Talkin' Cowboys: Second Guessing The Final Drives

Garrison producing next door inside the Garrison. Another Blue Monday guys here at the Star. Aaron Rodgers did it to him again? Yeah? Did it again? Thirty five thirty one Cowboys fall to the Packers, second time in nine months, in the second time in nine months that they fall in really just heartbreaking fashion, stunning fashion, final seconds fashion,

last possession fashion. Yep, bad fashion. Enter the bye week in bad form two and three, with a couple of weeks to think about it and think about what number twelve did on that last drive. And you better hope that an emotional loss like this doesn't linger, and that's obviously going to linger for two weeks with the bye coming up, you almost wish the bye wasn't here and you can prepare for another game and you didn't have

to sit around and think about this. A lot of times you have a loss in the season and it'll it'll, it'll kill the season. And I'm not trying to compare this to that ninety seven season when the Cowboys were six and five and went up to Green Bay and was very important game for them to win and they got their clocks kicked and they didn't win another game the rest of the year. Now, I'm not comparing that to this, but those things can happen if you lose

your emotion. Now, those guys to the locker room would say, we will not let this happen. We will continue on. But they got a lot to overcome when they look at what they nearly accomplished, what they should have accomplished, and then for the second week in a row, get beat like that something that hadn't happened since the end of the twenty fifteen season. Losing two games in a row.

A lot of faces of disbelief in that locker room after the game, Brian, I mean again, the second time it's happened against this opponent where you play a really good game, not necessarily complete game, but a good enough game to win, and he snatches it right from you.

Oh no, you know, in all week long, we had talked about, you know, what Aaron Rodgers could do, and you know the problems that he presented, and you know the fact that I used the words and you got to play with discipline when you play against Aaron Rodgers, and you know it's his ability to manufacture things at the darkest of times for the you know, the Packers, I mean they were you know, you look at the final drive of that football game, and you know the

whole fourth quarter that they didn't have the football. They had the ball for two minutes in sixteen seconds in the fourth quarter. That was it. That's incredible. And all he needed was a minute in minute thirteen to win that football game. You know, you limited the number of possessions they had. Uh you know, unfortunately you had the pick six that went against you. You had some untimely penalties, two big ones. Yeah, that helped them get touched out.

The face mask penalty on Hitchens was a was a terrible situation because that would have likely kept them out of a field goal range. And then you had the roughing the passer, the un sportsmanlike conduct penalty, you know on Benson Maywell, when you have a sack, you know, Terry McCauley's trying to blow the play dead, and you still take a run at the quarterback. So you know, when you're playing, it gets the team and a guy like Aaron Rodgers, you just can't give them any extra uh,

any extra plays, any extra incentive to continue on. I felt like defensively, there was some really good things in this game. You know that, I felt like the some of the pressure that they were able to get some of the hits. What I wasn't ready for was Green

Bay running the football. You know that that I think that right there we talk about Rogers, but what Jones was able to do in this football game gave the Packers balance and it didn't let the Cowboys just completely try and tee off on Aaron Rodgers because it looked like they were getting some pressure, they were going to get some you know, David Irvine and Lawrence and those guys. It looked like they were going to create some problems. You know, maybe Rogers just continues to throw and throw

but they did get some hits on him. It's just like I say, it's that guy almost forces you to play a perfect game. He really does, and and the NFL it's it's hard to play a perfect game. Well, you guys want to work backward. Yeah, let me say this first, go ahead, McK are weak to the point that any old Jones can run for one hundred yards against the Cowboys. I bet there's fans that had to look up who he was. You know, Aaron Jones, you tip if you listen to the draft show, did he

get drafted? Yes? And by the way, you guys will have a draft show, but nobody needs to tune into that he was a I want to say he was a fourth round pick, okay, fifth round, fifth round out of you tip? Yeah, And he's not their first option. Jamaal Williams was their fourth round pick the running back, and then yeah, and then Aaron Jones was a fifth round pick. Time Montgomery was intactive back because of the ribs. So they roll with Jones and they've been happy with him.

But it's not like he's Dorsey Levins. He hasn't been a big factor in their offense. Obviously, even in the first month of the season, and once again you don't have Sean Lee, and the problems in the running games show up for really third time this season. Out of third time a team, a team is rushed for at least one hundred and sixty yards against him, one sixty

eight and one seventy eight. Bad recipe right there. So we can sit here and talk about pressure and defensive ends and all this stuff if you don't stop the run. And what was the key thing in the winning drive? There were two runs, right, he had a fourteen yard run and Rogers had an eighteen yard run. That's thirty two yards. Yeah, you can't have that. And as long as they're not going to stop the run, they're gonna have problems winning ball games because their secondary is not

good enough to stand up to whatever happened. And the shame of the matter is is that they defense actually as bad as you may think they played. They held the Packers to twenty eight points and then you said, hey, Aaron, here's seven, go ahead, take it and get to thirty five, and you lose a game. Give up thirty five points two weeks in a row. Yeah, Dak Prescott played a terrific ball game twenty five or thirty six, two hundred and fifty one yards, four overall touchdowns, three passing. That

interception is really not on him. I mean, well but you you wrote, you know, he put the ball a little wide. But it's a catchable football for Terrence will Yeah, Terrence Williams is and we understand what Terrence Williams is as a receiver. You know, he's a guy that if he has the opportunity to get the ball against his body, you know, nine times that attend he's going to make a catch. That time though, he just couldn't couldn't bring it in. You know, the give the Packers some credit

with the way that they were playing their defense. They're playing his zone coverage and you know and once the ball, once the ball went, you know it was tipped. You know, uh, Randall was right de Marius Randall was right there to

make the play. And you know, I mean there's there's there's all kinds of things that you could say it happened in this football game, but that right there was was just it was a devastating, devastating play for the for the Cowboys, just to give them that easy those easy points after they had been moving the ball pretty well throughout the game. That gave the Packers of twenty

