Talkin' Cowboys: $100 Million Battle

now officially over. There's football on the television screens tonight as the Texans and Chiefs hit up on NBC. But gotta wait a little bit longer for the Dallas Cowboys. We've got three days until kick off on Sunday Night football as the Cowboys travel to Los Angeles and we are Talking Cowboys. It's Week one, Episode three. Glad you're with us here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com. Kyle Yeoman's alongside HECKM. Harrison, Isaiah Standback in the Great Cowboys Insider,

mister Rob Phillips and boys, It's it is. It does feels like Christmas. That's exactly what it is. I feel like we've said that a lot. To say it with your chest lately. Yesterday I was doing the wide receivers to pay and today it's just because we're excited about football and it's here. It had a lot of question marks throughout the offseason, but but Rob, it's finally here and we get to actually see the NFL season play out. Yeah, and we get to see we get to see the

defending champs tonight Sunday night. We get to see what's developing into a pretty good rivalry in the NFC. And I think these teams are similar in some in some ways they've made changes in the offseason, the Rams and Cowboys, And we're gonna get into that over the next what forty five minutes. There's plenty to discuss, gentlemen. Heckma, it is football Day in America. Thank you, lord. Thank It gets at this point, man, and it's just it just

feels good. I'm man, I got my popcorn ready, all of those things, and it just feels so good to just be talking about real, actual football player. So your way, you hold up. You're a popcorn guy. You're not like a chips and dip kind of guy. You actually go with the popcorn. Do you throw M and m's in there or there is there butter? Mmm mmm yeah, I do all of that, man, pretzels. This is whatell I have to do. Man, Isaiah, I feel like you're a guy. You just want to be You just want to be

different from everybody. Right. You know what all I do is drink water because my body is my temple. Get ready for the days, No, man, I'm ready. I'm ready for some football. Man. I've been waiting to see some guys run around and hit each other for a long time. Twenty twenty has been a heck of a year for absolutely everybody on this podcast, everybody that's listening right now.

So I think that we are all ready to free our minds of some of the stress and all the you know, all the division that we've had in this country. We really want to just see Arthur and just be able to cheer for opposing teams and just watch some guys go out there and have some fun. Man. So I'm really looking forward to the kickoff tonight and obviously looking forward to the NFC battle that we're about to talk about for the next forty three minutes. Now, Yeah,

you're darn right. We're we are going to talk about that battle. But before we get into some of the matchups today, we are previewing the Cowboys offense versus the Rams defense, which I really do think could be the deciding factor in this game on Sunday. But uh, don't looking through this injury report and Rob, you were a part of practice yesterday, you get got to see actually a real life injury report that was sent out by the Cowboys. How about that about some real clarity, actually

finally clarity, especially in Amari Cooper's case. Rob, where he was now or it's now revealed that he will be dealing with a little bit of a hamstring injury. Is it something you're worried about? And what was the rest of that injury report? Rest of the injury report was pretty clean. I think there were three other guys on it. Luke Gifford was limited, Cheeto Luz had a full practice,

and I'm blanking on the other one, but it was not. Yeah, Jordan Lewis, he was the only player on the fifty three active roster to miss practice yesterday with the ankle. But yeah, I think Amari's probably good to go. I think it's a good sign that he had a full practice. What we saw in the opening session. He did some some chord work, some conditioning work with the athletic training staff, but I think they were the reduced workload at the end of camp makes sense if it's a hamstring, because

Isaiah's talked about it. For those soft tissue injuries, man, if there's any hint of it, you gotta be real careful. So I think they're just trying to get them ready for Sunday night. I think it'll be fine. Isaiah wasn't like trying to work through a hamstring injury at that point in the season. I mean it's so early, of course, no preseason. You've mentioned it already. Soft tissue injuries are

going to be prevalent, especially early in the season. But whenever you're going through a training camp and you're already limited in what you're doing anyways, how does that affect you as a player. It kills you. It kills you physically, you know, the soft tissue injuries, and we're seeing it all over the league, right you see they're talking about Mike Evans. Obviously that's a big one. There's a bunch of I think there's a few other guys that are

dealing with some growings. And when you when you hear these injuries, man, these growings and hamstrings suckum. I mean, they're they're deep tissue. They're deep soft tissue. You hear the with the term soft tissue, but these are deep embedded mustard groups that involve a lot of power output. Right. You guys are are agile. You have to be able to be um to not only expelled a bunch of power, but you be able to have to be able to change directions. So that's the thing that you really can't

