Talkin' Cowboys: DiNucci Time?

Fiesta Plaza at the Fun Town are V Tailgate. We are gonna be out here podcast wise for the rest of the day. However, this is the first time that all four of us have been in the same place at one time. Heckby and Isaiah have never met, and we've never all four been in the same place at one time before. But hey, we're here Talking Cowboys here on a Thursday. We're gonna break down some recent moves from the Dallas Cowboys here over the next forty five minutes.

Heck My Harrison, Rob Phillips, Isaiah stand back, what's up? Can I just say that's the most twenty twenty thing I've heard this year. We've been doing the show for how many months? And Isaiah just met just met, Yeah, that just happened. All that arguing, all that argument, Yeah, yeah, they're best friends and they just met. There there's a reason we put them apart from each other too. We backed them up and put them on, put them on

the opposite sides. Is it. You're exactly right though, Like, and I was thinking about this last night, just the fact that Rob and I have been in the same place at the same time for the first time this week, all three of us were in the same place because of pregame shows, the and then Hecma was the only one that at least at this point had been out of it. But but I had been in the same place, Robin Heckman had been in the same place. And then

finally we've got all four together. So thank goodness for that. And beautiful thing it is. Actually it's a ton of fun. It's a it's chilly out here. I say it before the show said it was philly weather, which is fitting I guess since the Cowboys are going to go up to Lincoln Financial this week. And man, I'm not gonna lie they've got us set up. They've got some fantastic heaters back here, which is keeping us warm. We've got all of the fun Town RV to to go through

and walk around our setups all in there. It really has been a cool morning already. But it's also a morning following some roster moves for the Dallas Cowboys, and we've got to get into that. Both Don Tari Poe and Darryl Worley released yesterday. Of course, the report came out from Tom Pellicero earlier in the day that the Cowboys were shopping those two guys but didn't ultimately come up with a suitor, so they did end up releasing him.

They were not at practice yesterday. Rob just kind of go through the move overall and what it does for the Cowboys. Initially, well Asaiah called it. They weren't it practice. Mike McCarthy was asked directly before practice would they be there. He didn't comment on it. He said, Everson Griffin's the only move we're gonna talk about. And ultimately they decided to make that deal. That report, those two cuts, that

report was accurate. A trade did not materialize, and they're moving on and you know, at least at the defensive tackle spot. It's a little bit like the Everson Griffin move where Neville Gallimore is a young player, a draft pick, they like they want to give him more snaps. And I think it just especially for Wary and Poe, it just comes down to production. They weren't getting production there. Cheeto's coming back off of ir at the cornerback spot.

And you know this that free agent defensive class they've got, guys, it just has not panned out this year. No, I don't think any of us are surprised when you asked the question about, you know, what moves would be made, and we talked about the po Worli shake if we could put it together, and that that was the move

that was made and based off of production guys. I mean, it's uh, it was one of those things that you also talked about the interview yesterday with with Jerry talking about done Terry Poe and just being in shape, and maybe that's indicative of just the climbing that we're in. You know, guys just hadn't been able to get in shape like that. But he came in already with the reputation of maybe playing a little heavy I can eat eat No. This is this was the right move, right.

I mean these guys, they guys were there. There, there were baggage that we necessarily didn't need at this point in time. I mean obviously when you signed them in the all season, you think that you made a great move, right. You think you're bringing in some savvy vents. You know, you have a new coaching staff coming in. Um, you need some guys that can come in and kind of establish themselves. Um, they're already proven, right. You don't want to have a bunch of young guys trying to figure

it out with the brand news coaching staff. So you bring in some veterans that are proven, have good track record. Well, the bad thing about bringing in veterans sometimes is they don't have a lot of motivation to drive him once they get the check right. It's either you're a guy who wants to check or you're a guy who wants to ring right. Sometimes you get the combination of both.

But unfortunately the drive kind of is. Let the drive leaves some guys right, and they've already had good careers for the most part, and they come and they get some guaranteed money, which owners hate to give right. Veterans led to get it, but owners hate to give it. And unfortunately, when you happen to get that guaranteed money, if you don't have that internal drive to be great, to continue to produce, then guess what, you're literally out

there just collecting the check. And it seemed like that was kind of the case for Don Tari Poe from training camp and Rob you were out there practices as well, so tell me if I'm wrong. But it seemed like at least then you didn't see that push from him at that point. You thought, maybe it's because of the injury he was out from week twelve on last season.

