Talkin' Cowboys: Is It Really That Simple?

my right. Happy Thursday to everybody. How are you gents doing today? Well? Well, yep, cowboys practicing inside on this Thursday, cloudy day here in Frisco, Texas. And the New York Jets are up next three twenty five pm kickoff Central Time at the Meadowlands this Sunday, and we're going to continue breaking up down that matchup over the next forty five minutes if you want to give us a call. Eight eight eight eight five five two two ninety seven is the number. We've talked to quite a bit of

Jets so far this week. We can continue looking at some of those key matchups. I know, Brian, you've identified three key guys to watch. Yeah, any of those really strike your fancy that the Cowboys got to pay attention to this week. Yeah. You know, to me, I always worry about a guy like Levy on Bell And I know Mickey's been absolutely right talking about the struggles with their offensive line, their inability to really run the football.

But you just worry about a player with that kind of ability, not only maybe he pops went through there and all of a sudden they get a little momentum. Maybe they throw him the ball in the flat and you don't tackle very well. Maybe they get down in the red zone and they flip it to him and you know, one of those misdirection flip blaze and he runs in. You know, those are the kinds of things. He is a better back than what you saw with Aaron Jones. The problem is their offensive line is not

as good as the Green Bay Packers. That worries me a little bit. Maybe they get him going, Maybe the Cowboys don't tackle well again, maybe they don't get off blocks well enough. Maybe they don't do the fundamental things that they've been needing to do to win these games that they just don't. They don't execute well enough, and then there's a problem right there, because then you've got a quarterback that's willing to make some throws down the field.

He'll use Jamison Crowder on some of the stuff as a matchup I wrote about today with him and Anthony Brown. But yeah, I worry about Leveon Bell getting some things going from their offensive getting their quarterback back, and then putting a little pressure on the Cowboys that way. Let's see if if the Jets can block up front. They've had a huge problems doing that. If they can, then this game will be a lot closer than it should be.

Mike Leveon Bell has been He's been their guy on offense, both in terms of probably schemed that way and a bailout guy in the passing game as well. Yeah, I mean I kind of worry more about dumping off passes to him getting them out in space. Yeah, because they're having trouble on their offensive line. Like Brian said, they they've changed up a little. I saw where Alex Lewis was taken over for assembly. Who's half. He didn't practice yesterday. He's been out with a shoulder injury that they I

don't know how to say the guy's name. Adoga took over for Brandon Shell. So they've got changes going on that offensive line. But and I didn't realize that we were talking about them giving up twenty three sacks, and I don't know, you know how much this has been on Falk. He got sacked ten times last week. Yeah, he got hit sixteen times. Yeah, not good. So no wonder the guy through two interceptions. You got that team next week by the way, Philadelphia, Yeah, and had five

passes defense. Yeah, on't worry at a time exactly, but yeah, I mean if they can't block any better than that, So you know he's now with Darnald there, maybe that you know, you get a different dimension at quarterback and you can't concentrate so much on stopping the run because they haven't been able to run the football even with him. Yeah, it's almost like, you know, with with that guy in there, it's like, okay, you can beat us, go ahead and beat us, but that guy in't gonna beat me. And

I think it's a different story with Darnald. Yeah, you mentioned some of their injuries up front. What does the Cowboys injury report look like as they get back to practice today. Well, neither neither tackle is expected to play, so Cam left and or practice or play I mean practice today, Yeah, yeah, okay, and then uh, you know you get Cam left and Brandon Knight right. I still think they their original thought was for Tyrant Smith to practice tomorrow. Yeah, we'll see if no. I totally agree

with you on that. If he does that, then he plays on Sunday. And it sounded like if he plays on Sunday that Cam Fleming's the right tackle. The way the head coach was talking, Mickey's absolutely right here, He's absolutely right. The plan all along, I believe was to give to give him, give Tyrant Smith a couple of days to continue to rehab, rest, heal up on the ankle, work with Britt Brown, and then get him out there on Friday a little bit shorter practice, you know, about

thirty minutes shorter than they normally go. Get him go and get him off his feet, but play him at left tackle. So the questions that we had for Jason Garrett and the walk off, we're talking about what would be the situation at right tackle. And he identified Mickey correct me if I'm wrong. He identified Cam Fleming as his swing tackle. So even though Cam Fleming play has been practicing all week at left tackle, then if Collins does not go, which I don't think he's going to go.

