Talkin' Cowboys: Finding A Way

The final score down in the Bayou. It was a Bayou bounce back. Still some concerns around this Cowboys team, but we're gonna talk about that over the course of the next forty five minutes. Glad you're with us here on Talking Cowboys presented by Tostitos, helping fans get in on the game. Welcome into the Star in Frisco. Heck My Harrison, Isaiah stand back, Rob Phillips, We've got Chris Beam in the back. I'm Kyle Yeoman's and gentlemen, the

Cowboys got it done there, eight and four. It's a win. Nonetheless, even though the offense definitely does have some concerns, but we're gonna talk about it. We will. We're gonna hit it. Rob Phillips, you were down in the Superdome. How was that win on the road. Well, there is such a thing as an ugly win in the NFL. That was an ugly win in the NFL. Quickly before I took the flight to New Orleans on Wednesday, I was late

taking the kid to daycare. Okay, so I went dressed in Batman pajamas, a black and red plaid checkered sweatshirt, and dress shoes. I love that. Just the worst outfit you've ever seen. Who cares? I got the job done. That I like what you did there. That's that's how I feel about this game. You know, it wasn't pretty like you said, It wasn't pretty. Offensively, they're eight and four, and after the week they had all the stuff they went through, no coach, no weight room during the week,

virtual meetings, all that stuff. They got it done. If we're not going to make excuses for the games they lost that didn't play well, then who cares? If they want ugly last night that was That's a tough place to play, and that's a tough game to win on the road. I love that it was Charter like that. Yeah, you showed up to the Charter like that. Not exactly business cash, Chris. They probably drug tested him right away. That he's lost it. But you know, I don't understand

this whole ugly win thing. Man. It's like being called an ugly billionaire. You know what what, I'll take that any day. I'll take it however you put it. You know, it's a w again. This this defense. It's finally the game that we got for the defense to to show up and the one that we were looking for. Uh. Tysom Hill Man, I want to Tasom is it Tysom or Taysom t Taysom Hill Uh put some respect on his name because as a runner he is dynamic. Uh. You know it's a poor man's t bow whatever you

want to call him. But he did this thing. UH love the way that he passed the ball last night, you know, mostly to our team, and look, man, good luck. Four interceptions, mostly to our team, mostly to the Cowboys. A lot of that late, but I mean four interceptions unbelievable from from that side of things, And the most impressive one was the one early to Jay Rn curse. What a play from curse to to drag the toes

to make that play. But you're right. I mean, Taysom Hill can run it, but damn still came throwing a little bit more tough and he was dealing with that that finger injury too, so I'm sure that probably played was the factor he still played. You're exactly right. This is I mean, I don't know. I don't want to be deva doubted. This is what I say, this is what I expect, this is what should have happened, This

is what should have happened. This is this Saints team is not what they were when they had Winston that quarterback. Let's be honest. They didn't have Winsday at quarterback. They didn't have Kamara at running back. They don't have a Michael Thomas, they haven't had them all season. They didn't have their offensive tackles. They didn't they didn't have some of their main defensive alignment. This was a depleted team, no different than how the Dallas has been depleted at

different points of this season. And we didn't perform the way we should have. So this is a game that you're supposed to win like that. We talked about it in the pregame show. This was the bounce back game for the Cowboys. This was to get your swag back type of game. I don't give a dog on what they have. That's unfortunate that their situation was what it was when they faced us. But guess what, we took

full advantage. That's the way it should have been. We should have got a bunch of turnovers because we know that he's not a great pas. We knew that he was gonna run the balls. We knew we're gonna get ran on a little bit. We didn't get did the ball moving offensively like we know that we should have. So that was very disappointing. Dak still didn't doesn't look like dak Zeke is injured. As we talked about last week,

I mean earlier in this week. There's everything that we that we knew going into this game happened and so we should be no surprises. Ugly win or not. It's ugly because of the expectation that we have and other people have for this team. This team did not perform to the level that they should have performed, even though they got a victory against another NFL team. But you got an ugly loss versus the Chiefs. You got an ugly loss on Thanksgiving Day, versus the Broncos. Yeah, versus

the Broncos and the Raiders. I mean those are ugly losses. Those are games that you go into expecting your team to respond and they don't. And the questions that were asked before this game, where is this team snake bit is there's something going on all of the different things that we're going You talk a lot about diversity and the them going through certain things and the culture of