duplicate when you're talking about the offseason program. Obviously, these guys have went through camp, but even by going through to camp is still not game speed. So you're going to see even more injuries this week. Hopefully it doesn't happen to the Cowboys, but you know, unfortunately you're going to see a league Why because you know, these are things that you can't that you can't predict, these things

that you can't really prepare for. And as you kind of happened, because the competition comes, you're no longer thinking about toning it down. You're only thinking about turning it up. Yeah, I think that's something that thinking about the the well, I just forgot. You know, Xavier Woods is not even on the injury report because rack my brain there with the reminding me with the growing injury. He's not even

on it. So that's a good sign for Sunday. And I mean that's I mean, that's a pretty clean injury report so far. That's pretty good for for three weeks of camp, coming off of no work in the off season,

and kind of going along with that secondary. The one player that we did mention that in the secondary and was on the injury report, actually the two of them, Jordan Lewis and Cheeto a woozier heck whenever I know, we talked about the defense and the matchup that they've got with this Los Angeles Rams receiving court with Cooper

Cup Robert Woods. I went back and watched the game from last year a little bit, and in the All twenty two film, two guys that stuck out to me were Jordan Lewis and Cheeto because of the way that they were able to cover those guys in the slot outside. They did a lot of that in the game last year. Does it worry you that both of those guys are a little bit banged up moving into Sunday. Not at all.

I think that, you know, with Diggs with him, you know, everything we heard about him in camp has been really positive. But also with the veteran leadership of Worley as well. So I just don't right now. I got so many of the question marks in my head when it comes down to what's gonna happen on Sunday, Not really that concerned about it. I think Cheetos had a solid camp, but all so, you know, Jordan Lewis is a guy I'm hoping game time ready because we're expecting big things

out of him. But I wanted to go back to what you were asking about Amara Cooper, and my question has always been with Amari. Which Amari is going to show up to the party? Right? And so it's been the home of MARII and be away of Maari. Which one are we're gonna get? And just to hear that, look, man, he may have a blown tire is not a good way to start the season. That's not what you want.

That's not diffinitely not what you want to hear in Kyle, Like like the post's point too, what happens if the report is true and Cooper does have a little bit of a tweeked hamstring. Number one, Whenever you're dealing with a hamstring a soft tissue injury, you have to tone

it down right. So if you have one hundred percent to give, you're really only given about seventy, Right, You're really only given about seventy because you're now trying to play and prevent making that injury worse right, not only mentally but physically right, So you're not giving it everything that you have, which means that you're not being as productive as you could be. And now what happens you

can't do it right? And know what happens if Marie actually goes out through anybody else that's that's dealing with a soft tissue throughout the game and they actually tweak it. Right now, what do you do? It's week one of sixteen and potentially hopefully twenty plus, right, Uh, it's week one. When do you sit him down immediately and just say, hey, we're sitting you down for a couple of weeks, or do you try to have him try to push through because it's your season opener. A lot of questions that

you know they have to be posed. But hopefully, you know, we don't have to worry about those. You got me worried now. I wasn't too worried about it till now. I saw I saw a full practice and I was like, okay, he's good. But you're right. I mean, it's something that can if there is a tweak it sometimes it doesn't take much, you know, especially there's there's been situated. I think there's a game last year where he played three

plays and he felt something. It might have been his squad or something, and he was they shut him down for the game. So yeah, and to your point where you try to push through. I can remember distinctively when I was playing for New England and I was I was a personal protector for the for the punter, and I remember going out and I went to go make one move when I went to go try to take off, and I literally tweaked my grown and if you could

feel the pool, and I was like, oh crap. So I literally ran down there and I came to the sideline and guess what, I didn't say anything, right, I didn't say anything. Why because you don't want to come out the game right, right, you don't want to come out the game. So what do you end up doing? You end up staying in the game. He's like, all, I'm a man, up, you know what I'm saying. I'm in the league. I'm a man. I'm gonna deal with it.

And guess what. I go out there again to the next play and I try to make a move and I feel that I'm nowhere near one hundred percent right, So what I end up doing. I end up giving everything that I have without trying to make it worse. Right, And now all of a sudden, now I'm a sixty percent of the player that I should be, right when they said of me going out and telling somebody else, Hey, come in and take my spot. So there's there's a lot of those mind games as well that you might

deal with this first week. Because guy's gonna be like, I can't get hurt this first game, No way in the world. I'm gonna go sit down. Yeah, but you're not doing what you need to do, and you're making yourself worse. Hey, I said, no dangerous, more dangerous place to be is on a football field and giving around. Yeah that against grown man. Now you don't want that. And the one game that really stuck out to me.