eight twenty four lead in the fourth quarter. The interception returned for a touchdown, and then I've talked about working backwards. Then we go to the Cowboys final scoring drive in the fourth quarter, and everybody wants to talk about that because as well as the offense played, and really they got going in terms of balance in the fourth quarter. I think Zeke had eighty five rushing yards in the fourth quarter. Right, got some things going, They get a

big fourth down conversion, they score touchdown. But the question coming out of it is, when you're facing Aaron Rodgers, did you leave too much time on the clock. I don't know if there's ever not enough time on the clock against Aaron Rodgers, but there was a minute thirteen and obviously he did what he did nine place, seventy five yards touchdown. What do you think about that last drive and the way it was executed late by Dallas to take the lead eight they burned eight minutes and

forty three seconds off the clock. I mean, were they supposed to take off ten minutes in a drive? Eight forty three and seventeen plays? They didn't get in a hurry. They actually stayed with the run. Yeah. Can I ask you a question, Nope, Because you seem to be very critical of the defense, and rightfully so, knowing what you knew about how the defense was playing though, and you even said it about the secondary not being able to cover anybody and then not being able to stop the run.

Do you have to play that last bit of the game a little bit unconventionally? I would have played one play differently. Yeah. And my understanding was on the second and two second two at the eleven, right, it was a run pass option. Maybe you don't give them that, Okay, it was incomplete. Say you'd run it, yes, doesn't mean you're gonna pick it up. Yeah, But you could have

run it. They would have had to call time out, right, But they only had one time out left, even after not having a time out there, right, the Packers, the packers, the Packers had one time at one time out, right, So if you had run it, you're making them burn their last sire. They're calling time out, they're calling their time out and then but they didn't need that time out the entire drive. They called it with twenty nine seconds to go, They used it on third and seven,

I believe, or third and eight before it. Yeah, they used they used it all, but they ran. See, they didn't need to run that play to drive for two yards. That's when they burned the time out right after that, Right they had driven the length of the field, they were already down there. So to me, you would have taken the time out away from them. But are you

guaranteeing me you're going to score the touchdown? I think with the seventeen play drive, I would have felt good about either a if you give me four fresh excuse me, if you give me four gosh, I can't talk. You're good four fresh downs. If you give me four fresh downs, and I know they don't have a time out left, and I'm thinking, okay, yeah, sure, I could throw the back shoulder to DEAs. I could throw the fade if they want to throw to deaths like they did. Or

you could run the read option like they did. They scored on an eleven yard run on that. I think you had options. I don't think the Packers would have stopped you, and if all likely, the Packers might have given you the touchdown. Now, coaches don't like to be criticized for that anytime that that probably was the smart thing to do. You know, if you're if you're in fact, you've given up seventeen plays and you're thinking the only way we're gonna win this football game is get the

ball back to Aaron Rodgers. You know. Now, coaches don't like that criticism, right, They really really don't. They don't want to take that, you know. And and it was you know in Scott Linahan looks like he says, it's my job to score Rod Marinelli, it's your job now to stop them. You know, that's kind of you know a little bit of the mindset, right, kind of what Mickey just said. Yeah, seventeen play drive that eats up almost nine minutes. See, that's what I'm saying. I just

don't feel like that Green Bay. And it could have happened, you could have had a mistake, but the way that they were smartly moving the ball. I thought Scott Linehan handled the last portion of that game very well. Until you talk about it, if it's an if it's a RPO run pass option, and Dak felt like that that was the best play. Now, if you watched the play, and I know you will Mickey already did. Did you

see them come off the ball? See they To me, it was like they were pass blocking more than they were run blocking. And if if in fact it was a run block, even if they were, even if they showed the way it was. You watch the end zone. Okay, they hand the ball to Elliott, he's gonna burrow between Martin and Frederick, and he's gonna at least get two yards at least, I mean the way it thinks, because they didn't have enough in the box to play the run.

They didn't have enough from what I saw. So if they do hand the ball, it's a two yard game. Now you get the fresh set of downs. Now you make them use your timeouts. Now you start to work on work on the clock a little bit. Keep running the ball. Are they gonna stop you four straight times? Probably not? And you're you're talking second and two from the green bay eleven right they went. They went to Deaz instead in the end zone right right, so to me,

And then you score on the next play. Now again, you could have got the first down a green bay and said, okay, we're not gonna put but but coaches don't generally want to get criticized. They would say, well, the best thing to do is let him score. Well, coaches don't want to get criticized for doing that. Nope, nobody does. So all I can think of is the previous set of downs. If it's not for video replay, you don't get a first down and you had fourth

and one, Well, you're lucky that you didn't. If you look at the play on that fourth and one call, you're lucky that they didn't call James Hannah for illegal Okay, so whatever. So it's for you became very close. You're assuming you were going to score a touchdown running when you had fourth in one and you barely picked it up, I would read the grace of God, I would the kid made a heck of a play. No, he did, but it wasn't gonna get called that way until it

gotten challenged. Oh that's why they have the replay. I understand. But it was that close to not picking it up and the game would have been over. I would have rather lost that football game trying to keep the ball away from Aaron Rodgers then the way they just did. I would not. I would have bet at all on one play if it came down I would have if you talk about one of you this one of the best offensive lines in the national football is not the Cowboys.

I'm just saying though, but if I gave you that that quote, if you if I would bet on them, I would bet on Zach Martin, I will bet on Travis Frederick. I'll bet on those guys because because if you remember, though he had the ball fourth down, Garrett did and didn't bet on him and the other the Packers went forward on fourth down, you know, but the whole game he showed aggressive tendencies going forward on fourth down.