I think Cam Fleming is going to be your right tackle. Now, that's that's his job. He's got to know the right side. He's got to know the left side. But they but in practice, even when they were all healthy, Cam Fleming goes in there and plays reps for Collins at right tackle. He gets to work with Zach Martin over there, he gets to work. Last week he got work with with

Connor Williams. So as a swing tackle, you have to be able to play both sides and you have to be able to you know, when you say, okay, I'm I'm left tackle today, I got to think about my left tackle plays. When I'm right tackle. I've got to know those side of the plays too. My foot works different, my angles are different, my eyes are different. So these are all things you have to flip your brain to do.

And that's why he has the gig as the right as the swing tackle, because he's capable of doing those things. And he mentioned that last week that he gets work in practice even when he tackles are healthy. He does, and that's where experience comes in with him right over a Brandon Knight. The fact that he's played I think we've talked about the Super Bowl and all that he played right tackle. I'm saying that, and Mickey gave me the death stairs last time. I kind of did that

for you. I just love that. I just hope, I just hope his results are different. Yeah, well, you know, and that's you know. I was asked this morning on one oh five three, which guy would I go with? I agree with what you know, the concerns that Mickey has. I mean, he's not wrong about about Cam Fleming and some of the chaos it comes with him. When he blocks. It doesn't look pretty. It's not always right. It's there's pressure there. I mean, Jason Garrett call it ugly production.

Ugly productions that I've been told for all this time, because he said I was told last year. If you watch how he does it, it's it's not pretty. But sometimes the result he is he makes the defender run over him to get to the ball, and so that's sometimes it's ugly. He doesn't set his feet well enough. He's not always strong at the point of attack, you know, but the experience and all those things that you want to say, there comes a point in time that you know,

maybe maybe it's a season wears along. If they continue to work with end to night, that he will then become the swing tackle and they'll flip roles a lot to ask right now of an undrafted They threw that kid, They played him at tackle, they've played him at guard. Evidently they feel like and Mark Colombo had a big, big hand on this one, because I'm I'm not gonna lie. I did not see Brandon Knight making this football team

coming out of oxnart Well. And then all of a sudden we started hearing oh wait a minute, now, oh wait a minute, And then it was what and when he did? Yeah, And they had some injuries and you're wondering, how are they going to get Cedric Wilson up practice him still kept him still Well, I think they look at him as as as a futures I don't think the futures today. Yeah, yeah, and so yeah, and the

fact that he could play guard and tackle. Yeah, because if you Brian's right, when he made the team, it was like, seriously, yeah, after watching him in training camp. He struggled. Yeah, and he wasn't perfect in the game by no means. But that's his first I get it, it's his first, but it was only a quarter and a half. And what happens when the is gonna play? Sure, but when Green Bay knows you're throwing pretty much every time, that's difficult. He hung in there against the Smiths, you know.

That's all you can ask for him, you know, And he got a little confidence doing that. And you know, Mickey, it's funny you say, you know, maybe the time is it now, but maybe the time is now. It has to be. It has to be now, because you know, you don't want to If Cam Fleming is winning with ugly production, you know, then okay, I see what you're saying there. But maybe the other guy is winning. But he is productive, His technique is good, he's playing with

more power. They're getting more from him in the running game. You know, he's showing up. He's not giving up pressures. I think that's the thing I worry about Cam Fleming the most is you just don't know when he's going to give up that one bad play or that one you know, And I guess I need to say that

about all those line it. Connor Williams has the same problems sometimes when's Connor Williams going to over extend and allow the three technique to get around him and get up in the middle of the pocket and cause Dak problems. You know, these guys aren't perfect. They aren't perfect. But are you going to take a guy that's, you know, the guy that's a little bit more consistent with this technique, or you're going to take the guy that's winning with

ugly production. I that's that's that's the debate that they need to have. I love this quote from DeMarcus Lawrence yesterday on the subject of injuries. Yeah, because you always say nobody nobody cares, nobody cares. He said, who cares? You care? To be honest, do you really care? Nobody cares. Nobody cares about your feelings. Nobody cares if you're hurt, Nobody cares if you're broke, rich, nobody cares. Who cares? Be you go to work. That's straight out of the pole.

