Talkin' Cowboys: Breaking Down the Week 3 Loss

I understand, except for three hours on Sunday afternoon. We're here to break it all down and kickoff Lions week as quickly as possible. Here on Talking cowboy Boys Bill Jones with Mickey Spagnola, Brian brought Us and Rob Phillips. How was your weekend? Three hours and three minutes? Is that what it was? Yes? For those who were counting three hours and three minutes of misery and now with a one and two record, the Cowboys head home, get back to work and try to figure out what went wrong.

And that's what we will do for the next hour. We invite your phone calls as well. Eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. Rob, you made the trip to Seattle. You have a good weekend. I mean the CITC Northwest. It's beautiful up there. It's great. Took in a college football game. Oh you went to the Washington Arizona Show. Yeah, enjoyed that. That was great. Love it up there. Those three hours. Not good. Not good.

I mean some good things, but continuations of problems that we saw in Week one that are really hurting this team, especially offensively. And Brian brought us was holding down the fort here at the Star and you enjoyed his fine work pre and post game. And now we hear from Brian brought us his first take on what happened. Now. I just think there's, like Rob said, there's a lot

of the same things that happened to this team. I've never seen an offense that does more to get in its own way as far as they cannot overcome bad things that happened to them, you know. And it's whether it's a down and distant situation, it's an awareness situation, it's a mistake of not blocking a guy, it's a drop pass. This offense is just not good enough to overcome bad things that happened to them. And there's there's teams that take sacks. There's teams that fumble, there's teams

that take that have interceptions. But when you watch this, it's not just the play calling, but there's so many things involved when you watch this team and the problems that they have. You know, Mickey talks about the protection that's a problem, the quarterback not seeing the field, the receivers not catching the ball. There's just so many things that when they do get a little bit of momentum,

then something happens to them. They just the negative plays are just are too much for this offense to even overcome their challenged to move the football because of mistakes that they make. And because they're challenged to move the football, it's difficult to overcome mental mistakes that occur. Yeah. Well, and they had far too many of those. Uh you know, Brian mentioned it. You have three or four drop passes, Yeah, two of them end up being intercepted. You run the

ball into the red zone, and then you fumble. The longest play of the day. You throw a touchdown pass. But for some reason, the running back didn't see the four foot wide white stripe at the end on the sideline. It stepped out of pounds Previously, it's it's it's just hard to keep overcoming those things. And then you get yourself in situations where Seattle all they gotta do is pin their ears back and come at you. You get a team that only had three sacks in two games,

get five five and hit your quarterback ten times. So if we added up in the two losses, that's eleven sacks and twenty quarterback hits. It's hard to play football that way, and you can't and you know, don't sit there and just say, well, Joe Looney's playing center, or Connor Williams is the left guard, he's a rookie. It was across the board, yeah, across the whole five. Frank

Clark had himself a day. They moved Frank Clark around yesterday, which was really smart on their part because they felt like that, really that Lyle Collins is not good enough as a right tackle to handle him one on one. So the smart thing is take him away from a guy you feel like, well, he's not gonna win every battle against Tyrant Smith, but move him over to the other side, and you know he made plays over there.

I mean, that's what that you know, It was very very clear that they had a plan of how they wanted to attack the Cowboys and offensively for the Seattle Seahawks, their plan was very clear. They were comfortable running the ball for three yards to carry because they saw how an FPP the Dallas offense was right. The Dallas offense never forced Seattle to change their game plan. One team was desperate and committed. The other team was just desperate

and confused. And that's why that penalty at the end of the first half was so critical in this game. When when you get behind two scores against a team that realizes that it can just run the football because it's not being pressed by the other team's offense. It was almost like they were running the ball to eat clock because they certainly knew said Carolina did in the first week of the season. When there's big there was no reason for them to get out of any of

their mode. I mean it was almost like, uh, you know, if you look at the numbers of the game, and again I don't always do this this way, but if a quarterback is sixteen to twenty six for one ninety two, two touchdowns, no interceptions and they wins the game, that's kind of Dak Prescott like in twenty sixteen, and one of one of them was a huge, one huge play fifty two yards for a touch exactly. You take that away and it's yeah, he's not on the far side

on the flip side. The losing quarterback was nineteen to thirty four for one sixty eight, one touchdown and two interceptions. Three turnovers were huge in this game. Mickey talked about it is you have the you have the Earl Thomas, uh, you know, first one off the ground, basically great job of him being in position. Michael Gallup has got to catch that foot to see that. That drive, to me is symptomatic of the whole thing we talked about. You

people are gonna question the play calling. Okay, here's a drive. Second drive of the game. They had a good design. On first down, they faker reverse the Tavon handoff to Zeke seven yards. Good position. Then they go into round a Tavon. Okay, they're trying to spread things out. Yeah, some time things open up things inside. Yeah, Gallup has to make that catch on first and ten and it and hey, Earl Thomas teriffic awareness to be able to you know, scoop that off. His free actionary player amazing.

