Talkin' Cowboys: A Pressing Matter

Coffee Company, the official coffee of the Dallas Cowboys. We are live from the Star in Frisco in the SWBC studios here on this Wednesday, prior to wild Card weekend. It's a wild Card Wednesday, Tampa Bay Dallas coming up on Monday, a night football ww it is When or Go Home time. And today we are going to preview the Cowboys defense versus the Tampa Bay offense. And one of those guys that plays quarterback you never forget the name of what was it again to Tom Thomas Tom Brady,

Thomas H. Brady? Yeah, that guy, that guy Tom Brady and company going up against Michael Parsons in that Cowboys defense. Will preview that throughout the show. I say a stand back, Patrick Nose Walker. We've got Chris Beam how's everybody doing? Tablo? Yeah? Why is that time? Let's go? Time? You feel you feel like this has the energy of a winner, go home game just yet from a fan base standpoint, man, Yeah, I mean that's that's what it is. I mean, I don't know, I feel I felt it on my way

in here today kind of. I know, I'm retired, super retired, but like I started getting those those little playoff jitters again, a little tings like today's like you're first real practice day, Like today's jel, it's goal, It's time to roll, you know what I'm saying. Like the preparation. Hopefully these guys have been studying like like crazy. I wholeheartedly believe that this coaching staff has instilled in them that what is required preparation wise for a game of this caliber. I mean,

I totally agree. I hope that that's the case. But I just hope that the players have received that. I hope that the players have received that, because that is going to be what is the difference maker. I agree, And we were kind of talking about it right before we came on, Colin. We were saying, when you were saying that the energy around the building, it seems a bit quiet. I wouldn't even say around the building. That's not necessarily what I was implying. I'm mostly saying amongst

Cowboys Nation right now. I think it's just subdued. And it may be because it's Monday and it's not a Sunday game. We've got an extra day to kind of buffer calm before the storm. Yeah, and listened sometimes, and we talked about it yesterday when we were talking about just over the course of your life, when you've taken some of your worst whoopings, would rather be on the athletic field or in, you know, the career field, whatever

the case may be, how did you respond? And just speaking solely for myself, that was always the calm before the storm. So like after I got my teeth knocked out in whatever fashion, and it might have been, I locked in and I didn't want to talk to anybody.

I didn't want anybody talking to me. Just just leave me in my space so I can stay where I'm at in this anger, in this fury and this frustration, so that it can remain as as concentrated as possible, so that when I get back the next day or the next round of the next matchup full explosion, So that that's kind of what it feels like. It's bubbling right now. And honestly, let again, we will say it a million times, we did not want to see what

we had to witness on Sunday. But I tell you what, if that's what had to happen to keep you know, the I'll say it this way. I love what Jerry Jones said on yesterday one or five point three of From the Fan. He said they were sobered up on Sunday in Washington. Cool. I like it. That's the energy I'm feeling. I'm feeling a lot of sobered you know, sobriety. As far as you're not going into this game against Tampa Bay high off of fifty point bomb that's dropped

on the Eagles Week eighteen of last season. You're going in with embarrassment and humiliation and you can't possibly feel cocky. Now. The energy has to be, hey man, we got to get this done. What happened last week could happen this week if we don't get it together. So I'm here for that. It needs to be that type of energy because you need to look at that game that way.

I think one of the reasons why it is subdued around Cowboys Nation right now is because it goes back to what you were talking about, where you're hoping that they show up and that it will be that up until that point. Absolutely. Yeah, there's like Patrick saying, to Patrick's point, earlier in the year, I mean earlier in the week, the signs have been there before that you can do it. You're just hoping that it does happen after what happened in Washington. So there's there's a frustration

aspect to it. But I tend to agree with you because come Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you're gonna hear it ramp up, ramp up, ramp up, ramp up. Sunday you're gonna watch all these games and everybody's gonna be talking about, oh man, Monday night's coming around. That's gonna be a big game coming up. Anytime Tom Brady faces the Cowboys, it's a massive, massive deal. And with it being said that Tom Brady seven and oh against the Cowboys, Cowboys have a little

bit of a chip on your shoulder. Yeah, I don't really go to that stuff. I mean, that's the reality. Right. You look at the analytics and you looked at the stat line, all those kind of things that are gonna favor TV twelve. I really look at the preparation stand point. I'm gonna keep coming back to a preparation No h, I'm just that this is you're gonna have to be mentally tough, and the mental aspect of the game is

what really separates teams in the playoffs. Yeah, Like, like the preparation is like I can't even I can't even depict and explain to everybody, like how high it is. Like you're spending every moment trying to gain an edge, right. You remember last year when I was when I was watching film and trying to I was trying to find anything that's a tail, right, any little thing, right, you know what I mean, maybe a little bit. Wow, you're not going to share with the class. I can't share

