Talkin' Cowboys: Giant Matchup

I'm glad you're with us, as always, presented by Geico, and like I said earlier in the week, it's a hashtag say it with your chest every day this week because the Cowboys have an opportunity to go to the playoffs and win the NFC East, and we're gonna break down the game in which they need to win in order to go to the playoffs, and that's against the New York Giants as they come up on the schedule this week and the Cowboys travel to Mettlive Stadium. But

first let me introduce the crew. As always, it's Isaiah Stanback, our residence super Bowl Champion, even though I might take that title away this week just based off the fact that you want it with the Giants, and so I think I might take that away just for the week. I'll give it back to you next week whenever the Cowboys get a win. We've got Cowboys inside or Rob Phillips, what was that I said? The rings in the safe hold that against me? Okay, Okay, it's in the safe.

It's not out there on your fingers, so that's good. And then we've got our professional football analyst, Heckma Harrison as always here on talking Cowboys. I'm Kyle Yeoman's glad you're with us, and you know it's a it's a fun week, and it's been fun over the last three weeks for the Cowboys. I mean, three straight wins. You're starting to find a bit of a rhythm and things are kind of looking up for the Cowboys, even though it's not certain that they're going to make it to

the playoffs. And today I kind of want to bring things back down to reality. I want to try and find a way to get better from a Cowboys standpoint, because even though the Cowboys have had a ton of success, gentlemen, there are a lot of ways that this Cowboys team can improve going into this final week of the season and then of course into what could be the playoffs

or what could be the twenty twenty one offseason. So plenty of things to get to here on this edition of Talking Cowboys, but I wanted to start off with some positive news. As yesterday is Zko Elliott was named an award winner on Dallas Cowboys dot com or the Pro Football Writers gave Zeke the annual media award, the twenty twenty Good Guy Award, as voted on by the

local chapter of the Professional Football Writers of America. Rob, You've had to deal with Zeke, I think more than anybody on this show in terms of media and the way that he kind of handles himself. What makes him stand out as a winner of this award this year. He always makes himself available. He's always the first guy to talk on Wednesday after their first practice of the week.

He's always the first guy in the conference call after the game, win or lose, no matter if he's got one hundred and fifty yards, if he's got three fumbles in the game. So you know, that's what a leader does. And you know he's not the only guy who does that. Dak has won this award in the past. Tyrold Crawford has won this award in the past, but I think it stands out even more because for his standards, this

hasn't been a good year for him. He played well last week, but I think he would you know, he said there's things he hasn't done well this year. So to stand in front the media and answer those hard questions, he does it week after week after week. Isaiah. Whenever it comes to being a player and having to deal with the media, it's not really a normal, usual routine thing. I mean, it usually does provide a little extra emphasis to I guess just deal with the media and talk

to people like me and Rob every single day. But whenever it comes to being a player, what were some of those challenges that Zeke is now overcome by just being one of those guys that's available. Um, I never saw it as any challenge, man. I honestly was always one to you know, kind of like Zeke and Dak. I had no problem being the first one there to to speak on behalf of the team. You know, it's it's an honor to be to want for somebody to want information from you. In that regard, you're not only

representing yourself, you're representing the organization. I was taught early on. You know that every time you present yourself on camera, you know, you literally that's that's a resume. Everything we talk about the resume on the field, that's your resume off the field. You know it's setting you up for opportunities later on in life. But you also it's the responsibility of representing everybody in that locker room. When they're asking you about the team. Guess what, you're the one talking.

You're the one that they're gonna they're gonna write about, but you're speaking holistically about everybody else. So, um, I don't I've never seen it as any pressure. I've always honestly been a little bit um irritated by guys who come a ross kind of harshly in a media and and and even in my time in New England, you know, I respected how Coach Belichick did. He was available, he

just didn't give you any information. Yeah, And I mean going off of kind of the past award winners, and Rob had already mentioned a couple of them here, but Dak Prescott, Tyrone Crawford are the more recent members that have won this award. Brandon Carr wanted in twenty sixteen Jeremy Mincy was a back to back winner. Even des Bryant won it back in twenty thirteen. So anybody can win this award just based off of the fact that,

uh that you're available and real with the media. And I think Ezekiel Elliott is one of those guys that is real. Heck bum because no matter what kind of game it was, he's gonna give you the truth and he's gonna tell you exactly what he's thinking, even though there might be a couple of sprinkled in cuss words or things like of the sword or frustration in the middle of there. No, I think zekeel take that award good guy Award. That's that's a lot. I mean, that's

