Talkin' Cowboys: An Ego-Free Offense

Studios at the Star in Frisco. As we are ready to break down the Cowboys thirty six makes twenty eight win over the Carolina Panthers, the first loss of the year for the Panthers and the third straight win for the NFC East first place Dallas Cowboys. Of course, Talking Cowboys as always presented by Tostito's, the official Chip and the official dip of the Dallas or excuse me of

the Dallas Cowboys. Heck Harrison, Isaiah stand Back, Rob Phillips, Robbie Island, Rob Pie Island, the Island, Kyle Yeoman's, gentlemen, how are we doing today? Men? We are doing wonderful? Where is that? Why are you feeling wonderful. What's going on with my mic man? I can't hear myself, but that's fine. I hope you can. Yeah, we hear you. Fine, you hear me, fine, Yeah, you sound great. This is sweet, guys, This is sweet. We took the number one defense and

we hauled them out, right, the number one defense. We hauled them out. That came in with forty five yards averaging Russian number one Russian defense, and we expand it. We stretched that out a little bit to ninety eight yards now sent them back with that. Yeah, so I'm sure they're not number one no more. But I feel like good. How about your y'all feel You're trying to tell us something based off of our commentary last week? Is that directed? Yeah? He directed it, Isaiah. I've never

been subtle at anything in my life. I'm just basically just putting this out, that's all. I'm just putting it out there. It's all good, It's all good. How y'all feel good? He's saying Carolina was fake news? Now first time Carolina. Two different teams. First half, Carolina, second second half, Carolina, two different team. I was gonna say, first half, we were right, Yes, first half Carolina second half, Carolina, two different teams Dalla Dallas and two different teams to totally.

So they changed players. It's a half time. Yeah, something happened to half time. I don't think there's one person who watches that would I would deny that. But it's a win. It's a dumb and Lallas came out and we talked about character, We talked about will, we talked about how that team was gonna bring it. All those things were true. Um, both both teams were fighting, you know,

for men, tooting nail, whatever you wanna call it. And um, you know there was there was some things that were they were they were going back, they're hidden, you know. We got away with some stuff that that it was to our advantage as well. Um, guys made plays and then we finished the game. They didn't finish. We finished.

So that's that was the difference in the game. The first half was about as competitive as I as I expected it to be, and in the second half, one team showed up, the other team decided to stay in the locker room until the may wait through the fourth quarter. Yeah, I think I thought we missed some opportunities. I'm sorry, Peking, No, No, I think I think they were there. Legit, their their defense is really good, and that first half was kind

of what we expected, a challenge for both offenses. You know, they were challenged without Christian McCaffrey, even though I thought Hubbard did some nice things that hurt them. And then you know, they came after Dak Prescott in the first half with the blitz and and the Cowboys were able to counter do some things better. They got some more takeaways. That's been the story of the season. They were talking about the takeaways. Can I just say share a quote

from Zeke real quick. This is the Internet, so I guess I can say it talking about what happened in the second half, said, we knew we had to go take care of business. We came hot, came out with our say our piss hot. Yeah, came out ready to go win that football game. You know what, That's what a good team does in any sport. Third quarters are always key, and that's the sign of a good teams to come out and say, look, we're better than this. And you know, they got it done. The offense, I

mean got back to the ground game. The defense in the calling card through the first three weeks of the year was always takeaways, So let's talk about them. Takeaways. Trayvon Diggs with a pair of interceptions, and that man is on another level right now. You know, we talked about ranking cornerbacks in this league, and you know some of us thought that Treyvon Diggs was outside of the top ten, which is cool. But let's break it down. Let's break it down with his draft class, all right, Sure,

Trayvon Diggs has eight interceptions. His draft class in total, and this is rounds one through four has a interceptions. So put that in perspective when you put some respect on his name, and put that in perspective when you talk about t diggy m. I like that Aiden's dead, Aiden's dead, star hard knocks. Yeah. Two interceptions yesterday for Treyvon Diggs. The takeaways now up to ten on the year.

Five of those belong to Treyvon Diggs. From the defensive perspective, and I mean flying around the football, I mean gang tackling. That hasn't been something we've seen a long time. Defensively, sacks goodness, five yesterday, three of which coming from rookies and the other two coming from Randy Gregory. I mean the defense got after it again yesterday and it was

really really fun to watch. It's dope. It's dope to see. Um. We talked about how, you know, we were talking about Carolina's defense, the fact that they were dangerous because of you didn't know who was gonna make the play. Yeah, and I feel like we're really in that same conversation now. It really doesn't matter we don't. We obviously have our guys. Michael Parkson has probably had his worst game of the year.

I think he I think he wanted to get some grown men and he kind of found out that there's some guys that can move him around, which is good that he needs that he needs that game. Um. But collectively as a unit, we're we have guys playing making plays all over the place. Defensive line, we aside from the first game, have we had a game even a first game. We haven't had heel back right, and we haven't hadn't we haven't had a game with our entire defense.