So obviously Mickey, he felt like that fourth and one they get down there, that they're going to score the way that Garrett managed that game, because we've known Garrett in the pass to punt the football, well, he had no choice but to go for it on fourth and one if it was a field goal. It's a difference. I'm just saying though, even when they were even when they were tied in that game, he went for it off because he knew he had to score points. Okay,

that's what I'm saying. He's he's he's he's worked his clock down to almost nine minutes, you know. To me, I would again, I would rather lose the game trying than I would playing defense. And I'm only going off what you're saying. I'm only going off what you're saying is they don't play run defense well and they don't cover. So what you're telling me is you were willing to put them back out there even though you knew that

I had to score a touchdown. You did gart you did, But you're guarantee me you were going to score this, and you're guaranteeing me they were gonna stop him. No, I wasn't guaranteeing anything, but at least I had I had what how many players takes to stop him. I am. I am not leaving them. They had not stopped me for sixteen plays. I don't think they're gonna stop me going in well that a matter of fact, I think they might even let you score, which coaches don't like

to do. That. It would been the smart thing for them to do, and it might be their only chance to win that They hadn't stopped you for thirteen plays, but on the fourteenth play, on fourth and a half a yard, they nearly stopped you. But they didn't, but they did until they got replayed. So you don't think that was in the back of their minds saying we can't just assume we're gonna run right over him the rest of the way. I would have taken my chances

that they hadn't stopped. Well, it's a good second guess, Brian, it's a great I got to score the touchdown. I agree with you have to score the touchdown. But the fact of the matter is, Mickey, though you you who just told me you don't an easy second guess because it's not a second guest. Yes, it is, because now you know how it turned out. No, Mickey, at the time, I mean how it turned I'm thinking, I'm no. I know when he threw the ball that was a mistake.

I knew that was a mistake. You okay, So what do you do after the points? The points and the do after the mistake? Now it's third and two. You run the football and they get down and they and they did. Now though he should have slid at the one yard line, I didn't say the slide. Well, then what should he have done? You gotta manage he's talking what you have to man what he's talking about. Second down, I'm talking about too. I am with you on that,

but they could have called time out. They called time out. You run another player first down, now you take another You don't have a first down, but you got a first down after you ran the football. How do you know? Okay, we're not gonna go anywhere. Let me let's play a couple of cuts from the Cowboys perspective on that. The problem. The problem is the assuming number one. If you're right, you got the first okay, and you're assuming that you're gonna get a stop on defense. I gotta I gotta

to stop on defense is secondary. I gotta store a touchdown. You didn't get a stop all day. He had. He had seven possessions, four touchdowns, a field goal. Here's here's here's the issue too, is this told me this happened. It is stopping this happened out there, This happened nine months ago. With thirty five seconds left, he got him into field goal position. Yeah, and it took thirty seconds last night to get twenty eight yards and get into

field goal position. It was like that that's what he can do to you, and that that's why it's it's at least a discussion now, I say it wasn't a discussion. I agreed with him on the passa second down. Okay, but my but the assumption after give me that, give me four fresh downs. How do you know you were gonna get it. If you get to get you run the football. They haven't start assuming they stopped him on fourth and one, and you're assuming and you're running reaching out, okay,

and they score and now you're assuming. No, I'm not assuming, but I got a score before I can assume anything, right to me? To me, I would rather lose the game. I trying to run out the clock, lead and take my chances than to sit there and go, you're gonna let me play the clock and I don't score a touchdown and then I lose. Well, you lost by giving him a minute thirteen or a minute eighteen. That's what happened by by scoring early. Answered my question after well,

third and two. Well, we can't assume is that we're late. We're late right now? Yeah, but we can Okay, No, let's look and finish. Let's let's take a break in and carry it over. Take a break in and carried over. There was never it never got the third and two, but it the never lation was it was third and two after the incompletion, right, okay, it got the third two. But what would you have done? You read I would have I would have ran ever run the football. But

they did. They did run the football, but they scored, So I don't call it. Don't call a touchdown, is what you're saying. I'll tell you what. People talk about him sliding. That would have been a football, intelligent play, that would have been a football. Tell now you're assuming that wherever he slid, you were still good. You would have been on the one or two yard line if he would have slid, because a quarterback is immediately given up when they go down. I'm just have I seen now.

I'm not saying that's the way to go. I'm just saying, though, if if I would not have thrown the football, I would have just kept running. And then once again, you're assuming you would to score, and then you're assuming you would have stopped him. Und No, I'm taking my chances if I don't score, I don't can't assume. Yeah, you're right, we've used assumed so much. I can't assume. We're won't assume we know we're three minutes late. Let's take a break.

Carry this over gets a reaction to from the Cowboys about that last drive offensively. When we come back on talking Cowboys, we the entertainment loving people, demand the best unlimited wireless plan ever from ATNT. What else do you want? Are you in a corn Maybe only at and T offers you unlimited data with HBO included and never pay overages. Get ATNT Unlimited plus our best wireless deal and unlimited data plus save twenty five dollars per month on direct TV.

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doctor Pepper to your grave. I hear all this talk about what it takes to be a cowboy. Everyone's got their ideas, but I just say to myself, it's what's up top that matters. Sure, you need men with the muscle and heart to get her done. But if your scouts and coaches are listening out there a word of advice. Pick the man with the most well worn stetson. That's

the one most cut out to be a cowboy. Stetson hats are handmade right here in Texas and have been on cowboys heads for over one hundred and fifty years. The rest of you can visit stetson dot com slash cowboy to find a retailer nearest you. This is talking cowboys in football, Often the quickest place mix with some good old fashioned ingenuity are the key to winning, kind of like Tommy's horizontal quick draw fly Mickey, Do you have to do this when you're in charge too? Absolutely?