But see, yeah, you're right, Rob, but you to your point. It's it was a lot of different things. You know. It was drops, it was the Mickey's right, the protection. It's not the same offensive line that we saw, you know, and it's not just the offensive lineman. The tight ends. Zeke did it again. He goes to cut a guy and a guy jumps over him and blast her quarterback stand up and hit him in the chest. How many more times has that got to happen? It affected the

way that Dak threw the ball to the outside. They had Hearns open on the outside and Zeke goes low and now the guy's up in Dak's face, and you know, if you hit him square, you have a chance. And you know, I just go back to the quarterback has been struggling with some of his visional some of the reds. But what he does on the slant to on the slant that Gallop drops, he's looking away to set to give Gallop the chance to you know, so the safeties

will day on one side of the field. So Prescott's doing exactly what he has to do to get Gallop open, and he puts the ball right where Gallup needs to catch it, and you know everybody knows the result. But here's here's a play call. Here is a execution on the quarterback's behalf to help you. But the Finnish is horrendous, right, So okay, how are you you want to know why this offense is not any good play call, execution, finish. None of them seem to work for this football team

offensively right now? You know, Mickey brought it up and Zekiel running out of balance, and Garrett says, well, he's a very aware player. I understand. I mean he gets wide, he gets wide, he gets white, he keeps getting wide, and then he's gonna burst to try and make the turn up the field. But Dak is yeah, Dak is coming to him. And now it's like and once again what happens. Play breaks down, quarterback figures it out, athletically

gets to the outside. Okay, here we go, play call, execution, finish. The finish is your is your running back? Who you who you trust to win games for you? Steps out of bounds? Is it a mistake? Yeah? Is it a minital mistake. It's an awareness mistake, he said it. I had terrible awareness on that play and the worst part he didn't know where he was. Yeah, and the worst part is it's it's it nullifies the play. Yeah, but it's not a penalty where you get the down over.

It got to kick a field goal and you can't be kicking field goals. And then the other problem in what's been going on, and it goes back to what I wrote on Friday. This defense had to continue playing well to buy the offense time. And they have two busted coverages which they just can't afford. And then the Randy Gregory brain fart at the end of the half. Although having watched warm ups, Janikowski would have blasted a sixty. But this is where you also you take a chance.

You know, you're giving him fifteen yards. You're saying, okay, you're a Hall of Fame kicker and you probably are gonna make a seventy yard field goal or whatever. This guy, he's you know, he's rare. He's he's like that guy the cornerback from the Redskins that played for forty years, you know that Green, Daryl Green. These guys that you look at him and you go no way, and and it's gonna be But don't judge this Lake Lake strength by his shape. But but that's what I'm saying, don't

give him fifteen yards yards because he makes that. He makes that every single time. It was a momentum play too for Seattle, and they get the park started by Seattle Joey Hunt the Joey TCU hornenfrog. It was a smart play. That was the only way they were gonna get fifteen yards on that particular play. Bade him into doing something and they did it. Yeah, but that just shows you. You know, we talked about it to discipline too. You know, we talked about this blind you're gonna have

to play. But Seattle, they played. Seattle played exactly how they wanted to play. Yesterday they played exactly how they want to play, and they protected the quarterback. They did a better job of that. They'd given up a dozen sacks and they're two lots, but there was always get two. You gave him no reason, you you know, you didn't put him in situations the guy went back to twenty six times. You know, you didn't put him in a a situation where he had to throw the ball thirty eight

forty times. You're so right, though, I mean, Carson gets thirty two carries in this game for only one hundred and two yards. But but Brian Schottenheimer did the smart thing. He this is what you always talk about, know the condition of your team. He knew Dallas offensively was not going to do anything. He saw that, and so it's real easy for for Pete Carroll to click over and say run it here, run it, run it again, and just keep doing that. And what happened? What did he do?

He had he had three new starters inside into the interior offensive line, right. He not only did Schottenheimer protect his offense, he protected his to his offensive line, he protected his quarterback as well, especially when Dallas has the length of the field to drive offensively. I mean, and which is why that roughing the passer penalty on Tyrone Crawford on the third offensive play for Seattle, which critical in the first quarter of that game, because and now

Dallas needs to get off the field. Have to overcome that adversity and get them off the field. But if they're punning on that after that third down playoff, they don't throw the flag on that, cowboys are getting the ball at the forty their own forty yard line instead of they wound up getting it at their own fifteen yard. There was a time where his team could be able to drive the example, and they don't do that anymore. Two years ago they could do that's right. Here's another example.

First drive of the third quarter, get a holding penalty on the return or punt return. Then Rico gets a false start, and all of a sudden, you're at second and fifteen at your own six. After Zeke gets stopped for no game, Tyron gives up a sack. I mean, it's when when an offense struggles this much, it's always a lot of different things except that Atlanta game. Then they have a situation where they had Rico jumped off sides. Yes, that's the play, and they completed They completed a pass.

