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It is a Talking Tuesday here from the show.
Is this mike mute? I don't know, I feel muted to here. It's okay, we're here. Something's going on. We're here.
How about now there was here yesterday decided to mute this mic. But hey, it's Talking Cowboys. You're on a Talking Tuesday, everybody. It is we sixteen of the NFL season, and of course the Cowboys coming off that loss against Buffalo. Everybody's still a little bit down about that.
I get it, I get it. It won. But all of a sudden, yeah, all of a sudden, I feel a little bit better about it after what happened on Monday Night football.
We've got isaiahs standback, Nick Harris, not Josh Rodriguez today, he's on Friday.
We have John Machoda today j EM's back in the building.
Chris Beam is back in the building as well. In the back running everything. John, I want to get your thoughts on what happened in Buffalo.
Oh yeah, man, I'm just listening to Jerry on the radio, and we got the Jerry that was, I don't want to say making excuses, but he was not the Jerry Jones that was ripping the team. And I guess as the owner and general manager he has to do that in this point. But he could have come out and ripped the team and it would have been totally worthy of it. It's not that loss in Buffalo. That isn't the thing. You can lose a close game that is a good football team and not be surprised if they
make a deep run in the playoffs. I really do think that is a much better team, and the record says it's the thirty one to three midway through the fourth quarter. You're too good of a team for any team in the NFL to do that to you in their place, at your place wherever. That's the part that you know. Yeah, you can be happy that Seattle just beat the Eagles and all that, and hey, you can be happy that the Eagles look like they got some serious problems going on,
But you've got some issues of your own. To to have the run defense play as poorly as it did, for this offense to have as many weapons as they have to not be able to put together a drive, whether we're talking before half coming out of the half, it just doesn't give you a lot of strong feelings of all right, if this team goes on the road in the playoffs, that they can win consecutive road games, which has been the thing that we've felt for the
last couple of years. I know I have at least so yes, while it is three consecutive playoff appearances in a row, that's great. This is obviously one of the best teams in the NFL. There's no arguing that. There's no question is one of the best teams in the NFL. But the goal for this team is to make a run to the super Bowl. And when you have performances like that one, you have performances like the forty nine Ers game, and even that Arizona won, to a certain extent, it.
Makes you.
It makes you think, well, why why won't this happen in the playoffs? Why won't this happen in January if they go on the road. And like I said, there's a lot of people that are probably looking at like, well, they're just San Francisco. That's the only team you have to worry about.
Now.
You play like that, you can lose at Philly, even as bad Phillies playing run out. You can lose at Detroit. I don't think you can lose.
In the FIRS.
I don't think they'd lose in the first round. I really don't. I don't. I don't think that they'll have any problem with if they don't win the division and they yeah, and they open against NMC South. But but there was just things that happened in that game where they can lose a game like that, and you can you can be like, I get it, but to play the way that they played, you know, there's just so many levels to it that it was just it was just very very disappointing.
Yeah, you mentioned Jerry didn't really rip the team, and definitely not. There was a moment though where he kind of challenged the coaching staff a little bit on the on the fan this morning, and he said, it's your fault talk about the coaching staff. It's your fault that
you know that the Cowboys are on this pedestal. Now you got to live up to that point every week, and wherever you go out and you lay an egg like that to Buffalo, it doesn't live up to what you've you've accomplished to this point basically is the words he was trying to put together in the Jerry way.
So I think that's a that's a valid point.
But I I think at the end of the day, and we talked about it so much yesterday, it just kind of came down to fit physicalness, of physicality, discipline, all those kinds of things.
So we'll see it get corrected this week.
Maybe they're just parts of that game where you're just like, it felt like how much longer do they have to play? How many more quarters would have to be played in this game before they started playing the way that they're spot Like, was it going to be six quarters?
Eight quarters?
It just felt like you were just like watching the same thing over and over again, where you could almost be like, oh, let's go see if they put out any more food in the press box here, because I already know what's going on here. That's that's not gonna change Joey back see you guys, Like, I mean, it just was like what is going on here?
You know?
Like again, and I do think Buffalo is a good team, but they're not that good. They're not that good like hold you to thirty one three midway through the fourth quarter. They're not in that level. When Josh Allen isn't even throwing for one hundred yards, I mean, what do we let's I mean.
Well, even we talked about this a little bit yesterday.
Mike greg Olsen was talking about how this is a team that's never had the running game, not while Josh Allen's there. They've never had that consistent running game. And then all of a sudden they're running all over Dallas and so yeah, it was it was a change of mentality. We previewed Josh Allen all the way through. They didn't get Josh Allen, they got James Cook and that's kind of what ended up happening. And Jerry was asked about that directly on the fan. Credit to Sean and rj
H for asking the question. Bobby there too, but they asked it as as really as bluntly as possible. Do you think it's a problem that you got out physicaled by Buffalo, and he said, basically, you gotta change. You gotta be more physical, and you got to make tackles. You got to do all the fundamental things. And it's kind of like what you said initially is he wasn't giving complete excuses, but he was also saying, okay, like, this isn't the defense that we've seen in the past.
You just got to play better than what you did on Sunday. I don't agree. I could tell. I could see the face. Yeah, I don't agree.
This is the defense that you've seen in the past and it hasn't changed. Unfortunately, we've talked about it yesterday. We don't have to, you know, recap it. But this, this is a really good defense as long as they don't play a physical team that is persistent to run and running the ball.