But yet it doesn't feel like we're missing anything. And that's that's the testament to how good this defense is playing. You know. I think what's exciting to your point is I think it was the half sack by two draft picks. Chauncey Goldston, who's finally getting his first playing time, Olsa, Dicky Zoua and Parsons is middle blitzing and causing that pocket to break down. He got three draft picks doing that,

and part because guys are missing. Yeah, I mean that's if you're Will McClay, you're sitting back in your your VIP box or wherever you are, and you're smiling at that. Jerry too, and Stephen well, and I think that's kind of goes to the excitement. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, sir, but it is. It's the youth that's stepping out. Trayvon Diggs is a second year corner. Those three guys on the defensive line and in the

front seven or playing lights out right now. Oh and by the way, you've got a second year defensive tackle that's not even available at the moment that's going to come back and play pretty good snaps for you. Overall, the youth of this defense is starting to play like you would expected the veterans to start playing like in past years. And I think that's what's so exciting from what you're what you've had so far. No Chauncey Gholston. Is it. Look, man, it's so refreshing to get a

draft pick. And you know, they were so high on him obviously in OTAs you saw the way that they were going to use him. And he's a guy with his size and speed, you could bump him down to inside play him on the outside of me. His versatility, it's all over the place. But you know, I just think just seeing these guys Alsa Diggy Zoo as well, number ninety seven, everything everything about our rookie class, I think it just splashes, especially on the defensive line. Really

good to see that. You talk about who we don't have and Hill Gallimore, we don't have tank, but yet we're still getting pressure on the quarterback. And guy, we haven't had these multiple sack games. I think we had four sacks all of last year and then we have five in a game. So I mean, look, we're making a lot about a lot of other defenses calling them number one, and I think everybody's waiting and reserving that praise for this defense. But I think, man, the proof

is into putting. You see it, and you mentioned Digs and I just wanted to point this out. He's got five picks through four games. That is ties, the most since two thousand and nine by a player through the first four games of a season. It was two thousand and nine Darren Sharper, and that was that Super Bowl champion Saints team that this is what this is reminding

me of. I mean the Saints that I think I had the best offense in the league in terms of putting up close to forty points a game for a lot of that season, and they finished the season second in takeaways with thirty nine. You combine those two things together, I mean, how many games are you gonna win? Yeah, especially with what we got coming up. So now these boys are they're they're balling. These boys are balling. Um. I was really excited. And I told you guys, I

was anticipate. I wanted to see this game more so that I wanted to even see the Tampa game. I was anticipating this game simply because I knew the attitude that Carolina was gonna come with. And again we saw that in the first half and we matched it right. And I say I would say that I said earlier, we gotta said, we either need to match it or we need to exceed their intensity. And I feel like we did it well. I think it's what we talked about during the week, like and we felt like that

was probably the fastest defense they were gonna face. It's a fast defense that flies around and but there I think Nick pointed this out during the game. They're they're smaller than we and then you know, Cowboys looked at it and said, look, they let's just run them over. Let's just go after them. And I think some people were like, well, you know, maybe they should have run against Tampa Bay. I think it's a little bit of a different situation. The matchup dictated. This is a Zeke game.

We faced, We faced some of the best that the NFL has to throw. Now, right, we faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their their defense. What's up now, go ahead, I got you, Oh okay, keep me all the defense. So Tampa Bay's defense is big, yep, right, Tim Bay's defense is big. So they really did not want to run last night? Yeah, no, So so so Tampa Bay presents a problem because they're they're they're just large human beings. So you're not gonna move them off the ball, So

you have to approach them differently. So that's why you throw the ball fifty eight times even though you really don't want to because you're not gonna move the ball. Then you face the Chargers. The Chargers have dudes at every level. Right, they have dudes at every level. They don't necessarily have a whole whole defense that could really take you out, but they have the guys that you have to identify. You better know where these guys are out on the field of Mary in the middle, Derwin,

Derwin on the back, back side. So that's that that team is different, right, Tampa. Everybody can ball, right, Chargers, they have their three guys. You better know where they're at. And all of a sudden, you face you know in Philadelphia, is whatever? All right? And then then you played Carolina. Now it's like, Okay, I don't know who's gonna make a play. But these boys can fly around. And we

saw them boys flying around. But the fact that we have now seen Kellen Moore handle and adapt to all those different types of defenses that we face, it makes me feel a lot more secure. I would. I feel like that was the last little box that I needed to see in terms of us being the amble to match it. That can run around him and match our speed because we have speed. We got guys that can

run around. We got some big boys up. Friend, I think we all knew that we're going to try to run the ball because those guys are undersized, right, But we matched that intensity and that's the competitiveness. That's the character box that I wanted to see checked off and coming up to this game, and I think they checked them all off. Totally agree. You're still laughing. I'm not laughing, smirking, No,

just man. I love to see what Ezekiel Elliott did yesterday. Zeke, That's what we talked about him getting back on track, and you see what happened. Not getting back all tracked though you know he was. He was a five yards average coming into the game. So right now the Cowboys have a running back tandem that I think everybody has to say, wait a minute, man. They can do multiple things and feel position ball control as much as everybody wants to get say, this is a passing league. You