this team. Man, you saw it, you know they had They were hit with adversity, not diversity at adversity, and they responded with everything that was going on prior to kickoff. This is a response that I think for me, it really set my minded these to see your leaders come back,

guys like Tank Lawrence. Yep, when you get a Tank Lawrence back on the field, you see automatically with what you have in Michael Parsons combined with his leadership, skilled and what he does in the running game, this defense to me, took on a whole like they It looked different, right, So if we could squeak out some ugly wins, even though the Saints had some success. They had some success run and they had some success passing as well. But if you're gonna squeak out a win like this, this

is the one that you want. And that's a statement for your defense in the way that they play. I think I think two things can be true. Like it's it's you're right, Like the offense has created such a standard through half the season that you expect more out of this offense. And with five games to play, they've got a right. I mean, they've got to fix some things, and we'll get into all of that, but you look

around the league. Every team is going through some kind of stretch like this, and you just got the way this week went for this team, and look the way these this rivalry goes. The last two games twelve to ten, New Orleans thirteen ten Cowboys in eighteen. It's a tough game. I talked about the environment. It was kind of a weird buzz inside the building early late arrivals, and it kind of seemed like maybe the Cowboys fans were gonna have an advantage. It got loud in there. It was

a challenge for the offense. Offensively, I thought the communication was better upfront pre snap than we saw like in Kansas City, but obviously it wasn't as clean as they would like in one big specific area of the run game. We'll get into all that, I'm sure, but yeah, win the game, get to eight and four, get this mini buy and rest up, Zeke, rest up, get your coaching staff back and try to get you regroup for the

stretch run. Try to play your best football now going forward, because it's not your best football right now, and that has to happen. And you know, and I know, I know Cowboys Nation is excited. He got the dub Aiden four. This football over his last five games do not get you pass anywhere past the first round at the playoffs. Nope. Just playing it out there from somebody who's been to a lot of playoff games, it will not get it done. So that's why I'm not hype about this game. It

should have been this result. You should win the game, right, You should beat up on Taysom Hill like this, especially when he has a jacked up finger when he ready was not a great passer. Right, I think he has a little bit of that that m Russell Wilson, be honest with you, he pushed you. I think I'm not I'm not no doctor, but it's not nearly to that. But I think I think he's probably along those lines. He pushed through. He's a tough, tough SOLB. But this

is a team. This was not impressive to me. I'm just and maybe my standards are just that high, my standards for the Dallas Cowboys. There's teams like this that are depleted. Like this, You're supposed to drag these boys in the ground. One possession game, majority of the game game and had it not been for for dog Sean Payton throwing the ball on second, third, second and third and fourth down that one drive, this could have been

a totally different game. Let me ask you this, for the teams that you've been on that that had those playoff runs, winning in December is very important, very no matter how you absolutely winning in December. Correct. So you're right. I mean, the parody in the NFL is there. And if you look at the teams that are supposed to be the top tier teams and who they've lost to, they've lost to some teams that have been depleted as well.

No matter how you get it, you got to get a dub and winning in December is important, and at least getting healthy in December, and now you're starting to see some of that happened for this team. I don't disagree with you get the dub absolutely number one. However, this is something that is reoccurring. This is five games worth of not good football. I think we can all

say that, specifically offensively not saw. This isn't just a this isn't just an okay, listen, we had one game that we didn't really show up the way we should or two guys, this is five games. What's the by product? What's the by product of that sloppy football? That's you're saying. You were talking about execution last week? But what's not healthy? Okay? Listen, I mean I'll take that back. Maybe Dak is healthy,

he's not playing as if he's healthy. Okay, He's not accurate, his feet aren't said, his mechanics are off okay, and I think he would stay staying here and say that too. Zeke should have sat last night. Definitely not And I said that earlier in the week. I remember you asked me that question, is this good for Zeque or is this good? Is terrible for Zeke? And he didn't help himself last night, zeke was it hurt me to see him running, how he was hurting, how he was running.

You know, I thought about that because I was saying during the week he needs to play, they need him for past protection and even to try to run the ball. But it kind of felt like Tampa Bay in Week one, where it's like you're just running into a brick wall. Yeah, there's no way to go. So maybe, you know, maybe this rest will certainly help him. Yeah, but look what it could have been. Oh, I hear it could have been. It could have been sixteen seventeen days off for zeque

I hear you. I wonder if he's gonna be one hundred percent the rest of the year anyway, though, I will, we'll see. I do think ten days off will help. It could have been a full half month come on, getting healthy, getting healthy, and if he instead turned in thirteen carries for forty five yards, he's he's not going to not play. Let's be honest. Zeke As is a dog, right, He's there's he doesn't have a character flaw in terms of somebody that you have to have a question mark.

