Talkin' Cowboys Break: Ups & Downs In Oakland

games you will ever see. Maybe I should start here with a couple guys that have over the league for a long time, cover the Cowboys a long day. You ever seen one like that? No, that took the cake. I was sitting next to Dave on the way back and I was doing the math. That made me do the math on how many games I think I've covered, and we were right around four hundred. Mickey, I know you're probably a lot more than that, probably another zero on there, but zero. But I know a kid, but

I've never. I've never. I can't remember one. And even if there had been some crazier games, not one with the season on the line. Like do all these things. The season is over and I don't remember one like that. No, Dave, in the last five years, have you seen one like that? No, that was Game one O two and that takes the cake. Man, you were the one that said it. Yet, like all that's all that stuff. I mean the width of an index card between first down and turnover on downs. Not figuratively.

They literally took an index card out and used it. Not we're not hypothesize. That's what I wrote. I've never I've never said the word index card in any of the columns I've ever written. It was his. It was his note card, you know how they take it out and they write their stuff down on it. Yeah, it was your tweet today you brought back some science terms.

That's the only thing I've ever used an index card for his like flash cards like mitochondria, uh DNA, you know, like you flip it over and you got the definition on the back for your biology quiz. Like that's what I use. Index compressive that he had one at on demand, like he already had one in his podcast. They carry it with him. Yeah, they like they write down the timeout. Yeah, and I'm something They got a nokate for after the game, pull it out on the Raiders break this morning, they're

asking why are we folding it up? Then? Yeah, I made it so it was kind of thick. Maybe he wanted thicker, so it was a first doubt. Actually, I think what Derek said when we were eating lunch. He used it as a ruler to go from where the stick was to visual mick, Yeah, he said, yeah, so he was trying to line it up like parallel to the ground. Did y'all read the the I wrote the stories uncomfortable just to read it as I don't know who asks the question, Tim Wait, how you say his name?

Gene's territory or it was know this he was in there, but a bulldog kind of ruined a season, right the des ref Yeah, this is I think Deaz even said he was like, well, maybe this makes up for that, and he stopped and he was like, nothing makes up for that. But at least we got that right. Seens territorious And I mean, you know, fourth and inches on the goal line, like you do you go for the touchdown, then your cornerback I'm like, who who? All four of

us thought that Anthony Brown blew that game? Right. He said it after the gate, he said, I thought I let my team down. I had a lapse, should have had the pick. And then what was a fifty five yard penalty on Jordan Lewis right after that, and that's interference. You're set up in the Oakland red zone or that, I mean the Dallas red zone, and I remember telling Derek, you're looking at the clock. You're like, man, they might have a chance. If there's eighteen seconds here, there's only

time to run two or three players. But they had forty They had forty four seconds from the time they got set up there until game over. I mean, I'm just like, there's no way you're keeping them from at least tying the game, if not winning. And then Jeff Heath happens, you know, and Jeff Jeff Heath always happens. Jeff he that's going, Mickey, that's a lion right there. Jeff Heath always, you know. And I'm tweeting that out later today. Jeff as Heath, well, everybody wants to cut him.

It's always all he does is make plays. The play he made two plays in a row, like the second down pass over the middle of the crabtree. He knocks that ball down. That was a big play. Now, I was also Hitchens got hurt. And then on third down, of course he makes the hit, but he's, you know, just just the irony I guess of him not picking up the fumble earlier in the game, and then he's like, don't worry about it. I'm gonna make I'm gonna save the season here later. And he saved the season for now.

And he if he had his choice, he wouldn't have talked afterwards. He doesn't like he hates that. It doesn't matter of Sack. I thought he was gonna do it with his hood on his he had to like a hoodie switch, and he finally pulled it down. Well, there's voice never goes up and down. I know I wasn't there, but it was. His first two answers were, yeah, I was just kind of any other play, you know. I just chased him down. You're inflecting too much. Yeah, it

was like kind of any other player, you know. I saw him running, you know, I thought I could get the corner. Uh, you know, he reached out and I just saw it. I pushed him and grabbed something real quick. I saw I went through the end zone. Yeah, we haven't even gotten there, haven't gotten there yet. Here we go. There he is. See he's been with us now with the team. Just I mean, okay, I speaking of Ezekiel Elliott. Yes, I get it. I'll stop beating this horse in a minute.

But like we're an index card and a fumble through the end zone away from like who cares? Like you're like, do you even play him? What's the point? You know what I mean? And now you're saying and you know, the Cowboys still they got to win two games and they need help, Like their odds of making the playoffs still are not great, but all that crap had to go right for them to even have it, for for

this Chris Masive game to even mean anything. And now you got Zeke back, and it's just that's so this season though, it's it's so yeah, can I piss off a lot of our fans? Absolutely? You got to give Jason Garrett some credit here, you have to. I don't know that. If they don't want to, that's fine. But you know the coaching Green Bay, their their team. Where did they go four and four something like that? Three three? I mean, kept kept a float there with Aaron Rodgers

was your best player. It didn't look good and there's no doubt about it him oh and three start. But they found a way to kind of keep grinding here and and figuring out how how to win without some key players, not just Zeke. So you know, I thought they've they've done a nice job of just making it relevant here at the end. Well, we could speak to three plays in particular that he called or he had ultimately signed off on the fake punt. Amazing. I mean, now,

was that a Chris Jones special? Was it? Was that a look he got you talked to him. I think they my guess, and he wouldn't tell no, and they don't want to say, you don't want to say what the key was, right, And I'm thinking, you know, the guys upstairs probably head he punted before. That wasn't his first punt, was it. I think so the third quarter, because they did do that for you. No, they had punted some because I know they went a long time