see what Kelly Moore is doing. He's saying, look, man, when we have those games where we can grind it out like we do and that can play efficiently the way that he did in this game, and it's complimentary football. We love to use that complimentary football and I love it when I see it. It's a great team win and you're ahead. And I was gonna say, I think we talked a lot. I know, at least I do about Dan Quinn and how I always say he's gonna match the personnel. Right, He's not gonna try to do

the same thing every week. Right, He's gonna mix it up, and you're gonna have different personnel playing against guys based upon what that team presents. I think we're starting to see that that really starts to develop in Kellen Moore. Right. You think about like, oh, Jason Garty, Jason Garrey was gonna run the same freaking thing no matter what team he was facing. It was gonna be the same offense. It doesn't matter. This is what we do. And that

doesn't work in this league. And I think we're seeing the adaptation of Kellen Moore and his ability now to change things up based upon who he's going against. And that is very inspiring to see in his development. And let me just say this, and we've had this conversation before about offensive coordinators and their scheme. They believe in

their scheme more than every anything. And I won't call it arrogance, but these guys get paid to be these brain children of offense, and there's a tad bit of arrogance. But I'm just yes, I just want to save that. But but you see when what Kellen Moore is doing, Look, you want to take this away from us, Okay, we're gonna give you this instead of just running into the

teeth of that of that defense. And that's the one thing that I think I praise Kellen Moore for coming into and having these game plans that I think allows Dak to work and be the quarterback that we've needed him to be and not try to force something something. And I think, you know, there's gonna be a lot of people to say he only threw for like one hundred and eighty eight yards or something like but four touchdowns. Look, man, it doesn't matter. I mean, you could play throw for

five hundred yards and still losing this league. That's one of the things that gets me so excited is that Kelln Moore is an offensive coordinator. Like you said, sure, these coordinators are just honed in on their schemes, but his is ever changing. His is evolving. I mean you're seeing it grow in front of your own eyes. Like I feel like every week the playbook adds on a little bit more as we continue on and on and on, and then you see it unveiled on Sundays or Mondays

or whenever the Cowboys end up playing. I love that. I love that you have a young offensive coordinator that is coming into his own and that is finally finding a rhythm. And also, if you look down the rest of the schedule, name one defense that scares you as much as that of what you faced the first three weeks or four weeks of the season. There's not There's not one. I mean not one. I mean there's some good weeks. Yeah, yeah, there's some good ones. But it's

a coordinator's dream. I mean you almost forget about Blake Jarwin and here he is in the red zone with a touchdown. They just have and they're not even I mean they're missing Michael Gallup, they're missing their right tackle. It's not it's not perfect. Yeah, but Kellen's got a lot to work with right now. And I think there is an egos. I mean, Mike McCarthy said it a few weeks ago, like it's more fun to call pass

play than a run play. Yeah, for no, See, you can flex your muscles a little bit, you know, but they don't have to do that here. And that's what's so I mean. And there's no ego with Dak Prescott either. I think we talk we always talk about Zeke like, you know, he's willing to sacrifice and take less touch as Dak one hundred eighty eight passing yards in this game. He makes more money than anybody and he doesn't seem to care, so it helps when you're winning. Surprised by

he didn't get afterwards he did? I mean that was That's an odd stat line. To get one hundred and eighty eight yards and four touchdown passes only the fifth time in his career he's done that. Wow, that's pretty impressive. And it goes back to what Heckman was saying in fact, in the fact that you don't have to have Dak Prescott throwing the rock around. I mean, you don't have to have that happen because now you're seeing the value of having a guy like Zeke. And we talked about

it before we came on air. This was a game that early on Carolina came act you, but Carolina punched you in the mouth a couple of times in that first quarter. Guess what the Cowboys did. They punched rightly. And that was what was maybe the most encouraging thing for me to watch yesterday, was that punch and CounterPunch. Yeah, that you saw between the two sides. That's why I was so excited for this game because I knew that.

I knew that Carolina was going to bring that based upon just their coaching staff, right, And we talked about the game was gonna be a player base or it was gonna be coordinator base, right, which one was gonna have the biggest impact. Obviously, the players execute what the colored cords call. But there's a battle on the field, and there's a battle up in the box, and I think we saw that too, But in terms of the battle on the field, I was I couldn't wait. I was so I was so excited to see how were

we going to respond? Because knew we're gonna get punched in the mouth. How are we going to respond? And I'm I was so excited to see that these guys punched back. That's a physical it's super physical, damn. But that's what you want to see. Yeah we have talent, Yeah we have great coordinators. But what happens when you face that adversity? What happens when is when some things go wrong. What happens when you get busted in the mouth, you get popped in or you bumble the ball two

times at the first quarter. Right, those are the things that you want to see you about yourself. Your team bounced back from and that's what happened. The boys came back and now all of a sudden, now you can say these boys, these boys are ready to take on take it on. You could have laid down there and you didn't. Absolutely, that was a huge thing. Team did to answer the other team did, right, the other team did. He can't stop smiling. It's a good day. No, he's

looking at me. He's basically I told you, it's what he's saying because and you know what, You're right, You're right. I think Carolina is legit. I think they're going to compete to win their division. I really do. But it was an early sample size. Okay, it was two halves for sure, but it did. I mentioned a game a few years ago that it reminded me of. It's still early. It was that twenty sixteen Green Bay game. Green Bay was averaging only forty two yards allowed on the ground