Maybe that's gonna play a factor. Ultimately, he just never picked it back up and found it With Darryl Worley, I don't think it was necessarily a pattern of complacency. I think it was mostly just the fact that he just didn't get the schemes and had a lot of communication issues. Yeah, I don't know if it was a great you know, we talked about trying to buy into the scheme, and I don't I don't know if that was the case for all three of the players. They

they've moved on from necessarily. I just look at this draft class, guys, and it's you know, they've they've had free agent classes that haven't worked out within a year or two, but not like this. Say the names, how many let's thought it? Hahaha, Okay, so m kennedy yeah, Griffin, Yeah, Griffin, Jerald McCoy's hurt, Jared, throw them in their branded car. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Alan Smith's the last man standing in

Blake Bell and Blake Bill. He yea solid one. Yeah, But the defensive side of the ball, it just it just hasn't hasn't worked. And I hate to agree with Mickey because Mickey always says this and I disagree with

him a lot of the times. But when you're their strategy is always to kind of wade through the second and third waves of free agency, and you know, despite the names, you know, they acquired some names, signed some names in the offseason, but sometimes when they do that, there's a reason why guys still out there, and it

just it hasn't worked. I think Griffin was the biggest surprise guys, because, like we said yesterday, we were all excited about that signing, and I think everybody felt like he had options he signed a weekend to camp, but he had options. He could have. Seattle apparently wanted him. If Seattle wants somebody, I'm interested, you know, because of the way they run their organization. That was a big surprise.

But the other ones haven't. And now they've just got a piece of sin together the rest of the year defensively and try to show some improvement. I think if if I were given the chance to bet one of these funtwn RVs on the fact that the fact that Everson Griffin was going to be better than Robert Quinn, I probably would have done it. Like I was that confident in the fact that he was gonna come in and make an impact. And of course he was shipped off to Detroit for a six round pick, which at

this point is the right move for everybody involved. It's the right move for Griffin, it's the right move for the Cowboys to get some draft picks. But at what point do we look at this I don't know, and I feel like this is a question I've asked, But what point do we look at this as a coaching thing or if we look at it as just the front office thing. I don't think it's either one of those. Really, I think that the front office did their job this offseason.

I honestly and truly think they did. They did their job. They got a team together mixed with young guys, makeing some guys who've been in this organization since they first came into the league, and then they win, got out some veterans that are proven. That's what you do, right, you feel your roster with And we were all sitting here talking about how much death we have, right, I know, we talked about that yesterday. So on paper, that's all

you can account for. As as ownership, as management, that's all you can do is get guys that look good on paper, good guys who have historically looked good on film, and then guess what, you simply cross your fingers and hope that when you cut the check, they're going to continue to produce like they were prior to you bringing them onto your team and acquiring them. So, unfortunately, you can't control the aspect whether or not they decide they want to play or not. That's what It doesn't matter

who you get. They decide whether or not they want to play hard, if they want to be effective or not. Like I said, the check is the same, and unfortunately there's a lot of guys out there that will just shut it down. I guess what, whether I play hard take it. For instance, this season's not going well, right, the season's not going well. If you take somebody like a look at Seattle, like a Carlos don Lap, productive player, right,

productive player, impact player. But in Cincinnati, he could decide I'm really not going to be that effective because our chances just aren't that great. Now he goes to Seattle. Oh shoot, I guarantee you that boy puts it on a hundred. Why because I now have a chance of getting a ring. So I'm gonna give it everything that I have. And unfortunately that's the reality of the matter. I think also the evaluation process was kind of stummy

because of all the things that were going on. If you think about even the draft, guys didn't get an opportunity to do their pro days because of the pandemic, so a lot of that, a lot of that may have impacted the way that they looked at these guys.

And on paper, guys right, it looked good. But I kudos to this front the front office for it not working out and not say Bay and let's start this thing all over and get our young guys some reps because they are relatively low risk signings in terms of money. Like I said, repre there's some there's guaranteed money involved, but they're not taking a huge hit. Uh. In with the Griffin trade, they're saving three million bucks and get a pick out of it. You would have probably gotten

a competitory pick anyway. Uh yeah, I agree on paper it looked great, you know it just and I do think the COVID delay start to training camp did affect the way guys can come into camp. The ESPN report that that heck reference, Jerry told Chris Mortenson Don Terry posts forty pounds overweight. You know, that's I mean, that's just that's that's a problem when you're trying to have a you know, bang starts of the season. I think a lot of time, I think the McCoy injury is

a lot larger than what we've made. I think it's a lot larger than what we what we put attention on. Um. It was very clear um on the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball, how well respected he was, UM to his approach, UM, his grind, his leadership. I mean, you heard a lot of guys in a short period of time bringing his name up and referencing him. And I think that once he was gone, everybody was kind of looking around trying to figure out, okay,

now who now who was going to lead us? And I don't think anybody wanted to step up. Well, they looked at Poe. That's where I looked. Anyways, I don't know if that's what the same thing was in the locker room, But initially, whenever Gerald McCoy came out, or even when he was signed, it was Gerald McCoy and Doantaria Poe. It was the two guys from Carolina coming in, going to be healthy and ready to play. So whenever