without punting. It seemed because you had an interception, touchdown, field goal touchdown or something like that. Yeah, they they had. I'm pretty sure they had pus. He punted at least once in the first half. Okay, so maybe they saw something upstairs and said, hey, beware if they line up like this, fourth and eleven from your I know eleven, hey, And we were sitting there, Nick goes, he only ran twenty four yards and I said, yeah, you forgot the

ten ye standing behind the right scrimmage. He was running forever. Well, okay, so whatever, that's a lot of nerve. Well there's that, and then the next play, I believe they run a fleef. Hey, how long you've been calling for that? In years? I love it. I love the play. I would honestly, I've said it a thousand times. I don't see why you wouldn't run it almost once a game. I don't know why. What would be the drawback there, especially if Zeke's on

the field exactly what Zeke on the field. It's different because if that safety's thinking when he gets the boat, we'll watch out, because he could pitch it back. That's exactly what you want. Now, it doesn't have to be a fifty yard bomb all the time. I don't think he even threw it to the right guy. I think the other guy streaking over the middle man and if Terrence, I mean he stopped running, y'all see it looked at it. Yes, he stopped running. Yeah, it's like he's slowed up. But

I love the call. I love the back to back, like we got to do something here. The irony it looked like quarters coverage, like it wasn't there at all. If I need to see it again, if there was a guy opened over the middle, I didn't see him, but like Terrence, that was not there, and I mean it didn't come back to bite him. You know in college with the three guys or receiver passes like a reverse pass, yeah, and they try to tell the receiver

like if it's not there, don't throw it. But they've been practicing this play forever, right you No, they're gonna throw it. Yeah. I still feel like that's the way it is with when you do a flee flicker, like I'm throwing it. I feel like that was um two years ago. The McFadden passed to Hannah like it wasn't there either, and he was like, well, we've been working on this forever. I'm gonna chuck it. It was like at the tail end of the twenty fifteen season, I mean,

they called to play, so might as well run it. Yeah, and it's like, well, I can either run for no gain or just try to throw this pass and it didn't work out. But remember that play yep a once a game that's your car because like I'm just thinking, like how many times do you see that during an NFL season? Real? Okay, don't that played that often? Right? But this is why number this is why I would

do it. Number One, you have an offensive line that that can hold up because you got a block, you gotta turn and pitch and all that kind of stuff. And two with Zeke, those safeties are always trying to cheat it kind of cheat up forward a little bit, so I don't I don't know. I mean maybe that that's too too much. But how is team's gonna I'm onto you guys. You guys would like to do the

flee flicker like okay, yeah, stay back. Yeah I might not stay back there because we could be pitching it back and then you don't do it twenty eight times a game, and then you're safety just take oh man, I gotta go. That might be all you need for a four or five. I just don't see the drawbacks. I've asked them some coaches before. Anyways, I love the call. I love the aggressiveness there in those two plays. Yeah, two in a row by the coaching staff. And then

we mentioned the index card play well before that. Actually, no, that's the same play or going for fourth and one on your own thirty nine And I looked at you guys were on the Cowboys sideline. I was like, they have to be lining up right now just to try to draw off sides, and they ran the play. I just I was surprised. I know they trust their offensive line, but the game is tied. It's tied. You're not in a desperate situation. Necessarily, you play to win the game.

I get it, but I mean, that's a gutsy call, man, It's a hell of a gutsy call. But it should always be the call, honestly. Thirty nine Yeah, not midfielding. No, I can't stop the quarterback and they didn't stop it. And it doesn't matter about the day part or not. They're gonna throw Jason Garrett had his flag in his hand. If that was gonna be that's uh. I've heard, and I haven't had a good look at it. We were

on the sideline by that point. But I've heard from so many Cowboys fans that are like, if you look at the overhead, it's not even close. Kind of like go back to Green Bay when Zeke reached the extra half yard or whatever. If you say so. I mean, if if Jason Garrett was willing to throw his flag over it, that's great. But they got it. There were

multiple players that said it was a bad spot. That was an extremely bad spot because when he hit the pile, his head was further and then he reached the ball over somebody's shoulder and at that point he was way past that line, which is fine, which to your point, all of the credit in the world that Jason Garrett. I loved it, and then you get down on the goal line and I'm just like, you gotta, you gotta do it again. You have to, you gotta, And he didn't and it worked out. But I wanted that one.

I wanted the one last aggressive. I think they should have gone for it on fourth down, the one and not just that. But if you want to nitpick Jason there, Rod Smith has kind of become your hammer down there, right, And they went to Alfred who who they trust, But I didn't work out. You end up going with a conservative call. Would you think of that, Mick. I thought of going for it because the worst thing that could happen is they got the ball to one yard line

and the odds of them going all the way. But then you're saying, Okay, I'm going in zone for a touch, I'm probably going yeah right, I'm probably going into overtime.

And I think the way that game was going, the last thing you want to do is go over what I think people are forgetting too that if the Raiders get the ball at the one yard line and you Cowboys have two timeouts, I don't think they're gonna be like overly aggressive like because they're gonna try to I mean where they wouldn't think so they might run Marshawn a couple of times. Maybe you call time out, maybe you don't. You might be getting a punt back around

midfield with about twenty five thirty seconds to go. I had. I had the same feeling when they kicked that goal that I had when Dak scored against Screen Bay, like that it's this and I thought about that in my head too. I didn't want to kick to Patterson And I even said to you or I said, I what if there's some fifty yard PI. Like I was already thinking about that and that happened, which is weird because when he was kicking that direction, he was getting the

ball deep in the end zone. Yeah he did, And then that one landed right at the end line, I mean the goal line. He just like hapif Will was the other I saw what he was warming up going to our right. They were coming up short, but to the left. He was powering it through the end zone, and then that one came up, and I'm sure they weren't sitting there going, oh, let's kick it so we can go down and tackle him inside the twenty five after he's already returned one against you for a touchdown.