that's good for him. Man. You just think about all the other things that's been written about zeke in the past and him maturing and that being a part of it. And I know this has everything to do with the media, and I'm just just kind of linking this into his good behavior lately this year. You know, there's been so many things that's been said about him, and so for him to get the Good Guy Award, I'm sure he'll take it. I agree, and congratulations to Zeke on winning

this award. But let's talk about how to improve for this Cowboys team going into this matchup with the Giants. It's a noon kickoff coming up this weekend and on Sunday, and then the Cowboys are gonna have to wait around until Sunday Night Football to figure out their NFC East fate, So lots of waiting after that's over. Should the Cowboys

get a win? Now? I want to talk about the defense and start things off, because yesterday I went back and listen to our show, another good show I thought from you guys, and there was a ton of great insight and analysis there. But we were really positive, thank you. Yeah, of course there was. There was a ton of positivity. And I'm not saying the positivity is wrong because they

forced to tend turnovers over the last three games. But there are ways to improve this defense, rob and there's ways that the Cowboys could find a way to be better defensively because right now there's only what two three good players solid above average players on the defensive side of the football that you could argue. But how did they somehow improve this defense? Going into an offensively challenge

New York Giants team. Well, I think the obvious one would be just you have to prevent any type of big play down the field. I mean that was the big ice or in the game last Sunday was the eighty one yard touchdown to Deshan Jackson. And you know that was an operation in that game. But we have seen that happen at times throughout the season. I looked it up, and you know, I think they've had it's over a half dozen games where they've had they've given up a big play of forty yards or more and

I stopped there. But there's been plays of sixty yards and eighty yards and you go back and look at that one and it looked like, yes, maybe Cheeto got beat, but there was some communication issues too back there, and that's usually what happens, and uh, they've got to lock that down. I think that's specific to this matchup because this is a Giants team that buy and large does not create big plays down the field. They don't really create them in the running game, they don't create them

much in the passing game. And you can't give them something. You know, you can't allow them to have a chunk play to get a touchdown because I think they're only averaging like a touchdown and a half per game right now or maybe the entire season. They're just not They're not manufacturing points. Heck, no, not at all. I mean the lower scoring team in the league is the Giants. I think the only time that they've ever scoring scored

thirty points was against US. Okay, so that's uh back man, Yeah, yeah, you know, Kyle, I think I think that positivity that you're talking about it is that for the first time we saw we're not for the first couple of times. Now we're seeing our defense get hit and hit back, you know. You know, as they even talked about their having close to five hundred yards, but the Philadelphia Eagles having close to five hundred yards, but that was all due to the fact that we had a lead and

obviously we weren't pressing the same. But the numbers at the end of the day point to a defense that's still struggling with still last in the league against the rush, right we're right now, I think passing, we're somewhere around twenty seven twenty eight. But then when you turn you look at the turnover differential and what we've done with that, We've shot all the way up to ten. I believe Rob. If I'm wrong, please help correct me. But that's that's

just indicative of how fast things can turn around. And luckily for this defense, they have showed up some of those problems that they have. You still have the communication issues there and you saw that on the bomb to Deshan Jackson, but after that, they got a lot of that together and we've been on we've been on our God. Jalen Smith in coverage, I thought he did a pretty day.

I thought he did a pretty good job in coverage against their tight ends and playing underneath, and those are just the things that he's gonna have to continue to do this week, especially with Ingram and Meantlife Azam Yep, totally totally agree. Um, And I didn't mention that yesterday. Heck, I'm glad you brought it up, but I wanted to make sure we gave Jalen Smith some kudos. I know we're always on his head beating them down a little bit. But he did a heck of a job. I thought

he was. I thought he was a lot more sound in his coverages. I thought he was a lot more sticky every time the ball was on the ground. Seemingly he was around on the ground with a cover or

somebody up or jumping on the ball. So I thought, I thought he played one of his better games, and I think they had I think they had a lot to do with his with not only I know Sean Lee was rotated in there, but like like I mentioned earlier in the week last week, Joe Thomas, you know, when he knows somebody else's really a really athletic next to him, I feel like he has the freedom to go go do more. Um. But I thought they played

well collectively. Like like I said, they did give up too many yards, and you know, as Heckman said, you know some of that was was in was in a slop time. But it was a pretty competitive game, pretty competitive game, and especially we had to come back in the first part. So you know, we with those those splash plays like like like Rob said, we have to