McCoy went out, I looked at Poe. And I don't know, Like I said, I'm not in that locker room, So I don't know if the players said that same thing. Now, kind of going based off of what HECMA and Rob said,

and you're talking about the COVID off season. I know this is an excuse, but it could be some reasoning, maybe not an excuse, but a reasoning to get these guys out of the way for a rookie class, Like we mentioned some of these young guys Neville Gallimore, Bradley and I on the defensive line specifically and getting them an opportunity to show out because we haven't really had

a chance to evaluate those guys. Is that a big factor whenever you're looking at personnel development right now, the fact that you think you had a really, really good rookie class and now you get a chance to look at him. Yeah. Not only that, you think about the injury to Tristan Hill as well, so all of those things being relative, Yeah, you want to get an opportunity

to see what Neville Gallamar has. He's a high energy guy and anytime you look at him on film, even if he gets beat, he's still trying to get to the ball carry And I think that was the effort was what we were questioning with this defensive line. But going forward, guys, I mean, Kyle, you get your wish. You get an opportunity to see Bradley and Night so well, and even Mike McCarthy came out it was like, well, Dorn's Armstrong is gonna see a lot of playing time,

and it's like, I just crush your dreams. Yeah, A little bit. It's like Mike, come on now. But Doren's Armstrong has also been putting in some good film as well. Yeah, yes, I can't. I can't hate on Dorn's Armstrong. I just

want to see fifty six, that's the only thing. What do you guys feel about that though, Like, I mean, they're they're clearly going younger at some spots, at the quarterback spot, you're getting a starter back, you're getting cheeto back in goodness, So that's you know, that's a little different with Worley going out. But I mean Jerry said in that that ESPN report last night, we're not giving up.

They're going younger, but they obviously must feel like it's not a huge drop off in terms of what they've been getting defensively, so you know, it's this isn't a huge loss necessarily. Yeah, So I don't know. I think, you know, the division is still within reach. I think the expectations are what they are at this point. But I don't think. I don't look at this as a tank move. You know, let's just get rid of everybody,

cut bait and play for next year. No, you get rid of the guys who don't want to be on board. If they're not doing what if they're not participating and being active. You know, assets to the culture and the environment that you're trying to create, and they're costing you money. You get rid of them, right, I mean, it's no

different than your bills at the house. Right if you have if you've been having you know, cable and you need to go to stream and guess what, you cut it off, right, I mean, it's no different, right, you cut bait. So I mean to get rid of the stuff and then guess what you're still I know the guys don't like hearing about it. All the fans are like, oh my gosh, we were terrible. Right now, everything that you want out of this season is still out there

for you, regardless of how you feel. Take the emotions out of it. Heck them out. I don't deal with them, can't. I can't take it out. I don't do it. I don't do it emotion. You can win the division. If you win the division, what happens roight, You get a home playoff game, You get a playoff game, and if you're in the playoffs, you have an opportunity to win. What they're a good ring. The good cookie. Okay. So that's isn't that why you show up to play? Absolutely? Okay?

So regardless of how things are feeling, this is what you do. You get rid of the bad eggs or the things that you don't feel like are part of a part of what you're trying to have going forward, and you try to figure this thing out and you try to get these guys jump started so that you can go out there and ultimately go after the same goals that you set forth before anybody touched the field. You know, I'm just glad to hear that funtwn RV wasn't the only one that brought the fire this morning.

That's that's that's, that's what I'm hearing with Isaiah now. Specifically, though, whenever you're you're talking about this, it would be a message to say you're giving up on the season. It would send a poor message to your younger players that you want to develop, You want those guys to continue driving after the division because even right now you're two and five, that looks awful, but you're still what a half game out of first place, so you have an

opportunity to find a way to win that division. What kind of message would that sin if you didn't go for it, And I think you're exactly right. I'm backing up. You're saying, yeah, no, I mean and for anybody out there that's wondering about what this, what message this gives to the team, This is not oh my gosh, we're shutting it down. This is the total opposite. Yeah, this

is Jerry Jones letting it. And again, my belief is that Jerry has kind of has let Steven kind of take take take the reins a little bit, and every so often when things aren't necessarily going right, you see Jerry step up and say, I'm freaking Jerry Jones, this is what the heck is going on. Get rid of these jokers right here and everybody else in that locker room. Let you know, if I can get rid of these guys,