Goodness for the penalty. Right was barely getting checked on at one point, though he did. They showed it on television. He got hit from behind, tried to make the tackle on the one of the retacks, right, Yeah, the one that was fumbled. I think he got hit by one of his own guys, as a matter of fact, if I remember correctly, and something happened with his leg. I don't know if it was a bruise or he got his ankle caught, but yeah, I think that gets didn't

that called a game winning field goal? I believe that's a game winning field Taylor was asking me about that last night. I don't. I would call it a go ahead like game winning to me implies that it was like the last play of the game. But or you like you know, but yeah, I mean it was. It was. It was the deciding points, whatever you want to call it, it was. You could have made that one from no, no, no, I couldn't know. Jeff Heath might have been able to yes,

sor I was rolling that night. They should have thrown him out there. Just let the goat do goat things. Russell Wilson sacks seven times last night. What all right, we'll talk about them lay well, yeah, we'll get to big picture stuff for sure. Have they quit, we'll see. There's either that or they're gonna be pissed off as hell right now. That's im I know, because they're gonna get home on Christmas morning at like one am. I know that I know very well what happened to Seattle.

But write them off at your own peril, that's oh yeah, I think we've learned. This is a week to week league, right, Yeah. Cowboys lose three straight games by twenty or more points. You think they're done, and then they rise up and win three straight. Now they're eight and six, eight and six. And look at the Raiders. Everybody wrote them off after they got behind last week twenty what was the twenty six to nothing before they even scored, and all they

were talking about was how embarrassing the effort was. And then they give that effort. Yeah. I asked Jason Witton about it last night. I was like, where where does that rank for you? You know? And he like, though he threw out oh six wildcard loss, the fumbled field goal, the Dez catch game, and then the playoff game last January. I mean, it's right up there in the top three or four craziest at least craziest fourth quarters. That I mean that, I think anybody you two struggle to come

up with something. Any other can go. You can go back to the regular season game in Buffalo when Romo got intercepted five times and turns it on at the end and they end up pulling the game out. But I think you have to factor in the stakes like with this. Oh yeah, because that was an October game, regular season game. Yeah, this is technically a playoff game. I mean in a way when the Detroit game the week before in the twenty fourteen uh playoffs were I mean,

I'm just thinking of, like, really this controversial call. It's like it's like there's like what every time I think about I mean, I think back and I'm like, oh, that game was wild. Like oh, like when Green Bay came back on him here in twenty thirteen, that was wild, but like it was all so much more normal, you know what I mean, it was normal stuff. Yeah, it

would just plays, but it was just football. This is this was something else between you know, the there there what hey, there was a controversial catch call in this game? Um what's his name for Moakland? I can't even remember? Is the wide receiver? Uh yeah, forgive me for not knowing his name off the top of my head. Was it Roberts? Yes, Seth Seth Roberts. Thank you? That juggling, Yeah, there was that. There was the index card the unlike

the challenge. It was the fumble out of the end that you didn't kind of remember now every time you see it on replay seven times really slow. But that's not what the Cowboys coaches have. And it's like it was third down that was a critical play. I didn't mind the challenge. The ball was on the ground, it matter, and they never got to see if his hand was underneath the point of the ball when they showed him

over and over and over again. I didn't I didn't hate the challenge, but at no point did I think that they had a good chance of winning it. Really after I saw it for the first time. But well, well just it was crazy, bonkers bat s if you will there, it is sat bleep crazy football game. Hey, by the way, give us a call if you want two one, four, eight seven two twenty one O two chime in. Tell us if this is the craziest Cowboys game you've ever seen. We're gonna take our first break.

We come back. We'll continue breaking down Cowboys twenty, Raiders seventeen, and also look ahead big picture, what does this mean for the playoff race? And Dave is raising him up in the air bobblehead Zeke, the real Zeke is back in the building today. We'll get to that next. 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

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Plus it's back by the best pair you'll ever wear, or it's free guarantee shop exclusive Cowboys underwear at Tommy john dot com Forward Slash Cowboys for twenty percent off your first order Tommy john dot com Forward Slash Cowboys. I want to read that a couple of times. There may be some people that need some new Tommy John's after that game for Christmas. Love it and mine didn't ride up yesterday, but oh cool, thanks, good to know, Thanks Mick. The whole three hours as the plane ride back,

I had to stand up at the end. My legs were so sore because we weren't high enough over that front row. So I was like on my toes sitting up in my chair. And then he liked, my legs are sort not the most not the most comfortable environment. But if you couldn't hear, you couldn't see the game. At least you had the radio that's right podcast off to the side there. That's true Compass Radios radio broadcast with any Ye White analyzing the game. That was that

was a unique environment. I think I said that on the pregame show. Dave hung out in the black hole for a little bit pregame was awesome. Can't before we go to our call or you were involved there too, you were over there? Yeah, half full of something else. Guys. It's uh, the rumors are true. What they say about the black hole. It was. It's quite an experience. Quite a few different costumes and such, people yelling some things that I am not going to repeat on the air.

And most of all, Yeah, they gave Dak a beer shower after he scored a touchdown. I've never seen that one before. And you were right there in between Dak and yeah, so yeah, I was. I was a little sweaty, So thank you cooled me off a bit. That's the only positive I can say. But I've never seen that for these are adults, guys. Let's just you pay nine bucks for a beer, don't just throw it on the field. I have a lot of money, immature, you spend on a beer to throw it at the field. I love.

