Talkin' Cowboys: Championship Experience?

Talking Cowboys. Welcome into the SWBC studios at the Star in Fristoe alongside heck Ma Harrison, Isaiah stand Back, Rob Phillips, Cris Beam running it all in the backup. Kyle Yeoman's glad you're with us here on this Tuesday. Give us a call eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven. We'll start taking Cowboys Nations calls. What are you? What are your thoughts going into the playoffs as of this Tuesday and then going into of course the matchup

in the wild card round against San Francisco. But how is everybody doing? Swelltastic? That's awesome. Swell tastic. Hey, your mike's muted, Isaiah, Yeah, go ahead. And somebody had me hoped that right there. Somebody had me on a call there you go, yeah, all right, we're good now we were cleaning student run that back. I'm feeling very deja blue, Ah, why are you so blue? Not down is a good thing. Deja blue is very clear and crisp. And you know,

I don't know. I feel good. How about you? Healthy? Healthy, definitely healthy. I started my health kake yesterday. I'm back on my plan. I'm back to working out. Okay. I'm glad you're finally gonna get in shape. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm this is my first listen here. I told you guys a story after song. I am very little right now. This is little for me. This is like very even. My wife sent me a video yesterday. She was a subtle It was a subtle thing. She

was trying to make a joke. She said, have you ever post a video like this again? Like we'll have a conversation. There was a video on me doing like some curls back a long time ago. But I was, I was in freaking shape now, I was. She was making a little hitti hiloh. He a little joke, but the real message was your you need to get back to this. So I got some work to do, but I have eight weeks. I got eight weeks wrong. What's my song? Come on, man, we talk about the one

I posted on my ig? Yeah, yeah, the one on the what was its January? It's time to give fit. I sent that to Chris to try and play it on the show, but I don't know if we can because cowboys fit. Yeah, popular music at the end as well. Oh okay, so I guess we can't do that. Yeah, go look at it. Go look it up on Isaiah's Instagram story. It's definitely not the y'all hall at me. I stand back on ig. Yeah, it'll get you in

the New Year's resolution spirit. Hey, I'm just trying to I'm trying to catch up to where mister Heckman has been for the last what five months, four months? Whatever it's been. You still stay it on that the fat ruptcy court? Yeah, he on it. I see your your your videos every day. Fantastic. Why no, wow? Well that I'm asking for the people at LU. That was LU. That was Danny Angels right there. Just I didn't catch it. Um man, it was I've been doing it every day,

uh before one hundred and one days. Whoa hey clip, that's outstanding. Four old run the hustles. And when this thing does happen, and I'm I'm still skeptical, but if this inter squad thing happens, he's gonna be ready. You know what, I'm gonna be ready, Robbie. I'm gonna tell me, tell you the depths that this goes to. Somebody there

so there no, I'm not gonna be ready. So you know, I own a fitness facility and there there is there's some some track runners, some very competitive track runners, Olympians and all that that that come in work out a couple of times a week out of my facility. And one of the one of the young men that competes, uh, he just missed Elmpies last year. He came in and he was talking about Danny McCrae. He said, Man, Danny McCrae says something about how he can beat I said,

why would he do that? Like, why is Danny still doing this? Danny? You're staying No chance, bro, zero chance. And now that I'm working out, I will disrespect why I disinfect you. You understand what I'm saying. Woh, hey, these leads, get moving, start lighting the flame walk, let's go. I mean basically, we're in the playoff mode for talking car talking about playoffs. But then once the playoffs are over, it's game time. By game time, I'm feeling athletic. I

love it. One day in and I'm ready to roll. Was four h one? Can you can you disclose? How much is that a public thing? You know what the thing about it is has and you probably did with this every day with people setting goals and marks and all of that. I didn't get into this for a mark or old. It's consistent. I love it's all about every day. But man, you know things are fitting. Yeah, you dropped, and I asked you that because consistency is everything that's it and anything that you want to do.

And for those that are trying to hit their new fitness goals, all right, it's all about consistency. For those that are trying to win ball games, it's all about consistency. Well you know about that. It's another thing. I mean when I come in here every day, I sit across from somebody that was born with muscles. So it's just, you know, you just gotta kind of laid up losing it every day. You can't look at me like that. Heck, you can't look at me across the table for me

and say that when I was born with muscles. I know, it's fine. I was talking. I was talking about Isaiah und You don't have waiting that two twenty eight yesterday. Oh God bless you if you could get through it. Yeah, I know you're talking about Yeah, all right, let's talk about this consistency though. With the Dallas Cowboys. Rob Phillips a little new notes from yesterday. They're getting healthy. Man, knock knock on. I'm gonna go ahead and knock on wood because COVID is um it ain't you know, it

doesn't discriminate, it's it doesn't go away. It's always a threat out there. But in terms of their health, it looks pretty good this week. And uh, you know, Tony Pollard, they Mike McCarthy said, they're just being smart with him in the in the finale against Philly. The guys on the COVID list. You already saw Anthony Brown come off that list yesterday. It sounds like by Thursday they could get everybody back, that includes Micah Parsons, that includes Tyrn