Is he is he committed? Is he not committed. He's hurt. He's not hurt, y'all. He's injured. There's a difference. Everybody on the end on the team right now is hurt. Everybody has something they're dealing with. Bruise um, some kind of strain, something's going on, dislocated finger. Everybody's hurt. He's injured. He's injured. And the only reason why they had him out there yesterday for his blocking ability. You could have

had somebody else do that instead of running. Letting him run out there and be gimpy on runs, instead of being gimpy on on swing routes and all that stuff. He was gimpy. And anybody that didn't see that last night, we'll look at the way. Yeah, it's definitely been at the last few games. But he's in a catch twenty two. If he plays, he plays like this. If he doesn't play, they're gonna be trying to talk about restructuring his contract

out of the season. He gets deeper than that. Absolutely. Yeah, So my question I was asking you, I believe that a lot let's take a drink continuity wide receiver position. I think a lot of that has to play in it, and especially the quick tempo. Three games in twelve days. We've gotten past that stretch. Not a lot of time to prepare, maybe more time to prepare for New Orleans,

but still missing Coop in those practices. It's just on that fourth down play to Cede Lamb, for instance, that's a touchdown if you turn your head in the right direction. Either practicing that or being on the same page seems to be a miss. But I think there were also some throws that Dak made last night that was like, you know, so look here or miss whatever it is, you get the W I think getting this break quasi, buy whatever it's gonna be, and get these guys back

on the same page. It's going to be important. They still ranked top five in the league offensively, so everything everything that we're talking about, you're still looking at one of the top five offenses. He was encouraging to finally watch Amari Gallop and Cede Lamb together on one drive that all created a big play on that first touchdown drive and a Mari it's like a Marie out there for half the game, not even half the game, kind of unclogged things. You got the forty one yard catch.

They called it a run with CD right after that, and then a great contest to catch by Michael Gallup like that. Like you said, there's signs that offensively they're gonna have you're gonna get this going. But as a complete offense, the team that was running over teams early in the season, we're not seeing that right now. Can I get that gat up play on a poster? I need that poo man. That was a perfect post, beautiful ball back the end. You've done it a few times,

just a couple. Now. The thing is about you mentioned the complimentary take a drink the football that you have to play. The offense didn't pick up the defense last night, and that's the thing going back to what you were talking about earlier. As you can be half right in the fact of this was an ugly win, this was not an ugly win because for the defense it wasn't particularly ugly. Now, they did give up yardage, they gave up the run game. We can talk about it, because

that's got to be something you fixed. You cannot give up a hundred yards rushing to a guy like Taysom Hill, even though he is very talented and he's gonna get his due. At the same time, you forced four takeaways, you had four interceptions. You kept that offense at bay. There was that no point in the game, maybe with the exception of the drive that that ended with the curse pick in the first half, where I looked at that Saint's office and said, they have a rhythm. I don't.

I don't think they had a rhythm throughout the entirety of the football game. And a lot of their yardage came on a chunk seventy yard play at the end of the game that was already in garbage time. Game was already wrapped up. You look at the scoreboard at that point they got ten points. Yeah, and so through all of that, you're like, well, they did their job exactly. I mean, you want to win if you hold him to ten points until garbage time. Two for thirteen on

third down for the offense. This is very that's the stat. That's the stat. It's not just a one timer. This is this has happened a few times. I'm trying to find it, but this this is not it would be. That's that's my concern. This is not just like oh okay, oh we can we can write that office just a bad day. This is reoccurring This is a recurring thing in terms of lack of third down conversions, in terms of drops, we're still dropping the ball offs, in terms

of still the bad location. Yeah, he has some amazing throws, but he has some really bad balls too, right, And so all these things are playing apart into what's gonna pop up down the road? What would you know why? I thought you were talking about New Orleans. I didn't realize that the Cowboys offense was two of thirteen. Wow, yeah, two of thirteen. But also let's give credit to the Saints defense. All right, they're good, and there were some things that they were doing on third down, and they

showed they slowed it down. They were playing some some coverages into fronts that I think. You see what CD did to Malcolm Jenkins. Oh they baptized. Oh he put him in the car in the front carrier. That's one of those plays. You just gotta you just shake your head like that job, young young blood got me. But