That's the second time you've said that. It's like, not really about players safety or anything. It's about your throwing beer on the field. Like, don't it's a waste of a perfectly good beverage. What hat were you wearing? What hat was I wearing it. Was it Cowboys? Was it a Cowboys? Cowboys? So you probably yeah, just the fact

that I was wearing the hat. I got so many of those that hat all yeah, yeah, you proach well I worked for the team, so yeah, so so do I. But I was pretty careful not to be having the rationale. And those guys seem like it really works, Like Sara, I worked for the team. Ooh, that's awesome. Oh in that case, go on buy sir. It's fine, you're fine. We're not going to throw anything at you. Jack Dak

works for the team, too. Coated in Miller light, Dak had a yeah, Dak kind of gave him a little yell after he scored and directed it at the black Hole, like, sorry, guys, I kind of spoiled your night. But Des got involved there a little bit of it. Did he have to change jerseys? I don't think so. I don't even know if he noticed. Did there somebody on the raidar some linebackers walking in with like, oh, I traded with Dak. It's just like fells like Heineken or whatever. I don't

even know. Did they can't? Did they throw Dez a ball? He said it was a hat. It was a hat and he spiked said he no, he said he back dunked it. Yeah, he said afterwards, he's liked Honestly, that's my kind of party, man. Yeah, I want to mix it up. They want to get rowdy. That is that's like a college ATMISP. There's really there's really only like five buildings in the NFL where it feels rowdy and raucous like a college type environment. And that was definitely

what well. We we had the binoculars on when that touchdown was going on, and I remember looking down and you know, and I saw, well, there's Kent right there, and a lot of people had kind of moved off to the corner and and Knt turns around and start shooting up into the crowd, like, oh, this would be a good shot. So a boy can't with a great one year. You know that is hanging in there. Look

at the atmosphere stay, folks. Reminded me of Pittsburgh last year, just the environment and the relentless nature and the costumes and everything black everywhere. It's another pretty crazy fourth quarter. Forgot about that. Get to a game, Get to see some good games. When you follow this team around, it wasn't. Yeah, they like to keep it interesting. Still though that was all football stuff, Like you know, why didn't I did?

I wasn't thinking about index cards and touchbacks and calls and calls, and I mean I said it several times about you know, just the game of inches. We saw it four or five times in the game, right Beasley, go back to the third quar Beasley touching that player, I mean in Smith off the ground, and and just the heightened the subplot of ref Gene. Yeah, first game ref and a Cowboys game since the des catch. Oh and he's involved in in index and he's laughing, he's laughing.

The look, the look on his face when he got like, you know, he kind of pulled away from the chains and walked over to signal first down, Like he looked like he was just smirking from ear to ear. And I don't care what he says. He had to have been thinking like, oh, let's see what Cowboys fans think about me now first down. And you know what, he's a pretty sharp guy because he did one of those clinics during training camp. He was like the guest speaker

for the rules and he's pretty sharp. His I think his brother does basketball. I think he does too. He does. He's a he's a high school basketball ref like during the week and stuff. I know Peter King followed him around for a week or two a couple of years ago, but he will. He's now involved in like two of the most insane moments of recent Cowboys history, which actually

I was thinking about that. It seems like like the Raiders in particular, like they just have all these moments like the like they have all these moments with names like the Name Game, the Immaculate Reception, the Heidi Game, the Sea of Hand ends, the Holy Roller, whatever the hell else, to the Post, the Tuck rule. So what is what are we gonna call? There's three of them? Oh, there's well, there's two and the one the Index Card game.

I guess they purposely was it Stabler fumbled the ball, that was the whole Yeah, that's the Holy Roller, Holy Holy Roller, Sea of Hands, Heidi Game, Tuck Roll, Immaculate Reception. It's it's unreal. You could call like Kent said, and there goes to the post with Dave casperd Yeah, something like that. Yeah, but I feel like they got another one. But you know, I thought to do better than Inde. Well, you could call you can you could label that, you

could nickname the Derek Carr touchback thing. I mean that was that itself was crazy. No, but that's what I wrote about last night. I wrote the story I don't care. I don't care what you say. You can argue with me fifteen years from now, when the memory of this is kind of hazy and like Jeff Heath hasn't played football in a while, you're not going to think about the touchback. You're not going to think about like the Dez game. You're not gonna like you're gonna think about

the index card. That's what's to stand out. You're gonna be like remember that game and at the Oakland Coliseum with the before the Raiders moved to Vegas and Jeans Territory pulled out an index card. Like that's what you're gonna do. You know what's gonna happen too. There's gonna be a game between like you know, Nevada and and Boisey two years from now where it's gonna be real close, and the coach would be like, where's your index card? Like can you just check and see, like do you

have a card? Because I saw it at one time in a game like you put your card down, Like, no, I don't have a card. That's become like the next step of confirmation. Yeah, just put a card down. There's got to be something we can do with card and yard in car. Yeah, well, I'm gonna work on something index car. Nice card, the cardyard, I'll work on it. That's the card. The longest card. That's not bad. That's

not bad, Robert, the shortest one. All right, can't we still have a call on the line, like, yeah, Demitris and port Worthy, I'm not doing what's up? Oh that was a crazy year old learn so many bad worlds, like I'm sure before then. Yeah, yeah, a little bit, little bit one statement, man, Nick eaven Man, we got to get you down in that shineline. Man. We got to get you to talk to Scott lineam man. They need to listen to you, and we got to get you to have a meeting, uh with the genum two man.

They need to to your advice. Man, I like a lot of what you say, Which one do you like? Because they didn't work? No, no, not the speed they received the big hum de sense to tackle in the middle. Uh, just a lot of what you say. Man, Man, they just I tweeted you before and they maybe you should not talk because maybe the coaches listened, and they're like, we're not gonna listen to some writer. Chaillok, got to run. I think I tweeted I tweeted at you that before.

