Talkin' Cowboys: Adjustments On Offense?

an off day when you're talking football season. Bill Jones, Mickey Spagnola, Rob Phillips, Bryan and brought us as we turn our attention to the Green Bay Packers now this week after the loss to the Saints on Sunday night, the Cowboys at the corner poll of this season with a three and one record. Gentlemen, how are you doing on this very fine Tuesday morning? Doing well? Good? Great?

Jerry Jones at his weekly radio appearance on one oh five three the Fan this morning, had a little injury update from doctor Jones this morning and he is pleased with the good news from the MRI on Tyron Smith yesterday. Anybody listened to Jerry this morning, best they could have

hoped for is what he said. The sprained ankle, so he said unlikely for Sunday, but I don't know that it's probably trending that way where they're preparing for Cam Fleming to be your left tackle against the Packers and then hopefully after that he's back, which you know, when you watch the replay of his of Dak fall into his ankle, you're thinking this could be really serious and didn't turn out that way. So some fortunate news there. Yeah, you got guys that you know, these players when they

get injured. What we've seen kind of a history a little bit earlier in this season is that you know, we'd say, oh, it's this and this and this as far as the time length and all that stuff like that. But if you get a player that's willing to do whatever he has to do to get back out there, I think that's where it's really been the case with

this whole crew. If you look at guys like Xavier Woods, you know, you look at again Michael Gallup, guys like that that they said, oh, two to four weeks, well, you know, these guys are trending more on one week two weeks like that, you know. And then a guy like Tyrn Smith loves to play football, he knows how important it is for him to be out there, and he'll do everything in his power. You know, if he has to to miss a game this week, well we'll

see what happens with the Jets. But they've been real fortunate with those injuries. But they've been even more fortunate that they have the right kind of guy that's going to do everything in his power to get back. I think that. I think Antoine Woods is a similar kind of guy, you know, doing everything he can to get back out there and play. And I think that's the you know, you have to have willing players, and it has he's always been the case in the recent history.

It hasn't always been the case. And you know, you have willing rehab guys, you know, Britt Brown, Jim Marry, those guys are all willing, and but you have to have the player to be willing to do it. And I think that's what they've got these guys. And that's why I think we've seen some of these guys come back on shorter stints than say, oh it's a six week or a five week or eight whatever. Week. You know, they've they've got guys coming back. I think we also

need a little more accurate in reporting too. Well. The Xavier Woods one was that just was off to begin with. But one was off, yeah, because it wasn't a high ankle spring. Okay, and that's twice now, oh for two on high ankle sprains. Yeah, I mean. And then that's one of the advantages we have living in this building. You know, Mickey is able to walk up or on a plane ride home and walk up to somebody and say, hey,

what exactly is wrong here? And as you get on the plane they will tell you this is what we saw in the X ray or the MRI or whatever. And then uh, then you know, you get accurate reporting. That way. People are quick to make these these comments and analysis when they just could you know, wait a

little bit and get the accurate part of it. And just like with not all ACL injuries are the same, I would assume not all quote unquote high ankle springs are the same you get and you know, we've been finding that out too, because I think there was one last year, you know, and it was going to be six weeks and it was like two or three. Yeah, somebody came back. So yeah, it's not you can't just

put everything into this classified order. Okay. It sounds bad though, when you when you hear a high ankle, usually thinking just might as well been broken, But no, it's uh. In this case, you and tough guys wanted to get back. Know how important the season is. Nobody wants to let anybody down again. You got those players, you got a staff that's willing to put in all the hard work to make sure everything like that's taken care of. And so I put my faith in my hand, in those

guys hands, that those guys are gonna be back. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised again. Jerry talked about it. He says, don't rule out Michael Gallup. And Michael Gallup is out there running routes right now with san Jay Lyle and Britt Brown and all those guys standing there watching him do it. And he could and he could prove that. He says, Hey, you know I'm good. I could cut, I could dip, I can do what I can jump.

