Talkin' Cowboys: Gimme Five

Mickey as he does other things. Right now, I am Bill Jones along with Brian brought Us and Rob Phillips, as the Cowboys now are on the brink of clinching the NFC East after a sinilating twenty nine twenty three overtime win over their chief rivals for the NFC East crown as it turns out, the Philadelphia Eagles, and it takes as a win over the Indianapolis Coats on Sunday in India and the Cowboys win the NFC East. They can do it otherwise too, but we focus on what

happened on Sunday, and wow, what happened on Sunday? How about that Rob Phillips. How about that? How about how about Dak Prescott? You know the mental toughness that that young guy has three turnovers and this team's record is not very good when he turns the ball over more than once, two picks, a lost fumble which I think was his six of the season, and to come back and do what he did. Amari Cooper helps this offense. I think we know that pretty well. I think we

figure that out. But I think your starting quarterback showed you something again. And really what they did in the fourth quarter in overtime asked overall another good strong defensive effort. You know, I think I think when you look back at it, it was a complete victory by this team, but it was the theatrics offensively at the end that kind of stole the story. Four hundred and fifty five yards passing for Prescott that ties Troy Aikman for third

on the Cowboys all time list. Tony Romo had five hundred six against Peyton, Manning and Denver five years ago and a loss. Yeah, Dandy Don Meredith had four hundred and sixty yards in a loss. Aikman had four fifty five in a loss. It's the first time. It's the most passing yards for a Cowboys quarterback ever in a win and the most completions ever for a Cowboys quarterback in a game with forty two. Pretty amazing. The way that this game was, it was really a roller coaster

ride for everybody along. You know, if you look at kind of a tale of two halves for the defense being as dominant as they were in the first half, and then turn around in the second half, you know, a little bit some struggles there, got a stop or two, but overall you start seeing the Eagles were doing some things better. But yeah, offensively with Prescott, you know, this was a game I felt like that the that the Eagles staff gets a lot of credit for how good

of a coaching staff they are. I think that Dallas Cowboys coach has out coached the Eagles yesterday in this football game. And I think it's other than the secondaries, I think it was really two pretty evenly matched teams playing. But the difference makers were in this case where I feel like that with what Chris Rochard and Rod Marinoli were able to do on defense, Scotland a hand what he did in offense, and then Jason Garrett having the

guts to go for it down there. I've always been very critical of Jason Garrett of not knowing the condition of his team, and you know, he saw things that were happening in the second half to his defense, and he felt like that he had to go win that game, and he put it on his players. The players responded, and that's what you have to do as a coach. You have to put your team. He talks about putting his team in the best position to win, and he

did that. And so I have to give him a tip of the cap because you know, it had been very easily for him to kick that fuel goal and then say, okay, let's see if we can play defense here. You know, but in the second half we'd seen some a little bit of some slippage going on there too. So for him to put it on Dak Prescott this offense to go win that game, I think says a lot about the coach, but it also says about the players he has in that locker room and those guys

on the field. It was a lot like the first matchup in Philly in terms of, you know, the Cowboys earlier late in the first half had a six nothing lead on the Eagles. It was thirteen three at the half, and then when you came down the stretch of that game, it was back and forth. One team scores, the other team scores. It was just like this game, but the only difference being that time the Cowboys got a stop on the Eagles late in the game. This time they

had to go to overtime and went on offense. The most exciting thing about the first half was a sixty two yard field goal, which, by the way, it was a half, was a franchise record by maher atoning for amiss that he had earlier. So, yeah, Brian's right tail two has and I think you asked us, Yeah, I did twenty four twenty four. No, I appreciate you mentioned in that on the post game on the OT because you were saying, I don't think you were here, Bill, but I asked Mickey and Rob oh I was here

when we were seemed to twenty four. But no, No, it was we're talking about what team would go forth the most. I worked down I got you you know which coach would decide to go for it the most on fourth down? And you know, luckily your coach was the one that made the right decision there to go for it. I mean, they went forward on fourth down

and got a conversion with Sproles in the flat. But you know your coach went forward at the end when he when he absolutely you know, I thought, like I say, I was a gutsy call to do it that way, but he did what he had to do to win the football game. Well, the other thing that you asked last week was can this team get to twenty four points? And it takes twenty four points to win the game. And sure enough, yeah it. First team to twenty four won that game. Hello, Mickey, Like twenty four twenty three

that I predicted. I guess I should have gone twenty three twenty three. Huh then yep, and then exclude overtime. So the head coach on fourth and one realized his team had gained five hundred and fifty seven yards at that point. I don't know that it was that gutsy. I think he looked at what his team was doing on the field. They were gaining yards in gobs and to go for one yard, yeah, go for it. I'd

put the game away. I was not surprised at all, I mean either, And as he said, We've got the best runner, in our opinion, in the National Football League. So gutsy from the standpoint, if he does not get that first down, though, what is he looking at? A tie? Probably probably see the guy came during that time out I started doing the map. Okay, what does a tide down this? I mean, gutsy from the fact that that he could have kicked that field goal? He very well

could you know that? That's that to me? Is you know there was really no givens. I mean you're talking about gobs of yards and all of a sudden, you're also talking about tons of mistakes. How about the snap that was low? Sure, trying to get the game, trying to win the game. You know, guy can't win. He can't win. Well, he doesn't go for it and he gets beat up. He goes for it and people are beating him up, like what are you doing? No, I'm

not beating him up at all. Given a lot of people are giving him credit for, you know, giving him credit for what he did. I think he saw what his team was doing that Houston game. They were tackled for losses. They were getting tackles for zero yards all up and down the field. Zeke this one five hundred and fifty seven yards to that point, well, and yeah, but to the point of what play you're gonna call Zeke? Now, in both cases Zeke got stopped for no game to