Last year with Amari Cooper might have been that Jets game where he did go a couple plays into it and then ultimately it was shelved for the majority of the game. But Rob, you were saying that here a little bit, you're a little bit worried by what Isaiah was saying whenever it comes to the really what it takes to go through a hamstring injury. I've got a stat that might worry you what it takes hamstring injury wise.

And also against the Rams. In just two career games against the Los Angeles Rams, Amari Cooper has a total of two receptions for twenty eight yards, and one of those receptions was a nineteen yarder in last year's Week fifteen games. So basically he's had two receptions and one really good one throughout his entire career against this franchise. Now, I know it's a little bit different. He was in the AFC for a little bit and he didn't play

the Rams a whole lot. But now that he's been in the NFC and he's been with the Cowboys for what will now be his third season, hasn't had a ton of success at least in the regular season against the Rams. He had a pretty good gig game again in that Divisional round a couple of years ago. But is this something that would worry you rob about Maybe

the fact that this is a stout secondary. I mean, you look at the guys on this secondary, Jalen Ramsey, You've gotten a lot of a lot of those players back there, even a draft pick in Terrell Burgess, who I think is gonna play some significant amount of time. Does it worry you the fact that Amari Cooper is dealing with this and going up against one of the better secondaries he'll see all year. Well, I think it's

a hell of a matchup. There's no doubt about it. Um. I don't know, he didn't have big production the last time they played the Rams, But I don't know if necessarily he played poorly in that game. The Cowboys just dominated up front. You know, they didn't really have to get a ton going in the past game. But yeah, I mean, this is probably the toughest matchup he may

draw the entire season. And Jalen Ramsey and I believe Ramsey, I think he followed him a decent amount in that last game that they played, and I wonder I wonder how the Rams will will treat that this year. I mean, they do have Troy Hill on the other side, but you know, the Cowboys have potentially upgraded their receiving cord if ceedee Lamb is what Camp suggested he could be early on. So do they play sides or do they try to focus on a Mari? Like you said, I mean,

Ramsey's a tough matchup. You guys know that because he's a big, physical cornerback and that that matches up well with what what what a Mari brings to the table? Hey, Rob, to your point again, I know we're spent a lot of time on Cooper, and in my thought process, I feel like Cooper is going to be eliminated for the most part out of this game. Because it's one hundred million dollars vers one hundred million dollars. That's what the

headline should be. It should be a hundred vers one hundred because you literally got one hundred million dollars Cooper vers one hundred million dollars Ramsey and Ramsey's one hundred dollars. It's his smells a little bit fresher, right, I said, Attle got a little got a little distinct smell to it, right, so, uh, you know, and when you when you hear a report like, oh man, somebody has a hamstring. If you're a hyena, right, and in the Safari and you see a water beast

out there, a little wounded, what are you gonna do? Right? The whole you coming, You're coming after it, right, And we already know Ramsey's already he's already mouth. He's very confident player on him, walking on the borderline of cocky, which is perfectly fine. At that position, you expect it. He's gonna come up and put hands on Coop. So I'm looking forward to seeing how Coop responds to another one hundred million dollars man lining up against him, and

he knows that this thing just happened this week. Ramsey's hype. He wants to prove that he's worth all this money. If I say that we washed that side out, pretty much washed Coop out. Now we're talking about CD and Gallup and how these guys match up against the rest of their secondary You know what, Isaiah, I don't agree with that. And the reason why why because you played with a guy by the name of Terrell El Dorado Owens, who even if he was going against a guy the

Rievas Island. Right, Hold on, hold, don't have to you have to throw the ball. You had to throw the ball to t O. There was no way that you washed him. And so what I'm talking about is the upper echelon of wide receivers in the league. And if Amari Cooper is paid like one and he's going across from Ramsey, we gotta see what's under that hood. Also, we can't go away from my game plan because of Jaylor Ramsey. Now I understand Haylan Ramsey is a dog, He's one of the best colbacks in the league. But

still we have one of the best wide receivers. Quote unquote, when you make a hundred million dollars, you gotta prove you gotta show it. There are no hundred million dollars decoys in the league. Man, No way. Heck, did you really just compare Cooper to TiO? I was thinking that same thing. The comparison No, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. The comparison is the money that you're being paid. Okay, that you are looked at as a player, not calling

