Talkin' Cowboys: Pitt Predictions

Your Chest Friday edition of Talking Cowboys. Every Friday and nine fifteen, we continue to break down this matchup between the Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers, week nine of the NFL season, and we're gonna say it with our chest today. Bring your complaints, bring your questions, bring the fire in the Paris go chat. We want to address it and we want to get you ready. We've got predictions coming up. We're gonna talk about that secondary a little bit more.

I've got some questions for Rob, Isaiah and Hecma and also not to mention, we may even talk about the quarterback battle and what we saw yesterday deering practice. But we're gonna start things off by of course, saying it with your chest. Isaiah dan Back our residence super Bowl Champion We've got the great Rob Phillips in the building as well, and heck Ma Harrison always I can't I want to say sultry voice every single time. I can't get away from it. But I'm not gonna say it.

I'm not gonna say it because you're better than what. Say it with your chest, Say it with your chest. It's the sultry voice of heck Ma Harrison. Sorry, heck Mob. Rob told me too. So that's how we're gonna start things off today. Glad you're with us, Glad you're with us, and Rob. Let's let's dive into practice yesterday. What did we see from the Cowboys perspective? And maybe some of these injuries that were lingering earlier in the week, and

maybe some updates that we saw later on. Yeah, I mean injury report, like we always say this year, if you take away injured reserve, it looks pretty clean for the Cowboys in week eight. Chris Jones is on it. He was set to have that core muscle surgery on Thursday, so he's gonna be out for a while. They have a new punter. How did we pronounce his name? Kyle nice Wander. Nice Wander is how you say his name

Hunter Nice Wander. Hunter the Punter is in against the Steelers this week, and the big ones obviously are Zeke and Alden Smith, both limited the last two days in practice. But I you know, Mike McCarthy kind of said yesterday doesn't sound like anything serious, just trying to get those guys both to the game. Wait a minute, we have a punder name, last name Nice Wonder. Apparently, yes, he

wears number one. He wears number one. Heck, just like Matt number Ier back in the day, number one Nice Wonder. This is twenty twenty and it's rat Hunter the Punter. He said in an interview during his time at Northwestern that his teammates would call him HTP for Hunter the Punter, and it kind of disappointed Nick Heaman upstairs because he thought he kind of made it up. I think and Nick did not make it up. Apparently it's been something back to his time at his time at Northwestern. But Rob,

he's kind of a big guy. This isn't Chris Jones back there punting the ball. He's a little bit of a bigger character. And somebody out of the XFL. The man is a He's a man of size, he's a man of size at the hunter, at the hunter at the punter position. So U no, wait a minute. You know we saying to see how I go. Wait a minute, now, hold on, guy. So we're saying a man of size like heckma man of size or like Isaiah man a size. Where are we going with this? Hey, we're the same size?

Hey what are you talking about? No? No, no, no, God, God definitely made you differently than for me. So let's be clear about that. Thank you. That so nice. But nah, so come on, put that in context. So what we're talking about. How about the time whenever I put on Isaiah, I don't have his measurables memorized. The time I put on Isaiah's jersey, they said I would look like a retired punter. Well it might. You could take the retired out of that. You could take the retired name out

of that, and it's kind of looks like that. I don't think that's necessarily the case. He's definitely more trim than I am. But he's a big guy. I mean, he's and I'm interested to see if rob can find his measurables because he's a lot bigger than I anticipated and he had a one punt yesterday during the media session that was pretty impressive. There were some that were kind of duds. But I guess that's how we're gonna start our saying with the chesch Fridays, talking about hunters,

nice ones. Where we're at, talking where we're out in the season, talking about the backup punter or how about that? That's that's something to talking about punters. Isaiah, how are you doing this Friday morning? I'm Fan Tabuloso. You know. I woke up this morning. So it was a great start. That's good. That's always good. This morning, I can't say it. I went, I went, and I coordinated some nice workouts for individuals this morning at the gym. Okay, that's good. Nice?

