Talkin' Cowboys: Can Momentum Carry?

celebrate a victory Monday. And that's exactly what we're gonna do here on Talking Cowboys as Dallas goes up to Cincinnati and takes down the Bengals thirty to seven, the final score and what was most arguably the most dominant game from the Cowboys defense this season. They forced three turnovers, all of which in the first half, and they take

advantage and hey, how about Alden Smith. Alden Smith a bit of a fifth or excuse me, a seventy eight yard touchdown return on the scoop and score probably my favorite moment of the twenty twenty season. But we're gonna break it down for you, and we're gonna talk about everything that happened in that Sinci game and how it relates to the twenty twenty Cowboys season, maybe even the

twenty twenty one Cowboys season. As we're here inside the virtual SWBC Mortgage Studios streaming live from the Star in Friscos, Chris being doing great work in the back of Kyle Yeoman's with you, Rob Phillips, Isaiah stand back, and then Heck Mahrrison officially now a pro and college football so we have something to celebrate here as Heck Maharrison made his ESPN college debut, but now he's back on the pro football side of things. But you also, sir, might

have won a Christmas tree. I hear, I think a Christmas tree is on the way to your house, right, Isaiah, Yes, I am a man of my word. I did put out. I came at Heckma. I came at Heckma with a bet. Um it was. I said it with my chest, and it was in the greatest of interest for the Cowboys because should my bet have come true, we were definitely um do a win. But we still got the win even without me winning my bet, which is really the

ultimate win because everybody wins that right. But Heckma, as soon as the game was over and he dont did not throw for three hundred yards. He did not throw three touchdowns. So you did? You did, sir win that bet and the tree has been ordered and it will be on your doorstep within days. You know what they say, Well, the millennials say this don't come from me unless I send for you. But I appreciate the tree, don't do

the millennials really say that? But I think so so so. Yeah, I don't know about that, but yeah, congratulations Hekma owner of a new tree. Just so for those of you who may not have listened on Thursday or Friday, the bet was that if Andy Dalton threw for three hundred yards and three touchdowns that Isaiah would upgrade upgrade, Uh, heckmas tree in the background. Hackma's working with this tree. Well that's what I get for listening to Beyonce. Heckma's

tree is being upgraded in Isaiah. What were the words you told me whenever I asked you how big the tree was yesterday? Said it won't fit in his area. Yeah, he's got to figure that out. Tree from the damn Christmas vacations. You got to figure it out. Window, He's got to figure it out. He bought the tree up at the up at the what's it called thirty Rock and Sware up in Dallas. I really did it just so his wife to side I am. That's that's really

why I did it. His wife the side I am when it shows up to the door, like really hanckling with the hey and you know, and you know that's what's gonna happen. So I appreciate that as well. No, it's gonna be a lot of fun hooking that tree up. But Rob the Cowboys get the thirty to seven win yesterday against the Bengals. Was this the best defensive outing of the season? First of all, I just want to say I was a little nervous getting on with you

guys today. Kyle heckma ESPN fame Like, no, right, me and I they are gonna be watching you guys are like on a sports centered commercial one day and be like remember when remember when we knew? Hey, I'm just happy that. I'm just happy that as of right now, they're still responding to our text messages, you know, I know, I know, Yeah, they graced us with their presence. Best

defensive performance of the season, yeah, probably probably. I mean, look, they they forced fumbles on the first three possessions of a game for the first time in twenty five years, So like that's that's a big deal. Did they leak some yardage, Yeah, they did. It would have been interesting to see what Cincinnati would have done in the first half with their running game with Geoe Bernard if they hadn't turned the ball over every time. But look, they

came out and did what they had to do. They got ripped all week long for not showing effort at the end of that game against the Ravens with the easy money drive by Baltimore, and they came out and they showed they showed effort. They got the offense the ball back, which hasn't happened much this season, and they they kind of silenced some people for a couple of days anyway, despite an opponent that clearly is like we figure out the tiers, right, we're figuring out the tiers.

You got the Jets, you got the Bengals. The Cowboys are not in that tier. They're they're not having a good season by any stretch, but they're above that. And they showed that kind of like Isaiah said, this is this is gonna be one of those battle royale games where like, when it's two teams that are struggling, one team's probably gonna probably gonna smack down the other one. And that's what happened. Look, let me let me just say this that the Cincinnati Bengals they out Cowboy the