I love it. It's the most intuitive, simple and speedy feature that other underwear brands Brian just don't have. They don't have it. Shop Exclusive Cowboys Underwear at Tommy john dot com Forward slash Cowboys intuitive. Huh yeah yeah right here in the liner good old copywriting. I figured you threw that in there. I don't miss my marketing, copywriting days at all. I'm glad to be back with you guys, back inside the SWBC Morgan studio breaking down Packers thirty five,

Cowboys thirty one. I'm so sorry to interrupt y'all, but y'all were kind of going in circles and we needed to take a break. Let's get back to it. Let me start off with a couple of cuts. Kent. Was that like sending us to our corner at the well, Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, it was a great discussion. I loved it. I loved it. We'll get back into it. A couple of cuts from Dak and Garrett about that last offensive drive and time management decisions that way. I

thought we did a good job being around him. Obviously, the stuff that where he's most dangerous when he gets out of the pocket. So you know, he's so effective thrown in the pocket that he gets the ball out of his hands, but when he extends the plays, that's when a lot of their big plays happen. So every time the ball is snapped, that has to be on the forefront of your mind. And it's one thing to say, it's another thing to be able to do it. For

sixty seventy snaps in a game. He's awfully good doing that. And he got out a couple of times and made some big plays. But you know, our guys stayed after him and stayed after him and stayed after him. But he's certainly a challenge. He's a great football player, all right.

That was the comment on trying to like you said, you're you're key to the game, Brian containing Aaron Rodgers, and that's what something that's they struggle with on that last drive, especially when he got the eighteen yard Can you get the ones ready about the time management in the last offensive drive for Dallas Das cut Yeah about yep, I got it? Okay, can we go roll that one?

Mean you're playing with fire with doing that. I mean those guys get paid on defense too, So I mean if you're you're running out and you're trying to get it to to third down and you're wasting the time, I mean, it's it's a slippery slope. So I mean for us, it's important just to get get in the end zone, put the pressure on them and trusting our defense. And he said trust in our defense, thanks Kin. So yeah, and I think either Dak or Garret Are both were

asked specifically about do you slide? Do you just slide in that situation without tim kelish or asked if it was and he said it was an option. Okay, again, that's just you know, I'm not asking to the slide. I'm just asking you to not throw a pass on second down. I think that's I think that's where it kind of messed you up a little bit. You know, another one of Garrett here talking about it too. Okay. I just think you have to be careful about trying

to trying to be perfect. It's hard to score points in this league. It's hard to score touchdowns. You know, it's a four point game at that time. There's no guarantee you're gonna score touchdown there. So I think in that particular case, he did the right thing. So there you have it. Do you say no guarantee, no guarantee

you score? Is that like assuming you're gonna score? Did you hear Traygman come back and talk about holding last week after you were so adamant about that on that tras the only one that said it in you Yeah, and I'll be adamant about the call on the two yard line. Too, because if you go back and look at it and stop it, mcaulay is blowing his whistle. Sure no, I'm with you, and Benson Mayo is already on top. I'm with you. He invented that call, I'm

with you, I have not was a huge call. It's gonna be third and twenty at the two, no doubt. They went thirteen more plays and ended up scoring a touchdown, no doubt. Ye, how does he do that? That's that's you know that they're always going to call that too. And he didn't hit him. He went over the top and you duck your head into it, but he was already and they were trying to tackle him. Well, that's that's, That's just they made huge mistakes in this game. He's

Aaron Rodgers. He may get the benefit of the doubt. I mean, it's like the one on Dez in the end zone that wasn't Yeah, that was a hid Yeah, I just barely grazed him. To me though, this the whole thing. It could go either way, and they're right about the slippery slope. I just feel like though that you're playing against you know, the whole the whole game. I felt like he managed it different. He did go for it on fourth down, some timely stuff I thought

was I thought, that's excellent. You have to stay aggressive. I thought they managed the last nine minutes of that game beautifully until that passed. And now I'm trying to think about, Okay, We've got to a point where how can I kill this football game. Mickey's right, there's no guarantee, but I would I would rather lose not giving him a chance. And I haven't seen I hadn't seen Green Bay stop me. And I know you say on the fourth in one play, but I had not seen them.

I mean, you could run the read You have options down there. You could run the read option. They they ran it. They ran it a couple different times, and it was big play. You can you could do the fade if you want. There's things that you can do. And I just I just don't want. If that's if that's a if that's say that's Eli Manning, I don't care go ahead and score because he's not gonna beat you. I don't think he's gonna beat you. Ninety percent of

the quarterbacks in the league, there's three quarterbacks. There's three quarterbacks in the league. I would not have given the ball back to I wouldn't have given the ball back to Brady. I wouldn't have given the ball back to Rogers, and I wouldn't have given the ball back to Drew Brees.

So everybody, basically, what you're doing is criticizing Dak for scoring. No, I'm just saying, though, I would you are if they agreed they gave it, they would have called timeout, I'll give you run the ball, okay, then you run it one more time now, And they did and they scored. That's what I'm saying, though, to me, they it's it's it's it's a So you would have, Dilly Daly, I would have tried. I would have tried. I would have

handed the ball absolutely, I would have tried to. I would have tried to manipulate it where I kept running clock, I had timeouts. Myself, I would have made them try and say, okay, go ahead and score. And what happens if they didn't? How if they don't play? How do you think anybody would have said if they didn't score inside the ten yard line and the clock ran out and you lost, anybody would have said, you know what,