I can do everything I have to do to protect myself in this game, and playing this game by all means. You know, we'll see Michael Gallup this week, if that's if that's the way it is. In the car, he was trying to convince him that he could play last week. Yeah, and He didn't win the argument, but he was pushing the play because he thought he was running well enough. And I think possibly this week the same team thing with Antoine Woods. Yes, if you watch absolutely rehabbing, he's

moving really well. Yeah. So yeah, they need those guys all. You know, Garrett talks about all hands on deck, You mean, think about taking weapons away and trying to play that game. You play that game against the Saints the other day without Michael Gallup. You sure could have used him on some of those incut routes, some slants. Maybe he generates

a little offense for you. Maybe he takes a little pressure off somebody having to cover all of a sudden, if if if he's over here wearing somebody out, maybe they have to move Ladaim we're over there. Well then that that frees up Cooper. So yeah, you start taking weapons off the field and your team becomes compromised, then you're gonna lose games twelve to ten. That that's just the way the NFL is. One area, you have to win a game twelve to ten. Yeah, they did they

want they did. They won without Drew Brees at quarterback. Give him credit. They played exactly how they needed to play. One area where Gallup has really grown is making contested catches, and I think that comes with just being a stronger player this year. I mean, you go back and you watch that Saints game. There are a lot of tight window throws to make that I think he could have

helped in that area, no question about it. They got some separation on the Eli Apple for or you know, just not enough of that, just not enough, you know. I don't know if you've had a chance to examine further what happened defensively, what the Saints were doing that put the Cowboys off kilter. Clog and cover and cover two where two of the things that you know, clog and cover is my way of saying rush three, drop eight.

They were going to make Dak Prescott beating him in this game as well as Dak Prescott had played the previous three weeks. Uh. They they were determined that, okay, well we'll stop this running game. And they did. They did a great job. We've talked about what what uh you know what those guys did up front, you know, Malcolm Brown, those guys, they did a great job of

controlling the line of scrimmage. They got just enough pressure on Prescott and you know, no sacks until the very end, but got just enough pressure to kind of affect him. But on the secondary, they covered very very well. Lattimore had one of his best games of the year and what he did with Cooper. Rob talked about the the the whole thing with you know, uh didn't nyeing those routes, making sure that they weren't able to execute them to

the best of their ability. But yeah, a lot of Cover two and then a lot of drop eight to make to have to make Prescott make those throws. And they were able to stop the running game without loading the box every snap. And when you can do that, you can continue to play that shell defense and just kind of keep things in front of you. Absolutely, that's

what they were able to do. You know, you look at what the Saints have up front on defense, and they got Sheldon Rankin's back, and then you were talked about Malcolm Brown and how well he played in the game, and then with the ends Davenport as well as Cam Jordan. I mean, you've got four first round draft picks there, I think in this day and age in the NFL. And then those are the type players mobile defensive lineman that Rod Marinilli is always looking for, especially though in

this day and age in the NFL. Getting those active, you know, high motor guys up front, even against Pro bowlers on an offensive line, they can give you fits. Well, you know what. And I heard Jason this after the game and Dak said it too, talking about their front

and he kept talking about their movement. And I don't know how much they were moving, like before the snap or at the snap, but it was almost like you were trying to hit a target and you were a step half step slow because you had you're not looking at the ball, crowd noise, and the crowd noise, you know,

it's not an excuse, it's real. No, it's real. And so with their moving at the last second, you're having trouble making adjustments, and you know, guys were missing up front well, and you know, and that led to not being able to run the ball. And that's what they invited you to do. They put an invitation out there. You think you can run against us, come out at us, and they couldn't. Saints had the same problem protecting, I mean, and it was a home game for them. Movement gave

them a lot of problems in that game. So if you've got active guys, if you've got down guys that can twist and stunt and cause problems, and you got a linebacker that could play physically like Smith does when he blitzes, then that makes all the difference in the world. You can affect the pocket, you know, I mean, things look so bleak at the end of that game with them maybe getting the ball back and they get a huge sack kicks him out of field goal range even too.