Cowboys in their first three drive. That was you know, those three turnovers is something that we had done previously. It's just I mean, not the three turnovers, but just it just seemed like nothing could get going for that offense. But you're right, College did start to look good for our defense, especially when you get Alton Smith running back fumble for seventy eight yards. I mean, that's just a kind of energy that your defense that has just been

getting beat up all year long. That's that's something to celebrate for those guys. But when you look at the numbers, and I was looking at a treat a tweet from Rob He's like, look, these guys are on pace. Cincinnati was at one point to have a four hundred yard outing and so there's still some things in our offense that I believe all of you guys would would agree that we need to fix, especially you know, some of

those drops by te Higgins. I mean, he was wide open and hit him and he just he couldn't catch it. So but this is a great victory no matter how you look at it. I'm sure that defense they're they're celebrating it as well. Yeah, I mean this was this was a huge, huge opportunity for these guys, and they took advantage of it. They went out there and they brought the energy. Uh they they tackled well for at least a little bit, um and they came in. They

were hidden, they were flying around and hidden. I know everybody was worried because Wilson are are designated hitter now and least in the football term. Uh, he was out. He was out. He wasn't in the game for us this week. So I think we were I need to, I know, at least for myself, I was worried whether or how physical we were going to be out that side of the ball. But everybody came out um swinging, and you know, luckily we punched the ball out a

few times. So luckily somebody the office a linements but punched the ball out another time, and um, you know we had Alton Smith picked up the ball and he worked on this. Lamar's breathing. You know he was out there, you know, gassed that thing all the way down there. So you know that wasn't the change of the game obviously early on, and he gave us an opportunity to

get ahead and stay ahead. Well, and you one of the other big storylines, Isaiah and you kind of talked about it yesterday on pre impost game show, but it was Andy Dalton making his return to Cincinnati, and it really didn't seem like he had an opportunity to actually kind of show out. I mean, he managed the game, that's all he's really needed to do in a game like that, but he didn't have the opportunity for the big play, didn't put up some incredible numbers, but he

just did the right things along the way. What did you think about Dalton's performance and kind of what he brought to the table as he returned up to Paul Brown Stadium. Yeah, he was balling. I know he didn't hit the three hundred yards and three touchdowns like I had bet Heckman, but I think he was on he was on pace for that. I think he had. They had more opportunities had they not had the lead that they had. You know, they try to run the ball a lot more obviously to try to run a clock out.

But I mean he was throwing the ball on the money. There is balls. I'm not sure how much people pay attention to a ball placement, but that's really the different the differentiator between good quarterbacks and great quarterbacks. And he was putting his ball on the money to touchdown the touchdown pass down here in the red zone. He put the ball down low, lowing away, so that if it wasn't if it wasn't a touchdown, it was gonna be incomplete. How there's a lot of other balls that he put

over over a linebackers, over a secondary guys. Um. He was just dropping dimes left or right, and you could see he was focused. But you saw he was focused last week. I mean, he just made all the right decisions this week for this WN and you could tell how important it was to him, especially if we started giving your wife shoutouts in the middle of the game, you know, you know you're feeling good. Oh, he wanted he wanted that one. And apparently after the game, uh,

teammates and coaches knew he wanted it too. He didn't make it about himself during the week, but they gave him a water douse. Uh. In the locker room after the game, they gave him the game ball and yeah, and you know, obviously that was an emotional moment signaling to his wife Jordan. Uh. They you know, they were a big part of that Cincinnati community, so it had to be weird for them going back as the as

the opponent. But but Isaiah, you know that that's uh fifteen play, eighty eight yard drive that they had for a touchdown in the second quarter. That's that's Andy Dalton's US drive. I think as a cowboy, and I think he hit hit five different receivers on that drive. And we found out pretty quickly that that Cincinnati really couldn't cover Mary Cooper in this game and really not Ceedee Lamb either working from the slot and uh yeah, their

their connection. You almost have to qualify this game a little bit, or some people will because Cincinnati is a is a bad football team. But they came out and did what they were supposed to do. It was a good performance by the offense. ACMA. Now, I just I felt good about the performance. I felt like Andy Dalton was poised. I really felt good about what philbin Moore and coach Mike McCarthy did. As far as setting up protection.

You saw them play a lot of cover twelve you know, uh twelve personnel also just you know, putting those tight ends on the same side of the ball, also showing up you know, the running game, and just continuing to move the sticks and drives. I really appreciate it, uh Zeke and his you know, the his ability to continue to move the change as well. I thought they did a really good job of bringing in Tony Pollock with it.

I know there were some questions about, you know, Zeke coming in health wise, but he did his best and I think that they saved him by incorporating polo, which had he had a few gash runs in there also. But you're right, mean he was just serving it around to all of his receivers except for that one big miss h to Amari Cooper, and they paid to the sideline.

