Talkin' Cowboys: 10 Count!

chip and our favorite tip of Talking Cowboys. Welcome in to the s WBC studios at the Start and Friskill. Following a twenty one to six win over the NFC's phone New York Giants, Hey there, everybody, Hey, what's happening really fun today? Huh oh? Absolutely? Ten and four? Ten and four? Can you believe this? I mean, even going back to the early parts and we'll get into the

nitty gritty. We know it wasn't a pretty win. We're gonna talk about it, but ten and four is pretty remarkable when you look at where this team was a year ago, what the offseason looked like, and all the uncertainties that were surrounding. Sometimes you just got to take a step back from a season like this and say, wow, you've got ten wins and you've still got three to play, and all three of those are winnable as well. When I was on my way end this morning, I had

a little conversation with myself. I was thinking about where this team came from last year. And now you know, you know how I feel about this win. But it's a win. But in terms of where this team was last year and what they had to overcome, is coach McCarthy up for coaching a year. Man, you are gonna get just throw stuff thrown at you. I'm wondering because I'm wondering. I mean, I'm just saying I agree, I completely agree you talk about the turnaround from last year

this year. That's valid. Yeah, that's only means. I don't know about some of these other coaches, but I mean that, just that that thought process came in my mind. I'm like, he it hasn't been pretty, but it is what it is. We're gonna that. We're gonna notte that. So when the national media starts talking about that, we'll just say, hey, I'm talking Cowboys. Isaiah stand Back said it. He said it, he got it in the news cycle. Yeah yeah, like ray J. So you think there's members of Cowboys names

oh Man, Okay, two forty five into the show. Yeah that's too Jesus okay, I keep going quickly. So you think there's members of Cowboys nations? They're like, I don't know, Coach of the Year, pe. It's a lot of people who probably have their doubts about play call, not only play call, in game management, clock management, all of those things. He's been played with. But you're attending four. Your defense is playing out of this world. I mean, obviously we're

gonna get into the offense. And what whoa having birthdays? Nate new Birthday? Having birthday? Nate, Hey your birthday? Come on, Nate Birthday night. There may have to take Rob's camera for this. Absolutely once again we got this whole loud brother again going over the mountain to you having birthday many the Great Nate Newton the Great. So here's why are we always screaming. I don't know why we're screaming,

but the thing because we won. We won. But the podcast studio, So the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Arizona Cardinals, the Green Bay Packers. Those are the top teams, those are the division leaders in the NFC. Three of those four have been there recently, or at least are expected to be there. Arizona you could argue hasn't been

there recently. Cliff Kingsbury could be in that conversation. But the fact that the Cowboys are in that conversation, they were up at the top of the skit standings there. I think it does throw Mike McCarthy into that, at least into the realm of possibility. Yeah, I think if the I think if the Cardinals get the one seed, it's probably Kingsbury because he's a young coach and he's he's rising and all that, and they also are way more improved than they were in twenty twenty as well. Yeah,

could be Belichick with the rookie quarterback. But but that's you're right, Like he's he's done a great job. He's hired assistance that have come in and done. Dan Quinn specifically has done a fantastic job this year. I was just to your point when you started the show off. I was looking at December December twenty twenty twenty Cowboys were four and nine. They were this year's New York Giants. Basically,

so health helps a lot. But we talked about culture a lot on this show, defensively especially the culture is completely flipped. And now, right now, at this moment, it's the strength of your football team. Hey, you say it again. It's the strength of your football team right right this minute. And if last year, last year, this time I said to you, your defense is going to be the strength of your team. And they're gonna be the strength of

your team, and you're gonna have thirty takeaways. I mean, no way you would have believed that, No way from from where we had come from. And now and Nick Eatman's article are ready yesterday, just talking about how this defense is the show you want to you want to hurry up and see what they're gonna do. What is Dan Quinn going to bring next? What is Michael Parsons going to do next? And just man Tank Lawrence and the addition of him and Randy Gregory, all these guys together, Man,

that front seven is man. They are devastating. Question, go ahead, do you look forward? This is kind of weird. Do you look forward to seeing the defense more than you look forward to seeing an offense. Yeah, I look forward to the third downs now. I want to see who's line up, where, what Mike is doing? Is he dropping, is he coming? Where's Lawrence lining up? Like? Yeah, it's fun, it's it's it's everything they told us it would be.

