Talkin' Cowboys: On to Week 2

out at the Star in Frisco. Today. Jason Garrett will address the media at ten thirty five ish Central Time, but before that, got an hour to talk about anything Cowboys. We can we can put our final touches on Carolina, but we're definitely gonna move forward. Oh, I've moved forward on this one to the Giants, and you've been watching tape and you're gonna have i think your first batch of analysis on the site today. Nemesis, the Nemesis, the weapon and the under the radar guys, So hopefully you

have an opportunity to check that out again. Had an oportunity to sit down and watch the Giants some of the preseason, also watched them play Jacksonville in this past weekend. So some uh, some interesting takes with UH with the new uh new head coach with Pat Schermer and what and what this How this Giant team looks a lot different from what the Giants teams we've seen in the past. Rob Phillips hosting for Bill Jones for now. We'll see if he gets back in here. It's his TV taping

day just down the hall, so we'll see what we got. Mickey, Mickey Spagnola in studio almost on time, almost on time. If they wouldn't have talked five minutes about some high school coach they got fired, I probably would have been right on time. Oh why was that discussion. It was a story that some kids spiked the water at practice with and he didn't report the kids. Oh so he

was trying to do the kids a favor. Huh. He was probably probably trying to cover himself also, And then they dug up other stuff on him and they fired the guy. I had to get your take on that. Yeah, yeah, so no they didn't, but I had to wait five minutes until they finished with it. Evidently he the spike of choice in the water was some sort of male enhancement interesting something or other. Again, that's a big that's a big yeah. Yeah kids these days. Yeah, I never

heard of that one. That's a new one. What brownies? Was it? No? Not at all. Hey, are you moved on or you moved on to New York? Yeah, let's go. Are we off a Carolina? Yeah, it's like you know, you can't. As Brian said, all the low hanging fruit has been picked already, So yeah, it's time to move forward. Yeah. I feel like the mail back questions haven't ended in terms of, hey, let's replace this coach, that coach, this play caller. Look, it's one game in and obviously I've

said it two times this week. There are trouble signs that date back to last season. Sure, but I mean I went through it again and I looked at the place who played in the game. You had ten new players offensively, five new starters. A lot of these guys missed time in preseason. I'm just not ready to panic, and that's what Cole Beasley said in the locker room yesterday. But obviously they've got to get something going offensively, and they've got to do it quickly. And this won't be

an easy challenging. No, it won't be. It won't be at all. And you know I think that to me, I always try and figure out why. That's my first thing if you have problems, figure out why something happened. And you know I talked about the low hanging fruit and all that. It's really easy to see say play call in this and that, but you got to really dive in. You got to dive into why they didn't. They've they've struggled, you know, and and Mickey's talked about

this before. Up until a certain point of last year, you know, the Atlanta game basically, or after the Kansas City game, this team was doing a pretty good job offensively. They were you know, they were uh, they were they were doing things. They were moving the football, they were running the football. Dak Prescott was making plays. They were putting up points. You know, they were having some success.

They lost a couple of games they probably shouldn't have lost, the Green Bay game and the Giants game or the US give me the Rams games. Yeah, it's a couple of games they shouldn't lost. But you know, you need you know, coaches tend to go back and say, okay, well, what what is successful for us, what have we had, what has worked? What you know, what combinations? You know,

you go back, you always self study, you always self evaluate. Uh. You know, people will say, well, they're missing does they're missing you know, Witten and all. But you know, you've got to push on the guys you had. You made him mention, They've they've got a lot of new guys. They got a lot of new coaches too, at certain positions.

But you know, I just felt like though that it it might have seemed like a total collapse on the scoreboard, and there might be some issues with what was going on scheme wise, as far as upfront and some of the blocking stuff they had to do with some of the personnel. But they had receivers that got open. They just sent a quarterback that just didn't throw to the open receiver. You know, if you if you scheme and design plays in order for them to work. I mean,

that's the whole idea is for them to work. But you have to have the execution of the players to do it. And I'm not putting it all on Dak and I'm you know, because everybody had a turn at this one. But they've got to figure this out. The Giants. As you said, Rob, this is not going to be an easy game for them. Defensively, They're going to have to do some things that they're gonna have to move this giant front, and I mean move them in a

way of misdirections, play actions, anything, waggles, boot screens. You've got to get these guys to play on the move because this secondary is better than what you played against Carolina. Now the test will be, Okay, can you run the ball and maybe not have as many receivers get open. You know that's going to be the real test because if they don't, if they revert back to some of the things that they did last week against Carolina, they'll lose this game too. They won't move the ball, they'll

look bad. So they better figure out some things very quickly. Here. Jacksonville had and with their limited offense early in that game when Fournette was on the field, they had the Giants defense on the run. Yeah, but they were moving, they were getting to the outside. They weren't trying to

just run right up the middle right. They were spreading them out, getting a lot of kind of horizontal plays to get vertical and it was working until Fournette got hurt, so uh, a lot of pulling, making those big old guys in the middle have to run yep, make them run latterly yep. And so they were they were, they were moving the football until four Nette got hurt and

then things kind of bogged down. Um, but offensively, look, I was I was kind of charting the game and it was the first quarter and I got to write here and I wrote down Giants old line in Hale's there. Yeah, I mean, they were terrible. That's a big problem for them.