Is that because they were built on speed and not physicality.
Yeah, they're built on a pass rush. Absolutely. So I mean, is there's no secret here. I mean, this is the reason why. And again, coming off yesterdays show of You Guys and listen, we kept bringing up the fact that you needed to have another version of Jonathan Hankins because he.
Was not the only problem.
But psychologically, what that does to your entire defense in terms of their confidence against the run is everything. And yes, you're missing his presence on the inside. Yes, you got beat up on the outside as well in terms of your defensive ends getting getting reached and linebackers coming and
getting reached and getting power drive into the ground. But teams that can run the ball and are persistent in running the ball have never had a problem against Dallas, And I would love to hear a team that did. Washington when they were persistent a couple years ago. Did it, Minnesota did it? Forty nine ers did it, Arizona did it. We're talking about the top teams. Obviously I went back a couple of years, but let's go back to this year, right.
I brought up to the stat yesterday of the top seven teams rushing teams in the NFL, Dallas has lost to three of them in the top five that remain. Detroit in Miami as second in number four. You're going to see more. What are you going to do to address it?
I don't know.
It's definitely not going to be personnel, So it has to be an approach. You're going to ask your guys to do something that they haven't done against teams that are going to be persistent and are very successful in running the ball. So how are you going to change? What are you going to do? Because you can't change
your personnel. You got to change your mentality and your approach to how you're going to take this on because you're going to see more and the teams that you're about to face do it better than the teams that you've played yet.
It's part of it.
And I mean, like you said, personnel wise, is not gonna happen until Jonathan Hankins comes back.
With that being said, are there any updates news and notes? Yeah, Jonathan Hankins news.
And notes wise, there's nothing new on Jonathan Hankins. It's kind of the same going into this week is as it was last week. Just kind of seeing how the week progresses, and you know, maybe it'll be more of a Thursday, Friday, Saturday determination. As far as where he'll go, this is just my hunch feeling. I don't think he goes on Sunday. Whenever the injury happened, we were expecting
two to four weeks. I think it's going to take at least the two full weeks and if you ask me, I keep him out the rest of the regular season honestly, and just make sure he's ready for the playoffs. That definitely does hurt their run defense causes whenever you look at Miami and Detroit and what they can put together from a run gay perspective. So you're gonna have to figure out what to do there, But you also you also need him for the playoffs, and you need him
healthy for the playoffs. As far as Zach Martin, Jerry was asked about it on the fan this morning my McCarthy yesterday. They're going through rehab this week. There seems to be optimism there that he's gonna play on Sunday, and we're talking about Zach Martin here. I don't think a thigh bruis or a quad is going to keep him out now. That is that is dependent on if he can be as strong as possible with that. With that quad, he's got to be able to put the
strength together for it. That's what kept him out of the Buffalo game. Whenever they took him to the Blue Medical ten. He says it wasn't firing as far as giving him strength and you know, being.
Able to plant on it.
So that's gonna be the biggest thing when we're looking at it again Thursday, Friday, Saturday. But my hunch feeling is that he does play on Sunday. Okay, quad contusion, suck man, what's have you ever had a quad confusion?
I've had a quad contusion, but not to the level of some of the guys that I've played with. And what when you when he talks about again, I can't speak to his particular back and speak to situations that I've seen and been around. That quad contusion. What happens is you have you have such a blow to your quad that it instantly swells up and pretty much that nerve gets trauma to it to the point where it
can no longer fire right. Your brain is telling your leg to do something and it's not hearing what it has to say because that nerve is not having free free flow right and have.
The ability to free flow.
So that's why he said it's not firing, like, it's not doing what I'm telling it to do, right, And that quad contusion, depending on the severity. Most times, what I've seen is you have to sleep with your knee bent.
You literally have to sleep with your knee bent. There's a whole contraption that bends your knee because what happens is as soon as your scar tissue starts binding down on your muscles, if your leg is straight, if you're sleeping with your legs straight, when your body's healing at night time, now all of a sudden, your your muscles will not move, your tendons will not move because that scar tissue is binding it down, and it's so much harder to come back from a quad contusion whenever you
don't take that proper approach. This training staff is more than capable. Of these guys are knowledgeable as any staff in the league. So I know they're doing everything possible to get Zach back. But that injury, even though I know people are looking at him like that, doesn't look like much.
That quakingitution just sucks.
Usually Jerry's the one that's most positive about injury, so it was kind of interesting to see a flip where Zach is real positive after the game. Mike McCarthy was positive after a game and then positive yesterday, and then Jerry today said he didn't know, so that was kind of surprise. I agree with you, though, I think he plays, Yeah.
You think he goes. You think Jonathan Hankins does not go?
Correct, Okay, that's my guess.
There's your injury.
And I'm sure there's going to be a longer injury or report tomorrow whenever they're back on the practice field, because there were a couple of guys that played through some things in Buffalo.
Is the only one that's of note, like of notable injury type. Yeah.
I'll say this, Malie Cooker is very needed in this Miami game, and we'll talk about it more this week. But you have to keep everything underneath against this team. If you let anything out over the top, that's what this offense becomes the most dangerous offense in the NFL. That's what happened in that seventy point out burst against the Broncos. So you need Mollie Cooker as that single hot guy that can keep everything underneath.
That's completely huge.