to that point. It was historic low through the first four games of the season. Zeke hit him with one fifty seven in that game. And that's what I mean. They had not run into an offense quite like this, and they may not run into an offense that's good the whole year. We'll see. That might have been a cow bite right there. I like that they haven't run

into an offense like the Dallas Cowboys. When we come back, we're gonna talk a little bit more on the defensive side of the football and just exactly what has been successful for Dan Quinn and some of the different schemes that we saw yesterday. And did we see that Michael Parsons, Well, he's good on both the linebacker and the defensive line a couple different times yesterday, but he also had a couple of learning moments in that win over Carolina. Stick

with us, we'll be right back on talking Cowboys. Honey, big news. Gary, Are you okay? Oh, I'm not Gary anymore. I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, but the best deals are only for new customers. So to get a new customer deal, I change my name to Jackie Flash. Okay, but the best smartphone deals at AT AT and T are for everyone, new and existing customers. That's huge. Then guess who's getting a deal. Is it Jackie Flash, Jackie Flash. It's not complicated at AT and

t our best smartphone deals are for everyone. Restrictions apply. Is it att dot com for details new Doctor Pepper zero sugar, You deserve it. I do deserve that. You deserve decadent flavor without sugar, and a day at the beach without sand getting everywhere, and a relaxing bath that your children don't interrupt. I deserve all that. It's really just a visual metaphor for doctor Pepper zero sugar. Everything you want, nothing you don't, a visual metaphor on the radio.

I do deserve that, Doctor Pepper, zero sugar, the zero you deserve is finally here. Before there was a draft, you could size up a cowboy by three simple factors. The crease in his hat, the bend of his brim, and his unbending attitude. A man stetson didn't just protect him from what life through at him. It projected a rugged unstoppable spirit. Stetson hats are still American, made with

pride right here in Texas. There's still the unofficial crown of all self respecting cowboys, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Find a retailer nearest you at Stetson dot com slash Cowboys. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why Selor pioneers ways to make lenses as unique as you. Varilux for super sharp vision, Essential Blue for protection, and Resolved for freedom from glare. Three cutting ex solutions and a single

unique lens. So whatever your needs, insist on Selor visit your local slor experts and find a perfect lens. You see more, Do more. Lure to Talking Cowboys. It's a victory edition of Talking Cowboys presented by Tostitos. And want to give a shout out to our great friends over at Caliber Collision. It's a great people, great pay replay. You've heard that Jason Witten has joined the Caliber Collision team. If you want to join him to do great work with great people for great pay, you can apply now

at jobs at Caliber dot Com. That is jobs at Caliber dot Com. Second segment here on this Monday. Everybody feeling great, feeling great? Heck, my Harrison feeling good. How about you, Isaiah dam Bill, Rob Phillips wonderful all but smiles over on Rob's side of things, and Kyle Yeoman's here and we're breaking down the defense a little bit, and the physicality from the defense is certainly something to

be excited about. I want to ask you really quickly, though, clean or not clean on Demante Kaz's hit, because that was the hardest hit of the year by far from this defense, and there was a flack thrown on it that was clean as a baby's bottom. I thought so too. Yeah, that was clean. I know some baby bottoms that are not cleaning. Cleaning in the board of health, you know what.

But I think what happens though in football is they just like over legislate certain things and they just calling it calling it calling and you see that, and like in in college in the college has to replay that they do. But anytime there's like an ool hit, oh it's automatic foul targeting and guy has to go sit on the sidelines. Look, man, that I don't know how much better that was textbook? I mean, and especially when you played in the league and you know God's can

clean your clock in a situation like that. And I think that quarn Sam Donald just threw them into a headache. Was a medicine ball, you ask me. They set us up for that fifteen yards man, he threw them into us in her favor in against us. It's been both ways this year. This is the referee, just man. But when Dalton shows when he fumbled that second time, I had that feeling like, man, your carriage is about to turn to a pumpkin because that's two on you in

the same drive. And yeah, within four play boy, that was that was bad heat man favorite fair. He got it on that right, Yeah, buddy, Yeah, the Cowboys got a break on that one. I just wanted to bring up the Kaz hit because I thought it was clean. Isaiah Berry Nate Nude almost lost his mind in the studio because we were all like, that's a clean hit and that shouldn't have been flagged. But Kazy, I mean, he almost had an interception yesterday. He's played Carolina more

than anybody on that Cowboys defense during his time. Yeah, definitely right, He's he was familiar with them, even with the new look. He was familiar with what they were doing. Speaking of the safety secondary, Do we have any updates on Curse? On Curse, I don't think he was not on the injury wise, Yeah there was. He came back again. Yeah.

Only guys listed coming out were Amari with the hamstring that he played through, Um Brandon Knight had an illness non COVID really late and I don't think he wasn't available and then uh Digs with backpasas. Yeah, it was called player management, I guess from during the broadcast, but they it was something that popped up in the first half. Can we address anybody who's questioned how tough Coop is.

