Talkin' Cowboys: Defense Delivers Again!

twenty two to tend the final score. As we welcome you in presented by a Black Rifle Coffee Company to the fourth Victory Monday of the twenty twenty two campaign. Glad you're with us here on Talking Cowboys. Rob Phillips, Isaiah stand Backpatrick Nose Walker, We've got Chris Beam in the backup. Kyle Yeoman's glad you're with us, And gentlemen, this one feels a little bit sweeter because everyone is sweeter. I mean, every time it goes, you get one more.

You continue to stack wins upon wins upon wins. It feels much better as you go along. However, this one feels good, Isaiah, because it's against the reigning Super Bowl champs, and because your defense got the job done. Again. Defense is the leaders on this team. These guys, We've talked about it in recent weeks. These guys are simply just

seemingly unstoppable. It's a lot to deal with when you have the personnel and you have the wisdom that's kind of the director behind everything, kind of you know, controlling the pinocchio strings back there, and he's just utilizing all his assets. It's it's hard for an offense to come back this, and I'm not sure how you come back this when you have that amount of pressure. You you don't allow them to establish running games. You don't allow

them to sit back and throw the ball. So it's like, what do you do offensively against this defense to get anything going? And as long as the Dallas Cowboys continue to play this type of defense, it doesn't matter how much their offense shows up or doesn't show up. You know, field goals seemingly will win you the ball game. Go ahead, listen. If this defense continues playing like this, UH Congress is going to have to convene a special session to investigate

what's going on. I mean, at the end of the day and at the beginning of the day and in the middle of the day. This defense is absolutely terrorizing teams. And we said going into this game, obviously we're still about one Now, we're about one week now from you know, the nickname votes, right, But I said before I dropped mine, before we dropped hours, I wanted to see what they did against the Rams, and then I want to see what they do against the Eagles. Another big test coming

against the Eagles. We'll get to that later this week. But to go into Sofa against the rain of Super Bowl champs and hold them to only ten points. Now, Cooper Cup, he had one twenty five, but seventy five of that came on on one play. And it's funny because two, not two plays before he broke that run, I said to myself that, hey, they have a cap on Cooper Cup. I was like, hey, I might be jinxing it, so I'm not gonna say it out loud. And if I had said it out loud, I would

have thought I jinxed it. But I didn't. Goodness, I didn't say that out hadn't happened anyway, right, But that's seventy that's all your fault. It's basically what I'm gatherings I heard. Yeah that was if that's if that's the worst thing that happened yesterday, and it turns out that was the worst thing that happened yesterday, I will take that all day long. The defense played stout. Um you had the at Well, the deep past at Well, which

couldn't have been deep defended. I mean Diggs was right there, perfect coverage. Stafford just dropped that throw. It was unreal. So those two things, notwithstanding, Cowboys kept Acres in the running game and Check. For the most part, they kept they kept Higbee and Check. Welcome back jay Ron curse right. Uh, this defense top to bottom. I mean you even got Michael Parsons dealing with you know, growing tightness, and he's like putting me back in coach, so I can punctuate

this game with a sack fumbo. Oh man, it's just a beautiful sight to see defense. Is they stir the bloody drink as when Mike McCarthy's PG that was sorry so our UK listeners, Yeah, that's what That's what British Mike McCarthy would have said. He's right. I mean, you guys hit on everything. I mean, I'm I'm stunned by like both the predictability of this Cowboys defense Cowboys team and their unpredictability they are. Nobody could have predicted four

straight wins with Cooper Rush is the starting quarterback. I don't care how good the defense has played. If you told me in May when the schedule came out that Cooper Rush was going to be the winning starting quarterback against both Super Bowl quarterbacks from last year, nobody would have bought it. And I'd love to know what the percentage was for ESPN Sports Analytics for percentage to win and stuff like that. That's this league. This league is

so unpredictable. But what's predictable about this team is what the defense does every single week. So far, for five weeks, they have not allowed any of their opponents to reach twenty points, the first time that a Dallas defense has done that since nineteen seventy two. And that's in a different era, by the way. I mean that. You know there was no Cooper Cup and Sean McVay style offenses

to defend back then. Seventy two was the last time five or less touchdowns in five games to start the season, so one touchdown a game. Offensive lines they faced some that have struggled, no doubt, they've been some favorable matchups. But I think this defense is for real. I think we all do. And if you don't, if you're not buying it yet, great news. Sunday Night Football. Best team

in the league, they're playing based on record. Who has a great offensive line, by the way, So we'll find out real quick once again with the biggest test of the season to date, whether it's for real. And I think it is. And that's the thing about this matchup and this whole week. We're gonna preview it because I feel like a lot of people are already looking ahead. They put this one in the review mirror. Cool, you just beat the Super Bowl champs. Great, all right, fun, Well,

we've got some tests on the horizon and charrival. It's a Sunday night football game. It's to this point in the season. Find me a more high profile game. There hasn't been for everybody in their moms, no way that there's a more prime profile game at this point in the year than the Cowboys and Eagles coming up on