So yeah, kind a surprise though that he didn't play. I think yeah, it was like more of a day of thing where that was like, all right, well he's not gonna be able to go. I think most people felt in the building that he had a chance to play in that game. So I'm thinking because of that, then he's probably got a really good chance to to don back and play in Miami.
That's a good thing.
Hopefully without a setback this week, and he stays clean through practice, and then you're able to do that. Moving into Sunday, all right, I gave Nick Harriuss a call last night. I had to get on the phone. I was on my way back from a basketball game, and I had to had to get on the phone line the significance of Seattle's win last night. Congratulations to the city of Seattle. They were two for two. One In terms of helping Dallas, there.
Were two for two.
He he reps all of Seattle.
Yes, he does.
We want to congratulate you know this in your city.
The Seahawks helped the Cowboys cracking lose to the Stars.
It was great Stars. It was over time. He stole the point. But let's talk about what was that? Two points? No, it's one no points in terms of the standings. If you win, you get two points. If you win and if you lose an overtime you get a point. It's hockey talk.
How could you how could you not know that?
Gosh, come on now, geez all right, No, that was just funny.
Watch we scored two points points whatever.
All right, I want to talk through playoff scenarios. We talked through this.
Last night, because the Seattle win does have significance over the Eagles anyways. It has significance because it brings back the tie breakers.
A couple of tie breakers in favor of the Cowboys are released even with the Eagles. Here are the.
Top five tie breakers in terms of the NFL playoffs seeding and how it lines up. Number one has head to head. Number two is wins and losses within the division. Number three is wins and losses against common opponents, and then four wins and losses versus the conference five strength of victory. In this specific scenario, right now, if the season ended, the Cowboys are certainly the leader. But it's only for now because of the vision, because they have
that number two spot at the moment. But then, of course Philly can take that back, and then it goes all the way down to number five strength of victory. We probably won't have to go further than strength of victory. That's going to be the deciding factor if it all ends up, even in those first four tiebreakers, right, now the Cowboys own division, but if Philly wins out, they would take back those or at least be tied in the first four tie breakers and go all the way down the strength of victory.
Yeah, so both teams right now are at ten and four. If they both finish at thirteen and four, the Philadelphia Eagles win.
An NFC East.
I want to throw out one misconception that going back and forth with a lot of pea on Twitter last night healthily because there's a lot of confusion there, but it was it was healthy talk. Point differential is not a tiebreaker, so there's there was a couple of people.
That it does not play in the strength of victory either.
Yes, and so there were a couple of people that were like, oh, the Cowboys are leading the NFC East because they beat the Eagles by more than the Eagle. No, that's that's not a thing. So basically, we ran through it all and I'm going to kind of summarize it as easily as possible here. If the Cowboys go three and oh down the stretch, they will need the Eagles
to lose one game regardless. If the Cowboys go two and one down the stretch with a loss to either Miami or Detroit, they will still need the Eagles to just lose one game. So basically, the Cowboys can afford to lose to either Miami or Detroit and still need the same result.
So it doesn't matter which one you lose to, It does not matter, does not matter as long as you beat Washington.
We alt beat Washington because that's a divisional game. The divisional tie break comes first, so you have to win that Washington game. But if the Eagles were to lose to they have three games left, Giants, Cardinals, Giants. They'll lose to any of those three games, and the Cowboys beat Washington and one of Miami and Detroit, and the Cowboys won the division.
So there's there's a lane there.
Granted, the Eagles are playing really two bad teams and three games basically right, three bad teams, So you're hoping for a little bit of help there.
I was talking with Kyle last night, and I.
Think the best case scenario is you have the Giants going into Philadelphia this week, maybe they just get wrong a little bit, figure out some things, and then they get them at home in a.
Couple of weeks.
That's that's probably your best opportunity and then yeah, you're looking at Tommy DeVito or Tyrod Taylor.
So we'll see there.
The Cardinals also have been playing better since Kyler has been back. They've looked, they've looked better. Their defense is still you know what's the word. They're acceptable at times, but if you get an Eagles loss in one of those games, then you're talking. But you have to beat one of Miami or Detroit and that's that's that's test number.
What is your level of confidence in the remaining three games for the Eagles?
For the Eagles, I mean, if I'm gonna if I'm gonna guess they go three and oh and it's.
That's kind of the way it is. Yeah, I think so too.
I mean, it's not very high that you would get some help anyways, and hopefully it happens. And then it comes down to that strength of victory. And that's where it gets confusing. Right now, the Cowboys have a significant margin to make up in terms of strength of victory.
I believe we went through it last night.
You're not mathematically eliminated if strength of victory comes into play, but you would basically need if then this is this is the only scenario where both teams win out Cowboys Eagles. You would need everything to go your way. You would need every non common opponent that the Eagles didn't play.
Or didn't beat to lose.
And then you've got it a chance there and went So you went out, right, So say you went out, you win the division.
Okay, you're still number two behind San Francisco. What then? What then?
You would be playing probably Seattle or Green Bay or Los Angeles or Minnesota. You would play the seventh seed in the wildcard round at at and T Stadium, and then.
More importantly you get Philadelphia at home in the divisional round or another team.
But yeah, you would avoid San Francisco until the conference title game. That would be the prize of winning the division and getting to that second seed San Francs.
You avoid San Fran till till the till the I mean, that's why I want you to lay it out. The goal is to San Fran.
I think though, if they were to lose to the Lions, though I think the Lions could and then the Lions went out, I think they would get the two correct.