play before. But the difference this time, aside from the field position, the difference this time is that Zeke had one hundred and thirteen yards rushing in this game and that game he had twenty carries for fifty four yards, and there was no evidence whatsoever that they could get

a yard against that Houston defense on that night. Now, if they played Houston, now maybe they would be able to who knows, but uh and then from a field position standpoint, uh, he You know, in the Houston game, the idea was you're punting them down the field, you know. I think also, you know, the rules with the overtime are different this year, with the ten minute, with the

ten eight minutes and tence. I think it'll take and I think it's it's taking coaches, including Garrett time to realize how how the overtime rules are different because of the limited amount of time and you're probably only going to get one possession and they weren't going to get the ball back kick a field goal right right, Well now,

but if you look at that Houston game too. Now, in hindsight, now that we know how quickly the ten minutes goes at an overtime period, they weren't getting the ball back to do anything with it in that Houston game either. That's the other thing. I think he may have done it and made a different decision now that

we figured out the Yeah, well you he could. He could have still gone with the conservative route though, kick the field goal and say, okay, they've got less by two minutes, yet less than two minutes to be down the field and score touchdown. How they went for it fourth and one with four minutes to go? Now he's talking about yesterday. Yesterday. Yeah, I'm sa minutes to go when they went for it. Okay, that's true, He's okay, so they would have had under five minutes. Still, I

mean with those rules. You know again, you guys are right. He knew the condition of his football team. I talked about it during the week. This is an Eagles team that has been leaking yardage. They had a good game against Washington. We know what Washington is right now. The three games before that, Philly had allowed four hundred plus yards. Now they give up a five spot in this game. But you know, yeah, you know, a better team won this game. I mean yeah, doubled them up on first downs.

The Eagles were one of nine on third down. It was another ass kicking. Didn't show it up on the scoreboard. Doubled them up on Yeah, on time of possession. The better team won this game. Okay, here's the other thing on the way I've seen Garrett now, and this is the third time in five years he's had a playoff bound team, a team that is good enough to make

the playoffs. It seems to me like in those other years twenty fourteen and twenty sixteen and now this year when he gets to December, November, December, in these when he's got good teams, he's a he goes for it more on fourth down than what he does when he has a bad team. He gets knocked for not being aggressive enough. I think he's a lot more aggressive when he has a good team than when he has a

bad team. Especially, that's just what i've five hundred yards and if you didn't pick it up, they get the ball at the nineteen that Houston game, they would have given him the ball at the forty five. You know, I don't know how calculated all of our decisions are. Kit Garrison with gold Yeah, No, it's just was well played. I mean, they did what they had to do to win that football game. And you know the fact that they took eight minutes off the clock and over time

gave him that opportunity to do that. I was thinking, how they were gonna just keep running the ball and just run the clock completely out and just try That's that's what I was thinking of. Essentially, they gonna get a shot at this Philly and they if Philly didn't make the play to stop Zeke for the three yard loss, right, they probably would have wound up doing that. Yeah no, no, I mean that would that would have been a perfect way to play this game. But then again, you're putting

in a field goal kickers. He trust him? Sixty two? Maybe not forty five? Sixty two? You got nothing to lose, right, that's my point, right, Yeah, yeah, But if you ran it all the way down, you're able to get the first down, and now you're kicking a twenty yard field goal to win it, do you trust him? Then? See that's when I'm yeah, that's you know, that's open for debate. I mean, that's seriously, is open for debate. Is that something that is gonna is gonna haunch you down the

stretch when you play in these games? Yeah? You know the thought, Yeah, I made a sixty two yard field goal. Mickey's right, you got nothing to lose there, go ahead unless he gets blocked or it's short and they and they have a guy back there and they you know, get an Alabama Auburn situation where they're running the ball back on you up the field. But you know, no, I mean, I to me, I think it's I think it's open for debate. Was he an eighty percent kicker?

Right now? I don't. Is his numbers right at eighty percent? Near eighty percent? You know, I'm sorry I didn't beyond forty yards when he missed. Um, I'm just overall, just gonna be overall. Is he is he even for? Is he even eighty percent? I did well, he did come back and make a twenty one yard or I did look this up. Yeah, he had made nine straight before that kicking. Okay, missed the kick against Philly and then

it perfect sense. Then I don't know his exact same said he was, I want to say the broadcast said he was eleven or fifteen from forty yards and the forty yard range was okay to say, well something you know, you hope I mean again winning the Great deodorant. But is that something that we need to look at, you know, much like we're critical of the sacks and things like that that happened in the game or dack in the pocket,

fumble in the ball or whatever. I mean, is the field goal kicking here something as you get into playoffs that you want to say, Oh, well, yeah, I feel just you know, I feel wonderful about that. I don't know, I don't know. I don't think we're necessarily I know, I don't you know, Yeah, I mean I don't always want to put it in on his foot. Okay, why doesn't Pro Football Reference and it is eighty four percent and it's eleventh from fifteen from forty plus right before

its twenty seven for thirty two on the season. Yeah, okay, right, maybe that's better than you know, It's just it's just thirty two. I don't know, I now woiled well spoiled or like, yeah, I mean I sit there and you know, I would hope that my kicker can make one from forty five yards. I'm not expect him to make it from sixty two, but I'm hopefully he can make it from forty five. And what he is from forty to forty ninety seven? For ten Beyond fifty, he's five for six. Yeah,

there you go. Beyond sixty, he's won for one. Yes, he is. That's so weird, just like from the third longest field goal in NFL history matches the third longest, Yeah, I mean he's sixty three and sixty four or the longest. We know. He's got a strong leg. He kicked a fifty seven yard or in the preseason finale, which kind of set him the job bought. Yeah, And but he told us after the game he doesn't even try sixty two in pre game with a full operation. They go