Smith Um, maybe jay Ron Curse. You know, it could be later in the week. We'll see. But for a team that's playing into January eleventh, you know, sometimes when you get to the Super Bowl, the final injury report doesn't have anybody on it. It's like, yeah, okay, okay, you got guys who are They're gonna play game of their life. The Cowboys legitimately are very healthy right now, and that is pretty unusual for this time of year.

This this was the hope though. We go all the way back to the Arizona Cardinals preseason game when Gallimore got hurt, right, we were like, oh crap, here we go. Right, he was our first he was the first blow, especially after last year. Yeah, after last year he got hurt. And then it was TP got hurt and Gregory and we had all these guys get hurt, and we started trying to look at the time spans. We were looking at it like, hey, when is everybody going to kind

of start coming back? And we were kind of projecting kind of left towards the end of the season. Last four games were hopeful, and then it started happening, right, it started happening. And now you're you're like the Juggernaut. You're building momentum into the playoffs. Not only did you build momentum in this last game, but now you built

mimium with confidence. And now you're building momentum by getting all your guys back and you having your complete depth at every position heading into the most important portion of

the year. And the Dallas fans should feel good about that. Yeah, and the fact that everyone, every team, every playoff team is coming in with Nixon bruises and guys that are not going to be healthy at all until after the super Bowl and look for us, And like you just said outline, that was what we were talking about the whole time. But I think last game, man, they were players like Randy Gregory in particular. You know, I've seen

him come up a few times. I don't know if the calf is still bothering, but he's he's one of those pieces going into the playoffs. Guys that man, we're gonna need this guy being on his a game, and especially with what we have coming this Sunday, so that health and everything that we've been talking about and Covid Stanley we just got he just gotta get through these first couple of weeks and possibly obviously if you can

get into Super Bowl. Baby, you got a few weeks before that, and they were they you know, they played to win that game. Most of the starters played, but they were mindful of certain guys. Obviously Zeke didn't play the full game. Grandy Gregory, Mike said, was on kind of a snap count, and he's been dealing with some nagging, minor stuff all year. He's kind of had a knee thing he's had to deal with managed throughout the season. So yeah, mindful, just trying to get to this point.

I actually just got curious and I looked at the number of guys who have had snaps on this team. Mike McCarthy has told us a thousand times, seventy seven for Green Bay. According to this document that I have, seventy two hey have played. You know, some of some of us just special teams, but they have had to reach into their bag man, and some of it is,

you know, in expanded practice squads. But they've got a lot that they've dealt with COVID, they dealt with injuries, and to win twelve games with some of the stuff they've dealt with very impressive this year. I'd have to go back and look at it and kind of see exactly the way the roster was made up for that Green Bay team that he won the title with back a decade ago. And I mean, I would be willing to say that I don't think they were this healthy

going into the playoffs. I want to know, and this would be a question I would ask Mike an impress conference, but it would be is where does this this team rank compared to the others that you've taken to NFC championship games, two Super Bowl games in terms of health going into the first round of the playoff, because it's hard to get much healthier than one the Cowboys are dealing with. That's a great question. And I think this team's way more healthy. They had. They had guy guys

in the teams. I think on I R when they played the Steelers here in the Super Bowl, so and that you know, I don't think they had returnable ir back. They didn't even have Woodson that is, did they have. I want to say he played in that game, but he could be wrong. I could be wrong, Okay, but they were really they were really banged up, really banged that's right, because their offensive linemen were hurt in that game too. They didn't have all their their front five

and then Aaron Rodgers was Aaron Rodgers. But uh, where does the Cowboys coaching staff stand on COVID right now? Are they doing anything specific? They might kind of allude to anything yesterday in the press conference about whether or not they're going to take extra measures to try and keep COVID away. He just reiterated that, uh, next door is an option if you want to use it, not forcing anybody to use it. Friends and family. Friends and family can continue to test um. And I think there's

probably there's guys doing that right now. You know, I don't know it's not the full team necessarily, but but certainly staff members and you know, their video department got hit hard over the weekend. They actually kind of had the delay getting started on their their you know, getting ahead on prep because guys were out with COVID. So it's a real deal. Keep it away, as Hex said,

keep it just shoot, get out of bub bubble boys. Yeah, so kind of keeping on the same track of Mike McCarthy and this coaching staff, I mean Isaiah, I'll start with you on this one, but how much does having a coach who's been there and done that before help out the mindset of a team going into the playoffs. It's one of the big reasons why he was hired here in the first place is the fact that he has been to the mountaintop. He has won a Super