And you could tell both of them when they had those mac the pros whatever they're holding and just like a soft surface but the surface yeah, and they just said, look, he missed me right there, because that was a sluggo that was wide open and that could have been the cherry on top for Andy Dalton, But either way, I'm sure he'll take the victory. The way it was, yeah, you can really tell. I mean, the way that he ran out of the tunnel, the way that the crowd

kind of responded, the way the team responded. I think all of those phases were around fourteen yesterday. And that's a lot. I mean for a quarterback who had been there for so long, and it'd been in Cincinnati for so long, and then coming back there as a backup that's now the starter. I mean, it's been a crazy year for everybody, but it certainly has been one for Andy Dalton and his family. So that was a lot

of fun to watch him get that win yesterday. And I know there's there's a split between Cowboys Nation right now. There's a split almost fifty fifty of Hey, let's win, let's build a culture, let's try and stay in the division race. Now we'll talk about the division later on and maybe out of reach at this point. But there's the other half that wants the tank for draft picks and team tank and let's stay with the number three overall pick, and that's now not in the picture anymore.

But with all of that being said, Rob Why was this a win that was a positive thing for the Cowboys? Why was it good that they went out and got the w? I mean, imagine if they'd lost this game. I mean, I mean, I mean, think about the think about the alternate to it, right, Like, I mean, I know a lot of people are Look, it was an interesting week. They got their effort questioned by a lot

of people. The head coach brought up in the press conference the finish need to be better in games, and uh, you know, and Jerry Jones is on the fan on Friday talking about, like I wish I had to do over defensively in terms of not being so aggressive with the scheme. With no off season, you know, there was a lot hovering around this team. So it's fun to say, yeah, you know we lost that we're going to have a

higher draft pick. But it's also could you imagine how miserable this week would be if they lost to the Bengals, who were ten or two win team that really had nothing going for themselves. Like, you know, that's the thing about it with fans, it's like, and I keep saying this, it's just you you want it one way, but if

it's the other way, you're not happy either. So I think this team, after everything they have been through emotionally too recently with Marcus Paul passing away, they needed something to feel good about. I know, the draft's important. You know what, by the end of this thing, they're going to have a high draft pick, you know, unless they went out and somehow win this division. So you know, they needed something to feel good about, and they got it, you know, for a couple of days here Teche, I

don't we're at the point where we're questioning wins. You know, you yeah, I mean it, he said. Herman was saying, you play the game to win. Hello, you know, like you go out there, you do it, you know, and it's just like h for this whole you know, sect that believes that this team should just purposely go out to try and lose games. That's just not the reality of the sport that we play. I know, looking at Cincinnati, I started to question them yesterday about it they were

organically taken or not? Uh with those fumbles in the first one. I mean, you can't make you can't make this stuff up, right, But it's just you know, to me, I felt, as far as the defense was concerned, they needed that. Our offensive line that's been obviously you've just been journal they've been decimated by offense, by by injuries.

They play well together. I mean, although they gave up two sacks yesterday, you could tell that they were those Max protective and a lot of things that they were doing to keep Andy Dalton upright were working for this offensive line, I mean, and again defensively, our defensive line with Tank Lawrence, I believe that he was the one that set the tone for the whole game just with

the energy that he brought. He played differently, you know, he just played a different game, and he was sound, fundamentally sound, doing all the things that you have to do to play winning football. And defensive they look, man, they showed up a lot of the things that we had saw that they were doing wrong. In the running game. Although they were giving up some yardage, they were not giving up those big chunk plays like we had seen

them do in Baltimore. Right. And so although when the one big chunk of I guess it was a touchdown in the third quarter, I believe it was, it was negated by a holding penalty, Thank god. On Jaylen Smith was still I think I felt good about about the defense and my man Antoine Woods, Mister, I will I will dive on any pile number ninety Randy Savage off the top rope, baby, love it. You can't make this stuff up. Man, It's just twenty twenty. In the nutshell,

it's him Antoine Woods diving on the pile. Bro that was that was so funny that Brian Doctors right there another Brian Doctors shot out weaponicks. He actually retweeted me last night. I think I mentioned that like off the top rope, and he can gave me a Randy macho man Savage gift last night he enjoyed himself. That was good, Yes, he did. It's good, Isaiah. What do you think about the Cowboys scenario here? I mean for the people that are out there hoping that we lose so that we

can have a higher draft. Pick y'all can miss me and the Cowboys for that matter. Um, there's there's no there's no true competitor that losing on purpose ever crosses their mind, just not a not an even a part of it. So if that's in your mind frame, if that's okay with you taking um losing on purpose, UM losing for position all games going out of hand, we might as well shut it down. If that's even in your blood at all. You're not a competitor. I'll call

you out directly. You are not a competitor. And that's it. You're you know, you're not even in the same conversation. So for everybody else, Um, you go out there, you bust your butt, you give it all that you have. I mean, you hope that your best is enough. And that's what you do every single day, every single week. Whether you're showing up for practice, whether you're showing up for film, whether you're showing up for the weight room.