It still is. That would be that would be something that our buddies at the Giants dot Com when they do a show very similar arts, they will they will talk about the matchup problems that they have with the with the Cowboys defensive line, and I'm talking about the starters and the backups, which, by the way, we'll get our buddy on either Thursday or Friday, John schmel and he wrote about the line earlier this year. Really good. Yeah, but but they they will talk about the problems that

they have. You know, this will be one of these games where Okay, who offensively can do some of the things that Mickey's talk function. Yeah, I mean I it's there's there's gonna be a lot of questions on I think the best way to attack the Giants is move them. I think that's there there There could be in a very aggressive they are a three four front, this is new for them, but they could be very aggressive at linebacker.

You could see and Mickey's right, you could see the play action stuff that they were doing with with Blake Bortles, and it was affecting the way that the Giants were attacking. They step up and attack the line, so you you you've got to take advantage of them stepping up and then the ability to get some guys open. But I will say this again, Carolina's secondary is not as good as the Giants secondary is. And that and now now it turns into Okay, you won at Caroline. You had

some guys win at Carolina. Can you have receivers win against these Giants corners? That's where this is game's gonna f and that And I thought the key thing with their defense playing better was Eli Apple seemed to be engaged, played better. Yes, he played a really good game, which you know previously It's like you never knew what universe he was on. Uh, he seemed to be locked in. He was, and they played without Olivier Vernon in this game though, and I think they'll continue. And it didn't

look like he's going to be bad. It sounds like he's not gonna be bad. So what that means is that they have to turn around now and use use veteran. They had a veteran guy who is my guy, Connor Barwin is who has to play for him in that spot. And Connor Barwin is not as good as player as Olivier Vernon, and it's he didn't really emerge. I didn't hear his name think till maybe the fourth quarter. He's a very much a jump on the pile guy. Now he's a run rule fast and get over there and

jump on the pile guy. Yeah, so they've got they've got some like we say, I'll write about, you know, with Damien Harrison today, write about him. I mean, there's things they're going to have to deal with with this front. I don't think there's good A pass rushing front is what we saw in Carolina. Well, how do you think the scheme change affects things? Because we're used to the Giants being a four three team. They got a new DC. I believe it's it's James bet Betcher is that he

pronounced it. He's he's highly regarded around the league. He's installed a three four front right Vernon when he's health he's going to be an outside rushing linebacker. That's true for them, yep. And it plays the will is the will. Barrow's in that spot now, So how how do you think it affects the way they rushed the passer? Well, I mean, the thing about the three four is when Wade was here, you don't know where they don't have

coming from. They don't have that dynamic guy they you know, when the Giants were winning super Bowls, Well, they've won super Bowls in the two thousands. I shouldn't say that, but but they were a team that that always had a when the three four with parcels always had a guy like a Lawrence Taylor and those kinds of guys. But they don't have now without without Olivier Vernon there, that's that's a that's a that's problem. That's a problem for them because they don't have that guy. I mean,

they've got a couple of guys. They have this young guy carry Woods. It's number seventy two. It's gonna Carrie win seventy two. He's not a bad player for them, uh you know, uh they this Kareem Martin number ninety six is a guy that kind of can can rush a little bit, but they don't have somebody that you're kind of just going, oh, you've got to take him out of the game. You know, you've got to deal

with him without Vernon in there. That that's that's that's a struggle for them, and that's why their secondary has to play as well as they do because they don't have the pass rush that that they go. You know, and they may be in a three four, but as soon as you go three wide, it's a fourth two. Yeah, So that's fair. Yeah, and Nickel defense, you want to

try and spread him out. You know, I thought the Cowboys ran the ball much better when they spread out Carolina with three wide or four wide and try to hand the ball off. So we'll Mickey if they make that. Mickey's as right though, You're just not gonna run the ball in the teeth of this defense and expect to move Harrison out of there. It reminds you of this matchup for last week. Yeah, you just don't mean that's just not going to be conducive to what they want

to do. Tomlinson's a big tackle too, yes side, So you're gonna you're gonna what you're gonna do is you're gonna down, down and around guys. And I mean down, down and around is angle blocks some guys, get some guys on the outside, make these giant cornerbacks and safeties. Now that that landing Collins is a hell of a player, and they've also got a nice young player, a guy that got from Tennessee named Curtis Riley. That's a safety

number thirty five. He's a very aggressive player. But all of a sudden, you get these guys to have to keep coming down, keep coming down, keep coming down on the edge, to have to defend the run. Now you're gonna get the shots behind. Now you'll maybe see the ball go down the field. You know, people were asking me, hey, Brian, you know, we we've talked about this all along, we all training camp. What do we see deep pass? Deep?

Pass deep? We talked about it to the point where it's like, Okay, this is something they're gonna have to do to back him up. But now the deep pass comes off a play action pass. So if you can kind of get the running game going and you're not in second and twenty one and third and seventeen and all those kind of ridiculous downs and you can and stay ahead. I do think you're going to see more read option this week. I think you're going to see dek Press Gott do some more things with his legs

this week. Where he's comfortable, it's where he's comfortable, it's where he's moving around. They've got to get him back in the rhythm of him playing in the game and not just standing there and trying to read what's going on. Get him to flow in the game. But it doesn't. It means also not being in second and twenty one. You get a holding call, Lyle Collins get a holding call. It's it's a guaranteed disaster for this offense. We've all

we've all understand. You go back and watch the game from Sunday and that those first four drives and it's like they didn't give themselves a chance. No, it was like it forfeited the possession. No chance, first first possession. You're sitting there third and twenty six. Yeah, seriously, all the play right, give me it, which one works? Did I go deep? You know? And it wasn't like third and twenty six at the thirty yard line. It's third and twenty six at the ten, right, and you can't