He said, he was done and he was out of there. And think about this last week we're doing again this week.

You spend all week talking about injuries, right then, you go in the game and the result doesn't come out the way you're expecting, right, and no one says, well, it's because of injuries, right, you got beat Yeah, this guy through three interceptions, this guy didn't run for more than sixty five yards, But no one points out that, well, yeah, they were pretty compromised on the offensive line for more than a quarter of the game. It disappears Lawrence is right,

he's right. You know, we talk about the injuries, let's give the injury report, and then you get to the game and all this guy's not gonna play. This guy's got gonna play. And then we get the result and it's like, well, yeah they lost. What are they doing? They didn't play well enough. I think if anybody has a reason to feel sorry for themselves, it's the New York Jets. Mono of all things. Your quarterback goes down with Mono tight end gets suspended, and it looks like,

now pull the Hamstrmistry's not gonna play. He's one of their better players. You know, if there's anybody that should feel sorry for themselves, it's the New Orleans Saints. Yeah, you know, if you yeah, Teddy Bridgewater, I mean he hits his thumb and now he's out, and you know what's happening. They've won three straight games with Teddy Bridgewater playing quarterback. So all of a sudden, Saints, you like, hey, Drew, take it easy. Week A week eight, no week ten,

no week eight, I'll be back. Don't forget me week you know, and not that Teddy Brees. But there comes a certain time where the you know, I didn't feel sorry for the Saints. I mean, I was you know, what if if you told me that every opponent is going to lose Davante Adams or Drew Brees and all that, you know, take advantage of that, you know, But then again, you lose Tyrant Smith, you know, you you know, you lose guys along the way, and it's Woods is another

one and so. But but you have to play better to compensate for whatever losses you have. The New Orleans Saints have played better with the compensation of Drew for Drew Brees, They've played better. So the callous Cowboys. This to me, rob is such a fundamental game. This, this

game coming up is such a fundamental game. And you know, and it's it's not great analysis to say that, but It's true because this team, and it does things the right way, can be very difficult to deal with when they make mistakes, holding, when they make turnovers or don't you know, when they make fundamental mistakes, they're not a very good team. They come right back to the team and that's what a little bit of worry about the Jets. Don't give the Jets any hope in this game. You know,

go out there and fundamentally beat them. You're a better football team than them. Find a way to block, better, find a way to throw the ball, better, find a way to catch the ball, better run the ball, better tackle better. You know, don't finish the first quarter with zero points. Yeah. See that to me? Is that to me is it's such a fundamental thing watching this team play, because they could be outstanding when they are when they're

on it. When they're making mistakes, they're just they're they're a bad team. You let me write where I wanted to go today, and I've got two partial quotes from Zeke yesterday in the locker room. He said, quote basic small things. If the offense has to clean up, d Law said, quote basic fundamentals that they've got to clean up. Is that what's holding this team back? Or do you look at this team after two losses and say, maybe there's a little bit more than just well, they've got

to clean it up. I mean when they when they don't play clean football, is that strictly on them or is there something maybe we're not looking at. I'll you'll bounce my time to the senator from Illinois. Well did they did they play clean against the Saints? Defensively? Yes? Held them no touchdowns? Yeah? Right? And then the next week you give up four Yeah? Two? Aaron Jones, by the way, so were you playing clean or did they come up with a game plan that that fooled you?

I don't know. They were running right up the middle. Yeah, but we've seen that before, so it's not like, yeah, just clean it up. Well, sometimes you know they had a better game plan or you know, am I reading it good enough? I'm reading it? Then I stood on the soapbox of the fundamental part of it. You seem to stand on the soapbox of well somebody's figured something out about this run defense, because that's where I was going, Mick, Yeah,

because that's good. Those guys don't feel like I guarantee you they don't think it's a personnel issue. It's it's we're not doing our job. To what Brian said, well, why didn't they do it? Yeah, Well, I think that's why you have to give some credit. If you suddenly get in a game and you start chasing the ball when you're not supposed to chase it, and they can't tell you on the bench quit chasing the ball. Yeah, you know, sometimes they counter your style with their style