it publicly, Yes, you share it publicly. Last year I did kind of. Um. Yeah, then we got the carpet pool. That's fair. Oh so there's there's always something that a team has done all year, all year long that's a tail. The mental aspect, the preparation aspect, is what's going to give you that advantage. You have to go identify those things. This is when your scouting department goes to work. This

is when your coaches go to work. This is when you're able to communicate that over to your players to give them that extra edge, that half a step game. And then you have to also be mentally tough because of the standpoint. Teams are gonna come out doing something different. First quarter. Teams are gonna do something different. They're gonna yeah the first fifteen plus right, that first quarter is really when they're gonna try to hit you upside. Set

the tone. That's where you set the tone, but also where you're also that's where all your curveballs come. Yeah, but then what happens in the second quarter, mid second quarters? Now you start going back to what they've been doing all year long? What did they do for seventeen games? What did they do for seventeen games? Now ask me, y'all starts looking okay, Yeah, I was ready to weather

the storm because I might get punched in the mouth early. Okay, eat on both sides, right, Cowboys Tampa Bay, They're both ready to get get those jabs. Right. But that's when you start looking at TV twelve and start saying, okay, This guy is dangerous because he knows how to weather those storms. This guy's dangerous because he knows that those

things are gonna happen. And Okay, once the game settles in, now all my preparation, if DQ had anything that he's been doing all year long, then I could pick up on. Now I get to expose that. And on the flip side, right, killing Moore and same thing you know, going against going against Tampa Bay. Okay, uh, they're gonna be They're gonna start really relying on. There are the things that they've been working on in practice, the film that the scouts

have been picking up all those things. And this is what I love that aspect that it's a chess game. It's really a chess game. And that's why the turnovers it can't happen, period, happened period because especially when you're playing a quarterback of this caliber, most of the time he's not going to give you that opportunity to get that one up. So you just have to tighten things down and and really it all boils down to what you just said, and then wrap a big glaring lanyard

around it, and it's Tom Brady. It's Tom Brady. It's Tom Brady a lanyard. You went with the lanyards? Do you tie things with lanyards? I can such just the thing. I thought it would just be a bow work roll everything with, you know, a bunge of code string, shoe string. Okay, what's your time? Time up? Hog time? And time up? Hog time and leave him there. It all boils down to Tom Brady. The Tampa Bay offense and team as

a whole goals as Tom Brady goes. They're not even as as lowly as the NFC South has been this season. The Buccaneers don't even win this division and get themselves in the playoffs if not for a couple of game winning drives from Tom Brady. All you ever have to do to to almost guarantee you lose the game is be close late in the game with Tom Brady and leave enough time for him to have the final possession.

I want to talk about what makes playoff tom Brady different when we come back on the other side of the break. We're not taking the break right now, but in the second segment we will talk about it. I do want to get into news and notes, though, because a couple of guys, of course, coming back from injury this week. We mentioned it yesterday. Late and Vanderesh, Tyler Biadas, Jonathan Hankins. Are they all going to be back out

on the field today? Is that? What's the expectations? They'll all be on the field today, awesome, as well as Matt Farniac as well as the Ron Bland. We'll see in what capacity. Late Vanderesh has been a limited practice participant, he was all last week, so I would exp that he's going to ramp up the full on effective today and we'll see what the others look like. If Tyler Beadish is back on the field, I expect that he'd

be in a limited capacity. I don't see him them throwing him back out in a full but we'll see. Jonathan Hankins. They have to activate him or I should say, designate him to return from i R first before he can return to the official practice field. So we'll see if that takes place today. That is the expectation. And McCarthy will speak here at eleven o'clock, so we'll see if he drops a tidbit on you know, kind of a new news item there saying that Hankins is going

to be activated. I expect it to happen, and dron Bland. You know, like I said yesterday, no indications at any turn that the Cowboys are concerned with that chest injury. So he should be a full goal if I mean at best. At worst, I could see them making him limited just as a precautionary attandpoint because you still have several more days of practice and then Xavier Rhodes still looking like Xavier Rhodes is going to take the field for the Cowboys. I don't see why they wouldn't put

him on the field, elevate him. Yeah, yeah, make it happen. Make it happen, because if you think about it, this is the playoffs. You don't win this game. There is no next game. So if Xavier Rhodes doesn't participate in this matchup against the Buccaneers and you knuckle would lose this game, would you bring him in for Yeah? What

is he even doing? I mean, is it would? It would be the conversation we had with t Y Hilton where having a veteran in that room is great because right now Trayvon Diggs in that room and he's in year three in the NFL. Sure if anybody in year three is qualified enough to be considered a veteran. It would probably be Traybon Diggs, but Xavier Rhodes has seen a lot, He's done a lot, so having him in the room helps. But yeah, you would like to have

him as that piece, right. You didn't bring him in as a consultant only, and which is what if he was signed and then did not play in the playoff game that you know happened immediately after he was signed, then again, what would you bring him in for as a player? I mean you could have asked his advice and and paypaled him somewhere a payment for all that. So yeah, get him on the field, especially against TB twill.