about fifty eight and that's it. So I'm surprised he didn't try for a Hail Mary there. Yeah, I thought he was too where the positioning was. But hey, you know, good for him if you know, if you walk over to the kicker or to you know, walk over to Keith though Quinn and say, hey, what's his range today? All right sixty two, coach, were good, Okay, let's try this one here. You know, that's that's one of those ones. Again,

give him some credit. That's a gut call. I mean he could have he could have thrown a hill mary there and not got any points or you know, yeah, luckily you had their their field goal kicker missed a field goal or an extra point two or do a lateral. Yeah,

it wasn't a good day. Speaking of that, it wasn't a good day for the coaching geniuses yesterday as Peterson lost, Sean McVay last night got beat and then a Hall of Fame coach decided Rob Gronkowski would be better than Devin mccordy as his safety on the final play of a game. But they really think they were going to throw the ball like seven it was this It was

the thirty one yard line. Yeah, not not with that quarterback back and you had to drop back right right, I mean you would putting Gronk in the game if it's the yard If they're throwing from the fifty yard line, right, they're throwing into the goal line. Now you get someone to bat it down. They even had better options than Gronk on his own team. I mean, why not, Josh Gordon.

Let's thinkers thinking too much right there? I mean for that purpose, But you're right from the thirty one Yeah, okay, the best chance of them to score was gonna be a Tyreek Hill type play like the screen. You surprised Peterson didn't go for the win yesterday. Yeah, at the end after they tied it, Yeah, especially after the penalty. Yeah, should have moved the ball to the one it would have Yeah. Now heat now their best there. Their two point play that they ran against Washington last week or

Monday night was the option play that Dallas snuffed. They ran that play for a two point play the other day in a game, So maybe. I mean, I'm sure Doug Peterson's got all kinds of the Philly specials, And yeah, I wouldn't like that, I guess, especially knowing talked about knowing the condition of your team. Yeah, he hadn't stopped anybody their secondary I mean we talked about it. He could have stood up there and said, Okay, I lost

this game because did you see my secondary play? Yeah? Well, the analytics guys had to be beside themselves when he didn't go. Well, usually he's the champion of analytics. I get more people tweeted me about him, and oh, look how smart Doug Peterson is, right, and then every you know and and again we talk about knowing your condition to your team, and Mickey pointed it out. His defense gave up five hundred something yards yesterday. He should have

tried to end that game right now. It's like my guys at LSU against A and M should have ended that game right there. You can't let you can't put those guys back out there again. You know you got what you deserve. Doug Peterson, congratulations. Didn't want to lose on one play and on that Yeah, but but to the point of he lost anyway, I understand. Yeah, And so whatever happens at the end, he went against wrong, he gave up, he did the opposite of what he

generally believes, and that cost him. And on the winning play, what do you think of the decision to go with an all out blitz and just leave his corners on an island against the Maria Well almost hell of a pickup by heel of a pickup by Ezekiel. Elliott, yeah, Elliott, Yeah, he smashed because if if they I mean they let the they let the one guy go that Dak Prescott can account for the linebacker Brad him that that's the one guy he could see. He couldn't see the blitz

coming from the inside. And a great job by by Zeke, you know, beat up in the whole game, playing hard, catching balls and then blitz pick up. Okay, I get you. Yeah, you know you got my vote. You know, well he sold out. Yeah, he gambled. Well, he had to his team again. That defense was a mess. We said that going in that they weren't gonna be able. They didn't have anybody that can cover Amari Cooper, didn't matter who they put on him. You know, that just was That's

the way it was. Douglas actually played the route pretty well, so he sat on it and he didn't bite on the fade, didn't buy on the fake. Yeah. So but I mean that's hey, that's you know, that's the way it ends up. That's good. Well do we get into the officiating now or do we wait on that? We want to take a break from that hat was on for some kind I think it went both ways. Oh

it did, it did both ways. How about we come back and talk about what happened with the officials in yesterday's game when talking Cowboys continues in a moment, has been helping Cowboys fans seed better since nineteen seventy two, said they don't miss a moment on the field. Get glasses with best vision, clarity and protection with the Ultimate Lens Package, three innovative technologies in one lens for a

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dot com Forward Slash Cowboys. Very nicely done there, Rob Phillips, Cowboys? Is that better than I do? Huh? How come he does that better than I do? He's a professional? Okay, sharp young mind broadcaster. Yeah, this is on Young's right and sharp all right. Twenty nine, twenty three and overtime win over the Philadelphia Eagles, a season series sweep of the Eagles, and the Cowboys again can clinch the division with a win at Indianapolis, and Mickey, I think I've

got this figured out right. They can also lose at Indianapolis, but they would need an Eagle's loss and or Redskins loss to clinch this week. That's right, So there you go. They just need one more victory, basically beat basically that's it. Yeah. Oh so it's not just an Eagles loss, it's a it's a Redskin loss because technically the Redskins, even though it's impossible for them and they're current state to do this. Yeah, they could win out and the Cowboys lose out, and

the red Skins would have a better record. Mark Rippin ain't walking through that door. Yeah, so Joe, thisman, Sonny Jergetson, whoever you want to, maybe they can get Troy to come out of the broadcast booth. I don't think that's gonna that's not happening. I don't think so. All right, h Mickey, you have your officiating hat on. It's starting with the first play of that game, the opening kickoff. It was not a particularly good day for the officials.