you can go too. Jerry always says, if there's a tie, I break it, you don't go right, and he does delegate a lot, but he is still heavily involved in decision making. So yeah, no, I think they're still trying to play. Look, Mike, to your point, Kyle, Mike McCarthy's message continues to be we've got to find a way to play through this adversity. If you're gonna shut this down and say we're playing for next year, he's not building his program, he's not building that culture. That word

we keep talking about, that's so important. So I said this a couple days ago. For fans that are mad because they think they're quitting or they're not showing enough effort, you can't say out of the other side of your mouth, well let's just shut it down, play for next year, because you're not That's what type of message are you sending to the locker room. Yeah, not. You just can't do it. You can't just say, hey, we're out on

this one. Hey, by the way, we have a chance to win and go in the first place this week if we if we take down Philly because Washington is on a buy. Okay, so we're gonna step aside. Take our first break here from the Tostitos Fiesta Plaza once again funtwn RV tailgate. We're having a ton of fun out here and showing off just a fantastic grz RV up here as well at the Star in Frisco. So when we come back, we start previewing that matchup with Philly.

It's the Philly offense or no flip that Philly defense versus is Cowboys offense. Flipping what we talked about yesterday, we talk about it next year on Talking Cowboys eighteen sixty five. Stetson Hats are American maid with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and Team pride two You can by purchasing your own Stetson. You can look just like how the flag guys do

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Kyle Yeoman's hat Ma Harrison, Rob Phillips, Isaiah stand back with you out here on the plaza at the Star in Frisco. We're watching Ceede Lamb highlights up above us on the big screen, and he didn't have the best game against against the Washington football team last week. Looking to turn things around against Philadelphia this week. But guys,

is we're looking at the table. There's a lot of the same challenges that the Cowboys faced against Washington coming up against philadel Helphia and now once again not one of the best defenses in the NFL by any stretch of the imagination. However, they do present a pass rush going up against this offensive line, and of course Robert Zaton Martin at practice yesterday. Huge sign for the Cowboys at least the fact that he's going to be back.

But do we really know where he's going to be playing. Yeah, he wouldn't tell us yesterday. Yeah he didn't. He didn't give any hints. Um. Although he did, he didn't make it sound like he hadn't been a huge discussion to play at tackle like consistently. I think he's an emergency option out there. And when you look at the matchup, he's played against Fletcher Cox a lot, and that's the guy you point to first. I think in that matchup he doesn't have a lot of production in terms of

status here. I think one and a half sacks, but he's still if you watch the games, he's still getting after the quarterback. He's Yeah, he's a large human being and Zach is too, And that might be the best place to put Zach this week. We'll see, Yeah, I don't know. Heck, you might be able to tell me better. I don't know if there's an edge rusher that scares me nearly as much as what Fletcher Cox brings to the table. So maybe this week guard for Zach Martin.

Next week you go up against Pittsburgh, you throw them at tackle, going up against of course, the pass rush that they possess. Man, it's getting to the point now where this is going to be our tenth rotation at offensive line, ten different guys, right, yeah, ten, that's it, and it's a it's a game with musical chairs. Man. Kellen Moore hadn't slept this week, and Fletcher Cox is probably the guy that's keeping them up at night knowing

what he presents. I love the fact that Zach Martin is back, but guys, it's it's gonna come down to the fact that offensive production is going to be necessary to kind of nullify this this defensive front for the Eagles because they are the strength of their team. So h not only Fletcher Cox, you have Derek Barnett, Javon Hargraves. They got a bunch of dogs that are gonna be up there. And for a rookie quarterback like Ben Denucci, he they are going to crowd the line of scrimmage

and do a lot of things to confuse him. Especially you know you have a defensive coordinator that has a rookie quarterback in front of him. I mean, come on, man, Isaiah, you know how it's gonna go down they go, they gonna heat that pan up. I think they're definitely gonna hit that pan up. You know. I know we're talking about how the interior presence is definitely, definitely necessary, um and how you know Big Martin might want to go up against Cox. But there's a dude on their team

by the name of Brandon Graham. There he is. He just happens to be tied for third in the NFL in sacks man. He has six sacks bad a matter of fact, And you said you might want to keep an eye on him, Isaiah, who's first first in sacks is the guy from from Cleveland. We've seen him. And who's the second guy? I think it was the guy from the Rams, number ninety nine. I think Aaron Donald. So Donald. So we've seen both of those guys. They've

had multiple like sacks, multiple sacks against stuff. So let's just hope Graham is not the leader belcom Pack after after Sunday night. My biggest fear, my biggest fear because right now, as my understanding, and he dot did not practice yesterday, sir, he's still in the prototill on the protocol. Okay, Um, so that's not looking good. So then we have been to Nucci. He's the Rickie, right U, the Rickie going against Fletcher Cox, who was probably you could probably fit