Sure didn't nice? Okay, Okay, real quick, I gotta get the measurables in there, thank you. He is a man of size, dude, I didn't realize this. He's six four two forty three. Oh my goshee. Okay, so he's bigger. You can play quarterback like buy a lot. Wow, that's impressive. Bigger than me six four two forty three for our backup hunter, mister nice wander. So with that being said, Chris Jones having that abdominal injury, seems to be out this week, and it'll be interesting to see how the

Cowboys utilize him. I guess is kind of the sad way to put it, because the Cowboys having moved the ball offensively over the last couple of weeks. And we kind of talked about it a while back following the Dak Prescott injury and the drop off from Dak Prescott to Andy Dalton. But Isaiah, whenever we look at the drop off from Andy Dalton too, I guess whoever's at quarterback following Andy Dalton, whether it's been the Nuche, Garrett Gilbert,

or Cooper Rush. Did you really anticipate the drop off being that much, because I mean we said it last week it costs you a game against Philly. Yes, I anticipated that. Now when we everybody, everybody in Twitter world, in pariscript world, they all know I've stood up by any Dalton. I did not expect there'd be a substantial drop off between Deck and Andy, which was but the Andy, which there was. Um, And I was wrong, I admit it. But Andy Dalton to whomever, Um, you know, it's just

it's substantial. I expected it to be that bad. You're you're taking. You know, we took a ricky quarterback, a rooky quarterback who had no preseason, who's had probably I say maybe, if I had to guess, probably less than twenty reps all and all from the time he's touched touched foot at the Star UM to now in terms

of reps versus the first team defense UM. And that was his first experience versus a coach that we knew was going to be a jerk in terms of he didn't even really bring a lot of sure, right, but but we knew he was just gonna play mind games with him. And you know, he didn't have a chance. He had zero chance. But we all knew that, right. I mean, I know some people were trying to give him all kinds of nicknames to make themselves feel better, as if he's gonna coming a ball out. Everybody on here.

We all knew it was gonna be terrible. Um. We try to keep them a route up as much as possible sometimes, but sometimes the facts are facts, and you know, we take that motion out of it. Ain't that right? Heck, he started with me already, leave me alone. Oh man, it's uh you talk about a drop off between where we were the Nucci Uh Gucci Didnucci hey for he went a big Gucci Ucci to Benjamin And it's true, Man,

we are we are there. Uh And no matter how you look at it with these quarterbacks, I don't think that the expectation is for these guys to go out and have a four hundred plus game, uh, multiple touchdowns. So I think we're all in a wait and see. We don't know who's gonna start, do we. I still we're still waiting to see what the I think the over under we were all with rush and pretty much putting that based off of his experience with Kellen Moore.

But man, the drop off is steep, especially when we're talking about from my number one gude to where we are right now. And so you know, we need so many things that happen in this game for us to have any success. And like like we had talked about previous this week, the defense have to have a pick and score, special teams has to score. We have to have a whole lot of things go in our favor

in order for us to pull out a victory. Rob whenever it comes to a backup quarterback situation like this, and I'm going to ask here in a minute kind of just a prediction, because none of us know who the starting quarterback is, but if you had a feeling, who would it be. But before we get into that, what position is affected the most by a change at quarterback?

Because Ceede Lamb earlier this week was asked the question He's had a ton of different quarterbacks now have thrown them the football over the last couple of years, and he felt like that gives him an advantage. But there's a ton of wide receivers that have not had the same or have not had different quarterbacks. They've had the same quarterback and Dak Prescott throwing them the football over

and over again. But what other position has affected the most rob whenever it comes to the change of quarterback, Well, I think you answered it. I mean I would say, you know, the center position, you got to get the cadence down to the same the same cadence as the previous quarterback. But other than that, it's it's got to

be the skill position. Got the wide receivers. I mean, look, the production the last few weeks has not been anywhere close to what it's been, uh, not even with Andy Dalton early in his stint as the starter, but definitely not even close to Dak Prescott before he got hurt. So the rapport, the timing with wide receivers, that's why, I you know, we get to predictions in a minute, but but that's why experience is so critical at those

two positions. It's why Dak had guys out at his house throwing on a makeshift football field over the su to try to get back what they didn't have during OTA's It's it's just so critical, Isaiah, I agree, I agree. I mean skill position, there's so much that goes into timing, so much that goes into the chemistry, uh, you know.

But but not too far behind is you know, in a close second is offensive line, And it really just comes out to how much communication is being asked of the quarterback in terms of getting these guys set um. Some teams put a lot of responsibility on the quarterbacks. Some teams put a lot of responsibility on the center. Um. Sometimes it's the guard um, you know, depending on the inexperience of the center. So it really just comes down

to that. But I think, yeah, in terms of the chemistry between the quarterbacks or the lack there of the chemistry between these quarterbacks and these receivers is definitely that has to be. It has to be the case. Well,

and look at how the Mighty have fallen. Man. Eight weeks ago we were talking about three thousand yard receivers and yeah, we have three sports cars that we can't drive, but three sports cars that we're putting in right, So there's no way that this office can run with all the options that we have, and the only thing that we can rely on is our running game in a short passing games and hopefully these guys could take it the rest of the way and hopefully and just getting

back to some of our NFC East matchups, Andy Dalton can return and that chemistry that we've been talking about at the skills position can return as well. But right now it's just not there, and these guys have to be frustrated as all heck because of it. Now this is the time to say it with your chest in terms of where you think the Cowboys are gonna go

this Sunday. And once again, I want to just preface this by saying, we do not know at this very moment of this recording who will be the starting quarterback. But if you had to lean one way or the other, rob, who would it be at quarterback for the Cowboys this week? And why? Who do I think? Or who would I go with? Give me both? Why not? Well, I've said if I'd go with one, I'd go with Cooper Rush, mainly just because he's the one of the two that