him to Larado Owens. There's a big difference between the two players. All I'm saying is, if we're paying guys one hundred million dollars to be a decoy, can I raise my hand for that. I can tell you this. I have ran routes against mister Darrell Reeves himself right, and we have had our battles, and I guarantee Darrell Revers shut down the entire side of the field. Jalen Ramsey not only can shut down the entire side of the field, but he is going to be following Cooper

wherever he goes. He's gonna be on him like White on Rice in the playing in the snowstorm. He is not gonna let him go away. So he's got to deal with him in his hip pocket all day. I love it. I love it. That still doesn't that still doesn't say that true. I know that Almark Cooper is a weapon that we have to use. Now here's the other thing. We're spending this time on Ramsey. But let's go side on the other side of the field for Troy Hill. In my opinion, it's Roy Hills. His birthday

is Sunday. It's your birthday. Yeah, and we blow and we're blowing out Candles is some fi stadium because you're the other guy. So I mean, I understand the strategy and the scheme to say, oh, we're going over to the other side. That's cool, but we're going over to the other side with whom Mike get. We're going absolute as that's that's where it's at. But at the same time, we're not gonna change our office because Ramsey just got paid one hundred million dollars and oh cool, just go

out there and play chess with him. No, man, we're gonna we're gonna show him. Heck, that's what we Heck, I know, we gotta end this. I totally agree with you. All I'm saying is just to back it up. We're comparing somebody that you don't know which version is gonna show up, right, versus somebody who shows up every time. So that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. They both get paid a hundred million bit, but one person you refer to as not knowing which version you're gonna get.

So that's that's all I'm saying. And you got to talk about the money also coming from Jalen Ramsey. It's right off the brinks truck truck this week because he signed the deal yesterday just before we get done. Yeah, Brinks truck. And also the fact that you've got the richest cornerback contract in NFL history and that's what he was signing with the year one oh five. Well, we keep talking about these these other wide receivers that are gonna show up, and you talk about Michael Gallup ceedee lamb.

I want to throw Cedric Wilson into the mix as well. I think he had a fantastic camp. I think he could make a difference. Is this secondary deep enough? I mean, we talked about Jalen Ramsey, Troy Hill, but I want to know about maybe the safeties, John Johnson, Taylor Rap, Taylor Raps, a fantastic safety, led the team in tackles last year. Is there is there any worry that the Cowboys and wide receivers have the have that connection and have that kind of taken away from you or at

least neutralized in this game. Um No, the Rams do not have the secondary to match up man to man to the Cowboys receiving corps. Not even we talked about this yesterday, that Cowboys have a have a have a solid receiving corps and when you factor it in with the abilities that they have to run the ball as well this offense as a whole, they won't. They don't

have enough depth to handle that. And I'm curious though to see even though they don't have it man to man to be able to handle these guys at one on one, I'm curious as to what their new defensive coordinator is going to bring to the table. So that's that's what I'm interested in seeing. The matchups are one thing, but the defensive coordinator could be the game changer in

terms of how these guys are played. And when I'm hearing out of the out of the rams as this new defensive coordinator stately is very as a lot more aggressive than coach Phillips used to be. So, um, that's gonna be very intriguing. Do you blitz Dallas? I don't think it's a good idea because now you're going one on one with these guys and you don't have the depth. So what is he going to do in order to come back this this this this dual threat offense that

we have. If you've got aeron Donald, I hope you don't have the blitz if you've got number ninety nine there. But I mean you're right on Staley because not only could they be more aggressive, it sounds a lot like this Dallas defense in terms of we're gonna play a lot of different guys. We're gonna give you a lot of different looks where we want guys to be versatile position wise, and you might see guys in different spots

pre snap. So, uh, it's interesting. It's gonna be a chess game because I don't I don't think the Cowboys really know exactly what the Rams want to do defensively, and then the same for the Dallas side with you know, I to me, it comes down to how well the Cowboys managed Aaron Donald up front. I know we're gonna get to that a little bit. Yeah, that's a huge

point of this game. As a can Aaron Donald provide enough pressure to give that secondary even more time in coverage or at least less time in coverage to have to keep up with these wide receivers, I think that will pay dividends. And we'll talk about that front seven coming up here after the break. But before we take that break, whether you're watching from home or cheering from the stance. With lenses, you'll see every exciting play book, an appointment at your local or experts and find the