We're saying that if they are the two seed, if they yeah, there's there's scenarios where the Lions would take the two seed from the Cowboys and they would be the three seed or the four seed even if they win, probably not the four seed, it's probably or three if they win the Vision.
But if they are the two seed, that's your prize.
Is you wouldn't see San Francisco until the NFC title game. And if you don't see San Francisco, that means you host the NFC.
That's what the people needed to hear.
Yeah, And I mean there's if you're the second seed and you win the or excuse me, if you're the NFC East champions, there's a pretty good chance you're the second seed unless you lose that Detroit game and then Philly loses one of those down the.
Stretch because never losing with Jimmy Johnson game. You would never lose Jimmy Johnson game or at home. I mean the way they played in Arlington.
I just worry about uh. Nate Newton just texted us man just win man double.
You did sound like you were doing election coverage where you're like, now there is said county could get When you said there was a lane, the first thing I thought of it was like that, see if Corneck can be like, no, technically there's a path.
There's a path for Trump.
Yeah.
Caden Gates, one of our producers here, does a fantastic job. I was kind of answer one of his questions on Twitter yesterday, kind of getting some clarity as far as strength of victory.
What does that mean? So that means you take all the teams that the Cowboys have beat all season.
College football playoffs.
Yeah, yeah, and you calculate their win percentage, and that win percentage for Philadelphia is significantly higher than it is for Dallas. Right now, it's not mathematically impossible for Dallas to make up that stretch. What I mean, It's not gonna happen. Like it simply, it's not gonna happen. I kind of broke it down and I said, this is about a ninety percent chance that tiebreaker would go to Philadelphia.
You would need a lot of things to happen.
You would need maybe even bigger than that. It may be more like ninety five. Yeah, for Sam, it's pretty heavily in favor of Philly.
You would need the Jets, the Chargers, the Panthers, and the Seahawks to win like basically went out and those Yeah, exactly, that's the non common opponent that you beat, And then you would also need Buffalo KC. And there were a couple of other really good teams to lose, and it's just like, we're not gonna.
Look at this anymore.
So, yeah, that's that's what the strength of victory is, that fifth tiebreaker.
Things are getting confusing, but hey, that's uh, I guess that's a good.
Problem, some predicament that you place yourself in.
It is, And yeah, it also is a byproduct of Seattle winning last night because initially common opponent wouldn't have been in favor of Dallas, and by virtue of that conference would have been out of play by a game as well. You would have needed Philly to love something significant down the stretch in order for you to.
To even be in this conversation.
So Seattle in that game winning drive last night makes this all relevant.
Dara asked this question, what would have happened if you would have won your last game.
It would have been in a really good spot, really good. Then you would control your destiny.
The rest of the way is what happened.
But you say that like it was close. Nothing about that game, are you like?
That's why I was surprised that you said that they that they the Buffalo's not that good?
Who said that you?
He did say that, Yeah, he did love it. He said they a way better than.
Run that.
Yeah, to win the Super I never.
Not that good to beat them thirty one to.
Oh yeah, yeah, not that good.
Yeah that's what thirty one.
He say that you were not yet fell is good enough to beat them?
Yeah, it just happened. It did happen. Well, yeah, that's the points.
I can't even see her. These goalposts are just moving everywhere.
It's just focus.
I want to argument or do we just will say that they're not good and no team is good enough to beat them like that, and then it just happened.
Listen, you're trying to argue with the guy who doesn't know the difference between goals and points.
He just doesn't know this.
I was gonna say, matter good. I didn't say it couldn't. It shouldn't obviously could because it didn't. And it also Francisco, San Francisco, I would love it. We'll bet everything you want to.
I was about to say, it's like if you run about winning mode right now, roll roll all right. When we come back, Chris Beam is gonna mute Isaiah's mike for the segment he is being.
Put in time out. Eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven.
If you have playoff questions, if you have questions about this Cowboys team, if you have questions about what Jerry Jones said on one to five three the fan this morning.
Give us a call. Eight eight eight eight five five two two nine seven.
We're gonna talk to Cowboys Nation when we come back with more talking Cowboys.
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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answered life's questions with an ice cold can of doctor Pepper. Sheila, let's hear from my next caller.
Would you, Dear doctor?
My friend supported me during a tough time.
But what's the right gift that says thanks for being the souldier to cry out?
Okay, this one's easy, I say, give her a delicious doctor Pepper. Nothing says thanks good better than one of a kind soda. Yes, any Doctor Pepper flavor will do. Now, just a reminder that I don't need to be a real doctor to know that Doctor Pepper is the one you deserve.
To Talking Cowboys. Back here on Talking Cowboys.
This segment of the show is brought to you by Invisi Line, the official smile of the Dallas Cowboys. Of course, Talking Cowboys always brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee Company. Isaiah had his coffee this morning, You can tell I didn't.
I did not have my coffee this morre. But I would love an artid if they would like to send me one down it well.
Three hundred milliground. What if I had another one in here? We down it again. I don't need it today. There's not one in there. Yeah, I don't know.
If that's gonna happy to get my wife page. Oh gosh, man, all right, we've got some calls to take insurance.
Eight eight eight, five five two two nine seven.
Give us a call. First off, we've got Gary in New Mexico. You're on talking Cowboys.
Gary. What's going on?