Wouldn't you say? Cowboys got lucky? Yeah? Play? Did you really lucky on that one? Yes? They did well. They stood with the call on the field, right, Yeah, they did. Mike Perre, did you hear what he said? No, he said to change the call, you have to have a clear recovery. I kind of felt like they had the ball and they looked like four guys had it, but you couldn't tell out of the pile is an Eagle player. Yeah, but you could always grab it away from your watching

on Dallas Cowboys dot com. Um, you see the replay there. You see the ball come out, but do you see a recovery. I think are the Mouth of the East came out of the pile with that ball, but they didn't gruge Hill of the East. The Mouth of the East came out with the ball that and they just did not give him the call. But anyway, good, Hey, you know, that's that's good. That's all right. It's a good way to start the game. Why don't you bring

the ball out anyway? He never does, it's all eve. Yeah, I mean, but yeah, I thought I thought initially the ball was to the one, but it was in the end zone. He was three yards deep in that thing. So yeah, but I just don't I didn't quite get that one even it evened out. Yeah, well yeah, okay, So now let's go to the fourth quarter of this extravaganza. And it was not the finest hour for the officiating crew in the fourth quarter, to say the least, Right,

which one you want to play by playsheet. The one that sticks out to me is the Dallas Goddard touchdown the past an offensive as interference. Yeah, and then the makeup calls after that. Yeah, that's some makeup calls. I'll tell you. The worst call to day though, was the Randy Gregory Yeah, because that was the Goddard refers. Name is Blakeman, right, yes, Cleet Cleet probably named yeah, Cleat Boyer,

the old Saint Louis Cardinals fame. And uh, the the call that he made on that on the on the roughing the passer, he if he goes back and watches now, not kept showing you the one where Randy took two steps,

I'm talking the second one where he went low. And if you watch the play closely, though, Jason Peters has his hands in the middle of of Gregory's back and is pushing him to the ground, pushing him, trying to push him past the quarterback, so you have contact blocker contact with rusher and then pushing him in towards the ground. Randy Gregory's got no no other recourse other than to grab the legs. He didn't throw put his helmet in there,

didn't put his shoulder in there. Didn't go for the knee, hit him with any force at He wrapped him up around the legs. But the whole time he was being pushed in the back by Jason Peter, So you have contact from a blocker. It reminded me very much of a call that they don't make when you have like a running the kicker or punter, one of those things where a blocker is engaged. Yeah, and then you know he missed that call and he had he had a clear line of sight to see that right there. That's

a that's a terrible call. I understand trying to protect quarterbacks and the legs. But if you're engaged with a blocker and and you're being pushed to the ground and you make an athletic play like that, that that's that's just a terrible term. And you're you're basically just wrapping your arms around the legs of the quarterback. That's right. You're not hitting him with any force whatsoever, not at all. And as Mike Perera pointed out immediately after that, it

was a bad call. Yeah, I mean he basically grabbed his foot, he was already on the ground. It's not like he went low. Yeah, he was already spun him around pretty good. I mean you can see him making me go back. You can see him. He wraps him up and he starts to spin him, and that's where he gets in the splits. I think what happened was though there was a really good rush coming up the other side of the field, and I think that's where

Blackman got kind of he got law. He was trying to move, but then his line of sight was fine after but he the fact that they missed Peter's hands on Gregory pushing him with still engaged as he was going to the quarterback. I think that was the that was the biggest crime of this thing. And on the previous play on the offensive past interference, it looked like on one of the assuming that was the only the right hand shove. Yeah, yeah, the quarterback the ball was

not in the air. Yeah, the quarterback could not release the football yet. No, he had not. But it doesn't matter if it's on the offense. Yeah, you can't push off. That's what they're saying. They're saying. They're saying he pushed with his right his right arm to run the route and Jeff pick play. Yeah, Jeff Heath did a hell of a job of selling it like he was falling

out of there. It was a bad call. Yeah, not to mention their guy on the defensive end that threw his hands up in the air like Tyrann Smith was was holding him and he yeah, okay, Well they scored on that drive anyway though. Yeah, all right, So how about the Zeke call? Oh that was Is that the first time in NFL history that's been called on ten times? There's ten or eleven times? But was it but with an offensive player being the initiator? That's what I'm saying.

We were talking about that last night on the on the post game show. I don't know, I don't know that that that safety was going low on the player right there. That was a question. So would they have called it on the safety because he went low with his head? Oh no, he went real low, That's what And that's what Zeke said after the game was if he's going low, then I've got to go low to protect myself. Yeah, but he also qualified it and said

the rules are to keep us all safe. So I've got to go back and look at it, and maybe I've got to do better with my technique. But he's being nice well, that was a question that came up in training camp when the officials came and talked to us about And that was one of the questions though with the new rules, was can you can a running back be called for this for trying to lower his head and make a play. And the dude said, you have to judge intent. Yeah, the intent wasn't to hurt somebody.

The intent was to protect myself. Right, you hurt himself. He had to come off the field for a couple of plays, right kind of. He said, he got a singer and a singer and briefly lost feeling in his arm by the time he came he went into the tent. By the time he came back, he said he was pretty much okay. Yeah, and he finished out the game very well. Because I remember asking that guy and then

they wouldn't let us use it. I said, what happens on the goal line when the guy goes up in the air, Yeah, and he's coming down and he hits somebody with his helmet, and the guy goes, well, you have to judge intent. Did he come down with the intent to use his helmet to hit somebody? And he goes and that'll be a judgment call. Chances are not because you went up and then you're coming down out. Well, this was no different. They got over officious in the

fourth quarter for some reason. And also on that on the Zeke play, he had Camu gruge Hill on his back pushing yes down and there's another hands engaged all that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly, But you're right they got overly officious down the stretch of that game. You don't give you my philosophy on how they need to officiate the game. They need to put these guys every twenty yards on like one of those volleyball stands so you can see what's going on instead of being on

the field. Because you cannot see on the field. I'm sorry, I was. They could just flip the coin to start the game and stay out of the way. That's what they need to do. Is they need to put him in Booger's stand. Yeah, let the thing go down the field tennis. Yeah, but a high chair, absolutely, a high chair. That'd be funny, you see, but they can see. Yeah, and also people be running into the tower outside. Take your chance? Why not? All right, lit a lot of