you mentioned some of the different looks. I mean, they brought two sakes out the out of the slot on the blitz, and they dropped two linebackers and a lot they did a lot of unique things on third down. The deck to try and confuse him, and they slowed up some things and you saw Dak back there thinking with the ball, trying to figure out the coverage. Look, no matter what, ugly cute, however you want to call it, we're in the dove. We're eight and four, it's December,

and we look, man, we're gonna enjoy this. We're gonna enjoy this victory. But we got some people we need to take care of next week too, Do you exactly right? But we've got five shows next week to talk about it. We're not We're not even gonna mention, not even gonna talk about Washington third down for the year. That's very good for an offense, this dynamic very good. Wow. All right. When we come back here on Talking Cowboys, we're gonna hit Micah Parsons. He was fanatical again, Suka boom, hit

it again. We're gonna talk about him and the impact that he and to Marcus Lawrence had on that defense. And then we're also going to talk about how who is to blame for the run game, who is the blame for the struggles on the ground. When we returned with more Talking Cowboys, there's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why Selor pioneers wigs to make lenses as unique as you. Varilux for super sharp vision, Essential Blue for protection, and Crisol for freedom from glare. Three cutting

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is a helmet for smellys later in the show. Yeah, we'll talk about that in the next in the final segment. Yeah, let's show smelly stickers all day long. We're actually gonna start We're starting a new side today, is that right? Yeah? Today? I know I've got a kind of like really different does it. That's a lot of different, a lot of stuff going on right there. Um, you know we can't

scratch and sniff, all right, Cowboys Defense. There was this guy yesterday that we talked about to Marcus Lawrence that is back and ready to go. But then there's another guy. His name it's Michael Parsons. He had another sack. He's now ten sacks on the year, and he's the first rookie since Joey Bosa did it in twenty sixteen to have a sack in five straight games. Micah Parsons doing it all. And I ask you guys this We saw

this when Randy Gregory was healthy alongside Michael Parsons. Now we see it with de Marcus Lawrence and Michael Parsons. Is this a Is this just a sign of sign to come, of what's to come whenever you have multiple of your your dogs on that defensive side of the football. Because of the way that both Michael Parsons and de Marcus Lawrence were able to play and get pressure, yeah, I mean that's what you want. You want complimentary football

from your guys up front. You want to be able to see those twists and stunts and guys come wide open. Because offensive lines are having to pay so much attention to Michael or our tank. You're seeing the byproduct of that.

When I saw both of these guys lining up in the A gap, I'm like, oh, man, dan Quayne is really in his bag right now, because what do what do you do as an offensive line when you see that pressure like that in the way that they're using and whether it be at the linebacker position and on that play for Jern curse Maid, Michael Parsons was in coverage and so just his man the way that they use this guy's really special. Y'all know me, I've been pounding the table about him being an edge, but you

just see how special he is. All in all, I'm calling in the buzuka because I think we are watching something just very special unfold and a special player. And I feel fortunate and lucky every time I see him in an eleven with a start and tell me that he's ours and we're gonna have him for a number of years. But you also see guys like take when they take the field, they know they got an upfair game and play with a bit of a spark because you, as DeMarcus Lawrence called him, the lone lion is out

there on the field. And Michael Parsons is special. Guys, y'all see it. Yeah, He's definitely a special. I think he brought it up yesterday when we're watching a game in the studio. I think he needs to be in that discussion for a defensive player of the year, not only rookie of the year. WHOA, no jump out the cake. Now I'm out the cake. I'm out the cake. WHOA. He needs to be in that conversation for a defensive

player of the year. And I would be loved to have a conversation with anybody, a nice little debate as to anybody who would think differently. I think he is. And I think again, a performance like that on He's doing it on Thanksgiving, He's doing it on Thursday night from a national audience. He loves it, everybody, he loves it. But when and everybody's seeing it? Now, when you name him Defensive Player of the Year, did you name him as a linebacker? As an Air Trust or the Pro Bowl?