Sunday Night Football. But it is something to be said because, like you said, even if you would have told me that Dak Prescott would have gone four and one through the first five weeks of the season prior to the season starting, I don't know if I would have believed you. I really wouldn't. Because you had the Bengals, you had the Rams, you had the Buccaneers. You might have won two or three games there maybe for possibly, but not in the way that they have done it and the

way that this defense continues to play. I think you outline that really well, the predictable unpredictability, because you know the defense is going to show up, but are they gonna do it in the same way week to week? Now dan Quinn switches things up and he did it all day yesterday to keep LA off balance, and they got after Matthew Stafford because of it. And it goes back to what we were saying last week. And I cannot see and I know it's possible. Of course, it's possible.

It's it's football. It's to indefinitely possible. Of course, it's possible. This defense is going to have a bad day. Of course it's possible. Right, of course, it's possible. Another offense is going to you know figure out a way to tee off on a particular misspects, of course as possible, but expecting it. No, I no longer expect that that's

going to happen. I expect weekend a week out that Dan Quinn and this defense, regardless of what adjustments need to be made, whoever is on the field, is going to get the job done. And then the only question becomes weekly until that gets back and then we see prime deck back, because we're not going to see prime

deck initially might take a game or two. The question is is the offense going to be able to avoid making the mistakes that cut the defense and the special teams off at the knees and they continue to escape those mistakes, be it with the lepra con on Cooper Rush's shoulder, as Rob Phillips so eloquently put it, or whatever other means. The fact is the defense is going to continue to win you games as long as you You don't even have to match serve. All you gotta

do is just don't mess it up. If you're the offense, just don't screw it up. Twenty sacks through the first five games, first time since nineteen eighty seven, since a guy you might have heard of him, Tom Landry was the coach. It was pretty good. Yeah, so were off

to a start. And Mickey pointed out to me on the plane in the ride home, you might have to go further back than that, just because eighty seven was the strike year, which was kind of a different year, obviously a throwaway type year, so it may go to go back further than that. But yeah, I mean, you can go down the list of the stats and you're like, holy cow, they're right there with San Francisco and Buffalo right now. So far as the best defenses in the league,

I mean, no doubt about it. You've got teams up there with one loss. There are four teams with one loss or less in the NFC right now. It's the Cowboys, the Eagles, the Giants, who you've beaten already, which is really interesting, and then the Minnesota Vikings, who you'll see later in the year. On the other side, for the AFC, there's only one team and that's the Buffalo Bills. So you're in the conversation right now at least record wise, as a top five team in the NFL. I'm not

saying that's the case. I'm not saying putting expectations on it just yet. But that's where you are, factual, that's there. Are they showing that they could be that when they're fully healthy. Though, did you were you convinced, especially offensively yesterday, that they can continue to grow and get better, because I felt like the offense kind of took a step back last or last night you put in that context, I mean, I think about the best teams in the league.

I'm gonna throw Buffalo in here right off the back. So because Buffalo those defense has proven to you for the last few years, much like the Dallas Cowboys defense has, that they're real and they're to be they're not to be played with. Okay, they're Leslie Fraser is doing an amazing job obviously out there as a defensive coordinator. He has a lot of really good defensive backs. They're stronger, I mean, they're just they're strong, you know, they're they're

they're they're stronger defense. Offensively, their lights out. Yeah, they're they're bad days better than Dallas's great days seemingly right now. So that is a team that you put them in that category. Now. Obviously Dallas has knocked off last year's two depending Super Bowl appearing teams. But I don't think there's any there's no argument that those teams don't look like anything resembling of what they look like. They're two and three now, they're not looking They both lost this week.

So I mean the reality is, I mean, it is still you can statman still stands true. You beat Cincinnati, you beat the Ramps. Awesome. The team that I would say that is showing up like you expecting to show up and they're not even being that great right now as Tampa. Tampa is still up and down right now. Um, but that's the one true test that I guess you could say that you've had this year of a solid team that's playing like a solid team, and they're still wavering.

This is the big game coming up, you know, like this game last night, we were in the studio watching It's like, okay, yeah, you beat the Rams, like there, you know, like you expected the defense to do that. Their officer line you coming into it. You know, the Rams office line was pretty much close to composts as well, and they showed it. They showed it right, I mean, they pretty much got disrespected yesterday. You pretty much put

a cap on Cooper Cup. Aside from the one time that Trayvon Diggs went back to last year Trayvon and started taking risk versus man coverage. He has to just understand, hey, understand the coverage, Understand where your help is to be able to take calculator risks. But for the most part they shut him down. It's an offense though. Like you mentioned, Kyle, this offense is not putting out right now. And yesterday