It doesn't matter. Every time that you have an opportunity to give a give your one hundred percent effort, that's what you do. I mean, when you step on the game field, you hope that it's enough to get you wins. And it was enough this week. So uh, shots out, you know how, Hats off to the Cowboys and hopefully they can win this thing out. Kyle. It really is a it's a fan dilemma. It's not a team dilemma. It's it's it's something fans struggle with, you know, Like

I'm a I'm a lifelong Mavericks fan. Okay, And there are a couple of years ago where they were bad and I'm pulling for him, But after they win a game they shouldn't win, I'm thinking that was that good. They can't. They can't. Maybe they don't. Maybe maybe they don't get Luca now and they wound up with him or whoever. You know, But it's a it's a fandol emma, like like Isaiah said, you know, and I mean, I'm watching this game yesterday and they're down to they're like

their fifth and six quarterbacks, cornerbacks of the season. I think it was Deontay Burton, Savian Smith or Shot Robinson out there, and I'm thinking tank this man, Like are you kidding me? Like they were having to go so deep in the bag because of injuries this year. Um, it's just not a reality, not to mention. Like from a player's perspective, there's a lot of guys that are coming up to be free agents. They're trying to play as best as they can, put the best tape on.

They can't regardless of team goals. That's number one, but that that's you know, for their career as well. It's just a it's just it's fun to talk about, but it's not a reality for for NFL football teams. And actually, you know, Mike McCarthy reference after the game that he really thought his first year in Green Bay, the way they finished it carried them to you know, over into

the off season next year and they built on it. Isaiah, I don't know if that's something you've experienced, but you know, because it's months down the road, but that's what he thinks it can do for a team if they played black, complimentary football like this and actually play well, yeah, I mean absolutely, and you you mentioned it, and I'm you guys know, I'm pretty dog on black and white. Everybody says there's no I in team that is b to the s. There's always there's an eye before team because

without EI, there is no team. So so um, guys are out there playing for their resume. Guys, you have so many years to get to this level. You spend heck, how old were you when you start playing football? Seven seven years old? So you spend you know, from from about fourteen years right, fourteen years of your life for a career that might last anywhere from hopefully a year to fifteen years on the top end for some of

these guys right to p your position. So you're spending fourteen years for an opportunity to play you know, called it five years, called it five years, right, So you think these guys are really concerned about the team. First, let's be real, it doesn't sound good whatever, This is the truth. So when you guys are talking about going out and taking you're asking these guys to go out there and pretty much just just wipe mud all over

their resume. No, they're not gonna do that. Guys are gonna go out there and play their buds off because they want the next opportunity, whether the opportunity comes in the form of a contract extension or whether it comes in the form of another opportunity with another team. No matter what, what you put on film is your resume, that is your that's your calling card. So that comes first. And while while I'm taking care of myself, oh yeah, I'm also a part of this bigger picture, which is

a team. And when we all do that collectively, we go out there, we put out good performances. So when you talk about you know what coach McCarthy's talking about, Yeah, he wants to go out there and these guys that play well because now he has an idea. What am I looking at for next year? Do I want to keep this guy? Does he work hard? Is he taking is he is he loafing on plays? On plays or even I know he can't even get to the play Xavier Woods. Is he still giving one hundred percent effort? Right?

So those are the things that everybody is watching. And when you go to camp, they're watching everything you do. They're watching who you're conversing with, They're watching who you're having lunch with. They're watching how hard you watch film? Are you taking notes when you're in the meeting room? Are your eyes heavy? Right? Are you all these things? Everything is monitored. So yes, they want to go out

there and they want to take care of business. And if you're not doing that, you're probably not gonna be around next year. And if there is a silver lining to all this this season, the injuries, it's that Mike McCarthy has gotten a look at guys that maybe played that much if not for injury. I think if fans, I don't know, if fans aren't asking them to try to lose games, I think they're t it's a you know, let's look at all the young guys we possibly can. Well,

for the most part, they're already doing that. There's only a few guys, haven't you know. It's it's ronde I know, it's Bradley and I Rondell Carter up until yesterday being active, Reggie Robinson, Francis Bernard, and that's that's really about it. Now there's fans that may want to Nuchi to play quarterback because olet's get you know whatever, what is what

is Reggie Robinson? What has to happen in order for him to be on the field on defense for a sentient period of time, Like, honestly, does this Does I have to go put a helmet on first or a white But no, no, let's let's let's let's keep me real. You know, there's I feel like, you know, obviously there's something going on with Reggie Robinson not to have been on on defense because I see guys, I see guys, I see guys that I'm saying, Okay, well, we couldn't

have got that from Reggie Robinson. You know that that that effort. But again, I'm gonna stay out of that part because I know that that's the coaches making the evaluation. But I gotta but I gotta ask you guys something, and Isaiah, I'll ask you this right all right there, there seems to have been something that changed through the weekend. I know, we don't get an opportunity to watch practice, you know, but this team was a little bit different.