And he kind of at one point the season you almost kind of rolled your eyes, like, well, are they really gonna get everybody back? Yeah? You know they actually were missing two defensive tackles yesterday and still got it crazy. Yeah, And to that point, I mean earlier in the season and even going back to the early parts of the season, the first six weeks or so, when Dak Prescott was coming off the sideline, you looked at Dak Prescott and you say, Okay, what's coming up next? Are they gonna

hit CD or are they gonna hit him? Mark Cooper? Is Michael Gallup? I guess during the opening game of the year, is he gonna find his way open? You felt that intensity. It's the same thing on defense now because at some point during that drive, someone's gonna make a play. And that was adamant again yesterday. I mean, I think one of the things that's happened. Is so

many outstanding things that happening on defense. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat because I don't know when trey Von Digg is gonna take one to the house. All right, I mean, well, way, this is something special. I mean, we're defensive Player of the Year. I mean, at the beginning of the year was a Trayvon Diggs and the what he was doing, and then it switched to Mica. But it's just managed ten interceptions in the season.

That's that's special, man. Cowboys with the first team since the two thousand and seven Chargers with one player with ten plus sacks and one player with ten plus interceptions. So it's been a long time since you've seen the defense like that. Can we throw Everson's name out there? Can we tell the NFL world to put some respect on Everson Walls's name, the great, the great Everson Walls. Because we're talking about Treyvon Diggs and the amazing year

that he's having and how he's killing it. But then when you look at that list, Everson Walls is on that list twice eleven interceptions and nine interceptions, Am I correct? All right? And we talking about Trayvon. He's in between those two right now. He's going he's going after Everson's record. However, Everson's done it twice and he's not in the Hall, and in an era where they didn't throw the football early as much, he's not in the Hall. Somebody please

put some respect on my unk's name. That's a great point because he was a finalist in the last couple of years, but not I don't think last year. But this actually kind of brings his profile back to the surface. So that's great. Yeah, and deserving trey vonn With his tenth interception. During the game, Micah's sack, Street comes to a close, which is unfortunate. Cowboys didn't really have the sack numbers. What they have one two sacks on the game.

I guess just one sack. They had a combined between Gallimore and Dorance Armstrong, but you didn't need it. You felt like they were in the backfield. Glennon had zero time to throw. I mean, Mike Glennon was not very good first off, but thirteen of twenty four ninety nine yards and three interceptions under a twenty five passer rating. I mean, what did you think about the way this defense played and you got to take it with a grain assault because it was against the Giants, but they

did what they needed to do and they executed. Now we've been we've been talking about all season, when is this defense going to be the reason that we win the game? We've been looking for that. We've obviously pretty much put it in our heads that the offense is going to be what leads this team to have any success. And now that tides a turn. I think it just shocks everyone to see the defense balling outline game. Man.

I mean, not the three straight road games and twelve turnovers in three I mean, come on, I mean that's outstanding. And so at some point, Pete, we've had this conversation about the defense obviously winning us some games, but we've seen this three consecutive weeks where they've done this. And look, the one thing I think, my pet peeve is with this victory is there used to be a time we talked about the culture difference between some of these things

and the cell phones last week last Friday. There used to be a time in the NFL where you win by fifteen points and you run four one hundred and twenty four yards. That's great, everybody's satisfied. But we win by fifteen points and we still got to defend the offense. And to me, that's crazy. I know the question was about the defense, but there used to be a time

where these numbers were satisfactory, but it's not anymore. Yeah. Yeah, And you watch two games last night, and you watched the Bucks get shut out for the second time ever in Tom Brady's career. Yeah, first time since two thousand and six. You watch the Cardinals get blasted by the Lions, blasted, just destroyed, one eleven and one Lions, And I think

it does highlight the fact. And Isaiah knows better than anybody in this room how hard it is to win a football game in the NFL, regardless of Again, they, like Keck said, they've played some quarterbacks that are not highly productive quarterbacks Mike Lennon, Taylor Heineke, and Taysom Hill the last three weeks, but they get the job done. And these stats, these takeaway stats are ridiculous. They have four takeaways yesterday, third straight game with four plus. The

last time that happened was ninety four. And what some of what they're doing defensively and Jerry talks about this stuff, and yeah, those are great, great dynastic teams, but that is their defensive line pressure is like championship level right now. It really, it really is. But again again it comes back to expectations of what we've seen this offense capable of doing what this offense needs to do in order to win games in January's and that's you know, that's

the other side of it. If you want to got it'd be a little more critical, and that's our job, I guess yep, and I am missed a critical And I think that the defense, obviously, the defensive line is playing amazing. The secondary is getting more opportunities because of the defensive line play, and you heard Digs you know, obviously allude to that yesterday in this postgame interview. But with the one glaring spot, I think we can't ignore, you know, I'm always want to highlight it. Run defense,

run defense, run defense, run defense. The Giants came in yesterday with the intense and with the intent to run the ball down the throats of Dallas Cowboys, and they were being successful with that. Now it gets to a certain point where the game gets out of hand and you got to get out the side of your game plan, but their initial game plan was being executed to their liking, and that is something that we have to figure out.