Bowl title. Now it's his time to kind of, yeah, to pull that car and say here's how we get there. How much does that factor into a player's mindset and a player's preparation out a week? Huge? And I think mister Jones and the rest of the crew that makes decisions on who comes in here as the coach and the leader of this organization knew that. And I think that was their game plan coming into this last year obviously, and then now this year that the top two coaches

on this team have won super Bowls. That's that's facts, right, Coach McCarthy, Dan Quinn, Both of those guys have won Super Bowls. One of those guys has has perspective of what it's like to lose opportunity in a Super Bowl. So you have the two top people, top leaders on your in your organization in terms of coaching, know what it's like to win and what it's like to lose a Super Bowl. That perspective, I always use an analogy of question marks, right, question mark leaves room for doubt.

So that's what I don't like question marks. You don't go about your life with question marks. You try to make sure that you go you set a goal and you attain a goal. And anything that's in the form of a question mark leads room for error and you don't want to allow for that. So now as players are now looking transport towards the playoffs, and players will start looking at the game plans and how is coach setting up the practices and are we wearing tearing too much?

Are we not practicing enough? Are we watching enough film? All those questions can really get put aside. And the reason why they didn't get put aside because you're two top leaders in your team on your organization know what it's like to win, and they know that they have a game plan. They've executed a game plan previously that has led them to walking away with the ultimate trophy in this league. It's a great point. Yeah, those indotal accounts, I think they're gonna this young team is going to

reap the benefits of that. And you just hear Jerry Jones talk about what it meant to bring in a coach with the experience, But the truth is, if you hadn't been there before, you don't know. And when you have a young team like this and you talk about those question marks, there's only one guy on this team that has a Super Bowl ring, as we pointed out yesterday, a guy that's been far in the playoffs and knows what it means to play each and every week through

the playoffs. And so I find it fascinating when you have it as young as this and them having to experience this together. If you've never been to the mountaintop together, then all of those question marks they're gonna be there anyway. You know, how do you experience this? And you're gonna

rely heavily on that experience. A guy that has gone to the mountaintop and I don't want to say fell off, but you know, look, they lost it, yeah, and it's one of those it's how do you combat or tell the story about I had it in my hand, it was right there. He has perspective that coach McCarthy does exactly exactly, And so that's what I look. I just I just feel like when those things that you just outlined, that's a that's a one of the things that's a

benefit for us. But I think man, for all of these guys, and as young as his locker room is, they just they're gonna have questions. And Mike was asked about that yesterday. I think it was Brad Sham. He asked a great question about how if a young guy comes up to you, being that you've made it to the mountaintop and ask you what's the difference between the regular season and the playoffs. And I thought he had a really good answer about it. I'm actually blanking over

banking on it. It was it was it was about the intensity of I thought you had it up in front of No. I'm sorry. It was basically about how the intensity of everything was is ramped up. It's it's just immediately it's go. I mean, there's no adjustment period,

there's no await time. It is immediately. Playoffs have at it. Yes, And also he kind of talked to the fact that you don't get any easy tests anymore, that every team's gonna give you their best every team's gonna scheme up everything they possibly can against you, and the competition gets better along the way as well. And it's kind of what we talked about last week. I mean, he knows what it takes to get there, and now he's got a lettle young roster to get there as well. Now

I love that. And he said something about, you know, just make He made an example of having a game where you made some of your best plays and just say that's the entire game. It's like, yeah, like that. Just that speaks to the heightened intensity that goes into playoff. There's certain aspects of a game during a regular season you can feel the intensity level rise. And for those that watch the Raiders game versus of Chargers, everybody felt

the anxiety. Everybody felt that tension of old crap. Every play matters, that is every play in the playoffs. That's what's so crazy about it. The preparation. When you're getting taped up, you're you're focused, You're locked in for the teams that are that are gonna go far. Those teams are locked in. When you're watching film, you are, you're dialed in. You're watching for any little thing that's gonna

give you an advantage. Now people are gonna say, well, shouldn't you be doing that during the regular season anyway, Yes, you are, and you do, but it's heightened, right. You recognize that our walkthroughs lock in. Hey, hey, stop climbing around. Let's go like we're locked in. Everything matters. Your preparation is everything. And man, when you get to the dog on game and you are, you are juiced. You're juiced, and when you make those plays, you're hype. But it's like,