I've seen play. I mean, I really haven't seen Garrett Gilbert play at the NFL level. I Also, I think Cooper Rush's experience throwing to these particular set of receivers and tight ends could give him an advantage. Now he just got here and and so, and he did tell us yesterday on a conference call that ninety percent of the offense is pretty much the same as it was

last year when he was here. But if I had to lean towards what they might do, I might say Garrett Gilbert, just because based on what they've done to date. You know, Ben de Nucci started last week, because he's been here, he was there a little bit longer than Garrett Gilbert. It's not that much of a difference. It's a couple of weeks. But because of that, I might say they lean towards that. I mean, Cooper Rush has not been in with a team for a few weeks,

you know, and he just got here. For that reason, I might I might side with the guy who's been around the offense just a litttle bit longer. But we'll see. I mean he might wanted. That's why practice is so important. You know. If Cooper Rush comes out and shows what he can do and shows the rapport continue with the guys he's played with before, maybe they make a different

decision now. I like that. I like that, Robin. I believe the same thing as far as with Cooper Rush and his familiarity with Moore system, but also with Garret Gilbert. I think the other wrinkle is he spent a lot of his time in the AFC AFC North with Cleveland and also with with the Patriots, so that may give him a leg up. And he's played in a June Jones system where he's throwing the ball around a lot at smu UM. So look, my heart says uh, Cooper Rush.

But it wouldn't surprise me if Garret Gilbert played because of like I said, the wrinkle of him being in the AFC. I'm gonna go with Cooperville. I'm going oh no, no, no, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeahs name yea, he gets the nickname, yeah, freak gets his nickname Cooper Rush. The Cooper gets already have we not learned from this week? We're already there. That's that's how he's whipping that thing this weekend. Uh we hear

last week he didn't work. No no, no, no, no, I did not, So this week I'm giving Coop the bill. All right to nod and Cooper Bille is gonna be the quarterback this week, reason being he has the most chemistry. He is um, he is, he is has He has the best relationship with H. Keller Moore and that's that's facts, right. And at the end of the day, who's calling the

place right now? Keller Moore is calling the place So the head coach is gonna come to the office, the coordinator who calls the place right and say, um, who you feel most comfortable with? He's like, uh, Cooper Rush, Why Because I know him, I know what he's capable of. I know that he knows that my language, he knows my schemes, he knows all my stuff and I and I just have a better knowledge base of him versus

going with Gary Gilberry Gilmore. You just don't you don't know, right, you don't know, you don't know, right, he doesn't know him. And nobody wants to go into a game with somebody that you don't know, especially when they're responsible for controlling your entire offense. So even if he even if Cooper Rush is less prepared at this point in time, you're more familiar with him, which means that you feel more comfortable of making making different calls and things that that

nature within his offense audibles. You can go back to things from your playboo from last year that you might not even installede it. You know, it's just because of a familiarity. And that's that's why practice yesterday was so critical because it was a padded practice, it was a longer practice like they normally do. They had a light

practice Wednesday coming off the late game. So if Cooper Rush can come into practice and demonstrate a command of the offense, even though there's some tweaks from last year, then maybe that sways their decision. So yeah, it is kind of a toss up because I mean, both guys really haven't been here that long, so it's kind of it's kind of a watch. But Kyle, we're giving everybody nicknames. Man, we're giving you nicknames. Yeah, yeah, we're sure right now.

Can't say that on there, but I think whatever you yeah, I mean, but everybody has yeah, right, I think. I think when you think when you compare the two and you talk about it being a wash, you're going with the more experienced in terms of years NFL quarterback and Garrett Gilbert, and then you're going with a more comfortable feel with Cooper Rush. And I'm kind of gonna want to go off of what you just said, Isaiah. Is

it more so the coordinator's decision here? I know that Mike McCarthy's gonna ultimately have the final say, but is there a lot of weight on what Kellen Moore has to say in base of the fact of the playbook just might be thicker for Cooper Rush and that's why he might be selected. I don't think he has anything to do with the how decided the playbook because no matter who was at your who was at the helm of the position this week, you were going to use