they only got down to the red zone twice. They were over two in the red zone, got down there twice, didn't do anything, relied on field goals. They ran the ball effectively, right Obviously, some a lot of that came from Tony Poller, just like we're saying, Hey, Cooper Cup had a good game, but most of it came off a one run. Well, Dallas had a good running game, but most of it came from Tony Poller on the one run as well. So you have to look at

it objectively and understand that this offense is struggling. And what I've been saying for the past few weeks is, hey, what happens when your defense just shows up like any other defense in the league, because they're entitled to that, and they had the game that Patrick's talking about. And

they have the game that Patrick's talking about. You not even a bad game, right, Just just what do they just show up in a just a normal, normal defensive game and your offense is putting out like this and everybody's talking about, oh, you know, when Dad gets back, it is gonna be even crazier. We had a healthy DAK Week one and the offense didn't do much of nothing.

So I understand the anticipation to understand what everybody's hoping for, But the reality is consistently, whether it's Dak or whether it's it's Cooper Rush, this offense has not clicked, not one time yet this year. I'll say this to one thing that you pointed out, you said, okay, well, yeah, they beat the Rams. I'm going to turn the other way on this one because going into this game, we said definitively this was the biggest test for the Cowboys

thus far, and Cooper Rush specifically. Now, I would say this, as far as individual assessment, Cooper Rush didn't pass that test. He didn't fail it because leprocomics show he didn't fail the test, but he didn't pass the test either. You talk about one hundred and two yards, ten for sixteen passing, no interceptions, so he didn't fail, no fumbles, so he

didn't fail. No touchdowns, so he didn't pass so see right, no, see, But the what the offense did was they leaned on the running game and the fifty seven yard touchdown from Tony Pollard that was a good chunk of that. So, like you said, if we're going to give it the cup for the seventy five, we're going to give it too.

But when you look at the twenty two attempts from Ezekiel Elliott, another eight attempts from pump Tony Poller, that's thirty rushing attempts for nearly one hundred and seventy yards against Okay, the Rams offensive line was in shambles. Their defensive line was not in shambles. Right. I love how they adapted and stuck with it because initially they saw they couldn't match up against Aaron Donald. Tyler Smith got beat badly on two separate occasions, and he didn't fail. That.

To me, you can't fail going against Aaron Donald. You have the pass or it's Aaron Donald. Right. So, but what the Cowboys did after that, second sac. You saw Donald didn't get another sack the remainder of the game. No other defensive lineman for the Rams got a sack in that game. The only other sack came from Jalen Ramsey on you know, Tony Poll missed that assignment in the backfield. But the offense did exactly enough to not fail.

My point being, we can't say it was the biggest test thus far going in and then they they win as a team, and then we say, oh, well, you know they did beat the Rams. Okay, well, yeah, said, well, I know, going back till these my comments in particular, we said that's gonna be the biggest test in terms of dominant players individual dominant players, not holistically as a holistic defense. But they had one goom at the first level, one goon at the second level, and one goon at

the third level. Right, That's at least what I when I was starting about old Donald Wagner in Rams, right, and all those and yeah, and all those guys pretty much had good games. I'm not gonna I don't think we can see here and say think Wagner probably had the lesser game. It was he didn't have splash plays, right, I mean, I don't know how. Yeah, he dropped his

one splash, but he had an opportunity. But I think when we talk about it like that, like that's what we're talking about it in that regard, when you think about the Dallas offense, if you take away Armstrong's uh you know, strip sack and d laws you know, fumble, fumble recovery for a touchdown, Dallas scored one touchdown, two field goals, right Dorant ten points. Yeah, So I'm like, this offense, this offense was not successful to that point.

Let's not fool ourselves to think that they were successful when it was not successful. We're saying they didn't fail, and that's not going to be a enough That's so that's what I'm saying. Like that, like we've been leaning on that they're not failing, they're not feeling last the week before this past week, two interceptions got called back. That was about to be failed. That was gonna be a fail, right, Luckily it didn't happen this time. Why could they say, oh, no, we saw what the interior

pressure did the cooper last last week. We're gonna take the ball out of his hands. We're gonna throw the ball sixteen times a day and we're gonna run it thirty Yeah, I know what they say about look sometimes. Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm the one that's been I've kind of graded this offense on a curve with with Cooper Rush. I've just constantly reminded myself this guy's barely played in the NFL. Managed the game and that's one thing he did do well. He did not turn the

ball over, and it's just enough. It's just enough. Now I'm I'm anticipating. That's why it's important for Dak to come back when Dak is ready, Because when Dak is ready and one percent, I do think this is a much better offense Week one. Notwithstanding, I think he's gonna be able to get more than three guys the ball. I mean, only Ceedee Lamb, Michael Gallup and Noah Brown had a catch in this game. No tight ends, no running backs. Dalton Schultz banged up clearly in this game.