They played with it, and granted they played the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm just talking about from an energy level, from a personnel level, from just a scheme, from the way that they you know, went out there and the energy that they showed. It seemed to me like this was a team that had a good week of practice. There were some things that may have changed with a defensive line. They may have went to half line drills, inside drills. Something changed because I saw that these guys just played

a lot faster in the scheme. You know what. Heck, that's a great point. I hope, you know, I'm gonna say, I hope I hope that they that they did have a great week of practice. I hope that that they had some meetings around the effort thing and that they came together and decided that they're gonna go out there and give it everything right and go balls to the wall.

That's my hope. Also, my hope is that they didn't identify the Cincinnati as a lesser opponent and all of a sudden, you get the kind of the big dog on the playground role, right. It's like, oh yeah, every now I'm the big dog. I've been getting bullied, but now I'm a bully you. I hope that's not the

tell you. You You know, after, you know, the day before the game, I want to go watch my daughter play in a tournament soccer tournament and they, you know, they got their butts kicked by one team that they placed in the past, that was a pretty tough team. And then they came back later on that night and they played a team that was that they've played before and that they beat before, and they knew it was a lesser opponent, and all of a sudden, who did it go?

They're all over the field and they're playing hard and all that, And I'm like, is it because they just needed one game underneath their belt or is it because they knew that they were better than this team? So I think we have to wait in a round for one more week to find out what that was. But basing off of the Baltimore game. I feel as if they had another good week and that they built upon the previous previous week, and they did get that win, thirty to seven the final score, and it was I mean,

it was high energy from the offense. You talk about the defense and what they were able to bring juice wise up front. I think it was something that the Cowboys can build on moving into the final three weeks of the season. He got San Francisco coming up on Sunday, They're coming off a loss to Washington, and you got two divisional games to round out the season against Philly and then New York. So there's a lot of p

positives to take from this game. But what happened with some of the negatives and did the majority of the negatives circle around five to four and five five on the defensive side of the football. We'll talk about that next when we return here on Talking Cowboys presented by Geicos.

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To Talk in Cowboys. Back here on Talking Cowboys on a victory Monday following the cowboys thirty to seven win over the Cincinnati Bengals, and with Selore lenses you will see every exciting play book, an appointment at your local or experts and see what selor can do for you. See more, do more or as always here on Dallas Cowboys dot Com and Talking Cowboys presented by Geico. I gotta get me some Esler lenses. I'm tired of these old glasses. I need some news. I gotta give me

some Esler lenses. Just want to throw that out there so I can wear them on pregame and postgame and everything else in between. Book work on that. Yeah, well we'll get something. Come on, right, Rob, Rob p Island is doing and work over there, making sure that that we're all taking care of. But always all right. So the Cowboys got the win, and it was a dominant win, and the Cowboys of course take down the Bengals thirty to seven. But there were some negatives, so we talked

a lot about the positives. But I do want to spend a couple of moments here to see what the Cowboys need to fix going into Sunday's matchup with San Francisco and then moving forward the final couple weeks of the season. So Isaiah, I'll start with you, what did you see yesterday that stuck out of something that the Cowboys have to turn around. I'm gonna go right back

to them linebackers around that second level. These guys were not where they're supposed to be, or maybe they are where they're supposed to be, and then they jump out of where they're supposed to be. Um, there is there. I know there's one play in particular where where lvee just I just I don't, I don't understand it. He was in the hole. The fullback came at him like like old school, right, like you're talking about Daryl Johnson

and freaking uh Ken Norton. Right. Yeah, just like once he coming at you, you you know this is it's on. We're just what we're doing. Yeah, and looked at him. He said yeah, and he ran around him and he ran around the opposite hole. He was in the A gap originally about to go ahead up with a fullback, ran through the B gap, ran back around the office. A linement came around him and try to grab him by the ankles. And I just looked at that. I'm like,

where's the physicality, where's the physicality? You're jumping around holes. That's not what you do as a linebacker, especially a team that's that's running the defense we're running where we only have a couple of linebackers in the game. Anyway, you have to be physical. We're relying you to be that. Um. So I was still disappointed and that play and others that I saw him and Jalen. They have to figure it out. Man. They're more physical than that. They're they're