and it doesn't work out. So well, did I make it too simplistic Mickey? Yeah, because I just think there's there's something else. I mean, you don't go into a playoff game in the second round and then well we don't want to play. Yeah, they found something to take advantage of the cowboy defense, and now you got to

you gotta adjust and shut that down. Because if you're getting up the field and they're running right past you the other way, you know, it's sort of like the crowd at the subway station and New or you're going in and they're coming out. Yeah, it's not a good scene. Jason Garrett talked about Monday. He didn't he wasn't specific, but he said there's certain things guys were trying to do too much. Yeah, take the job that leads to the run defense. Is that where he's going? You think,

is it? Mickey? Well, if they are, why are they and why can't you change it in the middle of the game. Change tell them? No, you're doing too much, do you know? Hold down the fort I don't like being too aggressive if you get if you get sucked into it and just keep doing it and doing it. Sometimes you get handled up front too, by the way, I thought they got really handled. But I think about this, but they were handling all those losses. What did you

predict this game? Was that Green Bay was game was gonna be Yeah, I was gonna be a high school I feel yeah, I felt you had thirty eight. Yeah, there was some reason why you thought the Packers were going to score twenty eight points, right, So didn't think they were to do it on the ground though, Mickey, Yeah, exactly, But they did. Yeah, And so the downfall in the game was the offense didn't hold up there into the bargain. Sure. You know, we keep hearing about takeaways and you know

field position is real. Uh. I think the punter's back is bothering him. Yeah, because he didn't punt the way. We're no lost that we lost that battle. See on the injury report again this week, Chris Jones. I didn't think he was limited for a day last week and then was full on, Yeah he's not, he's not, he's not on there. But we lost that battle last week. But but yeah, and you look and you lost the

kicking battle. Yeah, kick kickoffs weren't great. Um, so you know, there was a lot of things went into the offense not holding up their end of the bargain. If they had you know, they they scored twenty four even despite three turnovers. Think about if you just had one maybe, you know, and then you kept those two possessions that were going well, you might have scored thirty points too. They could have won the game. Can I ask what Keska question? Then? Yeah? Is then the offense been the

clunker the last two weeks because the defense. Yeah, I got a tweet yesterday or yesterday that the defense really didn't play well against the Saints because they let the Saints control the time possession, they gave up four field goals. Yeah, they played well. They had a bad game last week. I don't think they're a bad defense. So that to me. Our guy in Vegas hates the bend, but don't break defense. Right. Well,

they need more turnovers, there's no question about that. But I'm interesting if they think if they had kicked made both field goals, what's the score? Yeah? Right, yeah, yeah, and you have a chance for an on side kick at the end of the game. Now, I'm not saying that's going to turn the game around. I don't think anybody's recovering an on site how after what did they have at halftime? Three points? Seventeen point seventeen. Last time

they've been shout out was against the Chargers on Thanksgiving. Okay, awful stretch without so they had a hell of a chance to score twenty seven points in the second half. Yeah and they and I ain't buying all this stuff, Well it was garbage time. The Packers gave up. They didn't give up because there was a possession in the fourth quarter. I'm sitting there, going, why are they throwing the ball? They're up by all these points and you're

still just run the ball, killed the clock. Yeah, they but they were worried, sure, right, because they saw they could not cover the Cowboys wide receivers. First five drives of the game. I think they had almost two hundred yards of total offense. Dallas there nothing to show for. We talked about that after the game where the drives ended green Bay thirty eight, green Bay thirty five, Dallas forty seven. You know, we were kind of going through

all that. Sometimes it takes thirty some points to win a game. Sometimes it only takes thirteen. Yeah, and they couldn't do that. So did we answer your question about the offense. I don't think so holding up their end of the bar, I mean no, no, I mean I think they will tell you they didn't. I mean they played too sloppy. They had to the three turnovers in

the game, five in the last two weeks. I think it's I think it's one of those things that it's alarming when we see their best players not playing well, when we see Vandresh missing tackles, when we see Jalen Smith jumping around blocks, not doing his assignment, you know that. I think that's the thing that can earns me the most. When I watched him, I'm like, man, they they're better than this. They're they're they're a better team than what