I gotta have to do it again. That one play is not going to change the game because everybody's gonna have a big play every game. Um, you know, I hate to even bring up an example of I don't believe in anything over one hundred percent. I believe that your one hundred is you're a hundred and if you do, if you go harder than what happened before, wasn't it

wasn't your one hundred percent. So most people will say, I'll give one hundred and ten percent in the playoffs, give you a hundred and guys, you're gonna feel that the guys are gonna be going out there giving it. They're all they're complete everything every play and guess what if I'm gas, give me out of there and get me back in there. I'm not saving anything for the next play I'm I'm not worried about the next player there,

the next series. I'm worried about the right now. That's why I think that there's value, like you mentioned that playoff mode. Teams that are in that playoff mode, like the Raiders, there's somebody to watch in the postseason because they're already in that mindset. That's why I think it's important what the Cowboys did keep playing play for even if you don't play everybody the whole four quarters, just

stay in that mode. And you're seeing some of these wildcard teams get farther in the NFL playoffs and they used to do. Some of it is parody, you know, one of the teams. You know, the buy teams aren't heading shoulders above what it used to be in the nineties, like when the Cowboys were getting buys back then. But but I do think having that mode and keeping that

edge is important, and that's why it was important. That goes back to the argument of rest verse rust, right, you know, and how do you go into the playoffs? And I love what Jerry said today about Dak, he was like, I wasn't surprised that Dak played for four quarters. We knew he was gonna play for four quarters because he was important that we got the momentum going. Didn't. I didn't care anything about what Philly was doing. It was about us. It was about the momentum that we

go into the playoffs with. And they're so their teams like the Raiders that you point out that they understand that and they're taking that approach, and you saw it last Sunday. I wish I could sit in on those meetings with coach McCarthy and Dan quinn in terms of their their conversation revolving around the game plan and the specifically this week or just anything this week, this week going going into the playoffs, because you know they're sitting

there talking, Okay, this is what I've done? All right? What have you done right? What have you done in terms of practice schedule? What have you done in terms of wearing tear? You know, what was your approach versus what was my approach? And I would love to just being there. I don't know if people say find the wall flies can't here, So I would love to sit up there. I've never heard that it's the thing, but

I would love you know that. I'm not gonna touch it, no, but I would love to be a part of those conversations. Can you imagine that the depth of those conversations. Yeah, that's sure, and that's why that's why Dan queenn is trying to get plucked from our staff for that very reason because of his knowledge. And you know, in going into this weekend, how do you approach it? What did you do? You know, how how healthy was your team

going into Super Bowl week of going into the playoffs? Yeah, you're right, man, there's a lot of knowledge on this staff, not only with those two, but guys like George at Wills, Yes, Joe Junior. Yeah, there's a lot of knowledge. I mean, you get the list goes on and on. It goes back to what we talked about in the summer. This is where your coaching staff, being as experienced as they are,

comes into play. When you have a healthy team, you have a little bit of momentum, and of course you've got a favorable matchup or at least you're in the tournament. Let's just say it that way. This Cowboys nation needs under stand that this as much as everybody talks about the players, this is going to make a difference. This is the most stacked coaching staff in the league, and

nobody wants to talk about that. Are confident about the way that they can handle in game absolutations though, absolutely absolutely. I am as confident as people are about the personnel on this team right that there's no doubt that this is probably the most talented team in NFL. There's a handful of other teams that have a lot of talent. You talk about the Rams, should talk about Tampa Bay. Those teams are very talented. However, this is the same

conversation that people are having about the personnel. They need to have the same conversation about this coaching staff because that is going to make just as much of a difference in the playoffs than the personnel on the field. Absolute and people need to identify that. They need to recognize that and give these coaches their credit because this is when they really get they earn their checks during

the playoffs. Yeah. Now, I completely agree, and it's going to be something that shows its head as soon as Sunday, because they're either gonna win you a game or lose your game at the same time, because they're gonna push just as much as the players do. All right, when we come back on Talking Cowboys, give us a call eight eight eight eight, five, five two two nine to seven will answer your questions. How are you feeling heading into the wild card round against San Francisco When we

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I haven't gotten new one? You bro? Why sorry? People go through the trouble of getting you gifts and money clips, brog Yeah, what do he just got bigger? I don't want to get into details, but it's bigger. It's been rough. I know I haven't gotten outside. There has to be elastic in that back pocket? Are you going to be on the water? Yeah? Left in my car yesterday. It's like, I don't want to go through this this weekend, this weekend, this weekend, I will guess. I will put the great gifts.