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and dine in availability, visit the Stardistrict dot com. We're just three days away from kickoff of the Rams and the Cowboys Sunday Night Football. Glad you're with us here on Talking Cowboys. Kyle Yeoman's Isaiah stand back, Rob Phillips, and the great Heckma Harrison here for you again here on this Thursday, every weekday at nine thirty. It's great, just kind of getting into a groove with you guys

assuming football season every single day. Along the way, we get to make fun of Heckma for comparing Amari Cooper and tarall Owens, get to make fun of Isaiah it was fun during the break, and then we get to make fun of Isaiah for three receivers better than the Cowboys wide receivers. We haven't made fun of Rob yet because Rob doesn't make any bad points really honestly, So we'll find one along the way that way we can get Rob in the mix as well. We'll get there.

We'll get there. At some point. I wanted to kind of bring up the front seven. We just spent that last segment talking about the wide receiver and how they matched up with the secondary of the Rams, which I think is going to be a game changer of just how much this passing game is going to have success. Dak only had two hundred and twelve yards in that Week fifteen win last year, and the reason why because

the Cowboys just dominated up front. Rob mentioned it earlier, talked about how Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard each had one hundred plus yards. They were dominant on the ground all game long, and I really think we could see that again now. I know the question marks are still on the offensive line for the Dallas Cowboys. You got Lyl Collins on ir Tyren Smith has dealed with has been dealing with a couple of ailments, same thing with

Connor Williams. And you're replacing Travis Frederick. No more Travis Frederick. Instead you have Joe Looney. But Rob, this is a matchup that seems favorable for the Cowboys heading into Sunday, doesn't it. I would have said. I would have said that until I saw that ESPN story that said that Aaron Donald was just an average, just an average run defender. Yeah, a fact. Why the guy, the guy who wrote that story,

is he an Eagles fan or something else? Is he just trying to Is he just trying to hype up number ninety nine on the other team, because I don't I don't see that. I know you guys don't see that. Zack Martin doesn't see that. He talked about Donald yesterday on a call. And he is as complete a defensive player as I don't know, as I've ever ever seen, and I think, uh he anchors them both in the in the past rush against the run as well. I think the difference Kyle last year was the Rams. They

just didn't tackle well. They were They were sloppy in that game and and missed some opportunities. And I think that that's gotten away from the team that went to the Super Bowl two years ago. That usually is a very fundamental team with Wade Phillips, and they've just got to get back to that. But they do have some changes in their front seven. Yeah, nineteenth, nineteenth ranked rushing defense last year and I think that's probably what costs Weighed his job as well. But let's get down to it.

The fact that they lost Dante Fowler and also Corey Littleton, It's gonna be quite significant for this team. Those are guys where Littleton was a dog last year. A lot of tackles for him, and also Dante Fowler off the edge.

But Brockers has from LSU mountain of a man, has been great with number ninety nine and I didn't when I read that article about ninety nine being bad against the run, I was like, they're just trying to hype this guy up, to send him out there and make him crazy, because we know he is a double team defeater all the time. And if you've watched any of Hard Knocks, this guy, Aaron Donald was made by God. I know we all are, but he was just made a little bit different. And I can't wait to see

what we do against them. But basing it off of last year, I am looking for Ezekiel Elliott to have a huge day versus the Rams because I don't think they have an answer for what we're gonna do in the running game at all. Now, kind going off, you might want to be I was gonna hear gonna, I'm

gonna pitch this to you, Isaiah, I got you here. Yeah, So whenever you have the linebackers, and of course, really that's been the weak spot of this this Rams defense over the last two seasons has been the linebacking corps. They didn't really address it a whole lot in the offseason. I mean, you still have Kenny Young, Michael Kaiser, Leonard Floyd. Those are your main guys in the linebacking corps for