afford to make a mistake. Now, all you're gonna do is dump the ball off and punt and hope your defense plays well. I hope your punter kicks a fifty yards every time, which he too. He might have been the player of the game defensively. Defensively though, they did a good job against Caroline. I mean, it'll be Hey, we'll talk about I'm sure we'll get into the Giant's offense a little bit more tomorrow and what needs to be done there. But there's some things they're going to

have to deal with and they're capable of. They've got the personnel to match up with the Giants pretty well. I mean, one of the things we talked about with this offensive line, it might not have been the strongest offensive line without Travis in there and with Connor Williams starting, but it was pretty agile. It was mobile, they could move and saw that much. Yeah, we saw that. That's that's surprising. I mean, and We've also seen him use Tavon Austin quite a bit. You know, the one screen,

I think there's one. I think this is one of those things that if this staff and I know people out there right now are laughing at me for saying this, but if the staff is really going to self evaluate what they did in week one, they need to go back and think about, Okay, what did we want to do? What what do we want to do going in this game before it was second and twenty one and third and seventeen? Do we want to get the ball more

to Tavon Austin? Do we? You know? I think I think if you want to look at a real positive, was the ball to Cole Beasley. I hope they continue to get the ball to Cole Beasley. That to me is a great option. He looks by far, he looks the most comfortable playing with Dak Prescott. He's it's like Dak Prescott understands where he's going to be. And I'm not saying that. And here again, the fans out there are probably saying, well, brought us. They didn't have a

lot of time in the preseason. Well, they worked a lot in the you know, we watched twenty five thirty practices where they they were working every day with receiver routes and where they needed to be and stuff, and Cole was his guy two years ago seventy shive catches, and so yeah, I don't worry about that. I mean, if Cole said yesterday they had one miscommunication on row. But if you want to call a number one receiver on this team, label one guy, I think it's Beasley.

Now he's not your traditional guy because you're gonna move him around and he's gonna primarily probably play in the slot. But this this might be a game where it's best to play with more wide receivers than tight ends. And I know folks out there once again are asking, WELLY brought us what about seeing Rico Gathers this week mail bag on Dallas Cowboys down check that out. But yeah, you know, I think this is more about let's see six guys play. Let's see six guys be effective playing,

and it's gonna be tough. This The secondary I think is a lot better coverage wise, But you know, hey, they were capable, they got opened last week. Let's see if they can do it again this weekend. Let's see if the quarterback can reward them for running good routes. I know when you mentioned Rico. Sorry, I heard someone saying, well, yeah, they don't have any red zone threats, and I said, well, you gotta get there first before you have a threat. And I think they were, oh for oh when did

they get to the well, the one play. Yeah, they did the running play right, Yeah, the option for the option, which which is pretty creative by the way, but you got to get to the red zone before you haven't red zone option, you know, and and and and we're starting to get this, uh, this revisionist history. Right. Well, they don't have Dez in the red zone. Well, what was the biggest problem last year? They connect connect with Dez in the red zone? Right now they don't have Witten.

Well what did Witten have last year? Four touchdown? Did you read my foster on the mailbag? And now you're no, That's what I wrote on the mailbag, because hang on, Mick, I the one thing I think you could count on with Dez is you could throw it up to him with a fade route in the end zone, but he wouldn't catch it. Last year. Well, okay, but I felt like that was more of a go to option for him than the other stuff. During the drives though, we got to see somebody in the red zone first, that's fair.

But I'm just trying to look for options, new options besides handing the ball to twenty one. That's my number one, two and three options. This how about this knowing when they went two point conversion and they spread them out everybody we were sitting here's a quarterback draw and you knew it, and they still see that's that's the kind of offense you want to be able to run where they know you're going to run the football, but you could still run the football, or you could still execute

plays maybe in different ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand everybody's apprehension about Scotland Ahan and when the play call. I get it. But I also understand just the fact that you know and and hey, folks, you have the opportunity if you want to watch the all twenty two. I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to sit there and act like and beat you up and you know and say, well, you don't know what you're talking about. But if you want to sit down and

watch it, feel free. Get the game paths, sit down and watch, because you will see guys that get open. You will see that, you will see some creative play calling. You'll see on a third and three of him run a bunch of formation, motioning Beasley to show Dak Prescott they're in man coverage. Guy went with him, Guy went back out with him. You know these are things that you know, you could you could point to things and say that's the problem, that's the problem, that's a problem.

But you could also you could see it with your own eyes that will wait a minute, that what I thought was a problem is really not the problem. This is the problem. That's That's where I think that we get a little bit lazy with our analysis. Is do we want to immediately say that Scott Linahan's an idiot?

And I can hear everybody out there right now saying he has an idiot brought us He is an idiot, you know, but there's there's times where they do some creative things where he's not rewarded for his creative thought or the creative plan that they put together that day. Well said, which I was reminded of having to watch the game on TV. Yeah, you can't see what's going on.

No you can't. I feel I feel sorry for you guys, Yeah you get you know, feel feel free to you know, I know a lot of people disagree with me and what I say, and I'm not beating you up as a former scout. I'm not trying to do it. But if you want to take the opportunity to sit down and watch it, you can. You can see it with your own eye. You could say, well, wow, okay, that was I didn't think that watching the game the first time.