He came back, but but that knee is bothering him. Um his mobile. I just think they're going to be a better offense with Dak Prescott, but he's gonna have to get up to speed and I don't think you want to rush him back into that situation. So I've been grading on a curve, but um, there's no doubt they've got to get more production when they play a

team like the Philadelphia Eagles offensively. Want to answer you, and to answer your question, Coyle, the I don't think the offense as a whole took a step back in this game. Um, I think the passing attack took a step back in this game. If you want to talk about it, A drop from Lamb, a drop from Gallop Gallup didn't make up forward fantastic. Yeah, but that that first one from Gallup you could still be going CD

also dropped. So the passing attack took a step back from week four, the rushing attack took a step forward from week four. And guess what the scale balanced it, sof Out and the Cowboys got to win. We've been on this show saying it before, Isaiah, You've been a big proponent of it, of run the football, run it consistently, stick through it all the way through, no matter what the game looks like. Run the football because it sets up play action, It opens up your offense, It gives

you so many more option defense, it helps your defense. Yeah, it certainly did in this one, But why does it feel like they are taking that step back offensively, at least in a week like this whenever they did run the football and they stuck with it and they were able to continue that through four quarters. Well, when you're watching the film, there's a lot of pass attempts early

in the game. They threw it around a little bit in the first and second quarter, and then they got into the third and they said no, no no, no, no, no no, no, run it, keep away, over and over and over and over. It was keepaway, beautiful, that's what it was. It was keaway. And that's okay, that's successible ball. When you're playing against a team that can't get things going offensively. It doesn't mean that's to compliment you football, right, you control what

you can control offensively. You run the freaking ball, you get an early lead, you get a gift. Okay, you get a gift, right, and if yeah, you got yeah, you got a few gifts. Absolutely, you got the strips, the strip act, and then you got the block block point. So at that point in time, you're like, shoot, let's not mess this thing up. Let's let's run it. It was run the ball, and that's that's what they did.

They just played keepaway. But that keepaway mentality should be the mentality every week for these guys in terms of being dedicated to the run thirty times in the game. Obviously was good enough yesterday, but that should be the case all the time when you have that two headed monster back there. Now, obviously they're still figuring out the offensive line and all those things blas blah blah blah blahsa, but that is a winning strategy for the Dallas Cowboys.

And I think as you're trying to get these guys more confidence up front, I think, as you're trying to get Cooper Rush some protection, as you're trying to keep the defense nice and fresh with their one, two, three defensive lines that they're coming with, it doesn't really matter. All those things played compliments to successful ball. But I'm gonna keep saying it. I know people call me a hater, you call me whatever you want. It's not enough, and

it's it's really not enough. Teams are still figuring out who the heck they are. Teams are still making a justice based upon their person nails from this year. You talk about really good teams from last year. They seemingly suck right now. They're not gonna suck the whole year. They're not gonna suck the whole The Cincinnati aren't gonna suck the whole year. The Rams are gonna suck the whole year. You know, these teams aren't gonna suck the

whole year. So somebody Dallas has the second easiest schedule in the league this year, which is awesome in terms of strength of schedule. So you take advantage of that and you knock these teams out, but there are going to be to Philadelphia Eagles that pop up on your schedule. It's like, Okay, we're gonna need to score more than than one touchdown. There's a couple of teams like that on the schedule. Yeah, And I said it like right

off the top. I mean, they they have gotten some matchups on the front line where it's been nice, like guys that are offensive lines that are young, or offensive lines that are banged up, or offensive lines just aren't very good. That's why I think Sunday is a great test. But I still think I mean, I think they're for real. One thing I'll say about the offense that that does impress me. Every time they need something from Cooper Rush

in this offense, they seem to get it, you know. Rams, Yeah, Rams take a ten nine lead, they answer Rushed with the completion and the Pollard's touchdown. My favorite drive, to Isaiah's point, it was a boring drive. Fourth quarter, five minutes to go, nine plays, thirty five yards, run, run, run, run, run, kick the field goal I don't care about. There was a debate on Twitter in the press box about that go up twenty two ten, give me the point to

go up twelve points with five minutes left. Choke this game away, and that's what they did well, and they forced that that field goal. Initially it's like, oh my gosh, it doesn't put you up by more than two scores. But if you don't kick the field goal, a touchdown and a field goal wins it, whereas if you kick the field goal, you need two touchdowns to win it. Right, take the Mayweather approach, slow, methodical, boring, watch, but it's effective.