There's a lot of people out there that feel like Coop is soft or you know, and I and I know Coop came out and made that statement earlier this year and he's really standing behind that in terms of I can't be the best in the league if I don't play. When this boy tweaked his hammy in the first quarter. For anybody who's never tweaked a hammy before, usually that's you gotta tell you gotta sit down. Yeah, you know, regardless of how how bad, how how you do it. If you tweak it, it's it's tweaked and

it is going to stay there. I was very surprised to see him come back in the game we talked about in the studio. I was like, yeah, he's done. He tweaked it. He's out. It's a hammy. You got to go out. And the next you know, he comes back in. And the whole time I was holding my breath. I'm like, oh, crap, all right, I'll shoot it. Hopefully he does. It was a double move, the double move, and then but then you turn around and he's gasing on CJ. Henderson. I'm like, this dude is playing through

a honey tweak, Like how and he burns CJ? Yeah, he wait a bad hemmy right, And I'm like, how's he doing that? So for everybody out there that has question marks about the heart and resilience of cool, stop it. I asked McCarthy about it last night and he said he had told the guys on Saturday night team meeting, everybody get there a little early, you know, just kind of take care of business, get ready to play. Said Maria was the first one, the first one there, he said,

I was the second one there. Mary was there first. And that's a guy, I mean guy dealing with crack rib trying to get himself ready to play, and then something pops up first first drive and he's able to play through it. Man, that's yappresive and have a touchdown pass and be the team's leading receiver in a game where you didn't you didn't really have a ton of options in the passing game. Ceedee Lamb was blanketed yesterday.

Great coverage from the Carolina defense. And then of course Dak the way that he was swallowed up in that first half, really had to get it underneath to try and complete a couple of passes. But I want to go back to the defense here, and you mentioned Jon Curse.

Another solid game from Curse physically, and honestly, I think it's getting to the point where you're questioning whether or not when Donovan Wilson comes back, if he's got a job at the moment, right do you Am I the only one thinking that because of the way that Curse is playing and the way that he's able to cover. I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying. With this defense and dan Quinn's approach I think everybody's

out there. You know, if you're if you're on the if you're you're on the act of the forty eight act of whatever it is, then you're playing. You see that with at the other safety spot, with Kasey and Hooker. These guys are rotating through. I don't think there's too many positions that we could just say they're starting. You're starter, and you start the whole rest of the game. These

guys are rotating through and everybody's having an impact. And that's what we're talking about, this culture of competitiveness, and you know, and everybody wanted to wanting to have a have a part in it, Like I want to get in on this. Let me make a play, like all right, get in there, cool, all right, make a play solid, all right now, Now I'll get you in a rotation. Now you have to earn your keep around here. And if you don't earn your keep, and you can find

yourself not suiting up right. I think we may have under estimated to run Curse in the acquisition of him in free agency. We may have looked at him as just the special team's ace, and he's proven us that he has more than just that, especially in this run pass option league that we're in. When you have a six four, two hundred and ten pound guy that can seal the edge, blitz and also cover a tight end,

he's just special. And I think the difference between him and Wilson and this simple size that we've gotten from him, it says kind of showing us that, look, he may be someone that can be should be elevated. But you're right, in this culture, everybody's going to get an opportunity to play, and you saw that yesterday with some of the younger guys getting some burn at the end of the fourth and they play this big nickel a lot. So Curse had sixty seven snaps in the game, Kaz didn't come

off the field at sixty eight. Wow, and Hooker's in for twenty eight. So that's a lot of plays. That's a lot, and he was man, he was so active too. But yeah, I think there's a rotation there and the way he plays his safeties, there's a chance for Donovan to come in and I mean his physicality. I think that's the only another layer that he can add when he comes back. But you have this is the most

safety depth. What it looks like through four games that they've had in I don't know how long, and defensive line dep and linebacker depth yep, all quarterback Depp there's depth. And like I said, I think it all goes back to that culture man. Obviously, obviously the scouting department and what they did in the draft and offseason acquisition is awesome. But we've seen it where we've had the players right, We've seen it where we had the players getting the

players to buy in two different things. Imagine having Nail back in this situation with the way that the linebackers are playing. I think Lvie had a couple of reps with tight ends where he's trying to cover running backs where it didn't look too good. Yeah, but you know, you gotta you want your defense to get that pressure basically, and we were not able to kind of exposed some

of those weaknesses. But back to what you were saying about Micah, I felt like, Yeah, Micah has his rookie moments where you see him may get caught up in the wash, but everything he's doing is going forward, he's trying, he's and what I'm saying is as far as getting that penetration in the middle of the defense, the way that he attacks the run. Then you see him get out on the edge and still get pressure and hits on the quarterback. I like that. Yeah, I think everything

where you're saying. We talked about it in the break, Mica. I want I don't want him to run any think that he had a bad game. Let me let me not say that. I said he had his worst game so far. That's that's that's still saying that he had a good game. He's been bawling, he's running for those first three weeks. Um, he just didn't impact the game and the way that most fans see it. Let me