I'll put them crying. That's awesome. All right, we're taking Cowboys Nations call. What are your feelings going into the playoffs this week? Let's start with Bob in Nashville. Bob, you're on Talking Cowboys. How's it going good? Tells how are y'all doing? Fantastic? I'm glad it's there. Good looking forward to the playoffs, that's for sure. Absolutely. Um. Two things that I've been worried about all year, and I think they're really going to be tested um this week,

and that is our run defense and our running game. UM. You know, I've been worried about those all year. We've been able to kind of get around them. But those are my two big worries. But one question I have, and probably more to his days since he's been to the Super Bowl, and all teams usually have their you know, their base defense or their their you know, their systems.

Two teams going into the playoffs and then into the Super Bowl later on, do they change some of that or do they stick to what's been true and you know, to for them all year or do they really adjust some parts of their game to kind of throw off the other team or did they just stick with what they know and what they've done all year. That's my question. Guys, Thanks for having the show, and now I'll listen to your response. I appreciate the question. Well, um, great question.

So you are who you are by this time of the year. You are you who you are, and it's not the time to experiment. If that helps you, it helps you understand the thought process of going into the playoffs. Now, do you still scheme up things that are going to give you an advantage over that particular team. Absolutely. If you know that there are some things that you identify on film that are disruptive to what they're trying to do, then obviously you make those adjustments, but you still do

it within the scheme of your base defense. Approaching this game coming against the forty nine ers, obviously we'll talk more. The forty nine ers do a ton of misdirection. That's not something that Dallas has been necessarily great about. So, yes, you're gonna put your guys in position to be successful in that regard, and you're going to make it a point all week long to trust your eyes, trust your eyes, trust your assignments ever by view where they're supposed to be.

So it's more of a heightened focus in terms of how to execute your assignment more so than it is Hey, we're about to change everything that we do and now we're gonna put you guys in an element where you guys are no longer confident. Now you're having that question mark. Is this going to work? You want to remove all question marks and this is what we do. Do what you've been doing all year long. Now you see that dude back there, number nineteen, Yeah, we need to circle

him and keep your eyes on him. But this still do what we do. Yeah, why would you get to this point change anything that you've done to be you know, to be successful. Obviously, all both all of these coaches are gonna scheme it up and trying dis guys all day, all night. But I just don't see dan Quinn going with anything exotic that we hadn't seen before to try

and mix this thing up at the last minute. I do believe that obviously offensively, our sticking to what got us here, what are going to be some of our strengths. They understand what the defense, like the forty nine is that's going to attack them, that they got to run at it. You have to have some success in the running game to slow these guys down. So look, I'm with you, Isaiah, and that's a that to that point

that you don't get here in doing overhaul. Yeah, yeah, I mean maybe there's there's examples of Bill Belichick doing something completely different in the Super Bowl that we've seen. He did that against the Rams. But yeah, I think Mike McCarthy spoken to this, When you get to this point in the season, it's about execution. You know, it's NBA play. I'll do an NBA comparison again. Heck, it's like by this point everybody knows what you're running. You

just gotta you know, how do you execute? You know? And so there are wrinkles involved, But I think you still have to stick to what has gotten you to this point. I'm not convinced that it's not Doug nust Meyer across the hall calling us. He just loves the shop. Thanks Bob for the call. We'll get into the forty nine ers running game, but that's a great point. They are at four hundred and ninety nine carries this year.

That's tied for fifth in the league. They want to run the football, and Mike McCarthy spoke to this yesterday. The Cowboys want to run the football too, And people might roll their eyes at that, because look, Kellen Moore, they want to sling it around. They've got all these weapons on the outside. Cowboys are at four seventy three attempts. That's near the top of the league in terms of rushing.

So both teams want to establish that. The Cowboys just have not been able to establish that with as much consistency down the stretch as they would like. Week eighteen was a step forward. Sure, we'll see if they can build on that well. And you also talk about on the other side of things, on the defensive side, they haven't been able to slow it down very much either, and that was one of his initial concerns was the run defense as well, going up against what Same Frantisco

is going to bring to the table. He kind of talked about how that is a weaker side of your defensive unit, is stopping the run. And San Francisco being a team that has run the ball five hundred times this season, is going up against a team that's given up at least one hundred yards in what is this, ten of their last or eleven of their last twelve games of the season, they gave up a hundred yards rushing. So does your confidence level waiver a little bit when

you talk about the run defense. Not at all, Not at all. And the reason being is that for as much as our defensive line or our team has looked at as a pressure defense that gets out to the quarterback, I think you have guys like Tank Lawrence that that's their stick. That's the shit strong suit, it's stopping the run. As much as he is, you know, get after your quarterback kind of a guy, he's man. He's the guy to stop the run. Where I'm I think I have the most hesitancy is in our line. What are we

going to do with our linebackers? You know, how physical can they play? LVE is going to have to be physical this game because of the way that the forty nine is offensive line, which is their strength, and they get to the second level and they punish you they're coming downhill. But when you switch it the other way around, I think the forty nine is defense. They just got some guys on their front line that you could tell their defensive coordinator Demco Ryans is doing a wonderful job

with the way that he disguises. Thing is then when you can bring pressure from upfront and not have to bring any of your guys any blitzing, then that's man. That's definitely man. That's just a good thing for your defensive coordinator. Isaiah. Yeah, defensively in terms of scheme, you know, to to Heckma's point, I just think guys who have to get up field, they have to get up filled.

