year across the board. Let's one more call before we get out of here. Kent, Hello, Kent. Hello,

who we got? Go ahead, Brian Ken Who do we got? Brian? What's up right there? Hey? Sorry about that. Hey, it's a preas you're talking with gentleman today. I just I wanted to say a quick thing to a Cowboys nation because I know Dave kind of mentioned that, you know, your Twitter mentioned are um looking pretty you know, dumpster fiery lately? Um? And I just wanted to say, you know, it's it's one thing to take a game so seriously that we that you know that we had the other

day and that was an awful game. It's terrible. But you know, just consider this, Consider how great it is that all these people have the luxury of being upset over a football game. You know a lot of people in the world don't have that privilege, that don't have that luxury. So that's um, you know, that's someth and definitely to consider UM in the relative scheme of things, for sure. So it's a season and all that. For that,

thank you. My question is what would be your preference for the first round pick wide receiver, linebacker, Rollklan Smith, Calvin Ridley. You know what, what would you guys look at the strongest at the first round and I'll hang up and listen. Thank you, guys. One days to the draft week. The age old question. You want to make that call in one minute? You don't want to name the first round pick. Well, it's that's what I tried to get into a minute ago. Is he's trying to

get a position. I didn't. I didn't want to believe wide receiver was that big of a need. And I feel like I have to reconsider everything I thought. Um, and it's you can't just pinpoint one position four months in advance. But what about you picking in right now? Dave? I mean I said teen. Uh, I think it's technically nineteen right now. Okay, depending on what happened, you're on the cusp. N you can't be out ate here. You can't climb any higher than about sixteen. Yeah, okay, hear

me out on this one. If you sit there in the nineteenth hole, you're on the cusp of not getting a first round player. Yeah, you're on the very edge of getting And I've only done about twenty five guys right now in terms of grades first round grades, and this group traditionally will have between eighteen and twenty two guys on that board. If it's you're right on the cusp,

but not getting a first round guy. If it's me, I've been saying linebacker in safety for a month, and I think you have to throw a wide receiver into that mix at this point, having seen what we've seen, is that does that sound about right? Look at the look at the issues. Look at the issues you have at linebacker. You have to look at Shaun Lee's health. You have to look at Jalen Smith. What's his health situation? Yea, And you're likely not and Anti Hitchins is likely gone.

You're gonna have to draft linebackers here. Yeah, and you can't and you get and you've got to make sure that you hit on those linebackers. And with the with the thing with Smith from Georgia, he's a will linebacker, he's an off balls. They can get on the field, Yeah, and contribute. I don't I don't care what they are as long as but no Mo sitting on the bench for eight, nine, ten games. Taccoy, our guy, our guys played pretty well the last two or three weeks. Though.

That's because they're letting him play. Yeah, they're letting him play, you know, I mean, let the guys play man, You don't they these they did these these corners in safety, those guys out there, Yep, they sure did. The one guy they really didn't let play is is Switzer. Yeah. Surprised by that. Aside from returns offensively a lot they had him that they wasn't gonna take the tight end off the field. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it comes down to a lot of times. Right. So you're saying linebacker.

Just I want a firm answer from you. Yeah, no, linebacker, And I think, yeah, you look at the position, but you you made a good argument for wide receivers, so didn't Nate? You know, you made you very I think. But the problem is you've got you've got guys that are contractually tied to you. I don't know what to do about that. Yeah, they have a position, they can help us. I'm tired of getting one injury and we we can't play. I mean, we missed one player and

we can't play. Nate's going best available. Just play him. Yeah, help this team win immediately, so when we have an injury, we won't. We lost Sean Lee and all of a sudden, we're putting up the biggest bill boll Hey, well, you know what, we don't want to have the team without Sean Lee. Oh we got this guy back. Oh, but we're missing Tyron. Come on, man, you mentioned to Marcus Lawrence and I will say he's back. I mean, whether it's a franchise tag, whether it's an extension, you've got

to bring him back. Do you think that's worth it? I don't know. If I don't know, if you have so many tacos, Taco, don't do that. I see what you're doing. You're doing seventeen million dollars. So what else you gonna do? You're gonna tag him. Finally, you finally have a pass rush that is at least respectable, if not outright good, arguably your best defensive player this year. You're talent well, I mean sure, blinding him long term? Figure that out. I don't know. I'll figure that out.

Just but you can't. Nobody hates offseason talking more than Nate. It just bothers me that you got, you got where we got. We need a team for once, for three years where we just don't have. Everybody heard these guys taggle. Hey, man, let's part your game. War of attrition, Nate. That's how I understand that, but some teams get fortunate. What it's a war of attrition. Hey, yeah, tell you this though, Nate, a bunch of Philadelphia. They might have won home field,

but nobody's scared going up there and playing. Yeah, but nobody go up there. Yeah, what we're gonna be doing. Yeah, we're gonna up there. We're going up there. But nobody, nobody's scared play with that quarterback. Yeah. If ever there was a year where sneaking in as the six might have worked out, that would have been worked out. Fine. It was all set up too and it didn't happen. On Christmas Eve, Cowboys lose. They're out of the playoff contention.

We do go to Philly one more game. Cheese steaks for everyone. That's the plan. Thanks for everybody for joining us. Thanks to Nate, Dave, Brian Kent producing. We'll get back to our normal shows on Wednesday. See then, have a cheese steak.