What do you think about what Rhodes could bring? Is he is he kind of a hidden piece right now for this Cowboys defense? Or is that just hoping? I don't think it's hidden. I think that he definitely asked him depth to you now, you know you go again to the Mike shot, you know and saying, you know, why was he out there type of deal all the way through the whole season. I mean, well he was.

He was only out there like a week's right. I might know, no disrespect, but he adds value in the sense that he's seen a lot, and you do not, I repeat, you do not want to go into playoffs, especially against the Tampa that is fully loaded offensively aside from their center, right, they're fully loaded offensively, all their weapons on the outside with young corners is just in

the most veteran of veteran quarterbacks dangerous. It's just not something that you want to do because you need somebody out there that's savvy enough, that's seen enough, that knows how to watch film, that knows how to pick up on indicators to communicate those, that knows how to bait him, that knows all the little intricacies in terms of coverages and leverage. And I'm i'm a I'm a I'm an outside shade him, but I really gonna work my way

to the inside shade. Right, there's a lot of little different savvy things that that veteran corners do and know and know how to do. And he's had reps against dB twelve as well, So this is like, this is somebody hopefully that is in shape enough to be able to come in and make a contribution asap, because if he can, now you're you're ensuring that at least you're outsides or solid right, and then you throw dB and

you throw you know, darn Bland in there. Now you have a solid three, right, you have a solid three. And then nay Sean walks up in there. I hope, I hope that he uses his physicality to his Evana. Have you seen them doing that a little bit more lately? Who na just in general pressing, no getting hands on it? No? Why? I don't know. Are they saved? It is just a a process, yes, an al Harris question. Because Al Harris was really good at it. Now, he played a lot

off coverage. He was really good at shadowing himself. But he was quick enough to come out the breaks and he was it was knowledgeable enough to be able to break early based upon what he was seeing from the quarterbacks drop and what the receiver's depth in the situation or you know, a situation based upon down a distance. He was savvy enough to be able to break and make plays on things. These guys aren't there yet, right, let sever Trayvon. These guys were not there yet. Darron

Blad is doing a great job of it. Based upon film study, He's able to acknowledge what the downer distance is what the situation is based upon. The formation, the splits right, the quarterbacks drop given his eyes. There's a whole lot that goes into being able to make a really good reactive play at the cornerback position, which is why it's good to have an xavier roads in there.

But I think, and we mentioned it a few weeks ago, as far as spacing goes, I think it just goes to trust that that that trust has to be built with Al Harris, that trust has to be built with Joe Witten, built with Dan Quinn, with these young guys such as right that say, hey, I have enough trust in you that I can have you press man and know that you can recover and not get smoked on a goal. It's worst case scenario, right, You're you're protecting

the worst case scenario exactly, the worst exactly. The last thing that you want to do, right is simply come up there, so the press. Right. You're confident in the stature of your of your young bulls. But at the same time, if you swing and miss, oh two piece of a biscuit, and you know you and it is hard to recover from a two piece in the biscuit, right. So the goal is, I was wondering where you were going with that piece two piece in the busy. If

you swing right, you have the last scammage. You swing and Mike Evan sent you with the UIE or Julio Jones hit you with the UIE, or God would hit you with the OUI. They're probably gonna be, oh, oh, I forgot engage, gonna hit you with the ouie. You don't want to be chasing those guys, right, So it's keeping keeping, keeping keeping. It's been, but don't break this. Keep this guy. These guys have done a great job defensively in terms of red zone defense for the most

part this year. They've given up some yards as of late, but in terms of red zone defense, they do a good job. So you would much rather have them have a ten twelve, fourteen play drive that ends in the field goal. Versus come up there, press them and then they get one big shot over the top. And here's the thing when it comes to the Cowboys, and the Cowboys will have the ability to walk into this game

feeling like this is mostly a one dimensional matchup. Now, typically that is fantastic because your goal going into a game is to make any offense one dimensional. What makes it a little bit dangerous is that it's Tom Brady, so nothing he hasn't seen or done before. Okay, fine, but it still works in the Cowboys favorite they don't necessarily have to no disrespect to Leonard Fournette, but they don't necessarily have to worry about the prowess of the