pads on the thing. Let's go to Rick in Ohio, your first up on Talking Cowboys. Hello, Rick, I just wanted to say I appreciate everything you guys do for US Cowboys fans out here, and I just wanted to say I hope Michael Gallus stays on the right track. He's been getting open, but I know the ball hasn't been balling to him. I just want him to keep doing what he's doing. Thank you guys having a bus a day, appreciate three games in a road. He's he's

been right there two different occasions. I think last night, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, He's just got to keep plugging away. He's really coming on as a as a young receiver. They can get separation and make big plays. They've got they've got a guy on each side on the outside. They can do it. The one and I think he lost the ball right because I saw Dak go, Yeah, look for the ball. That's the one thing. And Mariy Cooper can find the football. You see Mary Cooper and that ball is going in

the air. He's got his eyes on it. And I think I think what happens to Gallop is that he fights so hard to get off the line because he really doesn't know how to get off the line the right way. Yet you know, Cooper's is so smooth and the way he separates, so that's kind of a battle for for gallop and then he kind of he gets okay, I'm clear, and oh where's the ball? Kind of a bit you know, where he stops running or he he doesn't you know, or he doesn't run fast enough, or

Dak just doesn't get him. I mean, how many how many players have they left when you said it with last three games? Last three games? Now I think I mean they could have. They just could have. You know, people are like, oh, they've got to throw the ball deep, they got to throw it. They throw the ball deep and they you know, and it doesn't work out that way. Now he did I might have been the Atlanta game or he you know press coverage, Oh yeah he got off, Yeah,

and a forty yard pick up. They've hit it some. It just hasn't been consistent. Yeah, that's that's disappointment, Dove for this one. Well, they could have killed the game at the end. You know, they could have killed that game in regulation if if they just hook up on that one pass at the end, you know, I mean, they knew what they were doing. They Hey, they you know, Scott Linehan's watching the game from above, He's looking at it going, He's going, they can't cover our guys. Guys,

and they let's just throw this thing deep. See what happens. Right. You know, they had a shot, had a shot to make it work, just didn't make it all right. Dak Prescott's performance, you touched on it off the top, and of course the records that were set, and I think basically what Garrett said after the game and what you said off the top, Rob is what I take away. The just the mental toughness of playing through every the ebbs and flows of a game is one of the

most impressive things about it. Blood all over him, he's got band aids on his hands. You know, this guy gives you everything. He has, everything he's got. He's never gonna be a great quarterback, but he is going to be a guy. He's a winner. That is exactly the best compliment you can pay him is he will give you everything he has. He's not mechanically going to be great, He's not always going to be accurate. But when the when the when they start to flip the cards over

and start pushing chips to the mill of table. This guy's sitting at the table looking at you right in his eye. I mean, he is not going to back down from a challenge. He's not going to sit there and fold up and all that. Yeah. Does he need to protect the ball in the pocket. Yeah, but they need to block better for him. Yeah, they need to do that, you know, to throw the interception that he

had the first interception. It was almost a great anticipation throw because they run Cooper across the field and he's anticipating, you know, him being in that spot. He's stolen to a spot. But give Douglas some credit. I mean, he came off. If you maybe if you put I mean, if they had they had Sholtz to that side running the out, if you put at a wide receiver to that side running the out, maybe Douglas has to respect that a little more and then is not allowed to

funnel inside to make that play. But you know, Dak, I don't think you could say enough good about him. You know, he's not going to be perfect, but he the one thing you could say about him is he is a tough sob and every time it's on the line, he will give you everything he has, good or bad, to try and see what he can do. And as far as being a leader of men, yeah, that people feed his teammates feed off of all that stuff that

he brings to the table. And yet, having said that, he completed seventy seven percent of his passes for four hundred and fifty five yards four fifty five. How many quarterbacks can throw two interceptions, lose a fumble and not tucked tail right. Yeah, and he came back. He came back and three touchdowns. Got a quarterback rating of one oh four. Would you take that every game? Absolutely? A quarterback rating of one four inception. Yeah, that's unbelievable. It's

just shame. I mean, I'm interested to see what Lenahan or somebody says about the the interception that he had, because he had gallop in the middle of the field and it looked like to me, and I'm not a quarterback, you know, whisper or anything like that, but you just look, it looks like the toe was pointed right, it looked like the shoulder was pointed right. But the ball he threw it it was way above his head, I mean

like way above it. Yeah, he takes that huge stride and that then his arm angle gets a little funny on him, and when the ball sails on him, it's usually when he has that long stride. But you know, if he if he just a little bit tighter down, I think would have been would have got the ball there. But the ball was way way way high, and that's why I think it sailed on him on that particular play. And he's the type quarterback that the those fundamentals are

imperative for him. He gets away with some crazy fundamentals. But he also I mean he threw a past to Zeke underneath where he's jumping through the middle of the pocket and you know, trying to just get him the ball. And I mean there's it's he's not perfect. He's not perfect, you know. But was he better than Wentz? Oh yeah he was. Yeah, Wentz two hundred twenty eight yards. Yeah, he had three touchdowns and no picks. He had a good game too, but they didn't really get going till late.

And Zach Ertz five catches for thirty eight yards. Again, that that was the biggest thing. Yeah, defensively, you know, were they didn't run the ball and they didn't get the ball to Zach Ertz. Yeah, I mean they made some plays late, but take away the turnover that got him inside the five yard line for a touchdown, and the defense really, you know, gave up sixteen points again.