do away with those, you can, you can. There aren't many teams in this league that are patient and enough um and and consistent enough to sustain drives without trying to do something outside of themselves. Most teams get they won't do the twelve thirteen, fourteen fifteen play drives. The

coordinators just don't have that patience. Most coordinators want to take a big shot, and if you cannot, if you can be sound in your in your assignments, if you can keep everything in front of you and you can tackle well like we've been doing and make big hits. Whenever you have opportunity, whenever they whenever they decided to pull that trigger, that's when you That's when you hop

an opportunity. That's when the quarterbacks sitting back there a little bit longer than he usually does to give your alignment more time to get back there. That's when they throw all the ball up there because guess what, man I, we haven't had a big play all day. We got to force it in there, and that's when you get the big interceptions and a tip ball. So thats you just have to position yourself to be patient enough to wait on those opportunities. But you have to play sound

defense in order to be in those positions. And whenever it comes to Daniel Jones, he's not going to be one of those quarterbacks that beat him beat you with his arm. One percent of the time. He has the ability to throw the football, but it's not necessarily his strong suit. His strong suit is being able to run

and having that dual threat ability. Now, Isaiah, I kind of want to get your input on something that Rob said initially, and that was about the miscommunication on the back end in the secondary, and we thought maybe that had kind of subsided a little bit. And it's sure, it is better than it has been earlier in the season. It's not Seattle where it was every two plays either Tyler Lockett or DK mattcap was running free behind the defense.

But we saw it again against Philadelphia and de Sean Jackson found his way open and there was some miscommunication between Cheeto and Treyvon Diggs and there was kind of that back and forth. Where does that come from, especially at this point in the season, your week's sixteen weeks seventeen, should those miscommunication issues start kind of subsiding a little bit more so instead of being so obvious on film,

it should subside. However, it has whenever you're playing top, whenever you're playing like like quarters defense, like our defense likes to play for whatever reason might know one likes to play quarters defense. And we have broken that down in the past where every every secondary guy has a quarter of the field. Well, when when you run those kind of defenses, you leave yourself susceptible to big plays.

Reason being, quarters coverage is supposed to stop people from being or to have big plays against you, right, because I have four guys dedicated to kids to stay in deep. However, in quarters coverage, the confusion comes when you start running over routes, which we tend to see a lot, right, Every team has run a lot of over routes on us.

The reason why that causes problems is because you, as a natural instinct, you want to stay with that guy that's crossing your face, right, you want to stay with that guy he's crossing your face. Oh crap, I can't let him go over there. But responsibility wise, you're supposed to pass it off, right, You're supposed to pass it off. You're supposed to say, hey, hey, man coming across. Right, whatever it is, however you communicate. You need to get

that communicated across. And our guys are still having problems with that, and every team is going to keep trying us in that regard. We talked about it yesterday in film room. Whenever day the guys go to single single high, Kyle, you know guys are there, they're going to try to flood us. Coach Garrett's gonna try you. He's going to try to overload you on that side, and they are going to try to stress whoever has the responsibilities of

that part of the part of the secondary. And this is something that we have to continue to work on it and it just comes with reps. It comes with overcommunicating. When we say over communicating in football, there's no such thing. You can't over communicate. I don't care if they know what the heck we're doing. Hey watch him, Hey, he's coming to your cross. Over communicate so that you can

make sure that those mistakes don't continue to happen. That's that's good stuff and that and that's really important this week too, because we got to see what their situation is as safety. You know, Darian Thompson had the concussion in the game. We'll see what Xavier Woods his status is with the ribs injury. So you saw Jordan Lewis back there. I thought I saw Treyvon It's two. I'd have to go back and look at it again. But they had to shuffle some things back there, so they

they may have a different group. You know, and communication even more key that way. I'm looking at games in which Treyvon Diggs and Cheeta Ousia have played together, and I only see three. I see the opening week. Oh no, there's four. So first two weeks of the season against the Rams and the Falcons, and then the last two

weeks that we've played in that San Francisco and Philadelphia. So, Isaiah, when you're talking about reps and you're you're talking about that communication, I mean, that might be one of the reasons why there was miss communication between twenty four and twenty seven because they've played a grand total of four

games together. But heckma, whenever you're talking about this this secondary and you have that safety up at the top of it, and it's a big question mark right now with Darry Thompson, and of course guys could potentially get healthy, like an Xavier Woods back there, But who would you want to see next to Donovan Wilson in the secondary? Who would you like to see fill in that role? Because I mean, I know there's Reggie Robinson that's been