So you know, give both defenses a lot of credit for the way that they played. The Saints were just a little bit better at defending the run than the Cowboys were in that game, and which allowed them to have longer drives and they didn't convert into touchdowns. They kicked field goals, and you can go back and look, and there was a couple instances where it's like, okay,

that was kind of a gift field goal. You know, if you don't go for it on fourth down, maybe you don't fumble, and if you don't fumble, maybe they don't get the ball back. And if they don't get the ball back, maybe they don't go down and kick a field goal with no time left. I still applaud him from it was the right call, was absolutely, you know what he you know, it's you're trying to get your team going. And I always I've been very critical of him of not knowing the pulse of his team.

He knew the pulse of his team. He knew, Hey, I have to do something here. You know. It didn't work out, and you know, unfortunately that's the case. But I applaud him for trying to be aggressive in that. I was. I was waiting for Sean Payton to try to steal a possession. Yeah, I was waiting for something because I figured, you know what, at some point he's gonna he's he's not scoring enough and he wants an extra possession. Better watch out for that onsite kick. You

never faked up last year in this game. Yeah remember that? Yeah, you're right, Yeah, because he's he's had an on site kick in the Super Bowl before, so you never you never know. And he did try some misdirection stuff in the first half to try to help Bridgewall. He's trying to take the pressure off Bridgewall exactly. Yeah, and he and he did and they got twelve points. My god,

if you give up twelve points you ought to win. Yeah, wasn't good enough on that, but didn't allent good game plan for them, good game plan the ld Bell product. I knew that was kind Is that right? I didn't know that? Yeah, you knew that. I knew that. Yeah, yeah, of course he knew that. You know. I was just thinking what you've been should uh Sean Payton to the on side kick? When who knows if where John Payton

his what his legacy will wind up being. But I think maybe the signature moment, however long he coaches in his career, he can be coaching for fifty years and people will remember that a sign the signature moment of his career. I'll tell you my signature moment with Sean Payton was when he was a the lowest wrong coach

on our staff in Philadelphia. He was the quality control guy basically for us, the lowest of the coaches, and we gave him the quarterbacks to evaluate and he said, he says, if you're gonna he goes, if I had a choice between Manning and and Leaf, he goes, I'm taking Manning every single time. He's gonna have a longer, better career. And he kind of gave a litany of things. He also said, he goes, someone needs to draft Matt Hasselbeck. He goes, Matt Hasselbeck will have a long career, and

I'm like a kid from Boston College. He goes, yeah, trust me, this guy will have have a long career and he'll play well for somebody, and somebody will take him late. Sean was a really good evaluator of players. He really had a good eye of that kind of stuff. You know why he liked Hasselbeck coming. He know, he studied his he studied his game. He liked the fact he thought that that Hasselbeck was a leader. He really liked the fact of how accurate he could throw the

football and he could throw it down the field. But he was on me about that in that nineteen ninety eight draft. He says, hey, you need a quarterback. You had to take this Matt Hasselbeck because he's gonna play, he is going to be a good player. And he did. He Oh, Sean always had a rule. I think Jason Garretts are rually good evaluator as well. If you have a head coach that's a good evaluator, that makes all the difference in the world of how your scouting apartment

can run, and Jason grew up obviously around it. The football evaluation part of his scout DYEA and Hasselbeck being a that's I was wondering if that might be something where Peyton said, Okay, he's from an athletic family. Well, he just he evaluated the Boston College tape. He really liked him a lot. That's what I'll remember. Not much an onsite kick. I remember he sort of liked h some guy named Romo. Well, that was where I was going.

We were at the Combine two years ago. I got to sit down with him about for Deep Blue, and he was thought. He was so on the phone trying to get the Romo thing done. And I know there was the Eastern Illinois connection and all that, but he has a knack worked in the whole draft. Yeah. For Actually, my signature moment with him was turning down l Davis for a head coaching job and staying with the Cowboys for another year, which turned out pretty good decision. Yeah, Um,