But h I appreciate and I really noticed, um cabin praises the defense needs to be better. When cabins on the tree of them, barn is out like it's just possible, like just have bow and come in and like come a bit to see he was in entire ends and like play taken more and uh is it time to think about it? Then stands totally. He'll laugh because, in my opinion, the defense of backfield is playing wave that without him, and I don't see many as many missed

tackles as I do when Skandrew's go to steal. Okay, thanks called him Metriest. I can actually answer that second one. Skendricks set himself on Friday. These guys are playing well, and I want to give myself the best chance to be successful. There's no need for me to rush right now with the way they're playing. But a mature attitude, Yeah, for him, which, yeah, I mean, you know, I'm sure he wants to get I don't back. I don't think I like that. I'm now I don't know if I

like it either. I mean, well, he doesn't. I think there's no reason to rush back. No, he doesn't want to hurt the team by trying to rush and not be one hundred percent. That was that was the way he put it. I got broken bones and he it was, and he was complimenting how the young players are playing, Dave. I think, yeah, it was a mature answer. I answer. I mean, I think so. I guess I get where you're trying to go with that. But like he's got broken bones in his back. I'd rather he'd just be

one hundred percent or let these guys play. That's what he meant. Yeah, he didn't feel that way about Romo though, Tibetan Romo back out there? At which instance are we talking about the time he got hurt us? But at least you have a committee. Yeah, one game you have a committee of sound like missing one game you got a committee of corners that can step in and help there. That's a little bit of a different scenario. But I think I would disagree with with one of the statements

that he made about you know, the corner. The corners are playing well and they're scrappy, but you know they they gave up some some pretty big plays last night too. And and I think having Scandrick back there would certainly help. I just I don't know, I don't know how that goes. I mean, he doesn't want to put he doesn't want to come back if he's not ready, because then that's

when you get b It's when you get exposed. And Okay, I get it, but like you think about that from a selfish standpoint, but that's also a good at like why why are you going to be out there if you're gonna expose the secondary? Like I don't need that. I think wants to be out there. It's he's ten years in the league. They still got a chance to go the playoffs here if he if he can play, you play two years. Let's remember this is a more

difficult position to play with that injury than quarterback. Honestly, it's I had to grade this game. It's this is it's a this is a tough I want I want y'all's opinion on this. This is tough to grade how these DBS played because how many passes they broke up? How many passes did they break up? I will answer that for you. I want to say it was like six seven or eight? Uh one two three four or five six seven? Yeah, Heath with one, Jordan with one,

Cheeto with one, and Anthony Brown with three. Byron Jones also with a big one too. Hey, okay, I hear hey, but if no, I mean Derek, I'm sorry, But Derek Carr through thirty eight passes and finished with one hundred and seventy one yards or one hundred one hundred and seventy one yards two touchdowns. Cheeto gave up two touchdowns, Jordan had the you know, almost backbreaking defensive pass interference.

But it's hard for me to look at this, you know, against the guy that was an NFL MVP candidate, and say that they were bad. Certainly, there's I mean, there were some growing pains, to be sure, but I thought they played well overall. I mean, there was two big plays for the Raiders. They had the cars run on third down? Was it thirty two yards? Yeah? DBS didn't have anything to do with that. And then the pass interference other than that they didn't move the ball. That's

what we were talking about that. I think Derek and I were talking about that on the sideline. Like some people on Twitter were giving us a hard time because we said Michael Crabtree wouldn't be an issue for the secondary. And he had two touchdowns on Cheeto Woozier. But look at his number. Yeah, he caught seven of seventeen targets for thirty nine yards. He scored two touchdowns nine yards on seventeen target It really did seem like they were

laboring to get up the field. You know, every nothing came easy for them in this Patterson had a kickoff return to midfield that that led to one of their touchdowns. Right, Yeah, they had the interception um that led to some points. And Mark, I mean Marshawn Lynch hit him for some nice runs. I mean, he's he's a tough guy to deal with. But overall seventeen points, I mean, I thought

that they handled him pretty well. I thought the d pretty well handled him, but they he had he has some tough sledding, you know, he I mean, he will fight for extra yards, but he had to fight for it. Again. They did a pretty good job of ganging up on him. Yeah, they were hit around the ball. Demetrius mentioned Cavon Frasier. What do you guys think of the way he's playing. I haven't seen him do anything in pass coverage. Yeah, I think I said that on the on A show

last week. Is I think you know, cavan and Heath have a knack for being around the ball and they hit, and they hit well more often than not. Byron and uh and Xavier Woods are a little better in coverage, but they're not necessary, Like they aren't around the ball as much and they haven't always tackled as well. I mean, you saw what they did when they went to the dime late when they moved Byron into the slot on the tight end and Anthony Brown and then they put

Xavier Woods back at safety with Jeff Heath. So that kind of tells you what the coaching staff thinks of Cavons pass coverage. Yeah, now close to the line of scrimmage, coming up and making hits. Yeah, absolutely. I think he was like second or third in tackles that you have,

like six Cavon had six tackles. Way to go, Mick and a tackle for loss for that later so I feel the same way about the safeties as I did in July, to be totally honest with you, which is like, you've got four safeties, all of which do something pretty well. They don't have a single guy that does everything great, Like, they don't have a guy where you're just like, he's rock solid. He needs to be out there all sixty snaps Landing Collins type. They don't have a land In

Collins or an Earl Thomas. It would be nice if they did, but and that's I don't expect him to change these guys roles very much. I think you're gonna keep seeing this rotation down the last two weeks. It's been working, and they've managed to more often than not, put these guys in a good position. I don't I don't see why you try to make a sweeping change

with two weeks left in the season. Just keep keep this thing going and worry about how you're going to play the position next year when it's time to do. I think they've done a good job of figuring out each guy's role, let him play it situational football, and just keep rolling them in because sometimes you know, you see Cavon Frasier out there and he plays thirty five plays and you're going, Okay, this is great. Well, now what happens when he plays sixty? That was the question

with Wilcox last year. Right, they earned a rotational role of twenty snaps a game because he was much better than when he was a starter. And along the same line, like people kept asking me last night, I assume they were asking y'all too, like where'd Cheetoh go, where'd Jordan go? Or they hurt when I'm like, no, they're They're like, they're basically platooning the second and Darry that's what they're doing. They're bringing guys in in certain situations and on certain series.