We have all our guys back in terms of the pass rush and and we were missing some guys in the interior yesterday, which obviously doesn't help you with your run defense. But that is an area that teams are highlighting now. It's just like teams on offense. When they're going to get our offense, they're like, hey, this offensive line we talked about in the pregame show the left side. We could let these boys right, we can put some pressure on them now on defense or like, where's the

whole at crap, let's run the ball. And that's something we gotta shure up. No, I mean, you make a great point about that, but you know, I thought that the run defense was solid all the way up until that thirty one yard run by Booker. You know that that was the one run that I thought that I looked back over the game and like, if you don't give up that when you hold him to less than one hundred yards, to be ninety one yards or whatever

it would have been at that time. But you're right, I mean, the run defense is something that has to be fixed, the big playability. You still have the questions in your head, is this a championship level defense? Yeah, And you got to continue to ask yourself that over the next couple of weeks because it seems like if we're gonna continue with the offense at this pace, you're gonna need that defensive output and you're gonna need them to get more stops and not allow those big runs.

I'm on your side, whereas I don't think the run defense was as bad as Isaiah's kind of eluding it to be, because you were talking about this in the studio and we disagreed in studio about this because Sequa Barkley was the game plan truly on I mean threw it to him, They ran it with him. He went fifteen carries for fifty yards. He didn't have a carry

than six. He was done. They destroyed him Without Tristan hill in Osa di Gizo, who arguably aren't some of your better defensive tackle strengths in terms of stopping the run. Booker had his lumps. He was able to run a little bit better, kind of like that changeup of Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollardy was a changeup, and Booker definitely had the thirty one yard run. I believe he had another one

that was like fifteen or so. I feel okay with how the defense played yesterday, But again, this is against a struggling Giants offense, against the struggling offensive line. If that's up against let's say, Denver, it might have been worse. If that's up against some of these other teams that can run the football a little bit better, might have been worse the Green Bay Packers. Let's just say that.

I see where you're coming from. And it kind of goes back to that conversation of is it expectation or is it just unsatisfied fans. It's definitely the expectation at the point. You want them to be able to stop everyone on the run. But they did stop the Giants yesterday. Yeah. No, I mean what the main priority they had was obviously stopping sae Quon Barkley, and they did that, right, that was the number one model. If we bought up se Kuon, we went boom facts. Okay, but I don't like those

little holes. I just personally I don't like those little holes because for the Giants to come in and say we can run the ball on you, Like, what the heck? Yeah, are you serious? Right now? What's you know, what's the stop the dog on you know, Green Bay from coming in with Jones and dealing and saying, let's see, I figured that out about you, ASA, is that you're not

You're you're looking to the future. Yeah, you're not. You're not even dealing with right now right And the whole time I've been thinking that you're dealing with right now and that ain't where you are you're talking about I don't know, yeah, same page now, yeah, all right. So in defending a win, uh and the and the defense, I'm just saying, like, man, if you can do that against SA kuon Barkley and bottle him up, what's the say who else in the NFC that you're worried about?

From a running back standpoint? Green Bay obviously has Jones? Yeah, and who got hurt last name? I'm not and again I'm not when when we talk about this NFL, I'm not so concerned about the talent at the running back position. I'm more so worried about the schemes. Right, I'm worried about the schemes because I honestly think that in this NFL they're running backs that are substantially better than the

other running backs. But for the most part, if you have a solid running scheme, you can plug and play. You can plug and play. And I truly believe that San Francisco exactly, especially when you have a quarterback who

can throw the thing all over the play. So, yes, you're asked, absolutely correct, I am like my competitive level is is I don't I don't know to make people more competitive than me, right, So when I think about competition, I'm thinking about what is it going to take to get the ultimate goal, like satisfaction and get into the playoff. That's not satisfaction, right. We might be in the playoffs as of tonight, right, but we don't. That's not satisfaction.

What is the ultimate goal, and that's to get that dog on ring. So when you start thinking about the areas that you need to shore up, who are the teams that you were that you may face that you have to face in order to get that dog on ring? And is that level a player that you currently at right now good enough to get you there? And the answer has to be no. In certain areas now they're other teams are gonna have their off days too. Yeah, right, they're not gonna be They're not gonna be one hundred

percent on every single thing that they're doing. But that's that's the approach that you have to take Tampa Bay yesterday. Not on there, Absolutely not at all. It was ever a point in this game where you felt as though that the Cowboys didn't have control, No, and we're gonna get into the offense. But I thought it in certain spots it was reflective in the play calling where they felt like, ah, we don't have to go too deep in the bag necessarily because we just take the points,