your whole playbook. But it comes down to you know, what's your confidence in him? Right? What is your confidence to that he's going to go out there and actually execute the plays that you're calling the way of what you want them ran. What's this? What's the confidence in terms of you being able to call a play and you knowing that he knows where you want him to go with the ball, right, These things like that, Right, and then you step into the huddle, Well, how are

these offensive line're gonna look at him? They're gonna look at h and say, hey, this catch just got here last week, And I'm gonna look at him like, hey, what's up? Man? I ain't seen you in a while, you know. So it's so, you know, all those all those things matter, um, and you know, and the last thing you want to do as an office coordinators going to a game with somebody that you just are unfamiliar

with because it's too minish, it's too much new. You're dealing with a stout defense, you're dealing with a you know, with with talent all across the board. You're dealing with mismatches, um, you know, tempo pace, all that jazz, and then you're gonna throw a quarterback in there that you don't know how how he's gonna handle it. You don't know if he's going to execute your plays. You don't know what

a snap count's gonna be like. You don't know if he's gonna rush the snap count and throw your offensive linement off. And now you're backing up five yards and it's it's too much. It's too much. So you go where you're most familiar, and that's with Cooper Rush. Do you think that offensive line is also more familiar with Cooper Rush as well, even with the center that's a rookie. Absolutely, absolutely, yep. Interesting.

I've always kind of wondered back and forth which one would matter more or at least this week, I've wondered that because we're about to see our fourth quarterback in the span of five weeks as a Cowboys fan. So I mean, either way, it's not gonna mean go for it. Look at it like this, right. We all used to play pick up basketball, right, I know, I know Heck

meeds to be on the block. So you're going to pick up basketball court, right, and all of a sudden, you know you got next, You got next, right, And all of a sudden here comes do without the car and he comes on on the side on the sideline. You got, you got three of your guys picked out, and you're like, you know what, that dude's been sitting for a while. I don't really know him, but hey, that's I played with this dude a couple a couple

of years ago, and I remember him. He's not He's not that great, but I know what I'm what I'm gonna get out of him. Right, So you're like, I'm gonna go with that cat because I know what I'm going to get. I'm not gonna go with the new cat because it's a curveball. Right, It's a curveball. I'd rather go with or the potentially with less possible potential. But I know what I have versus the unknown. Right,

It's just like stocks. There's just like stocks. You're gonna go with the you're gonna roll the dice, or you're gonna go with something that you know is steady and you can kind of control it. I can kind of control Cooper Rush aka Coop Deville. Do you have another medal for I like the basketball? I like this. I got a lot. I'm throwing it out there. Can you try to throw it out there? I got more and I got you know, I got heck Maharrison, I got the h H. You know what I'm saying. I got

the rock phillis the RP. I got my initials, I arrest, and we got k Y. That's it great, and we're gonna stay right there. We're gonna stay right there. So look, here's the thing. If we ever have a pickup basketball game and I'm standing on the sideline, don't I can not hoop alright, Perception Perception is not reality in this situation. But either way, either way, it looks I think you would probably be a lot more comfortable going into a game like this if it were not the Bittsburgh still

the defense. So let's just call it what it is. This is a tragedy. Uh And the this these quarterbacks they have, they have not slept at all. It's kind of like us man and John King standing at the board all night. Man, they're gonna have to have legs like kings. Ya. You saw my tweet this morning. It was awesome. It was awesome. But either hell, either way, it goes you know that the pressure that they're gonna be under from the Pittsburgh still A defense is gonna

be a mention hopefully, And we talked about it. You know, the difference between Danucci and rush our Gilbert is hopefully man they don't they don't fumble the ball. They if there is a sack that they don't fumble the ball as well. And you know that Pittsburgh still a defense. That's what they're all about, is getting to the quarterback and calls in those errors like that. Yeah, Mike McCarthy said, yes, or the other day, you know, we gotta do this, you know, we got to have command of the offense.

And he said, we got to take care of the damn ball. Damn ball. He threw in a four letter word there. He's never done that before when it comes to ball security. So I think, I think, I think his patience is getting tested just a little bit. Eight games in. Finally, finally, in the frustration you need you need it. You should fear your coach. Yeah, I mean,

you should fear your coach. I mean, and all my time in the NFL, the only coach that I didn't fear was Coach Carroll and the only reason and coach Coach Phillips. I didn't fear a coach Phillips either, But that didn't we see how that went um when I was. You know, I think if you think about the Steelers, right, think about the personality of your coach. I know we