Thompson got a ten got ten yard game. Okay, so now you're thinking if it's first and ten or second ten, Okay, they've got the they've got the yard, they've got it. They got a first down with the ten yard pass, but they come up five yards short a third and five, they have a third five. Now they're having to throw the football and they get the sack. Like this is just I wrote about that last night. This is just typical of what this offense is right now. It can't

it can't help itself. There's no you know, the one energy plays that it the energy plays that it has is generally when they get the ball to number ten, that's the one guy that's got some juice, the kind of got going they get. They get the jet sweeper eighteen yards poom, everybody's blocking up front. I mean, he gives you a little juice. And there's no other jew a spark that's happening with this team offensively, And it

shows you how weird the game was. Zeke ran the ball very well, I mean seven point nine yards a pop, but he also just hurts you so bad in the game. You know, that's the irony of it. Was he I mean he admitted it. He thought he well, he thought

they'd cost him the game. I wouldn't go that far, but they left maybe at least a touchdown, maybe ten points on the board right there, with a couple of mistakes, not to mention a third down that he might have completed on third and nine, might have I went back. It was there. It was It was Kendricks. Was it Kendrick Kendricks, And I mean he was on the upfield hip, and it's gonna be if you the ball's out in front, and if he catches it, he breaks that tackle, it's

an easy first. But if he if Kendricks makes that tack, which is probably what's gonna happen because his offense can't get a break, you know it's gonna be four yards short. But I'll take my chances throwing the ball to Zekiel Elliott on the move. But what happens. He had the crazy Tony Dorset hands and he's usually he could Yeah, and everybody, everybody's like, get him involved in the passing game, get him involve the passing game. Okay, you're trying to

get him involved the passing game. You know you're trying. And that happens. Now you're like, but does that mean you stop trying to get him involved? No, But gosh, it just makes you think, like, Okay, who else can I throw it to? If my best players not making plays? Who is going to make plays? Who is Jeff Swayin went five catches, and a lot of that was, Hey,

we got to get the ball out quick. Let's get it out first read, Let's go to sway Let's try to get in a manageable situation here on third down and Seattle did, which is the boy to get into a rhythm, right? You know? You know Cole Beasley was interesting after the game. He's talking about communication issues that they're talking. Yeah, I mean communications as far as not hearing on the outside or oh no, I think that the problems that they're having offensively related to communication issue.

And I don't know. I just heard the SoundBite. I didn't hear the full context of it. Didn't But I'm wondering where. I wonder if he's going crowd because we didn't mean crowd. Let everybody not on the same page. As far as the past execution, the passing, well, that's in a terrible indictment of what's going on then in those meetings. If that's the case, and I don't know if that's if that's what he means, that's a terrible indictment. Right least they didn't try to be twelve men on

the field twice and twice twice. This again goes back to the offense. You get a break, it's third and six, you get twelve minut on the field. Now you're third and one. I'll take Zeke Gillett running the ball for third and one every time chuck for two hundred police and they got and they got stuff. No, they don't block Bobby Wagner. How did he not talk him? How do you not block their best player? See, that's what

I'm saying. And it looked like to me that maybe that once again, you know, and I'm not pointing to figure here, but just looking at scheme that everybody's down blocking but Lyle Collins and they're trying to get the they're trying to get Jeff swam around the corner to maybe trap or log that guy in press could have pulled the ball and then gone forward for a yard, you know, if he wanted to. Earl Thomas was sitting there, but they there was some confusion on the outside between

Swaying and hearns what was going on over there. But you don't block Bobby Wagner and he runs through for no game. Okay, I thought about you in that play. I was like, mic linebacker right, got identify him because he was the one guy that can make the tackle at the point of attack. And so you're saying, okay, it's how many times the third and one handed to

Zeke first down? Should be automatic first down. How many times now this team can't even block the damn mic linebacker to get a first down and they catch a break on a twelve minute on the field, right, Not third and six, it's third and one. All right, we're just getting started here on Talking Cowboys. We're gonna take your phone calls at two two nine seven, and perhaps for the last time this season, when we come back, we will mention the name Earl Thomas when Talking Cowboys continue.

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you'll be excited to discover. Get your early bird passes now at Kabu Texas dot com. That is spelled ka Boo Texas dot com. Let me just say something real quick on that. I know we got a football team to figure out, but I have a friend that went to that in del mar and I really had a blast. So hey, look into it. Check out how you say what May tenth twelve, So that's fine, that's after the draft that's three months away. Yeah, we got it, We

got it. We'll have a new draft class. But you've got to get the early bird passage now at Kaboo, how do you how do you make plans for eight months ahead? Well, you know I did that all the time, Mickey. Yeah. When we go, like on road trips, I tell guys about we need to eat at this Manny steakhout. Many Bryan makes reservations from a desk. But you're not paying for tickets to a concert. You're like, oh, I have never done it. Chubby Checkers's gonna be the way Chubby Checkers.

This fits perfectly into Brian brought us schedule because it's basically the week after the draft. Yeah, so you're you're so busy leading through the draft. If there's some bucket list performers, if they could get like the Beatles to come back together the Beatles, I'd like to see led Zeppelin perform, you know, I mean they got some bucket list people. I'm all in, all right, legendary rockers. When

do we find out who the legendary rocket? But it's supposed to be diverse, Charlotte said, cheer, it's enough to I don't know if Chubby you'll be there, but if you got enough diversity to take her mom, Jeane Jones, or her seventeen year old son. So you know we'll find out the acts soon. But somebody even for you, Mick, three Dog Night. Don't be talking about three Dog Night? Yeah? Are you like? Yes? Okay, to New Orleans for the Jazz Festival or kabu down, Mickey, you need to go

to this one. Okay, that's we need to do. Yeah, company's sake, So get your early bird passes at Cabo. Texts down one man tomorrow on our show, No rookie Minicamp that week, Ricky, mister Jonesy's to see it all right? Eight five five two two nine seven the number two call to join us here on Talking Cowboys. How about we start this segment off with a phone call from Palmer in Georgia. Palmer, you're up on Talking Cowboys? All right, gentlemen,