they're showing right now. And maybe they're maybe they fooled me, maybe they feel made but we get we're a quarterway through the season. You know, they're not going to give me credit if they go out there and beat the Jets. It's going to come down to have to figure out how to do something against Philadelphia. But you better find a way to win this game. So better figure that out first. Zeke said about the offense, we got to

get our edge back. We've just got to play more physical and just do what we do and not make these mistakes and he pointed to penalties two. Yeah, it's hard to play physical when you don't have a guy like Tyrant Smith in there too. That hurts. So you mentioned Vanders. We worried that he's not going to get back in time for this game at all. Jason said he was feeling better today but wasn't going to practice. Yeah, what do we know what the illness is, Mickey, other

than illness? Yeah, it's uh, I don't know. I mean it's I saw him walking around yesterday. Obviously didn't practice, but he was in the building. Yeah, we need to figure that out. But anyway, are they prepared to compensate for it? Yeah, that means that would be Smith, Smilee and Thomas. Yeah, Smith, Lee, Thomas would be out there on that and then when you go when you go Nickel, they would be Lee and Thomas, or Lee and Thomas Smith.

Smith is a blushing, Smith is a blitzer, Thomas is a or Lee either one as a as a as a defender, pass defender. I worry that you don't have you wouldn't have his dynamic plays. He can provide Vanderish, yeah, but as a rusher or he can play the week side if they want him there. I don't know if you change it up, but Thomas there on the week No, I'm seeing I'm just why am I thinking now Sean Lee and I'm not seeing I just thought the word liability came in my mind and it's and I don't

know if that's the kay. I don't know if that's being fair to Shawn Lee. I haven't seen Shaun Lee. I know he hasn't had a whole lot of chances. But they did they day last week, they did play a little bit more bass. We talked about Shawn Lee. Did we see Shaun Lee make enough plays? We see those Shawn Lee plays. It might live in a fantasy world, believing that Sean Lee still Sean Lee. I think you made a point last week, maybe that he's a guy that needs a lot of snaps to kind of get rolling. Ye,

and that's just not his role anymore. Yeah, but the strong side linebackers usually not going to make a lot of plays. But that guy's uncovered, you know. And they said that they can play that defense with him covered up. Yeah, I don't know how much covered up he's been. Yeah, you know, and so he's taken on and block when

you were playing the weak side. The ideas because your right defensive end is strong and your your right tackle or the strong the weak side tackles strong, that he's covered up and he's gonna go and blocked and you know, able to run and make plays. I don't think that's the case on the strong side. But you know what when they when they when they were in base defense against the run, they were almost more susceptible than when

they were in nickel. You know. I just got that perception watching, Yeah, because they went two tight ends, they used their full bash right and they were running the ball. Yeah. See the thing about it is, would you rather have Sean Lee down low or Jeff Heath. That's what you have to determine right there. You know what I'm saying down low? Yeah, I mean if you if you don't, if you if you don't think that Lee can do it anymore, then that means Jeff heat that means more Nickel,

that means put him down there. I don't know. That to me is because I just haven't seen in the plays that And I told Mickey's absolutely right the way he explained how the strong side linebacker plays. But I just I just haven't seen Sean Lee make that one yard tackle or two yard tackle. You know, I just haven't seen it yet. Well, we'll keep an eye on Laton Vanderesh and maybe he can get back to practice

on Friday. Let's take a break. Eight five, five, two, two nine seven is the number if you want to join the conversation. We'll be back next on Talking Cowboys. Your new apartment's big. Such a great deal, that's okay, just okay. What's right above the subway, Well, I bet you don't even notice it after that's my neighbor. Angus a deal that's just okay. It is not okay. Get

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Cowboys dot com slash app. And you got to play every quarter, every quarter. Don't be like Brian brought uson, not play every quarter and me too. I had had a great run out beforehand. I had a great run in the first quarter and then didn't play the rest of the time. I learned a lesson. I thought it was for the whole that I did too. I did too, Derek. Derek sent me a message says, you've got to play every quarter, So I will figure out how to do that.