And I get why that can be frustrating, especially when you want to see your young draft picks. But like I said, since they started doing this against Washington, it's been working more often than not. And I think Anthony Brown's earned the right to get back out there a little bit more because they gave him some series outside

it back. Just catch the ball, I mean, don't don't try to catch it on your should catch the ball scores right, yes, oh yeah, well he's gone, or well he could have just caught it and fallen on the ground and the game he's gonna go score. That's fine, do it. Just I had a bad feeling they were going to lose the game when they kicked the fuel goal, and then that shot up another ten notches when he dropped that. I was like, that's that's how you lose games in the NFL as when you're gifted the game

and you don't take advantage. I'm sure this person exists. I know it does in the world. A diehard Steelers fan who hates the Cowboys. Tough Monday for you. Not good. I mean, they had a game strolling from them because of a fetch rule. Then they lose, They lose their best player, maybe the best player in the league. They lose home field advantage to the Patriots, and it's like the team that they haven't really ever been able to get past. Like both teams had a quarterback with a

brain fart whatever, thank you? Yeah, I know, if I should say sure, brain fart, let Dave say that's the internet. How do you how does he experienced quarterback like that thrown interception when you got a field goal to send it an overtime. That's about as painful a way to lose a game, as I've seen in a long time, you could just be have a chance to tie the game. And he reached the ball out the pylon when you have a first down and you get hit by Jeff and could have gone out of bounce. It just ran

out of bounds. The most again, like we watched the end of these games from the sideline, and the most amazing thing of that whole thing. So that happened in the far corner. We were on the Cowboys sideline. It happened on the Raiders sideline, probably on the twenty, and it happened at the two. So we're eighteen yards downfield and fifty three yards across the field, so sixty seventy

yards away. I have no idea. I'm like, he either scored a touchdown or he's out at the one, Like those are the two options that I am aware of. And Matt Eberflus just comes charging down the sideline and he was even further up the field, and he's just like, that's a touchback. That's a touchback. Get the offense out. I'm just like, how how did you? How could you put that together in the moment like way was doing it too he was doing this like it's over believable. Yes,

they watched enough ball that Jeff Heath. Jeff Heath didn't know what happened and he made the play. He looked out, he said, he rolled over and he saw you fumble, but he didn't know if his knee was down or what exactly happened. It was it was him. I guess it was Lee. I mean somebody that was that was kind of I could just see somebody pointing in all that, and I just looked over and saw Eberflus just flying down the field and like looked over to them. I

was like, I think Cowboys just won this game. And there I was like, how how did they win the game? What do you tell Derek was like, I don't think so. I think it's I think it's first and goal at the one. Yeah, it doesn't seem good at all. Brian brought us his strange Lady theory is getting stronger and stronger after watching this football game. All right, let's let's not give Brian brought us credit for hypothesizing that the NFL is weird and stuff happens. It fills a strange lady.

Tony Jim he likes to say it a lot, but it's not like he came up with that. It's been going on forever. Well I know, but I like the phase said do you think you should get credit? But yeah, no, for sure I was. I was very mean to the Cowboys after they lost that Chargers game, and they have responded their showing you they are, hey, I'm happy to eat crow. They I don't. I don't. I feel I felt justified and like they they looked like a team that had mailed it in. They lost three games by

a combined seventy points. So did in those games when you came up with that at hypothesis, did you just decided they got to the second half and said, you

know what, I don't want to play anymore. I think the first half was okay, though I think overall, like three games first, yeah, first half's fine, but like by the end of these games, especially the Thanksgiving game, when you're basically I don't know if it was exactly five hundred, four hundred and sixty eight passing yards to Philip Rivers, really the Keenan Allen, the Keenan Allen touchdown when five I think five guys miss tackles on his way into

the saw about two of those plays yesterday watching games where wide receiver weeds through the entire defense. Yeah, you know, I say this a lot when teams, and maybe Cincinnati's doing it, I don't know, but when when you feels like they're kind of quitting a little bit. I don't

think you quit on Sunday. I think you just quit on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and your preference, right, yeah, but you don't quit on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and play your ass off on the first half on Sunday and then decide the second half. I'm out, Well, I don't necessarily think I agree with that. I mean, like you, you give it your best shot and it starts to go against you, and you're like, well, here, here it

is again. All of a sudden, we're down seventeen when we had a chance to be in the lead point being obviously that wasn't the case. But I challenge anybody to find any I mean, ninety two to twenty two is the composite scored or in that three game losing streak, and it was the other what was the other stat that went through all those games? But not having Sean Lee one of them, one of them good. And the

quarterback was sacked fourteen times in three games. But I mean, there's a million reasons for it, Mickey, Still, that doesn't mean they quit. Literally, like the tangible reason for it, Well, I think I think they. I'm not trying to put words in your mouth. I think you. I don't know what are you saying that they did? I mean you, you made that statement, but I don't think you really.

They looked like a team that had to me. Okay, they did right, absolutely did, and down the streat and like, I get all those things, and all those factors combine to add to the frustration, give you where you're like, well, we don't have our best players. We we we are the team that we're supposed to be. That makes it

more frustrating. And I even I don't know how many times I said in my life, the twenty fifteen season was so amazing because as bleak as it was, they were in every game right down in the final stretch. They lost seven of those twelve games by a touchdown or less. So to see this team get blown out in such convincing fashion three straight weeks, it's something we've never seen before. How about this that the Cowboys are eight and six, they're hovering at you know, average or

above average. But that was the first win of the season that was not double digit win. Isn't that crazy? It is crazy. Is easily the least dramatic season of Jason Garrett's tenure here, and that's just in terms of the results of the games, which maybe they tried to make up for the whole thing last night, because I mean, they crammed about five games worth a drama in a one fourth quarter out there. Yeah. Lord, hey, I got a theory though, Seriously, you need the Lions to lose.