Welcome down. Isaiah is right, and we talked about this after I think the Washington game. You're looking at it from a player's perspective. Who's going in the film room today, and saying this is not going to cut it in January because we expect to be there and we've got to be better than that. I totally get that. I just think for this particular what they're dealing with right now, offensively, I take it, take it, and I think the best is yet to come with the forty million dollars man

coming back. If he's right, and and that's why I think if you're a fan, you should be excited. Notwithstanding it has to improve and exactly and Isaiah is correct, And I'll just expand on on Okay, we don't have to always just say he's correct. We can, but it is keeping us grounded here. I mean it's right because he's correct in that the teams you're seeing now, as far as the struggles with Cincinnati and Los Angeles, you're not going pretty probably likely not going to see them

later in the season. They'll get it figured out. Um. Contrarily, the Eagles aren't going to be undefeated going into the back end of the season. They're gonna lose several games, right and it could start us right Aska Giants, right. Um. But what I would say is the same applies. The same that applies for those other teams. Applies to the Cowboys as well. We're talking about a team that it does have a backup quarterback. They just lost Jason Peters

really before they could even you know, unleash him. Tylas Smith is a rookie, he's playing very well, has some growing pains against Aaron Donald. Hell, they're you know, multi time Pro bowlers that have growing pains to that point, real quickly, look at the first past play of the entire game. That's all I'm gonna say. Just look at the first pass ten for Cooper Rush and watch Jack Martin go up against Aaron Donald, and that'll change your mind on how Tyler Smith. And there you go. My

point being the Cowboys aren't whole. They're getting more so on defense, and the defense is still dominant even though they're not completely hold, but they're getting there. The offense is wildly not whole, especially when you're talking about the gaping position of QB one that's not there yet. So the Cowboys are figuring things out as well. They're figuring out their identity as well, and they won't truly know their identity until that comes back and they get that rolling.

But I do find an interest in that from a science standpoint. Cowboys finished yesterday's game with exactly thirty carries between Pollard and Zeke, not two weeks ago. McCarthy said, he wants to see thirty carries. Yeah, he's thirty touches. There you go, there you go. He's in killing Zere and killing his listening. Yeah. Yes, Uh, let's take a break when we come back. It should Cooper Rush be the starter for the rest of the seat. Not just kidding.

That's not what we're talking about next. I'm messing. I want to talk about the offensive line moving forward. I just wanted to get out answers. Not a second. That's what we're gonna talk about. Offensive line, Tyler Smith. But Connor McGovern may have had his best game as a pro yesterday. I'll tell you why when we come back with more talking Cowboys. When you build, you start with the foundation, and homeownership is a foundation of a stable future.

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of that, he got out of it. Yeah, he said I sold that thing fast and got out of there. But yeah, he had a company. Uh really, that's actually a cool event. I may, I may actually when October two, that's like two days from now. I'm totally gonna go. You know what I forgot to bring in here today, the hot chip challenge. I was gonna surprise you guys with you today. Oh, you were trying to set us up. Why would you do that? We're brothers. We're gonna say that for a day that you can that sounds like

a Friday Friday Friday. Yeah, I'll watch you gotta take a bite of the chip and then say it with your chest. Do it right before we walk into the hunted House. Uh, second segment here of Talking Cowboys presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company Connor McGovern yesterday and going back to the point that I was making with with Aaron Donalds, Aaron Donald's going to get his film certainly did yesterday two sacks. Uh, technically a force fumble, but

Cooper Rush landed on it immediately. Nate and knew and everybody didn't hear this. Nate Newton yesterday said he is the greatest defensive lineman to ever played a game. And he said he would say it on air two. So it's on the record for for Date Newton, best defensive lineman he's ever. That's a fun conversation. He's in the conversation. Yeah,

I said, he's in the conversation. But their names that's pop that pop up in my head, be a Cowboys and not that you could make a conversation and that that's why it's so impactful coming from Nate because he's played against some of the greatest dudes ever. Yeah, I mean LT comes to mind, but LT, did you count him as just a linebacker? He's not necessarily in that conversation. I think pass rusher, you know, But we brought up Randy White. He'sai. Yeah, oh nice. So anyway, I don't

want to dern no, that's but yeah, Randy White. He always talks about um, Reggie White, Reggie White. And uh no. He did say another name yesterday, Randall. Yes, yeah, Randall. Another another Eagles rusher that I'm blanking on. He would just he said there was another gentleman that I guess passed away or something like that. He said, had he kept playing, he would have been Keith. Keith Russell maybe

is that his name. I can't remember. I don't want to say it'll be It'd be a great conversation to have, I tell you that much. But to that point, Recover did a heck of a job. He really did. And the first play, the first passing play of the ball game, Zach Martin went one on one Mono imano against Aaron Donald and he got blown up walked backwards. Now, Martin kept his footing like a seven time pro bowler would, but he was in the lap of Cooper Rush by the time that throw was made, and it was thrown

into the dirt and it was an incomplete pass. Then you had a couple of separate plays throughout that drive where Donald was head up on Martin, head up on Martin, and then he scoots over and he goes to Tyler Smith. Oh, and he had his targets set on the rookie. The first play sack boom. He ate absolutely give me that. So Tyler Smith had his h took his lumps, but he responded. Connor McGovern didn't even have a lump. He came in there and he bawled out give him the credit.