don't take a sack. I'm thinking of the third down before halftime. Yeah, I didn't feel like it was And look, I mean that's the run defense stuff. That's the kind of thing Dan Quinn's gonna point out in the film room today is that we gotta sharpen this up. We

gotta sharpen that up. To your point, you take away that thirty one yard run by Booker and it's I think it's four yards of carry that they got in the game, but it counts, you know, the fifty eight yard run by Tony Pollard in New Orleans changed the game for the Cowboys. Didn't run it really well outside of that, but it counts. So you get in the playoffs,

you got to tighten those things up. No lots of good points all over the place, because I mean that's the thing is the offense still hasn't hit that ceiling that we've seen them hit previously. We're gonna talk about that when we come back on the other side of the break. Can this Cowboys offense continue to take positive steps after yesterday? Because I think yesterday was a positive step and we'll tell you why. Well, we come back

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Robs show up with like the sleekest wallet week. It wouldn't be that way if you went to Caliber Collision. You know what good now that we do these reads or do you do these reasons? You know obviously represent on the show. I am seeing all the Caliber Collisions when I'm on the road. Oh, they're everywhere, They're everywhere. I saw one in DC just driving down the highway. Yeah. I was like, damn, they listen to talking Cowboys. When I hit on thirty five North, I see like three

of them. Wow, they have a lot of real estate. Good job, caliber collisions. They've been all over the place for quite some time, and they they they're very adamant about advertising in sports. It's the Cowboys, and they do it at baseball, basketball. See it all over the place now. But I'm right there with you. But glad you're with us here on talking Cowboys. It is a victory Monday. Cowboys are ten and four and thanks to the Lions, thanks to the Saints that a Will Ferrell, not so

much to the Ravens. They almost did your favor. They almost got you there. But the Cowboys are the number two seed in the NFC at the moment, and they are pretty much a win, a tie, a loss, I mean one game away. Their magic numbers at one for the NFC East Division, so plenty to think about. What would it take to have the number one seed at that exact just looking at it, it all it would take is for you to win out and for Green Bay to lose one. That's all it is. They got left.

They've got hold up. I just had it, Miss Chris, She's got the Browns Cleveland yet Browns next week. Then they've got Minnesota in week seventeen at home, and then week eighteen they're on the road against the red hot Detroit Lions. That'd be two of those three are tough. Now, which two the Minnesota and um, yeah, and no in the Browns Cleveland, but they just beat Arizona thirty to thirt Cleveland. Cleveland is if they can get that defense is nasty and it is. That game is indeed in

Lambeau as well. So they've got two of their last three at home, much like the Cowboys do. Um, it's gonna be tough to see them up ended. But it is the NFL and we saw it just like it was yesterday with the much rather have our schedule than theirs. I would agree with that. Maybe the Cardinals, that's tough. Cardinals is gonna be tough even with their injuries. Philly

game in week eighteen, well, Cardinals game too. Cowboys have not swept the division since nineteen ninety eight and against Minnesota, UM yeah, I just that game up. There is always a pan the end of it. Yeah, but he said, I think Heckma was the one that pointed it out back in But schedule release time in May, and he was like, oh, of course they're gonna throw us in Philadelphia in the middle of January, and not even December. January,

it's the second week of January. They're gonna throw the Cowboys up in fil and hopefully we have it all locked up done by them. Yeah, wepe, Yeah, that would be nice. But first round by is everything, man, especially this year, especially everything now that they've moved into the seven team format. You, I mean, only one team gets that buying two games two game win streak is a lot better than a three game win streak when it

comes to the playoffs. Would much rather only have to win two That it's is It is a game changer, So you don't care about the rust stuff, but rest first rust and that No, heck no, would you know the level of competition that you're gonna have from the first week of playoffs up into the NFAC Championship. You want to play two games. You want to play one game NFC Championship. That's all. You want to do one

game NFC Championship. You do not want to have to go through one two games and then go to that championship game. Does that? How does that work with Tampa beating us as far as the time. That's why I asked that question. Yeah, it's conference record, right, it is, right, Yeah, So it's a three way tie. It's conference record. If it's head to head, it's I mean if it's one of two teams, meaning like and the Cowboys have the

best conference record out of anybody in the NFL. They're eight and one against in the NFC's undefeated in the NFC since the opener, since the open two, Tampa eight straight against the conference. Green Bay's eight and two. Tampa Bay is six and four against the NFC, so all four of their losses have come in the conference. And then Arizona's also six and four. So Cowboys look really good in terms of tie breakers. You just need that one more win and then also you gotta talk about

business away. God man, they were one play away from getting it done. So you're watching it like this, My wife, My wife is trying to talk to me. I was liked on hold on, hold on, hold on hold on right now. If the if the season were to end today, the Dallas Cowboys would be the two seed, Green Bay would be the one seed with the buy the two seed would play the seven seed and that's the New Orleans Saints at the moment, which we saw what their

defense did yesterday. That by man, so you want that by San Francisco's the sixth seed, Los Angeles five, Arizona four, Tampa Bay three, and then of course Dallas team. So that by that Saints win looks a little bit better after last night. I think it definitely there going into New Orleans. The defense is really good. I'm not saying the offense is where it needs to be, but that winning that game three straight road wood runs are impressive.