But but yeah, about dak as a tremendous effort. The other thing is, too, you got to give credit again to the front office for going out and you know you traded a first round pick. But Amari Cooper is as quarterback friendly as it gets. I mean, his route running, he's he just seems like he's always in position to make a play. And they capitalized again, Brian, like you said,

on a depleted secondary for Philly, that's goodnytime. But we've seen him not do things like that a beat up offensive line or a beat up secondary and all that. They did a great job, everybody. Cole Beasley was open a bunch in this game too, by the way, go back and watch that tape. A matter of fact, on the touchdown he threw the twenty seven yard touchdown pass he threw to Cooper, he could have thrown the ball to Cole Beasley on the on the pivot route and

it would have been a touchdown as well. There was nobody between Beasley Beasley ran some really good routes yesterday. Yeah, and I just gotta keep doing that. You gotta keep doing that. All right, Let's go to Eric in Connecticut. Your next up. I'm talking Cowboys. Hello, Eric, Hello, what really surprised me yesterday? And I want to talk about something different because you guys, you guys already hit Dad,

You're Hitmorry. I want to talk about the tight end made some amazing catchy like and and at Dak threw the ball where he had to the tight ends, but then they they caught the ball and actually did something

with it. Yeah. I think that's a game, yes, for our tight ends that we could probably build on going to the postseason, knowing that maybe we can get our tight ends into the game where I'm not sure when Swam moves back, but we can get our tight ends into game, especially with Jarman digit I mean, he looked amazing just the catches he made and he was able to go up field afterwards he caught the ball and

then one upfield. It was really promising because I think that's a different threat that he hasn't really had this shit. And then I mean eleven for eleven, but they just all three him had had a decent game with Jarmin I think stood out above above all three to tight end. But that's what I wanted to hit on and see what you guys copingsa yeah, summing out party for Blake Jarwin. Seven catches, fifty six yards. It's amazing what a little experience will do for a guy still drafting a tight end.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh but still the guy hadn't played and everybody expected him and Schultz right off the bat to be Jason Wooden and one's gonna happen. Well they I'll tell you what though. Those those guys did

a nice job. There's no question about that. The plays that they were able to, the play that the ball that Schultz cut with them when they faked the toss go and when I love that play when he do that when they faked and he shows his hand and then everything comes and it's the two level read and all that. I love it because I thought he was going to throw the ball underneath and Noah Brown, but he threw it over the top because you know why, because Dalton Schultz ran a hell of her out to

get open. But yeah, it's good to see those guys have some success. We've been been critical of the position, and you know the fact that they showed up in an important game, I think, you know, like the caller says, hopefully that bodes well down the stretch that they can they can get some of those guys going, maybe get some of these guys going in the red zone a little bit, or maybe the linebackers are stocked covering the tight end. Yeah, instead of jamming the line of scrimmage.

And by the way, this morning, Jason Garrett had a one word answer to question about the reports that you say, no the Cowboys have reached out to Jason Witton about making a return. The one word answer was no. Did they follow up? No? No? Why not? Because that that no was a stopper. It was no where does schefter get that stuff? Dalton Schultz got asked about it after the game. Did you guys do you guys see the reports? Did that kind of fire up something in your coffee

there this morning? You know this morning, old site. Oh, I don't pay attention to that stuff. You know what though no one, no one asked or ascertained, uh when it happened? Like when because at the thirteenth week, if you come off or reserve, retired, gotta go through gotta go through waivers. Yeah, so somebody could have said, oh no, I want him. Yeah. Now he could have said no, I don't want to do it back exactly. Yeah right, yeah, nothing like a good old Sunday headline. That's right. That

was what happens on Sunday mornings. Gotta have a story. I mean, you know, nothing, not being critical. I'm just saying it's just this and stop. Did you guys want him back? Well, if you're the Cowboys, put you okay, I know it's not happening. But if you're the Cowboys at that time, you know, would you have wanted him back? But my question would be taking Yeah, how long would it take for him to get into football shape? What

kind of shape is he in right now? I think at his age, that looks good, hair looks great, hair looks really good, helmetal messing, No, and how process oriented he is, though, don't you think he would have wanted a full camp to really give himself the best chance. You really see him just saying oh yeah, I can jump right back here. Those guys that think he could turn it on and off, do you think he would quit? I don't think he's gonna happen take beating. He has

taken a beating from who the fans who watched Mickey whoa. Okay, you know what, Mickey, sometimes I agree with you. You know what, we're supposed to be instructing him, you know what, the pandering talking about, the beating that he takes on Twitter Everyboday night. Thank you all for listening. Right, Yeah, I've got at work. I've got a big old computer screen and I've got my tweet deck on there, and they're just ripping him the whole time. And so i'd in fact, I got video of it. I shot video

of it. Is I had one column I just put in a Twitter search Witten, Yeah, and the other column I did a Twitter search Trump and Who's winning, And I looked to see which column moves faster and certain just to amuse myself, and the Witten column was keeping pace with the Trump column last Monday night. All right, we continue with more of talking cowboys in just a moment. If you're like me and you love I mean, if you have a thing, then cutting the chord is scary.

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Find up participating I Care professional and details by visiting slor USA dot com. That's USA dot com Terms and conditions. Applying back to talk in Cowboys. Okay, if you never listen to what I say, listen to this. Go to get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys. And for Christmas, they've got their Playmaker special. The Playmaker gives you four of the Jack Black pads for ten dollars and if you use the code Cowboys, shipping is free. All they

do is charge you like fifty cents tax. And I went and I've bought three Christmas presents for ten dollars. So go to get Jack Black dot com slash Cowboys. Was it not surprised? So you got my Christmas present ready for ten bucks? How could I go wrong? Yeah? All right, I need to give I need to give your number to my daughters. You are asking about that. Yes, okay, all right. Of course, one of my daughters, Jordan, listens to the show, so she's thank you already exactly right.