Where credit is, dude. I thought he was fantastic. He was by the way, I was thinking of Jerome Brown. He's a great player. Played against Nay long time. Yeah, he he did a great job. And I in the pregame show, I was talking to you guys about Aaron Donald and I didn't mention he's an edge rusher too. He can just play him anywhere. And they they found Tyler Smith and went at him a little bit with ninety nine. But yeah, Connor McGovern stronger player than he

was when he came in the league. I mean, I think, and he had a little bit of help, but there were times one on one where he was holding his own in there. And that's a step forward for this offense because I don't know how long Jason Peters is going to be out. We haven't really got an update on that, but it could be more than one game, depending on the severity of that rib injury he's got. So,

I mean it was huge for mcgovernor. I mean, you your two games back from a high ankle sprain didn't necessarily look great in your week, your last game back, um last week against the Commanders and your return, and now you're asked going against Aaron Donald and you're not going to have the security blanket of Jason Peters, which was you know, one of the matchups who were interested in seeing before the Peters news came out and said, hey, okay,

let's see Peters versus Donald, center or ceter and Peters gets hurt chest injury last week, might miss multiple games. We should know more here this week, if not today. Um So, Connor McGovern it's all on you going against the all world talent, arguably the best NFL defender of all time. What do you do? You hold your own

You hold your owne. Yeah, So fantastic job by Connor McGovern fantastic, fantastic, fantastic And tyler yaddish and I said this I said this to Nick last night as well as we were boarding to head out from from La

Tyler Biaddish had a really good game as well. If you go back and you look at the game, you look at the film that he was the one that really sprung Tony Pollard on that play, Tyler Beedish, he went sealed one guy to his left and then as soon as he felt Pollard get right right past him, he went and sealed the second guy that created a huge lane for Pollard and then the rest was just on Tony to get it done. And Tony got it done. So kudos to not only McGovern but let's let's give

roses to Tyler Beiedish as well. He had a solid game. If not a good game, I'm not as quick to go to Tyler Beiodish. There were a couple of times in the wrong spot. Yeah, not so fast, my friend. Uh No, I I thought Conor mccovern consistently won his battles either either that or as a stalemate, and that's a win for me. And honestly, and if you're talking about the offensive line, Beodest didn't consistently win his battles.

He won one, then he lost one, then he lost one, and then he won one, and he goes back and forth and it's just not consistent. I'm not sold on Tyler Beyodish long term. I'm gonna put that out there. What I lost not wrong. All I'm saying, though, is that Pollard touchdown run doesn't happen. If doesn't, it doesn't happen either. McGovern seals the edge and then you get up to the second well, and then Tony Pollard also

breaks acceptable. It was accept it was acceptable. Fair. Now Tony Pollard, though specifically, continues to make these big time runs. And I mean, I know there was a discrepancy in terms of the carries, and I'm not actually calling for equal carries because I think it's one without the other sort of deal. I mean, they both kind of marriage each other. But pat, when you look at Tony Pollard, his elusiveness and his explosiveness is a weapon, and you've

seen that throughout the season. How does that continue to grow without necessarily putting Ezekiel Elliott in a box because I don't think you have to in order to have Tony Pollard feature. Well. Listen, first, kudos to Pollot for having a flu game his flu game yesterday and it was funny. I asked him about it in the locker room. I said, Hey, was this your flu game? Ear to ear grint, he was like somewhat somewhat um For those

that may not have known, he battled illness. He misspractice on Friday, and he said that robbed him of a little bit of his energy levels. He got fatigued a lot quicker. But to be able to battle back and still just deliver the explosive play that the Cowboys require and expect of him on the you know, an enemy territory was fantastic. Now, obviously he struggled against the commanders. That's not what you want to see from Tony Pollard. But this version of Tony Pollard is the one that

the Cowboys have become accustomed to. This is the one that compliments Ezekiel Elliott and fantastic fashion. This is the one that's the lightning to Ezekiel Elliott's thunder. So to your point, Kyle, I don't think it's about, oh, well, let's give Pollard proportionately, you know, more touches in comparison to Ezekiel Elliott. It's hey, just giving more touches and

kind of take what the defense is given you. We saw not two weeks ago Pollard have a hundred yard game and Ezekiel Elliott was still very much involved in that game, but it was Pollard's day. There's going to be coming up here soon. There's gonna be a day where it's Ezekiel Elliot's day. It might be Philadelphia, because guess who has fantastic games in Philadelphia, Ezekiel Elliott. So to me, as long as it's constantly working in tandem, I don't really care whose day it is because ultimately

the dove is all that matters. Does do people feel as if Zeke did not have a good day? Is that the So I think there shouts the slash players, Well, yeah, I think it's that if it's not flashing, people are looking at this is the wrong way. Yeah. The reason why, the fact is because Freaky Zeki is the battering ram. This is a swat team. He's the first dude up to the door. Boom boom boom, right, bust the door down, and then he gets out the way, and then what