Jason Garrett, you did the exact right thing. You should have bet the game on keeping the ball and scoring and lose. He bet on his defense and lost. They would have said he wasn't aggressive enough. Yeah he didn't take if he hadn't tried, Yeah you had. He bet on his defense and he lost. That's what. Yeah, he can't come out and say that. But and and Dak Prescott could have come out and said that too. Hey, we have to trust our defense. You have to trust

your defense. But the fact that you really hadn't slowed them down all day, that that, to me was that was a bad You wouldn't have said that if they lost. If that, if Green Bay would have lost. No, if the Cowboys lost, you wouldn't know. I wouldn't have said they did the right thing to try to eat clock or a time. You know what, as much as I know about Aaron Rodgers playing this in the way he plays, I'm not leaving him any time. And you know what, I'll be honest, I would have said it, because I

just admitted that. I would have said I would rather have lost that game the way of me trying to keep him off the field. I would have That's me. But I and And that's the God's honest truth. I I when easy to say now, no, no, when he it is when it's our jobs. He said it when he said when when he scored last night, were in the studio with less smiles and Nate Newton and all that all Everybody's sitting there and we all looked at each other, said we just lost this football game. We

just lost this football game. A minute thirteen with Aaron Rodgers is an eternity question about it. And I understand that. But you still were behind. I know you got to score points. I get it. It does come down to the wait do you do on second day? Four down on your on their end of the field. That's a huge play, got a ten yard run. You know they made some place, but you you know, you're you're you're fourth down. You don't stop them on their side of the on their side of the field. All right, Let

me let me let me switch gears here. Let me ask you guys about the final drive. Aaron Rodgers, where do you go? Nine play? Seventy five yards? Minute too? How did you feel about the way the Cowboys defended that drive? Could they've done anything differently to try to keep him out of the end zone scheme wise, whatever, how do you think they went. They went three man line,

but they kept bringing blitz. Every time they rushed they rus they brought either a linebacker one the first past they brought a corner and then a safety to try and create pressure. They went, They went fourteen yards. They went fourteen yards. On the second play, the play to, they tackle poorly on the play to Bennett had a chance to keep him in bounce and you have a

mistackle by Hitchens and a mistackle by Xavier Woods. Xavier Woods on the field, my young guys, but he missed two tackles in that game, or two tackles on that drive. They heard you on the long run that they had, and then you let Jones run fourteen yards. Yeah, that's what they saw. Three man line. They said, okay, and if you're gonna blitz up the middle, we're throwing them.

And then they caught him in that day and then and then on the and then on the on the Rogers scramble, you had two linebackers that went with Jones instead of staying where. You know, we talked about discipline, and you know, I don't know who's at mistake, but you had Durant and Hitchens both went with Jones when he went inside, which allowed you get Ben Samoa up the field. There's your lane going down the sidelines, and

Irving's late trying to get over that. Irving. So if I remember Durant was on that side, Durant was playing Mike and then and and Hitchens was. Hitchens carried him to Durant and they both went with Jones across right, and that allowed him to run. Once he got out, he broke Mayo as tackle right, which Mayo should have had him, Yeah, or at least keep him in the pocket. And so that eighteen yard run was as big as

any pass he through. Yeah, the passes were easy. They had him there, felt like though two on the when the first fade that they tried to throw the fate the back shoulder fake Adams and and you can watch it if if you know, Jordan Lewis gets his one hand on it, if he could get his left hand around a little sooner he had it intersected the ball, I think you would have. I still think they should protest the concussion protocol. Why that he actually passed it? Oh,

when I saw touched out pass he was he was. Yeah. But see, that's what I'm saying. That's what you're dealing with with the Packers when you don't, when you don't you know, you have guys playing in the game, and you've got veteran receivers. You got Jordy Nelson. Heck, he wasn't even on the field at the end Hamstring. Yeah, but you got Jordy, You got you know, Adams out there playing, you got you know, Cobb wasn't really a factor in this game at all. You've credit to Scandrick

for that. Give him the gig. How to give him some credit for that? You know, Marty b with a couple of big plays. I mean that's that just shows you though, that that he's got, he's got worse personnel and he's finding ways to move the football. He's got a back. Again. I talk about Jones running for one hundred and twenty something yards. He you know, you talk about Rogers being m VP, Jones should be just as

much the MVP. Well, that just showed the run on NFL network as I'm I'm a distractable player right now. It caught him. It caught him by surprise. You know, you're you're running out of time and to be able to run the ball and keep that balance. And there's the scramble by Rogers. Just two linebackers go with the guy underneath Jones, and now you have a lane to the outside. And now it went from raw thinking about okay, if I get tackled to kicking the game tying field gold,

which they had missed two extra points. You know you're gonna take your chances, David Irvin in the game, maybe you get you know, hand up, get a block. But now after that eighteen yard run, Rogers is thinking touchdown? What it? What it on the touchdown? What did Heath have to cover that he didn't widen out a little bit more because Rogers said, when once he didn't get any with yeah, I knew where I was good. Yeah, so Heath got caught inside. It's it's hey, it's it's difficult.

But again, it's a difficult team to play, especially with the quarterback. I said, there's three guys in the league that can do that. They held him to twenty all that stuff we said, they held him to twenty eight points, you know, And Jordan Lewis is the guy that gives up the touchdown catch and he told us, after you've just mentioned on the play before that was incomplete, could have been a pick if he got in his head around quicker. He said he didn't get his head turned

around quickly enough on the touchdown as well. But I mean he knew it was he played a terrific game. He didn't. He was I think three pass breakups, some key stops. He is. He is playing better than Anthony Brown, and I didn't think that would initially happen. And I'll tell you what, poor O Woozier. The two plays or the three plays that he was in on defense, he was actually pretty much a factor playing safety, playing safety, and then he gets hurt. I didn't know when he

got hurt. Did you get on special teams? I didn't. I wrote it down when he went out because he makes a range play playing left, hash ball goes all the way out to the right sideline and he runs across the field, beats everybody to the ball for basically a three yard game. The ball bounces to the outside,

and so you know, now here's another young guy. But you know, the hamstring injury once again forcing him to the sideline, you know, and that's that's that's the unfortunate thing about this, about what's going on right now with this team. But I'll say it again. They held him to twenty eight points. They did. Hey, what you want about the defense. They held him to twenty eight points. They with the final drive they did. But you you pointed out the run game issues. Define I understand it's

too much balance for Aaron Rodgers. And I say last week, first one, the thirty five was gonna win. I don't know, did you say that, Yes, okay, fine, fine, I'm just saying, so you win rank them. If you don't have an interception return for a touchdown, we're not having any of this. Well, and Brian mentioned the two penalties, one on Mayoa and then Hitchens had the face mask. I believe in the first half that's fourteen points right there. That probably would

have stopped that drive as well. Yeah, they would have stopped him. I think it was second and seventeen at that point. They let him. They let them out of jail a couple of different times. The sack, the sack that that Lawrence had on the two yard line would have been huge. I was just wondering why the guy never blew his whistle when Rogers is there with one leg, struggling, struggling, struggling.