Struggles with New Orleans they struggled last year. That's the That's the thing that's erie about them losing too to the Saints. This year. They look it looks just like last year. They struggle with the les. You know, I told Nick on the plane, I would maybe it was Nick. I said, it's interesting because if you beat Arizona, you

actually lose a seed. What how does that happen? Well, because right now you're tied with Arizona Tampa Bay and uh it's US, Arizona Tampa Bay all the same record, right, Yeah, Okay, Well if you beat Arizona, now you and Tampa Bay have the same record, and it's head to head, it goes back to head to head, and you flip, what why what about conference record? Why would you go back to head when it comes to head? Okay, the first the first tiebreaker is head to head. If it's a

three team, does that make sense? Yes, then it goes to conference record because there's three teams involved. If it's two teams, it's head to its head to head Tampa Bay. We flipped tyrone, Willy, how about that? That's very interesting, huh because yeah, right now, since it's three teams, it's conference right. Wow, that's wild. So if you if you get to head to head, my brain hurt. Thanks Chris, it's crazy. Yeah, thank you for pointing that out, because

that's prettybody that week. All right, let's talk about this offense. Cowboys yesterday running for two or excuse me, running for one hundred yards one twenty five to be exact. And they also threw for two hundred or over two hundred. Dak Prescott two seventeen, a touchdown, no interceptions, had his quarterback rating back up. Heckmo, when you look at this offense, did you think it was a step forward to getting back to the explosive side as much as it was

just another game against the bad defense. Man. I think you see the difference immediately on the offensive line, what Connor Williams did being able to show up and make sure that we could run the ball. I think Zeke, when we talked about him all week and his health, and that's the first time that we've seen Zeke play that he actually looked healthy. And I don't know, man, I don't know much about plantar fascitis and all that, but it don't look like Tony Pollard has any residual

going on with that injury. But look, let's just deal with the elephant in the room. The passing game. It still doesn't look like it's on track. Dak still looks as though he missed some throws. But there were some key drops in this game, guys, that you know you cannot ignore. And there's so much just being made a by QB percentage and YadA, YadA, YadA. But when you drop the ball, when you have bad throws like that, and also defenses are just saying, dude, you're not gonna

air us out. We're gonna take away these deep passes. We're gonna try and let you take everything underneath. And you saw a certain point. I don't know if it was the second quarter, but they're jumping those slant routes. They know that the Cowboys are trying to get to the middle of the field. But Shultz drift kings, but Shultz, somebody, somebody came through clutch And finally we've been begging with the tight ends to have some you know, some effect on the game. I think even Sprinkle uh, he had

a few catches that were key. Um. I think the blocking was a little bit better, but still, man, I think we still have some things to fix, and we have time to fix them. Agreed. Agreed. I think the drops have to stop. I don't know. I know there's probably two of those drops. I think CD said that he couldn't see because of the shadow, the shadow and the sun kind of coming through. I mean that's what he said. I'm just going off of what the visual.

So two of those drops and he has he has a three four total, rob is that an official number? He said three? CD had three two seems sun related. One was yeah. One word he tried to one hand. It looked like yeah, exactly oh three for CD. I was talking overall. I want to say there was probably four or five, yes, at least four. And if you have those four or five, the two seventeen looks a lot. He's probably yeah, yeah, exactly, So those drops have to

go away. Uh. To Heckman's point, even with those say take those drops out of it, Dack, still it doesn't look like Dack. And it was better. It was better his his his movement in the pocket, and when we're watching the game live, his movement in the pocket was substantially better. He looked more compete, he looked more confident moving into pocket. Now his decision making was still had a little hitching the guinea up. Okay, he had a

little hitching to guea up. But I was I was very elated to see his movement in the pocket, you know, being a lot better because it positions you as a quarterback. Your footwork is better. You know the play where he moved into pocket and then threw back across his body to gallop. That was an amazing play. Nobody's looking at that play. That play is freaking tough for in terms of how he moved into pocket, working his way to the left and throwing back to his right. That was

huge in terms of his confidence. And I hope that he he circles that plays like okay, that that looks like me and right, and he allows himself to really build off of that play. Yeah, there was another play too, moving to his left, pocket breaks down and he's able to buy time and throw to the he was to the left the CD quick completion on third down keep the drive going. I was like, that's that's Dak's command and poisons move and all that. So that, yeah, encouraging

run game helps. I think that probably helped him kind of feel a little more rhythm with the offense. We got to talk about the red zone. The red zone is still a huge problem. They were two of five in the game yesterday, one for six the week before, three for eleven the last two games, and I don't I'm not sure why. I don't know. I think ultimately though, Kellen Moore has got to scheme some things up to figure it out. I mean, I think his job as play caller and he talks about this kind of stuff.