then your boys go in there? Right? They got the shields and you can't get in the door unless you got the batter and stress right there with the Legos analogy, you just right, you're not sitting the second wave in there first. You need the first wave to go in there, you know. And and Nate said it again yesterday. You know he's a meat tender riser. That's what his game has transformed into. You can't expect players to keep their same I mean, Zeke has it was never just the

most explosive guy in his career. I mean, he had explosive plays, but you can't do you were he was never gonna run away from people. Sixteen he did, And that's why people keep going back to sixteen hurbling guys and how was he? You know what I'm saying something like your game, your game adjust, right, Yeah, you've seen how many players come through here, and your game has to adjust. There's things that players do earlier in their career is that they can't continue. They can't withstand that

they can't continue keep putting that out. Your body starts getting older, you start taking on more more hits, you start wearing down, and guess what, you don't have the juice that you want to have. You don't have the strength that you want to have. So guess what, So you start making other aspects of your game that much more heightened. You think about ray Lewis. Ray Lewis ran it came in the league running around, busting everybody in

their head. Ed Reid came in there, ripping and a running, coming to the line of scrimmage, running out of it anything. Then guess what, film study that's my advantage. Now I lost the step. So now I'm gonna elevate my mind more so I don't have to play as fast, right, I could make better, more strategic moves. That's where Zeke's adding in his career right now. You can't have those same expectations thinking that Zeke's gonna do Pollard things. They're

a great tandem. Understand what they how they work together and appreciate and some and Zeke average three point five yards of carey. I want to go back and see some of that is defined short yardage situations too, that he's picking up. It's the contract. People mad about the contract and all that. They don't look at the little things he does. And Michael Gelkin from The Morning News longest plays so far from the Cowboys this year are Tony Pollard forty five yard catch, forty six yard run,

fifty seven yard run. He's the home run threat. Yeah, Zeke does. And people, if you don't like Zeke, you don't want to hear about the little stuff. He does some of the little things too. If you want to quibble with Tony Pollard and maybe why he doesn't get on the field as much as maybe you want him to, look at the sack by Jalen Rams where he crushed Cooper Rush and there was looked like a miscommunication where Tony blocked inside didn't see him coming off the edge.

That kind of thing. That's why Zeke is a third down back still in this league, even though if you don't like the lack of the explosive place compared to Tep. It's a combination. It's a combination of two things. A Number one, I think you're hard pressed to find any player in nfil history, or more than five I'd say that have throughout the the totality of their career never had to adjust because film didn't matter. Troy Polamal was

one guy. He got older, he was like, yeah, I don't care what film your story, you just can't stop me. But it's also the fact that because Pollard is here. The Cowboys aren't asking Ezekiel Elliott to be that that Homer and three. So if they get it from Zeke, they're like, oh, great, fantastic, this is wonderful. But they're like, we have the other guy who's tasked with doing that. So left hand plus right hand equals a full compliment.

Why is? But I guess it goes back to your your statement about the contract, like do people not understand what he does in the passing? They don't answer question, I don't care question for a whole game and see how well you're passing down. Totally agree they don't. But it's not it's not feed me twenty sixteen Zeke hurdling guys and all that. That's jumping out of the Salvation army kettle. Like that's that's what people compare it all to.

He is still a valuable and Carlo and you know, kudos to Ezekiel Elliott and and his his level of football maturity and understanding that he's a third down back, a three down back, and he can be a three down back. But he's no longer the Bill cow in the system that also features Tony Poller. He has absolutely embraced the tandem, and yet you have some fans that are simply like, oh, well, we need to get him out of here and poulit needs to be the feature back.

For as much as Polar delivers, you know, the home run ball, et cetera, et cetera, the dirty work that Zeke does. If you, I promise you you really want to ask Polar to do the dirty work. Yeah, for three downs every single week, every single year, You're going to be disappointed. But if you keep this tandem, then you're you're going to be pleased. Zeke is still a guy who can turn a one yard run into three.

Like there's still no wasted motion for him. He does little things on tape that you're like, damn, he's moving the pile. He's still he's still a beast in there. Bottom line, we've got two playoffs right now, right for baseball baseball playoffs. Tony Potter is a designated hitter. Okay, I asked you to do one thing. One thing. I ask you to do one job. Nobody has a problem designated hitters until they do what Until they don't hit?

My problem? So Tony Potter comes to the game, you're the expectation is we need a splash play out of you. That's it here here, it is his only job. Here's my overarching problem with fans that want one or the other. Learn how to enjoy two good things at the same time. You don't have to choose. So, for example, jay Ron crist was coming back, the conversation was, oh, with curses coming back, what I'm gonna do with Dono Ei Ei.