Drew Henson. Remind me what Parcels thought of Drew Henson. Yeah, we listened to stick Michael, the general manager of the Yankee. Michael. Yeah, stick Michael. Here is he's trying to tell us how to evaluate football players, you know, and I'm thinking, you know what we need to tell him. He's got this guy named Mariona Rivera. You might want to bring him out of the bullpen. He might can help you win some some games. That's what I felt like saying. We

should have what was what did he say? That great athlete? You know, he's got a guy, he's got you know, the arm angles and all that. Sean Payton absolutely hated him, hated him. We side sat down with Sean Payton and watched nine games of Michigan. He goes, this guy can't play. He goes this guy, he goes, I don't know whatever he's seen in this guy, this guy, how about how about have career he had? He tricked him in baseball and football, Well tricked him in both, and at Michigan

he started ahead of Tom Brad. Yeah, we're I know, periscope's losing their mind right now because we're talking about this. But anyway, I'm just saying that that's okay. But but this, this is, this is, this is this is why again Sean Payton was the only one in that room. It's till Bill parcels he cannot play. I would not take this guy, Sean. I mean I remember that clear as the day, because Sean had Sean had problems with his mechanics. He used to drag. The guy would drag his elbow

to throw and thus the ball. He'd had problem with his accuracy and stuff like that, and Sean's like, I had problems with his processing, Yeah, well I can throw it. He was a maybe a four point student. What he was a classic example of a point player or whatever he was who couldn't process quickly on the field. That happens that basically you could only give him, okay, he can throw to this side of the field on this play,

and don't give him a whole fee. Took a lot of heat for that one because he was the only one in the room. And again we're listening to stick Michael ge Michael the general manage for the Yankees, tell us what a great person and player and all that he is. And I'm like, why in the hell is he not playing for the Yankees? Then why is he trying to sell us? They got us on a conference call and did this in conference. This quarterback gets us

back to Dak. Yeah, and when you look at what he did in college as a scout and trying to figure out can he make the transition to the NFL. And one of the big things is, all right, you really don't know base probably off his college stuff, whether he can process what he can read an NFL defense whatever, because he didn't haven't seen it before, you don't know

what he can do. I think the thing with Dak that makes everybody you fall in love with him at Mississippi State was the fact of how hard he worked, how he did everything in his hour. You talk to Dan Mullen, you talk to the coaches there at Mississippi State. Everybody was talking about work ethic, that he was going to do everything he and his power to get it and to understand it and to try. I think that

Jason Garrett has talked about that as well here. So you know, you might not have seen it in college, but if you've got the ability, the desire, the want to the athletes guy, yeah, yeah, if you got that the leader, all those things translate into what you can do. And the other thing about Dak and this is where we are here, coming off a loss, the extreme confidence with which he goes about everything that he does, and

it just it's infectious in that locker room. I mean, we talk about twenty four hour rule in this league. This team has moved past that New Orleans game by now. Hopefully you'll learn from it though a little bit. Hopefully you learned a little bit. Yeah, all right, give us a call eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. We're taking your phone calls as we go up to eleven forty five this morning here on Talking Cowboys. Your new apartment's big, such a great deal, it's okay,

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Cowboys at the quarter pole of this season. Who had the Cowboys at three and one through the first four games of the season. That's kind of what I thought, bet we all did. Yeah, I think that Drew Brees, would you now? I had them at three and old? Okay, Jim, Yeah, but I thought Drew Brees would be playing for the Sames too, So that's the other so well, I don't know, I think they should be. Absolutely, they should be. They should be. They should have found a way, they should

have found a way to score more than ten points. Absolutely, Key's right right ahead thirteen. I'm always right, you guys. Forget that mark that Caden please drop. That's why, that's why we're struggling. So then think, ah, I think you just look at the schedule those first three games and you say, yes, they should be three and oh it's always tough. I mean, Mickey's right, it's not an excuse

going into the dome and dealing with that noise. But I thought Stephen Jones made a good point, you know, on the fan yesterday, that you've got to be able to execute despite that noise unless you're gonna get home field advantage, and that's a possibility. Um, you're gonna have to go in these hostile environments and be able to handle it. And I don't think they felt like they handled it well enough in the game. The pre snap communication fine, I mean really good, no pre snap penalties,