But you go back and watch the ALL twenty two again, you you could you could say, whoa, oh, I see what they were trying to do here. Why do you think just ever so often the networks don't show an ALL twenty two? Is there what against I would personally, you know, I would love to watch a game from the end zone the whole time. Yes, I mean that kind of what Booker's doing on the on the money, He's all over on that. But Ray minute with that

in preseason a little bit. If you if you showed me, yeah I can't you showed me like a high up view from behind of ALL twenty two. That's the best. That's the best way to watch me personally, I get more out of watching because you see, you see guys, You see blocking schemes, you see defensive coverages, you see how guys react to routes, see what the safeties are doing.

See about even if you just did it on the replay, Yeah, you know, just just get up high and show me the twenty two and then that's what they've done with Romo if you notice, though, he'll they'll show and CBS has done a nice job, but they'll show really like the all twenty two from the side almost and Romo will circle and then he'll draw into where guys needed to be in coverage and what he's seeing and stuff. I think it's a great way to learn football myself.

Anytime you can watch it, you know. But I just encourage folks if you want to. You know, I'm not gonna sit here and and and try and convince you this is the way it is. You can see it with your own eyes. If you go and get that opportunity, you'll see what what Mickey and you and Bill Jones and everybody on Dallas Cowboys dot COM's talking about. So the lesson here, get your all twenty two pass and it's totally commission. No, we're not, we're not. I'm just

trying to help help much. I'm trying to help fans because when I talk about this, you know, and I have to answer Twitter questions about it, and they're like, well, no, this is not let me just go watch. Just go watch, and you'll see exactly what we're talking about. All right, let's take our first break. By the way, eight five five two two nine seven is the number. If you

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money back guaranteed. Shop exclusive Cowboys underwear at Tommy John dot com. Forward slash Cowboys for twenty percent off your first order. Got him on right now, No weggies at all? Know what, Brian, It's funny you say that because I have mine on too. Yes, I want to sartin. I wore the socks yesterday. But all the all the Tommy John products, they're so comfortable. You know, a big guy like me, and you don't want to you don't want

to have to be you know, a justin stuff. Yeah, you just want to be comfortable, and Tommy John's that perfect stuff. You need to get it. The undershirts in my favorite part. Yeah, they are good. They're awesome. They're anti microbial. Is that right? Anti microbial? That means I'm not gonna sweat at them. I think so. I think so. Can't get idiot affections, No more of those for you. I couldn't say the word. It was a hard word, and I picked it thinking, Okay, this is gonna be

the easiest read to do. Microbial. Is that right that you got it? I screwed up every time. I just kind of went, oh, okay, microbial. I said it wrong. There. I can't say words correctly. I'll be writing one on one. You gotta make the words easy, yes, easy to read, easy to say. That's okay? Though you love Tommy John and we love Horace in Atlanta? What's up? Man, you're up first on Tommy, how you doing. Appreciate you taking my call? No problem, I gotta I got a bone

to pick with you. I've got a few points that trying to refute some of the things that you were saying. Okay, first of all, I think the great Mike Tyson said, at first everyone has a great plan. You get hit in the mouth. True, and then you got to see what happens. And Carolina's defense definitely hit us in the mouth. They did. That's the first point. The second point, innovative

and creative is good. But when the Pactors played the Cowboys in the Ice Bowl, one of the greatest actually two of the greatest coaches that ever coach, going against each other. One one did on that last play quarterback sneaky, you know nothing fancy. I think the next year they played each other that the roles were reversed. The Cowboys had the chance to win on the last play with offense, and I love Tom Lanjue, but he did some complicated

play that didn't work. It's like sprint right option, I believe, yeah, and you got the years reverse. Yeah, it's reverse, But go ahead, You're you're rolling right along you're good. Yeah, you're good. Okay, so and so therefore, you know, sometimes you gotta use simplicity. And we have a strong offensive line. It's a mobile quarterback, and I don't believe and once again has come to coaching. You gotta know what you have.

You know if I have if I have a scalpel, I'm not trying to use it like a sword, and vice versus five a sword, I'm not trying to use it like a scalpel. You have to know what you're working with. And I don't think that our coaching staff does that on the officive side. And then on another part I want to make that to reiterate that is coaching, is that our defense is pretty much the same defense that it was last year. No big number one picks to come in and making a big impact, you know,

Van the Hurst and Icago. None of those guys are really impacting our defense right now. What has changed on our dep side is we got a new coach that has come in and kept tied, kept our team in the game until our quarterback, which didn't have a great game. But I'm gonna tell you what he didn't do. He didn't turn the ball over three times. Which was the thing that our last court back did when we played

this team and threw us out of the game. You know, we had three interceptions against the Carolina passes a long time ago when we was a few years ago when we played them on Thursday, and our quarterback threw us out of the game because of the picks, and we went to the last second and we were still in

this game, even though our team didn't play bad. So that lets me know that if you're in a game where you have a score or less, that's coaching if you cannot get that score, all right, because your team is fighting and your coaching should be able to get you a touchdown to get you over the hump. All right, well, said Horace. Appreciate the call for to Tony Romo thrown three picks on Thanksgiving. I believe it wasn't laying like they need a spatch. Look hit him off the field.