two benda Nucci's inside of fat Fletcher Cocks. So if Fletcher Cox is able to get pressure on the interior where we've had some issues, right um, and then on the outside, if we let this dude now by the name of Graham get off like he's been doing all season long, now we have pressure up the middle and the outside against a rickie quarterback who's gonna be star struck, who actually came in and play really well. But I would imagine, um, you know, I remember my first time

seeing a large human being in the NFL. You know, my eyes are a little big, you know, Julius Peppers happening to walk by me one day and I was like, that's not a human. So I would imagine he's probably gonna have the same reaction against Fletcher Cox. So hopefully, you know, his eyes don't get too big. But this presents a problem for our old line. The other thing, the problem they had last week with so many young guys in there. I think Zach will help. Was beyond

just the past rush. It was recognizing what it is Slinzer's rusher's coming free. I think it happened on the safety with Schultz didn't pick up somebody, and then it didn't happen a couple of other times, and so I think bringing some experience back will help just recognizing that. But you know what, Jim Schwartz, he's gonna bring pressure, He's gonna bring five and six man rushes. He's gonna

bring it from different places. They've got to be got to be on point sources smiling right now, knowing that even we even when we go max protect, we're not able to protect the more. No. So I mean, with all of that being said, you have to put together a game plan for a rookie quarterback that revolves around got the running game we got, we gotta find it. We have got to find some way to to get some synergy, get some production out of our running game

because it hasn't been there. If it gets to the point where we're throwing this a lot, man, this is gonna be well, I guess we're already at deathcome four level. Yeah, right, what would you define that's throwing a lot. I mean, because I'm just wondering. Last game is probably the only game where we haven't thrown a lot fifty times. Yeah, yeah, it's fair. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's that for a rookie. I guess what thirty five forty times

would be way too much. Thirty times would probably be more than you'd one. He's gonna throw out thirty times, he thinks, Yeah, yeah, he's talking about thirty times. They get behind, they're gonna have to That's been the story every game, absolutely, you know. And actually McCarthy was asked, is it hard? Is it harder to game plan for a rookie quarterback? Put together one for a rookie quarterback instead of Andy Dalton? And he laughed, of course, yeah.

Say basically said, is that a joke? I supposed to be laughing? Am I supposed to laugh at this? Yes? Of course it's it's a little bit. That's nothing against the Nucci, but it just is what. It's a rookie quarter He didn't have any reps, any reps zero with the first team offense and camp that I can remember. He got a very few periods or the second team probably. Yeah, that Dalton's running the scout team up. What happened to that?

What happened to that? Fact? This is facts. When you're we're a third man on a totem point at quarterback, you're not getting any reps. No, you're getting snaps none, well from an assistant, you know, equipment manager, but you're not getting real snaps in practice. We also haven't seen

him in a preseason game at all. That's the thing is this is a rookie quarterback drafted in the seventh round that hasn't had a preseason game, that's thrown three career passes in a real life football Gameone was nice too, Yeah, it was pretty nice. That was pretty nice. But kess Case still made at the point that this is the guy you're about to put behind center. But what goes into preparing a guy for that, Because there's no real

life simulation that you can just throw him into. You get him as much bitch blitz film as possible because Swartz is gonna come after him. And when you think about the personalities of defensive coordinators, he is probably one of a few defensive coordinators that you like, you know what he would probably he'll probably kick you in the butt while you're on the ground. You know what I'm saying, Like,

that's him, That's that's him. That's that guy. Right, He'll he'll put his his foot on your throat all day long. So he's he is literally smirking. He kind of has like that, that kind of arrogant little smirk to him, and he is going to come all day long. So when you're talking about trying to prepare a rookie quarterback for that with a struggling offensive line and a struggling offense and really just a struggling morale of the entire team,

that's a lot man, it's a lot um. You know, I kind of just leaned back on my time when I was in New England playing quarterback in in TV twelve. Whenever you're gonna play the play the Jets, you know, you just you just watched Blitz film. You just watch Blitz film all day long because you know that's all you're gonna face. So you try to get him on the same page with his lineman and being able to identify to Mike linebacker so that they can set their protections. Um,

and if you're gonna be wrong, be wrong together. But everybody needs to be going in the same direction and so everybody can be as protected as possible. Yeah. Now, he did say he was going to be the first one in the building in the last one out during his press conference earlier. But is that going to be enough? That's Michael. That sounds good. It does, right, I mean, I mean, but I mean, I will say this about him, and we watched we didn't see a ton of reps

in camp. He's got a great arm, he can make throws, he's mobile, and I thought, you know, and it's not a lot of reps in camp, but he does have a poise back there. Yeah to him. Yeah, yeah, we had it at James Madison, we got it. You know, we saw it at Toyota Stadium a few miles down the road. Absolutely. I mean, his future was in Frisco one way or another. But I like that. I mean, we've had situations where we've had to go to a guy Antonio Romo, So maybe we have a little bit