back there and has butched the safety. There's a couple of different options here, but is there anybody that sticks out well? I mean, if for the coaching staff, I know that they're locking in their game plan today, Xavier Woods would be the senior leader there. I think, you know, he knows the defense, and that would be the obvious choice for me, is the guy that's been playing in

that position all year. But just the communication, You're right, Isaiah, It's all about these guys overly communicating and establishing that during the week so that when you do come to the game or you do there is a formation that is foreign to you, that you're able to talk your way through it in real time. And believe me, those guys are hollering and talking to each other the whole

entire game. And so I just felt like with that play and in several plays that teams are going to test us with, if these guys, you know, get beat on the play, just go back to it, look at it on the board, and get it corrected, that's where

we've gone wrong. And I think that the coaching staff has done a really good job of getting that confidence in these guys so that they can play fast, play free, and assignment sound and so all of those things I believe are relative, and I think that's why so equally important going into the future for this team, because if you're gonna keep the same defensive scheme, you're gonna have to have guys that have played that scheme as well.

And so look, no, I don't know, like we're only dealing with what's going on on Sunday, but like I said, just looking into the future and looking at how we're gonna play this to the you know, looking into the future and how we're gonna play it. Having guys like Cheeto, having guys like Digs to be familiar with each other, and this being the fifth game that they play together, it's going to be very important for that communication that

we're talking about. Isaiah. I would like to take a quick moment to put you on the single cam to to have you just plead your case one more time for Reggie Robinson to see significant snaps. You got about ten seconds here go, Reggie. I need you to come up talk to all the coaches and say, hey, give me a chance or give me up out here. Now I'm saying no, I don't don't say, oh my gosh, it's a rookie, not guy. No, man, I hope they gave him opportunity. I know he's been getting some reps

here and there. But you know, as you guys said early on Hickman, when I said, no, don't throw some of these guys out there to the wolves. Don't throw these don't you know, just throw this boy in the ocean to see if he can sit. He didn't have, though he did have the punch out right on. He did, he did, yes, and CJ was out of bounds to

recover it by just one toe. And it got me thinking, it's like, man, he did that kind of stuff at Tulsa, and I don't know what they're seeing in practice, because like we couldn't seen him on special teams maybe a little sooner, if not safety, maybe special teams. You know, maybe he's just a gamer. He's just a gamer. Guys. We just gotta find a way to be a gu We're gonna go ahead and take our take our first

break here on Talking Cowboys presented by Geico. When we come back, we're gonna start previewing the Giants offense and the Cowboys defense. I'm gonna ask the question, how many guys on this defense do you think have have up their stock since the beginning of the season and heading into the final week of the season. We'll talk about it next year on Talking Cowboys. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why Selor pioneers wigs to make lenses as unique as you. Very Lux for super

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And what is a say it with your chest? Week here on Talking Cowboys, and we're about to say it with our chest. Previewing the Cowboys and the Giants. The Cowboys got the best of the Giants the first time around, even though they left with kind of those bubble guts that we talked about oh so often on this show. Thirty seven thirty four was the win against the Giants. They won that game thanks to a game winning drive

from Andy Dalton. However, they lost Dak Prescott in that game and it resulted in one, two, three, four straight losses heading into the bye week, following the Dak Prescott injury losses in which you scored ten points, three points, nine points, nineteen points along the way. But since the bye week, Cowboys are four and two and they have a chance to make the postseason with a win this

week in a Washington loss. But we mentioned this Giants offense and I wrote about this yesterday and Big Picture Gentlemen, which kind of previews the week and the five story lines from each team. But it's a unique opportunity for Jason Garrett as the offensive coordinator for the Giants, coming in as really kind of on the hot seat again. I mean second straight ear he's been on the hot seat. He's on the hot seat last year, He's on the

hot seat as a coordinator this year. But he not only has a chance to save his job and go to the postseason, but he has an opportunity to do it against his formal organization. Now, heck, well, what do you think about Jay Gez? Is there any extra motivation? I know he's gonna say the right things. He's gonna talk about we've got to do what we can do and we can control what we can control. But is there any ounce of Jason Garrett that has that revenge mind or that revenge on the mind going into a

matchup like this that Kyle. It's really strange, man, the dichotomy at work between both of these franchises going into the scenes in one being that we add Mike McCarthy and he's the piece that gets us to that championship that we're looking for. And then then Joe Judge in New York kind of rebuilding with Jason Garrett, and now here we are playing for potentially the NFC East. I mean, like,