Hey, guys, thank you for breaking down that whole tie breaking procedure. I've tried to do that last night after the game and got a really bad headache. Now, back in the day, net point differential was a tiebreaker. The Cowboys actually lost a division on that back of nineteen eighty. But now they got rid of that and said.
Strength and victory.
This all goes back to losing at Arizona.
It does.
If they would have took care of business against Arizona, this wouldn't even be a conversation. I don't have a problem within losing at Buffalo. I mean the way they lost you out, but I think most people had that as a loss when the season started. That's a good football team that was very desperate Dallas wasn't going to win nine straight to close out the year, so I don't really have a problem with the Buffalo loss. And
here's the bub line. If the Cowboys are gonna break this twenty five year curse of not getting to a super Bowl, they're gonna just have to overcome some stuff and do things that people don't think they can do. Bottom line is, you're gonna have to beat Philadelphia and San Francisco in the playoffs, and you're gonna have to be one of them on the road, maybe both of them on the road, and great teams have to do great things. And there's nothing that says they can do
that based on what we've seen so far. But we know they have talent, and it only takes once. It takes the bounce of the ball one way or the other. One big play here, one big play there, and then you get over the hump. And I think I'm not giving up on them yet. I'm I'm not ready to give up on them yet. Let's see how it plays out. This is a good football team three straight years in the playoffs. That hasn't happened since I was in college. So I think we need to remember that three straight
ten win seasons. That hasn't happened since I was in college. So let's appreciate what we got. Let's left the season finish out, let them get back on a roll, let them regroup, Let's see what happens in January. But you're gonna have to overcome some stuff if.
You want to be a champion, no doubt about it.
Gary, Thank you for the call. Great points all the way across the board. And I think the number one thing here is, yes, Arizona, that loss is going to haunt you. And the only time that that's going to get negated is if Arizona does the same thing to Philadelphia and then it helps you out significantly. However, even then, if you have the win over Arizona, you don't have to worry about it. Then that one we knew when it came down that that was going to be a
big loss on the road. As far as overcoming adversity, do you think this team's good enough to do.
So at home?
Yes?
On the road? I had to see it first.
You know that you can't point to a road win this season that would give you confidence going on the road in the playoffs. Yea, Until then, you know, we'll just have to see. Since McCarthy has been hired. We were kind of talking about it in the press, Fox and Buffalo. You can really only point to two regular season road victories that give you confidence in this team being a road team. Soda victory from last season and then the victory in New England a couple of years
ago and overtime where CD had to walk off. You could throw in that. I had a couple of people DM me about this. You could throw in the Tampa Bay win in the wildcard round last year, but the Cowboys were favored in that game. Yeah, I guess it was Tom Brady. Yes, it was a Tampa Bay team that's won a Super Bowl, but that team was struggling going into the playoffs and the Cowboys were favored in that game. So I don't necessarily consider that a big
road win as a playoff road win. Absolutely, But that's besides the point. I don't feel good about this team going on the road. If they were at home, they could win the NFC. If they had every playoff game at home, they could win the NFC.
But it's not gonna happen.
So I completely agree with you, and I thought that was a really good call. Yeah, he had a lot of good points, and I completely agree with him. The entire time I've covered the team, I've thought that, well, there, if it ain't rough, it ain't right. There ain't ain't there ain't gonna be some easy path to winning a championship. It just doesn't happen. I mean, I can't even think of a team that just I don't know. There's probably some most Brady Patriots teams, but outside of that, like
almost everybody has to go through something. So I completely agree on that. The one part though, that I don't not that I disagree with I don't care about is I don't care about the Arizona game. Like that doesn't mean to me, because who are you chasing. You're chasing the Eagles and you're chasing the forty nine ers. They have those losses too, The Eagles lost to the Jets. You don't think that, like their fans sit there and look at that one that three game stretch that the
Niners lost three in a row. I mean we're talking Cleveland, Minnesota, Cincinnati. I mean they look at that too. So every team is going to have that in a seventeen game season, You're not just gonna go down and be like, all right, who we favored against? That should be a win. That should be a win that you're gonna have a game. If it wouldn't have been Arizona would have been something else. I think the way they played against Arizona was disheartening.
But then the part that really stot out from the call that hit home for me is I can't remember how we phrased it exactly, but it was about how you know something has to happen, like a big play or whatever in those games. And that is the feeling I was talking about when I was watching that Buffalo game where I was like, well, that's not happening, like nothing. And I felt the same way against San Francisco too, where you're just like, where is this spark gonna come from?
And you just don't get a feeling like it's gonna happen. I remember I turned to you, I turned to you in the press box, I go, I think this is a drive Bland pick six right here. Can you just imagine if that would have happened right there, how much of a game changing like turn of events that that would have been or a big Micah Parson stripsack or something like that, or heck, just Brandon Cooks getting behind
the defense, Dad hitting them. Like I just didn't feel like as that game went on, it really was in my head, I was like, how many quarters? How many quarters do you have to play before like one of those will happen? Because it just felt like it wasn't gonna it wasn't gonna happen.
I could be wrong, but I can't point to one play that was like big if you looked at it, if you just take it out and put it in a vacuum, I can't put I can't put point to one.
The closest one that was.
A good play.
The closest one was was the Dac deep ball the Cooks at the beginning. Yeah, if they had that, maybe things are different. And then also the other one I will say is potentially if they get the FuMB pot that that maybe maybe that spark something. But outside of that, there weren't many plays where I was like, man, they're just on the cusp of just flipping this thing.
You know.