Russian attack. When it comes to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they're not good at running the ball, and they know they're not, which is why they don't run the ball that often. I think they run the ball twenty two less than twenty three percent of the time on first What do they do in place of running? Holdo, I

get what you're saying. My point is it this schematically speaking from a Dan Quinn aspect, and this is why I said it's all about hog time tom Brady, because if you hog tied Tom Brady, you just hog tied more than three quarters of the offensive production for that team. And now you're moving. You're demanding that Leonard Fournette and that rushing attack be effective and efficient. But they've not been able to do that over the course of eighteen

seventeen games. I'm sorry they're thirty second in the league, and efficiency on yards per carry, thirty second in the league, in average yards rushing per game, the list goes on and on. They quite literally have the worst rushing attack in the entire NFL. And that's what should make Cowboys fans feel a little bit better because what's one of the what's been one of the achilles heels for the Cowboys defense this season more often than not, run defense. Yeah, well,

your run defense. Not only is it getting Jonathan Hankins back in all likelihood and getting the LV back in the middle of your play caller, one of the best players that you have on your defense to help upgrade or run defense, but you're getting that at a time where you're playing against an offense that doesn't run the

ball well at all. So if these corners, to your point and took How's point, if these corners can figure it out against Tom Brady, and for me, figuring it out against Tom Brady doesn't mean trying to outsmarter because you won't. You can't not going to happen. But you can outsmart Mike Evans, you can outsmart Godwin, you can out smart Russell Gage. You can't a little less Julio

Jones because he's been there so long. But my point is, if you can get these guys to decide wrong on smart routes, if you can knock them off of their time and at the line of scrimmage, if you can make them have a split second later on their breaks, whatever the case may be, then the ball that would have been a great ball from Tom Brady now becomes a questionable, questionable ball, not because of Brady, but because of what happened on the receiving end of that that

might become an interception, that might become a pass break up. Get in the face of these these receivers, disrupt the passing game, force the game. Aim on the run. For Tampa Bay, Hankins lvee that run defense against the worst rushing attack in the league ball game. I like to agree with you. It sounds easy. I like to agree with you. Let me, let me the blueprint. But you got you gotta execute the blue blueprint, Jay z Oh, Yes, okay,

so yes, I like what you did there. Okay, But the reality is Tampa Bay doesn't care about running the ball effectively. Right. If you're gonna give up the run, they'll give they'll they'll take it seventy seven yards per game to go to patrick two or thirty second in the country. Absolutely, But what are they leading last What are they leading the league than number two in the league? What are they leading the league? Passing yards? Passing seventy

passing play percentage? They're leading and passing? They don't They don't want to run. They know they can't and it doesn't matter what they got. So how do they run up them to run? But how do they run the ball physically? No, they run screens. That's their running game. It's about some people. They're running game is and that's why stats don't tell the whole story. Right, So they're not doing traditional run. They have quasite runs. But to our point, what do our corners not do? For the

most part, they don't what right? No? Or not even that they don't impress down, They don't press. Okay, so being at they don't press, we can go back to to Mulin last week. He's playing nine yards off and still gets gas on a goal route. Right, So we're talking about these guys are having six, seven, eight, nine yards of separation at the line at the snap of

the ball. These guys hold on. I know that's the reality our deep and this is what I'm saying, like, I hope that Al Harris changes up what he's been doing against these guys. Because it's one thing to come up and simply just press and play man to man or press some play cover three or press some bail on four, whatever it might be right and get to

your coverage. It's another thing when I'm lining up six yards away from you and I have a quarterback who literally will make eye contact with you and change the whole play. There's not gonna be any over over. There's not gonna be no alert alert trust me, I've I've been in those huddles with him. They will take a

screenplay all day long. When I say a screen I'm talking about looking at Kyle giving him a little head nod, and all of a sudden, the two inside receivers are now going out and blocking somebody who's playing six yards off and I'll throw an easy, high percentage plass, super high ninety plus percent pass to somebody who can now catch it and run five yards. That's hold on. That's

their running play. That's how they run the ball. And if you do press, what do they do, he's gonna toss it up, and he is because he's Tom Brady. Most of the time, they're gonna give him the PI call if you don't do everything right as a defender. So it puts you in a predicamenting Even on the traditional screenplays, they will faint right and I'll show this on film room. They will think. They will literally have the guy on the outside run him on the screen pattern.

If it's open, he's taking it. If it's not open, the inside receivers that normally go out and block. If you're coming downhill aggressively as a corner, right, you want to come down running the screen. I'm coming down hill now they're taking in. They're running goals of the sideline. So it really puts you in a tough place. And that's why the veterans really come into it. Any decision that you make, you're really caught in between real quick, I want to go to break, real fast. I want

to go to break. So let's hit this. Continue this conversation. Because the press, at least when you look up to it, pressing on the outside, that looks like a like a be all fixed all. But like you said, there's a little bit of a hold to it. You gotta keep ad in mind. When we come back, we'll continue that. We'll have Patrick's thought on that as well when we come back with more talking cowboys. When you build, you start with the foundation, and homeownership is a foundation of