He rebroke his collar bone that game. It was done for the year. Yeah after three, Yeah, Dax didn't throw four interceptions like the guy down the road, right, he didn't. And you know, if there's one thing the defense could have done better besides defending Cam, they had two more chances at takeaways. Jeff Heath with a pick that you wrote about, and I think a Woozier was in non potential. He ripped it out. I couldn't get it and recover. Crawford was really close and the receiver felt back down

on the ball afterwards. Um, I think this defense is different, and I'll disagree with Horace and I appreciate his call. I think Taco did play pretty well. I thought so too in that game. I felt like, though that I didn't feel like that Seaun Lee played particularly well. I didn't feel like that really, Jalen Smith played all that well. You know, just watching the tape, he can throw Wilson in their death. I think that to me, it was

they went with the same safeties. It was a new safety playing really, if you want to think about things, Cavon Frazier having to go the whole game and also have special teams duties as well. Tip of the cap to him playing with a bad shoulder and all that. I understand, you know, with Chris Richard and what he's done, I appreciate, I do. I appreciate the passion and fire and you know the discipline that he's brought to this defense. But you know, his questions about being innovative and simplistic

and stuff like that. I just I'm not here to defend the coaches, and I think everybody, if you're taking it that way, that's the wrong way. I mean, Mickey gets on me about trying to fire the head coach all the time, you know, and there's times when he's right and there's times when he's wrong. But I think we've been very fair about that. I'm trying to be fair right now that there are times when Scott Linahan and the staff put together or put together game plan.

They call a player too that think's going to work, and they throw a screen to the outside, and all of a sudden they get a block in the back penalty, or they run, like I said, they run a bunch of formation and then they don't get the quarterback to look at the where the ball needs to go. You know, those those are you know, I don't know how you blame the coaching staff for that, But there's nobody that's

been more critical of these coaches than me. Now I'm more willing to give these guys the benefit of the doubt now because there's a new quarterback coach. There's a new tight ends coach, there's a new offensive line coach, but they don't have a whole hell of a lot of time to work with. You know, you start losing some games and next thing you know, it's going to

not be the coaching staff here anymore. We had that discussion last night on Mackey you love this the Happy Hour show, which you're I think you're on it next week. I am, but I listened to part of it coming in to smart. Is this a must win case? It is for both teams. See that's where and that's and that's where Derek and I and Derek and I when I was on the show with them a couple of years ago, that's where Derek and I went round and round and round about. And that's just the personnel guy

in me, because I know that you lose this game. Now, okay, where are you? Because you lost the first game, you're now you're going to be oh and two and try you know. But and people say, well, what about the ninety three cow That was a rare team, Dude, last night, that's rare. Fota the best dynasty we've ever seen. But and as people say, the Saints last year, but it said that the same thing came up in ninety three.

It was the same you know, Oh, nobody that goes oh and two ever gets to the playoffs or wins the super Bowl. And they didn't take into an account why they lost the first two games or how good they were, right, you know, and then they reeled off seven straight wins. The one that sticks out to me is only a few years back. It was twenty eleven and they started one and one, but they went to San Francisco. I believe that was a year game, the Jesse Holly game. Yeah, Romo played with a punctured lung

in that game, right, Witton's ribs were busted up. I believe they knew the urgency of having to win that game and not fall into O and two. And they talked about it afterwards like this is this is about I say, huge, there's I'm not I'm not going to pick against them this week. I'm not because I feel like that they will go back and they'll look and they'll say, Okay, what do we have to You have some familiarity with this team that they're about to play.

They'll understand, Okay, what works, what doesn't work? But you you're gonna get it. Not that the sense of urgency wasn't there in Carolina. The execution was very poor, you know, except on the defensive side. Now, okay, I'll say this on defense until they figure it out that they can't over pursue and they can't and play out of their out of their lanes. You know, once they figure that out. Though they did a great job, people say, well, what

adjustments did this team ever make? Mickey brought it up to you. Though they they spread that, they spread Carolina out. They took Luke Keekley out of the play. If you followed Jeff Swartz, the offensive lineman, he'll show you a mistake that was made in the game on the first on the very first play of the game with Lyle Collins. Watch that last night. Yeah, so you know you, I don't know if that would have gone for a touchdown, well, it would have been a significant game. I think that

to me. You know, when you miss opportunities like that, it's really easy to point the finger at people. You know, they say, well, this guy is an idiot, this guy you know, they can't do this, can't do it. And again I can hear the fans talking to me right now in my head that you know that, well, this has been the way all the time brought us. It really wasn't that way For eight nine games last year. It wasn't They were scoring points, they were moving the

football for the thirteen win season. You know, we weren't really complaining about this thing being predictable or simplistic. They were running the ball and first down and making six seven yards a shot. You know, was it was? It was it simplistic and all that. Then it's kind of what Zeke talks about. It's like, yes, y'all stop asking me about loading the box because they've been loading the box on me for three years now. Yeah, it's they

know what you're gonna do. The second half against Carolina, they held him to eighty four yards. Yeah, eighty four yards. So did they make some sort of adjustment? Yeah, because I think Cam ended up rushing for minus one after the fifty would he have fifty nine yards I think finished? Yea, So he had minus one the rest of the way. So yeah, they made an adjustment. You know, quit over pursuing, you know, and sometimes I think, you know, I understand