So good luck to everybody out there. It seems like a really it's fun. I mean, I it's the questions. They gotta get you a little bit. You know, they got to kind of be careful you think, you know, make it think good. And yeah, it's just like the football team, and you gotta play to the whistle. You gotta play the whistle otherwise you don't. They I know, you only get ten points. They get s. Yeah, maybe you got zero first quarter zero. I had some right too,

and show you're always right. Well I am, okay, we learned that after the Ice Bowl. Yeah, I'm supposed to know how many how many touchdowns they're going to have in the first quarter, right, you are supposed to know that people will bet on that. I mean, that's what it's gonna come to. Right. This is just a precursor. That's why Rob's favorite place is Las Vegas. It is not, it is not. Pretty soon, pretty soon it's gonna be Dallas.

Rob cannot wait to cover the draft for us, And I guess I just like seeing the craziness in that place. It is in summer league basketball, so too. Yeah, all right, we went late in the first sement. Let's take a couple of phone calls before we break. Uh Nebbie in Maryland, what's up by the europe first on talking cowboys? Uh, hi, guys, thanks for taking my call. Listen. I just want to say that we uh we had better not take the New York did lately because we uh our winless teams

are dangerous because they're hungry for a win. So we we've got to focus, execute, uh, make plays and find a way to win. Take care. Thanks for being patient with me, and have a great week. Bye. Thanks Nebbie, he nailed it. Nebby's listening to my philosophy. Yeah, he got my He got my Xerox blueprint this morning. More the more you lose, the closer y'arred of winning. Yeah, absolutely right in that's league anyway. Yeah that was what

you said on the blueprint yea, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Okay, I cannot take anybody likely, especially on the road, especially the way you've lost the last two and you don't never know what. Maybe you're a disparate team too, maybe and you never know what kind of officiating crew you're gonna get. Yeah, one that Mickey doesn't like. Yeah, I'm

sure Mickey looks at the flip card immediately. I think instead of wearing a tie on game day, I'm gonna start wearing my NFL shield shirt, the official shirt, wear the hat in the press box. That would be great, That would be great. Please do that. So I stand up and just start anyway. I wonder if I wonder if that guy got suspended yet, whether that official nah yet. No, that you can't. You can't do that. You can't. You can't put yourself in the game that way. That minds

me if it's very NBA. A Shrik robs game, robs the NBA guy here, But that's very NBA. Is to put yourself in the game that way. When you get into personal confrontations with you know, with with coaches, players, that's that's that's not the wrong thing. Your your job is to you. You take it. You know, that's your You stand on that sidelines every week. You know nobody.

You're not gonna make everybody happy over there. But all all Jason Garrett and all these head coaches ask you to do is do your job and then walk away. You don't antagonize. That's not your job. Yeah, that's not at all, you know. And if and if, if you think you made a mistake, you just gotta suck it up and take it. Absolutely abusive language. Ye. All right, let's go back to the phone lines. James in New York. You're up next on Talking Cowboys. Anywa's up, guys, Thanks

for taking the call. Sure, yeah, yeah, I kind of like the conversation you guys are talking about with what's kind of the issues with the team. You know, I look at this team, and you know, I think every team's got some stuff they got to work on. You know, you look at the Chiefs, they got offensive line problems, NFC. You know, he got breezes out for the scenes. Cousins with the Vikings, there's a problem. So a lot of

teams have their awards. You know, in the past, the Cowboys at times with the Romo teams would be kind of be peaking in October and then towards after Thanksgiving they tend to Wilton. You know, we had those games.

It was just one and dumb playoffs that we felt short in My point being is that I'd rather than have these mistakes now in October and have a scheduling, you know, gift in the sense that you're playing at least a team the Jets, that you can kind of get your mojo back, get your confidence back a little bit before you play you know, a big game against Eagles Sunday knife in two weeks, because you know, if you're dealing with these things in December when you're trying

to fight foot playoffs, but it doesn't tend to end. It tends to really make the team, you know, struggle and you know, you really don't know what your identity is. And I think this is a time where this team can still figure outs identity and really correct a lot of these things which are really collectible. I mean turnovers. You know, hey, those are gonna happen. You know, you just got to kind of tighten up. And I feel