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house and watch the game when you can do that? No? Yeah, why would you ever sit at the house? Don't have an answer for that. I don't have an answer. We got big TV's around everywhere. Yeah, stadium, don't do the plaza. We'll be We'll be at the Star, coming up on side for pregame, pre game. We're at the Star there. There's a big TV out at the Star's interesting, but you can't. You gotta go watch at Miller Light. Gotta go to the Mill. There's a lot of TV's. But

I'm just saying, we'll be here at the Star. Yes, However, they're gonna project our show and they're gonna play our show live, and it's entirety at the Miller Light House. So we'll be here. Don't be at the house by yours. They're gonna be there so you can watch our show. You can get ready, you can you got tostitos. I mean, just that combination of just yeah, fire, yeah, keep it rolling. We'll be able to celebrate this win together as a unit. As as you have all these separate bodies, don't have

all these fingers were together as a fist. You need to make a shirt that needs to be like a steadfast don'body spread out of fist. Let's preach it over here. I say a standback awome. That was awesome. I'm gonna clip that today. I'm gonna take it the deck in the locker room. I'm gonna make sure he hears it all right, Uh, Isaiah was talking about pressing corners, kind of bringing some pressure on the outside, disrupting the passing

lanes for Tom Brady. I'm gonna throw a couple of stats out there to kind of back your point up here. Right now, the number one team in the NFL in terms of sex allowed per attempt, Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They get the ball out quick. They're only sacked two point nine percent of the time. Two point nine. Just for comparative purposes, I'm trying to find Dallas. You thought I was going to say something else, but that's not what it was. Dallas is fifth in the NFL,

so pretty good, right. They don't get sacked a whole lot. That's kind of been the thing. I mean, recently that number's gone up a little bit, but four point nine, four point nine, so Tampa Bay is nearly half that, nearly half of the amount of time that even Dallas gets sacked. That's when Tampa Bay gets sacked. And also, not to mention, their interception rate is third in the NFL because it's only one point three percent of passes percent of dropbacks. They get out the ball quick and

they do it efficiently. I'm pleading. I'm pleading with Al Harris because it trust me. I know this guy. I know TP twelve right, I've been in those hitles. I know the altar, I know the changes, the things that he's not even gonna say. But you better just know to make the change whenever, just the same, yeah, whenever, whenever there's a particular coverage out there, Please press. I will take I will take our chances at him throwing it. He throws a great deep ball, he throws a great

back shoulder, all that kind of stuff. Please, man like, please press, because if you don't these twelve yard out routes, these five yard out routes, right, if you're playing off and inside or even out and off and outside, these are easy pass and catch like routes on air. If anybody gets to the stadium early and watches warm up and they see these guys throwing routes without any defenders, that's what it is to him. And that's a that's a run play. That's an effective run play to him.

That's how he that's why he's played so long, that's how he conceptualizes this. If they're not gonna take it away, we throw this all day long. That's a first down. That's a first down. That's six yards. Now we're second in short, that's how he looks at it. So don't get caught up in the in the rushing stats. Do not get caught up in the rushing stats, because those to them are run plays. Right, So please get up and press it because when you get up and pressed,

now you disrupt all that. Now you have to start going to to fade routes, right back shoulders. The boss gives you. You have just as much of an opportunity to make a play than the receiver does. And that requires that's gonna ask a lot, because I guess why. You're gonna give up someplace. Yeah, you're going to give up some place, but you take away their running game. Right, you have to pick your poison here. I said it yesterday. Tom Brady is going to have some big plays. He

just is. Doesn't matter how you play it. You could press it, you could play it in his own it doesn't matter. He's going to have some big plays. The question is can you minimize them and can you pick and choose where you want where and when you want the big play to occur. That's how you win the

game against Tom Brady. But going back to what you were saying about the screen game, right for those that want to go back and watch film on the temporary Buccaneers, I started really diving into it yesterday as a means of setting up for this week's edition of Science Lab that drops in the morning. Shape my plug. That is an excellent point, and that's why it's that much more important that LV is back on the field. The large

majority of the screen passes. As far as the running backs that are getting them out of the backfield, it's Leonard Fournette. He has more than fifty receptions on the season. I like the matchup of a Leonard Fournette versus LV because Fournette, while he's a big body guy and he's strong, so as Lve. So it's not it's strength on strength.

It's not speed versus strength. So if it was a speed guy getting those out of the backfield, such as a Dalvin Cook whom the Cowboys did well against, or someone like that Jonathan Taylor who has that speed, Fournette he's not slow, but he's not fast. So by the time he is able to get the balls. That's a perfect matchup. If you're talking LV being able to play sideline to sideline, a healthy LV might just be the reason you can walk away with the win in this game.