Sure we're not when you're not when the fans we hate? Right? And she she is stuck with us throughout the season. That her Yeah, yeah, so she enjoys it. She listens to podcast all the time. This is one of her favorite ones. Does she like Mickey's minute? I think she does. It's time I appeal to the young people. Oh is that right? Yes? Is that right? Gardless of what you guys think, take a pull this. I'm not sure you appeal to Rob. Yeah, well he's not young anymore, right,

I want under under thirty? Oh okay, okay, I don't know, Mickey. We worked a lot of young kids. We we seem to bounce around you and I, yeah, I'm talking about the fans. Yeah all right, but the fans you hate? Yes, yeah, yeah, fans. It's the fans. I'm trying to educate the fans. God, here we go, trying to educate him. That's yeah. Let's say, let's see if Lloyd in Virginia can educate us. Lloyd, you're on talking cowboys? Hey, guys, thanks a lot for

having me appreciate all you do. I just want to say, I just want to say, of course Mickey's right. I've been agreeing with Mickey the whole year, way back to goes back to the beginning when I was saying, where's Doug free? Because the offensive arms thinks something something we thought we'd never say. Yea, And I thought we were turning back into David Carr because he was being sacked so much. But the team is growing, they're doing great for all this. You've got great analysis. This is this

is a wonderful victory. You've been right on, Michael Gallup. If we could just put a little bit of air under the ball, right, we'd really have a super explosive offense. And I think Connor did a good job coming in. It's still young, not as strong as a real man. He's just a young guy. But they're really growing. If Zach is okay, we're gonna be fine. Yeah, all right, all right, thank you, Lloyd Mark fan right there, all right, something to watch coming out of the Zach Martin. Yeah,

it sounds like it's ah. They were saying, the preliminary indication, it's similar to the previous injury. But what are y'all hearing? Yeah, and you know all those MCLs. You gotta let him rest. Yeah, he hasn't let it rest. There's no time to rest. And I don't I don't know if you say, hey, can we get by one more game and let him have two weeks because when you sprain your MCL it's two to four doing nothing and sometimes four to six.

Can I be real selfish here? He's from Indianapolis, right, Yeah, it's from l You're probably right, go in there, play win this game and then sit him the last two if you can't. You know what I'm saying, strap that brace on just yeah, just you know, I mean, he's gonna be tough. He's gonna want to practice. You know, he's from Indianapolis. You know you look at their there. They've got an all pro guard there too as a rookie. You know he Notre Dame, Notre Dame guy too. You

know he's been tough all year. I mean, Zach has been tough. If you could find a way to win this game, yeah, I and then and then turn around and say, okay, we're gonna give you two weeks before you have to play back at home against Minnesota or Seattle or whoever. You know, actually by time you play it would be three weeks. I just wonder, Yeah, some point, does he need to sit down for a week. And I know they had the bye week because he heard it against Philadelphia and they had kind of a mini

buy for him to rest it. And it's just he's been continuing to fight with this thing, and this time he didn't return to the game. You know, he returned to the game the first time in Philly after plays. I think, yeah, and there, I mean, we'll see. He's as tough as it comes physically and mentally. I just think he's gonna want to line up and play in this game. Sure, that's his hometown. Did they take Tyrn's elbow brace and put her down his d That was

some talk about Fish has some BS calls on those holdings. Yeah, that's some that's some crap. You know, I just hate that. Throw your hands up in the air and get some attention. Yeah, oh I'm being held. I can't get away. No, the reason you can't get away because he locked you're yeah, exactly. But he's always had trouble with Brandon Graham. Brandon Graham's a good player against him, you know, it's like him and Olivier Vernon pass rushing. Yeah, those kind of smaller

kind of yeah, your leverage players. Yeah right, yeah, but he's the caller was right about about Connor Williams being ready. It wasn't pretty. Garrett's gonna say that today. A couple of times he looked like he was in a you know, in a revolving door, kind of getting knocked around a little bit. But you know, for him to come in

and play, he hadn't played right guard all year. Yeah, so how big of a change is that for Well, it's just a line of sight, you know, and he hadn't worked with He hadn't worked with Collins very much. You know, you have to be able to pass some stunts and twists and make calls and communication back and forth. So, you know, good job by him being ready to play. You know, it could have been a bad situation, but

they didn't really miss a beat. You know, they were able to get the get the win with him playing in the game, especially with Zach Martin's issue with his knee. You would assume, though, in practice, that Williams has been getting some work in practice at yea, he has, he has. That's the swing guy. He has been the swing guy. He plays both the left and the right side. That not a whole heck of a lot, but you know,

primarily been that left side guy. Yeah, and not not a very easy assignment against that Eagle's front either, No, especially, I mean they can put a brace on your knee still sprained, yeah, you know, a de brace doesn't fix it right. Defensively, what what was the biggest thing that stood out defensively for the Cowboys in that game? They were able to take zach ERNs out of this game?

You know it? And it was Byron Jones. I mean I counted up at the the receptions that went or the balls that went towards went to towards zach Ernz He had uh, he had Jeff Heath on him three times. They played zone against him three times. Mickey and then Byron Jones and and Anthony Brown each had him one time. So that was it. Vandersch had him one time. Now, that was that was just it was made in between

the tax that was one of the zones. Yeah, that was one of the zone called yeah, the zones because he slipped right, Yeah, that's that's you know other than that first really that first first down he converted though, that was some really really good That was a zone play too, But that was some great coverage, great coverage by I could say Byron Jones and go back and count them all the times that he was on and by himself not but that those of the adjustments you

have to make. You know, that's smart. That's hey, that guy is comfortable covering that guy. He's played against that guy. That's a that's a huge advantage right there, when you played against the guy and you've had some success and it's a little bit easier for those coaches say, okay, listen this down and distance, you're gonna walk over there and take this guy. First two years as a safety, it was Byron go get that tight end. Yeah, he faced a lot of good ones and it used to

be witting in practice exactly. You know what they didn't get diminishing returns, moving him inside, no thought Anthony Brown, Yeah, Anthony Brown was should tell you know what if that defensive front keeps making quarterbacks uncomfortable, yeah, it makes it a lot easier. And I you know, I know they only sat backed him twice should have been three times with Gregory, but they were making him uncomfortable in the pocket and all his little hocus pocus stuff handling the football. Yeah,

they shut that down. Tyrone Crawford comes up with a takeaway strip sack. He continues, I don't think he gets enough credit for what he does for this defense, just being that chess piece, the butcher moving. Is that his nickname? Yeah, butcher for Marinelli. Yeah, just whatever this defensive line needs, because the butcher comes to work every day. If you go if you go back and you talk about what the defensive line does, and then you know, if you remember,