I've got a theory on this whole quarterback thing. Okay. Tony Romo's last year the play clock away. He always snapped the ball with one or two seconds lap, and there were a lot of people crying, why aren't they running the ball, especially in the red zone. Well, I think everyone's conclusion was that Tony was check now to run plays into throwing plays. I think it's time to

put the handcuffs back on Dak. Dak's first year, the ball was always snapped with ten or more second left on the play cut he was actually running the play that was called. I think that. I think if he ran every play that was called yesterday, I think it would have at least looked a little bit better. I just think it's time to put him back in kindergarten and just take put the handcuffs back on. That's my theory. Hell, I don't even know if that would work. That's aw

you do that, Thank you Palmer. Sorry I was confused. He doesn't want Dak to have the ability to check to check. He feels like and if you talk to some NFL people around the league about that the first year, that and there's coaches that will say, it's kind of nice to have a rookie quarterback. So because a rookie quarterback never qu since your call. A rookie quarterback just runs the play whatever you And there's some guys around the league with veteran quarterbacks, you know, it's just a

really good example. But he's really good at it. Is the guy down in New Orleans, you know, and he's really good at getting in and out of place. But there's something too. Play callers kind of like a guy that will say, Okay, I'm not gonna question what you're gonna call. I mean, I'm not going to the quarterback. It's not gonna question what I'm gonna call. I'm gonna call this play and we're gonna see if we can

execute it. But I don't know if necessarily, if it's Dak changing plays at the line, not be that every time. I don't think so every time. But I mean he threw out a theory and we'll need to see that. That's it's a thought. And we did talk about that in the press box. It's like, all right, this is down to one second and they know exactly when the ball is gonna be. It helps him get off this off the ball. There is something too. I had some people on Twitter and you guys watch the game too.

Are they tipping their snap count? Though with a touch from Zack Martin, a head turn from Joe Looney and then the snap or or or or guys good enough on the defensive line to kind of go into a game and say, Okay, when I see Joe Looney turn, I'm going you know, I'm just asking this question, Clark.

I'm just I'm just asking today. Yeah, because he jumped the count one time against him against Tyren Smith, not the sack, but one time before the Tyron Smith, just being the athlete he is, was able to get enough of him to lyle Prescott to step up in the pocket a little bit. But I wonder if if you want to tell me that maybe that dat needs to

play with the snap count a little bit more. I'll buy into that, because there's there was several times where I saw him frantically going to the line of trying to get and and then I looked up and it's like, well, wait a minute, there's fourteen seconds left, right, what's the hurry slow down? I don't but see what happens. It's not like he's going up to the line of scrimmage when he changes the call and he has the roller

decks of plays when they give them that play they've practiced. Okay, if you don't like this, look, then check to this. It's not like he's just going through his mind and going, well, let me try this. That stuff's all pre planned. Now he is he making the wrong decision getting out of a run to throw the ball, or getting out of a throw to run the ball. That's maybe what's going on, But I don't know in that environment, I'm not checking

a lot of place. That's just me. I'm not going in with the idea of like, Okay, I'm gonna sit here and just go through while my tackles can't hear, my receivers can't hear. I mean, my backs can't hear. I'm not going in there with the idea of doing that. So I understand his question. But I think to Mickey's point is it's not every single down that you're seeing him do this. You know, I just don't. Can I

throw out one more thing offensively? That surprised me, you guys, surprised that the lack of his own read looks in the game. As I went back and watched it this morning, the first one I saw was eleven fifty three left to go in the game. Oh, they the one where he pulled it that one way. He had a couple of them where they actually Zeke's one of Zeke's seven

yard runs, Yeah, was a was a was a read option. Yeah, and he and he and he, I could said on the third and one on the first series, he could have pulled the ball and doe for the first down on that one. Instead, he trusted that Zeke could come how get past Bobby Wagner. I just didn't notice much of it in the game compared to last No, I'm I'm almost a half. You know. We got the film late and I was in this morning after parent teacher conferences, and I I've noticed, though not as prevalent so far

as what it was last week, and it was pretty effective. Now, maybe that can they can see things like at the line of scrimmage and say, oh, this is not a good situation. Well enough, y'all of a sudden you have a safety walk. And then they had the safety walk and down. The other day they played a lot of single safety high with Earl by himself. But they still ran for one hundred and sixty seven yards. Did that was not a problem averages eight yards a carry. Running

the ball wasn't the problem. Okay, I made the point earlier. Was one coordinator committed and the other one not. And I'm not trying to put the It sounds like I'm trying to place the sole blame of this on Lenahan, and I guarantee you, I'm sorry, Joe and Flower, Mountain, Vic and Ventura. I'm not trying to offend you here as a fan, but I don't know if you necessary and I'm not going to defend Linahan. But I'm saying here and I'm asking you guys, did he Were they

not as committed as say Seattle was well? And there is there time? Should we be more committed now? If this offensive line is not He threw He threw thirty four passes. Yes, okay, two were in a miserably failed two minute drill at the end of the first half. Right ten came after they were two scores down with five minutes left in the game. Last twelve of his passes came in either two minute drill or desperation with five minutes to go, when you're down twenty four thirteen.