they're more aggressive than that. They showed flashes yesterday. They did show some flashes of what we saw a couple of years ago when they were running around and you saw the guy swipe in and we howling, but it wasn't enough. I agree with you, Isaiah. I call one of my old coaches call that the Matador technique. And when you when you ol a technique, man, you don't

want no parts of it. And I don't know what that was about, because if he would have been able to make that tackle based off they could just send him straight to the Hall of Fame if that's how he's gonna do it for the rest of his career. But I mean, there was a lot of things. I mean, when you talk about our our secondary and just guys playing where they're being where they're supposed to be, and obviously with the injuries and all of that, you kind of,

you know, you hesitate to be overly critical. But these guys are professionals. They're being paid paid to play this game. So I saw a lot of that's still in the secondary where these guys are taking bad angles. Xavier Woods. Look, I don't know what his strong points off of the coaching staff to continue continue to keep starting him. But I just feel like when it's when it comes down to attacking a lot of scrimmage or at least attacking to tackle someone, he just doesn't have it. He's kind

of he's catching basically. But when it comes down to to guys like Jay Lou, I thought he played a little bit better. I mean he played, he was aggressive, besides the one where the guy gave him a little shoulder and launched him off of him going out of bounds. But linebacker wise, linebacker wise, you know, the guys definitely,

uh they didn't That wasn't their best work. And when you say the eye and the guy don't lie, that's something that they got to go back to today and look at the way that they performed, especially with running around those blocks. Yeah, I think I think Cincinnati had almost almost two hundred yards at halftime. You know, they were on pace for a lot of yardage. They beat themselves in a lot of ways, So you gotta look

at that side of it with the defense. But I thought the way that they fought through a lot of injuries in the secondary and were able to get off the field in some fourth town situations in the second half. That that was impressive. If there's a concern for me, I'll put me to the offense Kyle and just say, you know, while the offense looked good and a Dalton had a really good game and they grind it out yards, they were able to kind of manage the game because

they actually had a lead. We haven't seen that too often. But you know, they're still having problems in the in the red zone, you know, two or four in the red zone, and I know people on Twitter questioning Kellen Moore's play calling down around the two yard line with two straight passes instead of give it to Zeke. Well, they've had trouble in short yardage and it was also other parts of the game trying to pick up runs first down running the ball. So I think they missed

Zack Martin a lot. And you know, you know, we'll see where they are with the playoff race. It's looking thinner and thinner, dimmer and dimmer. But you know, to try to win the rest of these games, they can't just continue kicking field goals, you know, that's been too much of a prop especially coming off of turnovers. You know, they just aren't able to capitalize and score touchdowns. And I think a lot of it is due to being banged up on the offensive line, not getting that push

that they need. And I'm glad you brought that up because I think one of the big things for me yesterday was the fact that Zeke ends up with twelve carries for forty eight yards. I mean, he and twenty six of those were one run. He had that one big twenty six yard run and the rest of the time, I mean it was one, two, three yards. And I asked this question yesterday on postgame because Nate Newton was talking about the three four yards in a cloud of

dust type of mentality. Whenever it comes to Ezekiel Elliott, and normally he's gonna get you those yards. He's gonna get you three. He was gonna get you four. If you need it, he's gonna get those yards. But lately it hasn't been as automatic as it has been for the entirety of his career. But if that's the only thing he can do well now, then isn't that a big worry for you? Because I saw that against a bottom four rush defensive Cincinnati yesterday where they just couldn't

get the run game going for the Cowboys. But you've got a bottom four offensive line and this, uh and I understand that that, you know, the great Nate Newton says that three yards in a cloud of dust. That's a mentality that I feel like a lot of teams don't incorporate. Maybe Tennessee does because of the kind of running back that they have. But if you look at you know Zeke over the last five years, his numbers

are trending down. And you're talking about a guy that has had a ton of carries and a guy that's also now dealing with some injuries. So look, I think we can ride him on that. He did that that one run that you're talking about. We broke off the twenty yards over twenty yards. It looked good. It looked like vintage Zeke, and then it went right back to you know, guy's crowd in the line of scrimmage and

taking him away. You gotta understand that teams understand that how hard, how bad our offensive line is, and they can cry od the line of scrimmage and take certain things away and they're they're taking away one of our main weapons, and that Zeke Elliott. So I mean as much he's gonna take the brunt of the criticism on that, but we really have to come back to twenty twenty and look at what teams have done against us to nullify his impact. No, you said it, heck, I mean,

our officer line is where it starts. You can have it. I mean, just just think about think about some of the greatest rhetor backs ever played, and think about what they would have been without an office, without a solid officive line. You know this, this this cowboy's officier line is not what it was once and it's definitely not what it is with this current roster. Um. You think about guys like Barry Sanders, right and my eyes, Barry