I for one, have always liked Jason and Garrett. I know there are a lot of people that have opinions about him, probably Isaiah, he'll say that, talk about that, But you know, I just think that, you know, this is the parody, and it's wonderful that he has this opportunity against his old team, and we have an opportunity versus him as well, And so I'm not really worried about him per se as I am, you know, some

of the other pieces in their offense. I know that, you know, as far as the scoring for New York has been completely down, and maybe that's what's gonna put him on the hot seat. But if the Giants are able to squeak out of victory this week, I think he may be in a position to save his reputation or his job. Yeah, I'm just I'm cycling through all

the jisms I've heard over the years. You know he will asked that question, Kyle, he would say, I'm focusing on having a great Wednesday, and that's the mindset he's got to have. He's got it, He's not. You know, is there an ounce of him that wants to beat the Cowboys as a competitor. I'm sure there is, but yeah, I mean, Heck said it like they're trying to get

their their house in order offensively. I mean, I think they've got twenty six points scored in the last three games, and you know, I think he'll be back there next year. I think, you know, we're seeing a little bit of this here in terms of the short offseason, and they've lost a lot of their their key guys. You know, losing sa Quon Barkley. You can't understate it because you know they're still trying to build up that offensive line

and he can mask some of that. And while Wayne Gallman has done a good job running for them, they don't have sae Quon who can get you two yards, three yards, sixty yards. You know, that's that's been the biggest thing. And they're still I think they still need upgrade some of their personnel that they'll try to do that, and he's trying to work through that. But we the Cowboys just can't hand them, like I mentioned earlier, just

can't hand them easy opportunities. I think they I want to say, there was a pick six early in that first game where they scored off of her early turnovers led to a scoopid score. Can't make it easier, it was, That's right exactly. So you just you can't make it easy on JG. This week, well, both teams I think had a scoop and score because Anthony Brown had to scoop and score off of the DeMarcus Lawrence strip sack.

And then I believe one of their linebackers I can't remember who it was went back and I think he picked it up. Yeah, and that first quarter and it put them up was seventeen three or fourteen to three or something like that along the way, so they were up multiple scores. Isaiah. How they how do they improve that offense? Because I know you've talked about it. We talked about it in film room yesterday. They know how to attack the holes do they just not have the

personnel to do so. I don't think they have the offensive line to do so. As much like Andress Like we like our scenario was we have all the skill sets, all the skill personnel out there, but you know we didn't have the office a line for that series of games. So it makes things hard. Doesn't matter how much talent you have out there when you can't get them the ball. So I think that's the issue that he's ran into. Majority of JG's stuff is he runs a lot of

mirrored concepts, a ton of mirror concepts. And I think he's gotten better, he's improved and expanding his repertoire, uh since since those days that I was with him. But he still likes to sit back and push the bar down the field. He likes to find the gaps in the you know, in the seams. He has to find the seams in the coverages and things of that nature. So a lot of his stuff he needs time. He doesn't want to dink and dunk. That's not his style. He likes the big shot and you know that's that's

his internal battle. So as long as we can get home and beat up on this officive line there, I think he's going to continue to struggle because, like you guys mentioned, he doesn't have he doesn't have san quandline on him. Yeah, that's that's very important as there and getting home this game. Uh, Tank Lawrence was able to get this strip sacked. But just not just negating the big plays from these guys, it's gonna be very important. We can't give up another one of those seventy five

yard bombs. Uh. And also keeping Gallman in check. And you've seen that rob Over the last couple of weeks, Goldman has had like twelve Carris twenty seven yards. But when you go back to the Seattle game, which they beat Seattle in a game that they just muddied the waters with the running game, Wayne Gallman had like one hundred and twenty six yards. It just makes everything run

so much more efficient for the Giants. And so for the Cowboys again giving up the most yards against the rush in the league, that's very important if they want to get a victory because Gallman can gash it. And if you want to give Jason Garrett credit for something in particular with the quarterback situation, it's Daniel Jones's turnovers

are down. You know, I think his last four or five stars he hasn't thrown a pick, and sometimes that's you know, that's been their achilles heel is he'll try to make something happen, as you guys mentioned earlier, try to try to step outside yourself to finally get something going downfield and throw a pick. And sometimes the protection is a part of that too, the fumbles. But they've been better in that regard. They just haven't been able