mentioned this a couple of days ago, Mike Tomlin. I don't even know Mike Tomlin, but I know that if I was on that team, I might want to do everything that he says. I just I just might want to do it. Right. You think about the shoot who else coach Coffin at the time I spent with Coach Coffin. You might want to get on board with what Coach Coffin is saying, and otherwise you're probably not gonna be around,

right bella chain. Start thinking about all the different personalities, right, and as we're talking about culture and establishing one, you cannot establish a culture if you're not set putting your foot down because people are always going to test it. Right. I think we saw a little bit of it when when b Carr got released, right, and then I think we saw it a little bit on the back end, but forward facing, you gotta let it. You gotta everybody know, this is my team, this is how it's going to

go down. And we just I know that might not be his his natural personality, but at some point in time, you'd rather that be out in the forefront versus it being in response to a bunch of negative which I think we're starting to see right now, which you saw the four letter work come out. Yeah, and it's like and we don't know what he's saying privately necessarily at all. But but no, to your point, like I think he's very direct and honest with players. I think that's always

been his moo. But to your point, I think he's probably had to balance, like this is a brand new team. We haven't had a lot of time together, so I've got to show these guys I care. But then at some point, like when it's not getting done on the field, you've got to put your foot down, like you said. So you know, especially seven games in, it's reaching a point where you know, you keep losing games the same

exact way. I mean, although they actually won the turnover battle last week, but yeah, the turnovers on offense, they just continue. So I mean that's the biggest thing. Man whoever plays quarterback this week, just just take care or the football. Please give yourself a chance in this game. Can't give Ben Roethlisberger any extra possessions by no means

now we do have to take a break. We've gone way over at this point, and I want to continue this conversation because I feel like there's a ton of pressure on this coaching staff this week, specifically to at least see some positives. We will give our predictions later, but in terms of the positives, I want to hear about that and more about this coaching staff when we come back. You're on talking Cowboys. There's nothing as unique as our eyes, which is why SLOR pioneers ways to

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do more or here on Talking Cowboys second segment. We wear really long on that first segment, so you're welcome Cowboys fit Nation for not taking a break, and you can listen all the way through that first segment, but stick with us because we've still got to say it with your chest predictions coming up at nine fifty hearing about ten minutes is we've got some predictions to get to. I do want to preface it. I did not update the standings. I forgot to do that this morning, so

I will tweet it out. I will following the show. How's the one that's convenienced by it? Because he's the only one that picked the Cowboys last week and he dropped the game at least I think he might have dropped too, but I'm not totally sure. I'll tweet it out after the show. Way, we have the standing in this election meddling right here, Racey, I'm like, I'm taking my time, guys, I'm taking exactly oh Man, Rob Phillips, Heck Harrison aka Luscious. And then we've got Isaiah the

tax Man. You are evil. You are an evil person. I said, you're the one that said it though, so you were thinking it, oh Man. So I kind of want to continue this coaching conversation that we started in the last segment. We're talking about fearing coaches and fearing at least the wrath of coaches just because of one four letter word that Mike McCarthy decided to throw out

in a press conference this week. But we haven't gone We've gone all week without talking about Mike Nolan, especially because they finally got a good performance out of the defense last week, and we haven't really talked a bunch about Nolan and really the improvement we saw on that side of the football. What have you guys seen improvement wise from the defense that can be attributed to the

coaching staff. Heck, is there anything that sticks out, especially since now he's on the sideline and he's able to coach up his guys. Yeah, I think it's just communication. And you know those those high school coverages that we've talked about that have been blown up until this point that are just seem like I gots just couldn't get a grasp of what coach Mike Nolan was talking wanted from him. That's one thing that I've seen. As far as the pass rush on the edge, I've seen that

improved as well. Guys. We've seen some communication errors in getting guys lined up and we're still having those problems with blown assignments there, but maybe just in the defensive secondary. But I want to mention to you can talk about us. We've talked about this all week. Just culture in getting all those things established, Guys. I had at great opportunity yesterday to interview my uncle Joe Green, and I asked

him about that. I asked him about that. I asked him about what was it like to establish that culture that the Pittsburgh Stealers have that permeates from the older generation of stealers to the new generation of stillers. And he talked about what those benchmarks were when he got drafted in sixty eight from coach Nole and just setting

the standard through each in every class. And he talked about the guys that came in all the way through the eighties and the nineties and the standard being the standard. That's what Mike McCarthy, coach Mike McCarthy is trying to establish. Here is a standard in connecting the old generation to the new generation of great Cowboy players, and we have to we have to get that. And it doesn't matter if it's a in the down years players are hurt.