the runteef it. So if you get Intony antoine Wood's back, I think will be at least will be a little bit better, um, considering who's been in there since since he got hurt. Because you know, you know, you guys are on Twitter a lots. It's like a big pity party with the fans and everybody's just crying about the calls and this, and I just I just don't feel that way. I mean, you know you're gonna get calls and gonna get calls against you, but at the end

of the day, you got to execute. And if this team just executes a little bit better, they're easily a foreign They can be formed one or even five and all. Right now, sure no, and highly capable of doing that. Yeah, but I like the attitude, but in the stretch run, it's not as tough if you win the games early. Well, you wrote yesterday in your mixed Shifts no margins of her error. No, I mean Parcels used to say, talk to me after Thanksgiving with what kind of team I have?

But ideally you wouldn't like to have any of these issues at any point in the season. Yeah, I mean, you don't want to have a stretch where of got to correct a bunch of fundamental stuff. They'll tell you, we don't. This shouldn't be happening, period. Not. It's not just an early season thing you go through. Yeah, I mean, they're they're they're basically to me, they're one game off schedule. If you tell me they had to play the Packers and the Saints back to back, and one of them

was on the road. If I can split those and be four and one, I'd be real happy. I just felt like they were going to lose the New Orleans game with Breeze and win the Packer game. Yea, even when Rogers was playing, I kind of feel like, okay, coming back home. But yeah, they let that Saints game slip away. And they totally let that one slip even when Bridgewater playing, That's a game you got to go into New Orleans and win. You gotta go in there. You got to put pressure on him to make plays

and Kate to keep HARKing back to that. But if you look at the end result, they're gonna add them up and you're gonna be one game short or one game to the good, you know, to get you into the playoffs. And I hope it sure doesn't come down to well they you know, like Mickey always likes to talk about that Rams game they lost a couple of years ago, and he's not wrong. Yeah, you know, but when you look at the end of the day and you're one game short, you're saying, Okay, where was it? Well,

they remember early in the week. Remember in week four when they lost the Saints without Drew Brees Now, and then it can bite you. But then what if you get in the tournament and you're like, okay, now you got to go to New Orleans because you lost that game. You know, that's the thing that that's the thing I'm trying to think of. How do I get home games at the end of the season. You know, that's my

that's my goal, you know. But if it's you know, you don't want to put yourself in a hole where every week is you know, you're having to to me again, they're almost win. But you know, people then we'll start saying, oh, this is must win, this is must win. Well, they too turn into that if you don't win enough of them. Yeah, definitely not there yet. But the Eagles now are back tie essentially at the top of the division. So they've got to right the ship here this week. All right,

let's take our final break. We've got one more caller holding on the other side here next on Talking Cowboys. It can be hard to find the right resource for learning about important financial matters. You search how to build savings, you end up reading about the one weird ingredient from supermarkets that can make you taller. That's why Bank of America build Better Moneyhabits dot com, a safe little corner

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take care of your face. I need a bucket of everything that you just said, Niki, I'm out of product at home. When are you gonna make this happen? It's it's on the way, gotta. If we bribe Mickey with a pizza, we might be able to you know the products in the mail. If I buy you a New York style pizza, No, I don't want. He's gonna deep dish you to death. You can find me the deep dishes there you go where they know how to make pizza. That's that's a shot right there, That is a shot.

I think they're both great. But okay, New York pizza could not survive the Chicago winner. Would It would just either freeze or flopping half. You gotta have some thickness that pizza. Fair enough, All right, let's go back to the phone lines. Are Buddy Denny in Hawaii A Loha? What's up Denny? Hey, Hey, Rob, I'm gonna be in Vegas in ten days. So I just love it. Man, I'm samble, but I love the shows. I just love I swear. I'm trying to send Rob Denny to the draft.

Show is gonna be for those three days the draft being in Vegas. I'm trying to get Rob on that plane out there for that first day of the draft. I'll have a new back. I'm I'm gonna go to the draft this year. There you go, there go very nice? What do you got? Uh? Yeah? This real quick? Um?