Marvin Lewis came out and said that this is going to be his last game, his last season with that with the Bengals. His last home game is Sunday the Lions. He's saying that I thought they say that. The report came out and he blew it off, like I don't. Marvin Lewis, Well, then you're gonna then you're gonna get fired either way. This is probably gonna be his last home He's been fifteen years there. Wow, Yeah, I think it's better if Detroit wins. Why tell me, Okay, gonna

end up at the end of the break. Yeah, let's let's yeah, No, I need to hear that. I need to hear this because I've be't saying it wrong. Then let's let's take her final break. Come back, talk a little big picture where the Cowboys stand in the playoff race. We'll touch on Zeke as well, and some injuries coming out of Sunday's game as well. We come back. Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't

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a proud member of Cowboys Nation. This is the Talking Cowboys break streaming live on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the officials Dallas Cowboys out. Well after a strange Sunday, there's nothing strange about getting Papa John's pizza on Monday because of those ingredients like the veggis fresh hole, never frozen, pepperoni, one in beef. Then you want to improve your Monday, get a Papa John's pizza that sounds good on a victory Monday. Done it, Yes, it does. Welcome back to Huh.

I'm very hungry. Sorry, no thinking out loud. It's been a long night though. I got long morning, great pizza Saturday night. That's not for two weeks. Golden Boy pizza. Okay, you ever go San Francis Schoos on pizza? Yeah, right, he's in the pizza business. Now, welcome back to Talking Cowboys. We only got ten minutes left in the show. Appreciate you guys joining us on a Monday. Cowboys win twenty seventeen over the Raiders in improbable, crazy fashion. So big picture,

they're eight and six. I'm trying to put it to Dave's been on this thing. Oh yeah, I forgot Mick explain why it would be good if the Lions won. That's where I'm going because Detroit satan six. They'd be if the Cowboys. If the Cowboys went out, which team is are they most likely to tie with? At ten? At six? That would be bad? I mean, it's it's bad planner, right, Well, that would because they lose a

head to hit. Yeah, all right. If there's a three way tie, and if Atlanta and Detroit haven't played each other, they have head to head, they have each other they have that's Atlanta wins. That ruins my theory. Atlanta wins that tie. They won games against both of them, and the head to head tiebreaker with Detroit comes down to common opponents, right, and as it's assuming they both went out, Detroit would have a better record in games against common opponents.

They beat the Packers and the Cowboys didn't. It's the only game is the past. It's common opponents after conference record, yes, and they would be the same, and then it would go to strength. They would both be eight and four if they went out right the Lions, it's it's Giants Packers. Um. I think there's like one or two more in there, but I like the Giant there. The Lions would be four and one and the Cowboys would be three and two.

I think they need the Lions to win to lose one of these next two Cincinnati and Green Bay, and they need the Falcons to lose two of their next three, one tonight or against Carolina. And it doesn't have to be the Falcons, but it has to be one of those. Somebody in the NFC South has to bottom out. That's really. They gotta basically get to ten and six. Basically, you need Tampa Bay to win tonight. He just I mean, that would be really that would be a help. It

would be huge. But Atlanta has to go to New Orleans next Sunday, and they finished the season at home against a pretty damn good Carolina team. So I don't think all hope is lost. If the Bucks don't win this game, but it's sure, it's sure would be nice. It's gonna be It's gonna be pretty good now. And the question is is what will Green Bay do with Aaron Rodgers. They're gonna play him, That's why would you play him? They're officially eliminated, right. I don't know if

it's not enough, but it's common sense. I thought I read that it's it's so much, it's so minuscule, it might as well be official. Well, the reports are kind of like Romo a couple years ago. The bones not fully healed, but he came back anyway. So you want to risk your franchise late, I wouldn't just just reset it again like Romos. Oh yeah, just no big deal, right, just like shave the save off the tips so it doesn't crack again. It's like Legos. What's funny is we?

I think we talked about that last week. Like Detroit played Atlanta this year and Atlanta won on that Oh yeah, that controversy at the goalie was he in? Was he not in? And the clock ran out? And that's the difference between you having, you know, between Detroit having a tiebreaker and not over you. I mean it's it's a crazy league, man, it's absolutely nuts. Just win games when you score thirty points. I was gonna say, these are the types of situations you put yourself in when you

don't handle your own business. It comes down to that Rams game for me. I mean that eleven point lead. Yeah, even though the Rams are much better than we think than the game, they they had a chance to win the game. Yeah, a chance to put it away in the second quarter. I know the Switzer punt return, right, Mick yep Okay, I just me and Brian argue about that. I don't think it's a bad loss. They put up thirty points a game. They look damn good right now. That's not a bad loss is Denver. A bad loss

is the Chargers on Thanksgiving. Any bad any loss where you have a double digit lead and you can't hold onto it's bad. I don't care if you're playing the O seven Patriots. If you're up by eleven points at home against anyone, you should figure out a way to win. And you hadn't been stopped yet. They scored three consecutive possessions to start that game, or they were getting the ball, they could have run the ball on second down against the Packers too. Well, if Atlanta wins this game, I've

been informed that Green Bay's officially eliminated. There we go. Okay, so they're hanging by a thread. Cowboys have to take care of their own business. They got two games left. Thank you. Injury updates coming out of the game, Tyron Smith, Anthony Hitchins, anybody else. I don't like the sounds of the Tyron Smith one. It doesn't sound good. Yeah, Tyron Smith left with a knee. Stephen Jones said it's not

as acl but he didn't could sound overly optimal. Even if it's an MCO and you Sprain did good, you're out two to four. He didn't make it. He didn't rule him out, but he did not sound optimistic that Tyrn would be ready to go for this game. He said he thinks hitch has a better chance, but that's still another wait and see. So the Sehawks good on defense when all their guys are there, they are, but

typically yes, well fortunately they're not all there right now. Yeah. Yeah, And the one no when he worried about was Mayoa went out with a back. Oh I forgot about him. Yeah, And I saw him coming out of the locker room. And I can't remember who asked him, how he Jason Garrett? Were you there right there with Garrett? Asked he said, and he shook his head like not good, not good. Yeah it was Garrett. Well that's not good. So that gave best White. That's not good. That's why Taco was playing.