He's waving his hands. He was. He was coming in and you could see him from the side wave and his hands are going up like he's going to stop the play. He did stop the play, but they called it for the unsportsome light conduct. I believe they hit after he'd blown the whistle. Yeah, Unfortunately, when he was blown the whistle, Mayo was already on top of it. I got a picture of it. I'll send it to you. Okay, looking forward to that. All right, let's take our final

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That's over my head, the overta's head. Brigley's Thanks, Mick, Welcome back to Talking Cowboys Inside the SWBC More Studio. One segment left breaking down this loss. Cowboys fall to two and three. They're now two games back of the four and one Philadelphia Eagles heading into the bye week third in the NFC East. Giants are and five and have no receivers healthy now apparently some unfortunate injuries there.

Cowboys have four games left into the Vision after the buy, so there's plenty of time to still get things rolling. But you'll lose two straight games at home. That's obviously disheartening. Guys. I guess we've got a lot of time to discuss this team for the next couple of weeks. But just give me your overall thoughts of what you think's going right, what things need help right now when they come out of this buy and go to San Francisco. You know what I think you can. I think you have confidence

in your quarterback. I really really do. And maybe it's not. Maybe we're seeing a different side of Dak Prescott because last year, you know, the running game was something that he could definitely lean on, staying ahead of the chains. Now we're seeing a guy that's having to make plays in the pocket. Outside the pocket. You know, he's doing everything he can to will this team to win. You know,

the interception to pick six that was unfortunate. You know, just that that that happens in games, and you know, I think he'll learn it. Hey, maybe I need to go to throw the ball to Witten in the flat, don't throw it inside to Terence and But I think the positive thing for me is through all the you know the games that the Denver game was a hard game for him. Had to throw the ball fifty times.

But what I'm learning about him is though when you push those chips into the middle of the table, though, he's gonna come up for you. He's gonna he's gonna give you an opportunity to win. And I can't say that about all his teammates. I think there's some things on the defensive side of the ball. If you want to flip it over there. You know, yeah, you've getten a pass rush from DeMarcus Lawrence. You know, you haven't gotten very much for Malik Collins inside. I think he's

helped him a little bit. But you know that you'd like to thought he would have been more of a dominant player inside. Jalen Smith to me, looks a little overmatched with his mobility. He doesn't look his you know, whether he's war down or it's just we're starting to see the war that he plays, the harder it is for him to go make plays. And then the young secondary. You know, we talked about that Anthony Brown hasn't I don't think it's played as well as we've seen Anthony

Brown the past year. Hey, good things from you know, good things from Jordan Lewis in some tough situations. So you know, there's some things good things sprinkled in, but there's a little bit more of some bad things that we didn't see last year. Defensively, that's and and also too with the offensive line. You know, it's it's been a problem there at the I don't think the problem is totally on the right tackle. I think you're having some problems at the at the left guard, and you've

had some missues at center. You've had some missus at left tackle, You've had some missus at at right guard. It's been a little bit inconsistent with that group as well. Why do you think they do you think Chaz Green was healthy enough to play or they wanted to seek Cooper again? I for a full week of practice. Yeah, And I don't know if you Mickey, you're just your sources are just as good as mine getting stories. And I'm curious to see what the trust factor is with

Chaz Green and staying staying healthy. Yeah, okay, here we are. We get somebody ready all week to play, and then all of a sudden he spits the bit, you know, and and the hip the sortists, and you know, maybe it's a little bit of a coaches you know, coach he practices all week. Then also, wait a minute, we're getting ready to go a game and you have a little hip hip sore nous. Well, what's that all about? You know, that's it's something you can't you know, you

can only go on the player's word. I'm not saying he begged out of this football game last week against Darren Donald in that group. But you know, if you're a coach, you're like, gosh, we're repping you all week to play, Now go play? Can you fight? Yeah? Fight through it. I mean there's guys that are banged up, Tyron Smith playing with a bad back, you know, with the with the disc you know, and there comes a point in time and they're like, well, just go with

the guy that you know. But I don't not that Cooper was terrible yesterday, But they've got some issues. You put Bell there just because of an experience I think that I think to me've seen much from him. No, but you know what though Rob said it before at

Tennessee places he's played guard. You know, if you don't if you don't like what you see from Chad's Green, or don't trust Chads Green and Jonathan Cooper has not been able to get those second level blocks, and and you know there was times yesterday in that game where you know where Daniels was able to swim right by Cooper and but there was Travis Frederick with left eye getting over and then now Dak Prescott completing the pass to Jason Witton in the middle of the field for

nine yards. So yeah, it's it's everybody's taken a turn at the batrack, you know, having issues, But these are issues that we didn't see last year. And despite that, in consecutive games they've scored thirty points. Yeah, but it's it's it feels like it's been a road to get there. Well,

it's not easy to score thirty, I know. They just they said they have scored forty just more efficiently the offense, and the offense has had to almost play perfect because they're not getting any help, right, No short are no short uh well yardage. Let me get to that. That last drive is perfect the way they played it. As far as the control passing game, nothing went down the field. No,

I mean the slants and stuff to dead. They tried to take a couple of shots, but you know, Dak throwing it underneath was not a bad way of moving the football. I was almost like running the ball. It was almost like running that stuff to Witton. Absolutely, they were okay with five yards five yards. It hasn't been easy and then but they were able to you know, it was tough on that fourth and one. Mickey, you're

absolutely right. You know, Elliott football intelligence put the ball forward, you know, and then they make make mccaulley in that group look at it, and luckily they got it right. I mean, I'm gonna go back and double checked myself. But when I looked at it yesterday, I didn't find another instance in this Cowboy history that they scored thirty points in consecutive games and lost. Oh it's I'll help you look at that. I got. I gotta write a stats call in this way, I think, and I might

be wrong. Somebody can look this up at another time. Maybe, yes, But I think Dallas has lost ten games at home where they have scored thirty points in their history. No, I think I can't remember the date, but it goes back and they hadn't lost one since twenty teams. But if my Packers beat them thirty seven thirty six, it's not shocking though that these last two opponents top thirty points.