of magic here and that I don't know. I'm just trying to get more on that hope sandwich of mind. But you know, things are gonna break down, and that's the thing about de Nucci that you like his mobility and he theirs capability, but he's gonna have to make those short throws. He's gonna have to be on point with that because, like you guys had alluded to with the previous matchups, teams have been blitzing us crazy. And when it comes down, you know, but he he We

don't have to see Buddha Baker again. But but Ross Ross the cornerback turned safety uh and McLeod those guys are going to bring pressure at the line of scrimmage because you know that's what Schwartz likes to do. Uh. And so we're gonna be stretched no matter, no matter how you look at it. But it's gonna come down to can d Nucci get out of the pocket and

get some yards for us? Yeah? And you know, if you look at the Eagles run defense, it's been pretty good except for quarterbacks have had success scrambling on him. Some of the jet sweeps and stuff like that. They they have not defended those. Well. I mean Daniel Jones eighty yard. Now, the finish wasn't great, but he got eighty yards out of it. So doesn't trip at the twenty yard line rely on that. Denucci's not not Kyler Murray.

You know, he's not gonna kill you in that regard. Um, There's really not much that he can do to get ready aside from just watched as much film as possible and try his best to communicate um and be on a sam accord with his office on line. Other than that, it's football, um, and he's gonna get He is going to get welcome into the NFL this week, Absolutely no doubt about it. You know, we just hope that that

it we ends up on a positive side of things. Now, with that even being said, I feel like it has been an under talked about aspect of this football game, is the fact that Ben de Nucci has has that mobility and when whether it was his time at Pitt, whether it was his time at James Madison, he can effectively run the football. So how does that change the play calling from Kellen Moore? Because Kellen Moore's a guy who wants to throw a thirty plus times a game,

because that's what he's always done. However, it might take a little change in a little adjustments. No, you don't think so. Read option. We're ready got one quarterback and dog on who's the guy behind who's the guy behind start talking about him because Gary Gilbert, we're just making a rush in a week now rush right, Yeah, we did get Cooper Rush. Yes, sir, he's in COVID protocols, so you have to that's also going to play a part into Morris play calling because now you can't afford

for him to take a hit. It's serious, I mean being serious. As an office of coordinator, you have to protect the team and say, we have to give ourselves the best opportunity to win this ball game. And if it's giving the ball to Zeke and and hoping that we get some yardists, that's what it is. But we can't have another quarterback go down. They literally cannot because if they do, you're really in some trouble. It just seems like it's gonna be hard for the receivers to

really get going in this game. We'll see, I mean, because of the pressure that you're expecting. They ran a lot more too tight I thought last week, and then just to help with the protection, and it may be

more of a Dalton Schultz game. I think when they had success before that, the drive before halftime where they turned it over, they got the backs involved, they got the guys out in the flat, and you know, it may have to be that type of game where you're just trying to get the ball out and again, like Heckma said, try try to get the running game go. Yeah.

And the thing about it is, when we talked last week about the Washington football team game, it was important that Andy got the ball out of his hands quickly. The same thing's going to be applicable to de Nucci this week. He's gonna have to get the ball out of his hands and Ceedee Lamb is not gonna have He cannot have a repeat game of last week because he had drops that would have kept the drive going. So it's gonna be important for our guys to help

their rookie quarterback. Really has seemed since the drop touchdown pass from Michael Gallup that the receivers just haven't been with the exception of Mamari Cooper, had been on the same page. And I feel like that's a huge part of this football game. And I want to talk about

that a little bit more when we come back. We'll step aside in our final segment, We're going to talk about those receivers and how they can specifically get going against what I think is a very susceptible secondary from the eagle side of things, and we talk about that next you're on Talking Cowboys. I'm Jay Novachik, former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. Back in the day. I was a guy who always got the tough yards and

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Batter to Talking Cowboys. Go Kyle back here from the FunTown r V tailgate on the Tostitos Fiesta Plasa. Final segments here of Talking Cowboys, whether you're watching from home or cheering in the stands. With SLOR lenses, you'll see every exciting playbook. An appointment at your local essel Or experts and find the perfect or lens for you. See more, do more Esselor and guys, it's it's kind of sad. I don't want fifteen more minutes of this and then

calling at quits. I want to keep going right here every week. I'm sure, let's just do it like I'm sure FunTown RV would be down for that. Let's shot up to album mat led lights. At some point, it's got to get warm again, right at some point, I guess, I don't know, Mart, it's got kind of cold, yeah, March maybe Harrison, Rob Phillips, Isaiah Dan Backham, Kyle Yeoman's and we mentioned the last segment about these wide receivers getting off to a better start. Of course, last week