Los Angeles. Now if if if that's a weak spot, is it the running backs or the tight ends Isaiah that have the or that are really the most dangerous at this point, that's a good question. Um. I mean, our running game is going to be solid, So I guess let me clear that up. First of all, we're still gonna be able to run the rock. Um. Again, I'm very curious after and it sucks that we didn't have a preseason obviously to get an idea of what

these guys are gonna do. UM on defense with Stateley as a new coordinator, But if they're as as a defensive coordinator, if you do have questions with your front set as the Rams do at this point, right versus the Cowboys, it's not even a matchup. Uh. You what, you have to get creative in your schemes, right, So you have to be able to slant your ded You have to be able to run stunts with your defensive line, meaning that you're you know, you're you're crossing guys or

you're running guys. You're not you're not lining up directly against somebody and going forward. You're running across their body trying to create uneven matchups. You're running linebackers in the opposite direction. You're you're trying to do misdirection, all this illusional type stuff right to create um leverage in a sense. Um,

that's what I foresee them having to do. Because for them to think that there is gonna be able to line up, um snap the ball on them, comes straight ahead and be able to stop us, even with our offensive line not being at one hundred percent, is still not a good matchup for them. Um. Aeron Donald is an absolute specimen. We all know that. But he's one guy, right, He's one guy, um, and you know he from my understanding,

he's lost a little bit of weight as well. He's slimmed up a little bit, which makes him more explosive, but it doesn't necessarily help him in the run game. Right when we talk about we got three hundred plus pound men that are gonna be moving him, So you got one two hundred eighty two hundred ninety pound man versus two three hundred guys pound guys. He's going to do so much. So I think that you will be

able to neutralize him in the run game. UM. I know they definitely poked the bear and try to try to piss him off and get him routed over this game, but I think we can neutralize him internally on that Um where we're gonna have to worry about him is on the on the passing game. So I don't think that we that we let Jarwin even has to even worry about facing facing him at any point in time.

Bill won't have to worry about him too much. But our interior alignement are definitely going to have their hands full on trying to block him one on one unless they're unless they start stunning. Heck, when do you think that it could be a repeat of last year? Whenever both Zeke and Pollard had one hundred plus yards or is that a little bit too much to ask, even with the firepower that the Cowboys have on that side of the football. You know, Kyle, I think that's what

you have to do. And reason why I say that is because of not having an off season, not having a preseason, without having these games. Man, the one thing you want to get your offensive line and rhythm of

is hitting people, not catching right. They want to come out there and hit people in the mouth and get in the rhythm and get zeke and tp off, you know, And that's that's gonna be the thing, because it's gonna be the first time that these guys have even hit someone with a different color, and the adrenaline is gonna be pumping. Somebody's gonna hyper ventilate. I know I might. But at the same time, you've gotta get you gotta

get the running game going. And the best way to do that and get this get this team in the rhythm is to start with the running game. Look, no one knows what the Cowboys are gonna bring to the table. They think, you know, it's gonna be the deal with offensive coordinator and the continuity there. But I'm really excited about Mike McCarthy and what he's done historically over his

career with his tight ends. And so I see Jarwin having a really big game against this Rams team that's gonna be gearing up to try to stop the run and stop some of our other weapons. Rob is that is that the game plan is to get both Zeke and Pollard involved immediately or I know nobody really knows what the game plan is right now, but what has perceived to be a key to this game is getting those two guys involved early. That was what happened in Week fifteen last year. But I know that's also not

exactly what Cowboys fans would want to hear. With the new wide receiving Corps. Yeah, you know, it's it's been interesting. One of the narratives coming out of training camp is how much Zeke's going to be potentially used as a as a receiver, And to me, I think it's it's

it's sliding a little too far in that direction. I mean, I think there's still this offense is still going to be successful when he is setting the tone and setting a physical tone up front and starting to wear guys down, and then I think you Pollard's going to get his chances.

But then the second half to me is when hopefully you've got a lead, and that's when you can really start to wear down with both those guys, that's where they got most of their That's when they were both eated at the end of the end of the game in December last year. So I think that's what you're trying to do. McCarthy. To me, that's a little bit of a false narrative that he won't use a running back and won't pound down in the ground game, because

he's done it. He's done it as an offensive coordinator in New Orleans. Yep. He's done it in Green Bay when he's had a good tanem of backs. So I still think that's got to be the formula, and it's gonna make things easier for the receivers, like we talked

about in the first segment. Hopefully it does. I hope it does make it easier for the receivers because that they're gonna have a tough matchup whenever the secondary comes around, and I think you'll need both Zeke and Polar to make an impact early on in order to really get out in front in that game. But when we come back we'll finish up our preview of the Rams and the Cowboys, and we'll actually hear Isaiah's prediction on the game.