That's what they do well. So and so when you mentioned they were two games behind Philadelphia, Yes, and by the way, they've got five division games after the buy not four. And who have the Eagles played but Arizona last Okays, they haven't beat anybody with a winning record. They beat Washington. They two and two now, Yes, Redskins are two and two. They're off this week. Okay, they lost the Kansas City. They beat the Giants, who haven't

won a game. They beat the Chargers. I don't know what they were are they won in Chargers won yesterday winning four one and four. And then they beat the Ardinals who are two and three. They're two and three now. They haven't played Denver. I'm not saying, but they're four and one. Just means going to even out right, you hope you think on paper maybe, but well maybe they're a good football team. Don't they have to play Denver?

They do? Sure, Like you said, the schedule is pretty much the same, right, yeah, yeah, other than the fact now you have now you have to play Atlanta as your next and see if you go down this schedule. You know the Rams are three and two. They're not a bad team, but you think you can win that one at home? For sure? Green Bay to me is that's a toss up game. Now you gotta go steal one. You gotta go, like go steal one in Atlanta. Rams.

That's that's true. That's the one that hurt. And you'd like, like you said, you'd like to score thirty one points and beat the Packers at home as well. That didn't work out last year either, They lost thirty four to thirty one in January. So another thing you guys pointed out. You got to the short fields being an issue. And this team miss Shawn Lee, there's no question about it. You hope this bye week can get him healthy and he's ready to go at sort out there. Yeah, that's good.

They're tied for twenty fifth and turnover margin, they're minus three. They've got four takeaways. That's tied for the third fewest in the NFL. Right now, I got a cheapie at the end. I was gonna say they shouldn't have an asterispect. They got a cheap at the end around at the end. Yeah, the bands on the field play, Yeah, it was worked. The band on the field play. You know what if I love that, by the way, by the way, band

on the field play. Yeah, if Dak Prescott he had he had Cole Beasley to his right and they had a blocker onto that side. Dude, it look for a second, if he could have got the ball to Beasley. Now Beasley would have had to motorate. But man, there was a chance down that right silent. But the band on the field play. They gave him a fumble. The league gave him. Okay, actually enough, Yeah, but how about the play before, Yeah, Beasley breaks open down the middle like that.

I guess I'm speaking more to to takeaways. No, and they and they got four. I think they got four takeaways at lambeau Field last year, right won the game thirty to sixteen. And I mean, they've got to be able to generate some extra possessions, especially when we're talking about, oh, well, you gotta match Aaron Rodgers, right, and they're not doing that right now for a defense that once forty takeaways in a season. On it's the last time they had

a takeaway. It's been a couple of games, right, it hadn't been the last two Denver's Malik Collins fumble recovery. Maybe it sounds right, Kent at Arizona Denver in Denver. I know they had a couple of intercepts at two interceptions in Denver, right at two Brown and then Lewis Lewis Scott one right, Yeah, how these games all of a sudden go kind of juggling in my head. But see and and at times you see good things out of the defense. It's just not consistent. And Brian's right,

you know you got Lewis playing well. You know, Irving's back. What do you think of his game last That was a lot better than I was figuring after not playing for six weeks? Did he rush exclusively inside? Was he was the nose tackle? Was not on the nickel anon base? I think I want to think that was one snap that he played as a defensive end. In the three man line just to kind of get he can get him,

give him a different look. Yeah, but they you know he played well, they're just not getting anything out of that other defensive end spot. Well, they put Kyle Wilbur on the field in the base for Wilson. Yeah, And there was a couple of different times where he got trapped. It's now he made a heck of a play on the sack, on the Crawford sack because he reads the screen and he gets over to cover Jones, but Crawford is right on top of Rogers before his chance to

get rid of the ball. But there were a couple other times where Wilburg got trapped inside and the ball goes to the edge and you know, instead of being on the edge and filling with like you're supposed to, he gets caught inside and now the balls on the outside. And so you know they've had guys, it's we've talked about this. You know, guys have come in and trying to replace guys that make mistakes. Well, when the guy comes in, it's playing for a guy who's making mistakes,

and he makes mistakes. It's it's just a double whammy right there. I mean other than you know, Okay, Irving comes in, has a nice game, right, Collins I think had two tackles. We know what Lawrence did. The other guys Mayowa tackled Charlton and Brian Price zeroed out. They had nothing for however many plays they played. Moore had one tackle. Crawford had a sack and one tackle. Did you see him running left? They were running to the