So twelve of the thirty four attempts happened in that situation. Otherwise you had thrown twenty two passes and you ran it sixteen times. So those numbers get skewed because of the situation. But he but he he had good enough balanced in for you guys, and is that what is is that what you're trying to just saying majure half a third of his passes came when they were in situations where I think I think it was very similar

both teams commitment to the run and myself. Okay, when you look at Chris Carson, he had ten carries in the fourth quarter after they were up twenty four or six ten of us end of his thirty two and so he had twenty two carries through three quarters of the game. Yeah, and Zeke wound up with sixteen carries for one hundred and twenty seven whatever. Yep. And I just think it was very similar as far as their

commitment to the run. And I think if the Cowboys led twenty four to six, Zeke would have had thirty carries. Zeke would have run the ball for thirty two times, Yeah, exactly. He might have had when they had the lead right after they got kind of it's kind of the same principle with with what's talking about the Dallas defense. All right, I think some of those numbers are hollow as far

as the Dallas defense. I'm I'm keeping I'm tapping the brakes on how great this defense is based on how poorly this Cowboys offense has been so far, because the other teams have not in Carolina and Seattle have not had to press the issue on offense. And so let's let's wait and see what happened. And this offense is clearly a handicap for the defense, not not just putting them out there a bunch, but just the fact that

they scored no point. There's there's very little margin for error, as Mickey said, a bust or two, and that that blows the game wide open. Really because now your two scores down, as Bill said, that's a that's a huge lead to overcome the way this offense is playing. Also, tell me how much time Sean Lee's gonna miss now, and you know, anytime you've got recurring hamstring problems the second time around for a month, and see what happened.

Laden Banderesh looked like he played pretty well in this game, But we all know what Sean does in terms from communications standpoint and getting guys in the right spot and all that, So I don't know if he would have helped the safeties out. Yeah, now, all of a sudden, you can't play without Jeff Heath on the field. Speaking of safeties, how big of a difference was the guy for Seattle yesterday? Uh yeah, I don't think you could write a better script than what unfolded with Earl and

all the stuff around it yesterday. And Mickey. I know what Mickey's gonna say. Well, he's just you know, he's a safety. He caught a couple he caught a couple of balls that were just right there for him. But he hasn't That's the thing about him. He has a knack for just being around the football and being in the right spot and have Michael Gallup drop a pass right, but he was there to make the play. How many times have we seen the Cowboys secondary like almost be there.

You know, he's a heck of a player, man, you gotta give it to him. I've never seen a guy so fortunate in my life. How many times did the second one get tipped before it landed in his hands? Twice? It's a heck of a play by Bobby Wagner and even make it a contested and then Jarwin tries to bat it down like he's playing. I think he was actually trying to bring it in. At first, I thought it down to keep it from catch it. But on further review, I think he was flailing at it trying

to bring it in. And you have to put yourself in position to make those plays. And that's where this guy instinctually is one of the best to ever play, because he knows exactly where he needs to be. It might not always, uh you know, with him. Uh, he is a difference maker. And I'm sorry, Mickey, I'll disagree with you all day. Oh. I think he's a good player, but it wasn't he was so great yesterday. He's safety can make a difference in a football game, and a

safety yesterday made a difference in a football game. The Cowboys safety's made a difference too. They did. They cost him to lose. They are asking for it. Man. That Bowl though, by Thomas, come on, yeah, that was a well spent fifteen exactly much better than Randy Gregory's. All right, and we're gonna put this to bed after today because now, I mean Seattle's one and two Cowboys are one in two.

I mean by Seattle, Thomas, he's gonna not practice for three days a week, so I just get ready for that. As long as long as he's in Seattle, he's not going to practice on Wednesday and Thursday and maybe in Friday. Did you see his comments after the game basically said yeah, basically said, I'm protecting myself. I'm protecting my own investment and if they won't do it, I will. So is it our understanding that at the draft a second round

pick could have got him fifty? Yes, number fifty. Yeah, and Dallas came back with a good offer for a second round pick, and just recently here before Earl decided to report back. The problem you're running into now is John Snyder believes that. And he made an end season trade for Dwayne Brown the tackle and it was after they played Houston, and exactly right, and it was John gave up a player, and he gave up a two in this draft, this coming up draft and a five

last year's draft. Yeah, and he thinks that Dwayne Brown. It thinks that Earl Thomas is a better player than Dayne Brown. I would agree with that. If that's the case, nobody's going to give him anything for this unless he unless he wants to get unless. And the point is, if you wanted to get Earl Thomas, you have time to get him. Was the draft night when you could get him for a second, and would you would you have had had time then to negotiate a long term

deal Draft night? Draft night? Oh yeah yeah? On the clock seat. This is this is where to me, this is where if you have a player that wants to be there, he's not gonna hold you up. I just don't. He'll hold you up if it's somewhere. If John Snyder trades him, to say, he trades him to Tampa or Atlanta or one of these other places, He's gonna hold you He's gonna hold he's gonna hold you up. He's gonna hold you up. But the fact that he has been adamant that he wants to be here and John