but the execution part of it. I think Brian wrote about it yesterday. Eleven first down runs. I know that's a big topic coming out of this game, but there were some miss blocks and missopportunities there from your game. What's wrong with eleven first down run? I say there was, but everybody was making an issue out of it because

that's why they lost. They'll tell you why, they'll Mickey, and I'll answer a question because analytics guys will tell you that eleven first down runs only netted one point eight yards and the other when they threw the ball they averaged over seven yards a catch. Well, yeah, that makes sense. So if I throw the ball on first down and I don't complete it, how many do I average? Yeah? Zero? And then what are you doing second down? Well, that's

throwing again. And what are you doing third down? You're throwing again? Yeah, and then you just canned your running back. Well, I'm just telling you what the analytics. What the analytics are saying that it's not always common sense. Say do me a favorite, Mickey, because I was trying. I was working on something because I was hearing that there that maybe they were looking into signing Josh Jones today. But

you know the safety that used to be the Packers. Yeah, it sounds like it's going to be to the practice squad, not to the active roster. Because and said, we've either moved somebody up or signed somebody off the street. Yeah, that's what they failed to make earlier. Cavan Frasier, of course, placed on ir with the pectoral. Yes, so Josh Jones, you keep an eye on that one right there. That's why I'm sorry. I was doing it, Mickey, and you just you just were making a point, and I, uh,

you know about what you were saying. No, I was just saying, I don't understand why. You know, they had twelve first down passes eleven first down runs, So just because you pass on first down doesn't mean you're going to complete it. There's no Well they started the game with the past. Yeah, look, and they did it just it was down from the first three games. That's why it's a topic right now. But how because they were able to spread them out in the first three games,

and do did the other team play? How did the defense? And I think you're trying to run to kind of get get my theory, get Zeke established and take the crowd out of it. I think it's what you're trying to do. I think I think this is my theory on why they did what they did, especially on first down, and we had this discussion with Jason Garrett is that the one thing he told Kellen Moore was when you play with crowd noise, get the play in quick. Get

the play in quick. So with that being said, okay, Kellen Moore could be in a situation we're saying, Okay, I feel like I can run with I can run the football. Teams have run the football against these guys as before. You know, maybe I need to find it, not maybe I need to get the play in quick and allow Dak to make his adjustments whatever he has to do. If he wants to check the play, he could check the play. But I have a feeling that they got out of it a little bit because of

the situation of the crowd noise. I felt like that they that they said, Okay, we're going to We're going to get that play in and then let Dak be the determining factor on this play of what if we're going to go run or pass. That's just that's just the theory I have because when you deal if you're if people asking about why not all the ships and motions and stuff like that, that takes time, That takes communication a lot harder to do this. It's a lot

harder to do in that environment. And so to me, if you get a play in, if you say, okay, we're going to run the football and first down, I think Kellen Moore went in with the confidence that he could run the ball in first down, you know, And that's a little bit why that he was able to again get the play in, let Dak make the adjustment and then go from there. And yeah, Saints did a great job. I mean, they did a great job. But again the analytics guys will argue, and I'm not an

analytics guy. I'm not at all. I'm more like Mickey than an analytics guy. But I also understand that if you're telling me I could get it seven yards a pass and I'm getting two little under two yards a carry on first down, that maybe I need to make some type of adjustment. That's all I'm That's all that I think the analytics guys are saying. Yeah, and you know that goes back to the Tony Pollard issue because he gets two snaps on offense and maybe they were

worried about him and Blitz pick up. Well maybe, but I see, but you can also do other things to get him involved too, right there, Maybe there's a package. Especially with Gallop not in the game, maybe you could get him involved a little bit. I get Garrett's point about Zeke wasn't tired. They didn't have a lot of plays.

It's not like you had to spell him there. But I was a little surprised he wasn't a little more involved because he is versatile and you can put him in different spots to maybe try to get something gone. I'd love to have handed him the ball a couple of times on the edge, you know, maybe try that, you know, try to kind of soft him up on the outside a little bit and maybe spread him out.