Because an excellent point, and you're right, You're absolutely right. I would be much more concerned though, if Laton vander esh wasn't going to be back on this field. So the fact that he is and he's not going against a speed back and Learnard Fournidde and go screens, then the thing is can he and I believe he can, he can beat Leonard Fournette to the spot? Can those

dbs get off of those blocks? So so that's that's my thing because I obviously want LB's presence right, But the reality is, when I speak on screen game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it doesn't come in the form of what most people think go to. It's not a true run, it's not a true running back screen. I'm

thinking about wide receiver screen. So when you think about the defensive backs that you guys want active for this game, guys that have kind of been swing guys up and down, who are the dbs that you absolutely just say, must be a part of this game. Treyvon and okay, who else? Probably Nasan Okay, So that's three. I'm just gonna throw Roads in there. I gotta see. That's who have it. I gotta have it. That's four. That's four dbs. That

mean you need more? I mean, I don't. You're talking about guys that are about confidence about oh d b dB Yeah, even Curse, Wilson Hooker, Hooker, Yeah, Donald Donald's going to be I would love for his room. I will I would love for Israel mccuama to be in there. Done will have to be huge if you press. Yeah, Donald will have to be huge if you press. And that's what I was kind of getting at. There's some guys that have been swing guys up to this point

that I need present for this game. But because of what their skill sets present and the diffic the complications that their skill sets present for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, do you think like a Marquise Bell could maybe play into that too. He's kind of a bigger guy. He's a bigger guy. He's a similar skill set as jay Ron Curse. He's not as strong, but he might be quicker than jay Ron. I'm not sure this is the game.

I want him in there. I want Okay, yeah, I want, I want Israel, I want um Uh Nashan, Duran Blan. Obviously I need him on God. When I need him on God, when I need him on Gauge, I need I need on both of those guys. I like Bill's potential, but because we haven't seen him get enough reps A green season, Yeah, Tom Brady, I just wanted. Yeah, Tom Brady's just going to stare him down. But but you know what, I know what I do like about him.

He's gonna hit you, Yes, And this is a team that you have to hit because you think about it. Veteran receivers, okay, veteran quarterback. You start hitting these guys, all of a sudden, their mechanics go to crap. Yeah, okay, TV twelve, we know TB twelve. I can go all the way back to my playoff game with him, when I was there in New England. We got our bus keep because they freaking Baltimore Ravens were hitting the crap out of us. They were hitting the crap out of us.

And when TB two, I've had three interceptions, couldn't recover three interceptions in Baltimore. Just ran the crap out of the ball with ray Rice, just just ran it right. So hit them right. And then when they do want to do the screenplays, guess what, come downhill and hit

Mike Evans, come downhill, hit Julio. Hit these cats at the point where they're like, you know what, I'm gonna run to play, but I don't want any part of the smoke for terms of crossing a lot of scrimmin But here was my point against as far as the screen is concerned, and I knew it was more than fifty, but I couldn't get the actual number. Now I have the actual number and as much higher than fifty. Leonard Fournette seventy three receptions targeted eighty three times. He is third.

He has seventy three three receptions. Wow, so we're talking about screens receive number like two or three. Screen is primarily Leonard Fournette seventy three receptions, third most on the team, five hundred twenty three receiving yards, also third most on the team, averaging seven point two yards per reception. Leonard Fournette is the screenplay for Tom Brady that matchup of Leonard Fournette versus LVEE. That's me all day long. That's where I'm at. Are you? But I was gonna ask

you two follow ups on that one. Leonard Fournette twenty one carries one twenty seven against the Cowboys on the ground, and that was without the screen game. Now you add the screen game into it. I feel like it makes him even more lethal in that regard. But one, you said, you're confident in Lvee, which I agree. On the screen LVEE has been there. Are you really that confident in his health because he's been out these last couple of weeks. Is he gonna want to come up and hit somebody? Yeah?

I don't. I don't see him have any hesitations there, But I would switch see I don't. I don't think that's lacking the ability to take care of Fournette. But I would much rather if we had to play man, right, and they we're talking about assignments, I would much rather see Demon clark on on on Fournette. And as much as I am Demon, have a day one for Demon. He struggled these past couple of the last four. So it's it's LVEE or bust for me, And that doesn't

mean that it has to be one hundred percent. L obviously rotate demaning there because he has a lot of value. He has to speed. But as far as NFL IQ and readiness goes, Lvee has it in spades. Uh. And then when you talk about what Fournette was able to do on the ground taking handoffs against the Cowboys, well, guess who wasn't here in Week one but is likely

going to be back on Sunday, Jonathan Hankins. So it's it's not it's not the same defensive front that Fournette is going to face bid you know in the screenplay. I mean lv was here in week one, true enough, but if Lvee having now played the season he's played because coming into Week one everyone was hoping that Lvie could but based in the past couple of seasons, they're like, man, we don't know, and maybe there is a little bit of a question mark in his own mind. But now

this version of lv is pro Bowl minded. This is I know what I can do. I'm going out here and I'm eating and talking to him in the locker room. This this the what what he has in his eyes. He is that guy looks dangerous. I hope you're right. That really is dangerous, because talking in the locker room are two different things. That dude, I hope you're right. I really I'm excited about both Jonathan Hankins and LV.