Because which which one do you name him? I think he's still a linebacker, because look, he was off the ball last night. But but where do you want him? Where do you want him? That's that's the question. Yeah, that's the question. I know where you wanted him? Outside linebacker, Like New England calls there everybody, and I can't say

you're wrong. I can't say you're wrong. Like when he that sack he had The play of the game was third and two, fourteen minutes left in the game and the first play of the fourth quarter, first play of the fourth quarter, and New New England the Saints are on the twenty six yard line. He sacks him for

an eleven yard lost. They got a punt and that's it, and you're you're thinking, like you talked about, like how challenge they were offensively, that's the game because you knew that that Saints team, especially as banged up as they were, were not built to play from behind him this game. That was the play of the game. I don't think I don't think quarterbacks they see it on film, but the closing speed that he has, I don't know they

but I don't think they really understand until they're out there. Well, like the last night, that was a perfect sample of, hey, we can out leverage him because Taysom Hills as an athlete too, and Taysom Hill was you're not the athlete, yeah, yeah, And on that there's levels of everything. Yeah. And on that play Taysom Hill may have screamed and passed a little wind at the same time because Michael was on the quick well. A great job I mean he had on both of Hills he had. He did a great

job on that play. And I don't think people understand how difficult of a responsibility that he has on that play because he's the end man on the line of scrimmage, so he has to be able if there's a run play. He has to be able to run the play down from the front of the backside, but he also can't lose leverage. So you see him take his steps down the line of scrimmage on a play action and then get back out. Is that for a rookie, it's being able to react as being able to the trust your eyes.

Trust your eyes. So he followed the run until he saw that it wasn't a run, and then he put his foot into the ground and was able to accelerate. That's when that acceleration, that first ten yards of that forty yard dash. He's a four to three, but I would love to see what his first ten yards is

because that's the acceleration, that's the closing speed. People don't talk about it, and that's one of the things that early in training camp when we were on the sideline we were watching practices that Dan Quinn was by himself with Michael Parsons talking about going upfield and breaking back. So you got to credit a lot of the success that Michael Parsons is at. It's really the thought process

of DQ and what he's done now. The thing that's interesting about the snap counts last night for Michael Parsons he was on the field for sixty five snaps, thirty four of those were in coverage, was the most coverage snaps he's played all season. And he also was targeted twice did not allow a reception. So I mean, he's not only doing it as a pass rusher, but he's able to show that coverage ability. That was a knock on his draft grade was can he cover with some

of the better high end linebackers. He's totally answered that question. That's why I think he does deserve to be in the Player of the Year conversation, because not only is he putting up the stats, not only is he affecting the game, he's putting pressure on quarterbacks, but if he's able to complete his game by being good in coverage, it's even that much better. I got a question for you. Heck, what's up? Who would you rather have on your team? Oh? No,

stop it. Michael Parsons, Aaron Donald, Michael Parsons right now, Mica Michael because he's twenty two years old. Yeah, Michael, Daddy have to think about it. But also Diggi Zua, Yeah he got in. See. That's another thing I was gonna bring up was the fact that Parsons and Lawrence were on the field at the same time. It seemed like it opened things up for the rest of that front seven. It looked like guys like osa Chauncey Gholston were able to get in the backfield more so than others.

Did you see something similar? Absolutely, I'm just saying his quickness off the ball for a rookie, it's it's amazing. He's cat quick. But I'm really excited for this defense to get Tristan Hill back. I'm happy for these guys to get Randy Gregory back because that health and Neville Gallimore. I say, you forgot about guys I have not. I forgot about Neville Gallimore. But it's guys like that that

we're getting back. I think it's gonna make the difference on this defense, and it makes it so much easier for the back half. Do you guys think that we'll ever Do you think the Cowboys will ever have their entire defense back this year? Well, I think there's a chance you're gonna get Gallamore and Gregory back next week. Then yes, there's a chance. I don't know for sure, but they were both on the trip. They both worked out pregame. Oh wow, and they're both making a lot

of progress. I think it's possible. If not Washington, then the week after, I think it's a great chance for that. So they're getting close. What does that do in terms of our ability to stop the run? I think it ups it. Yeah, definitely to have Gregory and Lawrence on the edge, and then you could have Michael Parsons either at the second level or bring them up in the middle of that defense. I think it helps you a ton if you get to pick, if you had to pick your best D line to stop the run, who

are you putting out there? Stop your best? For give me Osa in the middle, then Gregory and Lawrence on the edge, and then Parsons roaming over the top. So you don't want Urban in here or all. Urban's out for the year. So he had, Yeah, he had the year. His wife announced it on Twitter on Wednesday. Actually yeah, yeah, yeah. And but also but also see what his absence has meant.