But I love running the football. I'm I'm sorry. I you know, I pissed a lot of people off saying that because every you'll say, oh, and that in this day and age, you got to be able to throw an I agree. I mean, you have to throw to score points. But I think that nothing's better than when a team has that ability to run the football and be really good at it, you know. And I think the Cowboys felt like that they were whether it's cavalier or not, they felt like that they were better than

the Saints and they could run the football. Well, look, they just didn't. They just didn't look at the way this offensive line has played to that point. Sure, I'm as dominant as we've seen him in recent years, and that's why you just kind of have to you have to tip your cap to some degree to the Saints for what they were able to do up front. All right, let's go to Jordan and Odessa. You're up on talking Cowboys.

Hello Jordan, Hey guys, how's it going. Look? So, I was just trying to figure out all night why they seem to just run Zeke right into a wall all night. I didn't really see. I saw like a couple of you know, sweet passes or sweep runs, but I didn't see any type of zone running though, you know, just it was all into wall. I mean, when you get a brand new car, you don't just run it into a wall. You drive it around and test it out a little bit. But I just it seems so lackluster

with the play calling me. I guess I could have been you know a lot of drop passes and stuff like that from the receivers, and I guess that's where you miss gallup. You know, he's so surehanded, But I mean, it just it seemed like we went went back to Scotland and had play calling. And I hate saying that because I know a lot of Cowboys fans on Twitter saying stuff like that, but that's just the way it looked to me. And uh, like, I'm with you, did you find Let me ask you a question, sir, did

you find guys getting open? Did you find them? I mean, even I know you're watching TV copies, so that's probably an unfair question to you, but well, did you did you feel like even the passes that were thrown were open passes? Well? Man, these Saints, these Saints cornerbacks they played, they played a hell of a game. Sure, yeah, absolutely, Man, there was a couple of passes that we were really

contested that these guys should have gotten. Um, And I'm sure they would say the same thing, that they should have gotten these passes. But um, the passes that I see dropped, you know, they weren't contested. Um, But there were a couple that were off target. Two there are a couple badly off target as well. Yeah. Absolutely, And man, the Saint. What I saw was the Saints they did a hell of a job tackling last Yeah, they starts today.

Night and no question. Oh man, it was. It was a rough game, but you know, there's no reason to panic. I think these guys will pick it back up and if the defense continues to play like they did, and like you said, Brian, it was such a wasted effort on the law, But I mean it's only wasted. I see if if they they backtrack and um, if they build on this, I think these guys will be fine and I think they'll find a way to win. Thank you, Jordan. It sounds like you've talked yourself back off the ledge.

So what do you think about that? God forbid? If they lose to the Packers, they could and they very well could, very well could. Huh what they've beat them once oide of the last eight times they faced him since oh nine, Yeah, welcome to the OC chair, kelln Or. This is you know, this is this is the job right here Union. It's not going to be the head coach next next week of the other week. I mean, it was just gravy right for three weeks and now here we go. He was this is what his mentor

dealt with for years. Da Dak was going to get a raise him or execution. Oh they just didn't execute. I know that. I'm sure they look at yesterday and said, we'd like to do that. Fans, Hey, when we say that, but you don't know, it's so true. It's so true, like when you look when you're missing, when all pro players are missing blocks. In the history of football, no one's ever blamed the players. They blamed the coaches or

the offensive coordinator of the defense. Jerry said, on the face it's the hottest seat in the NFL, not even the head coach. It's the OC because because everybody plays, everybody can come back Monday, and so this is what I would have done on Madden. So no one calls in and said this is what I would have done on defense. Yeah, I would not saying they could have done things different things differently. I'm sure they looked at it yesterday. Second. Guess that's that's the beauty of it.

You feel like they played. Do you feel like the defense played well against Kamara and Thomas well enough to win? I wouldn't say well, because they let him get away with a few too many runs. Yeah, but you get one hundred and sixty one yards total offense like he did against Seattle the week before. Eighty nine. Sure, if you'd have told me that, I would have jumped out of my seat and said, let's go absolutely eighty nine yards for absolutely and Teddy Bridgewater throwing and you only

give up twelve points. Ye. The thing, I'm sure, the thing they'd like to have back is to try to get off the field faster at the at the end of the fourth quarter, you know, they let him get a first down or two. I think they would love to not have it go back with just a minute left and it had not gone three and out when it was what five minutes to go in the game.