It's always this or that, but it doesn't have to be at certain positions one team until you actually have the certain Tony Pollard is really good at what Tony Pollard does. Ezekiel Elliott is really good at what Ezekiel Elliott does. Put those two together and they formed like Voltron. Where do you fall on this? You've been awfully quiet, I've honestly, that was the best segment I think I've ever had as a host because I just kind of lofted it up and you guys took it and rant

with it. I didn't need to say anything, Honestly, I turned into a fan there. I love listening to that back and forth because it is a debate and I think it kind of falls in the middle of where you guys are saying it has to be a tandem back and forth. You can certainly have more of one or more of the other, but it's better when it

works like it did yesterday. I think if you could draw it up and you could ask everybody on the other side of the building right now what their ideal running game would look like, it would be Week five of the NFL season against the La Rams. That was their ideal running game, and they got to win because it helped your defense and it helps you beat the

reigning Super Bowl champs. All right, when we come back, we'll have the quickest helmet stickers segment you've ever seen here on Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company. Todd thought it would be secure to jog in the Cheetah Savanna. Todd believe the big Cat repellent he bought online was reliable, and now Todd is trying to be faster than this cheetah that can run eighty miles per home.

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Did you get to work on time? Yeah, but I just realized it's Sunday. Little sweets his head on home. Doctor Pepper is on its way, so maybe there's nothing better. I bet you've probably done something you investionistic and nft YAP and I don't even know what that is. It's a noun funchable token something doctor I want to use? What the pros use? How about the official men's skincare

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Whether you're watching from home or you're cheering in the stands. With Esselor lenses, you can see every exciting play book an appointment at your local essel or experts and see what es Selor can do for you. See more, Do more on Talking Cowboys. Chris Beam, Rob Phillips, Isaiah Standback, Patrick Nose walk Around, Kyle Yelmens. Is this gonna be a train wreck? Isaiah? Is this gonna be a trainwreck? I can already see the look on your face from

how we're gonna end up making this happen. I feel like it's just whatever, let's go fastest, whatever, helmet stickers. We do it. Every time the Cowboys get a win, we get this helmet it's a full sized Dallas Cowboys helmet, and we decorate it with all these smelly stickers to scratch and sniff. It's like a gold star, but a helmet sticker. And then it's the Ohio State. Yeah, but it's talking cowboys version. And of course with the Dallas Cowboys.

Who wants to start? You haven't already started last week? Did you? Did you start last I did not start last week? Isaiah started this week? About that? There, Isaia, I'm all right right, um, get us de realed early, give us time to recover. I'm gonna go right here. Okay, you guys see it his a peach. I don't know if you can see it on here, you really can't sell anyways, I'm going with the peach. Um that kind

of looks like some cheeks. Uh. Connor McGovern kept Cooper Rush from being on his heiny handled Aaron Donald and party very hand e leach. I'm gonna give you the peachie cheekie for keeping him off his cheekies. All right, I'm glad we gladly talked that through break because Rob goes o, who you got, Kyle conn McGovern. Oh, and then Isaiah just took him telling him, all right, yeah, his defense was not cheeks on Sunday, I'm gonna go don'nut just because I don't know. I'm hungry. I didn't

eat on the plane last night yesterday. Dorian's armstrong. I can't ask for more. No c rode about him last night. Defensive lineman who is not only a starter on this defense, but is a key special teams guy that is rare in the NFL. Like I said, he spotted him ten points, signed him to what a two year, fourteen million dollars deal in the off season, and uh, that looks like one of the best moves that they've made in a while. All Right for me, I'm going with the mango, and

this is gonna be real simple for me. It's going to Michael Parsons. Michael Parsons gets the mango because he only has two gears. Stuff and go, so man go I like it, Man, go the Kyle. You're just gonna just take us into the ditch here with something. Yeah, wrap up. I wanted to grab this plumb right here, but it's not a sticker. I fell for it again. We felt we did this a couple of weeks ago, where it was like, it's not actually a stick. Where's

this going? Um, I don't know. I'm gonna grab this line. This is a line. Why are you laughing? Just waiting for something to happen here. I'm gonna give it to Tony Pollard because he squeezed out a fantastic run there and got that fifty seven yarder, the touchdown. Tony Pollard in the middle of this's gonna get the line. Got it done. Cowboys, get it done. Twenty two to ten. We have a lot of fun here on Talking. Let's

just say that thank you for not policy. Everybody at home, it's probably like, why are these idiots always laughing whenever the segment comes up and trying to throw off man because of one day and dirty mind. And we've gotten to this point where it's irreversible, but we do have our helmet stickers. The Cowboys get the win. They are now four and one, and my goodness, it sets up a really fun matchup this week with the Philadelphia Eagles. We're gonna be here all week to break it down

for you. On Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company. We'll be back tomorrow. We're taking your calls eight eight eight eight five five two two ninety seven, Go ahead and give us a call tomorrow morning. We'll be here at nine fifteen Central Time, alive and local, and then we'll take you all the way into that Sunday night football matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles. For Chris being, Rob Phillips, Isaiah stand back, Patrick no C. Walker. We'll see tomorrow

with more or Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.