The standard has to be the standard with us as Cowboys because the drop off is severe and defensively, offensively, all of those great players that we've had, we have to try and connect that so that we can have that culture that we've been talking about. Rob. Now, that's interesting. Um. To answer your question, I would just say I would agree with Heck Money that it's it's the communication. There's been less busts in the secondary. Uh. They did a

better job in the second half against the run. And as we've continued to say, it's more about just being assignment sound uh and and I think they benefited from a confident standpoint making some plays early, making some big plays early, your best player tank getting things going on the first drive, and then other players kind of feeding off of that. I thought that that was that was important. Um.

But yeah, what hecka said that. That's interesting about coaching because from you know, the Cowboys tried this with Jason Garrett for ten years and ultimately it didn't work out. But the Steelers haven't had that many coaches. You know, it's almost like a college program. I mean they have they have coaches for ten twenty years at a time. That that really lay out a culture that works over time,

and that's one reason why they've been successful. They're also really good at drafting players and fitting players to schemes that they kind of keep over time. More or less. Yeah, I think more than anything felt us. I think for myself, Um, I'm gonna have to go with the fact that they they're playing with a little bit more energy. Um. And yeah,

that was that was apparent last week. I think by getting those those veterans off the team and allow those young guys to really step up and feel as if they were empowered enough to establish start to try to establish a character for this defense. And you know, hopefully that character will eventually trying into a culture. Um. But you know you saw do you law while you know, playing hard. You saw Digs making some some some tough catches.

Obviously in coverage. Um. You know, when he played press coverage, I think he was very effective and when he actually got hands on guys, and I think you started to see a little bit of the characteristics of what this team could be. You know, Vanders getting a tough hit. You know, that's what this defense is capable of. But

a lot of times you have to do it. You got to see yourself do it, and then you got to see and then you have to have fun with it, right And when you when you do that, you start to look around and be like, oh crap, this this is okay. We can run around and hit people and yeah, and and and we can actually high five each other and jump up and get crop How about that? Man? I mean in coaches and coaches happy, look at coach. Everybody can look at coach. Oh shoot, coach, coaches, Oh

this is us right. So it's it's it's like a it's like a trial by you know, a trial by aerotype of thing. And you know it was it was inspiring to see. Last week obviously wasn't what wasn't enough, but it was inspiring to see and it's something to build off of, So I look forward to seeing more of it. Now. Now that you've broken that sea and you've you've kind of seen the success that you can have as a defense, do you expect that to move into a week when you play a better opponent, Because,

like we've talked about already, Philly is Philly. I mean, we we have our own issues. They have their own issues whenever it comes to the Eagles and the Cowboys. But now that you have an actual offense that knows how to move the football, one of the top scoring offenses in the NFL coming to town, do you expect that to continue? Isaiah? And if there's one person on this defense that needs to step up and play well,

who would it be. I think that they're outmatched. I'm just gonna say it as plainly, as positively, as simple as possible. I think they're outmatched. But even when you're outmatched, if they take on the character they took on last week, and they play fast and they play physical, I mean they make everything contested. I think even by you know, even if this team comes in here and rents through you like Seawee Water. I think you can still prove a lot to yourself. Um, you know, you still prove

a lot to yourself. You can still prove a lot to each other by how you play, how how how you play against this this this offense. Um, because this office is ran by one of the you know, the the long standing veterans and more respected quarterbacks in this league. Uh. You know, he has a ton of talent around him. And and the only way in which you can beat this team is if you're flying around. The only way Baltimore compeace with this team is because they fly around. Um.

And I think that you have to. I think this team forces you to play a certain way because if you don't play that certain way, you have zero chance. When I say zero, I mean zero, because they will just run you off the table. So I think that they have the opportunity to do that. When you talk about as far as who who has to step up, I think the law has to keep the energy going. I think he has to keep the energy buzz going.

I think that everybody is now looking to him. I think everybody on the second level is now looking to vander esh you know, vanders You're you're our guy, and Jayleen is just like, okay, yeah, you do you And I'm I get to run around and and you know, and I think those are the two guys that are really, you know, that are really need to step up this defense. I'm not sure who was going to be in a secondary Um. I like. I like Anthony Browns. I like his you know how how tenacious. I like his fight.

But but we'll see, right, I totally agree it's got a tank. Tank set the tone for the defense by what he said after the Washington game and what he showed from from Drive one against Philly and carrying it through it was awesome tank for sure. Uh yeah. And look, he plays hard all the time. He does. And I said it earlier in the year he was on the injury report. He didn't look healthy to me. He was limping around, he said yesterday, I feel he feels great.