That was killer. That was a killer, that three and out and right before Yeah, that was killer because that that right there, could that momentum after the sack and now a sudden you're you're getting the ball back. All you have to do is drive it on them, you know, and you kill You be the team that kills the game and goes and gets to win. And they couldn't do that. And that's something they've been pretty good at. Yeah, I've been pretty good at moving the football. They just

didn't move the football well enough. All Right, we continue with more of talking cowboys. We'll get to Sam your phone call in just a moment. When we continue, it can be hard to find the right resource for learning about important financial matters. You search how to build savings, you end up reading about the one weird ingredient from supermarkets that can make you taller. That's why Bank of America build Better Money Habits dot Com, a safe little

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of doing this and then but landed. We just you know, it's on fire, though it's much better than our landing. By the way, Bill in in New Orleans, God Bill, what I ever do with it? No? Though oh pilot was named Bill. Yeah, we gave him. We gave him a little grief, did you. I told him, hey, fine, what about using the wheels? And he goes. I knew if anybody was going to say something that it it would be you three. Normally you don't want to get on

the pilot about that kid. Back, We congratulated him for the landing back here. If there you good? All right, let's go to Sam and Spring Branch, Texas. Hello, Sam, HELLI, Good morning, guys, and I'm just sitting here waiting for that first real cold friends supposed to get here next week. Good luck with that, and well hurry it up deer hunting in shorts? Yeah, exactly. Um, just a quick question after four games, um, how many snaps has Sean Lee been averaging on the field, and how would you guys

evaluate his play so far? And I'll hang up and listen you guys have a great afternoon. Thanks Bill. I'm relying on memory on the first three games. Most around fourteen A game he's played has been this week, I believe twenty nine, twenty eight, yesterday, I tell you yesterday, say it's thirty. Yeah, so he's had seventy five snaps in four games. Okay, there you go. But Yeah, this last game was the most math easier and and I think Jason Garrett said because they got him more bass.

The Saints played more bass, and they probably did that because as of Teddy Bridgewater they played with the week before, they had a lot of two tighty. But he also came in and played to the middle linebacker when they went nickels sometimes to what are you see him? You know what, it's hard because I mean, I'll be critical and I have to be critical, and I'll be nice

when I have to be nice. But to me, Sean Lee, he's one of those guys that gets into a flow of a game, and playing this way does not allow him to get in the flow of a game. So you're not going to see all the flash plays that that quick read behind the line of screamage, trap the back read the screen, get out there. You know. I think with Sean it's unfortunate that he is in this role. I know he embraces whatever he can do, but it's

not it doesn't play to his strength. I think Sean Lee needs to be on the field, and Sean Lee needs to be playing fifty plays because he gets a feel for how to play the game. That way he knows how to excuse me, he knows how to play the game. He just get a feel being on and an off for five plays, being on being off for five you know, he doesn't get a feel for the game. And now, maybe who was the best strong side linebacker in Cowboys history is well, it's the game. It's not exact, dads,

is yea what I was gonna say. In fact that you're talking, I'm sitting there going, Okay, there's a reason outside they were really good players, Leroy Jordan who was a middle linebacker, and Chuck Alley the will okay, And there was a reason Dave Edwards didn't get as much, notorbize, he didn't have as many plays, but not a star position. You don't get a chance to make a lot of

spash splash plays at strong side. You're more of a workman, right, especially now the way offenses are right and they're not on the field. But I thought he was starting to get in the flow of this game a lot more, and that when he was playing back in the middle, And that may be why they got him some more reps this time, just to get him in the flow. I thought. I thought the linebackers played really well, I

thought as a whole, as a group. I mean, that's a tough team to have to deal with with the running back, the screens, the yeah stuff like take handoffs, the hens around. Yeah, they're gonna be on your screws yea, and they you know, Camara hit him a couple of times, but Benderesh was really active. By the way, Joe Thomas had fewer snaps. We talked about that yesterday fourteen. In the game, Jalen Smith played more snaps fifty. Then they hit him with the quarterback run on one play two