He won't be with us tomorrow, unfortunately, but we will get his prediction for Sunday's matchup between the Rams and the Cowboys when we return here on Talking Cowboy. I'm Jay Novachek, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day, I was the guy who always got the tough yards, and that's why I run with John Deer today. In fact, I have a John Deer three zero twenty five E tractor that can handle any yard work I need to do, even the tough yards way

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the code word team JB. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys. The Jack Black Starter ten bucks, free shipping, to Talking Cowboys ten minutes remaining here in this edition of Talking Cowboys, Glad you're with us. I'm inside the SWBC Mortgage Studios. It's Week one, Episode three, a Thursday edition,

as NFL football is officially back to night. HECKM. Harrison, Rob Phillips, and the great Isaiah stand back joining us today as always, and guys who before we get into talking special teams, I want to kind of hear what's your prediction on tonight's game is going to be. I mean,

we've got two really good teams. I mean you talk about the Kansas City Chiefs, of course, Super Bowl defending champions with Patrick Mahomes and company returning pretty much everybody from that team a year ago that was that was good enough to win a championship, and they're gonna look to try and make it back to back. But they start things off against the Shaun Watson and a DeAndre Hopkins list Texans team. Rob will start with you who you got tonight's game and why it's simple for me.

Isaiah played with Tom Brady and Pat Mahomes is in tom Brady mode for me now, I always if Tom Brady's playing in the game, I got Tom Brady. If they lose, they lose. But I'm going with Tom Brady. I'm going with Pat Mahomes tonight. Heckma, man, I'm going with the Dallas Cowboys South. And that's a dig at my cousins in Houston, but I'm going I'm going with

the Texas. They beat him in the regular season, and they had him in the playoffs, and I just feel like, with the Super Bowl hangover, the prime be ready for beating at home. Isaiah. Heckma, geez, it's me, It's it's okay. I'm sorry. I'm here for you. Okay, I'm here for you. I love Htown. I played for Billy Oh. I think those guys are gonna be ready to roll. I think they are. Their receivers are being undervalued and underrated right now. I think it's gonna be a shootout. But I think

Kansas City is still hungry. I don't I don't feel I don't feel as if Kansas City is like other teams that have won a Super Bowl where it's like, Okay, I hit this high and now I could chill out. I think these guys are still hungry. I think they want more. I think that there's they're still improving, they're getting better. They got all their guys back and even added more. So I gotta go with Casey with the good old Chiefs, baby, and they've got young sprowls. Heck,

they got young sprowls. Football. Football is a year by year business man. You can't live off of what you did last year. And it's Lois today, and I just feel and I feel like the hype train is already on the tracks and everybody's gonna get on board. Look, man, we got a long time together, guys, we're just getting started. It was since we already have one hundred million verse hundred million. We got the forty million a year versus forty million a year tonight, right, isn't it? Isn't that

the match up actually and forty million a year? Yeah, And I think he was a great point on the fact that the Texans beat him in the regular season and had them on the ropes in the postseason and just basically straight up blew it is ultimate only what ended up happening. They blew that one. So because they're playing they're playing the Golden State Warriors of the NFL area, the leader safe. There are no Golden State Warriors that Rob. Rob compared the Chiefs to Tom Brady and the Golden

State Warriors, and in one segment, how do you beat that? What? What argument? What argument can you put together with? Rob says that the hype train is real, The hype train is real. I guess, I guess. I gotta go. I gotta sixteen. Yeah, there you go, there you go. I've got Kansas City winning tonight. But I think it'll be a good game. I really do. I'm gonna I'm stopping down. I'm watching the whole all, all of y'all with Kansas City. Yeah, yeah,

they yes, yes, yes, and we're not changing it either. Um. Before before we're done with with today's episode, I want to kind of go into special Teams. We haven't talked to any special teams yet, but it is significant in this game because one, we don't really know what's going on with special teams in terms of the personnel. We

don't know exactly what John Fossil's gonna do. And also John Fossil's returning to where he was the head or not head coach but a special team's coordinator in Los Angeles and making his return to the Rams if you remember back to that Week fifteen matchup last year, he actually ran a fake punt against the Cowboys. It did not work out for the Rams. Let's just say it that way. But heck, Mazara a potential that we might see something crazy from John Fossil this week. This Fossil,

So you have no idea what he's gonna do. I'm just hoping that there's a market improvement from what we had last year. Greg the leg is our kicker now and I'm really excited to see him what he does, you know, from from a special team's perspective, Man, I just want to see number eighty eight return and punts for the Cowboys. That's what I'm hoping to see opening, you know, Sunday night, and I think that's gonna set the tempo for the rest of the season once Ceedee