Cowboys right, tacking the edges for sure. Yeah, and they got to get something on their side or teams are gonna do what they're doing to Lawrence. Now, Yeah, that's what they've had the problem that they've had over there is that when they do run to the Cowboys, right, that's supposedly a player that you can you know that you can count on to play the run. Crawford, you guy with some power over there. You know, Mickey's right about putting Benson Mayowa over there. You know he gets

sometimes he gets washed. You put taco in there, he gets washed. You know. That's that's difficult, very difficult. How many snaps when Sean Lee gets healthy, would you play Jalen Smith? I think Jalen Smith needs to play twenty maybe maybe fifteen to twenty snaps a game. I mean, he played seventy against the Rams, and he was on the field quite a bit again yesterday, and and you know what, he had a couple of misses in the hole, you know, and and if Jalen Smith is missing in

the hole, right, that's a problem. And then you look on the on the flip play, you know it's they they run the flip play. They they they got they got ten yards on fourth and one. Jalen is the outside guy, and he's got a break to the ball. He's got a break to the outside because they got down down and they got to get him to the edge to try and make the ball either come back inside or him make the play. It just not quick

enough laterally to make that play. The ball got to the corner and next thing you know, he's he's just a half step slow. But where maybe you know, if it's Sean Lee or if it's Hitchens or somebody play in that spot. They run through and make the play. And then now you're got the ball on their forty seven yard line and chance to close the game out. I just I give him, don't know, how how do they how do they solve this though? Well, you get everybody at so I give him so much credit for

what he's been able to do out there. But great story. But but you ideally at point was ideally you've got a package of plays for him, and you've got the veteran guys taken most of the snaps in his first year on the field, right it, Maybe it would be good for him to sit and watch for a little bit and just say, Okay, okay, this is how they're doing it. You know, here's some adjustments instead. Now it's

you know, because he's he's he plays like this. He's a he's a bouncer and it's oh and it's a forward, it's back and and he's never really going anywhere, and you're and you're thinking, just you want him just to react. You want him just to step up. Saw that near the goal line up specific running play well and and they were able to joked him in. You know, he went low another time he missed to tackle, and you know,

God bless him. I mean, he's doing it. I'm not having having to play because your linebackers aren't healthy enough to play. Admirable what he's been able to do. Yeah, but he's forced into this situation, the situation. So my point was how do you how do you get out of it? Because you've created this this image of whoa this is a great story Kitchens and Lee. If you're if you've got a play right, faithful to your team, if you're faithful to what the Garrett talks about putting

the best players out there. Fifty nine and fifty are your two best players at linebacker to play in that situation, you know, and the problem is you don't know what's going on at the sam. You don't know what's going on with fifty seven. You know, he's an athlete that makes mistakes, and then fifty one is an athlete makes an occasionally good play, but then has two bad plays where now you're going, okay, that that kills us right there. So they have they're putting guys in positions to make plays,

guys aren't making plays. Another really good example, they call a blitz and they throw They bring Scandrick on the corner blitz and he has both. Basically he just can't get his hands up quick enough, you know, to secure secure the ball, so he gets knocked up in the air. It's incomplete where if if somehow he catches that ball on the blitz, he sees it, he goes up, he catches that ball. You've got the ball on the packer eighteen yard line with a chance to go up thirty

one twenty two. You know, just a chance. I mean, you know you're gonna get the ball right there. Or if he could just tip it up and then find it and then make the play. That's just the things. Those are the things against Aaron Rodgers. To beat him, you've got to have breaks like that. They just didn't get enough of those breaks where but they did. They sacked him, they get a roughing penalty. They they they get a tip ball on slot blitz, they don't intercept it.

You know, that's that's They have the ball in the end zone and it's one hand one and couldn't get around for two. They hit him. They sacked him four times. They hit him six more. It might have been more than that, because it wasn't. It was still the first quarter and Joe Buck said they've hit him five times. So they did those things, but an't stopped the run. And and if teams are gonna run like that on you, you're gonna be in trouble. Yeah, One more for you

got about a minute left? Is it good? One? Yeah? How do you guys solve the third quarter issues? Like? What is there any type of pattern to why they're scoreless in the third quarter? Again, I gotta go back and see what it's been, but that seems to be offensively the quarter where they've struggled, and I I don't know why. Well, one of the reasons why is they only had one possession. Well that's part of it. But they had three punts last week in the third quarter

they had such a great half, they had one this time. Yeah, and they actually, Yeah, it's so funny because type of possession the third year, right, Rob three thirty two to eleven twenty eight. You know what I mean that? That I mean that was that fourteen play drive that eighty eight yards Packers. There they went, they went, they got, they drove and had to punt and on the first possession and the Cowboys punted. Okay, fair enough, like they had a punt that kind of stalled their momentum after

a great half. That was the same story last week, is all I'm saying. I don't you're looking for answers to how to start the third quarter? Ye see what my biggest you want to know what the biggest problem, one of the biggest problems I have the missed opportunity right before half to get points. Yeah, two timeouts, and you're moving the ball smartly, and you get a you get the sack, you get the well and he's got Dez Bryant open in the middle, so he's trying to

load it up to get the Dez. But here's Perry coming around, knocks the ball out of your hand. You know, if they complete that pass, the ball is going to be basically on the on the green bay thirty seven. You got two timeouts, you hit one time out there. Now you're thinking about, okay, maybe we take another shot down the field, but instead you get the ball knocked out. And then Jason says, ah, this is not he didn't like.

This is not this is not worth it. If you start thinking of Washington a couple of but yeah, but but you're moving the ball smartly. You are, you're moving it and you got two timeouts. If and I'm thinking, just get a field goal here, because the Packers get the ball to start the second half, they deferred. Yeah, that's my that was my fear. All of a sudden the Packers score, and then you don't do anything. And then now they get the ball back and they score again.

Now that lead you had gets even more compressed. And slip I said they stopped him. They stopped him for a field goal. Yeah, field goals. Okay. So the Cowboys come back. They get the ball to their own forty two, got a first down. First play, they try to go deep to Dez. It's incomplete handoff to second play. What happens minus two. Now you're third and twelve. That's how you kill. And that was the only time they touched the ball in the quarter. And there were minus plays

against the Rams as well. So many things to discuss, so many questions coming out of the game. I hope we answered a few of them. We'll be back. Did we take any calls. We did not take any calls. I apologize. It's a lot to dig through when you play the Packers. We have tomorrow. We have tomorrow as well. Thanks everybody for joining us, Thanks to Kim for producing. Join us tomorrow at our normal time slot eleven thirty

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