Uh, let's go to our second call AJ in Miami. It is Miami Dolphins Week. AJ, You're on talking Cowboys what's going on going on? Guys.
We're gonna be at the game this week.
So hopefully we get to the juve there we go.
But I've been agreeing with Isaiah since day one. Kerry Jones is not stilled that cash in our defense mean he's Jonathan Hankins. Last year I think was fand aid to the problem. We need fucking did ys and this has always been the problem with the Cowboys defense. We can't stop the run. I think Jan Gwinns deserves and heat sometimes because every time of our office he does like look lost for me personally, and I still have facing Mazie, but he doesn't freak of the problem this year.
At our whole point and drafting is why are we drafting Mazie? If this is our year, this is our year, then why are we so folks about bringing in another pieces of tackles? That was my whole problem. I don't understand it. I haven't understand it. And the fact that we didn't trade for defensive tack is I think is the most concerned problem and also just a fact on top of it. I think dan Quinn's gonna say next year.
I don't think he did. I think he has a good young boar defense in the Cowboys, and I don't think he's gonna leave the Charlotte, the Raiders or the Chargers. I just don't think it's gonna happen. And that's what I kind of what you guys talk about and see kind of how you feel about that.
Thank you for the call, a j thank you for using clean language all the way through as well.
Isaiah, what you what you got on that one? You didn't You didn't agree with that final point? Did you? Dan Quin sticking around? Yeah, we're gonna wait on the off season on that one. Yeah, we're gonna have plenty of thoughts. We'll have plenty of time.
I don't think a is completely wrong there.
I don't think he's completely wrong.
But some jobs are just very difficult to turn down, sure when they pretty much have the same pieces in place.
I mean, I also just lost sixty three fourteen. Yeah, well, leadership matter.
About the Chargers. Yeah, you think you're going defense defense back to back coaches.
That's what I said. I said that in the studio the other day whenever he was talking about I.
Think there's a couple of jobs holding out.
For and one one coach made it to a Super Bowl one coach, you were hopeful.
I'm not. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'm just saying there's patterns in the NFL where I can change.
I hear you, But yeah, all right, I don't disagree with him on the defensive front. Obviously. I'm over here to city. I've been relatively quiet today because I've been watching film and I'm trying to figure out what Dallas is going to do to stop Miami's offense. I just can't stop thinking about it. I know we have two days to talk about it, but.
I have a solution that I think could work.
Points shootout shootout with Miami. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this offense is capable. I don't think you're you're looking at me like a it's an impossible task. This offense is capable. And you look at that my Miami defense. It's capable. You could, you could, you could put up points against that defense.
They don't do anything that challenges Dallas that they haven't seen already.
It's it's good. Yeah, get ready for a forty two thirty five type game.
You say that, but last time they saw Vic Fangio defense, he'd liked to tell everybody after the game that they had the blue blueprint when he was with the Broncos. There that's the last time they faced Vic Fangio. It's honestly my biggest storyline that I'm looking forward to going into this game to see how what that is because there was a lot of history between Fangio and and
and McCarthy, Green Bay, Chicago and stuff like that. They know each other very well, so it is going to be interesting for the last.
Something about it this week?
You think jam.
I will Yeah, there you go, there you go, jam.
Afraid I want to Yeah, I want to ask that question.
I want I want John to get in there and we're gonna talk, We're gonna clip it, and then we're gonna play it on the show.
To face the Blueprint. Yeah, that's the question.
You gotta just like, well.
All right, we've Mike in New York. You're on talking Cowboys. What's going on, Mike, what's going on? Guys?
You know, we've been talking to this about this for weeks. We we just get to plan the penalties. I understand that it was a little better in this game, but come on, it's it's it's it's killing me.
It's killing them, Isaiah. That's the penalties that you keep talking about.
You wanted to They're they're going It's good to hear from you, Mike. They're going down now.
I think that the penalties that were called outside of the Sam Williams one was trash.
I think the curse penalty was trash.
I think that the the law penalty was trash, like peer compost like.
It was awful, and it changed the tight of the game.
It really trashes Shattle's cracking the NHL teams.
Okay, we'll be back, but you know, those were terrible calls, and the severity of those calls in those.
Moments were severe.
They were severe, and it changed how potentially how the outcome of the game would have been.
It really did.
But they happen, and you have to no matter how bad those situations were, you have to try to find a way to overcome it. Until your point, there was nothing, There was no mojo moment. There wasn't even any mojo to have a moment in that game on either side of the ball to really make you feel as if
they had an opportunity to overcome that adversity. And that's what the you know, the previous caller was talking about in terms of they have to overcome some things if they want to be great, if they want to ascend to to the super Bowl once again, they have to overcome some of these things. Things are not going to go your way. You're going to get some trash calls. You're gonna get a little bit of hometown favorite, you know, favoritism from them, from the from the referees, and you know,
you know, you don't get the fumble call. You know it should have been a fumble. It wasn't a fumble. Okay, it sucks. Okay, let's go out.
There and do it again. Like that has to be your mindset. It can't be.
I'm not saying that they were run around complaining, but like that, your mind can't go to that. Your mind has to immediately go to, all right, who's gonna be the next one to make that happen again, so that they can't so they can't take it away from us. You have to be anxious in that regard. So, yeah, you're going to have to overcome some things and it starts again. You know, it just resets. You just played a really good Buffalo team. We've been waiting on this
part of the season all year long. When the season came out, you knew the schedule came out, You knew what this was gonna be about. You knew it regardless of all the different scenarios, playoff implications, like you knew that you were gonna be fighting for playoff spots at this time of the year against the toughest opponents.