let me put it that way. Most fans see the sacks, most fans see the pressures, right, they don't see all the other elements most of the time that the analysts do, in terms of him and running stunts in front of him, in the sense of him running blitz is and and taking two offensive alignment allowing his other guys to rerund their stunts and come free. Right, those guys are doing it at their job. But they don't. They don't. They're

not just coming free because guys forgot about them. They're coming free because one of the other guys took the attention of the office alignment. So Parsons affected the game drastically in other ways. Um, I think that he had been physically dominant through those first three weeks, and I think there was a couple of times, I know, we were in the studio watching he running. He ran up against some grown men yesterday, and you got to see that starter on his face, like craft, I can't, I

can't dog everybody. He was like, yeah, okay, you welcome to the NFL. You know, But I mean he's not. He's no, he's no punk, so he ain't gonna back down. But uh, I mean yeah, but every like to your point, you have those rickey moments you wake up, you find out okay, yea, I gotta I might have to change my approach on this, on this gentleman right here, because he he'd been in the weight room a couple more days than me. What I liked about it was he only he played all but two snaps that he played

there you go. He played sixty eight snaps, and so we mean you get more snaps at linebacker than at DN. He played damn near I belayed SAPs double what he played last week. Yeah, it's probably true. Thirty more snaps, because what was it thirty seven seven three? Yeah? Yeah? And where do you think he was most ineffective if you're saying that this is the worst of the games that he has an end or was it at linebacker? I think ineffective at d ND. Okay, yeah, inefective at

d ND. The reason why because he affects the game more linebacker, even though he may not be the person making the plays, he's enabling other people to make plays. But when when he's at the linebacker position, he could rush right, he could blitz, he can cover, he hit anybody across the middle. And he played sixty eight snaps

instead of thirty eight. Just to play Devil's advocate here, Just to play Devil's advocate here, you're saying the game in which he played linebacker and more snaps at AKA yesterday, it's his worst game of the year in terms of him stat line. Okay, that's what I'm talking about. Stat line. That's why I went back and clarify stat line, right, what most people to see as success, right, But in terms of football wise, I think he played a good game.

He just got out physical. No, I completely understand what you're saying, but the way that you're wording it, I think is the no. You're wording it right. He's affecting every part of the game. When he lines up over the center, Sam Donald has to take account for number eleven being over there. If he's on the right side of the defensive end, the whole offensive line has to understand where number eleven is, and other guys are definitely getting their numbers up based off of where number eleven

is from the opposite side. I got you, no, make that makes a lot of sense, and the whole front seven benefits from having a guy behind him. I mean, look at the five sacks yesterday and going back to what you were saying yes or earlier in the first segment, thirty one sacks all year last year for the Cowboys. They had five yesterday. If they continue that, that's that's on pace for eighty five sacks in a year. That's not gonna happen. They had thirty one sacks last year

as a team thirty one. The Cowboys had five yesterday, But if they keep up the current pace, they're on pace for over forty. So there's a chance they could continue upping that, especially if they have five sacks a game and they're able to get pressure. And they did that yesterday without DeMarcus Lawrence, again, without Torrence Armstrong, again without Carlos Watkins, without keana'neil on the backside. I mean, the front seven is still getting to the football and

they made things tough in that second half for Sam Darnold. Yeah, and I want to go back and watch it, but I feel like he'd be just became a rusher in the fourth quarter. They just they just said, look, we got the big lead, We're just gonna off. And what I love is when I don't I gotta see back how many times they did it. But when they overload one side, they put Gregory Parsons on the same side.

But that's not fair. That's a problem, dude, Like that's I just love what Quinn is doing in terms of moving guys around, um changing up different looks, and look, they got burned sometimes in the first half. Darnold's legs beat them, you know, and they would move Mica down and then they might they give up a couple runs. They put him back at linebacker to kind I don't know if he's spying or if he's just kind of

there covering backs out of the backfield. I just like him doing that because it means he's on the field all the time. They're not They're not worried about his his REPS or his GPS or whatever. They're just saying, like, just go out and play. Get after yeah, be a hybrid guy. What did you think about Randy Gregory. We haven't had a chance to talk about him yet. Two sacks yesterday, a third multi sack game of his career.

I mean, he got after it again and he finished on a couple of occasions in big time moments in the first half. That's what you ask for. I mean, I think that's what everybody expects. Obviously, he's been through a lot in these past few years, and he's worked his way back to where he is now. I think he's you can see his maturity even in his interviews.

You can see his growth mentally. And when you're mentally prepared and you're mentally there fit, your physical just follows when you're when you're built like him, he's a physical specimen. So you know when he looks like he's in a good, good mindset and it's showing on the field. I mean, nobody physically can stop him as long as he's as long as he's mentally ready to roll. I completely agree. It's a testament to his hard work. And you see it.