Carlos Watkins has came on big over the this this game, you know, played a really good game, and just talking about the guys on our line that can you know, even if forty one played last night's name goes out of my head right now. But Kamara plays last night. I still think that he doesn't run for one hundred yards. I think Tyson Hill because of the read option offense. It's just hard. I mean, you got ten guys all loading up for you to try and read this one guy.

But as far as getting Neville Gallimore back on that defensive line, I think it does nothing but but do good for us, especially with Urban being out for the man. We just see what his absence has meant in that running game and teams have been able to have that success because he was the one guy that was gobbling up blocks. And now you know, we hadn't said his name Quentin, Bohannon or Hamilton, but these guys are doing a pretty serviceable job as a one two punch in

the middle of our defensive line as well. You take away Hills eleven carries for one oh one, mark Ingram had ten, ten for twenty eight, Montgomery four for twenty one. I mean the biggest problem they had defensively were those pick routes that Sean Payton was calling to kind of free up some space in the middle of the field. I mean that was the building. Really the biggest problem. Deliberate pick route. Oh yes, a little little They don't call those no more on You're not you're not getting

that call in that place. He never really called it on the Pats over the years either you're not getting that call the professional pig blocker over. Yeah, the way to do it, and that was not the way to do so. Speaking on the run defense though, and keeping that that at bay, where did you see the biggest struggles from that offense or excuse me from that that defensive line. Was it in the interior or did you think it was out on the edge. I mean it

was in between. I mean, I know watching a film leading up to the game, we talked about even in the pregame show, those guys were going to run. They're running power. I mentioned Nebraska type offense. That's what it was. Hey, we got our we have three four tight ends in the game. We got an extra lineman, had a lot of extra big, big old line sets in there, and we're pulling two people and we're coming downhill and he's gonna take one step back, he's gonna run a draw

play and we're coming down here hill. We got two three, two or three hundred pound guys coming down at you, blocking against your your linebackers, and then I have a two hundred and forty plus pound quarterback that's coming right behind them. That's that's what they did. It's hard to stop. I don't care who you are. That's a large human being, who's strong, who's capable, who's fast, coming behind a lot

of a lot of girth. Yeah, and I understand. And we saw a lot of Ken O'Neill trying to get through those blockers and yeah, it's sometimes just old legs, you know. And that happened a lot to us. But I think once we got to the point where we had a lead and our defense was able to pin their ears back and play coverage on a lot of things, the only thing we were giving up is that cheap underneath and quick stuff. Yeah, but you're to that point.

Teams see that what happened last night, That happened with Taysom Hill. But you can run that same type of running scheme with anybody right as running back. Quarterback doesn't matter. So that has to get showed up. And the only way that you share that up is by getting penetration. If you're into your defensive lineman can't push the center, can't push the guard back into those pulling, pulling guards and pulling tackles. You're going to see a lot more

of that going forward. So as we talk about who can get off the ball, who can get penetration, you need these Gallimore's back. You need these galtration Hills back because those guys are able to get up the field and prevent those guys from pulling and getting onto your linebackers. That's a good point because when you go into the playoffs, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are not going to be plunging into a defense like that. They're not gonna be. But Aaron Jones absolutely will do that. That will go

straight into the teeth of a defense. You got to make sure that you're ready for that. And do you think that's a different read? And I'm the reason I'm saying that is a lot of our defensive scheme was

Mica spying on Tyson Taysom Hill. So I just you know, I think it changed up a lot of the difference does change up his ability to respond, right in terms of being able to play down hill now, but in terms of that's that scheme and how it works It's honestly pretty good against the Cowboys because they're not the biggest team on defense. So if you have an offensive

line that's that's with that. They're with it. They want to actually get physical physicality, and I can get and I can get your your nose guard or your three technique. I can reach them and get an edge. Now all of a sudden, I'm reaching with him. I'm kicking out and I'm letting two guys come up the middle. Now we're spreading a dog on Red Sea and have good luck coming down hill against my guard in my tackle.