Facts, regardless of records.
Buffalo Beasts, okay, dog on Miami freaking track meat okay, get ready, lace them up, getting the ice bass, do whatever you gotta do.
You're gonna be running your hamstrings. Better be nice, nice and warmed up. Okay. And then Detroit they're gonna got to beat you up.
You think Dan Campbell didn't just watch that game and then go back and watch the San Francisco game. Was in the Arizona games, like, oh yeah, yeah, physical, that's what we do. Yeah, knee caps, yeah, bite them off just like we just like they put Zeke.
On his forehead last year. You can just spake more of that.
So you're about to face two different challenges over the next few weeks, and then you got to close out Washington. So I mean, this is what it's about you learn about yourself. You really learn about yourself.
And I think that they have to.
Hopefully they took a hard look in the mirror after this most recent week, and what they saw, Okay, this is like it is like cool runnings.
You know, when we made them look in the mirror, what do you see? All right?
Hopefully they saw something that has that they've already seen before. And now you say, Okay, our approach to this can't be the same. It can't be the same. We have to change. We know we have a problem in our rush defense and these teams are going to be persistent in their rushing attack. What are we going to do to ensure that it doesn't happen again? And Miami presents a huge problem because I can't play single high.
I can't.
I literally can't play single high. But I can't play too high either, So what the heck do I do? That's the challenge with Miami because if you want to go single high and play man and man coverage like you do ninety percent of the time, you don't have the guys to run with him.
You legit don't have the guys run with them.
I was just about to say you can't run man.
No, you can't run man.
But if you go too high, you're playing against his second best running team in the league.
It's tough, man, you know what I'm saying.
So like, so, like, what is your approach?
Like they're undefeated or something.
It's not about this about what I'm seeing on film. It's about what I'm seeing on film. I already started early because I knew there's a lot of offense to digest.
Which games you did you watch?
I'm only on the Tennessee game right now. Okay, that's only again I've watched so far. But like they are zero and three against teams above five hunts.
I hear you.
I hear you.
If they're kept underneath and Tua is forced to go away from his first read, things get difficult for them. That that's that's the solution there, and then defensively, will.
Keeping them underneath?
I don't think so, because I Tua has not been playing well in the last few weeks. Fact, and if you can keep him underneath, and it's about keeping him underneath, not really because the weapons will get over the top.
It's about keeping Tua underneath.
I'm more concerned with the mind of the Cowboys, Like I'm dead serious, Like their ability to overcome big plays. Seattle game proved a lot to me because they were able to overcome the.
DK Metcalf play. Yeah, the seventy three they were able to overcome that.
That was huge.
But in terms of got a factor in that, this team's been really good after a loss, Like you can't just sit here there and take that, Hey, what we saw against Buffalo and what we saw against San Francesco's
gonna be the same here. You're just gonna see there's just like little things that like, yes, the score is thirty one to ten and thirty one to three, but it's little things of just like how you could just tell Buffalo wanted that game more absolutely, just like you could tell the Cowboys wanted that game a lot more than the Eagles did the week before that absolutly three fumble recoveries, like there was just like you're just playing the just that that little bit of advicense.
Yeah, it's a mindset.
That's what I'm saying is I'm worried about their.
Mindset and the way that they overcame Seattle. That Seattle's one big play. There's gonna be multiple plays like that most likely. Yeah, So how do you bounce back? Do you bounce back multiple times within one game? That's my question. I think they've done against Seattle. Seattle did that was that game? That game was back and forth all the way through. There were big plays on both sides of it.
I mean you think about the pass interference penalty, the Jackson Smith and Jigbu in the end zone, and then they score off of the next play, and then there's all these different elements to it as well. They bounce back at a game like that previously, but that was at home. Now you got to do it on the road.
The Cowboys did not like it. Back to bad games since yeah, twenty twenty one when they obviously that COVID was going on, where Amari Cooper was out when they lost the Kansas City and then the Raiders in overtime on Thanksgiving. So speaking, I got to give them the benefit of the doubt for that. It's all I'm saying.
Yeah, I don't. I don't take that statistic into into account. I really don't.
I mean, you have to at least a little bit, Okay, I.
Can't a little bit in terms there's history there but I look at matchups. Yeah, that's what I care about. Sure, I care about matchups. I hear about the pass and auto stuff, but I'm looking at matchups. So if you're gonna play man to man primarily, even if he plays seventy percent man.
Yeah, how so, what I'm saying is that I agree with where you're coming from. It is a bad matchup and it would not surprise me if the Dolphins win. What I'm saying, though, is you will not see that same thing that we saw. It's Butffler's sampasi.
I agree with you.
I agree with you. All Right, we got to take our second break. When we come back, we've got one more phone call, and we've got a draft question on the horizon.
We've got some draft insight.
When we come back with more from talking cowboys, don't let me find out.
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To Talking Cowboys.
Back here on Talking Cowboys. This portion of the show is brought to you by Quaker Oats. We've got Isaiah stand back, John Machoda, Nick Harris and Chris Beam.
In the back. You have your oaths. I did. I had my oats this morning as always.