for about eighteen yards too. Yeah, Taysom Hill had won you. Yeah, all right, Chris and Mississippi you're next up on Talking Cowboys. Hello, Chris. My question is this is um are we when are we going to be at the end of this Devin Smith experiment. I mean, I think the kids good, but all we hear about is speed. And I mean, if you're gonna talk about speed, that's all we hear about. What Tavon Austin, how come we aren't running any speed

sweeps or any jet sweeps. I mean, it's just this is just an end around to get that an end around for for three yards the other day in that game. Yeah, yeah, but I mean what about Devin Smith. I can't he through some of that? Every time Havon comes in, that comes in, We're like, we know what's coming, you know.

I mean, well, one thing, Devin Smith lines up outside wide. Yeah, so the minute you put him in the slot, I would imagine somebody will think, okay, yeah, and it's kind of hired to when the guys lined up wide to run him on an end around. That's a long way to go. Um, to answer your question, when Michael Gallup gets back, there's the easy answer, that answer, and then they'll just spot them like they brought in the Washingtonshire game. Sure absolutely, and all of a sudden, that speed will

catch you off guard. So it's he can still run. It's just you know, it's we just gotta have the Saints credit for the way the secondary played, I mean, the ways never lose a game. They they they did a great job of eliminating you know, Cooper in the game. And then they said, okay, if Smith and Austin and those guys in Colbert they're good enough to beat it, then go ahead. But they they didn't. Those guys didn't beat you. I mean, now, unfortunately, you know, Cobb could

have had a touchdown catch. That would have been nice. You could add a third down catch I might have been the difference in the football game right there. But overall, Saints did a great job of covering Eli Apple. I mean as much, you know, as as hard as I was on him, he wasn't He wasn't a he wasn't a factor in that game as far as causing the Saints to potentially lose. All right, well, a couple of

minutes left here. You mentioned earlier in the show that it looks like the Cowboys would be signing Josh Jones to the practice Yeah, practice squad is what I still there would be an opening on the fifty three with Cavon Frasier going on IR which by the end of the week they would make a decision there. Yeah. Um, any thoughts on where they might go and that this is gonna sound crazy. I mean, maybe it's a deal where he starts off on the practice squad and then

they bring him. What I was maybe they just play a little light during the week, you know, maybe they go one short and then they just keep the rod when they flip the roster at the end of the week. Then they determined that Jones isn't good enough shape and in all those things. So until Saturday, right, yeah, Saturday there injured reserve. But you see how your guys get through the week. Make sure nobody to look at Josh Jones during the weeks. Absolutely absolutely, well, it'll come. He

plays special teams better than Donovan Wilson. How much do you trust Donovan Wilson? Yeah, because Cavan is really not playing that many snaps on the defense. Because what okay, if they determine to not do that with Josh Jones, what who would they add you think? Or what would they add? And you might start looking at offensive lineman. Yeah, they might need an offensive lineman tyrant situation there. You might also this is gonna sound weird, but they love

Bryant the wide receiver. Yeah, yeah, maybe you flip him. They love him because what he does in practice on special teams. Now, if you're not getting anything out of Cedric Wilson, you know, and and and and that's the determination. You know, you might see them flip some guys. It's like, okay, this guy is would be better than Let's give this guy. Look We've given this guy look for four weeks. Let's

see what this guy can do. Kind and yeah, they switch roles, switch role, goes back to but keep I would keep an eye on some of that stuff because I'm hearing a lot of buzz about this this Bryant kid as how much they really really like him? Yeah, all right, was Wilson Wilson was active? Yes, he was first time this season. I think my sheet shows he was a week before. Yeah, yeah, he was before show. No plays, yeah, no place. Let me see, Okay, let me see. He got four special teams play. Yeah, so

that ain't much. That's I'm saying. There might be there might be some thought there. Keep an eye on that. All right, that doesn't For this edition of Talking Cowboys, We'll talk at you again tomorrow. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.