They have you have to get penetration. If you don't get penetration against San Francisco, it's hard because I want to talk about a lot of details. If you don't get penetration against the San Francisco forty nineties, you're gonna struggle. And teams coming to the games from him from obviously from through film against San Francisco, knowing that they do a lot to misdirection, and now all of a sudden, you start looking around. And we talked about this a

couple of weeks ago. I don't remember what team we're facing, but you start looking around if you're so concerned about what direction they're going and who has the ball. Now you're no longer coming downhill. Now your body position is now in a stand up position. And now those office

alignment that want to punish you have the leverage. Now they're able to get get on half a man instead of you know, having to take on a full man, and they can use momentum, you know, against you and now those officers and let me get up to the second level, like you're talking about Hema, and now you have three hundred and some pounds trying to take on two hundred and forty pounds. Two hundred pounds, big difference.

Right when those guys have the leverage, your linebackers are standing around, looking around, trying to figure out where the ball is at. Oh crap, there's the ball. Oh by the way, there's a linement who's been running for the last four yards that's about to take me head on. That's what you can't allow. You can't allow them to dictate the pace and the direction of this game. Your guys, Gallamore, Hamilton, Osa, all those boys. Challenge has been handed out to you.

Get out here, get up field. Allow your linebackers to play downhill. Because if your linebackers are playing looking around, it's gonna be a day. Yeah, you're kind of in a tough spot at that point, and a late vander esh Kian and Neo played very well in the game against Philadelphia. You add Michael Parsons into them at mix, but it's not necessarily a deep group at the second level for your linebackers. It's physicality that has to be there,

and that's what Parsons brings. And if they're banged up, how much how much physicality can they bring? Oh No, they gotta find it. Gotta find it somewhere, right, you gotta be It's gotta be a key all right. Mike from New York is on the line. Mike, how's it going? You're on talking cowboys? What's going on? Guys? I think keys to all postseason is penalties. We kind of cut down on them, penalties. We one of the most penalized teams.

And it's it's about how about being disciplined and it's and I don't know, I say, I think that that's my biggest album, Pretty cowing going in San Francisco to tough, But we'll see. I agree completely. Thank you for the call, Mike, and he I mean, he makes a great point there about how penalties are going to decide games, specially when you get to the playoffs, because you cannot beat yourself. Have they figured this out yet? Probably? There's no way

to tell, right, there's no way to tell. Even though they had a better game against Philadelphia. Yeah, we talked about it. I mean there's three games where you look at it and you're like, ah, the officiating crew, maybe you got a little flag happy, and they had maybe some legitimate gripes about that. Not a conspiracy, just a fact. And that's you know, there's certain trends with certain crews.

But to his point, Cowboys lead the league in penalties one twenty seven and second in yards or they're up there in yards, not second, but they're up there in yards. And that's a trend. That's not oh, they're against us or whatever that And I think Mike has spoken to this. The holdings and stuff like that subjective to a certain degree, you know, but like Connor Williams, you can develop a reputation for that that can hurt you. The pre snap

stuff is what they got to eliminate. You can't get false starts, you can't get all that stuff and all of a sudden dacks in second and fifteen, stuff like that that is not going to help you against this, uh, this pass rush, which is quite good. I was looking for who the actual officiating crew is. Alex Kemp Alex Camp eighth season, fourth as a referee. That's not one of the playoffs or not one of the previous referee

crews that had given you trouble. I believe they're all star cruise now by the way, Yeah, this is like best of the best, so hopefully good point yea. Hopefully that plays a factor into it, if you were to say anything about the referees. But how big of a factor could penalties play in a game like that, whenever

everything's on the line. It's huge. I mean that you would you would hate yourself for the rest of your life if you get to this, get to this level of play and have this this opportunity for a four game stretch to walk away with the most monumental thing achievement in your life aside from probably getting married or