All right, Uh, we got a question from the six ' oh one Kyle who is a power five, three hundred pound defensive tackle to watch in the college bowl games. I don't know how many you're going to get to watch the college bowl games. Let me be real, if they are first round, second round talents, they're probably not
going to play in the bowl games. I will say, if you want to go back and watch some guys, I've got three names for you, Mason Smith out of LSU, Leonard Taylor from Miami, and then the one guy I think you would really want to take a look at, plays down the road down I thirty five in Austin to Andre Sweat.
He'll play in the bowl game.
So there you go. There's the one that I've got to keep an eye on. Six foot four, three and sixty two pounds defensive tackle who stepped up in a big way as a senior, and man, he is a fun watch and he is going to absolutely wreck Washington. Wreck Washington, and he's going to be a He's going to be a wrecking ball himself.
I don't know if Washington's going to lose that game, forget.
I think Washington might win that game because I love Michael Pennix but junior.
Yes, but to and Andre Sweat as a dog.
It's not the only Day two defensive tackle that Texas has too. They have Byron Murphy from De Soto. It looks like he's gonna come out early and play. He's a junior, but it looks like he'll come out and participate in the Senior Bowl.
He got an invite as a junior.
Nice, So that's.
Another one to keep an eye on. You also got Chris Jenkins on Michigan that'll be playing in the playoffs.
I didn't I left him out on purpose. Yeah, I didn't want to talk a Michigan tackle.
Oh I'm a little I'm still id that. Oh my god.
You're not supposed to defensive taco as well.
Damn, that's true. That's true. You're not supposed to scout the helmet. You're supposed to scout the player.
They also have a defensive end named Burrito.
That is it. No, I got it. I was like, no way, Yeah, I was gullible on that one. Sorry.
I wonder what major college football program has been the biggest disappointment for the Cowboys in terms of drafting.
And that you you'd have to go all the way.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, I mean right now, recently it's been Michigan.
Uh, I would.
Have to like pull Mickey Specknola away for like three hours and we have to dive through draft classes all the way back to like when the drafts.
Did you say, LSU has there been really? I mean, I know de Moone Clark's playing well now.
But like I well can flip it.
What's been the best?
Uh, that's a good one. Alabama's been pretty good recently.
So we're here.
These oats college scouting that's about say, NFL Draft isn't your thing? You just tell that you tell us which players we go find. I tell you what I see, tell you what you want, and then we go.
I tell you what has been going to the Cowboys group of five scouting. Typically when they go for a group of five guys, they hit they recently.
So yeah, first one that comes to mind there is the Ron Blant Smith Tyler Smith. All right, Brian in Kansas City, you're on Talking Cowboys our final call today, Brian.
What's going on? Good morning, gentlemen, Good morning.
You know, so they made a big deal in the broadcast of uh, the differential of Dak's rating between home and away, and obviously our record kind of reflects that. I'm just wondering. From a guy a guy, I'm just a fan. You know what Brian brought us would call Joe and flower mound. You know, I'm the guy that you know, I watch a TV broadcast. I don't go back and watch all the scouting tapes and the all twenty two. Can you guys pick up any difference? What
does he do that's so different? They said his difference was something in the neighborhood of thirty five points and it was the biggest difference in the NFL. And I'll hang up and listen, y'all have a great day.
What do you think?
Yeah, one twenty two point five versus eighty eight point eight, and that was going into the game, That was going into the Yeah, I don't know. I don't have an answer for you.
I think he just in a routine at home.
I don't know.
I don't know if it's when he wakes up, who he's with, the rout he takes to the stadium, to what he does in the locker room before, to where he warms up to just knowing where he has to go I just think that his routine at home is he's got it down, and I think that because of that, I think maybe that on the road, it just it just takes you a little bit out of your comfort zone. And maybe that factors in there, because it's been tough to even just come up with an answer why the
whole team has been so good at home. I mean, let's be honest.
Yeah, you know, so we've asked that question almost after every home yek, what's the difference here?
Thought about it a little bit last night, you know, watching Seattle, like there's just everybody knows about that home field advantage that Seattle has, and they've had it for a long period of time. That really just hasn't been the case in Dallas, and all of a sudden, it just like at home, they're just they play with so much more confidence and energy as well. So I don't know, I mean, obviously, and then once you have that, the
crowd feeds into it and everything adds to it. But even on the crowd thing, if you make enough plays and you're a Dallas cowboy on the road, you will hear the crowd. Yep, they bring fans everywhere, So I don't know, I just think he's more comfortable in his home setting. I guess that's the only thing I come up with.
Yeah, why not, right, the way they've been playing at home, So I'm with it.
I'm with it as well. All right.
That does it for us here on a Talking Tuesday. Appreciate all the calls from you Talking Cowboys Nation.
We'll be back tomorrow. We're gonna break.
Down the Cowboys def events versus that speed of the Miami Dolphins offense and what that Week sixteen matchup is gonna look like.
Uh oh oh, We've got.
A little showdown Texas Washington. We'll see how this goes down the stretch. There was one from Abe in the seven oh two. He said, uh, Texas will win the Natty.
That's interesting. Some hot sauce on it, that's what he said. Are we it's.
Already made that, But you gotta think of something else, be original, somebody, so.
One of my boys. Anyway, we don't have time to go all right.
Yeah, let's get out of here for Isaiah's stanback for John mitshow to Nick Harris, Chris Beam in the backup, Kyle Yeomen saying, so long from Talking Cowboys.
We'll see you tomorrow.
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