But to what I'm trying to present to you, guys, this is going to be a sideline the sideline game. You don't think the wind comes in between the hash marks? I don't, which I think is a good thing because who's not been winning in the hash marks recently? If it's reduced to that, that's great that I'm saying, cause I'm saying that. Then Evans on a goal. Yeah, I'm saying. I'm not saying that they're not going to get to those.

I'm saying that their strategy, and from what I believe, I believe that their strategy is going to be sideline sideline. Get everybody running sideways, because what that you can't have a pass rush doing that. Every team that's done that against Dallas has been successful for the most part. Ye, So get them running sideways and then what then I'm coming up the middle, right, Well, they John Hankins right, most of the time, you kind of they're gonna try

to eliminate him out the game. So now you're relying on your other defense alignment to have an impact, which they can, right, But this is not this especially primarily is not a Jonathan Hankins game. Well, it goes back to what they did against Dallas in Week one. It makes laws, Mica Lawrence. All those guys on the edge have to have a great game. But it's what they did in week one, nineteen to three. They did it by getting out to the edge. They did it by

working down the field. Now that kind of gets neutralized when you get into the red zones. So what happened They stalled out in the red zone. They kicked four field goals. That's gonna be very similar. I think that's the one they're gonna do. So that's where you you have to run in between the tackles. That is when you get down inside the twenties and you're trying to work downfield. That's how they didn't have a ton of success, only had the one touchdown against Cowboys in week one.

All right, when we come back, we've got an insight source here. Somebody who was in a locker room during playoff time and played against playoff time Tom Brady, what makes him different, what makes him tick? When we continue our preview of the Cowboys defense versus the Tampa Bay offense with more talking Cowboys. After this, Todd thought it

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Back here on Talking Cowboys and again if you haven't heard us before, Country Music's Party of the Year is coming to Ford Center at the Star in Fresco. The Academy of Country Music Awards are always bringing you country music's pride of stars together under one roof. And no one does country quite like Texas Witness History on May eleventh, get your tickets at geek dot com. By the way,

Cowboys social team who does a great job upstairs. They posted the debate in which was raging here on Talking Cowboys a couple of weeks ago the originators would you would you eat the end of the bread? Would you eat the ends of the bread? And it was quite the fiery debate. It's a good one. All three of us eat the end of the bread. A right Beemer doesn't because he said he's he's just he's bougie. We do it. Found out a lot about the players based

on their answers. What I love what said that was like absolutely, he was like some people aren't strong enough. Here we go. I liked when Micah said he was like that, that's when you really know you're from the trenches, right and you're from the sam and Osa Yeah, Dante. They were like, listen to come on, said Sam said, put some bus serping between the who was that? That gave the whole descriptions and he nailed it because that's

how you do it. And pushed the front one out of the way, walking all the ones in between, and then that leaves you with the ends. You put them together. That's a firesids a fire sand. He got it hands Also, Odiggy's with the Bran Science love. I knew. I loved Tyren Smith so much. He goes the biggest guy there's like, you mean the booty Brad. Yeah, go look at the video. It's up online all of the social channels. It's the Cowboys cam this week. And great debate. It was started

by Isaiah. Isaiah was the first one that brought it up, so credit to you. Really really fun. It was a great debate upstairs and then we brought it downstairs and the social team took it and ran with it and they said, let's do it. The players loved it. It was and ladies and gentlemen, trust me when he says it was a great debate upstairs. It was a fiery, spicy, heating debate and people are willing to die on this here. Yes, sir, also Roxanne Medina, who does great work with our video department.

I was down there sitting with her the day they were recording this a couple weeks ago. For the fans, by the way, that are out there like why are you posting videos like this? Why why are you postings like this? Getting ready for Tom Brady? Whoever's on Twitter getting upset? Yet focus on Tom Brady. This was recorded weeks ago. It's fine. So when when they recorded it, Roxanne was like, I've been out here almost every time they've done this. This is by far the most debated

topic I've ever seen going down those hallways. So lots of fun. Go check it out online. Hey, it all starts with talking cowboys always. That's why you got to tune in daily, start your day with talking cowboys. Uh, let's talk about Tom Brady Thomas. You were teammates with him in New England and got to got to go through the playoffs with him. You also want to ring by going through tom Brady in the playoffs, by winning it with New York. What makes him different? Preparation, preparation,

and it really just all boils on a preparation. I mean, you think about how he gets ready for games. This dude watches an fathomable amount of film. I mean, it's give us an idea. What would it look like he watches. He's gonna watch every game. Yeah, he's gonna watch every game, every Cowboys game, every Cowboys game, and he's gonna look for any kind of keys. He's gonna take all the analysts, work, all the all the statticians that send all those reports.