Snyder doesn't owe him anything. John can take the best offer he gets from anybody. He can also be very stubborn. So I guess I had people in Green Bay asked me, They go, you usually offer two for this guy? All right. So so my question as it relates to yesterday, and I'm dropping this after after this segment, okay, because I think it's all a moot point. Now, if Earl Thomas is playing for Dallas yesterday instead of for Seattle, how

does that change the game. Well, he doesn't get two interceptions for Seattle, and maybe maybe his back up there doesn't make those plays. I think to me, this is I think this is where the game changes. Because we all had confidence. Okay, I shouldn't say we all. I had confidence into Dallas safeties. I felt like that Heath and Frasier deserve my respect. They after two weeks, they

deserve my respect. Does Earl Thomas make a difference when you know, is he back there and all of a sudden he sees a route develop on the outside or he knows the down in distance and he says, oh, this is the way they're gonna go. Maybe he maybe he makes a play on that back end over there instead of them trying to disguise coverages, and all of a sudden, you know, you get Frasier caught up short

fifty two yard play. Yeah yeah, yeah, And maybe if he's on the field, you know, Schottenheimer's whole strategy changes if they've got a veteran safety, if you have a guy that has an understanding of how it goes back to positioning, how do you position yourself in order to make plays? He did in a Week one against Denver. They run a vertical route up the seam, and what does he do. He reads it all the way, cuts in front of it, gets an interception. That's what this

guy does. That's the type of player he is. I don't know how you not want a guy like that, but that's the way it goes, all right, We continue on talking, Cowboys, take more of your phone calls. In just a moment. Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it, and your skincare should

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black dot com. Use code Cowboys. My daughter Jordan, she's about two weeks behind on these podcasts. These millennials, they listen to podcast all the time. So I'm driving into work and so she texted me on Friday and said, Dad, you realize you've been using jack Jack Black for two years? Don't? Said yeah, I figured that out about two weeks ago. And then I said, so what podcast are you on? They're playing Seattle this way all I'm back on Carolina. Yeah,

And She's I'm like, hey, that's a committed daughter. Though she's catching up on what you're doing killing they're killing live radio. Right, that's right, it's exactly right. Listen to podcast while they're driving in the car. That's what she does what I do. So two weeks from actually I've started wow listening to like interviews. Yeah, I need more than a twenty minute self help. I'll let you borrow

some of my tapes meditation. What do you management I made if I miss an interview or something, and I don't have to waste time with what kind of interviews? Well, like right Marinelli? Or oh okay, so Garrett Dak Prescott or speaking of Brod Marinelli. I went to a youth football game for the first time in forever. In fact, I don't know since I played youth football. I don't

think I've ever been to a youth football game. Because I have friends who have kids who are playing youth youth and this was these were he's a third grader. So I took him to the game. And because they they were all the parents had to They've got four kids, and so they're running their kids all these games and they needed help. I said, I'll take him to his game. Whatever. So it was in the rain. I mean, this is in south Lake. Okay, this is how a huge football

is in south Lake. They got Dragon youth football program. It's a pouring down rain and they're playing football out there. They got artificial turf fields, you know, and so they got umbrellas out and everything. But speaking to Rod Marinelli, I get out there and the coach he looked exactly like Rod Barrinelli and he get the one I mean tonight it was minus any profanity. Yeah, And the parents said they love the guy. Yeah, I mean he's just

a great coach. But you met your Rod Marrinelli, I said, anyway, So that was my part of my way. I loved it. It was so it was it could be a great reality TV show. They got cheerleaders out there, you know, just the parents. You don't have Friday night tykes. Ye think there is something like that day and night. Ty Yeah. But that's that looks that looks awful the way that things. Did you have an umbrella? Yeah? I had an umbrella. Yeah, yeah,

they do. They sack the quarterback, oh yeah yeah, and they don't My kid that I brought to the game, he was a stud. Where's number four? They finally put him in at quarterback, and he ran all over the opponent. Sometimes coaching is not very good at that little too. I hope they didn't fall on the darn quarterback. All right, let's go to Matt in Oklahoma. Next up, I'm talking Cowboys. Hey, guys, lifetime Cowboys fan here. I got a couple of points I wanted to introduct there, and if you guys could

talk on a little bit. First, one is Scotland Hand. Not a lot to say about him. I haven't been a big fan of his. I haven't. He hasn't done well since Romo left the Cowboys. I don't think, you know. I think that was the biggest reason for Dak's success in that first year was because Romo was there on the sideline. So I don't have much use for him. I think, you know, my mentality is produce or we'll

get somebody else at will. I'm just afraid the Cowboys are gonna stick with him, which brings me to the next point, which would be that Crescott. You know, I've watched the Cowboys stick with guys longer than they should have, things like and you know, I'm just not seeing it from Dak Prescott. I don't think he's the guy that's gonna get us to the super Bowl. I don't think he's a franchise quarterback. So far, it seems like everybody

kind of like puts around him. Uh and you know, doesn't really just say, well, he's just not that not that good. He's not the guy that's gonna do it. He's not Aaron Rodgers, you know, or one of those guys. Can I ask a question, sir? So? So the question is, I mean, do you guys think that this is gonna be another one of those you know, Quincy Carter. He they stuck with him too long? Are we gonna stick