I was just looking through my notes again. They throw a ball to Ernst on third and nine. I believe it was with Byron Jones and coverage, and it goes it's the balls too high. But DeMarcus Lawrence got such a push on Lane Johnson and I and Lane Johnson just can't Howard handle power. And Lawrence caught him with his foot. He was he saw on him so quick that he caught him with his foot in the air.

So he was really a one legged football player. And Lawrence just shoves him with his right hand and now he's you know, now Johnson's out of balance, and then you know you got Lawrence on top, and now the ball's going too high. I mean, Wentz has to climb the front of the pocket. There the defenders right there in his face. So yeah, I mean you continue to get pressure and you continue to get coverage, you're gonna find ways to get off the field. And that's what

they've been able to do, and especially stopping the run. Yeah, they had thirty four yards rushing and their leading ball carrier was Adams with thirty six and he had one run of total four. Yeah, go do the math on Yeah. Yeah, I really thought they were going to shut him out. I really did. The way the momentum they had until Dak threw the pick they got returned. I think inside the five they couldn't do anything. They couldn't get any

momentum offensively, Philly. I mean it kind of turned late, but again this defense continues to play overall really strong. All right, Mike in New York, you're on talking Cowboys. Hello, Mike, what's out? Guys? Was my first time gone, but I've done on some to you guys for a very long time. My name guys, you know, talk about this all the week. I don't think we struggled so much in the like in the red zone. I mean, I just like we

moved the ball on anybody. But it's like Brian, he's been talking this for a while, and it's just like I don't understand, like why we struggled so much. I mean, is it? I mean, I mean, is it? I don't know if it's just one thing. I mean, like, I know we used to pound the rock, but it's just like I don't understand, Well, it's not so much the red zone, it's goal, the goal they were oversight again. Let me ask you this first again. Is it the first play? Is it the first play that kind of

sets up the problems? I mean, I mean, I mean that you're not having a positive first play. Am I talking about a sack? But maybe it no gain? Maybe yea? Is it? Is it? Is it something that gets them so off balance? Then you're always trying to catch up. Yeah, and then you're trying to kind of create plays to make it work. Yeah. I don't. I have no problem with them getting out the red zone and just throwing twenty seven yard touchdown passes to Mark Cooper all day.

If that's what really wanted. But is it the first play? We are we kind of seeing things that Okay, if they if they if it knocks them for no game and out second end goal, or it's you know, they tried to read option, which everybody's like, everybody's like going, oh, they needed more read option down there there, hand it to Zeke read option. You know, well, they do get minus four, like Bill says, five minus five on the

first one, okay. And then the second time, which was a third quarter, it was the incompletion to Beasley, right, okay, yeah, and then on the second play, Jarwin came across Zeke and then and they maybe even bumped a little bit right, that was kind of screwed up right starting blocking wise, And I guess maybe the speed option was right after that. I don't remembers DAK plus zero. I don't remember what

I see. That's I wonder if it's just that first play, and now Lenahan's kind of like, ah, damn it, you know, and he's got to you know, figure something out, and it's not and then you know, then you don't get guys. Execute. I mean that to me is a big thing. I think ex down there, Execution is huge, and they've missed open receivers, missed open in the end zone because you'll see you watch it. I mean, teams are loading up against Zeke in those goal of goal situations and it's

almost like, well, we've got to pass. I mean, you can say, don't be pass happy handed to your best player, but it maybe in some situations it's kind of like a brick wall thing where all right, we've got a matchup on the elbe I need to go look at that. I need to go back and look at all the starting you know, starting plays of and chart that and see what the issues are that you have negative plays. And for the second time, it was first in goal to five and they threw the little out pass to

Beasley's smoke. Yeah, and it was it was a one yard game. Yeah. And then Zeke up the middle for two yeah. And then he went to that kept the ball. Yeah. They tried to quarterback draw. That's what it was. Quarterback draw. That's quarterback draw. I remember it now. Now in overtime you get in the red zone. Was that it was that a read option with Dak before the couple of plays before the touchdown in overtime got a six yard gain from the eighteen No, yes, yes, oh yeah, yeah,

yeah it was. It's a weapon in the red zone. They've had six some success with that. Um. I just just doesn't seem I think they have a good first play, you know, whether execution, whether it's mental mistake, sack what I mean, it just seems like they have they have issues down there that with those throws. And if you if you learn place what happened in overtime, I mean they overcame a holding call. Oh yeah, they went from second and nine to second and nineteen. Yeah, fifty, yeah,

hit Cooper first down. Yeah, that converted third and third and nine then converted. Yeah. Nate and I were like, just get half, Nate goes, just get half here, Just get half. You know again, that's no one that the Eagles can't play past defense. That's that's that's feeling like, you know what, Okay, just get half and we'll get the other half here on this play. So yeah, great win though. Gosh, yes, it was five in a row. They're bill they're on their way to twelve in a row.

That's right. I called it when there were three and five. We're gonna we're gonna chart this all the way to Atlanta and the super Bowl. All right, We continue with more Talking Cowboys tomorrow at ten thirty Yes and thirty tomorrow time. Talking Cowboys on Tuesday, see you then. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.