He's gonna break all those down, and then from that he's gonna break down. He's gonna have a film. He's gonna have his own breakdown of things based upon the game plan for the Cowboys. Okay, whether it be things that dan Quinn likes to do in certain situations and down to distances, whether it be things that they can force Dallas into based upon formation or based upon motions.

He's gonna break down and put all that film until one little, one little folder, and he's gonna call in his whole offense and he's gonna watch every single one of those plays with his offense, and he's gonna tell these guys when we do this, they're gonna do this, and this is what I expect you to do. This is where I want you to be. I don't care what our normal concept is. This is where how, this is how I want you to change the route. If they line up like this, I'm not even gonna look

at you. If they line up like this, you change whatever we're doing to this, because this they're giving us, that play is every The communication and the preparation on that regard is is second to none. The second best player that I've been with to do that is Eli, and it wasn't even close in terms of how they were. And I mean, obviously Eli's won two super Bowls, right, But yeah, I mean just Tom Brady's just it's so he's so detail oriented and again, if there is a tell,

he will find it. Wow. Yeah, it's he's kind of I don't know, but he doesn't. I mean he He's gonna be hard for him to walk away from the game because he's so passionate about it. It's like everything about it is competition. He doesn't want to walk away from a practice with incompletion. He doesn't want to walk away from a practice with with a bad rep, you know, or everybody at any kind of mental lapse. I mean, I mean, like you, everybody's gonna be so honed in

and keyed in. Dan Quinn's gonna have to have some curveballs. He's obviously he's faced them before at a high level, obviously the Super Bowl. So these two are gonna be going head to head. This is not Byron Leftwich versus dan Quinn. This is dan Quinn versus Tom Brady. And dan Quinn needs his guys to execute his game plan.

And Tom Brady is going to go back and look at that film against Atlanta, look at all the past few games that they've played Dallas, and he's gonna look and see what is what is the common denominator between all these things. We come out into three by one, what is dan Quinn like to do against me? We come into two by two? What does he like to do against me? This is a battle between Tom Brady and dan Quinn. Is he the best film watcher in

the history of Absolutely you have it. Not even close in terms of guys that I played with, and I played with a lot of Hall of famers. I've been blessed to play with some really good guys. Not even close. Wow. Yeah, it's it's it's kind of scary. It's kind of scary. That's why you have to be on top of everything? Where? Okay, question film start one. I wonder if how would he's you know, fair against the damn Marinos Troy Aikmans. I can't speak to those guys. No, Yeah, I'm just saying

that's making me wonder, like, that's a really good question. Well, where does he stack up against the guy that he's gonna be going against on Monday watching film? As far as watching film, I mean Dak Prescott watch as I can't speak to Yeah, you've never been seat his preparation. I can look at the decision making and I can make the assumption that they're on two different you know today.

It's a great question. Just makes me wonder in the annals of great tape grinders, who who's on the mount Rushmore Lewis and answer, we will probably ray Lewis, for sure. I can agree with it, ray Lewis, for sure. I mean you talk about somebody. I mean, that's why that battle was lost that game against them and Read and those guys just happened to play on the same dog team. I mean, when let me help you understand the details, Kay, ray Lewis, during the time that I was playing game

they kicked our butts. Right, you talk about Ray Lewis versus Tom Brady. That's and read in the second rade awesome right, right, Sarah Goose Autumn casts. Right. These guys were paid, they were bray Lewis would have film sessions at his house. He would call the whole defense, order pizza, all that kind of stuff. Everybody, whole defense come over, were watching film in my theater, and they would look for anybody's foot being being cocked differently, pressure on the fingertips. Right,

we're talking about any little tail. That's how detailed the playoff football is. R I'm looking at if I come up to the last scrimmage, I'm de Lawrence right, and your offensive tackle. I'm coming up to the line of scrimmage and you have and I can see the white on your fingers. I know that, I know that you're gonna that you're dropping back. I know that you're going into a pass set or if I can see there, I can see the blood sitting at your fingertips. I

know you're coming downhill. Like That's how minu of details that you're paying attention to on every single play. You think we're allowed to ask that question? In locker room today. Do you guys have any outside of outside of what's in this building? Do you have any extra film study? Do you think we could ask that question? Go for it, we should. I don't know if there's any restriction on talking about you know what I asked, I would ask do you watch more film in the building? Our outside?

That's a good question. I'll ask that to a couple of guys today. I'll come back with you tomorrow on it. I'll let you know. But that's gonna do it here for us fair, but I want to I want to know, and the fans deserve to know as well. For Chris being Isaiah standback, Patrick No see walk around. Kyle Yeoman's will preview the Cowboys offense versus that Tampa Bay defense tomorrow and give you more of the breakdown for the wild card matchup between the Cowboys and the Buccaneers. That's

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