We'll talk to him today. They've got to figure something out schematically to get guys open to do it. But heck Wright like generally shell coverage giants making him throw sideways, making him throw underneath. And that's why those drops are big because when you those chances present themselves where there's some holes in there, want to see these drops that would have been a huge completion twenty thirty yards. He might have still been running, So you can't have that.

I think Kellen Mooren in again, this is in my opinion, I believe that Kellen Moore is resting assured too much into these guys' ability to get open and just just straight up routes routes on air right, just being a line up and say I can run a better route than you can defend. I think he has to get back to some misdirection. He has to get back to some switch releases, some bunch sets, things of that nature

to create confusion within those defensive schemes. Because right now he's literally just lining up and saying, okay, running this route and you should win. And that's the thing that really surprises me because you would think that that's what's being handled from Wednesday to Sunday from you know, those are the reps that these guys are taken. Whether you don't have a padded practice or not. Like you said on air, you just have to make sure that we

are executing that which is not executing well enough. And you see that. I've seen a few times where last week the past that was intercepted by the linebacker for the pick six, he went right back to at this game and it was tipped by the linebacker this time. Just not able to drop that ball in the way that they're making him throw the ball. It's literally those throws that are in between defend and I think we're having problems with those. And you saw that on the ball.

They're saying that the ball got caught up in the win on the one to Michael Gallop on the sideline, but again he's having to drop that. That's what they said, Isaiah. Come on, now, he got caught in the win, but it was behind him and it was in between two defenders. But those are the kind of players that you have to make in the playoffs. You have to make those

in order to move the chack. You get maybe two or three os a game, right, and they seem I mean, yeah, in the playoffs, you're right, like they seem content not to have to force it down the field because I think they they didn't have They had plenty of confidence that they could win this game with twenty points, which is kind of what they've been averaging in December. Offensively right now three though, No I know, but I'm saying that that's a credit to their defense, so that there,

Do they feel like we don't have to force things? Yeah? Absolutely? With that being said, do you feel like it is a conservative effort to be conservative to take your foot off the gas? Is that something that Kellen Morris thought about as Hey, we went deep into that bag and they're really parts of the season to see what we have to go back to the workshop. Do you want to come back to me? Needs to go back to the workshop and low it up before Christmas is Saturday,

and he's a low back up. Get back ready to build that bag back up, because I don't think that's the case. I don't either. Somebody looking at it might say, oh, maybe they're just saving a little bit, but I know what you're doing. You're playing on words here. But how did you feel about the play calling at the end of the first half. Oh, I did not like it.

I also didn't like the fact that they let the clock run down and they kicked the field goal and called the time out, calling time out there, you're inside, like, what would have had ten seconds? You would have nine seconds? Take one shot to the zone, falls incomplete, It falls incomplete, Trust your quarterback to not turn the football over there,

and then go for the end zone. Yeah. I wanted to see a long drive, sustained, methodical working down the field, and that needs more tension than this getting Because when I remember we watched that live, I was yelling in the Doggon studio, I'm like, what the heck coming time out? You got ten seconds, you got one shot to the end zone. If it's if it's there, freaking take it. If it's not there, throw it out the back of

the end zone, and then kick a field goal. The fact, the fact that you just let the time run down and just say we're gonna kick a field goal. But what what is that? What does that communicate to your team in terms of your confidence level? But would that have been the case if it was the same scenario, same timing, same score, and it was the Arizona Cardinals the Green Bay Packers on the I don't give a dog all I would know if it would be But in your approach. I don't care who your opponent is

in your approach is simple game management. It's simple game management. We got ten seconds left. Guess what we got timeouts to burn? Freaking call the time out. We're taking a shot. We're taking a shot now, I'm I'm Now it's up to me as a play caller to put us in a position to have a nice shot at the end zone and make sure that hey, you got you don't have two reads. You know it's not one to two. If you got one read, if it's there there, drive it to them, get to touchdown or guess what it's