I mean he's fresh. Whatever was ailing him. I know he had a knee or something like that coming into the game, but it didn't look like it limited anything that he was doing. Quinn, as you stated at me, he's changing up his looks, those stunts that it just

looked like the Panthers couldn't deal with it. And ninety four, man, I love seeing those having those redemption stories like that man, because he played his tail off and it wasn't so much of the sacks that it was the pressure as well, and they had to account for him and they had to account for Mica. But there were other guys that got in on the actors well man to rail bash him. Yeah, we've been waiting on bash him and he's he's proving

his worth through free agency. Man, He's just a lot of guys that we've been counting on are having those good games and whether it be Kazee, whether it be cursed in safety's making big plays. That's just man, it's just awesome to see this defense playing like this and just completely being remodeled from last year. You mentioned toughness with Amar. Randy did that too, because he was saying Friday,

I mean, he was questionable for the game. He was always gonna play, I think, but he's had some some swelling in his knee after every game this year. It's been swalling up on him. Something they got to treat, he said. It goes back to he's been kind of dealing with stuff like that since Nebraska. So and there was a point during the game where he came out and he looked like he was favoring something. So I'm just saying I thought he showed some toughness in the

game too, because he played it less than game. Yeah. I mean, and you knew that going into it. You knew you're gonna come out bruised up. Yeah, you knew you're gonna come out bruised up. So the fact that these guys are pushing through it's just a test meant man to not only how tough they are, but again, they want to be out there right. Last year guys didn't want to be out in the field. I'm sorry

to say that different It wasn't fun. It wasn't fun. Right, when it's a lot easier to stay on the sideline when it's not fun, say it with yeah. So, I mean that's just the reality. If guys are, if your team's getting scraped up and your teams kind of sucks and things aren't going your way and there's no culture, then h this all all this thing hurts a little

bit more. I don't need another series. Right, But when you're when you guys are, when you're out there having fun and you got a defensive you know, coordinator like Quinn who's just dialing stuff up and you're having success, and guys love playing with each other, and there's a this this culture just the boys are hanging out. You don't want to miss out on that, right, you don't want to miss out on this. You take this up so can hurt you get back out there, like, let's

go hurry this thing up. I don't want to miss this. He just called a sudden such blaze. We worked on this all week. I want to go out there and around this, you know, so there's a there's an excitement around it. And again, when you're when you get to this level, when everybody's playing well and things are going like that. It's there's an expectation right there. Expectation level raises not only from the outside but from the inside, and it turns more. It turns from work to all

of a sudden, I'm playing with my putnas. I'm playing with my boys, right and that's when it's fun. That's when it's fun. Now when you just te these guys jumping around and celebrating each other's plays like everybody has fun. You've been waiting to see those three come together. The talent, which you've thought, you've had talented players on this roster for the last couple of years. You've been waiting for

the talent to come together. You've been waiting for the coaching staff to come together and have some confidence and your coaching staff you have that now. And you've also wanted that will and that brotherhood that you can see physically on the field, and that's happening right now. That's what's exciting about this season. And we've also got some smelly stickers to give away when we come back on the other side of the break. It's week three in a row for smelly stickers. When we come back here

on talking Cowboys. Hi, I'm Clint Tillison with you not a aggin turf before you can park yourself in front of the game, park yourself in a John Dear and power through your chores. Our land Run package is a ten twenty five are twenty horsepower tractor with a loader, rotary cutter and a box blade for two twenty nine a month, and the price you see is the price you'll pay. No surprises, so don't miss another kick off. Visit United agginturf dot Com. Offer ins February first, twenty

twenty one. Restrictions aplenty see dealer for details. Now let's get to work the Cowboys Way, where sixteen Hall of Famers and five championships shows us what success looks like. Where Turkey is always the second best part of Thanksgiving Day, Where we are all defined by one single thing, the Star, where we as fans know it's our job to keep the tradition going. Bank of America is proud to be the official bank of the Dallas Cowboys and to support

the quest of living life the Cowboys Way. Copyright twenty twenty. Bank of America Corporation. Want to use what the pros use how about the official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. Right now, you can get the Jack Black Starter, a curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, for just ten bucks with free shipping. The starter includes four Jack Flack skincare favorites, plus a full sized and

tense therapy lip bomb. Go to get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys and use the code word team JB. That's get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys the Jack Blackstarter, ten bucks, free shipping. Honey big News, Gary? Are you okay? Oh? I'm not Gary anymore? I'm Jackie Flash. What see? I want the latest smartphone, But the best deals are only for new customers. So to get a new customer deal, I changed my name to Jackie Flash. Okay, But the best smartphone deals at AT AT and T are for everyone,

new and existing customers. That's huge. Then guess who's getting a deal. Is it Jackie Flash, Jackie Flash. It's not complicated at AT and t our best smartphone deals are for everyone. Restrictions apply. Is it att dot com for details to talking Cowboys, whether you're watching from home or you're cheering in the stands with essel or lenses. You can see every exciting play. Wow, look at those lenses. See what esse Lor can do for you? See more, do more? Yes? Oh man, let's look good. Yeah, and

I send Crystal. Is that what you said? Your Mike's like halfway across the room right now, because my mike. Did you see my mic talks? I said, I saw the mictoms. I gotta bring it back like Prince. You know what I'm saying, He bring it back. I didn't want to tables, random tables. These. I love these lenses. I had to give Isaiah try. My daughter's getting her ESLA lenses. I think next week. I'm excited. How did their appointment go? Was amazing. That's people at ESSEL are awesome.