Lamb gets out there and return him one. Don't do it? Reconsider recent little Why you say that, you say that I can Why Why risk it? Man? Why risk it? I know you're not supposed to play scared, you know, but you mean you gassed this guy up so much, and you know he's supposed to be your pride and joy, um, your new addition, he already has enough stuff to worry

about on the offensive side of the ball. Don't throw him out there and on punt return for somebody to be up there to go out there and take a cheap, cheap hit on him. You know. Um, that's the thing that could happen if he was a kick return. I'll say, yeah, you can put him a kick return, But part return, that's a whole beast of his own. Man, you got you got one dude that can go down there and just go crazy, not pay attention to you know, to him waving the hand, and somebody can just take him

out right. It's just not worth the risk. Um. I hate to say that, you know, use one of your other guys, But use one of your other guys. I think you can get the same type of prediction. I can't play scared, I said, you know, I hear you. I hear you. What about what if I if he's if they're if the rams are backed up and there's a chance for a return. Otherwise, if it's more of a safer term, maybe go with somebody else. Maybe go with I don't know, Cedric Wilson. I think you got

other guys that that can be just as productive. I mean, I don't, I haven't. I need to see CD Lamb in the NFL. I'll put it that way. I need to see him in the NFL. College is one thing. You got grown man out here that that are on rosters just for special teams. Now, you know what I'm saying.

It's just different. It's it's completely different. So I'm looking forward to seeing how he reacts in the league, how his speed is in the league, how he adjusts to the to the influx of speed and power and size of this new game. It's a new game, and you're in it. It's real because I made the switch from college to the NFL and it's not even in the same ballpark. You got some guys that say, oh, it's not that bad. The heck it ain't. Especially when you're

on a part return. You got dudes that are going down or straight showing as fast as you, running as fast as they can, and their sole purpose is to put their helmet through your chest cavity. So I wouldn't risk getting in these first couple of games. Let's get let him get his feet wet a little bit, and then we can talk about it. Maybe you know in the second quarter of the season. Well, when you think about the guys, I want to see it, but I'm just being selfish. I want to see it as well.

From a fan standpoint, I would love to see it. But you think about the guys that in college Ceedee Lamb was making look like they were running in slow motion. Those are guys that are fighting to stay on the roster, fighting to keep their scholarships, whereas in the NFL it's upped. I mean it's completely raised. You're you're fighting for a paycheck, you're fighting for a roster spot. This is this is your livelihood that you're actually on special teams to do.

Like you said, that's your sole job description, go hit somebody. And I played the game of Matthew Slater. Matthew Slater in New England and New England. He's like five team pro bowler and I love playing with them special teams that we would get together and go crazy just to see him running the fastest. He is on the New England roster and keeps getting paid millions of dollars every year to simply run down there and make guys fair catch.

And if they don't fair catch, guess what he gets paid to run down there and take their head off. So that is all that there's there's there's two or three guys on every roster day, that's all they're paid to do. And you don't want to expose CD to that, especially when there hasn't been a preseason for guys to get their feet underneath them. The risk injuries just too

high this week. Hey, John Fossil was asked a couple of weeks ago what what makes a good special teams player and he said, I don't know, crazy, that's that's the first thing, like exactly though. You gotta be willing to do whatever it takes at high speeds, Like Isaiah said, you gotta have a little bit of that that little tick in you to go down and get the job done. But uh yeah, I agree. I think Ceedee Lamb would

be kind of scary to watch. It would be fun to watch, but I would be so nervous the whole time. It's like watching a quarterback, like a mobile quarterback run. You want to see it happen, but you don't want them to get hurt at the same time, So I get both sides of it. Money don't make money. Let's go hey, there you go, there you go. Um, I mean that's the that's the theme of the week. I guess is Earl Thomas is still out there anyways, Isaiah, what do you got for the game on Sunday night? Man?

What Dallas Cowboys with the victory into New Sofi Stadium? All right? Thirty one twenty four. We go down there and we tee off on these boys. So Cowboys, all right, thirty one twenty four. That's one way to get it done. We'll get it. Put it in. Yeah, I just did. So.

We're keeping track of it all year long. By the way, boys, we'll do some more predictions tomorrow our final show of the week, nine thirty tomorrow morning, we'll predict the game coming up on Sunday, we'll review what we talked about all week long, and then we'll get you ready heading into the weekend. But it's been a ton of fun. Glad you've been with us here over the last forty five minutes for Isaiah stand back for Rob Phillips in the great Heck my Harrison, I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long.

We'll see you tomorrow on Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club