Actually in on both sides, Taco he played pretty well. He was so close to sacks. They were so on that Anthony Spencer and him, that almost Anthony, I haven't I have not watched the tape, but I mean that's as much as I remember seeing his jersey, you know, like really being an active part of the pass rushing the game. Even though he didn't get a sack, he it seemed like he was impacting the game. You know, the irony of that, the fumble out of the end zone.

They almost sacked him. He gotta wait, like two guys were right on. If they had sacked him, they basically would have seidered from a field goal. And we're going over to the time out right. Yeah, he got DeMarcus Lawrence. I mean, he had car dead to rights at least twice, and it didn't work out for him. Maybe even on the interference call too, because they had pressure on him. He was just heaving it. Points I saw him point Is just just running. Yeah. I mean that was as

good as a hill. Mary. He just heaved it man, all right, So I mean, what did he have to lose? Right? It was fourth down, that's true, That's true. All right. So before we get out of here, we got about five minutes left. We gotta get the Zeke talk right. We've touched on it briefly. This is a well funny, there's there's not a lot to talk about right now. Like he's allow out in the he's here, He's he is here, he was he was allowed to get here at ten for sick call. He's he's a member of

the team again. He's Jerry Jones said he had a meeting set up with him where they're just kind of gonna catch up and status report. He's supposedly been in Cabo going through the whole Rocky thing. There's a photo of him just looking abtastic, abtastic, fantastic, good word, wow, just clearly in great shape. I don't know pictures. I don't know when we're gonna hear from mister Elliott. It might be today, it might be tomorrow, it might be Wednesday. But he's back. He's he's a member of the team

once again. Why an't we going to see his documentary? That's I hear about this, and I don't. I don't know, but it's that's the most twenty seventeen ever thing ever, Like you gotta gotta promote yourself. I guess I don't gotta figure out how to make money. Yeah, yeah, Well you missed six games worth of wages and all those legal fees on top of that, like boillion dollars. I don't care how much money you're making. You don't your nose up and two million dollars of salary and losing

your guarantees. That's been a tough stretch, right, Like the sponsors are going to just be rolling in, right, It's gonna be an interesting way. I mean, you know you can get into all that. You know, how quickly can he pick up where he left off? How much of a workload do you give him right away? What's he have to say about the suspension. I mean we haven't heard him talk since probably the afternoon after the Chiefs game November fifth. You're right, we got time to talk

about him fresh leg. But that being said, what about the intangible lift? Because I feel like the guys in the locker room after the game, they were focused on the win, but a lot of them were asked about Zeke and he just said, I think Dez said it just the energy he gives us. It's he's our our emotional leader, basically, and they haven't had that for six weeks.

And you got to give credit to what the running backs did Rod Alfred in this stretch, but you know he's got he's got the home run threat, and he does bring kind of an attitude into mentality of this offense first and goal in the five to win the football game that Zeke the on the field like their school aren't a touchdown I think. I mean, I know he's been stopped before, but I don't think that you you get stopped there. I really don't. And I think

that's he's the difference maker in those tough short yardage runs. Yeah, not to mention his presence opening up other things, other options off play action, your flee flicker. Dak was playing amazing when he was there, and now he's and then he got stupid well for three games. Sarcasm button press it he goes. That was that was subtle sarca. I was like, where are you? Oh, if you do a show with him long enough, you can tell he kind

of mutters it. No. I mean, like the pregame show, they went over all his stats during the three game losing streak, and the one they forgot was he got sacked fourteen times and hit nineteen times in three games when you'd only been sacked ten times in eight games. Yeah, he got beat up pretty good. There's a reason for that, right knock. Did he forgot how to play football or that he needed to learn how to play without Zeke? Um? Yeah?

I didn't mention his day. I mean, hey, go go figure, I get Zeke back, and maybe you're looking at needing a new left tackle for the at least this game, if not the last two. I don't know that for sure, but it sounds like it's at least a possibility as you head into this practice week. I mean, Tyro knows they gave Byron Bell some help. If they did, and when they didn't, it got pretty scary. I had a

holding call. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean we've seen that and that you can lump tiring into that stretch where they lost three in a row. He missed two of those games, right, yep. So it helps to have your all pro players and lost Zack Martin for a half of the game. It helps to have your all pro players. It does some next level analysis. That is my obvious man quote of the week as we wrap up today's should you know what that's that escaped a lot of people when all they wanted to point out was his

interceptions in lack of touchdown passes. You know, but Jason Garrett prints out t shirts to say no excuses? Yeah, well which is which is he does? It's noble he does it. But I mean, well, number six or number seventy six, no excuses, play like a chance seventy six there? All right? Well, thinking of those great players. Pro Bowl comes out tomorrow night, does it? Yeah? Official announcement NFL. Now, what do you think? Three or four? Four? Give me five?

Should be five? Give me three? Offensive linemen? Chris Jones? Who else you know, Mark Mark Lawrence, Markus Lawrence of course tanks in there. I hope Chris Jones makes it. I don't think he will make. All they do is look at the numbers. Oh I'm saying we got time to talk about that tomorrow. Both shows, all three shows be back tomorrow. Nick, forget Lyle, I have a few l all right. I don't know, I just think so there's a sleeper for you. Thanks for joining us, guys.

We'll be back with our normal shows tomorrow. Enjoy the victory. We'll talk to you on Tuesday. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.