with that too long? Are we gonna move on? So? So, Dak's success in twenty sixteen was because he had Romo in his ear? Is that what you're so? Well? Yeah, I think so. I think you know Romo and Lenahan's ear and and Dak's here. You're familiar with the term urban legend. Well, you know, yeah, we're just we're just trying to educate, man, That's all we're trying to do. I don't think anybody light foots around Dak Prescott. No, I think when I think, you know, if you watch

what I'm going to write today. I mean, when he makes good plays, I write about that. When he makes poor plays, I write about that. I think Mickey Spagnola is the same way Rob Phillips Build Jones does a nightly sports broadcasting station here in a major market television market. I don't think anybody lightfoots around anybody as far as sticking with him. You know. Yeah, I think they'll stick with him. I think they'll stick with the coaching staff.

At the end of the day, they're going to add all these up, and if it's good enough for the general manager, the owner, then he'll say, Okay, we're gonna move on. We'll be fine. This is what we'll do. Let's redraft this thing, let's see what we have to do, let's go out and get some free agents whatever. But if it doesn't, then I think he'll make that decision,

you know. And there's no and I take it exception to that trying to get the word out because I think that we are critical of this football team, and I think that we when it needs to be said, we say it. So you know, if if Dak is not good enough, and I don't know how many other quarterbacks out there, guys or Aaron Rodgers or or Tom Brady or Drew Brees. You know, I would, I would. I would give my career in scouting I have. I was with one. I was with one like that, and

that was the only one. You know, and Tony Romo was good player. But you know, let's not you know, Tony Romo had nothing to do with Dak Prescott in twenty sixteen. And yeah, and I think that again, let's not let's not forget that, Let's not get the story messed up here. I give Scotland a hand a lot of credit that year, that first year of designing and trying to figure something out around what Dak did best. And the other thing was that was the best offensive

line in football that year. And Dak, I think had a lot more time. If you go back and you watch this game, there's times where he does, there's times where he doesn't. And I think some of the pressure that he faces affects the way sometimes he's throwing the ball and trying to complete passes when he does have time.

I think they're trying, if you go back and watch this game, they try to spread him out, but they were also making an effort to try to get the ball out quickly because it's not the same offensive line. Troy Aikman spoke to it yesterday on the broadcast. It's not the same set of receivers either out there running. It's just not it's a it's a completely in a lot of ways, it's a completely different offense from two

years ago. Yeah, and so trying to compare those two things, it's a lot of time has passed since then, a lot of faces have changed. And Zach Martin spoke to it last night. They've got to figure something out up front. They said, blocking up front for the run game is one one thing they're doing that, okay, but if we can't protect our quarterback, we're not going to win a lot of games. That's taking a lot of hits, Yeah, a lot of hits. So what do you think the

answer is? Up front? I want to I'm I'm committed to allowing that left guard to grow. You know, I am committed. I'm committed to allowing the right tackle to try and develop a little bit more. Am I concerned about what's going on at left tackle? Some Yeah, I am. You know, center is a backup player. Center is really a journeyman players. He's done the best he can and it's probably and I don't see you going out there

and getting somebody better because you don't have anybody. Now, maybe this Redman kid that they picked up one day, we'll be a serviceable backup that it shouldn't use. Serviceable because that's what Joe Looney is right now, Joe Looney and getting you killed. But Joe Looney is not Travis Frederick. You know, we can't expect that. We can't expect him to play like that. They're gonna have to figure out way.

It's like Rob said, maybe a little bit what we saw with Seattle, you're gonna to get the ball out of your hand a little bit quicker. I mean, I mean, but that's that's gonna put it on people on the outside. That's gonna put it on the outside for those guys to have to win a little bit more. So. We don't have a tight end that can always win too. That's another safety blanket that these guys use. We just

don't have that guy. Seattle played with two backup offensive lineman three Actually yeah, all inside, well he's a backup, he's not a back guard. But he was your point, you're right, No, you're right. Draft pickin yea hunt center and Sweezy at the one guard spot. And Sweezy started games before he started. He started the the Chicago game, and he started for in Tampa and then in Seattle before he was Oh, that was a scary site when I saw Cameron Fleming had left tackle for a grief

a milen of time. Yeah, And Dak didn't assign blame. After the game, he said, look, when when I go back and watch, I gotta see is it me Sometimes is the protection? And I thought there was one sack he took where he just needed to get rid of the ball and he held he held it a tick long and he took the sack. So again it's there's a lot of different things that go into this. When you struggled this much and putting up thirteen points a game.