gonna be incompletion, and now we still have the field goal. Right, You don't play around, get all all all creative in that scenario. But I did not like that he just let the time right now, because that is communicating to you guys. Yeah, let's not let's not risk anything right here. Let's just go ahead and take these for sure points with an offense that needs I mean, look at him

versus hardball last night. No to two different sides. Now, that's a great point, and I'm only asking for perception wise, you're saying that that can be perceived by your team. Is that a lack of trust in your offense? But what if it says I have full trust in my defense. If you're up fifteen to three, you're not. You hadn't. They hadn't gotten anything going at that point. They didn't feel threatened. They I don't feel threatening, So you don't, So you don't want to No, No, I know what

you're saying. I know, and I agree with. However, what is your job as an O coordinator school to ensure that you get points? Right? And it's too ensure that you get points. So that's getting the field goal clocking right down to three. That's ensuring that you get points. But you're also your job is to get as many

points as you can. So get as many points as you can if we have an opportunity to and guess what, we make sure that we have the play call as such that we don't take any point points off the board. Yeah right, So I'm gonna take my shot, but I'm gonna take a shot that is that is a high percentage play and if it doesn't score, then it's out of bounce. And guess what, then, I still ensure that

we get our three points. And that's all. I was asked, that's all I was looking at in that scenario, and it I was frustrated because I'm sitting I don't give a dog on'y. If we're up by sixty, you still take your shot. Mike was asked about it. He said, we were right on the threshold of the yellow zone. Instead of going one more play and then kick it, I just wanted the three points there. I wanted to make sure we got the three points out of there.

What's three points even automatic at that point in the ball game. But by saying that, read that last part again, I just wanted to what. I just wanted to make sure I got the first three points out of there. So by not taking a shot, you're saying, you know what I'm saying. By by not even taking an opportunity to get a touchdown, you were threatened by the fact that something bad may have happened. The only thing that gives me bubble guts about that whole thing is the

message that you're saying. They're sending the message that you don't trust something you know. And I think that you talk about conservative play calling and the fact that this team up until that point was completely dominating this game, and the Giants had no rhythm at all on offense. I think it. I'm personally thinking that maybe it sends a message that we're putting this on our defense to carry us through it. They took up. Don't you flip that.

He just told you in that quote that I wanted to ensure that I got three points, so by taking a shot at the end zone, I would have ran the risk of something bad happened something. That's what he's saying. Something bad did happen on a previous drive third and four earlier in the second quarter, ball on the Giants twelve. He got sacked for a twelve yard loss. Yeah, that's true, and it forced them into a forty two yard field goal with those conditions, and he just let's just take

the point. That's because a lot of the players that Keller Moore's calling right now. We talked about this in studio too, is that the plays are too long. The duration of the players are entirely Yeah, these guys are taking it's taken too long to develop. Dack's having being forced to hold the ball and on compounding the issue of him not making sound decisions and quick decisions, he's holding the ball and waiting for guys to get all the way open. All right, So that's the issue in itself.

But the fact that you didn't say, the fact that he said, I want to make sure I got out here with three points. Bro take your shot, drop back, get the dog on snap, take a shot on a fade route. If it's they're awesome. If it's not out of bounds, let's kick the dog on field goal. But you took a shot. As as much as I agree with everything you just said, I still think if this was a different scenario, if this was a different week, I think it would be different. I'm not saying that

should be the case Tooey. You play the way you play all the way through, all right, don't play down to your opponent. But at the same time, I feel like, if this was a different week, at different scenario, I think it would have been a different so hard I was like, what, hey, hey, are you letting it right down to three seconds? Are you taking a shot? I'm taking the shot. Are the shot? Ye taking a shot? Thank you very what's the risk of that thing? All right?

When we come back, it's Smelly Sticker time. Who gets our player of the game. And our helmet stickers this week as the Cowboys get their tenth win of the year. Here on Talking Cowboys, I want to use what the pros use. How about the official men's skincare brand or the Dallas Cowboy Jack Black. Right now you can get to Jack Black Starter, a curated collection of Cowboys locker

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Cowboys Way, Copyright twenty twenty Bank of America Corporation. Before there was a draft, you could size up a cowboy by three simple factors. The crease in his hat, the bend of his brim, and his unbending attitude a man. Stetson didn't just protect him from what life through at him, it projected a rugged, unstoppable spirit. Stetson hats are still American, made with pride. Right here in Texas, there's still the unofficial crowd of all self respecting cowboys, and Stetson is

proud to be on the field with America's team. Find a retailer nearest Hwitt Stetson dot com. Slash cowboys to talk in cowboys now, Okay, So basically this is the point where we do the eelre read, and I want to talk about my eseelor glasses. These are Jack Mary March. I get a lot of dms about them, But it's the lenses that are so pimpish on these things. Man. I got the little bottoms under here, the readers, and