And then the team, I worry about what that is. Tampa, they can do it to Green Base done pretty good at that. Lately. Green Base defense has really impressed me this year. They Yeah, I'm just talking about offensive line in the read that you're talking about. Yeah, I'm completely I'm flipping it off. I think Tampa. I think Tampa has the maturity and the patients to run that type of offense all the way down the field. And we saw a glimpse of it last night. And I mentioned

that one drive where you couldn't stop Tasom Hill. They kept running that play, they kept running draws, They kept running the counters, they kept running their power because hey, bro, come on, man had his eyes closed. But then boys worked their way all the way down the field and it was like, you can't stop them, you can't stop it. And then Sean Payton threw the ball and then he threw the ball again, and then he threw the ball again,

and it's just like thank you. But I don't know what you were thinking, because you could have kept this freight train going if you really wanted to. That's the way it felt. It felt like, no matter what Dallas did, you weren't gonna be able to stop these boy from running the ball. And then they just abandoned their banding the run for whatever reason. What did you think about that? Live? Did you see the same thing? Yeah, I mean Mickey was going crazy in the press. Boys, I mean, what

are they doing? What? You know? I don't know if they were getting cute impression? What are they doing? I don't I don't know if it was getting cute or if they just felt like because of those just things get tighter down there and they felt like they had to, you know, spread them out down there. I don't know, but yeah, yeah, definitely did not work. Whatever the adjustment was thought to be made, it was not a positive

one for the Saints, and the Cowboys took advantage. Now I mentioned how we were going to talk about the run game. Who is the blame? I think we're gonna have a big show on that on Monday, because, like you said earlier, it's not just a one game deal, this is a this is a compounding problem. And the yardage didn't look terrible, but you could tell, but yards per carry it wasn't there. It was fifty eight yards from from Tony Pollard, and that's what really made the

numbers look better. It was the weirdest rushing stat line I've said, or you could say skewed. I mean, like you said, fifty eight yard touchdown by Tony Pollard, Ceede Lamb gets a thirty three yard run. They called that a run. Yes, it looked like a screen pass to me. But so if you take those if you take those two off, where we at eighty, If you take off that eighty plus yards, where we're where's that aggy maggy?

Math is bad? Okay? What about? What about? Anybody got any any gripes about the referees in this game that you were you okay, They mean they definitely miss some calls every crew though. That's why I said, you can't pay attention to the risk because they're about that blind side. That was terrible, that helped us terrible than you. Yeah, that was. That was That was That was exactly how you We're sorry in New Orleans. Yeah, that was, but we're also now sorry at the same time. All right,

let's take our second break. When we come back, it is smelly sticker time. It's been a couple of weeks since we've handed out some smelly stickers, so we're gonna scratch and sniffle when we returned with more talking cowboys. I want to use what the pros use. How about the official men's skincare brand of the Dallas Cowboys, Jack Black. Right now, you can get the Jack Black Starter, a curated collection of Cowboys locker room favorites, for just ten

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more on Talking Cowboys. Dude, you hear the You can hear the mic just kind of tapped a little stancha sit up room that way. Yeah, there you go, all right, Rob Phillips, isaiahs Dan Back, heck my Harrison, Chris Beam. Here's our tradition after every Cowboys when we hand out our smelly stickers. This is a tradition that dates back to last year when heck My Harrison said, it's like

scratching sniff, and we decided to take that literally. So we went and got some scratching sniff stickers and we handed out as our helmet stickers for our player of the game. Heck, I'll let you start things off. You're dancing in the corner. I'm doing the cha chase like uh, and I'm sure this is something you can do. Uh, Kyle you almost You've done it a wedding a few times, but probably Hey, you him the wedding crusherson season. I

had an awesome time. My smelly sticker is gonna go to the bazuoka and I'm choosing Cherry's boy because you're the cherry on top of this defense and this one, mister Micah pass nice. Yeah yeah, now officially into the second side of the helmet. That's what eight wins will do. Man, look at that thing. You see that facial expression right there. That was dan Quinn and arrest of the coaching staff. They did an amazing job. And dan Quinn's face was just like this after the game because he was like,

did you forget not the lips? Did you forget Scrawberry? How big of a moment is this for dan Quinn this these next ten days because Mike McCarthy's not gonna be back for a hot minute. I mean, there's gonna be a little bit of time and it's ten days when he's he's out right. Uh no, not necessarily mean he's vaccinating if the coaches things different, but if Chris Bean please help us out here. Two negative tests, right, christ I think back baby? Okay, so are you talking

about somebody ready? Harry up, get back. He could be back next week. We'll see. Uh. Pineapple time, Oh, pineapple. Pineapple is my favorite fruit. It's wonderful. Let's go with number ninety. DeMarcus Lawrence d Law. D Law talked about him being a tone setter. First drive of the game, tackle tackle, one of them is stuff and then a pressure on third down rushing inside like you said, kind of some some different change looks uh and kind of