having a kid. And you go out there and you know that you're the one to to hurt your team's ability to move on because of penalties, whether that happens at the end of the game, whether it happens in the beginning of the game and you're in field goal range and all of a sudden, you commit a penalty that now puts you out of field goal range and you leave point, you take points off the board, or maybe it was third down, third and short and all

of a sudden, you have a holding penalty. Now is third and long, and now you're fair, you're punting the ball. Those things kill you. Our third down percentage of games that we have lost our third down a percentage has been trash. Has been four for thirteen, has been three, four eleven, whatever it has been, it's been awful. Those

are the things that kill you offensively defensively. The teams that you're going to face in the NFC, these offenses, if you commit penalties and elongate their their drives, you will hate yourself. You can't give them second chances, get off the field on defense and score points on offense. Penalties obviously hurt your chances on both ends of the of the spectrum. Nobody wants to be that guy. No you don't. So if you don't want to be that guy,

don't be that guy. But you just can't have a repeat of the Arizona game, those games where you you had opportunities in the running game to be called back through hold, And I mean that that's your ball game right there. Those those third down penalties is what costs it. And so look, I just you go back through all of our losses and look at the way we were penalized in those games, and you could come away and say, look, man, you might have had an opportunity to help yourself had

you not done that. But that's all ifs and maybes. But right now, at this point, like you said, you just don't want to be that guy. They've had and they've defensively, they've had some personal foul penalties and Donovan Wilson hit Minshew in the head the other night. And it's a fine line to walk if you're Dan Quinn, because you want this defense playing fast and physical and getting after it, and that's been their calling card this year. So it's a fine line to walk. You don't want

them to lose their aggressiveness. And special teams I don't. I don't want to leave out special teams. Special teams will I don't know about our games. Special teams will decide a team's ability to move on in these playoffs. I guaranteed, oh God, guaranteed. Oh no, always good. I'm just I'm just seeing I'm just seeing their lines kick being teed up. I'm just not well. I'm talking about special team's penalty. Okay, I'm not necessarily to feel old

meager man probably happen. But some of the things that we saw earlier in the season, right, and making sure that you're not rough in a passer I'm a kicker, making sure that you're on size, you're not jumping off side, like those things that lock in the back, those things that could take a team from trying to you know, kick a field goad all of a sudden, now they're they're under center again. But that those things will kill

you in this game. So special teams, all those guys that are depth guys, they have to be on high alert as well. Yep, can't be overaggressive. And it does. It gives us the bubble guts is there back again up in the playoffs, just in time for the playoffs. All right, Steve, we're gonna get to you on the other side of the break. Let's go ahead and step aside. When we come back on Talking Cowboys, we wrap things up and continue taking your calls here on this Talking Tuesday.

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playoff edition of Talking Tuesday. You can see Rob Phillip's reaction there Isaiah stand back like a great red heck Ma, Harrison, Chris Beam, Kyle Yeoman's glad you're with us here on this Tuesday. We've got some fun all week long. By the way, Friday, since we're done with like the pickums for the season, for the regular season, I don't want to end it just yet. I'm gonna bring a bracket

to the table Friday. Every round that you pick right, so the first round will be one point, wildcard round will be one point, Divisional round will be two points, championship will be four points, and then if you pick the super Bowl champion right, then you would get eight points. So there is a chance to catch up and make it all right. So there you go. So I'm gonna bring that to the table on Friday to have some fun with our pickums. How about that? Who's in first

right now? Definitely me by seven games, okay, because yeah, then it's fair. Yeah one of us were in first. It's like, oh, yeah, no, I'm back in this thing. Yeah no, I'm trying to get you back in this thing, all right. Actually I am up, Yeah, I'm up by seven games on Heckman who's in second place? Oh yeah, you sure you want to give much chance? Yeah? You think like Deebo over there right now, Yeah, you've got to kick the door down. No, you got it? Are

you conceding victory? Oh? Noever, Okay he said he has. He said he has first place by seven games. I'm like, you got it. He's the one that's picking, he's the one that's counting the game. So I mean to say, he's looking over his shoulder. He better being one of those deals where you know he is definitely doctoring. That's not true. Go back and check them all. Go back and check them all, every single one of the stir fry. Yeah,