no receptions for either Ceedee Lamb or Michael Gallup. I think both of those guys have to make a bigger impact in allowing a rookie quarterback to maybe find some footing, whether that's within ten yards or just having a target to throw to down the field, or maybe because the offensive line gets Zack Martin back, hopefully that helps you

out in that regard as well. But heckmo, when you look at the wide receivers, is there something specific that you can point to to say they did this well early in the year, but they haven't done it as much so lately. I just think that was a better communication with Dak, which you would expect right now. These guys were on the same page and that was something that was missing when you talk about the receiving cord lately,

just not having that communication. And we've talked about that at length about how you know Andy Dalton on the same page. But I mean, if you if you if you're just looking at Michael Gallup, I mean the fade routes were curls. Everything that we wanted was there for Dak. Now it's finding this rhythm again with a third string quarterback, which I'm sure they hadn't had a lot of opportunity

to work with him either. But there are matchups. When you talk about the Eagles that upfront defensively, yes they're strong, but on the back part of their defense, maybe that's where we're able to expose some mismatches and Craven LeBlanc, one of their nickel corners number thirty four, is a guy that I'm looking to get Ceedee Lamb mashed up with. And also any of our guys Cooper, uh and Wilson. Any of these guys, I think in the slot it's

where it's gonna be. Because he's denucis gonna be under pressure. He's gonna have to find receivers. But if he gets any time, because they're gonna press us, he'll have an opportunity. And I believe these guys are like cover three zone defense basically, so it's gonna be there, but he gonna have to find it. Yeah, my biggest I have two things that I want to look out for this game, and that's one is going to be Kenny's receivers get

off a pressure, off off a press man. I think I think we are going to see some cover three zone, but I think it's mostly gonna be man coverage. I think they're really gonna just challenge um not only the receiver's ability to get off the ball, but also de Nucci's ability to get through the ball accurately. I think one thing we saw last week was Andy Dalton was under pressure, and you saw the ball coming out hot right.

So even though he was hitting his target and these guys were dropping the ball, it's coming out hot right. So it was it was it's not a catchable ball as we like to refer to. UM. It wasn't a lot There wasn't a lot of touch on it. So these guys the ball was getting to us marked, but that you know, these guys was going through their hands

or bouncing off their chests. UM. And now going into this game, I think they're gonna see the same thing where these guys are Pressure're gonna have he contested off the line of scrimmatrom the get go. Denuci's gonna be under drest and he's gonna have to get the ball out. Now can he Can he deliver a catchable ball? U? Can he deliver a ball that's on their front shoulder instead of their back shoulder? Is the ball's gonna be

hip in the air? Time opportunities for interceptions also? And something else My second point is what what kind of patience of these guys have with Denucci. You come out of the game when you're playing with the backup to the backup, UM, you know, you go in there, You're like,

you know, we're on We're in this together. They're in this together, you know, for the first five series and then it's like, dat man, do I want to pay attention to see how frustrated these guys get and if they continue to rend routes with the same intention uh and the same the same diligence as they would in the beginning of a game. Yeah, Kella Moore said, the biggest thing for him, he's he's got to get in the huddle and he command this. He's got to show command.

He's got to show that he knows what he's doing and he can communicate to everybody, like you said, make the make the U know, make the calls pre snap. With the Phillies secondary, I think Maddox for them is getting healthy. I don't know if he'll be back in the starting lineup. That would help. They've had Mills, They've been kind of moving things around. They've had Mills at the corner. Maybe he goes back to safety and maybe

that shorts things up for them a little bit. Um, you know, I think the Arizona game give credit to their d bees man. They did a great job in coverage and some of the pressure from from Arizona just came from from you know, tight windows for Dalton to throw through. Last week, the pressure was so heavy it was hard to really evaluate the receivers in my opinion. And again they went twelve personnel a lot to try

to help things up upfront. Um, so we'll see. But yet you guys are right, I mean, I'm just curious to see what the timing is like with the Nucci and the wide receivers. Just it's just the simple fact, it's reality. It hasn't been there, and it's and and to Heckman's point, it took a work in progress with Dalton and the receivers. Despite the work in camp that they had. Uh, Denucci doesn't have that. He doesn't have anything,

you know, a background with the wide receivers. So it's you know, it's gonna be live and see how it goes, you said, and I said, Ross, but I've meant in meals as far as the safety. Yeah, now you mentioned twelve personnel, and of course with the forty Burger offense and everything that you did drafting see the Lamb, you can have as many fantastic wide receivers on your roster as possible, but if you can only put two on the field, ultimately that takes away your advantage and having