set the tone for the defense. Played thirty seven snaps, did a lot with it, and now everybody's coming back. It should be exciting to see with his defense. Kid, that was a striped sack. By the way, that ball went backwards, Chris being confirmed it did it that it went backwards, So it's backwards. Ball should have been live, should have been ours, but New York got in the way. Anyway, Oh late the game? Yeah, oh yeah. To Taysom Hill one word. Yeah, his hand was moving forwards, but the

ball went backwards, went backward. If the balls priority the ball moving backwards, there is a hand moving forward. If the ball moves fat backwards, then any bat down at the line of scrimmage would be automatically. I don't think it matters where the ball goes. I think it matters what his elbows. All I'm saying is that was our ball. All I'm saying blame Tom Brady, got disagree. I have a little peach here. Oh it's a little tiny peach. He's a good looking fellow. I do love peaches. And

he's got a thumbs up. I don't know if we can get that to focus. The camera's an automatic focus. There he goes. He's actually it is an index finger. It's just a number one up there. And I'm gonna give this to Tony Pollard because you needed one big run. I see what you did, one big run, and that's who I'm gonna give it to. You could give a ton of smelly stickers. I thought about giving this to Carlos Watkins for the pick six. I thought about giving this to Curse because he was all over the field.

But I'm gonna give it to TP because he needed the one big run and well he got it fifty eight yards to the house. He bounce it outside. What happens? Man? Great blocks that's right up in front, right, Any worry about the offensive line moving forward because they did a great job. You didn't hear Cameron Jordan's name, or you didn't heard Muri O'Davis here eat one of those guys. That's a great point they So that means that they did a great job even without the struggles on the

offensive or excuse me, in the run game. Yeah, I mean we have to we gotta figure that out. I think that's more than just a physicality thing. I think that's more of a scheme thing, as I don't want to say more of. I think they both have their equal parts in that and A will dress out on Monday, but um, you know, in terms of protecting Dak, I think they did a great job. All right, final thoughts before we wrap things up here on this edition. Cowboys

get the win twenty seven to seventeen. Heckma anything stick out well, Cowboy Nation to hope your team win, win, And they won, and I think we're all happy. We're gonna go into the clagain popping out callum wow, I like that. Cowboys Nation. Of a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do. You can elaborate more on that one. You're not where you need to be. The Dallas Cowboys are not efficient enough too. They might they might be efficient enough to win the NFC East.

That's not the goal. That's one. That's the goal number one, long term goals. This is not gonna get it done. So get to work, get into the dark classroom, figure out what's going on. Offensively, defensively, stopped the run. If you don't stop the running in December January, you're gonna have some issues. And in defensively, I mean offensively, we got to figure out where Kellen Moore went. We got to figure that out. So what is the number one thing for you that we're going to talk about next

week to correct the lack of conversion on opportunities? Okay, we're not We're not converting on those opportunities. Drop passes, big play, third down, third downs, those are opportunities that you just don't get back when the games really matter down the road twenty seven seventeen, IYO seventeen seventeen. I still got the win and it works. Yeah. Number one, get the run game going again. You might want. It's one forty six yards total rushing. Subtract ninety one from that,

whatever the hell the number is for that. That's that's what they got on the ground, minus the Tony Potter play and the and the CD and land play. But I would say players off for three days now. They absolutely need, the coaching staff needs it. For everybody to get healthy and back. This is a perfect time for them. Yea, but yeah, a lot to clean up, big stretch ahead. Is it a normal schedule next week? Tuesday, Wednesday practice, Thursday walk through and then they get into the week.

It should be normal. Yeah, that we'll back to uh, I don't know what they'll do Monday, but back to Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday practice schedule. They should be back on a normal schedule. So that's good to know, because yeah, you're right, it's been a minute since they've done that. And then of course next week we will preview the matchup with the Washington Football team as it's back to NFC's play. The Cowboys play divisional foes in four of the last five weeks,

and these are crucial weeks coming up. Can't drop these games. You gotta take advantage. We'll talk about that plenty next week on Talking Cowboys. But when we come back here on Monday, it is a wanted poster. Where is the run game? How do we fix it? We're talking about it on Monday morning, nine am Central Time for Chris Beam in the back, heck Ma Harrison, Isaiah Standback, Rob Phillips, Kyle Yeoman saying so long. We'll see you next week

here on Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.