Sanders is a goat. Barry Sanders was able to make crazy amount of yardage even with the officive line that everybody would rate as subpar. Right. Um, He's not that type of running back, you know. Zeke's not that type of running back. Zeke needs a line that creates some holes for him and then once he gets through the line of scrimmage, then he will make some things happen. But he's not this this willing deal, shake you up, you know what I'm saying, Get everybody to make nasty

and then take off for seventy yards. That's not him. He's not Tyreek Hill. Um, so we have people have to stop sitting their expectations that way until this officive line gets back to where they once were. Don't expect too much out of Zeke in that regard. He's still consistent when he gets past the line of scrimmage, he's still falling forward, he's still running cats over, he's still doing those things. Um No, he's not. No, he's not breaking for forty yards. He's he's he's he's got a

couple years under his belt. Yeah. Now, but is he being worth the ninety million, ninety million dollar contract he's being given, because I think that's the biggest worries. Sure, he does things right, he does these little things good along the way, but whenever it comes to the money he's being given. He's not being paid to be a subpar or below average back. He's being paid to make plays and change the game and be a lit and that's necessarily so my question. So my question is who's

calling him subpar or below average right now. The things that Zeke does well, he still does well. He's an age or say, but I'm saying. What I'm saying is people are asking him to be Superman right now when that's never been his style. But still contract says. His contract says, do what you kept doing, which was run behind his great office A line and when they get through the whole runs of cats over and makes them

do his miss That's what his contract says. That not all of a sudden, Oh now you're playing with their third third string of office A line. Now we need you become Barry Sanders. No, that's not in his contract. That's not that's not in this contract. His contracts to be the same consistent running back he was, and he he can't only be that if he has an officive

line that creates those gaps for him. And by the way, I just wanted to mention, I know it's it's a five man offensive line, but I think Zach Martin really does His absence is felt, you know. You know, I'm just looking at when he missed the Washington game with

a concussion, they had eighty three rushing yards. He came back for three straight games one thirty three, one forty four, one eighty against Minnesota rushing and then he goes out, Yeah, he goes out against Washington right on Thanksgiving and sixty yards one eleven against Baltimore. You know, the line just has not been as as you know, physical and dominant upfront without him, and that's why he is arguably the best guard in the league, maybe a top two three

offensive lineman in the entire league. They really miss him, not to mention what they've been missing already this year. That does affect Zeke. I mean, I thought Barry Sanders too, Isaiah, Like that's Barry Sanders made something out of nothing throughout his career in Detroit. But you know, every great running backs still needs, still needs the best line possible to

make things happen. My argument, Rob is this, and whenever this conversation comes up around Barry centers, so this is we're talking into context of like, Zeke, if you took Emmett Smith, no disrespect to em imm It's amazing. If you took Emmitt Smith and put him on Detroit back in the day, what would Immit have been? Maybe not im it would leading Russia. Same person, right, same capabilities, different situation because of what the officer line presents you

now due to opposite. If you take Barry Centers an elusive running back, right, I'm play playmaking running back. Put him with the Cowboys officer line at that time, does he have the same stats as he had in Detroit? Now I got something for you. I got something for you as there so and people that are down on that are down on Zeke. If you put Zeke in Kevin Stefanski's offense in Cleveland, then you get the Zeke that you have zac in two in his sixteen So

you're not you're not having these same questions. And the thing about his contract is he earned his contract. He earned it based off of the carries and the yards and all of that. And I understand it's really hindsight to turn back and say, oh, well, look, you're not what you used to be and not give credence to

what he has to deal with to create all of that. So, I mean, look after twenty twenty and we come back over there and look at the totality of this season, there are gonna be a lot of things that you have to criticism that you have to sit back on because of the way that this offensive line, those injuries that they've had to deal with. So, I mean, it's easy to critique and judge Zeke, but then you got to look at everything, man, before you you come up

with that conclusion. And I get it. I get it, Kyle. I mean it looked the twenty six yard run. Look, he hasn't had those twenty yard runs and that's that opens up to criticism because he got more of those his first year or two in the league than he has now. But I just think when you get your your entire offense healthy and he's healthy, I still think

he's a productive running back for you. Yeah, I think it is something that you have to look at though, whenever it comes to this offense, and of course the offensive line plays a massive factor. I'm not disagreeing there, but I think just whenever he comes to the contract of what it says, yeah, it says be consistent, but consistency right now has been below what is consistency was whenever he was playing earlier. And yes, like I said, the offensive line has has a big deal and playing

a role in that. All right, let's take us our second break. We'll running a little bit long. So when we come back, we'll wrap things up and we'll look ahead at the NFC East and just what the road looks like for the Cowboys should they try and went out and go to the playoffs. When we return here, I'm talking Cowboys presented by Geico. We're backing the tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and creep Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor pep