to manufacture yardage and manufacture points. And I do want to correct myself after I kind of corrected Rob earlier. It was an interception return forty six yards from Kyler fact Roll that actually put the Giants up fourteen to three at the end of that first quarter. So it was an interception return for a touchdown from the Giants defense, and then the fumble recovery returned for a touchdown for

the Cowboys defense. But yeah, and also in the game earlier this season or excuse me, Daniel Jones did not throw an interception there as well, he had the fumble, So there's opportunities there, and he's going to put the ball on the turf, it seems like. And I know that was something that Isaiah was really adamant about the first time we played the Giants, was get after Daniel Jones and forced him to force turnovers. But really it

was only the one. It was the one turnover that proved to be the game changer because it tied the game at seventeen. And then after that it was back and forth with Dak Prescott until he got hurt, and then Andy Dalton came in and went nine of eleven and led the game winning drive. So there was that back and forth in that game. Isaiah, you just cannot allow this Cowboys team to beat themselves this week, right, No,

I just keep doing what we've been doing. We've been really good in terms of taking care of the ball. I mean, we know when Zeke gets the ball, we know what's on the forefront of his you know, he's he's he's he's not gonna give the ball up again. I don't know. Last game, there's a couple instances and I was like, ooh those what they're going for the cameras and it's kind of shaking a little bit. Yeah yeah, not today, So you know, I don't I'm not concerned

about Zeke anymore. Andy Dalton. You know, that's probably about one one ball per game that I think he probably, you know, tries to force it. You know. For so for the most part, he's being the savvy veteran that that knows, hey, we're gonna have our opportunities. He's not trying to force things. He I think he has established a trust with Kellen Moore. Now that's the thing. When you're a quarterback, when you don't trust your offer as a coordinator, you're like, man, screw it, I'm just gonna

figure it out myself. But when you trust you, when you trust your off as a coordinator, now guess what. Okay, I won't try to force it in this window because I know we're gonna have opportunity to move to chains and he'll give me the opportunity to throw it down

the field. So that's that's gotten better. And then on the defenside of the ball, like you guys already said, don't give up the big play, keep everything in front of you, make sound decisions, make you know, good tackles, square up on some guys, and then when you have opportunity to pop somebody in your chests and pop the ball out it. That's what we've been playing, That's how we've been playing the last few weeks. If we if we improve at all in limiting these guys to yardage

and these games might turn to blowouts. And Daniel Jones, and Daniel Jones with the hamstring injury, coming off of the hamstring injury, he may be a little bit less. Yeah, he may be a little bit less of himself. And in the first meeting that we had, we were worried about that man because Daniel Jones, you know, called Daniel Dimes, but he has some jets. You know, he can get loose on you. And with the hamstring injury, I don't

think you have to worry about that. And I mean I wouldn't just leave the open the red sea for him and dare him to do it. But at the same time, that's just not that worry that you had there before with his mobility. And so this Cowboys defense can definitely keep it in front of them. And again, just no cheap penalties, nose pass interferences and don't help a struggling offense get up on you. But with cheap penalties and the Cowboys. The more thing about the turnovers too, Sorry, Kyle,

go for one more thing about the turnovers. Just you know, we've been on the coaches this year, you know, and and a lot of people have in terms of special teams defense, but even Kellen Moore too. I'm gonna give credit to John Fossil for some of the turnovers they've been able to have, and Isaiah mentioned preventing them offensively every Wednesday Thursday, they drilled the hell out of it.

John Fossil's also the fundamentals coordinator and they do a lot of drill work on ball security and stripping and doing all those things. So maybe maybe over fifteen sixteen weeks that's that's helped. You got to give credit to the players first, but but I think Fossil's involvement in

that has been has been key too. We think about we already mentioned today Reggie Robinson punching the ball out that was on special teams well last week or I guess two weeks ago now against San Francisco Dorin's Armstrong Force and a fumble that was on special teams. So it has resulted in game changing plays, and hey, if your defense couldn't get your turnovers, at least your special teams unit is trying to do something for you. And that's something that I know the Cowboys are looking to

continue going into week seventeen. Also not to mention. The Cowboys are back on the practice field today, like you said, and we'll see what the injury report looks like. But on that defense, I think the health of the secondary is the biggest key component right now. Is Xavier Woods going to be available, as darry and Thompson going to be available. Are these four corners still healthy enough to where they can continue to build that continuity and play