You know, he's been off the injury report for a little bit. But I think it's showing up in his play and in his production, not just with sacks, but in the run game, Uh, setting edges things like that. So that's key. And you know, just just I mean, this is simple. But if you're gonna have a chance against a team this good, we talk about complimentary football, it's not just the defense. The offense has to take care of it. They've got it. They've got to make

some big plays to were points. Special teams got to take care of their house. It's got to be all three phases playing their best game of the season. It's just as simple as that, because this is probably the best team they're gonna play all year. Now, both of you guys make really good points, and I agree with that, and I think that Tank is the guy that you

look to on defense. But in the NFL has been any given Sunday, and so you've got to give the Cowboys a puncher's chance, right if all of those complimentary football things go as playing for us is don't turn the ball over. But still, you, like you said, Isaiah, this is you sort of look outmatch in this contest coming up against the Steelers. But for the defense, I

think they just want to take away one thing. If it's going to be the passing game that we can't stop for the Stealers, let's not allow their running game to have two hundred and fifty yards. James Connor does not scare me. And so those are the things that we can control for our defensive front. Establishing the line of scrimmage. We have been weak in that area. We've seen guys o other numbers. I won't call them out, but just completely just getting blown off the ball, getting

blown off the line of scrimmage. We have to establish that play quicker, keep that energy weekend and week out. But Tank is one, Alder Smith is another. I hope that knee is getting better. Randy Gregory, I want to see him this week and see what he brings to the table because Ben has taken some sacks, and that offensive line, no matter how you look at them and being good, they still surrender sacks. So if we can do the other dude that on the other side by

strip sack fumbling for us, I think it works. This defense. All they have is to play with energy, play together, and believe that they can get it done because no one else believes that they can. It's a good point, a lot of nothing to lose mentality whenever it comes to that defense, and really the entire organization heading into this game on Sunday. But we've got predictions coming up. All the talk, all the preview is now in the

review mirror. Time to throw it down and say it with your chests, like before we go to break though, get the ultimate fan experience For the ultimate Cowboys fans, join Dallas Cowboys United, presented by Globe Life starting at just twenty dollars. Visit Dallas Cowboys dot com Slash United. All right, guys, when we come back, let's let's say it with your chest. NFL predictions for week nine. When we come back on Talking Cowboys, We're backing the tasty

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on Talking Cowboys. Isaiah stand back, Rob Phillips, hat my Harrison. I'm Kyle Yeoman's and we've got about five minutes to knock out about five games and see how many we can get from here. Let's go Ravens. Colts both teams five and two Indianapolis six at home and six and oz at home versus Baltimore all time including the playoffs against the Ravens, and they are at home again at Lucas Oil Stadium. Isaiah, who you got, Ravens. Let's go Ravens on the road, Rob Ravens. They get a game

back after kind of blowing a lead against Pittsburgh. Heckma the Baltimore versus Baltimore. No, I'm not that old, So let's go Ravens. I'll go Ravens. Oh, that's that's a good one. It's gonna be a raven sweep across the board. I think Baltimore gets it done on the road. I think they're just better. I like the Colts though, I think they've got a pretty solid team. Okay, NFC East Battle the least battle, I should say, Giants one and seven against the Washington football team at two and five.

New York has won four straight games versus Washington. I think that street comes to an end this weekend. I think Washington gets to win at home against New York. Heckma, somewhere a tallet just flushed. Um, let's see, I'm gonna go with the Washington I'm gonna go with the football team. Oh gosh, Jesus, Rob, Yeah, oh gosh. I you know the Giants are playing better lately. I'll go with the Giants. Why not? Okay, I'm going I'm going with the nameless Ones,

the nameless, the nameless ones. Okay. Bears Titans, the battle of the once forgotten Lost Toy qbs of Nick Foles and excuse me, Ryan Tannehill, both teams with five wins. Tennessee won two of the last three games against Chicago. Rob, who you got Tennessee or Chicago? Yep? Um give me Derrick Henry and Tennessee Bears got problems on offense. That's true, That's true, all right. Heckma, I'm going Titans Titans, Isaiah, I'm going with the home of the sweetness shy Town.

Going with the Burs. I'm gonna go with the Titans. They've lost two in a row and I think they could get back on track and this one and they're at home, and I think that does play dividends. Now, Sunday Night Football, this is gonna be a really good game. I'm looking forward to this. Saints and Buccaneers. You've got both got old timers at quarterback. You got Tommy be on one side, You've got Drew Brees on the other side. Battle of the NFL's two top or top two all

time passing leaders. I'm gonna take the Saints reluctantly to get an upset win over the Buccaneers on the road. I think they get it done. Rob. The Buck's defense is nasty from what I've seen, and you have Tommy touchdown. Give me Tampa Bay. Heckma oh, I think the Cannons are gonna be firing. Man. I'm going with the Tampa Bay. Yeah. I'm going with with with TV twelve, my ex teammate. I think Godwin coming back, and I think that Leonard Poortnett's found his groove over there too. So going with