Rod are us of get up the field. But at other times you have to be cognizant that, okay, that's fine, but they just might run the ball on me. Right. You know, it's not all about chasing the quarterback. So you know, it's fine for the inside guys to create havoc,

but they gotta still hold down the edge. Better play with some discipline this week with Sequon Barkley handing him the football, because he will take it one way, he will completely stop, and then while you are all on one side of the field, he will take it back the other way. And you know, so they're gonna have to play with some discipline. Even though the kids are rookie, he's one of the He reminds me, and this is high praise. He reminds me of Barry Sanders and the

way he plays. And I will say this, Barry Sanders was very difficult to tackle. His stop start quickness was unbelievable. This guy has the ability to score from any place on the field. And he's a little more physical than he is hard. He is hard, but he's a he's a compact guy that when you you can bounce off him. Jacksonville's got some good tacklers in that defense. And they had some guys bouncing off him. You'd better be ready to bring it with this guy. Just just put it

this way. He's a hoss. He is a hoss. Yeah. I don't know if you do this, but because you great, you have your top fifty guys every year for us. Yeah, coming out of the number two he was number two. Would you have had him higer than Zeke coming out of the draft they were in the same class, I think I would. To me, I think the way I would have rated Zeke better Zeke and is was if you talk about complete back, complete back, I think to me,

Zeke is more of a complete back. My favorite the highest rated guy of the guys recently had was Girly. Girly was the Girly was my guy of of If you said, well, which back would you have taken instead of Zeke? I would have taken Girly over any of these backs. But I just this Barkley kid. When you watch him play, he reminds me of Barry Sanders. He sure does. With the way his balance, stop start, quickness, the spin, the cuts, you know, all that stuff. I

could see why the Giants drafted him. The Giants in one day might look up, though, and see that guy across the field from them that you know, this plays in the same stadiums, Like, boy, we should have taken this guy as our future quarterback. We'll see, But I do like the pick of Barkley though he had. They managed to hold him in check except for the one run. Yeah, he had a sixty eight yard touchdown run. So he had one run for sixty eight. He had seventeen runs

for thirty eight. Yeah, so they were struggling offensively except for that one play. Yeah, that one plays. I can't see anytimes I've seen Sanders when I was in Green Bay. Minus one, minus three five, minus one, minus two fifty eight yards. That's how his carries would go in a game, you know, and you and this kid, this kid has the same But yeah, Mickey's right. Jacksonville did a good job of getting to him though. They did. They did.

You've got to get bodies to him, you got to tackle him, and you gotta be careful of him bouncing off. Barry Church played a good game, by the way, Barry was a little store after that one. Yeah, he's having to He was having to do a lot of tackling, a lot of tackling. By the way. One more note, because Horace mentioned this about Taco and the call speaking of safeties, both starting safeties Heath and Fraser did not miss a snap. The don't come off the field every night.

Taco had more snaps in the game than DeMarcus Lawrence by one. Yeah, Taco played forty nine snaps in the game and Antoine Woods did two and they both played well. Yeah, so that's that's encouraging two young players. I was talking to Rod Marinelli yesterday at lunch. I said, coach, I'd go, great job of getting the sack that MALIEK. Collins had. You know that he had just backup players on the field. You know, Ross Taco. Those guys were all rushing the passer.

It wasn't they got pressure and a sack with backup players, Which is something that Mickey and I and we've all talked about this. You know what happens when they take the starters off the field, Do they get pressure? Do they make plays? You know, for for a long time that wasn't the case. It looks like that that has changed for the better for this defense. Well what it used to be is, okay, the offenses backed up at

the ten yard line. Let's put the backups in right, and then all of a sudden fifty yeah, and it's like okay, here comes to Calvary. You guys are out. Yeah, yeah, all right, let's take our final break. Matt and Austin keep holding. We'll get you on the other side. Eight eight eight five five two two nine seven is the number if you want to join us in our final segment. Next on Talking Cowboys. Cowboys fans know that the second best of anything simply won't cut it, and your skincare

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menskin care brand of the Dallas Cowboys. Get your Jack Black playmaker for Jack Black Faves plus full size lip bomb for just ten bucks with free shipping. You can get this at get jack black dot com. Used to code Cowboys. That stuff is really really good. I still have some of my shampoo and body wash, but I'm turning that to take care of you. We've talked about just ten enough. Just give start to my wife's shampoo.

This morning, I got some, got some. We got the order form between Mickey and I. We will take care, give me what you need. Yeah, absolutely, you know and you know what was underrated was the sunscreen. Yes, that was that was key. Yeah, great training camps. Yeah that is good. And when you have a big forehead, you know what that's all about. I'm with you on that. Yeah. In movie theater. Bill trolling me on Twitter last night,

that was a good troll job by you. I tweeted that the A and M loss, it got really high ratings. Obviously the big game against comes in. I said that was the best loss ever, And Bill said, what was the worst loss ever was? And Ryan, do you know what the worst loss in A M? Sixty sixty six to seven, No, seventy seventy seven, seventy seven to nothing? Was that in Eva's game? It played in Norman I believe, I believe so. Yeah, But then they did it right,

didn't they bring him? The previous year sixty six to seven was back to back years where it was actually but there was one Reggie McNeil was a quarterback. They beat O you Yeah, one ranked team. I was there, Yeah, that was in that game. He was a freshman that year. Yeah, that's right. I thought he was. Whatever happened with Rege McNeil didn't happen. Lufkin texts it just didn't happen. But it was that wasn't happened. That was a good half

a season though, sort of like the two point conversion play. Yeah, oh well, I wasn't a fan of that. Nobody is sprint ride options. A terrible call was you're Joe Montana in nineteen eighty one, That's when that play was really really good and he was trying to throw it. Why do you yeah, why do you repay? Why do you limit yourself with space? I never quite understood that, because you ran everybody into the court. That's why I'm saying,