you can't even see the line in them. But I tell you what, man, it's great, Hey, Kyle, give me the eseelre read to tell the people. Yeah, whether you're watching form home or you're cheering in the stands, with lenses you can see every exciting play book, an appointment at your local or experts and see what esselor can do for you. See more, do more here fire wow, wow, came back in with the heat today. Let's go get

nice little little karlmin Stockton right there, Stockton Malone. I like that, Yes, like little give it just he just locked it up in the city. Speaking of tight pants, that's what they were back in the day. Yes, sir, ye, all right, it is smelly speaker time. Take one and pass smelly stickers every week because we give our players of the game out and we are doing our own version of helmet stickers as the Cowboys get their whin. We do this every time the Cowboys get a dub.

Last week it was guys like Michael Parsons to Marcus Lawrence, Neville Gallimore, Randy Gregory. Is that front seven shined bright last week? And Isaiah, well, you don't have that much time you need. You just choose one to keep going, all right? I heck on who you got? Um, I don't know who you guys have, and this is interesting. So I'm gonna go with Tank Lawrence, who thank Lawrence balled out yesterday man, and he was bringing the heat as all of the offensive linemen now are starting to

key in on the Bazuka. They are forgetting that number ninety may take your running back's head off if you don't block them. So this little kiwik hey lookle kiwik kiwi Tank I got you out, forced fumble, pretty much forced the first interception to happen as well as he destroyed Mike Glennon and Jordan Lewis was able to get that pick he flattened Mike. You got, Isaiah, I'm gonna continue to roll with my guy Dan to the freaking

Quinn boy. And I'm gonna go a little great fruit right here, I believe right food orange one or the two. Either way, if you squeeze this hard enough, Okay, it would get in your eye, all right, I begin your eyes going burne juice. So I think that's a line. There's no way that's a freaking line. I'll be there either way, any of those three. Okay, I think it's in the eye. It's gonna sting, Okay, right now he

is stinging every offense that he steps up against. Yes, right, so I'm gonna ahead and get this d q aka dan Quinn. Put there right at there, put there right on the top of the Christmas tree, right thing. He's gotten a couple of those. Don't let that juice juice? Oh who are you going with? People? Well, you know, I don't think you can get ten interceptions in a season with three games left and not get a smelly sticker. Oh, we already got the same one up here. That's okay,

Trayvon Dicks, get another gigantic strawberry. We're not gonna have any room on this helmet anymore. He is just the second player in the last ten years eleven years to get double digit interceptions in a season. Zay Howard had ten last year, and now Trayvon Dix does and he's back in conversation for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. I think, how about picks is nuts no matter who it is, how it happens. I've got this little peach. He's got some strong hands right here. Strong, He's got

some strong hands. It's him. He's flex it a little bit. He's flexing a little bit. And the reason why I work with strong I work with children mostly. That one over there or that guy, he's a child. Look at this dude, Chris, can you put his camera on real quick? He can't even uncomfortable. You gotta see that movie, man. Okay, it's incredible. He's flexing because we have collectively given him a lot of flak over the last couple of weeks

because he has not played exceptionally well. We needed him to be stronger, We need him to be to step up in big time scenarios, and he did that yesterday. Eight targets, eight receptions, Dalts and Schultz with a touchdown. Dalton Schultz also gets a smelly sticker. Have you recovered yet? Not yet? My friend, No, I didn't think that, ruy man, that's my movie right there? Can we can we do an honorable mention real quick? Sure? Why not? I bought the law firm of Connor and Connor, Connor Bros. The

Connor bros. Stepped up, we need to get I think I think Connor Williams was the right movie and left tackle. Do you guys think the safeguard the left guard? Sorry, yeah, I mean we talked about it during the week, But I think the other side of it was they felt like they needed to get that two back offense going a little bit and get the macpackage back in jumbo packet next of those guys that are pretty dog on a good job too. Sure did, yep, sure did. We

talked about the continuity of the offensive line. We had a few changes, but you know, time to second fielding quite well. Thought he get help in pass protection in some spots. That's why they did that. Hey, guys, there you go. We're tenning four. How about that about it? Isn't that fun? It's a lot better than last year. Oh yeah, oh my gosh, please never take us back. All right, that's it for us here on talking cowboys. As we wrap things up here on a victory Monday,

as always presented by Tostitos. But when we come back on Tuesday, we'll take your calls nine am Central Time. Give us a call eight eight eight eight five five two two ninety seven. We will talk to Cowboys Nation, but for Chris Beam, Rob Phillips, Isaiah Stanback, heck My Harrison, I'm Kyle Yeoman's We'll see you tomorrow on talking Cowboys him. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.