the Tampa. It isn't too late to change a pick. Am I gonna get fine for changing a pick? It would be a kangaroo court? Fine? Yes, but what what? I just want to I'm curious as to what your what do I go? I gotta go with the Washington football team. Sorry, I can't wait a minute. I'm asking. I'm asking permission. Okay, I'm asking permission. Wow. Here's the thing. I feel like it would be unfair for any three of us to tell Rob that he can or cannot change his pick. So I'm gonna defer our judgment to

the all overseeing of mister Chris. What do you put your ballot in? You can't change it, sir, Chris, team is allowing you know. That's fair. That's that's fair. Isaiah's right, let's you know, let's go g man, Let's go GM in Sunday. Okay, Okay, So Chris said, did you go back and change your um? Sorry? Day, So we're gonna we're gonna disallow it at this point because Chris made a joe he was time. So we're gonna we're gonna keep it. Thank you, Supreme Court. Beam getting the job done, Okay,

he said, be ready to that lawsuit. I love that. Okay. So, moving on to the big one, Pittsburgh Steelers Dallas Cowboys, Sunday afternoon on CBS our friendly neighborhood color commentator Tony Romo on the call, what was that. We're not doing a Seattle game. No, you're gonna Seattle, Seattle. We're all gonna pick Seattle. It's gonna be Oh, you're one of the best games of the week. Would anybody have picked playing Buffalo? It's the Seattle versus the Bills. That's a

tough game. Who okay, let's pick it fine, really quickly, go Isaiah Seattle. Okay, rob So Seahawks. Okay, heckma, wow, this wasn't even a game. We will pick it. He can't do that, he can. It's probably the most competitive game all week. Oh god, I'm going to Bills. Oh okay, Oh, he's gonna get a game back. I'm gonna pick. I'm gonna see here. Okay, go in too, Steelers and Cowboys. I'll go first, just to get us rolling. I think whenever you look at this game, I think there is

a chance the Cowboys make it close. I just don't think they have enough and I think they fall at home to the Steelers. Steelers are the best team in the NFL right now, in my opinion. I think they have a chance to make a run at a super Bowl, and the Cowboys obviously do not. And you're gonna throw Cooper Rush, Garrett Gilbert or been d Nucci out there, and I don't know if that's necessarily enough to even

remotely have a chance to win this game. So I think I'm gonna pick the Steelers, and it's gonna be twenty seven thirteen final score. Isaiah, who you got? I'm going with the Steelers thirty four to six. Thirty four to six. Wow, that's a big gap, okay, rob Steelers thirty, Cowboys fourteen. You know, we don't know who's starting at quarterbacks. There's just not There's just more stability with the Steelers right now and much better play over all this season.

I gotta go with Pittsburgh. I hate it, but that's the case, all right, guys. Oh my god, I have to I was taking my mic off and walking off. So just to preface this pick, Heckma is the trojan horse in the royalty of a Steelers royal family of me and Joe Green. We mentioned that earlier as his uncle. All of your family right, Heck are Steelers fans? Correct? But you are Cowboys, true blue all the way through. Okay, before this pick is made, man Lorian, this is the way. Look,

and I'm telling it. It's gotten really disrespectful this weekend. My family, a lot of tagging, a lot of posts that have been made. Guys are digging up pictures. Uh, it's not cool. And I just want to let all of my family that know that you guys have no coop at all. Uh so, yeah, there's that, but this came up. I gotta pick the Stillers. Oh he bumbled it. Isaiah's got his ear cupped to turn you loyalty. I gotta I gotta fix you. Can you say that? I couldn't hear that fast. It was a little quick. I

gotta stat you got it. We did, We got it, And hey, we're with you, buddy. We don't like picking the Steelers either, but it's just kind of where we're at right now with cowboys. Hey, here's the thing. If they go out and get a dub, we come back on Monday and we get to celebrate. It's gonna be a party. We'll bring balloons, We'll bring three mons. It'll be a whole thing. Yes, I'll bring the smelly stickers back. It'll be great. So overall, let's have some fun with it.

Hopefully the Cowboys get a win. He Isaiah reminded me, I do have to take your smelly stickers tonight and Sunday whenever I see you guys next. So that's gonna do it here this week for Talking Cowboys. We'll be back on Monday nine thirty to break it all back down special thanks to Chris Beam in the back for Heat, Harrison, Rob Phillips, Isaiah stand back. I'm Kyle Yeoman's We'll see

you next time. I'm Talking Cowboys. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.