why would you limit yourself with space? I've never quite understood. I'm all about options. Quarterback sprint quarderback option would have been better. Yeah, anything, But we got some college football Saturday night, y at and T Stadium Ohio State. Do you give TCU any chance against Ohio State? Yes, you do? I do. I think because TCU defensively Gary Patterson, he'll have him ready, he'll Gary Patterson might not have the horses to run the race, but who can up with

a good scheme. Yeah, he'll come up with something to kind of mess with their but with their offensive scheme. Young quarterback for TCU gonna have some difficulties with the Ohio State defense. Yeah, they got a block, But how is Bosa as both Bosa's hurt now and I am mysa hurt I think he was. Yeah, both of them are hurt now, so well that makes a difference. I'll not make that mistake. I'll be watching from home. You

don't want to be great college football Saturday this year? Yeah, you got a lot of good matchups if you're in the area. Check that out. And Sunday at and T Stadium. Single game tickets Giants game, forty Bucks Dallas Cowboys. Zeke can't go to the Ohio State game, right, or can't watch their schedule on a night before like it it's a seven o'clock kickoff. They usually they got a meetings. Yeah, he's not gonna probably go speak to the team, go show up, speak to this'd be cool. Yeah, he'll do

that like on Friday. Sure, Yeah, over there and hang out with him a little bit, right, big football weekend at the stadium. Let's get back to the phone lines, gentlemen, Matt in Austin, you're up next on talking Cowboys. What's up, Matt, Hey don't know. Thanks taking a call. I think I've come to terms with the loss at Carolina because I don't think anybody strolls into Carolina and has a great day at their house. I mean, they're a good team.

They've appeared in the playoffs quite a bit. Um. I think the defense played well enough for me to have some hope there. And I think offensively, you know, we ran sixty Matt, Wait, what way did the defense play well for? You? You know, because I think they played well in terms of not letting Carolina move efficiently in

the red zone like they can. They ran up and down the field, but when it came time to try and get a turnover in the red zone or limit them to a field goal attempt, or you know, keep them out. Um. I mean, Carolina is not designed to put up four hundred yards, but they can. And I think I think our line put pressure on Cam once they've figured out that, oh my gosh, he might keep

it on the quarterback read option. Um. So, I think they adjusted well and in the second half I think gave me some confidence going forward and Lee Lee will play better. I mean, that's just that's guaranteed. Offensively, what we ran sixty seventy plays, and I want to say fifty of them were unsuccessful. And I think each unsuccessful play you could point to a different factor, whether it be a penalty, a missed block, a missed assignment, a bad quarterback throw, a bad read, a bad play call.

So I think when folks are like, it's all coaching, well, it's partly coaching, it's all the quarterback. Well, it's partly the quarterback. What And again, you don't just stroll into Carolina and expect to punch those guys in the mouth. It doesn't, it doesn't happen. You fight, and we were close,

but we didn't bring it home. What I want to see that I think is that needs to be a little different when in twenty sixteen, when we were successful and when we've played successful games since then, it's predicated on and ahead of the chains, so that defenses can't key on what we're going to do on second and third downs correct because they've got enough film on Prescott to know what he can and can't do, what he likes,

and what he doesn't. And so if coordinators on second and third down can stop what's easy for him, it creates problems. And one thing I didn't like was that on early downs we run straight into the strength of the Carolina front. True, and they've been running on first down for three years. Yeah, that's what and we do it. We do it more than anybody else in the league, which is fine. And I think that with Travis Frederick and maybe even a Ron Leary you can probably match

up with anybody. But with a serviceable Joe Looney and a rookie Connor Williams, I don't know if it's the same line. And so what I'd like to see is more of that spread running attack on first down. So because when you when you get in shotgun eleven, I think you limit your options to the point where the defense can say, well, let's make Dac throw to the sideline and see if he can connect, versus being able

to run Zeke for a couple of yards. That makes your second down more manageable, and that makes your third down a position where you can say, all right, de coordinator, are we running here or are we throwing? And that's what we couldn't do against Carolina. You can't just run it at Snacks Harrison next weekend and expect Looney and Williams to be able to push him around like a Frederick and a Leary could in my opinion. Okay, and

so that's what I want to see. Good luck, guys, enjoy the RESTA A right good call, Matt, Thanks, Ollie, you're on board with all that, Mick. He makes a lot of sense. Yeah, because I've been saying this for two three years. You go two tight ends, go three tight ends? What are you doing? You might as well have one of those signs on the restaurant that says eat eat. This one says are you and run? Yeah, you know, blanking and stubborn. Yeah. Now I understand the

identity thing. We want to be physical, we want to run the ball, but you don't have to tip your hand. Yeah, So how about three tight ends, play action and throw at eighty yards. I don't even care if it's incomplete. Yeah. The Giants him, you'll do it. Giantsto down third and one the other day and then they went they went three wides, packed it and faked it and then throw it down, threw it down the field, almost almost pulled

it all. Let me ask you guys this question, then, does this team need to be more of a college offense because they need do they need to go back and do in the readoption stuff and just go ahead and run Dak Prescott on the readoption stuff. And are you going to really develop a quarterback that way or you play into the strength of what you have right now? My question makes sense. Yeah, I mean, I mean, if you're trying to develop him as a pocket pass or