three really good wide receivers. And I'm not I'm not referencing trade rumors or anything, but I'm just talking about the fact that if you're having to chip on blocks with two tight ends and you're having to to have some help extra upfront, it's gonna make it tougher on

these wide receivers to make an impact. Now, you can always rotate those guys in, but is that one of the big reasons why we didn't see either Michael Gallop or a CD Lamb with a reception and instead saw a couple to go to Dalton Schultz just based off of the formation in the scheme. You just answered your question a little bit. I guess there you go. I mean, you got the guerrilla glue that that tight into your

tackle in order to even get into your offense. So you talk about Graham, I mean you talk a relentless pass rush here that is one of the eleven year vet and he hadn't slowed down at all, and so on the other side of him with Barnett, they just have they what they try to do over and over is collapse the pocket, and if they can get to Danucci and to him, that's where our offense start to

fall apart. And so you know, having those having that connection with your offensive line and being able to make those calls at the at the line of scrimmage is going to help him. Just stand up right, How daunting of a task is forbidden to Nucci. I mean we've already talked about how you get him ready, but specifically getting in the huddle, sounding confident, being able to call a play, and then also going up against that pass rush.

It's not an easy task. That's not the that's not the part I worry about as a quarterback stepping into that situation your game, you're ready, you're ready to ball. The issue comes when you're ready to ball, you're confidence. You're stepping in there and the guys, the guys that are looking at you don't look confident. The guys that are looking at you look frustrated, they look irritated, they

look hopeless. Right, and you're up there, you're motivated. You're trying to get grown men to be motivated to do their job efficiently, and that should not have to be his responsibility. He should have to go in there and do what he's supposed to do as a quarterback. He shouldn't be having a motivate other grown men, and I hope that's not the case, but when that is the case,

it's very daunting. That's when things get bad. And that's why I say pay very close attention to people's body language, Pay very close attention to people's body language, because that gets really demoralizing. Man, When you throw a ball to a guy and he could he could have made that extra step or made an extra reach to catch the ball, and he just starts shaking his head and walking back to the sideline throwing his hands up, that's when you

get discouraged. And that's what you know, in general terms, that's what Mike McCarthy's talking about throughout the team. You can't let bad plays or some hard drive, some rough drives affect you the rest of the ball game. And I think I think we're seeing that. We're seeing it on defense too. You know, when things aren't going well, guys they haven't reacted to it as well as they need to, and that's why things get worse of the

course of the game. Have you seen poor body language Yeah, is that something that we've already been alluded to at this point, right, That's that's been our m O. Something happens, we get down, guys just go in the tank because it's like, okay, now we're down by two point. There's no way we're gonna get back. Yeah, two scores, how we're gonna get back out of there. You saw it from any Dalton last week. Any Dalton put some balls

on the money and guys dropped them. In his head, He's like, come on, fellas, if I was DAK, you wouldn't dropped that, you know what, Like literally, that's the first thing that comes to your mind, Like, come on, fellas, Like I'm doing what I can. I'm gonna drest. I'm struggling over here, like when I get you the rock, you gotta catch this thing, right, And he get they're frustrated because they're like, mandak with it. That would have been a little bit softer ball. And he's like, man,

with the ball touched, you know what I'm saying. So you get this little, you know, nonverbal confrontation that you have going on, and it makes it very difficult man. And then guys go to the sideline frustrated. They're talking to the coaches talking about how man I'm open on this. It gets bad really quickly. So everybody has to have a positive arale. Everybody has to have the understanding, has

to have the old old New England. At this New England, but the old New England's mentality, it's like, guess what, no matter what happens, we're in a good position and we're good. We just gotta go out there and do our job play by play, muda chains and some something positive will happen. It's got to go to your playmakers. At that point, you gotta have somebody on that offensive side of the football step up. I don't know who

it would be. I don't know if I even have the right to say who I think it would be. But at the same time, you've got to have somebody step up. In multy moments, all of them. Yeah, they're they're in a bet in that regard. They're in a better position than the Eagles because Eagles have nobody. Wins doesn't have his tight ends, he doesn't have his wide receivers.

At least Denucci has really talented guys to work with. Now, can the whole operation work together, and like Isaiah said, can the communication and the rapport be there in this short period of time we're about to find out. Yeah, that's a very good point. We got some wind coming in here. Oho, there goes the canopy above us. But it's just in time for us to get off. That's my cue, get out of here here for Talking Cowboys as we are out of time. Unfortunately, we'll be back

tomorrow nine fifteen. Wow. For Heck Harrison, for Rob Phillips, for Isaiah stand back, and for Chris Beam and everyone who pulled off this fun town RV tailgate here at the Tostitos Championship Plaza. We'll see you tomorrow. On Talking Cowboys has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.