together as the top four players in that secondary. Those are all important questions that hopefully we'll be answered today and tomorrow via the practice field. But we'll have to see how that is. But we'll update you tomorrow on what that ultimately ends up being. When we come back, you're on talking Cowboys, stock up, stock down? On the defense, who was improved in twenty twenty and who is going to be a key member of that defense in twenty

twenty one. When we come back after the break, we're back in the tasty treat that's sweeping airwaves and taste buds. It's new Doctor Pepper and creep Soda. Let's take a listen, Doctor back and cream soda. Is he a new Combonut's music to my ears? Okay, Doctor time Pray music to my ears and mouth new Doctor Pepper and cream soda A delis. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why SLOR pioneers ways to make lenses as unique

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Don't you think we should get electricity and stop using candles to see it night? It's just electricity lights up the room fast. It's more reliable, than candles blowing out and people seem to love it nationwide. Candles, Dar, did you just run into the wall? I have a new candle. Please. Historically, switching to new technology is a no brainer. Today it's AT and T five G fast, reliable, secure and nationwide. Switch to AT and T five G. It's not complicated.

Five G requires compatible plant may not be in your area. See at dot com slash five G for you for details. Back to Talking Cowboys. Final segment of Talking Cowboys Here on this Wednesday, presented by Geico and always brought to you find Bows Quiet Comfort earbuds. With both Quiet Comfort earbuds, you can experience audio at a whole new level. Both Quiet Comfort Earbuds are the official earbuds of the Dallas Cowboys and heck, my Harrison, what do they sound like?

It's like a symphony in my head, Kyle. It never changes, it never gets all. Thank goodness for Bose Quiet Comfort Earbuds. I wonder once again, I've asked this on a couple of occasions, but if a representative of Bows could could get in touch with the show. Let us know if you like that or if you don't like that, because we have a ton of fun with it, and we love bows, so we're not we're having fun. So I want to just know if this is acceptable or not?

Uh now, Isaiah, Isaiah's ruggling right now. Yeah, can they? Can they send me a pair of bowses too? I'm feel left out right now in the I feel like I'm like the second cousin that has to say in a tent outside of the outside of sliding doors, you know what, and somebody get in touch with bows, do us a favor both as the Lord is going to hook us up here in the next couple of moments, so I guess bows could do the same thing. But final couple of minutes here and I want to talk

about stock up stock down. We only have like five or six minutes left. I guess we could go a little bit over, but Mike McCarthy's got to talk today. So Isaiah, we're gonna start with you. I want you to name three players on the defense, three players this season that have upped their stock but are but maybe not necessarily cornerstone players. They can be, but that's not

what I'm asking. I'm just saying, have up their stock here in twenty twenty one or excuse me, twenty twenty just talking about yes, just talking about Gallimore up, Okay, Gregory uh love it, Donovan Wilson up. So those are the three that I think I was kind of right in there, Rob heck wol Do you have anybody to add to that list in terms of stock up? I'm say, Jay Lou. I think George Jorge Lewis has been playing a lot better over the last couple of weeks, and

you know, toughness all that. I would throw him in there as well as a stock up. Yeah, that was where I was going. He's probably been their best corner of the last month. And also, not to mention, in the past, he hasn't had those opportunities to be a fully rotational player, a full starter, things of the sort, just based off of the previous coaching staff. He was never really in that conversation. So I would agree, I would say stock up. So those are four guys that

have improved their stock. Now I'm going to flip this question around for you, gentlemen. We're gonna start with Rob on this one. But who is a cornerstone member of this defense that you know not only has he been good in twenty twenty but he will be back and be a Cornerstone member in twenty twenty one. DeMarcus Lawrence. Okay, is that too obvious? Yeah? I mean I'm trying to think who's who's Cornerstone like Cornerstone player defensively, because man,

there's gonna be some change back in the secondary. A lot of guys up for free agency. I don't know if they've got a bunch of Cornerstones back there. Cornerstones, um Man, you know what, I'm gonna throw Randy Gregory into that mix because I think if Randy Gregory is not a star starter next year, he got a little bit of an extension, right I think he signed through next season, and I think he's gonna play even more meaningful snaps next year. He's he's around thirty thirty five