When Zack Martin gets knocked back on a play, and then Prescott feels that white jersey in his lap and then he tries to duck it and go forward, and now he's trying to throw the ball to Beasley coming across, but he can't get his feet set. You know. Usually, I mean nine times that attend. Zack Martin's got that block and then boom, Now you got to step up in a throw yep. You know this is what this team is right now there there there every play you

could go, well where's okay, who made that mistake? Who made that mistake? Well okay, oh that was Zach Morton? Oh okay, you know, I mean even the guy Ezekiel, it's stepping out of bounce. We talked about that. When your best players are making mistakes, you're not going to have much success. And that's where they're all right now. And this includes the OC. You know he's got to do a better job too. But you know he can

call plays and they don't finish the plays. You know, then there's not much I mean, it's it's I call it low hanging fruit. You can blame him all you want, but you know, there's the general manager has to look at the play calling. He has to look at the players, and that's on him too. The players are on him too. I just wonder if people understand the quarterback hits that, because that means he's getting hit. He's getting hit either right before he throws the ball and he eludes it,

or it's right as he's throwing the ball. That's what a quarterback is stepping up. So when you can't step up, it's hard to be accurate. It's hard to get the ball down the field. Don't have time to get the ball down the field. Zach spoke yesterday we got Zack was the only one that came forward. He said, if we don't do a better job protecting number four, we can't have a good offer and letting routes develop. And yeah,

and letting routes develop. See, that's another thing I'm getting a little tired of, is Dak Prescott standing up there taking all the shots and quarterbacks. Quarterbacks have to do that. But he but you know what they ought to treat He ought to be on the injury port every week for stab wounds that he has to deal with because he and hey, he's up there saying, hey, I've got to get better. I've got Yeah, he knows that he knows what he knows what he is. We know his limitations,

what he is, but we've also seen him play great. Right, But you're everybody's right here. They better damn we'll figure something out. You know, you cannot go into these games and Mickey's right. You go back and watch eight games before the Kansas, you know, up until the Atlanta game. Maybe something psychologically is a affected him the way he's playing. You know, maybe all those hits are now starting to add up a little bit more. Maybe he's not trusting

what he's seeing. You know, guys are open, but he's not going to make that throw because all of a sudden he throws a ball. You know how many interceptions this guy had now where he throws a ball and it clangs off somebody's hands, it ends up in somebody else's hand, and Mickey's talked about it. This is how could that psychologically help anybud. It's an entirely new group

almost that he's dealing with. He's got a couple receivers from last year and a tight end who got minimal snaps, and it's other than that, it's an entirely different group and they're trying to grow. Like you said, this is the group they selected said, you know what, we don't need to have a number one receiver. We don't need to have a big time tight end. If you want to point the finger, you could point. You could circle everybody involved here. You know, that everybody needs to wake

up in the morning when they're driving to work. If they're listening to me bitching about how they're playing, you know, maybe you know, maybe that's right, Maybe that maybe you need to be a little bit better with your players selection. Maybe you need to be better with your coaching. Maybe you need to be better with your offensive play calling. Maybe you need to be better at playing at quarterback or blocking it right guard, or not getting caught in

looking inside of the safety. Maybe you need to be a little bit better doing that. That's why we're sitting here having bitch fest right now because of things that are going on. They're just not good enough. And it's everybody's hand in this one. Well, we've got all week to talk about this, you know. I do want to mention this because there's breaking news this morning. A former Dallas Cowboy, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame,

passed away this morning. Tommy McDonald. Tommy McDonald was with the Cowboys in nineteen sixty four, remember the College Football Hall of Fame as well, Oklahoma Oklahoma. In fact, in at Oklahoma, he was part of that forty seven game win strate. He did not lose a game in college, playing for Bud Wilkinson in Oklahoma. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, played with the Eagles for six and

I'm sure, I'm sure he is. And U came to the Cowboys in nineteen sixty four, played one year with the Cowboys and then was traded for Danny Villeneuave a place kicker after Bob Hayes became a Cowboy in nineteen sixty five. So Bob Hayes basically replaced a Pro Football Hall one Pro Football Hall of Famer replaced another one in this day and age exactly. And uh. And the other thing about Tommy McDonald is he was the last

non kicker not to wear a face mat yea. So Rogers is another one passed away at age eighty four this morning. Yeah, so condolences to the McDonald family. Quite a character too, and it may have been one reason why he was only here for a year. I'm not I'm not sure if the Tommy McDonald character meshed real well with coach Landry those I no, they had a lot of characters on this and that's true. That's the

sixties and the seventies. By the way, I don't know how Tom put up with it, tell you the truth. That's probably why he lost all his hair. Yep, that's right. I mean, think about it. It's time you surprised that last night before I know, we got a couple minutes. You're surprised that New England went in there and took an l Detroit. Sure it was our desperate team theory again kind of working there. How about the Giants going down, I mean, I know the Husto, Yeah two, one of

them had to win. How about Buffalo Buffalo? Here you go. You can't figure this league out? No, I really can't. We say it's a strange lady, it is. It is Brian T shirt. Put it on T shirts. Winless teams one five, five was eight winless teams have played so far, including oh one and one Cleveland right on in one Pittsburgh as a chance to win Pittsburgh to nice. Yeah, five and one of them had to lose because they played each other. So only two other ones, you know, lost.

I think it was Arizona and the Raiders. So you contend it's a good thing for the Cowboys got off the schneid to get off first, they got their WEDT night way to get some points though, Yeah, because you know you don't really want Matt Stafford getting in a rhythm offensively, not here, not when he's from here. Then you gotta because then you got to come back and match that mixed Yeah ye out fast. Yeah. Well they lost two to row. All right, that doesn't for talking Cowboys.

We will talk at you again tomorrow. The break isn't next. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.