They took care of my baby girl. That's my pride and joy, and they took good care of her. I put her in and put her in good hands and they take care of her nice. Yeah. I love that, all right, cowboys have been good in good hands. The last couple of weeks, we've given out a total of eight smelly stickers so far. If you want to take this camera right here, Chris Beazy, I might show this all a little bit. There's eight of them at the moment,

We've put numbers on all of them. The fans guy the smelly sticker last week because at and T Stadium, Ms Rock and Kellymore with the KM up here and then whatever player's jersey number got the smelly sticker. I went last last week, so I'll go and started off this week. I'm gonna give my smelly sticker to the offensive line as a whole, because I feel like they answered the bell in the second half that third quarter.

They had a good drive in the first I remember, and I tweeted this out, that second drive of the ball game. There was a little bit of swagger from that offensive line. They went down the field, they stormed down, they punched Carolina in the mouth a couple times, and they opened up a really really strong drive for the first score of the game for the Cowboys. Well, they continued that into the third quarter and they didn't let up. So I'm gonna give it to the entire offensive line.

Terrence Steele, Tyler Botas, Jack Martin, Connor Williams, and mister Tyrant Smith. Those are my smelly sticker on a reees today. All right, Well, I'm gonna give my smelly sticker to a guy that has been taking a lot of heat, taking the heat, a lot of heat and a lot of hate. And man, he showed up at at and T Stadium with his spoon in his pocket and he came to eat had a forty seven yard long run that he should have should have tapped that off with

topped it off with a touchdown. But that's all right. We gotta we gotta trust those jets. But Ezekiel Elliott is bawling out, and your smelly sticker is an apple because all of a sudden you are the apple of everyone's apple. Oh it, smelly stick off, go zeke there you go, Isaiah standing backs next. All right, y'all, well, I am rolling with this cupcake. And the reason why I'm going with the cupcake got sprinkles on it, took

sprinkles on the cupcakes. Um. The reason why I'm going with the cupcake is because these offensive coordinators bro salt band that thing, sprinkle it. They're springling on a thing offensively, defensively, and special teams didn't do anything ridiculous, so uh we are. I'm giving us to all the coordinators. They showed up and showed out all the coordinators. Even even Fossil gets

in there, even Fossil. Another ridiculous, another ridiculous. We can't wrap this up without the man who's doing some damn Dion things right, darn right, Trayvon digs most interceptions. He got to go back to twenty fourteen, the last time any Cowboys player had five interceptions in an entire season. My god, Bruce Carter linebacker. So the past few years, the most picks they've had in an entire year have been three picks. Two picks, Jeff Heath, two picks. You know,

really impressive, starts awesome, and it's it's funny. I mean, Cowboys had a first round grade on him in a weird draft where guys teams didn't have the evaluations because of COVID, and that that draft is looking better and better by the day, especially in the first two or three rounds. Will McClay has said it before about that draft class, about the twenty twenty draft and how it kind of played out with Ceedee Lamb and company and

how he ended up falling in their lap. But he said that there were a couple of guys outside a Ceedee Lamb that they liked at seventeen. He never really specified who those two guys were. There were a couple of guys they had had their eyes on. If it wouldn't have been Lamb, if the Falcons would have taken Lamb at sixteen instead of taking the corner from Clemson. And I'm wondering if Trayvon Diggs was one of those names. No, he was, he was he yes, Okay, he was in

he was in conversation in the first round at seventeen. Yeah, I think so. I mean he was right in that mix that they had a grade on him there. And I know for a fact beyond that, if he wasn't there in the second round, Gallimore might have been the pick there too. Like they it was one of those drafts, like in your fantasy draft where you're you know, you're just like, why why are these guys falling to me? Yeah,

That's that's what it was like. And how much of it had to do with it was just a weird draft with no combine zoom calls with meetings, and the Cowboys were ready and they took advantage. Man, well, they knocked it out of the park glass in twenty twenty and at least through four weeks of the year. It's still early on. It's a small sample size, it's just

one quarter of the year. But they looked like they knocked it out of the park in twenty twenty one as well in terms of the draft and what they did because you had two third rounders making plays with Chauncey Golston, Osa Diggi Zoo of Michael Parsons of course the first rounder. You haven't even had Kelvin Joseph back. We talked about corner depth. He hasn't even been back yet.

I hadn't even had Kelvin Joseph. And once he does come back, he's gonna have some competition in that corner room because that's gonna be fun to way he played well, really well. And how many interceptions did Byron Jones have in his career? I think too? Right, Yeah, something like that, wow,

jump out of the cake. As we wrapped up talking Cowboys, that's gonna do it for us here on this victory Monday, Hope you guys had some fun and the Cowboys winning over the Carolina Panthers thirty six twenty eight the final score. Tomorrow we're taking phone calls. We've got phone calls on the way, So get those questions ready and we're gonna

talk to you guys in Talking Cowboys Nation tomorrow. But for heck Ma Harrison, Isaiah Stanback, Rob Phillips, Chris Beam in the back, I'm Kyle Yoman saying so long, thanks for joining us here. I'm Talking Cowboys. Presented by Tostitos. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.