Sometimes I think the Cowboys have gone away from the you know, like how one thing we know about that that he's really amazing at doing is um his slight of hand with the ball and all that is, like you know, they don't run the jet sweep enough you know, this to this to get the illusion of other things. And on the defensive side, UM, with Antoine Woods close to coming back, do you think they deactivate UM Jo Joe Jackson and keep Tristan Hill on the what is

more important right now? The rotation? Because Carrie Hyder and UM Crawford can play both, So what would be more ideal for for which then to keep back there between Joe Jackson and UM and uh Triston Hill and thank you so much, thank you? You know what. I bet that's the final he's decision they have to make the active roster. I think that they I think they want

to see. They think they continue to want to see what Tristan Hill can do that that you know, maybe they're being a little stubborn about it, but I think that that's where, like Mickey said, I think that's their last decision that they have to make on who to who to activate of those defensive linemen. And you got Crawford now again, Well Crawford practiced today, Mickey, because he didn't was he limited yesterday? Thought he was limited? Yeah,

and he'll be limited again today. Yeah, And seeing I'm and I was kind of asking him because he played He played twenty three snaps twenty three and I said, was that more or less than you anticipated? He said, probably a little bit more. Yeah, So I don't know how much more they can extend him and keep them in the game because something because they're not really playing them at defensive end. They're playing them at a defensive tackle,

which takes more punishment. Yeah, at this point, that's why I would say that they would probably go with Hill over Jackson and this one that just would be my guests. I think you have Woods coming back if you don't know where exactly his zo, you would have Woods Comington, Crawford, Collins, right,

and I'm not forgetting him. And then depending on Hill. Yeah, Hill, who only played to Levin snaps in the game, and we talked about he's had to play a little bit of nose, which is kind of out of position for him because of pay that they envisioned him the three technique. Yeah, they absolutely do. Yeah, I'll say this about Denny's first part of this question, I would not be surprised at all to see more of a what we saw the first three weeks of the season as far as an

offensive attack. Multiple formations, bunch formations, spread them out, slide of hand, inside handoffs, all that stuff like that. I would not. I think they need to get back to some of that stuff, and I would I think Kellen Moore realizes that Dak Prescott, as Denny said, it is very good as a ball handler. You know, we've seen

what the play Action game does. But I think that we'll get back to more of the things that we saw before, the pre snap motions, the bunch formations, the scatter from bunch formations, the readoption stuff, the inside inside zone stuff. I think you're going to see more of that. I think that's I think that's what they are. Well, do you think they got away from it the last two weeks? I think that. I think that the crowd wis ran them out of it in New Orleans and

then they just felt and they sell fall behind. In the other game. It ran them out of that too. So you got taken out of the run game. So all this slight of hand that doesn't go Okay, go ahead and run it. Will you do us a favor? Yeah? Now, having said that, it's great motion, right, yeah, until you snap the ball into the gut of your wide receiver in motion. They got saved by that heard you yelling

that you guys like motion from the press box. When somebody turn around and said yeah, I sure do, it's like, well, okay, well there's the result I had to do to see Mickey. But from that press box seat, get ready for it. I have a feeling that's good. We're gonna see some of that this week. Back to what they were doing

the first the previous three weeks. As long as they can there's a situation where they can have balance and there is a sleight of hand yea seventeen nothing yeah, and an official done call legal motion because you're tight end wasn't set when he had himself on the ground. I don't start. I don't understand that when I've watched that one a lot, and I can't understand how it looked like to me that Schultz's hand was on the ground the whole entire time. He never took his hand

off the ground. The only hand I saw go down was Washins, but he was That's what the offensive lineman do right after they go down and get set. Yeah. Yeah, So did he have like an illusion there what he saw? A lot officials do Mickey a mirage. There's a mirage out there. Make things up. Yeah, please wear your hat in the press box. Yeah, just do it all right, go over well in New York to Yeah, yeah, right not. I'm sure the commissioner would be sitting in there right

with us. We are out of time. Appreciate you guys joining us. No, we got two minutes. We gotta let the break get settled in for their show. They only get forty five minutes as well. Why is that because the boss said, so, okay, I gonna do what the boss says. Well, they go along. Now there's no in there, but they're not button up against anybody. Right. I'm gonna talk till we get our two minutes here. I'm gonna have a filibuster. Is going to filibuster and the mike

will be cut off. Thank you guys for joining us. Bill, We'll be back tomorrow. The Break is next. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.