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And well, guys, it doesn't look good whenever it comes to the NFC East anymore. We got to week fifteen before we said, oh well, the Cowboys are in a bit of trouble, even though they are still sitting at four to nine. They got the win yesterday, but the big reason why they are still in a bit of troubles at Washington also got a win. They've now won

three straight. They beat the Cowboys, they beat the Steelers, and they took down the forty nine Ers, and they are sitting at six wins right now with two game lead in the division and with three games to play. So what does that mean for the Cowboys. It means if it Washington wins one more game and the Cowboys lose one more game than the Cowboys are eliminated. Actually, either or one of those two things to happen. One of those two things has to happen. Not an end,

it's no more ends. It's basically Cowboys have to win out. Washington has to lose out in order for the Dallas Cowboys to win the division and go to the playoffs here in twenty twenty. So what is the message heckma whenever it comes to Mike McCarthy and this coaching staff moving into these final three weeks of the year, when

the division looks the way that it does. So I'm gonna talk and coaches speak right now, and they always say control with two can control, right, So that is that's gonna be the Monstra if Frisco at the Star control with you. If you control, do what you can do and prepare for every week like it said last

and that's what this team has to do. When if you watch the Washington football team and also the Giants game, you know, the Washington football team and their defense and oh my god, Chase Young defensive Rookie of the Year. If you don't vote for that, I don't know what's wrong with you. And I don't think that the Giants

are what we thought they were going to be. But the Cowboys, if they have any hope, like you said, they have to win out and looking at Washington's schedule, man, it's hard pressed to see that they can't win, at least against the Panthers. Rob, I just keep playing hard. You know, you're not out of it yet. It's not looking good obviously, but you know, I said it earlier

in the show, and it's it's not twenty ten. You know, it's not the same situation as when they started one and seven and Jason Garrett took over for Wade Phillips and they basically, you know, put everybody on notice. Instead, we're evaluating for next year. It's not that you know, Mike McCarthy is established as the head coach, but I think he's still trying to get that foundation laid down

for next year. So they need to spend the last four weeks of the season, you know, evaluating guys and seeing who fits, you know, especially defensively, they have so many questions to answer defensively and what they're gonna look like scheme wise, who's going to be part of the defense and uh, and so I think it's very important to see how guys performing and have guys play well so they can make that decision afterwards, because there's going to be changing on that side of the ball in

terms of personnel with guys leaving through free agency, and they've got to see if the scheme they have works, you know what they want to do going next year. No heck, but tigu right out of my right, right out of my mouth man when he said, you know control, would you can control? Um? You know I would tell the guy's control, would you control? And the eye and the sky don't lie? That's it. You know what what you what you put on the field, that is your resume.

So whether this for you, whether it's for this team, it is important. So go out there and do what you can do. And with the final three games on the schedule, they're all three winnable. You can win against San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia, even though Philadelphia looks pretty good yesterday with Jalen Hurt says the quarterback. I mean they look solid. I mean that's kind of what we expected. Whenever Carson Wentz will spin. But I'm not

going to go there. Whenever it comes to the Philadelphia Eagles, but these are winnable games, and whenever it comes to the Cowboys. Overall, four wins compared to seven wins, even though for draft nuts you don't want to hear that. You want to hear the four wins top ten pick. But if you finish seven, tell me this right now. I mean, if you finish seven and nine, with what you've had to work with and what your team looks like right now, completely in shambles, you cannot tell me

that's a fantastic coaching job. You cannot tell me that this coach did extra work and put in extra work to get to that point and to make something happen moving into twenty twenty one that you can be positive about it. I don't care about the draft picks at

that point. If you're winning seven games this year, you've got a lot to be happy about, and you've got a lot of excitement going into twenty twenty one when you get all these guys back, and I think that's something to think about here in the final three weeks of the year. But it's going to be certainly something to look for. The Cowboys got to build on this thirty to seven win over the Cincinnati Bengals. But that's gonna do it for us here on Talking Cowboys. We'll

be back tomorrow nine thirty. Will continue looking backwards at the Cincinnati game. We'll take a look at the tape, and we'll start looking ahead a little bit as the San Francisco forty nine ers come to town this Sunday. But for Heck Harrison, for Rob Phillips, for Isaiah stand back and back at the Star, mister Chris Bean putting in the work. I'm Kyle Gilmans saying so long. We'll

see you tomorrow. I'm Talking Cowboys. Presented by Geico. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.