snaps a game right now. That's gonna bump up next year. Okay, heckma, what do you think? Yeah? I want to say Randy Gregory as well. I'm hesitant to say that obviously because of the past and suspensions, but I think this guy has a new lease. I think he sees his potential and knows what he can do in the NFL, and I think the time away made him appreciate the game even more, and that's prayfully, that's that's what his realization is on his ability. But thank Lawrence as well. I

think he's had an off year. He started a slow, but you can see how ninety when he's on, he can influence the game. Isaiah had to go against you, guys, I don't see d law as a cornerstone player. I see him as an important player, but I don't see him as a cornerstone. I don't think that you can. I think you can start the season next year and not have him and be all right, especially for what he's demanding financially. I think that Tryvon Diggs is a

cornerstone player for you. I think that what he's done this year, he has a lot of growth. But I think that that's somebody that you go into this draft class and you say, Okay, we need one more guy, right, we need one more guy because you know the leaps and bounce that he's gonna make from year one of year two, the players that he faced, what he all, the adversity he's overcome this year, He's gonna make huge

strides one of the next year. So this offseason, you focus on getting one additional corner in a safety and you're feeling real good about your secondary. So if I had to say anybody's a corner stone, I would say Trevan because I think more so because of the upside. I would agree with you on Diggs. Yeah, that certainly view him that way. On d Law though, I know what he's making and it's for me, it's kind of like the Zeke thing. The contract is what it is.

But if they if they didn't have him in the lineup, where would their run defense. B That's that's my that's my question that I struggle with. I know a sacks aren't there, but it's it's a lot of the little stuff too that he gets dusked. Yeah. And the only reason why I say that I don't agree with that, Rob. I disagree with you on that which we don't do that often is Zeke. Zeke's success depends on a lot of other guys, right versus d Law he hate most

of the time. He has one on one matchups most of the game, So I haven't seen that production, that level of production to justify what he's asking to get paid. That's all I'm saying I'm not saying he's not a good player. I'm not saying all that, but like for what he's getting paid, there's other dudes that you would go out there and get. They completely changed a lot

of money. They changed everything that that guy did. So you're gonna have to if we're handing out mull against to anybody, d Laws definitely gonna have to get one because they changed his game completely from where it was before. And so you know, still and Rob, you say, where will we be in the running game had he not been there when you finished last in the league. I think people kind of frowned on that. But again, it may have been where it was three hundred, may have

been four hundred. We thought held some of those instances. But still, I mean, you want to you talk about a guy that you know can influence the game. And I just look for d Law to come back next year, familiarize himself with his defense, and obviously at those other key pieces to improve upon that pass rush. So I like she has a quick question before we go off the air car. Yes, very very qu question, very quick.

If you guys that option to get von Miller and swap him out for d Law would you, Oh wow, come on now, really no, no, I no, man, I would know I would. I don't think I would do it, not coming off the answer no, I don't think so either it wouldn't happen. Wouldn't happen? No, us. I love this question. I love what Isaiah's bringing to the table here, and I love the questions that he's asking because it's a lot of the same things that I've said on

the other side of the football about Ezekiel Elliott. It really is. I mean, go back, and I want you guys to go back and listen to this segment. And this wasn't my intention, but I want to throw this out there because you could take d Law's name out of this conversation and replace it with Ezekiel Elliott and it's the same exact argument all the way through. On the time said about e Zeke needing a front line to be z No, I heard that, but I'm just

saying that. I man, there's there's conversations on both sides of the football that haus going into the off season. It brings a whole different perspective to it. When you when you factor in money always yeah, right, So that's yeah. From that perspective. Yeah, but it is interesting how Zeke Man he ran great in the second half. We had all of this big run through. You know, it's interesting. Interesting.

I just want to let you know it's the same offensive line that they've been playing behind the last couple of weeks. I just want to let that be known. It's the same offensive line where he had like forty yards as to where he had one hundred and five. One team was the Yeah, whatever, against a bad team, against a bad team. That's that's what I'm talking about. They are against a bad team. Now, that's gonna do

it for us on talking Cowboys. We've got more saying it with our chests coming up tomorrow, and you know it's gonna be a lot of fun. We've got our prediction segments, our final prediction segment of the regular season. How about that? Can Rob Phillips hold on for the title and the regular season and thrust his way into the spotlight heading into the postseason. We'll talk about it tomorrow, but for today, for Chris Beam, for Isaiah stand Back, for Rob Phillips, and for heck By Harrison, I'm Kyle

Yeoman saying so long from the Star in Frisco. We'll see you tomorrow on Talking Cowboys. This has been at of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football o'clock