I've got I've got what do we get? He's Pokemon out here, he said, you gotta catch them all, but you gotta check them all. What do we What do we get? On this show? Like a hundred thousand listeners a week, and not one of them has has said that I've doctored anything. So I just say, over here, just I don't think so. I don't think I'm cooking. I don't think i'm anything actually cooking anything up. I did the pick hims last year, and I finished them

last Okay, Kyle's grocery games. All right, Stephen, New York. You've been waiting patiently on the phone. You're back on talking cowboys. How's it going, Steve, Hey, what's going on? What's um? I sayah, kind of hit on what I was gonna ask you, based on Zeroline struggles. Do you think that, um, it's going to impact McCarthy some of his decisions. Maybe it's a guest like a orphan two or something in that mid range thirty five to forty five yards field goals. Do you think, yeah, maybe he'll

go for it any of those which around. Yes, that's a heck of a question, Steve. I want to say you can't do it. I want to say, you know, but as the saying back in the hood, scared money, don't make money, and you have to give him an opportunity to prove who he was. You have to give him that opportunity because because if you go back, if you go into this game and you show that you don't have confidence of your kicker, it's done. He's he's mentally mentally he's screwed. I don't care how many kicks

he's made. You have to show that you have confidence in him. You have to give him that opportunity. Now, if he proves you wrong, then you adjust. But I think initially you have to come out and say, hey, as soon as we crossed the forty, Greg, get your butt out there, let's go. So I didn't get to hear Jerry this morning, but he was asked about Greg's or lyne. He said, this is from Jama showed his struggles have absolutely quote, absolutely altered the game plan. He's

a sound kicker, experience kicker. Our guys are all sensitive about how to approach the game. I don't they're very aggressive anyway on fourth down, So I don't know how much of it is they don't trust the kicker as opposed to Mike McCarthy. Got to go to the game plan you have. That's got to be a part of it. And just what Steve just said, Man, we get to the thirty five yard line and here we are three points. You drive, you do everything you possibly can, and you

send their line out there. Where's your confidence level? Like where I want to see everybody in Cowboys Nation? Is heart rate at that moment? Does it go from like a sixty to like a ninety five? Just Scott to get that Apple watch out and it's like sees it sky, you guys send that in when the playoff. Let's do that. Okay, what hey, everybody out there in Cowboys Nation. If you guys have so prior any prior to the kick, I want you guys to chack take your pulse. Okay, well

that's on your whatever the device you have. And then by the time he kicks it, I want everybody to to go ahead and dial it in, send it on Twitter. What was your your beats per minute? By the time, they're like, man, you don't know what kind of party in pople look at analytics after after you don't convert on third down and you look at your watch, you have the beat beats per minute and then as soon as the ball's in the air, you don't know what the result is looking at the game. Please do it.

I want to see this Cowboys Nation. We need this media is qua Hey, whoever's up there dialing on this stuff in, please keep that track. I need to see that. I have like an NFL next gym on fan heartbeats. That'd be kind of fun. Yeah, that's hilarious. Heck was already and so you know that when I had a fit bit. I broke my fit bit. We were able to track each other's heart rate, so my wife would definitely be like, what are you doing? What's going on?

And find I'm walking. There's a funny story about that. I said, it's done. You do realize that happened to James. Yeah, Jane talked about what happened to Jane had they her and her like other had body each other? Fit Vince and he was having like spikes at like three am. You want to lunch? That's how he got you must jacking each other? What what kind of hot saush you

got each other? They're checking all their performances around, maybe all of our listeners, all our male listeners about the give Vince and Ample watches the next time that God definitely going upstairs and talking to miss Nicky. I'm definitely oh uh, Mike and Iowa, you're on talking cowboys. That's not an end. This is the last one. Mike and Iowa, please get us back on track. How's it going? Okay,

I'll get back on track. Howboy naked and everybody there when he's guy, I'm really pumped up when they get on that field and getting that huddle. They need to dedicate this one to John Madden. Boom pass up cowboy nagent just before John Madden boom, see you guys later, Bye bye. Thanks. How about that? That was awesome? Yeah, his heart rate is through the roof. I love it. Yeah, dedicated to John Madden. I love it. I love that. Yeah. Fantastic And he had the energy like John did too

in that phone call, so I appreciate it. Thank you so much from all the way out in Newton, Iowa. But that doesn't for us here on talking cowboys. What a day in his spend. We'll be back tomorrow nine am. We're previewing the San Francisco offense versus the Dallas defense. What is Jimmy Garoppolo and company have in store for Dan Quinn Kyle Shanahan versus Dan Quinn former offensive coordinator of Dan's out in Atlanta. We'll talk about that matchup, coaching, matchup, quarterbacks,

running backs. What's going on? Heavy birthday, John Neilson, Yes, John Nelson could save their heck on top of things. One of our friends from across the pond. Hope you're feeling better, John, Yes, absolutely, but happy birthday. We usually give a birthday shout out to John and great friend of the show as well, but that doesn't for us. You're on Talking Cowboys for Chris Mean, for heck Ma Harrison, Isaiah Damn Back, Rob Phillips and Kyle Yeoman saying so

long for Talking Cowboys. We'll see you tomorrow, nine am Central. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.