is that the wrong approach to take with this guy? Well, I think for his longevity, That's what I'm saying. This is this is better than I mean, are you gonna are you are you wasting him trying to make him a pocket passer or should you go ahead and say, you know what I need to win games now? Yeah? And so but okay, so I understand what you're saying. But there's this this idea that when he gets outside the pocket and he's running, he throws the ball better. Well,

that's not what happened with Blake Jarwin. No right, no help him. But I understand you know what I'm saying. Yeah, a lot of times when he's outside the pocket, he's not setting his feet and he's not throwing the ball accurately. So I'm okay with the run option, the run option deals, mixing those in Okay, but not a steady diet of it. Okay, That's what I'm saying because I know who my backup

quarterback is. That's but there we go again. If you play to his strength of him being a mobile quarterback, are you are? You are the risk? You run the risk and I want to But does that does that make the offense better? It does? I think it does because you do play to his strength. Coach John our Buddy and Lufkin tweeted that they he saw them read the run zone reads seven times in the game, but Carolina snuffed it out and forced him to hand the

ball off and sort of him discipline discipline defense. Yeah, well, but how did they score the touchdown? It was at an option option? Well, they got a good block on the outside, but no creative I'm yeah, I'm just here you go. I'm I'm just asking them. No, I see you? Are we are we asking? Are we? Are we sacrificing Dak Prescott? Are we not? Are we not making Dak Prescott the best player he can be because we're asking to do something he's not capable of doing. I think

he is. He is capable of doing what they're asking him. To do. The problem is these other variables meeting a Carolina defense when under duress, It's it's very different. It's it's a difficult transition. If you're talking about making him a pocket passer, Okay, it's it's gotta it's gotta be baby steps as far as that goes, you know, it's he's got You got to incorporate both into the game plan. I mean, when you get yourself in second and seventeen

run option done work, I understand. I'm just saying I'll say, yeah, hand it off there. Maybe on the first down run though, if it's not a penalley or not a sack or whatever. But if if it's a well, can they stay ahead of the Chaine with him playing read option football? Can they do they need to be a college offense? Were they a college offense in twenty sixteen? I think they

had a little bit of that did? I think my question on that have defensive coordinators taken a lot of that stuff away now knowing that they that's what they like to do. Like for instance, there and I don't remember specifically when it was, there was it was either a waggle or a bootleg where the defensive end just crashed in on attack and he had no place to go and he threw it short to the tight end. He threw it in the ground on purpose. Right, Well,

there was they had. There's a couple they tried to run ydloss or out, a couple of waggles where they didn't. You know, Carolina's linebackers and safeties and Brian's talked about it. They did such a good ball job of flowing to the ball and just shutting down anything on the edge on the outside. Well, it's it's like they got to stay at home. Yeah, you know, and if they stay at home, so it Dallas did. Mickey's right, he read

you the numbers. Once Dallas started playing a little bit better disciplined defense, they were able to kind of control. But I just okay, if if you need to, if you want to make Dak Prescott a better quarterback, do you play to his strings and that's let him run the ball and damn him getting hurt. I don't think you want a steady diet of it, because they will do what we saw in the game. They started cutting off that the rollouts, the reverse boot to the right

throw on the run. Yeah, but they never really got running. And they only got running when they got into eleven personnel. So do you play eleven personnel? Forget the tight ends and just say okay, we're gonna spread you out. And Bill, you watch it every week at Oklahoma? How do they move the ball? Their quarterback runs the ball. I think he had ninety something yards rushing the other day in that game. Do you realize? And I looked when I

saw this, Dack's quarterback rating was eighteenth. Yeah. After one week, there were sixteen quarterbacks in the league that had a worst a worse quarterback rating. Manning, car Roethlister, Ryan Foles, and Stafford were among those sixteen that played worst. Well, that was all losses too, By the way, give me

the quarterbacks again. Cars, Roethlisberger at tie, that's a loss because it was Cleveland, Bradford loss, Ryan loss Thursday Night falls one barely by the skin of their teeth, and Stafford got cream that might cost the head coaches job. I'll stop one game. Here we go. Well, what do you think these other cities are saying right now? No, how about the ones with the new coach? Then we're all fired up. Every one of them got their butts

but I got you. But fans are looking back, they don't see a lot of they don't know what they have in their skill positions teams for new coaches. I guess that team. That's why they're there right and there, and they're seeing continuation to some problems last year. And so look they Jason Garrett said, they gotta find a way to fix this and get some things offensively that they can go to they know will work. Yeah, hand the ball to Zeke, throw the ball to Beasley. There's

your given. Dak run and Dak Ryan's all in on it. I'm just trying to figure out why. No, I mean if offensively, if you you know, you might have to sacrifice to health your quarterback for this offense to run better. I think a lot of that has to do with while the defense is playing, like, are they over pursuing? Then? Okay, let me get them out there. That's how Cam made it work, right right, Yeah, full of a couple of times and the one and they planned on it. Cowboys

were over gonna pursue, all right, over gonna pursue. We're gonna pursue. That's a good way to end it. You left Garoppolo off that list of quarterbacks too. Yeah, established financially Francisco turnaround year five and one. Now it's a starter, right for six and one, not anymore. Yeah, the NFL is a strange lady, right, Brian absolutely finding that out more and more. We'll see what the Cowboys do this Sunday. We'll be back tomorrow though, to continue breaking things down. Bill,

we'll be back in the captain's chair. Thanks to Ken for producing, and we'll see you guys on Thursday. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.